Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Race report - Knockburn Duathlon
Much better pre-race than last year. Here is last year's report.
Had no panic problems. Didn't see anyone that could have caused them either. But did see lots of people I know, and who have been very supportive over the last 2 years. So was about as relaxed as I could hope to be. Didn't like being in the room for the race briefing with the big crowd but nothing worse than a twitchy leg this time.
Decided against the pointy hat. It is quite a hilly course and I didn't think it would make enough difference.
First run started well. Was much higher up the field than at Aboyne. Quickly started to suffer with the pace though and settled in a bit slower. Let a bit of a gap open in front of me but held my place. Same Run 1 time as last year but was way higher up the field so think the times were giving a bit of a false impression.
Possibly the wrong shoes for the runs. My lightweight road racing shoes were struggling for grip on the wet grass and some of the mud. But my trail shoes only work if they are on really tight so lock-laces are not really an option on them, and transitions would be a nightmare even if I did elasticate them. Should probably have gone for the middle ground and put some laces into some of my slightly heavier but more-treaded training shoes. Not sure they would have been any better though.
The first climb on the bike is pretty nasty and I lost a couple of places. But not as many as last year, and much less time and distance lost on the bodies that did pass me and made most of them up around the rest of the course. On the flat sections I was managing to get down on the tri-bars for sections and was making a lot of ground when I was. Makes my shoulder ache though. Think I need to look at repositioning them since I crashed to try and keep my aero-position tidy but put less stress on the metal pin in my shoulder.
There are a coouple of little rises on the flat section and I dropped the new chain when I down-shifted. Shifted up and gave it a a couple of crunching turns of the pedals until it picked up again. Then downshifted and it dropped again. Had a bit of a worry that this was going to continue and I was going to be stuck in the big ring for the rest of the ride but it seemed to catch properly this time and had no problems again after that. Still think I could probably take another link out though.
On the long descent I was being a bit cautious but I was starting to relax into it and build some confidence in my speed until I tried a right hander and moved across the road just as someone whizzed past on the inside. He gave me a last second shout that averted a nasty high-speed crash but it shook me up a bit and I went back to being as cautious as I had been earlier in the race. The gravelly turns at the bottom of both descents are quite tight and I was slowed down so much I could probably have gotten off and run round the corners faster.
Really need to do some bike handling work and fast cornering as soon as the roads get dry.
Second run I set off with a spread of runners in front of me that all looked catchable. But about quarter of a mile in the first overtake I was involved in was the leader coming round to lap me. Was quite surprised to see it was one of my team-mates who I was swimming with in lane 4 on Monday. I knew he was going well but didn't realise it was race-winning-well. Was really pleased for him, even though he was lapping me. Was a bit of a trudge round the second run but I was picking off a lot of the runners that had started just in front of me. So happy enough with the end result.
Was definitely a bit over-dressed for the runs. And slightly under-dressed for the cold on the bike. So probably about right overall. But I had compression shorts, bib tights and my XL-sized suit on, and the compression effect on my quads was way too much, especially on the runs.
Still plenty of work to do on the running as well. A long way off where I should be for these sort of short races. The miles I am doing are great but I am going to need to add some faster work so that I can cope with the increased pace of racing without it doing so much lactic damage.
Full race results are here.
My time is 2 mins 31 faster than last year.
Last year I was 35th out of 44, this year 28/66. Also the winning time, the average time and quite a few of the people I know were 5 minutes down on last year's race, so think my improvement is worth a lot more than the 2 and a half minutes. Pretty happy overall.
Next race: Turriff triathlon in a fortnight.
Monday, 8 April 2013
Training Review - Week 14 - April 1 to 7
Poor start to the week. Swim session was working on turns. I am definitely getting better but they are still not good enough to do regularly or to use in a race. Also Lane 3 was packed so someone had to move out of it. But Lane 4 was pretty empty so I moved up. There is a definite bus subtle pace difference going in with the serious boys.
Tuesday's run was surprisingly tough. Load of little reasons for that. Still got round my normal little 5k loop in a sensible time though.
Wednesday's swim was going well. Put in 2 x 250 fairly quickly but then the pool filled up with a mass of traffic and the choice was leave or drown some of the obstacles, so we left.
