For those of you wondering what has happened to me and why I have not been updating the blog, there are a couple of reasons for this.
Firstly, the triathlon season is now over until about Apirl next year when the whole process starts off again. I have already been entering a couple of the bigger races, mainly because I wanted to absorb the financial burden now rather than next year some time - just entering London and Windsor again has set me back about £150.
The other reason however is that I am injured and it is not much fun at all. A couple of weeks ago I crashed my bike into the back of a pickup type truck after it stopped suddenly on a big junction and I did not stop quick enough. I smashed my chest into the back of the car and also left two big dents. Still, upon leaving the scene I noticed that my chest was pretty sore but by the end of the day, I was back in the pool just making sure that I could still swim etc with no real issues. Everything seemed okay at this point and all seemed okay to run the half marathon at the weekend.
After doing the half marathon where I hurt my calf, I also seemed to damage some tissue in my chest which was obviously weakened from the accident. Initially I thought that I had fractured a rib or something but after chatting to my coach and to some medical peeps it appears that it is more likely to be some muscle between the sternum and pecs.
As some of you joke about the addiction side of things, and knowing how I am, you can imagine that it was pretty hard to just stop exercising. I discoverd that I could still cycle quite happily, but running and swimming (properly) were out of the equation. I did work out that I could do some drill based stuff in the pool, but not for long though. Anyway, things were starting to heal until I raced home on the bike one day and it seemed to put everything back to square one! Only then did I decide that I would have a total rest for a few days and see how things went.
So, here I am actually doing sod all. I did do a turbo session last night (no real chest movement) but other than that I have done sod all for about 3 days now. It is a pretty miserable existence though, albeit the chest does seem to be getting better. The most annoying thing though is actually having to watch what I eat, I think that I have some inbuilt propensity to pile on the pounds.
I am supposed to be running a Regent's Park 10k race this Sunday but as it stands I think I will be giving it a miss. I have the Nike 10k the weekend after and I would much rather do that race. The problem is, I was aiming for a sub 37 at the Nike and the way my fitness was going until I smashed into the car would have probably meant that I would have been able to do it. As for now, I am just not sure. if I can get close to my PB of 37:30, I think I will be pretty happy.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
The Bristol Half Marathon
After a few weeks of setting PB after PB, the Bristol Half was supposed to the last in the series, giving me a 5k, 10k and half marathon PB all in the space of seven days. Alas, this was simply not going to be.
On the day before the race, I went out for a little run around my mum's house, just doing some interval stuff and generally just giving the legs a warm up. About half way round I realised I felt a little sore in my left calf. Still, I carried on and made it home, hoping tha it would not be too much to worry about.
When I woke up on the day of the race, the twinge was still there, but I had raced with these litle things before and managed to make it through. I just hoped this would be one of little pains that you could deal with.
Anyway, the race got underway about half nine on a warm day in Bristol and it all looked good for a day's running. I had decided to take the first couple of miles at quite an easy pace, mainly because I wanted to see how things felt and I also did not want to start to fast. I was happily letting people overtake me because in the back of mind, I had this plan to start reeling them all in after about 6 miles.
After about 3 miles the calf had started to let me know that it was not too pleased, but I was still running about 6.30 miles which I was happy with. However, by the time I got on to the Portway, things had started to be a lot more painful and I started to come to the realisation that this was not going to to be my day for a new PB. Just after 5 miles, I finally stopped for the first time and immediately started to think that I would be best to just turn round and head back to the finish. As I turned round though to look at the road back to the finish, it seemed like something that would be too hard to do - think I would have been too ashamed to walk past all the crowds in all honesty. Hence, I turned back round and started to jog at a much slower pace, eventually finding a speed I could run at which did not cause too much discomfort.
Running at a pace below your race pace in a race is quite a strange thing. I started to actually look around and was trying to find one my mates on the other side of the Portway. The run back into Bristol was actually quite enjoyable, running under the suspension bridge and then along Anchor Road back to the finish. The crowds along this section were really good, the best I have ever experienced anyway.
I finally made it home in 1.31 which is only a minute slower than my time from Wokingham at the start of the year. That's pretty pleasing for a race where I actually only ran properly for 5 miles.
I may try and find another half to do before the year is out now. Really do want to see if I can average sub 4min km's for this distance.
Anyway, here's a video and some pics from the day..
On the day before the race, I went out for a little run around my mum's house, just doing some interval stuff and generally just giving the legs a warm up. About half way round I realised I felt a little sore in my left calf. Still, I carried on and made it home, hoping tha it would not be too much to worry about.
When I woke up on the day of the race, the twinge was still there, but I had raced with these litle things before and managed to make it through. I just hoped this would be one of little pains that you could deal with.
Anyway, the race got underway about half nine on a warm day in Bristol and it all looked good for a day's running. I had decided to take the first couple of miles at quite an easy pace, mainly because I wanted to see how things felt and I also did not want to start to fast. I was happily letting people overtake me because in the back of mind, I had this plan to start reeling them all in after about 6 miles.
