Steven Lords Website

Ball Of Fish

Posted on October 1, 2011 by lord_lordy

This mornings swim was interrupted early on when we saw this massive ball of fish about 500m out from the beach. Never seen anything like it – kind of like the picture above. I dived down in amongst it which was spectacular. Wow !

Then swam the full course with Matt and Mel. Mel did a fantastic job of staying on my feet the whole way without tapping them once. I tried to drop her once or twice briefly (it’s only fair ;O)) but I was pleased to see she was very tenacious and didn’t get dropped. I’m now encouraging her to start with me you never know she might manage to pick out my feet in the melee.

There were extra marker buoys out which made it feel a little less committing and at the far end the permanent buoy was no where to be seen. The swim back always seems incredibly daunting from that point and it was made tougher by lots of stingers on the way back.

We all went for a very long leisurely breakfast in Tantes. That was me done for the day so I chilled out. I spent some time in the sun continuing my plan to try and get a proper tan in the hope of avoiding the sun burn I’ve had every time I’ve race here. Had coffee at Lava Java with Roger before more time relaxing ahead of dinner at the Canoe Club accompanied by a fantastic sunset. I got piccies but I’m keeping them up my sleeve for future blogs in case I’m missing a photo.

Brett, Mel and I finished off in Kope Lani for coffee. I got chatting to a couple who told me that they were down to one cruise ship a week now. This must be devastating for the local economy. I remember my first trip here in 2005 when there seemed to be at least one cruise ship a day and sometimes two. The recession is hitting … I guess the price of oil has a massive impact on the price of cruises.

Excited about tomorrow – riding the full course. Looking forward to seeing Hawi again. After that it’s full bore on recovery and rest.

Posted in 2011, Kona, Uncategorized | Tagged Hawaii, Kona, Swim | Leave a comment

Queen K Burn

Posted on September 30, 2011 by lord_lordy

It wouldn’t be a Kona trip if I didn’t get sunburnt due to my own slap dash approach. I’ve stated my approach to use of sun cream on this blog before and today was one of those days where there was a definite risk of sunburn on certain areas of skin – namely back tops of my arms and shoulders. Realising this I applied sun cream to those areas BUT yet again I wasn’t rigourous enough. So I’ve got some pretty sore sunburn on my right shoulder after todays ride. No sun burn anywhere else. Makes my plan to get a decent tan ready for race day a little tricky as I need to somehow cover the burnt areas up whilst sunning the rest of me. This Ironman lark is complicated ;o)

Today started at 7am again for a swim. Well I woke a fair bit before that so had time to brew some coffee before meeting Roger, Rachel, Mel, Brett, Matt and Gary for a swim. Nice little group though we did get rather dispersed almost immediately. I’m really enjoying the swimming this year and had a solid swim out to halfway with Rachel where most of us regrouped. Back via the dolphin meet point but no sign of any dolphins (perhaps they didn’t get the memo). We went to the old favourite Splashers for breakfast. It’s such ashame their location isn’t as good as their food is fantastic. A far better breakfast than at Lava Java.

I had an hour to chill before we all headed out along the Queen K. Feeling perky again I went at a decent effort for most of the way out. Most had turned round by an hour but I wanted a longer ride and continued with Rachel almost to the end of the Queen K before turning round, in to the wind and in search of drink. We stopped at the Food Court in one of the resorts and downed a massive soda plus the 50c refill. Rachel then put me to the sword on the way back in to the wind. She’d paced far better than me and I started to suffer a bit. Still got back with 104km on the clock in just over 3 hours. I was pretty tired and had the, already mentioned, burnt shoulder. Tomorrow I’m planning a very relaxed day as this was a little more tiring than I’d planned.

Sticking to my sunning myself plan I headed out for 10 minutes each side. It was a lot hotter today so I planned to be careful. 10 minutes will allow me to assess whether I can handle more sun tomorrow.

We all headed to Bongo Bens for dinner. Great spot to see the sunset, which was a goodie tonight, and they do fantastic salads. I continued my relaxed approach by having a beer with my meal again.

Posted in 2011, Kona | Tagged Hawaii, Kona | Leave a comment

Kona Day 1 – Dolphins

Posted on September 29, 2011 by lord_lordy

Last night I stayed up quite late so I almost slept through to my alarm. Hoping that will speed my move to normal sleeping patterns here. What a great first day.

Each year things seem to be getting ready earlier. Already there were a fair few Ironmen here for the swim – only just room for Roger and my bags on the little rack. The info tent was already up with water and energy drink and then out on the swim there were safety kayakers and loads of orange buoys including an extra one between halfway and the turn – looks like it may remove the feeling of adventure there always was swimming the full course.

