Birthdays and Racing

This last (extended) weekend was all a bit manic. It actually started on Wednesday evening when I finished work for the week and included two 40th birthdays, two races, two big meals out and almost 7hrs of training!

First up was the long suffering girlfriend Shelly's 40th birthday on Wednesday and in true loving boyfriend style I got home from work just in time to head across the road to Chivenor and race(???) a Duathlon. Ok, it's not 'really' a race it's more of a training session and with this being the first one and the weather potentially being awful there wasn't the biggest attendance - I even took my old old race bike for a rare outing. The evening went well and the rain held off nicely although the wind was immense and I even popped to Squires for a takeaway on the way home. See, I really know how to treat a lady!!!

Ok, the main reason I got away with disappearing for most of Shelly's 40th birthday was because from then we were heading back up to Wolves for a family visiting session where we'd be out on both Friday and Saturday night scoffing huge Birthday meals. I guess it was still just a little cheeky of me though, good job I'm so cute eh!!

Thursday morning was a big muddle of stuff as we slowly got things sorted ahead of the 3hr drive to Wolves. I'm always amazed how we can pack more stuff for a weekend with the family than we will for two weeks in Hawaii this October. The plan was to drive out to Bristol and ride the rest of the way home, a good way to combine the big travel with a solid long bike ride. The weather was evil though and as we approached Bristol it was almost pitch black and lashing it down with rain. I've never pretended to be a hardened cyclist and it doesn't take much for me to bottle out, hence the bike stayed where it was in the back of the car!! (I made slight amends later with a 14mile run instead).

On Friday I managed to sneak in a lumpy 3hr ride which took in Cosford, Shifnal, Ironbridge, Wenlock (the town, not the weird Olympic Mascot) and Bridgenorth. There wasn't a great deal in the legs after the previous night's run and if I'm honest it felt like a bit of a slog-fest, but I got it done and even managed to come back via the Hermitage in Bridgenorth - a hill I used to despise!

Friday evening we headed out for a joint birthday meal at The Bell at Trysull. It was not only Shelly's 40th birthday on Wednesday but (my sister) Shell's 40th on Sunday too (far too many Michelle's around!!) so a good nosh up was in order!

The Bell is a place we used to frequent WAY back in my youth and actually the place I met Shelly, although if you think I booked it because I'm an old soppy romantic you really don't know me very well! It's changed a whole lot since we used to go there and it was full of young hoodlums almost constantly watching the unedited version of Alice Cooper - Poison for some breasticle action - Yes, of course I mean me!!

Now The Bell is a proper Good Food establishment and very good it was too. Fully recommended and I expect it won't be the last time we go in when we're in town. My parents came with us and they've already been back since.

On Saturday I burned off some calories with another two hours on the bike while Shelly went for a walk over at Himley Hall with my Mother and Rosie Pup. It gave her a good opportunity to try out her new birthday camera and for Rosie to run around like a lunatic for the first time since her injury scare. I think all three of them enjoyed it, especially Rosie as shown by Shelly's pics.

After the daily stuff Saturday evening involved another monster Birthday meal out with Shelly, this time with all of her family. We went out to Cosmo, Bentley Bridge and wowzers is there some food there. The 'eat until you burst' Asian buffet style food is awesome and the desert section even better. I thought they were going to have to wheel me out of there I ate so much, I was properly fit to burst. All good prep for Sunday then ............ did I mention I was racing?

Wombourne Sprint Triathlon

This one was all down to my Sis, I hold her entirely responsible. BCT my old Tri Club from the days before the move to Devon have organised this event for many many years. As this year it fell on Shell's 40th she was doing it and as soon as I told her we were coming up she started nagging me to enter. The race was full though and much as I enjoy racing it's not my style to try to blag entries - it is hers though and sure enough on Monday I had a text message from one of the organisers basically saying "I hear you're coming up, you might as well race then". So I did!! Well it'd be rude not to :-D

So I rocked up on Sunday morning still full to the brim with Cosmo food and ready to rock. First up though were supporting duties as the little Sister raced sporting bib number 40 on her 40th birthday. Soon it was time to dig the bike out of the car and have some fun. Shelly has waited a long time to see her Christmas present of a Disc Cover in action, I was dubious about it having never ridden it before and with it being rather windy out - it was fine though

With everything racked and ready it was soon time to start......... There was confusion with my (late) entry with my race details not having reached poolside (or the results service, or the presentation - I missed out on a cheque!!) but after a bit of juggling I was away and swimming for the first time in a month. Thankfully the swim was only 400m because the time out of the water really told on my arms and they tired a lot quicker than normal, I was only 10-15secs slower than normal though and I'll take that gladly.

