Into the off season.....

So here I am four weeks into a new job, two weeks into the off season...how is it going so far??

Well firstly I have found with nothing on the horizon to train for I am really struggling to fill in my online training diary - @trainingpeaks which I am sure will cause my coach (Mike) endless hassle - that is unless I develop some motivation in the next couple of days!!

Secondly, I have rediscovered the love of just getting on the bike and getting out there - trying out new routes rather than the same old routes - which is something I don't do when I am building. The reason I don't try new stuff during the build is I find that I need to measure my effort and assess it - something which is very difficult to do if you change the one fixed element - the geography! The Aerotic is under wraps until the new year (and no I have not yet cleaned it from Galway ) chained to the turbo ready for some abuse during the cold/long winter nights/mornings....so instead I am out on the Protosonic. What an amazing bike it is - fast, agile and light....sooooo light compared to the TT rig. Just need to sort out the winter tyres and skinny mudguards!

In addition to the cycling I have started a lot more running - leaving the HR monitor at home and running on feel (only cadence/time) showing on the Garmin 310. It gives a great sense of freedom - also for some reason I run faster too...I am consistently aiming for RPE of around 11-13 and I am hitting a 5:45/km average - not bad considering that at my peak running in this last year (before i injured myself) I was aiming for that!

Swimming continues...I need to work out if swimming will be a big focus next year (as I am not going long) - the dates/venues for the Great Swim series should be announced soon - I am serious thinking of aiming for top 10 in AG in the series....I managed 4th in AG at the Great East swim and 38th overall so I may be in with a shout...watch this space!

Anyway I will post some pretty graphs later when I get round to it (and fill in TP).

Later
I.

Wow how quickly a year has gone by...

Just totted up the 2010/2011 totals for training...

Swim: 152.8km (54.12hrs)
Bike: 3186.02km (148.04hrs)
Run: 751.5km (83.58hrs)
Other stuff (gym/uncatagorised training/racing):215km (27.17hrs)

Which means in total I have swum, cycled and run 4305km in 312.91hrs (or just over 13 days...)

The graphics below show the whole truth..... :-O

It has been a good year 3 70.3, all had their challenges, now what will next year bring...something much calmer and shorter based on work/family requirements but something interesting I am sure!

Watch this space......

Later
Iain.

Pictures from Galway 70.3

OK so first off the people of Galway - WOW - really supportive - this is the welcom banner from Moycullen. This was the friendliest place on the bike route - loads of crowds, noise and cheering (BTW the bike is over 6ft high!)

So onto the race - this is the pro swim start - wow they hit the water fast - just google the race and youtube and there are several videos of them going into the water. Awesome efforts from all of them..I am a pretty good swimmer in lakes, etc doing around 24 mins for a mile, but the sea defeated me and I came out around 20mins (for a 1km distance) - the lead guy did it in 13mins!

So how did I look coming out of the swim...hmmm cold, wet and not looking forward to the 850m transition!BTW that is me on the left - not the fit looking chap on the right!

Out of T1 looking a little stressed - the run was a long one and the arm warmers were a bu**er to put on over damp arms! (note to self wear a long sleeve jersey next time)

Anyway onto the bike - great fun hammering along - just wish I held the gut in when going past the camera men - they always get me breathing in - most furstrating (well that is my argument!)

The last shot really shows how much it was raining - truly horrible!! So off the run (after crashing) and onto the run - I look in pain because I was - my hip and elbow hurt....a lot! It is now two weeks since the crash and there is one line that is excruciating to lean on on my elbow and a lump on the bone - I reckon I probably put a small hairline crack in it during the fall....anyway - some good pictures from the run again like the bike showing off the fab BCTTT club kit :-)

Great running style in those last two....Again in these pictures you can really see how horrible the weather was - it only improved in the last 30mins or so - so in the inish line pictures it looks lovely! And finally the finish line - colours are a bit washed out due to the very green carpet and the bright sunshine! Yet again they miss me going across the line and punching the air instead I look like I am waving...grrrr...oh and the one showing the medal is a bit rubbish....

So finally what did the data look like - for all the Training Peaks Gurus out there here it is for both the bike and run...and yes I did hit over 100kph (60mph) on one of the hills - on the aerobars....scary!! oh and youi can see me die at the end of the run as my cadence drops and the walk/run starts! So here they are, the bike:

and the run:

A lot of photos I know - I hope you enjoy seeing them and they give you a sense of the race. It was a hard, but great day. I was very glad to compete and unlike UK 70.3 I think I will be back for this one in the future!



IRONMAN 70.3 Galway, Ireland Race Report

Note - Photos to follow - I had no time to integrate them...

Ironman 70.3 Galway, Ireland

Where to start
Well I wanted this season to be a little different – in 2009 I did my first 70.3 and in 2010 I did IRONMAN Switzerland, so I decided to do three 70.3 races during the season – The Marshman, IRONMAN 70.3 UK and IRONMAN 70.3 Ireland. The toughest of the year was always going to be the UK race, with its infamous hills on the bike and run course, but Marshman had its challenges too, being early in the season. So what about Ireland? Well when I entered I had no idea of course, location (apart from it starting in Galway), etc. When the route was announced as being fast and flat it looked promising, then they changed the route taking out one late hill and putting in another early on in the bike – it looked even better – only 400m climbing on the bike and the run was stated as being flat (no map at that point) – Game On!!

Well everything looked fantastic until we got out to Ireland….

The pre race training went really well, after my various illnesses and injuries following the UK 70.3 I managed to put in a solid four weeks of training and oneweek of taper. Mike and I had discussed taper length etc and decided that training hard up to the race and having a short taper was the best idea. I managed most of the long rides (2.5hrs being the longest) and runs including one 13km run – longest in ages. When I got to Ireland I was in the best physical condition I have been in ages – not as light as last year (I was 85kg last year at my last race – this year 89kg) but much lower Body Fat % around 15% - and I was carrying few injuries.

Lizzie, the kids and I toured around the Emerald Isle for a week before the race taking in: Slane Castle, the Barony of Slane (on of Lizzie’s Ancestral piles), The Battle of the Boyne, Trim Castle (worth going to), Blarney Castle (not worth going to), Connemara, the only fjord in Ireland and other places to numerous to mention. We also caught up with Fiona, Frank and Grainne at al (one of Anja’s classmates (who recently moved with her family back to Cork)).

We finally rocked up into Galway on Thursday afternoon. We had decided (based on Zurich last year) to stay in an apartment. We managed to find one in the Radisson Blu hotel complex which is near the city centre – the race was in Salthill so it meant a car drive to make it to the venue – about 3.5km away. The apartment was fairly good – more of a split level maisonnete but comfortable and well spec’d(although not cheap at €800 for 4 nights – all the hotels put their prices up and were full!).

On Friday I went for a quick ride down to the Salthill area to check the bike over. My first impression was wow the local community had really got the IRONMAN bug – there were banners and signs everywhere welcoming the Ironmen (and women!). the second thing I noticed was my rear gears were all over the place – a trip to the Bike Doctor before the race would be needed. Later in the day I registered and drove the bike route. It is an out-and-back flatish course with very little technical elements – the biggest challenge was the road surface, in bit brilliant in others awful. After that we went to the Pasta Party – I am not sure I would do this again unless I was on my own – it is a bit odd for families….

