Ding dong round 3

In 2012 my first ever triathlon was Hatfield. (2012 race report)

Since then I have raced it once more (2014 race report). As it is my most local race, it seems a shame not to race it whenever I can. I like to use it as a progress check.

So this year I made sure that I entered the race. Yes it was a week after the Jenson Button Trust Triahtlon and 4 days after the Doncaster 5k but like I said I use it as a check on progress.

The race is a 750m swim, 24km bike and 5km run.

I looked at the start list before the race and didn’t notice any of the local really quick swimmers entered. Could I pull off a cheeky #firstoutthewater? Who know buts it was something I would quite like.

On the morning of the race I had a bike mechanical. My front derailleur had slipped and was snagged on my chainring. After a lot of stress I managed to free this up with 15 minutes to go before my race start. I flew through transition setting things up, racking my bike and put on my new Huub Archimedes 2. I had a minute to spare before the hooter. Hardly ideal race preparation. No warm up whatsoever.

I had a quick splash in the water. Read manic flailing of arms while I tried to calm myself.

There was a slight format change this year, the race start was a beach start. I lined up at the front confident that my swim speed would enable me to break free of the melee. As the hooter went all 50 athletes set off together.

Wade, wade, dive, dolphin dive, start swimming. After about 30 seconds I looked up and realised I was not in the lead. Oh well there goes that #firstoutthewater I wanted. By 200m there was one swimmer about 50m in front of me and another 2 swimmers. By my reckoning I was 4th. The second place swimmer seemed to put in a burst of speed to break free of our pack of 3 after about 300m. Stay calm was all I kept telling myself.

One thing I noticed was that the other swimmers in front of me were not swimming to the buoys, they were swimming wide. Why they did this I have no idea but when you’re not part of the thrashing mass, it makes sense to swim the course as tight as you can. At the 5th buoy the 2nd place swimmer was now only a body length up on me. By the final turn buoy at about 500m the first swimmer had faded whereas as my slow and steady rhythm was easily maintainable. We turned this buoy and after another 10 strokes I was leading the swim.

After the first 200m I thought this was out of the question. Me leading a swim out. I got a bit giddy with myself. Calm down Michael. Keep it together. Stroke, stroke, breath. Repeat. I was making sure I was putting as much power down as I could maintain. A quick glance around and I confirmed I was leading the swim. It felt amazing leading the swim out. With 50m I felt someone on my feet, I put in a last burst of effort to ensure I was out of the water first. I was overjoyed getting to dry land in first place. At Hatfield the transition zone is up a short hill. There was no way I was losing whatever lead I had in this run to transition. I dug in to make sure I was first into T1. Whatever happened after that, nonone could take my #firstoutthewater away from me.

Suit off, helmet and belt on. I was first out of T1 as well.

Me leading a race. Woohoo.

Jump on my bike, pedal a bit, get feet in shoes. Oh crap there goes the lead. I was now 2nd and we had only just left the Water Park. Never mind. If you’d offered me this at the start, I’d have bit your hand off.

I know the course at Hatfield well, the course is flat with six hills (read motorway bridges) and the only trouble with the course is that it is in a wind corridor so at some point on the course you get a 4 mile straight with a headwind, either on the way out or on the way home. For this year it was a headwind back. That and the horrific rain made bike handling interesting.

I had set myself a wattage target. I wanted to hold 220/230W for the first two thirds of the bike and see how I felt for the last third. One biker passed me after 4 miles and another 10 seconds later. I was not in 4th. After another 2 miles the 5th place rider overtook me. I was now in 5th and sill had 7/8 miles to go. Stick to the plan. Stick to the plan. After a total of 8 miles, I pressed lap on my Garmin and made sure that the average watt for the remainder of the bike leg were above 250W. The second to last hill was horrific, I felt I had put too much into the bike. The run was going to be interesting.

I passed the 3rd and 4th placed runners as I was entering transition as they had just started running. They were only about a minute up on me. It felt odd getting back to transition with so few bikes there. A nice odd, though. Bike racked, helmet off, trainers on, spin number belt. Suck it up.

