Steven Lords Website

PB Survives Attack

Posted on July 13, 2012 by lord_lordy

Race Report here

The goal for Challenge Roth was to finally beat my PB set in 2006. Back then I thought it would be a given I’d go faster but six years on and it still stands. When I entered Roth I felt there was a good chance that Sub 9 hours would be on the cards. I’d twice come off the bike in 5:45 but without the running legs. My running has improved but I knew I’d still not been able to put in the run sessions that would give me any confidence I could run 3:15 or faster. My feeling going in to Roth was to have a chance of sub 9 would require a 50 min swim and a bike pretty close to 4:40 together with quick transitions. With the way my swimming and biking had improved neither of these times were unreasonable.

SWIM – 47:31

This really could not have gone better. I’d been loving my swim training and have improved throughout the winter to the point I could do 100s off 1:20. So wetsuit plus pack and I felt sub 50 minute was on the cards. I had a good start and kept my concentration so I didn’t lose the pack during any surges. It felt hard work to the first turn buoy but after that there was a great draft and it was a very comfortable swim. Pretty exciting as I see my swimming improving further. I know it’s not really necessary but I don’t see swim training as something thats done at the cost of the other disciplines.

BIKE – 5:00:16, 253 watts normalised power

This year my riding has been going very well. My CP had gone up so I wanted to test out aiming to ride at around 250 watts. I’ve had four solid camps – two in Lanza and two in the Pyrenees. On those I seemed pretty comfortable at 300 watts for periods and was able to recover well during the rides. This meant I was happy if my power set off high and came down towards the 250 mark. I also decided that since I’d done little flat riding I would happily get out of the saddle for hills.

At the time I felt that I was stronger in the second half of the ride but the graphs of my powers doesn’t completely back that up. Comparing the 5km average powers shows that I was a little stronger in the second half of the map. Probably reflects that at the time my perception was based on the end of lap 1 to the start of lap 2.

Ideally my powers would be more consistent but virtually the whole race I was in a pace line. In fact, the guys I hooked up with for the 2nd lap did a bike time 10 minutes quicker than me which suggests my relative strength in the second lap.

RUN – 3:49:45

This needs to be 30 minutes better. It’s always easy to blame some execution element – lack of fuel, bad pacing, dehydration. That may be the case but it also gives an excuse that leaves your training as being right and appropriate. My experience of Ironman is that you normally get the result you deserve and in this case I think it’s true. The question for me is which part of my prep was inappropriate. Two things came to mind

Overall level of run training
Final three weeks prep.

runmiles It was definitely a combination of both. My running had been going well in terms of the speed I was running but still overall volume was low. I decided to take a look at how my run volume correlated with my marathon pace. Looking at the previous 6 months and the 20 days prior to the race.

The table to the right shows those volumes. There’s a clear split of pre foot surgery and post foot surgery. No surprise to me. In general I was over 1,000 miles. The once below that produced a below par performance (Kona 07). The other slow marathons in that period were:

Germany 08 – I’d done Epic Italy a few weeks before

Kona 08 – I’d done IM Wisconsin a few weeks before.

Looking post surgery the times have generally been slower. My best runs Lanza 10 and Wanaka 11 (slower time but tough course) are off the back of the biggest mileage. Austria is the quickest time but there is a question mark over the accuracy of the course. Clear though is that I perform poorly if I race close together – look at Kona 11 just a few weeks after Wales 11.

So rule 1 for the future

-Don’t expect to run quick if you race soon after another A race or camp.

6monthcorrellation This graph plots 6 month run mileage verses marathon time. I’ve excluded three races: Kona 09 and WA 09 as they were post surgery and minimal volume together with Kona 11 which was only a matter of weeks after Ironman Wales.

Other than Austria I’ve never run sub 3:30 with less than 1200 miles in the previous 6 months. Thats substantially more than my current run volume.

The second graph shows marathon time against previous 20 days run volume using the same races as above. Remarkable it seems the more miles I manage the better I run though the correlation doesn’t look strong. My fastest marathon came off the back of nearly 140 miles in the previous 20 days !

Final graph shows number of runs of 15 miles or more in the previous 6 months. Not surprising is that the more I did the faster I went in general.

Other than Austria it seems that 20 such long runs is a target required for sub 3:30. For Roth I managed 11.

So it would seem that for future reference I have the following

Over 1,000 miles running in 6 months
More than 20 runs of 15 miles or more in previous 6 months
Don’t do anything stupid in those final three weeks ahead of a race.

My next race is Ironman Wales. Which post recovery will be about 2 months worth of work. That race is my most important race this year as I’d like to go to Kona next year. With that in mind I took a look at 2 month run volume verses marathon time.

Seems that if I’ve managed 400 miles or more then I’ve gone at least sub 3:30.

I already knew I wasn’t putting in enough work. Perhaps this is the kick up the arse I need. So 50 miles per week for 8 weeks with at least a 15 mile run each week all at a decent pace, of course.

Simples.

