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post-camp, london marathon, pre-lanza update

yet again i find myself apologizing to regular readers (if you exist, then get a life! Only joking, please don't) for recent lack of contribution to the blog. as usual this is a sign that my life is being so interesting that i've not had the time to sit down and write about it, let alone ponder on ways to make it seem even more interesting, relevant or exciting. So, i'm just gonna spend a little time recounting recent activities, news and significant training observations and plans. hold on tight!

you might have followed out training camp blog on www.everydaytraining.org.uk. we're extremely pleased with how this turned out - it was so much fun, everything worked out really well with the accommodation, catering, training and support crew, and we had really positive feedback form all the athletes who came along. We're pretty proud of our first effort and it was well worth all of the hard work that went into it. No question about it - there will be more to come. We feel that this is really something unique that Steven and I can offer and definitely a direction that we'd like to steer EverydayTraining in. Of course - its not a big earner, and our own training was somewhat compromised by the camp (which i'll talk about later) but there are remedies to both that we can work on, or at least plan around, in the future.

post camp we both felt a little down - not only the physical and emotional exhaustion of the week but a very low feeling once its all over. when you feel like that but too tired to really go out and train then there's only one thing to do - go straight to london and run a marathon!! having been to 'busy' to book cheap train tickets (i forgot) i borrowed mums purple micra and we wizzed up the motorway to west london. whilst rachel was out smashing course records and getting a 'taste for wildlife' in South Africa, she had kindly given over her flat for my stay in town. It was good to have a bit of isolation to catch up on sleep, coaching work and cookery programs on tv, and great to see her and hear all about the race on their return

I was properly excited about this year's marathon. pior to our 2.5 week traip to lanzarote i'd been seeing some great power numbers on my bike, and running really well. I'd even managed to sneak a few long runs in. During the camp, i got sick with a sore throat and cold ( the first in 6 months or more - great timing!) and so made a point of taking it as easy as i could get away with - luckily some one was required to time -keep and ride with the back-markers! Mid-way through the week, I came right (thanks to my regular supply of Vitabiotics Wellwoman and Immunace!) and enjoyed putting in a few more intense sessions. I was feeling so good running - being out of the gym and a low intensity spell seemed to bring something extra to my run speed. So, with my long runs banked, some good form prior to the camp, and easy couple of weeks and i was all set for a new marathon PB. oh yes i was. Unfortunately, i left my brain on the crowded train to Blackheath and, despite all the good advice about pacing that i'd given my athletes - set off at 2:50 pace. Which felt bloody easy to start with, of course. I bumped into an old club-mate who was running an 'easy' 2:55 and we strode along chatting through the first 12 miles. Of course it was not really an easy pace for me, and since i was not really out to push very hard on this run with ironman in a few weeks, i decided to ease off the pace to a more sensible 'just about ironman' intensity. unfortunately, i discovered that the damage to my legs had already been done by that point - it probably would have been as well to commit to 'racing' it. The second half was a miserably painful barely ironman paced 100 minutes of regret. 3:06 isn't such a bad time- and had i paced it well, that could have been a comfortable run that had little impact on my preparations for lanzarote. If i'd pace it really well i might have broken 3hrs and been really happy and full of confidence for lanzarote. As it was my legs were screwed for a week, and i'd run a minute slower than last year. Luckily, my sister is training in sports massage and needs screwed up legs to practice on. the things i do for my little sibbers ;o)

aside from letting her fix my shredded calves, i was also kind enough to bundle hr and her bike into mums micra at 5:45am on Thursday in order to drive her 40miles out of london and deposit her on the side of the road near Basingstoke (of all places!), point her in a generally south westerly direction and clear off. She wasn't smiling much when i left her but she really did look pleased to see me 5 hours later, after i'd ridden out to meet her in Castle Cary. She was still going strong and at the end of her 175km trip, came out for a short run with me too. I reckon she'll survive an ironman - and probably survive it pretty quickly, too.

the weather in somerset has been absolutely glorious and it's been perfect weather for riding around through spring-filled lanes, looking through the hedgerows at the new-born lambs, on my brand new Litespeed Archon c3. wow - it's a nice bike, just seems to fly up hills. Qunitana Roo and Litespeed are now being distributed in the UK through Evans, which is great for me as it means this year i have a very specific TT bike ( the cd01) and a good road bike that i can use on some of the hilly or more technical courses - like Wimbleball, or IM france - which the CD01 is not most suited to. I had put drops on the QR last year, but it was a real compromise, and absolutely horrified the tech development guys when they saw it at Kona!

