week 39

"if you can get through this week without crashing then i think you'll have a good season", says scott last weekend - i wasn't sure what he meant at first; why is THIS week significant? think i get it now. I'd planned a few fun, social events into my calendar and Scot didn't want to compromise too much on the work that he'd set to accommodate them.

so, week the week went like this:

monday - solo ride from london to taunton. 160 miles 10.5hr with 2 hrs total stoppage time (3 x 'meal' stops, 3 x pee stop, 2 x garage/pub water fill, 2 or 3 map checks and all the traffic light/junctions along the way)
tuesday - easy day with heavy 2hr gym and 20 min jog each way to /from gym late in the day
wed - 12mi run incl. 6 x 1 mile reps on track. 5km swim . train back to london
thursday- midsummer regents park night ride - 100 miles around regents park starting at 1:30 am. average pace 21mph - though i was on a wheel for virtually all of this, and took an easy lap every 90 min or so. the boys rode 100 miles in 4:45 - my time for the ton was 5hr. 3km easy swim, then 4km leg of the London Bridges Relay that evening. With 3hrs sleep in 24 hrs i'm feeling pretty mashed by the end of the day.
fri am - hard club swim ( aided by Lidl 'stimulation' drink) main set was 6 x 4 x 100m reducing, we were knocking out 1:24's ! couldn't believe it. pm: Gym - upping the load, but lasted about 45 min before the desire to sit in the sun and drink beer overcame me.
sat - with hangover! 4hr hard ride, hanging on Gabriel's wheel ( again) in Surrey. 30 min run off bike with 2 km at LT
sun - Bishop' s Stortford 10 mile multi-terrain race. felt like death barely even warmed up for this, but was surprised to find myself running at good pace. Won in 68 min - not blistering time for 10 miles, but a hot day and hilly off road course certainly gave me a workout! suffered for the rest of the day from the heat ( its about 28 degrees and stuffy).

However, I'm not quite sure if i qualify as having survived it, having cut that gym session and my scheduled swim today (sunday) due to combination of bad timing, heat/dehydration induced headaches and no desire to move more than necessary!

the telling will be how next week goes, i guess. Either way i believe that its necessary to have a bit of fun and challenge yourself with a mission every now an then, to keep the motivation up.

merseyside mission

Having distributed my baggage from Lanzarote trip in various locations around London, catching up with club mates as well as the guys at Diadora (who are sponsoring me by way of some free shoes to review for tri247) and a brief visit to Somerset, it was straight up the M5 in mum’s little purple Nissan Micra to Merseyside. The last week has been spent on an intense painting and decorating facelift project of my Nan’s old house, which has had the sh*te kicked out of it by various short-term tenants since she passed away 2 years ago. During the recent 4 day heat wave we’ve done a head to toe job on the place, and I’m now sitting here using paint cans for furniture having just whipped up an improvised meal of steak and marmite sauce followed by angel delight (a Lanzarote throwback) – whisked up using a fork in the electric drill. The steak and marmite sauce is a bit of a revelation, actually – it’s bloody delicious. The marmite goes all sticky – just like the stuff that’s on Twiglets. Actually, I think that’s what it is, isn’t it? Imagine how many Twiglets it must take to make a whole jar of Marmite- I’m surprised it’s not a lot more expensive. Anyway – that’s irrelevant. The point is that after 7 days of pretty hard physical work and inhalation of paint fumes, 4 of which were accompanied by a pretty nasty gastric upset, I’m spending my last night in the house and looking with satisfaction on a vast improvement on the place that we walked into last weekend. Though it’s not exactly been restful it’s been a complete, and necessary, break from life as a triathlete. Scott had scheduled a week in which I’d have returned to fairly solid training routine by now, but with limited knowledge of local facilities, 8-10 hours of work each day and being ill really made that unfeasible. So, whilst acknowledging that Scott really does know what is best in theory, I know that the added stress of trying to cram 3-4 hours a day in would not have done me any favours and just tried to get one of his sessions done each day, amounting to about 10 hours this week. The break has done me good – I don’t feel tired when I have managed to get out and have renewed enthusiasm for it.

