Ironman Western Australia, Busselton 2012

Posted on December 9, 2012 by lord_lordy

IMWA12-1

Time: 10:47:24
Swim: 52:16
T1: 2:52
Bike: 5:12:22
T3: 3:00
Run:4:36:54

Race Analysis here

I felt pretty relaxed for this race and decided to get up at 3:30am and not get to transition too early. I arrived about an hour before the race start, checked my bike and a few minutes later was just sat relaxing. I put my wetsuit on to keep warm and then hung out with Jo till the start.

IMWA12-2The Pro’s had a beach start then we had a deep water start 15 minutes later. Probably means the pros times would be 1 to 2 minutes slower as we were definitely further out than previously as I couldn’t stand up. Also, there was tonnes of creeping forward just prior to the gun.

I’m getting a lot more sensible about the swim starts now going just hard enough to keep out of trouble but not worrying about getting clear too quickly. there are always lots of people that can sprint for a short while and being Australia there were more than normal. It took probably 500m for most to drop off. It was really rough with the waves coming from the right on the way out. It meant that no neat packs seemed to form, well none I could see. I quite enjoyed swimming on my own and just swam comfortably within myself taking a straight line for the end of

the Jetty. I couldn’t figure out why so many had gone far right but it seemed a distinctly longer line.

Approaching the only turn around some dude decided that with all this space he should keep bashing my leg on my inside. Well he chose to be there and I chose to take the buoy as tight as I could forcing him to go behind. Then as we started the return leg he and another guy decide that the best place to be was either side of me. Bizarre they didn’t just sit in my draft. It annoyed me and I just focussed on increasing my pace by upping the pressure on my hand and I soon dropped them.

I was very pleased as I excited in 52 minutes as I’d swam pretty comfortably.

IMWA12-3Out on the bike I decided to set off conservative. My preparations had been hugely compromised, I didn’t have the normal recent miles in my legs so was pretty sure that my usual hard start to the ride wouldn’t be ideal. The wind was pretty strong and it felt like i had no oomph. I concentrated on getting my food on board. At the first turn around I was surprised to see Jo behind me. By the end of the lap I think she was probably surprised to have caught and passed me.

60km in and I saw an average watts of 218. Thats just 30+ below what it would normally in recent times. At that point I was wondering just how ugly this race would get. The first 15km of the lap were out in to the head wind. I didn’t consciously push harder but found that getting passed had stopped and I was reeling in those ahead. I looked at my power and could see it was creeping back up.  I decided that I would keep a lid on my efforts for this lap and then really push on in the last. I then immediately over-rode  my decision. I got drawn in and from 100k started to consciously push. I re-passed Jo towards the end of the lap and finished 120k with an average of 228.

I really put the effort in starting the final lap and by 150k my average was up to 236 which my mental arithmetic suggested I must have been holding over 250 watts. Thats more like it. 160k and I  imploded a little. At the time I told myself I was a bit of an idiot to have been riding so controlled but to then getting over enthusiastic but I think what happened was the wind had changed direction. Based on the first two laps it would have been a big tailwind home for the last 30km so I’d put a lot more in to get to the that point but when I turned for home there wasn’t any easy speed and I just didn’t have any extra. Until that implosion I thought I might get very close to my predicted 5:05 but ended with 5:12 which I was reasonably happy with.

IMWA12-4On the run I tried to focus on being efficient and keeping relaxed. I knew I’d not done anywhere near enough running to have a hope of holding it together the whole way but every KM I ran would help hugely.

The 4:50s km for the first couple were a little fast but not fast enough to prevent Jo cruising by. It was hot out there, the wind seemed to have dropped and there was no shade at all. I decided to walk the aid stations and ensure I got ice on my quads and down my arm coolers. Out on the course the support was awesome with several places where people had go hoses or buckets full of ice. I was surprised at how comfortable I felt running. I kept in my mind Helen telling my a while back that I’d perfected the “Hunters Trot” I felt if I could just keep that going I’d probably be able to manage a 4 hour marathon. Until about 25km it seemed to be working and I actually felt good running and was really enjoying it. Then it got pretty bad. I even resorted to setting my timer going which I used for a long run with Paul to tell us the run / walk routine.

Even with a KM to go I couldn’t help walking that aid station. I then managed to pick up a half decent pace through to the finish. Given I’d promised myself I’d drop out if my knee hurt at all and that two weeks ago I would have put money on my not finishing the run I was chuffed to bits to cross that finish line and complete my 25th Ironman.

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Ironman Western Australia Preparation

Posted on December 7, 2012 by lord_lordy

IMWA-Prep1It’s been a funny old preparation period for this Ironman. It’s made me reflect on how I’ve been lucky over the previous 24 Ironman races I’ve done. Apart from missing two races completely after surgery I would say that non of my races have been severely compromised through lack of training. Yes I’ve had preparations with more or less motivation and thats reflected in the result but never before has my preparation been taken out of my hands like this. A combination of two bouts of illness and a niggly trigger point and left me feeling decidedly under prepared for this. As this dawned on me a few weeks a go I must admit I felt completely gutted as after Ironman Wales I felt a really good time was there for the taking here – just 2 months solid work. Well … below I’m going to look at the truth of the past couple of months.