So, it's now 3 weeks until i'm back in lanzarote and i've just started back into 'proper' training after almost a month out of the routine. Hopefully the break will have freshened me up a bit, and i do now feel really motivated to get back on it...but i must admit, only 2 days in, it feels harder than i remember! Ah well, keep bringing it on ;o)

home- and away again

We arrived back to the UK after a 2-day journey through air and time, culminating with a -mile trip in mum's purple nissan Micra, dangerously loaded with or bike boxes and baggage obscuring the view out of every window. Good thing it was a saturday night and the local Po-leese had other things to focus on in town. to a bit of a chill shock, but that has been tempered somewhat by the beautifully clear and sunny weather that we've had all week. yesterday I even briefly considered riding in shorts as i went around one of my favourite routes on Exmoor - one reserved for fine clear days like that. It's great to be riding and running around 'home' and witnessing the signs of spring in the countryside. However since our return it feels like my feet have hardley hit the ground. Or rather - my bum has hardly hit the sofa. my feet have been hitting the ground in a fairly regular and rythmic manner since it recently it's dawned on me that the Virgin London marathon is approaching and a few long runs might help me in that regard!

Aside from catching up with friends and family - and a surprise christmas dinner complete with presents and requests for reciprocation, most of my time has been focused around final stage of organization for the training camp which starts next week as well as kit orders, renewing my team and sponsorship contracts and arranging for good to be shipped in the small time period that i'm here in the UK to receive them. This has required a good deal of back and forth correspondence, which is time consuming, and at times frustrating when I just want/need to get out and train! But on the whole it's been enjoyable and fulfilling, not to mention a great learning experience. We have had amazing support from sponsors for this camp and I'm confident that the efforts invested in oragnising this first camp at just about hopefully break-even will be worthwhile if the athletes all have a great time, see fitness gains and the camp sponsors feel that we have justified their support with exposure to a hungry market. Next time around, we'll be more experienced, have an established network of support and a basic camp template in place. We envisage that running training camps will become a key aspect of EverydayTraining in the future - so here's hoping that we pull this one off! The basic premis of the camp is a big volume week of no-nonsense training, with a few competitions and challenges to add a bit of extra motivation as fatigue sets in and mojo's threaten to crumble .This is the sort of thing that both Steven and I really enjoyed about Epic - and felt it was rare to get such an opportunity. We've done it on a 'shoe-string' to make it really accessible, and just hope that we're not proved to be total freaks ..and that those who've signed up for this week of suffering will enjoy it too! Both steven and I will be posting up daily 'blogs' from camp on the coaching website blog page and you can follow @EDT_news for Twitterings too.

The coaching aspect of EverydayTraining is developing nicely too - since our return to the UK we've signed up 4 new athletes - 3 of those are local triathletes, which is a very positive step for us in getting into the 'scene' down here. However both Steven and I are realizing that there is a point where we will not risk reducing the level of attention and service we can provide taking on more athletes - we're not there yet, but I am already holding my new sign ups until after Ironman Lanzarote this year.

Other exciting news for me is that my new bikes have arrived! I was doubtful that the contract with American Bicycle Groups and QR would be in place and bikes shipped in time for me to take on the Camp - but they were received in our local bike shop - Bicycle chain, Taunton - where Brian my favourite mechanic put in a few hours over-tiem to get it cabled, cut and set up for me to train on saturday, get it in a box ready for departure today. he's a star. And the bike is COOOL. It is pink, which is something that i am having to come to terms with :o) - but i think that it's gonna force me to ride it fast - for fear of being called a Jesse. Steven commented yesterday that I'm riding well - he couldn't quite drop me as he usually does at 300W.

long run this morning (not my favourite session - 3hr run = about 45 min of fun in total for me), quick hair cut for steven and were OFF to LAnzarote this afternoon!

Christchurch Quake Experience -real perspective!