After racing the Doncaster 5k on Wednesday (which was perfectly paced according to a friend “first lap controlled, second lap barking like a seal (a noise I make when running hard), 3rd grunty and wonky”) where I posted a 23:07 finish I was hoping for a sub 24:30 run split from Hatfield.

It was weird being towards the pointy end and oddly quite lonely. There were no other runners to run with. I completely zoned out on the run. This is the first time I have done this. I dug in and gave it everything I had. I reached the turn point at one mile and was still in 5th. Well that was unexpected. I had expected to be caught by two people I knew by this point. I didn’t see anyone after the turn point before we veered off for the rest of the course which meant I had at least a 400m lead on 6th place. As I turned to the offroad section of the course, I was feeling good. I was completely zoned out and knew I was running well. I apparently saw some of my club mates after 2.5 miles as they were coming back in on the bike. I have no recollection of this at all. I remember signalling to a female clubmate as she was starting the run by raising a thumb. I wasn’t wasting precious energy on a verbal greeting. But apparently I stared through another clubmate who was finishing her bike. Sorry Amy. I still hadn’t been overtaken on the run with 600m to go. I was still 5th. OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!

I entered the final field and after 50m someone overtook me. 550m to go and I was in 6th. Dig in Michael. Don’t lose it now. Run strong. Check form and posture. Relax. Relax those shoulders.

I had now turned the final corner and managed a quick glance back, I could see one of my clubmates gaining on me. I had 150m to go finish this. Stay on target. Don’t sprint too soon. I continued to run strong. Nope he was still gaining. 50m to go. Time to engage the afterburners. Oh god this hurts…….

I crossed the line 3 seconds before my clubmate in 6th position overall. 6th. GET IN!!!!!! I was 6th male to finish but 7th overall because the female winner was slightly quicker than me.

My run time was 23:22 which was only 15 seconds worse than Wednesday after the swim and the bike and with an off road portion as well.

To put this into context. In 2012 I finished 161st out of 166. 

In 2014 I finished 68^th  out of 141 

But now in 2015 I had finished 7^th out of 64

An extreme sense of euphoria swept over me. The last time I was truly this happy was at my wedding in 2010. The hard hard work I had put in over the winter was paying off. Even after my arm fracture. I raced with no pressure at Hatfield and as a result raced relaxed. This is by far the best performance I have had in a triathlon and no one could take my 6^th place and #firstoutthewater away from.

Well actually they could. Due to a timing cock up I was not given the correct swim time. Who knows how but I and all the spectators know who was first out.

Clearly ahead coming to dry land

Had I suspected my time was near my target of a sub 12:00 750m swim I would have complained but it wasn’t because I believe the swim was long. I saw some Garmin logs at over 900m. I never time my swims anymore. What will be, will be.

The most important thing was my finishing position was correct. 6^th. I’m still a little in shock about this. I completed the race in 1:20:27 which was a 7 minute PB over the same race from last year and the wind was a lot worse this time round.

Now to knuckle back down before the next block of racing. I have 4 races on back to back weekends in August so it’s going to be a busy month.

Thanks for reading,

Michael

Mojo found

I know it's been a while since my last post but once I found my long lost mojo I decided to knuckle down and crack on with training.

Since my last blogpost I've been really busy.

I managed to complete more races than planned.

In summary.

Epworth Sprint - struggled with bike and run but pleased with 6:40 swim off little swimming since I broke my arm.
Askern 10k - predicted a 52 minute 10k, ran a 52 minute 10k. Happy days
Tyram Tri - 3rd out the water, 3rd in off the bike and 6th male finisher overall. Please with this last minute local triathlon. Felt strong on the bike and died on the run.
Nottingham Sprint - Good swim, disappointed with my bike (I couldn't get the power down in TT position) and ran to feel which worked okay but I was about a minute down on what I wanted. I was more annoyed with myself for knobbing around in T1 and T2.

