A BIG thankyou before I race!!

Firstly a HUGE thankyou to everyone who has sponsored me - I really do

appreciate it!

Secondly, hello from Zurich! The family and I have finally made it to the
(rather wet) shores of Zurich with two days to go to IRONMAN Switzerland.
It has been a hectic few months training which in the past three months
has seen me ride over 1600km, run 200km and swim 80km in training!

The atmosphere here is buzzing with anticipation of the race and there are
bikes and athletic looking people in abundance - although whilst I may
have lost a few pounds in training for the race I am not sure I could ever
be described as "athletic looking"!!

Today I have the race briefing and registration and then bike inspection
before a day of relaxation prior to the race.

On Sunday morning, over your breakfast spare a quick thought for me - by
the time you are tucking into your cornflakes or toast I will be about
3hrs into the 180km bike with about another 9hrs of racing to go.

Also - Anja (my 6 year old daughter) will be just about to start her first
IRONKIDS race (a 50m swim and a 300m run) - please spare a thought for her
too!

If you want to track how I am doing please follow me on
http://www.ironmanlive.com/ I am race number 1405 (or search for me by name). I
hope that I can send a positive note at the end of Sunday or on Monday
morning - wish me luck!

Finally if you would still like to sponsor me for this race please go to
http://www.justgiving.com/Iaindoesanironman - remember any money raised
goes to The Precious Lives Appeal - raising money for a life-limited
children's hospice (full details at the bottom of the email).

Once again thankyou for your support.

Best wishes,

Iain.

Pictures from the race

I have taken out the worst shots :-) but I am a bit annoyed that they missed the finishing line and I only have front on images on the bike....

Note the angle of the bike with reference to the ground - I had to ride with it canted into the wind on Sunday as it was a little strong!

Steelman - 4 July 10

Where: Dorney Lake

Organiser: Human Race
Cost: £70 non btf
Date: sunday 04 july 2010
Course profile: 1500 lake swim, 40.8km bike, 10k run
Age groups: the full works
Number of competitors: 800 odd
Distance: Olympic
Marshalling: signs and a few marshalls (mostly around transition)
Technical: drink station on the run offering water
Facilities: big tent things, portaloos and the lake cafe
Freebies: cotton t-shirt

Pre Race

This was my last race before IMCH so I should have felt good going into it...wrong! On Monday I did my last LSD run (3:30 v boring on your own) and all felt well but about four hours later I realised I had pulled one of the muscles on the outside of my foot (p brevis if you are interested :ugeek: ) lots of RICE ensued (well some)....and then to cap it all on the Friday I did a long swim set and aggravated a trapezius injury I developed earlier in training - I spent most of Saturday in a lot of pain but luckily this had mostly gone by Sunday am...

Sunday started fairly early with a 0645 breakfast before jumping in the loaded car - OMG I was organised this time...I don't think I forgot anything :o  :shock:  - and heading to Dorney Lake. Luckily I arrived early enough I managed to park right next to the crossing point on the bike course so I had a quick exit at the end...it was still a good 500-600m walk to transition tho...

I bimbled up to transition with bike and box (dropping the bike once and chipping the laquer finish on my carbon handlebars  :x ) registered and racked my bike - simples.no sweat and for once transition seemed absolutely fine  :D 

Swim

After the customary wave to camera and (rather short) race briefing I headed to the front right for the swim - pole position  :o  I love swimming and thankfully it is one thing I am quite good at (as those who know me will know that is where it stops in the world of tri!) - the hooter went and off the washing machine went...it is the first time I have felt confident enough to go at the front and it almost worked except I forgot I have been training for IM not Oly - so I have lost a lot of speed - oh well - I just missed the front pack on the sprint start so I pulled back on the gas and cruised the rest - seeing almost no other swimmers in the process - it was a bit lonely!! One word of advice - if you do a tri at Dorney - follow the ropes that hold the rowing buoys they are like pool lane markers and they take you to the turn buoys - it took me one lap to work that out - DOH! Anyway swim went well - exiting the water in 25:53 a couple of mins behind the lead pack - I made the distance with my Garmin 310(with the swim upgrade) 1.7km so a little long...

T1

All went well for once - a little slow as always (as I put on socks/gloves) but not bad - 2:47

Bike

 :D  :D  :D  :D  :D  :D 

It went well - it was ****ing windy on the first corner behind tent city and then all the way to the other end of the rowing  tank but wayhay on the return leg it was FAST - maxing out at over 45kph and averaging 30.4kph. I have to say this was the first time on a bike leg I felt good and raced hard - over the past few weeks my LSD bikes have turned into long pace sessions (1hr at easy, 3hr at IM, 1.5hr at MD and .5hr at oly pace) and think god they have as my Garmin waved the white flag at this point and did not pick up HR/cadence from here on....it was all on RPE! Felt good, came in at 1:18:50  :D (bike was a little long at 41.01km)

T2

At this point I had a melt down and decided that my prerace plan for nutrition was not enough so I stopped to pull another gel out of the box - grabbed my fuelbelt bottle (shoved in trisuit pocket) and another gel shoes on and off...1:58 - not bad for me!

