Now a RoadID Affiliate :-)

16 January 2012

So another update so soon - I must be getting back into this :-)

I got an email today I have been accepted onto the affiliate program for Road ID which means I can put their banner onto my website. Why am I happy about this? Well I use RoadID both when training and in general life...

I have a red full size RoadID which I use when I am training because it is reflective and hopefully if I should ever need it it is pretty visible!




In my normal life I wear a RoadID slim:




Why? Well for one thing I have an allergy to penicillin and it is always good to have a tag saying that somewhere, but also I travel alone a lot - both short and long haul and should the worst happen I would like Lizze to know!

I must admit that when I looked at their web page I was a little sceptical about quality (as I had never seen one "in the flesh") and the customer service - I can safely say I now have NO issue with either.

Their quality is first rate, the materials, laser etching and finish is excellent, and their customer service is fantastic - they are fast to delver and communicate really well. I wish all products I had purchased "blind" on the Internet were as good!

So please, please, if you don't have ID which you carry when you train, go and have a look on their website, just click on the banner above - it may save your life!

Raving about RoadID apart, training is not going particularly well....

Saturday - Evie woke up early on Saturday and as it was dark and über-icy I went for the turbo - 1.5hrs and 50km of the Ireland 70.3 - 1.87W/kg happy with that.

Sunday - this was meant to be an escalating aerobic run but I was not feeling up for it so I did a core session and a short 30min/5km run instead

Today - I managed to get to the pool for a swim
300 EZ and 100 pull w/u
3x100 drills (catch ups/fists/thigh touch/lowest stroke count)
1x400 moderate
2x300 tempo
3x200 tempo+
4x100 max effort
50 EZ c/d

I timed the 100s - all of them in on 1:27 - consistently poor about 10s off my usual 100 time. Not sure why probably due to the single swim per week rather than 2 per week which is what I was doing.

Then this afternoon I went and saw the orthopaedic surgeon about my knee...hmmmmm. Basically the outcome of my MRI is....they can do nothing about it...it looks like a small area of delamination of the cartilage on the back of the patella in the area of Hoffs fat pad - unfortunately to do an arthroscopy at the moment would be more damaging than leavening it alone and would probably increas the pain beyond where it is at present. Anyway below is a nice picture showing the delamination - it is the red arrow if you are not that good at reading MRIs ;-) :


It probably is the beginnings of patella femoral OA but I am just in denial :-) I will not succumb to age just yet!!

Anyway run or bike and core tomorrow before heading off to Barcelona on Wednesday.

Later
I.

Wow another post this quickly?! Its a long one!

13 January 2012

So I find myself actually wanting to start writing again. Towards the middle of last year I lost enthusiasm as I had been keeping a training blog for the best part of three years, since I started triathlon, and writing came at the bottom of a long list of things to do. However I think it is important partly for me so I can brain dump without having to bore the family completely with tri stuff - they put up with enough of it already, but also for you, the reader. Why do I think this? Well, if you are reading this you are either a friend (I do have some!) who is interested in finding out what I spend my time doing, or you are a triathlete who is probably struggling with some of the same challenges I encounter - in which case I might either help or be of no use whatsoever - it is your view!!

So why am I rambling on about this? Up until now this blog has always been about training for an event, either Wimbleball in 09, IM Switzerland in '10 or three 70.3s in '11. This year, 2012, will be a little different - why I hear you ask? Well, I have no big goal. For the first time since I started this triathlon lark I am not going for a BIG race this year, I am just looking for consolidation and a relatively easy year. There are sevel reasons behind this, the main one is in the photo below:


Evie or Evelyn Charlotte Iona Sainsbury (to give her her full name) is our yougest of three, born last year in November. Since then she has not slept much - I think Lizze and I have managed a maximum of 4.5 hours in any one stretch since! Even when I go away on work I still wake up as I cannot hear her on the monitor!!

When Anja and Julia were born I was still very much involved with the Reserve Forces and missed a lot of time with them at this age, and with my new role I am away a lot (between now and my birtheday in March I am going to Paris (lots), Amsterdam, Barcelona, Montreal, Toronto, Israel, Chicago and maybe a few other places) so I am keen to spend time with the family - enjoying our new member. Therefore something has to give and this year it is triathlon.

In addition, I am seeing a orthopaedic surgeon on Monday for the results of an MRI on my knee to try and work out why it is painful (I reckon Posterior Cruciate Ligament damage) and at the beginning of Feb I am finally having my (worsening) squint sorted out (only 30 years after first diagnosis!). So lots of things going on!!

So where does training/racing fit in.....hmmmm...tricky!

At the moment I am doing a winter program - which is mostly long tempo or short interval work on the turbo, long(ish) hard swims and lots of running (aerobic tempo work). This seems to be improving my running/maintaining my bike and the swimming has fallen back as I struggle to get to the pool in the morning with trying to get the kids to school!

