Post 149 - The background work

I’ve been doing a lot of background work over the winter and have implemented this as routine now. I had gradually introduced core strength work, stretching and weights while doing Ironman triathlons a few years ago. However, I have really upped this background work over the winter and will continue it, as it seems to be working.

Part of it is the rehabilitation work I have had to do for my shoulder, which I dislocated in a bike crash in July 2017, and my hand, which I broke in the same crash. There are ongoing visits to the hospital to see physiotherapists and specialists, and to have scans and X-rays etc. But the main rehabilitation work has been done at home. It has been tedious.

I have thick rehabilitation rubber bands scattered everywhere at home. One is tied to a door handle and I use it to do resistance exercises for my shoulder. I had a 500ml bottle of water, which became a 1 litre bottle, which became a 1500ml bottle, which became a 2 litre bottle, and I use this as a weight when doing shoulder raises and exercises lying down. I’ve a tennis ball which I repeatedly throw against the wall and catch, to strengthen the shoulder. I stretch and hold various shapes on the floor and on the edge of the bed, and I do various weights. I use another rubber band to twist my wrist and do resistance work in four different directions.

All in an effort to ensure that my shoulder and hand both recover as much as possible. They may not ever get back to how they were before the crash, but I’ll do all I can to give them the best chance. I have another specialist appointment and 2 MRI scans coming up, so it will be interesting to see how much progress both have made.

I have also been doing a lot of other core work, stretching and weights, partially inspired by the need to keep my (ageing) body supple and loose, partly to try to ensure I minimise the chances that I get injured, and to make sure I am strong and well-balanced, giving myself the best opportunity to be successful. I have fallen into a routine of sorts where four times a week I spend 40-60 minutes on this work. One evening mid-week, and one day at the weekend I will do most of the non-weights-based work, and one other mid-week evening and the other weekend day I will do the weights-based stuff.

In particular there is a lot of work to strengthen and stretch my glutes, abs and back. I do a lot of stretches now that I couldn’t do 6 months ago. I can do a lot more squatting (single and double legged) that I used to be able to do. I think the single leg squats have also helped my ankles get stronger and my balance to improve. There must be 15-20 different individual exercises per session that I do. And cumulatively, they are hopefully all making a difference.

There’s no immediate silver bullet, I’ve never felt an alleluia moment where I’ve been able to say “yes, I’m definitely significantly and notably better than I was” – it’s more of a gradual, slow improvement over time, unnoticeable from day to day and week to week, but over months and months the level gradually increases. It’s the same with the actual swim, bike and run training. Consistency leads to small gains which over time add up.

So, that all said, the day after the Galashiels triathlon, I was really disappointed to tweak my back. I was cycling to work, and after a mile along the canal I have to carry my bike up a set of steps onto the road. As I was carrying it, I felt a little tweak in my back. It got worse and worse all day at work, and it ended up really very sore. I was really annoyed, and the not knowing how long it would take to get better was frustrating. I did what I could for it in terms of heating it, icing it, taking a few anti-inflammatories, and stretching it out.

There were lessons to learn – my body was knackered the day after the triathlon, I should have been more careful. It’s not that I shouldn’t have cycled to work that day, but I should have been very careful when carrying the bike – I should have kept the weight of it closer to my centre of gravity and taken smaller steps. Fortunately it cleared up in a few days and didn’t impact my training too much.

Training went reasonably well this week, some good bike intervals - 12 sets of 3 minutes hard and 2 minutes recovery - the hard stuff was all over 300 watts, which was good. I did a set of 4 x 20 second sprints followed immediately by (probably just under) a mile, with 2:45 recovery on a warm Thursday evening club session, I even had shorts and t-shirt on and no leggings or jacket. My "mile" reps were 5:09, 4:58 (a bit of a surprise), 5:00 and 5:02. I went over to Glasgow on Friday night to watch a track 10,000m race. I hammered out an 80 minute hilly run and a 3-hour turbo/20 minute run brick session at the weekend and was knackered after a full and tough week of training. Bring on the Monday rest day...

