Mid-January and the training continues for the 2019 season. Along the way I have picked up a well-honoured award – “THE MOST ENTERTAINING (and influential) BLOG AWARD” and a “MOST IMPROVED AWARD”.
This was part of the Beccles Triathlon Club annual awards. There were many other awards in this – THE BEAST FROM THE EAST AWARD earned by Chris Bradford. THE TOP TRUMPS AWARD earned by Roly Shaw. THE DEMON(S) DESCENDER (I Hate Going Down) AWARD well & truly earned by Danny Sayer. THE HOT WHEELS AWARD (Black (and orange) sheep of the club) given to Jo Fisk. And THE BENEFITS OF A FIBRE FREE DIET BEFORE A BIG RACE given to Phil & Nicole Goffin.
As a side issue the Best Male was won by Chris Bradford, Best Female by Suzy, Best Newcomer by Thakeni Marston-Mutimer & David Catchpole, Best Improved was also awarded to Karle Howard and Unsung Hero to Roly Shaw.
In the midst of the light-hearted awards there is some special recognition to those who have put in alot of hard work in the past few months and are now reaping the benefits. There was also recognition of the many Beccles Triathlon Club members who turn out each week and ensure the running of the club continues.
My Most Improved award was for my effort in Ironman Barcelona. Pacing second at Challenge Paguera in mixed relay division. Qualifying with team mates for the Challenge Championship. AG tri wins. Racing the early season at Lotus. Huge improvements in swimming not only in distance but also confidence. PBing over 5k, 10k and half marathon distances in 2018. In fairness I didn’t expect anything as in my mind my improvements have been quite small to some of the guys in the club but I guess with it being an open-voting system to all club members my results have been noticed which is quite humbling.
It’s nice to look back on 2018 and see where I started and how far I’ve come I guess. In the cycling world it’s mainly about performance and results-driven whereas triathlon is about completion, sure enough the top-end is still results driven but the majority take part just to have the satisfaction of finishing, getting the t-shirt and receiving the medal as they cross the line. My mentality has always been from the cycling world when entering a race you look to win, whereas now I’m looking at races to help fellow team mates or to just enjoy the crack of racing….and getting a little bit of training effect on the way!
My 2019 goals still remain to be Majorca 70.3 in May, The European Champs in Samorin in June and Challenge Almere 70.3 in September. There is also an increasing interest back to Road Racing in the early season which will (hopefully) bolster my ability to ride 90k’s hard in my Middle-Distance events. It’s clear my canny ability to sit in people’s wheels and come out when only when necessary won’t be a sufficient training effect for my solo efforts later in the year so I may be seen on the front a bit more than expected. I’m sure my team mates will comment on the various nose-bleeds and allergic reaction I will have by doing this! lol
I’m now at a point in my training schedule where I have the same “Training Peaks” fitness as I did on the day of Ironman Barcelona. This is way ahead of my expectations but on the other hand my fatigue is way above what it should be too. In short, I have combined a stand alone swim program, bike program and run program and “made” it work for the last 3 months. Alot of the scheduling I have created myself but I find myself addicted to the numbers and concerned for my fitness if I drop a few points here or there when having a day off or an easier session. In the final throws of my “base phase” I’m fitter and stronger than I ever was before but so fatigued I can’t show it in any event in the near future.
I tried a Duathlon last week with Tri-Anglia and had nothing to give, the 20-minute run before the 55-minute bike was enough to put me into fatigue before I even cocked my leg over the saddle. In a vain attempt to hold some sort of form I held onto a rider passing me by and kept within 20 metres of him to pace me round the bike leg. The following 12 minutes of running to finish the event only served to show me I had nothing in the tank and I finished 9th or 10th overall. Out of 50 on paper is good going I guess but I expected so much better – even if it was the first week in January and still 3 months away from my first serious race.
In a lengthy conversation with fellow DAP team mate last night it’s clear I’m flogging myself before the season has even started. My progression is there, but at what cost? My health or an injury will soon follow I fear and although my nearest & dearest has told me this on several occasions I choose not to listen – I’m sure it’s because we never like to admit (sometimes) that we may be wrong, especially to our other halfs! A good friend – Neil jokes with me about it too and it’s become a standing joke between us – but there is a serious undertone here – I may be overtraining and may not even get to the start line in my “A Races” with any form. Sleeping or Appetite have not been affected (symptons of overtraining) yet but it’ll be soon to start if I carry on notching up nearly 1000TSS each week as I have been doing for the past 4-5 weeks.
Time to evaluate…..
My swimming has benefitted from the two sessions I do each week so I will continue them. By Bike sessions need to be reduced – I currently ride 5 times a week and 4 of those are intense, either tempo, sweetspot, threshold or V02 max sessions. I intend on losing one of those moving forwards and if I find the time to ride i’ll do an easy 45-60 minutes instead. My running is going well but looking at a suggested plan from a club mate for me Half Ironman “Sub-5” target it’s clear I’m running too hard in my training and instead of a long session, a tempo session and an alternating fast/slow Park Run i’m knocking the fast Park Runs on the head for the time being as these should be recovey runs completed at an even slower pace than before. Time to enjoy the scenery and have a chat with friends along the way.
This in-turn may give me my legs back on a Sunday morning to hold onto the DAP CC training group. I’ve intentially missed the last few weeks simply because I’m too fatigued to hold on. Instead I’ve headed out on my own and racked up 60-70 miles still with as much (more even) fatigue by the time the day is out.
I won’t go into the Training Peaks Geeks section on this blog but this picture tells a thousand words…….