Posted in Race Review | Tagged Challenge, Ironman, Roth | Leave a comment

Challenge Roth 2012

Posted on July 8, 2012 by lord_lordy

Time: 9:41:11
Swim: 47:31
T1: 2:08
Bike: 5:00:16
T2: 1:33
Run: 3:49:45

Race Analysis here

There are not many races where you genuinely get to race the pros. Normally, though we’re in the same race they get enough of a head start that getting to swim with them takes a massive effort. Not here, being in the sub 9 wave meant starting in the same wave as the pros with equal rights. This meant I got in early and held firm to my spot on the front line. Turns out this is fair enough because the age group podium only excluded the top 10 pro finishers which meant that first and second in my age group were pro’s. Glad I didn’t give any undue respect to them before the start. Also glad I’d chatted to Matt (Malloy) before the race as he confirmed my belief I should place myself on the front line.

The gun going always comes as a bit of a surprise but I got some good early strokes and had my shoulders ahead of the swimmers around me. I held my ground and saw a small group (maybe three swimmers get away) but other than that I found myself sitting pretty in the middle of the front pro pack. Now to concentrate to not lose it. To the first buoy it was fairly hard work most of the time but there were periods of easier pacing. I could see Rachel to my side and then I was on her feet for a period (I tried not to tap too much ). There were surges that took a little effort to keep on but mostly it was pretty easy swimming and I got progressively more comfortable to the point that as we approached the second turn buoy I put a surge in to get a better position for the turn. I came out feeling relaxed and super chuffed in 47:31 and 11th overall.

The Tri London contingent had a little informal competition on transitions which kept me focussed. I’m usually quick as I have minimal stuff in my transition bags. Today it was my number and a mars bar. I ran out of the tent with Matt but knew I had the jump on him as he’d told me he had to stand still for 30s with his bike to let his power pedals boot up.

I felt pretty good as soon as I started the bike. With all the biking I’d been doing it was great to confirm what I thought should be the case. I was soon passing Rachel and we swapped positions for a while. We passed the first level crossing which had two german soldiers stationed either side who gave a very formal salute as we went by and into the aid station manned by the army. What a great touch. I loved it.

My power numbers were high. The thought “if I hold these numbers throughout it’ll be pretty unbelievable” passed across my mind. Good job I listened … if it would be unbelievable then it probably wasn’t going to happen. I eased back a bit and let my power average drop. Matt soon joined us commenting “nice helmet” as he went by. For a while we had a little three person pace line going of Matt, Rachel then me. I felt I was sitting pretty.

The first pack of pros soon came by which proved troublesome as they weren’t going that much quicker and they kept dropping in front of me. I felt it a little harsh that I got a word from the ref and then saw him go forward and have a word with Matt and it looked like possibly Rachel. At 30km Rachel just went – it was pretty impressive, it was visible to me she’d just changed pace and within minutes was out of sight. I stuck with Matt.

The wind was pretty darn strong. I could see I was riding well but also could see there was no way I was getting a low 2:40s bike split. A few KM out from the Solarer Berg the ref came alongside. I was no where near anyones draft zone. He started asking if I’d been up the Solarer Berg before and continued to tell me how great it was and I was only five minutes away.

It was utterly incredible. I was laughing and smiling all the way up. The crowds had to part to let us through and I had a pretty decent push from someone at the start !

I still felt pretty fresh as we started the second lap so I upped the effort a little and went by Matt commenting “nice helmet”. I had expected him to come with me but it didn’t take long for me to be out of sight. Soon another small group of Pros came through and I managed to latch on to two of them and pace with them all the way to the finish. I was pleased to see the soldiers were still saluting and the crowds were still on the Solarer Berg though slightly less enthusiastic. I was enjoying mixing it with the stars – I’d briefly been in a pace line just behind Lother Leder who had then gone up the road only for me to re pass him on the second lap. This was great !

Half way round the second lap the referee came alongside again. I sat up and had a chat. He was asking me whether the Solarer Berg was as good as I’d hoped. This time the bike driver was chatting and smiling as well. I told them I felt it was a little packed and would have been better if they’d kept it clear of pedestrians. Luckily they recognised I was joking and we had a bit of a laugh. They then left me to get back on the back of the paceline. I found it funny.

I finished the ride with an average power (excl zeros) which matched my normalised of 253 watts. Thats at least 10 above anything else I’ve managed. I was in a great place as I’ve felt so much worse than that finishing the bike in most other races. I knew I was high up my age group (with hindsight it looks like probably second) and I knew I’d put some time into Matt who was bound to be a contender for the podium. I was looking forward to the run but with a slight doubt about what the last three weeks had done to my running.

T2 was fast. Made me smile as I put my FiveFinger Bikilas on that people worry about the time lost putting them on. Well my T2 was 1:33 so how much time could I really have lost.

On to the run and I felt awful. Just like I do at the start of a brick run. It’ll pass. It did, I felt I was running nicely however looking at my garmin the speed wasn’t what it felt it should be. I was on the run in 5:50 so a 3:25 marathon would get me a PB. I knew it was not a sub 9 day for me.

I got in to my running and saw my average pace drop down to the low 4:50s which meant if I could hold it together a PB was on the cards. At km 6 Matt went by running really well. He told me he had his running legs. He did – a 3:08 ran him to third on the podium and AG ETU champ. I got through to 14km still holding pace. This is when things went wrong. I felt I should try and relax for the middle third and push the final third. Not sure this helped. My pace dropped and soon a PB was off the cards. My legs were aching so much. Got to 23 km then started walking aid stations. This was getting hard. I even walked between aid stations briefly but this kicked me a little and I managed to pick it up a tad to the finish. The cobbles round the beer mile were very hard work and it wasn’t till the finish shute I got that final wind.

