Training Review - Week 34 - August 19 to 25

Monday, I went for an easy swim. My knee / calf problem is improving but it is still far from normal. Forgot my watch so took a rough time off the wall clock.

Tuesday, it was an easy jog around Dyce. Knee and back are improving pretty quickly. Don't think there is any serious damage, just seems to tighten up and ache a bit.

Wednesday, I took a trip out to Knockburn. Was paddling away comfortably. Nothing too energetic and knee was holding up nicely. Forgot my watch again but times aren't really an issue this week anyway. Back and shoulder were getting a bit tight by the end of lap 2 so I decided to call it a day rather than go round a third or fourth lap. The aches and tension were more stress related from work rather than tiredness from the weekend.

Thursday, I had a rest day. I am getting Dexter for the weekend which will mean lots of jogging offroad, so my knee needs a precautionary rest.

Friday, me and Dex were both tired so we just went for a walk round the park.

Saturday we went for an easy run up Kirkhill. 

Sunday we went out to marshal at Alford Try-A-Tri. 

I have now swum over 52 miles this year. That is the most I have ever swum in a year. Progress numbers there might slow down a bit over the next month. Inverurie pool is closed for a month and the temperature at Knockburn is dropping.

I have passed 500 miles running for the year. Next week I should pass my target for the year of 520.

So targets for last week (Week 34) were:  None. Just do what I can after Aberfeldy.

Actuals were:

Monday - Swim 800m, 30mins. Bit of easy stretching.

Tuesday - Easy run. 4.4 miles in 41mins.

Wednesday - Swim at Knockburn, 1,200m, 30mins. 

Thursday - Rest day. Easy core and stretching.

Friday - Rest day.

Saturday - Easy run, 3.9 miles 44 mins. 

Sunday - Rest day. Marshalling at Alford.

Result - 

Swim 1.25 miles (2,000 m). Bike 0 miles. Run 8.3 miles. 1 core and 1 stretching sessions.

Training Plan - Week 35 - August 26 to Sept 1

Still no detailed plan.

But the targets are back this week to try and make me get out and do something and to force me onto the bike. Also the swim target is up so that I make sure I stay ahead of my annual target. Having made the other targets already, anything I run or bike from now is a bonus.

I have managed to get a place in Huntly Standard so my season isn't over yet. Can't stop for another month. 

Target totals - Swim >2 miles. Bike >50 miles. Run >10 miles. 2 short core, 2 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions.

Race Review - Aberfeldy Half (Part 4 - Post race analysis)

Part 3 is here

So, things didn't go all that well in the end. But, what could I have done differently?

Clothes
Would a different choice of clothes have helped? 
This is a bit of a tough one. I had additional gear at T1 and I gambled on not taking it. In the same situation at T1 I would still make the same decision. Without knowing how much the weather was going to change I couldn't have prepared any better than I did. If I had worn less I might have dried out before the rain, and I might not have been so affected by the cold. 

I could have worn overshoes, but I would never have thought of that before the race. I barely consider them as an option for winter races, certainly not for a summer / autumn race. I should have worn toe covers but I tore them last year when I had my crash and broke my collar bone and I still haven't replaced them. Ordered a new pair now. Might have helped a bit during the cold section.


Training
Another toughy. Could I have trained more?
Probably not. I pretty much don't have a social life, so it is work, train, sleep or TV. And I did way more than I had planned to. If I had put in more I think it would have become counter-productive.

But...Could I have trained differently?
Maybe. I could have run more instead of biking and swimming. I could have swapped out a lot of short runs for fewer longer runs. These might have helped a little, but they might have done as much damage elsewhere. So no, I think I got it just about right.


Race start
If I had been out into the water and had made the start line before they started it might have made 5 minutes difference to my swim time. This in turn would have put me in with a different set of racers on the bike. I would probably have still had to stop for the cold, but that would have put me amongst familiar faces during the section of the ride where I wanted to jack it in. It would also have meant I skipped my good samaratin bit. Could have been out and running 10-15 minutes sooner. 

Course
OK, I couldn't change that, but I could have picked another race. I doubt that would have made much of a difference though. The Aberfeldy course would be fine on a warmer, and drier day. I would always have struggled on the hills but I would have made a lot of it back on the flats and descents if I had been warm enough. I also would have spent a lot more time in my TT position if I had been warmer.

I could have recced the course earlier in the year. I think that might have helped as I would have decided to take a second look at it pre-race. A few rides over that course and I think I could go faster just from knowing which corners closed in and which opened up.

Weather
OK, I couldn't change that, but I could have picked another race. I could have gone for a different time of year, or a different location to try and get better weather. Central Scotland in August was always a heavy chance of rain at least some point during the day.

Weight
Could I have been in better shape?
There was more of me than I initially planned to carry over the mountain. I was 78kg on race day. It wouldn't have hurt me any to be carrying 3 or 4kg less. But doubt it would have helped enough to make that difference either. 

