Another week and another set of workouts completed. As a competitive cyclist there’s around 3 or 4 sessions a week which makes you slightly tired – now put the other two disciplines in there and all of a sudden fatigue is a major factor. When looking at Ironman last year and making this decision it’s clear to see why people can get hooked by the Ironman bug only to be broken & injured in the months leading up to the event. I heard somewhere that in the months leading up to the London Marathon Ibuprofen sales go up by quite a bit – now I can work out why!
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Clearly not liking this running lark! The Tri racing season is now under way and I bagged my first result on Saturday at the East Coast Tri – a 250 metre swim, a 16km (apparently) bike and a 3km run on Great yamouth promenade.
The swim was a bit of a disaster, my estimated 5:30 min swim was spot on but the experience wasn’t – I actually felt like I was near-drowning the whole time, struggling to move forwards and struggling for breath. So much so that the guy who started 30 seconds behind me nearly caught me at the end.
T1 was as quick as possible although heckling from another fellow cyclist helped with the banter and light-heartedness of the day.
Onto the bike where the damage could be done, getting stuck at a set of traffic lights wasn’t helpful and then filtering on the right-hand side of a queue of 40+ cars wasn’t my best first mile but after I got away from the busier part of the seafront I was into my stride, picking off riders every 20-30 seconds or so. There were some on different laps of the 3-lap course so there was plenty to keep me focused on. The stiff sea-breeze didn’t help on the return leg on each lap but I knew I was putting time into everyone here. I had set my focus on 16km as they race details said….but it wasn’t, it was actually 17km so that threw me a bit.
Into T2 and trainers on and I was off like a rocket! Totally ignoring Suzy’s advice to go steady in that first half a kilo I went straight into oxygen debt and never recovered to record a really bad run time.
A 5:31 swim, a 28:20 bike (2nd fastest bike split of the race) and a 12:16 run saw me at 6th place overall and bagging my age group win – not bad for a fat lad to be well under way with his IM training. The self-cynic in me picked all the bones out of that performance and as usual I “could’ve done better” but that’s triathlon – I don’t think many people do perfect race. Much to the annoyance of Suzy it must be said.
She bagged the overall ladies win, and bagged the fastest bike split of the day in her event. All that turbo/wattbike training paying off. Again – not the target race she was hoping to do well in but definitely a confidence booster to know it’s all heading in the right direction.
Back to the week’s overall training….
Monday saw a steady state (IM Pace) run covering just under 11km in an hour and then followed by a swim with a pull buoy to simulate wearing a wetsuit. All good, i’m eating ginger sweets just before I go in the pool now and although it might be a placebo effect I think it made a difference.
Tuesday saw me out & about with the DAP boys on the chaingang. I lasted a little longer this week (just a little) and that was mainly down to a more controlled 2nd lap although it did go a bit ballistic at the end of lap 2 into the final lap. But, I still held pace and covered the 3rd lap just as fast as the 2nd so gotta be happy with that.
Wednesday saw all three disciplines. A 11km run in my dinner hour, a 90 minute ride up in the upper 200w’s and then a mile swim. Suffice to say I slept well that night.
Thursday was an easy day with just a ride out round the lanes as the sun was out and needed to get the soreness out of my legs for Saturday’s event.
Friday was just a short “opener” on the turbo.
Saturday was the Tri.
Sunday morning I was helping out at DAP’s Road Race – a 80 miler bike race based near Beccles so that kept me busy. In the afternoon I watched Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a classic Pro bike race on Eurosport and then headed to the gym for a 70-minute progressively harder bike session ending in 12 minutes at full-threshold pace…..and then another 11km run on the treadmill.
TP Geeks: Fitness – 95. Fatigue – 104. Form – -3. Swim: 3120m. Bike: 270km. Run: 36km. TSS: 728.
Same again next week?!!!!! lol
And finally……
My Fiance – Suzy. She does get some crap from me from time to time. She supports me, she helps me understand why I am doing this slow/steady volume rather than the “Rock Estate/Eyeballs coming out of your head” pace. She helps me to try & swim better (that’s a full-time occupation right there). She listens to me and in between all of my high-maintenance requests she fits in her training too and wins races. My results are a reflection on her support and I need to sit back and just take it all in occasionally rather than be pessimistic about getting 6th place rather than winning it. Nuff sed 🙁