I made sure to look around as I finished, to enjoy it. 9:41 is very disappointing as a time but as an overall experience it was awesome and I loved it. For nearly 7 hours of that race it was going well (often very well) but with Ironman if things start falling apart it can deteriorate pretty quickly.

Posted in Race Report | Tagged Challenge, Ironman, Roth | Leave a comment

Ready To Rumble

Posted on July 6, 2012 by lord_lordy

I’m sure I’ve used that title before. Anyway… I do feel ready to rumble. Germany is a good place to be pre race when you’re eating out at everywhere seems to serve up fantastic steaks. I managing to eat a very good diet this week and not feeling hungry but feeling relatively lean. Today I’ve added a small amount more carbs – couple of banana’s with breakfast and some dark chocolate snacking during the day. Other than that it’s been pretty low carb all week and I’m feeling good for it.

Been doing my stretching regularly and avoiding the bike. We will find out Sunday whether these mysterious cramps return for a third time at that point there is nothing I can do about it other than deal with it.

When I entered this race the real goal was to get sub 9 hours. As I enter it my main aim is for a PB with the thought at the back of my mind that if I get my dream race (like I did for my current PB) I could go under 9 hours. Being totally honest though I just don’t think my running is there yet. I am running faster and I’ve done more long runs and long runs at pace together with more bricks but I’ve still not built up to anywhere near what I was doing when I used to run pretty fast regularly. A sub 3:20 run would be a very good effort I reckon.

The dream is clearly dream land … perhaps. The swim would probably require getting in to a good pack, the bike is slightly faster than I went at Busselton in 2009, I am riding much better than that now but not sure how that translates to this course. For sub 9 I reckon I need to be in the bottom half of 4:40s to have a shot. Running a 3:15 would be super fantastic and I’d be absolutely over the moon. The mid prediction is more realistic allowing for a conservative bike and a steadier run. How hard I hit the bike will be a little decided on the day based on how I feel and what sort of pacelines there are. I think the recent cramping on the run is likely to make it easier to really go for it on the bike.

If I end up at the OK end of my scale that would be pretty disappointing but tricky to complain about just know that if thats the case don’t come and congratulate me on a good result as it won’t be.

Posted in Race Preview | Tagged Roth | Leave a comment

Unorthodox Roth Preparation

Posted on July 5, 2012 by lord_lordy

It’s been over 4 months since an entry on the blog. It has been intentional, the reasons for which I may go in to in a later blog post but for now I’d like to just write a little about my preparations for Roth which, to say the least, have not been typical.

This year is the first time in many where I’ve had a winter not racing. It has been an absolute pleasure to just train without anything applying pressure to do stuff. I’ve regained the joy of exercise. This has required doing what I enjoy which has meant that heading in to Roth I have already done 68% of my total 2011 swim volume, 94% of my total 2011 bike volume, 63% of my total 2011 run volume and already done nine more bricks than in all of 2011.

Looking at performance – in the pool last year I was able to hold 100s off 1:25 with the odd ones off 1:20 now it’s all 5s down being able to hold 100s off 1:20 more or less indefinitely with the odd ones off 1:15. I done my fastest 1500m TTs since my teenage years.

On the bike the CP measure per Golden Cheetah (consistent even if not accurate) has gone from about 300 watts at start of the year to 368 by the end of the last Pyrenees trip. This compares to 342 watts last year leading in to Ironman Wales. I can see and feel I’m riding stronger.

On the run I’m consistently running at higher speed. My average speed for the year is 10s per KM faster last year.

So I’m feeling very fit and having not raced for a long time super keen to race.

Lets back track a little to the lead up to Wimbleball this year. The previous year had been such an enjoyable race but I’d raced it with a specific aim which wasn’t the fastest I could go. This year I wanted to let rip but this was tempered with a desire to do the right thing for Roth.

My approach was – big weekend and monday before the race. Then three light days of squad swim and run followed by a long aerobic ride (135km) on the friday with a squad swim. The day before the race I did our club ride – 2hrs and about 40 miles with some spells of top end work. Following this the race went really well. On the previous year my swim was 2.5 minutes quicker, bike 9.5 minutes quicker and run 5.5 minutes quicker. Following last years Wimbleball I went 9:19 at Austria, my second fastest Ironman ever. So as you can imagine I am pretty excited about racing Roth.

At that point there was three weeks to go and I had Iron Camp with Pyrenees Multisport in between. I wanted to fully enjoy the camp and had every intention of riding hard. So the monday after the race I did squad swim and a long steady ride. Then had an easy couple of days before training in the Pyrenees. Here’s what I did on the camp through to last friday (a week out from Roth).

RothPrep12-1

It should be pretty obvious from that that I did virtually no swimming or running but the biking was massive with serious work every day – there was a KOM (King of The Mountains) competition with at least one climb everyday scoring. I’m not saying this is ideal prep and it’s not but it was all about maximising fun which I did. The idea after that was to just rest up but with a feeling some sort of decent ride would be needed in the week.

So … complete rest last sat and Sunday then Monday I did an easy ride to squad swim with Tri London and a 5 mile run home. The swim was pretty important to me as I wanted to assess if I’d lost any of the swim gains. It was pretty positive when at the end of the first set of progressive 100s I did a 70s 100m. Then right at the end of the session on the second set I did a 68s 100m. Very pleased.

