Thursday, March 29, 2018

Post 146 - Scottish duathlon championships 2018

Sunday 25th March 2018 was Scottish duathlon championship day, on a course in Stirling. A 10k run, a 42k bike and a 5k run (“standard” distance). There was also a shorter half-distance “sprint” duathlon happening at the same time.

I’d done one previous duathlon, way back in 2004, funnily enough at Holyrood Park in Edinburgh. I must have been 19. I can’t remember much other than falling off my bike because my chain dropped and as a rookie I wasn’t able to clip out of the toe-clips quick enough, and then lying in a heap on the road  with my bike on top of me, wondering why the marshal right beside me wasn’t helping (I had lots to learn, marshals aren’t allowed to physically help competitors). I’ve searched but can’t find any results from this race online, which is a shame.

I’d looked at the results of the Stirling/Scottish championship race from 2017, and thought that the running times were achievable: 35-36 minutes for the 10k run, 17-18 minutes for the 5k run. The bike was a bit of an unknown – 1:04 was a leading bike time last year. The only thing I had to compare was the Bristol triathlon (40km bike) which I did in an hour flat, when really fit on the bike. Probably the Stirling course would be a bit trickier, but I thought that if I was fit on the bike, I wouldn’t be too far away from the leaders. The trouble was, I knew I wasn’t really bike fit… nor even “bike-savvy”, as per the below:

I had only done 3-4 weeks of bike training in the build-up, I hadn’t done any “brick” training sessions (i.e. double sessions where you run then bike immediately, or bike then run immediately), I’d never ridden my new bike on the road, I’d never ridden a disc wheel, I was admittedly a bit nervous of the bike after my bad crash last year, and I was on brand-new tyres which had had no wearing in whatsoever, so they had a little bit of a slick sheen to them (not good for corners). So, I was doing everything that the textbooks and conventional wisdom said you shouldn’t do…

But, on the plus side, I had a good aggressive aero position which I was keen to test out, and I had a disc wheel which should be fast, and I knew I had reasonable fitness, I just wasn’t sure how it would translate to actually riding a bike. And – mercifully – the weather was decent. No rain, but a cold start at 4:30am to drive to Stirling in an entire 1 degree of heat.

I got there and got registered and racked in good time, with no stress. The race started. The 10K run was 4 laps around Stirling university, the bike was a 2-lap course out under some snow-capped hills (but on a largely flat course), and the 5K was 2 more laps around Stirling university. The run was very hilly and twisty, so maybe a 35-minute 10K would be beyond me after all…


Stirling university grounds



After the race settled down after a few minutes, it was fairly clear who would win, and it wasn’t me – last year’s winner just ran off and was never seen again. Behind him, 5 or 6 guys were jockeying. It then because 3, then it became me outright in second, pulling away and running within myself but strongly.

Then, a bit of a disaster. The lap looped past transition. To go into transition you took the left hand lane, to carry on with the next lap you took the right hand lane. I was running alone. I stupidly hadn’t done my homework on the course layout. The shorter “sprint” distance race leaders were going into transition. There was a marshal there, but I have to take responsibility. Before I knew it, I was standing in transition, utterly furious with myself.

I legged it back onto the course but had lost 2 places. Don’t get too angry, I told myself, don’t sprint to catch them, don’t waste energy, just work your way back into it. I’d say within 400m, on the steep uphill, I had caught and re-passed them and I kept pulling away. I’d made up a minute on them by the time the run ended. I reckon I lost 15 seconds, but I can’t quantify how much energy I lost catching them. But I told myself to forget it (or try to), it can’t be changed now…

I finished the course in just over 36 minutes, which would have been sub-36 without the wrong turn, and I clocked it as 0.2 miles (or just under a minute) long, so we can say I would have ran the 10K in 35 flat (and it was very hilly, with about 8 tight turns per lap). So I wonder how fast I will be in a standalone 10K – I will find out in 3 weeks in the Grangemouth 10K… Anyway, time to see how the bike goes…!



I was hoping that it would be immensely fast, and that I’d be saying “wow, this new aero position and disc wheel are amazingly quick!” The truth is, I couldn’t say that. The new bike didn’t feel that much faster, and I didn’t really feel the disc wheel – fortunately it was a calm day to break me in gently: disc wheels are unstable in crosswinds. But then, how much speed can you gain? Gaining 1mph would be a big gain, but would you really notice a 1mph difference when you’re going at 25mph? Probably not.

I was pushing the bike hard, at over 280 watts often hitting 300+, tucked low and aero. But my heart rate was good. For the whole distance, I averaged 280 watts at 157bpm. For comparison, when I won the Bristol triathlon, I averaged 279 watts at 170bpm (although it was a much warmer day in Bristol). I averaged 25mph in Bristol on good closed roads, but not quite 24mph in Stirling, on open roads which were a bit rougher and more undulating and twisty.