Fuelling
No, I got that pretty much perfect. I would have need more to drink on warmer day, but I would have taken more care not to lose my second bottle and/or I would have taken a replacement at the feeding station.

Hotel
Having to drive 40 minutes after the briefing on the Friday night and back again on the Saturday morning before the race cost me an hour that would have been better spent asleep. More importantly it was an hour or so of sitting in the car which probably contributed to my back and hip problems. That one I could have done better, would it have been enough to make a difference, hard to tell, possibly not.

Physio and Massage
This is probably the one thing I could have done much better. Stretching and rollering wasn't doing enough to clean up the niggles. It was getting me between sessions but I should have noticed they were coming back too quickly and known they were going to bite me on big days. 

Overall
There wasn't much I could have done differently. Certainly not much I could have done to make a big difference. Maybe the physio and massage but when I started this year neither of those was an option for me and by the time I would have been able to go see them I was already settled into my routine.

Race Review - Aberfeldy Half (Part 3 - Run)

Part 2 is here

T2

Ok, it doesn't deserve a write up. Flew through pretty slick. The only real mention is for the cheering crowds and helpful marshalls. Oh and not thinking to remove my arm/leg warmers or dump my jacket now that the sun was out.

2 mins 36. Including packing my helmet and gear back into the bag and handing it to the marshall.

Run

The first quarter mile of the run is still massively supported. Lots of cheering supporters to get you started. I felt that I was doing fine for fuel and drinks to that point, but I let my brain take over and spent the first half mile working my way through a flapjack.

The course is out and back and within the first mile I started passing runners coming in to the finish. They looked to be going quite strongly and I recognised the third athlete I passed as a guy from Shetland who is pretty good, but it wasn't till I passed the fifth runner and realised that he was from one of the strong teams that I realised I had probably seen the winner. This gave me a big boost. I had expected the top handful to be in before I was off the bike, and with my bad bike I expected that number to be into the twenties. To be a mile into the run before anyone finished really made my day.

I knew it was going to be tough though and my back and right hip weren't feeling great. I was already trying to figure out how to get to the end, but it was fairly simple. It is an out and back course, so make it to half way and then you are done. It is as easy to walk to the end as anything else. So all I had to do was make it to half way and I knew I would finish.

I was going quite well to start with. Nice comfortable pace for the first 5k. But I was dying for a pee and I had to take a quick stop. Shetland girl and one other went past while I was watering the bushes. I got back on the road and back into my running quite easily. I was doing 9 minute miles and feeling fine. 

As it was an out and back run I was recognising plenty of people passing the other way, and watching out for the ones I thought I might catch if I could keep my pace going. My right hip was bugging me and the niggle in my left calf and knee was getting worse but neither were slowing me down any. I was taking on water at every opportunity and taking a gel every 3 miles or so, and was finally feeling that I might actually be able to get round in under 6 hours. 

Then at the far end of the course there is a little dip. Maybe 10 or 15 meters long with a downhill slope. And that was it. The calf niggle and my back together decided the down slope wasn't for them and they had enough. 

From that point it was walk, jog , walk jog, to the finish. It was agony. It was really frustrating as swarms of people passed me (from the results I figure about 60 people passed me in the remaining 6 miles). I also got overtaken by the last Threepeaker with about 2 miles to go. It was agony when I tried to run, and it was frustrating when I just walked. I wasn't tired. I hadn't paced it wrong. I had plenty of energy and fluids. The weather was finally good for running in. If I had managed to just keep going at the pace of the first 6 miles I would have been really close to 6 hours. It took me 18 minutes longer to come back than it took me to go out.

When I did finally reach the end I got a step over the line and needed help from the officials to sit down. They kept offering me water and gel but I wasn't in need of either. After a few minutes of sitting down my back felt much better and I was able to get up and walk around. I was hobbling a bit (I still am 2 days later) but not suffering anything like the tiredness or exhaustion I expected. 

Was really gutted with my time, and with how much I lost on the run, but happy to have finished.

Run time 2 hours 12mins 09.

Total time 6 hours 20mins 07.

Part 4 is here

Race Review - Aberfeldy Half (Part 2 - Bike)

Part 1 is here

T1

So I am out of the water. And at this point in time it is still possible to tell the difference. It won't be so obvious later on. It was a walk up to transition. Mostly because of the underfoot surface rather than anything else. Normally I just roll my transition descriptions in with the segments but this one took so long that it deserves it's own section. 

There were decisions to make. It wasn't cold, it wasn't wet....yet. But the forecast said that was going to change. So the decisions about how much to wear were made on the fly. I had left my full range of everything at transition in the morning so I could adapt if the sky fell in whilst we were swimming. I decided it was worth the 30 seconds to towel off a bit and put socks on. I also added my cycling jacket and gloves, and pocketed my arm warmers. I decided not to take my rain jacket.