On Saturday we decided that I would rack my bike, sort out my transition bags and then we would head out for lunch north of Galway before the race briefing. This turned into the usual BCTTTesque cluster (“in joke” in the club) – I turned up to the bike doctor to have him look at my bike before racking and was immediately struck by the fact there was only one mechanic…for 2400 competitors..hmmmm…he was Russian (I think) and didn’t speak very good English but was amazing with bikes…he carefully played with the front gears resetting the perfectly and then dismantled the rear derailleur, at this point he mutter something about fishing wire and tried to explain I needed new cables…not good…he asked me to leave my bike with him and come back at 3pm…also not good – transition closed at 3.30pm and the queue to have bikes looked at was getting longer. Against my better judgement I left my bike with him and headed back to the hotel – you could not rack the bags until after the bike. We headed out towards Cong (north of Galway) realised it was an error (there is nothing, and I mean nothing out there) and headed back. We lunched in Lohans on the seafront at Salthill – quite nice and I went to collect my bike. Except the mechanic had done nothing with it, shrugged his shoulders and kept dealing with the minor issues other people were having. The time ticked on and 3pm came and went, by 3.20 I was getting concerned as the queue to enter transition had gone and the referees were looking like they were going to close the gates. Eventually I gave up checked the bike was roadworthy and took it into transition. I racked my bike in the middle of the longest racking I have ever seen (transition is 850m long – and you run it twice!) and hooked my bags up (well the blue one, my red bag just got dumped in a big pile). After racking we went home, put the girls to bed and I ate my new pre-race food of bean and bacon risotto – yummy!

The Race
Well. I woke up on race morning around 4.45 and looked out the window – not good, strong winds. The weather forecast has been mixed and undecided for the week and so it was very much a “see how it is on the day” race. Regardless I had put the 60mm SRAM S60 spoked front wheel on the bike rather than the HED trispoke – good choice.

After waking up and getting dressed we headed down to the race start – note no breakfast, this is my new nutrition ploy, and it seems to work – no food until needed. Getting to Salthill was challenging due to all the road closures for the race, eventually Lizzie dropped me off and left to find some parking with the girls. I headed in, said hello to my very wet (despite the IM plastic cover) bike, pumped up the tyres, re oiled the chain, filled the speedfil and set the Garmin. After that there was little to do apart from let the nerves build and head to the swim start.

The swim start was on Ladies Beach in front of the Galway Hotel. As the sun started to rise we could see the sea. I am happy to say that I normally have no fear of the swim, it is my favourite part of the race, today was not a normal day. The sea looked nasty, the official swell was 2.1m – it felt worse when we were in it there was a strong onshore wind too which was blowing a lot of spray. After lots of standing around – saying hello to Rachel Joyce (a UK pro) and worrying, they announced that the swim was to be cut. At the time I was gutted – they said they would cut it to 750m – as it was it was officially 1000m – when I got out I could see why. Lizzie and the girls met up with me and they shared my nerves for a while until my wave was called. I went forward and ended up in the second group of my wave (they cut the waves in half as a safety precaution too). The swim course was now a simple out-across-back route, the current was flowing left to right but the wind was straight in,  I put myself on the right side at the front, away from the main group. When the horn started I ran into the water, the water was quite warm (16 or so degrees) and I porpoise’d out until I could swim freely. As I cleared the wall alongside Ladies Beach the full swell hit me – it was massive, I normally swim pretty straight and never do breaststroke to sight, as I swam out I simply could not see anything but sea., no buoys – time for breaststroke!! I alternated about 30 front crawl strokes with four or five breaststroke and somehow I managed to keep a fairly good pace up, although breathing was fun as the waves didn’t have a nice rhythm as the wind was having an effect. Eventually I made it to the first buoy and turned left into the wind and against the current – it got harder, luckily this was only for about 100m until I did another left and headed for the shore. On the way in it was a bit easier although the swell seemed worse and I got swamped a few times whilst trying to breath – I drank most of the Atlantic I think…. I eventually swam in jumped up and ran up the beach access slope after 00:20:05 in 180^th place. It was a really hard swim – one of the hardest I have ever done and more physically challenging than the full 3.8km at IMCH.

Once off the beach I started the looooong transition – about a 350m barefoot run to transition (no carpet…) then grab the blue bag – put on every item of clothing I had (including fighting with arm warmers!) – then run to the bike, then run another 500m to the mount line. I am not joking transition was nearly 1km long!

Once on the bike I started to really enjoy things – everything just worked. I saw Lizzie and the girls on the way out of Salthill, gave them a smile and a wave and put the foot down. Now normally every race I come out of the swim and spend the next few hours going backwards – not today!! I was on fire, everything just purred – even the hills were easy on the way out. I finished the first 10km without really getting the HR about 150, and I was overtaking people! Once over the hill at Barna the route opens up into a long out and back to Maam Cross, this is where the benefit of an aero bike really comes in. Head down I pushed the gear to 54-12 for most of the out leg, averaging around 40-45kph – it felt amazing, I should have realised this was wind assisted!! All through the countryside there were groups of supporters cheering us all on – they were amazing – especially the people of Moycullen – big banners, vuvuzelas, the whole works – fab! The nutrition plan for the race was based on the bike. Before the swim I had one ZipVit gel and then nothing until 30mins into the bike. All the time on the bike I had nuun (water+rehydration tablet) and from 30mins, every 30mins I had one ZV gel mixed with 50ml of water mixed in a bottle – it worked fabulously.

The weather started to worsen from just rain to truly soul destroying hammering horizontal rain at about 30km where I saw the first ambulance and casualty . When the pros came past (on their way back) around 40km they were looking fast, and the hail started (I was wondering what the pinging sound on my helmet was – then my arms hurt), I was so glad I had taken the time to put on all my clothing – it helped.  The turn at Maam Cross left a lot to be desired though. It was signed from about 200m and it was just a couple of blokes and a van in the middle of the narrowest bit of road I have seen in ages with a cone in front of it. We all had to try and do a 180 round this (I only just managed it) and then push for home. At this point things took a turn for the worse, the tailwind I had became a head wind and even in 54-12 with a cadence of around 80-85 I was only managing 28-30kph – really tough going. The rain continued and the road side support kept my spirits up and I carried on passing people. Eventually after lots of water, ambulances and passing people I made it into Galway. About 3km from the end the route did a dogleg through the University to avoid closing all of the N6 and this is where my day changed completely.

I guess I just lost concentration but turning left off the uni campus back onto the main road I stacked it. I probably went into the corner too fast (there was no marshal there) and as I went round I lost the back wheel that locked and I went down hard. I hit the ground with my shoulder, elbow and hip and the bike impacted on the handlebars, pedal and bottle holder on the back, somehow I also manged to sand down the top of my helmet! I saw it all in slow motion and as I write this I can see it again. Once I had stopped sliding (at the other side of the road – about 20ft) I got up and was amazed that I had not broken anything. The young marshal who should have been at the corner ran over and checked if I was okay, he asked if I wanted to stop – at which point I might have been a little rude and got on my bike and carried on.