Run home – running great, feeling so positive then I descended steps at Waterloo bridge I got this severe cramp like pain in each of three quad muscles. The muscles weren’t cramping but there was a golf ball size area of severe pain in each that brought me to a halt not long after. The only other time I’ve felt this was mile 3 of the London Marathon in 2004. I had a meeting to get to so I couldn’t just walk the rest of the way. I stretched (yes I do stretch when there’s something that clearly needs stretching) and managed to run (much slower) home.

Ever positive I felt thankful I’d had this now with 6 days to let it recover. I put it down to the amount of cycling without any running.

Tues we drove to Roth so no exercise then yesterday we did a easy ride round the course ( 85km) and I did a run off the bike. Not only to test out how I felt but also to check out the tow path. Glad I did as I know not to run in See-Ya but am considering either Spyridons or Bikila LS. Run went well, felt good. Then descending stairs just after I was hit by the cramp like pain. Now I can say I’m definitely worried about Sunday. Luckily for me Helen at 10-Point yet again has helped me out with excellent advice via e-mail. I have three days to sort this during which it seems I probably shouldn’t touch my bike ;o(

So … not an orthodox approach to an Ironman. At this point I would say that it’s convinced me that this approach is probably best avoided. Perhaps a better balance of biking and running last week would have been OK. My gut feeling is that for me it’s not the overall work done that was the problem but the fact I spent so much time in the saddle with virtually no running.

Time predictions tomorrow or Saturday.

By the way – the photo is taken during my wait at the top of The Tourmalet on the Thursday of camp when we did the monster Etape day. It’s indicative of how hard I rode during the camp.

Posted in Training, Training Review | Tagged France, Pyrenees, Roth | Leave a comment

Ride Support

Posted on July 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

This months column is almost polar opposite to last months where I went through thoughts on a solo ride, this month I’d like to run you through a day of ride support on a training camp.

Back in May Jo and I were lucky enough to be invited over to the Pyrenees by Ian from Pyrenees Multisport to help out on a long distance training camp organised by a Canadian Ironman coach.

The final day we were riding a stage of this years Tour De France though we’d had to modify it somewhat due to the first two passes not yet being open. As we climbed the first Col – Col De Spandelles – I was keeping an eye on the riders towards the back of the fastest group. I turned to ride back to the last rider and check he was OK and a heard that horrible “fizz” of someone having a blowout.

I stopped to help the rider who was pleased it had happened because he had never had to fix a puncture. I offered words of advice (wisdom?) as he changed the tube but when we inflated it the tube came bulging out the side. Something I’d never seen before (I wish I’d taken a photo). We were now well off the back so I took over and discovered that there was a substantial rip in the tire. He was pleased that I was able to show him a trick or two. The first taking the valve out of the old inner tube and putting that inside the tyre but that didn’t appear enough so I used a business card under the tear as well.

We got going only to find the wheel was rubbing. The brake was slightly skew so I fixed that before noticing the wheel was a little out of true requiring it to be placed in the dropouts marginally off line. He was certainly getting a crash course in emergency maintenance. Now a long way off the back we worked hard up the climb soon meeting the support vehicle and agreeing I’d try to help him bridge back up. A very sharp decent and then immediately onto the climb of the Col De Solour where we agreed to really push and try and get back on the group. Seeing just how hard this guy was working I decided to push on and get the group to wait but arrived at the top just after they’d left.

After discussion with Ian we agreed he would put him in the van and drive him back to the group. I would try and get back on.

The next hour felt like I was riding the tour and trying to bridge to a lead group. I hurtled down the mountain; collecting a very appreciative Brit as I pedalled in my top gear down the final 10km of gently descending road. Still no sign of them so off I went on the flat valley time-trialling for another 15 minutes before I could finally see them up ahead. Great fun.

It was a super hot day and the next 30km was a long drag up to the start of the Col de Aspin. Ed (another ride leader) and I sat on the front to try and moderate the pace to keep everyone together and to give everyone a little relief. Before the main climb we split into three with a couple of fast riders heading off with Ed. Several riders reckoning they’d not get round without some proper lunch stopped with the coach, I took everyone else who just wanted to keep moving.

The descent of this next col has got to be one of the best I’ve done and luckily my little group were all decent descenders so we soon found ourselves on the final climb – Col de Peyresourde. My original plan was to go for a “Strava” placing before heading back down to the final climbers but I was way too tired so I took it a little steadier. Then the support van came by to tell me Cadel Evans was coming up behind. I kept looking back trying to time my arrival for the perfect photo of me summiting with Cadel Evans in my wake. Unfortunately I was too quick and the honour of that photo went to one of the coaches. With Cadel over I went back down to the last person of the slow group. He said he was OK on his own at his own pace but I ignored this and just started chatting. Before we knew it he was thanking me for getting him up those final 4km to the top. Only 17km downhill and then the end of camp meal.

One of the most tiring rides I’d done and so satisfying to have had a good workout and helped others to achieve a great days riding. I certainly hope to go back.

