countdown

it seems as if i'm spend half my life fixing punctures at the moment.
fixing punctures or cleaning inches of grot of my bikes. its no time of year to be riding, really, is it? .. but, what can u do ( please dont say 'turbo') other than Despite my 'all weather' attitude, though i'm struggling to maintain the bike milegage that i'd really like to be - there are just so many distractions around. obviously the festive season is one, but this year it's rather overshadowed by the move from my home of 6 years in north london to a life of temporary abode in new zealand and beyond.

The 'beyond' aspect is a recent development since having been made redundant from the engineering consultancy that i work for. a very sad time - a small firm of 7 of us, having worked hard together over the last couple of years unable to continue without a sustainable amount of activity in the industry for an outfit of our size. So, its good-bye's all round and i'm counting my blessings for having planned up to 6 months without income. perhaps things here will be moving again by the summer and i'l be able to return to Akera's - but on the other hand this really does free me up to explore any oppurtunity which present themselves over the next few months.

its a bit of a driver to really give the racing my best shot and see where that can get me. this might mean adjusting my targets a little higher as the year goes on, i'll assess that after the race in new zealand. for now, progress is satisafctory - swimming is coming along ok. i have more than doubled my swim volume to date compared with this phase last year, and seen some small progress. i remain optimistic that continuing to work at it and maintain a volume of 16-18k/week of focused swimming will eventually bring results.
My running is back on track after a slightly worrying period of trouble with my ITB and knees, and again i'm averaging about 50% more mileage each week than at this point last year - which was a good year for running with my first sub 3 marathon and a 3:20 IM run at Germany. the thought of either of those at present fills me with a cold dread, but i am certain that it did then too! that sort of thing hurts - but a year on with decent and consistent training, it should hurt that bit less. or rather - it should hurt for that bit less time ;o)

as for teh bike - well, i'm doing what i can, but for now just riding. i had some testing done on saturday - (a Vo2 max test, if you like though for various reasons we didn't go 'to the max' this time) which provide me with data that i will start using for my bike training once we get out of the bleak midwinter and onto kiwi turf. Steven has fitted the powertap to the Obi - my race bike - which i will be riding full time when we are over there. Prepartion starts in ernest in janurary - and i'm itching to get on with it - but for now i just need to keep my fitness up with at least one long ride each week, supplimented by regents park intervals and a fixed ride if possible.

i'll write more detaisl about the testing that i mentioned in my next post ( and try to do it soon ) - right now it is bed time.

plans

2009 is looking to be some year for me now. having paid entry for ironman new zealand and deposits for epic camp new zealand a month earlier, an extended training trip to the southern hemisphere was certainly going to feature in the early part of the year. it got us thinking, and last week my boss agreed to my request for a 6 month sabbatical leave. flights are booked for 5th janurary!

we'll hit christchurch exactly at the start of the first race preparation phase of my training for the ironman, and be in ideal environment, summer weather and without time constraints or stresses of a day-job ;o)

taking this time off work will also enable me to spend time on lanzarote prior to racing there in may too. the cost of accomodation, half board, in the resort hotels is cheaper than paying rent and living in london!

i have signed over my flat and am currently going through the process of whittling down and selling, donating, throwing or giving away my possesions - everything that cannot be distributed amongst friends and family for safe keeping, stuffed into mum's attic or a rucksack. this part is a little unnerving, as is the scrutiny of my saving accounts and sketching out budgets for the period, which don't quite exactly square up. but the time seems to be right with work, with my current triathlon performances and goals and for steven too, for a change and taking a chance - and having a bloody great time seeing a bit more of the world!

who knows, i might even knock out some decent performances next year

dorset coastal marathon

http://www.endurancelife.com/results/trail/dorset/2008/split_timesV05.htm

well, fair play to the legs this weekend - not only did they manage to support me for almost 4 and a half hours of sliding around on slick Dorset coastal slimy mud, but they felt remarkably reasonable the following day....

Dorset Coastal Marathon report.
The view in the picture was presented to us around 20 minutes into the run, by which time the tone for the day had been well and truly set as we'd made our way from the beer garden race HQ, through water logged footpaths towards the coast. The weather had been appalling for the entire drive down from London, and i was fully dressed up for it with leggings, shorts, long sleeves under my running vest - topped off with my featherlight shower proof and buff on the head. I had been shivering on the start line but within minutes of starting to run i was overheating. The rain had stopped and as we left the wooded section of foot path and broke into the open, were treated to the sight of hopeful patches of blue sky. I had no intention of rushing this race, so i stopped to remove a couple of layers of clothing. It was apparent that my lack of experience of running this terrain would be the greatest challenge for me today, as i seemed to be sliding 1 foot back, or sideways, for every 2 that i put forward! It was seriously hard going and required me to adjust from my usual race mind set to avoid the frustration. Today I had to forget about being a fast runner and enjoy the experience, the challenge, the scenery and the company. So, for the first time in a long time, i was in a race but not in a race - doing it for the fun and the giggles - chatting to people around me as we ran along, fell on our arses, grabbed handfuls of mud and brambles trying to regain some sort of traction underfoot...and were presented with a number of climbs similar to the one pictured!

Actually - getting up something like this is pretty easy once you forget about running, then forget about walking, then forget about using only half of your available limbs and realise that those clumps of grass poking out of the mud are strong enough to prevent you from sliding back to where you came from, as you don't stay still for too long. Getting down them is a trickier matter, unless you are prepared to go arse first in a manner similar to described above, or are pretty good ski-er. neither of which applies to me, so it was a case of spotting the most solid piece of ground, with the least slippery mud on it,and using it only briefly to support your weight. This requires a lot of concentration and rhythm, but i found that i became quite proficient at this during the time that we were out there.

The course route was a figure of eight loop from Worth Matravers, first heading west along the coast path before turning inland to Kimmerage and back 6 miles over fields to meet the same stretch of coast path that we started that loop on. As well as the marathon distance there was also a half marathon and 10km event with staggered start times, and it was at this point that we met the half marathoners on their way out on the loop. We had a laugh crossing on those paths, and i did feel for them having to follow our rout after it had been all churned up by our feet(and hands, and arses)..but not that much because the lucky buggers didn't have another 13 miles to run out to the Swanage peninsular and back. The second part of this figure of 8 loop was easier going; still plenty of hills and fairly slidey, and by now the paths were populated with walkers too, but there were reasonable length runnable stretches, fortunatley including the final section of inland footpaths back from Swanage to Worth Matraver.

Having been running, albeit at an easy pace, for 4 hours by this point those last miles were pretty tough. My Garmin ws telling me that i'd covered 19 miles at the last feed stop, which had been advertised as the 20 mile point - i found that a bit disheartening, but had some food and set myself psychologically for a 7 more miles knowing that this would take a further hour at the very least. I could see the runners ahead ad around me dropping pace too, and focused on remaining steady and stronger than them. I passed Jamie, a club mate, who was having a hard time too. he asked me if that was the village ahead. i told him dont get your hopes up - we have 4 miles to go yet. at the next turn our route met the 10k runners (actually most of them walkers y that time) and over heard on of them saying 'about 2km more' The guy next to me agreed that sounded very optimistic! But as the route clearly WAS approaching this village, and it was the only one for miles around, it became clear that the finish was in sight - about 4 miles sooner than i'd expected. Hilariously, the very final 300m stretch of ground was an absolute mud slick churned up by all 3 races finishing over it ...and so my sprint finish was a very subdued sprint teeter on the verge of face full of mad cow infected mud in front of a the biggest gathering of people that Worth Matraver has seen in a long while! whilst i felt pretty bad for delivering false doleful news in his moments of despair, i am sure that he didn't believe me anyway, and if he had, would have been as pleased at the surprise early finish as i was.