I was fairly sure 2 Threepeakers were out in front of me, leaving me 3rd of 6. I saw one who had dropped out, leaving me 3/5. And then I saw the one I expected to be close behind me, coming in to transition just as I was ready to leave.

6mins 51 for a transition. Could have had tea and biscuits and got the hairdryer out as well at that sort of time!

Bike

The start of the bike was really great. The first few miles are flat and fast and I was onto the tri-bars and making places by the handful. Mostly girls on road bikes while the odd guy on a TT bike went past me. I wasn't getting carried away with that though, as I knew what was coming.

When the turn came up the hill I was ready for it. I shifted down through the gears and just ticked my legs over, knowing the hill was long but that it never got particularly steep. I was still picking off places, but now it was just girls on road bikes and the guys on road bikes were now passing me as well as the guys on TT bikes that kept coming.

The first climb was ok though. I was working away fine. There was a bit of drizzle, and a bit of wind but nothing that was going to bother me. I got into a bit of cat and mouse with a Threepeaker. Every uphill he passed me. Every flat or downhill I passed him. 

The descent to Loch Rannoch is twisty and fast, but nowhere near as dangerous on a weekend as it was when I test rode it. And it was still pretty dry, although the drizzle was turning into showers by this point. 

At the end of the descent there is another flat section then the turn to go around the Loch. There is a feed station here. As I was approaching there was a 4x4 towing a trailer waiting to come out of the T-junction. There were 2 other riders about 50m ahead of me and then started to pull out slowly and let them pass, then started to pull out slowly again, paused half way, looking like he had left me half the road (annoying but acceptable), then moved again! As I arrived at the gap it was enough for me to squeeze through but barely. I shouted some abuse at him and carried on, but a look back a second later and I saw one of the ladies from the feed station giving him a further earful of abuse.

At the time I was quite pleased that I hadn't crashed or been run down, but that was the turning point in my race. the near miss put my heart rate through the roof and gave me a big adrenalin surge. I noticed it was happening and tried to rein it in and make sure I wasn't working too hard on the back of it. But this was into the fast flat section along the loch side so I was catching people and feeling good, despite the rain getting heavier. I passed a few more people that I vaguely recognised, and a girl from Shetland that normally finishes really close to me over shorter races.

But it had to wear off, and about 20minutes later I was out of it and the cold was getting to me. Going fast is good. Going fast when wet is cold. I was long past feeling my toes and it was getting to the point that I couldn't feel my fingers as well. I needed to do something to get warmer or I wasn't going to make it round the bike. I didn't have many options but I did have one trick in my pocket. My arm warmers fit my spindly legs. I know this from a desperate day of cold mountain biking last year. 

So I stopped and tried to rush them on, over my shoes. Bad move, they do fit, but not easily so that cost me time, also trying to pull them on twisted my hip and my sciatic nerve went nuts. The cold was already pulling my back and hips out of line and this made it worse. As I was putting them on about a dozen of the places I had passed took them back, including the Threepeaker and the girl from Shetland. 

Once back on I got back to it and started chasing places down again.  I could feel my toes again and it was definitely an improvement. But the rain was getting harder and the road was getting greasy. My second drinks bottle jumped out of the cage behind my seat and I lost it. I decided just to leave it and push on, I had been drinking plenty from it and I still had my full main bottle. I was having a gel every hour and feeling fine for fuel. 

There is a 90 degree left at the end of the loch. They had a marshall posted their slowing everyone down. And I slowed right down. But I still got a massive flick out of the back wheel as I went over a manhole cover in the middle of the corner. Managed to hold it but didn't improve my confidence in the safety of the course. 

By this point I was done with "racing". I was only out to finish.

Back along the other side of the loch was a low point of my race. The rain was bad, the road was twisty and I had had enough. I couldn't see anyone in front or behind, and I was now so soaked through that wiping my nose with my gloves made it wetter rather than drier. Top that off with a 50 seater coach tailgating me for about 5 miles along the loch side wasn't helping. I waved him by a few times but he wouldn't go past. I passed another rider and thought I would leave the bus behind him for a while, but he decided to overtake that rider fairly quickly and sit behind me again. I was all for giving up, I would just roll to the end of the loch and get in a car at the feed station.

The rain eased a bit before I rolled back into the feed stop at the end of the loch and and stopped for a gel and some water. I took a complete stop for a breather. The rain was off and the marshall were very cheerful. After a couple of minutes with them and with the weather ahead looking nicer I decided I might as well bike over the hill rather than wait for a lift. So off I went onto the return climb. I had a niggle in my left calf that was coming and going but it didnt bother me so much on the climb.