Posted in Triathlete Europe | Tagged Bike, France, Pyrenees, Training Camp | Leave a comment

UK 70.3, Wimbleball 2012

Posted on June 17, 2012 by lord_lordy

Time: 4:52:09
Swim: 24:33
T1: 4:53
Bike: 2:48:12
T2: 1:58
Run: 1:32:31

I was looking forward to this race. For the first time in a while I’d had a proper break from racing. My last race was Kona last year. It meant that not only had I had a solid winter of training but I was also really keen to race. That said I was focussed on Roth so I didn’t ease off till the week before this race and even then I still wanted this week to be a good weeks training. With this in mind I did a big day on Monday, then had three easy days mainly swimming and one long run. Then Friday I did 6 hour swim bike day. Given the level of riding I’ve been doing I was uncomfortable not riding the day before the race so I went out on our club ride though I sat in more than normal.

I felt relaxed about the race until I went to bed at which point my mind was racing and I didn’t sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. As ever as soon as I got up my nerves disappeared. Having recently moved in to a new house we had plenty of space and had lots of friends staying over for the race. It was such fun to have race breakfast with so many.

I arrived early at the race and checked bike was OK and then left transition to relax. I was in the second wave which wasn’t in my favour giving no chance to latch on to a pro pack and almost certainly meaning a lot of traffic. I wandered down to the start early to make sure I was on the front line. I realised I’d not put any vaseline round my neck but wasn’t worried as I’d got used to the fact that since I started using the BlueSeventy Helix I’ve never had any rubbing issues on my neck.

The water was freezing. Like last year it was a civilised start with hardly anyone wanting to be on the front line. In fact, there were only a few swimmers in line with me at the start with a pretty substantial gap behind. Felt a little bizarre just like the start. We were told a minute to go and then the next thing I notice is all the swimmers I can see over my right shoulder have started swimming at which point I think I heard a hooter and just got going. For about 200m it felt like loads of people were close and then they all just dropped off leaving me on the toes of a guy. I stayed there until I got sick of his line and decided to swim on my own. Hindsight it a great thing, should have stuck with him as he swam a minute quicker than me. The water was cold and my breathing was overly rapid for the first 5 minutes. My hands were feeling numb reducing my feel for the water but I was pleased that the Helix has very thin forearms which helps you feel the water on your forearms.

I’d caught people before the first turn buoy and by the final 500m it was just non-stop breast strokers. I felt for them. I was a solo swimmer and could go round them but they would soon get mown down by a big back. Same thing running up to transition – I was racing whilst everyone around me was pootling. So apologies to any reader than I shouldered by ! To top it all T1 was like a war zone. A few friends were pleased I experienced it “welcome to my world” I heard more than once. I could only just find some clear ground to get myself sorted. Numb fingers didn’t help and it seemed to take an age to get my wetsuit off.

Could it get worse ? Yes ! The bike mount line. There was hardly space to get through and even when I got going there were people randomly weaving all over the place. All I could think of was to get past as many people as I could on the first hill. Looking at my power file I see I didn’t drop below 300 watts for the ascent and I must have passed 100s of people. My plan on the ride was to just see what I could and ride it completely on feel. I wasn’t monitoring power or HR just looking at time to motivate me.

Out on the course once the previous wave had thinned out it became a real advantage being in the second wave as I had a constant stream of people up the road to chase down. Also mentally it was so much easier than last year. When it was one wave I passed virtually no one after the swim but had loads passing me. This year I had two people pass me on the bike and no one pass me on the run but must have passed the best part of a 1,000 people ! That is very motivational.

I decided to ride with minimal liquid given the number of aid stations and how little I tend to drink riding so I started with about 200ml of water and at aid stations took a little water but never really rode with any just dumping the surplus. I had my gel mix as usual but dropped it on one of the descents on the first lap having only had a single sip (at most one gels worth). End of first lap in 1:25. Last year I faded I was hoping not this year. I was riding so much better feeling stronger on the second lap. Thought it best to have something to eat so grabbed a bit of banana. I ended up finishing the bike in 2:48 having maybe drunk 500ml and had one gel and a third of a banana.

Now was, for me, the key part of the race – how would I run. I’ve been running so much better, finally feeling I’m near full recovery from my foot surgery after 3 years, but the real test is can I run well in a race. It was also a test of my new FiveFinger Spyridons – an off road shoe that I’ve been impressed with in training – possibly the most comfortable I’ve tried. Sub 2 minute transition shows that putting them on can’t be that costly. On this course they proved perfect – the sole provides good grip both going up and going down, they’re light and keep your foot very close to the ground making it virtually impossible to turn an ankle. They’re also not quite so in your face so for the first time I didn’t hear a single comment about my footwear.

I started out solid on the run and grabbed a gel at the first aid station knowing I better get some gels down me given how little I’d had on the bike. I think I perhaps went off a little too fast and it felt so hard but by the second lap I relaxed, heart came down, perceived effort down and pace up. I felt good. I could see I was leading my AG and it seemed my competition was a ways back. I continued having a gel every other aid station stopping after the dam on my final lap. It was great to feel so strong running.

I crossed the line pretty sure I’d won my age group and absolutely chuffed to bits. Back in 2009 when I aged up Jo and I had left work to train full time with the aim for me being to storm my new age group and get some age group wins. I never got to test it when I bust my foot. It was very satisfying indeed to just over three years later finally get that age group win. I knew it would take patience to get back from that injury and after three years the patience is paying off. What is most exciting though is that it feels like I’m just starting to run well and that there is massive room for further improvement.

