The Baby faced assassin

Last weeks training was a bit of a steady as she goes - just ticking most of the boxes in the regular routine. The long run ended up on the scrap heap, mainly due to scheduling issues. To be honest, it was done-in by Mr Procrastination! I had two opportunities to slip it in, but mucked around, and ran out of time on both occasions. So have duly given myself a slap on the wrist!
Sundays ride was probably the most "interesting" session of the week. It was Katie Kennys "going away ride", and there was a good turn-out. Beautiful day for it too. We got the first puncture at around 5km, and usually if there is one - there will be several in the ride! A little further down the road and we have our second little excitement. We have to journey down the Pakaranga hi-way for a short period on our standard long ride loop, and this is a 6 lane road, usually pretty quiet at 7-8am on Sunday morning, but not so good on the way back. Cruising along quite merrily, and out from the right comes a football rolling across the road (across 5-6 lanes!). It is heading for Reuben. Reuben is sure it is going to get him and Reuben is sure he is going to hit the deck! Everyone watching behind (in slow motion of course) is also sure Reuben is going to hit the deck. The ball somehow manages to roll under Reubens bike - between the wheels! Every one seeing this is stunned. However the ball is not yet finished! It bounces off the curb, taking out Mike on the rebound, who was diligently watching the action from behind! Everyone is OK after, although not quite sure how it all happened! Second puncture for the group at around 30km - and a good one too. A sharp stone that cuts through the sidewall of the tyre. So there is a nice turtle head of tube sticking out when the new tube is in and pumped up. Another puncture waiting to happen (not if - but when). Rider number two is now on the way home, wondering how far they will make it before they have to start walking after the call to be picked up! Liz does make it back to the car! The rest of the ride was reasonably uneventful - no dog attacks, rogue drunks on their way home, not even the weather conspired against us!


As it was Katies last official ride with us (she is off to Christchurch, then Dunedin - for University!), I will do a bit of a tribute to her - as she is special! Little Katie, as she is known, starting coming along to the Saturday brick (swim-bike-run) sessions quite early on - as a 12 or 13 year old (my memory is fading). These sessions run for around 3 hours, and can be reasonably solid - but they did not phase the young Katie! I imagine she did sleep pretty well after the first few sessions though! She did not really say much, just quietly got on with things. Over the years she developed into a very handy athlete, moving from triathlon more to cycling. She was captain of the all conquering Dio senior cycling team this year. While butter would not melt in this innocent young ladies mouth, if you showed any sign of weakness she would nail your ass to the wall! Just ask the chickens at the top of Twighlight Rd! Over the last couple of years she has been trying to take my scalp on a hill climb, and we have had a bit of a challenge going. Fortunately my poker face has got me out of trouble a couple of times, when she could have probably rolled me. But she was probably hurting quite a bit, looked over at me, and I probably looked quite comfortable - even though I was about to break, and she would crack first. If I did feel that she had a good chance on an upcoming climb, my other tactic was to put in an absolute 100% effort attack quite early, to put her off. I didn't really play fair! :-). A few weeks ago we were riding up Twighlight road (approximately a 2km steady climb), and was feeling a little average in the legs. With just one corner to go I did sense impending doom, and looked around, and sure enough "little Katie" is on my wheel. I know what is coming next. Sure enough, as we round the corner, the attack comes. Now at the very top of Twighlight, there are a number of Chickens and Roosters that live right on the side of the road. Unfortunately the residence of Twighlight had decided to take their quite newly hatched chiclets for a walk across the road, just as the hill top sprint was being decided. I was not stopping, and dove on the inside, which managed to scatter the wildlife a little more toward the centre of the road, where a second placed sprinter managed to reduce the inhabitant population by a couple of chiclets... There was not going to be any stopping to survey damage - tears would be involved!

Katie is one of those people that will be good at what ever she decides to be good at. Not because of a huge amount of natural ability (she certainly does have some of that though), but because she is very determined! Over the years I have had the opportunity to meet and make friends with some great people. As an athlete and a coach I have made friendships that really have changed my life. I am not really a very emotional person - but it was very sad to say goodbye to Little Katie. I am sure our paths will cross in the future - many times I hope. Good luck Little Katie - you are the genuine Baby faced assassin!

tick, tick, tick...

I know you all need a laugh...

Training for the week starting 17th November:
I was keen to get my training back on track this week, and did feel reasonably motivated after the race last week. Or possibly more desperate to keep the wolves snapping close at my heels a little further at bay! I took Monday quite easy, cruised the swim - at an almost pathetic level, but it was the right thing to do as I felt way better by the end. Put some running shoes on later on Monday to go for a run, and that was not going to happen - due to a few blisters on the feet from Sundays adventure. Tuesday was reasonably solid - the bike intervals went well, probably the best in the last 5-6 weeks, so that was good mentally. Wednesday was a good day too - it was the first day that I actually felt "power". I felt quite strong in the pool - didn't really smash the swim - but did one of the fastest 1500m pull (standard Wednesday swim) in a while, and that was with calf cramps in the last 500m (which cut the swim a bit short). The evening spin class was also showing signs of change - with a much lower HR for the effort than usual. Now normally this means I am starting to get fatigued and slightly over-trained - but it did also feel easy. Then woke up feeling pretty average on Thursday - so I had not grown taller and become bulletproof! And this was about when my week started to fall apart. 
Rolled through the squad swim OK, but was a bit tired. After a feed, jumped on the bike to do a "steady" ride - a stepping stone session to get me back to my half IM simulation levels - so wanted to include 3-4 efforts of around 10minutes at between 275-300w. I was not 100% sure on the power level, but wanted to keep the HR around 150 (nothing over 155 at all). About three quarters of the way through the first steady effort and the effort started to feel a bit too solid, the HR was climbing - this was not as planned. Check the power and that was climbing - but the speed was constant (I was on the trainer). OK - this is not a good sign, look down at the back wheel, and sure enough - the back tyre is pretty flat looking! Darn-it! Quickly jump off and pump it up, in the futile hope it is a very slow leak. Of course it is not, and 10 minute later I am back off changing the tyre. Unfortunately I was on a tight time line with a couple of appointments soon after, so had to cut the session short after all that. The efforts that I did do, sort of went OK, but it was hard to determine exactly what I wanted out of it with the starts and stops. Oh well... The day got a bit worse. Went to go for a run, then "where are my shoes"? After over an hour of hunting high and low, I came to the conclusion that they have been stolen from the front door (where they normally reside when not on my feet!). Great! Someone really does not want me to run! A day later and a new pair of shoes, and managed a half hearted long run - very slow to start with, but it sort of came right. The neighbors then decided to crank up the garage band at around 1am Sunday morning. So after a call to noise control, things become quiet enough to get some sort of sleep in, but at 6am, getting ready for a long ride was not a happening thing. So after a grumpy start to Sunday, I did manage to knock out 2 hours on the trainer, but was not that happy about it! At least the weather was a bit crappy...
On to the next week (which is now last week!):
Monday morning for another week, and swim time. I was getting my ass handed to me! I felt OK, although we were doing 400's and I really don't like them. Longer is OK, and so is shorter, me and 400's have just never got on that well. I am pretty much the slowest swimmer in the lane, but I was getting lapped by everyone, no matter how hard I tried. After a couple I checked the 200m split, and it was 2:30 - so it was not me - I am swimming OK, it was the other sod's in the lane that were on fire and giving it what for! That made me feel slightly better, so chucked the pull gear on for the rest of the set! Rolled through the easier training quite comfortably. For some reason the bike intervals were not really that good - OK, but probably 20-30w under what they should have been. A little bit from weights I think (there was a bit of DOM's going on), and not really that into it. The long run need to be done during the week - due to a wedding at the weekend, and that went OK. Followed the usual theme, very slow and sluggish at the start then feeling much better in the second half. Not really much quicker, but at least feeling better. I think the calf raises are actually starting to work too. I feel a little more confident running - whereas previously I was sort of waiting for the impending doom of a calf popping each run. Running intervals are a bit average still, I would have thought that with a few weeks of semi regular semi-decent long runs (hour and a half or better), that the running would actually be getting a little better - but not yet (hopefully yet). Lost Saturday, with taking training sessions and social functions - but well worth the evening out! Was a bit hard getting up in the morning for the Sunday long ride, but well worth it - a glorious riding day. Nice warm weather, and bugger all wind. Just a great day to be out. Now if I can just get a slightly stronger leash for Phil (Morreau), all will be good!
Christmas is rolling around very quickly. Good in some ways, but I do like my routines, and they will go out the window a little. But it is an opportunity to do a few training that would not normally get done. Also have to cope with the stress of finding my mothers Christmas present...

First Triathlon of the season...