ITB or not 2 be...

uh oh... the illio tibio is twanging ! the first signs of an old problem made themselves known this weekend with pain on the front of my knee-cap which i know from experience would precede swelling and pain beneath the kneecap due to tension in the itb moving it of it's tracking if left unchecked.
bad news for 57 runs in 57 days.
so i today i've thrown everything in my repetoire at it - rest, foam roller, ice, yoga, protein, massage, and possibly some more rest.
with luck and this sort of attention over the next few days i'll have nipped any further knee problems in the bud.

this has given me cause to pause and ask what it was that's brought it on - i have taken training pain-free for so long that the idea of enforced diversion from my weekly schedule is pretty frustrating. however, flexibility is critical and the designed training plan was not written in stone, or by an expert - and here is an oppurtunity to reveiw and improve it.
writing my own year plan and schedule was largely an exercise in numbers; i have no training in sports science or physiology and only my own epxerieces to draw on. it followed a logic along the lines of - "if i want to improve my running by 5%, then i should do 5% more run training". of course i know that it aint THAT simple, so i read around - find some priniples and theroy that appeals to me, and intergrate that into the schedule, along side swim and bike sessions which are obtained in much the same way. so, with a basic volume derived from data from my own previous years' training log and the session progression and details taken from various resources to which i'm currently subscribing, and have proven results for others. getting it all to fit together is really a case of trial and error though- and the only way of knowing if it WORKED is by better results at the end of the day. and i'll never know whether it might have worked better another way.

one thing for certain though - if i'm getting injured, sick or too fatigued to enjoy it, then it is NOT working, and needs a reveiw. it's a bit of a strange time to be making changes, since i am just approachin the end of my initial 6 weeks 'getting back into it' phase, but here's the list for consideration:

*111 hours of training since a complete rest day -perhaps 100 hours should be the most that i allow myself to go without taking a total 24 hour break

*my diet has been pretty poor during the last 5 weeks of training; i've been deliberatly relaxed about this, which i do believe was a good idea, but perhaps now its time to switch the focus towards more nurishing food as treats

*long run friday night followed by long ride saturday morning - i really do enjoy heading out of the office at the end of the week and running for 2 and a half hours around the park and sights of the city on my way home, but on each occaision that i've organsed to ride on saturday because of a sunday race, my quads have been absolutly shot to bits by monday! that's a lost day of training and, as i'm seeing now, potentially longer if it generates an injury. so - i think that'll be the end of that paticular combo for me.

*complete absence of core and strength work in my schedule. rather - it is in the schedule but i have not been doiong it. it's boring and easy to dismiss it as less important than a run , or rest, or cleaning up, or writing a blog post. its just a matter of getting into the habit, which i have been very sucessful at before once over the initial inertia.

it's quite pleasing to have identified 4 things that i can modify with fairly litte effort and believe that each of them will help keep me on track

E_P_I_C

today was a great day for swimming, exciting plans and cake. unfortunatly it was not a great day for getting design infomation issued or knees, but you really cant have everything.

swimming - feeling so low on energy and motivation on wednesday, which i put down to onset of a cold that i skipped the evening swim session. an evening spent queitly whatchig tv seemed to have done me good as i felt 100% the next day and determined to make up the lost workout. reckon that they'd filled the pool with fast water that evening as i was feeling comfortable at a considerably quicker pace than target, even whilst doing the set on my own in a public pool. this morning's swim session was similar - usually my friday swim is a sleepy and half-hearted 90 min effort to maintain a steady pace...but this morning i was again shaving seconds off my target rep times throughout the session. it could be that i am just a little less fatigued this week, which i have found really impacts my swimming - and if so its worth my while monitoring this as my pool motivation improves dramatically when i can see improvements like this.

exciting plans - this is the best part - we've just confirmed our places for EPIC camp New Zealand!! http://www.epiccamp.com/newzealand09/index.html it was such an insane training experince in Italy last year, and being the home turf of Scott and John, the guys behind the Camp I get the sense of real familiarity with people coming back year on year. some real stars too, going by tales that we heard whilst out in italy - i also think its a larger group with a harder hard-core. it'll be great to see a few of the guys who we met out in italy as well as meet a couple of professional iron-girls who i gather are signed up. and with the ironman 4 weeks after the end of camp, we are looking at a pretty long trip to the other side of the world now too.....which will certainly make winter training a bit more palatable!!

cake - we said farewell to Ola, the architect from Poland, today. she baked a cake - which we all agreed was the most delicious cake ( a sort of unbelievably light chocolaty almondy tarty cake) that anyone had ever tasted. we felt rather sorry that she had witheld this talent untill her final day....but it was probably for our better health. so thank you Ola, and good luck with your ventures in Poland and if you ever come back to visit, bring cake.

home

Mum loves the coast, my sister loves the forest, but for me its got to be the rolling expanse of moorlands. here's one of my favourite veiws, taken on one of my favourite rides from the top of Dunkery Beacon (one of my favourite beacons!.

It's great to get back to somerset for the weekend. After an early start I arrive in time for breakfast at my mum's before heading out onto Exmoor on the bike. This Saturday i'd planned a 3 or 4 hour ride, to be back in time for a nice leisurly afternoon with mum; a spot of shopping in town and resting up after a tiring week. But the sun was out and the sky perfectly clear and I could not resist the temptaion to explore a couple of new routes up an over the Beacon. I only just made it back to Taunton before dark, and in time for the carnival.

It was a hard ride - almost 7 hours in the saddle, covering 95 miles over the tough Exmoor terrain (I ride much of the route of 70.3UK and the "Exmoor Beast" cyclosportif) with only a couple of breif stops to check map, take a pitcure and pick up some flap jack at Whedden Cross - and I was glad to be able to set my own pace. I felt strong, but not powerful. It is interesting that it's bike form that I seem to loose the fastest and then find hardest to re-gain. Last year, despite plenty of long rides, it was summertime before I really began to feel strong on teh bike. So, I will be looking to start my campaign of power-specific bike training (which did the trick last year, in the end) much sooner in my season's schedule next year, with the hope of being ready for IM new zealand, in march.

That' s my justification of missing quality tiem on the high street with mum anyway - i need to make the most of this period of leisurly endurance rides admiring the views!

up, and running

Having eased myself back into training for the winter, the last couple of weeks have seen some very enjoyable training. Feeling refreshed, focused and.... basically not totally physically wasted, I’m finding renewed enthusiasm and energy. This could prove to be double edged sword – whilst I’ll continue to enjoy training when it is going well keeping my motivation high, the enthusiasm and energy that I have for harder sessions is hardly appropriate for the time of year – certainly contradicts my own training plan which should consist of 8 weeks building aerobic base - and will no doubt take it’s toll before too long. But just as long as I keep this in mind, and remember not to let the hours run away with me (18 last week, 25 this week) and recover effectively, I have a great winter’s training to look forward to with some interesting events lined up to keep me on my toes...

Winter racing is all about running really. The cross country season started yesterday with the first of the Met League races. A gorgeous day, certainly not the weather I’d associate with XC, but with the usual, totally disproportionate amount of fear of the hard 6km cousre we were about to run far too fast for out own good. Without much expectations in this scene, or with my current state of fitness, I started a few rows back and took my time working through the runners ahead. The lead girls as ever were way out of sight very quickly but in these events your score is based on position, not time so those unable to make the pace, don’t chase. I worked my way through the field , breathing hard but steady (unlike some of the wheezing and sobbing that you get to hear on these intense events), started the second lap in 20th position (which is my benchmark for cross country races), and finished 13th. There were a lot of drop-outs due to either the heat or just early season lack of fitness, but I was pleased with this position, and to score for my club.

We’ve also got the Regents Park 10k series http://www.chaser.me.uk/series_results.php?a_seriesid=3 to keep us going – the first being last Sunday. A day of torrential rain and mucho reluctance after a fairly solid 70 mile ride the day before, which itself was off the back of a Friday night long run of 15 miles. To be honest I turned up only in order to set a benchmark for the rest of the series, to be sociable with the good turn out of Tri London that these races attract and familiar faces from previous seasons. Despite my being really quite late, ,I was relieved that the start ad been delayed…and the morning took a further turn for the better when I was handed not only a prize of Runners Need vouchers but also my entry fees back! Apparetly I won last year’s series – having only raced 3out of 6 races and only actually won 2 of those. So if nothing else it was certainly getting out of bed and soaking wet for. I also had a very enjoyable race spending the entire 3 laps chasing the lead woman. She got a start on me, with a couple of other girls. But having Gabriel on the start line with an unspoken challenge helped me with my early speed and I soon dropped the other female contenders and had the one in front within sight. Kevin came by me (we have very similar race results and a little competition there too) so I tried to pick up pace, passing Gabriel in the process. I was unable to stick with Kev though and watched his back disappear. My focus then was to chase the lead, around 15 seconds behind her I felt that I had the psychological advantage as well as superior endurance, and didn’t try to close it until the final 2mile lap. Oh, and then did I push. I pushed and pushed until my lungs nearly came out my arse, but despite this, and all the encouragement from spectating friends, I could not reel her in. Of course she had known I was there and had something in reserve too. The best I could do was put a little squeeze on in the finishing 400m, and settle for second knowing that I could NOT have worked that race any harder. I was rather surprised, given the effort that I’d put in, that my time was 40:41. It’s not a fast course but I managed under 40 at the end of the last series. But – I really could not have run harder and it’s a benchmark.