The run to T1 and with me being such a pain jessie I mince my way across the gravel on the carpark no doubt looking like I'm running on shards of glass. Once at my bike however the helmet was on and I was soon out on the road where I messed around trying to get my feet in my shoes like a total amateur - nothing new there then. I had to slow as I approached the traffic lights shortly after the start but not enough to make me stop, then I caught local boy Chris (who had to stop) climbing away from them. I know Chris is a damn fine cyclist and was surprised when I found him holding me up, so I passed him! The pass didn't last long however and as soon as we hit a slight climb he came past again. I made it my target to keep him in my sights which was easy on the flats/descents, but every time we had to go uphill he'd pull away from me a little more.

On the Bridgnorth Road the gap grew a bit more than I wanted but there was a big descent down to the traffic island where we had to turn left. I leathered it down the hill and the gap started closing rapidly, then disaster as the three cars that were between us had to stop at the island and the 2nd of those cars pinned himself right against the kerb forcing me to come to a dead stop. I wasn't happy and Chris was gone, I didn't see him again. I chugged on regardless hoping that maybe he'd tire a little or maybe his effort would have taken the sting out of his run legs, then as I approached the traffic lights near the finish disaster struck again as I crossed them and there was a queue of cars stuck behind some slower cyclists and there was nothing I could do but sit back and go at their pace losing even more time (I haven't got the ego to risk killing myself passing them for a few seconds).

T2 was pretty straightforward except for struggling a little to put on my Zoot 'slippers' which seems odd considering their whole design allows for a fast transition. Then I was off out on the run, the section where I could do some damage - except that it isn't!!

In the distant past my run was my strength, I'd always jump off the bike way down the field and run through to a decent Finish position. Now it seems that my run is my weakness as once again I felt heavy legged, slow and cumbersome, a feeling I've had in all to many races over the last few years. I guess all this Ironman training does little for my 5k speed.

I charged out of T2 with my target being Chris but without having any idea where he was or how much he'd taken out of my in that 2nd half of the bike. The run was out and back along an old railway track, it's nice and flat but the recent awful weather had made it's sand based surface pretty damn wet and muddy with huge puddles across it. I picked off the group of lads that had hit T2 ahead of me fairly early on but I didn't exactly breeze past them as I would have in the past, it was all a bit of a struggle.Then I saw Adam (the winner) running towards me like a steam train and I could tell the speed difference between us was huge.

The first mile passed in 5:55 which was actually quite comforting because it didn't feel that quick, I also knew that I was going to slow as the distance climbed because my legs were really not enjoying themselves.

Approaching the turnaround I saw Chris and worked out he'd got just over a minute on me, I'd taken nothing out of him and maybe even lost time. This wasn't good............ and so it proved as I progressively slowed through the next couple of miles to lost another minute rather than gain one.

The conclusion - Well, for all my efforts I managed to finish 5th overall and 2nd V40 although nobody knows because I'm down in the results as A.N.OTHER with no timing splits either. My Garmin gave me 6:47/30:15/19:08 although that's with T1/T2 mixed in somewhere. Because I'm down as an anonymous nobody it also meant that I missed out on the prize for 2nd V40 which is slightly Grrrrr worthy.

Other than that I discovered that having a month out of the water affects my swim slightly (but not a lot), my biking is obviously a lot stronger than I give it credit for (and stronger than a recent TT suggests) although I still can't ride uphill and my running......... well, my running is just slack and in need of sharpening up.

Having said all that, especially about the swimming, I need to remember that I'm training for an Ironman not a Sprint Tri and I had got almost 7hrs of training in my legs from the previous 3 days (+ a Cosmo feast).