Well the first triathlon of the season kicked off for me over the weekend. My original plan was for the sprint triathlon (peoples tri), but I have had a grudge match with Ant's Gardner the last few years, so txt him just to check we were doing the sprint tri - unfortunately he informed me (Saturday night before the race of course) that we were doing the standard/Olympic distance race. Bugger! So I took a few harden-up pills and went off to bed, slightly happier about the swim, and a lot less happy abut the bike. I decided to go with the training wheels instead of the race wheels (so I could get some power data), but went aero helmet.
It was quite a pleasant start time - 9am, which was a nice change! I generally prefer the left hand side as my start side (as I breath to the right in races - and can see what is going on better), unfortunately everyone else had the same idea. I managed to be facing the wrong way when the gun went off and then proceeded to try and dolphin dive in 6 inches of water - not quite according to general recommendations! Then started getting whacked from the left, look over and there appeared to be a lot of people there! I spotted a line over to the right, and thought that might be a better prospect. But was also wondering why so many people were already in front of me - I am not swimming that badly at the moment! Oh well. It was a 3 lap swim (500m each lap), and by the second turn on the first lap I was sort of on my own. I spotted someone about 20-30m in front and made a concerted effort to catch them. Do so a 100m later, and as we finished the first lap and go out of the water for the turn, saw it was Rooster (old training buddy and nemesis). That was good news! sat on his toes for most of the rest of the swim, did try to do a lap in front, but he just swam beside, so figured if he didn't want to rest on my feet, I might as well rest on his!


2 minutes 48sec ahead of the the main competition (Mr Gardiner) after the swim...

Got on to the bike feeling reasonably good, as we had a little brake on a reasonably sized group behind. I knew at least a few were ahead but was not sure how many. Waited a little for rooster to get sorted as I was sure it would be far better riding with him (it was drafting) than on my own. We worked pretty well together, and pick up a few others, and by the turn around (10km) there was only one to go - sweet! just needed to check and see how far Mr Gardiner was behind. Didn't get a good look at the groups coming back, as had a few close encounters with the gutter! Felt OK, but then once we pick up the front, I got hammered a couple of times. After doing a half descent turn at the front, the next person coming through, came through really hard, and I have to do a max effort to get back on the group. I was not happy! Rooster then put in a couple of burners on a couple of climbs, and one of the group got spat. I was not in any risk of getting dropped - but it was hurting far more than it needed to, so I started sitting out laps, and doing very short laps when I did lap out. There was no point in going harder, it was just using more energy, and we were already at the front end of the race. I suspect a couple (main hard lappers) were keen to make the group one or two riders less (particularly those that couple run). The last 15km of the race continued very much the same.
Four of use came into transition together, I was second in, and third out. and figured I might be able to pull out a top five finish if only one from the trailing group (which were a few minutes back) caught me.


By the way, nice socks Maddog...

Then I ran past one of the others in the group, and Rooster had pulled up a little lame with cramp - that will teaching him! Felt OK on the first of the two laps. There are a couple of hills in the run, the second quite solid. Those doing the sprint race were also on the run course at this time, so there were plenty of runners around - which I did find very good. Going up the second hill, I passed one fellow competitor that was not happy with the hill, shaking his head, and muttering "you have to be shitting me - we don't run up here- surely??!!". Just what I needed, some light relief! The second lap started OK, and I though that if I kept a solid tempo on the flat, and only lost a bit on the hills, top 3 or 4 was looking good. Up the first of the 2 hills, and first is way a head by now (maddog - you were right - if I ran faster I could catch him - but I couldn't!). After the turn around, still a good gap back to 3rd, but Mr Gardiner is still a little close for comfort at this point. He needs to put on 10kgs - that will slow him down! I was starting to hurt. On the last climb, and I was starting to creep as well as hurt, and I could feel a couple of blisters coming on too. I looked back at the top of the hill and no one was back - that is good - probably 40sec at least, and maybe a mile to go - with a big down hill and a bit of flat. Blisters were starting to annoy me and the tank was a bit empty going down the hill, and decided that this was the best I had and if they caught me so be it - no need to look back. With a couple of hundred meters to go and I hear a bit of a crowd roar behind, and that is not for me! Darn it! Look back, and not one, but two are rapidly closing in! Crap - I am going to have to sprint or settle for 4th (and that will cost me a brunch!). Before I have made my decision, my legs are already well ahead - the adrenalin response system must still be working well. Distant 2nd is a fine result, no world records - but then the swim was long and the bike was windy (and I have more excuses)!! Good day in the office, but still not sure I like the level of suffering I am putting in to preserve my finishing positions - I am sure it never use to be this hard! I was a good brick session - and it was definitely something I needed to do. Race! Racing is something I have somewhat "forgotten" about - but is a vital skill in itself. I just need to find a way to make the pain a little less intense! I might have to get a mediator in and sit my competitive streak down with my pain receptors and come up with some agreement for the next few events....


Scott - that is enough training - come out of the water now...

progress and philosophies...

The training has sort of come back on track in the last couple of weeks. Still a little behind where I would like to be, but it is progressing. I was a little stuffed after K2 and that did take the good part of a week to turn around from the tiredness and soreness. Also being sick a few weeks before that did affect me. I felt I had lost 30-40 watts of power off the top end (around threshold), being fairly subjective, but I had a bit of a play with the training data, and the interval data sort of showed that out too. The average power and peak power values ( shown are 10 and 30 minute) did drop off post sickness from what was being held before. As the sessions do differ, it is not a perfect comparison, but I think it does show a trend - and a sizable dip! It is starting to come back up now, but still well under what it was. This week, my threshold efforts were closer to where they were, perhaps 10-15watts down, rather than 20-30 previously.



These two graphs show the average power and peak power for my interval sessions (bike) over the last few months. As you can see - there is a nice dip after being sick!

Swimming has been similarly affected, but the endurance drop-off was more noticeable - rather than the speed (not that I am a fast swimmer). I have not been that consistent with the swimming, and when I look back, a week off, then a couple of weeks with 2 swims per week, and that is enough to drop the fitness noticeably. It does not help when all the others in your lane are also getting faster/fitter - as you feel like you have lost more than you have!
Running is still pitiful - for where I would like it to be. Just missing one or two easy runs each week is hurting, and I just need to get them done. I have moved the long runs up a little, and have had a couple of runs in the 1:40 to 1:50 range, which is far better than the 1hr to 1:30 range! I think this will start to show through in a few weeks. The harder run performance is a bit up and down, and I think that is just a function of lack of miles! Must do better! I have been meaning to do a little bit on training philosophy for a while (amongst other things!), so I will put a few thoughts down on that. I have coached off and on for over 15 years now, and did spend a fair amount of time while being a self coached athlete, investigating different coaching ideas and philosophies. I have had great opportunities to meet and talk with some great coaches and athletes. I would also say that some of the coaches that I do thing are great, have not necessarily coached great athletes, but do get good results out of those they do coach. It does amaze me how various coaching messages get interpreted so differently. Take Arthur Lydiard for example. Some people think he supported long slow distance, and others that the "steady running" was just under threshold. Having talked to him a few times, I think the main thing was that he supported a vast volume of aerobic training, and was very sparing on the anaerobic training. Probably his greatest strength was the ability to express to his athletes the pace/effort that they should train at. I am not sure he actually knew how good this skill was. He could also tell a great story - which is generally very inspiring! Duncan Laing is another coach that I was quite impressed with - in the fact he could very intuitively dial in what each athlete needed. For the number of athletes he coached, he had a very high percentage of great results. Yet many "top" coaches (which would be labeled as national coaches most of the time), get great athletes come to them, but these athletes do not get better. Is it that the athlete is at there potential when they arrive or that the coach does not get the best out of them?

Over the years there have been many "revolutionary" training regimes that have come, and in some cases gone. Over distance, interval, repetition, interval, fartlek, long slow distance training, to name a few. Then of course there are variations on themes. With many systems, the story is similar - with "follow our system and success is guaranteed". in many cases there are successes, but probably in about half those that start the "plan". For the rest there is probably a break-down, or no significant improvement (the former usually). My opinion is that programs can work for some, but they are programs, as opposed to coaching, which is far more interactive, adaptive to the individual, and part art, part science. The science side amuses me a lot of the time. There are some great things to come out of sports science, but there is at least as much that is just non-sense (being slightly PC). The problem with sports performance is that improvements at the top level can be very small, and can take a long time to show through. Not many studies involve top level athletes in a very structured environment over a long period of time. The other biggie is that you need quite large sample sizes to show significance when the differences are small, and getting a large number of reasonably highly trained athletes to commit to a study is the other difficulty. So the end result is that "such and such" is not significantly better than "this and that". The sports science community then says that weight training does not improve performance, or that running 100 miles per week is not significantly beneficial than running 50 miles per week. The problem is - there maybe a difference, but they cannot show it! But people read the report and believe that it is proof!

A defining moment for me - as an athlete and from a coach perspective was in 1996. I had a very good season in 1994, and then a pretty poor 1995. I spent around 3 months feverously researching training methods and coaching philosophies. I had a few good chats with a few coaches, including my swim coach who did make a significant impact on my attitude to training (Trevor Nichols). I went through training logs of some of the great athletes (ones that I could find - and there were quite a few out there). The thing that intrigued me the most was the "why" they were doing what they were. In most cases I could see what they were trying to do, and felt I got an understanding of the reasoning behind the training they did. One of the last books I went through brought it all together for me. It was not a magic formulae or master plan that I felt was perfect, but quite the opposite. There were bits and pieces from many other sources I had seen, but there was no underlying philosophy. I felt that this person just did not understand "coaching" or "high performance sport". He had just taking ideas and thrown them together, but with no master philosophy behind it. This person was a leading coach (in NZ) and has a strong sports science background, but I felt they just did not "get it". For me - it made me bring together all the information and ideas I had sloshing around in my head. It focused my mind on what I felt work for what I wanted to do, and helped me develop my own philosophy. I can back and had a great 1997 season after that too! I would say my basic philosophy is very similar to what it was 10 years ago, but I have still learnt a lot along the way - and adapted somewhat!