Thursday was my last chance to get out and drive the Trans-Am before her new owner came to collect her. And the gym was packed so I wasn't going to get treadmill space. I cut my gym brick to a bike only.
Friday I was planning to go mountain biking for an hour. Having cut all my run miles from the Thursday night session I decided I could get a couple of miles in, and then do a couple of miles on the mountain bike as well to check out all the new parts. Brakes work well, need to move the switch for the adjustable seatpost though. Was too far out of range to activate any time that it was needed.
Saturday I was thinking about topping up the numbers for the week but I decided instead to stick to the plan and keep my pre-race rest day. Did a bit of a core session and some stretching.
Sunday I went to Knockburn Duathlon. That will get a post to itself, but I had a decent race. I also slipped in a short warm-up run before hand. And then did another 3 mile run afterwards. This finished off my running target for the week.
But between the short bike route at Knockburn and ducking out of my brick early on Thursday I cam up slightly short on bike as well as swim this week.
So targets for last week (Week 14) were:
Actuals were:
Monday - Swim with TPT, 1,700m in 55mins.
Tuesday - Dyce loop. 5k in 27mins.
Wednesday - Swim 550 m in 25 mins.
Thursday - Gym Brick; Exercise bike 14.7 miles in 45mins.
Friday - MTB brick @ Kirkhill. Run 2.1 miles, 19mins. Mtb, 2.7 miles, 27mins.
Saturday - Rest Day. A core and stretching session.
Sunday - Knockburn duathlon. 2.6 mile run, 9.2 mile bike, 2.7 mile run.
Plus a 1.5 mile warm up and a 3 mile run in Dyce afterwards.
Result -
Tuesday's run was surprisingly tough. Load of little reasons for that. Still got round my normal little 5k loop in a sensible time though.
Wednesday's swim was going well. Put in 2 x 250 fairly quickly but then the pool filled up with a mass of traffic and the choice was leave or drown some of the obstacles, so we left.
Thursday was my last chance to get out and drive the Trans-Am before her new owner came to collect her. And the gym was packed so I wasn't going to get treadmill space. I cut my gym brick to a bike only.
Friday I was planning to go mountain biking for an hour. Having cut all my run miles from the Thursday night session I decided I could get a couple of miles in, and then do a couple of miles on the mountain bike as well to check out all the new parts. Brakes work well, need to move the switch for the adjustable seatpost though. Was too far out of range to activate any time that it was needed.
Saturday I was thinking about topping up the numbers for the week but I decided instead to stick to the plan and keep my pre-race rest day. Did a bit of a core session and some stretching.
Sunday I went to Knockburn Duathlon. That will get a post to itself, but I had a decent race. I also slipped in a short warm-up run before hand. And then did another 3 mile run afterwards. This finished off my running target for the week.
But between the short bike route at Knockburn and ducking out of my brick early on Thursday I cam up slightly short on bike as well as swim this week.
So targets for last week (Week 14) were:
Swim >1.5 miles Bike >28 miles. Run >13 miles. A core or stretching session.
Actuals were:
Monday - Swim with TPT, 1,700m in 55mins.
Tuesday - Dyce loop. 5k in 27mins.
Wednesday - Swim 550 m in 25 mins.
Thursday - Gym Brick; Exercise bike 14.7 miles in 45mins.
Friday - MTB brick @ Kirkhill. Run 2.1 miles, 19mins. Mtb, 2.7 miles, 27mins.
Saturday - Rest Day. A core and stretching session.
Sunday - Knockburn duathlon. 2.6 mile run, 9.2 mile bike, 2.7 mile run.
Plus a 1.5 mile warm up and a 3 mile run in Dyce afterwards.
Result -
Swim 1.4 miles (2,250m). Bike 26.6 miles. Run 14.9 miles. 1 mixed core and stretching session.
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Training Plan - Week 15 - April 8 to 14
Monday - Swim with TPT.
Tuesday - Run at Dyce, something more than the 3 mile loop. A stretching session.
Wednesday - Gym brick 1 hour bike, 45 min run.
Thursday - Rest day. Cinema trip to see Oblivion. Maybe a core session.
Friday - Short mtb or hill run. Or off-road brick.
Saturday - Long ride or long run.
