Planning a Big Day

After a reasonably big training load last week (equal 2nd biggest week of the season), I've been feeling quite sore. My hammies, calf and quad muscles have been very tight for while, but on Sunday my knee flared up. After suffering for most of last season with a patella injury, any soreness in the knee is a cause for worry, although this time it feels a little different (lets hope so).

I skipped my planned recovery run on Monday to give my legs a chance to rest and then we missed our usual Tuesday morning swim due to a massive thunderstorm. However I later discovered the squad moved the session to the indoor pool, so in hindsight we should have gone (but we enjoyed the sleep in).

Most of Tuesday I was still quite sore and was very tempted to skip the Run session at the Athletics Track - which would mean 2 days in a row with no training. In the end I decided to run, but cut it down to a small session that included some 100m run thrus and 3 x 800m efforts. My average pace and heart rate for the 800s was 3m42s (160bpm), 3m39s (162bpm), 3m39s (163bpm). These were slower than my efforts the previous week, but a more realistic 5km pace. However despite being slower with a lower heart rate, they actually felt a lot more difficult. I think the stiffness in my legs prevented me from finding an easy, flowing rhythm. Elaine experienced the same problem.

The good news is that despite not being happy with my run form, I actually feel a lot better after the session. It seems to have loosened things up and I'm no longer as stiff and sore (even my knee feels better). The smaller session totalling only 6.9km (including warmup and cool down) appears to have been exactly what my body needed. Hopefully my condition will continue to improve throughout the day, because I have a big day of training planned for tomorrow.

Due to social engagements, we are unable to race the Enduro Triathlon this Sunday. This also means that my availability to train this weekend has been compromised, so I decided to take Thursday (tomorrow) off work and make it a big training day. The plan is a long run (up to 18km), a bay swim (about 1km) and a 60km ride. With a forecast top temperature of 38 degrees Celcius (over 100 Farenheit) I'm hoping to finish all this by lunchtime and then laze on the beach during the afternoon. This is a little on the small side for a big training day, but the plan is to be fresh again for a big brick session with the Triathlon Club on Saturday (100km Ride/10km Run). If all goes to plan, it will be my biggest training week for the season.

A First Triathlon

On Sunday, my daughter Rachel competed in her first Triathlon at St Kilda - 150m Swim, 7km Bike, 1.5km Run. We picked this event because it is one of the smaller triathlons, but Rachel would have preferred a much longer swim (around 3kms longer) and a shorter bike leg.

Rachel's older sister Sarah kindly agreed to make her bike available to Rachel for the race. Sarah's bike is a girl's hybrid with gears, a significant improvement over Rachel's very small kid's bike with no gears. Unfortunately Rachel has never ridden this bike before, nor has she ever used gears, or even brakes on the handlebars (her bike brakes by pedalling backwards). So the night before the race we did a few laps up and down the driveway, mainly concentrating on how to use the brakes (which I figured was probably important).

The local triathlons run 2 distances at each event. The smaller Mini distance starts at 7am followed by the longer Sprint distance at 8am. With Rachel competing in the earlier race (and being 2nd wave), we were a little more squeezed for time than usual. Pre-race was spent finding a park, registering, getting in that last toilet stop, finding the club tent, applying stickers to bike and helmet, getting arm numbering, placing everything in transition, getting the wetsuit on and heading down to the swim start. This didn't leave much time for worrying about stuff and before she knew it, Rachel was standing on the start line surrounded by the other competitors in the 15-17 division (both males and females in the same wave).

Being a good swimmer, Rachel breezed through the swim leg and then sped into transition. The wetsuit came off relatively easy, but it took a while for her to put on socks and shoes. More experienced triathletes don't bother with socks, but we didn't think the time savings were worth the risk of blisters. Once out on the bike leg, things slowed down a little. Rachel does very little bike riding. She was riding an unfamiliar and very heavy bike with knobby tires, so we never expected her to be fast on the bike.