The bike didn’t sound happy as I finished the last 3km, the handlebars were sanded down, the bar tape gone, the brakes rubbing all not good – I had blood running down my arm from the cuts and from under one of my fingernails where I pulled it off, my hip was on fire with pain and I just made it into transition – loads of people cheering. I had finished the bike leg in 2:50:11 in 371^st place – a pb (I pb’d the first 40km by 10mins) and great fun – right up to the crash!

As I made my way into transition the bike didn’t want to behave, the wind caught it lots which made pushing it 400m down to my racking slot hard. I racked it and ran/hobbled down to the red bag tent (450m away…). Once there I asked for med help but there was none there, they suggested asking at the aid station. I changed painfully into my run kit grabbed a couple of ibuprofen and ran off to join the run route.

The first 5km of the run was absolute purgatory, I took the ibuprofen at 1km (the first aid station) after finding out they had no med aid either, these kicked in around 30min. the run route was basically a big out and back with some loops thrown in, all on the edge of the coast so the wind played a big role. Up to 5km I felt dreadful but then my legs gradually came back, and I was running well for about 10km. The pace varied from 6:15/km to 7:30/km into the wind – it was hard going. At around 13km I saw Lizzie and the kids and that gave me a huge boost – I saw them again at 14km they were shocked I was on my last lap!

I then started the last lap and that is where the wheels came off the run – I just ran out of energy. The nutrition strategy for the run was water/coke and it seemed to work, I had no GI problems but I just ran out of energy…when I turned the corner at the Spanish Arch to head for home I was reduced to a walk – I walk/ran to the aid station about a km away and took my time to get a gel on board and some fluids. After about 5mins I was running again and I kicked my heels for home – as I came up to the 1.9km turn to the finish line I welt amazing – I was running fast (well 6:15 at this point was fast!) and overtaking people again. I came up the green carpet into the finish cute where there must have been one to two thousand spectators, as I ran down the cute loads of kid put their hands out for “high fives” – who was I to say no so I ran down the cute high fiving everyone. I probably should have gone just a little faster though as my finish time was 6:01:23, my run had take 2:30:30, the last lap around an hour and I came in 1303th for that section. As I came over the line Lizzie and the kids were there – it was a great day.

Final thoughts
Well, it was a tough day at the office - a really challenging race, but finally a race on a course that suited me and with nutrition that worked. All in all, a fantastic experience. Would I do it again? Yes. I think there are areas for improvement but the weather is a little out of their control – if it was easy it wouldn’t be IRONMAN 70.3!

A quick update from yesterday's race!

So IM 70.3 IRE - shocking swim and weather 5-6ft waves and a really strong current - no idea on time - they cut it to about 750ish. Bike fabulous apart from the bit where I crashed - came off on a corner 3km from the end - luckily no real damage bike and me bruised/road rash...weather awful - averaged 40-50kph on out leg and just made 30kph on the return - the horizontal rain and hail helped too - I saw four ambulances out...still managed around 2:50 for it tho on to the run - as I thought in bad weather a killer - tremendous headwinds (I went from 6:30/km to 7:30 for most of the return loop) all went okay until about 15km where the wheels fell of a bit and I felt a little strange - needed food and could only manage to walk to the aid station - recovered and finished strong! No idea if time but I finished - there were a lot today who didn't - I am now off to nurse my wounds (lots of them) and recover!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Ireland!

Well we have been here for about a week now - we travelled over to Dublin and have spent the last few days touring the country, taking in the Boyne Valley, Cork and Galway county. All in all a beutiful country - at some point I will upload some photos!

Anyway - today is the day before my last race of the season, Ironman 70.3 Ireland. I have just finished my last brief run - a quick spin up for the legs.

To the race, the swim looks cold and tough - it is a sea swim in Galway Bay, which looks quite choppy this morning! The bike leg looks amazing - the only real concern is the road surface which is, to be honest, quite shocking. We drove the bike course yesterday and there are some great bits but some a truely awful...at least the scenery is beautiful! As for the run well it is totally flat but very exposed....if the weather is nasty it is going to be a slog...all in the lap of the Gods I suppose! At least it looks likely that for the first time Lizzie and the kids might be there to see me off and back in :-) fingers crossed!

One positive note is the awaerness and support this race is getting. It is frankly amazing (for a non mainland Europe race). It is in all the papers, the villages have got the bunting out and loads of support looks likely.

On the fundraising front I am only £40 off my final target of £750 - if you can spare anything for the UA please click on the donate button on the right of this page :-)

Well wish me luck, I am in the 7.05am wave race number 1426 - go to www.ironmanlive.com to follow my progress. I would love to say a sub 6:30 is on the cards but it all depends on the sea, weather and road conditions!

See you on the other side.
BWs
I.

So...where are we 14 days out....

So......after a weekend of testing myself in my race kit - will all the trimmings including the pointy wizard hat (my Lazer Tardiz helmet) how do I feel?

 

Swim (yesterday)

Felt really good – smooth flowing and fast. I lost my pace a little in the middle but it all came together at the end – happy with 23:08 for the 1500m as that was in pretty weed infested water with noone else to pace me :-)

Bike

WooHoo!!! an average of >30kph!!! First time I have ever managed it and that was including traffic and traffic lights in Cambridge!! Everything worked well (although I do need to reindex the gears and probably change my chain – it is a little short now (going from a compact to a full size...)), the nutrition side of things was good however I am seriously pondering just using bottles on the race as I seem to take in air as well as fluid when using the straw....hmm...I can carry 3x bottles on my frame (2 in my Xlab wing and 1 on the frame itself), 1 will be for gels but that leaves 2 – will it be enough for a 70.3, not sure 1550ml??? (plus I would be able to pick up extra water (but not nuun) en route at the aid stations if needed...

Anyway physically it felt good - knees and ankles all okay. The hills were hard seated - I didn't stand once on them :-) but my knees did not feel like they were going to explode which is good!

Run

Not quite as positive...good things first:

Pace was good off the bike, and I didn't feel rubbish off the bike, I felt fresh! I kept a good pace throughout (6:00-6:30) and ankles were totally fine

However....bad things:

My knee started to ache and get sore at about 7.5km so I cut the run rather than push it. Also I tried the same formula with gels as I do on the bike (50ml water+gel in a bottle) and I felt fine GI wise before taking any gel on but felt ropey after (about 1/2 a gell (by vol))...I think coke/water on the run may be the way forward...

and finally – I am tired!! This week will either be a hard week or a gradual taper depending on what my coach says....and then at the end of the week I head out to Galway to prep for the race! :-)

The last few weeks and today's swim

The last few weeks have been hard, after coming back from illness and injury following the UK 70.3 I have been builing solidly. This week was a rest week - not that it felt very restful as work has gone nuts (probably because I finish my current role in a week!!). 

Well after a long amount of consideration I decided not to do the Marlow Mile based on the expected water quality - I don't want to get amoebic dysentry two weeks before the Irish 70.3!

So instead I tried out a new OW venue - Redrick's Lake (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116356055056128) just outside of Sawbridgeworth in Herts. It is a nice, small, friendly lake with good parking and showers (albeit a little basic). The lake has fabulously clean water although at the moment there are times when you could almost walk across the lake (due to weed growth!). Even with that to contend with I managed a 500m warm up, a 23:08 1500m TT - very happy - a faster pace than my race at the Great East Swim and not only did I feel less tired but I was solo swiming and sighting properly (as there were no big buoys!) and a 300m cool down!

