The healing continues

Well the healing process has continued to be a rapid one. Last Friday I went to the pool for the first time in over 3 weeks and to my surprise, I was able to swim full stroke freestyle and breast stroke. I’m still aware that I can’t go all out and really fling the arm about too much, but to be able to swim and put pressure through my left arm is fantastic. As with all my other training since the accident, I’m not going to rush it here though. A couple more very easy 30 mins swims to ease back into it, followed by plenty of Glens drill sessions next week and then the job of regaining my fitness and speed in the water can begin.

My running and especially my cycling is on its way back to its best. The beauty of the SRM's is that I can literally see if watts were I’m at. This morning I did a nasty VO2 max session.... the numbers were better than I was getting before the accident!!! It’s all very encouraging for me and gives me confidence that I might be back to full fitness and competition level sooner than I had hoped..... I’m even thinking that the national Middle Distance champs in a week’s time could be a possibility. I don’t want to do them if I’m not in a position to challenge for the title, but I’m feeling strong on the bike and my run strength seams to be coming back quickly too.... we'll see.....

I’ve entered a 70.3 race in Michigan at the start of August to try and get a World Champs slot. There’s another 70.3 race 2 weeks later (also in Michigan) which is very unusual, especially so close location wise. It’s full but I’m going to try and get a spot (if the pro field is still open).... 2 races in 3 weeks..... Well why not ha ha!

One thing that this mini break will have ensured is that I don’t burn out in what could be a VERY LONG season if I qualify for Florida. I have to say though that looking at the 70.3 UK results; I’m disappointed I couldn’t race it. Sounds like a tough course, but it would have been great to see how I measured up to the other guys racing. There’s plenty of time for that though.

All my mates head off on holiday this week. Its one of the things that I find hard to handle with the goals I’ve set myself in life. Things have to be sacrificed and this kind of thing is one of them. Matthew Pincents autobiography was very inspiring on this subject though. He frequently mentioned the weddings he had to miss, the sacrifices he HAD to make in order to pursue his dreams of Olympic greatness. Not that I’m comparing myself to him of course but it’s important I remember what it takes to achieve success in sport. Gordo made a great statement once "it only takes one totally obsessed guy and you'll finish second EVERY TIME" I'm not happy with second! Guess I’d better start obsessing......

......BREAK!

Well it’s been A LONG TIME since my last post.... and well sadly not much has happened although my plans 4 the last 2-3 weeks were for quite the opposite. Unfortunately a rather large lorry decided to stick its nose, or should I say 'reverse itself' over me and left me with a fractured elbow! Racing and training has been thrown up in the air completely and as I sit here writing this I should actually have been recovering from what I was expecting to be a break through race at half ironman UK.

The doctor said I’d be unable 2 do anything for about 6 weeks... I had other ideas however. I gave it 7 days of COMPLETE REST... no work, training, unnecessary moving etc..... all very hard for me to handle though I did managed to get through series 4 of 24 (where would we be without Jack).... Every cloud ha ha! I have spent the last 14 days there after slowly easing back into things on my turbo at home and I’m now in a place where I can ride on this almost completely pain free. I even managed a 30min jog on Friday.... swimming is still out of the question as I still cant straighten my arm, but its definitely a HUGE blessing to see how quickly I’ve healed.... many people from church have been praying for me and & I know this is the reason for it only taking 2.5 weeks not the 6 the doctor predicted.

I’ve actually seen it as a positive thing too. Talking with my coach, there’s a good opportunity to do some super quality training on the bike and get this up to new levels hopefully. The turbo might be boring after a couple of hours but it could have been so much worse.... the fact that I’m still alive, let alone even able to do this is very fortunate.

I’m starting to look at how I can keep things on track race wise 2. I was really looking to progress with the swimming through this summer and keep jumping in at the ITU deep end. Glen seamed sure that a 20min swim was there already and I was hoping to do a 27 at worst if I’d raced this weekend at UK 70.3. so looking at the race's available at HIM distance it looks like I’ll be heading over to the US in august.... silver lining to the cloud again ha ha!

it has given a good reason to spend more time with my mates though and l've had a few great nights round a BBQ with them that I know I wouldn’t have, if I’d not been out of action. It’s been nice to remember what its like to be completely free of commitment to training, racing etc. not that I want this to be the case more often, but that it’s aloud me to see other things in a clearer perspective.

whilst the frustration of not training properly, missing some key races and not swimming for SO LONG is still there its been eased, probably over-come by a number of other positives that actually mean this little break will have been a good thing once its over.

