One thing about multi-discipline sports is the sheer volume of training required in the build up to events. The vast difference between Triathlon and Cycling training is quite astounding.
In cycling a Tuesday evening sharp session, a chain-gang on Thursday and a cafe ride on the Satuday was all that was needed to be in pretty handy shape for a race on the Sunday. In fairness that was the “old days” when riders didn’t disappear to Majorca or The Calpe for 3-months each winter and no-one had a coach. These days to even finish in the amateur peleton you’ve gotta have ticked a few of these boxes. Failure to do so results in a pretty painful Sunday morning each week whilst everyone else is celebrating their successes. The “racer” brain in me still thinks I can have a go in these races but at the ripe old age of 47 I know it’s a little beyond me. Ok, I might survive the race but that’s about it. Nonetheless I have entered a local race in th enext few weeks to see if I’ve still got it.
Regarding Triathlon training, it’s all about those 3 disciplines and nailing threshold, tempo and endurance session in all 3….each week. So that’s 9 sessions in 7 days, and some gym work, oh…..and a rest day!
Having some downtime over the weekend I’ve looked at my old cycling sessions on Training Peaks and my total TSS (Training Stress Score) totalled around 300-400 for a week. Triathlon training has a tendancy to creep up to 1000 TSS on some weeks, and I wonder why I’m tired???
The last few weeks have not been any different to be fair and with Almere 70.3 only 10 weeks away it’s time to increase the volume, create the stimulus and get ready.
At the time of writing my last blog it was the eve of the Fritton Lake Triathlon Weekender. I was there albeit in spectator-mode on the Saturday. Suzy was Technical Official for British Traithlon both days so I accompanied her watching the Sprint and Super Sprint events. Helping out and encouraging fellow Beccles Triathlon Club members in their events and catching up with old friends.
On the Sunday I was the bike-leg in the Olympic Relay event with Marcus Nichols and Marcus Sladden. We won this event last year so we were keen on proving it wasn’t a complete fluke. I was also keen on improving my time of 1:01 from last year as I felt I had a bad day at the office and both the swim and run legs saved my embarassment.
Marcus Nichols was our swimmer and he came out of the water (I think) in 3rd place. It was a very good swim as he started in the 2nd wave of the morning and came out in 15th place at T1 of both waves. As always I was there waiting for him to come up the hill from the lake and watched the two other relay bikers head off into the distance whilst I waited for Marcus and the Timing Chip handover.
Once this was done I was on my way and keen to reel in the two bikers ahead of me. I caught the first one (2nd on the road) by Somerleyton Hall and within another 2 miles caught the leader. I was now in a position where I thought “what now?”. I just concentrated on keeping the power not too high so i’d blow up before the end – something which I do quite regularly!
One by one I was catching the solo guys and pushing on to record a sub-hour effort on the course and improvement by over 90 seconds. Little did I know that I actually came in 3rd on the road too, making up 12 places overall on the whole race in both waves.
Once into T2 and handed over the Chip to Marcus Sladden I had time to take in my first sub-hour effort over this course that I’d ridden for over 30 years.
It wasn’t all plain sailing as another team relay cyclist had put over a minute into me on the bike leg and their runner was hot on Marcus’ heels on the first lap of the 3-lap run leg. Marcus kicked a few times out of some corners and he (we) eventually won the event by just over a minute. To top that we took the fastest time of the day in just over 2 hours.
The following week I had a rather large weekend to do. On the Saturday there was the Wildman at Beccles Lido. As I won this event in 2018 I was almost duty-bound to attend and defend. I stood no chance whatsoever as fellow Beccles Tri clubmates Jonny Weavers and Car Prewer were on the start line and invitees Simon Brierley and Ace Dann. With no real pressure to do anything great I thought it’d be a great idea to follow the fast guys’ feet in the 2k swim in the River Waveney at the back of the Lido – that proved to be a very bad idea as I survived about 2 minutes of that and spent the rest of the swim catching my breath and just crawling in. Once onto the bike ride I was keen to put some good numbers down on this self-navigated lumpy course. I caught Carl within 3 miles of the start, Jonny at about 15 miles and Simon at around 20 miles. Simon & I were pretty much together until about 3 miles to go where he slowed up – I guessed in readiness for T2 and the 17km run ahead. I came into T2 in 2nd place with a 10-minute improvement from last year, with Ace about 3 minutes ahead. Simon stopped his event at this point feeling pretty spent from the bike leg. I started to run but the legs were already finished with nothing to give, I saw Ace in the distance who was waiting for me. He did not know where to go in this self-navigated run leg on footpaths and bridal paths so he was waiting for the next person to show him. I ran as best I could but the legs were not playing their part – I guess this must’ve been very frustrating for Ace as he was keen to get a a good training run in before Challenge Roth in a fortnight’s time.