I could spend an age writing about this climb. It has a nasty punch at the start. Then levels off and turns into a 4 mile drag much like the other side. But having come down it fairly easily it didn't scare me. And I kept ticking over. Losing the odd place, making more than I lost. By the time I got to the 70k mark the rain was back on, and I came up towards a serious looking boy on a very flash bike with a GB suit on, a burst tube around his neck and another puncture. I had passed about 7 punctures on the road already but they all looked busy and able to fix them. This guy was so out of place in the field that he obviously had bigger problems. I asked if he was ok and he shouted back that he needed a spare tube. I didn't have one, but I stopped and offered him my foam canister. I wasn't going to use it. If I punctured now I would be waiting for a lift. He hadn't used one before so I stayed to talk him through it. Good deed for the day done, I got back on and went back to the hill. 

The breather was a big help and I felt good for a while, despite the weather getting worse again. Near the top of the climb the wind got so bad that I was out of the saddle on the flats and struggling to make any headway against some of the bigger gusts. I was soaked through again and the arm/leg warmers weren't helping any more now that they were wet.

Over the top and I finally managed to get into my TT position for the downhill. I caught Shetland girl on one of the trickier corners, because I recognised it from my recce and I knew that you go in fairly blind but the road widened to two lanes after it so any oncoming traffic would be ok to pass.

I got into my TT position for bits of the last 6 mile run in to the finish and the rain was easing off again, just leaving wet roads. My hip and my back weren't in great shape and the niggle in my left calf was coming and going. The last mile there were crowds and marshalls and I was passing the runners on their way out. I saw the Threepeaker that I though would be second of us with about a mile to bike to the finish. I expected him to be well clear of the third Threepeaker that I was cat and mousing with on the first climb so I knew I was fairly close to him.

Off the bike 4th Threepeaker out of 5, but close behind 3rd. 

Bike time 3hrs 24mins 58 secs. 

Better than I expected. Should be happy with that but hated an awful lot of it and think I could go 20-30 minutes faster in better weather.

Part 3 is here

Race Review - Aberfeldy Half (Part 1 - Swim)

Well, that was an experience. But a lot of it was not one I would particularly like to repeat. The weather had a lot to do with that. Also, I am going to write a lot so I am going to chop this into at least a couple of parts.

I am going to grump a bit about some of the organisation as well. They did a lot of things very well, but it seemed that while they were focussing on the things that they wanted to do really well they missed some of the simple things that make a huge difference to the athletes. For example, there was no real need for the earlier start. Having to be there to set up for transition at 6am was completely unnecessary. 

Briefing

It was the standard fairly pointless swim briefing. Made slightly more pointless by the briefer pointing at buoys that were out of sight and discussing sighting on alternate more obvious objects that you couldn't see and wouldn't know what he was talking about unless you were a local. I had my ear plugs in already for the swim, so I made sure I was fairly near the front to hear what he was saying.

Swim

At the end of the briefing the organiser asked us to follow the path round and get in the water, this meant that anyone who had been at the front to listen to the briefing properly had slightly further to walk round to the water. I thought this was fine as it would mean being in the water a few minutes less getting cold before the start. I was about two-thirds of the way down the pack as I got into the water. It is a deep water start, maybe 300m out into the loch. As I started to easily paddle out the line at the start was just beginning to form up. 

There were a few cameramen in dry suits floating in the water and filming. It will be interesting to see their footage when the hooter goes for the start. I was a good 80-100m back from the start when the starting hooter went and there were lots of other people still around me. Apparently quite a number of people were still on the jetty. 

That is my next gripe at the organisers. Fair enough in previous years the water temperature might have made it unpleasant for those who got out to the start early and had to wait so they might have had to strike a balance between holding them and waiting for stragglers.  But this year the water wasn't cold, so there was no real need for them to go while so many people were still way short of the start line. Especially when the ones who were late were the ones who had been following the rules and listening carefully to the briefing.

Anyway, so the swim starts and I have no-one to draft, but also the water is really choppy. The swell in the loch was pretty big and more than once I brought my stroke over only to find it was still under water as the swell washed over. The big waves were also making sighting really difficult. Even trying to adjust my stroke so I could sight as I crested waves wasn't really helping. I was having to just look for groups of yellow hats and splashes ahead of me and hope they were going roughly in the right direction on each leg. 

Gripe at organisers number 3: A total of 3 medium-sized buoys and 4 or 5 support kayakers for a 1900m single lap swim is far from enough. On a choppy day with waves that size I would call it borderline dangerous. It was enough to make one of my team-mates quit and get out before she even made it to the start line. By comparison, for a 1600m swim at Knockburn, where it can't get that choppy, and where I can always put my feet down, I would get 12 big buoys, 5 small buoys and half a dozen kayakers.

In terms of my actual swim, it was pretty good. I was smooth and relaxed. The big waves were the worst I have been in but I managed to cope with them a lot better than expected. For the first stretch I couldn't see the buoy, but there were a good mass of the people that had been on the start line all heading in the same direction so that gave me a big enough target to aim for. Once I got to about 100m from the buoy I could see it between waves and realised I was a bit off line but not too bad. I got a good line into it and came out of it in a small pack. I thought about just sitting in with them but they were going much too slow, and within 20m out of the buoy they had all decided to go in massively different directions. 