After the storm....

Well here I am sitting waiting in Ljubljana airport for my flight home. I’ve just (well yesterday) done my first ITU triathlon and I’ve got plenty to reflect on.....

Firstly as an experience, coming away meeting other athletes from other countries, staying in new locations, its something I really enjoy. You get to see racing outside of our little UK bubble and also race against people outside of the normal names in the UK. it keeps u in check that’s for sure. You’re suddenly reminded that all over the world there's REALLY REALLY strong athletes and LOTS of them! this is good though and for me serves as a good reminder that I cant afford to do anything but keep going 100% if I’m going to get competitive in this kind of field... which I’m still not..... Yet!

The swimming's been going great recently and I genuinely felt that I’d have a chance to get 2nd or 3rd pack and work from there. As it turns out, the feet I was on after 200m cut the corner and before I knew what had happened, I was 10m back and NO CHANCE of getting back on them. I spent the next 1200m on my own. All it served to show me was though that there's still a LONG WAY to go in my swimming. but I’m still confident that it will come... I’ve just got to stick with it and keep focused on the big, long term picture... not this week or even month in the pool. Oh and non-wet suit swims definitely aren’t my thing either..... Yet ha ha!

There’s a full race report in the reports section on my website so I'll save all the details for there. But looking back I’m fairly pleased with the race and how I did. My cycling was much better and once again racing with power was a massive help to my pacing and my running off a bike split that I know was about perfect as far as normalized power for the bike leg. A top 50 finish and well within 110% of the winner is a decent start at this level. Sure it could have been better, but it will be, bit by bit and I’m pleased with this as a starting foundation. It certainly doesn’t leave me thinking I’ll never get near these guys. Again, its all about patience, focus and consistent execution of everything over the months and years to come. I try to keep things in perspective; this is after all the start of my 4th year in triathlon. My first ever Windsor I came about 70th or so I think, a year later I was 15mins faster and 4th. I’m not expecting to knock off 15mins in the next year of course but its important I remember that it takes time, BUT time gives back what you give it. I’m going to keep giving it as much as I can that’s for sure.

One thing that I’m pretty sure of is that I’m not going to race Windsor in 2 weeks time. The swim still isn’t quite there and I’ve no plans on flogging myself again for a poor position.... I’d rather re-focus my efforts solely on HIMUK... maybe heading down there that weekend to recee the course.....???

Its funny, a few days ago I was concerned with how a result like this would sound to other people..... People who don’t know much about the sport, or more importantly competing in anything at an elite level.... (Not a criticism of them, just a reality of what they're interested or experienced in) or just simply "what it takes to TRUELY succeed in anything"...... but I’m no longer concerned with this. No doubt there will be those who think quietly... "Not even top 10, that’s rubbish". That’s fine, I’m not bothered. At the end of the day I’m not reliant on their beliefs for me to keep going and succeed..... Time will tell and that’s all that matters. I’m not going to try and talk it or myself up..... Time will tell.

It’s a steep learning curve, one I have chosen to keep climbing no matter how steep it gets. That’s all part of the fun anyhow, jump in at the deep end and see if I can swim..... Hopefully without a wet suite too ha ha!

only joking / the fine art

Only Joking

back during my mini epic camp i joked with my training buddy , Wayne, that he had a worm in his gut (which was why he was feeling so weak despite eating loads).... well a visit t the doctors last week proved my joke to be true and Wayne’s got parasite in his colon!!! not a nice thought at all, but at least he knows its that and not some mystery illness or worse still, chronic fatigue again! despite this he still managed to do the London marathon in 3h15... an amazing feet if you ask me considering he was probably running on about 30% of normal energy. He’s gona kill an event one day when it all falls into place!!! i joked (once again) that before taking the medication to kill the thing, he should make a quick trip to Mc D's and the Cadburys factory.... but really its not that funny. he's got to pull out of IM Lanzorotie and might miss his A race of IM Germany. he deserves a better break, but like i say, when it comes he's gona be SO strong (both mentally & physically) that the result will be worth the wait!