Sunday - Long run or long ride.
Target totals - Swim >1 mile. Bike >50 miles. Run >15 miles. A core or stretching session.
Bigger targets for run and bike this week. Planned a long week between 2 race weeks. But no space for a second swim this week (...unless I go early on Monday and do a half hour before the main session...or get up and do a stupidly early session somewhere...).
Saturday, 6 April 2013
Goodbye mid-life crisis?
I sold my Trans-Am today. She was absolutely a symbol of a standard male mid-life crisis. Being 30, having too much money, and nothing I really needed to spend it on, I bought myself a toy sports car to play with.
A part of me is very sad to see her go. We have had some very good times together. Last proper long run-out we had was to win my final North District Championship titles and then to one of my best friend's stag weekends.
But she has done less than 200 miles in the last two years and has been out of mot and SORN'ed for over a year now and was becoming just an obstacle to me using my garage for anything else. Mostly I was feeling guilty that she was rusting away in my garage while someone else could have been having the benefit of her.
The money has gone in the bank for now, but as soon as I sell the mondeo it will be spent on a shiny new time-trial bike. So maybe not quite mid-life crisis over just yet...
A part of me is very sad to see her go. We have had some very good times together. Last proper long run-out we had was to win my final North District Championship titles and then to one of my best friend's stag weekends.
But she has done less than 200 miles in the last two years and has been out of mot and SORN'ed for over a year now and was becoming just an obstacle to me using my garage for anything else. Mostly I was feeling guilty that she was rusting away in my garage while someone else could have been having the benefit of her.
The money has gone in the bank for now, but as soon as I sell the mondeo it will be spent on a shiny new time-trial bike. So maybe not quite mid-life crisis over just yet...
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Annual Target Review - End of Q1
Three months into this year and it is not what I expected, by a long way.
I figured I would be making my swim target most weeks, but would be scrounging round for biking and running miles. As it happens I am between 30% and 50% over my mileage targets for all three.
So here comes all the dry numbery bit:
2013 Annual Targets are:
*My original idea was to only swim 1 mile a week in Q1 and then, once I started swimming outdoors, I would aim for that second session to put me up to about 2 miles a week. So really at this point I should only be at around 16 miles. Instead I have come straight in at doing 2 swims most weeks and averaging over 1.5 miles a week during Q1.
I figured I would be making my swim target most weeks, but would be scrounging round for biking and running miles. As it happens I am between 30% and 50% over my mileage targets for all three.
So here comes all the dry numbery bit:
2013 Annual Targets are:
Swim 75 miles and learn to tumble turn.
Bike 1612 miles.
Run 520 miles.
Do 250 sessions.
Do a Half Ironman (August).
Run a running race.
Keep weight over 73kg and aim for 80kg.
That means a quarter of the way through the year I should have done somewhere in the region of:
Swim 19 (or 16*) miles and be doing some turns.
Bike 403 miles.
Run 130 miles.
Maybe run a running race.
Keep weight over 73kg.
*My original idea was to only swim 1 mile a week in Q1 and then, once I started swimming outdoors, I would aim for that second session to put me up to about 2 miles a week. So really at this point I should only be at around 16 miles. Instead I have come straight in at doing 2 swims most weeks and averaging over 1.5 miles a week during Q1.
And the actuals to date are:
Swum 21 miles and trying to do some turns.
Biked 601 miles.
Run 184 miles.
Run a running race - North District Cross-Country League at Forres.
Kept my weight over 76kg.
The annual targets were always slightly unbalanced as they were built on what I did last year, rather than trying to build a proper racing or training plan. The ratios of 1:20:7 that I originally planned are accidentally close to standard triathlon distance ratios 1:26:7.
For a half ironman the distances are 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run, the ratio here is much more bike-heavy 1:47:11. The balances on what I have done both in terms of average weekly distance (1.6 swim, 48 bike, and 14 run miles) and ratio 1:30:9 are still closer to the balance for a standard.
Changes to targets
So what changes to make at this point?
Run a running race is done. That target was originally set more as a recovery from my breakdown rather than as a sporting target. I don't feel the need to replace it with another target at the minute.