Nice place to run

Capturing a sub-34 10k - wish I had a better camera

Capturing a sub-33 10k - wish I had a better camera

I’ll stick at it and continue to train hard for another week, and then take an easier week to recover from what will have been two tough weeks of training, let the body absorb it, rest a bit, recover a bit, and taper down for the Hawick sprint triathlon. I’m really up for this race, I can improve on my showing at the last race in Galashiels, the question is how much – I’m keen to find out…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 16 Apr: RestTue 17 Apr: 1:30 turbo
Wed 18 Apr: 1:20 turbo (12 x 3 mins hard/2 easy, 300-320W)
Thu 19 Apr: 4 x (20 second sprint, 1 mile hard, 2:45 recovery) - 5:09, 4:58, 5:00, 5:02
Fri 20 Apr: Swim 2km (single arm drills)
Sat 21 Apr: 80 minute hilly run
Sun 22 Apr: 3:05 turbo, 20 minute run

Totals: Swim 2km, Bike 120 miles, Run 23 miles

Post 148 - Galashiels sprint triathlon

Following the Scottish East District 10K, my legs were pretty sore. There was less than a week until the Galashiels sprint triathlon. I’ve entered quite a few shorter-course triathlons this season, and I was starting to question the wisdom of this – continual cycles of racing (and therefore trashing your legs) and then trying to recover are not really beneficial, and looking at my planned racing calendar, there aren’t many 3-4 week blocks available for good consistent training:

Start of April: Scottish East District 10K
Mid-April: Galashiels sprint triathlon
Start of May: Hawick Sprint triathlon
Mid-May: Selkirk Olympic triathlon
End of May: Edinburgh marathon festival (either the half marathon or the relay)
Mid-June: Eyemouth Sprint triathlon
Start of July: Edinburgh half Ironman

Then through July and August, the schedule is just as busy, leading into hopefully competing in the half Ironman world championships at the start of September, in South Africa.

So with the 10K in my legs, I tried to recover as best I could. I took Monday off completely, I “only” swam on Tuesday, not really using my legs, but doing some sprints in the pool for the first time in absolutely ages. I felt decent in the water.

On Thursday I was working down near Galashiels so took the opportunity to drive the bike course. It was a dirty, wet day and I didn’t like what I saw – a terrible uneven potholed filthy road surface, tight and narrow roads, very twisty and turny and undulating. Perhaps not a course for a time trial bike. Time trial bikes like flat, open roads, they like getting up to high speed and maintaining high speed. Road bikes are lighter, more nimble, and easier to handle on climbs, descents and turns. But they’re not as good at maintaining high speeds. So I made the decision to ride the road bike at the Galashiels triathlon, and so then I had to take it for a service as it hadn’t been ridden in anger since the Edinburgh half ironman last year…

I was recovered enough by Wednesday to do some short, sharp intervals on the turbo, getting up to almost 400W during the 15 sets of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. I did a fartlek run on Thursday on my way to pick up the bike from its service. Friday and Saturday were easier training days. It had been a busy week with work, with two trips to the bike shop for the servicing, and with training. I neglected my core strength and stretching work somewhat this week simply due to lack of time.

Thankfully the forecast for race day was good, so the roads would be dry. I’m still probably lacking in confidence on the bike (when I say “on the bike”, I don’t mean cruising to work on my commute, I mean handling high-speed racing).

But at 6am when I set off, the car was telling me it was 1 degree… I got there in good time and was one of the first to register, and as the sun came up, it got warmer. The race start time was 9am. I should have known better though, because with the pool swim, there were heats. The slowest heat was first. I was in the fastest, fifth and final heat. We’d be starting around 11am. I didn’t have enough food with me to get me through to 11am, so I started the race absolutely famished. Error number one.

Swim hats on poolside ready to be handed out

There were some seriously nice time trial bikes on show. I wondered if I’d made the wrong decision with the road bike, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I watched a guy (the winner as it turned out) next to me clip his shoes into his pedals and then use elastic bands to hold them level so he could jump on his bike and get going straight away. I debated asking him for elastic bands to do the same, but thought better of it. I haven’t practiced this at all.

I’d put my socks and shoes on in transition and then I wouldn’t have to spend time at the start of the bike trying to get my feet into the shoes and do up the straps, I’d be onto the bike and up to full speed straight away, no wobbling around with one hand on the bars and one hand doing up shoes, no looking down and not straight ahead, and plus I wouldn’t be barefoot in transition (try running barefoot in a car park, it’s not pleasant) and I could guarantee that only my feet would go into my bike shoes, and not any grit as well. I did leave gloves on my bike to put on in transition as I was worried about the cold. Triathlon tops are not known for their warmth…

Galashiels triathlon tool

Stirling duathlon tool - bit of a difference

While waiting to be called into the water, I thought about how my last pool triathlon was almost 7 years ago. 7 years! That’s crazy. I got into the water and we were allowed to do a couple of lengths to warm up. Here’s where it started to go wrong. Other competitors in my lane (5 to a lane) were saying they’d be tumble turning. I can’t tumble turn well enough, and in my last pool triathlon 7 years ago, tumble turning wasn’t allowed, I assumed it would be the same here. But no. So there was an immediate disadvantage. Oh well. I do know that my push off the wall is really strong. But another issue became evident. I pushed off to do my warm-up length and my triathlon shorts nearly came down…