SWIM

IMWA12Prep2The training stress graphs are from mid august till now. The following are indicated:

1. IM Wales

2. Illness – two spells. First just a regular bout of flu for a week. The second was a horrible cough that had me doing nothing for 2 weeks.

It’s clear from all the graphs the drop off in fitness with the first weeks fitness, then a solid period of training followed by the second bout. With my swimming when I finally got over the second lot I was able to get some real quality training done largely because of lack of fatigue from biking and running. It was like I passed a tipping point and suddenly I could really feel the water. I was managing sets of 100s going 1:25, 1:20 and 1:15 – not swum like that since being at University. I’m quite looking forward to the swim this weekend, given good sea conditions and some chasing sharks I should manage a pretty decent time.

BIKE

IMWA12PrepBikeIM Wales doesn’t show that well here. This is generally the case as the bike in an Ironman is relatively easy compare to overall fitness.

Following the first illness I was building fitness well and was very motivated but it’s declined since then. The big problem was that riding seemed to aggravate a trigger point which was preventing me running.

It was a huge dilemma for me. I was enjoying my riding and could have cranked on but was really concerned I would just not be able to run. So I eased back, in fact had to go for periods of no cycling. At least now it seems to have cleared up fully.

RUN

IMWA12PrepRunThis is where it gets ugly. You can see that following recovery from Wales and the first lot of illness I managed to built my run fitness back up. I was running well and getting a solid long run in each week.

Stupidly following the second illness I did a single long hill repeats run. Even during it I could feel the outside of my left knee but even more stupidly I continued.

Luckily Helen at 10-Point Tri who as ever was right on the case. A 30 minute call one Saturday night and she’d not only identified the problem but managed to explain over the phone how I could self treat it. I went from not being able to walk downstairs to no discomfort at all. The problem was it came back very easily. At least I knew what the problem was since the treatment worked instantly. Helen told me patience would be required. I understood. She’s come to my rescue numerous times ahead of races so I totally trusted her.

So this brings me to now. I am running completely pain free. I’ve not risked too much running but I have done a long ride. My feeling was that my bike fitness may come back with a solid block so I did a fair bit last weekend but now have eased off.

How can it go on Sunday ? Who knows. Alex has suggested I race to fitness which is a great idea but I’ve no idea what my fitness is. So some predictions. What the hell, may as well.

SWIM: 51:00
T1:  3:00
BIKE: 5:05
T2: 2:00
RUN: 3:59
TOTAL: 10:00:00

At least I’m now looking forward to racing.

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Age Group Doping In Ironman

Posted on December 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

When I saw the story about an age grouper being caught for doping the fact he doped didn’t surprise me at all. I’d felt that the risk reward balance was easily high enough in age group racing that there’d be some unscrupulous triathletes willing to give it a go. Two things did surprised me. Firstly that he’d allowed the testing to happen. As I thought about it I could only assume entering an Ironman race you agree to drug testing both in and out of competition. The second thing was that this was out of competition and that they knew where he was since there is no whereabouts system for age groupers. My guess was he was caught at home.

Till this point I was only aware of age group testing at one race when in 2008 I finished Ironman Germany behind Jo and then couldn’t find her anywhere. At that race all age group winners are tested.

I saw lots of discussion about age grouper drug testing and how it should be approached with many suggesting that it should be more or less on the same footing as professional testing. There would however be quite a few issues around this the biggest one being what is your pool of athletes to test? If we’re talking out of competition then in theory your pool is the whole population since anyone could decide to enter a race at short notice. This clearly wouldn’t work so perhaps we say that once you have entered a race you are now in the pool. I imagine (I’ve not checked) that this must be the case with WTC races. This is practical but given there are 28 Ironman events (excluding Kona) and 51 70.3 events (excluding Vegas) that’s a lot of people. Even if we say there are (probably conservatively) 1,000 distinct competitors per race that would be a pool of 79,000 people worldwide. The chances of being tested out of competition would be so low as to be no deterrent. What additional cost on the entry fee would be required to make the odds higher by being able to employ more testers? $10? $100? Would you be willing to pay it? This doesn’t even take in to account the issues of tracking the whereabouts of these people.

It would seem to me it’s just not worth it but a more focussed system would be. This could mean rather than random testing it would be targeted. My guess is that given the person caught is a consistent age group winner that this test was targeted. One way to end up in the pool would be by having to say on entry if you are trying for a Kona slot which would immediately increase your chances of being tested. To this I would add any age group winners as there are very good athletes out there not interested in going to Kona.

How would we know where someone is? Well for your typical age grouper just having a home address would be sufficient since most have jobs and are thus relatively fixed in their location. Most couldn’t up sticks to go to a location for an extended period of time to allow for a doping programme to be run. That said there are age groupers that are full time who perhaps could do this. This could be tackled by having a targeted method to add age groupers to the whereabouts system – perhaps the winner at Kona or even top 5 are added for two years and any age group winner is added for a year.

In competition testing seems much clearer – surely all age group winners should be tested.

The other issue this raises is what constitutes doping. As we get old there are drugs that are often taken to counteract the effects of aging that are performance enhancing. For instance taking testosterone supplements for lower testosterone. This was the case that recently publicised. In this case the athlete could apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE). For me this is a can of worms in the professional field let alone the age group field. Aging is a part of life and those that for whatever reason age better should be at an advantage in athletics over those that don’t. Giving a TUE for any drug that limits aging would seem a little wrong to me. To me it’s no different from some athletes being lucky enough to have stronger muscles, bigger lungs or able to carry more oxygen in their blood but we wouldn’t propose allowing a TUE for a drug that would improve it for those below the norm.