The fine art.....
so this week sees my first important target race of the year, the national Duathlon champs in Edinburgh. I’m still finding that the whole taper/ peak thing is a bit of an "unknown". chatting to bridge last week, we decided that i don’t handle long tapers well. i also find a big reduction in training leaves me very flat physically and actually tired mentally. she had just come back from hearing some of the worlds leading cycling coaches talk about the latest in their world and one of the things discussed was the "Taper". for those that don’t know what this is, its basically a period of time where you try and reduce your training to let your body "bounce back" and hopefully reach new heights of performance (usually for a race).
as I’ve found out over my short career in multi-sport, getting this right is a fine art I’ve yet to get close to mastering. looking back on my training plans for weeks preceding previous races I’ve felt good in and thinking through all bridge had to say i came up with a plan that has roughly half my normal weekly volume, but tries to keep the same number of sessions as well as the intensity in them. hard as it might be, I’m really starting to think that i perform and feel at my strongest, when I’m doing the hard sessions HARD and often, even when the volume is still high. Saturday will tell i guess. It’s all still so much of a learning curve!
one final note.... my swimming is probably stronger now than it ever has been. i did a great session with glen from slippery fish ( see the side bar to the right) on Saturday in a 50m pool. drafting off of him at 20min 1500 pace felt really, REALLY comfortable. I’m interested to see how I’d do trying to hold onto this for a full 1500, swim. Sunday was another good day in the pool... a kind of "no chain day"... well for me anyway ha ha. its good to see that there are some results coming from the hours i seam to be spending in the water. its no way near the level I’m ultimately looking for, but it fuels my belief that my goals are possible and speaks volumes of how much Glen's helped improve my swimming. I’ll write something for my "special training area" soon on what a difference Glens made. the lake beckons on Wednesday possibly..... another good marker for where I’m really at.

comfirmation....

well, i headed off to hillingdon last night and as i mentioned i was looking to see how much of the rejuvinated strength i've felt on the bike recently was still there. having done a nasty 5k inerval running session earlier in the morning and still struggled with this chest infection for much of it, i was inerested to see what the race would reveal. the ride over is well.... congested. its rush hour, majour roads around heathrow and not many kodak moments for the scenery photographers out there. i got there nice and early though and the legs had been pretty good power wise and the RPE had been about right too. it was looking ok.

toeing the start line i always look at the E/1/2/3 race and tell myself that i've got to get in that group one day. the only problem is that a. i CANT sprint and b. close race finishes are far too hazzardous for my liking. this is training after all and a crash here will keep me out of run or decent swim training for at least 4-5 days.... not the aim of the exercise. i'm happy to hammer as much as i can and just let the rest have their fun in the last 100m.

the course at hillingdon is a closed 1 mile circuit. there's a nice long incline to the finish line and 3 nice sharp corners that go down then up then down again, just after. it makes for some great training and when the wind blows it does a lot of damage. depending on time and light restrictions, we normally ride 30-40k.

after the first couple of laps not much seamed to be going on so i thought i'd see how good the legs really were feeling and hit the front and see what happened. 2mins at near VO2 Max watts later and i turned to see no one had bothered to go with me and the bunch didnt seam to be doing much either. so i made a choice......head down and bury myself for as long as i could!!!.... 20 minutes later and i was enjoying it. there's a real pleasure in this kind of pain, PROVIDED you feel like its worthwhile and you're in front.... if i was dropped and burying myself to get back on a bunch then i've not doubt the pleasure would be far removed ha ha.

having the watts to watch makes this kind of exercise fascinating. on such a repetative circuit u quickly get to see what u can and should be putting out at different places. and you can also see when you can no longer keep it up. i'd got about a 150m gap on the group.... looks a long way on a small circuit..... but at 20mins of 120% threshold watts, i could see i was starting to tail off. i sat up and waited for them to catch up, happy with how it had felt and more importantly happy knowing that i'd normally look to hold 20% less watts in a race.... this kind of workout makes that feel A LOT EASIER!

