ITU Long Course Champs 2009 – Korea
I arrived in Korea on the Thursday before the race. I decided to do this race pretty late but thought it would be a great way to earn a little money and also test the new nutritional strategy I’d been working on with Chrissie. All expenses paid and some great prize money on offer meant that despite the distance and HUGE amount of travelling (both getting to Korea and also once there) it was a good race to do. Unfortunately a LOT of other TOP Pro’s had the same idea and the field was much stronger and deeper than most of us expected.
The course was largely uphill on the bike, with a split transition meaning the run was up at over 1400m altitude. Not a problem for me though, having spent the last few weeks training in Boulder. However, the drive of the course with all the other athletes had opened our eyes to a MUCH harder bike that we expected. The first 40k was flat with a small amount of ascension but the final 40km was almost completely up, up, up with no small amount of steep climbing in there. It was definitely going to be a long tough day at “the office”.
With all the travelling to and from various hotels and venues for the race organisers in the 2 days before the race, not much training had been done, so when race morning arrived I was feeling very fresh and ready to go.
A mass start, small beach run began proceedings for the 2lap 3km swim. After my disappointing (compared to training times) Florida and Blenheim swims, I was determined to remain relaxed this time and quickly found my rhythm in the wavy sea waters. I lead a small group (that I assumed was the 3rd pack) for the first lap and glancing at my watch as we exited the water for the small run before starting the 2nd lap, I was really pleased to see both that I was under 20mins for the 1500m and also that I was actually leading the 2nd pack! The new 2XU V1 suit was working a treat and had me cutting though the water nicely. The rest of the swim went well, other than avoiding the numerous Korean AG’ers who had started 2 minutes behind us, still on their 1st swim lap and were already hanging onto the swim buoys!!!
I was out of the water in under 40 minutes, just slightly ahead of my desired time, a great start. The announcer said I was almost 4 minutes down on the leader(s) however!!! WOW they must have been swimming quickly.
Onto my lovely Ceepo Venom and off to start the 80k bike; it was nice to know I didn’t have such a HUGE gap to bridge to the leaders like I’ve been used to. So I set about reeling in the next person up the road.
The bike course starts off worming through the small town, with GIANT dried sting-rays hanging in shop windows and happy locals all out clapping and cheering. Once onto the main roads, I settled down onto my TT bars and began progressing through the athletes in front.
I knew it could well be a long day in the saddle despite only being 80k long, it was such a tough bike course. So I kept repeating the mantra in my head “Ride with humility” whilst monitoring my cadence to ensure I didn’t drop much below my desired 85rpm. As I sped through the Korean countryside on the Ceepo, it was really funny to wave a the race helpers (generally school kids) at each intersection and see and hear their excited squealed giggles in reaction. Clearly the site of a westerner, wearing tight lycra and silly big pointed helmet was amusing to them… I’ve no idea why…?
By 40k the road began to go up the first major climb. But by now I had rider number 1 in my sites. Jimmy Johnsen from Denmark who is a regular podium and top 5 finisher in 70.3’s and IM’s. It was nice to catch up with him so soon into a race. This helped give me confidence that despite my speed at times feeling slow, sticking to my race plan of pacing and cadence wasn’t having too many detrimental effects on gaining time back on the leaders. A small pack of 4-5 guys was about 200m up the road, and Jimmy was sure this was the leaders. I was surprised with this as I felt sure I couldn’t have caught up 4 minutes on them ALL within 40km. Jimmy and I road together for the remainder of this first big climb, other when I dropped my chain and had to stop and put it back on again. But by the time we hit the top at about 55km, we’d all but caught the “leaders” up. As we passed the aid station at the 60km mark Jimmy fell off my wheel with some mechanical problems so I pushed on to catch the 3 guys I could now see up the road.
We started the final LONG and STEEP climb of the day at this point. I kept to my race plan and reeled them in slowly but steadily. By 70km I was along side Tim Marr and asked who else was “up the road”. He said Cam (Watt) was just 10-15s ahead, but that Kieran (Doe) was “out of sight”. That meant I was now in 3rd/4th place…. I was REALLY pleased with this news. Tim and I caught Cam up with about 5km to go as we neared the top of the climb. It was now VERY foggy up so high and we could barely see 50m ahead to the next corner. This also meant that I had NO idea when transition was looming. I took one foot out of my shoes a good minute before the fence around the Olympic Training centre where T2 was, suddenly appeared through the fog.
Now would be the time when I’d know if the pacing strategy I’d used would help make the legs feel better. It was also the time when I’d find out if the new approach to my nutrition that I worked on with Chrissie, would help me execute the type of run split that my training has indicated possible, but over the last couple of years has been evasive. As I threw on the Newton’s, Tim and Cam got the jump on me out of T2, as did Rasmus from Denmark, who’d ridden up to us just as we entered T2. They were only about 20,30 and 50m up the road respectively, but in the dense fog, I could barely make them out.
As I ran, I could feel a stitch doing its best to break out in my stomach/chest, so I decided to keep things really easy to begin with and wait for it to hopefully settle. My legs felt awesome, like I’d barely done the previous 80k on the bike, this was a GREAT SIGN. I waited patiently for the stomach cramp to go and kept the pace steady. Even with this though I could see I was catching both Cam and Tim; Rasmus had got off to a flier and was passing them both and running into second.