So, I was surprised I got so much power out in Stirling for such a “low” heart rate, which was indicative I could maybe have pushed the bike harder. But going by feel, I felt I was pushing the bike hard enough and my legs were starting to cook on the second lap, my calves were starting to cramp, and I was fighting to maintain my averages. So I think I got pretty close to maximising what I had on the bike on the day.

No-one had passed me on the first lap of the bike, which was a good sign as had thought possibly I could end up getting swallowed up by a number of bikes. At the start of the second lap, two came past me. They got a big gap when they got through a roundabout ahead of me and I got cut off by a digger coming from my right at the roundabout. I had to give way – that’s how it goes, the luck you get or don’t get on open roads… I reckon I lost another 15 seconds.

I was working hard to maintain my pace and the lack of bike legs was starting to tell. I was jittery in the corners. My calves were getting sore. But I just maintained the aero position and kept pushing, using the uphill undulations to get out of the saddle and relieve tension. One car slowed to a crawl right in front of me and I had to ease off. I looked in his back window. I saw a finger raised. Then he floored it and zoomed off. Idiot. Eventually I came in off the bike in fourth place after an hour and 6 minutes. Would my legs be goosed for the run? It’s no use being a decent runner if your legs are goosed…

I asked the marshals what the gap was to the two ahead (one of whom was a pro triathlete/Ironman) and info was sketchy but it seemed to be in the region of a minute. A minute is a long time in a 5k… a tough ask to make up. All I could hope was that I wouldn’t lose a (podium) position by the 30-odd seconds I had lost in the race with the wrong turn in the run and the digger on the bike.

The hill was tougher this time. I just ran as hard as I could. After a lap, I couldn’t see the two ahead. Coming through transition, the announcer was saying “Second place is clear, and third place will probably hang on, it’s a big gap…” As I ran onto the start of my second lap, I passed Debbie Greig (who I worked with in the USA 10 years ago, time flies). She was just starting her 5K run and leading the ladies’ race.

Third place must have been finding it tough at this point and I caught first sight of him at the top of the hill on the second lap, maybe 30 second ahead. But there was less than a mile left… I was still feeling strong. I kept pushing it hard. He was getting closer. I realised I’d pass him. I wanted to pass him hard, before the single-file twisty section that then led down the hill and through another couple of twists onto the running track and to the finish.

I went through, and didn’t look back. I got down the hill (the hill was so steep that you didn’t gain any time going down, and you had to really slow down at the bottom to get through the gap onto the running track). My watch beeped, I’d done my last mile in 5:21, the fastest mile I’d ran all day. It was a flat couple of hundred metres to the finish and that was it, third place, with a sub-18 final 5k run. Second (the pro) was exactly a minute ahead. I’m sure the winner must be pro too. Not bad company and not a bad day out off so little bike training, getting a National Championship bronze medal.

Results are here:

https://www.whatsmytime.co.uk/index.php/race-results/2017-12-31-17-34-55/2017-12-31-17-38-22/stirling-duathlon-2018


I felt pretty good, considering. I cooled down, had a drink and some food, had a chat to a few people, had a chat to Debbie (who won the ladies’ race), and waited for the prize giving. I am hopeful that the performance will qualify me for the world duathlon championships (it was a GB qualifying race). It’s good to show such decent form so early in the season. I treated myself to some salty curly fries and headed home. My legs felt good. It was a different story the next day as my IT bands and calves were very sore, and they got worse and worse as the day went on. Time for a few easier days I think, and next up will be the Grangemouth 10K on 8th April, then a sprint triathlon a week after that.


What did I learn from it? A few things. First, I like duathlons. You start with a run, so you can wear what you like. In a triathlon, you start in a swim, so obviously are restricted in what you can wear. Then, to be warm, after the swim you have to waste time in transition putting on clothes (not easy when you are wet and breathing hard). And even then, you’re wet on the bike going at 25-30mph, and in my experience, I usually end up cold. I am as lean as they come (6 foot 1 and 64-65kg) so I really feel the cold, especially in the triathlons, but the duathlon was good in that respect.

Also, I learned that my aero front bottle is rubbish for drinking from while on the go, so I will use a standard bottle from now on. I wedged my gels between the aerobars and the front bottle holder thinking they were secure – they weren’t, as I lost one. So I won’t be doing that again. I need to work on learning how the bike handles, and becoming better at handling it. But, my level was decent after so little training, so I am hopeful for the summer ahead – I don’t need to train huge miles, I just need to be fresh and trust that less is more, which I am starting to realise more and more nowadays (that’s not to say I haven’t trained hard and won’t train hard – of course I will, but I will rest hard too and make sure every mile is purposeful, whether on the bike, running, or in the pool).

