gym junkie....wot me?

Its our last weekend in Christchurch and at last the sunshine has made a re-appearance. The last week has been cool/cold with the winds from the south brining all that chill right over here from the Antarctic and its been raining non stop for 2 days. I guess that we’re entering autumn now– apples, pears and blackberries are fruiting – as are nectarines and apricots. To be honest the rain has been providing motivation to get to the pool and the gym .Yes, the gym! Scott is on a mission to make me less scrawny, provided a free pass to his gym and pool in town, and given me a short upper body gym routine to follow as well as some stroke specific stuff to focus on in the pool. And I’ve been really enjoying this work – for the first time in ages I am enjoying swimming, and feeling good doing it. I’m not kidding myself – I’m not repping any faster, I’m at least motivated to try.
I’m thankful for this new distraction since under Scott’s guidance, the long explorotary rides that Steven and I had been planning to do last week have been struck strictly OFF the menu in order that I could fully recover from Epic camp and let that training sink in before a final week of race specific work. I really did feel like I was missing out on al the fun, but inside I knew that, although I’d surely manage the long rides, my body was tired and would certainly not benefit from becoming more so. It’s a dilemma that will resurface I am sure – it just happens what we do for leisure is pick a nice looking route, with a few promising café locations, get on our bikes/put on the fell shoes and make a day of it. Though psychologically it‘s a world apart it is not entirely dissimilar to ‘training’ and certainly nothing to do with resting or recovery and will of course impact the quality of my ‘proper’ training when harder efforts are required. Having entrusted myself to a coach’s expertise, I’m really going to have to be disciplined about this…so a 3h ride should NOT become a 5hr ride, just because it’s a nice day and there’s a tempting new climb to ride! And a 40 min run IS worth getting out of bed for if it’s done correctly – no need to double it. So, we’re just going to have to come back to Christchurch next year and do the Akoroa Summit Roads route and see Port Levy and run through the forest up to the nice café on the Lagoon at Brooklands, and the rest….;o) for the remainder of our stay I will be doing what is important for a good race in 2 weeks time, though I am pleased to see that there are a few opportunities to run in the forest and Port hills included in next week’s schedule, as well as some moderate rides in the hills. And of course the gym!

I’m beginning to feel that things are falling into place for the Ironman. Well rested and taking care of my diet, cut out the caffeine and alcohol since Epic Camp and ensuring that I fuel well for harder or longer sessions, I’m getting buzz out of performing a few race intensity intervals. Of course there’s still much uncertainty preceding the first race of the year, paticulary so early in the calendar when the majority of the field, being southern hemisphere based, have been race-fit for months – but I’m looking forward to testing the water, setting a benchmark to work from for the rest of the year, and a fun day out in race kit!

Epic Over

Here i am back in Christchurch, Epic Camp all over, with my 'feet up' and feeling quite sad that it is all over. It was a hell of a week challenging in a number of ways, and being surrounded by a great bunch of people to share the challenges with - that kind of experience really effects me and leaves me feeling kinda empty when its over.

Not only did i achieve a pretty solid bloc of training volume, despite a day out due to injury, and cycling was at higher intensity that i'd usually ride over those distances, but learned a lot from the others on the camp and met some folk that i'd really hope to stay in contact with. In fact, I have just had a bike fitting session with Chris and Marilyn McDonald who had noticed some bio mechanical problems during the camp which they felt could be limiting my ability to maintain power over longer rides. I'm so grateful for their taking the time to come over and help - advice from athletes of their calibre is awesome. I managed to spend some time chatting with Tara too - well more like drilling her with questions about her training - which she openly and thouroughly discussed with me. We are now training under the same coach, after all!

Stats from my training log:
in 8 days of Epic
25km swimming
725miles riding
78miles running
61 hours training

this week is going to be very light. i feel tired and know from last year that it'll be at least 2 weeks before i feel fully recovered. I have been out spinning my legs on teh bike for about 60-90 min at at time the last 2 days, and had a nice easy swim this morning. I felt like lead in the pool! I may ride little longer today, avoiding hills still though and try a light run tomorrow. My focus will really be on diet - weaning myself of the huge amounts of food that i was tucking into last week and ensuring that i eat really healthily. No more booze, caffeine or sugary stuff until after Taupo now.