We descended down a short steep hill into the fog and the first turn at 1.1k. Back up and past T2 gave me a chance to see where the guys behind me were and I took time splits on the next 2-3 to check at the next turn to see if I was pulling away. Running up the hill eased the cramps and going back past T2 I past Cam and moved into 4th. Tim was now about 25m up the road as we hit the 2nd turn point at 3.3k. We headed back down towards and past T2 on this first mini-loop section of the run. By the time we hit the 1st turn again at 5.5k I was running shoulder to shoulder with Tim. My legs still felt fantastic and the 2XU calf guards I was wearing (and had been throughout the bike leg too) were clearly doing their job perfectly and keeping my lower legs feeling fresh. We climbed back up to pass T2 and I increased the pace a little to try and drop Tim. It worked, and I was now in 3rd place. I was pleased to still just about be able to see Rasmus up the road through the fog too. With the stitch now gone I was ready to increase the pace and catch him. Kieran, I’d seen was over 2km ahead and unless he blew, too far to be caught. But by the time I hit the 2nd turn point at the end of the mini-loop section at the 6.6km I was within touching distance of Rasmus. We ran past the turn onto the next part of the run, which would be largely off-road finishing at the luxury High 1 Hotel.
I decided to really let go as we headed down the road towards the 10km mark where the road turned into trail, and see if I could pass and drop Rasmus. I passed him just as we headed up a small incline and onto the trail. The run course profile showed it as being slightly downhill from start to finish and not too undulating with it. With my legs still feeling good and the Newton’s springing me off even this rough, rocky trail, I opened up on another down hill in an attempt to put some distance between me and Rasmus and secure 2nd place. At times, the trail was more like an X-terra run course and it just kept going down and down. At about 12km I turned to see If Rasmus was still with me and was a bit disappointed to see him little more than 30m back. I continued on, or should that be down, as the trail now getting muddy in the foggy drizzle wound through the woods. I was half expecting my old implosion problems to rear up but there was no real sign and my pace and legs still felt good. Suddenly the trail stopped going down and as I rounded a corner I could see through the fog that in front of me was a BIG and STEEP hill. The path appeared to wind all the way up it… but the course profile didn’t show anything like this…we wouldn’t be going up there surely!!! Sadly though, we were. Naturally my pace went from 6th gear to 2nd in a few strides and I began the long slow climb.
I had to keep reminding myself that despite feeling like I was barely even running, everyone else would have to get up this hill and I told myself that they would slow down even more than me – no need to panic!!! I continued up and up, trying to dispel the thoughts in my head about what I’d expected from the run course. At about 14k I took a gel just to be safe, but this has also in recent races coincided with a dip in energy and run performance. It would be part experiment to take it now. Sadly within about 2minutes, my energy levels began to drop and my paced slowed even more. Rasmus was breathing down my neck now and as we past 16km and up another incline, he passed and put about 20m into me. The camera crew on the motorbike that had been following us the whole way, was to-and-fro’ing between us as I slowed more finding it harder to keep the legs turning over. I focussed hard though, determined not to let the gap grow too much.
Finally I began to feel better by about 18km as we broke out of the woods and could just see the hotel in the distance through the Fog. A steep down hill and then very steep (17%) run up hill to the finish was all that was left…. All that was left. Rasmus was only 30-40 meters in front but I just couldn’t catch him. I looked around and saw no one in sight behind me and just focussed on getting up the final killer climb to the finish shoot.
I crossed the line in 4h30, just 30s behind Rasmus, but nearly 8 behind Kieran who’d destroyed the swim and bike course almost completely on his own. I was delighted it was over, but more so to have come 3rd and especially to have felt the running legs return again in a race. Hopefully it bodes well for my forthcoming IM and executing a race there that I believe I can and mixing things up a little.
Thanks to my sponsors 2XU, Ceepo, Newton, High5, Total Fitness Music and Sigma Sport for all their help and support.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, June 05, 2009
Staring at the jigsaw puzzle too long…?
Well I’m back in the UK now having completed my near 7 weeks training in Boulder. I’m really happy to be back home, its great to see family and friends but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be back in Boulder. If you’ve read any of my post whilst I’ve been away you’ll be more than aware of all the reasons why. Needless to say, it’s now time to put “pedal to the metal” so to speak and start the real reason for why I went to Boulder in the first place – RACING!
My race schedule is somewhat undecided right now as so much depends upon the two main goals for the first part of the year - The ITU Long Distance Champs in Korea and then IM Japan. There are two priorities from these two races; Money and a slot at Kona (the world champs in October).
I raced last month at 70.3 Florida and had something of a mixed race. The result was disappointing, more so the implosion I once again experienced having ridden and run myself into the top 10. But there were still positives to found and the important thing is to take them and transfer them across to the problems I suffered in order to correct them!
Shortly before heading home I spent some time with my good friend Chrissie Wellington (www.chrissiewellington.org). It’s nice when you have friends like that to help you out (she’s the current 3 times Ironman and Long Course Triathlon World Champ and arguably the best female triathlete around right now). We chatted about what I felt had gone wrong in Florida and how I’d planned and executed the race. A bit like a person who’s been studying a jigsaw puzzle for too long, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees; thankfully Chrissie straight away pin-pointed where I was going wrong (at least one of the areas anyway ha ha). With all the problems I’d suffered last year and the year before with chronic fatigue, failing to even finish races and not being able to train more than 90mins a day I’d messed about so much with my race nutrition that I was eating nearly TWICE as much as I needed. When the intensity of a race is as high as it is, the temperature as hot and humid as in Florida this was always going to be a problem. But from where I was seeing it, I was running out of ‘puff’ and therefore needed MORE not LESS! But I couldn’t see things clearly, it was a problem I’d been looking at intensely for too long and therefore it all blurred into one big baffling mess.
