the year that was 2009

a slow start to 2010, so whilst steven is taking the chance to sleep off a few beers, i thought i'd take a look through my training diary from 2009.
the changing of the decade is usually not that significant in terms of my training year, which starts and ends in the autumn - usually October if Kona is on the calendar - but it just happens that janurary 2009 is when i became 'full time' and we began our 'journey' around the globe in pursuit of warm weather, cheap digs and inspiring training environments.

2009 kicked off with tickets to NZ bought out of the redundancy pay, bags packed full of excitement and expectations for a year of total age group dominance as a full time Ironman triathlete. 3-4 weeks in janurary exploring the wonderful training opportunities in Christchurch followed, logging +40hrs /week prior to Epic Camp New Zealand in feburary and i'd certainly logged more volume than ever before. Of course its not a linear relationship and the inevitable fizzling out was only just around the corner. Its tempting to pinpoint the moment as somewhere around 25km into the run course at Ironman New Zealand in march, but for sure it'd been happening since Epic. steven's tendon injury, hasty surgery and ordeal of transporting a distressed invalid back across half the world certainly impacted both my psychological and physical state post race and this was certainly the low point of the year for both of us. however, on the positive side, the time i spent in somerset was great for establishing a very good network for training with local gyms, triathlon and swimming clubs. I had also enlisted the help of scott molina to coach me through the season to Kona. i dragged myself through a couple of unimpressive marathons in april, recovered poorly and it was not until we arrived in lanzarote for for a month of pre race preparation in may, and steven was really on the road to recovery, that i was able to focus on getting into shape. scott managed to pull me through and the race came good, just about.
A decent bit of recovery and DIY followed this race and from here on things started looking a lot better. A summer spent in the UK, june was a time for riding in somerset, july we relocated to Rutland for a house-sit and some solid cycling around a new area of the country in a large country house there were few distractions except for the milton keynes olympic distance race. not a bad day out with a third place finish there though my transition skills had seriously gone to the dogs with all this long distance stuff! august brought the ETU long distance championships in prague, a chance to race in GB kit again and try a new distance - not really to my advantage with a 4k swim and only 30k run, but with a solid couple of months training behind me, i raced well there and returned with a gold medal, a couple of new acquaintances and bit of a confidence boost. in september a favourite pre kona prep/test race the vitruvian brought us back once again to our friends on Rutland. though I had not been showing great strength in training, i felt sure that i must be in good shape - but the result was a disappointing performance and third place finish. 15 minutes slower than i'd covered the course in previous years and probably attributable to a careless attitude toward a race which i'd assumed to be as good as won. that and the hot competition! the following day was my birthday and we rode the 110 miles back to london with a few teas stops along the way before getting back to the business of preparing for the world ironman championships. first class flights for us thanks to a very generous mate of steven's made the long journey to Hawaii pretty exciting. october started with about a week of jet lag and acclimatization - a good move to head to the big island early, and by race day we had pretty decent tans and fully restored sleeping patterns and a fair share of nerves. i did feel that the pressure was on for this race - my stated year's goal was to win my age group. but i knew i really was not in the shape i needed to be to achieve that. my revised goal was to get my head in the right state and race as hard as i could - for a 'not worse than 5th' place finish. i came in 6th, having given it 100% effort, with perhaps only 80-90% judgement letting me down. i was satisfied that i had succeeded in my first objective, at least. november is always a bit of down time for me, a bit of r&r and a few cross country races, and then before i knew it we were getting back on a plane headed for western australia for december's race in busselton. i would not be racing this, but tagging along as supporter and taking advantage of a more pleasant environment to get back on my training bike!

it was easy to assume that with no work to get in the way of training and recovery my performances would just sky rocket automatically. i've learned this year that its not as simple as that. when i think back to 2007, 2008 and the amount of effort that went into my training, simply because it was necessary to never let up in order to get the training fitted in around a working week and domestic life. had i translated the same effort into the training /traveling this year, then perhaps i would be stella triathlete and world age group champion now. more likely i would be a worn out heap, or have packed it in entirely. I think that i was lucky to have 'got away with it' for the last few years, but that level of focus and work are not sustainable/healthy. 2009 has been a period of readjustment: to a new approach to training, ensuring continued enjoyment of the sport which used to be just a hobby and has now become the main focus of my life and adjusting to a new set of 'domestic' stresses and concerns that come with having no fixed abode. of learning that the grass is not always greener and that there is definitely 'no easy way'.

however, despite a fairly disappointing year of racing, i've logged a great year of training which i will build on in 2010 and hopefully been through a deal of the teething problems that inevitably come with such a career and lifestyle change.

Some figures for those curious about what 'full -timing' means in terms of training:

my average training hours per week was 27 - this figure is scewed by the very light training weeks that precede and follow racing so a better representation is to say that a typical training week is in the range 28-36 hrs.
average (mean) daily training hours was 3.9, with 3-5hrs/day being the most common daily volume and equal number of 1-3 and 5-7hr days. this represents a typical week which includes a lighter day and a long day.

In terms of swim bike run numbers:
mean distance swum /week = 14km - modal range of 12-16km
mean distance cycled/week = 231miles - modal range 200-250mi
mean distance run/week = 37 miles - modal range 30-36 (this is the most typical weekly volume - there are a few much bigger run volume weeks which have nudged up the athithmetic average)

this is not atsronomically greater than the amount of training that i logged the previous year, however there has been greater focus of pace, quality and recovery and it has had a far lesser stress impact on myself. it has also been a lot more pleasant!! bring on 2010 :o)

epic camp, length of new zealand: preparations

This table shows the schedule for epic Camp NZ 2010. It's a pretty special camp this year as we'll be covering the length of both islands - north to south during the 15 days of the training camp. This is longer than the previous two epic's that i've been on, and since i've managed to get myself nicely toasted in just 8 days in previous years, i will probably be approaching it with a slightly different attitude. Epic NZ 2009 i failed to complete the camp due to a sprain that i picked up on the first day. it's highly unusual for me to get such a bad injury that i am completely unable to train, but just my luck, by day 3 my right VMO was so sore that i simply could not run. so, i missed a day's riding and a couple of the compulsory 50 min runs. it could be said that the injury might have ben avoided had i not decided to 'tack on' an extra ride up to porters pass (in addition to an extra 50 min run to the pool first thing that morning) with Steven and Russel. Porters pass is a helluva steep climb, and just the sort of place where things can go 'twang'. but it was fun, and in the spirit of the camp and set the tone for teh week ahead (just like in Italy '08 when steven and i head out for a 2.5hr run after the ride on the first day, most people thought that was highly foolish way to start the camp) - and in that case, worth it.

However, with the added dimension of being presented with an opportunity to ride (and run, and swim)the length of the country, failure to complete would be really really disappointing, so i'll certainly start off by playing a little safer. As you can see from teh schedule, we will not be short of a challenge in any case! Our christmas day's ride certainly tired me out, demonstrating that i am not as 'long distance fit' as i have been in the past coming into these camps.
However, the following day i did manage to pull myself through a swim, bike run day (which included a set on 30min Aet intervals on the bike) - and by the end of it was feeling pretty good. I think the thing that gets me through these camps, where i am invariably the weakest cyclist, one of the least competent swimmers and lacking in speed on the run in comparison to the guys, is my ability to keep 'bringing it' when fatigued. ok, what i bring may not amount to much by the later stages of the camp, but i'll manage to bring SOMETHING and often surprise myself in the process. That, i admit, is good for my confidence when you tend to see a lot of people fading after the mid point of the camp - giving up on the 'games' in the name of preserving enough to get through the compulsory content.

But 15 days? wow. i'm used to relatively high volume training ( this week i've trained 42 hrs with a swim to do -but admitedly that's a very big week), but on epic there's also a lot of intensity. especially for the weaker riders sitting at close to threshold simply to stay connected to the bunch - the rest of whom are feeling that it's a pretty relaxed pace, and saving themselves for the TT, or KOM, at the end of the ride! For me, and others close to my ability, the best thing that can happen here is hat teh big guns break from the front early, splitting the group into separate and more evenly matched packs for the ride. This is likely to screw and KOM chances (unless the organisation allows us to re-group shortly prior to any climbing competitions) for those in the trailing pack, but will enable us to meter out our resources more economically on the point-to -point riding and have something in reserve for any points races...and more importantly, the following days!

