A month on and more training & racing to reflect on. Many would say I race too much but it’s in my genes from being a cyclist where mid-season you would race Tues/Weds/Thurs evening at Lotus or a Club TT and then do a Road Race or Open TT at the weekend. The racing pretty much took care of the weekly training stress and you just got “racing fit” as the season went on.
Triathlon is a completely different animal where only a handful of events are chosen across the whole year and training is the main theme at weekends – not races. This is where the big miles are done, whether it’s on foot or on two wheels. There’s no time for racing, it’s all about getting it done, something which I struggle with on a daily/weekly basis. Simon reminds me there is a long-term goal at the end of all this periodisation, and that races mid-cycle interrupts the pattern of the training blocks. I understand what is required but I still want to put a number on my back (or front) and race against the clock or against others. Just for the hell of it. I think I’m getting the hang of not enetering races “just for the hell of it”, instead I choose races depending on what training outcome I want from it. The early season bike races were just gaining cycling fitness and the confidence to withstand 2 hours at high intensity. There has been little time for running fast and choosing 10k or 5k races just to see if I can still go for it full-blast but experience has taught me that’s where injuries come from so 2019 has been about long-steady-distance efforts to complete the half marathon required at the end of the 70.3 event. Now i’ve gained that element of endurance it’s time to spice things up!
A week after Majorca 70.3 I was at the Stradbroke Super Sprint Triathlon – a local event which I took part in way back in 2015. Back then I won my Age Group and if truth be told I was looking to do the same again. However the Majorca event had taken it’s toll on my legs! The very short 160m swim was over in a blink of an eye – I actually caufght my 30-second man at 120 metres, tapped his feet and he let me past. The 1:41 p/100 split was quite satisfying to see, especially to confirm the Majorca swim wasn’t a fluke.
Out on the bike I went full of confidence, smashing the pedals way into the red but without a care in the world, until about 7 miles when my legs said “ENOUGH” 🙁
From this point it was damage limitation and I coasted home with a less than satisfactory bike split and then to the run around the fields in quite a hot day which felt like it lasted an eternity, still at my sub 5min per k pacing but not good enough by my standards.
The Age Group win was lost by just under 30 seconds – if only I could’ve tamed the bike a bit and smashed the run (you know how you analyse everything time & time again)!
Into the next week, I rode the local Lotus race meet on the Tuesday just to get an idea if my legs were ok at riding at 40kph+ and they were, it seemed that the dead legs on Sunday had all but dissappreared. Once the break had established over a minute ahead never to be seen again the peleton made a race of their own and that was fun. I would’ve preferred at steadier 26-27mph push round for the remainder of the 1-hour race but I was definitely in the wrong place for that – instead it was full gas at 33 mph and then steady at 23mph until someone else wanted to have a go. In the end they all galloped for the line and I sat up and coasted in just behind the bunch. Nearly last but I didn’t care – another box ticked in my cycling confidence. At the weekend I rode the Diss Road Race – a 2 hour affair of 3rd & 4th category riders, again, I was having fun and remaining in the front 20 riders under the final gallop and then I sat up – not wanting to sprint, not wanting to go elbows & knees with lads who’s only goal was to win a bike race. My goal was very much different – to have a 2 hour intense bike session that I couldn’t replicate on my own. Another box ticked.
Challenge Championships
Suzy, myself, Daniel & Michelle arrived in Vienna airport on the Thursday morning, Our runner – Katie was due to come in Friday night/Saturday morning direct from work and meet us there. It was torrential rain and a temperature of just 10 degrees. It wasn’t looking great to race in these conditions in the next 4 days and all the build-up sessions were going to be grim to say the least.
We crossed Austria into Slovakia in our private taxi and the weather was not any better. And then onto Samorin and the X-Bionic Centre where Gadolfin (i think that’s his name) trains his horses and a special purpose built multi-million sports complex. Something I’ve never seen before. Apparently the whole Slovakian Olympic Team train there.
Although we chose another hotel 5 minutes walk down the road we were allowed to use the hotel and it’s facilities as it was the Championships’ Official Hotel.
Rain kind of stopped play on the Thursday afternoon so we completed registration and chilled out in “Legends Bar” where the prices were quite cheap (surprisingly).
We had dinner at our hotel, we were the only guests there and it was all abit weird being waited on by alot more staff than guests. In fairness we had come here 4 days early – the rest of the race entrants would be coming in friday & saturday. It must be said – the food was awesome and I found a new drink – Kafola which is the Slovakian equivalent to Coke. “When in Rome” and all that.