Swim target overall is fine, and on schedule. I could add one about doing so many miles outdoors but that is too weather dependent. I could add a time one for a 750m race swim, but they are generally too dependent on which lane you get drawn in. So basically not going to change anything here.
Bike target was set based on just doing the same as last year. But I did put in the following note: "This is a bit of a lazy target, and I might look at shifting it to 1820 or 2080 depending on what the numbers look like by mid-year".
Only a quarter of the year gone so it is still a bit early to be making major changes to this target. Race season will start to have an impact from now and I have had no missed time for injuries, and minimal missed miles for weather so far. Keeping the same averages I would bike about 2400 miles, so moving my target up to 2080 miles looks easily do-able from here. But in light of race season I am only going to change up to 1820 miles for now. That means averaging 35 miles a week for the whole year, but since I am already way ahead of schedule, just means averaging the original 31 miles a week from here to the end of the year.
Run target I originally set at 520 miles, just because 10 miles a week is a nice round number that was about double my 2012 total. Even as a sprinter, and picking up injuries, my lowest training year up to 2011 was 650 miles. Purely on the numbers so far, getting back up to that 650 looks like a comfortable target for this year as, 700 or 750 even look like reasonable numbers to aim for but I am not going to change it from 520 until half way through the year. I am still much too reliant on other people, or on the treadmill.
I do need to start doing longer sessions though. I still haven't done any of the three sections of my ironman in a one-er yet (not counting monday night stop-start swims). So by end of Q2 I want to have at least a couple of rides over 60 and runs over 15 (race is 56 and 13). I also want to be getting at least a couple of brick sessions up over 3 hours.
I have 5 races on my plan for Q2, three of which I have done before (Knockburn duathlon, Turriff and Forres triathlons). Times are all a bit weather and opposition dependent, but two of those courses I know I can go quicker whatever the conditions so will add fastest times in 2 of 3 races as a new target.
Swum 21 miles and trying to do some turns.
Biked 601 miles.
Run 184 miles.
Run a running race - North District Cross-Country League at Forres.
Kept my weight over 76kg.
The annual targets were always slightly unbalanced as they were built on what I did last year, rather than trying to build a proper racing or training plan. The ratios of 1:20:7 that I originally planned are accidentally close to standard triathlon distance ratios 1:26:7.
For a half ironman the distances are 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run, the ratio here is much more bike-heavy 1:47:11. The balances on what I have done both in terms of average weekly distance (1.6 swim, 48 bike, and 14 run miles) and ratio 1:30:9 are still closer to the balance for a standard.
Changes to targets
So what changes to make at this point?
Run a running race is done. That target was originally set more as a recovery from my breakdown rather than as a sporting target. I don't feel the need to replace it with another target at the minute.
Swim target overall is fine, and on schedule. I could add one about doing so many miles outdoors but that is too weather dependent. I could add a time one for a 750m race swim, but they are generally too dependent on which lane you get drawn in. So basically not going to change anything here.
Bike target was set based on just doing the same as last year. But I did put in the following note: "This is a bit of a lazy target, and I might look at shifting it to 1820 or 2080 depending on what the numbers look like by mid-year".
Only a quarter of the year gone so it is still a bit early to be making major changes to this target. Race season will start to have an impact from now and I have had no missed time for injuries, and minimal missed miles for weather so far. Keeping the same averages I would bike about 2400 miles, so moving my target up to 2080 miles looks easily do-able from here. But in light of race season I am only going to change up to 1820 miles for now. That means averaging 35 miles a week for the whole year, but since I am already way ahead of schedule, just means averaging the original 31 miles a week from here to the end of the year.
Run target I originally set at 520 miles, just because 10 miles a week is a nice round number that was about double my 2012 total. Even as a sprinter, and picking up injuries, my lowest training year up to 2011 was 650 miles. Purely on the numbers so far, getting back up to that 650 looks like a comfortable target for this year as, 700 or 750 even look like reasonable numbers to aim for but I am not going to change it from 520 until half way through the year. I am still much too reliant on other people, or on the treadmill.
I do need to start doing longer sessions though. I still haven't done any of the three sections of my ironman in a one-er yet (not counting monday night stop-start swims). So by end of Q2 I want to have at least a couple of rides over 60 and runs over 15 (race is 56 and 13). I also want to be getting at least a couple of brick sessions up over 3 hours.