But now Chrissie was helping me see with regained clarity and suddenly things were coming back into view. I used to be a real student of the sport, of the methods others used; the advice of the best people out there. I’d spend hours trawling the net for a little hint of a secret from one of the world greats – a session structure, training protocol, nutritional advice; I was desperate to get any tips and advantage I could. More recently I’d stopped doing this largely I think because I’d got so bogged down in worry about trying to fix things. I couldn’t see the easily fitting pieces of the puzzle that were right in front of my face.
I really hope that this has resolved the biggest issues I’ve had most recently in races. I’m tiring of doing races and KNOWING I’m underperforming in big way. There is only so long though that I can keep having the same kind of things happen. And yet I will continue to press on, not because I feel I should in some blind foolishness, but because I genuinely have faith that what I’m doing is the right thing, pursuing “this” is right, and a big part of my life as a Christian too. Sometimes faith in this is all I’ve got, but I’m happy it’s all I need.
The run, which used to be my biggest strength, has become something of an uncertainty, and I don’t feel like I’ve had a good run in a race for nearly 2 years….maybe more?! The way training has gone indicates that I can run way faster then I’m doing in a race. I don’t seam to be able to get anywhere close to a run splits I managed back in late 2006. With all the extra training I’m doing, I should be running FASTER not slower. When I do, I know, I’m convinced I can achieve the results I believe I can and actually make this whole thing work. Having taken Chrissie’s advice, I’ve tested it in race simulation days during training and it points to really good things. I just hope that for a change I can transfer these training performances into race results and soon!
Korea will tell me a lot and be a great indicator for the upcoming Iron Man. There’s no way I want to be getting off the bike in an IM, having just ridden 112 miles, and be wondering if my legs will show up or disappear completely like they have been over the last few months and years. It would be really nice for them to come back so we can start making a proper go of this triathlon malarkey!!!
My race schedule is somewhat undecided right now as so much depends upon the two main goals for the first part of the year - The ITU Long Distance Champs in Korea and then IM Japan. There are two priorities from these two races; Money and a slot at Kona (the world champs in October).
I raced last month at 70.3 Florida and had something of a mixed race. The result was disappointing, more so the implosion I once again experienced having ridden and run myself into the top 10. But there were still positives to found and the important thing is to take them and transfer them across to the problems I suffered in order to correct them!
Shortly before heading home I spent some time with my good friend Chrissie Wellington (www.chrissiewellington.org). It’s nice when you have friends like that to help you out (she’s the current 3 times Ironman and Long Course Triathlon World Champ and arguably the best female triathlete around right now). We chatted about what I felt had gone wrong in Florida and how I’d planned and executed the race. A bit like a person who’s been studying a jigsaw puzzle for too long, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees; thankfully Chrissie straight away pin-pointed where I was going wrong (at least one of the areas anyway ha ha). With all the problems I’d suffered last year and the year before with chronic fatigue, failing to even finish races and not being able to train more than 90mins a day I’d messed about so much with my race nutrition that I was eating nearly TWICE as much as I needed. When the intensity of a race is as high as it is, the temperature as hot and humid as in Florida this was always going to be a problem. But from where I was seeing it, I was running out of ‘puff’ and therefore needed MORE not LESS! But I couldn’t see things clearly, it was a problem I’d been looking at intensely for too long and therefore it all blurred into one big baffling mess.
But now Chrissie was helping me see with regained clarity and suddenly things were coming back into view. I used to be a real student of the sport, of the methods others used; the advice of the best people out there. I’d spend hours trawling the net for a little hint of a secret from one of the world greats – a session structure, training protocol, nutritional advice; I was desperate to get any tips and advantage I could. More recently I’d stopped doing this largely I think because I’d got so bogged down in worry about trying to fix things. I couldn’t see the easily fitting pieces of the puzzle that were right in front of my face.
I really hope that this has resolved the biggest issues I’ve had most recently in races. I’m tiring of doing races and KNOWING I’m underperforming in big way. There is only so long though that I can keep having the same kind of things happen. And yet I will continue to press on, not because I feel I should in some blind foolishness, but because I genuinely have faith that what I’m doing is the right thing, pursuing “this” is right, and a big part of my life as a Christian too. Sometimes faith in this is all I’ve got, but I’m happy it’s all I need.
The run, which used to be my biggest strength, has become something of an uncertainty, and I don’t feel like I’ve had a good run in a race for nearly 2 years….maybe more?! The way training has gone indicates that I can run way faster then I’m doing in a race. I don’t seam to be able to get anywhere close to a run splits I managed back in late 2006. With all the extra training I’m doing, I should be running FASTER not slower. When I do, I know, I’m convinced I can achieve the results I believe I can and actually make this whole thing work. Having taken Chrissie’s advice, I’ve tested it in race simulation days during training and it points to really good things. I just hope that for a change I can transfer these training performances into race results and soon!
Korea will tell me a lot and be a great indicator for the upcoming Iron Man. There’s no way I want to be getting off the bike in an IM, having just ridden 112 miles, and be wondering if my legs will show up or disappear completely like they have been over the last few months and years. It would be really nice for them to come back so we can start making a proper go of this triathlon malarkey!!!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Florida 70.3 Race Report
Florida 70.3 Race report
Well the first race of the year is done and dusted and is always the case, there’s plenty to mull over. Good and bad, questions answered and some still left open, but here’s how it went for me.