Meanwhile, Elaine was also racing the same event. Usually Elaine would race the longer Sprint race, but wanted to race with Rachel to give her more support. Due to the different wave starts, Elaine didn't start her swim until 10 minutes after Rachel. Desperately wanting to make up the deficit, Elaine probably did her fastest ever swim (and without a wetsuit). She sped through transition and then proceeded to push the bike to her absolute limit. With a kilometre or so still to go on the bike, Elaine finally caught up to Rachel. You are not allowed to draft or ride side by side in a triathlon, so Elaine sat 7 metres behind Rachel, slowing down to match Rachel's speed.

Back at transition Elaine leisurely racked her bike and put on her runners only to discover Rachel had whizzed through and was already heading out on the run. There are no rules about drafting on the run, so once Elaine caught back up, they ran side by side for the rest of the race.

Overall Rachel's first ever race went very well. She was understandably a little slow on the bike, but the statistics below (out of 350 starters) show a great result:

  Beat 14 Competitors on Overall time

  Beat 254 Competitors in the SWIM (including Elaine)

  Beat 49 Competitors in Transition One

  Beat 11 Competitors on the BIKE

  Beat 106 Competitors in Transition Two

  Beat 65 Competitors on the RUN

Elaine's effort was a race of 2 halves. She went flat out trying to catch Rachel, and then slowed to complete the race at Rachel's pace. Elaine finished 2nd in her category, missing first place by only 42 seconds with the winner passing her on the run leg (3rd place was another 2.5 minutes back). For the first time ever Elaine registered the fastest swim in her category and probably would have scored the fastest in every leg if she hadn't slowed down. It is worth noting that the Mini races had 10 year age brackets (longer races have 5 year brackets), so not only was there more competitors in the category, she was racing women aged up to 6 years younger.

I didn't race, but instead acted as photographer, although even on automatic settings a lot of my shots ended up out of focus (they were obviously moving too fast). My training week ended up being 10 hours consisting of 2 swims totalling just over 6km, 4 runs for 38km and a 119km bike ride on Saturday morning. I'm currently a little sore with tight calves, hammies, quads, a sore left knee and a saddle sore which it turns out hadn't healed from the 103km ride the week before.

4 Days In - So Far So Good

I effectively started my 12 week program for Geelong two days early with the 103km ride on Saturday and 17km run on Sunday. This was followed by an easy 4km recovery run on Monday, 3.2km squad swim yesterday morning and a 9km run session at the Athletics Track last night.

Last night's run session had intervals of 1km, 500m & 150m done 3 times. My speed and heart rate for the 3 sets was:
  3m44s pace  159/171 bpm
  3m29s pace  169/177 bpm
  3m33s pace  170/179 bpm
I started off relatively easy and then built speed through the session. However despite feeling pretty comfortable at a good pace, my heart rate tells another story. Hitting max heart rates of 177 and 179 is going to see me go into oxygen debt well before the end the of a 5km race (planned for 5th Dec). So I am going to have to aim at a race pace somewhere between 3m40s and 3m45s per kilometre which would give me a 5km time of between 18:20 and 18:45 - which is coincidently my initial target time (I just got over ambitious last night).

Planning to run 52km in 5 days (Sat-Thu), including a speed session, had me concerned - was I getting over ambitious again? However I've upped my stretching, icing, foam roller and rehab exercises and my legs have managed the training load remarkably well so far. They feel fairly tight and a little sore, but that is pretty normal and I feel confident I'll be OK for tomorrow night's 18km run (famous last words).

However for some reason I'm feeling a little tight through the neck and shoulders, an area that has been remarkably pain free for the last 2 months. I've also been experiencing minor spasms in the back and it feels like the slightest thing could re-ignite my lower back injury. So as a precaution I've decided to miss tonight's swim and may also skip the easy 4km recovery run planned for today.

12 Weeks before Geelong 70.3 (Testing Infinit)

Monday will be the start of my 12 week program. This means the training will move from 8 to 10 hours a week up to 15 hours, with a couple of 20 hour weeks thrown in for good measure. Naturally all of this planning assumes that my body will hold up (it does not have a good track record).