Still on the running theme -Monday saw the start of 40 runs in 40 days. Last year we spotted this link: http://mdotdoc.blogspot.com/2007/10/30-runs-in-30-days.html
and thought it was an excellent idea for kick starting the running without overdoing it on speed. Several club members found their running much improved after the end of the period, and I continued the theme expanding from 30 in 30 to 40 of 40 in 40 and finally, leading into IM Germany, 50 of 50 in 50. I’m currenty7 days and 6 runs into this one. Not having run today, I ‘owe’ run, which means that tomorrow I’ll need to run twice for at least 40 minutes each time. This means that instead of riding to the pool, I’ll run - it won’t cost me too much extra time. In fact, tat’s the great thing about the challenge – suddenly you’re running everywhere! And being time, not distance, based you very quickly learn how long it takes to get from your regular As to Bs at a easy pace. The ability to bank runs or o into debit, makes the challenge a little easier to manage than simple running everyday – not only from a time point of view but it does allow a little recovery if the legs are feeling the strain, or if my ride turned out to be a lot longer or harder than intended.

The hope is that with these regular 40-60 min runs, plus a long run and a short race each weekend I’ll be in decent shape for the coastal marathons http://www.endurancelife.co.uk/event.asp?series=1 that I’ve signed up for in Dorset in November and December!

relucant to re-boot

yes it's been a bit quite around here, i've not felt like posting anything for a while. i s'pose that it's the triathlon related nature of this space which puts it into the catagory of things that i've been avoiding for the last few weeks whilst i concentrate on getting unfit and letting go of the 2008 season. I've not been logging the light exercise that i've undertaken during this period, measured my weight or monitored my morning heart rate.

not to say that i've not been thinking tri. there has been considerabe analysis of the year past and even more directed towrd the year(s) ahead. funds have been sent to Ironman for teh privalage of racing Ironman newzealand ( march 2009), ironman lanzarote ( may 2009) and the biggie ...ironman Hawaii (oct 2009). Race goals and training objectives drawn up in complicated spreadsheets over cans of lager and junk TV. all looks very impressive...and now the time has come to start the campaign towrads these fabulous results.

but you know what? i don't really feel like it. i'm really enjoying the sessions that i'm doing, and executing them far better than i'd expect given the fitness that i've lost since Wisconsin - i suspect due to not being tired! however, my motivation to do the session is very low. in fact i'm finding that i'm lacking motivation for most things, except for science fiction. hmmm. of course i'm slightly frustrated about not being on a certain polynesian island right now (the one who's name must NOT be uttered in my presence), and maybe just a bit S.A.D.

i suppose it's time to confess to being maybe a bit more than a BIT sad. i'm an obsessed triathlete, there's no doubt and the last three weeks have really brought this realization home. without the fug of fatigue or the whirr of rushing from training to work, from work to training, training to bed; without the preoccupation with distribution of kit between home/office/stevens/laundry and calorie intake with the correct nutrients in the correct proportions...i find myself seeking distraction, and failing to find anything that quite fills this void - i'm actaully a bit bored.

so why this reluctance to get stuck in and on with it? on the one hand it's the knowing that fairly soon i'll be back in the routine that leaves no room for anything much else in my life, on the other there's the fear that there is no longer much else in my life..and a sense that perhaps i ought to invest some time in re-establishing the neglected social networks and cultural connections.

or it could be that its just fucking cold and dark out there ;o)

reflections

If you recall my post "wisco a-go-go II" where I predicted a
Swim of 65min
Bike 5h35
Run 3hr25
Total 10:15
you probably wont be too surprised that my feelings of satisfaction with Sundays race were coloured by a sense of disappointment in my performance. It seems terribly arrogant to say that despite picking up the shiny goods, and earning the right to compete in the world championships next year, I could not see far past the fact that I’d failed to achieve my stated race targets, in perfect racing conditions.

Even during the race I was aware that I was behind the pace required to hit these, and coupled with the general feeling of not ON the game for this one, contributed to some pretty negative internal dialog.

Rather than being able to join with Steven in celebration of both of our great performances and upcoming trip to Hawaii, I felt terribly depressed. That is until the point in the awards banquet when, as I was called to collect my trophy my race time of 10:33:37 was announced as a new F30 age group course record. I was curious – perhaps I’d mis-heard, so later I checked the race website for course records and discovered that this was actually the case. The fastest ever female age grouper over the course was 10:19:28 in 2007 (perfect conditions that year too). So, I’d been targeting to smash that by 4 ½ minutes. Certainly possible, given that she achieved this with a 65 min swim and 3:34 run, but that’s not what I would call ‘smart goal setting’.
I read on.
A 3:25 marathon would have given me the 7th fastest ever run by a woman (including Pros) over the course and a 5:35 bike split is more comparable to the top half of the pro field than a realistic target for myself.

These are all attainable goals, but my big mistake was failing to appreciate the level of performance required for each, let alone to bring them together, and bring that level to my race. For a start, I would have used race wheels, rather than choosing the white DT Swiss Monchassueral on the grounds that they look very nice on my bike with blue tyres on!

So, on reflection I’m significantly cheered by this, and have taken in a very valuable lesson in perspective when it comes to goal setting and expectations.

Ironman Wiscosin Race reoprt

The last race of the season, I was just looking forward to finishing this one. Probably not the best attitude to be approaching a race with an important goal - one of the first slots for the 2009 World Championships in Hawaii, and a win to round off a season of not settling for second in any of he races I’ve entered…. But I guess this year of increased training volume and Ironman focus has taken it’s toll, despite being in good shape, I was weary and not highly motivated in the run up to race day.

However, at 6.30 am we were treated to a beautiful peach coloured sunrise which promised a fine day for racing, as we assembled at the lakes edge before nervously entering the warm waters. Friendly chat and nervous jokes amongst the bobbing competitors, the American national anthem ( very serious) and cheers as the pro field set off 10 min before the main mass start. And I do mean mass start – one of the largest racing fields on the circuit, 2000+ competitors lined up. Gun goes and the battles commences, hitting the shits out of each other in futile attempts to find a bit of water to swim through. This was probably the most chaotic swim experience I’ve had to endure – and it did not seem to ease off until the return leg of the first lap. It made the time pass quicker though! I felt that I ws swimming well, moving water with long strokes and despite a little mind wandering mid way, reasonable ‘on it’. I exited the water in 64 minutes, having targeted 65 or better, this gave me a lift.

‘Peeled’ of my wetsuit ( an NA Ironman tradition) the route to transition was around 3 flights of the spiral ramp of the multi-storey car park, where I passed a number of people, quick flight through T1,change tent and into the long bike zone.

Buzzed up, and cold, I hit the first section of the ride, which was a flat route out of town, fast. Kept working hard for about 20 minutes, to get warm and pick off as many of the faster swimmers ahead of me on the course as early as possible. Once on the 40 mile loop the terrain becomes tough with constant undulations, the sort of route that could easily blow up on if taken too aggressively. My plan was to take it conservatively for the first lap, riding all of the climbs seated, which I did. Really lovely scenery, and some friendly exchange and encouragement on a strong ride from the guys riding my pace. The Union Jack flag that I pin to my butt draws a lot of comments, mock English accents and I got one call of ‘Jolly Good Show’ ! The crowd support was awesome all the way round the loop despite the majority being very rural and apparently isolated.

At the half way point I noted that I was a couple of minutes down on my target time, and just under 1mph below target average pace, so decided to try to pick it up. There were a few other women a little way ahead, who I was able to pace of once I’d caught up and had them in my sights. I’d got through most of my solid race food already by this point and the plan was to switch to energy drinks bars and bananas from the aid stations. Unfortunately, either due to lack of concentration, or just riding too fast through, I missed several catches here and by around the 80th mile, I started to feel pretty drained. I’d been desperate to pee for hours. I made the difficult descision and stopped at the side of he road -I’d realized that I wasn’t likely to pull back the lost time and achieve my target 5.40 split, and thought I’d at least I could save time in transition and possibly save my kidneys too. Things were a bit better after this and the delay had brought a couple of female riders into my territory too, giving me a focus to get me through the tough final miles. 90 miles round and hunger knock hit – cold sweats, disorientation and sudden loss of power. Luckily I’d not yet passed the final aid station wheree I slowed to make sure I got a gel and some Gatorade, which was sufficient to pick me up and keep pace with the women who’d passed me on the flat return stretch towards the Capitol Dome marking the centre of Madison’s skyline.

