Monday, I skipped the ride to swimming for a number of reasons. Rain and tiredness high amongst them. I also had to cut bits out of the session to suit my dodgy shoulder. This meant I only covered a mile during the session. But within that I stuck in a 100m PB and 3 others within a second. This just makes Sunday's race swim even more frustrating. Why can I comfortably pull out PB times the day after a race when I am tired, but during the race itself I couldn't even swim at my 2012 race pace?
Tuesday, I took a rest to try and recover better from Sunday's race. Went to the cinema to see 22 Jump Street. Not quite as brilliant as the first one but still pretty great.
Wednesday I went to Knockburn. Did a steady 4 mile run before going in for a swim. Planned to do 3 laps to make up for Monday's short swim session. Clocked the first one in 11:23 without trying, that is pretty much on Sunday's race pace, then I did 2 more laps the same, still taking it easy and still in 11:34 and 11:40.
Thursday I decided to do a running reps session. I have been skipping these for a while and still seeming to run well in training but it didn't convert to racing so I am going to try and put them back in more regularly. I also did a much more extensive rollering and stretching session.
Friday I thought about biking some of the miles that I missed earlier in the week or taking an easy run to get my high mile target that I set this week but I decided instead to play it a bit safer and stick to just rollering and stretching
Moray Way Relay on Sunday will get a race post to itself. I also then went to Forres to try my road bike on the Triathlon course for next weekend. The course is officially a mountain bike route but a few people have done it on cyclocross bikes and I am fairly confident that if the ground stays dry and hard it is definitely road bike capable. I was planning to ride the whole thing but as I was tired from racing in the morning I just went to the worst part of the course and tested the bike on it. Will stick an older set of wheels on it and let the tyre pressures down a little and it will be fine.
Despite hardly touching the bike this week and slightly missing my big run target I am still pretty happy with this week.
Target totals - Swim > 2 miles. Bike > 35 miles. Run > 18 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 10mins of wii yoga.
Monday - Swim with TPT. 1,600m in 53 mins.
Tuesday - Rest day
Cinema - 22 Jump Street
Wednesday - Run 4 miles in 33 mins.
Swim 3 laps (1,800m) in 35 mins.
Thursday - Zara reps session 3.4 miles in 30 mins.
Friday - Rollering and stretching.
Saturday - Rest day.
Sunday - Moray Way relay 9.1 miles in 1 hour 9 mins. (+0.6 miles warm up).
Forres triathlon bike recce 2.3 miles in 16 mins.
Actual totals - Swim 2.1 miles (3,400m). Bike 2.3 miles. Run 17.1 miles. short core, short light weights and 2 short long stretching sessions. mins of wii yoga.
Full results are here.
Swim, I might as well start with the really bad. Rather than rewrite this bit I will just hack it straight out of an email I sent the day after:
"The swim was horrible. The start being so wide actually worked out badly as it meant everyone was on the front line and this led to even more fighting than normal and a crush for the middle line. I could also bring the start time in here if you want a reason to move it. Sighting on a direct line into the low sun for the first straight and after the second sausage was a real nightmare. The flag on the hill helped but not enough. Add to this the silver hats were indistinguishable from splashes meant it was hard to see what was going on. The first turn was really bad, too early and too tight. The straight to the second turn was also too early for such a bottleneck, I was reduced to breast-stroke for chunks of it to avoid the fighting. Out of this turn and the straight to the island was the first time I got more than 4 strokes without getting pushed, tickled or punched. I mentioned above about swimming a direct line into the sun and this was the worst part for that. I almost missed going outside the orange buoy before the island as I didn't even see it against the sun and only went the right side of it because a kayak was on my inside. The tighter line into the island from previous years also made this another bottleneck so more pushing. Just for comparison on how bad the swim was with the extra traffic. On Wednesday I went for a pedal around the bike course before going for an easy swim lap to check it out, I took my time on that swim lap and did 13:07, today I was 14:36 flat out and on the verge of quitting."
So basically the swim wasn't fun. It was the slowest I have swum for a race in over 2 years. It was in fact slower pace than the 5k pool race I did in December last year.
Seeing how far down I was by the time I got to T1, I was on the verge of just jacking it in for the day but the weather was still nice and I didn't have a watch on to tell exactly how bad it was. Some of the people I should be racing were just leaving transition as I arrived so maybe the swim wasn't quite as bad as I thought (having seen the results it really was). I didn't rush the change but it was clean and organised.
Cycle, I am going to take the excuse that it was windy. This explains why some sections on the course were still PB fast even though other sections were frankly terrible. The first half I was struggling to get comfortable and make any headway. Despite being so far out of position I was still managing to lose places, and not just to flashy bikes or classy riders. It was getting to the point that I was expecting to see hybrids coming past at any minute. This went on all the way through the flat and climbing sections. Then at the infamous AA box I turned the corner and it felt like someone had added an engine. In hindsight it was probably a combination of sorting my breathing after the swim and turning into the wind-assisted section of the course. From there to the end I was overtaking a few people and at one point I was considering overtaking a car that was slowing me up. Even the climb back up to transition as fairly comfortable. Overall it was still slower than last year but only by 5 seconds and the second half was faster.