Very enjoyable!

The TT GPS track is below:

Tomorrow is 70.3 practice day - 2:30 of Z3/4 TT bike followed by a 15km run...lets hope the knee/ankles hold up!

The long road back...

Well with just over a month gone from Wimbleball and five weeks to go to Galway I am starting the long road back to fitness and racing!

The past three weeks have taken a lot out of me (I had bacterial laryngitis followed by oral candidiasis and parainfluenza) so it is going to take a bit of time to get back. The plan is a recovery week this week (all going well so far) and then a two week build followed by a rest week and a final strong week before a short taper and race.

This week I have managed to get out on the TT twice, once in beautiful Cornish sunshine and the other in pouring rain (18.5km in 51 very slippery mins!Good practice for Ireland I am sure!!), managed one 30min run (no pain :-)) and a swim.

The swim was the most interesting as I used to train and race with/for a Truro team (in the old swimming pool) and I met up with some of my old friends from swimming when I went to the new pool for an early morning swim! The Truro pool runs coached sessions early in the morning four days a week and these have four lanes each with 5-8 people in. The sessions are hard, really hard as in full on Masters session hard....I started in my own lane warming up doing 4x300s (well I arrived a little late as I overslept) but got fed up with the slow people in my lane so I jumped over, straight into 12x100 descending pace and holding for the last 8....I started at the back of the lane and ended up one off the front...hard work but good fun...I might do another session tomorrow!

Today I am taking a rest as we are going to the seal sanctuary and out for lunch (to celebrate my new job!!). Tomorrow we are heading home but I will probably get in another swim and over the weekend a run and a bike (maybe a run off the turbo...)

Apart from that everything else seems to be going quite well.....touch wood!

Later
I.

No Henley :-(

So I will not be racing at Henley this weekend for the Challenge swim. I have been desperately trying to get over this bug but unfortunately I still have a bit of a hacking cough :-( also I did a short swim set yesterday (5x200m) and whilst it felt okay, a bit slow but okay, I was shattered at the end of it. Mike and I discussed it and concurred that recovery was more important at the moment :-(

Maybe next year - now to focus on Ironman 70.3 Ireland :-)

Recovery and Illness.....

So another blog post so quickly on the heels of my 70.3 race report - what has happended!

Well I am ill....first proper bug in ages and a nasty one too...bacterial laryngitis...fever, headaches, unbelievably sore throat,  no voice and gunky green stuff...euch! So it has been lots of paracetamol, ibuprofen, strepsils and klaricid.....fun...

I managed to do a couple of recovery sessions before I was wiped out by the lurgy last week and things felt surprisingly good post Wimbleball, in fact less painfull than post Marshman...really suprising.

I had a long discussion with Mike the coach last week and we decided that the order of the day (possibly month) was no running until the ankle heals assessed through no pain on pushing off the wall during swimming (which is essentially decelerated bouncing/jumping) but focus on swim/bike. We have also discussed the race season for next year and there will be no IM in 2012 - I will be a father again (no.3) and that combined with work/life doesn't leave time for the long sessions for full IM.

As for Henley Challenge swim ...that is up in the air...I really want to do it (I love open water swim races) but if this bug has not cleared it will be off :-( I might just have to find another single OW race to do later in Jul/Aug...

Anyway just a short post today...have to sort things out for a busy work day today and tomorrow before heading to Austria

Later
I.

Finally a Wimbleball 70.3 Race report!

UK IRONMAN 70.3 – 19th June 2011

The days before….

So five weeks before my planned “A” race of the season (A race being the highest priority of the year) I overcooked the running…I put four sessions back to back whilst I was at EULAR in London, the weather was lovely, I had St James’ and Green Park to run through and running was going really well – however resilience was not on my side so I managed to tear both of my Achilles tendons on a hill set at the end of the week (not major tears but enough to impact my training). So, this meant lots of ice packs, massage, ultrasound and no running until the Wednesday before UK 70.3 and then the first run was a test to check whether I could even do the race! Everything worked fairly well – both ankles stiff but no needle sharp pains – a green light to start Wimbleball.

I wanted to practice my nutrition plan again so from Friday I started to cut out fibre – evening meal sausages with mash. Saturday was white bread and honey for breakfast, fish and chips (no peas) for lunch and pasta with green pesto for evening meal. All of this was okay, but, I think I had too much pasta – I was camping in the back of the XC90 and it was hard to measure properly! The plan on race morning was porridge made with water, Zipvit Recover (250ml) and the two gels 30 and 40mins out from race start. Once onto the bike I planned to use Nuun and ZipVit gels (with caffeine on lap 2 before the big hills) with a Biestmilch Booster (Colostrum and Gurana) for both the bike and run. On the run the plan was Nuun and a gel sipped slowly over 15mins every 45mins.

Time to race…..

So after quite a good night’s sleep in the back of the XC90 on an airbed – surprisingly comfy!! – I got up at 0350 to warm up and have breakfast – all done I went to transition to sort out the bike, that done I got into the wetsuit and warmed up. As usual at Wimbleball there was no warm up and the 10mins spent in the water before the race seemed to go on forever…..

The national anthem played and the horn went off – we were going. My plan on the 1.2mile swim was to keep wide on the left side and hammer the first 200m to keep with the lead pack. This worked really well and I kept on the heels of the second group of about 30 or so people behind the pros. The race to the first buoy was perfect, as was the turn but then I could not see the buoys and it was just “follow the feet in front”! At the second turn I was still with the group and that is where the swimming to plan finished…I headed for the next buoy, all good, but then I started to loose the swimmers to my right but I thought I was holding a better line as I could see what seemed to be three buoys which I assumed indicated the chute to come out of the water (no big IM arch which is normally there). Unfortunately I was wrong – after the second buoy on the return leg is was a straight line to shore and I had messed up and gone beck to where the start was – it really wasn’t clear if you were swimming!! After realising this and swearing a lot to myself I corrected and headed for the shore – I reckon it added 200 or so to the swim – I came out the water in 31:49 in 108th place…not the top 100 I was looking for…

Out of the swim and a quick run up the (amazingly steep) hill to T1 – grab my swim bag, change into bike kit and then I was out onto the bike. The bike was my biggest fear in 2009 and this year as it is a really, really challenging course climbing 5905ft over the 56miles with most of the climbing done on three hills in the second half of the course, these are done twice as it is a two lap course.

I had planned to use the first 10miles of so (with its two big(ish) hills) as a warm up before pushing and this worked well, I tapped up the first hill and overtook a fair few people on the next whilst keeping my HR below 165. The course then runs over and undulating section finishing in an insanely steep hill that descends to Machine Cross – the point at which I hit 58mph – great fun if a little scary!! Once the flatish undulating section was over the route hit the hills with short steep hill up to Morebath – I was amazed to see people off and walking their bike up on the first lap! I used a cadence of 10 pedal strokes seated, 8 standing which seemed to work to keep cramp and pain at bay – all looked good! The next big hill is the hardest on the course – with a max gradient of 17% and an average of 14% for 1.5km. All went well and kept to plan using standing/seated pedalling routine, right up to the point I changed down (I was about half way through the 11-28 block) and shifted my chain into my wheel disc (the spokes)...the pedals stopped turning and I only just managed to not go over the handlebars instead falling ungracefully to my right, bruising my hip and knee...after swearing at the bike a couple of times I got up checked over the bike (looked okay) and reseated the chain, spun the wheel and changed up and down a few times – no problems...preplexed I began the long walk up the hill...I had come off at the 17% section so there was no chance to get back on...