I got to Florida on the Thursday; flying in from Boulder (Denver) where we’d had a couple of warm (mid 70’s) days, but mainly pretty mixed and mild. So the first thing that hit me was the humidity. The weather was in the mid 80’s and the humidity was up to 90% making it feel even hotter. I was staying with Dion Harrison for a night in a Holiday Inn Express, before moving on the Friday to another place arranged by his friend, Mikkel Bondesen from Denmark/L.A.
We’d totally landed on our feet, with the place we ended up in looking more like an “MTV crib’s” apartment than the type of place I stay in when travelling to a race (fully fitted kitchens and MASSIVE flat screen TV’s aren’t what I’ve grown accustomed to at races). Mikkel is a great guy and super enthusiastic about doing Florida for the second time and hoping to qualify for Clearwater in the 30-35 age group. So we all passed the last couple of days hanging out and doing a little swimming together. My prep sessions went well and I didn’t feel any adverse effects from the heat on the bike or the run, even when doing my hard efforts. I felt really positive about Sunday and was looking forward to reaping the rewards of the last 3 weeks training at altitude in Boulder.
Sunday rolled around and with great efficiency everything at the race site went to plan. Hats off to the organisers who run this race and to Disney who open up part of their site and close off some major roads for the bike course. So at 6:20am 2,500 athletes and countless more supporters all lined the beach area of the lake for the American national anthem before the Elite men got under way for the non-wetsuit swim.
My swimming has been going well recently and I was looking forward to seeing how it transferred to a race performance despite it being a non-wetsuit swim. Nearly 40 Pro men meant it was going to be pretty frenetic for the first few hundred meters, but also plenty of feet for me to follow. This I managed to do fairly quickly which is a first for me. I felt I was holding the water pretty well and the effort, though a little below what I should be working at, felt good and I was happy to stay behind my man in front. The water was pretty warm, even without the wet suit, but I definitely noticed the benefit of the altitude as my breathing was really under control. The new, somewhat ugly stroke (that has taken many poor pool sharers out in recent masters sessions in Boulder) was working well too. As we turned around the first buoy at the 800m mark, although I new I’d missed the lead group and (possibly) the second pack too, I saw Dion to my right and so knew that I was swimming better than I have in the past (Dion has always been faster than me and is a 24min 1.9k swimmer). I continued to stay on the feet in front all the way until about 150m to go when I drifted slightly to my left and lost him for long enough to not be able to get back on his tail.
We exited the water in just over 28 minutes, not fast, but for me, without a wetsuit a good start, and seeing Dion to my right meant that the swim must have been either very slow generally or a tad long. Either way, it was a good start for me.
I had no idea how far behind the next group I was (as it turns out I came out in the 3rd pack, about 90seconds down on 2nd pack and 3mins down on the leaders) but set off on my new Ceepo Viper for the first 12miles of the bike course on the closed roads of the Disney resort course.
The Ceepo has been noticeably stiff and fast as I’ve got used to it on the Boulder roads and it felt great as I road down the smooth flat roads towards the first turn around. I timed the gap to the lead 3 of Luke Bell, Bryan Rodes and (eventual winner) Dirk Bockel with the next slightly spread out group about 1min50 in front of me. I saw Fraser Cartmell at the front of them all and was pleasantly pleased to only be this far back so soon after the swim. I figured I’d be able to catch them by mile 15 and just set my sights on the 3-4 guys I could see closer up the road.
The bike course in Florida has 3 out-and-back turn-around’s where you get a good chance to measure the gap to those in front of you. By the second, I timed the gap to the now sizeable, but legal (I should stress) group that had now formed. The 3 leaders were just under 3 minutes ahead but I’d only put 20seconds into the chase group. Still I thought that over the rolling roads of the next 20 miles, I’d be able to catch them before we hit the largely flat final 12-15 miles that today would be into a head wind. I was now stuck well and truly on my own having caught and passed about 5 guys. Sadly I just didn’t seam to be able to gain any more time on the large group and the final turn-around showed I was still 90 seconds behind. That was the last I saw of them and I ended riding the entire bike leg on my own. I felt OK and the legs were fine. I took on as much High5 Energy+ drink and gels as I could with some salt tabs in there for the added electrolytes. The heat and humidity didn’t feel too bad, but every time I looked down at my body it was literally dripping all over. I went through nearly 2 litres on the bike, but guess I still probably lost nearly 3kg’s in sweat at the same time – not good numbers for a good run.
I made one slight mistake towards the end of the bike though. With the fairly complex final few miles back in the Disney Land grounds, it had been impossible to drive this section the day before, mainly due to the complete absence of anything that resembled a decent road name or sign post on the roads. I had no real idea of how long I had to go until I needed to get ready to dismount. It’s always good to try to get the legs a little loose at the end of the bike as well as getting your feet / shoes ready to dismount. I ended up riding for about 5 minutes with my feet out of one shoe, expecting to see T2 around every bend. Mental note for next year!!!
Once into T2, I quickly put on the new Newton racers and was out running through the pretty large crowd before I you could say “did someone put another log on the fire???”. Onto the footpath that starts the first part of the 3 loop course and a spectator/coach called out I was 40seconds down on the next guy. Once again there were out and back sections to the run which served really well to show how close you were to everyone else. I got another time check from Heather Furr that the leaders were 6mins ‘up the road’. Those 3 guys were well out of reach, but I could see 4th-10th was well within my grasp spread out from 1-3minutes. I made a conscious effort to hold back as I ran, but still clocked my first 2 miles at 5:40ish pace. Faster than I wanted to be running, but I really felt like I was keeping the brakes on.