Posted in Race Report | Tagged 70.3, Wimbleball | Leave a comment

Thoughts On Long Bike Rides

Posted on June 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

What occupies your mind on long solo rides? I know I regularly get a feeling of flow, the time and miles just fly by and I find myself stunned when I look at my watch and realise I better head home.

This year I’d decided my main goal wasn’t a nice “SMART” goal but a rather vague one of just enjoy the training. This means I’m back to chasing my “Eddington Numbers” and riding long just for the sake of it. So what does occupy my mind?

First and foremost, of course, I ponder what to write in this column. In fact, only yesterday during a 236km ride it amused me for an unknown passage of the time the circular-ness of writing a column on my thoughts during a long ride and the thoughts being what to write a column about.

The next thing that occupies my mind is data. I have my computer showing various numbers. If I’m going well I find myself chasing averages – power or speed. I’ll start slow and then try and see it increase throughout the ride. This soon leads to mental arithmetic to determine just how fast or how high an average power I can get.

I also love to see “special numbers”. So for instance 12.34 km or 111.1 km. Setting your computer to metric helps these numbers tick over quicker giving far more options. Of course seeing these numbers with few decimal places is far more satisfying so 246.8km is rather rare and nice to see. I get a ridiculous pleasure out of seeing times of 1:11, 2:22, 3:33, 4:44 and 5:55 which always leads me to what is next in the sequence but by this time I’m too tired to work it out. Palindromes fit in to this category and I can get quite frustrated if I get distracted and miss a hard to get one. For instance yesterday I missed 233.2km.

When it comes to special numbers ascent is a great one to watch as it ticks up quickly. I like to see those mentioned already but with ascent there’s the added bonus of a range that looks like dates. There’s a certain point in a ride where I start to see ascent and it looks like a date. Sometimes when 1066 comes up but normally it’s not till I get to the 1900s. Depending on the ride this period can pass quickly or slowly but I always like to pass through the war years quickly before I get to spotting various friends and families years of birth. Then I hit my birthdate and I have a short period remembering periods in my life. It’s great if the ride hits a less hilly section here so it takes time to pass through recent years. Next its the future and imagining what the world will be like before the moment seems to pass around 2,100m.

If I get bored of numbers I put the world to rights. Since taking up triathlon my views on an awful lot of subjects have changed dramatically as has my way of life. I truly believe this is down to having time to think. Most people’s lifes are so full there is no time to just think things through. As triathletes we have the luxury of long bike rides so sometimes ride solo and let your mind wander. I think our various leaders would gain a lot if they could solo ride with their own thoughts rather than forever having ‘advisors’ and ‘lobbyists’ around constantly at their ear.

During yesterdays ride what occupied my mind was the announcement that Ironman St George is to become a half ironman. It’s a race I had in mind for future years not only because it was hard but also because it didn’t sell out immediately so you could decide quite late to enter. I’m sure these two facts are not unrelated and I’m pretty sure it’s almost certainly the real reason for changing it to a half. The official reason really amused me “… St George doesn’t work as an full-distance Ironman” referring to feedback from athletes. Was this feedback from athletes actually taking part? Would seem odd. It amused me because I started to think of what would happen if we always decided based on what the majority want. For starters would we have Ironman at all or even triathlon since I’m sure the majority of the population don’t want to race triathlon and the majority of triathletes don’t want to race Ironman. What next, Ironman UK becomes Olympic distance because it doesn’t work for most as an Ironman? Perhaps we’ll get shorter swims on some races. Luckily us Brits like tough courses so with luck Wales and UK will continue to be challenging courses.

I am being a little daft just because it amuses me as I ride but I really feel there’s a place in the Ironman schedule for some races that don’t sell out a year in advance, clearly this doesn’t work for a ‘for profit’ organisation but if only for once they’d put us consumers first, it’s certainly in our interests to have the odd race we don’t have to commit to a year in advance.

Posted in Big Rides, Triathlete Europe | Tagged Bike | Leave a comment

Sayings That Don’t Make Sense

Posted on May 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

Being a pretty literal thinker and rather logical there are some sayings I often hear that make me cringe. I’m hoping this months column will go some way to my hearing them less.

Quality Not Quantity

This is regularly said without thought but with many knowing nods. I’ve had it said or implied to me on numerous occasions I presume because of my high volume reputation. I hate the phrase as it’s classic “unspeak” in that it “sounds” profound but is actually nonsense since something isn’t quality OR quantity.

In the triathlon world it is generally used to describe training sessions. Clearly every training session has a quantity and a quality (I assume by this we mean how appropriate the session is to what you are trying to achieve). My experience of it’s use is that what is really meant is intensity not volume. Said like that it seems less globally applicable since clearly someone training for a ultra triathlon will need volume and as such a high volume training session would be a “quality” session.

Lets try and stamp this phrase out by all challenging anyone that uses it.

Repeat The Same Training Get Same Results

This is probably derived from a quote, often mistakenly attributed to Einstein, of the sign of insanity being repeating the same thing and expecting different results. Who-ever said it was referring to a well executed and repeated experiment not a triathlon training plan. The use of the phrase in reference to training plans is actually totally inaccurate since the benefits from training come from consistency, which means on some level repeating the same thing. I think the problem for many people is they don’t stick at it long enough, if there are no quick results they change to something new where just sticking with the same thing for longer (possibly many years) is how the benefits will come.

