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!