I was absolutely raging. But I had no-one to blame but myself. My own fault, I’d never swam in a pool with them before. There was no drawstring to keep them up. I was doomed. Probably not many triathletes have been disqualified for exposure… Could I even start? Would I have to end up pulling out in the swim? There was nothing I could do other than wish I had a one-piece triathlon suit, and to try to tuck my top over my shorts and hope for the best. It was hopeless though, they kept coming down and I could barely push off in the swim, I was losing bags of time and kept having to stop to pull them up, losing more time. A nightmare swim. I reckon I lost at least a minute.

Anyway, I got through it and got to transition. Socks and gloves took ages to put onto wet feet and hands. Another 30 seconds lost. I wore an aero helmet and I always wear sunglasses/clear glasses as eye protection more than anything else, and to stop my eyes streaming when on the bike. It is really fiddly to put on the sunglasses as the aero helmet is tight. More time lost. I hadn't pre-set my Garmin bike computer either so had to switch it on, hope it would pick up satellite signal, and get it going, while trying to negotiate transition. All things to think about. As I was leaving transition it seemed to me like a lot of my direct competitors were already away, as their bikes were all gone.

I got on the bike and was in a bit of a mood, and I took it out on the bike. I flew past a good number of people on the first couple of miles, which ascended up out of town on a badly-surfaced but fairly wide road. I was absolutely ripping it. Certainly here at least, the road bike was the right bike to be on. It was alive, it was dancing, it was taking all the grief I was giving it and it was giving back great speed, flying over the bumps and responding to every pedal stroke. I thought I should tone it down a bit to conserve energy, but then I thought well, take the advantage while it’s there – these uphill sections suit me and the bike well as we are both very light. I knew it wouldn’t be quite as good on the flatter sections.

After my initial overtaking frenzy, things settled down a bit. I got into a bit of cat-and-mouse with a guy on a time trial bike with deep sectioned wheels. It was fairly predictable: on the upward inclines and corners and under acceleration I got ahead, to find that after a few minutes when he had got his machine up to speed, he would come powering past. I was trying to keep as aero a position as possible, but I didn’t even have aerobars on the bike. It was a fairly good and fair battle, there didn’t seem to be any drafting, but my prior knowledge of the course meant I didn’t want to be behind him on the final few miles on the very narrow minor road. So, knowing where the turn-off was, I hammered it to get ahead of him and never saw him again. Ironically this narrowest road had the best surface and coming back towards the town I saw another two ahead – we were all together by the time I reached transition.

Again I kept my shoes on in transition while the other two left them clipped to their bikes and ran through barefoot. We transitioned together and I could keep an eye on their progress. As I was still fighting with my shoe straps to get them off, they were already away. I pulled on my running shoes but I left my running watch on the ground and legged it as quick as I could after them, but it was another 10 seconds lost, and another minute or so into the run before I caught them again.

The run was tough. A short downhill out of transition, a steep uphill on the main road, a sharp turn, a long uphill drag on a residential road, a descent on a muddy, twisty, forest trail, back through transition, and then a second smaller lap, mostly on grass through a park. I passed the two guys and carried on, hoping I’d reel a few more in, but not really knowing how many more were ahead – with the staggered start in heats, there were people running ahead who had probably started in earlier heats, but it was difficult to tell. There was no point in trying to guess. Just run as hard as you can.

Through the park I passed another guy for position, and just kept running, I felt fairly strong when running even after such an intense bike. I crossed the line and found out I was second, almost 2 minutes behind the winner. But look at all the time I threw away, on silly things that should be fairly easy to rectify.

I found out that the winner was the 2017 World and European sprint-distance triathlon champion in the male 30-34 age group. Is that really (close to, at least) the level I am operating at? Off so little training? Was the road bike the right call? The winner’s bike was a time trial bike and it was an absolute weapon. The next race is in 3 weeks in Hawick, another sprint distance race, so with three further weeks of training and a decent pair of shorts with a drawstring, and a few other tweaks, I wonder how much closer I will be to him.

Interestingly, I was talking to a guy after the race who was a bit disappointed with how he'd performed. I asked what training he had done in the lead-up to the race. He'd done 300km on the bike (contrast this with my 100km), and the day before, he had done a hard tempo run (contrast with my easy half-hour turbo and easy 20 minute jog). I'm convinced that less is more and rest is so important.

