Post 104 - NI

I went back to Northern Ireland last weekend, for a long weekend. Packing takes time and effort and careful planning when you’ve got three sports to cater for, when everything has to fit into a hand-luggage bag. Fortunately I’ve got a bike, helmet, multi-tool, mini-pump and spare tubes at home but I brought the following: swimming shorts, goggles, hat, earplugs, flip flops, rubber band, cycling shorts, cycling tights, a couple of cycling tops, a waterproof, gloves, a hat, eyewear, 3 bike frame bags, bike computer, bike computer mount, water bottles, bike shoes, waterproof shoe covers, bike socks, running shoes, running socks, running shorts, running tights, a couple of running tops, club vest and tracksuit top, tracksuit bottoms, cross-country spikes. Plus whatever else I might need – I suppose I could walk around the house in bike shoes, swimming shorts and a lycra top, but it wouldn’t be very comfortable…

I planned to do a cross-country race on the Saturday – the McConnell shield, held in Ballyclare. I ran it last year. I’ve never planned this to be a race where I’d be at a good level of fitness – I haven’t been doing much hard training since September, but I need to start somewhere on the road back to fitness, and this cross-country race would at least give me a decent run-out with the club. I had planned to do a short bike ride on the Friday, race on Saturday, another longer bike ride on the Sunday and a swim on the Monday.

Friday’s bike ride probably didn’t do me any good for the run on Saturday. Even though I only took it easy, it was still 2 hours of effort in the legs, and sometimes I just can’t help myself and I go hard. I chased a learner driver along the coast road for a few miles at 30mph. I hammered a few hills. I also took some photos of nice scenery. The day got better as the day wore on, the sky got bluer and the sea got bluer and the rivers got bluer too.

Really, I should have sat at home with my feet up to prepare for the race the following day, but I knew my level at the race was going to be bad, so why not go out and enjoy a bike ride the day before…

I know that this winter has been a lot worse than last winter for training. I’ve put on more weight. Last winter, I never had to wear my winter trousers (i.e. trousers with a bigger waist). This winter, it wasn’t long after the triathlon season that I had to dig them out of the wardrobe. I haven’t done as much training this winter compared with last winter. I know I am not fit. But saying that, I haven’t done nothing, so I should be able to get round a cross-country race.

It was good to catch up with people from the club at the race. The route was 5 laps of a park, totalling 5 miles. It was quite a warm day, underfoot conditions weren’t bad. I had a shocker of a run. Nothing there whatsoever. My first lap was 5:40 and after that I went backwards. Guys streaming past. Nothing in the legs. No strength. Not a good feeling. Plodding, basically. But I’ve been on a break from tough training, so I didn’t really expect any better. Runners who race regularly usually know their level and who they should be running alongside, who they should be targeting in a race. Last year at this race, I was 70 seconds behind a clubmate. This year I was 2 minutes 30 seconds away behind him. We finished a few seconds apart at the Northern Ireland/Ulster cross-country championships in February this year. Hmmm. Work to do. In the end, the club won the McConnell shield, with the top 4 finishers in each club contributing to the points total - the club with the lowest total wins they day. Needless to say, I wasn't in the top 4 finishers for the club. Hmmmm. Work to do.

Not for the first time I wondered what level I might be running at if I had given all my time and effort in the last 3 years to running rather than to Ironman. I still have aspirations in running, but I’m not getting any younger and I hope that when I call time on my Ironman career (sooner rather than later) I will still have the speed and motivation to meet and exceed my running aspirations.

For now, I hope to get to a half-decent level of fitness for a couple of Christmas races, and then to crack on and get to a good level of fitness for the Northern Ireland/Ulster cross country championships in February next year.