Up the helix car park ramp, buzzed up on sugar, a fast transition to see what could be done on the run. This year, the run has been my strength and usually my chance to make up for losses on the bike, and I felt good I head out through the lively crowds in the centre of town. As usual first mile ( mile markers not km – quick calculations required!) was fast – and knowing that I had at least one woman ahead and one very close behind, having been through T2 together, I just try to hold that pace for as long as possible. Probably not the most sensible stratergy – heading out too fast – but it seems to work for me. I feel that I should make the most of it whilst I’m fresh, and with luck settle into a faster pace that I would have with a conservative start. This time the pace lasted only 3 miles or so – and was gutted when the woman in my age group who’d been just behind me caught up. We had a chat, about positions and pace – she was sticking to 8 min miles, and asked if we could run together. I was hoping to run faster, and competitive instinct forced me to pull away again on the hill through the WI campus. Not long after I hit my first bad patch – she passed me again and pulled away. I ate a gel, which picked me up sufficiently to reel her back in over the next 2 miles. I was splitting over 8 min/mile though and I was running on empty. The only way to get through it was to take on as much energy drinks and gels as my stomache could handle – a tricky balancing act. Luckily I discovered that fresh grapes worked well for me too, so took those in between gel feeds, which saw me out of several bad patches.

Again the crowd support was absolutely awesome – really welcome and I found that the morei smiled and responded to the cheers and comments, the more support I got. People really like to see ladies at the front so I got a lot of ‘girl power’ ‘go iron woman’ shouts form the ladies out around the course. We had our names printed on our numbers, which enabled me to hear how close my nearest competitor was behind me – she seemed to be dropping back. I knew that there was one woman ahead of us, who I’d not been able to make progress on, but she was not out age group. Things got a bit confused once we were on our second lap and I must have passed her, because ultimately I finished first age group woman. All I knew at the time was that I was narrowly holding onto first place in my age group, but quite a way of my target marathon time of 3.25. By mile 20 (oh, how I love to pass that sign !!) I was running a comfortable steady pace and thinking that I might manage 3:30, for a 10:30 finish. By mile 24 it was clear that was not to be. But compared to the elation of running up State Street and around Capitol Square for the final time, and knowing that I’d even managed to pull off the age group win after a seriously testing race experience, it seemed trivial. I might not have gone as fast as I‘d expected to – but no one else in my category had gone faster ;o) - and a few valuable lessons were learned along the way.

swim 1:04:15
bike 5:48:19
run 3:32:28
total 10:33:37

Race build up in Mad Town

After 3 days I’ve about got my bearings on Madison and really starting to dig the place – when all of a sudden The Ironman has arrived and taken over the town in a frenzy of Ford advertising, M dot merchandise and inflatable Gatorade bottles!! Not to mention the lean, tanned and logo’d up influx population strutting around the place….though as Steven quite rightly points out – sure that we look just as intimidating to them. I think probably more so ;o)

Although it’s the state capitol there’s a real small town feel about Madison – friendly and relaxed. Arriving on Tuesday afternoon, it was a very muggy 90 F and dead quiet, almost to the point of being spooky. We did the usual fruitless and exhausting wandering in search of basics – cheap places to eat and/or buy picnic provisions took us around the dead quiet back streets – even the student areas seemed very quiet. It was a little unsettling. Jet lagged and tired I was suffering the usual dis-location anxiety that I experience on arrival a t new venue. A feeling of being ‘out of sorts’ and mildly depressed. Perhaps it’s plain old home sickness – though I surprise myself to say that, and would tend to put it down to lack of control – not knowing where I am, or the best place to go for such and such leaves me feeling a little helpless, for a day or 2 until I’ve sussed it out.

We have since found the more lively spots, but I think that in usual circumstances this is what you’d called a pretty sleepy part of the world. This is tempered somewhat by the large student population, making it a rather more liberal and outward looking community than the surroundings, I imagine. People are extremely friendly, and I mean genuinely friendly and interested – rather than the typical ‘have nice day ‘ sort of consumer friendly that I’ve experienced elsewhere in the states. Most find it pretty amazing that we have travelled so far to come here- and a number of the locals we’ve talked to have never been very far beyond the area (and why would they – it’s nice here!) it’s very refreshing.

Chatting to a meat farmer on one of the stalls in the market on Wednesday, he was pleased to hear that we were from London, since he’d traced his family back 12 generations to an Englishman who had travelled over in with the pilgrims from London. He recounted passages from his 11th grandmother’s diary describing waving the ships out of the port in London, knowing that she’d never see that line of the family again…what an incredible sense of history and family connectedness.

We’ve been out and checked the bike route. Fantastic scenery – nothing like I’ve seen before wide open and vast, dotted with ‘typical’ mid American rural farm or homestead buildings. Beautiful large timber houses among the long rolling roads. Mailboxes and star spangled banners adorning the acres of lawn. Very little else for most of the 40 mile loop that we’ll travel twice during the race. The glacial landscaping has left and interesting terrain – constant undulations as the road travels over drumlins and other glacial formations make it a very technical ride which will call for good judgment on gearing and exertions to get round it without busting the legs by halfway through lap 1. It’s the kind of riding that will not reward too much aggression, in the long run! Noting steep, but constant change of grade. Plenty of nice fast sections though! Being very open, a wind day could make this exceptionally tough, as do the terrible road surfaces (last night a t dinner I was told that this is GOOD for the states, since the government put more funding towards the area, being a route for dairy good transportation. Cant imagine how terrible it is elsewhere!) I think that I will try to save myself from blow-up with a ‘stay seated ‘rule for the first half of the route, at least. Though I know that if it’s exciting racing, I may not be able to be this disciplined!!

The swim is lovely to – warm water, and I’m really enjoying the new Snugg wetsuit. Its just that bit more buoyant than the old QR, which takes a bit of getting used to and does seem to result in a bit of an ache in my lower back due to having legs higer in the water, but it certainly helps off set the sinking feeling that I’ve been experinceing recently in the pool due to low body fat at the moment!
We swam on yesterday morning, in miserable weather and there was quite a bit of chop due to the winds – it made for hard work and a bit of random breathing on the shoreward stretch of the swim, but this morning was an entirely different experience – flat calm and fast swimming.

As we thought – it’s really the randomness of the weather that is causing the most uncertainty about this race – in the last 3 days we have seen it al – humid and unbearably hot, Tuesday, just about perfect on Wednesday, torrential rain and cold all day yesterday and today it is again race perfect conditions. We are obsessively following weather reports and asking the locals for predictions for Sunday – they are, of course, mixed!

As for the run route – it’s very meandering, I guess the idea is to run us through all the districts of the town; we pass through Capitol square, down the main street with al the cafés and bars on, around some resi blocks, into the football stadium for a lap, picking up a path around by the river and back through the middle of the student campus! With this many twists and turns, changes in surface and a few decent climbs, a fast marathon is unlikely but I think it’s going to be a fabulous atmosphere, judging by the enthusiasm with which all the locals, and IM Wisc vets describe the event.

Having finally slept a full night and seem to have shaken the mild tummy upset that has bothered me since the flight, I’m feeling a lot more motivated about the race than I have been up until today (as I said - I think I was just a bit out of sorts for a number of small reasons) and a short ride with a few cheeky little bursts thrown in, in the sunshine, is just what the doctor ordered.

Plus, we’ve found a great little, typical American diner.

Wisco a -go-go II

thought i should be brave and talk about my race targets for this one.

i decided to enter this race shortly after Kona 2007, which coincided with the end of season review and goal setting period. here is what i wrote in my diary at that time as targets for WI:

swim 62min
bike 5h40
run 3hr30
total 10:18

this was based on analysis of qualifying times for the fastest age group women, over the last 3 or 4 years and what i thought i could do in relation to these performances.
a 10:18-ish would typically win my age group (because of the proportionally smaller field and fewer slots for women, the stats don't work brilliantly for us)

at the same time i set my targets for IM Germany as :
swim 63
bike 5:20
run 3:25
total 9:54

actual results were
swim 60 ( short course for sure)
bike 5:17
run 3:20
total 9:43

so better than i'd hoped for at the start of the season.

Dare I adjust the Wisco targets?

well, unfortunatley i don't think i'm there with the swim, in fact i'm slower these days - current state of affairs would see me very happy with:
swim- 65 min

it's difficult to say not having seen the bike course, but i'm certainly riding stronger than at DE and its more my sort of terrain, as long as i don't over cook it, so let's say
bike - 5:35

having run 3:20 at Germany, i'm pretty confident about having one of the fastest run splits here - the past results dont indicate a fast run course though, so
run - 3:25 would be a good one.

with 6 min for transition that'd be
total 10:12 - so 10:15 looks like an attainable target.

maybe!!

Wisco a-go-go!

I've just finished wrestling the Obi into my bike box (real struggle even for my small bikes: DONT buy a DHB box!!) we are definitly on the way now. the count- down begins!

this has been a pretty painless taper - far too busy with work and tri club stuff and a damaged bike needing emergency transportation to Cycles Dauphin (in Surrey) to stress about my own physical condition. In any case i feel pretty good, only that i have certainly not slept enough this week.

