ETU Long Course Analysis

Posted on July 1, 2010 by lord_lordy

ETURaceAnalysis.jpgRace Report here

Here’s the piccie of my bike pre race. I normally do this ahead of the race but I forgot my card reader. This is perhaps  the last piccie of that particular bike as it is cracked and being sent back to Cervelo hopefully to get a warranty replacement.

Thought I’d do a little race analysis.

OVERALL

Totally chuffed with how I raced. It’s the hardest I’ve raced in a long long time. I was in the race and knew it. This was so much fun. Racing to win was a pleasure even though I failed.

SWIM

I was pretty relaxed going in to this race and given the small field I was pretty sure I’d be one of the fastest. The aim was to either sit in the front group or break clear on my own. I had a lucky break at the start to be swimming on my own about 10m to one side of the main group. I could establish I was going faster before we merged and at that point chose to push on to ensure they didn’t get on my feet. It worked well and I managed to relax from there. At an early turn I was able to look back and see some of my wave fairly close – this was enough to keep me pushing. I was able to swim bilaterally and ended the swim not out of breath. For  me thats sure signs of a well paced swim.

BIKE

Though I had a power meter I was just tracking data not using it to decide pace. I did look down at it a few times as I pushed on over rises to see figures in the 500s. I pulled back knowing I couldn’t do that too often.

This shows altitude plus heart rate (blue) and power (red). The lines are smoothed over 2 minutes. I’m happy that I produced a reasonably steady ride. My average heart rate was higher than I’d thought it would be (149) but having never raced with a HRM I just took it that my association of ‘effort’ with HR is skewed. I had aerobic decoupling of -1.63%. If my understanding of this is correct it means I was getting marginally more power per Heart beat in the second half. Sounds good to me ;o)

This shows my power with no smoothing. Though my average of 245 and normalised of 253 are about where I’d expect the spikes above aren’t great. I think I would have been served better not having any of those spikes above 400 possibly even 350 would be a better cap. That probably cost me a little on the run.

RUN

I raced this. It felt great. I was leading the race and headed off at the pace I felt was required to win the race.

These are my run splits. There’s definitely a trend. Probably went off a little quick but at least it was a concious decision to do it. Mainly to try and make the chasers believe they couldn’t catch me. My pace through to halfway was definitely enough to not be caught. If I’d ran the second half at the same pace I did 10-15 km I would have been right there with a shout. I am satisfied with this. I tried to win and blew up. I could have probably got a faster time with going out slower but I certainly couldn’t have won the race doing that.

I do wish I had heart rate data for this run and am planning to find a watch for this. Looking for something that will pick up my Garmin ANT+ HR strap. Anyway – during the first half of the run I was breathing hard and working hard. After 15k it was like my legs just would not function fully. My breathing dropped. It felt like the legs just couldn’t handle all the oxygen my aerobic system could supply. Pretty clear run strength is still my limiter and I need to work on my run muscular endurance.

This fills me with enthusiasm for Kona. Perhaps I can finally perform better than my first time there. I’m now got a couple of weeks down time whilst I move house then I’m planning to start my build for Kona.

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ETU Long Course

Posted on June 27, 2010 by lord_lordy

My race report is here.

Firstly I must say how beautiful the course is here. The lake for the swim is gorgeous. The ride was on closed roads through lovely villages and twisty turny roads. The run is 3 x 10k lap with lots of turns and different terrain to keep it interesting. The logistics need improving before the World Long Course is here in 2012 but assuming they sort this that will be a fantastic race to do.

Two days before the race I got bad news – the mechanic here spotted a crack in my frame. He told me to race this weekend then put the frame on the wall. Pretty gutting as I’ve grown very attached to this bike. Also, he was so adamant that I don’t ride it after this weekend that it made me question whether he really thought it was OK to ride it in the race. So … I put my number over the crack and didn’t worry about it.

The field here was pretty small which made for a lovely relaxed race. It was so nice to race where there wasn’t much aggro. I did the whole race more or less on my own. Next year doing the ETU Long Course again is a definite possibility.

The most pleasing thing about this race is that I really RACED. There’s no knowing whether different pacing would have produced a medal (ie not going so hard on the run at the start) but given the strategy I’d decided on I raced my heart out and felt I executed that plan as best I could. My swim was great. There was a certain level of luck that meant I gapped the others in my age group so I didn’t pull any of them along. My ride was fast but conservative then the start of the run was really satisfying – I felt good running at that pace and at the time was visualising this being the pace I run the whole marathon at at Kona !  It felt like I was in a good place to start building up my running after a little down time.