The forecast for the rest of the weekend was terrible. Sunday saw a very wet and windy bike ride and a major clean-up operation of the bike, bike shoes and cross-country spikes. Monday saw a short swim. I ate anything and everything. Massive dinners, burgers, desserts, a couple of pints. Same as the past 2 months really. It’s not like my diet has been especially bad, but it has definitely slipped compared to how good it was for the first 9 months of the year. There’s a saying: crap in, crap out. It’s true: low training and a mediocre diet = inability to run to potential. Need to sort this out…

Post 103 - Group riding

I’m not a regular group rider. I do most of my bike training on the turbo trainer, and very occasionally go out around Kent or Northern Ireland by myself or with one other. Drafting or slipstreaming is banned in triathlon races so I don’t have a lot of experience with riding in a tightly-packed bunch. Saying this, I watch a lot of cycling, and would like to think I’m a fairly considerate person, so I thought group riding would come easily. Recently I did my first serious group ride, in a group of 4, all of whom are good, strong cyclists, and with the exception of myself, all of whom ride in groups regularly.

Group riding in a tightly-packed peloton.
No view of the road ahead, travelling at 30mph, need trust in people ahead.
One wrong move, one twitch, one overlapped wheel and everyone goes down...

The first thing I learned is that it’s very easy to look like, or come across as, a complete plonker. It’s somewhat hair-raising to be zooming along a country road at 26mph with 3 others in very close proximity, with only a view of someone’s arse right over your front wheel, the arse blocking the view of the road ahead, while literally rubbing elbows with someone beside you at the same time. All while trying to avoid stones, grit, twigs, branches, and general crap on the road, while trying to maintain a constant speed and a distance of, well, less than 6 inches to the wheel in front. Trying to maintain your exact line on the road, even if you have a guy right beside you. As in, his shoulder is one inch from your shoulder. And trying not to p!ss the group off. One guy in the group was an ex-elite continental European racer. "Le boss". And me, a clueless triathlete...

Different hand signals need to be learned and understood to warn of aforementioned general road crap, road furniture, cars, obstructions, signs to indicate to come through and take the lead, to drop back, to slow down, to speed up. Cycling sign language. It’s a language I don’t yet understand and can’t yet use. Don’t surge, ride at the pace of the group, take turns on the front, don’t deviate, don’t cross wheels, don’t attack. Warn of obstructions in the road, or potholes, or anything that could cause a crash. Don't crash. Don’t blast off up a hill as if you have something to prove. Fortunately I was in a sympathetic group who tried to keep me right.

When it goes wrong... a chain reaction domino effect.
No time to react, down everyone goes. Not nice.

What if I need to stop and pee? Is there a hand signal for this? My imagination ran riot. Do I wiggle my finger at the group? No, I’ll look like I’m telling them off. Do I wiggle my finger at the ground in view of everyone? No, I’ll look like I’m telling off the road. Do I point? No, they’ll think I’ve got problems. Do I say “excuse me, may I go to the toilet please?” No, this isn’t school. Do I just stop and catch up? No, I don’t know the roads and they’ll think I’m lost. Do I just go, on the go? No, I’ll spray someone and we’ll all be wet and manky. Do I just hold on for dear life? No, my bladder will burst. Do I stop drinking and hope for the best? No, then I’ll get dehydrated and run out of energy. Is there some coded shout I can give to the group? Why does no-one else need to stop and go?! What if I needed more than a pee?

In the end, I decided to sprint up a hill ahead of everyone, jump into the trees, do the business, and jump back on the bike. The group caught me up as I was looking a little bit pleased with myself and a little bit relieved, and the group probably thought “what a show off. Plonker!” No wonder roadies don’t like triathletes, as generally triathletes are terrible at riding in a tight group and haven’t got a clue about the intricacies and unwritten rules of close-quarter riding.

For a few miles on the way back, we got into a fairly effective pace line, all taking very short turns on the front and then dropping to the back before ending up on the front again. The turns on the front were so short. As the road narrowed and went down an incline, it was all getting a bit nervous so I was very relieved when one of the group go a flat tyre. And that was the end of the group’s pace line as we just cruised back.  It was good fun, in a kind of not-fun sort of way… I guess I’ll learn…

Says it all really...

Post 102 - Post-Ironman

All the bad things being with P: pints, pies, pizza, p!ssing about, putting on weight, and, erm, psleeping late, pstaying up late, not training, not blogging either. It has been great, but it has also been bad. I’ve enjoyed the break. For the first three weeks after Debacle Wales, I didn’t do a single heartbeat of exercise other than about 50 minutes of walking per day getting to and from work. And my diet slipped a bit too. Then it all got boring, and I started to feel terrible. I like to be healthy and fit, so I was always going to want to start eating well again and getting back into doing some sort of training.