I don't think there are any "special" workouts, or magic training bullets. Spend some time putting a plan together that you think will work and then stick to it! Give it a chance to work. Coaching by committee and swapping between plans at a whim is the best way to limit progress!

Danyon Loader - A great champion who I have a great deal of respect for. A special person who could do very special things in the pool! He use to borrow my lane at Moana pool before I got in to train...

First hit-out of the season...

It has been a bit up and down, feeling more down overall on the training front, but with K2 cycle race/ride yesterday as a good true test of where I am at.
For last week, swimming was OK, got in 3 swims, and broke 4km, so was happy with that. The swimming is going OK, I just need to get a 4th easier swim in a bit more regularly from now on in. Cycling power output has been a bit crappy after being sick, so put off doing the time trial that I need to do. The weather conspired against the long ride last weekend (must be a holiday weekend!!), so I thought I would sneak it in on Sunday instead of the long ride. I was feeling pretty average, not that motivated, legs sore, tired, hungry, [put in more excuses here...] etc etc. Did the warm-up and that sort of went a bit better than I thought it would. Started off and felt I was going at a comfortable solid effort, but sort of not really in the groove (seat uncomfortable, knees and feet achie etc). I was going a little faster than I thought I would/should and slowed myself down a couple of times, not wanting to blow up early on. Then just after 10km - POP! Not just - "oh, this is starting to hurt, I better slow down", a maddog special - something from which nothing can be salvaged! All over at 10.8km, just as the pizza's arrived, off the bike - it is all over! That does not happen often for me, but when it does, it is spectacular. I think I will need to rethink my approach a little, especially in conjunction with the other major hiccup of the week. Thursday I did "3 sessions in one day", which should be no big deal, as I did not go hard out in any of them. The swim was OK, apart from having to do a set of 50's on the :40 (pull). The bike and run were later in the day. The bike went OK - should have been a moderate effort at higher cadence on the TT bike, and went by power, and the HR was a bit higher than I was expecting, but was not sure if it was the cadence or the detraining from being sick (I now know it is the later). The run soon-ish after the bike started out feeling very good, and finished "happy to be home and sitting on the couch"! I was hoping to get through the day feeling quite comfy in all the efforts - so there is a fair bit of work to do there. Two and a half hours for all the sessions, and I want to ramp that up to 4 hours in the next 4-5 weeks - which maybe a little ambitious. We will see. Running was sort of OK. Knock a few easy runs out, which really were just ticks in boxes, and only just making ticks. The long run was a confirmation that my shoes are stuffed. I will have to check, but I am sure it is only 6 weeks of running in them, and not that much running either! Legs felt OK, but feet were hammered after an hour and 20 minutes. Much more and I think I would do serious damage. So did not push my luck. Another line on the to-do-list. So for the main key sessions - if I am generous - 3/10! Bike TT- dnf, long ride - dns, brick swim-bike-run - felt like a fur ball the cat had thrown up for the 3rd time, when it should have been quite comfortable and achievable, and long run - short due to preventative maintenance... sigh...
This week I had K2 (a nice hilly 200km bike race) which I was feeling more and more under prepared for. From memory last two times I rode this - I punctured at 15km and 195km, and the other time I did it on around 100km per week of cycling and blew spectacularly at 100kms. I was feeling it was going to be another reality check, which after last week I am not that sure I needed! The way the week went work wise, I decided this was going to be an easy week, which fitted in well with the K2 and moving into the next block of training. So it was a couple of swims, two bikes (spin classes), and a couple of runs (group sessions). So if I am not recovered - I am in trouble!
So now K2 is done and dusted. I was pretty happy with the result in the end, ending with what I thought I was capable of if I had a good day and the race went my way. What I was not expecting was the amount of suffering that I would endured - it was really hard to get through! The major issue was cramp - with cramping kicking in at 90km. I felt OK energy wise and had eaten, and drunk well - so I am pretty sure it was electrolytes. I managed to manage the cramp so it was going away, and coming back just periodically.
Tactically I tried to stay reasonably close to the front, and expend the least possible effort doing so. So that was focusing on being in a good position in the bunch, and not doing more that required on the hills. The hills were still solid (to say the least), and I was pretty cautious on the descents - I did not need to take any risks! Unfortunately there was a very nasty accident on the second main climb - when an idiot driver attempted to overtake the bunch on the climb, only to be confronted by a milk tanker coming down the hill, and then caused the damage when he cut into the bunch to miss the tanker! It certainly took the shine of a great event that is well run! At that point the front of the race attempted to keep things reasonably slow, so that those caught on the wrong side of the crash could "get back on". Then it was suffer into the wind, and "get through the climbs". Just after 90km is the hardest climb of the ride, and as I had twinges of cramp - it "do it at my own pace" front the start. I kept an eye on the power, and try to keep around 300-330watts, which is under threshold for me - so solid be not "burning too many matches". Got dropped by about 30 riders straight away, and picked up a few on the second half of the climb. then lost a few more on the descent, but was OK with that. Then put a solid burner in on the flat to catch a small group in front that had a couple of good riders in it. The next 50-60km has a lot of flat, so not really the time to ride on your own! I got a little grumpy with a few in the group - when they would not lap through. But once we did start lapping and the group grew to around 20+ riders we were cruising along quite well. It was a nice cross-tail wind - which was good! At this point I was in the second bunch - with around 25 riders in the front group. Once the group was moving along quite well, I went and hid myself down the back of the bunch and ate and drunk and just looked after myself. The group did start to break up, with a small group of the stronger riders going off the front, and I thought about jumping across to them, but I was a bit too far back in the bunch and they were not really getting away, so I felt sitting in the bunch conserving energy for the last big hill of the day was a better option than lapping out at a solid effort in a smaller group. The last hill is around 10km, but not really that steep, but still 45km to go when you turn to go up it. I had sort of come right a bit by this stage, and was glad I had picked up extra water along the way. Started the climb easy, worked my way through the bunch early on, and then ended up on my own. Then pick up the group that had got away, and ended up in a smaller group riding up at a comfortable steady pace. I was pretty happy that I was keeping going well, although cramp was still an issue, and just wanted to be done by this point. Picked up a couple of water bottles at the last aid station (about 800m from the top of the climb), and then managed to get dropped by those who I was riding with! I am not sure if they put a burner in or it was the extra 1.5kg of water I was carrying, but did not feel my effort had dropped. Oh well... I quite like descending on my own, not worrying about being cut of by someone out-riding their ability. But when I saw 20km to go, I was sort of hoping it was 5km to go. A couple of guys picked me up and we suffered together doing what-ever laps we could. I think we all appreciated the company, and were happy to help each other out. Unfortunately a bigger group caught us just before the finish - but I was not really in the mood for a sprint. Fortunately not many others were either, and I rolled over 4th in our group in 5hours 46min for a very solid hilly ride! Pretty stuffed and still twinges of cramp for the next hour.
Day after and the body is not in great shape, back and ITB's the main issues. But will try to suffer through some sort of run. In hindsight, it was probably a good result! In fact I did set a couple of power output records - so it was good. Best 5min and 10 minute power outputs since I have had the power meter. Having said that, the power meter did give up on the last climb (flat battery I think), and the heart rate monitor really spat the dummy and had a total melt down (black screen and intermittent beeping). Not sure if it is me - but I don't actually have much race data - all the toys seem to fail on race day!