On reflection it’s rather disappointing that I missed the medals. I was the fastest Brit and I was 4th fastest age grouper. It just feels rather harsh that that didn’t result in a medal. I guess being in such a competitive age group will make winning all the sweeter when it happens.

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ETU Long Course, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain 2010

Posted on June 26, 2010 by lord_lordy 
Time: 6:33:23
Swim (4k): 56:36
T1: 1:24
Bike (120k): 3:11:19
T2: 1:07
Run (30k): 2:22:58
4th Age Grouper, 4th M40-44

Race Analysis here.

Had a great nights sleep. 8 hours. Thats superb for me. Didn’t really feel any nerves till the morning and had to force down some breakfast. This is a small field and wave start with only about 60 in my wave. It made me realise that it’s the mass start that really gets my nerves.

The Elite men went off at 9am, then Elite ladies at 9:05, M19-34 at 9:20 and then my wave M35-44 at 9:25. I had a simple aim for the swim – to pass as many of the wave ahead as I could. My overall race strategy was to try and get to the front of the age group field on the bike and then race the run and try to hang on.

As an ITU race they set the age groupers off the same way as the Elites. This meant we lined up on the small beach in numeric order. I like this as it saves the stress of fighting for the “best” position. It also means you’re alongside your british teammates who hopefully will try not to give you a good bashing. Given the size of the wave I felt there was a very good chance I’d be the fastest swimmer.

The gun goes and no one around seems to rush into the water. Almost instantly I’m on my own. I can see to my right there’s a big pack forming quite quickly – this must be the M35-39 guys. I decide not to merge with them but to just go comfortably hard and see how they progress. A few minutes later they seem to be holding my pace and I start to move over thinking I will merge in with them. no sooner had I thought that than I’m suddenly several body lengths up. I think, whereas I went steady from the gun, they sprinted and now settled down. I quickly decided to keep away from them and push to ensure a gap as they tried to move across to my toes. I got the gap and pushed on. My breathing was heavy now and I consciously got it under control. 1k in and I’m starting to pass the wave ahead. At the turn I can look over my shoulder and see where the chasers are. They’re still in sight which spurs me on. I keep passing the wave ahead which soon thins out showing I’m getting towards the front of their wave as well.

Exit the swim in just over 56 minutes and get to transition to find only maybe have a dozen bikes gone. Very pleased I head out on the bike.

Early on the bike it feels hard to get the power down but I feel like eating. So I munch some jelly babies and swig a load of my gel mix. By about 20k I really start to feel good and drop the guy I’ve been toing and froing with. I have my power meter on but really just to get some data. I do notice how high my heart rate is. Higher than I thought it would be but it doesn’t influence me as I’ve never raced with it before. It feels right. I spent the whole bike reeling in the odd person ahead. At one point my gel bottle spills from my bike on a speed bump. Minutes later a motorcyclist comes by beeping his horn. I look over and he’s got my bottle and hands it back to me ! Thats service.

Nutrition is going great on the bike. My gels and jelly babies are going down a treat. My stomach is feeling great so when I finish my gels I think “fill your boots” and start taking carb drink. Towards the end of the ride I was catching female Elites and it seemed I got the final few age groupers. it was nice to get in to T2 and see only Elite bikes sitting there. I headed out on the run knowing I was leading the race.

Plan now was to put it out there and run hard. There was logic to this. Firstly there’s an out and back of about 1.5k total around the 7k mark. I felt I would have a decent lead off the bike and the hope was to get through that out and back without them seeing me. Out of sight out of mind was my thought. The other point was I didn’t want them thinking they could catch me. If they had someone give a time check at T2 at 7k I didn’t want that to have come down. I felt great running. First 3ks at 4:15 pace and then settled to 4:30s. At the out and back I saw the guy in second 5 minutes down and the guy in 3rd 6 minutes. They’d both seen me unfortunately.