I gradually caught and passed some of the guys in front and could see that I was moving away from those who’d entered T2 behind me too. The run course is about 50% road 50% grass. It isn’t too bad though and after all is the same for everyone, so is no excuse for anything. I was enjoying the run in the first loop and by the mid point of the second, about 10k into the run I’d moved up into about 6th place…. And then suddenly all those thoughts of “its not too hot actually, this is OK” evaporated and were replaced by “who’s turned the thermostat up?!” It really hit me that suddenly and my pace began to falter and slow considerably. But, I thought, ‘it’s the same for everyone else, just keep moving forwards’. I finished the 2nd lap much slower than the first (nearly 3minutes slower) but still felt that if I could keep this pace, I’d hang on to a top 8 finish and some prize money. But by the first turn of the last lap, it was clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Guys I’d passed and pulled away from were quickly catching me and I was soon passed by 3-4 of them in quick succession. I just tried to stay focussed on moving forward, you just never know what might happen around you so I concentrated on things I could control like putting one foot in front of the other.
By this time the run course had close to 2000 of the total 2500 athletes on the course and was becoming crowded. It was increasingly difficult to tell who was who so as I ran down the last out and back section and cramp kicked into my right quad muscle, I had no idea how many or who had passed me by. All I knew was that stretching my quad made my hamstring cramp, but then stretching that made my quad go again…. The ministry of funny walks then began as I tried to get moving, whilst stretching the front and back of my leg at the same time. Eventually it seamed to ease and with only about 3 miles left I set off to finish as quickly as I could. The money was now well and truly gone, as was a top 10, but it’s still important to give everything to the line – I’d at least get more from the race physically doing this and hopefully grown stronger mentally if not physically.
The final corner and finish shoot seamed to take an eternity to come. but eventually I completed my last lap, some 6 minutes slower than my first and I found myself sat down in the recovery area dousing myself in cold ice and water. I’d crossed the line in 16th, but disappointingly nearly 16minutes back on the winner; Too big a gap for my liking. My whole body was on fire and tingling, my face and lips were tingling too and a rather concerned looking medical helper took me off to medical. Thankfully there was no need for an IV this time, but it took me about an hour to properly cool down enough to step out from under the wonderful cold towel and stop drinking Gatorade like my life depended on it.
Though the race itself for me didn’t go according to plan, there were still some positives to take from it. Not least sharing in my friend Dions debut as a Pro and seeing Mikkel cross the line looking strong and taking nearly 15 minutes off of his time from last year – an awesome achievement!!!
I’ll be back next year I think, with a little more acclimatization under my belt and another minute off my swim time, ready to mix it up at the front, instead of getting mixed up myself!!!
Well the first race of the year is done and dusted and is always the case, there’s plenty to mull over. Good and bad, questions answered and some still left open, but here’s how it went for me.
I got to Florida on the Thursday; flying in from Boulder (Denver) where we’d had a couple of warm (mid 70’s) days, but mainly pretty mixed and mild. So the first thing that hit me was the humidity. The weather was in the mid 80’s and the humidity was up to 90% making it feel even hotter. I was staying with Dion Harrison for a night in a Holiday Inn Express, before moving on the Friday to another place arranged by his friend, Mikkel Bondesen from Denmark/L.A.
We’d totally landed on our feet, with the place we ended up in looking more like an “MTV crib’s” apartment than the type of place I stay in when travelling to a race (fully fitted kitchens and MASSIVE flat screen TV’s aren’t what I’ve grown accustomed to at races). Mikkel is a great guy and super enthusiastic about doing Florida for the second time and hoping to qualify for Clearwater in the 30-35 age group. So we all passed the last couple of days hanging out and doing a little swimming together. My prep sessions went well and I didn’t feel any adverse effects from the heat on the bike or the run, even when doing my hard efforts. I felt really positive about Sunday and was looking forward to reaping the rewards of the last 3 weeks training at altitude in Boulder.
Sunday rolled around and with great efficiency everything at the race site went to plan. Hats off to the organisers who run this race and to Disney who open up part of their site and close off some major roads for the bike course. So at 6:20am 2,500 athletes and countless more supporters all lined the beach area of the lake for the American national anthem before the Elite men got under way for the non-wetsuit swim.
My swimming has been going well recently and I was looking forward to seeing how it transferred to a race performance despite it being a non-wetsuit swim. Nearly 40 Pro men meant it was going to be pretty frenetic for the first few hundred meters, but also plenty of feet for me to follow. This I managed to do fairly quickly which is a first for me. I felt I was holding the water pretty well and the effort, though a little below what I should be working at, felt good and I was happy to stay behind my man in front. The water was pretty warm, even without the wet suit, but I definitely noticed the benefit of the altitude as my breathing was really under control. The new, somewhat ugly stroke (that has taken many poor pool sharers out in recent masters sessions in Boulder) was working well too. As we turned around the first buoy at the 800m mark, although I new I’d missed the lead group and (possibly) the second pack too, I saw Dion to my right and so knew that I was swimming better than I have in the past (Dion has always been faster than me and is a 24min 1.9k swimmer). I continued to stay on the feet in front all the way until about 150m to go when I drifted slightly to my left and lost him for long enough to not be able to get back on his tail.
We exited the water in just over 28 minutes, not fast, but for me, without a wetsuit a good start, and seeing Dion to my right meant that the swim must have been either very slow generally or a tad long. Either way, it was a good start for me.
I had no idea how far behind the next group I was (as it turns out I came out in the 3rd pack, about 90seconds down on 2nd pack and 3mins down on the leaders) but set off on my new Ceepo Viper for the first 12miles of the bike course on the closed roads of the Disney resort course.