Tuesday 22nd was a pretty wet and dismal morning, and i had a later than usual start to my day, giving me a nice relaxed hour or so to work on training schedules before setting off to the IM talk 'studios' to record an interview for next (this) week's show. It was good to see john and bevan ,who i'd not seen since last year's Epic Camp, and we recorded about half an hour of chat about my year and transitioning form age grouper to professional triathlete. Quite a lot of focus was around financing this move, goal setting, making race choices and whether to 'target' kona other aspects of the lifestyle that differ from doing triathlon as a 'hobby'. I will write some posts on these areas in the near future.

I left the studio in St Martins around 9am, still raining so, unenthusiastic about my 3hr reps session in the cloud covered port hills I pulled into a mall for a breakfast bun and coffee as the weather cleared up a little. Despite the poopey weather the session went well and I had just got home, made a coffee and lunch was settling in for an hour or so of work on a few athletes schedules before my track and gym sessions at QE2 when there was that familiar rumbling and jolting of an aftershock.

Since our arrival in October last year, these have been a fairy frequent occurrence, and although alarming at first, Steven and I had become quite used to it. They had also been dying down and far less frequent as the months went by. But this one's a biggie, I thought, as the shaking seemed to escalate rather than die down as usual. And the intensity seemed to continue mounting - I was pretty much frozen to the spot with fear on the bed, not that i could have really done much with the room shaking and objects starting to fly around the place as they were! I could hear stuff in the other rooms smashing and crashing around. The reality is that the shake probably lasted all of about 10 seconds, but it seemed like a long time before the world was still again. I tried the door of my room to go survey the damage, but it was jammed in the frame. The windows were on restricters so in order to get outside (which i was pretty keen to do!) I was going to have to break a window, I thought. Still wearing my bike jersey, I had a very useful multi tool in the rear pocket, which i realized i'd be able to use to undo the fixtings that limited the windows...and climbed out to find the terrified dog and screaming neighbours and the road in our cul-de-sac sort of folded up on itself with water gushing up from the depths of the earth. In the house was areal mess and the power had gone out. I set about clearing up and wondering what to do next. There were several large aftershocks during the next hour, which had me running outside again. The neighbors who had also been home that time were also wandering around, shell-shocked - in the street, seeking comfort from one another's stories in the confusion and fear about the rest of their households. Being a tuesday afternoon, Steven would be at the cinema and after an hour or so, decide i'd head out towards there. To my relief, he appeared just as i was leaving - it was a lot worse beyond our own street, with knee deep floods and broken roads and jammed up traffic and it had taken him 90 minutes to walk and wade the 2km home.

We are very fortunate - despite all of us being in different locations around the city, the household are all fine and were soon all assembled in the house. Shaken and a wee bit stirred. We spent the afternoon together, telling our stories, discussing our options what to do now and checking over the damage. An evening reading by candle light and listening with gut wrenching horror as the news of damage and tragedy in the city center slowly began to unfold over a small battery powered radio. Despite being a smaller magnitude than the earthquake that the city was just about recovering from last September, the center was both shallower and closer to the city. These factors all manifest in a lot more surface movement and structural damage to buildings and hills alike - and the fact that it was the middle of a weekday, sadly it was clear from very early on that there was a significant death and injury toll. The numbers are still coming out as communications have made it very difficult for people to contact and account for their missing friends and relatives.

Having decided that without water or power, with rain dripping in through the light fittings and that one doorway totally inaccessible (suggesting that the structural load paths of the building had been sufficiently compromised) we probably should not stay there another night, we packed up and headed to Ali's parent's farm in Ashburton. We were fortunate to have this option, and having driven a low route through accessible roads and crawling traffic that wednesday morning, were able to leave the reality behind and watch it on TV. This made us feel somewhat 'guilty' of course - seeing other's working clear the roads and find water and food for their family. Let alone the hundreds of volunteers with the heartbreaking heavy work of search the wreckage of the city centre for those trapped in fallen buildings. It was actually an opportunity to get to know our house-mates a little and do some training together - a very rare occurrence as they have very busy lives and must usually fit their training around work.

Our return to Chirstchurch yesterday it was a little sad to see the state of the place but also quite uplifting to see how people are really helping each other out - teams digging the roadways clear, those with water (wells or still connected) going around and making sure other have it, even letting strangers in to shower. People giving free food from the front of their house to those working in the streets, writing up signs with information or even just messages of care. There are reports of looting too, of course, but these few acts of incomprehensible selfishness are more news worthy than the millions of acts of kindness we see. The level of organization, sound public information and general common sense is impressive and it seems that on the whole people are reacting extremely responsibly to the difficult conditions.