I've worked out that although I'm perfectly happy to train through every race (but one) that I do this season I'll still bitch and moan like a trooper if those races don't go perfectly. That's all part of the fun though :-D

Ouchie

I'm back, I think!! .......... Two posts in less than a month is a start at least.

Well it's early on Easter Monday as I type and I'm wondering what training to do because it's absolutely throwing it down outside. It's been a decent weekend up until now though, very overcast but dry which means I've been out destroying myself on the bike - and ache a lot!!

Back a week though to Taunton Marathon which took place the day after my posting. After some last minute arranging I had a car share with my clubmate pal Sean. We met up nice and early and got to the race venue with masses of time to spare, so unusual for me. We chilled a little and met up with fellow NDTC lads James and Matt who were running the Half Marathon and Marathon addict Jimmy who was gunning for his first sub 2:50 run.

As normal I was very calm about things and took my stuff into the baggage area with 10mins to go before disappearing off to the toilets for a while, finally rocking up to join the rest of the 1300 or so competitors at the Start area with a minute or so to go. With a reasonably big field and a small funnel shaped start area it would have been cheeky to force my way to the front and as I didn't want to start off by getting dragged along too fast I was in the perfect place. With the chip timing it doesn't really matter if it takes you a couple of minutes to cross the start line unless you're chasing prizes or course records - none of that for me thanks!
The first lap was very controlled, I had the 'Virtual Partner' on my Garmin set to 7:10min/mile pace and kept it ticking over slightly faster than that pace. It was all I ever looked at, never bothering with my overall time, heart rate etc until I finished the first lap when I looked at my half marathon time (1:32:30). My original plan to run around 3:10-3:15 then got adjusted a little. I'd run the first half so comfortably I wondered if I maybe picked the pace up a little whether I'd manage to sneak under 3hrs. I started doing the maths in my head, trying to work out how much I would need to be ahead of the 'Virtual Partner' to get a time beginning with a '2'. This was skewed a little my my Garmin signalling every mile a good 15-20secs ahead of the official markers (probably due to my dodging runners early on). Keeping the numbers turning over in my head was great fun, especially as most of the field were only racing the half marathon and the 2nd lap got very lonely. Around 17miles I caught a group of 4 runners that had been in my sights for a while, I thought about sitting in but then decided I couldn't be bothered and so I ran straight past. When I looked over my shoulder a mile later the group of 4 were all strung out, I'm guessing one or more of them must have tried to tag on. Oooops :-D
I have to admit that the little climb at 22 miles was a toughie and by the equally small climb at 24miles I was beginning to feel it, I ran in towards the Finish at a decent clip while at the same time there wasn't much left in the tank. It was quite nice to see the Garmin saying 2:59:59 but not too much of a disappointment when the official time was 3:00:00. I quite like round numbers and as I've got a few sub 3's under my belt it didn't smart too much.....

Race over and onto this week, supposedly my first build week back............ Hmmmm, it didn't really happen (until Friday). I managed a sneaky 5k run the day after the race and then I did absolutely nothing, due to a combination of work, post race aches and general constant tiredness. Then came the Bank Holiday Weekend and BOOM the Weekend Warrier is back!!! 3h30m bike on Friday, 4hr bike & 1hr run on Saturday, 3h15m bike on Sunday. A trio of days that meant I have had no problem at all doing stuff all today while the rain has absolutely poured down outside. Welcome to British Summer Time :-D

Three Months In

Right, we're a full three months into the year and I'm three months into my training for the Big Dance. So what's happening? (I really need to get back on this blog train!!!)
Well in terms of being coached for the first time in my life I guess the honeymoon period is officially over. That doesn't mean I'm going off the idea or that I've any plans to stop, more that the 'real' Iain is beginning to show his colours and far too many sessions have been missed in the last few weeks when I really could/should have done them. Iain the 'Lazy Ass Triathlete' is back!!
It's not as bad as it sounds, I've still had a huge month of training (for me), but it's fallen short of the first two months and that's really not good enough. This week has been slack, but it's a 'recovery week'. Last week however was close to awful on what should have been a huge push. I've read about how people on these 'work 3recover 1' plans suffer in the final week of training, my body just gets all lazy though and finds excuses for me to miss the tough workouts. I need to sort that but it's a mental issue more than a physical issue.
The next month is where business should really start picking up though. April normally brings the start of the warmer weather and it's when my training traditionally kicks into gear with gear with the real race season on the horizon. That race season starts tomorrow with Taunton Marathon and as with every Marathon I've ever done there's been no specific training for it. Only once this year have I ran over 90mins and I've only managed 2hrs of running in the last two weeks! I guess that should mean I turn up 'run rested' if nothing else.