The metal pin in my collar bone wasn't enjoying the cold. It doesn't normally bother me but it did here. It was annoying me more than anything else but was possibly starting to affect my back as well.

The second leg was into the waves so was as much up and down as forward. Again the sighting was difficult but following vaguely parallel to the bank made it a little easier. timing sighting glances to match the crests of the waves meant I could at least se some groups and get a good idea of the right direction, in between sighting into walls of water.

The next turn is tighter than 90 degrees and the swell and lack of sighting was exaggerating that further. As I approached the turn the other swimmers were passing within a couple of meters heading in the opposite direction. There was the usual concertina of bodies at the turn and everyone headed off back towards the jetty. However, some tried to allow for the swell and went a long way right, and some just aimed roughly in the direction of the start and went a long way left. I couldn't see anything recognisable so I tried to split the difference. I was still going fairly easily until about half way back when I could see the chalets behind the jetty. I found a group that looked to have their sighting about right and pushed a little to get in with them. I still wasn't working hard, I felt I could easily go past the group and push on, but in the back of my mind I had 5 hours more to deal with so I stayed sensible and just kept ticking over on my way in.

The exit from the swim is pretty well supported and was about the best bit of the day. Huge crowd all cheering as we wandered up to transition. It as a walk rather than the normal race through transition as the surface is pretty rough. I spotted one of my team mates at the side cheering having pulled out already. I didn't spot the cameras, which I am promised have some great shots of me already looking fed up with my day. 

I wasn't really fed up by that point. I felt ok, I knew I hadn't done too much, probably paced it about right, just a bit disappointed at "missing" the start. I think there was the best part of a minute just missing the start, and another couple of minutes if I could have got into a group. 

The official swim course is definitely short of the 1,900m that it is meant to be. I was taking it easy, I wasn't getting any drafting help. I was way offline in some parts so I swam much further than the measured course, and yet I was still out of the water in 33:32.

There is some video footage on youtube. You can see it here. I really cant stress how much it makes the waves look smaller than they were.

Review part 2 is here.  

Training Review - Week 33 - August 12 to 18

Monday I was planning to ride 20 miles. Dragged myself out on the road bike but was a crappy evening. Headwind, cold, showery rain. No point in risking anything on the greasy roads so I decided to drop through the gears, cut my route short and just spin my legs for half an hour to clear them out. Got home and in the door and didn't even have my shoes off before the whole sky fell in. Thunder and lightning and everything. Despite just spinning my legs round at no effort into a headwind I set 3 new Strava PRs. It isn't a route I ride a lot but obviously my legs are in pretty great shape.

Tuesday I took a really easy 5k jog around Dyce. Bit muggy and warm but easy enough.

Wednesday I went out to Knockburn and did two nice easy swim laps in my slow suit. Fast suit is already packed for the weekend. It is a lot more comfortable than I remember, but it is still comparatively slow against my race suit.

Thursday I had a slight niggle in my heel. Feels like it is bruised but can't see how I could have. Decided to play safe and skip my last jog. Spent the evening sorting out all my gear. Packed and repacked and rerepacked everything. Then packed a complete second set of extra gear that I won't need as spare. 

Friday was registration day. I got up ridicuously early as still try to reset my body clock for Saturday.

Saturday was Aberfeldy Half Ironman, which will get a massively long post to itself.

Sunday would have been a rest day anyway, but is enforced due to the damage I have done to my knee. Can just about hobble around the house, and have made some minor inroads into clearing up my gear but can't see the bike making it out of the car or getting cleaned.

So targets for last week (Week 33) were:

Target totals - Finish Aberfeldy Half Ironman. (Stretch target - Finish under 6 hours).

Actuals were:

Monday - Easy road ride 8.3 miles, 35mins.

Tuesday -  Jog 3.1 in 27mins.

Wednesday - Swim 1,200m 

Thursday - Rest day. Light stretching.

Friday - Registration.

Saturday - Aberfeldy Half Ironman.

Sunday -  Rest day.

Result - 

Swim 1.9 miles (3,100 m). Bike 65.0 miles. Run 16.2 miles. 0 core and 1 stretching sessions. Finished Aberfeldy Half Ironman - sort of - in 6 hours 20.

Training Plan - Week 34 - August 19 to 25

No fixed plan for this week. 

Just take each day as it comes and try to recover from Aberfeldy.

Sunday is Alford Try-A-Tri where I will be marshalling. My next race is probably Huntly Standard in September, although it may be full already!

Race Preview - Aberfeldy Half Ironman

By the time the automatic scheduler posts this I should hopefully be asleep. Everything I need for tomorrow should be laid out, in order, for the morning. This is not just me being OCD, it is to try and minimise the ridiculous early start in the morning.

I have to be up at 5am on Saturday morning. This is partly bad planning on my part, and partly inconsiderate planning by the race organisers. I left it too late when I was booking a hotel so I am about 40 minutes away from the start and I have to get up early enough to drive that. But the organisers also moved the start forward by an hour to 7:30. This means transition set-up is between 6-7am.