After an agonisingly long walk up the hill, watching all those I have previously passed zip past me , I got back on the bike and headed off for Haddon Hill the last big hill of the lap – again all went well, screaming down the downhill sections , tapping up the hills until the last section of Haddon Hill (it has two climbs with a short flat section in the middle) where I managed to repeat my chain debarkle this time not falling over but holding the bike upright until I had unclipped (to cries of “well held” from the surrounding competitors!)...again I reseated the chain and decided that changing from mid block to my lowest gear at the top was a bad idea for the rest of the bike – so I didn’t...I used the 11-25 gears...challenging up the hills but I didn’t come off again 

Once up Haddon Hill I zipped round the rest of the lap before starting on the second. The first short sharp hill of the lap is a killer but I went up it fairly smoothly (in 09 I cramped both quads on this hill!) and got into the lap – the second lap was fairly uneventful compared to the first - enjoying the downhills and pushing the hills. Overall I found the bike challenging but not half as hard as I found it in 09 – all the training with Mike from The TriLife has paid off!

As I got back into T2 I was pleased to see I had smashed my previous PB on the course finishing the bike in 4:06:02 in 09 I did it in 5hrs! T2 was fun – the standard process of look for red bag – run to chair and change into running kit...however once I had found my running kit I looked down at my wrist where I should have put my Garmin 310XT watch (after I had taken it off the bike) and it was not there...ARGH! I had left it on my bike, so I had to run back out into the racking area, find my bike, recover my Garmin and then get changed :-( very unhappy....

The run started like all 70.3 runs – painfully!! The first section of the run at Wimbleball is downhill to the shore of the lake before it loops up to the finish before going back to the shore before going back past the finish and up a 100m hill...you get the idea. Most people worry about the bike at Wimbleball, me included, but it is the run which is the hardest bit – there is over 1300ft of climbing over the course and most of the underfoot conditions are more reminiscent of a school cross country race than a half marathon. My half marathon run was really over before it started, as soon as I hit the first hill I knew I would be walking most of it – I tried running up the first hill and both my Achilles tendons developed the sharp needle like pain that I had in training, very unhappy, but I decided rather than DNFing (Did Not Finish) I would get round and get my medal. As it was I would have had issues regardless of the ankles, after the first hill I developed stomach cramps and these proceeded to vomiting after I tried running again. So I made my way painfully round the 13.1 miles of the run, walking the hills, running the flats and downhills until the GI cramps got to bad and occasionally being sick...it was very reminiscent of 2009...

Except this time I was not the last person, all on my own out on the course with no-one to talk to, instead I met a variety of people (some much fitter than me!) who had been humbled by the Wimbleball course and either had injuries or GI problems but were resolute in their determination to finish. In some ways this is the “real” bit of long distance triathlon racing. Whilst we would all like to be like Chrissie Wellington or Tom Lowe (the two current UK (and World for Chrissie) IM record holders) hammering round a 70.3 circuit in 4hours something or an IM course in just over 8hours the simple fact is we (the vast majority) probably won’t - I have a dream I could go sub 6hours on a 70.3 race and sub 13 or an IM one, both a achievable but equally a race where I come in 1.5hours after my PB is important, not for the time but for the fact that rather than giving up when my ankles hurt I decided (like those other racers) that come hell or high water I would get across the line and get my medal. In some part it is that place I push myself beyond in the really dark moments when I think “I could just stop now” that keeps me doing this, because very little – apart from my family – gives me as much sense of achievement and happiness. Ultimately I crossed the line in 8:04 – 53 minutes faster than 2009 – I would love to say I will be back to get that sub 7 at Wimbleball but I feel I have done it twice, the course really doesn’t suit me and there are lots of other IMs and 70.3s out there -this one has taken quite enough of my time and energy!

A quick update on UK 70.3 - full report to follow!

I survived just...this is the short version the long version is to follow

Swim was okay but slow for me as I sighted off the wrong one of the three buoys near the end of the swim (where was the exit IM hoop they always have) and added a fair distance to the swim doh!

T1 was the usual run half way up the hill from the lake and die and then try and find the bag

Bike was okay apart from shifting my chain into my wheel on the Morebath hill and Haddon hill on lap one and only just not go over the handlebars - I held it on Haddon Hill (and fell off gracefully) but came off properly on Morebath - damaging my (SRAM Force carbon ) gear/brake lever...lap two was good but why did they put no overtaking on the biggest hill - I got stuck behind a slow coach.....

T2 was a BCTTT cluster - managed to leave my Garmin on my bike when the helper took it...I realised in the tent and had to wander around all the bikes to find it again....

and the run...well that is best forgotten...I only decided not to do a planned DNF on Wednesday (I put small tears in my Achilles tendons about five weeks ago) when a test run went okay only to find they were not on the run course - every hill was painful...add to that the normal GI probs (nausea/vomitting/etc - I need to see a nutritional bod I think) and I had a dreadful 1/2 marathon...

but hey I PBd by 53mins coming in at 8:01....a bit gutted not to make sub 8 - I will not be back though...I think less hilly courses are more my thing.....also due to the comms blackhole that is Wimbleball Lizzie had no idea whether I was alive or dead until I got back to civilisation...not popular...on Fathers Day (who chose the date...)....a full report will make it on here when I find the time to write it

I am racing on Sunday!

Well after a worrying few days - will I, won't I do the run at the 70.3 on Sunday I am happy to report that I survived the test run yesterday morning!

Basically this week (touch wood!!) has been going fairly well. I am a little pressed for time today (as I have a load of work to do and I still need to pack! So just a quick update on training -


Monday - Power hills on the turbo (basically 350W for 1 min/off for 1min x lots) – went really well – got the saddle position dialled in (I think...)

Tuesday – Swim 10x100s and 6x50s – all around 1:16-1:19 and 37s, felt a little fatigued but still good – managed 2x4mins deep water running too

Wednesday – make or break day – turbo was a good set – all nice and smooth followed by a 20min out and back run....I kept the pace to waterver felt good – and although the HR was a little high (155-160) the pace was fine (5:45-6:00/km) and as for the ankles...well no needle pains apart from one bit where I went from pavement to road – ankles a little stiff and calves were stiff in the evening but otherwise good so I think the run at Wimbleball is on...in the evening I spent 40mins or so working out the niggles with my grid roller – ooooow!

Today – deepwater start 5x200s – all in around 2:46-48 felt super good – I pushed the first 100 and cruised the second at race pace – then 3x4min deep water running and just been for a quick 10km spin to sort out the bike – all good although I did spend a few mins trying to work out why I could not go above 25kph – my brakes were rubbing! indexing and brakes sorted....

Overall feeling I am feeling pretty good – I am icing and ultrasounding my calves nightly and (almost) generally feeling ready for Wimbleball....