The weather the next day was much better, i chose to run for an hour before breakfast with Michelle. Although I don’t think she had planned an hour so was a bit tired when we returned. Then breakfast and then out on the bike with Suzy for 90 minutes along the Danube. As I had the new wheels on it wanted to give them a go before Sunday so I dis 10-minutes at race pace and in tuck position and I wasn’t going under 40kph! This did bode well for the race. Suzy actually hadn’t anticipated us going out that long so she was proper “hangry” when we got back. A giant sized burger & chips at the event expo and she was hangry no more!
We chilled some more, had dinner in the event hotel and watched “We Are Triathletes” in the hotel’s Cinema – a story of a handful of competitors as they neared Challenge Roth – a full distance event – Challenge’s Flagship event. Makes me want to do this soon – my DAP team mate – Kim, will be doing this in 23 days’ time so she can tell me all about it after.
Saturday comprised of a short bike ride in the morning just to loosen the legs and then to watch the Olympic and smaller events at the Expo. Katie joined us and once we registered her and we all went to the race briefing, once me & Suzy had racked our bikes we all went to the pasta party and carb loaded.
Race day was here – I was worried for Suzy as the Danube was very chilly, varying from 12 to 14 degrees and with the recent torrential rain the current was very strong. The swim leg comprised of athletes heading againt the tide for 900m and then coming back with the tide to then dog-leg in to the finish. I watched the pro athletes do this (so did Danny – our swimmer in the relay team) and the key was to hug the river bank where the current was a little slack. I wished Suzy well and she entered the water, off they went but the current was visibly fast. Some swimmers sere gaining just 10 metres in 5 minutes of effort – looking at the resuts some were pulled from the water as they were going nowhere. Suzy battled on, a little too far away from the river bank for my liking but she completed the swim in 48 minutes. I cheered her on as I made my way to the T1 relay tent. Danny had set off some 40 minutes behind Suzy so I needed to get changed and wait for him before my bike-leg. The sun was out and already there was a feeling amongst the cycling-part relay participants that the ride was going to be a hot one. As we’re all sitting there we’re all secretly looking at each other and wondering who’s going to be out there first, who’s going to ride strong etc. almost psyching everyone out before our part of the competition has started.
And then in they came, one by one, swimmers from the relay swim wave. All the relay teams started in the same wave so men-only team swimmers came in first, at this point you can’t tell where you stand in your category (ours was mixed relay) so you just had to keep an eye out for your team member to come running in. Danny came in and we exchanged timing chips. Off i ran, in cycling shoes to my bike. It must have been a good 400m before I got to my bike then another 100m with my bike before I could mount and get going.
Adrenaline kicks in and you’re in race-mode, the power is going high so after gettin gout of the hotel complex and the town you’re on the main road heading out. At this point i dialled the power down a bit as I didn’t think I could sustain what I was doing (Stradbroke proved that). So I just got low and kept the cadence up. Spinning along nicely at 40kph just like Friday. I was caught by another relay rider at around 30k and I kept him close to the 20m drafting zone which is allowed at these events. After the turn at 45k we were both caught by another ride but the rider in front of me tagged onto his back wheel – this was not allowed. I still kept 20m back but sure enough a draft-buster on a motorbike passed me and I poited at the two riders in front of me almost doing a 2-up time trial together. He went up to the riders and pointed at them and they separated but definitely not by 20m which was the distance I was keeping. Back onto the last 20k it was a headwind and my 40kph average I had anticipated was at risk so i buried myself in the last 30mins of riding to jkeep that average – a 2:17 bike split, only 10 minutes behind some of the pro’s, I had to be happy with that.
Just outside Samorin I caught Suzy who was well on her way to recording her best ever bike split in a 70.3 event.
Once into the hotel complex I changed timing chip with Katie for her to start running her half-marathon in already 30 degree heat.
Her 1st7k was awesome, smashing 4:30 k’s like it was nothing, then the heat started to take it’s toll, the multi surface run – sand, grass and concrete was difficult at best and she came in with an awesome time of 1:48 giving us a 20=minute improvement on Majorca the previous October.
Thing was, two other teams had posted 1:30 half marathons and this put us into 4th place – just a touch out of the medals.
At the end of the day if the climate was cooler everyone would’ve gone faster so it would’ve made no difference to the result. The way I look at it was we qualified to go to the championships – where the top 6 in each race are invited to race at the “Challenge World Championships”…..and we, three people from the quiet town of Beccles, came 4th………AT THE WORLDS! I couldn’t be any prouder 🙂
Suzy came in at 6:15 which was amazing considering people were dropping like flies and the race in essence was against the best in the world. She was beaming ear-to-ear when she finished – again, I could not be any prouder of such a great human being 🙂
On the Monday I did a swim session with Danny in the Olympic outdoor pool. Danny gave me some things to think about and we went through them 100m swims at a time. My first 100m “my way” was a 1:57. Then Danny talked about my legs being apart – something I knew slowed me down but didn’t know how to correct. He gave me some easy to understand ideas and I did the next 100m in 1:50!