Even though I kept telling myself the water is always colder than you expect it was still colder than I was expecting. Half course we were planning so I swam following the orange buoys to halfway, swimming well and looking at the fish. I stopped and looked for Roger. I saw some dolphins so swam towards them. Then noticed Roger by the permanent halfway marker buoy which is always a little ways off from the marked course so most don’t go to it. It’s always proved a good spot for spotting dolphins, it’s like they avoid the crowds.

I chat with Roger there and say I’d seen dolphins but there was no sign then. Minutes later we’re in amongst a pod of about 40 including young. It was amazing, just Roger and I as all the other swimmers were sticking to the orange buoys about 30m away and just not noticing. We were diving down with them, swimming in amongst them and seeing them break the surface and spin. Gobsmacking !

We made the most of being here early and went to Lava Java for breakfast and got a table straight away. Next week we’ll be giving it a wide berth. Kailua Pork omelette … boy it was good.

Next we went for a short ride. Roger had some bike stuff he wanted to check prices on. Interesting to find none of it was cheaper than in the UK. When asked the guy in the shop said it was the shipping costs. Interesting that the price of oil is having an evening effect on the prices perhaps indicating how much the USA has been benefiting from how cheap they’ve been getting oil compared to us in the UK. Those days are probably nearing a permanent end (is there another type of end ?)

I was feeling pretty perky and hammered along till I got to the Four Seasons turn. We then road back friendly, chatting and stopping at Kona Mountain Coffee – seen it loads of times but not stopped there – the coffee was very nice. I followed my ride with running the Ali’i Drive section of the run. From my hotel it’s just under 10 miles. I managed to negative split the run finishing in 72 minutes. Really enjoyed it and was running well. Cooled off in the Pacific.

Then I started my plan to try and avoid sunburn in the race for once. Decided I need to make an effort to get a good tan ahead of the race. So despite the overcast skies I headed to the pool to give myself about 30 minutes each side ;o) … not sure how much effect it had. Certainly no one else in the hotel felt it was the weather for sunbathing !

Day finished off with a meal at Huggos On The Rocks accompanied by a Ukelele player and Hulu dancer … you’d never guess we’re in Hawaii !

Star spotting as started. Coming in from my ride I gave a cheery hello to a triathlete like guy in the hotel lobby who gave me an equally cheery hello back at which point I realised it was Rasmus Henning. On my run I saw Caroline Steffen coming back the other way just before the turn. She was looking very lean. I was planning to negative so decided to see if I could reel her in. You probably know the outcome … at best I kept her in sight but that did mean she was pulling away. For reference I was running 4:30 Ks. The day finished by bumping in to Rachel Joyce and wandering to the supermarket with her. Even though I know her I still think she ranks as one of the stars at Kona ;o)

Posted in 2011, Kona | Tagged Hawaii, Kona | Leave a comment

Kona Arrival

Posted on September 28, 2011 by lord_lordy

I still feel a thrill when I walk down the steps from the plane and on to the tarmac at Kona airport. With globalisation it’s a place that feels properly different because it’s such a small open airport. All my luggage has arrived, the bike is put together and is AOK and yet again the Kona Seaside has done me proud putting me in the tower (the better rooms) despite me booking a cheaper room. The view not quite like last years but still OK. Looking forward to swimming from Dig Me Beach with Roger tomorrow followed by breakie in Lava Java – have to do this this week since next week it will be rammed.

The journey over whizzed by. 3 decent films, a good book, a couple of beers got the first leg done. Then met Roger at LAX and slept for the second leg.

The beers on the flight is a reflection of a more relaxed attitude this time round. I think a change in world view has put this game in perspective a little better but also my relaxed attitude at Wales seemed to work and there’s a definite feeling that this could be my last time here as I can foresee the cost of flying over here escalating quite a lot.

Having said all that the experience at Wales has made me reconsider whether I want to qualify next year and I’m pretty sure being out here is going to sway me.

Posted in 2011, Kona, Uncategorized | Tagged Hawaii, Kona | Leave a comment

Killing Time In Recovery

Posted on September 18, 2011 by lord_lordy

KillingTime11-1 A week since Ironman Wales and I’m still making sure I’m recovered before doing any training for Kona. It’s been peeing down so the idea of a test run is out the window. What to do all day? I start by having a fry up and coffee whilst watching two rugby matches live. Then I put Heroes on in the background and start pottering with some race results and decide I need to get overall rankings and age group rankings for all my Ironman races for each discipline and both transitions. Not as simple as you may think but finally, bar some rankings for transitions, I got them all together.