Leading on from a previous post, some analysis and goal setting.


The table on the left compares my race results in 2007 and 2008, excluding Kona, against the average of the top 5 female results. It appears that my 2007 performances were better than 2008 – which may be the case or may be a reflection of the improving standard of the field. My running certainly did improve over the course of a year, and it is likely true that my swimming became weaker. The choice of races in 2007 – Lanzarote and Switzerland, both had hilly bike courses and suited me better than the rolling courses at Germany and Wisconsin where I competed in 2008 rather than a loss of strength on the bike.

So lets say that currently my swim was about 15% (10min) down on the average of top 5, bike about 4.5% (15min) and run about 4% (9min) - with total overall time just under 5% (half an hour). I’m not sure where the other 5 min went!
My biggest improvements should come in the swim really – but that’s a lengthy process and the likelihood is that I will not increase my swim training volume by the order of magnitude required to sort it out, and it’s more likely that more immediate gains will be achieved on the bike with the additional time that I have at my disposal.
This ought to drag my run times up a little too.

So, targets for the end of year should be to race within 10% of the average top 5 swim times and 2.5% in bike and the run - that is looking for a general improvement of around 8 min (10%) on my swim times, 10 min (3%) on the bike and 6 min (3%) on the marathon.
IM New Zealand is such an early race that these are probably too optimistic so targets are as shown on the right - within 12% on swim, 3% bike and run and 4% overall.

Epic Camp

I will be blogging under the Epic Camp Team Blog whilst on the Epic Camp Tour.
Rather than duplicating here, follow http://www.epiccamp.com/blogs/team/

transitions

Having already arranged a 6 month sabbatical break from work, I received the news of my redundancy with less disappointment than usually comes with this kind of blow. Sure, the financial picture changes somewhat but all kinds of new avenues open up for how I will spend the next few years. It is a chance to see how I could develop as a triathlete, and whether at the age of 32 I can figure out how to become competitive as a Professional. Triathlon aside Steven and I, never having co habited before, are embarking on this adventure together; establishing new levels of mutual support, dependency and cooperation in our relationship. Not least because it will primarily be his income from the sale of his central London ‘Bachelor Pad’ that will support me until I can at least make the racing pay for itself and kit requirements.

This throws a whole new light onto that aspect of my life which was started as just a hobby, and I find myself asking the question - what motivates me? Or rather what DID motivate me…. is that still relevant – and/or what are my new motivators? Can we pick and choose such things anyway? It is often said about the successful people (in sports and elsewhere) - it's nothing to do with their talent, but their attitude, determination and belief that distinguishes them from the mediocre. I believe No matter what your potential for achievement may be, Motivation is the key, and multiple levels – long (ambitions, goals) medium (races) and short term (daily/weekly training regime).

I’ll admit that being the best in my age group - which effectively amounts to being the best age-grouper - at my races was a huge motivating factor for me. Pretty shallow, I suppose, that my prime motivation was based on a comparison of myself to others, but it was sufficient inspiration to put in that extra work to make sure that amongst those women of my age who were working a full time job, I was the one putting in those few percent more and earning the wins. It didn't require much thought; just set the alarm early, refuse the beers after work, and don't let up.

Now, this no longer applies; I’ll still be racing age group but it's hardly a level playing field and the sense of pride in a good result is diminished - of course I should be winning my age group; I have it so easy. So if the same result were not to bring the same sense of accomplishment and reward for extreme effort and discipline, how am I going to motivate myself to put that same level of effort into my training? It feels as though I am in a sort of transitional state – that no- mans land separating the top of the age group field and girls up there collecting the prize money who are racing around an hour faster.

Christchurch has been a great place for getting that sort of perspective. Scott, the extremely well connected and ever sociable legend of triathlon, has hooked us up on some great rides with passing pro triathletes that he has or currently does coached, including Chris and Marilyn McDonald, and Tara Norton. It has been a brief thrill to ride with these guys and girls, turning rapidly into big fat reality as the bunch cruises up the road and into the distance ahead of me. Now, that's perspective which is a little hard to swallow if I’m honest, and it's really making me think about the mental adjustments that will be required to bridge the gap.