I have 5 races on my plan for Q2, three of which I have done before (Knockburn duathlon, Turriff and Forres triathlons). Times are all a bit weather and opposition dependent, but two of those courses I know I can go quicker whatever the conditions so will add fastest times in 2 of 3 races as a new target.
Monday, 1 April 2013
Training Review - Week 13 - March 25 to 31
Higher targets set for this week.
Monday was a decent start to the week. Sunday night was the first proper night's sleep I have had in a couple of weeks. At swimming lane 3 was pretty crowded so I dropped back into lane 2. But about a quarter of the way through the session I was lapping everyone, and lane 3 had settled in to a pack, so I moved up mid-session.
Tuesday it was snowing, and cold. I wrapped myself up in a couple of extra layers and went out to do my loop around Dyce, but all the way round I was having trouble breathing in the cold air. I was a minute slower than last week, which I can mostly attribute to the weather. I jumped from 4th place to 2nd on the Strava segment I was hoping to top this week. Missing the tops spot by only 9 seconds. However, this has actually meant that I am more miffed about not checking my satellites last week. I was a minute quicker last week, which should be about 25 seconds over the segment and would have put me comfortably top. I am not planning this loop again on my own any time soon so it will be a while before I get another shot at it.
Decided I might try some of this "social life" people have been telling me about. Which is going to hit Thursday and Friday training. So I decided to pull Thursday's swim in to Wednesday. Because I had to survive the session and get home in time for Tesco this meant I had to cut my brick down. I decided to keep the hour on the bike but step the pace up slightly and then do the same run as last week. I then got away from work late and had to trim another 10 minutes off the run. Did manage a good swim though. And felt fine after the triple session.
I had half a thought about doing Moray Roadrunners 10k on Sunday but these changes mean I am way short on run miles and need to find 10 at the weekend. Trying to put that in with a 10k race would leave me then needing a 4 mile warm down. Or trying to do a brick on the Saturday. Neither option would result in me doing a decent race so going to skip it and stick with doing a proper long run instead.
Thursday - Rest day. Getting much better at sticking to these.
Friday - Rest day. Did fit my new mtb brakes though. So should hopefully get out on the it sometime next week. Especially with the clocks changing. They deprive me of an hour of sleep somewhere, but give me an hour in the evening where I should be able to see well enough to ride.
Saturday - I planned to tie two of my run routes together in a figure of 8 to make a 10 mile route. Didn't realise how much they overlapped and it turned out to be only 8.7 miles. There are a couple of small sections I can add to it next time to get it over 10. The bright side of being short means it leaves me looking for just over a mile on the Sunday so I am going to do a short run off the end of my long ride.
Sunday - I was going to head out with a group ride from Kintore but the thermometer still said -3 degrees when I had to leave to meet them so I decided to skip that and wait till later in the day. I went out instead on my own for a 21 mile ride once the needle hit zero.
Nice and easy recovery ride just to finish off my miles for the week. New chain took a while to bed in, but seemed ok after about 10 minutes and has now settled to the point that I can't find the joint pin. Most of the route was through Aberdeen so was almost a technical bike-handling session avoiding the potholes and the discourteous drivers. Definitely some work to do here. I am much more cautious than I was pre-crash and it is costing me a lot of time in and out of corners.
Completely forgot I was meant to run off the end of it though.
So targets for last week (Week 13) were:
Actuals were:
Monday - Swim with TPT, 2,075m in 55mins. And a core session.
Tuesday - Dyce loop. 5k in 24mins. And another core session.
Wednesday - Gym Brick; Exercise bike 19.1 miles in an hour, treadmill 2 miles in 18mins. Swim 1,000m in 22mins. And yet another core session.
Thursday - Rest Day
Friday - Rest Day
Saturday - Dyce Figure 8 run. 8.7 miles, 1 hour 18.
Sunday - Random 21 ride. 21miles 1hr 28.
Result -
Monday was a decent start to the week. Sunday night was the first proper night's sleep I have had in a couple of weeks. At swimming lane 3 was pretty crowded so I dropped back into lane 2. But about a quarter of the way through the session I was lapping everyone, and lane 3 had settled in to a pack, so I moved up mid-session.