Not a bad day, a fairly positive result, and lots to learn. I enjoyed the shorter distance. I’d say I’m better at this shorter stuff than the long-course stuff. And a really well-organised event. Hopefully now I will recover quickly from this and get a good 3-week block of training in before the next race in 3 weeks from now.

Results are here: https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1R9

Mon 9 April: Rest
Tue 10 April: Swim 2.4km (10 x 2 lengths hard)
Wed 11 April: 15min run, 1 hour turbo (15 x 1min hard/easy)
Thu 12 April: 45 min fartlek run
Fri 13 April: 1:30 turbo (158W/105bpm)
Sat 14 April: 30 min turbo, 20 min run
Sun 15 April: Galashiels sprint triathlon (Swim 11:51, T1 1:37, Bike 32:25, T2 0:50, Run 16:51)

Totals: Swim 3.2km, Bike 70 miles, Run 16 miles

Post 147 - Scottish East District 10K championships

Immediately after the Scottish duathlon 2 weeks ago where I placed third overall, my legs felt fine. I was quite happy that I’d put out reasonably good bike power and yet still had a reasonably low heart rate in the bike leg. I went to bed on the Sunday night feeling tired but fine. I woke up on the Monday and my legs were pretty sore – specifically my IT bands. Through the day at work, I usually get up and walk around about once an hour. And on Monday, every hour I got up, they got worse and worse.

I don’t think it was the running that did it, but the bike – 3 weeks of bike training in the lead-up to the duathlon probably wasn’t enough time to re-condition my legs – I had good fitness from running but not good bike leg conditioning. So for most of the week that followed, I was in recovery mode and didn’t/couldn’t train hard.

I was entered into a 10K race 2 weeks after the duathlon. I thought surely my legs would be back to normal by then. The Scottish 10 mile road race was one week after the duathlon. I’d had a good run there last year, but I hadn’t entered it this year, thinking it was too soon after the duathlon, and wouldn’t do my 10K chances any good either in the week that followed. I’d rather focus on the 10K since my 10K PB still isn’t where it could or should be. 

I’d love to run sub-32, I've wanted to do that since I was 18 and first joined Metro Aberdeen Running Club and after a few weeks, the coach there told me "you've definitely got sub-32 in you..." At this stage I would have done well to break 40 and so this was a hell of a statement and it is one of the things that has kept me going in running all these years. I thought that currently, I probably wasn’t too far away from sub-32.

Anyway, I went over to watch/support at the 10 mile race, and did my own tempo run just before it started. Conditions were perfect but I could barely hold 6 minute mile pace for 40 minutes and for me to run well in a 10-mile race, I’d need to run sub-5:30 miles for ten miles. So it was a good call not to race the 10 miler because my legs were still suffering from the duathlon.

A Scotland East team-mate named Darrell who I beat by a minute in the mud at the UK inter-county cross-country in Loughborough a few weeks previously (over 49 minutes) absolutely blitzed the 10-miler, almost breaking 52. I congratulated him afterwards, it was a heck of a run. He said, “But you’re fitter than me!” I said, “No way would I have run a low 52!” The rational part of me I thought I might have run under 54, but not under 53. But seeing Darrell's run got the more irrational side thinking that maybe I might be in better shape than I thought, and maybe I might have a decent chance of running sub-32 at the 10K a week later (I will not be content with my running career until I’ve done sub-32).

The 10K was meant to be a decent, flat, fast course at Grangemouth and it doubled as the Scotland East District 10K championships. It was a nice day, not much wind and there was even some warmth in the air – no gloves needed! I did a warm-up, talked to a few people beforehand, met a few guys – good athletes – I’d run with in Loughborough – one on my Scotland East team and one on the Scotland West team. Darrell wasn't running. But it seemed there might be a group looking to run mid-32. Really and truly the rational side didn’t think I would get under 32 this time: I thought 32:40 or maybe even 32:30, but the irrational/silly/ambitious side kept thinking about Darrell’s time in the 10 miler and the permutations around that.

I’d hoped to run the first mile in 5:15 (i.e. “slowly”) but clocked it at 5:05 (too fast). Those ten seconds of difference don’t sound like a lot but in reality, they are huge. The most influential 10 seconds of the whole race. There were two leaders clear and a pack of maybe 6 of us behind. I tucked in and for the next two miles watched my times drop from 5:05 to 5:12 to 5:22. Poor, poor pacing. Stupid. The first mile always feels so easy, but you have to run it easier than easy, and let people go, and have faith that the race will come back to you. For me, it seems this is easier said than done.