In preparation of this training load, my recovery period ended this morning with a 100km bike ride and tomorrow will hopefully see me run 17km. Up till now I've been getting away with only one ride per week (usually 2 to 3 hours). While this obviously worked well for the Sprint Distance Triathlon last weekend, a Half Ironman (90km bike leg) needs significantly more bike mileage. So from now on I will endeavour to get in at least 2 rides most weeks, with a longest ride of 140km. I'll also increase my running by doing short and slow recovery runs (about 5km) every other day. It is planned that my long run will slowly increase and hopefully I'll manage at least one 25km run (which would be my longest ever training run).

It is also time to start thinking about (and practising) race nutrition. With this in mind I recently purchased a bag of Infinit nutrition. In Ironman I used Endura Optimiser, but I think Infinit is more specific to my needs (Optimiser is primarily a recover drink that can also be used for race nutrition).

The Infinit mixture can contain anything you want - you configure the ingredients on the website before ordering. Basic elements that can be configured are Electrolyes, Carbs, Calories, Protein, Amino acids, Strength of taste and caffeine. To start off I picked a pre-configured mix called 'Go Far' in Lemon & Lime flavour. This is highish in Carbs, no caffeine, medium in everything else and has an osmolality of 271 (concentration of dissolved particles). The osmolality of our blood is around 300, so anything under this figure is easily absorbed.

Using Infinit means all your rehydration and nutrition requirements are in your water bottle. No more need for bars, gels, sports drink and water - it greatly simplifies everything. However it does implement a level of inflexibility. When the temperature increases, you need more hydration. With Infinit this would mean consuming too many carbs because everything is combined in one bottle. So you would have to pick up extra water bottles from the aid station, assuming you had somewhere to store them. And conversely, if it is too cold you probably need less hydration but still need the same amount of carbs. This was my problem at Ironman Melbourne where I simply was not sweating enough (barely sweating at all), resulting in me taking 3 toilet stops on the bike.

I trialled the Infinit on my 100km bike ride this morning. Leaving home at 6:30am, it was not exactly warm and while the weather was pleasant, it never really got hot. As a result I only finished the first water bottle at the 80km mark, although I tend to under eat (and drink) on training rides - probably why I'm experience unwanted weight loss at the moment. In general the Infinit seemed OK (much better than some of the other drinks I've been trialling), my first change would be to tone down the strength of taste. When I sampled it the night before (when I was mixing the bottles) it tasted good. But it often happens that you are more sensitive to sweetness when exercising and need a milder strength taste. It is difficult to comment upon the other aspects, I'll need a much harder training session to get a better gauge. At the moment the taste is not as good as the chocolate flavoured Optimiser, maybe next time I'll trial the Fruit Punch flavour.

Post Race Thoughts - Never Satisfied

I was very happy with my race and hit all my pre-race targets (average better than 40kph on the bike and run at sub 4 min pace). Now my targets have changed. Having achieved my previous targets is proof that I can do better.

Overall I finished in 64th place (out of 531 competitors). However 20 of these competitors ahead of me were Elites (they have different rules allowing them to draft on the bike), so I prefer to think I placed 44th out of the Age Groupers and 7th in my Age Group (out of 54) and 9th in my wave start (M4044 + M4549) that contained 90 competitors.

When I first started triathlon the run was easily my best leg. I soon became very proficient in transition and my T1 and T2 times would rank better than my run split. After a few seasons my bike improved to be my best leg. I was always a weak swimmer and used to pride myself on the fact that nobody beat me with a slower swim. Now that my swim has improved (still not fast), of the 43 Age Groupers that beat me on Sunday - 4 had slower swim times than me.

With the fastest bike split in my age group, the bike leg is still very much my strength, but everything else has changed. My unusually slow transitions made them the worst ranked splits. But more surprisingly, my swim was ranked better (9th in my age group) than my run split (10th in my age group). And just like my swim, of the 43 age groupers who beat me on the day, only 4 had slower runs than me (they were fast swimmers).