Not really understanding the point of the early start as they have time cut-offs that mean everyone finishes or gets swept up by early afternoon anyway. Doesn't seem to be very athlete friendly for us all to have to drag ourselves out of bed in the middle of the night and to get in the water when it is an hour colder. And especially when they don't allow you to prep transitions the night before. And with split transitions and strange parking arrangements it is almost like they are trying purposefully to make it difficult for athletes who don't have a support crew.

The weather forecast is not inspiring either. The BBC weather says it has been raining in Aberfeldy all week. It is probably raining now. The BBC and Yahoo both agree that it will be raining heavily tomorrow. The BBC even has thunder and lightning in the middle of the afternoon.

There are 6 Threepeakers entered. The others have all finished a full ironman this year already and I expect their deeper endurance and better cycling skills will give them an advantage. I could be second, or more likely third, out of the swim, but I don't think it is a long enough swim distance for me to build a defendable gap and the bike course suits all of them more than me. I expect to finish 6th of the 6.

Overall there are 320 entered. The guys at work were asking how I would get on and I said I would not get in the top half but maybe in the top-200 if I had a really good day. I can find a handful of recognisable names on the list that are definitely beatable if I have an ok day so I don't think I will be last, or even outside the 300.

Karen and Emma have prodded and pushed and cajoled me to train properly and to be here. If I didn't owe them for all the work they put in I would probably have quit a dozen times by now. If at any point tomorrow I feel like I have had enough and want to quit the words "toughen up princess" will be ringing in my ears.

I am ready, or as ready as I am going to be. I only want to get round. I would like to do a respectable time. I would like to enjoy it. But this course really doesn't suit me. So any finish will do. And then onwards to a fast time at Huntly standard.

Training Review - Week 32 - August 5 to 11

Monday I had a day off to recover from Knockburn.

Tuesday I did an easy loop around Dyce. Legs are still a bit stiff. OK, a lot stiff.

Wednesday I went out to Knockburn. Having missed my target time for the run on Sunday I figured I would take a jog round it on fresher legs just to see what I could have done. I was surprisingly tired still and the rain wasn't very enjoyable, but I ran the course in 46 minutes. On one hand I was a bit annoyed that I hadn't run a bit quicker at the weekend, on the other hand I was pleased that with empty legs, in the rain, no adrenaline, no-one to race on the same hilly course and taking it relatively easy I have a 46 minute ~10k in my legs.

Then I went in for 3 laps round the loch. About 12 minutes a lap. Feeling nice and easy still. The water is definitely getting colder though. I will take a trip next week just for a last easy swim in my taper. By the time I recover from Aberfeldy it may be getting a bit chilly to go back in, but will see how it goes.

Thursday and Friday the Aberdeen weather decided to help me out with my tapering.

Saturday I was struggling for motivation but managed to drag myself out on the TT bike. Did an easy 23 mile loop. Trying not to work hard but kept catching myself tucking into the tri-bars and turning up the gas. Then I charged the battery and tucked away the TT bike for next weekend.

Sunday I went to spectate and take photos at Westhill triathlon. Rolled over quite easily on the road bike, tootled around the larger loop in reverse with a few photo stops, then rolled home again. Came straight in and did a mile on the treadmill, just because I have a lack of brick sessions in my plan lately and was a mile short of my weekly target.


At the start of the year biking 50 and running 10 in the same week felt like some sort of huge achievement. Now doing it as an easy week going into my taper and I feel like I have been ridiculously lazy all week.

For the year I have now biked 1,572 miles. 10 more than in the whole of 2012. By the end of next week I will have passed my original 1,612mile bike target for this year. 

I will also pass through 488 miles of running. Doubling my 2012 running total. And depending on how many miles I cover on my easy runs this week I could also find myself through 500 running miles for the year, against a target total of 520 for the year. 

And I could also swim through 52 miles which as my total for the whole of 2012.

A few people asked me today if I was ready for Aberfeldy next week. I am a lot more ready than I planned to be. I think I will finish. I think if the weather is kind I can do a time I am happy with. I don't like the bike course, but there is nothing I can do about that, or to prepare myself better for it. 

All that is left to do is have an easy week an make sure I get to the start line ready to race.

So targets for last week (Week 32) were:

Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >50 miles. Run >10 miles. 2 short core and 2 short stretching sessions. 

Actuals were:

Monday - Rest and recovery day.

Tuesday -  Easy jog 5k in 27 mins.

Wednesday - 6 mile run in 46 mins. 1.3mile swim in 47 mins.

Thursday - Rest day. 

Friday - Rest day.

Saturday - TT bike 22.7 miles, 1 hr 20mins.

Sunday -  Road bike 27.4 miles, 1 hr 56mins. Treadmill run 1mile in 9mins.