Why did I do it. Initially for the sheer hell of it and I find it fun. Also, I thought it may give me some fun goals for Kona. So here goes… (all rankings are in my age group)

SWIM (Kona circled)

KillingTime11-2

This highlights how hard the Kona swim can be first time. It took me a few efforts to get used to it. Think this is probably more of an issue for good swimmers who in other races get nice clear water but in Kona have to deal with swimmers around the whole time. Also, to get a good start spot requires getting in the water early, potentially shivering on the start line for 15 minutes whilst being very agressive to hold your position. It’s interesting that my time in 2010 was 2 minutes slower than 2008 which is almost certainly due to no speedskins. So for Kona if I manage top 6 again I’ll be over the moon.

KillingTime11-3

The zeros are where I don’t have the data. Kona last year was fast because I biked in what I swam so I didn’t even go in to the change tent.

This year – top 10 again

BIKE

KillingTime11-4

Initially looking at the rankings other than Kona the worst ranks had specific reasons – Germany my tri bars snapped, New Zealand this year I got cold in first lap and Austria was perplexing but appears to be due to me not playing the game.

Looking at Kona I’ve rarely ridden well. In 2008 I felt sick after the swim, last year I just didn’t have it but with hindsight I felt lack of sleep was key. The 2009 split is what I want to aim at. Given my wattage at Wales and recognising that last year I was tired I’m hoping I can replicate 2009. I’m focussing on recovery from Wales and making sure I get enough sleep.

So… 250 watts and hopefully top 20, Simples….

KillingTime11-5

Austria stands out but I had a long pee in T2. A minute or so can make a big difference. Generally I’m pretty good at T2 … in T1 my biggest issue is I can never get my wetsuit over my heels easily.

Anyway, for those FiveFinger wearers who are worried about time in T2 note that I’ve worn vibrams ever since Kona last year. Kona last year was slow because I changed from a one piece tri suit into run shorts and a long sleeve top. It was fairly slow. This year I may just run in the one piece. So target is to try and break in to the top 50 at Kona for this.

Run

KillingTime11-6

My run splits were taking a turn for the worse prior to the snap. I knew this and I was throwing more volume at it but never managed to test it because I snapped my FHL tendon just before New Zealand 2009. No coincidence I’m sure.

Anyway, since then it’s been a long journey to get any semblance of run form back. Since Helen help sort out my running I’ve felt I’ve been on the road back to run form but I’ve been patient. All my running this year has been forefoot running. Wanaka looks better than it really is as I’d be surprised if there were many more than 50 people in my age group. My running has been improving and I feel a winter of focus will make a big difference. Clearly that won’t happen before Kona but I do feel I’m running reasonably well.

So, probably the key goal out of all this, break in to the top 100 (in my AG) for my run split.

Posted in 2011, Kona, Race Preview | Tagged Ironman, Kona | Leave a comment

Ironman Wales Analysis

Posted on September 12, 2011 by lord_lordy

Wales11-1 Race report here.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole race. Never smiled so much in a race or thanked so many supporters. It was an awesome day which would have done a long standing race proud but to pull this off (in such adverse conditions) on a first attempt is an excellent job. Fingers crossed they don’t tame it – from start to finish this is the hardest race I’ve done – hardest swim, hardest bike and hardest run. It even came close to toughest conditions but both Wanaka and New Zealand were tougher conditions !

Having said all that I was gutted when I looked at the results last night. I was 16th in my age group but so many people were within five or so minutes and probably caught me towards the end of the run. I’ll admit I went in to this race believing I wouldn’t qualify and I think that almost certainly helped me relaxed and enjoy it. Unfortunately the organisers provided no way of knowing another athletes age so I was absolutely unaware that I was 3rd in my age group. In fact, so many guys had passed me on the bike that I truly believed I was well out of a slot. To the point when seeing Tim and Nick chasing me down I felt for them as I thought even if they caught me they’d be out of a slot. As it was up till the point they caught me – with a lap to go I would have most definitely been in a spot. Would it have made a difference ? It certainly would have changed my motivation, if I’d known my position in my age group I would have pushed harder from halfway which is when I eased up and enjoyed it. Would it have changed the outcome ? No idea, I may have blown up completely. All credit to Nick and Tim though as they believed and just kept at it. I felt ahead of the race it was bad they didn’t do anything to allow you to establish someones age even to the point that numbers were random. At a minimum they should do numbers in age groups. Even better would be to start numbers for each age group at a certain round number (eg M40-44 are numbers 800 – 1,123, M45-49 1,200 to 1434) since the numbers don’t need to be consecutive. Our names were printed on the numbers so why not just include age group. Together with this they should penalise athletes that hide their number – so many guys on the bike went by me with numbers tucked in (presumably out of the wind) but once age is on then it shouldn’t be allowed.