These things should be put in place but like with other issues in triathlon (eg drafting) the long term deterrent can be helped from within the culture of our sport. It needs to be made unacceptable so the majority wouldn’t do it. We need to shout “draft cheat” when we see one, we need to challenge those we feel may be doping. We need to make it so that those that chose to do this sort of thing will be isolated. Within age groupers the driver for drug taking must be the prestige of success (as there’s little money in it) if to achieve this success through doping requires increased isolation from your peers then hopefully the kudos for that individual will be reduced.

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Ironman Distance

Posted on November 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

I headed out on the Ironman Wales run feeling great for the first time in ages. My average pace was right where I wanted it somewhere between 3:15 and 3:20 pace. I was still feeling good as I approached then end of lap 2 of 4 when I saw a split of 1:30. It was pretty clear the course was seriously short but at the time I was thankful. By the end I’d clocked up a 3:26 marathon but I felt a bit of a fraud as I received allsorts of congratulations and assertions that my running was getting back to where it used to be. I knew that my average speed for the distance was 3:40 pace and I knew that if I’d had to do those extra 3kms I would have been at least 3:45. It’s only with reflection that I feel slightly short-changed.

When it comes to the swim there are clearly difficulties in getting a course bang on distance since buoys may move. Combine with this with poor navigation, currents and lack of decent GPS to measure it means that there will always be a huge question mark over swim distances. Few people complain about a short swim and I feel there may be a tendency to err on the short side. Athletes generally judge the distance by how it felt verses how fast they went. I feel I’ve done fast times on legitimate courses and have definitely swum short courses. At IM Germany in 2008 the pros were actually told the course was 175m short!

For the bike there is less excuse though there are still reasons why the distances won’t be bang on since they’re trying to get a course on open roads and dead turns aren’t particularly friendly on the bike course. That said, in IM Austria there was an out and back apparently to make up the distance and yet the bike course was still several KMs short per my computer.

As for run courses… here dead turns aren’t a big issue and those courses that have them there is little excuse for distances not to be accurate. Someone can ride round the course and measure it easily. I’ve even done this for the South Island Half Ironman in New Zealand and it wasn’t difficult. At Wales there were three dead turns per lap so getting it accurate shouldn’t be a huge ask. [And no you shouldn’t shorten the run for T1 run distance. Ironman is a marathon plus transitions not a marathon less the distance of transitions.]

For a long time I took the attitude of “what goes on tour stays on tour” – I’d take my time and defend the course distance. Now though I’m getting sick of the fact that you run well in Austria and get “oh that’s short” or you bike well in Roth and it’s “oh they went back to the short course”. It’s got to the point where a course is assumed to be short if you go fast and in some cases it’s so clear that it’s embarrassing. I don’t remember much fanfare for the 2:41 marathon by the female winner at IM UK in 2011, there’s probably a sigh of relief that a Crowie or Rinnie hadn’t rocked up and run sub 2:30.

The great sports have a rich history of records and statistics but such huge differences in distance lessons the value of Ironman history. What’s the fastest a lady has run the marathon in an Ironman? This answer would have allsorts of asterisks attached.

It would be great if organisers could get the courses more accurate but at a minimum they could state the measured distances of their courses. I’m sure that, in general, they have reasons when courses are short. They could tell us these reasons and then we’d understand. I’m sure if Ironman Wales bike was a mile short because it allowed for a natural loop on in incredibly hilly terrain no one would complain. Bike course records are unlikely to be set on that course. Though hilly course doesn’t automatically mean short: my first Ironman was UK in 2005, it was very hilly and I measured it just over 2 miles long! [Wales is, probably, the toughest course already. Imagine if it was long as well]

If distances were known then people could head to the short courses to get fast times knowing it’s short and that their PB wouldn’t be completely legitimate. I’ll be honest I’d be heading to the shortest fastest course and trying for a PB. I’d be happier everyone knowing precisely how short and being able to adjust my time than forever defending or explaining my time.

In this day of mass GPS I’m wondering about setting up a website where people that raced a race can submit their GPS files. The site would then be able to give average measured distance and variations. With enough support I think we’d get a pretty accurate picture of the distances of most races. Any web developers out there?

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Bike Fit

Posted on October 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

I’ve had the occasional bike fit in my time as a triathlete. Initially ahead of buying my first road bike when I had not real idea of what bike was appropriate. Since then I’ve had a more sophisticated fit for a made to measure road bike and a very unsophisticated fit for a traditional steel tourer. The latter involved the guy eyeing me up and taking two (possible three) measurements with a tape measure and then telling me to come back in 7 weeks for the bike. It was super comfortable and I still have that bike to this day.

When it comes to TT bike fit though I have to admit to being a little sceptical. The reason being is I’ve never felt you are fitting a TT bike for comfort. If comfort is what I wanted then it’s my touring bike every time (Interestingly my first Kona, and my best, was raced on this touring bike). For a TT bike I just took a look at the Pro’s TTing and decided that I needed to be as aero as that and I should get used to it. Perhaps I was naïve, I have certainly been lucky. I don’t appear to have any problems with bikes. I take the approach of all my bikes are slightly different set up on the basis that a slightly flexible branch is less likely to snap than a rigid one – so I want my body to be able to cope with slightly different positions. I’ve always found pretty tucked positions comfortable on my TT and road bikes.