Big daddy Ironman

Well I have managed to get back into training after being sick a couple of weeks ago. Lost 5 days completely and then slowly got back into it. The following week was a little lack lustre and had to take it a little easier. Certainly lost a bit of strength, and the top end appeared to be locked-out! It just was not even worth trying harder efforts! The start of this week has gone quite well (this week), and while I still feel slightly under where I was before I got sick, I feel the body is adapting to the training much better. I have even managed to get over 4km in the pool twice this week! Already! The longer run at the weekend was a struggle. I was after an hour and a half, and got to just over an hour and the legs were just hammered. 20 minutes for the quickest way home, but managed to get my ass around a bigger block to get the 1hr30min in. I think my shoes have gone! They were a "stop gap" pair, until I sorted out if they were worth continuing with that model. They seem to be working OK, just not lasting very long! Probably working out around $15 per run at the moment I think!! So have to sort that out in the next week or so! Darn it! Long rides have also been getting ticked off - nothing spectacular, and feeling a little average, but all good training I think. Having said that I am not really looking forward to K2 - I think it is going to hurt - perhaps more than I want it to...
The big daddy of Ironman has come and gone for the year. Ironman Hawaii is an interesting race, all the big names come with their A game (usually), some have great races, and for many the wheels fall off! It is quite brutal, and having been there once, I don't really have the burning desire to return. It just did not light my fire. It was a very desolate place, and probably not really that well suited for me. It is always hot, and always windy - and just the degree of the extremes that vary on the day. I, as with many other "bigger" guys that typically sweat a lot, struggle with the heat aspect. There is only so much you can do if you sweat 2-3 liters per hour and can only absorb around 1.5 liters of fluid per hour. For 8 hours plus you are going to struggle (the numbers just do not balance out!)! But it is the pinnacle of the sport for many. I thought this years race was great, a little bit of a shame that Macca had a mechanical, and that Chrissie Wellington punctured and had to get help with that (but she still won easily!!). Some outstanding performances, and some people really layed it on the line this year - great stuff. Very close racing in the top ten, when often there can be big time gaps.
One of the interesting things that has come up in the last few years, is that times have not really improved that much! There have been significant technical advances (supposedly), both in equipment and training (tools and knowledge). We have aero this, and aero that, powermeters, watches that give pace as well as HR and fatigue levels in training. Plenty of research has been done for the endurance athlete, yet times have not really improved. We are also a relatively young sport - so we should still be improving our performances quite regularly (especially relative to athletics and swimming). There are a few theories of course, from drugs, course changes/conditions, different athletes and their approaches. So what is the answer? Is there an answer?
My thoughts for the performance levels in Triathlon in general are (no particular order:
Competitive training and racing brings out the best in people. I have seen this in many areas in the last 20 years. In the early days, many of the big names in the sport trained and raced together often. That is not so much the case now. There are also many more races (particularly Ironman - form 7 up to 23 WTC events), so you get less head-to-head racing with the best. Where you have a group of talented and focused athletes training together, you often get the training bought to a new level - sometimes for good, and sometimes not!
Drugs are a factor in sport, there are probably less at the very top now than there was, but I would think there may in fact be more at the second tier, where there is no drug testing. I am sure there are a few athletes reasonably doped up, going around cherry picking races that have no testing.
I think sports science has been a bit of a cope-out in some areas. While it has certainly helped in the general knowledge in many aspects, it has also limited "pushing the limits" in some aspects too. For example, knowing the benefits quantitatively for drafting in swimming, cycling and running under different conditions is very useful. However a study (and there are a few) that show that "weight training does not significantly improve performance in endurance running" maybe a bit of a misleading statement. There maybe an improvement, but it is too small to be statistically significant, or there maybe those for whom there was an improvement and those for whom it was detrimental, and overall it averaged out even. Often studies do not let the truth get in the way of a good story! I feel those that rely heavily on sports science often play it very safe, and get modest improvements in performance. Break-through performances often come from a "risk it all" approach, that either succeeds or fails in spectacular fashion!
I think every generation has great athletes, so that is not so much of an issue, and on courses such as Hawaii Ironman, the changes in the course sort of balance out. there maybe some differences, but they are small. In fact we are probably starting to see the results of "triathletes" now - those that have started there sporting careers as triathletes, rather than swimmers, cyclists or runners that have changed sports.
The equipment side of things make me laugh a little. everything sort of goes in cycles - and many of the latest and greatest "developments" were around decades ago and went out of favor for what ever reason. Take Aero helmets - One of my first helmets was an aero Helmet - back in the '80's! It was effectively a fibreglass shell with a basic cradle and Velcro chin strap. It would probably not absorb much shock, but was probably a lot more aerodynamic that the current range of aero helmets. While HR monitors and powermeters etc are great tools, they are just tools - and I think the down side of many of these tools is that they are seen as some holy grail solution to peak fitness and performance. In reality they are just tools. Many of the great coaches and athletes of past eras, that did not have these tools available to them, found useful work-around that helped get a similar result instead of using these tools. I think the challenge with many new "toys" is to separate the marketing hype from fact.
Right - time to go and train! :-)

warning - man flu!

Last week was the first week without the school cycling - which was very different! It did free up a bit more time, which was appreciated, but did also drop a scheduled in not-really-negotiable ride. The week did not start very well, with a txt saying the pool temperature was 22 degrees - and I don't do cold water swimming! Took until Wednesday before I clicked that I could actually turn up with my wetsuit - which I did, but the pool was back to temperature by then. Missed two swims, gained one easy run in the process, and as I have Thursday morning free, did actually get to swim squad then as well. 
The weekend had a bit of a longer ride scheduled in - as Maddog was keen to ride to "Mt Auckland". Not really sure why - it is not really a mountain, and it is in the middle of nowhere, or maybe just this side of nowhere. I have only ridden out that direction a couple of times since living in Auckland (it is only 50-60km away), and every time the wind has been a right pain, and the road surface leaves a lot to be desired! Half a dozen of us set off - heading north west, with a nice north west wind blowing... Great - creeping from the start - at least there is potential for a tail wind home - but experience says that is unlikely. Three and a half hours of hills and head wind we creep into Wellsford (83km covered), plenty of wind, plenty of hills, and the potential for a 5 hour ride to blow out to 7 hours plus! A scone and a coffee to build some reserves for the trip home, and there is one call home for a ride... Might not be much waiting around on the trip home! Head back, with what should be a tail wind - and yes we are still riding INTO the wind! Damn it! Five km's later and the wind is sort off to the side, but definitely not a tail wind. At least the hills are not as steep going home, and without the strong head wind, I can actually climb them without looking for "extra gears" - something I have not had to do this year until this day! It is a bit of a quiet ride home, the friendly banter goes pretty quiet, and a puncture does not really help lift the spirits. We make it back, feeling sort of OK - all things considered, for having ridden for 6hours and 20minutes. The hundred and sixty something km's felt more like 200 plus, which was a little more depressing. But with K2 (200km bike ride/race) in less than a month, it was a good ride to get done.
On the Saturday before the ride I did feel like the beginnings of a cold come on. I figured the long ride would either kill the bugs or kill me. Went swimming Monday morning and felt like crap - which I sort of expected after the long ride. A run was just not going to happen. Started sneezing and getting the sniffles quite a bit, but no flu symptoms - so figured it was hay fever. Took some anti-histamines. Tuesday got up to go swimming and the "hay fever" was not getting any better - then a bit of a nice chesty cough... Oh right - it is not hay fever then... So 2 days pretty much in bed feeling like crap! I think I am almost over the worst of it now - so hopefully one more day off and then into some light training. It is the second bug for the winter, which is good for me. Usually I get 2-3 bugs that lay me up for a couple of weeks each time. This time I have not been hit that hard (hopefully only x2), and have avoiding a couple of bugs that other have got - that I would also normally get. So perhaps the heath is quite good - touch wood...
Next week (what was going to be this week) is really the start of a new phase in the build-up, and I think I am going to have to sharpen up a little! I certainly feel that overall I am fitter, although not really any faster. I can back days up a lot better (not great - but better), and I am probably now at a stage that I am fit enough to train properly! I don't feel that I have been at this level for 6-7 years!! I think I have been faster in that period of time, but not generally fit. If I did do something hard - it would take a week or more to recover from (or more). I do get tired training at the moment, everything feels sore, and I still have some shocking performances in training (mostly in the pool), but I can get up most days and get something done! 
There are at least two things I need to do far better moving forward - the long run and the weights! I would also like a couple of extra swims (to make 4 per week), but that is being a little picky! The other thing I really want to get into is a brick session. Now I run these every week as a squad session, but have not really had the opportunity to do them myself. I want to start with an easier swim-bike-run combo (small breaks between - such as breakfast is OK). Having said that, I think I am due for a bike TT, so I think that next week I am going to have to do a TT on my combo day, probably after a squad swim. I don't expect it will be fast, but hopefully it is not slow! 
Time to make some goals for the up coming month! So here they are:
1. two runs over 2 hours
2. survive K2 (200km bike race) - I have had bad experiences here! I think last time I punctured at 15km and 195km.
3. 25km bike TT - I don't think it will be much different - but just need to do it.
4. 2 brick sessions (swim-bike-run sessions in the same day)
5. get on top of work!! I do need to get this under control or it will seriously derail my training! Not only the time factor, but probably more so the stress (I don't like being behind all the time!)! 
6. I need to do something to spark my running up a little too - it is my weak link at the moment. I have not quite decided what that is, probably will be a bigger week of running... I do have a couple of test sessions I want to try, but more on that later...

training camps and racing...