I'd like to average 7 hrs in the lead up to a race. Still, we have a long flight ahead and a decent spell in Madison before race day so if my body needs it, there are oppurtunities to catch up next week. Otherwise it's all looking good.

The damage to the bike was a result of riding 90+ hilly miles on a seriously 'out of dish' wheel. and rubbing a groove into the material of the rear stays. Obviously, gutting and cause for serious concern about whether it'd be safe to race on. So, 6 days before flying out to the states i'm considering my options fro setting up the training bike, borrowing or just risking it. Luckily, the guys at the bike shop, who gave it their prompt attention, didn't feel that its as bad as it appears and low risk. So Obi lives on, for now.

And Carritt is feeling pretty confident too; at race weight and satisfied with my training since IM Germany - as good as it could have been given the recovery period limiting time,as well as cumulative fatigue from a long year of higher volume.

In fact my only concern is that i've become a little complacent about it! I don't feel as much anxiety this race as usual. I'd have good reason to be - it's a tough course, expectations of my performance are high, but most importantly i'm hoping to qualify for Kona, so this one does matter!

Still, if my only worry is that i'm not worried enough, i'm in a good position.

So it's Wisconsin a go-go !!!!

the marvellous machine

“The human body is a marvellous machine”, says swim coach and guru Paul, “it finds rest wherever it can and uses it”. He’s referring to my swim stroke in this instance, my tendency to haaaaang on the front of my stroke, resting, before catching the water and starting the next pull. Now, in my mind, this is a good long stroke – which is what I have been trying to achieve for the last months. But Paul sees a dead spot with neither arm in motion and the deceleration of the poor girl who will have to overcome the ‘static’ resistance with the start of her next stroke. No wonder she needs the rest there! And no wonder her swim times seem to be getting slower!

He’s dead right about seeking rest out of any situation, grasping it and hanging to it for dear life. It’s natural, this preference for the easy option, the body is trying to preserve itself and it’s energy reserves. So much so that even those of us intent on overriding nature’s will, pushing the body and training it to be better than those of others, don’t even notice, let alone question it, and allow it to become habit. A continuous leg kick, for example – don’t see many club swimmers with one of those, do we? The legs sort of mirror the arms, waggle a bit to balance the body rotation and our arms match their rhythm. Paul had me practicing continuous leg kick with fins, to accentuate the sensation in the legs, and my arm turnover suddenly seemed to flow more continuously. It felt nice, smooth and fast. It also felt really quite tiring. Proof enough that Paul was right – I was missing the 23 micro naps each length!!

Applying the same idea to cycling, I discovered more shocking facts – my body really IS a marvellous machine when it comes to forming lazy habits! All cyclist have been told about pedalling through the entire circular stroke. I certainly know that’s what I should be doing. Do I do it? Do I hell – its far easier to stomp the down stroke and then…take a rest….stomp the down stroke…..take a rest. And I’m a relatively strong cyclist. It’s true that with riding the decelerating effect of this ‘rest’ is far less than in the water because the opposing leg is forced into position in time to take it’s turn so its far less noticeable.
So, on today’s ride, I was feeling good, and for a bit more power up a few of the hills I rode spells using ‘full circular pedal stroke’. As with the swimming, there was a noticeable increase in speed followed quickly by Dicso Inferno (burn, baby, burn) in areas of the legs untouched by my usual idle pedal stroke.

I looked for similar example in running. Couldn’t really find one….slowing down to a rhythm that requires minimal cardio effort doesn’t really count – that’s just slowing down. But I suppose that the ‘shuffle’ would be the best example – not bothering to lift the legs sufficient to extend the stride, land on the fore foot and benefit from the rebound that the ground can only really offer to an object landing above a certain critical speed.
Again – guilty.

I reckon we can find parallel examples in everything we do form how we file our paper work to dropping out H’s and T’s and saying ‘fucking’ instead of thinking of proper words….


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And a quick update on the training/preps for Ironman Wisco:

Since writing my last blog post, I bombed massively. It all fell apart on Wednesday….possibly NOT a coincidence that I’d gotten up 2 hours earlier that usual to watch the Olympic Games triathlon events live on TV at 3am the previous 2 days, whist trying to maintain my high volume week. So Wednesday morning, at 6.30 I’m stood at the edge of the lido , feeling extremely tired, a bit giddy and not very happy at all about the thought of a swim. A slow swim. Got to the office by 7. logged on ..felt really bad tempered, pissed off about the swim, and giddy. Back on the bike and headed home, called in sick and spent the day eating/trying to sleep/trying to decide whether to do my other planned sessions (tempo run/another swim) before coming to my senses, with a little help form Steven, and officially calling it a rest day. Damn, I needed it. The relief was massive – I did NOT have to train – I was starting my TAPER.

It took a few days to recover from the fatigue and drag myself out of the black hole of a mood that I’d been in, but I’m there now. And as if by way of thanks, my body gave me a little bit of reassurance today with a really good brick session. I felt strong and keen riding hard over the rolling terrain of Somerset, covering my usual 3 hour route so quickly that I had to add another 5-6mile loop to bring me close to the panned session time. I’d got my legs nice and cooked for the brick run, but pushed through and managed to get the first 6 miles knocked out at 7:20 pace.

It was almost as if body says to mind: “It’s OK , I’m in shape – look I can do it – but now I need you to take care of me and get me to the race fresh.”

last chances and final hurdles

Feeling pretty strung out at present. 3 weeks now until Big Race Day and I’m in my final large volume week(s) [last wed through to coming Friday]. In fact, this weekend was a key weekend for the final big sessions. It did not go well.

It was enjoyable, including a trip down to Kent to ride with a friend Jill (who has stormed the age group Olympic triathlon racing scene over the last few years, taking a silver medal in Vancouver recently), and to meet the swim coach who helped her to totally turned her swimming around. She’s pretty frightening on the bike too! It was great to catch up and get an insight into just how dedicated she, and her fiancé are. It also made me pretty glad that I stepped away from racing those distances, I’m not much n a fan of the excruciating agony that she must go through to produce +300watts AVERAGE over a 20 min turbo TT!! But I guess that if I didn’t live in a permanent state of ‘near exhaustion’ I might feel differently.

So, Saturday I completed my scheduled +115miles riding, broken by an hour session in the pool, and 1hr run with 30 min at race pace off the bike in 9 hours total training time.

Sunday was scheduled my key bike session- I’d eaten well and ensured 8 hour sleep, woke before my alarm, had light breakfast and was up for it. as we rode out, the enthusiasm drained and the usual dread of the hard session ahead set in. I’m kind of getting used to this feeling since I’ve started doing some more specific power based intervals on the bike, and know that I just need to push through it on the first interval and get into the zone, and I start to enjoy the feeling of strength, control, and the bike fitness that I’ve developed. It’s a mental thing. Unfortunately, though the first interval went well, I messed up the timing on the second – enough to throw me out of the zone. I’d been riding at slightly below target wattage, too, but attributed that to a bit of fatigue from the previous day. Now it started to bother me. I tried to get back on track, but for the next hour was unable to battle with myself to keep going. I was plain tired. I knew the legs could do it, but not the mind. I just wanted to sleep, or sit and stare vacantly at a wall. Mentally exhausted. I decided to bail - felt pretty terrible having to tell Steven, but he was pretty understanding. I knew that in such circumstances HE always pushed through.

It’s often tempting to compare myself to him, and have to remind myself that despite having similar goals and lifestyles, we inhabit very different environments. Each with their own benefits and strains, which we deal with differently. When training is so much an important part of your life, when your goals and ambitions are so great that they almost define you, the details of our emotional and physical environment are often neglected , but they play a massive part in our ability to contribute the energy required to live out those goals.

Back to the side of the road. As I say, Steven’s understanding and offers to ride with me back to Epping – I’ll return and grab a couple hours sleep, do my run and swim session whilst he rides on. We’ll meet later for tea and Olympics.
I was asleep within minutes of getting into bed, slept 90 min and headed out to run to the pool where I’d swim with the masters. The run felt ok, but slow. Like wise the swim, but I was pleased with myself for pulling the day back together.

But its all so slow at the moment. Since Wensleydale I have had no speed in me at all. The early part of the week, of course I was not trying for it, going easy for recovery, but I was dropping off the back of my lane in the club swim on times that I KNOW I can hit no problem on Wednesday. Thursday’s bike session was a real struggle to maintain power (through the hill reps went well before hand ) swimming on Friday was equally frustrating. This morning ( Monday )I was failing to make 100m times that I’d usually make easily, by 10 seconds.

There are a number of reasons I can think of for this – I don’t know which is the most significant.