Just been to the roll down. Tim was so unlucky – he was chasing a guy down at the end but didn’t quite make it. That guy was 2 seconds ahead of him and took the only roll down. Shortening the run by 1km probably had a significant impact there.

OK… enough pre-amble. My race

SWIM

Quick eh ! Combination of the bizarre running down the beach at the start together with a strong current. First lap was 22 minutes and second 25 each with some seconds. So looks like 3 minutes saved by running. I was tenth out of the water. I felt strong and that showed it was a good swim. I am chuffed to bits with how well my swim fitness has stayed with me.

The swim was super rough and as yet I’ve not spoken to a single person that didn’t think it was superb fun. The bay they moved to was great for spectators and it’s much more iconic. I hope they keep the swim there.

Was passed by several people on the long run to T1 but happy that I controlled the pace I ran at. I think it worked really well having racking for shoes and then running through town. The support was great. I think they should keep this long transition run.

BIKE

Given my recent bike form I was keen to check out working at high power. On my computer I just looked at 3s average power, average power for each 5km section and overall average. I did this because I know I can get very motivated by increasing or maintaining an average.

Wales11-2

The graph shows my average power for each 5km together with the average power for the ride to that point. This sort of motivation normally results in some initial high figures which is only made worse by the number of strong riders coming by. Interestingly enough from about halfway I moved away from people around me and start re-passing some and only got passed myself a few times. I felt very strong from about 90km to 110km which perhaps is reflected by high power but remember that the major hills hit in that section. The above shows though that I almost certainly went out too hard. I didn’t completely fade though which is pleasing. It’s an interesting course to ride as you can’t really go steady watts throughout. I aimed to go easy up the main climbs which seemed to result in me hitting about 300 watts in the first 2 thirds but in the final third it translated more to about 280 watts. More control on the early climbs still needs to be worked on.

Overall I am very pleased with this ride. If I recover well for Kona I will aim for a more consistent 250 watts throughout.

My critical power for the ride was 248 watts. The highest I’ve recorded for an Ironman bike split by 7 watts if I remember correctly. This translated to a 5:50 bike split. There’s all the evidence you need of how hard a course this is.

The profile at the top is of the course. I had 2,300m of ascent though there is clearly something amiss with my garmin as it starts at a much high point than it ends. It also implies that the first 55km is net downhill … in fact the start and end at about the same height.

Nice and quick. Happy. Wearing socks on the bike helped ensure my feet had no grit on them for putting my Vibram Bikila LS on. Got them on super quick.

RUN

Felt so smooth early on and was knocking out nice splits. At halfway I feel I gave up on it. Feeling I was out of the slots (I wasn’t) I eased up. I ran every step and on the last lap perked up and started running quicker again. Today I have no muscle soreness and even ran a bit when going to the roll down. It suggests there was more to give. Two things I need to work on

1.I just need more run training. There was no hiding my lack of serious running since Austria. I knew I’d not done it and I knew how much the solid 30km runs had helped at Austria. A proper focus is required over the winter. 7 minutes quicker on the run and I would have qualified. Thats was not even a good split compared to my peers so I’m sure I should be able to get back to consistently under 3:30s.

Wales11-3

Because of the underlating nature of the course the splits will never be consistent. It is 4 laps of just over 10km. You can distinctly see the drop off at halfway which leads to my second point. Also, the run was 1km short but my foot pod measure 43 km – it was well out. So all the splits above are really slower

2.The mental aspect. I really need to toughen up. I also need to find my motivation from something other than knowing my position as that won’t always be possible. I need to believe I’m up the field. Jo said she always just assumes unless I am clearly having a bad race I’ll be close to the slots. She was right. Why didn’t I believe that ? I think keeping a logical head during the passion of a race. I should have kept it – I was told on the bike I was 42nd. If I’d have applied logic I would have realised that perhaps 15 were pros. Then surely there must have been more guys in the 25-39 age groups than in mine. Even some basic math would have given me the chances were there were less than 5 guys ahead of me. I need to learn to keep a level head like this.

My prediction for my run appears bang on. Since the run was 1km short I was actually 5-6 minutes out.

My nutrition on worked well throughout. I still used 15 powerbar gels on the bike but in a larger bottle with more water. I will continue with that. I had them in a bottle cage on my seattube rather than between the aero bars. I used the aero bars to hold an extra bottle. This worked well and will probably do it again at Kona rather than use the speedfill. On the run I did my usual gel at every aid station but kept my stomach in check by switching to pepsi if it felt dodgy. Close to 30 gels during the day certainly made for a pretty uncomfortable tummy last night but during the race it was ace.