I have a meeting en route and will be staying Friday night with the folks in Truro but I am camping on site Saturday night. If anyone is about at the Race I will be around from about lunchtime Saturday probably wearing an IMCH finishers shirt - I will be the short stocky one with a naked carbon Isaac bike :-) – maybe see you there!!

If not - check back Sunday/Monday for a race report - wish me luck!!

Later
I.

Swimming and a good end to week one of the taper!

So the theory goes that tapering is all about winding back the distance so you don't hurt yourself before the race whilst uping the tempo a little to push yourself and reinforce the neuromuscular pathways you will be using in race....

Well I hope I haven't peaked a week too early is all I can say! Yesterday was one of the best races I have ever done, swimming or tri! I entered the Great East Swim (GES) 1 mile swim (1600m) on a whim a couple of weeks back just to hone the competitive swimming element of tri. During Marshman I had a panic attack, the start was more challenging and competitive than IMCH and other more recent tris combined with having my goggles pulled off, so I decided I needed more OW swimming and racing practice so two weeks ago when I managed one OW swim (the second this year) I thought well lets combine an OW swim with a race - the GES looks good :-)

Wind forward to yesterday morning and we (the family) arrived at Alton Water for the GES, my first competitive swim since I was racing Masters pool swimming during my PhD - nearly fifteen years ago! The onsite organisation was a bit of a cluster - lots of tents and signs for spectators but a lack of direction to the start....anyway I eventually found it and waited to be logged in. Our warm up time arrived and we got into the (frankly tiny) patch (about 10mx10m) of water to try and warm up - we had a whole resevoir why such a small warm up area???? I kept waiting for more orange hatted people to turn up for our wave but we ended up with most of the 60 entered in the wave - apparently I had entered the top Age Group (AG) wave - the next wave was the elites....as far as I know I was the only triathlete there all the others were OW swim specialists...oh dear, this could be a disaster I thought.....we had an "interesting" warm up led by a fitness instructor and the starting klaxon was set off  (by the German chap who came 2nd in the elites). Prior to the race I had not really thought about the difference of swimming races vs triathlons that much, i.e. in a triathlon the klaxon or gun starts the time for everyone, in this OW race the time started when an individual went over the timing mat - hence I could have waited at the end and gone over on my own and into clear water, but I didn't instead I was in the second row and sprinted in to the water. A short session of aqua-ruck later I was in clear water and heading for the second buoy. After a pretty uneventual swim - which involved a fair amount of drafting two other swimmers and trying not to kill people from the previous wave (who were soooo slow and just appeared from nowhere doing breaststroke....) I rounded the last buoy and headed for the exit chute. In a triathlon I would have controlled my pace a little more and thought about T1 from about 400m out but this was a straight thrash for the end (and it shows on the video) - I jumped up onto my feet as soon as my fingers hit the bottom and sprinted for the mat - over the line in 24:44! Sub 25mins is a pretty good time for an OW 1 mile race to give some idea I was 38th overall out of 1285 swimmers, 32nd Male and 4th in my Age group (and gender), all without specific training for the race - I guess if I get bored with triathlons I could always make a go of racing OW swimming!!!

Lizzie recorded a videos of the swim finish http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150284244735522&comments - and a photo too!:

A good day's work! Very happy and slightly surprised!!

So why is this blog post not just entitled - a good swim? Well this morning I did a turbo 10mile time trial, basically a 25min warm up and then flat out for 16km of the last section of the Marshman route. My previous best for 10mile TT was 27:42 this morning I managed it in 26:01 :-) Okay it was the turbo but I have it fairly well dialed in for accuracy as I managed 535W max/237W av and HR 186 max/162 av which is pretty close to what it should be!!

So there you go - taper 2/52 done - two swims, three turbo sets one rest day and a race - DONE! Next week is the final taper week to UK 70.3 IM in Wimbleball - turbo x2, swim x2 and 1 road session to test the bike. Also I have my mid week test run - my biggest fear.....why well three weeks ago I put some small tears in my Achilles tendons and I have been icing/ultrasounding/resting them as much as possible - if they are not 80% on Wednesday then Wimbleball will be a swim/bike and probable/planned DNF on the run....it was my A race but it is now my B race with Ireland 70.3 as my main focus....fingers crossed.

Finally if you find this interesting and want to sponsor my efforts please go to http://www.justgiving.com/Iaindoesthreehalfironmanracesin2011 and donate some money for the Urostomy Association - they helped my mother - a really worthwhile cause!!

Keep well

Iain.

So tomorrow is the Great East Swim....

For me it is really a bit of a training session with added adrenaline. I needed to do another OW set before Wimbleball next week and venues around here are hard to find, also I it has been ages since I just raced a swim race - so why not....Mike thought it was a good idea :-)

This week has been pretty good - still no running - next Wednesday is make or break day - if there is pain...no UK 70.3 8-O :-(

....but the swimming is going well - today was a sprint set in prep for tomorrow main set was 10x100 (all between 1:14-1:19) and 6x50 (all between 34-38sec)....and the cycling seems better as the power based turbo sets seem to be getting easier :-) 350W seems accepable rather thasn impossible now!

As far as next week goes - it looks like I will be driving down on my own and camping overnight the night before the 70.3 - I have my camping comfirmation :-) so at least that is one thing sorted out!!

Anyway - the taper continues - no alcohol since last weekend (wow alcohol free beer is missing something!!) and the attempt at sorting out my ankles continues with a new ultrasound machine and a roller - The Grid - which hurts....

anyho...I will update after the race tomorrow - my wave goes at 1130 BST - wish me luck!

later
I.

So it's 11 days to go to Wimbleball....

Well do I feel that my last four weeks have gone well building to my "A" race - UK70.3? in one word "NO!" the last few weeks have been a bit of a step backward (with a few small shuffles forward too).

Why is this? Well last year one of my biggest challenges was reaching the start line for IMCH healthy, something I almost managed except I damaged both of my Achilles tendons just before my warm up 70.3, these than plagued me through the rest of the training season and nto the race itself, ultimately requiring a fair amount of rest, recovery and physio afterwards. Unfortunately I have managed to damage them again :-(

Unfortunately during my disasterous week in London at EULAR I had no gym or pool to go to so I overdid it running - I ran 5 days back to back finishing with a run which I did at my friend's pace not mine and I pushed it a little (5.11km in 25mins). As a result the following day when I tried to do a brick set everything hurt, but mostly my Achilles, small needling pains down the middle of them - a sure sign of acute tendon damage....As a result no running since, nearly two weeks now. I am speaking to my coach later but I think it is going to mean shifting my "A" race priority from Wimbleball to Galway in September....

On the plus side my cycling is improving - I managed a 40km TT effort in training in 1:14:23 - on an undulating route, on my road bike with my training wheels on - a new PB by 4mins pretty happy with it as my previous best was at Dorney Lake on my TT bike with deep aero wheels 8-)

Also I am out getting some OW swim training in - I managed to get to Datchet Lake last week (see my previous post) and I am entered into the Great East Swim (http://www.greatswim.org/Events/British-Gas-Great-East-Swim/) at the weekend - a straight 1mile OW swim - I am in the fast wave (under 30mins) which should make it interesting! My next OW swim race is Henley Challenge (http://www.henleyswim.com/challenge.asp) a 1 mile upstream swim on the Henley Regatta course on the 10th July.