Gordo has been offering a lot of advice - some valuable saddle area care tips included, but what i think will be the most useful is his recommendation to sit down and think about what we each want to achieve on this camp, to write it down, and bring it along. He's right - it all gets slightly mad after a few days when the vibe of the camp really gets going, and you kind of forget about the rest of your world, plans, objectives, responsibilities and priorities. There are plenty of stories of past 'campers' who've destroyed entire racing seasons by getting too carried away on the Epic buzz.

so this year my camp objectives are as follows:
1) to achieve a positive fitness benefit from the camp. that one will be very difficult to judge, since what appears to be positive training, may have negative fitness effect sometime later on, down the line. I am racing IMNZ after the camp - if i get the balance right, this is a fantastic boost in my training for that race. I will be reminding myself of this frequently when those chances to get a few points up on another arise!
2) to complete the camp
3) to stay with the bunch on the bike each day - all day! i got dropped a few times in NZ and italy. Although i don't mind riding alone at all, it does make a longer day, harder work and holds the team up. It'll mean doing a lot less than my fair share of work, but I think it's fair to say that most strong riders would be happy for that to be the case, rather than be held up frequently waiting for me and my tail wagon along the route.
4) give 100% in all the races
5) eat sensibly -there'll be plenty of GOOD food that will help my recovery and fueling - so no need to cram the junk, just because it's available.
6) try not to get too crabby (perhaps that should be higher up the prioriy order!!)

I cant wait!!

by the way - i will be blogging to the Epic Team Blog during the camp, so check it out for updates
through http://www.epiccamp.com/newzealand10/index.html

happy christmas

well, my first year away from home for christmas and its a little strange to be without the usual traditions and habits that accompany the time of year - not being madly busy at work, client drinks, chritsmas parties, and looking forward to a free week off - its also exciting and liberating to be able to choose exactly how to spend the day.
So, with the forecast or 27 degrees, sunshine and light winds, we choose to a BIG ride. only 120 miles on plan, but to Akaroa and back from Christchurch has an alternative route along the Summit Road. This involves a lot of climbing, and some spectacular scenery. You'd need a long day to do this ride, and we thought - what better day. To add to the adventure, we were not expecting that there would be any thing open en route for supplies (not that there IS much en route!) so were carrying a lot of bars with us. It was quite a bonus to arrive in Akaroa after 4.5hrs and discover tat there WAS actually a sore open, and had a picnic of icecream and crisps. Given that we still ate almost all of the food that we had carried, this was probably a god send and saved the last hours of the ride from becoming a very un-festive miserable suffer-fest! Even so, 7 hours in and at the foot of what i knew to be with the longest steepest climb of the day, a silly hat and box of Quality Street didn't seem like such a bad tradition....8.5 hrs later, we were both pretty frazzled ( it always pleases me when steven is tired too - in fact since he's still sleeping, i think MORE tried!!) we very efficiently put together our christmas dinner of roast beef, drank wine, and failed to stay awake throughout Shawshank Redemption.

With that silly amount of riding yesterday i'd clocked over 30 hours since monday, with another 7 or so scheduled for this weekend - a big week. Good preparation for Epic Camp which starts on the 2nd. There has been a definite riding focus to my training and I'm pleased to say that i am now starting to feel my legs coming through. i have been feeling good on the bike through some good, focused rides. I'm sure gonna need good legs for 15 days of hard group riding in Epic Camp. It'll be so much harder, less enjoyable and very demoralizing to be dropped by the group everyday - so my main goal for this camp is to stick with a group on the bikes. 15 days of that and i should pop out the other side really strong for IM NZ.

more thoughts on that later....

sick note

yeah, this really is just a post so that i can moan that i'm not well! i hate being ill and teh evening after the day of my soaking in the rain i felt that tell tale tickly throat and woke up with banging headache, raspy chest and a painful cough which produced some interesting flourescent green stuff. i didn;t feel great but am torn between hypochondria/feeling sorry for myself and the feeling that really i just need to 'man up'and get on with it. so, i proceeded to the QE2 center for almost 2hrs of swimming long reps - it was a pretty quite session and i had a lane to myself. though i was a little disappointed that none of the other squad swimmers joined me to pull me along on teh rep times a bit, it was for the best since the girls that showed up were swimming quite a bit faster than my 'steady pace' and would have lapped me at least once during a 600m rep. Its good to know that those Wednesady sessions are quite and long for teh next few weeks as i build up to a solid 6km+ swim in preparation for Epic Camp. Having survived that session with the aid of Lemsip and paracetemol, i was up for the next: a couple of hours of Aet reps with a few short sprints in at teh end. With my HR monitor on it was pretty clear from the outset that i was not 100% since my heartrate was about 10 beats higher just cruising out of town. I felt a bit weird but not so bad once the intervals started, and of course it was quite easy to get into my heartrate zone. I compensated by pushing it 5-10 beats higher than usual, and enjoyed the session. Once home, and perhaps medication wearing off i started to feel truely ropey, and had a nap before my run. i'd accepted teh offer of a lift to teh forest with Ali - the plan being to run half an hour on the trails and then teh 30 min back. this was a daft idea really, as it was totally committing and after 15 min of easy running i just wanted to lie down and die. I cut the trail short and made for teh quickest way home, at a really gentle pace. i still got almost an hour's running done, though really compromised teh session and would have benifited a lot more from staying in my bed for the whole afternoon.

the result of that misjudgment is that this morning i felt like total crap and there was no way that i was going to be able to get my favourite session of teh week - 800s on teh track - done. so i had a morning of moping and feeling very sorry for myself indeed now - coupled with teh frustration that i'm missing key sessions in my preparation for Epic Camp. And a nagging fear that i have got meningitus and will wake up dead...

Never-the-less , some use has come out of this extra free time, as i was able to spend some time working on some of my athletes Christmas training schedules, and updated my website. I've also recently been coordinating the production of some new race kit which is being designed by a friend of ours, Richard at http://www.speedworkdesign.com/, produced by Oomph and funded, after a random and generous offer from a guy on my BTF coaching course last month. It might seem like a simple process, and i admit that i thought it would be too, but trying to coordinate across 3 countries and time zones by email only has turned out to be a real mission of 'project management'- something i've worked hard to avoid in previous vocations! Thankfully though i think that we are ready to run the sewing machines (or whatever) and have a kit that looks great. I'm excited to see it - just hope it can get from Vancouver to New Zealand in time for march!

A side result of having Richard's design input is that we now have a logo and look for Evereydaytraining too, and Steven has made a start of the new look website - take a peek: www.everydaytraining.org.uk

return to NZ

another day traveling, another time zone and a surprising amount of jet lag for what i'd only considered to be a short hop from one land down under to another. Now here i am back in christchurch, after nearly a week now thoroughly re-settled. Everything is very familiar of course - its remarkable how much detail you remember even when you don't remember remembering it. It was very easy to slip straight back into training, albeit quite light this week in consideration of Steven's recovery and our jet lag. It was quite a surprise that within our first day here i had bumped into 3 people that i knew and the following day so many people at the swim squad remembered us from last summer, and how many faces i recognized too.

We are renting a room from a couple who we got to know a little at the end of our stay last year, Andrew and Ali - both triathletes, and she is an adventure racer too, with their first home renting out two rooms to other triathletes. The other housemate is Rob, a sports scientist and triathlete who knows John Newsom and the epic camp guys and seems to be very well connected in the endurance sports scene. oh and two dogs. Its nice to be in a house share again - the option of easy company but not being a 'guest' as such, no feeling of obligation to socialize when the training and triathlon talk gets a bit much! . And steven has got an audience who appreciates him (i dont think he ever get bored of talking tri!).

Some of the funny things that come back to me now about this place - how friendly everyone is to start with, well thats not so funny - just nice. even the school kids are polite, and no one minds if you bring your bike into a shop, cars will stop to let you cross the road and cyclists, runners and other pedestrians will always say 'hello' when they pass. There are a lot of tattoos around. A lot of pies (coke and hot pie for $2 at most Diaries) and it's certainly the land of sweets too of yes, it's Cookie time again! And the strange chocolate fish (pronounced 'fush') that are sold unwrapped at each shop counter for a dollar. and the weather talk. Wow they say that the brits are obsessed with it but these guys know the winds like experts. Mind you in a land where the sun is radioactive, the winds inspired Dyson and hailstones come in grades of size and sharpness and can fall in a torrential manner at any given moment that the 'sou'wester' dictates depending on the direction that the wind blows, you're best knowing what's likely in store. The picture shows me drenched through having been caught in a torrential rain and hail storm at the end of a run. I'd been out on a mild but sunny day for a couple of hours, and was 15 minutes form home when the air went very cold all of a sudden and the next thing it was raining heavily. then it was raining very heavily...then it was very very heavy and included hailstones. By the time i was in our street, the roads and pavements were flowing a foot deep and i was running through freezing puddles almost up to my knees.
I'm a bit concerned about the fact that my parcel of warmer clothing that i posted before leaving the UK, has not yet arrived. Cameron has very kindly donated a Bikeworkz cycle jacket in yellow with red polka dot, for which i am very grateful...but please Mr Postman, please bring my box of kit to me!!

Non participation report – Ironman western Australia

Its post race day morning and Bussleton is a town littered with gel wraps and plastic cups and people cruising very slowly around town on fast bikes between long coffee stops. Race day anecdotes, sore limbs and post race treats as well as respite from all that training (until the next time) is a large part of what makes this pretty mental past time so enjoyable. So, today I’m feeling somewhat envious of those who did participate. Was I feeling envious yesterday? Well, of course it’s a great day and despite the horrific heat induced suffering that I saw on the run course whilst spectating the part of me that felt I could do a better job of it desperately wished to be involved. However even after a 3 hour ride around the area which took me out to a section of the bike route, I was totally heat-sick and my legs ached from a week of hard riding on mostly flat roads. So I was very content to stop and leisurely munch my cheese and jam sandwich without any envy of those who I saw trudging back and forth on that straight, relentlessly flat forest road with strings of gel and snot trailing behind them in the wind….