Having spent many holidays here as a child, I am fond of this area. Despite a slightly ‘rough’ appearance, it’s a very friendly part of the country; with struggling and run –down but decent, cheap and very well used facilities and some great locations. This evening I met with Alex – a distant Tri London member temporarily living in Liverpool – and his girlfriend Becca for a run along Crosby beach to see the Gormely installation. A fantastic piece of public art –a typically eerie display of probably a hundred cast metal figures arranged on the shore, looking out to sea, static as the incoming tide swallows them up…An additional treat this evening were the flocks of swallows (or swifts?) flying in massive swirling formations over our heads. The noise of hundreds of thousands of beating wings was astounding. I certainly had the feeling that I’d feel pretty happy spending a longer period up here, if this house ever came available to us to occupy – a reasonable possibility given that Mum’d do us a mate’s rate ;o) Reckon I have my work cut out convincing Steven though, who is convinced that living on a peninsular would limit his cycling repertoire too much.

Getting back onto the triathlon related stuff - I cant help wondering whether I have unusual difficulty in recovering after a race. Speaking to Alex i was staggered to hear that he was out performing very hard chain-ganging session with his local cycle club, and swimming 5k sets just a week after Ironman Lanzarote. It really does seem to take me much longer to get back training again, with distinct muscular fatigue and racing heart at even a moderate amount of exercise for about a week following the race. This is also the second occasion that I have been really quite ill roughly 2 weeks after a race. I am beginning to conclude that this is likely to be largely attributable to a sudden change in diet and lifestyle, specifically where alcohol is concerned. Which in turn is likely to relate to the mental pressure of the control that training towards an event has over my life – I suppose I’m a characteristic all or nothing type. Whatever it is that I may become involved in, I tend to get ‘on a mission’ with it, becoming totally absorbed and obsessed with doing it the very best that I can. This has generally worked to my advantage through life, but the flip side is a constant level of stress which I have learned to manage, but not without certain tensions in other areas and the occasional need just to derail and denounce responsibility for a period. In this case the behaviour could be proving damaging to the longer term goals, and it may be worth tempering it. Or maybe not - perhaps the sickness response is my cue to regain control, focus and get back on the case with renewed vigour. Having wrapped up this latest ‘mission’ I’m certainly really ready to resume my life as a triathlete, though I'll be taking the beer that my mum owese me on my return (and trying to get bargain for a curry too!)

ironman lanzarote report

finish 10hr45. 7th female (1st age group)

swim: 1:03:57
Although there’s no physical restriction once in the water, Ironman Lanzarote’s famous beach start forces 1300 competitors beneath a 6m arch before they hit the ocean, making for one of the most chaotic and violent swims that I’ve experienced. This year the start area was sectioned in to two zones, with swimmers expecting to swim under 65 min positioned up front, a few meters behind the pros, and the inevitable optimistic self-seeding surely contributed to the swathe of swerving, kicking and grabbing swimmers in front and around me. Perhaps I was a little modest with my own swim prediction, having placed myself at the rear of this corral with expectations of swimming around 65 min. In any case there were moments of total panic in the fist 10 minutes where I seriously considered taking a canoe ride out of there, which recurred periodically during the entire first lap. Thankfully the land-buoy at the en of lap one provided an opportunity to make up a number of places and a clearer swim in the second lap. Given this difficult experience, I was pleased to exit the water with 1:03 and some seconds showing on the clock.