After about 3 miles the calf had started to let me know that it was not too pleased, but I was still running about 6.30 miles which I was happy with. However, by the time I got on to the Portway, things had started to be a lot more painful and I started to come to the realisation that this was not going to to be my day for a new PB. Just after 5 miles, I finally stopped for the first time and immediately started to think that I would be best to just turn round and head back to the finish. As I turned round though to look at the road back to the finish, it seemed like something that would be too hard to do - think I would have been too ashamed to walk past all the crowds in all honesty. Hence, I turned back round and started to jog at a much slower pace, eventually finding a speed I could run at which did not cause too much discomfort.
Running at a pace below your race pace in a race is quite a strange thing. I started to actually look around and was trying to find one my mates on the other side of the Portway. The run back into Bristol was actually quite enjoyable, running under the suspension bridge and then along Anchor Road back to the finish. The crowds along this section were really good, the best I have ever experienced anyway.
I finally made it home in 1.31 which is only a minute slower than my time from Wokingham at the start of the year. That's pretty pleasing for a race where I actually only ran properly for 5 miles.
I may try and find another half to do before the year is out now. Really do want to see if I can average sub 4min km's for this distance.
Anyway, here's a video and some pics from the day..
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
New PB's and Breaking the 71%
Yesterday I competed in the Middlesex Open 10k race which doubled up as my club's 10k championship race. The race was a three lapper in Victoria Park in East London...the weather was also a scorcher - not exactly an Autumn day anyway!
As some of you will know, I have been taking part in a few Nike organised 5k races recently have been slowly trying to get my 5k time down as low as possible at the moment. I am feeling pretty fit at the moment so now is a good time to be hammering out the PB's for the running. Since the last 5k update, I have managed to get round the Regent's Park course in 17:40 which saw me take about 12 seconds of the previous PB. This is also the fastest that I have ever run 5k, inside or outside. My heart rate on this run averaged 182 and topped out at 191 on the finishing straight - I think that is a personal high on the heart rate. Still, the times are all moving in the right direction in preperation for the Nike 10k in October where I am going to try and do a sub 37min 10k.
Anyway, back to yesterday's run, based on my 5k times, I knew that I should be on track to beat my previous PB of 38:03. I would have also been massively dissapointed had I not gone under 38 on this occasion. The running calculator that I use had predicted me a 36:50 time based on my 5k time which I did think was a bit optimistic. At least it did give me some km splits to try and achieve though.
One of the biggest problems that most people suffer from in running races is the inabilty to pace themselves from the off. I have recently tried to stop going off too fast but low and behold, on the day I hit the first km in about 3:15 which was about 25s too fast. The second one came in at about 3:22 but I felt comfortable so just tried to hang on to that pace as much as possible. By the fifth though I had slipped back to about 3:45's so the steady state running was out the window. Still, I figured I only really needed to keep up a similar pace and I should be able to go a bit under 38. When I got to 8k though I realised it was gonna be close so I had to up the pace a bit - I had also just seen a South African chap from my club behind me. We had been chatting at the start and it was clear we going for a similar time - I had to stay ahead of him anyway so I upped the speed and just thought I would have to endure the pain now until the finish.
Anyway, finally came home in 37:30 (officially recorded as 37:33) which is 43 seconds quicker than the previous PB.
The Serpies website which records a lot of our runs makes use of a Age Graded Tables to calculate a percentage score for all of our runs. The aim of these tables is to create a level playing field between the sexes and the across the age spectrum as all of these factors are used to calculate the percentages. I had previously just about broken through the 70% mark but have now managed to almost hit 72%. As you can see from the pic below, things have come on a bit from when I started doing running races less than a year ago. The table unfortunately does not include the new Nike 5k times though as they are not "official" races.
As some of you will know, I have been taking part in a few Nike organised 5k races recently have been slowly trying to get my 5k time down as low as possible at the moment. I am feeling pretty fit at the moment so now is a good time to be hammering out the PB's for the running. Since the last 5k update, I have managed to get round the Regent's Park course in 17:40 which saw me take about 12 seconds of the previous PB. This is also the fastest that I have ever run 5k, inside or outside. My heart rate on this run averaged 182 and topped out at 191 on the finishing straight - I think that is a personal high on the heart rate. Still, the times are all moving in the right direction in preperation for the Nike 10k in October where I am going to try and do a sub 37min 10k.
Anyway, back to yesterday's run, based on my 5k times, I knew that I should be on track to beat my previous PB of 38:03. I would have also been massively dissapointed had I not gone under 38 on this occasion. The running calculator that I use had predicted me a 36:50 time based on my 5k time which I did think was a bit optimistic. At least it did give me some km splits to try and achieve though.
One of the biggest problems that most people suffer from in running races is the inabilty to pace themselves from the off. I have recently tried to stop going off too fast but low and behold, on the day I hit the first km in about 3:15 which was about 25s too fast. The second one came in at about 3:22 but I felt comfortable so just tried to hang on to that pace as much as possible. By the fifth though I had slipped back to about 3:45's so the steady state running was out the window. Still, I figured I only really needed to keep up a similar pace and I should be able to go a bit under 38. When I got to 8k though I realised it was gonna be close so I had to up the pace a bit - I had also just seen a South African chap from my club behind me. We had been chatting at the start and it was clear we going for a similar time - I had to stay ahead of him anyway so I upped the speed and just thought I would have to endure the pain now until the finish.