Having dropped Steven off at the race venue in time for the opening of transition at 4.30, I had time to drive back, eat breakfast and jog back up to beach in time to spend a few moments with him before the start. It was a beautiful morning, sky and sea clear both and calm and the anticipation in the atmosphere was sensational as they warmed up. I felt surprisingly excited myself, especially watching the small Pro field start …and visualizing myself amongst (behind) them. When Steven set off with the mass start 15 min later, I started my stopwatch. My estimate was that Steven would be done in just over 50min, which gave me just enough time to jog back to our place change and collect my bike and be at the bike exit to see him. I was also in time to see the leaders in the pro race leaving for the ride – and was somewhat heartened to see that there were several girls leaving after what must have been an hour or more swim time. I was slightly concerned at quite how many age groupers were out on their bikes ahead of Steven, as he’d usually post one of the fastest swims – but this is Australia and they do seem to swim well here! He came through with a low 50’s time though , which I knew he’d be happy with. Took some pictures of him getting on his bike with a little less elegance than a drunk donkey, which I knew he’d not be so happy with ;o) but certainly not as bad as some of the disasters that I’d witnessed up to that point – and that was looking at the very top end of the race!! I waited 5 minutes to see Martyn and Russell’s exits and then headed off for a bit of my own training. I had a planned route that would take me about 3.5hrs and allow me a little time watching the race where my route intersected the course. If I was lucky I’d see Steven or someone o knew pass, but knew that it was unlikely. As it happened I caught the back end of the field returning to town on the end of their first lap and then the leading male pros come past on their second. The difference in speed was comical! An Irish girl pulled over to me and asked if I was ok. ‘yes!! i’m spectating- you get going!!’ I told her…’oh I’ve had three punctures already ,I’m calling it a day’ she said, pulling to a stop beside me.. Perhaps she was a lot more used to being near the front of the race and had totally lost heart. But we were less than 3 hours into a very long day. She must have seen my look of shock horror, as she soon decided to continue for a while at least. I made a note to look out for her on the run. But unfortunately forgot.

With my ‘race timer’ running I realized that I couldn’t really afford to hang around log at my drink stop in Capel – I had 2 hours to get back to see him finish. The plan was to return to the house, drop the bike and then do my brick run to coordinate with Steven’s likely arrival into transition. As it happened that required a very rapid turn around at the house, and a faster paced run than really felt comfortable –especially with road closures diverting me away from the most direct route – and I approached the race area just in time to hear “Steven Lord from the UK” being announced in off the bike!! Fishing the camera out of my belt as I sprinted to the run exit point, I made it just in time to see him, beaming and running. He’s ridden around 4.45 – shit hot. I jogged back to the house alongside the course with my brains absolutely boiling and felt for these dudes who’d be running on a further 3, or 4, hours. Concerned marshals thinking that I’d veered a long way off course in some sort of heat stupor called me back are you racing?’ ‘ I’d be going a hell of a lot faster than this if I was racing!’ I teased.

The rest of the afternoon was based around Neil and Lorraine’s back garden, which backs onto the run course. The family come over with their Eskies of beer and food for Barbie and they sit and cheer every athlete who lops by in the burning sun. In order to get some varied photos of him, as well as surprising him by cheering appearing in unexpected places, I walked quite a lot of the course cheering and trying to sound genuinely encouraging to all the athletes that I saw. Most were pretty bad states even this early in the race and that was when, bizarrely. I wanted to be out there too! Perhaps it was because I believe myself to be a decent runner, and cope well with the heat – I found it frustrating to see so few people really running well. I felt that I wanted to help these people – and was able to at one point when a guy doubled over, screaming clutching his leg just in front of me. He clearly had very severe cramp in his hamstring and, though I know it’s not really allowed to give ‘outside assistance’ of course I had to ask if there was anything that I could do to help. He told me to massage his hamstring, which I did until it was loose enough to shake out and wished him good luck.

Meanwhile, Steven had been suffering from cramp himself, and general lack of run form due to having been out of run training for almost all of 9 months since his injury, and the age-group lead that he had at the start of run would sadly be short lived. Russell was running well, but a little off the pace required for his sub 9hr finish – though a 3:20 (ish) marathon and 9:19 race time were enough for 2nd in his age group and a Kona slot – evidence of a tough race and slow times.

Steven finish in 10hrs 14, with run of 4.30. I tell you, athletes, do not underestimate what a tough day it is for your loved ones – 12 hrs on their feet in the beating sun (or rain!) - and the waiting is the worst part of it! That final lap seemed to take an age, and really I was lucky that ‘my’ guys were all home in good time – there were still folk bravely heading out for their first lap of the run as we wheeled Steven’s bike out of transition. I was exhausted – and their support crew would be out there well into the dark, fuelled by beer and good Aussie humour, making a night of it!

Of course it was very tempting to make assumptions as to what I would have done in the race; I’m beginning to feel in decent shape again after Kona with the right amount of rest and 3 weeks good training. There really was not much strength evident in the ladies age group file– and I’m pretty sure that I’d have managed a good result as an age grouper. But that’s no longer the game – and I do need a full 3 months solid training to prepare me to race at a higher standard than that in New Zealand. So, this morning, amongst all the relaxed, tired triathletes, I head out for a 2.5hr run in the wilderness. Though I will of course be indulging in the post race beers at the awards party tonight!!

down under

i writing this from the back garden of our local hosts in Busselton, Western Australia. with large, immaculate lawns and an amount of garden furniture suggesting frequent out door socializing i can look over the neatly trimmed low hedge to the flat calm sea. between the hedge and the ocean is a shared foot.bke path which continues around the entire bay, and on the 5th December will make the route for the Ironman marathon course. which is of course our reason for being here, however this time i will just be watching. i have mixed feelings about this: aside from the small matter of an entry fee, there are many other reasons against doing a race so soon after Kona, and it is nice to be able to ease myself steadily back into 'proper' training now that we have arrived in a lovely location with great scenery and weather. but on the other hand, there is a very strong 'ironman' vibe amongst all the people that i have met so far, a definite sense of excitement and a feeling that i'm missing out on something that i really enjoy! i think it' s going to be hard come race day ( yeah, sitting here in this garden with a cold beer will be damn hard) and even more so in the days after the race, when there will be not much else spoken about, really giving it a good old rub in! i'll be a lonely soul out riding the roads that week!

But enough of the old gittery! we really have landed on our feet here. Our hosts, Neil and Lorraine - friends of Steven's mum from her china tour, but until tuesday total strangers to us - are have made us so welcome in their home, cooking for us most evenings and insisting that we keep our bikes in their drawing room (known as 'The Precious Room' - no children allowed!) rather in the garden shed, despite the white carpets! i' m gonna be finding out what they are taking and bring a large supply back for my mum - it's gotta be worth the excess baggage costs ;o)

Beyond this generous hospitality, the location of this place couldn't be better (although even in the time i've ben sitting here writing this, the sheer number of runners going up and down the bike path is beginning to irk me!). We are 2 minutes from a small but well equipped gym that i have joined, 2.5 minutes from the beach, about 15 min walk from the town centre, the pier and Goose cafe that is the habitual meeting place for most of the local triathlon club's training sessions, and 20 min walk from the swimming pools.

Russell, having been here last year for the race and arrived a week ago or whatever has introduced us to a few people and again, we have been made very welcome on the numerous activities of the local triathlon club. it really couldn't be easier - there are 3 weekly rides and 3 weekly sea swims with kayak support and if you're lucky, as we were this morning, dolphin entertainment at half time. the impression is of a very large club for a town of this size ( about 25, 000) but i think that actually its just that its a very active and social club, with a high proportion of it's members showing up for all sessions. mind you - in this environment you wouldn't really want to swim, or do much riding alone. once out of town, you can ride a long way on dead straight roads and pass nothing. no shops, homes or even much passing traffic. there is not even mobile phone reception far out of town, so aside form being boring, it's possibly a bit risky - there are wild things out there!!!

right, that's one runner too many. i gotta get up and out for my session now.