Whilst I tried to calm myself the night before the race I thought a lot about plans to become more self sufficient. It put everything in perspective keeping my nerves in check. It was a good approach and I will use that at Kona. I also starting thinking about perhaps trying to qualify for Vegas next year and definitely not do Kona if I didn’t qualify. It’s amazing how much difference a day can make. This race was brilliant and I want to do it again next year. I’m also now back on the thought of St George to try and qualify though I am trying to stick to my guns and give Kona a miss next year.

Posted in Race Review | Tagged Ironman, Tenby, Wales | Leave a comment

Ironman Wales, Tenby 2011

Posted on September 11, 2011 by lord_lordy

Time: 10:36:46
Swim: 47:43
T1: 9:41
Bike: 5:50:08
T2: 2:35
Run: 3:45:39

Race analysis here

What a race ! The course was already great but the added spice of the impending weather was great. Having done Wanaka in a gale and New Zealand in torrential rain I’d felt that I’d always be able to think “well at least it’s not as bad as Wanaka / New Zealand” picking whichever was more appropriate. As this race approached with the remains of hurricane Katya approach from the west it looked like this could prove worse than those two races combined.

The start of this weather had hit the day before prompting a move of the swim to the North Bay which was more sheltered. This meant a 1km run to T1 so they’d set up a third set of racking for us to hang a pair of shoes to run in. It was a tough way to run the first edition of the race but the organisers did very well and it was very clear what the new swim and run to T1 were.

The night before the race I had my usual nights “sleep” waking every 20-30 minutes. During one of those spells I had the most vivid dream of me going through my race breakfast, getting ready and then laying for a final snooze on the bed. I woke up in shock that I’d done none of it.

Breakfast: mashed banana, peanut butter and strawberry full fat yoghurt (~400 cals), 2 x hot cross bun with butter and marmalade (~500 cals), 3 x coffee with a belgium waffle biscuit with each (~500 cals) for a total of 1400 cals. I was pleased with myself.

At 4:55 I walked to transition to pop my nutrition and computer on my bike. I left transition at 5:05 and came back for a snooze before walking over to the swim nice and early at 6:10am.

Having been a little disappointed the swim had been moved to the more sheltered bay it was good to see big swells coming in and crashing on the beach. At one point coming right up to the wall washing through timing equipment, stopping the generator for the big Ironman arch and wetting the shoes of a fair few marshalls. All was soon up and running again. Short warm up swim to get aclimatised to the cold water before getting in the pen first to get a prime spot.

Now, when I saw the course I mentioned to Jo “how would they stop people running down the beach at the start” to which she replied that it was only me that worried about such things… I admit given any sets of rules I always mentally stress test them, test the boundaries. There was a pen marked off but without a marshall people started walking the far side of it (closer to the first buoy). I stuck to my prime spot thinking they’d be brought back but eventually so many people at gone by I couldn’t risk they’d just allow it. Then someone decided to walk all the way down to the far end of the beach. Before we knew it everyone was walking. It took a great effort by the marshalls to get everyone back but they didn’t manage to get us in to the pen. Luckily I was on the front line but now we were beyond the metal barriers.

Gun goes and (of course) everyone just starts running down the beach. We’d not been told we shouldn’t though I think most knew it wasn’t the idea. No way was I going to end up behind slower swimmers so I ran with the best of them. It was a quite comical but made for a smooth start to the swim. At one point I had to ease off as I could feel how heavy I was breathing and decided it was not a good idea to enter that water so out of breath. It did however give the RNLI guys a fright I reckon as we ended up closer to the cliffs than they’d have liked and they were vigorously indicating for us to move away. As we approached the first turn buoy we hit the swell and chop. It was MASSIVE and it was great fun. There was also a very localised downpour which produced the most amazing rainbow. I remember thinking how amazing it was. They had the biggest buoys but in the troughs you couldn’t see them. By far the roughest swim I’ve done and I was happy the whole way round. Exiting the first lap I heard them say there must be a strong current as we were out in 22 minutes – strong current plus a few 100m run down the beach. Again, good on the organisers as they quickly got the run down the beach sorted so on the second lap they had marshals forcing you back in the right point. My second lap was 25 minutes something. So either the swim was short of there was a very strong current as 47:43 is my fastest swim in the toughest conditions. I can imagine there was a strong current with us on the longest leg with the wind coming the opposite direction which I think made the conditions so rough but allowed fast times. What a swim !