I also had a bit of a think about what I am going to do next. It became pretty clear to me that I want/need to do another Ironman. I want/need to at least deliver a good performance, one that justifies the time and effort and sacrifice and expense that has gone into this. I may or may not qualify for Kona but I at least want to finish an Ironman and say “that was a damn good showing”.

I’d still like to qualify for Kona, and so I’ve been trying to work out a way that would maximise my chances. There are a number of different things at play here. One being that I have zero job security and could lose my job in January, or February, or March, or April, or any time in the new year. Or I could be relocated at short notice. Or, I could be OK through until racing season next summer. A few months ago, I thought I was going to be out of work in September. I chose to be staff rather than contract for the “job security” it is supposed to provide. So much for that. The project I have been working on for the past 3 years now looks like it is coming to an end at Christmas, and it looks like my company has no more work coming in.

I had been eyeing up a couple of other jobs earlier in the year when I thought the project would end in September. Then I stopped pursuing the other jobs, as I was told the project would be extended until March next year. Then I was told that the extension was only until December. I don’t know what will happen after December. Project extension, project ending, relocation, out of work, new job? Place your bets. None of this does my 2016 Ironman aspirations any good. I want to do another one quickly (i.e. early 2016 if possible), I don’t want to wait another year until 2017. If I’m still in London in 2017 I will be extremely unhappy with myself. I want to get Ironman done and get the hell out of London, hopefully as a retired competitive Ironman, sometime in 2016.

I’ve said I want to give it another crack, yes, but I also have other ambitions I’d like to fulfil, ambitions that I can’t really consider while training for Ironman. I’d like to do a sub-9 3K, a sub-15 5K, a sub-32 10K, a sub-70 half marathon and a sub-2:36 marathon (why sub-2:36? That would mean an average speed quicker than 6 minutes per mile). I’d also like to buy a house and other grown up stuff, but to do this, I need to be somewhere where I can see myself living for years on end. London certainly doesn’t fit this criteria. There are other things too. But as it stands, at the minute, unless I do a good Ironman, I will find it very difficult to let it go.

Kona qualification isn’t getting any easier. The Ironman corporation is adding lots of new Ironman races around the world. But there are still roughly the same number of total Kona slots available per year: something like 2200. 10 (or even 5) years ago, there were far fewer Ironman races being held, so each race had more slots to distribute. Now, there are more Ironman races but no more Kona slots, so each race has fewer slots to allocate. Most races next year will have 40 slots. In previous years they would have had 50 slots. That means I need to be in the top 3 in my age group, rather than top 5 or 6. This is a big difference. I would still like to think that top 3 is still possible, but imagine how you’d feel if you came fourth, and in previous years sixth would have been good enough…

Another UK-based Ironman was announced in the last week or so: Ironman Weymouth. It seems they have taken over or bought out Challenge Weymouth – “Challenge” is Ironman’s “rival” race brand – Challenge races are still Iron distance, but you can’t qualify for Kona at a Challenge event. Ironman Weymouth will have just 30 qualifying slots. So few that instead of having age groups that are 5 years apart, they have had to combine all the over-50s (or over 55s, I can’t remember) into a single age group. It also has a fairly paltry US$15,000 prize fund to cover all the professionals who race. It’s not a lucrative sport…

However, Ironman also has regional/continental championships. In 2015, I think Ironman Texas was the North American championship. Ironman Melbourne was the Asia-Pacific championship. Ironman Frankfurt was the European championship. Ironman South Africa (in Port Elizabeth), as the only Ironman on the African continent, was the African championships. Each of these regional championship events gets more qualifying slots than a standard Ironman. In 2016, these races will have 75 slots, rather than 40. So I have been seriously weighing up going to South Africa for the race at the start of April. The only reasonable alternative is Ironman UK, and if something went wrong then Wales would always be in the background.