So the focus now is getting faster on the run (and a few transition practices). My kilometre run splits were:
  4m01s, 4m03s, 3m51s, 4m03s, 3m58s
In the beginning I had to force my legs into running at the pace I wanted. Then magically just before the 2km mark my hips loosened up and I started to run freely. Not only was my running now effortless, my speed improved by around 10s per kilometre (at the same heart rate of 165bpm). If I was able to run the entire distance with this free flowing style at 3m51s pace, my 5km run time would be 19m15s instead of 19m56s. So my new target is to run a 19m30s 5km run split off the bike. Unfortunately a lot of the competitors who beat me had run splits starting with an 18.

This week is a recovery week, which my body badly needs (quite sore from the race). During the next 2 subsequent weeks I will return to doing the Tuesday night Run Speed session on the Athletics track. Hopefully I'll be able to find and lock in that free flowing rhythm allowing me to able to access it more easily on race day. Although this theory is ignoring the possibility that my fastest ever bike split adversely affected my run, in particular causing me to stiffen up through the hip region.

Elaine and I will not be racing the Triathlon in December due to other commitments, so it opens up the opportunity to do other events. Depending upon how well the Run Speed Sessions go, I'm planning to enter the Emma and Toms Christmas 5km Fun Run at Albert Park Lake in December. My aim is to break 19 minutes (really hoping to get closer to 18m30s). Looking at the results for the last few years, the overall winners are typically running the 5km in 17 minutes flat. So I'm no hope of winning, but I might manage an age group podium position if I'm lucky.

Triathlon - XOSIZE Race 1, Mordialloc

After missing 2 weeks of swimming with my hand injury, my swim mileage this week was just over 10km (biggest this season). I also snuck in two runs, 16km on Tue and 7km on Thu, plus a 65km ride on Saturday morning. Not a bad week and definitely more than I would usually do leading into a race.

During my warmup on the bike before the race I felt a bit flat. On my Saturday morning ride I felt great, but it is not unusual for me to feel a little lethargic the morning of a race, so I didn't worry too much.

The swim is my weakest leg and I've been putting in a lot of work to improve it this season. I did a bay swim on Thursday night in my old 2XU C1 wetsuit (saving my good one for the race). This would be the first race in my new Rocket Science wetsuit and even during the warmup swim I immediately noticed it felt better and faster than my old suit. The swim leg for this race was only 500m, but I did it so easy it felt even shorter. Exiting onto the sand I felt no fatigue whatsoever and was worried this meant I hadn't tried hard enough and would have a slow swim time (not unusual for me).

Every season I forget to bring something to the first race. This year it was Hair Conditioner. I apply this to the outside legs of the wetsuit - it stays on for the swim and then allows the wetsuit to easily slide over itself when you take it off in transition. Even though I remembered to bring paw paw cream, I forgot to apply it to my knees and ankles - again to help the suit slip off. So it is no surprise that I had a lot of trouble getting it off in transition. It doesn't help that it is only the second time I have ever worn this suit, so I am far from practiced with the nuances. Comparing my transition time to the last time I did this race - 21 seconds slower (and 30 seconds slower to some of my competitors). Transitions used to be my best leg, today it was my worst (proven my the rankings in the results).

Usually the bike leg in a Sprint Triathlon is 20km. For some reason the Mordialloc Triathlon always has a 16km bike. Although 4km less is not much, psychologically it feels like a short bike ride and with conditions on the day being perfect (slightly warm with very little wind), I decided to hammer it on the bike. I wanted to catch other members of my new Triathlon Club, many of whom were in my wave start, a lot of whom would have had faster swim and transition times. After going flat out for the first lap and only reeling in one Tri Club member, my plan didn't seem to be working very well and I was worried I was using too much energy (need to save something for the run). So I eased off a little on the second lap. With one kilometre on the bike to go, I passed my main target (Ray), unfortunately much later than I would have hoped. As I approached the last corner just before the dismount line there was a lot of congestion including a young rider just in front of me. I backed off to keep out of trouble and Ray snuck back passed me on the inside of the corner. Not only did he take the lead, but also managed to clear most of the congestion before heading into the narrow transition lane with me helplessly watching stuck behind numerous, much slower competitors. My aim for the last 6 or 7 years has been to average over 40kph for a triathlon bike leg - today I did that with a 40.1kph average (very happy). In fact my bike split was the fastest in my Age Group and 8th fastest for all Age Groupers in the race (the elites are allowed to draft on the bike, so I have ignored their times).