My totals for the last 90 days had me amused...1102km on the bike, 81km running and 52km swimming - I didn't think I had trained that much!

And finally it was announced today that NYC will host the US Championships for IRONMAN next year (http://ironmanuschampionship.com/) - looks like we will have to look at budgets but maybe Roth has some competition as my "A" race next year...

I'll post an update after the swim - wish me luck!

Later
I.

Today's swim at Datchet

More analysis to follow - pretty happy with the sighting tho especially as my goggles were fogged for the entire time....

A reminder of the justgiving site!

In response to a request below is the link to the justgiving site for sponsoring me (at the bottom of this post), also I have attached the latest email I sent out to sponsors and supporters.

I just wanted to give you an update on progress so far. Well one half ironman down and two left to go to reach my goal of three in 2011!

I finished The Marshman at the beginning of May in a new personal best time of 6:35:24 taking a massive 25 minutes of my previous best. What made it more memorable for me was the fact that I had a challenging swim (one of my fellow “competitors” pulled off my goggles) and then I snapped my bike chain 500m onto the course, meaning I had to spend about 25 minutes repairing it – so in reality I would have taken nearly an hour of my previous best if those had not happened!

Since that race I have spent the time recovering and training for my next race, possibly the most challenging of the year – the UK 70.3 based at Wimbleball Lake in Exmoor. This race has been described as one of the toughest half ironman races there is and having done it in the past I can vouch for that. Not only do you have to swim 1.2 miles, cycle 56 miles and then run a 13.1 mile half marathon, you also have to do it over a hilly course that can only be described as evil. The bike route climbs more feet (5905ft) than most full (112 mile) ironman courses and the run includes 1323ft of climbing on tired legs...hard work! In 2009 I was the last person across the line in 8:54 this year I am aiming for sub 7 hours (and not last), fingers crossed!

After the UK 70.3 I have the new IRE 70.3 in my sights, this race is based in Galway (the swim is in the Bay....), but that is not until September, so between now and then I have decided to do a couple of open water swims. I have the Great East Swim in Alton Water on the 11 June (a week before UK 70.3), this is a 1 mile race, I am in the sub 30min wave – so that should be fun, and finally (for now) I am entered into the Henley Swim Challenge on July 10th, a 1 mile upstream (River Thames) swimming race, held on the Henley Royal Regatta course! Wish me luck!

Now for the other main reason for this email.

Whilst I do these silly endurance events to keep myself healthy and fit I also try to raise money to, in some way, offset the time and effort I put in. So far, if I am honest, the response to my first email was not stellar, but, I really, REALLY appreciate the donations from those who have already sponsored me. For those who have not yet been able to I like to ask you if you could spare even £1 to support my chosen charity for 2011, the Urostomy Association. They are a fabulous small charity who assist those who are about to undergo or who have undergone surgery which results in a urinary diversion, such as a urostomy, continent urinary pouch or neo bladder. In addition they assist carers in the rehabilitation of people with a urinary diversion and improve the quality of life of people who have undergone urinary diversion surgery and those who care for them.

So why them? Well, about seven years ago my mother had a urostomy, subsequently followed by a colostomy. It is a major surgical procedure which very nearly killed her, due to the post op infection. If you do not know anyone who has had either of these procedures you will not realise how life changing they are. There is a whole realm of challenges and difficulties they present. The members and staff of the UA were of great help to my mother and my father in that learning period and in the years that followed. I simply want to show my thanks to them by “doing my bit”. Any amount large or small will help this small charity immensely so (if you can) please be generous! To donate please go to:

http://www.justgiving.com/Iaindoesthreehalfironmanracesin2011

Finally, please feel free to go to my blog (http://iaindoestriathlon.blogspot.com) which I update infrequently to see how I get on over the season, also you can follow me on twitter @isainsbury.

Thanks for reading and best wishes,

Iain.

A week in Portugal

Well not a full week but a Tue-Fri business trip....it was fun and hard work (well except for an afternoon of Dolphin Safari (where we didn't see any dolphins....)

I managed to get some training in - not enough around 3km of swimming a longish run and a turbo(ish) session in the hotel gym. Below is the GPS trace from my run - it was seriously hot - I could feel the heat reflecting off the tarmac - and the lizards! WOW all over the place, red and green beasties - amazing...

As for the weekend - I have just looked at the programme and it is a 4hrbike and a 1hr run followed by a 2:15 run......not sure if I will manage to get that all in - we will have to see!

Later
I.

The road to recovery...

Well today is a week after Marshman and I am just about back to normal, the legs are still a little tired but they are coming back - what REALLY helped was two complete days of recovery - no training just living life, getting up a little later (well 7am) and walking the girls to school, etc just not stressing about training...

Since Marshman I have run a little, swum once and turbo'd twice...below is the trace from this morning's efforts...as you can see pace is a little down:

I have yet to look at the plan for my 5 week build to IM UK 70.3 but that is in the diary to do today or tomorrow....

I think the biggest challenge is going to be work...next week I am in Portugal Tue-Fri and then the following week I am at a conference from Tue to Saturday....I think training might be about to take a hit....not good in the build for my A race.....and then there are the logistics....Wimbleball is a nightmare to get to/accomodate at and get back from....I have a feeling I will end up driving myself down there and TravelLodging it the night before....and driving myself back...at least Team Sainsbury will be with me in Ireland....plus M&D might be out for that one too!!

Later...lunch is ready :-)
I.

A New template

Well I got bored with the old one...what do you think!

Marshman 2011 – A mixed bag....

Preparation

Before I start this race report please understand it is for you to read as much as for me to keep a record of my race (hence it includes lots of detail you probably don’t want!!).

The equipment I used for this race included:

Swim – Orca Alpha wetsuit + Predator Flex Goggles

Bike – Isaac Joule-Aerotic /S60 wheelset (11-28)+ Speedfil+ two bottles on X-lab wing

Run – Fuelbelt with two bottles/Brooks Summon running shoes

So the prep for the race didn’t actually start on Sunday morning but two days before. My single biggest challenge in racing anything over Olympic (1500m/40km/10km) distance is nutrition, on all of my major races (UK70.3/WCMD/IMCH) I have had nutrition disasters that have ranged from bloating to nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, etc they normally start about half way through the bike and continue throughout the run. I have tried various High5, Powerbar, Maximuscle, Buzzbar, Nakd products for nutrition but every time I have had the same issues. This time I wanted to crack it, so I started by thinking about my prerace nutrition slightly more. My main consideration was getting carbs and some protein in with limited amounts of fat and foods that are known to cause bloating/gas. Basically this meant a really boring diet for Lizzie for the two days before the race!

On Friday I started to reduce the amount of fibre in my diet (cutting out uncooked fruit/veg) and started to up the fluid intake (using half concentrate (1/2 a Nuun tablet in 500ml water). From Saturday am it was limit fibre as much as possible and focus on consuming carbs and some protein. Breakfast was poached eggs on white (no wholemeal at all) toast, lunch was a challenge as we were out at a brasserie, so I opted for beer battered fish and chips (minus the peas and tartar sauce) with water. In the evening we had pasta with green pesto and I made sure that this was all finished by 7.15pm (just under 12 hours before the race) – all the way through the day it was dilute nuun to drink (triberry flavour). No alcohol within 72hrs of the race (hard as we had a birthday party to go to the night before it!). I slept surprisingly well on Saturday night – going to bed by 10pm up at 3am 8-O to eat breakfast and head out.

