My turn to support

After two years of competing in triathlons and being superbly supported by #MrsSmoker2Ironman at each and every event, I thought it was about time the roles were reversed.

I had heard of a new women only triathlon event being held in various places across the country.

Triathlon Pink was first launched in Australia and has raised over AUD$1M for breast cancer research since its inception. But it is now making its debut in the UK with events in the following places.

• Crystal Palace
• Bath
• Sunderland
• Leeds
• Basildon

What I really liked about Triathlon Pink was that it was non competitive and as such would be a perfect way for #MrsSmoker2Ironman to be introduced to this crazy sport which has hanged my life.

Here is a quote from the Triathlon Pink website which is what sold the event to me. "Triathlon Pink is inclusive, challenging, non-competitive, open to women of all ages and abilities, and most of all good fun! The races are held in swimming pools and on closed park roads. They are safe and provide full support to the participants taking on this life-enhancing journey."

The distances involved also seemed really achievable for #MrsSmoker2Ironman.

They consist of three different distances.

Short Course:        100m swim, 3km cycle, 1km run

Medium Course:    200m swim, 6km cycle, 2km run

Long Course:         300m swim, 9km cycle, 3km run

All really friendly for those new to the sport. And what a superb introduction to the wonderful world of multisport. I hope the events are well received and they lead to a lot more people taking up multisport.

To date I have dragged my Mrs on some small runs and she has joined me on some of my longer runs by being on her bike so that's two out of the three disciplines nailed with a bit of help from me.

There is just the slight issue of #MrsSmoker2Ironman not being able to swim.

So over the next 40 odd days we have to teach #MrsSmoker2Ironman how to swim. If she was already a swimmer I would have opted to enter her in a longer distance but given she doesn't swim I decided to play it safe and enter her in the Short Course event.

The bonus is she didn't completely flip when I told her I had entered her in the race.

She has joined me at my triathlon club swim session on Tuesday and she made some real progress in one session.

If you would like to know more about Triathlon Pink, please check out the website (www.triathlonpink.co.uk) for more details.

I can't wait to cheer her on when she starts her first triathlon in 40 odd days and it will fill me with such a sense of pride when she crosses that finishing line and I know she will.

Getting destroyed by a legend

So today Blizard Physiotherapy put on a turbo session with Kev Dawson for the members of Doncaster Triathlon Club.

With a slight sense of trepidation I signed up for the session. I mean this was Kev Dawson the World Record holding RAAM rider, the 11 time Best British All Rounder, fastest rider at Outlaw for 2012 and 2013. The man is a living legend. When it comes to cycling there are few who know more about the sport in my opinion.

I had no idea how much Kev would hurt us.

I can however safely say I have never sweated so much in my life.

The session was held at Hatfield Marina and started at 10:30.

Everyone was nicely warmed up on their turbos by then. Kev then explained the session to us.

The first portion would be a warm up consisting of four minutes of pedalling at around 100rpm.

Then we would start the spin ups to ensure an adequate warm up before commencing on the lactate threshold work and then rounding out the hour with some spin ups to act as a cool down and clear out our legs.

The spin ups consisted of 10 reps of 10 seconds of high cadence pedalling with 20 second of easy pedalling. After the 10th rep, I thought to myself. "And this is still the warm up" as I had sweat leaking from every pore on my body.

But Kev wasn't finished with us just yet. We then proceeded with 5 reps of 20 secs high cadence pedalling with 40 seconds of normal pedalling.

Well and truly warmed up. Well truth be known I was actually blowing out my a*se at this point. We were to start the main session.  Oh the joys.

The main session was 40 seconds pedalling at 7/10 effort or just above lactate threshold HR (LTHR) which meant just above 159BPM for me. Then 80 seconds pedalling at just under lactate threshold HR repeated 4 times.

Then 2 minutes of easy pedalling.

Then another 3 reps of the above 40 above LTHR 80 below LTHR but this time working at 8/10 effort.

Another 2 minutes of easy pedalling.

The towel I had taken to mop up the sweat was dripping by this point. I don't know if it was drying me off or spreading the sweat around my body.

Kev finished the main set with another 2 reps of 40 above LTHR and 80 below LTHR but with an effort of 9/10.

By this point I was feeling absolutely horrific. Maybe I shouldn't have run that 5km after my open water swim.

Finally the main set finished. All that was left was the cool down. This consisted of 2 reps of 10sec fast 20 seconds normal, 2 reps of 20 seconds high cadence 20 seconds normal and one rep of 30 seconds high cadence pedalling 30 secs normal pedalling.

I peeled myself from my sweat drenched saddle to stand on incredibly wobbly legs a dripping, shaking mess.

I have never worked as hard on a turbo before and I felt bloody fantastic when my legs started working again.

After rehydrating I listened to Kev who was sharing some of his vast knowledge with the rest of my triathlon club.

Many thanks to Kev Dawson and Blizard Physiotherpay for putting on the session which is the hardest I have ever worked in under one hour.

And who said that cycling on a turbo wasn't hard work.

Thats all from me,

Michael

Functional movement has its benefits

About 10 weeks ago I started going to a functional movement class at Blizard Physiotherapy after being convinced that it would lead to benefits with my running by my #runboss Dave Tune.

For the past 10 weeks I have been going along and mocked weekly for having no stability in my ankles. It was hard for this not to become a laughing matter when you wobble more than a plate of jelly as you balance on one leg and attempt to perform a single leg squat.

It has been a struggle and has seen me sweating profusely on a weekly basis but I have slowly been improving. What benefits this would have to my running I didn’t know until yesterday....

Yesterday I went for a 10 mile run along the Transpennine Way below my lactate threshold to blow off the cobwebs from my disappointing race on Sunday.