After that batch of racing I decided to knuckle back down with some serious training.

After my poor bike at Nottingham I booked an appointment with Mike Taylor of Bridgtown Bikes to assess why I couldn't put the power down. My reps on my Wattbike show that I have power in my legs but for some reasons in this race I couldn't apply it. After a few minor tweaks to #Rinnie and some exercises for me, I managed to increase my power output by about 100W for the same effort. I went in outputting 220W and left outputting 340W in my TT position.

My run is getting stronger with each passing week. I am now back below 25 minutes for 5k at below my threshold HR. Last week I posted my fastest ever sub threshold 5k in 24:17.

My swim bizarrely is getting quicker considering I only swim once a week. I was shocked the other week when I finally broke through the 6 minute barrier for 400m.

I was so thrilled with this that I decided to set up a targets board in my garage. The reason I set this up was so that there was something tangible to remind me what I want to achieve when I am spending hours in my #paincave. Also if the targets are out there then I am accountable.

Today marked my first "A" race of the season. I picked this race out to find out how I ranked against others in ETU qualification. Yes I know we can make comparisons on paper but until you race the same race against you competitors then it is hard to know by how much you need to improve.

In 2013 I wrote about my dream to own a GB trisuit and this race was my first step on that journey towards qualification outright.

When I sat down with Coach Curly at the start of the season to plan my season, we decided that I am on a two year journey towards qualification. This first year was about learning to race and also seeing where I was at against those who qualify from my AG.

I have tapered well this week and my workouts have shown that my run speed is better than it has been previously. Following my bike fit I knew my bike power was there. Now it was just time to execute my plan.

I've been keeping an eye on the weather this week to help decide my wheel choice for my TT bike. As the week drew on, there was a deterioration in the weather as the wind speed went through the roof. I decided with the help of Curly to run a skinny rim on the front to asset with handling and give me more confidence on my aerobars.

Swim

The swim at Southport was in a marine lake and as the hooter went, it became apparent that it was going to be a punchy affair. In the end I decided to move away from the melee and swim my own race. I got to the entry to T1 in 12:26 and was pleased because I swam relaxed, which was the aim.

Bike

The wind had really picked up, I was eating sand while preparing for the race and I am not going to lie,  the wind scared me a bit. I knuckled down and managed to hold 240W for the entire 20k. Given there were 12 roundabouts and 2 dead turns to contend with I am pleased my wattage was as high as it was. Given the wind I backed off on all the roundabouts to enable me to steer around them safely. I think I performed well on the bike. My bike time was 36:39 which compares to 32:06 for the fastest cyclist in my qualification AG. Given the wind and my lack of confidence on my aerobars since I broke my arm, I'm pleased with this.

Run

I wanted to do myself justice on the run. My current PB for 5k is 22:48 and that was a standalone at park run with a pacer. I wore my watch to monitor my average pace and was shocked with the time of 23:07 which is only 19 seconds slower than my standalone 5k time #lactatetrainingpaysoff

In my current AG I finished in 17th place (after sorting out a slight timing issue where I was with the wrong wave which added 8 minutes to my time). Given I am moving up an AG next year (which is the category I was aiming to qualify at), my finishing position and time  in this AG wasn't really important. What mattered most was how I compared with the other athletes in the 35-39AG.

Drumroll please......

I would have finished in 19th position in the 35-39AG out of a possible 32 athletes.

But now for the really exciting part.

To qualify, you either have to finish in the top 4 in your AG in one of the 3 qualification races or be within 120% of the first qualifiers time where you then become eligible for roll down places.

My time today was c. 118% of the winner of my AG which means that I am now eligible to qualify for roll down places. It is a slim chance that they will roll down this far but it is a chance all the same. Given this year was about finding out where I need to improve and by what margin, to have completed my "A" race and be eligible is honestly more than I expected especially when you consider that it is 76 days since I broke my arm coming off my bike.

If you'd sat me down 77 days ago and told me I would be eligible I'd have bitten your hand off.