1)Recovery from Wensleydale. It was a HARD race – perhaps I’ve done the usual trick of feeling good from a win/ pressure to keep training for WI and not recovered sufficiently

2)Diet. Last week I was trying out Maffetone’s www.philmaffetone.com (2 week carb free test – cutting carbs (sugars) entirely form my diet. I tend to eat very low carbs when getting down to race weight, but do eat a LOT of fruits and yogurts – in the 2-week strict no-carb test, these are out too. My body did feel different after 3 days, blood sugars much more stable, but the adaption phase is inevitably difficult. I don’t thing a period of high volume training was the best time to make these tweaks as my muscles probably need a bit of time to get used to the enforced change in fuel source!

3)Swim stroke – have I done something awful to my stroke with all the technical improvements that I’ve been trying to make?

4)General fatigue/overtraining. It’s been a hard year, thinking back, with periods of heavy training, racing followed by brief and shallow recovery periods. Approaching the end of the season, perhaps I’ve reaching the limit. I can see the end in sight, and perhaps this has triggered a response.

However, following the success of the enormous week at Epic camp at a similar period prior to IM Germany, I have scheduled the week as a deliberate overload week. I felt wasted at Epic – and not fast there either. I came out fine. I don’t think that I’ve tipped over into full blown burnt out.

I had a very useful chat with our swim coach, Paul, this morning. He could see I was not hitting my reps, and getting frustrated, so we discussed this fatigue. When I told him I was doing ‘high volume’ he asked a few clever questions. I was reassured by my own answers:

- how long have you been doing the high volume?
> hmmm about 2 weeks, and then 3 weeks the month before that , and 3in the month before that too, oh and before Germany…so actually, about 4 months.
- how have your performances been going during that time?
> fantastic. I’ve won every race that I have done
- when’s your next big event?
> 3 weeks
- and then what ?
>nothing !!

This made it clear to me, reinforced by Paul's response - he did not feel it was a worrying level of tiredness. "You've just got to complete the planned work.
The last hurdle...and then enjoy the taper, sharpen up a bit feeling fresh. and dont worry about the swim times - just push it as hard as you can....4 x 4 reps with 100 easy between ;o)"

hell and high water - Wensleydale triathlon

One of the ten toughest triathlons in the uk? dont gimme that! - i genuinely cannot recall having done as gruelling event as this (and i'm not one for shying away from anything cold, steep, wet - infact, just tell me it's 'brutal' and i'm rushing to get on the start list). The fact that its just shy of half ironman distance the only thing preventing it form being renowned as the toughest half in the world. And that' s without the weather that we had today. 10th august? of COURSE there'd be over a foot of chop on the small lake, transition 1 would be under 4ft of water! and why on earth would you DOUBT that you'd be treated to lashing horizontal rain, carried by 60mp gusts of wind over the tops of the Yorkshire Dales? packing summer race gear?? stupid southern cow - we're going 'oop north' to race this weekend...and we all know it's grim up north. Well, in my defence, when we recce'd the course 2 weeks prior, it hadn't been. The toughness had been provided by the lay of the land, as the bike route follows an extremely scenic course over the dales, taking in gradients +25% in generous measure but rewarding with some beautiful moorland scenery and fast descents (plus a couple of very very steep and technical ones for good humour). The 12 mile fell run takes an immediate skyward turn, testing the aerobic endurance on up to the top of the fell, and foot speed on the 6 mile descent to the finish line.

But this is just my sort of race. Having checked the course, and my current form, i entered this one with the win in mind and boldly informed the very friendly organizers, the owners of the bike shop from which the race starts and finishes, of the fact.

come saturday the 9th august, a rainy day in North Yorks, when i felt so far under the weather that i cut my training ride (easy 50 miler) short after 2 hours and sulked in bed instead, I was beginning to rue this bravado. Fortunately, the weather report for the following day was much better, so when we woke to bright skies I felt more positive AND I’d had a bit of a 'taper' too.

However, during the 50 mile westward drive to the venue the day turned steadily greyer, and wetter, and by the time we arrived, it was clear that Wensleydale was situated in an entirely different season, with weather akin to a miserable march day. We were not keen to get out of the car. This is exactly how it had been for Steven in 2006 - the first running of the event (only 40 or so competitors compared to 250 odd that had signed up for today), which he went on to win, and thoroughly enjoyed, so i was not taking these feelings of reluctance too seriously. if i am honest, i cannot think of a single occasion where i have arrived at a race actually wanting to go through with it. nerves, or something.

so we get on with it - scurrying out of the car between frequent and heavy downpours to assemble our bike to (fell) run gear in the Kudos Bikes carpark which is T2 for the day. no support is to be expected up on the fells, so as per fell running conduct waterproofs are mandatory and own water and energy supplies are to be carried up. i have only 1 sort-of waterproof jacket (brought along as 'token' for the hot summer racing that i expected) and had to choose whether to use it in the bike or run. Optimistically, i left it for the run, still hopeful that the weather forecast would prove accurate as the day went on.

The swim and transition 1 was about 6 miles away, so that was our next destination of the morning. we arrived to find that parking was a bit tight to say the least, the lake being at the bottom of a very steep and narrow lane. turns out the reason for this is that the bottom bit of the lane including transition area and the swim exit ramp, was entirely flooded.

well, that's the scene sufficiently set. on to the racing part.

the swim was shortened. not much disappointment amongst the crowd of frozen competitors huddled around the ominous looking waters in their wetsuits, in the rain. it would be a 400m straight out and back dash. Over the noise of the howling wind, i dont think anyone heard the starters orders, if any were given, and we all just started swimming when those around us did. it was like swimming into a vertical wall of water - swimming square out into the direction of the wind and waves. total chaos. actual swimming was out of the question, which is a bizarre way was quite relaxing - no one seemed too concerned about racing and there was really no scuffling between competitors as we all just did what we had to progress forwards. i saw several people calling for canoes around me within the first 100m. i was a bit surprised to discover that i was really quite enjoying it, and even felt a little disappointed when we reached the turn-bouy much sooner than expected. the swim in was super fast, of course!

transition was pretty slow - find bike in the bushes (remember - bike racks under 4 ft water, so we'd all just had to lay our bikes and kit out along the grass verges) and put on as much clothing as i had, whilst wet and shivering. Steven was still in transition doing the same.

first bit of the bike course is a 1:3 climb from the lake. luckily i knew this and had put the bike in appropriate gearing - unlike some! this was really a nice little 'starter' provided by the organizers to set the tone for the rest of the bike course, which i have described already. today though was the added discomfort and difficulties of my being very very cold and there being section where it was extremely windy. coupled with wet road, winding steep descents and a bike crash fresh in my memory i was not enjoying it much. The winds made it so treacherous that i was reluctant to take my hand away from my bars to grab water bottle or zip up my gilet, and my jaw was locked so tight from the cold that i had a face-ache and had difficulty eating anything ( i usually like to get some water and energy on board early in the bike leg - luckily it was not hot and the swim was short so i wasn't really in need of either). it was a total battle to stay on the bike and there were several occasions when i considered retiring form the race on safety grounds. the few supporters that had ventured out around the course were treated to some pretty grim facial expressions, I’m sure!

for the first half of the course i just concentrated on working hard where i could make progress and riding safely in other places - convinced of the fact that everyone else out there would just have to be doing the same. On the climb past Garsdale Station i was passed by a woman wearing Wonderwoman pants over her cycling shorts! she was flying up the 25%-er, and i though good thing too, in those pants....this cheered me up a bit and encouraged me to dig in. i'd passed a few girls early on but since then had really stopped thinking about the racing, and had no idea of my placing, but reckoned that realistically we'd be right up there. Wonderwoman and i played cat and mouse - she was amazing on the hills and I was in the unusual position of being stronger on the flatter sections. Just my luck that bloody wonderwoman shows up, i think. The last part of the course is a long rolling descent into Hawes enabling me to catch her and we enter T1 together. I guess i'm just a more hardened racer, as i was out on the run a good couple of minutes before she was. i did not know who she was, and could only assume that she was some local girl, born and bred on the fells, and would certainly have me on the descent even if i'd held her off on the way up. so i had my work cut out.

like the swim and the bike course the run was flooded and extremely windy. my gilet behaving like a sail - irritating but with the wind mostly from behind on the climb, i decided i could live with it - just made staying on the path a bit more tricky when those side gusts hit! it truly was nose-runningly, wimperingly gruesome! and people were coming down already!