bike:6:01
The torment of the swim done it was a relief to be heading out on the bike. Off for a ride around the island! We were lucky with the weather as it was a cool and overcast morning with light winds. For the first time I would be watching my heart rate during the bike leg – not as a strict limiter, but using a range a guide to gauge effort based on data from various interval sessions that I’ve been doing whilst training out here. I was not too surprised to see that I was 10+ beats above the top end of this range immediately out of transition, and or about the first 15 minutes. With adrenaline pumping and keen to set off as I meant to go on I rode hard but efficiently until the first descent, about 10km in, where my heart settled to a level that would enable me to start taking in food. My feeding plan was to take on 100 kCal approx every 40 min and following the advice of club-mate Gabriel I would time it with tops of climbing efforts so that the food would be going down during the descent when my heart rate was lower. The wind was relatively kind to us, being light and generally southerly to begin with and though it did pick up during the day, seemed to change direction offering a northerly tail wind on the final stretch of the ride! So, today the wind was not eh most notable aspect of the ride and we were able to focus on riding this great course. Aside from a couple of the pro ladies, who I made strong efforts to stick with, and left couple behind, I saw no other girls out of the course. Non at all after Tara (who’d punctured early in the ride and came from behind) left me for dust after Fire Mountain. I did have a go at staying with her a bit up the climb, but it dawned on me that playing brave with the woman who rode the fastest bike split last year might not be in my best interest! By around half way I was loosing my mojo a bit; found my mind wandering and struggling to keep the effort and heart rate up. I was not enjoying the homemade date nut and ginger bars that I’d packed as my main food and had been expecting gels to be available at the aid stations to supplement these– which they weren’t – so I was low on sugar. Resorting to the ‘white line’ game (the white lines are my tri bars and the road edge marking; its not a very exciting game but it keeps my head down and brings my focus back to the present, moment) to maintain effort along the windy stretch from La Santa to Teguise. The Mother of all Mothers had brought me a chocolate covered marzipan treat, which saved the day and that little boost got me up Haria and del Rio though this was not really my best riding. I made a good snack grab power bar coffee caramel protein crisp bars) at the top of Del Rio, the long descent allowing me to digest the food and with few riders around I had a great, fast descent. From that point on I was passing riders a constant rate, working hard on the flats whist others relaxed and cruised at 28mph with the tail wind. Passing the bottom of Tabyasco, I realized that I had a very good chance of making it back within my target 6 hours. And I very nearly did.


run:3:30:31
Back in Puerto del Carmen the day and the crowd support was hotting up. The last section of bike route brought us down the main beachfront strip, where we could see the few runners that were already making their way through the four out and back laps. During the afternoon this 5km section of road gets progressively busier, but the first lap is always nice, populated by fit and inspiring athletes getting about their business. Aid stations are well stocked and not crowded like they will become in a couple of hour’s time. My legs felt reasonable as I set off on the run and the crowd support was great. You certainly don’t get lonely during this marathon! I left transition with Gabriel and promptly ran by. Realizing that there were no km markers out on the course threw me somewhat – I had a planned km split pace, and not much talent for judging this without feedback. My first lap was about right- but as the concrete underfoot and sun overhead gathered forces against my tiring legs, I could feel my pace slowing. I judged it to be just over 5 min/km and tried to focus on keeping it there. Having so many friends, club mates, family and generally friendly people out supporting and in the race helped a lot. I wanted to look good and impress them! If you look good running..you are generally running ok, I reckon. But it hurt, and didn’t flow. I was fairly sure of my position in the race by the half way and didn’t feel any pressure from behind to keep me pushing, or that there was any chance of closing the 15 min that Hilary Biscay had on me by then. I really just wanted it to be over, and walked a couple of aid stations to get some extra calories in. the rules of Lanzarote Ironman allow the use of mp3 players on the run course – something that I really am not in favour of and feel it removes you from the experience of the race, let alone making it hard to monitor your own breathing rhythm and foot slapping. But after 2 and a half reps of that course, I really wanted to be removed from the race. Noticing that Hilary was using one too made me feel legitimate and I asked my sister to pass me mine the next time I saw her at the special need station (where support assistance is allowed for 50m). The idea of getting this extra boost saw me through the next 5km and by the time I retrieved it my hour of need had passed. So, aided by techno, the knowledge that my placing was secure and I was only having to see the Hotel Beatrix once more and I’d be eating icecreams, I ran the last lap like the runner that I believe I really am.

Lanzamagrotteeeeee

Lanzamagrotteeeeee blog

6 days till race day and the Ironmen have descended! The average BMI of Puerto Del Carmen’s hotel population halved over night and the ‘ if you can read this, you’re too sober’ T-shirts replaced by those proudly proclaiming finishes at various M-dot events. The super efficient La Santa crew has already erected the change tents and grandstand finish line seating, sign-posted the bike route and marked out the swim course. It’s not great for the nerves, I can tell you!

But, I’m now approaching that point where there’s not much to do but accept that you’re training input is over. It’s all down to attitude and bike cleanliness now. I say ‘approaching’ that point, since I’m still in my last cycle of bike-focused training – session are a little shorter than during the last two 5-day cycles but certainly no easy rides. From Tuesday I really start easing it back – a pretty short taper! It’s a little frightening how tired I feel at present, not helped by an uncharacteristic difficulty in sleeping, but also very exciting to be exposed to this hard-core assault on the lack of bike fitness that I brought to the island 3 weeks ago. Through the fog of fatigue, a fitter me certainly seems to be emerging, and my confidence in a decent race performance is returning.