Last week was a funny old week this week. We had a training camp over the weekend (20/21st september), which included the north island interclub duathlon champs. The weekend was a one and a half hour swim Saturday morning, the duathlon at lunch time and just under an hour run in the forest that night. Sunday was a long ride and a short run after, for those left standing! Overall I think the weekend went quite well. I find training camps funny things, particularly the way in which different people cope with them. Usually you are out of your comfort zone at some point, for some that starts when you arrive and ends when you leave! A different environment is usually good for a change, and if not - then it just makes you appreciate what you do have! Training with others can also be a pleasant change - even if it is just to see others suffer with you. 
My training week sort of went to pack a little during the week, loosing a little with organizing the weekends training. The main cause of "going to the pack" though was too much intensity and not enough easy! Pretty much every day had something solid or hard in it, and the sessions I missed were generally the easy ones! I don't really cope that well with that scenario. Once I am doing over 8-10 hours training per week, I need 2-3 days per week that are just lower intensity days, or at least half the training time is quite easy, and my easy is quite easy! So for the last week, Monday had a solid swim, and an easy run, missed the Tuesday swim and did the Tuesday spin class (hard), Wednesday morning swim was also quite solid - with a solid 1500m pull, trying not to get lapped more than twice - and just achieving that. Thursday was probably the killer, with the school team time trial training in the morning - with a few solid-steady efforts there, and then taking young Katie out for sprint training in the afternoon. That power graph looked good - plenty of recovery effort and then plenty of "supra-max" efforts too. Friday run intervals early Friday morning, duathlon race on Saturday, and finished off with a long ride on Sunday. The HR in duathlon was not really that high - 157, so I suspect I was a little fatigued at that point in the week. I should really be able to average high 160's or low 170's for an hour and 20min of racing. 
The Duathlon itself was the first race in a while, and while I was a bit toasty going in to it, I still gave close to the best I had on the day. I knew the first run was going to be fast, and I was not up to pace. I chucked a pair of racing flats on in the hope it would give me a few extra seconds that might help get me into a better group on the bike. Well that plan went out the window in the first 200m when I was behind about 30 more people that I wanted to be behind (and that is without huge expectations!). We will move to plan B - move steadily through the field - hopefully. Narrow trails sort of cut that plan to shreds a little, and the un-even off road terrain did not lend itself to racing flats. Hmmm - I should probably race a bit more so I remember these things... I finished the run with a couple of others, and thought they might be useful to get up a little further, however I did manage a good transition, and was not waiting! The bike was draft legal, and went quite well. I think I actually rode OK, although riding on your own in a drafting event is usually not a good thing! Caught a few slackers toward the end of the bike, and another OK transition put a little distance on them going into the second run. I was pretty sure they would come past in the first 500m of the run, and was stoked to hold them off for at least 800m. Not sure if it is good or bad when people you coach pass you - I will take it that I am doing an OK job - perhaps they should have been in front of me all the way though... :-) All in all, I did enjoy racing - it was a nice day. 

This coming week is the last week of the school cycling training. I will sort of miss that a little. Perhaps the time and a few of the frustrations will not be missed, but watching them improve and get good results when they do is kind of cool. So this coming week will be the last of this current block and next week it will be time to move to a new phase. I do need to improve my running, so that has to come on a little more and be a bit more structured. I probably need to do a few more injury prevention things with that - bit more stretching, massage, weights, and core strength. I know if I don't - I simply will not tolerate more training without getting injured at some point. 


The HR graph for the Duathlon - not really revving freely and there were a couple of hills in the bike...

The Auckland city Tri club team photo - we even managed third in the teams!! where are our prizes Boys??
Here is the power profile from the cycling sprint session - probably not a threat in tour de France. The latter ones were in limited gears, adding to the diminishing power outputs...

who stole the last month??

Blimmen heck - time is flying by!!
Training in general has been reasonably consistent over the last two weeks. I have got in to a reasonable routine for the last month or so, sometimes getting a little caught out with work etc, but on the whole the training is ticking along OK. I am swimming 3 times a week, between 3 and 4km. Have not got over 4km, as it seems to be getting quite hard to do so! The swimming speed is OK, just steady as she goes. Swimming pull is substantially quicker than just plain freestyle at the moment (at least 5 seconds per 100m I would say), and given I am slower with a pull buoy than without, I am guessing the strength is sort of OK. We have managed a couple of long rides on the road in the last two weeks - however it appears we have traded rain for wind! I find riding in the rain quite miserable, and generally avoid it, but the wind can really be quite sole destroying. You always get far more head wind than tail wind, and it is usually just plain un-relenting! A couple of spin classes - one being a hard interval and the other I am taking quite easy. Then the school cycling training session on the road. This usually has some effort in it - as those school boys can actually go quite fast when they put their minds to it. However they can be just plain shocking as well! Stopping for a crash this week I managed to stand in what must have been the biggest dog poop in the world. I now have a poopy shoe, bootie and pedal - and I bet that does not come out either!! Running has been consistent also - 4 runs a week, a couple of easier ones, 30 minutes to an hour, a run interval session - which is a little up and down (depending on the previous day mostly), and a long-ish run - mostly around 1hr30min.
If I was being picky with the training I would say I would "ideally" like to be doing 4 swims, one of at least 4.5km, 4-5 runs with a long one at around 2 hours, and 4 rides, with a longer one on the road each week or 4 hours plus. I am not that far away in reality, and if I take a little more relaxed view, there is probably some benefit to slightly less, rather than slightly injured. Once the school cycling finishes, the training will move to a different phase I think - a little more time, and a little more "me" specific training opportunity as well.
Here are a couple of other training "incidence" from the last two weeks...
Sometimes you just have days that you wonder whether you should have bothered getting out of bed. I turned up for swimming on Wednesday, went to do the togs up, and no string (it had pulled through). Fossac through the swim bag, and finally find the spare pair - so no major disaster. Do the warm-up and start the 1500m pull, and as I push off the left goggle fills up with water - OK, that is a little annoying, not sure I can swim 1500m with one eye closed. Stop and empty the goggle out after 400m, and it promptly fills up again! Sigh... A couple of hundred later and the paddle brakes - darn it - loose 50m re-threading what is left of the strap, and empty out the goggles again. Get going again, and then the goggle strap breaks - OK - so that is probably why it was leaking so much. 1300 out of 1500m done, but off to the gear bag for the back-up goggles... So that just leave the swim cap to break - but it didn't, so the entire world was not against me, just a minor conspiracy! Probably would not have been so bad if I was not swimming quite well, and holding the best pace I had for quite a while...
Last week I had Thursday morning off from the school cycling, so contemplated a test session. I want to build up to a sort-of half ironman simulation. After the school cycling is done, I am planning on Thursday morning being a swim-bike-run session. Initially it will be all easy, but then want to incorporate some efforts in the session. I was in two minds on what to do for this session - either an easy swim, easy bike and an easy run, or a steady bike and an easy run. I opted for the steady bike option, as I wanted to test a couple of things - my pace judgement and if I could in fact hold the relative power I should be able to for a half ironman, given my current fitness. a warm-up, and 3 simulated climbs up the col du Tormulet at a steady effort was what I decided, and I should be able to comfortably ride 90km at 300watts at my current fitness. So on the first effort I tried to focus on the effort I would go at if I were doing a half ironman. I had the powermeter hidden under a towel, so I was just going on perceived effort. I did take a glimpse after about 5 minutes and saw 330w - but was hoping that was just a little flick up due to actually looking at it. The HR was a little up on expected, but it was a little warmer, so I was happy with that. Each climb took just under 30 minutes, and I made a conscious decision that each had to be faster, to ensure I did not start out too fast. Around half way through the third effort the perceived effort did increase quite a bit, as I tried to maintain a slightly higher pace than the second. There were also a few twinges of cramp - not a good sign! I finished the session OK, each effort faster (around 30-40 seconds), and got through 4 bottles of fluid and a few gels in the ride, but I was a bit stuffed - certainly there would be no half marathon run, but I only wanted a 30-40minute easy run. I tried to put the running shoes on and that was not going to happen as the hamstring cramped up severely! Not quite as I planned - the run will have to wait. I downloaded the ride data to see what I had actually done, and my problem was immediately clear!! My normally quite good pace judgement was totally crap! I had started off at well over 350watts on the first effort and continued on averaging around 330 for the first 10 minutes - not the controlled 300 watts I was hoping for!! I am pretty sure that first 10minutes was the source of most of my troubles. Most of the steady efforts after that were a little over 300 watts, and the last 27minute effort was 319watts (required to descend the efforts). So the pacing needs work. The main reason for the test was equipment choice. I have a disc, but with that no power measure. So if I want to race with a power meter for pacing, I either need a new rear wheel or a powermeter in the cranks - either option starts at $3000... re-learning to pace myself maybe cheaper (it may not be too!).
Right - better write a note to stretch more too - even sitting down is hurting at the moment...

Olympics - at least it is only every 4 years...