I remembered that there had been a half length event, so that was not an issue - until we passed their turn point and then, being a straight out and back (up and down) run i'd get to see where i was in the field.
i counted 3 girls on the return from the full distance before the top. well, there you go. i could not see wonderwoman anywhere close behind me, but still, not winning is loosing ...thoughts like that running through my head as i checked to see if i could possibly run any harder. not really - the ground was too uneven, wet, steep, boggy..and my feet hurt. however, in the back of my mind i thought it fairly unlikely that there could be 3 women THAT far ahead of me - so reckoned that a 1 or 2 of them were probably in mixed relay teams. i just wouldn't know. so i pushed on, focusing on finishing as soon as possible, and in front of wonderwoman. superjo defeats wonderwoman! yeah.

after an hour we reach fog/cloud, we must be near the top, and suddenly steven appears. he yells 'those women are all in relays teams - you're leading!' exactly what i wanted to know. nice one. i see teh turn around cairn very soon after and realize that i'm not far behind steven, either.

spurred on its back down -but into a severe head wind! i hear the marshal laughing (or is that the howling wind, again? the sound has been ringing in my ears for 5 hours almost!) as i try to reconnect with the ground having been blown clear. take a note of the time to see how far wonderwoman is behind. about a minute and a half. oh hell - and she' s probably a fell runner - i really have to push this descent. a bit scary, with hips and elbows still open from the bike crash a fall would really be painful, so i'm totally focused all the way down. i get a load of people still on their way up ( and some blokes coming down past me) congratulate me - i'm just in the zone, and hardly acknowledge.

at last i reach flat ground, risk a look backwards - no sight - and push hard over the soggy fields. i'm feeling strong still, just weather beaten! a wrong turn costs me a few hundred meters and brings my chaser into sight. but i can see the town and the finish too. she cant make up the distance - can se? run hard along the final stretch of road, to the finish.

what a race -i am exhausted by the efforts, the mental strain, the cold. very happy to have stuck it out, and boosted by the win.

on the car ride back, we agreed - we'll do it again. Both Steven and i have had wins here - it'd be good to get them in the same year! and it'd be such a pleasure in good conditions ;o)

we're off for a run on the hills now, before hitting the road back to london.

dry

its been a tough week. and a dry week.
subsequent to the crash i was advised by kathleen, a friend who happens to be an A and E nurse and an experienced cyclist, that swimming is a total no-no with these open gash's and road rash that i have on my hip and elbow. of course my frist reaction was ...nah., i'm no wimp, of course it'll be alright to swim...but a bit more consideration, and my respect for her professional advice, i reckoned that a day or 2 out of the pool in return for rapid healing would do no harm. my body has had a hard time dealing with the wounds and monday and tuesday my glands were swollen, i had a sore throat and felt pretty run down. not much evidence of healing either.

there is a lot of conflicting advice as to how best to treat these sorts of cyclists wounds, too. keep it covered and moist in its own sterile environment? let it dry out and scab over? to use antiseptic spays or not to ( they can kill the body's own 'healing' bacteria as well as germs)? then there is the overwhelming choice of dressings available at the chemist...not knowing that i was doing the right thing was upsetting me, with Wensleydale Tri coming up at the weekend.
so, in the end, i let kathleen take over.

this has kind of thrown the swim push off track, but my consolation is that in the previous 3 weeks i have managed over 22k swimming/week. this week i chucked in a load of extra time on the bike, and took the oppurtunity to start building the run volume a little. despite the aches and pains its been a good week on dry land. i am really feeling that i'm getting in shape, and feeling good on the bike. sessions are now FUN and i can push it, and enjoy it.


some funny/though provoking things that drunks have said to me whilst i've been running:

"are you training for a race, or racing for a train?" - this tickled me initally, then i thought about it a bit more. bloody good question. am i just training for a race , or racing toward something else

"keep running - not that you need to" - i thought , yeah i'm nearly back. but then realized he was referring to appearance, and assuming that we who run do so to loose weight/look good. that whe we acheive that target, we are allowed to stop.

"nice hair" - this as i was running home late after an evening pool session. obviously, my hair was in a state, having exited the shower as fast as possible in persuit of sleep. so this guy said it ONLY to make me feel bad/self-concious about my appearance. again, the assumption that we run because we care about our appearance.

and a really nice blog by some of the residents living on 'my' canal route home from work, opposite one of the olympic development sites.
http://leabanksquare.blogspot.com/

tommorow i'll swim for the first time in 5 days, and get kathleen's opinion on the rotting gashes on my arm and hip!

team play and becoming real cyclist

the first weekend in august is always the club relays championships up nr nottingham, and since i joined tri london in 2004, the ‘notts relays’ has been an important fixture on the calendar. In the very individual sport of triathlon, the National Club Relays Championships offers a rare chance to work as part of a team, and in previous 4 years tri london have come away from the event with trophies of various colours – pretty decent for a local, open-to-all club with fewer than 100 members.
but in my position as race captain, each year i have difficult decisions to make when it comes to the questions: are we putting out our best mixed team? or are we going to try for a ladies/men’s team this year? and i cant help feeling that the WE refers to a fairly select number of our members (selected by and including me) – the rest just coming along for the ride without much overlap in our experiences of the day and often the half of the club who raced in the morning ( ladies and mixed wave) are on the m1 before Tri London Men’s 3 are even out of t2.
so, this year we tried a different tack; we entered all of our teams in the ‘open’ category, racing each other in the morning wave. 5 teams, picked by 5 captains, seemed pretty evenly matched – it brought members of all abilities together as part of a competitive unit. everyone had something important to contribute …and it could have been anyone’s race!
we had the excitement of seeing the lead change again, and again through the swim, bike and run, with the leading 4 ‘anchors’ all starting their lap within a 3 minutes spell with the lead changing yet again in that final 20 minutes!!! by far the best experience I have had at this event, despite the lack of gold, silver, bronze or even sunshine! And for me, the best thing was that it was shared by the entire tri London crew, gathered at the finish chute to loudly support all our guys finishing...in nothing better than top 20 position.

that was saturday, and despite my best laid plans to be back in time for a swim session, the early start, punishing sprint distance racing at full throttle ( i was MEAN on the bike), the long drive and the empty fridge all contributed to a 'day off' training. well, u gotta have 'em and i cant think of many better reasons

nonetheless, we woke on sunday feeling that this would have to be a big day. steven and i both had big (~5hr including 3hrs of intervals) bike sessions to get done, so alarms set for a 6.30 start we headed out of town. the weather was marginally better than the previous day had been, and though i felt totally drained on the warm up ride out (longer than we'd planned) once we split to start the session, riding a 15mile loop in opposite directions, i was really feeling good. i think the bike legs are coming! so i'm really into the session pounding along on the tri bars, its drizzling with rain and we're on country roads. next thing, making a left turn i'm no longer pounding along on the tri bars. i'm skidding down the road on my side. the bike goes even further and i'm looking the sky through the tree canopy wondering when i'll stop moving and just how many limbs i've broken and hoping a car doesn't come and run my bike which has gone all the way onto the road that we were joining, over...
..when i do stop i just lie there ..thinking F8CK F*CK how bad is this?...my next race...all that training....cant feel much. then the pain comes....stinging like mad and i'm shaking and shouting language to make a builder blush. but at least its just cuts and road rash. pretty nasty though. i am very very upset. must have been so pumped up that i went into shock - next thing i'm just crying like really crying and sobbing and even a bit of wailing probably! luckily there is no one around (or if they were, had been frightened away by the very loud and violent swearing ) or they really would have thought i'd broken all my limbs, and neck too.
pretty soon steven came round the loop and stopped. that started me off sobbing again - i'd ripped through my favourite shorts. i think he thought that was why i was so upset!! once established that i was ok really, he got me to check the bike, get on it and continue the session (i'd assumed that i'd just limp home and feel sorry for myself). which i did after a brief stop into a small garden nursery where a very kind old gentleman let me in to wash the wounds and did great job of patching me up.

so, we got 130 miles done, including the session in 7.5hrs. a bit longer than intended but we both felt good for having done it. i also managed to get to the pool for a 3km swim and some lessons in how to do BREASTSTROKE that doesn't look like old ladies social swimming! then off to fill my face with grub at luis's bbq for the tri club and see video footage of the previous day's relay action. of course my wounds were much admired and i felt very proud to finally be a proper cyclist having 'road rash' to discuss!

it is a bit inconvenient however - kathleen, who is a nurse, strongly advised against swimming which puts pay to the heavy swimming schedule that i'm following. must not loose focus on that - but with a fairly big race next weekend, i think that i should respect her professional advice and do what's best for a rapid recovery.

heat, frustration and .....august

if i were in preparation for a tropical climate race, i'd be delighted with the acclimatizatin currently on offer in unit 3.07. a room packed with servers, no air conditioning or significatnt air flow at the best of times, now that there is scaffolding and tarpaulin across the only windows, is a pretty sweaty environment. i'm feeling hard done by since i have nothing on sitet to go out and 'inpsect' at the moment, either! the tesco metro is doing good business as we are making ever more frequent trips there just to wander around in an air conditioned space...