T2, Stupid! Having saved a few seconds by slipping out of my shoes before turning into the Knockburn grounds I then unclipped my helmet while I was still holding the bike. The marshall was very polite about it and gave me the chance to take a stop/go penalty while I reclipped then carried on rather than giving me a time penalty afterwards. Apart from that my second transition was fairly smooth.
Run.
I know I am running well. Just not off the bike for some reason. I ran over a minute slower than the same race last year. I was somehow passing people on the run. And looking at the results (without the 'Male only' filters in the box below) I was going about the same pace, or slightly faster, than a lot of the people I would normally be racing against at this point. The problems with that are that they were in the other heat or were so far ahead by this point and I should have been running about 2 minutes faster. The results suggest I only overtook 2 people that I was actually racing so I think the others that I passed must all have been from Heat 2 or on different laps.
All in this was the worst race I have had for a while, and having expected to go really well it actually left me quite depressed for a few days afterwards. All stemming from a bad swim. I am trying to dismiss it as just a bad day but until I get out and have a better day, or figure out exactly what went wrong, I am struggling to convince myself.
My next race is going to be a leg of the Moray Way Relay, so it is run only and I can at least get a chance to confirm that my running is working and it comes only a week on so will basically be off the same fitness and training as this race.
Another race this weekend. But run-only this time. I am also going to take the opportunity to test my road bike on the Forres Triathlon bike course on the saturday before I decide if I am going to enter the following week or not.
The rest of the week is fairly standard on the training front. But I am on jury service this week so not sure how everything is going to work around that.
Monday - Swim with TPT. Bike both ways. Weights session.
Tuesday - Run reps session. Core session.
Wednesday - Run and Swim at Knockburn. Stretching session.
Thursday - Long run >10km.
Friday - Rest day.
Saturday - Forres Triathlon recce. Stretching and race prep.
Sunday - Moray Way Relay.
Target totals - Swim > 2 miles. Bike > 35 miles. Run > 18 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 10 mins of wii yoga.
Monday I took my first ride to swimming for this year. The ride out was fine, and swimming was good, but the ride home was darker than i would really have liked to be out on the country roads. Added to that as I was about a mile from home I cam across an injured cat in the road, that looked like it had been hit by a car. I stopped to try and help it but the low standard of Aberdeen drivers continues to amaze me as several of them made fairly good attempts at running me over rather than slow or stop to ask why I was stood in the middle of the road waving at them to slow down. I decided to move the cat off the road but by the time I called the police to get a vet out to help it had died.
Tuesday I did an easy run round the block just to stretch my legs out.
Wednesday I went to Knockburn to test my TT bike and to check out the changes to the swim course. The weather was too wet for biking but two of us went anyway and just took a leisurely pedal round in the rain. Then into the water. I had planned two laps but I was pretty cold from cycling and decided to cut it to one lap an push the pace a little. Was out of the water in a touch over 13 minutes. One of my targets for this year was to race a 750m swim in 13 mins. I should get inside this on Sunday but not sure I will count it as it is an open water wet suit swim.
Thursday I jogged around Dyce again just to keep my legs ticking over. And did my first stretching and rollering session for the week.
Friday I made some tweaks to my TT bike and then took it for a quick test ride. And did a very short run off the back of that just to make up my miles for the week.
Saturday I had a rest day before racing. Went to the cinema to see Edge of Tomorrow. Not bad, some minor holes in the story but worth a watch.
Knockburn Sprint triathlon on Sunday will get a write up to itself.
Another mostly good week. Had most of my miles logged even before racing on Sunday. Slightly short on running but the last few weeks and next week are more than covering that.
Target totals - Swim > 2 miles. Bike > 35 miles. Run > 12 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 10mins of wii yoga.
Monday - Ride to swimming, 12miles in 46 mins.
Swim with TPT. 1,900m in 53 mins.
Ride from swimming, 12 miles in 53 mins.
Tuesday - Run 3.5 miles in 27 mins.
Wii yoga 10 mins.
Wednesday - Ride at Knockburn 11.2 miles in 48 mins.
Swim 0.5 miles in 13mins.
Thursday - Jog 3.5 miles in 29mins.
Stretching and rollering.
Friday - TT bike check 3.7 miles in 12 mins.
Brick run 1.4 miles in 10 mins.
Saturday - Rest day.
Stretching and rollering.
Cinema - Edge of Tomorrow.
Sunday - Knockburn Sprint Triathlon.
Swim 750m in 15 mins.
Bike 11.2 miles in 35 mins.
Run 3.0 miles in 23 mins.
Actual totals - Swim 2.2 miles (3,500m). Bike 50.0 miles. Run 11.3 miles. short core, short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 10 mins of wii yoga.