So last week was the first Triathlon of the season? I think I can officially call it a Triathlon anyway. It was really just a gathering of some clubmates and friends for a blast around the countryside. There were only 23 of us, but I got the win so I'm classing it as a race :-)
The most encouraging bit was that although I managed to sneak the fastest splits in all three disciplines it was the bike (my least favourite) where I did all the major damage, taking minutes out of the lads I thought would push me hard on a course that really doesn't suit me. That was followed by me opening blast of out local (pretend) 20mile TT course on Thursday where I was just 10 seconds off my pb after having plenty of hold ups along the way. If nothing else the biking is looking good, although with how much biking I've been doing I really should expect it to be going well!!

Tomorrow (if I post this in time) is Taunton Marathon. It could be interesting, especially considering that my run total for the last fortnight has been less than two hours. Still, I've had a chat with the coach and as there is zero pressure on this race I'm going in with a steady plan. The aim is to try to run around 7:10min/mile for the first 20 miles. If I can manage this comfortably and then maybe pick the pace up a little in the last 6miles I should get myself home in around 3:10. I know it's no great shakes and I should really be looking to go under 3hrs but it's more about trying to run it controlled and finish strong rather than go off looking for a 2:45 and crawl across the line in 2:57.

We'll see!! Tomorrow will show me a lot - and probably nothing all at the same time. It'll hopefully be another 26miles in the legs though which is all I really need.

Until next time, which hopefully won't be as long a wait as this time!

Race Season - Summer is coming!!

Yay, the multisport race season is upon us and on Sunday I took part in the Taunton Aquathlon. No biking involved yet (although that's no great loss) just 1000m of swimming and 10k of running, even if it did turn out both were a little on the short side.
More of that later though, let's get to the training. There's been LOADS!!! Or at least there was loads until last week when it all went a bit pear shaped, I'm still in line to break the 50hour barrier for February though which is pretty much double what I would normally do. As expected almost all of the extra time has been put in on the bike, my swimming is actually down on normal and my running is about the same. With close to 60hrs done on the bike already this year though I'm almost three times my normal training after two months - let's hope it all pays off.

With my swim/run training actually being slightly down on normal and with a desperation 4hr bike ride (it'd been a bad week) on Saturday it's no real surprise that I didn't exactly set the world alight on Sunday. Still despite me feeling 'off' for the whole race my performance wasn't too bad.

I've got a bit (a lot) of history with the Taunton races and I know many of the club members there well. A bit of history with swimming the incorrect amount of lengths at their Triathlon (3 years on the bounce), I think I just mesmerise their marshalls. So when I walked onto poolside, saw my old buddy Andy was counting my lane and he joked that he was going to count me an extra few lengths it was a sign!!! I told him it would all go wrong now and we both had a laugh 'about the past!'.

We set off for out 40 length (1,000m) swim with 4 to a lane and starting at 10sec intervals. I was 3rd off in my lane and within 200m I'd passed the two people ahead of me one of whom decided to take a draft off me (which is fine) and keep slapping my toes (which is NOT fine!!!). If he'd behaved I'd have happily dragged him through the whole swim, my feet hardly move so it's easy enough to tuck in. But after 2 lengths of tap tap tap he'd got on my nerves so I engaged my kick for a couple of lengths, let him swim in my washing machine type bubbles and dropped him like a stone. Sorted!!
I could see the lads in the top lane were flying and I was going to have to do some chasing down on the run if I was going to do any good today. This just added to the frustration of my not really enjoying the swim, my splits after the first 100m had been drifting the wrong way for my liking but I was still chugging along reasonably well and the run was to come. Then as I turned after 36 lengths I thought I felt my foot catch something, strange! As I continued I decided it could only have been the '2 lengths to go' board and a glance at my watch on the next turn confirmed that I'd still got 3 lengths left, I must have been imagining things. Then as I turned with 2 lengths to go I felt a hand grab the back of my Trisuit and almost haul me clean out of the water. I stopped, stood up, looked around and there were 3-4 people yelling at me to get out of the water because I was done. What could I do? Not a lot really, I was stood still and the clock was ticking so I jumped out of the water and looked at my watch - 13:10, that was NOT 1,000m!!!

