Post 151 - Selkirk Olympic triathlon

Following the Hawick sprint triathlon, I allowed myself two whole days off to rest and recover. It’s quite nice mentally to switch off from it all for a day or two. Then, with less than 2 weeks until the next race (the Selkirk Olympic distance triathlon), it was back into training.

I was on the turbo trainer again doing intervals on the Wednesday evening, but the issue now is that the weather is warming up, and my flat is warming up – it gets the sun all day so by evening it is roasting hot. So for this reason, my outputs on the turbo are probably down a bit on where they would be if it was a bit cooler. Anyway, with a fan going full blast in my face and every window wide open, I battered out 4 x 10 minutes of hard riding, at over 300 watts per interval. I was pleased to maintain power and strength right to the end of the session, but probably would have got more out of myself had it been a bit cooler. I’ll have to get out more now!

This turbo session was tough, and so the running club’s 10 hill repeats the following evening were even tougher. They were into a headwind as well, which didn’t help. My times dropped away from 92 seconds to 98 seconds, it was like running through quicksand. My legs were pretty cooked before I had even started the session, and well and truly goosed afterwards.

I forced myself out of bed at 6am the next morning to do an easier single-leg turbo trainer session followed by a swim interval session, all before work. Usually I’d train after work but I had visitors staying the weekend, so 6am it was.

At the weekend I did a 13.5 mile hilly run on the Edinburgh half Ironman course. I need to do more of these as I faded a bit in the final few miles, but in mitigation I knew my legs were tired. The Sunday long ride was even worse. I wanted to get out on the road but with time being limited I jumped on the turbo and did a 3-hour tempo ride. It was really hot, I got very dehydrated and from the first hour my legs were flooded with lactic. I couldn’t get over 220 watts for any length of time, which is pretty rubbish (for context, in the past I’ve held 260+ watts for 4 hours). Oh well, at least it was practice training on tired legs.

Monday was a long, continuous swim followed by a sauna, Tuesday was an easier, shorter bike interval session, and Wednesday was an easier fartlek run as by now I was in taper mode for the Selkirk Olympic triathlon. I had a day off on Thursday, and did some easy training on Friday and Saturday. Then got ready for the race.

I’d be using the time trial bike. How much faster would it be? Would using a disc wheel and deep-rimmed front wheel be wise on a very windy day, on a hilly course? Would I risk stripping it to its minimum weight, removing my frame storage box and not carrying any spares and tools? I’d take the risks…

Bike in transition

As soon as I saw the pool, I knew the swim wouldn’t suit me. Being unable to tumble turn, it helps me if there is a railing at either end of the pool which I can grab onto and use to push down on to help me with my turns. This pool just had a flat wall, with the poolside floor being about a foot above the water line. You can’t grab or push down on a flat wall. So my turns would be very slow. I was in the same lane as the fast swimmers, including the guy who has beaten me in both previous races in Galashiels and Hawick.

Motivational poolside quotes...

Didn't help me to tumble turn though!

I spent the whole swim cursing my inability to tumble turn, and resolving to learn as quickly as possible. The fast swimmers didn’t actually seem to be massively faster than me at swimming, but their turns were so quick – they were halfway down the pool in the blink of an eye while I was fumbling about at the wall. After I had done only 48 lengths the two leaders were done, out and away on their bikes. I still had 12 lengths to do. Nearly 5 minutes after the leaders had finished their swims, I was finally done.

Out onto the bike and away. It was grey and windy. The first half of the course was twisty, hilly and blustery. In parts I was just hanging on as the wind blew my disc and deep rimmed front wheel all over the place. I got away with it though, and on the big climb (called the Swire) I started to pull away from a couple of bikes that were around me. I squirted away half my water bottle, I wouldn't need it and the less weight I carried up the climb, the better...! I went up the hill well, even with a disc wheel. Me being nice and light (64kg at 6 foot 1) helps, and I held over 300 watts for what must have been a few miles of narrow mountain road.

Cresting the top, I said “please let me get down safely off this,” and seconds later I was doing 50-60kph, eyes streaming in the wind (even behind my sunglasses), hands working the brakes, trying to watch for grit and traffic and corners, and pick out clean lines to take. It was nerve-wracking, and I had no real idea how the bike would handle as I’ve never had it on a descent and never taken it to the limit under braking and cornering. There’s nothing funny about being full on the brakes, on the point of locking up wheels, with a corner coming up, knowing you are going in too fast…

I made it down, took a few deep breaths, and knew it was a fairly flat final 10 or so miles. So it was down into the aero position and pedal like mad. I caught a couple more out by the turn, saw the leader ahead, I guessed he was maybe 3-4 minutes ahead, thought it wasn’t impossible that I could catch him by the finish, I was fairly confident I could out-run him, so I went for it as fast as I could on the bike. It was a quick blast in to the finish at 30mph+, with one section of awful road surface making it feel like I was holding onto a pneumatic drill. I was hoping so much that I wouldn’t get a flat tyre at this stage as I was biking strongly.