For me for a bike fit to be truly worthwhile it would need all of the following: power meter, heart rate monitor and some method to accurately measure how much drag you’re creating (e.g. a wind tunnel). Despite this I know people that have done all that and ended up with a better position by trying to mimic pictures of the pros.

Yes I am a sceptic.

With this attitude I was happy to take the offer of a free bike fit from Helen at 10-Point Tri. She’s been absolutely fundamental in my return to running and was very keen to see if she could help me further by looking at my bike fit. Being sceptical doesn’t mean there isn’t value in a fit. It gives you more information, another viewpoint; the sceptic in me just means I won’t automatically do what the fit suggests.

The whole process was good fun and quite involved. Mirrors were cunningly non-existent and changes were made whilst I maintained a set power and how it felt drove the changes. It surprised me how small changes would feel quite different. Helen would approach favoured positions from different angles confirming that I was making a consistent choice.

One of the final things to change was the crank length. Instantly it felt terrible and I said so. More tweaks backward and forward and I consistently found the original length best and the others felt worse. Having given Helen my current bike details I’d assumed that I’d been using 175mm cranks on the set up. No, 175mm was the terrible setting that we switched to at the end. The length I like was a mere 165mm.

I like to think of myself as a critical thinker so it really gives me pleasure when something is highlighted where I didn’t do this. Why have all my bikes got 175mm cranks and have done for over 10 years? Simple, because the first guy that sold me a bike took one look at me and my height and said I needed that length.

It shows how convinced I was as days later I order 165mm cranks and am doing all my riding on them in preparation to racing Ironman Wales. With time what I’ve noticed is that the real improvement comes in the aero position (the whole fit was done like this) where the shorter cranks make me feel a lot less restricted. My knees aren’t coming quite so close to my chest when I’m aero. It also feels like my pedalling is smoother and certainly my cadence has increased a little. Doing a little ‘google’ing’ and I found that there is a lot of discussion out there about shorter cranks. It seems that long cranks for tall people is a case of the most obvious ‘logical’ explanation becoming common knowledge. However, it’s easy to give a logical explanation for the opposite – longer cranks means your knees rise higher at the top of the pedal stroke, this is more pronounced the taller the person and more restrictive in the aero position, thus shorter cranks are required. Don’t worry about the explanations, if you get the opportunity try it and see.

One other thing came out of the fit that had a big impact for me; my preferred seat angle – 81 deg. This didn’t surprise me given how I ride on the nose of the saddle when aero however, the only bike that could give me that position currently is a P5. This has started a thought process that could result in a future column…

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Ironman Wales Race Analysis

Posted on September 17, 2012 by lord_lordy

WalesAnalysis12-1Race Report here

Yesterday was another great day in Tenby. I’m close to saying I will definitely back next year but seeing how the competition has got even tougher from last year I think if I want to get to Kona when I turn 45 I may need to head out to an American race rather than try in a super competitive European race. We will see.

Overall I am pleased with my race. I did not get the result I’d hoped for which was a Kona slot, in fact I was 18 minutes off that however I am optimistic about what needs doing. I think I ended up executing a very good race and got a result that was perhaps a little better than my preparation deserved. This was by luck not judgement but having done it I will have the confidence to approach racing similarly. For reasons I’ll go in to below I found myself entering the run in a very positive mood having raced a very conservative swim and bike.

Since Roth I have struggled to get fully back in to training. We went to the Pyrenees to try and kick start training but I didn’t get as much done as hoped. Throughout the stay I had a very niggly heel which gave me too much of an excuse to not run. I was also still not feeling fully myself so ended up doing less biking at a lower pace than I’d hoped. I then had a bike fit and chose to change to 165mm cranks and q-rings. With hindsight given my not such good cycling form it was a little daft to make these changes. I threw myself in to 3 weeks of solid biking to try and adapt but throughout I just didn’t feel like I had form. Was this the cranks ? the q-rings ? or just lack of form ? The weekend before the race I tested myself back on 175mm and decided to switch for the race. During this period I got a really good block of running in – 150 miles or so in three weeks but no long runs, well, nothing beyond 22km. Swim training was back on but as start of season for the squad it was all skills based. The coach did make sure I did some work but nothing like I will be doing. That said things were really clicking with my feel for the water and stroke length.

This means coming in to this race I felt that I needed to be a little more conservative on swim and bike to have a hope of running well and if I’m honest  I felt it would be a miracle if I didn’t fade significantly on the run.

SWIM

The swim was very physical at the start. They had a right angle turn about 100m out and the pros started about 10m ahead in the water. Once through this I settled at the back of the pack I was in. Made the sensible choice to just sit there and not bridge. This must be the easiest swim I’ve done and had me coming out in 48 minutes (probably short) feeling very fresh. Nothing but positives from this as I feel by my next race my swimming will be even better. This won’t mean I’ll get quicker splits just I’ll get easier splits.