I went through 10k in 44 minutes and started to really believe I could win.  I certainly felt at this pace if they chased me down they deserved it. Got through 15k at 66 minutes and there was a step change in my pace. I suddenly dropped to just under 5 min Ks. I took some more food wondering if that was the issue. I take one of the gels which tasted horrible. It doesn’t upset my stomach so I just put up with the bad taste and take others periodically. I could now not lift my heart rate, my legs that were limiting me. I remembered something Clas had told me about you settle into your comfortable pace and for me that seems to be 5 min Ks at the moment. I was starting to suffer but was telling myself I can’t ease off or relax until I’m in 4th !!

At the turnaround the guy in second was now within a minute and 3rd just over 4 minutes. I knew I wouldn’t hold on for gold but felt silver was a real chance and I’d seen no one else so it felt Bronze was in the bag. I was passed bang on the 20k marker – I’d lead the age group field from start to that point. I managed to maintain just under 5 min Ks through to 25k and then I suffered and they crept over 5 mins. I was pleased that though I was suffering I didn’t completely fall apart.

Then at about 26k there’s a right angle turn so I look over my shoulder to see if I can see the 3rd place guy. He’s there but I also see a german closing who has his number all scrunched up (looked VERY intentional to me) and when he passes I see he’s my age group. I’d not spotted him on the out and backs because he wasn’t showing his number so I’d have thought he was Elite. This sort of practice really hacks me off – it’s just not sportsmanlike. I make sure my number is visible. I reckon they should give warnings and then penalties for it. To me it’s verging on cheating. So he goes by and I’m now in 3rd. With 2k to go I get passed again into 4th. Those two were racing hard because by the finish I was 3 minutes behind 3rd place !

I ended up 4th M40-44 in 6:33:23. I am very happy with my race as I’d really raced my heart it. It’s the hardest I’ve raced in a long time. When I saw the results online I found that I was also 4th age grouper overall. Thats both very pleasing and slightly annoying. Any other age group and I’d have won. What are all these young guys playing at letting four forty plus old guys beat them.

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Guilt

Posted on June 22, 2010 by lord_lordy

Guilt.jpgOn Monday I found myself in a common situation for  me. Feeling guilty about not doing something I’d planned. I felt guilty despite my logical side knowing it would have been stupid doing what I’d planned based on how I’d felt.

What had I planned ?

Riding home from Taunton. This would have involved getting up at 5am and riding pretty much non stop for 10 hours to get back to London before rush hour traffic.

How did I feel ?

My alarm went off at 4:30am and I felt so dead to the world it didn’t even cross my mind to get up immediately. My mind mulled it over and prevented sleep. An dialogue went on till I’d kinda passed the time where the goal was really achievable. It probably still was but this was sufficient to allow me to fall back to sleep. I slept a fair while longer and woke refreshed to a beautiful day and MASSIVE guilt that I was missing it and was going to have to  spend thirty five quid on getting a train home.

Why logical not to do the session ?

To start with I’ve got the European Long Course championships this coming Saturday (more on that later). That alone would not completely rule this out. Well it wouldn’t rule it out in my books but probably it would in most. So lets just ignore that for now ;o). The previous few days training leading to this Monday morning impasse had been:

  • Thursday – mid summer madness – 100 miles at pace. Serious watts which caused a few discussions with friends. Seems my 269 average may be a little high and getting it calculated from a more reliable source gave 259. Anyway thats a tangent. It was a pretty tiring event and it also meant I went 48 hours with only 3 hours sleep.
  • Friday – REST – sensible ! Did stay up watching the World Cup though
  • Saturday – up at the crack of dawn and rode 168 miles to Taunton in 9.5 hrs ride time, 10.5 elapsed. I felt very strong
  • Sunday – nearly 50 hilly miles split by supporting Jo at UK IM 70.3

I think thats probably enough effort so close to a pretty big race. But I still felt guilty.

Why Blog About it ?

Part of the purpose of this blog was to share my experience of training for big endurance events. Hopefully some of what I go through will ring true with readers and perhaps seeing that I go through doubts and guilt may make you feel not so bad if you feel the same. Also, writing out here makes me see I made the right choice. Though it would have been monster and I’d have buzzed after. I did manage my planned 100+ miler today which also helped decide against Mondays ride. Since I felt on fire today perhaps the decision was right.

Since recovery from Lanza it’s been an interesting few weeks of training. I’ve got into a nice groove largely ride focussed and a large part of me wishes I wasn’t racing this weekend as I could see this nicely building towards Kona but a big race will result in my losing this rhythm I’ve found.