I need to learn why, in the shorter distances (triathlon and duathlon), I can be as good a runner as anyone (outrunning a pro triathlete/Ironman in both runs in the duathlon) and yet in the longer stuff (Ironmans), my running is relatively rubbish. The same pro I outran in the duathlon would run sub-3 in an Ironman marathon. I'm ages off that. If I could run to a similar level, I'd have been to Kona several times. Why is this? I don't think I'm as good at long distances, I don't think my biomechanics suit longer distances, I am very lean and so have less to burn and get cold, maybe I have a mental block, maybe I don't train correctly for Ironman marathons, maybe I over-bike leading to lack of reserves for the run, maybe my nutrition isn't correct, I don't know. I need to think about this though and try to figure it out. Thoughts/answers on a postcard...

I said that after the Ulster cross-country on 24th February that I would then switch to triathlon (/duathlon) training. This didn’t quite go to plan though, as I was picked to run for Scotland East at the UK inter-county cross-country in Loughborough on 10th March. I had two and a half weeks off work between the end of February and 19th March and I pretty much blitzed it and trained full-time for the entire two weeks and a half weeks – one week in south-west Cork and the rest of the time in Edinburgh (in the worst of the bad weather and snow), with a weekend in Loughborough in between.

I did a bike (turbo trainer) and a run each day (morning and afternoon) along with weights, core work and stretching. Literally every other minute was spent resting, to allow me to deal with the volume – I couldn’t have done this while at work. Again this is totally against what any conventional wisdom or textbooks would tell you to do – ramping up so quickly – but I did what I had to do, kept the first week moderate, and managed myself as well as I could to get through it. Not quite paradisiacal holidays, but it seemed to work for me…

Training done for the duathlon was as follows (worth mentioning that I wrote down all my training for years and years and years, probably well over 10 years of training records, but when I left London I stopped recording things, I just trained. I'm back recording it all now again...)

Sat 24 Feb: Ulster cross country, 12k, 44:03
Sun 25: 1 hour easy bike

Mon 26: Rest
Tue 27: 1:15 turbo (12 x mins hard/2 mins easy (260-300W)
Wed 28: 40 minute fartlek run
Thu 1 Mar: 80 min slow run, 1:10 turbo (60mins 220-230W, 160bpm)
Fri 2: 2 hour turbo (175w, 128bpm), 90 min run
Sat 3: Swim 2.3km (sprint every 10th length)
Sun 4: 90 min turbo (20 x 1min hard/2 easy, 310-350w)

Totals: Swim 2.3k, Bike 120 miles, Run 24 miles

Mon 5: 2:10 turbo (170w, 119bpm), 14 hill reps (78, 77, 74, 75, 73, 75, 74, 72, 74, 74, 74, 75, 75, 72)
Tue 6: 30 min run, 1:05 turbo (2 x 20mins, 5 min recovery, 270W/145bpm, 285W/157bpm)
Wed 7: 2:10 turbo (169W/117bpm), 40 min fartlek run
Thu 8: 30 min run, 1:05 turbo (4 x 10mins hard/5mins easy – 200-250W)
Fri 9: Swim 2k
Sat 10: UK inter-counties cross country, Loughborough, 48:58
Sun 11: Rest

Totals: Swim 2k, Bike 120 miles, Run 32 miles

Mon 12: 30 min run, 1:20 turbo (20 x 2mins hard/1min easy)
Tue 13: 2:10 turbo, 14 hill reps (65, 63, 62, 61, 61, 60, 59, 59, 60, 60 ,59, 60, 58, 60)
Wed 14: 30 min run, 1:20 turbo (1 hour hard)
Thu 15: 1 hour turbo, 40 min fartlek run
Fri 16: 40km bike (Healy pass)
Sat 17: Bere Island ParkRun, 16:12 5K (hilly and windy)
Sun 18: 1:20 turbo (1 hour hard)

Totals: Swim 0km, Bike 160 miles, Run 27 miles

Mon 19: Swim 2.4k (band/pull buoy drills)
Tue 20: 1 hour turbo (20 x 1min hard/1min easy – 350-380W)
Wed 21: 40 min fartlek run
Thu 22: Rest
Fri 23: 40 min turbo (10 x 1min hard/1min easy)
Sat 24: 20 min run
Sun 25: Scottish duathlon (10k run, 42k bike, 5k run) – 35 mins, 1:06, 17 mins

Totals: Swim 2.4k, Bike 60 miles, Run 20 miles