BIKE

Again I started off conservatively. I initially based this on my breathing with the focus on getting my heart rate under control – I didn’t wear a HRM so was judging this on feeling and my breathing. I’d decided to at least try to join any pacelines that came through. This I did but early on they all were too fast. After about 50km I started to fade, this seemed to coincide with starting to need to pee. I’ve never managed to do this on the bike before so didn’t worry too much about it. My mood started to drop, I think needing to pee made me less inclined to eat. I also found my interaction with the crowd was getting less and less. I started having lots of negative thoughts. This often happens to me and I think that I need to work on my mental focus for these races.

Anyway, in to the second lap and I decided I really need to try and pee on the bike. I’d been riding pretty much on my own for a while so decided I’d try and pee out on to the verge but I’d tied my tri shorts so couldn’t. I then found I if I just lifted the shorts a little to relieve the pressure I was able to pee. (sorry for the details) but boy oh boy did I pee… lots. The change was instantaneous. My mood upped, I start gussling and enjoying my gels and I  started hammering – it felt like those days on Epic camp when I could hammer on the front. I started reeling people in again and I felt great. Negative thoughts disappeared and instead I was thinking how my bike had been conservative and therefore I should be able to run well. I say to my athletes how you need to aim to be your strongest in the final third on the bike, if you do you’ve paced it right. I had my own advice ringing in my ears and I felt so confident.

WalesAnalysis12-2

The graph shows my normalised power each 5km together with trend lines. The linear one amuses me because it’s dead straight ! The other is a moving average. It’s pretty clear my fade in the middle and dramatic improvement. The high power in 85-95km is due to that being where the big steep hills are.

So… for future races I need to hold off my power early on even if people are passing as being strong at the end is great for my mental attitude. I also need to learn to be able to pee on queue!

RUN

OK… the run was short. I reckon about 2.5km short. I started my garmin in transition and it took about a minute or so to get a signal. It measured 39km. This means my marathon time is flattering to say the least. My average pace was 5:14 so thats 3:40 pace and given my fade it  means had it been full length I would have been closer to 3:45. So overall not good.

That said it was hugely positive. The first half of the marathon I felt like my old self. It was great. I was aware of it at the time and I was so happy. Loving it. I was running so well, felt great and most importantly it didn’t feel like I was running off the bike it just felt like I was having a good run. I was through halfway in about 1:32 (remember the course is short!) – this is the sort of pace I need and then to hold it. At that point my average pace was 4:38 which is 3:15 marathon pace. Of course, my lack of long runs hit bang on. In fact, it’s almost like I faded at the distance of my longest run. The actual point of my fade isn’t clear because I was probably climbing at the time but once I got on the decent it was clear.

WalesAnalysis12-3

The graph shows my KM splits together with the net change in altitude in each KM. The significant drop in pace at halfway is very clear.

Given how strong the field was even if I’d even splitted the run I would have got the final slot by 4 minutes – thats a MASSIVE if.

Overall I’m disappointed not to qualify but I didn’t deserve to. I am however happy with the race. I raced well and I recovered from a really low point on the bike. I’ve heard so many times people talk about recovering from a low spell in an Ironman but I’d never experienced it. Now I have which is a great memory to have for future races where I can draw on that to remain positive if things aren’t going so well. The run was the most positive run I’ve done since my surgery. I didn’t survive the pace and perhaps a more conservative pace would have got a better split BUT this was the pace required and I’m chuffed I was willing to give it a go. It also showed I could run at pace for a fair old while. I now have 12 weeks to extend that period of pace before Ironman Busselton.

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Ironman Wales, Tenby 2012

Posted on September 16, 2012 by lord_lordy

Wales12-1

Time: 10:07:29
Swim: 48:25
T1: 8:01
Bike: 5:42:22
T2: 2:21
Run: 3:26:20

Race analysis here

I had high expectations for this race after last years was such fun. The build up didn’t disappoint with so many friends either competing or spectating there was no shortage of people to relax with ahead of the race.

Race morning Jo and I headed to transition to check our bikes at 5am. I was back in our room by 5:10am for another coffee and a lie down to collect my thoughts. We headed down to the start at 6:20am but the organisers had been very efficient at getting every down there from 6:15 so there was a massive crowd which we pushed our way through just in time to get a (very) quick warm up before getting in the start pen early to get a good position.

This time they had volunteers holding the tape parallel to the shore (not perpendicular like last year) – this together with a turn buoy about 100m out, the pros starting in the water ahead of us and marshals going along the line explaining the course ensured there was no chance of anyone thinking it was appropriate to run down the beach.

It was a little surreal on the start line when I strike up a conversation with the german to my right who says he’s a fast swimming. I quip I’ll get on his toes and then ask what time he’s expecting. “I should go under an hour” is his reply ! The other side of me is some spanish dude who’s incredible pushy and keeps putting his should in front of me. It was hacking me off so I asked him what time he was expecting “56 minutes” so I tell him I’ve been under 50 minutes the last few times I’ve swum so he should stop trying to push in front of me. He moved away.

Gun goes and the carnage started. I was ahead of the two ‘fast’ swimmers either side but immediately caught the pros. Through to the turn buoy was very rough indeed. Then a pro that I was passing rather quickly decides the best solution was to swim over me and grab me round my waist. Idiot … enough to say he got at least as good as he was dishing out. Round the turn buoy and it settled. I found myself at the back of a group and having decided that the whole swim should be controlled I made no effort to move through and sat at the back. One of the most comfortable swims I’ve done. Apart from the first 100m and a surge after one of the turns to get back on I was never even heavy breathing. Very pleased indeed when Marc shouted I’d gone 48 minutes. I’ll be honest, it was either short of there was a very strong current in our favour.