If you'd sat me down 75 days ago and told me I would be eligible I would have called for the local asylum to cart you off.

I can't really convey how happy I am.

I would like to thank my coach Curly for all his help this year including answering about a zillion Facebook messages. Without your encouragement, patience, coaching and plans, today wouldn't have gone as well as it did.

I would also like to thank the companies who continue to believe in me and support me on this crazy life changing journey I find myself on. Thanks Huub, Blizard Physiotherapy and Trionz.

Thanks for reading,

Michael

¿dónde está mi mojo?

So I've been discharged from the fracture clinic two and a half weeks after breaking my arm. After some prodding and poking from the registrar which resulted in no pain, he decided I was fixed!
No X-rays. It was like passing Go in Monopoly except instead of collecting $200 I was sent to the Physio. After being given some exercises to complete, I was discharged from here as well. I was told if my mobility didn't improve over the next two weeks, I should ring up for an appointment.

I have been doing my exercises and my mobility has increased. It is less painful to move my arm and I can nearly get it straight. So all thing considered, I should be over the moon. After all it is only 28 days since I crashed my bike, so why am I feeling flat. I am struggling to muster up the enthusiasm to train. I keep finding really lame excuses to not train, things like "I'm too tired", "I can't be arsed", "Traffic was bad", "I had to work late" and "There's not enough time".

Since my discharge 12 days ago. I have only completed 3 bike sessions, 2 runs sessions and amazingly 2 swims.

The swims came as a complete shock. I went to coach some of our beginners at their first open water swim and ended up swimming two laps of 300m with them. I followed this up with a pool session and despite having no strength on my left side, I was still moving well. Yes, there was a bit of discomfort on the catch and pull but nothing disastrous.

I have also been building strength back up in my arm using weights, therabands and elasticated straps in an effort to increase both my strength and mobility.

The reason for this cathartic blog is that if a problem is shared a problem is halved. And also by admitting there is a problem and putting it out there, then it becomes tangible and as a result I can't deny it anymore.

My bike strength is there and I am really pleased with the numbers I am producing, my swim will get there but it is mainly running I am struggling to motivate myself for.

My first run back was a threshold 5k and I managed to do it in 25:39 which was only a minute down on where I was before my injury. I was having to rein myself in to keep my HR below 170bpm. This pleased me, but since then a combination of work and my own lack of drive have resulted in no more runs until today.

I had a lot of time to think about things yesterday after visiting family in Bury St Edmunds and being a passenger for 5 hours. I decided "enough was enough", it is time to knuckle down and put in the hard work again.

This morning I ran 5 miles at threshold and was pleased that my initial speed was still there, it is just my fitness that is lacking. My first mile was completed in 8:22 but my last mile was a 9:22 for the same HR. But I struggled mentally for each of the 5 miles.

I have improved before (like last December when my first run back was an avg of 9:25/mi but within 22 days I was running at 8:03/mi pace) so it is time to put in the hard work again. It is hardly a surprise that my confidence has taken a knock as before my injury things were going really well. But I need to #HTFU and stop procrastinating.

After all it is only

16 days until Askern 10
26 days until Nottingham Sprint
48 days until my "A" race at Southport
54 days until ETU Aquathlon Championships

I have no more time to procrastinate. It's time to get it done.

Thanks for reading and if you feel like leaving a motivating comment to help me regain some of my mojo, then it would be greatly appreciated.

Michael

Not the start to the season I wanted......

On Easter Monday I went out for a social bike ride with the members of Doncaster Triathlon Club.

I decided to ride the first 5 miles to the meeting point solo at race effort to see how my hours and hours sat on the Wattbike have affected my outdoor riding speed.

I was flying along and after I reached the meeting place, checked my average speed. For the 4.96 miles, I averaged 21mph including stopping for one junction and 4 roundabouts. I also managed 3 Strava 2015 KOM's and 2 2nd places. In a word the hours spent on my Wattbike have had a good effect on my outdoor speed. And all of this on my roadie with my standard wheels

I was buoyed with a new sense of confidence for the coming season.