Coming into transition, shaking the legs out

I made it back to transition. I had decided to wear socks for the 10K run, but my hands weren’t working too well and my co-ordination wasn’t great as I tried to balance on one leg to pull them on, nearly falling over, and also struggling to have the dexterity and grip strength with cold and battered hands to pull on my shoes too. It took longer than it should. Then it was away on the run. It was a flat run, I hoped to be able to run 35-36 minutes, and depending on how much I would be able to outrun the leader by, I might have a shout at winning…

I had a decent run out to the turning point with mile splits well under 6 minutes per mile. Approaching the turn, I saw the leader, looking fairly strong, maybe 3 minutes ahead. A lot to make up in the final 5K. After the turn it was evident that the homeward 5K would be into a strong wind. It was tough.

My feet started to hurt. Obviously feet will hurt in a triathlon, but this was bad, bad hurt, right on the outside of both feet, just beneath my little toe, right where I land with each stride. Looking at the soles of my running shoes after the race, they are totally worn out in this very small area, and there’s not any sign of even one-tenth of a millimetre of wear on any other part of the soles. It’s frustrating that my biomechanics mean I go through running shoes so quickly. I’d have hated to be doing a half-ironman 13.1 mile run or an ironman marathon in this kind of pain – I couldn’t have held the pace. But knowing I only had 15 minutes left to run, I gritted my teeth and got on with it.

Worn down to the white stuff on the left hand side...

I've only had these a couple of months!

Completely worn out on one side... (green cushioning gone)

Zero wear on the inside... green cushioning totally untouched

I never saw the leader on the run in, and finished second. Again. It turned out I’d had the fastest bike, by nearly a minute and a half. I’d been losing 30-60 seconds in the previous two races on the bike (and those bikes were half the distance), so this was a good confidence boost that my bike training is working, and that my time trial bike is fast! And also that I can ride a disc wheel on such a windy day on such a hilly technical course. I also had the fastest run, but not by as much as I expected. This is maybe because as the swimming and bike training has ramped up, I’ve been able to devote less time to running. And also maybe because I had biked harder for longer in the race, leaving my legs more tired for the run. Who knows? I ran 34:45 but the run course was a bit short so I’d probably have run 35-36 minutes as I thought, if it had been the full 10K.

The finish

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

What wasn’t good was that I had given away almost 5 minutes in the water. I am reasonably confident that if I could tumble turn, I would have had a good chance to win this race, and beat a world and European champion in the process. So that is what I need to work on! There’s no excuse. If I swim 200 lengths a week, that’s 200 tumble turns per week I can be practicing. But there’s no way my swimming is 5 minutes worse that the fast guys. When they were lapping me, I seemed able to stay on their feet when swimming lengths, they just turned so quickly. So it’s mostly on the turns, and possibly some on the fact that my two-piece tri suit doesn’t go through the water very well, so I will look at getting a decent tri-suit (could cost £150 - expensive sport) and hopefully that will give me a bit more time too. I look forward to the European sprint triathlon championships in August – an open water swim, with no tumble turns needed! Plus my wetsuit is top-notch, really fast…

By the time I had cooled down and been to prizegiving, I had turned white and crusty with salty sweat. Nice. I was a lot more tired after this longer race compared with the shorter sprint distances, so it was a huge effort to make it home, have a shower and unpack everything. It was early to bed.

Next up is the Stirling sprint triathlon in 2 weeks, on a course I know – the same bike and run routes as the Stirling duathlon I did earlier in the season. Unfortunately it’s a pool swim and I don’t think I will have my tumble turning to a high enough level by then to be confident to do them in the race, but we will see…

Training done was as follows:

Mon 7 May: Rest
Tue 8 May: Rest
Wed 9 May: 1:20 turbo (4x10mins/5min rec: 301W/152bpm, 301W/162bpm, 302W/165bpm, 303W/172bpm
Thu 10 May: Run 10 x hill reps (97, 92, 94, 93, 94, 96, 98, 97, 97, 98)
Fri 11 May: 35 min turbo (single leg drills: 2x5mins R/L/B), Swim 2.5k (2x20x50y: 37-39, 40-43 off 1min)
Sat 12 May: 85 min hilly run
Sun 13 May: 3:05 turbo (3hrs at 208W/128bpm)