I’m definitely feeling fit again and feeling relaxed which is a great sign. However, my preparation for this is far from ideal. I’m overweight for sure – 4-5kgs heavier than at Lanza. That will cost on the run.

The three weeks training I did through to this last Sunday were as follows:

  • WEEK1 Swim: 4 km, Bike: 460 miles, Run: 6 miles
  • WEEK2 Swim: 8 km, Bike: 427 miles, Run: 24 miles
  • WEEK3 Swim: 5 km, Bike: 447 miles, Run: 17 miles

You don’t  need to be Einstein to work out thats far from balanced. So, hows it looking ?

Swim: despite the small amount of swimming there’s been some quality in there. 1:11 100ms and a 5:15 400m with paddles (historically I’m 5+s per 100 slower with paddles). These are good signs. I’m swimming tomorrow to see how I feel but I reckon I can swim well. However, I’m living on borrowed time with this lack of swimming and I KNOW when I start back on my Kona build I need to up my swimming significantly. I don’t want to face the Kona swim start in less than toptastic swim shape

Bike: what can I say it is going like a dream. I’ve been doing generally long aerobic riding but the speed this has been at has been very pleasing. I’ve been enjoying some ripping off of legs and some real fun ‘races’ up hills and the like. I’m thoroughly enjoying it at the moment. I’m confident about this at the weekend

Run: completely lacking. Following my Lanza run I was super keen to go so it’s a little disappointing whats actually happened. In fact, not only is the running low but most of it has been running to get somewhere – so none has really been a focussed session. This on top of my weight gain could mean Saturday being far from pretty.

There is a reason for this lack of running though. I will come clean – my foot was hurting a little more than I’d have liked post Lanza. I had sensations in the ball of my foot I wasn’t 100% happy with. I wondered whether the riding may be the problem but felt that it was running that put the stress on the foot and as such there was enough doubt in my mind that I held back running. For about a week now the foot has settled down completely and I’m feeling far more comfortable about it. This weekend will be a test of it and if it feels OK I will steadily build my running again over the summer.

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Even More Midsummer Madness

Posted on June 18, 2010 by lord_lordy

MoreMidSummerMadnessIt all started 3 years ago when, having gotten up ever earlier to get more miles in before work on a Thursday morning, Jo and wondered what it would take to get 100 miles in. Post wednesday night swimming we were drinking hot chocolate and it must have been around 10:30pm. We concluded it would involved just heading out around midnight and riding through till the morning. So we put our cycle kit on and headed out the door at midnight. We cycled 2.8 mile laps in the dark, headed to Brick Lane for a bagel and coffee and were pretty anti social when the others arrived at 6ish. At the time I can’t have thought much of it as I don’t appear to have mentioned it here.

We made a bonkers repeat that winter on the shortest day of the  year before Gabriel and I repeated it in 2008. This was the scene of my biggest ever detonation. Last year we went back to do it properly and we hammered out a pretty decent time. This year we were planning on nailing it. Full aero setup and a 2:30am start time which not only gave us a little extra sleep but committed us to a fast time. We were hoping for sub 4:30.

The graph above shows the lap splits together with my average heart rate and power for each lap. On the second lap my right elbow pad sheers off which requires a stop and hunt in the dark for it. Now I’m not able to really hold the aero position. I try alsorts but I can only stay aero for short periods which I use for when I’m on the front. When on Gabriels wheels it’s definitely easier to stay aero but it’s too uncomfortable.

After 5 laps riding side by side to warm up we get organised and down to it by allternating laps. We couldn’t see our computers for the first 90 minutes so do it on feel. In hindsight I’m chuffed to bits with how evenly we shared the work and paced the ride. It gave some very interesting data from the powertap.

EvenMoreMidsummerMadness2

Here are power  and heart rate data for a pretty typical lap. The top two graphs are me on the front the second two Gabriel on the front.

If you look carefully there’s an initial surge of power as we accelerate out of the right angle turn onto the main road at the start of each lap. I feel we over did the effort there every-time. When on the wheel you can see my fluctuating power as I ease off then speed up to maintain on the wheel. My heart rate steadily declines throughout the lap. The big drop in power at the end of Gabriels laps i the downhill where when on the wheel you get close to freewheeling.

So … we ended up completing 36 laps, 100.47 miles in 4:19 with an average power of 269 watts. Very pleased with it though I’ve been resting today in preparation for riding to Taunton tomorrow.