So arriving at a drinks stop (which was probably entirely for my benefit anyway) on an easy ride minutes after the rest of the guys yesterday, feeling done-in and humiliated, I promise myself that in a year's time it will be a very different story. So, there is my motivation - I can see how far off the pace I really am, but I also know that these girls started somewhere, and probably somewhere lower than this. They have worked consistently at it and are now capable of these performances, which I am in awe of. I know that I have a capacity for hard work and extreme focus on a goal. And there is no reason to doubt that I have the 'stuff' to make it happen for me too.

To date I have trained on the principle that I should do as much volume as possible within the time available, spiced up with some weekend racing and a few more intense sessions in the lead-in to races. It has worked out ok so far, and now that I have the time do twice as much of the same - I should become twice as good at it, right? Here, the phrase ‘unguided missile comes into mind. I have already demonstrated to my self that suddenly getting stuck in to a 40+ hr week is ok for a few weeks at a time, but will shortly follow with a real fatigue low and poor motivation associated with it. I have little knowledge of how to optimize my training to balance volume and intensity for a step up to this ‘next level’. But I do have access to resources, guidance and advice. So, despite the apparent expense of top level coaching fees, when considered against the ‘cost’ of a year without earning plus all of the racing and traveling, the money invested in the guidance of a real expert coach through this transitional phase, and perhaps beyond (after all most professional triathletes do seem to work with a coach through their career) will be money extremely well spent and potentially add value to the entire process. So I have enlisted the coaching services of Scott Molina – a legend in the sport himself, who has coached a number of class athletes and world champions, easy to get along with and having values and attitudes which align with my own. After a year of doing my own thing, and being successful with it, it will be strange to be following someone else’s plan, but I am totally confident that this is the way to achieve my goals it is the right thing to do.

I will take every opportunity to learn from others who have also “been there and done that” and prove generous enough to share some of their experiences. During Epic Camp, I can look forward to spending time with Tara Norton and Marilyn McDonald (though not on rides, it seems!) - my female comrades on camp; learning about their journeys in profession competition. In the short term, I need to remove my focus from my age group race results and towards improvements that I make in training through the year. Of course I feel more pressure to perform well in the age group rankings at New Zealand and Lanzarote but I should really be assessing against the top females overall, and come March 7th I will have my chance to see how it is done at Ironman New Zealand, as well as get a measure of how far I still have to go to get on that level.

2 weeks in New Seal Land

So, almost 2 weeks in and we're developing a routine.

It's easy with the swimming - turn up at 6am, which means a 5:15 wake up call, to join the triathletes swim squad session. It transpires that the session starting at 7am is mainly for masters (i.e 'proper') swimmers and a few elite, or at least damn good triathletes. The earlier session is divided into 2 groups - 'proper' triathletes who can swim, and remedials/losers who would like to think that someday they will swim. This puts me in a difficult situation - not being fast enough to cope with the real training, but requiring more structure and yardage than we get given in the second group. It is frustrating, but i'm resolved to make the best of it - work hard when the session requires pace, and add on reps to make up a minimum 4k per session. The sessions are 4 days/week, 2 of these are in a 50m pool and there is a lot of emphasis on use of paddles and pull bouy. With an additional sessioon of my own each week 20km is acheivable and so even if i'm not getting pushed to swim to target times, time in the water will improve my stroke, stamina and strength.

