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!!