Run

Okay so I had planned to push the swim and bike, cruise the run and push the last 3km....no plan survices contact so the wheels came off a bit..I had no HRM (as the Garmin was still sulking)...so I started out at what I thought was a calm pace and looked at my watch 5:15/km - I slowed down - inevitable stitch developed so I settled at around 6:15 - 6:30/km - I heard malteser shout which perked me up (thanks mate  :D  :D ) and I just ran (slowly) round the route with my left ankle not enjoying things. I carried on in this vein until the last 2k where I pushed hard and held the pace at around 5:30-6:00/km - outrunning a few people finishing in 1:02:20 (run was 9.79km)

Overall time = 2:51:50 56/98 in age group and 266/482 finished

In summary a good race, if a little windy and boring on the bike (but good for practising maintaining max effort) - I was a little galled by the freebies (t-shirt only) for my seventy quid entrance fee but at least it was well signed/marshalled and run.

I.

Another week goes by!

I will update more fully later (when I have a chance!) but here is this morning's swim set:

WU: 500m choice
DR: 5 x 100m (50 pull, 50 thigh touch)
MS: 12 x 100, (bilateral breathing) off 2:00mins. Build - REPS 1-4 RPE 14/REPS 5-8 RPE 15/REPS 9-10 RPE 16/REPS 11-12 RPE 17
4 x 75m (bilateral breathing) off 1:30min. RPE 15
10 x 50m breathing every 5 strokes off 1:00min. Flat out.
DR: 2 x 300m (300 pull, 300 swim)
CD: 200m choice

In total 3800m - a good set - the sprints were particularly challenging but managed all of the 50s coming in on 34-36s going on 1min :-)

I cannot believe I have not updated this in a week!

Well its been hectic!!

Friday - 3.5km Swim/ 20min Run
Saturday - 4hr hills set with a 30min brick run
Sunday - 1.5km OW swim
Monday - REST (head up to British Cardiology Society Meeting for work)
Tuesday - 1:30 run (10min walk/8x (9:30/0:30 run/walk))
Wednesday - 1:20 Aerobic/Strength turbo - same as last week
Today - 1:20 Aerobic Cadence - same as last week

Tomorrow is another 3.5km swim and a 20min run!

Anyway - just looking at the counter on Training Peaks (where Mike puts my training plans) - in the past 90 days I have compled:

1521km on the bike
65km swimming
193km running (well the injury held me back)

Not bad - certainly never thought I would manage that when I had my leg surgery back in 2007!

One final note - please if you can click on my Donate widget and go to justgiving.com to donate to the Precious Lives Appeal - thanks!

I.

Two nights of turbo

Last night and today - turbo sessions - OMG Mike has developed new ways to induce pain on the machine!!!

Mostly it went well but really feeling the pace being upped in the build phase - legs are buzzing at the moment...gears are all over the place on my Aerotic though - I need to index them again before Saturday!

So the sessions:

Wednesday:
WU: 10minutes @ 70% HRmax

INTO 5 X 30 seocnds spin ups (RPE 13-14) RPM 100+ with equal recovery in b/t.
MS: 20, 15, 15, 10, mins @ 75, 80, 85, 90% All Straight through - NO REST!
CD: 5min easy cool down
 
Today:
WU: 10minutes @ 65-75% HRmax

INTO 5 X 30 seocnds spin ups (RPE 13-14) RPM 100+ with equal recovery in b/t
MS: 4, 4, 2, 2, 6, 6, 4, 4 (75%) 2, 2, 6, 6, 4, 4 (80%) as RPM 95+, overgearing 60RPM (heavy) LCR, Repeat straight through. - NO REST!
CD: 5min easy cool down.

I found it really hard to keep the RPM up on todays efforts!

Anyway swim and recovery run tomorrow - probably with Anja in tow on the run!

I.

Gradual return to running

Last night I did one of my first long runs since my Achilles injury. It was nice to run some distance - albeit very slowly! The set consisted of:

10mins walk building from slow to fast (how odd does this look in running kit - in public!)
7x10 mins running - RPE 13/14 (as 9:30 run/30 walk)

....and wow do I feel it this morning even with compression wear on last night - Achilles (on both sides) are quite stiff!

I have to drive home later today (I am in Cornwall with work today) and then it is a aerobic build turbo set later

I.

OW Swim and run today

Finally worked out how to use my Garmin when swimming :-) under the first hat - goggle straps either side of it and another hat on top - simples!