to my surprise, once caught, nobody seamed particulally kean to do any work at the front. a breather of 90 seconds can do wonders to energy levels i find and i was more than happy to take it up agan. jumping once more, once again i found myself thoroughly enjoying being on the bike and pushing my self..... saturday hadnt been a one off..... thank goodness. i wasnt too fussed about the rest of the race and just spent it pushing hard then dropping back and repeating the exercise. (i'll try to attach the power data to this if i can.) come the final lap and i happily dropped off the back of the front runners who powered away up the hill. i had "my win" and there was NO WAY i could have got close to winning a sprint finish.

a nice ride home at aerobic watts or just above and a perfect 3 hour ride with some nice high end intensity work thrown in the middle and just in time to see arsenal qualify for the final of the champions league.... nice!

looking back at my long and later, little, breaks during the race it shows you just how phenominally strong Pro cyclist are. they sometimes break for up to 100k or more and hold speeds over 50kph for this time..... quite incredible what their bodies can do and their minds are prepared to suffer.

i'll be back in a couple of weeks and maybe try to stay out for 25 minutes instead... we'll see.

......man, i dont do short blogs do i! think i need to get myself a shorter journey to work.... or maybe no journey at all???

did u run yesterday?.......

had to laugh a few (err... about 20 actually) times today, each time i was asked if i ran in the London marathon yesterday.... which of course i didn’t. think i knew 10 good friends who did though and I’m pleased to say that all of them did really well and some great times were achieved by them all at their own personal levels. full credit to them for doing what it takes. the marathon is a fantastic event and you can really see what it means to people to be able to complete something like that...... still, just gives me even more admiration 4 all the Ironman (& of course Iron Women too) out there.

quick note on a reality check though. caught the highlights of the mens race.... they went through 20k in 59 minutes!!!...... enough said i think you'll agree.

i kind of wish i had raced... just to see how I’d do, but i know it would ruin my training for the rest of the week and serves no purpose for my goals right now.

Saturday was a good day. managed a decent enough swim in the morning then proceeded to miss a local 5k race I’d planned to do because i didn’t get out the pool early enough. the afternoon however was GREAT! Firstly because it was the first time this year I’ve been able to ride in shorts, sleeveless top and fingerless gloves. fabulous day and it was a joy just to be able to do what I do. It’s easy to take for granted being able to train, ride a bike or even do it in some of the places i do. surrey has got a little boring for me recently but its good to remember just how blessed i am to be here and have surrey, Sussex, berks etc to train in. I’m sure there are plenty of people around the world who'd treasure riding through a royal park and past Windsor castle on a sunny day........ hmmm getting off point a little.....but hey.

the second great thing about the ride, was the ride itself. it was easily the best I’ve felt on the bike for A LONG TIME and the numbers backed it up to. having power as a tool means that analysis can be so much more valuable and well... powerful in what i can learn about a session. the numbers from Saturday were good to see and hopefully an indicator that the start of the quality (or in other words plain ugly hard) interval sessions on the bike is bringing me into the bike form i want and need for racing. Tuesday will show more when i race again at Hillingdon, but its good to know that its still in there..... somewhere. i just need to make sure the training keeps bringing it back and in larger quantities too.

its funny and something I’m striving to change , but sometimes too much of my confidence and even current state of mind is effected by 'a recent result' or the last hard training session I’ve done..... and basically how well or not they might have gone. my numbers on the bike recently haven’t been good, up to 3kph off what I’d like or expect. whilst its not been a HUGE issue, its still played in the back of my mind more than it should. since doing the last 2 weeks solid training I’ve felt stronger and Saturday was a culmination of this i guess. whilst there is a lot to be said for the endorphins released by training and enjoying feeling good and training reflecting this, its definitely something i want to change till I’m at a point where little or large blips genuinely don’t influence my confidence. if its (performance level) been there before, then its still there now..... and then some!

at the end of the day, the biggest part of who i am is my faith as a Christian and my relationship with god. all else falls behind this and therefore slowly but surely is being given less weight.

oops.... fallen into 'blogging personal philosophical' rant there. sorry. not a bad thing i guess, just hope u managed to hang in there ha ha!!!