Race Day

So a 3am get up for a 7am race...early!!! I had to drive to Lydd from Cambridge so I thought I would leave at least 2hrs – plus it meant I could try out my new pre race plan. I got up (and got the dogs up – they were not happy) and went for a 10min walk/jog to wake up, I then had breakfast – 40g/195ml of Scotts Old Fashion Porrage Oats/water with 500ml of Nuun (I tried Zipvit energy drink but it was not nice....). After a quick drive down to Lydd sipping Nuun all the way I registered and racked my bike – necking 2 Zipvit gels at 60 and 45mins before the race. The racking was a mixed affair, part carpeted, part grass/soil - which became mud after the swim :-(, but at least it was numbered. The race briefing was short and then it was straight into the water to go – I was in wave Alpha.

The swim

It was a deep water start and I placed myself as I usually do on the inside path to the first buoy near the front (all of my other races this positioning has served me well). I was about three/four people back from the front as the race started – it was one of the most competitive deep water starts I have done, it was really aggressive with lots of hands and elbows. This usually does not worry me however this was also my first time in the wetsuit for the year (plus I had not sealed it properly so my left arm was a bit full of water) all in all not a good start, it just did not feel right and at 200m I was going backwards....what really did not help was what happened next. I was jockeying for position with the swimmer to my right (oldish chap in a white club swim cap – I had seen him in transition) and he obviously got fed up with it as just as I put my head to the left to breath he pushed me under on his stroke and pulled my goggles off with his fingers (before the race I had tightened my goggles up so I know it was not an accident, ie. knocking them off). I immediately slowed and had to half swim/tread water to empty them (the water quality there is awful – really green and nasty tasting) which meant I got smacked into by the people swimming behind me. Once I had cleared my goggles I started swimming again – my confidence was a little knocked and it was the closest I have been to rolling on my back and putting my arm up in the air and DNFing in a swim – it was that close....

I persevered and pushed through the swim - passing the 300m buoy in clear water I began to pick up pace and chase down the front pack. The first turn was a bit of a mess as was the second (the swim course was a big M – 600m out and back with a 300m stretch making up the middle of the M) but the final turn was a perfect quick affair which took me passed two others. I finished the swim in 29th place in 30:32 – not my worst but not my best 1900m race effort. The exit was a slipway that led directly onto transition. I raced up it and down to my bike (not missing it like at WCMD last year!) and started to de wetsuit, however my bike was in a soil area so it all soon turned to mud – what a mess, plus I was pretty dizzy – T1 did not go well 4:12, it could have been faster – maybe no arm warmers next time (or at least roll them!) – once that was over it was out onto the bike.

The bike

The bike will be the defining memory to me of this race, I mounted well and pushed out onto the course zipping past the spectators and the Race HQ and off towards the course...and a good bike time....and that is how I hoped it would have gone, instead about 500m out from the Race HQ I tried to change up onto the large chainring and all I hear was a mechanical shearing sound and then I was pedalling like a maniac and slowing down...I looked down....no chain....I stopped and got of my bike...and swore at it....jumped up and down and swore some more.....ran back picked up my chain...realised that either end where it had failed had been damaged (the ends were chamfered in so a speedlink would not work)...ran back to my bike and swore a bit more....thought “well that is it game over – 30mins in – bugger” and then thought – multitool – I can take off the broken links and put the chain back on shorter and just race on the gears I can make...sorted! So I got out my multitool with chainbreaker and then realised that you need a no.6 hex spanner to use it – my only one was attached to the multitool...more swearing.....all the time people were zipping past me asking if I was okay...I wasn’t.....after I had sat there for a couple of minutes I realised there was a mechanic at Race HQ it was only 500m (ish) back so I picked up my bike and chain and legged it over the parking field to the HQ. The mechanics were all having a cup of coffee but after some persuading they fitted a new chain and I was sorted...well kind of....I had pretty much convinced myself that my race was over, to then try and psych myself back up to carry on for another 6hrs was tough, and I mean really tough....

I got back out on the bike course and I pushed as hard as I could whilst trying to keep to plan – I was aiming for Z3 throughout (147-160bpm) as it was I kept it near 163-165 throughout. The bike course itself is not challenging on this course – climbing was around 200m and 40m of that is on one hill...there are some fast bits but mostly it was a steady state effort – the biggest challenge being the headwind – it was simply amazing, to give an example there was one bit where I turned a corner and my speed dropped from 34kph to 14.....hard work.

From a nutrition perspective it all felt good – I drank fairly freely (Nuun triberry), making sure I was taking on fluids at least every 10mins and I took a Zipvit gel every 30 mins. For the first time on a 70.3 or IM bike – no GI issues and no cramping!!! However I think I may not have taken enough carbs before the race as everything felt flat – not sure why....also a first on the bike – I was overtaking people...not done that before...all the same I wonder if I should go back to a 54/39 rather than a 50/34 on the TT bike...average cadence 80....

I came back into transition in 3:31 (190th place for the bike) feeling a little dejected but overall at least I had made it round. T2 was smoother than T1. I racked my bike and stripped to my trikit to run – I paused long enough though to clean the mud off my feet (carpeted transition...hmmmm) and put on my fuelbelt and off I went.

The run

The run route has changed from the out and back death march that was apparently last years route. Instead it is a run from Lydd to Brookland and back – it is a pleasant route with several places where you run either side of the road – it was nice to see other people!

I struggled from the off to get my cadence up – I usually run at 90-95 strides/min but 80-85 seemed to be all my legs could do so I switched of my Garmin alarm telling me my cadence was low and just went with the flow. Everything felt fairly good on the run, nice and fluid no real pain in the legs – I saw Mike (my coach) heading back in (he had a stormer, finishing in 4:47) and the pace felt manageable, if a little slow 6:30-6:45/km – I usually run 5:50-6:00. At about 1:38 into the run the wheels fell off...probably due to too many carbs being pushed or that I had mixed a caffeine Zipvit gel in to see what happened...but I started to develop GI cramp and pain...I took some Colofac (mebeverine – a GI antispasmodic) which started to work around 10mins later but for around 3km I had a completely flat spot – it was a mix of nausea/GI pain and occasional vomiting...however with about 2km to go things seemed to improve and despite having a stitch I pushed through and finished fairly strong (6:20/km pace).

I finished the run in 2:23:22 (182nd place for the run) which I was fairly happy about as my fastest fresh ½ marathon time in 2:14. In total I came in 183rd in 6:35:14, only 5mins slower than my expected time and that included the goggles and chain fiasco, so all in all fairly happy.

As to whether I would do the Marshman again, not sure. It is an okay race, okay swim (although dubious water quality), fairly flat bike and run routes and it has FANTASTIC post race massage (approx 45min massage – although I had to wait about an hour for it!) – but it didn’t give me the same positive feel as the West Cornwall last year (and no beer at the end!).

Overall though - good race.
Iain.