Ahead of me some pro’s were stripping there wetsuit before the ramp. Remembering how unbalanced I was last year stripping in on the slop by my shoes I did the same and then ran up, vibrams on and through town. Again it surprised me how fast some people were running, I just kept telling myself not to run any faster than I’d run the marathon. Of course, I was coming out with the Pros so I should expect some swift running through town.

On the bike I was again aiming to keep real control on my efforts. Last year I hurtled round the first big loop and suffered on the second smaller one. This time I would be very careful with my efforts, initially basing it on my breathing and later keeping my power around 240. With how I’ve been riding recently I didn’t feel the 250 watts I held at Roth was realistic. I’d also decided this time I would go with any pace-lines that came through and see how that felt. About 20 miles in a Swiss guy in my age group and then behind him (legal) was the lead lady also Swiss. When I see this I do wonder whether there’s some arranged pacing going on. As I tried to hang on to their little group for the next 20k it I was more intrigued as she clearly moved to ensure she was directly behind him. I plan to check the results to see how close they finished the bike.

I couldn’t hang with this group so dropped off the pace. We were now a third of the way in and I felt like I needed to pee and my power was dropping off. My thoughts also started to become negative as more and more in my age group came by.  Halfway through and I reckoned I was already in 12th. I started pondering not even running thinking I’d be better off getting back in to training straight away for Busselton. I also thought that next year I should go to an American race to qualify rather than here as this was ridiculous. I also wondered whether my days of qualifying for Kona were over. My power continued to drop through that lap till it was down to 234 average as I went through the first part of the second lap. I came to a downhill and decided I had to try and pee. For the first time in my Tri career I managed to do it ! There was a lot. Apart from the novice error of actually peeing on my gel bottle it went well ;o) I had some water to squirt over myself and the bottle.

The change was absolutely transformational. I felt superb. I was happy again, positive. I was smiling and acknowledging the crowd and my power was through the roof. On the flats 250 felt very comfortable. On the hills low 300s was fine. I started catching and passing loads of guys who’d passed me earlier. By the end my average was up to 241 which roughly equates to me average 255 watts for the final third.

Towards the end of the ride I was following this Kiwi guy and saw him drop a gel packet. It was immediately after he’d take it and there was no effort to put it in a pocket. I thought how I’d respected his beautiful country so why can’t he show the same respect. I left it as a thought until he went for a drink and accidentally dropped the bottle top – fair enough but he then finished the drink and just chucked the bottle. That was it … I rode up alongside to pass and said “I’ve spent a lot of time in New Zealand” at which point he started smiling “ and I never once littered”. He protested the bottle top had dropped accidentally so I pointed out that he then had chucked the bottle and early he chucked a gel packet.

Coming into Tenby the final time I came hurtling down behind a “Safety Marshal” on a motor bike – I thought it slightly wrong that the safety marshal on the bike course seemed completely unaware of a racer coming down the hill behind him. I had to shout to get him to give me space. It then dawned on me that in the whole race I not seen one single draft buster !

Having ridden strongly at the end I felt great coming in to T2. It felt like I’d had a conservative bike and was ready to run. Gone were thoughts of not running and replaced were thoughts of running some people down. I’d visualised starting the marathon running properly – no matter how I felt get into proper running form. This I did and it was great. I felt like my old self. I was seeing downhill splits in the 4:20s and uphill in the 4:50 which combined saw my average pace fall to 4:38 by the halfway mark. In fact, I went through halfway in 1:30 (note the course was at least 500m per lap short!). I was running really well and thoroughly enjoying it. I felt like my old self, running fast and comfortable. It also meant in the first half I passed people but was only passed by the odd person.At the end of the second lap I become aware of rubbing on my left foot. I knew I should stop to tighten it but didn’t. I definitely should have as you can see the blister I ended up with.

I kept pretty solid into the third lap but the climb out to the far turnaround did me in. I managed to run reasonably well back down the hill but as I started the final lap I was in pieces.   I could feel the blister and was aware of myself flat footing that foot. I consciously forced myself to forefoot strike and eventually I zoned out the discomfort. Uphill splits were now 6:xx and with 7km to go I found myself walking. I walked for a couple of minutes, gathered my thoughts and got going again.

I came in to the finish chute just like last year having thoroughly enjoyed the race. Despite knocking nearly 30 minutes off last years time I knew I was no where near a Kona slot (18 minutes off to be precise) but I was very happy indeed. The first half of the marathon had given me a glimpse of what my running could be if I manage to put the work in.

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Approaching Ironman Wales

Posted on September 12, 2012 by lord_lordy

ApproachingWales.jpgMy blog posting has been hugely intermittent this year. The reason for this is some pretty big changes in my life which has really meant that Ironman racing does not quite hold the same importance it did before. As I approach Ironman Wales this weekend I do not feel on form. Thats not to say I’m not fit, I’m pretty sure I am, it’s just I don’t have that oomph I’ve felt on the bike in recent races and my running still remains well off my pre FHL snap days.