The Ceepo has been noticeably stiff and fast as I’ve got used to it on the Boulder roads and it felt great as I road down the smooth flat roads towards the first turn around. I timed the gap to the lead 3 of Luke Bell, Bryan Rodes and (eventual winner) Dirk Bockel with the next slightly spread out group about 1min50 in front of me. I saw Fraser Cartmell at the front of them all and was pleasantly pleased to only be this far back so soon after the swim. I figured I’d be able to catch them by mile 15 and just set my sights on the 3-4 guys I could see closer up the road.
The bike course in Florida has 3 out-and-back turn-around’s where you get a good chance to measure the gap to those in front of you. By the second, I timed the gap to the now sizeable, but legal (I should stress) group that had now formed. The 3 leaders were just under 3 minutes ahead but I’d only put 20seconds into the chase group. Still I thought that over the rolling roads of the next 20 miles, I’d be able to catch them before we hit the largely flat final 12-15 miles that today would be into a head wind. I was now stuck well and truly on my own having caught and passed about 5 guys. Sadly I just didn’t seam to be able to gain any more time on the large group and the final turn-around showed I was still 90 seconds behind. That was the last I saw of them and I ended riding the entire bike leg on my own. I felt OK and the legs were fine. I took on as much High5 Energy+ drink and gels as I could with some salt tabs in there for the added electrolytes. The heat and humidity didn’t feel too bad, but every time I looked down at my body it was literally dripping all over. I went through nearly 2 litres on the bike, but guess I still probably lost nearly 3kg’s in sweat at the same time – not good numbers for a good run.
I made one slight mistake towards the end of the bike though. With the fairly complex final few miles back in the Disney Land grounds, it had been impossible to drive this section the day before, mainly due to the complete absence of anything that resembled a decent road name or sign post on the roads. I had no real idea of how long I had to go until I needed to get ready to dismount. It’s always good to try to get the legs a little loose at the end of the bike as well as getting your feet / shoes ready to dismount. I ended up riding for about 5 minutes with my feet out of one shoe, expecting to see T2 around every bend. Mental note for next year!!!
Once into T2, I quickly put on the new Newton racers and was out running through the pretty large crowd before I you could say “did someone put another log on the fire???”. Onto the footpath that starts the first part of the 3 loop course and a spectator/coach called out I was 40seconds down on the next guy. Once again there were out and back sections to the run which served really well to show how close you were to everyone else. I got another time check from Heather Furr that the leaders were 6mins ‘up the road’. Those 3 guys were well out of reach, but I could see 4th-10th was well within my grasp spread out from 1-3minutes. I made a conscious effort to hold back as I ran, but still clocked my first 2 miles at 5:40ish pace. Faster than I wanted to be running, but I really felt like I was keeping the brakes on.
I gradually caught and passed some of the guys in front and could see that I was moving away from those who’d entered T2 behind me too. The run course is about 50% road 50% grass. It isn’t too bad though and after all is the same for everyone, so is no excuse for anything. I was enjoying the run in the first loop and by the mid point of the second, about 10k into the run I’d moved up into about 6th place…. And then suddenly all those thoughts of “its not too hot actually, this is OK” evaporated and were replaced by “who’s turned the thermostat up?!” It really hit me that suddenly and my pace began to falter and slow considerably. But, I thought, ‘it’s the same for everyone else, just keep moving forwards’. I finished the 2nd lap much slower than the first (nearly 3minutes slower) but still felt that if I could keep this pace, I’d hang on to a top 8 finish and some prize money. But by the first turn of the last lap, it was clear that that wasn’t going to happen. Guys I’d passed and pulled away from were quickly catching me and I was soon passed by 3-4 of them in quick succession. I just tried to stay focussed on moving forward, you just never know what might happen around you so I concentrated on things I could control like putting one foot in front of the other.
By this time the run course had close to 2000 of the total 2500 athletes on the course and was becoming crowded. It was increasingly difficult to tell who was who so as I ran down the last out and back section and cramp kicked into my right quad muscle, I had no idea how many or who had passed me by. All I knew was that stretching my quad made my hamstring cramp, but then stretching that made my quad go again…. The ministry of funny walks then began as I tried to get moving, whilst stretching the front and back of my leg at the same time. Eventually it seamed to ease and with only about 3 miles left I set off to finish as quickly as I could. The money was now well and truly gone, as was a top 10, but it’s still important to give everything to the line – I’d at least get more from the race physically doing this and hopefully grown stronger mentally if not physically.
The final corner and finish shoot seamed to take an eternity to come. but eventually I completed my last lap, some 6 minutes slower than my first and I found myself sat down in the recovery area dousing myself in cold ice and water. I’d crossed the line in 16th, but disappointingly nearly 16minutes back on the winner; Too big a gap for my liking. My whole body was on fire and tingling, my face and lips were tingling too and a rather concerned looking medical helper took me off to medical. Thankfully there was no need for an IV this time, but it took me about an hour to properly cool down enough to step out from under the wonderful cold towel and stop drinking Gatorade like my life depended on it.
Though the race itself for me didn’t go according to plan, there were still some positives to take from it. Not least sharing in my friend Dions debut as a Pro and seeing Mikkel cross the line looking strong and taking nearly 15 minutes off of his time from last year – an awesome achievement!!!