No Pain No Gain

Jane Fonda probably doesn’t realise what she set loose when she uttered this phrase in the 80s aerobic videos. There is no need for pain to get fitness benefits. In fact I would argue that pain should be avoided, as there is a distinction between “pain” and the appropriate feeling you get in your muscles when doing a workout. That feeling is what you want whereas pain can be a sign you’re doing something wrong or causing an injury and should be avoided.

Calories in vs Calories out

A self-evident truth due to the laws of thermodynamics but adds nothing to the obesity / weight loss debate as it offers no explanation for why the bodies natural mechanisms to keep calories in and out in balance are not working. It implies all foods are the same in terms of helping you keep this balance, which is just not true. Some foods promote fat burning which means you can be in balance without eating what you’re using (hence you lose weight) and some foods promote fat storage which means your body can be out of balance despite eating more calories than your body needs (hence you put on weight).

This continued belief that calories in verses calories out is some sort of explanation for weight gain diverts attention from exploring the real reasons. If a sink is overflowing and you ask me why: “Because more water is being put in than being taken out” you’d think I was being a smart ass. The explanation is something else eg – the tap was left on, the drain is blocked. It’s precisely the same with weight gain / loss – calories in vs calories out offers no useful explanation.

Giving 110%

Is that really possible? Perhaps if it’s 110% of sleeping effort level or perhaps 100% of aerobic threshold. But that is not what’s meant, the way it is said is that 100% is absolute max and somehow more was achieved.

It would make me smile if some sportsman in an interview said they gave 99.9% and felt that was as much as anyone could expect to give. I’d love the ring of truth since giving 100% would imply more or less dropping dead. It does happen, if Julie Moss said that after her crawl or Paul Newby-Fraser after her “I think I’m going to die” moment on Ali’I drive then I’d give them it, they probably did.

A little tongue in cheek so here’s another

Once in a lifetime or best ever

In interviews or acceptance speeches there’s often this sort of phrase. Now, if it’s your first Championship then perhaps at that point the phrase is ok but when someone is a multiple champion and used it previously it never feels quite right. It would make me a very happy man if an athlete on winning their 5th world title said “This is a five times in a lifetime experience” or on some amazing victory declared it “my fourth best experience in my life”. If only I was better at this sport of ours I could but this one right myself.

I’ll finish with a phrase I have used a lot in my working life and is kind of like the first phrase above: Work Smart Not Hard. I used it a fair bit and for years it was never questioned until one boss replied “Work Smart AND Hard” – now that’s a phrase to apply to your triathlon training.

Posted in Critical Thinking, Triathlete Europe | Leave a comment

Triathlon Celebrity

Posted on April 1, 2012 by lord_lordy

Getting ready for a swim in Lanzarote back in January I spotted a young lad getting ready to swim in the lane next two me and I recognised him. I spent a moment or two trying to figure out how come I knew him. I couldn’t say hi without at least remembering his name. Then the penny dropped. It was Jonny Brownlee and no, I didn’t know him at all.

I felt I was getting an inkling of the problems celebrities (of whatever nature) face. Most people they meet will feel like they know them and, in fact, will know a fair bit about them whilst they know nothing of them. Of course most Triathlon celebrities will not be recognised beyond the Triathlon community. Lots of people are celebrities in their own little circle but very few are within the wider public.

So each year we have a “Sports Personality of The Year Award”. Certainly an unfortunate title as it’s not really about personality. In fact, if a sportsman with heaps of “personality” (whatever that means) won it but was a complete also ran at his chosen sport everyone would be up in arms. Most would probably consider the award to be recognition across all sports of the greatest achievement that year. A difficult decision even if you had full and equal knowledge across all sports and were not receiving outside influence. Lets face it, that is not the case and this is in fact a popularity competition between the few that are chosen to be on the short list. A little like a US Presidential election. I can remember two occasions where the fact it’s a ‘popularity’ contest has been highlighted. I used to be in to fishing and I remember there being stirrings of getting all the fishermen (then the biggest participation sport in the country) to vote for their celebrity. I also recall that following Beckhams World Cup red card there was an internet campaign to vote for him which, if memory serves me right, resulted in Gary Lineker announcing on the night that no electronic votes would count.

Efforts are made to get round this by letting “experts” create the shortlist but that just results in mainstream sports as even writers for major newspapers don’t seem to know much about sport beyond that with major television coverage. Even the Suns expert didn’t put forward Chrissie despite months before them running an article about her and how she should be on the list. She fit the title of the award big time. A definite personality. She fit the bill big time on achievements. The same could be said for the Brownlees, in fact as a double act they’d be right up there on the personality front in my book.

However, Triathlon isn’t mainstream and they didn’t even get a look in. It seemed the Triathlon community was up in arms about Chrissie not being on the list, it was put in sharper focus when the list excluded any women.

I agree it seemed rather lacking but before we all complain about it we should look at ourselves. There is another Triathlon World Champion who is ignored even by the Triathlon press. I’ll come clean, this guy is a friend and someone I coach. With my supporting of two Ultra events this year (Double Enduroman Lanzarote and Thames Path 100) I have a new found respect for these amazing athletes. It may be a niche but what these people achieve is truly stunning. Within this arena Paul Thompson, IUTA (International Ultra Triathlon Association) World Champion 2011, is a celebrity.