Got some solid power data so I’ll end with my first Critical Power graph.

criticalpowergraph

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A New Chapter

Posted on June 16, 2010 by lord_lordy

NewChapterThis week I got my new Zipp 404 Powertap rear wheel. Here it is looking sweet on my P3C. I now also have a funky computer to capture tonnes of data.

NewChapter2Now I can head out and collect ride data including power, heart rate and cadence.  The wheel itself is beautiful – it’s real nice to look at and feels great to ride. Will be able to fully report on how I find it in a couple of weeks after the European Long Course. The plan is to race on it and to certain training sessions with it. Don’t really want to train all the time on such an expensive wheel. My first ride out on this new wheel made me feel like I was starting a new chapter in my training.

On Tuesday I headed out to meet Russell riding this new setup. My plan was to ride as I normally would and just see what the data showed. It was pretty clear just from looking at the power that I am pushing  a lot more than a few years a go when I last used a power meter regularly. I did a 6.5 hr ride and had a straight average power of 192 watts for an average hr of 105. I was pretty pleased with this. Also there’s been a clear change in my cadence – it used to be I was never below 90 but this time the average was 74. I did a period of riding a bigger gear on my fixed to try and get me pushing a bigger gear. I don’t know whether this was an influence but I now feel much more comfortable on the bike pushing at a lower cadence. My riding is noticeably stronger now.

Here’s the data from the ride. I don’t have the greatest analysis software so I may have to go buy Training Peaks and the software to let me run windows on my mac. We will see.

NewChapter3

The ride was broken in three as is the norm for my tuesday ride. First 2 hours is generally easy going through the early morning london traffic. Then I do about 3 hours with Russ where we tick along quite nicely. Then I have 1.5 hours or so home just riding how I feel.

The first period my HR average about 95  and my watts well under 200. Then 2.5 hours with Russ, average watts 207 and HR 107. The first hour after this on my own I averaged 218 at 121bpm. Interestingly this felt very relaxed riding. Throughout my cadence was mid 70s

Looking at HR zones I spent the first third largely just nudging bottom of zone 1, second bit largely in zone 1 and final third nudging into zone 2. This is what I would have described as a decent solid ride. I’d certainly feel I got good training benefit from it but looking at the data it really was quite an easy ride. It took the typical form of my progressively riding more strongly. I’m looking forward to being in Christchurch and seeing what my more solid solo efforts translate to. However, tomorrow I may get an idea as there’s going to be some more Mid Summer Madness.

Since coming back from New Zealand I’ve felt my swimming has been slightly on a back burner. It took a short burst of training at Club La Santa to get it back in to shape but even that was just solid steady state swimming. This last week I’ve had a couple of squad sessions where I was able to get a measure of where I am and I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised. At the end of one session I managed a 1:11 100m and on Monday near the end of the main set I did a 5:15 400m with paddles. Paddles usually slow me down. This is so encouraging as I’ve maintained my swim form with what I would have thought was less than maintenance training.

Running has really been pretty easy. I’ve been concious of giving my foot an easy time and thus didn’t run for two weeks. I’ve now done nothing longer than 1 hr runs and not run more than 3 days consecutive. I’ve felt good running. My plan is to not push the running at all pre the European Long Course. After that whilst moving in to my new home I will give running a little more focus.

I feel fully motivated with my training at the moment. I’m ticking a long nicely at about 30 hours a week which I find very comfortable to do. Given I’ve been getting three long rides in each week you can see the bulk of these hours comes in 3 days meaning the other days are quite relaxed. It’s making me feel really refreshed and I plan to continue like this for a few more weeks before really starting to focus on Kona preparations. I can’t wait !

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20,000 Mile Bar Tape

Posted on June 10, 2010 by lord_lordy

10000MileBarTapeThats what bar tape looks like after 20,000 miles. My Indie XS passed the 20,000 mile mark last week and it still has the original bar tape on it. I had to take it in to Mosquito Bikes  to show them it and tell them how impressed I was it had lasted that long. I also booked it in for a service and unsurprisingly it needs quite a lot of work. It’ll be like having a new bike.

My mum kindly bought me a speedfill bottle system. I’ve never liked the bottles behind my saddles but had little other option until now. I will be testing it out over the coming weeks and will report here how I find.