Now the run to transition – a mere km with quite a climb from the beach. I learnt from my mistake in New Zealand and put gillet and arm warmers on. I’d been riding well at Epic Camp and felt that I should give this ride a little more welly. I switched my computer to show me 3s average power, current 5km average power and overall average power. My aim was to keep it around the 250 watt mark. As ever early on I was a little full of beans. The first 10k my average power was 275. Despite this guys were flying by. I need to learn not to worry about this because by about 90km I was in the no mans land between the really strong riders who are half decent swimmers and everyone else. The second half was largely on my own. This is one hell of a course – no major cols to go over but their are endless hills for about 2,500m ascent. The first loop is the flatest but also the most exposed and with very strong winds it meant riding in to a strong head / cross wind which at times was pretty hairy. The main loop which is done twice is quite sheltered so the wind wasn’t really as big an issue as you’d feel it should be given how strong it was on the coast. I was feeling so strong on the bike and at halfway

IMWales11_3 I stopped being passed and start catching some that had gone by. At 110km my average was 259 watts at which point I started the second loop. The noticeable thing on this loop was I couldn’t quite maintain the same sort of effort up the hills. Up to that point on the hills I’d aimed at going easy up them – they are steep enough that even going up relaxed I was climbing most at just over 300 watts but on the second loop I was more like 270-280.

The support in places was awesome – at Narbeth the crowd was huge and then coming out of Saundersfoot it brought tears of joy to my eyes. Really really fantastic.

By the end of the bike my average had dropped to 248 but still the highest wattage I’ve done since geting the power meter and my bike split was 5:50 – that should make you realise this is a VERY tough bike course.

I managed a pretty quick transition, got my vibram Bikila LS on – I’m getting quick at this now. Headed out on the run relaxed. Pleased to see sub 5 min Ks. I felt I was way out of a slot position already (little did I know I was in third) so just enjoyed the atmosphere. The support was great. At either end of the course there were tonnes of people. I can’t remember thanking so many people or smiling so much. There were several supporters that I made eye contact with each lap and thanked them specifically… with each lap their support increased.

If the bike was tough this has to be one of the toughest runs. You initially head out of town – there’s a short downhill then a steady climb for about 3km. You return but have a detour over a short sharp hill before a dead turn and back over the hill. Then a steady 3km descent before a short rise into down for 2kms looping through almost all the streets in the walled down. This is constantly up and down with a highlight of looping round castle hill – this includes a short sharp hill which I don’t think you’d be able to ride up. In town the support was awesome.

It’s the downhills that got me. I was looking forward to the uphills but by the third lap (of four) I was struggling on the downhills, in fact it was downhill I was closest to walking but I’m pleased to say I ran every step. Other than that I felt strong. No signs of cramping at all, ran forefoot throughout just didn’t have the motivation to keep pushing after halfway. I screamed at Tim and Nick who were chasing me down. Till halfway I felt they weren’t catching quick enough but with my slowing after that they caught me with a lap to go.

Coming on to the esplanade and towards the finish chute I was beaming. I’d really enjoyed my day.

Posted in Race Report | Tagged Ironman, Tenby, Wales | Leave a comment

Ironman Wales Pre Race

Posted on September 6, 2011 by lord_lordy

WalesPreview11 The picture is from the window of our little flat. You can see the swim course and the road is the final 100m of the run. We’ve got ourselves a lovely little location here which seems pretty remarkable given how late I booked it.

I am a little biased towards this race. I’m not sure why but back in Kona last year when it was announced I entered straight away. I love the idea of an Ironman in Wales and this spot is really quite nice. In good weather it would be gorgeous but in the weather we’ve had so far it is rather intimidating.

From what I’ve seen this could easily become one of the toughest races on the circuit. As of this morning I have swum most of the course (it was not marked out), I’ve biked the whole course and run all but the far 3km of the run. It’s going to be tough

SWIM – it was pretty fresh in there. I had numb hands by the end. The long stretch parallel to shore was in to a decent chop. It was a “proper” swim – ie reasonably hard. Speaking to the organisers they are keen for it to be a genuine challenge and are hoping it won’t need to be moved to the North Bay. That is their contingency and from what I can see that bay is mill pond like where as the south bay always has a little something going on.

BIKE – do not be mistaken by the lack of a major col. So many people focus on major cols as a sign of toughness. My experience is that a couple of major cols aren’t so bad – they allow clear focus on the challenges, you can get in to a rhythm and generally they give long descents that you can make the most of and recover. Be wary of courses with high total ascent but nothing that stands out. Eg – the original UK course, Wimbleball, Wisconsin and this one. This course has ~2500m ascent per my garmin but it’s highest point is less than 200m. There are no long ascents but similarly no long descents. Many of the descents are narrow and have steep and / or tight blind bends. Familiarity with this course will be an advantage. The descents will not be a time to recover they will require focus. It also catches the wind which we found on Wednesday. This is the profile of the main loop which is done twice.