Down Time and Getting Up Again

So after the daily posts from Hawaii I expect that you’ve really been wondering what’s been going on? Down Time. Two lovely words. Much like Sun Shine, Cheese Cake, Cold Beer and Lie In.
Post Kona Steven and I had a proper holiday – our first ever that did not include bikes, fells and a room full of dirty kit, family members, friends or club mates .We had a great time in Honolulu, explored Oahu by public transport, dropped in on friend of Steven’s in San Francisco and returned to London via first class courtesy of a very generous gift from another friend Andy.
A week in London as usual was very busily spent catching up with friends and the tri club, mostly by tagging along for some casual training at the ludicrous hours that our working friends keep, errands and appointments all day then meeting for evening beverages with non –training friends. Though quite preoccupied with our departure for the southern hemisphere mid November, and the dilemmas that the extremely restrictive baggage allowances of Quantas have introduced, I was able to fit in the BTF level 1 certificate in coaching for Triathlon course over two weekends. The location of the course (Leighton buzzard) meant that I got a chance to see my dad who lives out in Herts (and dink his wife’s car!) as well as some 50 mile rides to and from London as a means of slowly getting back into motion. As it happens, despite not thinking much about training I have still found myself swim, running and mostly cycling through 20 odd hours a week – pretty surprising though I hasten to add that its been all very low intensity stuff aside from the occasional fast bit of swimming, which I find I can do when well rested and with a little additional tummy buoyancy! Still, I know that the ‘time off’ has been of benefit - yesterday I went down to Charmouth with my sister to cruise around the Endurance Life Coastal half marathon course. We agreed to run together - though she would probably kick my sorry butt in 1/2M on the road right now, it was her first experience of off road running and I’d only really started getting my run legs back and it was to be my longest run in over a month. I advised her that we should try to get a good place near the front at the start though, since its very easy to get caught up in bottle necks of runners on narrow trails, gates and styles if you are caught further back in the field. Well, the gun went and the race started up a cliff face immediately. We worked hard to stay with the front, but it was all out lung burning, quad stinging effort. Great fun .I was calling back to Lotte ‘are you still there?’ and would hear a gasping ‘yes’ for most of the ascent, but when the chance to pass into 2nd place, with a leading woman in sight I pushed on along the flats and soon lost Lotte to the race behind. She held fourth place a while, but soon decided to drop tempo and enjoy the beautiful scenery , lovely weather and new experience instead. On the other hand I was not letting up pace all, exchanging positions within the top 3 ladies for the first 3 miles or so before pulling away on a relatively long flat stretch of cliff top and pacing off some male runners around me to keep the tempo high. I just felt like I could GO. What a great, and rare feeling. Maintaining an average heartrate of 174 for over two hours(keen to keep my lead especailly after a wrong turn lost me about a minute of my margin) and finishing strong is a sign that I haven’t lost all of my fitness, my body is recovered and time to start training again. Soon. For the next week I’ll continue to enjoy a lighter load (especially after than lower extremity bashing) getting back into the gym and making final preparations for departure to Perth on Saturday.

kona race report 2009

There’s no feeling in the world like that in the transition area at 6am on Kaluia Kona pier on the morning of the Ironman World Championships. The air is alive with nerves, fear, excitement and pride. People don’t speak much. Most of us, despite being experienced Ironman racers, find ourselves unable to say much for choking on the electric tension. For me, this builds until the moment when I’m standing waist deep in the ocean, next to Steven and watching the pro race start.
I know it’s going to be a rough swim, windy and hot on the bike and hot on the run. I also know that it is a rare experience that I am sharing with 2000 or so people who, just like me, are ecstatic to be part of this prestigious and iconic day, helping, admiring and encouraging one another through the punishing race. In the few hours before the start I feel I would do anything to put it off for another day, week, month…but simultaneously cannot wait for it to begin. I’ve been preparing for it since last September and this race marks the end of my 2009 season and after 54 weeks, I’m ready for that!

There was a lot of debate during our pre race week regarding where to position ourselves at the swim start. My view – it didn;t matter – for us MOP swimmers (that’s MOP at Kona, which means 60-70min) its gonna be a frenzy, no matter what cunning tactics you think of, you can bet you’re not alone! So I just tread water in the middle and get on with it. I think I was reasonably lucky – a lot of contact, especially as we passed buoys and the crowd squeezes together, bringing us to a virtual stand –still on a few occaisions, no real hard punches pulls. I found a nice distinct pair of feet ( white calf compression sleeves) who was swimming a ta good pace and stuck on him. Occasionally I’d surge a bit for a set of feet ahead, to find him pulling along side and passing again few minutes later. From time to time we’d both separate in the crowd but he always seemed to be there just ahead if I found myself caught in a group of arm flappers and would put in a bit of work to reach him. It was a little choppy out on the water, making it a slightly slower swim in general, but I was pleased with my 1:06 (officially 1:07) swim.

The bike course starts with a fast and furious figure 8 sort of thing around town to make up a little distance on the straight out and back to Hawi, which is great fro the spectators. Hearing a very loud metallic ‘clunk’ about 2min into this loop I realized I’d lost a gas canister, leaving me with 2 tubes but only one shot of inflation. Still, no point in worrying about that now…the game is ON! I was feeling really strong, on the front of my saddle, passing people working at a comfortably hard race, flowing on the excitement. I was not the only one getting over excited as someone ahead managed to ‘endo’ on an uphill section, taking the rider behind him (and directly in front of me) down. I was thankful that I’d seem it in time to react. I was passed by a strong rider, not my age group, wearing Mark Allen kit – there was a lot of that out, and later in the day I joked to a couple of ‘his’ girls that it looked like they had a team out toady as there were 4 of them in a line! – I decided to stick with her. Soon we were out onto the Queen K, where we’d ride 33 miles out to kaliwahe, turn for Hawi, ride 18 miles uphill to the turnaround there and then return. A long, open, hot road shimmering in the heat that’s reflected off the black lava fields and exposed to the whipping crosswind that blow off the sea there. In those conditions there is certainly a big benefit in having a lot of riders around – and for us MOPers (again that’s MOP by Kona standards – those riding 5:20-30) there is continuous line of riders, usually 2 or even 3 wide due to various, legal, passing maneuver’s that are being undertaken at any given time. I saw nothing that I would consider unfair drafting, and was careful not to squeeze the gap closer than a catseye distance myslef, but certainly felt the benefit of this situation, and worked hard when necessary to draw up to the end of a fragment of this line if I ever found myself in the front or alone. I was riding well, and had motivation supplied to me by constant exchange of position between Mark Allen Online rider (not my AG) British girl (my AG, who I later discovered to be Edwina) and red Skinfit shorts (my AG) who all seemed to have more power on the flats but I as able to catch and pass on the grades. This, with the aid of caffeinated Powerbar gel sweets that had been handed out at the expo, kept me focused, working hard and enjoying the day. We had a few brief , friendly exchanges as we went by on the return….the Americans being very willing to offer a genuine ‘ good job’ or ‘ great riding’ as I passed and my typically British words of encouragement back ‘you’ve been killing me - keep it up, mate! With about 25 miles to go, now into a full fledged headwind, head hot and throbbing, shorts caked in salt I was re-passed by red skinfit, and Edwina, then Mark Allen Online ( who was the strongest of us all on the flat but seemed to be troubled by her back on the climbs) and lost sight of them. Stuck it out with my head down but 15mph, calculating what I needed to average for the final 15miles for my target 5:30 split. It was close if, when the terrain flattened the winds were less strong, as I’d tended to find whilst out training this course. Took a caffeine chocolate gel and hoped that’d provide me with some much needed sodium and pick me up to get me through. Gatorade at ever station from then on in, but remained reasonable strong judging by the fact that I was not passed by anyone who I could not re-pass within a few minutes, aside from who I assumed to be Dam Brooke of team Active instinct. Assume he must have punctured.

Hit transition after 5:32 riding. And what an atmosphere there was in town now!! The male pros were already running up the Queen K as I finished my ride and the race crowd were PUMPED. Very speedy transition with wet towels, shot of magnesium and a warning that if I needed to pee I should use the portaloo. Err…yes. Thanks. Actually I was planning to pee as I ran and how would they know. Why should they mind? was it against the rules?? Sprinting out of transition in pursuit of red Skins, Edwina, Mark Allen online and as many others as possible I gave a massive shout of ‘LETS GO!!!” to the crowed and assembled volunteers and got an awesome reaction in return. I was having a great race and this was my territory now….