Today my new Zipp 404 Powertap rear wheel arrived. Have ordered a Garmin to work with it and a disc cover hopefully in time for the ETU Long Course. Can’t wait to try it out and I’ll report on it here when I do.

Getting back in to the swing of training. Last week was my final week of recovery and it felt like it even though I did 26 hours of riding. Not much else – a single swim and a single run. I’m feeling awesome on the bike.

I’ve now got a couple of weeks of decent work before  heading to Spain for the European Long Course. My aim these couple of weeks is just to do aerobic work. I don’t want to tire myself. With so little time after Lanzarote there will only be a short taper for Spain.

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Oomph! Race Gear

Posted on May 29, 2010 by lord_lordy

Thanks a million to Helen for sending me some great race photos. Better than the official ones. I’ve added a load  to my race report.

The picture above is one of Helen’s and it shows me in my new Oomph race kit. Jo worked hard with the guys at Oomph to design the kit. It is by far the best race kit I’ve raced in. The shorts are comfortable having a decent chamoix that is great to run in as well.  The top is longer than I’ve had before and I like it. It covers my back fully on the run with a little gap (you can see above on the bike). Three pockets at the back were easy to access. I didn’t even have rubbing under my arms which is a first. Jo and I both raced in it and I can tell you it stands out – we were easy to spot. The pink really does do the trick. Oomph have a pair of shorts that includes an integrated number belt. These shorts didn’t but I got my mum to sew on the velcro to mimic the other shorts and it worked a treat. Such a great design idea and certainly made my run a little more comfortable.

I am still buzzing with my qualification. I’ve been resting up with a couple of nice rides, one swim and a days fishing. I feel pretty solid on the bike and will try a run tomorrow. I’d felt that qualification would be tight this year but I was pretty determined. I’d not admitted this before on here but I had the motivation that every time I’ve tried to qualify for Kona I’ve managed it. I didn’t want this to be the year I didn’t. It was cut fine getting the last slot at my last chance race (of three). Hopefully next year won’t be cut so fine.

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Ironman Lanzarote 2010 Analysis

Posted on May 23, 2010 by lord_lordy

Lanza10Analysis.jpgAWESOME. I am chuffed to bits. I got my Kona Slot !! How pleased I am about this makes me realise how much I wanted to go but also how I’d really managed to reconcile myself to the fact I wouldn’t be going. The competition in my age group was hot. I was in the final slot position and was some 15 minutes quicker than the final slot position in the age group below (35-39).

My race report is here.

Yesterdays race was satisfying for so many reasons.

  • it went pretty close to plan
  • it showed my swimming hasn’t really dropped off despite the reduced swimming of late. I managed a fast time despite swimming all but the first 150m without a draft
  • I think Epic Camp has kicked in. I rode massively within myself and still got a great bike split
  • I ran the whole marathon
  • I felt I was in the run competing. I was in a slot position the whole way and managed to (just) tough it out to keep one. It felt good to be racing.
  • There were no excuses. My foot was completely fine and I ran strong.

Now I can look forward to training for Kona. Not only that I’ve the confidence to really start to work on my running. Based on yesterday I need to be running 3:10s off the bike to be really competitive.

We went and watched the final finishers as usual. It was a classic with the last person having to put a spurt on to cross the line in 16:59:51 !

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Ironman Lanzarote 2010 Race Report

Posted on May 22, 2010 by lord_lordy

IMLAnza10.jpgTime: 9:53:06
Swim: 52:31
T1: 3:54
Bike: 5:20:31
T2: 3:24
Run: 3:32:46

Race Analysis here.

I managed to keep my nerves in check for most of the run up to this race. In fact, the night before as I lay in bed completely awake for 3 hours I managed to quieten my mind and visualise the race and feel so relaxed. Imagining a great day and enjoying it. I then fell asleep for 4 hours and woke with a knot in my stomach and massive nerves. I lay and slowly brought it under control.

I still didn’t feel like eating but forced down a 4 egg cheese and peanut butter omelette before heading to transition. Bike was all AOK and once thats checked I like to just leave it as being around your bike just encourages faff which is of no use.

I warmed up early for the swim and got in to the pen early to be on the front line. It was very annoying to me and the people around me that the marshalls allowed people to join the pen from the sea (which they weren’t meant to do – as they were meant to go across the timing mat). This meant by the start though we’d not moved forward from the start point it had now moved forward to allow 3 lines of people in front. Now, I know that there is no way that many people are quicker than me in the swim… I definitely should be on the front row but there was no way of pushing through.