As the rest of the Ava place household are heading up to Taupo for the Ironman ( Andrew, who's P3 locked in his city center office on Tuesday has been offered the loan of a bike by so many friends and the race organizers have even put him in touch with Cervelo for a loan of a P3) I'm currently staying with his extremely hospitable and generous parents on the west side of town, which has been less effected by the damage. We just felt quite an aftershock just now! but water and power - even internet! - are still connected here. I have withdrawn my own entry to Ironman New Zealand, which was rather a tough call but my recovery/fitness has been questionable since Wanaka and last weeks trauma and disruption really I lost my focus for this race. I feel I'm better saving the cost of the trip and spending some time on a build up for ironman Lanzarote in May.

reasons to race - and finding perspective

After Wanaka Steven and I took a proper holiday touring around some of the classic tourist spots in the south island. We made a pact to leave our laptops switched off for 5 days - and survived! We visited Milford sound, did a little kayaking there and then returned to Wanaka (which I preferred on account of it being a lot warmer and drier!) for a couple of days and did a cruisy ride over the Crown Range. I had a bit of time to explore the walking tracks around the lake, leaving Steven in the 3D maze at puzzling world! bless 'im. I've also had plenty of time to reflect on the race, and my performance there.

There are many reasons for me to race - but the most important and motivating is the belief that it's an opportunity to achieve one of my goals. At the start of the day in Wanaka, I was deep down seeing many reasons why the day would not turn out that way for me. Getting paid is also a goal of course, and i was fairly confident off that outcome in this case, but it's just not enough to really get me fired up into race-mode. Later on in the day, I began to realize that although the conditions were horrible, I have previously excelled in races where the conditions have been extremely tough - but the point is that I was not believing that on the start line, and that effected my whole experience. Might have even effected the outcome of my race.

Part of this is an underlying feeling that I'm close to raced out. I had a very fun and exciting period of racing from May to August last year, where every race just seemed to get better for me. I'd put in a long consistent winter block of training prior to the start of the season, and then continued to build specific fitness as I raced through the summer. The highlight for me was qualifying for Kona at IM UK - though that did mean one more race 6 weeks later, rather than the planned break from sept - oct before preparing for Ironman WA in December. Of course there was no question of tuning this opportunity down and i gave it no thought at all as I signed the cheque for my Kona entry!

The World Champs was amazing experience but frankly, a disappointing performance - certainly after the high of IMUK. Looking back I feel that this was the start of the next period in my year - one of regular racing through the fatigue that I'd accumulated during the summer without a chance to fully alleviate it in the short turn-around between races. Kona, IMWA and Wanaka were all great experiences for various reasons, and this period has been beneficial for me as an athlete but non of them did I feel I'd raced any better than 'OK". There are many reasons to race, as i've said, and gaining experience, developing and refining race strategies, course and race venue/organisation familiarity, and sponsor exposure are all very useful at this stage in my career, as well as the physical strength that this regime will have built in me. However, this must be balanced against the overriding drive towards those personal goals - and at the end of the day: enjoyment and long-term health.

It's been a long time since there hasn't been an imminent race on the horizon, and no matter how many you do - racing an Ironman IS a big deal and I still get nervous thinking about the next one, become preoccupied with what's best for that race rather than the longer term training plan. So, my feeling is that it's time to move into a new phase - and therefor Taupo is in the balance. I do have an entry and I admit, I think that it sounds terrible not to be fully commited to the event, but that's the reality of racing as a professional and trying to make a living out of the sport, especially in the early phase of a career. There are so many opportunities to race now, and we do have the luxury of being able to get a relatively late entry - but I had to make my decision just days after Wanaka and before I could really assess how well I'd recover from that and set about preparing for the next one 6 weeks later. Having made the decision that i do have the option NOT to race IM NZ, i'm freshly motivated by some focus on skills and specifics, with more recovery and freshening up for each session for the next month or so. Already I'm feeling the benefits of this and if this continues then chances are good that by march I'll be feeling great and ready to race - and be on the line at Taupo, but for now I'm not thinking that far ahead.