The highway was lined with spectators, al pleased to see someone running so quickly and smiling as broadly as I was. The fist mile took me onto Alii drive and took 6:53. Fast, but felt good. Didn’t really feel I was pushing it, though knew that was nearly a minute faster than target pace. Yes, I’ve been here before, but, hey I’ve done plenty training and this is a key race and there is work to be done, I’m loving the support from the crowd – I’m clearly looking good and that means they’re not seeing many other grls up ahead moving at this pace. That’s what I wanted to know. My sister an mum are out on that road, telling me I’m 14th AG woman. Shit – that’s a lot, but I’m tickingthem off. Mile splits slowed to more sensible pace after the little rise on Alli drive -around 7:30’s. I’m building a cushion which I am sure I will need. The 5 miles to the turn around seems quite a long way. By about mile 8 I really need the loo and am glad of that cushion as I dive into a porta potty. I can see that I lost a place to Edwina (who I just passed, and also Nick Rose) but make it back up in a minute or two. This does feel a like an effort now though. Well, that’s what I have been expecting of this race, so dig in. Passing my sister for the second time, she tells me I’m 8th in my AG. At this point its starting to feel a bit of an effort , but I’ve been expecting this to be a hard run and dig in. Up Palini – running of course – and that gets the crowd cheering, including Jim and Gaelle. Steven is at the top, apparently turning in circles but of course he’s looking back to see me and give me a shout. I give him a hug, or try to do so without breaking my stride…its the gesture that counts. I’m proud to see him up there and know hat he’s gonna have a tough afternoon, but will get there. I feel slightly jealous of him walking and eating M&M from special needs bag. There are a lot of hills on the queen K that can really hurt a hot, weary runner with sore feet, and I feel my mood dip. I’m trying to take on fluids but without slowing down at aid stations and this, or perhaps just salt loss or deydrtaion is causing a severe stitch in my right side. I used to suffer this a lot when doing Olympic races and reminded myself of strategies for relieving it - breathing patterns and coordinating with foot strikes. Poking my abs with my fingers isn’t helping, but that’ swhat instinct is telling me to do, aside from stopping running, of course. Ahead is another girl I recognize, pass her, and another and another two in sight just up the hill. We are about mile 14. There is an aid station ahead and I cave into my body’s cry to ease off. I’m really only running about 8:30 min miles by now anyway -but I’s fast enough that I’m gaining ground on those in my line of vision. If I stop, walk, stretch and take in some fluids I know I’ll loose them , but will feel better and re catch them.

We are all suffering. I have never witnessed so many fit looking athletes, professionals included, walking back from the energy lab. The course, the heat, the competition has destroyed them…but they are smiling, happy to have given it their all – more than their all - and submit to the legendary power of this environment. I’m taking a few moments to regroup, in a sort of despair, when I see Rachel coming back down the hill on her return to the finish. She looks very strong and is in a great position. This embarrasses me sufficiently to get moving again, and happily the stitch has eased up a lot. Now its just the sore legs and feet and mental battles to contend with. I’m running at little more than an ‘easy run’ pace, but its enough that I’m moving gradually past people. Catch Edwina (who must be sick of the sight of me going back and fourth by now) in the energy lab. She looks like I feel, and I try to encourage her –as well as myself. Out of the energy lab and it’s only 10km to go. Steven has posted an electronic message for me ‘ push now!’ – that’s right – this is where I should be closing them down to the finish. Ok, lets give it a go. But the pain required to increase the pace just a little seems disproportionate to the gains I was making on an unseen quarry. I’ll leave it until I have someone in sight, I decide. Then I see Steven – ‘There’s hardly anyone ahead, this is where you have to decide now if you want it, Jo’. Yes, I want it. I’m going for it. That’s when the cramp hit my calf, and I realized that no mater how much I wanted it, or how much I’d promised myself I’d suffer for this, I simply could not run through this cramp. I could limp, and then jog and then resume my ‘easy running’ - which was about the same pace as the ‘flow’ of competitors willing themselves through those last 5 miles of the day. My mind switched from competition to reflection of the day and the feelings an comfort that awaited my just 40 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 24 minutes away…..taking in the scene, the sea the amazing support an energy from the volunteers and my sister shouting from the raod side! ‘how did u get so far out?’ I was amazed. She ran along side of me with encouragement and was even kind enough to say that she was getting tired doing so …that I was looking great and I could do it. Well, theer was no question of that, just not quite in the style that I’d hoped for as I set off 24 miles earlier all hot headed and hot heeled.

That last mile, which brings you down Palini ( owch!) and onto Alii drive is lined with crowds loudly reflecting the elation that you feel at the end of this race. My face was one huge smile – I could not help it, I thought my cheeks would cramp!! My legs even found a bit of life to run like an athlete down that shute, high fiving as I went. I’d given all that I could, managed a PB on the course, on a tough day, and I was done. I coulda, woulda, shoulda raced that run a bit smarter…but that’s easy to say. I might not have fallen apart and coulda run a 3:10 marathon. You never know, and there’s just one way to find out.

swim: 1:07.46
bike: 5:32.19
run:3:34.31
finish: 10:19.25

6th in age group.

IM HI. phew

swim- 1:07:46 pleased with this. it was a hard swim, crowded and quite a bit of surf. pretty much on target.
bike 5:32:19. was aiming for 5:30 but on the whole i feel i rode well. there were a group of girls in my age group who i was exchanging places with ( and a bit of chat) kept me honest and in good spirits, until the final 25 miles when the headwind got the better of me. i'd made a up a lot of places on teh rollers but the direct wind on flatter road was wiping me out.
run - 3:34:31. well, obviously not great. started off good - feeling super at 7 min miles or thereabouts and was about to run into 3rd place despite a portaloo stop on Alii drive ( worth it!) but mile 14 i developed terrible sticth and walked. was passed by 2 of my age group. rehydrated and recomposed i recovered to a run, but nothing faster than 8:30 place....and a lot of suffering. there was a lot of carnage out there today, you know how it is out here. i really dont think i could have done anything different at teh time. however, had i known that i was actually holding 6th , and not a podium ...it may have been different, but i refuse to think about that this evening - i was just so happy to finish!!! i really enjoyed the race and feel quite proud, though disappointing to miss a prize by so little.

steven swam and biked into 7th in AG. run walk ok for about 8 miles untill he cramped bad. spent some time horizontal on Alii drive (lucky i did not see him, or woudl have been tempted to join him) walked a bit after that, with Douglas!, and mangaed to get running again in teh end. he's pleased and tucking into massive icecream and cakes.
i needed an ice bath and a bit of a chill.

more detailed report will follow - off to go cheer te last finishers home.

Race Week Countdown: 1!

the last day before the big day. Aside from a light swim out to the Coffee boat ( and a few failed attempts to free dive about 15m for a handful of sand in exchange for a free pair of Blueseventy goggles!) and a final spin on the bike before check-in, the idea was to have a very relaxing day. Something that i’m still getting the hang of, evidently! After the questionable wisdom of the deep diving challenge, I had some very stretching good work done on my quads and glutes by the ART crew followed by a carbo based breakfast. I could not resist a final round of the expo in the hope of collecting a few more nutritional freebies – and scored some Erin Baker granola and cookies for my pre race breakfast. Stopping into Hawaiian Pedals for a chat with the guys from Oomph regarding kit sponsorship (well, you might as well ask!) I bumped into Mike and Johnny from Epic camp who are over from California for the weekend. Great to see them and I’m sure I’ll be even more glad of it tomorrow out on the run course.

Having assembled my gear bags as follows :
Pre swim – goggles, Blue seventy suit, surgical tape( against chaffing), vaseline, chip, swim cap, safety pins, spare inner tube, multi tool, cable tie, bike food and shoes and gas canisters (to be loaded up in the morning)
Bike – number belt, sunglasses, tri top (incase it’s cold!!), gel
Run -Diadora shoes, socks (both regular and compression in the end), visor, spare sunglasses ( $14 in the mall), wrist band with ibrobrofen, immodium, pils in, hairband, magnesium shot and a gel)
And stuck all the label son my biek, I took it out for a final 45 min spin on my way to be massaged.

Not quite sure how I managed it, but I took a wrong road having overshot my turn onto Alli drive and wound up doing some pretty steep climbing to recift y this as well as being in danger of being late for my massage. Not very relaxing really, however the bike was all fine, and I did get theer just in time ( albeit pretty disgustingly sweaty). The massage was wonderful, she worked on my shoulders, shins, feet and a bit on my back. Heaven. As I lay there listening to her gentle mystical chanting music, I was thinking about what a harsh contrast this was to what will be tomorrow and focused on gathering up my energy inside for what my body was about to undergo.

Gave the bike a quick clean, over the raod to drop it and bags in for their night in transition before dinner. Having been advised to deflate our tyres a little when leaving them out in the heat, I discovered that somehow the valve of my front tube was stuck right inside the rim of the wheel, fully closed. With the style of extender that I’m using (just a straight screw-over tube) I couldn’t figure how this was possible, or how to open it. Although I might have just left it like that – there was enough pressure to ride and chances of it exploding over night were slim – I would have been screwed in the event of a (slow) puncture on course so it was of with the wheel, back to the hotel and bursting the tube out to replace it with a longer valved one. All rather rushed and not the most calming experience, but far better to discover this now than later. Feel a little disconcerted having changed a tyre I would have liked to ride it in make sure it rolls ok with no bulges or whatever, but thems the breaks. Will get into transition early and have a good old fuss over it in the morning.

Hot-footed it up to Bongo Bens for an early diner with Steven, Russ, Roger and his wife, Mary who has jetted out for the weekend and managed to get my order in with theirs. Taco salad. Good fuel food, resisted adding chilli sauce!
Returned home via the superstore where I purchased my post race treats (iced coffee and German Beer) and finally back in our room with my feet up and an old Patrick Swayze movie on the box. Phew. A little pre race target setting ( based on my last race here) mental rehearsals and checklists before sweet dreams of the Queen K and Alii drive……

finally, huge thanks to everyone for all the good luck commnets, emails and texts. I'll e doing my best for you! And my own wishes for he best possible race for all my kona 09 buddies, especially Steven, Russel, Roger, Rachel, Richard, Martin, Douglas, Nick Rose and Kit
good night!