Another slow transition. This time due to my feet still being frozen and also using a new pair of runners in a race for the first time. I obviously need to start practising my transitions again.

Initially on the run I felt OK, but not great. I was holding between 4m00s and 4m05s pace, but there was no real rhythm and I feared my pace would slowly drop throughout the run - I suspected I was going to pay for my fast bike leg. There was another competitor in my age group about 10m in front and I concentrated on trying to keep pace with him. Then just before the 2km mark I suddenly started feeling good and my running started to flow. I immediately passed and then gapped the competitor I was following and continued feeling good until the 4km mark. Predictably the last kilometre did not feel as good, but promisingly my pace didn't really drop off, I just felt a lot worse. My run target for the race was to run sub 4 min kilometres, but when I checked my run split it was 20m19s. However when I looked more closely, the run leg was 5.1km, so my pace was 3m59s pace and Strava shows my 5km time as 19m55s (happy again).

Ironically, even though I was very happy with my run, for the first time ever my swim was ranked better than my run (in my age group, overall standings my run was ranked a little better). This highlights that I need to work on my run. Looking at the results, all the club members who beat me had much faster runs.

Ignoring my bad transitions, it was definitely one of my better races. I only managed 7th in my age group (out of 55), but being the last year in this age group (ie. oldest) it is not going to be a good season for results (I would have placed 3rd in the age group above).

Elaine also raced and did very well in all disciplines - ironically she had one of her best ever transitions. However due to a strong field in her age group, she only managed 4th place. But in overall standings her results were much improved over recent years, so she is on track for a great season.

First Triathlon of the Season less than a Week Away

Only minor scarring remains on my left hand, but the right hand is taking a lot longer to heal and has kept me out of the pool. With the first Triathlon of the season coming up this weekend, I had intended to increase my swimming to 3 times a week. So going 2 weeks without any swimming is extremely frustrating and will probably cost me up to 30 seconds in the 500m swim leg. Just like a student cramming for their year 12 exams, I'm thinking of swimming up to 4 times this week - tonight (Mon) and Wednesday nights at GESAC, Thursday night in the bay (weather dependant) and Friday morning at GESAC.

Run traing has also been hindered by tight calf muscles. I feel fine when actually running, but afterwards my calfs are getting progressively tighter. Tight calf muscles greatly increases the chances of achilles or plantar fasciia injuries, so I have backed off the run training in the hope my legs will start to recover. Whilst I'm still running 2 or 3 times a week (would prefer to run 5 times a week), it has been over 3 weeks since my long run (15.6km) - all of my recent runs have been under 10km. This lack of run training should not impact this weekend's race much as it is only a Sprint race with a 5km run leg (my big race is not until Feb), I just hope I don't experience a leg injury during the race.

It is not all bad news on the training front, as I had a great session on Saturday morning with the Bayside Triathlon Club - 82km bike and 6km run. The bike leg was was split into roughly 6km easy sections followed by 12km at race pace, repeating this cycle for the full 82km. Most of the Club members added an extra loop to the end of the bike to round it up to 100km, but with it being my first long ride on the new Cobb Saddle I decided 82km was plenty for me. I was extremely happy to not only be able to hold race pace and continue to feel strong, but also achieve it with a low heart rate. In hindsight I should have hit the lap button on my computer for each interval, instead I left it recording automatic 5km laps. Below are some of the instances when the auto 5km laps matched up with my effort intervals:

  251 watts - 150bpm - 38.4kph
  288 watts - 153bpm - 40.3kph
  283 watts - 156bpm - 36.8kph
  270 watts - 152bpm - 39.3kph

As you can see I was able to hold good power whilst keeping my heart rate in the low 150's. The speed varied depending upon the wind direction and how hilly the section was. The training camp at Bright has really helped my cycling. Ironically I was pacing the session more in line for the Half Ironman in Feb, rather than the Sprint Race this coming weekend, but the good form should transfer well to the shorter distance.