What else? well, since returning to ChCh, getting back online and having a bit more time with less training to do, I've been keeping myself busy arranging he logistics for our EverydayTraining Camp which is coming up in April. It's our first experience of organizing something on this scale and it's a pretty rapid learning curve, but most of the details are now in place. We have some great nutritional support thanks to Powerbar, athlete's recovery will be taken care of by For Goodness Shakes and they'll have their aching bodies cared for by The TriTouch. The accommodation is a friendly hotel that we've been using as our training base in Peurto del Carmen for years, and we have some great crew coming along to give Steven and I some back-up during the week. The next phase is the fun part - detailing the camp schedule!

I've been spending a little more time with my coach Scott, taking about future plans and training ideas, and this week has seen me back in the gym, back with the swim squad and backing off the ride/run volume a bit. I'm doing well with my diet, thanks in part to Ali's veggie patch, and this combined with my return to gym work is seeing me trim up a little already. I have a sort of love/hate thing with the gym - in that i've never really liked training indoors and never really look forward to my workouts - but find them strangely addictive and usually enjoy it once I'm there. I do find that for me, gym-work really seems to kick-start my metabolism and i seem easily trim up and gain definition on my return to regular gym routine. I can be a bit of a meat-head too, and when I read about Gordo's Big Steel Challenge or January, although I'm starting it late I've started tracking the weight of steel I'm shifting in a session. I reckon i'll easily move 350 tonnes this month.

challenge wanaka report

phew - what a challenge. that's my IM distance race count up to 15 and has to be the toughest yet! Wensleydale 2008 came to mind, but this was twice the length so tops it!! Having a spot of bother publishing my website - will have it updated, hopefully with some pics, in a few days...after our vacation around the tourist attractions of this wonderful part of teh world. steven won his age group - and an entry to Challenge Roth - so we're celebrating :o)


challenge wanaka in the glorious southern lake land of south island new zealand, has a contingency plan in case of weather conditions making the swim unsafe. in the briefing, race director assured us that only a 'howling north westerly wind' could mean conditions were this. wednesday through to friday we'd been treated to the best weather - clear, calm, sunny and warm. However at some point during teh early hours of saturday the nor-westerly started, whining - and though not at full blown 'howl', 5am race morning saw trees bent double and flags flapping violently in the winds blowing over the lake, which for the first time in our visit was not glass flat, but had significant chop. It was going to be a tough day.

lake wanaka is surrounded by mountains and glaciers and has a reputation for being very very cold even in the height of a kiwi summer. temperatures this week have varied a surprising amount - from pretty cold to quite fresh -but certainly nothing of the compulsory neoprene hats at race directors discretion and gloves and booties of previous years. because of the sudden change in weather I opted to swim in my neooprene cap. strangely - the water temperature had risen - not quite enough to overheat, but i was certainly toasty in it. anyway, brain freeze was one less 'challenge' that wanaka would be throwing at us today. But it had plenty more in store for us!

The bike course is composed of 3 sections - the first 35km out and back towards Treble Cone takes you out on steeply undulating roads paved with coarse chip. All too easy to blast your legs on all those steep rises on keen fresh legs, so I'm careful to lighten my gearing and use the small chainring. i'm struggling to get myself moving this morning so holding myself back doesn't seem to be an issue. return through town and then its out on the second segment - a loop through Albert Town and Lake Hawea. More short steep and frequent hills, rough chip and some shocking cross winds as we pass Lake Hawea. I've ridden this loop a few times in the week and do quite enjoy it, though not so much in the strong winds blowing my front wheel about and feeling inexplicably below par. A relatively small field has spread out pretty well by this point and there are few people around to pace off. i'm glad i have my powertap, but right now it;s just telling me i could ride harder. just about the end of this loop, on yet another steep climb, I'm passed by a familiar age grouper who I train with in Christchurch. I'm surprised that she was behind me being a better pool swimmer than I am, and this changes my state of mind somewhat. Knowing that she's a strong rider and would love to beat a pro, I fire up to stick with her.
The final and longest section of the course was unknown territory to me, around Lake Dunstan to Cromwell. Cromwell is the lowest and farthest point on the course, and with a ripping tail wind we race the next 40km keeping one another in sight and pushing each other along. My legs start to feel good working and I'm having fun. I know that we'll pay for this wind assistance with long slog back up the other side of the lake into the headwind, and try to get as much nutrition in me whilst I can. The cross winds have made it difficult to eat or drink much so far. At the 110km mark we turn, and it really is as hideous as i'd anticipated. The roughest roads i've ridden on, long gradual incline and wind so strong that it's literally difficult to make progress. Dropping into my smallest gear and spinning feverishly it's a case of head down and keep an eye on those ahead. My age-group pal and a couple of male age groupers who've been around for the last hour or so got a little way up the road now and I work hard to regain contact, but for all the efforts i put into the wind they're still apparently receding into the distance. For some reason my powertap starts playing up ( shoulda changed those batteries!) - so no speedo, power or anything just heartrate and perceived efforts and inner voices . keeping it at moderate level and my thoughts away from packing in. i tell myself that no one is enjoying this -no one is passing me and actually it does appear that after a while i'm gaining ground on and then passing those ahead of me. I still feel pretty strong despite being trapped in my personal version of hell! But of course i know that it's not eternal - it will end eventually so just keep plugging away at those pedals and there's progress. Some pretty fierce gusting cross winds and a few final hills just to seal this bike course in the memory as the toughest in all of my own triathlon experience - and i do tend to go for the tough bike courses!