Race Week Countdown: 2

Aside from the compression sock dilemma, I’m in another over whether to bother with the HR monitor on the bike.
The last few times that I have been out doing intervals, ie noticed that my HR is rising quickly and staying about 5 beats higher for less perceived effort. I’m not using the power tap so have no absolute comparison, which is a shame. My heart’s willingness to beat faster could be down to a few factors, ruling out a medical condition, the most obvious/relevant being the heat, or the fact that I’m well rested. Though I do have HR data from my race at Lanzarote to refer to, I’m not really experienced enough to know how much to compensate for the environmental conditions, fatigue or hydration – especially on such a different type of course. So it would be folly to race by following figures that I’d expect from training in a race, this one in particular.

Scott was certainly not advising that I do so, unless I felt I needed the feedback to keep my efforts levels up. Which is certainly true of my training. However, as he said, there’ll be plenty of people out there to chase on the bike course and frankly if I need more than that for motivation out here, Ironman World Championships, Hawaii then what am I doing here in the first place?
So, I’lI race with have faith in my training, fire in my belly and joy in my heart!

After my test ride on the QR ( lovely ride, real feeling off direct response to power through the cranks, though the very much more forward position did feel a bit twitchy at first) I had a wander around the expo again to see what freebies I could pick up. Saw Chrissy Wellington signing pics of herself on a Cannondale, with that face cracking smile. Wanted a chance to say Hi and wish her luck…so went and asked for one. Felt really embarrassed doing so. Don’t know why. Guess it just all seemed a bit fake and impersonal. I bumped into Marie Repec, who I raced at Wisconsin last year. After spending the first half, or more, of the run vying with her for first place, I beat her in the end – making her the second woman in our age group to qualify for this race! She looked well and has taken on coaching by Mark Allen online this year in preparation for this race, as I have with Scott Molina. Turns out that also the girl who came 3rd in our age group at that race also now coached by him. So its gonna be Molina against Allen again! My money’s on team Carritt-Molina, of course, but the virtual Allen does have a good record of podium places here, so they’re doing something right. It was a bit weird to be making light conversation with my direct competition 2 days out from the race. Makes it all seem very serious…but in a way a boost. I’m sure she’s more trepidation than I, having been beaten by me before. I need to keep reminding myself that I’m in shape and good for it. I’ve beaten many of these girls before – and as jenny said to me in an email today, as long as I’m prepared to push myself at least as hard as they’ll be pushing I’ve nothing to fear.

Race Week Countdown: 3

A day without training today so I’ve had a good chance to check out the expo here, get registration done and finally meet with Chris from American Bicycle Group in person and go over a few details of the sponsorship deal that we’ve been working out for next year. He is a super busy guy, passionate about his work and the products that he distributes, jetting all over the world for trade shows and bike fairs non-stop, it seems. Certainly a hard guy to track down, but in person he’s surprisingly chilled, totally level and it was reassuring to meet him after so many unreturned calls! The deal: it’s really exciting – not only do I get a fabulous space-age racing bike (check out the design features of Quintana Roo’s CD.01 for the ultimate triathlete’s wet dream) – but he actually has his stock in early this year and there’s a reasonable chance I’ll be able to take it out to Aus and NZ next month. Failing that, he’ll ship it out. It really is an awesome deal, with Powertap, wheels AND a training bike included. He mentioned in passing the possibility of a custom (blue) paint -job, but I dare not push my luck! I’m going to test –ride one tomorrow morning. If its too good, I’ll not want to ride Obi on Saturday!!! Anyway, there’s an additional incentive to race well: I don’t want him having second thoughts now!

It’s getting busier still here – and most people having regoisterd are now tagged with athlete’s wrist bands. This year they’ve given each age group a different colour band. So not only is it easier to check out your competition pre race, what they’re eating in lava java, how much race nutrition they’re buying, how fast they’re running past you up Alii Drive…but on race day we’re not relying on greasy ink mark on the calf – most people will be wearing compression socks anyway. Actually, I have some great new ones from SLS here with me...and have been wearing them in training. The y have really firm compression, you can feel it, and are quite thick material, but are surprisingly cool. However I’m undecided whether to race in them since they are a bit sticky to get on…and will be even more so with sweaty legs. Reckon I’ll decide in T2.

Race Week Countdown: 4

quite a busy day today so after yesterday's long post, this'll be brief as i'm quite worn out!
the day consisted of 3 session - a run with Lotte who had to be asked to run a bit easier ( as usual) until we got to our 30 sec strides at the end of the run. a bit of stretching with the students of ART ( active release technique). a pool swim, with lotte again who really did a great job of sticking with me on my set. ten met with John and Bevan from IM talk and a couple of Epi campers for a spin up the queen K. very social - not! though it was nice to meet a few of the faces that we'll be sharing our epic NZ experience with, as soon as we started pedaling, they were off in the distance! i stuck to my planned 90 min easy ride and got back just in time for my massage. a chance to lie, relax and have my feet rubbed. heaven. then back into town just in time for teh parade of nations, and directly into dinner at the Canoe Club. phew. just time to catch up on emails and the blog. 'night 'night.

Oh, and happy birthday, David. if you are sad enough to be reading this - get a life!!!

Race Week Countdown: 5

Well we are now in race week, let the count down begin. For me today was a pretty light day, starting with a solid swim over half the course, with Roger. We both wore our blue seventy ‘swim like a bullet’ suits, and I wore my race day kit on under as a test to see where I would be rubbing and in need of tape on race day. We agreed to swim out a a solid pace – me on Rogers toes, working at a little below race effort, and injecting bursts between buoys where I’d swim out around and level, aiming to get ahead by the next bouy. This required an above race pace effort o about 4-5 min, before I’d drop back for recovery. This worked great for me since it was suffieciently moderate effort to stay on his toes and fun to swim side by side with an almost evenly matched swimmer both of us working quite hard. We took a few hundred meters break to swim easy around the 3 buoy which roughly mark halfway to the turn point o race route, before doing the same work-out on the return. We found ourselves coming into shore at about the same time as several hundred others were making their own way out to sea, and I stuck close on Rogers’ feet letting him navigate between the crowds! He’s such a gent.

The rest of the day was very relaxed – breakfast with my mum and sister in Tante’s, joined the boys and Douglas (from Epic Camp) for coffee in Splashers, a short spin on the bike and the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Steven and Roger at Roger’s hotel.

We spent a lot of time discussing methods for determining swim training ‘load’. Measurement of training load is something that both Steven and I introduced into our training logs about a year ago – training load is a measure of work done in a session, or how hard a session was compared to 1 hour at Functional Threshold (the intensity you can work at for 1hr). Programmes such as WKO, Training Peaks take this data and spit out ‘intensity factors’ and load each workout … and use complicate algorithms to generate a TSS (training stress score) over various periods (acute and chronic) and a result Stress Balance. Intensity, load, stress -acute, chronic and balance - seem to be the current hot topic amongst our group of training friends, but t is fairly clear that whilst easy to use and enjoyale to analyse, none o us has a very clear idea as to what it actually means to our training. In paticulr the debate is about how to calculate an Intensity Factor for a swim session – and having spent time in the past researching this myself, find that it is also much discussed on many of the endurance training forums and site on the web, too. Most folk who analyze their training to this degree are using power measuring tool on their bikes, and pace measuring for their runs. Programmes such as WKO, Training Peaks take this data from the gadgets and spit out ‘intensity factors’ and load each workout … use complicated algorithms to generate a TSS (training stress score) over various periods (acute and chronic) and make graphs for the athlete or coach to marvel at and track training impact. But there is no such gadget to record work done whilst swimming…so how best to do this?

It seems bizarre to me that despite the fact that swimming is the most absolutely measurable of all triathlon sports, few people seem to have their head around assigning an intensity factor to it! Whilst quite happy to accept the values given by the gizmos that measure their cycling and runnig workouts without much thought as to what these figure represent, many people struggle to log the intensity of their swimming work even though in the pool there is very little by way of external factors, its very easy to measure pace and we repeat workouts on the same course daily. For me, it’ s simple – define your range, assume IF is linear and simply plug ‘distance swum’ and ‘time in pool’ into the equation. However this was not satisfactory to Roger, who wanted a ‘complicated equation’ or Steven who makes an argument for measuring absolute work done, rather than how difficult it was to do the work – a set of 100’s in 90sec of 2min is a lot easier than hitting 1:30 and going off the 1:40 but at the end of the day, the body has swum at the same speed for the same time. Which by the way is another discussion entirely – what is the purpose of measuring intensity – is it an objective or a subjective measure?