Gee these blogs have fallen a bit behind schedule! I can only blame the Olympics - certainly not training, possibly work - but not really. I was not really into the games as they were rolling around, but they have certainly grown on me this time. In fact I think they have been great! There have been some great performances, some great results, and of course a few disappointments. On the whole I have been pretty stoked with the kiwi's - they have thrown off the chokers shackles and stepped up and shown what a bit of hard work and perseverance can do. As with some most sporting endeavors there are the stand-outs and the disappointments. What I always look for is when an athlete crosses the line, and there is nothing more they could have done to do better. They trained as hard as they could have, and they races as the absolute best they could have. If they look back - there is nothing they would do differently! In my opinion, then that does not matter if you are first or last - that is where you are! That is what the Olympics are about - putting yourself out there and seeing where you stand - and that takes guts! Phelps is amazing - an incredible athlete who found his niche - he is able to totally dedicate himself to train insane amounts, and cope with that training. On top of that he really knows how to win. What ever it takes- what ever he has to endure to get there...
For the kiwi's - you have to feel for Mahe Drysdale- he obviously went as hard as he could, being sick absolutely robbed him of significant performance, and he still comes up with a medal. But four years of hard work to be undone by a bit of deli-belly (or a dodgy roast dog rib in the cafe..). The twins came in a little written off by some, but with the pressure of defending champs - and showed why you NEVER give up until you cross the line. If I was them I don't think I would be wanting to look at that finish photo too often either! On the other side, I thought some of the swimmers under performed - they train pretty hard, but many just don't appear to have that ability to step up on the really big days. Athletes like Beatrice Faumuina annoy me a little - from my perspective (and I am guessing - I don't have the facts), she has the ability to do what she wants, but does not understand what it does take. She has failed to prepare properly, and it also appears she was not prepared for the probably failure. Those giving out the money to support NZ athletes will not be happy with her attitude. I am sure others could have put in a better effort.
One of my swimming companions obviously had Olympic-itus. She was starting her training for the 2012 Olympics at Monday squad. I was not that impressed at all to be fair. After tanning my ass in the first hour of the session, she declared she was now stuffed and that I should lead. No chance - you bought that on yourself, and you can suffer the consequences!! Fortunately I had a relatively quite time the next day, with only a couple of young guys in the lane, and after the first few reps they have burnt themselves out, and you can cope with the session just fine! So managing to knock 3 squad swims out per week, which is OK at the moment. Performance is also OK, nothing spectacular, but a good base to kick on from I think (well - if I need to kick on).
Cycling is OK - although I am finally a bit sick of the rain! Almost to the point that I am not that concerned about getting wet - just to see what riding on the road is like again. A couple of spin classes last week, and lost Saturday (I swear, it just disappeared!). Sunday was raining (again!), and decided a long run (not done at this point) was far more productive than a long ride (which would be 2 hours on the trainer). It was a little later in the afternoon when I left, and decided to go and check some bush tracks I had not been to for a couple of years. Probably not the best plan after 6weeks of relentless rain. It actually went really well, and enjoyed the change. The tracks were pretty similar to last time - although one had gone from a clay mud-put to a reasonable gravel track. So I followed that along for a while - and it was a reasonably long track. Popped out on to a road - no idea where I was, possibly a vague idea of a general vicinity. Then thought to myself - this is a bit darker than expected, there was only one way to go back - but managed to get through the tracks without breaking an ankle on an unseen-due-to-darkness tree root. Overall, almost 2 hours, and it felt reasonably easy and much shorter! All good! Distraction from the task at hand is sometimes good. Nothing too spectacular with the other runs, but they did get done. Just under 5 hours running last week - so a good tick in that box.
This Just in from Ant Ham - he is the one behind Olympian Shane Reid - looking far more relaxed...

Too much on TV...

Missed the update last week - so better get A-into-G and get writing! I was hoping to do a bit on Caffeine - but it is proving to take a bit more time than I originally thought (there is a lot of newer research coming out on caffeine). Just recovered from the tour de France, and now I have to get through all the Olympic games coverage! Sleep is certainly going by the way-side! Anyway an update on the training progress...
Last week had a couple of hiccups - had a "sleep through the alarm" on Monday morning and missed the first session of the week - which I hate! Already behind and it is only 7am on Monday morning - darn it! So only 2 swims for the week, OK for maintenance, but not really moving forward. Weights also went by the way side - mainly as I do it after Monday and Wednesday swimming. Missed Monday swim, and I was just plain stuffed after Wednesdays swim! So I think I am going back to square one on the weights - so this coming week will be an introductory week back to weights!
Cycling had something novel in it - the long ride on the road, and in fine weather!! Managed 3 hours, pretty cold to start with, but a very nice day once it warmed up (sun on your back, no wind...). Second Sunday road ride for in over 3 months - a long time between drinks! The long ride was not without incident. Obviously many motorists were not use to seeing cyclist, and there were a few incidence. We passed someone who was being looked after on the road who had obviously been knocked off his bike in a solid manner - not a nice sight to begin a ride with. After avoiding a few motorists who appeared to look straight through our bunch (always scary), Deno managed to get knocked down going around a round-about reasonably close to home. I am sure many motorists do not actually see cyclist - in that they are only looking for cars - and someone on a bike just does not count as someone you have to give way to! The group finished the ride as it had been most of the day - quite a pleasant pace with only a couple of little "hit-outs". Little Katie managed to give the boys a hurry up on the two climbs of the ride (either side of the halfway turn around). And as she had missed a few sprint training sessions, we finished the long ride with a few "pedestrian crossing sprints" on the way home. I was surprised to see that I managed to go over 900watts for most of the sprints (cracking 1000 a couple of times), as I am really not a sprinter! Spin classes where fairly unspectacular. The intervals were solid, but not record breaking, and I took the Wednesday class was reasonably easy. Taking the school kids out on Thursday morning ended up being a hill fitness ride - due to low turn-out! Tut-tut boys! Well done to the two that did turn-out, and attack me with vigour on the first two hills, forcing me to ride "tempo" :-).
There was a little progress running - new shoes! The last two pair were getting a bit past there "best by" date, and I was getting VERY sore legs and feet each run. Each run in the new shoes has been better, particularly in regards to the sore feet. I may have been pushing my luck a little with the shoes! I will run in the new shoes for a few weeks and check the new model is OK, then look to get a couple more pairs and rotate them each run. Got a little over an hour and a half for the long run, which did feel OK, probably better than most that have been over an hour. Although I did finish a little later in the evening, and had run intervals early the next morning, and ended up tweaking the hamstring a little in that, and suffered a bit in that run! One good and one average... Did get another hour and a bit run on Saturday, so not a bad run week overall, and the hami settled down with the very easy run on Saturday.
Next month will be 6 months to Ironman. While that may still sound a long way away, the last few months have really passed in the blink of an eye. I think at the end of the month I will need to set some monthly goals again, and really make sure I stick to my guns in achieving them, or it will be 3 months to ironman, and I will be doing the same thing still!

the tour de france...

The week that was training - bit of a mixed bag, which is going with the general trend. A few good sessions in there, but also missed a couple of days. 3 squad swims, which went OK, and swimming is close to back to what it was before the 3 weeks off (so fitness back after 2 weeks I guess). One session involved a big set of 25's (48 in all) which usually numbs my brain to the point of being quite painful - but I actually enjoyed it for a change- even the breaststroke pull and the butterfly! Running was again the big loser of the week. Got a few shorter easy runs in, but unfortunately I have to catch up on a few chores, including giving a talk for 4 hours, and lost 2 days training. Feet have been getting quite sore, and the legs feeling a bit hammered after running, so the running shoes are now officially past there useful point. I use two pair, and alternate them - one pair is definitely gone, and will only be used in an emergency I think, the other pair is not great, but not quite so bad (legs not quite so sore after). The better shoes are actually older than the stuffed ones. I have ordered a new pair, so hopefully the next run will be breaking them in. Unfortunately the shoes I currently wear have been superseded by the "new" model. This is always a bit of a worry, and little changes in design usually lead to disaster when in use. So the next pair will probably be a bit of a stop-gap while I organize/check what model to go with next.
Cycling was sort of steady as-she-goes. a couple of spin classes, and taking the school kids out on Thursday morning. The Sunday long ride was always looking like an in door trainer session with a "weather bomb" coming through. Having really missed my long run for the week, and Saturday ended up being a "working all day" day, combined with the end of the tour de France, I decided to have a bit of a solid ride on Sunday, and do 3 climbs up Alp d'Huez on the virtual trainer. I wanted to do each rep faster, and not really do the last one all out (so I could actually still get out of bed the next day). The graph of the session is below. A warm-up circuit and then 3 steady efforts. I worked out being a very good session in the end. I ended up with my best 2 hour power output - although that probably does not mean that much - as it is just a session that full that criteria more than anything. I have not really done a 2 hour hard out effort with the power meter to this point. I was happy to be able to hold over 300 watts at around 150 HR, and around 325 for just under 160HR on the last effort - which still felt quite controlled. More on that in a bit.