Putting the swim to the back of my mind I put on my shoes, glasses and number belt and got the hell out of the door. As if to confirm my suspicions I saw Will Collins just ahead of me and I knew he'd lapped me in the pool so he should have been a minute up the road, still it gave me a target to aim at for the run ahead.

The first mile of the run course is pretty flat, maybe even downhill, but after that it climbs solidly for a mile and is simply never flat. Early on I was gaining on Will and feeling pretty good but as soon as the hills kicked in my legs threw a temper tantrum and didn't want to play. I kept him in sight up the first long climb but I'd gone too hard too soon and from the moment I reached the top I knew it wasn't going to be. I kept running of course and kept the pace solid, but there was no zipp in the legs and even when I got over taken (by the eventual winner and two relay runners) I couldn't persuade my legs to go with them.

Finally I crossed the line with 49:05 showing on my watch and a run split of 35:37 for the short 10k course (it's actually just 5.75miles). That tells me that I actually ran 6:11min/miles of a tough course, so I won't complain. Then I headed off to find the race organiser Paul to tell him my swim had been short, if I'm going to pick up any prizes I want them to be legit not because I'd been miscounted in the pool!! As it turned out it made no difference, Paul rounded my time up to 52:00 (I think it would have been around 51:50) but I was in 3rd place - not counting relay teams - and would have been there if I'd owned up to the swim or not. Still, it cleared my conscience!

Congrats to James and Will who properly blitzed the course, I think they were both well inside the previous course record. I'll get you when the Tri season starts!! :-D

Next up? Oh yeah, that'll be Bideford Half Marathon this Sunday. I can't remember the last time I ran a Half Marathon and I certainly can't remember the last time I ran over 80mins for one. I think I could be in for a shock. Fingers crossed.

Taunton Aquathlon Results Here!

Just stuff.

Heck, it's the 3rd of February. I haven't posted anything for a full month and there's been so much going on.............. (sort of).

First up - the coaching is now in full effect and jeez it's a big difference to what I'm used to. The idea that having  someone to answer to and having sessions written out for me seems to be working, so far! Of course it's far to early to say whether I'm any fitter, any quicker, or more importantly whether I'll be stronger in October.

For your amusement here's January's totals. 2011 in RED and 2012 in BLUE 


Swim ---------- 7hrs/4hrs 


Bike ----------- 8h05m/31h44m (more than Jan, Feb & Mar combined last year) 


Run ------------ 8h35m/14h55m 


Total ---------- 23h40m/50h40m a monthly total I only beat once in the whole of 2011!!! 


Fingers crossed it'll all be worth in in October, so long as I survive that long..................... So far so good though.

So it's all starting well, the miles are piling up and my legs are feeling fine. I'm also losing my excess Winter weight already which is a head start on any other year. My only race so far this year has been Braunton 10 miler which was my last session of my initial 3 week build and right at the end of the huge month (above). Going into the race I was slightly concerned that tiredness would take over and I'd struggle to break 65mins, especially after 4.5hrs of training the day before. As it turned out though I ran well to clock 1:02:40 which was good enough for 11th place overall on what is a damn hilly course. Admittedly I was very poor on the two big climbs but I was also very strong running off them and I had the bonus of zero leg stiffness in the days that followed which was a bonus.......