To obtain your session cycling IF is a lot simpler, if you have a powermeter. You just need to plug your device into your pc and …it’s done! But what is it doing? Normalised power makes some sort of correction for zeros…all the little bits of recovery that you get during a ride, and so it seems analogous to including the rest intervals in the swim session. When running, I’m monitoring HR, which picks up to how well I’m recovering how hard my body is working throughout the set. If the recovery is short, my heart-rate drops less during each rest interval and rises faster and further during the reps, the average will be higher and thus accounting for the difference in rest interval. Have I just contradicted my self? This would imply that there is no need to account for rest intervals in the session. I’ll admit, I’m still getting this all figured out, and I’m digressing a bit – lets go back to the fact that what I currently do is based on a standard method of recording run loads called TRIMPS, which looks at heart-rate and is therefore a measure of effort undergone by the individual rather than actual work done (pace x duration). There may be better ways – actually, I’m told that Training Peaks software does use pace, to give IF. I’d be interested to find out how it deals with variance in pace during a run.

Either way – it seems that the fact that the ‘scientifically’ minded can build layers and layers of data into their training logs very easily with the aid of GPS, powermeters, heart monitors and sophisticated software. We then spend hours and days marveling over the curves and graphs that result - but without necessarily understanding the what this data really means or questioning it’s validity.


Personally I have a simplified, manual method of calculating IF for rides (based on Powertap data when available, HR when not and a bit of fudging based of what I have recorded and observed over the last few years) runs (based on Heart-rate) and swimming (based on dist swum/total session time). I use the square of this IF with my session (total) duration to give me a LOAD value, which I log in my training diary alongside hours. As you probably figure from all the waffle above, I’m still tweaking this as I read, discuss, learn and ponder more – I do have some graphs demonstrating acute, chronic and training stress balance, which I enjoy looking at – but remain well aware that ‘shit in = shit out” no matter how robust the software or complicated the equations! So, I continue to collect data until such time as I am totally satisfied with what I record and how it can be of use in planning my training- or, more likely, that of others – and be able to look back over past seasons and identify the crucial factors which contribute to a good/bad race, burn out/awesome fitness. At which point i'll feel more comfortable proving Roger with a 'complicated equation' for his swim IF!!

kona diary - day 7

I was surprised last night by the arrival of my mum and sister – I’d been expecting them a day later! Luckily they were travel weary and not much interested in going out to eat – though I am sure I could have managed another meal had they wished to, as we’d agreed!

It was nice to have them around today, as I have been feeling a bit low and in need of some conversation about something OTHER than triathlon! Its weird to sat that, from here, the absolute focal point of the sport that I have dedicated this whole year too, but I have found myself feeling very detatched from it all as the number of arrivals increases each day – all in their best kit, super excited and wanting to share their stories of qualification, injury, kit choice, nutrition plans and race aspirations. Of course, most of these people are simple enjoying a rare chance to immerse themselves in an environment dedicated to excellence in the sport which they are themselves passionate about. Not many have colleagues, partners, family with more than a passing interest – let alone any expertise- and some may not even belong to a club of like minded individuals to indulge in tri chatter with. Just look at the amount of chat that web based forums generate!

So, im being a bit sour I suppose in my reluctance to embrace the spirit – it feels to me a bit like the fresher’s week at university did, where most of the people I met were fresh from schools and parents and just wanted to connect with others and share the excitement. The repeated conversations about what A levels they’d sat, grades, other unis they applied to, tales of school masters and other really not very interesting topics of conversation with total strangers. But this was necessary in order to find some of my closest and longest last friendships- people who i shared years of important experiences with, and without ongoing contact with them my life today would be far poorer. Ironman, or more specifically being at the world championships, also provides that commonality which makes it easy to talk and meet people who will potentially become good, and important friends. Or, as steven does, just enjoying the vibe...so need to get into the groove a bit more, think a bit more about the race and find a better connection to how lucky I am to be here. As my sister said –you never know what might happen, and there’s no guarantee I’ll be back. So no matter how confident I feel about the upcoming race, how well or poorly it may go, just don’t take the experience for granted.

kona diary - day 6

Today I took a ride south out of town, off in the direction of Captian Cook, on a loop known as The Painted Church Loop. The route heads out of town on the very rideable Highway 11, steadily climbing up, up, up through Honalo, Kealakekua and all the coffee plantations up there, before taking a minor road off to the right for the Painted Church loop. Having risen beyond 1500ft, you loose a lot of height on this loop, and climb again back to the highway the end of the circuit before heading home the way you came. In theory, that is – I got curious and chose a different, apparently parallel (but actually not) return route, and was enjoying the scenery and steady climb so much that it was half an hour or so before I realized by mistake and that the view I’d been admiring through the heavy greenery up there was actually Kona airport and the energy lab, a long way below, and behind me. I’d over –shot the town and was on my way up Mauna Kea!
However, despite riding a good hour longer than intended I found the ride so refreshing that it was worth the extra time on the road. It felt so good to be out off the intensity off Kona; away from that awful stretch off Queen K highway, which is now pretty busy with very fit looking people on very expensive looking bikes, matching kit and aero helmets hammering along the shoulder. Not to mention the stiffeling heat of the town – as soon as the road exceeds about 200ft the scenery becomes a lot fresher and its noticeably cooler and sheltered from the winds. The roads are lined with fragrant fruit trees – mango, papaya and passion fruit (or guava?) which offer up delicious scent as you ride by. A little higher and I wondered what the tall bushes with red berries that now surrounded me. Of course- coffeee! I had never seem it growing before …and here I was now riding through the plantations. The towns up there were small, simple towns with faded looking buildings – churches, a cafes, a gas station & food mart and many art galleries in each. And of course kona coffee outlets! I cruised through each, absorbing it like a tourist, having left the anxious triathlete way down the slope in Kailua.

The little loop at the end of the highway took me on much smaller and winding roads. Past farms and plantation – dropping down the mountain side before beginning the ascent back to the highway. i stopped to check out an avacado tree that was dropping its fruit into they road, ate a couple (not many shops out here) and stuffed a few in my pocket for tomorrow’s breakfast. Briefly wondered about the wisdom off picking up and eating strange fruits of the side of the road but couple not resist trying the honey scented yellow tings that were also frequently scattered at the roadside. Inside was a bright orange sweet sour pulp covering soft balck seeds – just like the inside of a passion fruit, but not all wrinkly and brown like those we get in the UK. Delicious and very refreshing – will have to go to the market in town and find out what they call them.

At the end of the ride, after my accidental detour, the return to town down a wonderful long switch-backed road- emerging about 300m from our hotel!

What a wonderful and relaxing ride.

kona diary - day 5

Pretty smashed after the last couple of days training, heat and disrupted sleep, so I’m glad to have the ‘day off’ today. From here its all gonna be a lot of lighter stuff, a few race efforts and lots of rest…but still , it was up early to swim with Roger who wanted to do the whole course. I was keen to do this again having enjoyed it so much last time, so I agreed to meet for a 6:30 splash, since ‘on paper’ we swim about the same pace. As usual I woke around 3:30am, rose at 5 and headed down wandered out to the pier for 6. Spent half an hour just chilling with a strawberry tea, watching the town go about it’s morning rituals and early dips relatively undisturbed by the bustling population of IronVisitors who take over the beach from about 7 onwards. I was pretty tired so a bit nervous when I saw Roger pull out his new full length blueseventy speed suit. Not even sure that a 80-90 min swim was such a good idea, feeling like this – it was more than scheduled for today. But what the harm?
Well, it was a bit of a slog –swimming really quite slowly and quite a lot of swell out there making it hard to see him, or the buoys. Seemed to take an age to get all the way out there..and longer on the way back! But, I was pleased I’d done it and had the rest of the day to relax.

When I say relax, I mean do a few other things. A trip to the bike shop, bit of a chat about my rear wheel (its out of ‘dish’, which is why it rubs the rear stay – will play with that later), and derailleur ( bent in transit – which is why the gears don’t mesh so well – but about half the price to replace in uk than here so will put up with that). Then up the road for a massage.