There are are also some steep sections including a lovely 16%er (marked) which is hit at about 100km and 170km. This is a tough bike course

RUN – normally I reckon runs are designed to be as easy as the local terrain will be allow. Perhaps this one is though if that was the priority then the loop round castle hill could have been skipped. From what I could see there is more or less no flat running here – all is either uphill or downhill. Much is of a gradient where you can make the most of it but some sections are reasonably steep. Reckon it could catch a few people out as most strides could be quite different from those done in training if you generally run on the flat !

It’s going to be quite a race.

May as well do the usual and give some predictions

Swim: 55 / T1: 5 min / Bike: 5:30 / T2: 3 min / Run: 3:45 —> TOTAL: 10:18

Thats a prediction I would be very pleased with. Reckon it could easily be 30 minutes slower (or more!).

I’m enjoying being in Tenby. It reminds me of weekend swim galas in Scarborough as a teenager. It appears a great venue for a group to all come and do the same race since if you book far enough ahead you could take over a local B&B or Hotel and can be located within walking distance of everything.

I’m trying to not get nervous about Sunday. My preps have been far from what I’ve planned. Coming in to this race I have the lowest CTL (Chronic Training Load) I’ve ever had coming in to a race. Not surprising, I guess, given the monthly cap I’ve had. I feel like, other than Epic France, I’ve done no training since Austria. Thats probably correct. That said my swimming feels OK and when I’m out on the bike I feel strong. My biggest concern is definitely the run and given the nature of this course it could get ugly. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Posted in Race Preview | Tagged Ironman, Tenby, Wales | Leave a comment

What Motivates You ?

Posted on September 5, 2011 by lord_lordy

This weekend has been rather indicative of my motivation of late. I managed to get up early Saturday morning and ride with the group. Once out I was riding really well but got home and before I knew it my ability to get my arse out the door for my run was zero. Roll on Sunday since Jo and I are going out in the evening so I have a convenient excuse to watch the athletics live in the morning. At that point it would have taken close to nothing to stop me riding at all. Luckily that almost nothing thing didn’t arrive so I forced myself out the door. Once out I was right on it, enjoying it, hugely motivated and did my 50 mile route in 2:26 (best ever) with a np of 269 watts which is more or less best ever. Come home and my performance is sufficient excuse for me not to run. Finally this morning I plan to swim at squad, pretty critical really given how little swimming I’ve done of late but alarm goes off and I simple say to myself “what difference can it make with the race on Sunday” and promptly roll over back to sleep.

My motivation currently is in this weird place where getting myself out the door is proving close to impossible but if I get out I’m fully motivated. Strangely even the knowledge of this doesn’t help be get out. I think a big part is that triathlon is now only taking a fraction of my thoughts. I had a period of several years where it dominated my thoughts but during this year thats changed hugely and in tandem my motivation has evaporated.

The height of that motivation was probably the first two months of 2009 where I did 333 hours training in Jan and Feb though it did culminate with a snapped FHL tendon. This past year I’ve been limiting my hours to 100 or less a month and I wonder sometimes whether that has contributed to this. It’s something I’m thinking on and will post about post Kona.

Watching the World Athletics championships got me mulling over a thought I’ve had for years. Ignoring clear impracticalities consider whether you feel the athletes there would be motivated to excellence if the only person who would know how well they did was themselves. ie no one else would know. This means that the event would somehow be held behind closed doors and competitors wouldn’t know how each other did (clear impracticality here but please ignore for this thought experiment). Each competitor would get their own time, their position and a list of all other times (without names) but the world at large wouldn’t know and they couldn’t discuss it with anyone.

This scenario clearly tries to isolate internal motivation. Would it be enough to know yourself that you were the best or had the world record if no one else knew ?

Thinking of it in terms of Ironman – would I be motivated to take part if the same rules applied. I would know if I podium’d but no one else would. My gut reaction is that I just wouldn’t compete. For me a big factor is the recognition from my peers. Would I chase sub 9 hours next year if I was the only one to know – probably.

This thought experiment helps me realise that I enjoy training. Racing isn’t something I enjoy anywhere near as much. I love the build up and aftermath to big races (especially Kona) and it’s that that gets me to compete but the actual race itself – nah! not that much fun. Why do I race ? A big point of entering races for me is that it gives focus and direction to the training. Entering and taking part in races makes the training more fun. There’s also, like I just said, the fun of the build up and aftermath.