As I couldn’t do tumble turns he went through my pool turns and taught me to use my turns as “free speed” and the next few turns I was doing 1:45’s!
After an hour’s lesson I managed to get my 100’s down to 1:39 just by making some small changes – thanks Danny 🙂
We came home on Tuesday evening after chilling for a few more days, including taking in the sights of Bratislava. A bit of a climate check as we came from 30’s back to Gatwick Airport where it was raining (surprise surprise) and 9 degrees.
On the Wednesday evening I ran the first Bungay 10k held by Bungay Black Dog Club. I had no expectations and planned to run around 5 min k’s to complete around 50 minutes, just to tick the box. Instead I got carried away and settled into a run pace of 4:40-4:45’s finishing in a time of around 47:30. If anything this proved that there’s little speed left in the legs but I definitely need to work on this aspect of my triathlon fitness as I always dread the run. It’s a kind of self-fulfilled prophecy when my legs start to hurt in that half-marathon approaching 5hrs since I started swimming. I automatically think “I’m a crap runner anyway” and mentally & physically things take a downward spiral from that point which often ends up with me walking. I’ve aired my thoughts with Simon and he agrees which is why I think he’s upping my run sessions in the next block of training.
A few days on and it’s time for my visit to the Beccles Triathlon, just like Stradbroke it’s the first time I went back since 2015 where I remember it absolutely tipping it down with rain. The weather was actually kind this year with sunshine.
The race started as always with the man with a shotgun firing a round just before the first swimmer goes in the pool.
The 16 length, 480m pool swim in the quirky outdoor 30m Lido Pool was always going to be a test, I had a carrot 30 seconds in front of me – Beccles Tri Club Member – Joey Clements so that was a good focus. Danny’s coaching in the pool earlier in the week had helped my turns and reduced my splits down to 1:53 per 100 and reduced my swim time from 2015 by over 3 minutes.
Onto the bike and I kept the power down from the start only to push a little harder into the hills beyond halfway on the Beccles/Bungay bumps. It turns out I saved a little too much and couldn’t make anymore time up by the time I got back to T2. Still, it was within a minute of my 2015 time where I was just bike racing.
I had forgotten how difficult the run was, the run down to Beccles Quay was ok and once beyond the yacht station the track ended and it was very uneven to run on. I twisted my ankle several times and flashbacks of the Fritton Cross Country injury over the winter entered my mind and I slowed down just to survive that part. Once back on the track and returning to the Lido I started running harder. Good friend Carl Prewer caught me for 3 1/2 minutes at 4k on the run, just as expected and he flew into the distance effortlessly.
Into the finish and I posted a 1:18 time which is 3 minutes quicker than 2015, and just enough to fall into the top-20 which I good considering the lack of speed training I had done recently (none since February basically).
Post-event has never been pretty for me, especially if I felt I could have done better. Suzy has been an absolute saint considering the mentality I have towards my 20th place despite my lack of high intensity training. It’s frustrating from the outside but I see 20th as the 19th loser. My rational brain says that was a good effort – I wrote as much above in this blog. But my chimp – Benidictus as I call him sulks and throws a strop because it simply isn’t good enough. Suzy says she is proud of me for doing what I do and improving all the time but my chimp is always critiquing.
I had a conversation not so long ago with a good friend and we compared cycle races and triathlon. Cycle racing is all about winning – you either win or you pack your bike up afterwards and just go home with all those what-ifs and maybes. If you get dropped from the main field then it’s an early shower and home to rethink your whole cycling career…until next time. In a field of 60 riders there’s 59 losers and one winner.
In triathlon conversely there’s winners in every age group, male & female as well as the podium guys. And each competitor is cheered into the finish right up until the last person crosses that finish line. The levels of ability in a triathlon are so diverse and everyone’s achievement is celebrated. In Ironman events the Pro’s actually hand out medals in the final hour of the event to competitors finishing who have been out there for nearly 17 hours – they call it “heroes hour” – I mean how great is that?! I would never see a cyclist congratulate anyone who came in 15 minutes or more after they finished.
From this I can only assume my cycling mentality partially remains in my triathlon career – I must win or else what’s the point? A bad thing I know before anyone says it.
I’m moving away from this negative mentality and those who think it’s great to put anyone down who’s not as fast as them. There are winners in both sports – I get that but some people just want to take part in sport to improve their confidence. Not for it to be shattered when someone makes a negative comment just because they finished higher up in the results.
Anyway……
A few more days and I’m here on Friday night writing this blog, this weekend I take the relay bike-leg role again with Marcus Nichols and Marcus Sladden to defend our 2018 win at the Fritton Triathlon Olympic event on Sunday morning. Stalking the start list I see some pretty quick cyclists and runners so I need to be on my game – just like Samorin.