Within 7k we were joined by Jonny and soon enough the pair ran ahead taking another 15 minutes from me by the time I finished – this was one of the worst runs I had ever undertaken, I had never walked so much, just goes to show that smashing the bike is never a good idea in a long distance triathlon!
As it turned out Jonny outsprinted Ace for the win – a very well deserved win by a top bloke. I came in 3rd place – not bad considering. Carl…..well he went off course and managed to put in a 1:35 half marathon somewhere else in the suffolk countryside.
The next day (stupidly) I’d agreed to ride a 100-mile event with Suzy and Neil Timms near Diss. As soon as we started I knew the legs weren’t up to much and it was a case of survival for the day. In fairness we still managed 17mph for the whole distance and came away with some top bling medals and some kudos catching a few guys who flew past us at 30-miles only for us to breeze past them at 95 miles as they’d blown apart!
This massive training effect weekend was bound to have an effect on the following weeks’ training and sure enough it did. I ran the Bungay 10k number 2 event on Wednesday evening only for my legs (again) to give up on me and I came in effing and jeffing at 48:10 some 40 seconds down on my previous 10k three weeks before. I even stopped at the 5k water station and again at 7k as my brain just didn’t wan to run anymore. So annoyed with myself I was “Mr Unsociable” and sat in the car until Suzy (who had come out on her bike to watch me) was finished catching up with BTC friends and ready to come home. I hate being that person but recently I’ve struggled with the whole “lack of training specifics” for running. There is a perception by others that I can run fast despite little training but I’m one of those people where I have to do quite a lot of volume to get good at something – I don’t have that natural talent that some people do so I have to work at it. I’ve been missing this in my recent plans and with Almere some 11 weeks away I needed to address this aspect of my sport or else i’d do exacty the same as Majorca 70.3 and blow apart at 9 miles and walk home – which is something I definitely do not want to do.
Licking my wounds from Wednesday evening I rode the CC Breckland 50-Mile Time Trial on Saturday afternoon. The 31c degrees temperatures in the village hall car par did not bode well for any of us in the event and by the end of it there were over 30 “DNF’s” due to the heat. I had anticipated hitting my Half Ironman Power all the way through this event but this was reduced considerably because of the heat which raised my heart rate into the 160’s without me event pushing the pedals. The ironic thing was the headwind on parts of the course were great to cool down but this affected the average speed and it’s fair to say anyone who was looking for a PB today was definitely now looking just to survive. Nonetheless, after a strong final 6 miles passing a few riders I came in at 2:02:36 – not a bad time at all considering. Part of me wanted to “go under” but realistically it was never going to happen on a day like this.
This week has been all about training, no racing. Despite the urge to go to some local races i’ve just concentrated what was on the plan and stuck to it. At 47 years old it’s difficult to fight that urge to go bike race – but I know that i’d just be making the numbers up so it’s pointless (and a waste of money) to enter & travel to these races.
This weekend I helped Suzy on her 5-hour ride on Saturday, meeting her halfway through for a bite to eat and Sunday was a steady 3-hour ride and a bit of downtime in the afternoon. To be honest watching Ace and clubmate Kim at Challenge Roth has fired up my interest in this event for 2020 so this may well be on the cards. Ace did it in 10:55 – a magnificent time and Kim polished hers off in 11:25 which is an amazing time.
For the ignorant (and the Elite naturally) it’s all about who beats who, whereas for the majority it’s about finishing these events, the time & effort that goes into the training upto a year before these events. I actually enjoy the training although it is quite tiring.
It’s almost as if the final event – that “A” Race is a bit of an anticlimax. It’s all about the journey – not that destination 🙂
For this year it’s still about Almere with (perhaps) Long Course Weeekend in Majorca as a season finisher.