So given the scenario above would I even bother racing. Probably not. I would go back to all the things I know motivate me – I’d chase Eddington Numbers, I’d try to ride ever further and I’d go back to fell running with friends – pick ever bigger challenges to attempt. Back in those days the only people that were ever bothered about what we’d achieved were Alan and myself and it was sufficient to shoot the breeze over a beer or four before trying something new the next day. There was no need to tell anyone else.

So I have Ironman Wales in 6 days and i must say my enthusiasm is at an all time low. My aim was and still is to qualify for Kona. I think there’s an outside chance I can do it. Certainly my biking is going well and my running is probably better than a year ago. Swimming has been non existent to all intents and purposes since IM Austria so it will be interesting to see how I go. At the start of the year I’d felt if I didn’t qualify at Wales I would enter IM St George to try and get a slot but I’m pretty sure now that I won’t. Instead I will try and relax next year and aim to get balance back in to my life which currently means getting slightly more of my thoughts back on to Triathlon. In order to do that I believe I need to focus back on just enjoying training and see where that takes me.

Posted in Motivation | Tagged Ironman | Leave a comment

Every Second Counts

Posted on September 1, 2011 by lord_lordy

It’s common to hear that transitions don’t count in Ironman because it’s such a long day. Well, I guess that’s correct if you think in terms of percentages but for many of us there are goals that can be missed by these margins. Are you gunning for a particular time goal, could you miss a cut off, aiming for a Kona slot or a podium place? For all these seconds can and do count.

In my time racing and following this sport I’ve seen examples of people missing bike cut offs and final cut offs by tiny margins. When I did Ironman Florida my sister pleaded with officials to allow a lady to continue who had missed the bike cut off by seconds. Years later she bumped in to her at Kona airport to discover she’d gone from cut-off misser to Kona qualifier!

I know of someone who got the last Kona slot after passing a guy in his age group in the finish chute. At Ironman New Zealand, a friend who has previously missed a Kona slot by six seconds twice (Yes you read that right only SIX seconds and on TWO occasions) this year passed three people in his age group in the final two kilometers and ended up getting the last roll down slot.

I’ll admit to a fascination with this sort of thing and regularly check peoples times in transition when they just make or just miss some common objective by seconds. With my friend that missed his Kona slot by six seconds I was very pleased to see that he’d had the quickest transitions of those around him.

Last year at Lanzarote I got the last Kona slot. I decided to check how I’d really managed to secure that slot. The next finisher in my age group was just under six minutes behind having taken five minutes longer than me across the two transitions. I could argue it was my transitions that got me to Kona.

Seconds do count in Ironman.

So what should you do?

There are many occasions of very long transition times. No need to worry about this if you’re comfortably in the middle of the back. At the extremes I would suggest you continue to view the transitions as a race. This doesn’t mean sprint through them (you don’t want to spike you’re heart rate) but it does mean move through them with a purpose. No matter where you are in the field this is one place where you can be competitive. No reason you can’t put your shoes on as quick or stuff your munchies in your pocket as fast as the pros. Several years a go I raced through T2 at Ironman Wisconsin to get the fastest T2 of everyone. Even now this brings a smile to my face.

Should you do a running dismount off the bike? Why not, it may only save you a few seconds but if you know how to do it then go for it. If you don’t then learn as it is far easier to learn than a running mount. The times I’ve seen someone miss a slot or a cut off by seconds I wonder whether a running dismount would have made the difference.

Race to the line. This is probably pretty obvious if you’re racing the clock for the cut off time. If you’re chasing a Kona slot it may not be quite so. Assume there’s someone in your age group ahead, assume they’re falling apart (many do) and keep pushing. Even if you’re supporters are telling you you’re comfortably in a slot, or comfortable out of a slot, maintain the thought they could be wrong – people do miscount and the tracker software has had a bug in it (in 2010 it was showing people that age up in the wrong category on one of the views).

Finally, go to the roll down ceremony. Firstly, it is one of the most exciting events of the weekend. People realizing their dreams are normally wonderful to watch and it is a great Ironman spectacle. Secondly, you just never know. If a slot rolls down beyond a certain point it can roll down a long way. Remember stay till the very end. At Ironman St George this year, right at the end a slot rolled out of an age group and in to M30-34 where it rolled down to 165th in age group who did a time of 16:14:11. I couldn’t help but take a look. The last regular slot went to a time of 9:55:43. The next guy in that age group was the next finisher only 16 seconds down. It looks like he was run down but I’m pleased to report his transitions were quicker. Having put in, who knows, how many hours of training he may look back and think perhaps hanging around for 10 minutes would have been a good idea.

Posted in Triathlete Europe | Tagged Ironman | Leave a comment