The gun goes and I can’t run immediately and there is so much pushing from behind I only just stay on my feet. In the water it is mayhem. My plan was to not redline at the start and to be honest I had no chance of doing so. Despite swimming easy I was passing people. Clearly these plonkers (yes they were idiots to seed themselves so high) should have been further back and they got no sympathy from me. One guy as I passed him pulled me back by the shoulder. I can tell you he got more in return. The first 150m were a fight and by then I’d lost any chance of getting with a pack of Pros. I broke clear and swam the whole thing without any feet to draft off. I had one pro on my feet and then a second I caught on the second lap. It ended up comfortable and I was chuffed to bits coming out in just under 53 minutes. My swim training had backed off a lot since New Zealand but pretty clearly I’d done enough to keep the gains I’d made over the winter.

I knew I was up for this race with the speed I moved through transition. I came out of T1 with Bella Bayliss and Cat Morrison but went by them as we mounted out bikes. Focus on the bike was to feed and be conservative. I felt good, my breathing seemed right and I was moving AOK. By El Golfo I found myself riding with Richard Hobson and Cat Morrison. This was a fine state of affairs as I knew they were strong riders and felt between us we’d pace a good ride.

I took my first swig of gel to find my bottle was leaking gels. My own fault, the bottle was split but it had been OK with water all trip as I’d gaffer taped it up. However, gels clearly seeped through and you can imagine what a mess it was. My fingers were stuck together which in turn were stuck to my shifter. I decided to work my way through it in the first half and then move on to my bento box contents. This meant by 2 hours in I’d had about 15 gels – not quite standard practise. I ditched the bottle and went about getting water and dousing the bars, my hands and getting rid of the stickiness !

By Famara (about 80k in) I had tried to eat the contents of my Bento box but it just wasn’t nice. I remembered something Tim Deboom said in an article that if you can’t eat on the bike it’s probably because you are riding too hard. I decided to ease up a little. This had the added benefit of ensuring I kept it controlled up the biggest ascent that I was about to start. It worked and I was soon eating the stuff slightly better (it still wasn’t a taste sensation). At Teguise I saw Cat at the side of the road with a broken chain. [ she lost 46 minutes at the side of the road then went on to run a 3:04 marathon and win the race! ]. Even easing up I was passing people up the climb. By Mirador Del Rio I felt great and could see I was on for a good split. This was going just as I’d visualised and I knew I could push a little more home. Along the highway I was at the back of a nice pace line of three then up the final proper climb I dropped the guys and rode back more or less on my own.

Back in town I stopped the clock at 5:20. Beyond my best estimations and I had ridden it conservatively. I remember thinking “you’re clearly fit’ ;o)

As I ran through transition (a lot longer than last time I did this race) I got my shoes out of my bag and put my helmet in. I was keen to get running and had a fast turnaround. Out on the run I felt good. Knocking out 4:40 KMs for the first 3k and then settled down to 5 min Ks which was the top end of my target. At the far turnaround I couldn’t believe how far ahead the leader in my age group was. What was worse I was already in 5th ! I’d started the run thinking even a 4 hour marathon would be enough based on last year for a slot but now I knew it wasn’t quite in the bag. As I turned I could see the competition and was only 5 minutes ahead of losing my slot.

For the first lap I ran a lot with this german lad and then on the second with Richard Hobson. It’s strange how at times you just can’t stick with the pace but it’s so slight. So for ages I was behind them by 50 – 100m but could always see them and then later I passed the german guy. I felt pretty strong on the run but that an increase in pace would result in me blowing. A Kona slot was really down to what the others did with their run but I felt by running 3:30 they would have to earn it.

There were of course some low points but I never buckled  and my ~6k laps were all within 3 minutes of each other with a gentle slowing. I ran the WHOLE marathon. This was the real satisfaction from this race – I was running, I was racing and I felt I was in the race competing.

As I approached the finish shoot, annoyingly some Danish guy (not my AG) dashed by with a massive flag and then stopped dead in the finish. I nearly ran in to him. He then proceed to take what seemed like minutes posing (you’d have thought he won the race) … means my finish photo isn’t exactly natural.

Biggest bonus of all is I finished 9th in the final Kona Slot position !

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