Parts of the course were flooded and there were some twisty sections through the park, so as a group running in very close proximity, we splattered and soaked ourselves going through these sections. It wasn't great having soaked feet. Oh well. The race goes on. I started to lose strength. Fighting to hang on and keep pace. Had I done my first two miles in 5:15, I’m sure I’d have felt strong at this point. Sub 32 was out the window. I fell a little bit back off the group but just kept ploughing on. I at least wanted to run a PB and a sub-33. But this was now hard, hard work.

I've seen enough photos of me running to know 

that this is me not looking good

We turned back towards the athletics stadium where the finish was, and there were a few welcome shouts from clubmates who were spectating. It makes such a difference. I had managed to regain contact with the group and my miles had metronomically stabilised at 5:22 pace. I knew we would soon double back away from the stadium again, and this twisty and tight section was through a park, so it was difficult to keep rhythm. With the slowing and accelerating around the corners, the strong runners were evident as they could deal with it better and it started to string out. I passed a guy at the back of the stadium and took fifth place. Then just before we got onto the track for the finishing stretch someone came blitzing past us like he was running a 100m sprint. I was down to sixth. The guy I had passed hadn’t given up on it and was right behind me. There were East District medals at stake here.

Into the stadium and onto the home straight there were three of us fighting it out. I had enough left to raise it enough to maintain my position and crossed the line in 32:52. A new PB and a sub-33 clocking but in all honesty a disappointingly-executed race. I had been hoping for a much faster time. Oh well. I can’t complain. I didn’t execute the race well, and I hadn’t trained specifically for this race (having been back on the bike and doing triathlon training for the past 5-6 weeks). If I want to run a sub-32 10K, I need to train to run a sub-32 10K. I can’t bluff it. I didn't deserve it. The problem now is that I have no idea when my next fully focused 10K will be. 2020?

Chatting to a few other people afterwards, it seemed that people were finishing a bit slower than they’d hoped. The course wasn’t quite as fast as I’d hoped. Any running sharpness I might have had in my legs earlier in the year had been dulled a little by the bike training. Oh well. At the prizegiving, I found out that although I was sixth overall finisher, I was the third Scotland East District finisher so picked up a bronze medal for that. Probably not on merit as I'm sure there were quite a few people that would have beaten me that were elsewhere on the day. But, that's racing. That's how it goes. 

I headed home. The afternoon was spent watching F1, Masters golf, and eating croissants. I even had a Guinness. I saw some Paris-Roubaix highlights on the internet and found out later that a 23-year old rider had died following a crash on the cobblestones. I've ridden the Flanders route on the cobblestones and they are brutal. Cycling is a tough, tough sport.

Next up is the Galashiels sprint triathlon in a week. Not a lot of recovery time, but I’ve decided I want to do 4 of the Scottish Borders Triathlon races to place in the overall series. I think there are maybe 7 races in total but for various reasons I can only make 4 of them, and you have to do 4 to place in the overall series. Three out of my four are sprint races and one little target I have is to try to win a sprint race, following my win at the Bristol Olympic distance triathlon in 2016. It would be good to win at both of the "shorter" distances. So to try and do this, I have to enter and compete in sprint distance races where maybe otherwise I'd decide that they are too short to fit in with the year's main goal of the Edinburgh half Ironman, and that one might be enough rather than three.

I confess I am very nervous about the bike leg in Galashiels – I have colleagues who live in Galashiels and who say the roads are in terrible condition after the harsh winter. So much so that I might not even use my triathlon bike and do it on the road bike instead. We will see…

Training done was as follows:

Mon 26 March: Rest
Tue 27 March: Swim 2.4km (paddles/band/pullbuoy drills)
Wed 28 March: 1 hour turbo
Thu 29 March: 40 min fartlek run
Fri 30 March: 2:10 turbo (180W/115bpm)
Sat 31 March: 1:45 turbo (1,2,4,6,8,8,6,4,2,1 interval pyramid)
Sun 1 April: 80 min run (7 miles hard)

Totals: Swim 2.4km, Bike 95 miles, Run 17 miles

Mon 2 April: Swim 2.6km (10 lengths easy/10 hard throughout)
Tue 3 April: 1:30 turbo (151W/98bpm)
Wed 4 April: 45 min fartlek run (5 x 2/2)
Thu 5 April: Rest
Fri 6 April: 30 min turbo, 20 min run
Sat 7 April: 20 min run
Sun 8 April: Grangemouth 10K, 32:52 (5:05, 5:12, 5:21, 5:22, 5:22, 5:21, 1:11)

Totals: Swim 2.6km, Bike 40 miles, Run 18 miles