Turned out that the lady giving me my run is a former German pro triathlete – Tina Walter – who moved out here after a great 9th place finish in the 2004 race in order to train for the following year. She was hit by a car whilst out training shortly before oct 2005 and , though started the race, was forced to withdraw before the end of the bike. Pretty much ended her career there with permanent back problems. Totally devastating, but nonetheless she moved on and is working as a masseur out here still today. It was really interesting to talk to her about her career. She’s someone who came tto the sport later in life, having been a runner previously, and very rapidly became very good on the bike and of course the run and was posting great results, despite being a relatively weaker swimmer. The rub was good too. I’m looking forward to my next appointment.

kona diary - day 4

trouble on the queen k (and goodbye to a turtle)

They say ‘bad luck comes in 3s’, well they do if you think of it like that – though I’m sure I could think of other events today which might be classed as ‘bad luck’, if pushed to justify a saying that bad luck comes in 4s or 5s…and in any case ‘bad luck’ is just one way of looking at today’s events. All along it is possible to see the positive benefits, so “good luck comes in 3s’ would be another!
I did not join the others to swim in the ocean this morning, but accompanied them to the pier to take some photos and who was around. Each morning it gets busier there. The plan was to get out on the Queen K highway for 8 – about race time- and get an out and back ride to Kawaehae before the winds switch direction – which I believe happens at about noon-1pm. Easy ride out then 2 x 45min race pace intervals on the return. As I was wheeling my bike out of the hotel room I noticed the rear tyre was semi-flat. Bugger. Pulled out the piece of wire that had caused this slow puncture and changed tube. Bad luck no.1 – slow puncture, the second flat in 3 rides! However what GOOD luck it was that I discovered this before leaving and was able to fix it in my room. The valve extender was being a bit fiddly and did not have access to Russell’s track pump, so I’d be riding slightly soft, but was not too much of a delay.
The ride out on the highway felt great initially, with a tailwind, but soon turned into a real battle as the road rounds to face the increasingly strong winds side/head on. The second hour was a real slog and I felt totally drained by the time I could see Kaaehae in the distance. 4 miles to go seemed just sooo far into those winds and I was flagging. But I knew this feeling, and have learned the remedy lies in a great big cake. This has happened to me twice recently – feeling lousy on a ride, pop into a shop for a banana or nuts or other healthy snack and coming out with huge greasy packaged patisserie item, packing 800kcal pure sugar and I’m feeling right as rain again! Not the optimum solution – that would be to eat ore real food before heading out, or even better refueling after the previous day- but one which works. Now that I recognize the symptoms I am able to make better choices about the food that I buy too – so 2 Sweet and Salty peanut bars and a packet of cheese pretzels at the store and I’m in a far more positive frame of mind. Plus, I feel pretty sure that I’ll benefit from a push from that ghastly wind for part of the ride back.
Again, I’m about to head off when I feel hat the rear tyre has gone down again. Crap. That explains part of why the ride out felt so bloody hard, too. Figure that if it’s a puncture it’s pretty slow and decide just o re-inflate it. Easier said than done with the valve extender being temperamental, but I get a bit of pressure in it and start the second leg of the ride. I decide to ride 30 min to let the food digest before starting the first interval – after which I’ll check see if the tyre needs air, before doing the second.

What had been a driving head wind before is now a strong side wind coming slightly from behind and is pretty damn scary. Don’t care about race effort here – if I was racing perhaps I’d be a bit bolder under the influence of adrenaline but don’t feel like taking the risk as these gusts sweep me right across the shoulder, I’m braking. Not sure what that achieves other than that I’d be hitting the lava at 20 mph, not 30….through the worst of it, stick the tunes in and start the intervals. I’m feeling pretty good now, enjoying the effort and the heat and the rising and rolling road. The side winds have eased off; I have a tail wind and am moving at speed. Feels good. Frequent glances down to my rear tyre though and I can see that I’ll need to put a bit more air in. Break for 10, and hop off to sort it out. Figure that the valve is leaking through the extension. About 10 min into the second interval the tyre is real flat again. Pull over and decide to change the tube and check tyre just in case of slow puncture. None – it is the valve extender which has lost its thread and is leaking air almost as fast as I can pump. Shit. Fiddle fiddle ..snap. shit.
The tyre expels all air and I now have no means to inflate it. Game over, out comes the thumb. Bad luck no. 2. GOOD luck no. 2 – after about 2 minutes a very nice couple pulls over, stick my bike in the tardis-like trunk of their hire car and give me a ride all the way to my hotel. Added bonus – this all happened in good time for me to figure out a better valve/extender solution before race day – otherwise I would not have tested it. Gonna go get me some long valve tubes and f**k the extensions.

So, all this kind of ruined my bike session and it wont quite be a brick run now, but make the best of it. Pretty quick transition for a 40 min run up the Queen K with 30 min at race pace which today seemed limited to 4:50 – slower than I target in training but I’m thinking to myself that I’ll be pretty happy if I’m running that pace on this stretch if road in 10 days time!

So bad luck no. 3? Well this is the one that pissed me of the most – loosing my ‘lucky’ turtle earring. Just finished an easy 3km pool swim and noticed turtle was not there. Gutted. Lucky Kona turtle – I’ve been wearing it for 2 years since my last trip here, a symbol of why it’s worth all the effort, discomfort, compromise. The fact that I’ve been wearing it fro two years makes it pretty hard to make claim of any ‘lucky charm’ status – good things and bad things and have happened whilst wearing it!! I guess the GOOD of that is having to detach my self from superstition, or lucky charms..and facing the fact that there is no LUCK. Things happen – we may not have chosen that course of events, ideally, but there’s always a solution and something we can learn from situations. But i really like that earring :o(

kona diary - day 3

30th sept
Day 3 – 30 September

We swam whole swim course this morning – well its not quite exactly but the far marker buoy is out there (waaaay out there – but you can see it as you get close). 4 of us out, Steven and Russ’s new room mate , Martin, up ahead and Russell and myself following behind. I managed to stay on Russ’ s feet until about half way, when I had to make an adjustment to swim suit ( salt water really makes the seams really chaff) and lost him. So i was all alone out in le grande bleu….dont know if there really were dolphins out today a Steven claimed. I think I swim with eyes closed quiet a lot! On the way back, Russ towed me awhile before deciding to go explore of course so I followed my own line home. Took a total of 85min, with brief regrouping stops.

At midday headed out for a run up Ali’i drive. Hottest part of the day – might as well get used to it though. Ran easy to the little blue and white turn around church and ‘race pace’ on way back. Hot hot hot. Finished by jumping in the hotel pool. Not sure that’s very considerate to the other guests…but felt damn good.

Final workout of the day – and I put this of as long as daylight would allow – a 90 min bike session on the Queen K with some short hard intervals. Finished up just before sun-down with memories of last years race triggered by the light of the low sun, reflected in the ocean and the town of Kona in the distance…

Boiled up my eggs for tea in the coffee machine. Not sure that’s very considerate to the other guests…but the eggs were damn good.

Kona diary - day 2

Day 2 29 sept

First taste of the Ocean this morning. It’s luuurvely. Very salty, but clear an warm. Swam out to the 3/4mile permanent buoy and back - was ale to swim alongside/just behind Russell which is nice for me as means no need for Steven to keep stopping and waiting …he went up ahead trying to stick with Rachel. There are pacuilar cold jets of water where freshwater streams flow into the bay, making the return a little chilly. For now its not too busy at the pier – that’ll quickly change!

Later we rode the whole bike course. Tough ride – we managed to get headwinds on the way out AND on the way back, with side winds as we rode up to Hawi. Think we were pretty lucky to have a chance to experience this – though I am sure it could be worse – it made it a pretty tough 100miles…and ensured we’d have no illusions about this being an easy race. Was also good to feel how the deeper section front wheel feels under the force of a strong side gust; alarming but controllable.

It’s damn hot, necessitating 3 stops for fluids along the way - the store at Kawaehae has a soda machine with ice dispenser so we were filling half gallon buckets with root beer and filling our bottles! I was leeching a lot of salt -0 much more than anyone else, which is unusual. Maybe I swallowed a lot of sea water this morning!

Kona diary - day 1

Mon 28 September

Up early at 5.30 to get into the right sort of sleep pattern for race day/overcome jet lag. Actually jet lag not that bad since we had a night stop over on our way here – an extra night sleep seems to have helped and though I was awake by 5, I had slept through the night. It was still dark as I left the room for my run, so was looking forward to running along the seafront as the sun rose. But I blinked and missed it! By the time I’d left the building, the sun was up – being so near the equator, dawn and dusk just don’t really exist!

A nice easy run up Alii drive. The day starts early here and I wasn’t alone on the road, with all the cafes setting up for breakfast business by 6am. As soon as the sun was up it really starts to feel hot. Returned to find the most amazingly coloured lizard in our room. So vibrant I thought it was a plastic toy – until I prodded it and got a start as it scuttled up the wall. Not entirely sure how I feel about a lizard running around in our room, beautiful or not, but I don’t think they bite or anything. Reckon as long as we don’t swallow it in our sleep, no harm will come of it.

The main mission of the morning was getting my hands on a rear cassette to replace the one which is still attached to my Powertap rear wheel, in Steven’s sister’s attic. With all the rushing around in London the last few days between Lanzarote and departing for Hawaii and hurried packing, something like this was bound to happen. Fortunately there are a couple of helpful and well stocked bike shops in Kona, and by midday I had a bike that would ride. Glad that I’d recently bought a new chain.

Checked out the aquatic centre for a pool swim . a large open air 50yard pool had been divided by a boom to create two 25y pools, dedicated to lap swimming – and a free facility. Free stuff makes me happy. Felt good swimming – did 3k with 6 x 350y reps on race pace.

Quick spin on the bike tinkered too much with the indexing on the gears. Wished I’d just left it alone – the guy at Pro bike ( La Santa, Lanzarote) had serviced it and had the shifting smoother tan it has ever been, but just not quite meshing perfectly on the new block, so I had to stop and fiddle. Now its far worse. And sure to get on my nerves unil I get it right…which could take several rides.

Rachel arrived this afternoon – She, Russel, Steven and I had dinner in the Canoe Club. Huge salads, brilliant sea-front view (albeit dark by 7!) in bed and falling asleep by 9! (that's jet-lag, jo)