Result - 

Swim 1.3 miles (1,800 m). Bike 50.1 miles. Run 10.1 miles. 0 core and 0 stretching sessions.

Training Plan - Week 33 - August 12 to 18

Race week.

So it is all lazy and tapering. Just moving my legs and checking my gear.

Monday - Easy 20 mile bike.

Tuesday -  Easy 4 mile jog.

Wednesday - Easy swim at Knockburn.

Thursday - Easy 3 mile jog. Pack the car.

Friday - Drive to Aberfeldy for registration.

Saturday - Aberfeldy Half Ironman.

Sunday -  Get out of bed.

Target totals - Finish Aberfeldy Half Ironman. (Stretch target - Finish under 6 hours).

Race Review - Knockburn Standard

I set a few targets going into this race:
1. Swim faster than 28:34.
2. Bike faster than 1:28:17.
3. Run faster than 53:28.
4. Finish faster than 2:48:18.


You can get the full results here.
And here are the real numbers:

Split Name	Race Time	Leg Time	Time of Day	Pos	Cat Pos	Gen Pos	Pace	Penalty
Swim	00:28:14	00:28:14	12:28:14	71	30	55	3.2 km/h
T1	00:30:25	00:02:11	12:30:25	116	38	84
Cycle	01:52:55	01:22:30	13:52:55	85	32	71	29.1 km/h
T2	01:53:36	00:00:41	13:53:36	65	25	49
Run	02:48:14	00:54:37	14:48:14	117	41	93	11.0 km/h

The water was colder than it has been for the last couple of months and colder than Loch Lomond last week. It was fine once you were swimming though. I spent too much time reading the internet last week. I knew this would slow me down so I would need to get more of a tow if I wanted a quick time so I let swimsmooth talk me into getting in the middle of the pack rather than my usual plan of staying off to the side. This meant being in amongst a lot of kicking and punching early on.

The swim start was the busiest open water start I have ever been in. It was messy at the start, and then messy throughout.  By the time we were on to the back straight of the first lap I had enough of the scrapping but a nice gap opened up in front of me as the groups started to break up. I pushed into it and found myself spearheading a trailing group. I figured that if I was going to be working at the front of the group anyway, I might as well work a bit harder and try and cross the gap to the next group instead. It took me about half a lap to make it across the gap. I then tried to go round the group but they were weaving all over the place and somehow I ended up in the middle getting punched from both sides again and with someone really annoying tickling my feet on every stroke. I pushed a little bit to get away from Mr Tickle.   

My target was to swim under last year's time, and I thought I was swimming well enough to go a lot faster, but I think the fighting and the colder water made a difference. Garmin actually has me out of the water at 27:22, but there is a short run up to the timing mats so an equal comparison puts me at 28:14. 20 seconds quicker than last year. Inside my target. Happy enough.

I faffed a bit in transition, but intentionally. I really need to practice my full half ironman transition, and that is going to include socks and towelling off and sunglasses and a load of other little bits. So I did the whole lot. This meant it was slow, but I was willing to give up seconds here for the practice and for the sake of minutes and some comfort later.

The bike course is a couple of miles downhill, then three laps of a triangle, then couple of miles back up the hill. The first side is fairly flat and fast but a bit twisty. The back straight is a bit of a slog, with a nippy little climb near the end. And the Third side is a time-trialist's dream, downhill, with open swooping corners at high speed.

I got a bit of a nosebleed on lap 1 and it kept dripping for the best part of the next two laps. It was never bad enough to bother me and wasn't affecting my breathing, but was a good reminder that I will need to be tight on my hayfever prep at Aberfeldy.

Along the first stretch on every lap I was catching a few places, but losing a few. I was catching a lot of girls, but getting caught by as many men. On the back straight I was losing more than I made, sometimes a few at a time. Then the long swooping fast section I was carving through places and loving the speed. 

Coming round the back straight on the third lap I also caught up to Bert. I normally lose about a minute every 10k to Bert on a bike leg so I knew I was going really well. That gave me another boost and I pushed on up sharp hill. I turned onto the sweeping home stretch for the last time and was ready to pick off the few people in front of me. I waved a car past, but then the much slower bike in front didn't, so I got stuck behind him and the car. Was very frustrating and the watch says it cost me nearly 30 seconds.

As soon as the car moved I got back into fast TT mode and took the slow rider, but the other pair had gone into the distance. Onto the climb back up to the Loch and I was still ticking over nicely. I knew I had a super-fast bike split but I didn't check my watch going into transition and it was only once I got out onto the run that I noticed I was still over 5 minutes under my target bike time. My target was to bike 5 minutes faster than last year. In the end I biked nearly 6 minutes faster than my target as well. 10:47 faster than last year. Really pleased!