I’ll be back next year I think, with a little more acclimatization under my belt and another minute off my swim time, ready to mix it up at the front, instead of getting mixed up myself!!!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Doubt
Firstly I guess I should follow up on my last post concerning the swimming which wasn’t going so well at the time. Well thankfully almost the next day I think it was, things clicked back into place in the pool. I started to re-focus back on what I had been doing for the previous few months – both in terms of session structure and actual swim technique. Whilst it wasn’t an instant return to form and speed in the water, it did pretty quickly ‘feel’ better and more like it used to. The Friday swims weren’t fantastic in terms of the times I was hitting, but they were better and mentally it felt good and I knew that the feel for my swimming was returning. Within a couple of days I was back hitting the times I should be and starting to improve on them as I’d hope to. As I write this entry into my blog, my confidence in the water has returned and I’m enjoying getting wet once again. Its so much easier to face 7.5k (300 lengths) in the pool, as I did yesterday, when I can tell its making me stronger and faster, and I’m not feeling like I’m fighting it all the way. Yesterday I did a session with Julie Dibens, Mary-Beth, Rinnie (Marinda Caffrea) and Joe (Gambles) – Most of whom are either current or former World or European Champs of some kind. We swam a set that I’d NEVER have been able to do before and the times I was managing to hit were HUGE PB’s for me. It nearly killed me and the ride in the afternoon was tough due to this, but it was well worth it and another example of why training here in Boulder is so great. To be pushed by this calibre of athlete (i.e. the worlds best) is impossible to over-value. Hopefully I’ll remember this last couple of weeks next time I feel a plateaux in my training and need to be patient again
But back to this post then…. though in some ways still following on from the pool work.
Here's a little picky from a ride the other day. Gorgeous, but hazy day... those mountains in the distace are HUGE. We rode up over 8000ft on saturday. the air up there is REALLY thin and i was breathing SO hard just trying to get to the top of one of the climbs
When you’re training day in, day out and your livelihood depends upon how well you do, how fast you are, how far you can go – when the clock, times, splits, distances, speeds etc all become your “monthly review”, if you let it, it can leave you in good places or bad places. Mentally I mean, at least.
Because getting faster, fitter, stronger, lighter are all targets and the clock, the power meter, the scales DON’T lie, you can easily be faced day in day out with feedback that tells you exactly where you’re at. Many triathletes and I’m sure other athletes too, can get bogged down in this and let it really get to them. I’m sure people in various other types of jobs feel this pressure too – a teacher with SATS results for example. Recently I’ve had both ends of the stick but have noticed how I (people in general?) respond to the different ends of the spectrum. I touched on the negative a little last time, but on the positive I’ve noticed that actually, instead of receiving good results for what they are and tell me, I can be prone to doubting… even when it’s something as solid and unquestionable as a time. Swimmers will all tell you “the clock doesn’t lie”…. So why if it tells us something good, do we then doubt its ‘honesty’?
For example, I sometimes ride using power as a gauge for my performance in training. It’s measured in Watts and just like the clock, doesn’t lie. One second is the same as the next, and one watt is the same as another one. On Sunday I did a certain ride, with a particular goal in mind for the ride of the number of watts I wanted to produce. I did this, felt good and happily held the wattage I wanted to – both an improvement on last year and also a BIG difference to when I first arrived at altitude. Instead of trusting the results, I found myself questioning its truth. That’s kind of like looking at a clock and questioning if one minute was slightly slower that the one before. On Monday I did a run, again with a certain target speed in mind. I ran it, timed it and thanks to GoogleMaps measured the distance. When I worked out the pace and it was exactly as fast as I wanted it to be…. I still doubted that I had actually done it. Even in the pool, where things have been going great, I still constantly want to prove to myself that I CAN swim a certain time per 100m because as soon as I do actually DO it, I still doubt that it was real and question that I can do it again.
It’s an obsession that I guess drives me on to keep trying to prove to myself how things are going, if I’m improving etc. Not a bad thing on the face of it, but I think it’s important to celebrate and receive them (at least internally) when goals and targets ARE actually reached, instead of belittling them and casting doubt over them. Otherwise this can prevent confidence from growing, which is really important.
Faith plays a massive part in my life and who I am; and faith and doubt don’t sit well together. There’s a great verse in the Bible in Hebrews where it says “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” I think this is so important to remember when we do actually achieve something we’ve hoped for (and often worked HARD for and believed will happen). When we allow this to happen, it grows faith and shrinks doubt and this allows us to hope for, work towards and ultimately achieve even greater things.
What I feed will grow, so I’ve been trying to feed the confidence in recent results so that it will grow instead of the doubt.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Patience
Things in the last week have taken a turn for the better in some regards and for the worse in others. First the good…
As I have mentioned in previous posts, the altitude has really taken some getting used to in a number of ways. Recovery, volume, intensity have all had to be adjusted in my training as my body adapts to the reduced O2 up here. But last week, actually the Sunday before last, for the first time I noticed whilst riding back from the track, that I was able to apply some proper(-ish) power to the peddles whilst going over a small climb. Gradually as the week has progressed I’ve been able to work at something like the normal effort I would expect to in harder sessions. Up until now, I’ve simply not even been able to push that hard, my lungs were working overtime well before my arms or legs were able to. A good solid 1 hour run on Tuesday has been built on through the week by some good sessions on the bike (turbo sadly some days due to the STILL mixed weather) and again more good running sessions. This included a velocity at VO2 (almost “all out max” effort) run which I managed on LESS rest that I had been doing so back home – a good sign! Unfortunately I slipped up with some food somewhere along the way and ate something with mustard (which includes barely vinegar a.k.a. evil Gluten) in it and struggled through a couple of days. Being reminded of the same feelings of both mental and physical fatigue of last year wasn’t good. It is just SO draining when this happens and I have to just get as much done as I can. But a couple of easier days and by the weekend I was back feeling good again. I managed a really tough 3 hour turbo session on Saturday followed by some swimming and then on Sunday completed one of my favourite (when its finished at least) sessions, which is a threshold (race pace) brick (run/bike) session.
