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.