one final thing to mention was Fridays swim test. I’ve tried to do a 1500m TT each month since October with Bridgitte my coach; though i missed last months. i was slightly disappointed to miss out on seeing a 21min time on the watch by a couple of seconds, but was still delighted with the time. it under paced it and miss counting the lengths didn’t push enough for the last 200m or so. plus i was swimming up against the wall which i know in that pool makes you slower. all in all, i recon there was at least 30-45 seconds more i could have taken off this time. whilst not fish like I’ll be the first to admit, its a vast improvement on previous times. baring in mind that i turn like the QE2 and i swim faster in a wetsuit, my target of a low 20 minute swim time by June is looking possible. glens expert advice and coaching is really paying off. i honestly believe i can swim well under 20 sometime in the future.... I’ll keep plugging away until i do...... I’ll still get my backside whooped by a bunch of 13 year olds at masters though ha ha. i genuinely hope that when i do, this will give some others out there the belief that going from a 28min swimming to a sub 20 man is possible for anyone.

right that’s all for now. I’ll hopefully post more tomorrow after the Hillingdon crit.

getting "out there"

so I’m through most of the training for this mini EPIC camp I’ve been doing. sadly today sees me back at work. I’ve managed to do the swim this morning, should get a run in at lunch and then another 3k swim this evening, to at least keep things ticking over until the weekend. would love to be able carry on all this week, definitely something to plan for later this year i think.... maybe if i qualify for Florida.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with my body. It’s taken the training fairly well....a lot better than my head which has been the hardest part to keep going. It’s funny how it reacts, justifying excuses that would normally not get a seconds consideration. i always feel better once I’m "out there".... its the battle to get "out there" that's often the hardest part. I’m sure almost everyone can sympathize in some way, whether it be starting that report for work or tidying up the house... its always harder to start than to keep going once you HAVE started. keep having to tell myself this.

oddly enough i don’t seam to be falling into my little fatigue hole i thought I’d be in by now.... i actually feel quite energized by the last few days.... a good thing too as i was 77kg's this morning!!!.... I’m told it’s to be expected due to water retention, but still came largely as a shock ha ha. I’ve had plenty of time to think about lots of stuff over the last few days and yet much of it has been almost sub-conscious as I’ve just been "out there" turning the pedals or putting one foot in front of the other. one thing that has become clear though is that I’ve been a bit too lazy over recent months and too easily accepted less than the best from myself. only this week have i got back the feeling of strength and pleasure from body that i felt back in 2004 when i was training full time. less time now, is NO EXCUSE for me to drop away from this though and some serious re-prioritization is needed. how i go about this or maybe more importantly, making sure i don’t drop back into old sub standard habits isn’t quite clear, but i know that in order to really progress, to put myself where i want to be and believe i can be, nothing less than what I’ve been doing these last few days will do.

funny how sometimes we can get moments of clarity and things just...... well, seam simple. I’ve seen this again with my training this and last week. I’ve been a bit too anxiously over thinking... maybe seeking complex (apparently better) options (or should that read shortcuts/excuses) in recent months i can now see. all the while the basic training philosophies I’ve really needed have been there, things i know but have just forgotten in the mess of strategies, protocols etc..... 1. NO EASY WAY and 2. JFT (stands for Just Flipppin Train - well my version anyway ha ha). I’m looking forward to getting back into these mentalities again and most importantly I’m excited again about what i can achieve with this season.

N.B. added at the end of the day.... well back 2 work what a long day it’s been. cramming as much info as possible and spending too long staring at the screen has left me feeling worse than all the training over the last few days. not to mention having t miss my run.... i really don’t like these days when things seam to take over my priorities..... and end up causing problems. i might try to run when i get home, but i suspect an early night might be a better option with the early training I’ve got planned 4 tomorrow..... (hmmmm....... another excuse or a genuine good decision.... where lies the balance i wonder???)

2 days in....

well its 2 days in and I’m loving it. starting to remember how i felt back in 2004 when i was training full time. there's an enormous sense of satisfaction that comes (for me at least) from setting these kind of goals and following through. i feel a real personal empowerment from doing this kind of thing. it seams that the more i do it, the stronger i feel and the more i think i can do. i wonder how far this can go.......? I’d love to do a full 10 days of this to see what kind of empowering fatigue hole I’d get into then..... maybe one to find out later this year???