The riding here is great with several obvious loops around town of varying length and topography, and it'll be a while before we have exhausted all the possibilities of places to explore with new routes of our own. Then there are al the link-ups between these routes....so i ride 3 days as: tues - hilly 50 -60miler, wed - long flat fast pace with intervals, thurs- mixed 70-80mile easy take a day off the bike for a long run in the hills then ride the weekend as: sat - hill reps, sun- over distance tourist ride with Steven. This format gives about 350 miles and some variety and the sunday tourist ride gives us a chance to see a bit of the area, and sample some of the excellent coffee and confectionary that NZ has to offer ( yes, i know that its time to be careful with the diet in preparation for the race, but when i see those savoury scones or the amazing variety of candies I really AM prepared to carry them around the course at Taupo with me!!!). Last week we headed out south east to Akoroa - a coastal/harbour town on the edge of asubmerged volcanic mountain rim. The ride is around 60miles each way - similar to London-Brighton - and presents soem pretty challenging climbs after about half way. Similar to London-Brighton, though as far as i can recall, Ditchling Beacon has never taken 45 minutes to climb ;o).
On our return, just having departed our 3rd snack stop and decided on the flat and direct route back into own rather than adding 2 further significant climbs over the 'port hills' for a more scenic route, we experienced a sudden thunder and hail storm. One minute wwe were commenting that the sky ahead looked a bit ominus, the next we were stopping to put on shower proofs against the start of a little rain and next thing we'd flung our bikes in a ditch and were desperatly trying to scramble through a hedge for refuge against the grape-sized hails stones which were being flung at us at 60 mph!! A sign of how bad these storms can be is that 2 vehicles stopped when they saw us to let us get in and sit it out. We really would have been quite done in had it not been for this kindness - even though the storm passed withing about 20 minutes, we would have been hyperthermic by the time that it had. It turns out that the folk who had seen us and actully turned around to drive back and rescue us was the family of former All-Black prop forward, Mark Hammetts, international rugby star who now coaches the Canterbury Crusaders!

With all of this riding my running has somewhat taken a back-seat, being a sort of slow paced fill-in sort of thing to and from swimming and into the city centre with a brick runs thrown in. The plan for this phase of my training does call for a bit more pace and tempo work, however, and I'm in a bit of a dilemma here as to whether to ease off on the volume and allow my legs to function like this and get some 'quality' running sessions done, or to maintain my focus on cycling load whilst the riding opportunities are so great, just maintaining a reasonable run volume at easy pace. Afterall, the last few months back in the UK have been run focused and riding limited, but on the other hand - there is a race looming on the not very distant horizon.

That's what makes being a multi sport-er so interesting!

down under 1

Admittedly we did not get off to the very best start to the year, and rather than arriving in Christchurch full of beans and ready to hit the ground running, we arrived full of cold and exhausted from the last minute exertions of packing up and moving out of, and moving my sister into, my home. During the 30 hour flight via LA, on the plus side I managed to catch 4 movies, an entire series of Gavin And Stacey and several episodes of Peep Show, on the minus side I also managed to catch conjunctivitis and so my first views of Christchurch have been through eyelids stuck together with green goo…..

However, the weather has been beautiful since our arrival – yesterday being the hottest day of the year with unofficial reports of 40 deg in places, which takes some getting used to when the last time I was out training it was below zero all day- so we could not wait to get out for a gentle ‘shake down’ ride. We rode a lovely loop south of the city around ‘the bays’ which surround an area of high ground, which is traversed by a couple of pass road offering various length cuts back over the hills and into town. We had not noticed when planning our little excursion that these passes were considerable climbs, and in our fragile states were pretty done in after the 3 hour ride in that heat!

Today started with a jog to the pool, and for me ended pretty promptly with an about turn and jog back to bed with my throbbing head and sore throat whilst Steven knocked out a 5k swim without me. A bit of sulking and a couple of Lemsip tabs and a cheese omelet later we headed out on the bikes to explore the other direction, north out of town. Christchurch’s situation on the coastal edge of the Canterbury plains means that in every direction other than immediately south, it’s flat as far as the Southern Alps. It is possible to ride for hours along a perfectly straight, and all-but flat road for 2 or more hours without coming to anything to break the monotony. We spotted a town 50km up the road called Oxford and headed toward that (it’s amusing us that many of the places names around here are called after British towns – last night we had tea on Brighton beach!). Not my preferred sort of riding, especially into a headwind, but these will be fantastic roads for training in aero position and similar to the racecourse at IM NZ. I made my return by a parallel road back into town (slightly downhill and tail wind) whilst Steven took a more exciting but longer loop back along the foothills of the Alps.

So, already we have stumbled across 2 great and very different training routes and have plenty of ideas for longer variations of these to be tested once we are fully back to health!