That’s as far as I’ve got with “next year”. Answers on a postcard…

In terms of training, I did nothing for 3 weeks after Ironman Wales. I put on about 5kg pretty quickly. Then I started doing little bits. Short swims once a week. One short weeknight bike ride (turbo) per week. One slightly longer weekend bike/turbo ride. I’ve even been out cycling in Kent a couple of times. The odd run here and there. Which turned into a weekly hill repeat session. I might not yet be sure about exactly how I am going to train for an Ironman next year, but I want to do a couple of running races over Christmas, and I want to do the Northern Ireland and Ulster cross-country in February next year. To do this, I need to do some fast running.

A few things I’ve learned when taking a break and then “training” after my Ironman season finished:

1. My legs feel amazing as they are not fatigued. I can bound up the escalator at work now, but when I was in full training earlier in the year I barely had the energy to even consider walking up it, I just stood and let it take me up. When I’m walking about now, I don’t trudge, I literally bounce. I think I overtrained this year. 7-8 months is a long time to overtrain. Chronic fatigue is not good. This would be a big lesson for next year (I’ll blog about lessons learned soon).

2. A short recovery is worth a lot. In a 30-minute turbo, with intensity ramping up every minute until I can no longer hack it (usually after about 20 minutes having reached something like 380 watts), if I then take a minute to recover, I can then do another minute quite easily at something like 430 watts.

I have kept good leg strength although I have lost fitness. I’ve kept up the squatting and single leg jumping. My speed and power is good, but my endurance is way down. That’s OK though, it’s the off-season.

3. Once you get into the habit of eating rubbish, it’s very difficult to break the habit. I went to the shop one night after work to buy some dinner. I saw a pack of two chocolate mousse yogurts on sale at half price for 65p. I bought them and had them both eaten before I even got home. Then I had my dinner. I did this for an entire week. Then I had a sharp word with myself. I still want the chocolate mousses.

Pub dinners, had far too many of these recently, 

they even put them in a box so you can take them away 

and catch the last train home after having pints

4. Hangovers get worse with age. Much worse. A big dirty bacon roll helps a little.

5. Eating pie and mash for lunch makes for a very drowsy afternoon at work.

6. The lead singer of the Hothouse Flowers is a hell of a showman.

7. Rugby is a savage sport, I wouldn’t stand a chance on a rugby field.

8. Kona is awesome. I sat/lay/slobbed out watching the Ironman world championships on 10th October from 5pm until 2:30am, and then again from 9am until 11:30pm. Well done Jan Frodeno and Daniela Ryf on winning, and well done to everyone else for qualifying and finishing.

Swim start, and lava fields on the Queen K highway

9. Kent shepherds must be bored if this sign is anything to go by:

The sign above was seen when out on a group ride in Kent. Riding in a group. I’ve never cycled with more than one other person. Riding in a group will soon have a blog post by itself. Riding in a group with experienced, good cyclists is a risky business, a minefield, fraught with social/cycling pitfalls, with lots of etiquette and unwritten rules to learn. Riding in a group is a good way to make yourself look like a complete plonker. More on this at a later date.

Tremendous learning and wisdom there: Kent shepherds, looking like a plonker, amazing legs, junk food and hangovers. The “I am an athlete first and everything else is secondary” mentality well and truly went out the window over the past few weeks. And even with that, my lifestyle and diet is likely far better than most. Some of the stuff I’ve seen: 5 empty cans of Pepsi on someone’s desk to show for a day’s work, repeated every day. 10 pints a night. Paying £15 to take a taxi twice a day for a trip of less than 2 miles to the station. Why? How?

Normally around this time of year I would head to Tenerife with my soon-to-be-Ironman friend Matt for a week of swimming, cycling and running. He’s now got a real job rather than doing a PhD, and so his time off is limited. So no Tenerife this November. But we have talked about going over Easter next year, which would tie in well with training for a summer Ironman.

I’ve got a long weekend back in Northern Ireland coming up, so hopefully I’ll do some scenic biking and running. I hope to do one or two of the London cross-country series races before Christmas, as well as go back to the Highbury Park Run. I’ll do a couple of races over Christmas and then hopefully be in a position to know what’s happening next year with regards to work, and to get cracking with Ironman training again.