A quick bit of maths in my head and I knew I was on for my overall target if I got anywhere near my run target. I went off nice and steadily, knowing there was a big hill coming.The first mile felt ok but I realised that the price of my fast bike split and my holiday hillwalking was that my legs were having none of it on the hill. The heat was also starting to bite and I realised I was getting sunburnt and dehydrated. I found myself walking on the hill. I downed both my gels (should have had them on the bike and grabbed more at T2). My hip was bugging me a bit as well but I jogged in between bouts of walking on the hill. A lot of the girls that I had passed on the bike were making their places back, but I recognised a few of them on the way past and realised they should have all been well ahead of me coming off the bike, and be 5 minutes further up the road than me anyway so wasn't too annoyed to have them just passing me then.

Onto the flat I managed to get moving again. I had to stop at the water station before going into the off-road section. (Should have drunk more on the bike as well!). Once I reached the top of the hill I managed to get into a better rhythm. I was still losing places but at least was moving and could almost call it running. Had to stop again at the water station on the downhill. Then on the downhill road section I was still losing places, and realised I wasn't quite going to make my run target. But I thought I was still going to go a minute or two faster than last year for the run section so kept working as much as I could. I missed my run target by about a minute. So I am a bit disappointed that I didn't run a bit quicker. But still 3:51 faster than last year.

Overall, I ducked under my total time target by a very sneaky 4 seconds. Over a 3 hour race it sounds like I cut it pretty close but bearing in mind that the target time was a seemingly ridiculous 15 minutes under last year even to get near it was really fantastic.

And there were 42 people behind me this year rather than 4 from 2012, including all of the ThreePeakers (except maybe 1 but not sure his membership is paid up).

Really pleased overall. Especially pleased with the bike. And can't say enough good things about the marshalling and organisation.

Few good reminder lessons for Aberfeldy:
Drink more.
Eat / gel more.
Remember to prep for hayfever.
Don't work so hard on the bike.
Suncream!

Training Review - Week 31 - July 29 to August 4

Monday I went to work during the day then headed off on my holiday. Went to Dundee at night. Did an easy core and stretching session.
Tuesday I went to Aberfeldy for a ride round the bike course.

Was a bit stressed before I started since my phone die on Monday night. Was ok once I got moving but that course is absolutely shit. It is by far the worst course I have ever ridden on a bike. The road surface is terrible, the climbs go on for ever, the descents are massively technical and ridiculously dangerous. There was loose gravel on all the tight corners on the way out, all the descent corners on both sides are blind so you don't know what is coming the other way or how tight the corner is going to get. I don't get how people that I know are bad descenders even manage to get round that course without dying.

I got to about 19 miles to where you start round Loch Rannoch and that was it. There was no way I was going to make it round that loop and then back over the hill so I had to turn back. I ended up over 3 hours for just 37 miles and there is no way I could have ridden another 20, nevermind trying to swim or run as well. The pace I was riding at won't even make the bike cut off and I had nothing left in the tank just trying to get round that. I would be nearly 6 hours just to get to the end of the bike. That has totally wrecked my confidence. I don't think I can even get round that course.

I can't even blame the bike and do a switch because the brakes on my road bike simlpy aren't good enough for those sort of descents.

Wednesday, I went hill walking over Ben Lomond with my holiday friends. I am going to claim the 8 miles against my run total for the week as it was pretty hard going.

Then we went for a swim in the Loch. Got suited up and swam 1k. Then getting out I stood on a sharp stone and cut my foot. Stupid!

Thursday, I started the morning digging around the cut in my foot with a safety pin. Found a chunk of stone inside it. Once I removed that it was much less painful. Then we went to the Burrell collection and the Glasgow Science Museum for the rest of the day. No points for guessing which of those I preferred.

Friday we went to Edinburgh Zoo. Didn't get to see the infamous pandas but everything else was good. Still pretty stiff from hill walking and was struggling a bit on the hills.

Saturday I decided to stick with a rest day and did some easy rollering and stretching to try and ease off some of the remaining tightness from Wednesday. Cleaned the bike and prepped all my race kit for Sunday. Except my goggles, which I loaned out to someone and need to remember to get back on my way to the race.

Sunday was Knockburn Standard. It is going to get a race report all to itself tomorrow. Then I did a stretching session and a short core session to finish off the week.

So targets for last week (Week 31) were:

Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >75 miles. Run >10 miles. 2 short core and 2 short stretching sessions. 

Actuals were:

Monday - Core session.

Tuesday -  Holiday - Bike 37 miles, 3hours 5mins.

Wednesday - Holiday - Hill walking 8.1 miles in 5 hours 31mins. Swim 1,000m in 20mins.

Thursday - Holiday - Museuming in Glasgow.

Friday - Holiday - Edinburgh Zoo.

Saturday - Rollering and stretching.

Sunday -  Knockburn Standard triathlon. Swim 1,500m, 28:14. Bike 25.9 miles, 1hr 22:30. Run 6 miles, 54:37.

Result - 

Swim 1.6 miles (2,500 m). Bike 63.2 miles. Run 14.1 miles. 0 runs over 10 miles. 2 core and 2 stretching sessions.