I'd been looking forward to the run even more than usual- it's mostly off-road and follows the lake and river walkway on a 21km loop. I love to run trails and feel that this terrain plays to my strength. Starting my first lap with the lead male helped me keep good pace and it was fun to exchange a few words with his bike escort and receive some great encouragement form his support crew. About 17km into the first lap I passed Belinda Harper for 4th place, which really encouraged me. I did not realize at the time that she'd suffered a bike crash, loosing the lead, and was not about to give chase, so fear of being re-passed kept me moving. The wonderful scenery, enthusiastic support from the locals and many friends who were here taking part in the events of the weekend ( there had been a half distance and team relay races too), and the wonderful feeling of getting through a very trying day despite not being on my best form, got me through the nasty steep hills on the course with a smile on my face.

Challenge Wanaka was a wonderful experience - a beautiful location, an intimate feel to a superbly organized race with an honest and challenging course.

www.joannacarritt.co.uk

tourist training

we're on our way to race Challenge Wanaka, with our Jucy 8-seater rental and big picnic box we're taking the scenic route there. And my word, it really is! We've been so lucky with the weather this summer and are seeing some of the best Kiwi scenery in the best possible conditions. Rather than the full-on madness of Epic Camp, it's just Steven and I doing bits and pieces and taking turns to ride en-route. We both took a trip up to Mount Cook - not the summit,or even the glacier ( they said not suitabel for road bikes, but hows a bout a $500 helicopter ride up there?) but at least to the small and very subtly designed alpine village where climbers depart for the mountain side huts. A 2hr early morning run in the lovely little town of Twizel consisting of 3 laps of the trail which circles the town reinstated my confidence in the calf pinch that had been bothering me all week, then set off for teh 5hr round trip. Short, paced run off the bike finished a 37hr week. Not Epic ( and i'm glad not) but I'm now starting to feel fit again after Bussleton and Christmas. I feel ready to train! But there's the small matter of a iron-distance race on saturday though! I do wish that I had 3-4 weeks to get in some real fitness and shed a couple kg, but it's not really likely that the organisors will move the race at such late request. even for me - who was at one point last week the only female professional entrant. could've been my first big win ;o) ....or the first occasion where i've finished dead last. Half full/half empty etc
we're staying in the little town of Hawea ( which is actually on the race bike route) for a couple of days under the expert hospitality of Doug Scott in his amazing batch. Doug's a friend from previous Epic camps, skinny as a rake (i'm jealous) and is currently on fire on the bike. he's going to rock the half which he's doing in preparation for Taupo and nursing his legs back to running form. Todays training - my last 'session' before the race went good. power high and Hr making sense, good speed on the run -like i said, i'd love to have a few weeks to work with this but at the least it gives me some confidence for the weekend.

It's a tough course - similar to wimbleball, but twice as long, but such amazing scenery and fingers crossed that the weather holds up. Tomorrow we move into Wanaka and the hotel that sponsors the event giving us complimentary accommodation. hows about that for being looked after!