In other news Rosie pup impaled herself on a stick (or similar) while we were out running over Crow Point last weekend. It was a big worry for a while and I had to borrow a phone to call Shelly out to pick her up. In typical 'tough as nails' Rosie style though she was running around like a lunatic within minutes on me making the call, even with blood running down her leg.
An expensive trip to the vets later to get her wounds cleaned out and stapled beck together means she'll soon be as good as new. There's no running for her for 10 days though and she looks like a right pillock walking around the place in a tee-shirt of mine to stop her licking her wounds.

That'll do for now, I need to get some sleep (yaaaaaaaaaawn). I'll try not to leave the next post as long and I'll also try to put a bit more useful info on it. Cee Ya.

Back to work

Wow, Christmas and New Year are over, where did the time go? Happy 2012!! It's two months to the day that I was lining up on the beach to race Ironman Florida and it's hard to believe how much fitness I've lost and weight I've put on in that time, although if you saw how much chocolate, cakes and mince pies I've demolished over the holiday period you'd have a fair idea where the weight has come from.

So Christmas was Christmas and like the spoilt child that I am I had far too many presents for my own good. From tiny toys to Disc Wheel covers, from socks to jackets, from cash towards Kona to ..... erm, cash towards Kona. It's fair to say I was spoilt again :-D.

I actually managed to race twice too. On Christmas Eve we diverted our drive to see the family in the Midlands and called into Killerton Park, near Exeter to do the Park Run with Rosie where we finished 3rd overall on a muddy & slippery course, including a doggy type pit stop. Park Run is a FREE 5k run series that is held at 9am every Saturday at parks all around the country.

Then on the 27th of December I managed to drag myself around the Wheaton Aston 10k in 37:16 which was thankfully a little quicker than last year, although with almost perfect weather conditions I suspect it's really a slower performance that the 2010 snow-fest.

Since then training has been a bit mixed. New Years Eve was nice and chilled at home and I did the traditional NDTC New Years Day run and breakfast. Being a bit of a wimp I skipped the sea swim again in order to be able to feel my hands when I had my breakfast. I left that for the hardcore element instead..

In other news I've finally taken the plunge and signed up to be coached starting from the 9th January. My first week on 'the plan' is longer than my biggest week training for Ironman Florida! So either I'm going to have to pull my finger out and get training or changes will have to be made. In theory I should be able to manage it all ok, but I need to get my head round it first which is the hard part. I'll let you know more about how it's panning out when I get into it.

That'll have to do for now, I'm rapidly running out of time and don't want this to be the 5th post I've started but never finished. Until next time folks!!

A post about nothing much

Hi all, it's been a while. Merry Christmas!!

It's been a busy month since my last post. Busy working, busy eating, busy doing nothing, but not really busy training. Ok, sure I did Cornish Marathon 2 weeks after Ironman but that's more a tradition than a race which my performance showed.that I was nowhere near recovered as despite starting at a stupidly easy pace I blew to pieces with 10miles to go. Other than that my training has been merely ticking over apart from last Thursday when my annual Birthday Triathlon turned into a Duathlon (4.2m/42m/4.2m) because of the Barnstaple Pool closure and just went to how exactly how much fitness you can lose in less than 6 weeks. It hurt!!!

In other news the new steed should be here next month thanks to my main man Michael at Bike It. We're still working on the exact details so watch this space next month.

I'm also 'finally' after around 2 decades of Triathlon very close to taking the sport half seriously and getting a coach - I really am!!!!!

I've spoken to a few folks since I qualified for Kona about trying to go that extra little step and training 'properly' rather than just muddling along as normal. Of course, it's not been easy. I've got huge financial/time/work restrictions but to take things seriously I feel I need something more than a generic program that make up most coaching set-ups 'basic' plans. I 'may' possibly have found a compromise though with a new coaching set up who seem willing to take a punt on me for a more reasonable rate - maybe it'll help their profile if they make me good......... As with the bike you'll need to watch this space to see what, if anything, comes of it.Unless in the mean time somebody comes along offering to coach me for FREE (any takers reading this??? I thought not!) then I think I might be putting some money into training for the first time ever in a bid for Kona Glory(ish).

That's about it really, it's December so there's not a lot to report. Next up is Wheaton Aston 10k on the 27th December when I'll be wobbling round with two days worth of Christmas in my stomach. Bring it on!!