Tuesday it was snowing, and cold. I wrapped myself up in a couple of extra layers and went out to do my loop around Dyce, but all the way round I was having trouble breathing in the cold air. I was a minute slower than last week, which I can mostly attribute to the weather. I jumped from 4th place to 2nd on the Strava segment I was hoping to top this week. Missing the tops spot by only 9 seconds. However, this has actually meant that I am more miffed about not checking my satellites last week. I was a minute quicker last week, which should be about 25 seconds over the segment and would have put me comfortably top. I am not planning this loop again on my own any time soon so it will be a while before I get another shot at it.
Decided I might try some of this "social life" people have been telling me about. Which is going to hit Thursday and Friday training. So I decided to pull Thursday's swim in to Wednesday. Because I had to survive the session and get home in time for Tesco this meant I had to cut my brick down. I decided to keep the hour on the bike but step the pace up slightly and then do the same run as last week. I then got away from work late and had to trim another 10 minutes off the run. Did manage a good swim though. And felt fine after the triple session.
I had half a thought about doing Moray Roadrunners 10k on Sunday but these changes mean I am way short on run miles and need to find 10 at the weekend. Trying to put that in with a 10k race would leave me then needing a 4 mile warm down. Or trying to do a brick on the Saturday. Neither option would result in me doing a decent race so going to skip it and stick with doing a proper long run instead.
Thursday - Rest day. Getting much better at sticking to these.
Friday - Rest day. Did fit my new mtb brakes though. So should hopefully get out on the it sometime next week. Especially with the clocks changing. They deprive me of an hour of sleep somewhere, but give me an hour in the evening where I should be able to see well enough to ride.
Saturday - I planned to tie two of my run routes together in a figure of 8 to make a 10 mile route. Didn't realise how much they overlapped and it turned out to be only 8.7 miles. There are a couple of small sections I can add to it next time to get it over 10. The bright side of being short means it leaves me looking for just over a mile on the Sunday so I am going to do a short run off the end of my long ride.
Sunday - I was going to head out with a group ride from Kintore but the thermometer still said -3 degrees when I had to leave to meet them so I decided to skip that and wait till later in the day. I went out instead on my own for a 21 mile ride once the needle hit zero.
Nice and easy recovery ride just to finish off my miles for the week. New chain took a while to bed in, but seemed ok after about 10 minutes and has now settled to the point that I can't find the joint pin. Most of the route was through Aberdeen so was almost a technical bike-handling session avoiding the potholes and the discourteous drivers. Definitely some work to do here. I am much more cautious than I was pre-crash and it is costing me a lot of time in and out of corners.
Completely forgot I was meant to run off the end of it though.
So targets for last week (Week 13) were:
Swim >1.5 miles Bike >40 miles. Run >15 miles. A core or stretching session.
Actuals were:
Monday - Swim with TPT, 2,075m in 55mins. And a core session.
Tuesday - Dyce loop. 5k in 24mins. And another core session.
Wednesday - Gym Brick; Exercise bike 19.1 miles in an hour, treadmill 2 miles in 18mins. Swim 1,000m in 22mins. And yet another core session.
Thursday - Rest Day
Friday - Rest Day
Saturday - Dyce Figure 8 run. 8.7 miles, 1 hour 18.
Sunday - Random 21 ride. 21miles 1hr 28.
Result -
Swim 1.9 miles ( 3,075 m). Bike 40.1miles. Run 13.8 miles. 3 core and 1 stretching / rollering session.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Training Plan - Week 14 - April 1 to 7
Monday - Swim with TPT.
Tuesday - Run at Dyce, 3 mile loop. A stretching session.
Wednesday - Swim 30mins steady or drills, (with some turns if the pool is quiet).
Thursday - Gym brick 1 hour bike, 45 min run.
Friday - Easy bike or run. MTB?!
Saturday - Rest day. Maybe easy core and stretching session.
Sunday - Knockburn Duathlon Run 4km, Bike 17km, Run 4k; or Clachnaben Hill Race Run 13.6km. Would have liked to do both but timings make it impossible. Final call on which race will be made on the day based on the weather conditions for biking.
Target totals - Swim >1.5 miles Bike >28 miles. Run >13 miles. A core or stretching session.
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