Even with all the rest intervals (going slower) and loss of momentum continually stopping at lights, my bike stats were actually better than my bike split at the Geelong Long Distance race in Feb this year (last season). Although it was pouring rain at Geelong and I did crash half way through the race (times shown below are based on moving time).

  Geelong Long Distance: 79.79km - 2h22m20s - 33.6kph - 215 watts - 134 bpm
  Saturday's Session: 81.92km - 2h21m04s - 34.9kph - 219 watts - 137 bpm

The good news from Saturday's session continues with excellent results from the 6km run off the bike. Again I was pacing the session at Half Ironman speed, but was able to hold 4m30s pace very comfortably and my heart rate stayed low for the whole run. Below are the kilometre splits with the first and last kilometre removed (first km was up a long steep hill and the last kilometre was used as a cool down). I believe avoiding the speed work and instead concentrating on doing all training runs at my aerobic threshold (137bpm) has served me very well. I obviously went over 137bpm in this session, but I was treating this as more of a race simulation to judge pacing and nutrition.

  4m18s - 149bpm (downhill)
  4m26s - 153bpm
  4m26s - 154bpm
  4m36s - 155bpm (up hill)

My nutrition for the session was two water bottles - one water and one orange hydralite sports drink (tastes terrible) and 3 gels on the bike - 2 Chocolate Powerbars and 1 Raspberry Endura. The Endura Gel definitely tasted better and went down much easier, I found the Chocolate Powerbar Gels had a huge aftertaste, almost felt like it was burning my mouth which at least ensured I washed it down with water. I didn't bother with anything on the run. Elaine managed the session with water, an apricot flavoured EM's Power bar and 1 coffee flavoured Endura Gel on the bike. Before the session we just had scrambled eggs (7 eggs between us with a bit of added cheese). Minimising carbs before training (or racing) definitely helps in keeping the heart rate down. Any Hi-GI food (typically carbs) before exercise will raise the glycemic index which promotes sourcing energy from glycerine rather than fat. Once you have started exercising, the body is much more receptive to carbs and can quickly absorb Hi-GI products (such as Gels) without the unwanted increase in the glycemic index.

Elaine also did the Saturday session, however she followed the Short Course instructions of a 50km ride followed by a 4km run. I had given her heart rate targets to hit for the easy and hard sections, but unfortunately she accidentally left her bike computer at home so she had to ride on percieved effort. During longer effort intervals (ie. 12km) it is very easy to loose focus and let the effort wane. Having data displayed on a bike computer in front of you can be a huge help in maintaining the intensity. You can even program the bike computer to beep when the data values drop below (or rise above) a certain level. Despite the lack of electronical aides, Elaine did very well. But obviously we don't have any stats for the session.

We received our new XOSIZE/Rocket Science tri-suits last week and I decided to trial it on the Saturday session (Elaine decided to save her first trial for the race). Still suffering lingering saddle sores from the Bright camp and it being my first long ride on the Cobb Saddle, it was probably not the fairest of tests - much better to test one thing at a time and without a pre-existing sore bum. I'll save any reviews for a bit later, but I think both Elaine and I both need further tinkering in the positions of our Cobb Saddles before we can make any solid opinions. My seat was good for the first 40km, but then slowly got worse as the ride continued. Elaine was ready to throw hers in the bay by the end of her ride. But surprisingly despite these current complaints, they are both still better than our previous saddles.