Totals: Swim 2.5km, Bike 100 miles, Run 23 miles

Mon 14 May: Swim 3.25k
Tue 15 May: 40 min turbo (5x2mins hard/easy)
Wed 16 May: 30 minute fartlek run
Thu 17 May: Rest
Fri 18 May: 35 min turbo (single leg drills, 2 x 5mins R/L/B)
Sat 19 May: 1 hour turbo, 15 min run
Sun 20 May: Selkirk Olympic Triathlon (24:26 1500m pool swim, 0:46 T1, 1:06:48 hilly <40k bike, 0:43 T2, 34:45 <10k run: 2:07:30, 2^nd overall)

Totals: Swim 4.75km, Bike 65 miles, Run 13 miles

Post 150 - Hawick sprint triathlon

Training continued, with 3 weeks between races meaning a full 2-week training block. With its ups and downs.

One bike session of 2 x 20 minutes of effort on the turbo with 5 minutes of recovery was slightly disappointing. I averaged 303 watts and then only 297 watts. If I remember right, back in London, I was doing both sets well over 300 watts. Had I been 3-4% better in the second set, I'd have been happy. With only 297 watts for the final 20 minutes, I was a little disappointed. But it's still early days on the triathlon comeback trail...

I had a decent club running session on Thursday night, a reasonably decent swim on Friday, working with the hand paddles. I volunteered at a club 5k on Saturday morning (spectating/marshalling is always a different and enjoyable perspective) and then ran a 40 minute hard tempo run of my own. On Sunday I planned to drive down to the Borders area and cycle the Selkirk triathlon and Hawick triathlon bike courses. Course familiarisation is worth a lot, it helps to know the roads and inform a decision on whether to use the road bike (light, nimble, good handling, good acceleration and deceleration, better on hilly, twisty courses, but poor high-speed aerodynamics) or the triathlon/time trial bike (with its polar opposite characteristics - good at high speed and fairly poor at climbing, descending, cornering, accelerating and braking).

Sunday was mixed weather-wise. It wasn't great when I was driving down and I thought I might end up just driving the courses and coming home and doing a turbo session. But I wanted to ride and the weather improved. I parked at Selkirk swimming pool and set off. The Selkirk Olympic triathlon route was reasonably open and flat, on reasonably wide roads. Along the Ettrick river valley, and then over a mountain (a Scottish "col" or Bealach) and down a hairy, gravelly descent, and along the Yarrow river valley. Not a bad course, apart from the descent. It was definitely a triathlon bike course, not a road bike course, apart from the mountain pass and the descent... I got soaked by a heavy rain shower on the road back into Selkirk. Bah.

Borders scenery and the narrow mountain road
which will feature in the Selkirk triathlon in a few weeks' time

Then I rode down to Hawick to ride the sprint triathlon route down there. The road surfaces were smooth, but it was quite a narrow, twisty, undulating course. Not a clear-cut decision, but with a few “dead-turns” (hairpins which meant slowing to a stop and accelerating up to speed again) I decided it was a road bike course. 70-odd miles later, I was done, and I drove to the nearest shop and ate a fortune’s worth of food. I was disappointed that the hand I broke in the bike crash last year was really sore after this ride – it was my first long outdoor ride since the crash, with road vibrations and a long time holding handlebars, braking and changing gear). In spite of all the rehabilitation work I’ve done, I guess I might end up having to accept that the hand may never be as good again.

The following week – the week before the triathlon – I had a rest day on Monday. I felt terrible on Monday, as if I was coming down with a cold. The soaking on the bike the previous day hadn’t helped. I survived though, and shook it off with the help of plenty of oranges, kiwi fruits, chillis, and a very early night. I trained moderately hard but not too intense nor too long on Tuesday/Wednesday, had another day off on Thursday, then some easy pedalling and jogging on Friday and Saturday. The weather on Sunday was brilliant. I was optimistic for the race. I had stripped the bike bare of all extra weight - no frame pouches, no saddle bag, no spares, no tools, only one small aero bottle, I even removed the tube valve caps. If I punctured, I'd be walking back. I'd take the chance. I knew I’d have a better swim. I had new shorts, they wouldn’t be coming down in the water like they did in the Galashiels triathlon. I had another good block of training banked. It was a nice day. Bring it on. I set off for Hawick in the Scottish Borders early on Sunday morning and got everything set up in transition.

It was a warm day... I like warm racing...

Spot my bike...