Towards the end of last year I posted a fair bit about peak oil and the problems I feel the world is facing though the vast majority of it’s population and leaders appear completely oblivious to the problems. My awareness of this started a couple of years back but I now realise that I’d probably been open to have my eyes opened for many many years. I remember the questions I used to ask and it’s only recently I’ve stopped taking the stock answers at face value. The normal one is along the lines “the human race will solve it it always has”. It was the Christchurch earthquake that really helped me see these problems for what they are. The human race has not always solved it’s problems. Over it’s history numerous civilisations have grown and collapsed. It is the height of naivety to believe this time is any different. This doesn’t mean I don’t hope it is different. I do hope it is but I plan on the basis it won’t be.

It’s this planning that has really removed my time for blogging. Over the past 18 months I have dramatically changed my life circumstances. Things I spent my whole working life putting in place (savings, investments etc…) have been changed. I’ve moved house, buying a place with land and have started investing in things that have real value. I now have a complete bike workshop together with a good stock of spares. I have got all my wheel building kit and will start building wheels after this race. I’ve bought my first axe and steel toe-capped boots and am looking forward to the couple of days (minimum) hard labour involved in splitting these big piles of wood rings left from felling a couple of trees. I’ve start composting and am quite excited with experimenting when I get back on ways to improve the speed and efficiency of this. We’ve got our first batch of chickens. When deciding to get them I made sure I was ready for the ‘chore’ of looking after them. How wrong could I be. They are great. They have reduced my stress levels even further. I look forward to letting them out and love the fact that Freddie is a bit of a free spirit always escaping and wandering over to check out what I’m working on on my bikes ! The next stage is to buy some extra land and build a coppice.

The aim of all this is to try and live more in harmony with nature. That sounds a bit full of it and certainly if my self of 10 years ago could see this I’d have had some choice thoughts. However it’s made me feel so much more content. I’ve even taken up knitting which is so relaxing. There’s huge satisfaction in composting, feeding chickens and the like. I think it’s meant I don’t feel the need to prove myself through Ironman.

That said I have huge pangs about missing Kona this year but I realise it’s not the race it’s the whole social in the week before. I was tempted to fly out to cheer on my numerous friends out there. The reason I’m not is not because of the emissions that would be involved it’s purely financial. I accept there is a contradiction here – I don’t run a car and try and live low impact but I will fly halfway across the world to race. I won’t try to defend it it’s just the way it is – I will aim to reduce my air travel but I will go to Kona again.

This brings me to the build to my first attempt at qualifying again this weekend, my second attempt, if needed, is Ironman Western Australia in December. Coming in to Roth I was really on good form. I felt great but the camp in the Pyrenees put the kybosh on a performance reflective of that form. I don’t regret that – the camp was great as was Roth. However since then I’ve just not had the form. On the bike we went out to the Pyrenees but my riding just wasn’t anything like pre Roth. I then switched to 165mm cranks and Q-rings. I threw myself in to big riding (1,100 miles in three weeks) to try and adapt to it. There was just no form but of course now I have no idea whether it was just lack of form or the short cranks. I tested it this weekend and have switched back to 175mm cranks for this race. It’s the hills that made me decide as it felt I needed the extra leverage. After this race I will got back to 165mm but without the Q-rings and see how it goes for 4 weeks.

Running. Following Roth I had a niggle with my heel. I think the cramps I was having in the run up to Roth contributed, it only stopped me running for about a week but it was slow to get back to any sort of volume. I’ve managed 3 weeks of 50+ miles which is good for me over the past few years. No long runs though. This means my expectations is to fall apart at some part on the marathon.

Swimming is the one highlight. Despite a three week break my swimming feels like it’s had a step change. My feel for the water has increased, stroke count down. I’ve been hitting some good times feeling controlled but done no long swims or long main sets.

So going into the race my expectations are low which I’m hoping is a good thing. For once I will be feeling I better start the bike conservatively, which is again a good thing. In my favour is a desire to qualify. In the past I’ve raced really well when I’ve genuinely wanted to qualify. I’m hoping that will be the case come Sunday.

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European Champs

Posted on September 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

The weekend I raced Roth my mum was worried because she’d looked up the tracker and couldn’t find me. She’d searched for European Championships and had found Ironman Germany whereas I was at the “official” European Championships – the ETU ones at Challenge Roth.

It made me smile during my stay in Roth to see all the publicity stating it was the “Official European Championships” and I would agree it was. Though there were some comments ahead of time about how it was going to work out I feel it worked well and certainly was far more competitive than the last time I raced the ETU Long Course.

What makes it official? I don’t know the real reason but in my book there a couple of key things.

Firstly it was sanctioned by the ETU our governing body and quite importantly a body running things in the interest of the athletes and not for the profits of shareholders.

Secondly, it’s official because each country can send it’s own athletes under whatever selection process they chose (I know that for Roth due to the lateness this wasn’t strictly true but I hope for next year this will be sorted). This is in stark contrast to the Ironman European Championship, which is a championship for those people that managed to enter within the tiny window of opportunity after entries opened. This means it’s unlikely to ever be a competition between the best in Europe.