Works really well - does not slip and vibrates to tell me when I have swum 100m (or any distance it can be set to!) - pretty accurate too

So this morning was:
3x200m building pace
2x500m - first at 75% long gliding strokes, second at 85% long strokes but with power

Managed a 30min recovery run before too - looking forward to the rest day and Em's wedding tomorrow!

I.

The West Cornwall Middle Distance Triathlon – 22nd May 2010

Let’s start at the beginning...this race was always intended to be a bit of a beat up from my A race of the season – the 2010 IM CH in Zurich....keep that in mind!

So after nearly six weeks of no running (due to Achilles tendonitis) and feeling rough for part of the week (GI bug either child or food induced – I wish it was overeating/drinking...) I was delighted to get an email on Tuesday telling me that the bike course I had recce’d last weekend (and ridden!) had been completely changed so out went the plans of a course with a hilly start and an uber quick back section (ideal for the Aerotic)....the course was described as “lumpy” by the organisers – Cornish for a little hilly....

So bike plans changed I prep’d the Protosonic for racing (changing wheels/pedals/computer mounts/etc) and we headed down to Cornwall....after a long drive and less than five hours sleep I got up at 3:40am....it was going to be a long day!

After waking myself up and coating myself in P20 suncream breakfast was a big bowl of porridge with brown sugar washed down with 500ml of Viper....with assistance (thanks Dad!) I sorted out the bottles/food for the day and headed down to the registration (a 30min drive away).

I registered and racked my bike (and met the woman who took my chip off me at Wimbleball last year – offered a volunteer job in a transition crew at UKHIM if I want it...maybe...)

The day was calm and the sky already deep blue and clear – it was going to be hot and still – or so I thought – time to put the trispoke wheels on front and rear...big mistake!

Following the race brief we headed down to the swim start (1900m in Mounts Bay, water 12ish degrees and not much chop) – a little apprehensive (my first sea swim since I was 10!) I race into the water at the start.

I found my first rock about 20m in and stubbed my toe and then decided swimming would be better than walking/running...the swim went quite well being herded by the canoes around the course – about ½ mile off shore the wave picked up and I experienced swimming uphill and downhill for the first time – v wierd!

I came in from the swim in about 30mins and crossed the mat at 33:05 - running in sand is hard! Passing over the mat put me in the “Dead Zone” a clock stop before the T1 mat as the swim to T1 was a fair distance (this is important later...) I took off my wetsuit and made my way to T1. A quite quick T1 for me 3:27 even including taking the sand off the feet and putting on socks (and being strangled by my cycle jacket) and out onto the bike.

The bike was a good challenging course – I would have enjoyed it more with uber lightweight wheels rather than aero monsters as it was very hilly and technical (totally unlike the original course) – once out of Marazion the route wound its way to the North coast and from there to Zennor before coming back through St Ives to Hayle and back to Marazion before doing a loop out towards Helsotn, and back via Hayle – 84ish km in total in 3:37:17 - 3 mins faster than the computer predicted (quite happy with that) – most times were in the 3:20-3:40 range. The main challenges were the headwinds (up to 30mph in gusts) and the crosswind on the north coast (hmmmm trispokes were a poor choice...) combined with a shocking road surface all along the north coast (the descents were interesting...)

Through T2 - change socks, shoes, grab hat and fuelbelt and off I went....in 3:30 – not the fastest but not the slowest either...

Onto the run...OMFG what a run – out of T2 straight onto a beast of a hill followed by a down hill and another two hills the last being insanely steep – it was a two lap course with drink stations at the half way point and the lap end....glad I had the fuel belt....

I knew I was going to have a bad run when I developed stomach cramp and bloating in the first km...it got worse and I had to stop and wretch for a while....this carried on for most of the rest of the run....calming down a bit towards the middle of each lap where it was flatter....I was extremely hot (it was over 30 in the sun) and with the high hedges there was no breeze...this made it hard work....I spent most of the first lap trying to persuade myself to quit at the half way but after I had a nice chat/a drink of fresh water and some new suncream from one of the volunteers I felt much better and headed out onto lap 2. The second lap was pretty uneventful until about 1km out when I saw a guy behind me (the first person I had seen in an hour!) I decided to race it to the end and put the foot down – beating him across the line by about a minute – run finished in 2:55:36 (pretty shocking but it was hard) – his comment at the end was “ I wish I could run like that” – dead chuffed I was...until I found out that he took 30s less than me in the dead zone (which we were not told was timed....) and so beat me by 20s in total time :-( my final time was 7:12:56

Anyway I made it round – didn’t blub when little Jules ran towards me shouting “Daddy!” (like last year at Wimbleball) – and could walk the next day...result!

...and on the plus side which other Triathlon has post race nutrition as a pint of Skinners Blond Ale and a pasty :-) the thought of it kept me going for the last lap!

Middle distance beat up race...done....1hr43mins inside my old PB....IMCH here I come :-)

New wheels on the bike :-)

and a small version too...