As it turned out, I had a rubbish swim, and I don’t really know why. I expected to be 40-60 seconds quicker than last time out. This time my shorts had a drawstring and they stayed up. I had a clean swim. But I didn’t feel strong in the water and ended up only 5 seconds quicker, in 11:35 for the 750m. Giving away nearly 2 and a half minutes to my rivals so early in the race is not good. I’ve got a lot of work to do. I need to learn to tumble turn. A good tri-suit would help my speed in the water. And simply, more swim training is needed. Also, possibly, in the Galashiels triathlon, there were 4 others in my lane, all swimming in close proximity, so maybe I got towed along. In Hawick, this time out, there was one other girl in my lane and she was way faster than me, so I didn’t get any sort of a tow at all.

I came out of the water, almost retched (maybe the pre-race cereal bar) and had it all to do. All my rivals’ bikes were already gone. My transition was far faster this time – no messing about with gloves or socks. Onto the bike and away. I had a fairly clean and strong bike, reeling people in. I say “fairly” clean: it took me a bit of fiddling about to get properly clipped in at the start. Then as I was catching a slower rider, a car overtook me but couldn’t get past the slower rider. So I got stuck for a minute or two behind the slower rider and car. And then a massive 4x4 towing a massive trailer came at me head-on, on a narrow road with not enough space. There was just enough room. One millimetre to the right and I’d have hit the vehicle. One millimetre to the left and my wheels would have gone into the verge and I’d probably have crashed. One loud curse of relief later and I was clear.

Struggling to get feet clipped in at the start of the bike course

On safety grounds, they had eliminated two of the dead turns on the course, shortening the course slightly – had I known this, I might have gone with the time trial bike. But there we go, I couldn’t change it now. I got into transition and less than 30 seconds later I was away and running. And again reeling people in. My running seems to be strong. But like the last race, the question was how many people could I reel in…? There was a flat section along a river, then a left turn and up a long steep hill, then a run along a road and path to the finish. Every time I passed someone, another runner would appear in the distance, another target... I remember thinking that there was nothing I could do only run as fast as I could. I couldn’t run any faster and so if I was fast enough to catch them, so be it. And if I wasn’t, so be it too.

Full flight

With maybe a mile left, I was catching another runner. A marshal said the leader was a minute and a half ahead. I doubted I’d make that up in a mile. But I’d run as hard as I could to the finish. I reeled another couple in and finished. A clubmate had turned out to spectate, and said I was second. Beaten by the same guy who beat me in Galashiels 3 weeks previously. He is turning into a bit of a rival/target/inspiration/nemesis. He was a lot faster than me in the swim, our transitions were about the same, he was only marginally faster than me on the bike (I wonder how much closer I’d have been if I’d been on my time trial bike instead of my road bike), and I was faster than him in the run. So I need to work on my swimming… I was a bit disappointed with how slow my swim was this time out.

Results are here:

https://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1Ri

I also heard during the week that I’ve been selected for Ireland for the European Sprint Triathlon Championships in August this year (conveniently for me held in Strathclyde Park outside Glasgow – I know it well). It will be an open water wetsuit swim, which will be to my advantage – I have a really good wetsuit and there will be no tumble turning. The guy who beat me in Galashiels and Hawick is the European and World sprint triathlon champion from 2017 (in the male 30-34 age group). He will be defending his title at Strathclyde. I’m not too far away from him, and hopefully with a good summer of training I won’t be too far away from him at the Europeans.

Next up will be another block of training before the Selkirk standard/Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run).

Training done:

Mon 23 Apr: Rest
Tue 24 Apr: 1:15 turbo (2x20mins, 5min rec: 303W/158bpm, 297W/168bpm)
Wed 25 Apr: 1:30 turbo
Thu 26 Apr: 10 mile run (6 x 3min hard/1min easy/30sec sprint/1min easy)
Fri 27 Apr: Swim 2.1km (paddle drills)
Sat 28 Apr: 50 min run (40 min tempo)
Sun 29 Apr: 70 mile bike (Selkirk/Hawick)

Totals: Swim 2.1km, Bike 130 miles, Run 18 miles

Mon 30 Apr: Rest
Tue 1 May: 50 min turbo (10x1min hard/1min easy)
Wed 2 May: 30 min fartlek run
Thu 3 May: Rest
Fri 4 May: 1 hour turbo
Sat 5 May: 30 min turbo, 10 min run
Sun 6 May: Selkirk sprint triathlon: 11:35, 31, 32:56, 27, 17:48 (1:03:19), 2nd overall

Totals: Swim 0.85km, Bike 60 miles, Run 10 miles

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

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