The solution I have found is 5.30-6am get up and train for the bike/run, however this us unfed and not ideal, but it works...I am still working on the swimming but on days where there is no time challenge in getting the kids to school (no tutoring or choir) I can sometimes get away...

Where this is failing though is on the fatigue (and waistline) front - having a little one is draining and trying to get longer run/bike in is hard. Also Christmas was fun but bad for the waist and I am back up above 92kg :-( something to work on over the next few months...

This was highlighted when I tried to do a field testing week this week....OMG....utterly failed at it! On Monday I managed to do the swim test:

300 w/u EZ
100 build 75-95%
1500m TT
400m TT
50m TT
all with 2mins rest between and a 50 EZ
100m CD

The 1500m TT I managed in 23:15 - although I had to stop for about 15s to check that one of the other swimmers was okay - she swam into my tumble turn...muppet....the 400m in 6:10 and the 50 in 38s. All respectable but not my best efforts!

On Tuesday I tried to do the Bike test on the turbo:
10m EZ spin @65%RPE
3x1min 110RPM spin up +1min rest in between
5min @65%RPE
5min TT ALL OUT (max effort)
10min @65%RPE
20min TT (hold a high pace)

It was all going well - good pacing, the 5min effort was mostly >300W - happy with that, right up until the computer that runs my Tacx I-magic froze - 10mins into the 20min TT....I was so hacked off....

On Wednesday I was out in Paris so I had a fab 30min steady run from the Arc d'Triomph, Eiffel Tower and Champs Elyssee (one benefit of travel - I do get to run in some nice places!) Unfortunately my Garmin refused to pick up the GPS satellites until part way through the run - the green line - the red line doewn Avenue Kleber to the Trocadero was the route I took...



I thought I would rerun the bike test on Thursday - completely failed on that one....my max W were down in the 260s and I died completely 10mins into the 20min TT..... the feedback from my fab coach Mike Redshaw (@Mike_Redshaw) from The TriLife was take a rest day today, Friday, and come back to it fresh next week - sounds like a plan...of course the only challenge is next week I am in Paris for one day, Barcelona for two and Amsterdam for one...oh well time to start juggling balls or spinning plates again I guess!!

That is it for now...rambled on too long...fingers crossed for Monday and the surgeon...

Later
I

First update in ages!

7 January 2012

It has been nearly three months since I have even looked at the blog - partly due to the reason below, partly due to work commitments (I travelled 47000 air miles in two months at the end of last year) but mostly due to the software I write with not working! The following entry never got posted but summarises a day after the week before in November last year :-)


"Well it has been a fairly long amount of time since I updated this blog - there is a reason :-)

Last Saturday night at 8:45 I became a father again for the third time. Evelyn Charlotte Iona Sainsbury was born naturally with no problems, both she and Lizzie are doing really well - all very happy and came home the next day. Now obviously this will (and has) had a profound impact on my Training and aspirations for 2012. At the beginning of 2011 I was planning to go long again, probably at Roth or Austria, that has all now gone to the left and my intentions for 2012 are to build a bit of speed and go short - ie Olympic distance - although depending on how life plays out I might put in an end of season middle distance.

As for training well for the past couple of weeks swimming has gone out of the window, firstly because of the distance to travel and secondly as Lizzie is out of action feeding a lot I am doing drop off for the kids. So, I am doing a lot of running (short loops round the village) and turbo work - trying to find time/flexibility to get out on the road is proving challenging....

The final thing that has put a spanner in the works is a knee injury I picked up in August. "


So has anything changed since I wrote this?

Not really....swimming has been non existent since Evie arrived as I have been helping get the other girls ready for school in the morning but running and riding (or turbo'ing as it seems to be) are going okay :-) overall though my training is holding my fitness in check - at least I am not getting slower!! I did 400m in the pool on Wednesday ((as 100s @ EZ/IM/70.3/sprint pace) as part of a longer program) in 5:38 so the rest has helped a bit. My running is improving with my slow pace now being sub 5:45/km (at peak IM training i was doing 6:45/km!!) and I reckon at race pace I would do around 26-27:30 for a 5km now - faster than I have been since I started this tri lark! Unfortunately, though, my bike has suffered - mainly on endurance (as I have not had the time for volume) but also on road time - as I can do almost no road riding - the only chance I get to ride is early in the morning and it is pitch black then - so the turbo is being used lots!! The weight is up too...I have put on 3kg since end of season - I am hoping that changing to in season training will sort that in March.....hmmmm....

My plans for next year are firming up a bit - Windsor olympic in still on and I have entered the IM 70.3 race in Ireland again (great course - hard sea swim, rolling bike course and flat run - it really suits me) but as yet nothing else is confirmed...

Now that the software I use (Blogpress on the iPad) is working again - they finally fixed the bug that caused it to crash with iOS5 - I will try and keep this a bit more up to date!

Away, later....
I.




 

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