The tour de France is over - with CSC the very dominant team and Carlos Sastre the winner. Sastre executed a great race plan - sit and wait until the hardest mountain stage, and attack on the final climb, and hold off threats a couple of days later in the final time trial. It took courage to wait and put all the eggs in that one basket, but he did have a great team to support him, with initial pressure deflected by Frank Shleck while he was leading the tour. He also knew he was stronger in the last week of the tour, and that was the best time for him to attack. I think it was one of the best tours to watch, certainly not a forgone conclusion from the start, and many riders having the opportunity to take the title. My favourite, Valverde, lost time on one mountain stage, and in the last time trial - but the damage was already done so his motivation was probably gone. He did have a crash early on, which may have affected him at the crucial moments - but that is life in the tour! Tid-bits from the tour - Team CSC won 621210 euro's in prize money (top) and Lampre (bottom of list) won 9840 euros - probably not that much for 3 weeks hard work to split amongst the team!
The two main power meter manufacturers were good enough to put some of the power data from a few riders on their web sites. I find the information quite fascinating, and one of the reasons I think power meters are such a useful tool is that you can quantify what you need to be able to do to be good! Of course there are a few factors that you need to look through - such as tactics, but still good information. To do well in the tour, you need to be able to time trial well, and climb well in the mountains, and preferably not get caught in the wrong half of any splits in the bunch on the flatter stages. For the time trial, straight power output is the vital number. This, paired with your aerodynamic drag number is how fast you are going to go on the flat. So a bit of wind tunnel testing to optimize your time trial position, so your drag is minimized, while still being able to output a good power number is important in the build-up. Then you have to "produce the watts" on the day, given that you have ridden long and hard for several days before. The other important number is power-to-weight. This dictates how well you will climb. The good climbers are putting out 5.5-6.0 watts/kg on the longer climbs when the pace is on, maybe 5 at "tempo effort", and the sprinters in the "autobus", who are just trying to make the cut-off times are generally doing around 4 w/kg on the bigger climbs. So what the heck does that all mean - well, based on my Sunday ride on the trainer - I can survive with the sprinters on the bigger climbs (my last effort was 4.34 w/kg)! That is of course taking out the two weeks of riding that the tour rides have endured, and the 150km of riding they need to do to get to the base of the last climb! For an all out 30minute effort I can probably sustain just under 5 w/kg - so to be in the front bunch on the big climbs I either need to lose over 10kg (and maintain my power output), or improve my power output by over 20 percent... Ouch! Dreams are of course, in general, free...

back on track...

Getting back into a routine certainly has helped the training. With my local swim squad back in action (pool re-opened), it is just a matter of getting up, and going there and doing it. It is a good environment to get good training done! It just seamed to make the other sessions fall in place as well. I did take it a little easier, as there was a little de-training effect after 3 weeks of no real swim training! But I think the mental side of being back on track, and ticking off sessions also made life a little less "anxious" - life is better with ticks in boxes!
It was straight back into a 4km swim session on Monday morning - bit of a shock to the system, and definitely a little slower than 3 weeks ago. Oh well, such is life. I tried to repeat my "steady state aerobic test run" again this week. I did this early on, and thought it would be a good indication of my basic aerobic running fitness, rather than the top end from time trials. I have felt that the top end is getting a little better, I am a little faster and feel more in control (ie can go faster if I want to), and the top heart rates are getting back to where they should be (170-ish). The plan was to do a 6km circuit at a steady HR (155 was the number I chose), and hopefully this became faster as I got fitter. Back in March I did this 6km in 24:15, average HR 155, and average cadence 85. This week I repeated it, and did it in 24:14, average HR 155, and average cadence 88! So what does that mean?? I am no fitter? Or the test idea is a load of crap?? I might need to do a time trial to confirm - but I suspect I am no fitter! To be fair, I have not really advanced the run training very much in the last 2 months, and possibly a couple of easy weeks have not actually freshened me up (I have gone past that stage...). And I guess the other major factor might well be my iron status, as I am just trying to get that back on track, so might have to re-test in a couple of weeks to see if that has made a difference. Well at least I am not under an illusion that I am progressing at a great rate! Darn it!! The other training session session of note was the long ride. Having not been out on the road for a while, and no real long ride (ie over 3 hours) for several months now (gulp - time is tick ticking away!), I was keen to get out there this week. I could see the stars in the sky when I went to check the weather on Sunday morning at breakfast time- so the ride was on. The sky looked decidedly gray as we set off (all 4 of us), then spit... spit.... Oh dear. 20 minutes into the ride and I am soaked. I don't do riding in the rain if I have a choice. Little Katie was keen to head for home and the warmth of the garage and the trainer, but she got a "If I am doing this ride so are you" from me. I figured I would gut out at least an hour 30min, and do the other half on the trainer if need be. But the weather cleared a little, and we were OK for the rest of the ride. The next down pour came, just as I got into the car - great timing!! Not quite 3 hours, but got a tick in a box! 
I got a pile of research papers last week, and have been going through a few. No startling revelations, but I guess a couple of interesting tid-bits in some of the details. One was a summary of research on drafting in swimming, cycling and running. Nothing too startling in the fact that if you draft you get a benefit - either less effort at the same speed, or you can go faster at the same effort. I guess the interesting bit is how much you can save. It is well known in cycling that drafting can result in 40-60% less effort, but swimming and running is somewhat less. And that is quantified at more of a 6-8% decrease. The major catch is the actual drafting affect is significantly affected by the skill of drafting! So learning to draft effectively is an important skill, that can save a significant amount of time and/or effort.
On a similar vein, there were a few bits on the effect of run times on different bike efforts, and the effect on bike times from different swim efforts. 100% effort of best swim time trial efforts had a significant effect on the bike times. Doing the swim at 80% of you best time trial pace (not effort) resulted in a significantly faster bike - making up for more than what was lost in going slower in the swim. Drafting and/or lapping on the bike (alternating drafting/leading) also affect the run leg. Probably the big thing here is you need to know what affect different strategies are going to have, and perhaps try a few scenarios in training to find what works and what does not!
The tour de France is becoming one of the most exciting races in modern history! 68 hours of racing so far and 5 and a half minutes separate the top 10! Amazing...

return to routine, and lessons in suffereing...

Last weeks training was again pretty average, with a couple of good sessions, but overall a little below "optimal". I will take that as my easy week, and now that the local pool is open again, and I can get back into the swing of squad swimming, I can focus on getting back into the training routine. I managed a long run (1hr50min) and a solid swim (4km), and the bike and run interval sessions. Slightly annoyed that I slept through my alarm on Sunday and missed the bunch ride (long ride), as it was the first Sunday that the weather was reasonable - in fact it was very good! What's done is done, and currently I can't change the past (time travel maybe a future possibility....), so just need to move on! In the scheme of things it is not a huge thing, and really I just need to get back into the routine, and be consistent with the training. I was a little disturbed with how the swimming had dropped off after a couple of weeks away from the pool (or at least just a couple of half-assed swims only). Having said that, I am suspecting that I am quite low on Iron at the moment, and that is just starting to affect performance. I have not been looking after that at all (I know it is an issue for me), and I think that has crept up on me. Slightly higher HR and a little short of breath occasionally - where the efforts are not that difficult at all. Hopefully a few weeks of extra Iron supplements will get that back to acceptable levels by the end of the month.
I did have one of those moments that you get sometimes training during the week - not sure if it was good or bad yet. I think I will put it in the "wow that is cool, but slightly disturbing" basket. While on the long run I was running along a track next to the beach, and just happened to look up through a gap in the trees - and out on to the ocean. A very nice view, quite relaxing, and then saw an Orca pop up out of the water, probably no more than 100m from shore. First thought was "wow that is cool". Then a few ticks of the brain later, "hmmm, I swim in there over summer...". Slightly freaky, but still cool - I think....
This week the entries for the Tauranga half ironman opened, and managed to sell out in the first day! That does not surprise me at all. It was a week last year, and I would have been surprised if it went over 3 days this year. While not the "fairest" race - being so flat and multi-lap, it is still a great day out. The draft-fest that it was a few years ago has not quite so bad at the front, but still quite atrocious for the women (basically the leading women sitting in bunches of the faster age-group men). But at least you know that when you enter!
With the enthusiasm of the half ironman entries, it was good to see the trash talking start out quite early this year. I am sure that a fair few people will see me as a target to beat in the half and in the ironman, both overall and in individual splits. Sometimes this can be a hassle and a distraction as people try to sprint you in at the end of a leg, but often it is fun, and adds to the challenge of the day. The end of the swim has been unnecessarily competitive a few times in Ironmans - it is a long day, and gaining a few seconds by sprinting someone off at then end of the swim is not usually a good use of energy. However, I have had to "defend" my position a couple of times - particularly when I have had a good swim, and the lead woman has tried to roll me in the last 50m, after quite happily sitting on my feet for the previous 2-3km! Bets have already been placed, and so far I have a brunch and a 3 course meal as bets, so by the end of the year, I will probably be able to eat out for free for a month, or be feeding others for a fair amount of time!
The Tour de France is continuing. There have been a few shake-ups and a few contenders have already been found wanting - mostly wanting new legs... It is still early days, but as a general rule, in tours it is not about gaining time on your competitors, it is about not losing time. The last man standing wins! Every tour I have done has been a huge learning experience. Initially in the tactics of tours - which are completely different to single stage races, and then learning about yourself, and what you can and can't do!
I have a few vivid memories from cycle racing tours. Here are a couple: in the first, we had just finished a hard stage of around 80km, and there was a 1 hour criterium around 2 hours later. After finishing and getting some warm clothes on, I decided a nice hot coffee was in order and jumped on the bike to go to a cafe a few km's up the road. Jumped on the bike and thought to myself - why the hell did I leave the bike in the hardest gear as I struggled to pedal off? Looked down and saw that I was in granny gear (the easiest gear I had) - then had a deep feeling of dread about the next stage! How was I going to handle a full-on Crit if I felt this bad now? An hour later all was good and we were flying around a 1km circuit at stupid speeds... The other memorable moment was in the tour of southland. It was one of the hardest stages, mainly due to the strong cross winds, and the absolutely ridiculous pace being set at the front. It was a few days into the tour, so riders were getting tired. The competition at the top end was starting to get fierce. After a couple of km's in the start town the pace was really on (45-50kph) and everyone was stuck in the left hand gutter due to the cross wind, and gaps were opening up quickly. I found myself near the back end of the bunch (definitely a bad place to be), and almost pushed into the rear of a couple of parked cars. So it was pull out from the echelon, and sprint up nearer the front, and pull into the next open gap - of which there were a few. After a few km's of leap frogging up I was in the top 20 and slightly over the redline! The next 30km were hanging on the back of the front bunch, and occasionally team time trialling back on to the front bunch with a couple of others who were in the same boat as me - doing all they could to hang on. I have only been dropped a few times - where I could not put in an effort to keep up, sure I have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up in grouppo two, but that is tactical rather than physical. However after around 40km of hard-out riding in the gutter, and struggling to keep up, the pace lifted again, and I was well into the red, then realized, I just could not hold on - I was dropped! Damn! I then rode over a fire hose that was across the road - and realized that we had just gone over a sprint prime, the bunch slowed a bit after the sprint and I was back on!! Yahoo! The next 40km were just miserable - a strong cross wind meant riding in the gutter - so I was absolutely as far left as I could possibly ride, right on the rivet (max effort), just wishing the person in front would ride a few inches to the right so I could get some draft - but knowing he was in the same position as me, and that was just not going to happen! Managed to finish in the bunch at the end (16 riders or so), and the main bunch was over 20 minutes behind - a huge gap in a 80km stage. At the end of the stage, one of the race referees can over to me and said "I have come to inspect your bike. I am checking for teeth marks in the handlebars". At least he appreciated the pain and suffering with his sarcasm - and I think there were teeth marks in the handle bars too!
Learning to suffer is an important skill!