2013 Race Report is here. Some details seem to be missing but I have fished the times out of my spreadsheet.
This year is a slightly different format. There will be two heats with men in heat 1 and women and super-vet men racing separately. However, with the start times scheduled for 10 minutes apart this should result in almost exactly a lap of difference coming in to the run so my final run lap should be a good guide for where I am against the other heat racers that I normally compete against, with them almost exactly a lap behind. And the split heats and the changed swim course should hopefully clean up a little bit of the fighting in the tight corners at the start of the swim.
2013 Swim 13:57.
I should go about a minute quicker on the swim this year. Wednesday night on a solo swim after riding I was at 13:07 for the race loop. I can hack another chunk off that in a race. Ideally I would like to get down to somewhere around 12:30. I have picked my lines for the new corners and I know I have to push hard the first 150m to avoid the crush at the first tight turn.
2013 Bike 35:04
Purely from having been fitted for the bike I should go faster. I think there is something of the order of a minute here just from being more comfortable on my TT bike. On top of that I am definitely in faster shape than last year. The bike leg is always a bit prone to weather though. As of Friday evening the BBC forecast says 18 degrees and 10mph winds. Should result in a very fast bike.
2013 Run 21:44
I wasn't running particularly well last year. Difficult to tell what might happen here though. If I have worked too hard early on I might pay a price here. Hopefully I will be in amongst the people I want to be racing at this point and that will be enough to drag me to a faster time.
Transitions
I can save another bit here if it is warmer as I will skip the jacket. But I am willing to sacrifice the seconds to add the socks.
Racing season kicks off in a big way this week with the Knockburn Sprint Triathlon. Normally it is an enjoyable race, but not a hugely important one. This year it is the Scottish Sprint Championships, so it will be a much tougher field than normal. It is also a larger field so it looks like they are going to split it into heats to avoid some of the issues with the first turn on the swim.
The scales suggest I am a bit heavy for my ideal race weight. But the veins on my arms suggest I am not carrying much that I don't need. The watch shows I am training well and my training diary shows the most consistent block of training since before my marathon in 2011. I could have prepared a little better for this particular race if I had targeted it specifically, but it is a bit early in the year.
Because the race is on Sunday, that means Saturday really has to be a rest day. So I have cut back all my numbers for the week. I also need to get some time on my TT bike so I have it in for rides on Wednesday and Friday.
Monday - Swim with TPT. Bike both ways or a short run. Weights session.
Tuesday - Run reps session. Core session.
Wednesday - Bike and Swim at Knockburn. Stretching session.
Thursday - Long run >10km.
Friday - Short brick, TT bike check.
Saturday - Rest day. Stretching and race prep.
Sunday - Knockburn Sprint Triathlon - Scottish Sprint Champs.
Target totals - Swim > 2 miles. Bike > 35 miles. Run > 12 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 10 mins of wii yoga.
Monday I ignored my plan again. It was just too nice an evening not to go for a run before swimming. Was slow and easy but in the heat it was surprisingly uncomfortable. Also meant that I was suffering a bit when i went to swimming. This week's swim session was particularly tough. Back into some swimming for though with an accidental 6mins 48 for 400m in the middle of the session.
Tuesday - rest day, just too tired.
Wednesday I went to Knockburn. Started with a spin round the sprint bike loop. Was a bit of effort involved but certainly not race levels and it was still pretty fast. Then went in for 3 laps in the water. Not as quick as last week, and feeling pretty lethargic. Also one of the buoys was missing, making sighting difficult and causing me to wander off track a bit but still got each lap in under 12:30.
Saturday was sunburn and bruises. Went for a long-ish ride on a beatiful sunny day. Put my suntan cream on after my jacket though so when the jacket went in my pocket early on my arms went a lovely shade of pink. Also I wasn't paying enough attention coming through Inverurie and lost my balance whilst unclipping at a junction. Toppled over and bruised my shoulder and elbow quite badly. Then riding on through the town centre and a girl in wee red car decided to take a left without checking her mirrors and I took a whack off her front bumper.
Cinema trip to see Maleficent. Better than I expected, but it is a bit predictable, especially post-Frozen where they used the same telegraphed twist already. Also some of the CGI is not particularly good.
Sunday I got up early to try and get my run in before the weather got too warm. It did just about work. I went for a long but steady loop around the airport. Longest run I have done in a while but it was fairly comfortable.
Another good week. Lots of solid miles in the bag. Might struggle a bit to keep up with targets over the next few weeks as races start to take over weekends. And then the World Cup will start to chop into evenings as well.
Target totals - Swim > 2 miles. Bike > 45 miles. Run > 15 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.
Monday - Easy run 3.4 miles in 31 mins.
Swim with TPT. 2,000m in 53 mins.
Tuesday - Rest day.
Wednesday - Bike 11.2 miles in 39 mins.
Swim 2,000m, 3 laps in 38 mins.
Thursday - 3.2 miles in 24 mins.
Friday - Rest day.
Saturday - Ride 36.4 miles in 2 hours 37 mins.
Cinema - Maleficent.
Sunday - Run 8.5 miles in 1 hour 11 mins.
Actual totals - Swim 2.5 miles (4,000m). Bike 47.6 miles. Run 15.1 miles. short core, short light weights and short stretching sessions. mins of wii yoga.