It’s been a great 3 weeks; we’ve had good weather and a constant turn –around of company whilst out here. I found a very good a reasonably priced lifters gymnasium, and eventually managed to blag my way into free use of the pool at the ‘posh’ Farionnes gym. We have great beach access for sea swimming and a spacious hotel apartment so three of us, kit and bikes have lived comfortably together. The hotel staff are friendly, though they rarely bother to clean our room (cant blame them – buckets of sand daily!) and we quickly came to appreciate the buffet evening meals, especially on BBQ night! I’ll be happy if I never see another slice of cold meat or hard-boiled egg, the unwavering daily breakfast selection, again though!

Some stats to reflect the 21 days since our arrival:
Training hours = 110 (5hr10min per day)
65% on the bike (1015miles)
14.5% running
13% swimming (pools and sea)
7.5% in the gym
Calories consumed = 78250
% of which had boiled eggs = 5%
Lost toenails= 2
Lost pairs of flip- flops = 0 (I found them again - in Steven’s cupboard)

In all, regardless of the outcome of this race, it’s been a decent training trip and we’d certainly do it again. Having paid for the accommodation, including virtually all of our food, when the pound was somewhat healthier that it is currently (and I was earning some of them!) it’s been a cheap month of the good life. Though if there was not a race on the horizon I would certainly have had to factor in a beer allowance. Mmmm…Beer.

The folks arrive tonight and the training load get a lot lighter from tomorrow onwards.

Fear and Loafing in La Santa

The first week in the sunshine seems to have flown by – unsurprising really since we have been pretty busy catching up with friends who were out here for training with the TriLiving Volcano camp (loafing in La Santa), establishing gyms (very good ) and pool facilities (very poor) outside of the La Santa complex, re-familiarizing ourselves with the geography of the island, racing an Oly tri and now finally getting started with the final, last-ditch training before the Ironman, in 3 weeks.
I use the phrase ‘ last ditch’ because to be honest, that’s how it feels. I know that I’m not in great shape, having spent too much time since New Zealand either sick, occupied with other life commitments or racing and recovering from marathons. And despite this lack of solid training over the last 2 months, I feel tired. We are in the perfect training location, having great weather, good training company, totally catered for in the hotel which is right on the beach front in Peurto del Carmen, but despite all of this and the great riding available, I’m struggling with motivation, doubts about my fitness, weight (3kg heavier than I have ever raced before, as prescribed by Molina) and lack of access to pool swimming – and fearful of the hard race looming ahead. Truth is, that I have high hopes for this race – my early season A race, a return to the scene of my first ever Ironman and in the company of a number of club-mates, and feel certain amount of pressure to perform well.

Of course, the way that training works is that –you do work, get tired, work more, get more tired, recover and become less tired and able to work more than last time before getting tired again….the repetition of this process eventually leads to a state of being able to do infinite work without ever getting tired. So, one should expect to spend a lot of time being tired. Before Wisconsin I got very tired, to the point of enforced early taper, and raced well there. This is a little different in that I have not had a recent period off high load training, but rather a long spell of consistent training since the new year. Possibly the volume I was doing through Janurary and Feburary is taking it’s toll. Either way I just have 2 more weeks to get through – and these will be a hard 2 weeks of riding – then the light at the end of the tunnel.

Wow – it doesn’t sound like I’m having much fun, does it?? But to reassure you, today Steven and I swam 90 min in the sea around to the beach in the next bay from our nearest and back. I am getting some very focused stroke advice from him at the moment, and all that barrel holding is hard work! Later, I went out alone for the first of the ride sessions prescribed by Scott to get my butt movin’; felt sluggish at first but after the first climb up the back end of Femes, warmed into it and really got stuck in to a great ride in the sun. Check out the salty bike shirt fro evidence of the heat and how hard I worked ;o) I think it did me good to ride alone rather than chasing behind the boys, which I find frustrating and demoralizing.