let the tour comence...

Another not-so-exciting week on the training front. Main bad news - only one swim, and no long run. Good news is I got to the pool at least once, and got the weights sessions in. Ended up with a couple of solid rides, so that was probably good too. So the bikes were good this week - a couple of 2hr30min rides (which is long at the moment!). One was taking school training - an hour of team time trial training, then another session of sprint training - and by the time I got home I was quite tired, which moved to quite stuffed an hour later! The second ride was the planned "long ride", which was on the trainer (wet and cold outside). I included a few steady efforts - which were simulated tour de France climbs on the simulator - averaging around 300watts for the climbs, which felt OK, and the heart rate was around 150, which is reasonably comfortable. the perceived effort did climb toward the end - so the endurance is probably not there at the moment! But a good result for a "comfortable steady" effort.
The swim did not enhance my motivation to go and swim with the "general public". I just wanted to get in and do a relatively easy swim. It was a little busy when I got there, but there did not appear to be any "breaststrokers" in the fast lane, so I got in and started swimming. There were 3 or 4 others in the lane, but one lady appeared to take exception to me swimming in "her" lane and started chasing me down - with anger. I was not really interested in racing anyone and just stuck to doing my own thing. Tried to let her go in front of me - but she was not having that, and jumped onto my feet at every opportunity. Then a couple of guys in the next lane started trying to race me each time I came through. I just want to swim easy - leave me alone! I tried not to offend anyone, or cut in front of others - but obviously I upset the local balance.
When I first started travelling and racing, it amazed me how similar people were all around the world. The top athletes really did not worry too much about others - and were more interested and focused on themselves and what they wanted to do. They organize their environment to get to optimize their own training. The second tier athletes want to see where they sit in the overall scheme of things and will try and take little "victories" off others - and always want to race in training to show how good they are - even if it stuffs them up for when they actually have to race! When I was training in Boulder (then the triathlon training Mecca), I was in the swim squad, near the back of one of the faster lanes. At the end of one of the reps early in the session I hear a "do you mind if I go in front", turn around - and it is Mark Allen, one of the greats of triathlon (6 times Hawaii champion). Sure Mark - no problem (gulp)... When I raced in Germany, it was fine riding with the top local guys, an easy ride was easy, and you would get shown great places to train. When you went out with the next tier down, you had to brace yourself for the first 30-45min as they tried to ride your legs off, then they would die and things would settle down, same thing in New Zealand... Why not wait until race day to show how good you are? That is when it counts!
The Tour de France started over the weekend - which is a great sporting spectacle I think. So many different races within a race, and such a dynamic event. If you want to win this, not only do you need to be a great athlete, you need to be VERY focused and need a fair amount of luck fall your way (although you can make some of your own luck). My favourite for the race this year is Alejandro Valverde - probably not a great tour rider yet, and more of a classics stage racer - especially if it is a bit of an up-hill sprint finish. But I like the guy - he appears to have the characteristics of a true champion. He will probably be a bit fragile toward the end of the second week, and may end up loosing a whack of time on one or two stages - but only time will tell. He has won the first stage (a nice uphill sprint finish) quite emphatically - which is a little unusual for a general classification contender. I am looking forward to the great race, and hopefully not too many "drug issues" this year!

Valverde doing what he does best...

Anyone seen my plot? I appear to have lost it....

I knew this week was going to be a little tough - with the pool closing and loosing my routine. However, on top of that, the weather really turned to crap this week as well. I am not sure if it was just me, but every time I got my running gear out, the heavens opened up and it absolutely poured down, and the temperature dropped 5-10 degrees. I don't mind running in the rain too much, or the cold (not both if it can be helped), but not starting in the pouring rain, especially when you are going to be soaked getting to the end of the driveway... I had not organized my swimming on Monday, and missed the swim. Tuesday and Liz (other half) went to the "alternate" pool about 30minutes before I was planning to, and rang to say the car park was full - not a good sign for a swim! So zero from two swim attempts, and the week was already slipping away from me. I got one short run in on Monday, but by Wednesday every other run was put off due to pouring rain and being damn cold. Thursday morning school cycle training was cancelled - more rain... So by Thursday lunch time I had done two spin classes and a 30 minute run. It was now official - I had lost the plot, and had no idea where I had put it...
OK - I have to do something to get out of this slump! So I set the bike up on the trainer, and decided I would try a session I had sort of been planning on doing. As well as the Ironman, the other key race is the Tauranga half IM. A key session I would like to build toward is 2hr30min bike and an hour run after. The bike is to include (building up to) 4x 25-30min efforts at planned race power output, and the run includes 20-30min at race pace (possibly 40minutes if things go well). So I thought I would have my first attempt at this, and did 2 hours on the trainer, including 3 efforts of around 27minutes at a steady effort, and then went off for a 30 minute easy run. The bike went OK, and actually felt quite good, although the HR did dip in the middle and climb a little toward the end - but did not feel harder, and the power was stable. Off on the run, and felt quite good to start with - probably because I was quite fresh from not much training I thought! However after about 10 minutes the quads gave a few "signals" all was not that good and cramps were going to pay a visit if I did not either slow down a lot, or stop! So I slowed down a bit, and walked down one steeper down hill (just in case). Got home OK, but the legs were a bit sore, and had to be a bit careful taking the shoes off (cramp twinges!)... Good baseline session I thought, but a fair bit of work to do... 
Friday morning for run intervals - and yes, absolutely pouring with rain - so sent out the "no-go" call, although apparently it was actually OK in the domain! Always the way. Had pretty much given up on getting much out of the week training wise, so moved in to training sulking mode. Probably only one thing was going to save the week, and the months goals/targets (although most are shot by now) - and that was a half decent long run, and/or possibly a long ride. Saturday disappeared with work, and a few interruptions, so Sunday was all that was left - and rain knocked out the road ride option early in the morning (of course clearing later on). Chucked the running shoes on and was determined to get a half reasonable long run in. Plodded my way through a few bush tracks and along the beach front, and apart from a few errant dogs it was actually a great place to be. Got over the 1 hour 50min mark, and was going to keep going past the drive to make 2 hours, but the heavy spits started becoming very heavy, and decided not to push my luck - I had done well to this point. Longest run so far, and it felt comfortable all the way, and could have kept going after as well. The world is a slightly better place.
While the week was a bit of a disaster from what I had planned for, in hind-sight it was not that bad. I did need an easy week, perhaps this week was a couple sooner than I would have plan if I was doing it for someone else, but probably good in the bigger scheme. So now I should be recovered and ready (physically at least) to step into a good block of training. I also got a good long run in - which had been my main concern. The brick bike-run session was also good, to determine a baseline, and realize that I probably need to put a little more attention into this area than I had thought.
The month of June is all but gone, and the swim goals went out the window, but the swimming is OK. I just need to be careful that I don't let it slip. Some easier endurance swims need to get done at some point soon. Cycling is OK, no long rides yet, but apart from this week, have been getting in 4 rides per week, which is good for me, for this time of year. I have not added up the running, training wise, for the month, but I am sure I will not have made the total goal. I did make the long run goal - which I am a little happier about. Also felt good at the end of the long run, so that is also a positive. The weights were a non-event this week, so they need to be back on track this week too. Maybe the world has not come to an end, and perhaps I left the plot under the couch - while eating pizza and watching TV...