It was really good to feel back to normal again. It’s taken roughly 3 weeks to get to this place though, but with 3 weeks remaining here, I’m hopeful that there’s plenty of time to increase the impact of training at this level. 3 weeks seams like nothing as I sit here now feeling better, but it was sometimes hard to be patient in this relatively short period. I’m glad I was though as hopefully now the foundations are there, I can build upon it over the next 21 days.
On top of this I went to a long to a new church on Sunday called Vine Life (www.vinelife.com) it was GREAT to find somewhere to go that felt instantly comfortable. But more importantly for me, just good to be back in church and with God.
To the bad then…
Swimming has LONG been something of a nemesis for me in triathlon. But recently in the past few months I’ve at long last made some serious progress with it. This is largely thanks to some slightly un-orthodox technical and training help late last year. However, for various reasons, in the last few days, this seams to have evaporated and I feel like I’m back to square one again. And so right now I have to be patient, and keep telling myself not to doubt too much. “It” is there somewhere… and “it” will come back if I just keep doing the same/right things, consistently. This is the time where patience is hard to have… tomorrow has 3 swims on the plan for me. When things are going well in the water, this kind of day is almost enjoyable, but I know that tomorrow it will be mentally quite hard to make myself do it. But in order for the patience that I need to show, to not be in vain, I MUST do it. Hopefully by my next post I’ll have some good news on the fruits of this round of growth in patience. It’s a journey after all so I’ve got to keep pressing on ‘down the road’.
But to finish on a good note…. I was introduced to “Whole Foods”. A store here in Boulder packed full or organic, healthy foods. It’s got an amazing area where they make things like sushi, sandwiches, burrito’s etc… everything you can think of to eat. And it’s ALL organic and pretty much healthy AND they do things gluten free too!!! So my new favourite sandwich is the ‘Boulderite’ on gluten free bread – basically a REALLY good BLT with added avocado, turkey and cheese!!! Hits the spot PERFECTLY.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, the altitude has really taken some getting used to in a number of ways. Recovery, volume, intensity have all had to be adjusted in my training as my body adapts to the reduced O2 up here. But last week, actually the Sunday before last, for the first time I noticed whilst riding back from the track, that I was able to apply some proper(-ish) power to the peddles whilst going over a small climb. Gradually as the week has progressed I’ve been able to work at something like the normal effort I would expect to in harder sessions. Up until now, I’ve simply not even been able to push that hard, my lungs were working overtime well before my arms or legs were able to. A good solid 1 hour run on Tuesday has been built on through the week by some good sessions on the bike (turbo sadly some days due to the STILL mixed weather) and again more good running sessions. This included a velocity at VO2 (almost “all out max” effort) run which I managed on LESS rest that I had been doing so back home – a good sign! Unfortunately I slipped up with some food somewhere along the way and ate something with mustard (which includes barely vinegar a.k.a. evil Gluten) in it and struggled through a couple of days. Being reminded of the same feelings of both mental and physical fatigue of last year wasn’t good. It is just SO draining when this happens and I have to just get as much done as I can. But a couple of easier days and by the weekend I was back feeling good again. I managed a really tough 3 hour turbo session on Saturday followed by some swimming and then on Sunday completed one of my favourite (when its finished at least) sessions, which is a threshold (race pace) brick (run/bike) session.
It was really good to feel back to normal again. It’s taken roughly 3 weeks to get to this place though, but with 3 weeks remaining here, I’m hopeful that there’s plenty of time to increase the impact of training at this level. 3 weeks seams like nothing as I sit here now feeling better, but it was sometimes hard to be patient in this relatively short period. I’m glad I was though as hopefully now the foundations are there, I can build upon it over the next 21 days.
On top of this I went to a long to a new church on Sunday called Vine Life (www.vinelife.com) it was GREAT to find somewhere to go that felt instantly comfortable. But more importantly for me, just good to be back in church and with God.
To the bad then…
Swimming has LONG been something of a nemesis for me in triathlon. But recently in the past few months I’ve at long last made some serious progress with it. This is largely thanks to some slightly un-orthodox technical and training help late last year. However, for various reasons, in the last few days, this seams to have evaporated and I feel like I’m back to square one again. And so right now I have to be patient, and keep telling myself not to doubt too much. “It” is there somewhere… and “it” will come back if I just keep doing the same/right things, consistently. This is the time where patience is hard to have… tomorrow has 3 swims on the plan for me. When things are going well in the water, this kind of day is almost enjoyable, but I know that tomorrow it will be mentally quite hard to make myself do it. But in order for the patience that I need to show, to not be in vain, I MUST do it. Hopefully by my next post I’ll have some good news on the fruits of this round of growth in patience. It’s a journey after all so I’ve got to keep pressing on ‘down the road’.
But to finish on a good note…. I was introduced to “Whole Foods”. A store here in Boulder packed full or organic, healthy foods. It’s got an amazing area where they make things like sushi, sandwiches, burrito’s etc… everything you can think of to eat. And it’s ALL organic and pretty much healthy AND they do things gluten free too!!! So my new favourite sandwich is the ‘Boulderite’ on gluten free bread – basically a REALLY good BLT with added avocado, turkey and cheese!!! Hits the spot PERFECTLY.
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