At three points during my run I hit a root or stone and felt my ankle start to give way but.....

then my new found stability and ankle strength kicked in and I righted my ankle without turning it.

Now for someone who used to turn his ankle regularly when he was growing up, this was a shock to the system. I know in my "heart of hearts" that I would have turned my ankle had it not been for these classes because as soon as I felt it start to turn I managed to correct it. Previously this would not have happened and I would have been in pain if not injured (one broken ankle and numerous sprains in my life to date).

Thanks to Blizard Physiotherapy for running these classes. They have had an effect and if that keeps me injury free running off road then it’s fine by me. And to think that I was starting to question whether they were having an effect?

Thanks for reading,

Michael

My first DNF

Well it had to happen one day.

And it turns out today was that day.

My first DNF.

Gutted doesn't come close to describing how upset and annoyed I am right now. But after some junk food (because I was in an incredibly bad mood) I do not plan on dwelling on what could have been.

I was feeling really strong going into the race.

Given I didn't think I'd be racing after track on Tuesday I was relieved to make the start line.

Yesterday was spent doing a mini aquathlon and some transition training and I learnt a lot.

I got up today feeling good and made my way to Epworth with my Mrs.

After I had registered and racked, it was time to cheer on some of the athletes who I have coached before making my way to the swim start.

Swim

The 400m swim took place in a 20m pool. I was flying in the swim. I overtook two people but unfortunately one of these swimmers didn't let me past as soon as I touched his feet to pass.

Swimmers were meant to stop at the end of the next length to let the faster swimmer pass. This annoyed me a lot and because of my annoyance I lost count of my lengths.

After what seemed like an age, I decided to stop for a few seconds to check I hadn't swum further than needed.  I hadn't I still 3 lengths to go.

I exited the pool and ran to transition.

T1

Now it was time to put yesterdays transition training to good use.

I was in and out of T1 and on my bike in 41 seconds. Thats a huge improvement on my last T1 time of 1:17 and a far cry from my first T1 time of 4:19.

Bike

Oh balls. In my haste of attaching my shoes to #Rinnie with elastic bands to save time I forgot to undo them.

So now instead of having to get my shoes on and fastened, I now had to unfasten them put them on and fasten them up again.

After I got my bike up to speed I set about completing the task at hand. After I had got my shoes on, which seemed to take forever. I was about to do my thing and throw down some power on the flats.

I was passed by some other athletes but was averaging around 20mph and was feeling good.

However after about 10km I started to feel a thump, thump, thump, thump from under my rear wheel.

OH CRAP!!!!!

I checked my wheel and realised it was flat.

After I had made my way to the next marshal who arranged for me to be collected my race was over.

Now I have a million questions running through my head on the whole clinchers vs tub thing.

I have completed all my triathlons to date on clinchers and never had a puncture until today when I switched to tubs.

But now what do I do?

So far there are three thoughts running through my head and I don't know which way to turn. Any thoughts or advice will be considered.

1. Switch back to my clinchers as I know that if I get a flat I can repair it.
2. Persevere with tubs but change to a harder wearing tyre. and ensure I carry repair fluid on my next races.
3. Sell both my tubs and clinchers and purchase some deeper section clinchers as I can repair those.

I can't really afford any disasters in my next triathlon as it is an ETU qualifier and I want to see how far off the pace I am. Today was meant to be a confidence booster ahead of this race. But it was not meant to be.

I have 6 weeks to decide how to proceed.

Thanks to all at Race Hard Events for coming to my rescue.

#onwardsandupwards

Thanks for reading,

Michael

Sniper, voodoo doll or poor preparation

So on Tuesday I went to track.

I was planning on hurting myself in the pursuit of being faster at the ETU Aquathlon Championships.

The set was 4 reps of 1600m with a 2 minute rest between reps and 4 reps of 400m with a 30 second rest between reps.

I drove to track after work but unfortunately traffic seemed denser than usual.

I left at my normal time and the usual 30 minute journey took 40 minutes. This made me late for the 6pm start.

By the time I had clothed properly and tied my laces, I had enough time for a 600m rep before 4 100m reps of strides.

Usually I run about 1600m or 2000m before completing 4 reps of 100m strides.

Tonight however I only did 600m and moved straight into strides.

By the 3rd stride something didn't quite feel right with my vastus medialis muscle. For those querying where this is, See the diagram below.

I persevered through the 4th stride and made my way to the start line for the main set.

I was making good pace at the start of the main set but then disaster..........................

I suddenly felt like I'd been stabbed in my quad with a knife. Red hot pain was searing behind my vastus medialis. Needless to say I immediately stopped running. I was gutted about this as I had been looking forward to the session.

At this point all sorts of panic (and a lot of expletives) flew through my head.

• "Would I be fit for my race on Sunday?"

• "Would I be fit for the ETU's?"

I eventually put on my jogging bottoms and hobbled to my car to go home and lick my wounds.

I managed to go swimming later that night albeit in mild pain and followed that up with functional movement and 30 minutes on the turbo on Wednesday night.

I've been in constant contact with #runboss Dave Tune over this injury and kept him up to date with any developments.

After two nights having a hot water bottle fixed to my leg, this morning my leg felt ok.

Tonight with a great sense of relief I can confirm that I managed to run 5 miles pain free.

Thanks to Dave for the support (including answering texts for the last two days)

There are three possible reasons for the pain.

1. There is a sniper in existence near Doncaster Athletics Track (unlikely)
2. Someone has made a voodoo doll of me. (improbable)
3. I didn't warm up enough (highly likely)

So another lesson has been learnt on my journey. I am glad this one had no lasting effects.

Thats all from me and thanks for reading,

Michael