To win this title he won Double Enduroman Lanzarote, Double Ironman Switzerland, Triple Ironman Lesahn and Double Ironman Virginia. On top of that he qualified for the 70.3 World Championships and came close to a Kona slot. A week after his final Double he joined a friend for the 50 mile Round Rotheram race to help pace him to a Western States qualifying time.

In my book Paul fits the bill for personality and achievement. So come on, lets get our house in order first and recognise all our World Champions. Once we do we can truly complain about the lack of recognition of our Triathletes in the mainstream press and at the Sports Personality of The Year.

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Lanza Camp 2012 – Wrap Up

Posted on March 31, 2012 by lord_lordy

LanzaCamp12-7

Our second camp is complete and it was at least as much fun as last time which is really more than I could have hoped for since last year had been so great. A good camp is all down to the people and their attitude and again we had a great bunch. Having managed two successful and enjoyable camps gives us further assurance that we have a pretty solid formula for creating a fun and motivational environment for people to really push themselves and reset their perceived limits.

It’s a high volume week, and so not suited to everybody, but we’d always aimed to have a camp that could mix the very best age group athletes with those who are a bit more steady paced, in a way that benefited both from the experience. Watching the support at the end of our 10k handicap race on Thursday made me content that that’s what we’d done; as people finished they cheered and supported everyone else clearly understanding what each and everyone had achieved by running so hard that far in to the camp.

We shifted a few things around this time from last and introduced some new rides. In general I was happy with the changes and many will certainly stay for next year. Splitting out the aquathon from the Tabeyesco TT was definitely better and it was great that Jo was able to race the Aquathon. It means that this year we both took part in as much of the racing as we could and ensured that at least one of us stepped up to the start-line. I would like us both to race everything next year if at all possible so participants get to pit themselves against the coaches.

The wildcard system continued to provide amusement and a little incentive to everyone, together with providing a method for adjusting the relative length of the days if required which for some was a very useful feature. I don’t see this being removed- although perhaps we’ll continue to refine it!

Once again the the hotel really looked after our group, ensuring that rooms were located close to one another, late check-outs and ensuring adequate quantities of eggs! The restaurant laid a reserved table for dinner each evening, so that we all sat as one big group to eat which was fantastic.

The group trained a total of 594 hours and 26 minutes covering a total of 12,780 KM with 172,240m of bike ascent. This gave an average per person of 33:01 training, 8.9km swimming, 668km cycling and 33km running in the 6 days. This was 11 minutes more per person than last year but the split was quite a bit different. The swimming was almost identical but we covered over 1,800km more on the bike but 150km less running. This year not only were the standard rides a little longer overall but most people elected to ride long most days which meant less time for long brick runs.

The camp total hours record was broken by Marc Atkinson and it was really fun to watch the contest for this accolade between him and Simon throughout the week. Good to see a little competition for nothing more than seeing your name at the top of the list. It makes me wonder about some sort of jersey for the person with the most hours though I’m not sure promoting a pursuit of hours for the sake of them is correct.

Yet again the points competition was not only close (not as close as last year) but also a battle between one of the fastest athletes on the camp and one of the slowest. Being able to get these two competing is a success of the handicapping. In fact, Roger only passed Sarah in the last 500m of the 10k handicap.

I’m still a little perplexed by the Aquathon swim as it appeared to be 3-4 minutes slow resulting in no-one coming close to the top three of last year. Initially we put this down tide being in but the times for the handicap swim race the next day were very similar to the previous year – for instance Mel and Marc swim within 10s of last years time. I was a minute quicker which is in line with my improved swimming.

I’ll end with the 10k no watch guess your time. This year we had some excellent guesses with 3 within 30s and 5 within a minute. This means next year to get in to the time guess hall of fame will require you to guess your time to within 1:12 or less ! I like Jo’s idea of getting everyone to predict their time at the start of camp, then again immediately before the race and see which is closer.

steven

Steven has summed up pretty well already -It was another cracking week with some great company. It’s the most satisfying feeling to be driving the guys to the airport at the end of a hard week and months of planning, and hearing how much they have enjoyed it, and are sad to be leaving.. I’ll quote Ted: “you spend all week wishing it [the pain] was over…..and then feel very sad that it is!” not exactly the choicest testimonial but it made me chuckle. We’re sad to see them go – for us it feels like we’re on camp too…and have already started discussing ideas for next time!

We owe a massive thanks once again to Emma who lead one of our ride groups each day, helped with the organisation of the races and has been taking some great photographs. I’m really looking forward to seeing her film montage shortly! Also to Helen from Tri Touch massage who, as well as joining us for most of the riding and some of the races, kept our weary athletes going with two massages each through the camp, and Ali of Mills Physio for being on hand with physiotherapy support for a few of the guys who would not have made it through the week without her treatment, and leading our daily post-training poolside stretch session. It was great to see her riding strong each day and we’re very confident that she will storm the Fred Whitton Challenge in May.

Here are the final standings at the end of the camp – the “time” column shows combined handicapped time for the swim, bike, run races and the adjacent column ( blue text) is the actual time.

Posted in Everyday Training, Lanza Camp 2012, Review | Tagged EDT, Lanzarote, Training Camp | Leave a comment