Tomorrow I have a similar but longer bike session, and a run workout…Friday is a bit bigger still, long run on Saturday and ease back on Sunday, before repeating the sequence on Monday. It’s just a question of getting enough sleep, eating well and focusing on being a triathlete in preparation whilst Steven and the boys head out to drink beer and eat icecreams! Luckily I find that I quite enjoy Killer SuDuko puzzles…..

update

this is a superfast update as i am perched on a wall on the peurto del carmen seafront, it's not a ver comfotable wall, being made of lava rock and the sun has gone down too its a bit chilly. steven is waiting for me in teh local 'spansih ' bar in front of britain's got talent , showing on sky tv. that gives a flavour of the resort!
we've been here a week, done a bit of recoveing from my slightly dissapointing, but still within the realms of respectable (and certainly sufficiently painful) 3:01 at the london marathon. set off on good pace - a litle too good, really -and slowely faded to 7-ishmin/miles
been riding the winds and re-familiarizing myself with teh layout of the island - and the TT bike! for a bit of a kick up the arse i raced th evolcano olympic triathlon today. famed for the high profile field of triathletes it attracts in preparation for eh Im in 3 weeks time. i managed a reasonable race - that's all i can say. not super quick but a good hard training session. celebrated with a beer. well, it'd be rude not too.

Happiness in Hedgerows

Over a month has passed since my return from New Zealand – though it seems like much longer. The last five weeks seem to have brought rather more than their fair share of trials and tests for this recently turned ‘carefree and footloose’ full-time triathlete. Perhaps I really thought it would all suddenly become easy, that the sun would always shine and that end would somehow just meet….well of course I didn’t. But I have been surprised at times in where these challenges have come from, and pleasantly so in their resolution too in the most part.

Of course I expected to miss the close circle of triathlon friends and training partners that I’d built up through Tri London over the past 3 years once we departed the city in January – knowing that we were never likely to return to that scene – but I had expected to enjoy the freedom of training alone, with an option of falling into a new local scene should I choose it. Not quite so. There are a great many factors that I could identify as possible reasons for the lack of motivation that I experienced during the first weeks of my time here; the big bag of post-race fatigue coupled with a rather rude return to grey skies dropping wet stuff all over the place being pretty obvious starting points. Add in a couple of tbsp of disappointment with my result at New Zealand, an invalid boyfriend (in recovery from an op on a foot tendon – see Steven’s blog for the story!) and therefore my long-term training my partner being suddenly absent from the mix, as well as the personal stress brought about by this change in dynamic between us, and it was with less than glee that I’ve been heading out into this merciless terrain on the bike and just trying to keep it going for 3 or 4 hours.

I’m also discovering a new world of triathlon in a rural, provincial setting. With training facilities spread over a much wider area than we are accustomed to in London, and club members equally so, there are certainly more challenges for clubs when it comes to organising pool time and group sessions.. A lot of travel is involved for many and pool space is at a premium, with Taunton based Somerset RC Tri currently operating a waiting list, for example. However, after much time invested searching and emailing, I have been able to join the local council-run, tri-based swim sessions which many of the Somerset RC attend and they really are a jovial bunch of people. There was a great atmosphere in the pool – and it’s clear that there’s a good spread of abilities, and atmosphere of encouragement and most of all fun. For a more serious swim session I was fortunate to come across the Yeovil District Swim Club’s head coach Alex Pinniger. He trains 6 kids squads to a national comptetion level, and has a couple of promising young triathletes under his wing, too. He generously allowed me to join his evening sessions, where I was humiliated by 10-12 year olds lapping me over 400m! On the whole folk are friendlier here than in London – I think that goes without saying – which is lucky for a new-comer to these parts trying to fit into the not broadly publicized scene but, because of the dispersed nature of the club members, you just run into people less frequently, so it takes a while to get established. After countless hours spent internet trawling prior to my move, virtually everything of use that I have learned about the club was through casual conversation with swimmers, cyclists and runners that I’ve chatted to whilst out and about. I feel as though I have finally found my feet here – this evening I’ll be moving on! One thing that I’ve learned since the beginning of my life as a full-time triathlete without fixed abode is that routine and familiarity are important underpins to my successful training, and ultimate happiness. This is something that our plans for the following year rather overlooked in favour of international racing, exotic locations and cheap or free accommodation, but will certainly influence our thinking for after Kona.


So, although there are still plenty of things that I am working on and anticipate that it will take some time, I feel that I have at last emerged from my gloom, feeling strong and fit (aside from the hay –induced perma-snot) and ready to ride in the sunshine. I’ve sussed out some great new rides and run routes down here and with the sun shining there certainly is happiness in the hedgerows of Somerset.