Wayne REALLY impressed me these last couple of days. the ride 2 Cheltenham is a VERY TOUGH ONE (180k with about 2000m ascent and we averaged 30kph in rubbish weather & into a head wind all the way). more so when u don’t know what’s coming up next or how far you've got left. whilst he'll be the first 2 admit he didn’t help matters with his fluid and nutrition, the darkness he experienced as a consequence will make him stronger mentally and the training itself with certainly be beneficial. all this not to mention a dodgy stomach bug that seamed to be draining him too.... i recon he's got a worm or something inside ha ha. i kept telling him that somewhere REALLY DEEP DOWN he was actually enjoying the suffering.... at the time he just swore at me, but i recon by Monday he was agreeing. Still, 2 keep rolling on both days when his body wasn’t working as it normally does took a lot heart and strength. I’m chuffed he won his battle and didn’t quit! 16 hours of training with a dodgy belly is no easy ride.

tomorrow is Easter Sunday and starts with a long swim and hopefully includes a long run but that will depend on church and time.....

The day before....

the day before

well tomorrow sees the start of a nice long Easter weekend and for me the chance to get really stuck into some good training. I’ve been looking forward to these few days for a while. it will be back to how it used to be when i wasn’t working.

the plan....

as a long time reader of Gordo’ web site (www.grodoworld.com), I’ve spent many a moment reading peoples reports of EPIC training! since I’ve been back at work its been hard 4 me to get the chance to put enough consecutive days together 2 really ramp up the volume, but this and next week will be an opportunity to do just that. Along with my good friend Wayne Keat (multi-sport nut and 'if its there I’ll race it' athlete) I’m planning on spending the next 5-6 days training, eating and sleeping. we've set minimums of 3k swim, 120k bike & 10-15k or 60 mins run each day. Wayne’s with me Friday to Monday, I’ve already done a decent 5 hours on Tuesday and will be going through to next Tuesday, before heading back into work (no doubt to endless "are you OK?" comments from colleagues :-))

tomorrow sees us start with a swim in the morning, riding 180+k to my uncle & aunties house in Cheltenham, then doing a run straight off the bike when we get there. I’ve done the ride in just over 5 hours before, so we should hit about 8 hours total tomorrow.... cant wait! Saturday will see us reversing that order to get home. I’ll save the rest for a full report to go up afterwards, some time next week on my web site.

needless to say I’m REALLY looking forward to it all. I’ve not been on top form on my bike recently, so some good solid miles in the legs will make me feel a whole lot better and having the data from the SRM's to go through afterwards will be really cool too. its all about 5 weeks out from my first goal race of the season so I’m hoping it kicks in perfectly for this.

the only thing bothering me really is this chesty cough and runny nose i just don’t seam to be able to shake. i honestly can’t remember the last time i had something (even this small) in my system for this long. very frustrating as anything above 90-95% effort is almost impossible to sustain for very long without the cough causing problems! i guess i shouldn’t be anywhere near this intensity level in the next couple of days so shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

well I’m nearly at my stop on the train, so I’ll be off for now. come back soon for more on my mini EPIC Easter camp.

So here it is then.....

so here it is then, my first blog and my new web site. i hope you’ve had a look round the site and found it interesting enough to come back again :-) . blogs are funny things, from what I’ve read of them anyhow. people would have gone mad in times gone by if you'd pried into their diary or journal and yet here we are with half the internet world sticking (often, but not always i guess) their personal thoughts 'out there' for THE WHOLE WORLD to read.... the apparent anonymity of the internet seams to make it all ok. not a criticism of course, just an observation. at the end of the day there can be great clarity brought about by writing things down, letting others into this 'clarity' is just a new option.

well, looks like I’ve settled into BLOG waffle land well enough ha ha.

to be honest, I’m expecting this blog to be more of training, racing diary than a place for my personal philosophical opinions.... though no doubt there'll be some of that too! hopefully it will give an incite into what its like for me to try and train enough to reach the levels i want to and believe I’m capable of, at the same time as working and trying to keep or at times save some semblance of balance to it all. if nothing else, it should make for some interesting reading for me in years to come :-) . I’m going to do my best to just write and not try too hard to compose some great article or thought proving concept... if any of those happen.... it will be someone else hijacking my blog ha ha!

that’s all for now, its nearly my stop on the underground so I’ll be off. I’ve already got a few ideas for the next few entries so come back soon for some more serious blogging........