It’s always slightly irked me when events are called “World Championships” when they really aren’t. It’s a very American trait that makes it no surprise when the Ironman Series final is called the World Championships. I can make myself smile by just imagining my local 10k being rebranded “The Taunton 10k World Championship”. In terms of competition it is clearly the most competitive long course event and is thus the de facto world championships. However, could this challenged? For instance, if a massive prize purse was put on an event that clashed with Kona would Kona really be viewed as a The World Championships if all the best athletes went elsewhere.

I love Kona. I want to return as it is an amazing race and whether it’s “The World Championship” or not I would still desperately try to qualify and go. By qualifying through races rather than by national selection it, in theory, can be more competitive since if the top 50 are from one country they could all be racing however the bias on entry slots certainly gives it a massive American slant.

I’ve regularly wondered about Roth becoming the Challenge Series final and whether it would challenge Kona. It’s an iconic race and now having done both it does just not quite match Kona. The crowds are better, the organisation is on a par but it’s not as international and there’s not that big build up you get at Kona with lots of athletes arriving two weeks ahead.

There’s also the unique timing of Kona being between the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere season. It doesn’t really clash with other Ironman races allowing for a natural qualifying cycle. Looking at the idea of Roth being similar you immediately see problems for someone wanting to race it seriously each year. Choosing a qualifying race that doesn’t clash with Roth would be a challenge. This was demonstrated when I won a slot for Roth at Wanaka in 2011 – I couldn’t take it and I knew several others that couldn’t either since it clashed with other races already entered.

Having a challenge event as the ETU champs seems like a great move by both Challenge and the ETU. It gives Challenge a way to have a genuine Championship race with the need to sort out the qualification process and helps the ETU finally have a properly competitive long course race.

So what next? I hope the next stage will be that the ITU World Long Course Championship moves to Iron distance and perhaps gets slotted in as a Challenge event. Even better would be if they just chose a different each year and then once in a while the ITU run their World Championships at Kona!

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Wimbleball

Posted on August 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

I’m looking forward to the day when I don’t think of my triathlon performances with reference to my foot surgery in 2009. Since then everything has been “best since foot surgery”, “fastest since” and the like. This years UK 70.3 race has certainly gone some way towards achieving that.

After my foot surgery I spent two UK winters in the southern hemisphere training and racing which meant through to Kona last year I’d done a continuous two year race season finishing eleven Ironman races. I was drained and looking forward to an off season long enough that all races were beyond the horizon.

This meant I was itching to go at Wimbleball and having had a consistent five months of training I felt I could race well. A restless nights sleep confirmed this as I only get that nervous when I know I should go well. Despite this I was determined to enjoy it. It’s a classic cliché I know, but last year I was so pleased to finally be running again that I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and raced with the biggest smile. I was aiming for the same again but faster.

Boy the water was cold but with the new wave start the wait in the water wasn’t as long. As last year it was an incredibly civilised swim start with loads of space and an IM Austria like start where it seemed no-one heard the gun but just generally started moving. I got on the feet of the lead guy in my wave but his sighting was pretty poor so left him to swim on my own. There were tonnes of people to pass and I only just avoided a couple of breaststroke kicks to the head. I exited the water 2nd about a minute down (should have stuck on his feet) but was announced as the first swimmer having kept my swim cap on in an attempt to warm up as I raced (barged) my way up to T1.

T1 was like a war scene. A new experience for me as I’m usually early through T1. Floor space only and then struggled to get out of my wetsuit with my numb hands. The crowding continued through the bike start. I had to canter up a ways to mount my bike and then worked far harder than I probably should to try and pass as many people as possible on the first hill.

In line with my enjoyment mode I decided to only look at the bike elapsed time. This is my local course so I have a good idea of how I’m going based on elapsed time. I didn’t care about watts or HR I just wanted to see how hard I could ride. As the crowds thinned I was helped by the constant stream of people ahead to chase down. On one of the descents before Upton I lost my gel bottle having only taken one sip. I didn’t worry as surely you don’t need that much for 3 hours. I took a piece of banana just in case on the second lap.

I knew my bike form was better than last year and it showed in the second lap where rather than fading I felt stronger and finished the bike in 2:48.

Dashed through T2 excited to see how my run went and keen to get my new off road FiveFinger shoes on. I’ll be honest I was thinking this is my first chance (yes, since my surgery) to show that running in these shoes is not slowing me down. It amazed me over the years how many people have suggested that if only I changed my shoes I would run like my old self. This not only indicated a lack of understanding of just how much my running had been set back but also an incredible belief in footwear technology and how much it contributes to your speed.

Unlike last year I hit the run hard, which makes for a quite different (i.e. more painful) experience. My smiles of last year were replaced with more grim determination. I knew I was leading my age group and felt I had the race to lose. Whenever I’m in this situation I just tell myself to work hard enough that anyone that does catch you deserves the win.

The course has a great mix of surface, terrain and slope. I felt great running on them all, strong and in control. I’d not felt that since … well for a while. I held my pace and did not fade. Though I couldn’t muster the external smile of last year internally I was beaming. As I came across the line some 17 minutes quicker than the year before I was absolutely chuffed to bits. I’d won my age group, at last, a goal I’d had the year I bust up my foot. I’d also stepped closer to my old running form and knew there was lots more improvement to come over the next year or so.

That much quicker than last year, after which I went pretty quick at Austria, certainly makes me excited for my next race at Ironman Roth. Perhaps after that I can finally stop prefacing all my performances with “since my foot surgery”.

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