It’s always a bit daunting, that first competitive triathlon of the year. I’ve raced already this year, two 10-mile and a 25-mile TT. It’s a good feeling putting a number on your back after months of training hard – this is the moment you find out whether the training has been any good or not. In most cases it has always been better than sitting at home eating pizza and drinking beer – that’ll do nothing for your fitness, pleasureable i’m sure but not good for your health nor when you want to start racing.
Racing is the culmination of that hard work, whether it’s one discipline or multi like triathlon, you are being measured by others, by a clock or just by yourself. The latter is the hard one for me – so much critique about my own performances you would not believe.
This weekend sees my first Triathlon of the year – a short one. Only 250m in the pool before hitting a 10-mile time trial and a short 2.6km run. Enough to blow the cobwebs away but also enough to see if the training has put you in good stead. I’m hoping for good things but knowing my luck it’ll fall apart fairly quickly….there I go again – making excuses before it’s even started 🙁
For me the three time trials I have done have been written as training sessions. However it does not stop you from looking at these results and dissecting every detail, in my case from a cycling background, to look at it and be annoyed that your didn’t go hard enough or you got beaten by someone you usuall walk all over. In all these scenarios my head is saying “it’s training”, “you’re not training for the short stuff now” or “it’s all about Barcelona”. But there’s that little part of you that says “I was crap”, “I can’t believe I was beaten by #########” or “my power was down – i’m not used that”.
This week is no different….
With very tight calf muscles from last Sunday’s Bungay Half Marathon it was just a swim for me on Monday. In fairness the only thing that I struggled with in the session was pushing off the walls at each end. This reflected in the splits being a little slower but I can live with that, it’s not my strongest discipline after all. I had been watching youtube videos how to do tumble-turns in the pool and I thought i’d give it a try at the end of the session. For those who don’t know I get terrible motion sickness and even as a child I could never do a forward-roll without losing my bearings and throwing up. This proved to be a stupid decision and I suitably threw up in the showers soon after trying it twice and giving it up as a (very) bad idea! Looks like touch turns are the way forwards for me.
Tuesday saw the introduction of the DAP chaingang round the Somerleyton Road Race Circuit. This ride is quite simple in theory – first lap through & off at 20mph, 2nd lap at 22-23mph and the 3rd lap a total bun fight as if your life depended on it. The first lap seemed ok for me but got a bit grippy at the end, I was thinking the Half-Marathon’s fatigue was showing it’s ugly head but I was later told it averaged 21.5mph. Into the second lap I was missing turns as the pace was out of my comfort zone – my heart rate was 173bpm in a few places and my training keep me constantly at 165bpm max. That being said I stayed hooked on at the back of the group and watched others popping their lungs and going out the back. I was expelled from the group at about 3/4 of the way through lap 2 and took a short cut to get ahead of the group to hang on again – when they caught me up there were only two left and they were in full race-mode. I lasted about 8 minutes before expelled again (heart rate 175bpm) and crawling back to the meeting point at the end of lap 3. Averages were 21.5, 24.5 (that’ll explain it) and 25.5 for the lead riders. By the time I got home that was 2hrs of riding compared to the 45 minutes I had planned. I felt ok though.
Wednesday saw me do all three disciplines, a run at dinnertime with sore calfs (still) and last nights fatigue in my legs, a small 30-minute bike ride on the wattbike at the gym and a mile swim, I say that quite casually but this was my longest swim ever, in my entire life. I kept busing with practicing touch-turns and sticking to the session as Suzy had set out and it went ok. Still a bit dizzy afterwards so next time out I’m going to try Ginger sweets – I hear they are quite good for travel sickness.
Thursday was a threshold hour set on the bike followed by a 3x1km progressive brick run. I like this session as it feels like i’m getting fitter each time I do it. The fastest kilo is down to 4:30’s now and i cope with them well – who knows on race-day?
Friday was an easy one with just a primer 45-minute turbo set for tomorrow’s 10-mile TT. Legs were tired but I stuck to the numbers – a pretty large pool of sweat beneath my bike to say the least.
Saturday saw me do a 5 mile run before Park Run & then Park Run. All at about 5-minute kilo pacing so all good. Thenn off to the TT at Bungay for a 23:52 – 3 seconds slower than Good Friday. But then again I didn’t preceed it with an 8-mile run! Happy with the 25mph target but as I said above, not happy with my power (or lack of) and my positioning in the results. As it was my birthday today I had a few ciders and a slap-up surprise meal with Suzy & my daughter – a very enjoyable evening all-round. Probably not my best prep for tomorrow’s ride but hey ho – IT IS MY BIRTHDAY!
Sunday saw me going out stupidly early and knocking out 90 miles, the first 55 miles was in thick fog. As soon as I started to press the pedals a little harder it was clear i’d left everything on the road the day before so today was definitely a “Zone 1 & 2” ride. The next 20-odd miles was with Beccles Triathlon Club on their social ride. Pace was quite low so I was grateful I had wrapped up a bit. After a Latte and a shared scone at a local cafe I stepped on the pedals a bit harder to get home and to up the avergae speed again. Fairly successful with my last section I managed 17.8mph for the whole 90 – just a couple of minutes over 5hrs. Again, not as planned (2:45) but it all helps with my mental-state in the attempt to know I can ride 112 miles fairly unscathed in 6 months time.
Training Peaks “Geek” time:
Fitness – 93. 83 higher than this time last year apparently.
Fatigue – 107. To be expected.
Form – -4. Probably why the legs feel tired.
TSS – 719. (Planned 526).
Swim – 2800m.
Bike – 10hrs, 320km.
Run – 1:45, 21km.