so, by 5pm i was pretty keen on the monster swim set that i had planned in the lovely open air lido on london fields. who'd have thought - i wasn't the only one!! i battled for an hour in the far-too-narrow lane, focusing on stroke not speed, but with mounting pool rage at the dickheads who insist that they DO belong in the fast lane, despite the fact that after a single turbulent length of freestyle they resort to lop-sided and lethal breast-stroke before joining the gathering in the shallow end. right on the turn-spot. just this mornig gabriel confessed his 'peverse' enjoyment of this challenge - but he is an adrenaline junky ( see him ride through traffic! ) and i just wanted a nice long swim, thinking about my stroke and NOT how to best deliver a kidney punch to a backstroker without being spotted and evicted by the life guards....
long and short of it is that my patience expired just over half way through the set, and i'm frustrated off that now i'm behind on swimming for the week

tomorrow it will be august. how did THAT come around so soon? that means 4 weeks till wisconsin, which means this is the peak of my training. hahaha ha. sure deosn't feel like i've even got it off the ground yet.

so, a few more cheery snippets before i sign off -

on sunday i won the prince bishop triathlon. £75 worth of vouchers for shoes and kit, some decent data collection on the powertap, a good hard training session and a win does deliver a pretty good feeling, despite the relativley low key nature of the event. it also reminded me why i love triathlon so much - such a friendly scene, especially at these smaller events. northeners may talk a bit weird but they really are very genuine and refreshingly friendly people too.

last night wayne, our swim coach stopped me to tell me that the 'front' of my stroke was looking much better, throughout the whole set. he'd been tracking against teh lane ropes and apparently now i only loose about a foot per stroke! that WAS a compliment - he reckons anyting less than a foot backwards and you'r ereally getting there.....thinking about thsi amused me though: 1 foot (0.3m) per stroke - for me that's 20 in 25m - means for every 100m i'm actually swimming 124m - doesn't it? compared to luis, as an example, who takes only 16/length and looses say half a foot and therefor swims only 110m for my 124. No wonder he's faster !!!!

this morning i was cooking on the bike. not had that feeling for a while. 8 hill reps up west hill (a 4:15min (av) climb 2min descent, then met teh boys for a solid hour of 1min flat out/2 min recover. though most of them would get ahead with the initial sprint at the start of each interval, i was consitently catching, and passing them by the end of the minute on most of the reps. Turned it into a bit of a game, actually - really good motivation. whatsmore, i could see that the fellas seemed to be working a lot harder than i felt that i was, and at the end of the hour i did feel that i could have squeezed a few more reps out. Though i was hit by a pretty rapid onset of stomache cramping/ need of toilets by about rep 18 so i wasn't about to suggest it!

FACING the FEAR

its been a very busy week. i've had a pretty good one though, with steven away its just been a demonstartion of supreme efficiency and i've manged to get a lot done. 'getting a lot' done, however WAS a conveinient mask for actually putting off possibly the most important task on my list....writing a presentation that i agreed to give deligated on an NLP coachces course, speaking about how 'mental coaching' (NLP= Neuro Lingustic Programming) helps athletes. I agreed to do it a long whiel back, following a discussion about how much i HATED public speaking. How terrible at it i was and how it was probably one of my greatest fears! I reckon this probalby dates back to my days as an architectural undergradate at The Bartlett, which was FAMED for it brutal Crit sessions. Luckily I always seemed to come out of the firing line pretty well, but it could be a pant wetting-experience- especially when you knew that they knew that you were seriously blagging a project that was a good few weeks short of the amount of work needed to do it justice.... anyway I'd seen enough of my studio mates in tears as a result of a harsh Crit after several late nights hard graft.

Anyway, where my fear/utter lack of confidence in this area comes from is not important. What is of relevance is that when good old Jeremy, after our conversation, comes up up trumps with this 'favour' i could do for him...delivering a presentaion, about NLP, to a group of expericed NLP practitioners on a training course that he was running, about how his techniques can be used to help athletes/had helped me...what could i do but put on a brave face and agree to thrash this 'fear' out fo myself. all i need to do was be well prepared with a well thought-out talk of 90 minutes. Jeremy assured me of an open and responsive audience - after all, they were paying BIG BUCKS to attend the course. no pressure then!

so HOW is it that at 9.30 on a friday night, when i have a train to catch for my weekend trip away to yorkshire at 6am the next morning, i am battling to get the frigging computer to unfreeze and 'save' the presentation that i have finally finished so that i can sneak back to the office and print it out ready for monday morning.....? I even missed the final of Celebrety Masterchef!!! well, that'll be the busy week, won't it?

anyway - it got done, and i was pretty pleased with what i'd prepared. luckily it's a topic that i am fairly confident talking about, and included a fair few personal anecdotes and examples, which i could expand on if i needed - just had to keep on 'track' and avoid waffling into zones of bullshit, nerves or unitelligable mutterings of ...and ..ermmm.....er...oh hang on did i mention....er ...oh nevermind.

which i feel i may be doing with this blog post!

anyway, the presentation went BRILIANTLY. I really got into it, and enjoyed delivering it. The room had been set up perfectly, with my power point ( which i'd emailed to Jeremy late friday night just in case) set up on a laptop, angled subtly toward me so i could use teh slides as prompts, and projecting onto a creen behind. I was given a littel remote to change the slides and a cup of coffee. I could tell that the audience was interested and enjoying the talk - genuinley laughing at the little jokes i'd made and asking really relevant questions. I'd timed it almost to perfection ( we even ran over a little with all of the questins at the end) and a couple of teh audience actully put up their hand just to say what an intersting, relevant and enjoyble pesentaion it had been, that i was 'a natural motivational speaker' and clearly 'embodied everything that i'd talked about'!!!

I was totally shocked at how well received it had been - and so pleased that i'd had the guts to put myself into this position of deep fear, facing it, working hard and coming cleanly out the other side.

I was so pleased, in fact, that i 'treated myself' to a long easy ride in teh sunshine for the afternoon, instead of teh run, swim, unpacking, shopping, club admin, and laundry that i had planned for the rest of the day!

so, it's jo carritt.....now available for 'motivational speaking' bookings ;o)

weekend

HAHA all that said about the swimming...and saturday i skip my swim!!
just too tired after a difficult 5 hours out on the fixie. the plan had been to execute a bike session - so i headed out on one of my favourite 'flat' routes in essex. But, pretty early on in the ride, going through the rolling hills past chigwell row which i usaully use to get the legs warmed up, i changed my mind about that! i had a serious burning and aching going on in the lower exremities, which with a HR under 135bpm, could only mean residual FATIGUE. not a huge amount of motivation now, but i thought it'd be better to crack on and get it done rather than feel shite about bailing out and feel that i'm already behind on teh training plan.
the westerly tailwind got me to the turn-around in good spirits. but at precisly the furthest point, it started to piss down, and i'm aware of the strength of that wind, which would of course be a headwind for teh return, i knuckle down for the folwoing 2 1/2 hour slog home - in a funny way, i'm glad it's so tough.
i'm far more glad to get home and fed at the end of it. end up flipping a coin on the swimming - which means that i've already decided it's not that important. i'm off to a party later in the evening, followed by an early start so figure a few hours rest would be better value.

sad but true: i spend the free time looking over race results for my ironman performances, and working out the performance targets associated with my 2 year racing (outcome) goals. i may post those details in a future entry, but for now i'm just concerned about the swimming.

yes, back to swimming.
typically, i'm currently racing at about 1:40/100m pace, in a wetsuit. i regard this as underperformance since i can rep 100m off 1:40 pretty comfortably in the pool, and i swim faster in a wetsuit, and should swim faster under racing conditions, too!
the top 5 female swimmers, typically, are exiting the water 8/9 min quicker than me - a pace roughly equating to 1:25/100.

so, my target, ultimatly: to be able to rep off 1:25 in the pool. this is around what the guys in the top lane on our wednesady tri club session are doing (well, some of them are doing better than this ) so a more immediate target is to move up into that lane by the end of the year. hanging on with them the best i can to start with should pull me along until that pace is manageable.

this seems like a hell of an improvement - and it is about 15%- but with increased volume, and working on the technical critique i've had, a break-through is possible. here's hoping.

oh, and by the way - i was BACK in the pool today - a 4.1km swim including a set of 5x [300 in 4.40 + 20sr] followed by an hour of butterfly technique drills with the masters, in which we ot to use fins. awesome fun!!! a bit hard on the legs though - having run the Milton Keynes half marathon this morning (which went surprisingly well in the context of yesterday's suffering on teh bike, and the amount of champagne, french cheese and chocolate brownie churning in my guts when i got to bed at 1am !)