We set off on the ride and I was taking it steady on the flats but putting in some efforts uphill and downhill.

The hills didn't seem any easier than last year but I definitely felt quicker.

After we stopped at Gringley on the Hill to regroup, we set off on a downhill section. As I reached the bottom of the descent I kept checking back for the other riders.

And then disaster struck. While checking back, I accidentally turned my bars and went flying over the handlebars.

After eating tarmac, picking myself up and dusting myself I noticed an unnatural ache in my left arm (well that and numerous scrapes). I rode on for another 10 miles before my adrenalin wore off. After that I could't continue. The pain in my arm had got significantly worse.

Cue a trip to A&E. My prognosis. One broken left radial neck. A minimum of six weeks off and having to cancel three races.

So now I find myself acting like a bear with a sore head because my preparation for this season was going so well but now the plans for the season have to change. I couldn't wait to put into practice everything that I have been working on since starting with my new coach.

The races I had to cancel were

Southwell Sprint
St Neots Sprint (A GB qualifier (I didn't expect to qualify but wanted to see by how much I needed to improve))
Epworth Sprint

Thankfully two of the race organisers have allowed me to either transfer to another of their races or given me a partial credit for another race.

Now the start of my season looks like this.

Askern 10k (I felt I needed a race post injury to test my fitness)
Nottingham Sprint (assuming I am able to race)

This is far from the start I wanted, I wanted to have raced three triathlons before Nottingham.

I realise I am cutting it fine trying to get race ready for Nottingham given it is only 54 days after my crash, but I need something to help keep me focussed.

I am trying to keep motivated by using my Wattbike but even this is difficult as I am not able to get into my correct riding position.

I am unable to run or swim at present unfortunately and I realise the 10k at Askern will really hurt as I will have only just started running again. My next check up at the fracture clinic is on Wednesday and I am hoping for some good news about the bone healing or even being able to drive.

Now I have been moping about my arm for two weeks. It is time to knuckle back down. I hope to complete 4/5 sessions on my Wattbike each week until I am able to partake in other training. If I can't be swim and run fit, I am going to do my damnedest to be bike fit.

Onwards and upwards,

Michael

Lactate training has changed my life

In November 2013, I booked in for my first lactate test at Blizard Physio.

Since then I have been training consistently to my HR zones.

When I went for that first test. My long steady runs were at around 11:00 min/mi. And I was struggling to keep my HR steady. Yes I know I have got (a lot) fitter in the past 16 months but my running has been rejuvenated and has improved a lot.

My 5km PB was 26:48, now it stands at 22:48.
My 10km PB was 59:58, now it stands at 50:20 and will be beaten this weekend at Gainsborough

The only thing that changed was running to HR and having someone who encouraged me. David Tune of Blizard Physio has been a guiding force in this turnaround. He encourages me relentlessly. When I'm feeling low, he picks up on it and takes time out of his busy life to talk to me. I can't ask for anything more from someone who I respect as a coach and friend. I can't recommend his lactate testing service enough. It has changed my outlook on running.

I'm not going to pretend I enjoy running but..... I now consider myself a runner. I'd still rather go for a swim or on my bike if I'm honest but I am getting better at the necessary evil that is running.

Before I get too maudlin, back to the point of the post.

Yesterday I went for a steady run and breezed through 5km in 24:58. A sub 25 5k on a steady run at an average of 8:02 min/mi.

A year ago I had only just managed to dip under the magic 25 minutes on an all out run with a pacer and felt awful at the finish line.

Thats a 27% improvement in my steady run pace in 16 months. The scale of this improvement astounds me.

I have come close to dipping under this target several times over the last three months, missing out by  a mere 20s on Christmas Day  but I was so pleased to complete it yesterday. It has been a constant itch and now that it has been done, I feel relaxed. Who knows what's next. I don't but I can't wait to find out.

Thanks for reading,

Michael (a runner)