Anyway, finally came home in 37:30 (officially recorded as 37:33) which is 43 seconds quicker than the previous PB.
The Serpies website which records a lot of our runs makes use of a Age Graded Tables to calculate a percentage score for all of our runs. The aim of these tables is to create a level playing field between the sexes and the across the age spectrum as all of these factors are used to calculate the percentages. I had previously just about broken through the 70% mark but have now managed to almost hit 72%. As you can see from the pic below, things have come on a bit from when I started doing running races less than a year ago. The table unfortunately does not include the new Nike 5k times though as they are not "official" races.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
World Champs on TV
There will be coverage of the World Champs on BBC1 at 1pm on Saturday (09/09/2006). Someone I know had a chat with the BBC presenter while we were there and he did say that there would be very little age group racing....still, should give you a good idea of the place etc.
Monday, September 04, 2006
The ITU World Championships - Lausanne
Well, I am now back in the UK, having competed in the ITU World Age Group Champs in Lausanne Siwtzerland. The whole weekend there has been an absolute amazing experience and one that I am not likely to forget for a long time. Thanks must also go to all those that supported me and sent their good luck wishes, they were all truly appreciated.
Before I start though, it needs to be said that Lausanne is an amazingly beautiful place. It rests right on Lake Geneva which you can look out across to a lovely montain backdrop, which include Mont Blanc.
Before I start though, it needs to be said that Lausanne is an amazingly beautiful place. It rests right on Lake Geneva which you can look out across to a lovely montain backdrop, which include Mont Blanc.
Looking out over the lake
Looking back at the village
And out over the lake again..
Anyway, back to the story about why I was in Switzerland. After leaving plenty of time on Friday to get through the airport security etc, my plane ended up being delayed by about 45 minutes. This meant that I was going to miss registration and that it would not be very likely that I would be able to have my bike built by the GB mechanic. In the end we made it through the rush hour traffic in Lausanne for the tour operator to get me there just in time to make the official team photos...this is probably the first place it hit me and I realised how good this was going to be. Thankfully I quickly spotted a few of my buddies and we all headed over to the team briefing. During the speech they asked that all of the people who were representing for the first time to stand up and we all got a nice clap from the 'vets'....it started to feel like it was all one big happy family.
After the briefing I went for some dinner with some mates and then headed back to the hotel - I had an earlier start than all the other 25-29'ers because I had a bike to build and rack in the morning. Luckily this was all sorted by about 7am, the only problem now was that I had a massive amount of time to kill before anyone would be getting there and I would be allowed back in to transition to do my final bits and pieces before setting off. Still, this gave me some time to watch the junior races that kicked off really early. By this time, there was a definite a buzz in the air and things were starting to get pretty exciting, if not a tad nervy. Lake Geneva was also starting to look more menacing with waves that were bigger than I had ever raced in coming ashore.
With an hour to go all of us were allowed in to transition to do all of our last bits and pieces. All of the GB boys were thankfully together so I think that this took the edge of things a bit because we could all have a little chat etc. I decided at this point to take a run to see just how long this transition was going to be. Last night's briefing had mentioned an extra 3km of running in this tri...pretty much all on tarmac and all barefoot - not nice. Anyway, as you can see from this shot, transition was a nightmare - this photo does not even go to the end. My bike was about another 150m round the corner out of sight.
This would all be full with bikes on race day...all 1600 of them.
Luckily, up one side, we had some carpet to protect our delicate feet.
The swim was always going to be a nasty affair at this race, world medals are at stake so it was obviously going to be a bit rough when we set out on the swim. The waves that were coming in were not gonna make things any better either, especially as I naturally choose to breathe during a race on the right - the direction the waves were coming in from. The BTA got some shots of the start of our swim. You can see me in the first shot with the gold goggles - unfortunately they didn't mimic the Michael Johnson gold shoes scenario.
My swim went pretty badly in the end. I was expecting to go sub 22 but one of my goggles filled up with water in the first 100m after getting hit by someone so I had to swim the whole day with only one eye really. The waves also knocked me about worse that I thought they would and I would occasionally take a nice deep breath of water...lovely. I had to stop at one point just to have a little coughing fit to clear the airways again. I did manage to draft someone on the way back into T1 though so that was quite helpful.
T1 was as bad as it looks in those photos I just could not believe how long I seemed to be running for. I think it was evetually timed at 6:32..that is about the longest transition I think anyone will ever encouter.
Still, it was time for the bike now and I could see that I was already ahead of a few GB boys who were running to get their bikes but on the other side. I started out quite cautiously though because I kept on thinking of that hill. It hits you pretty quick as well...it was not as bad as it looked in the video, but still not my bag. The rest of the course was also not to my liking, not for a time trial like effort anyway. The changes in speed and some of the long drags definitely took it out of your legs and by the time I was getting round to the third and fourth lap I knew that my quads were having a bad time on the hills. Still, they would be with everyone else so there was nothing I could do about it. I did almost stack the bike into the bails on the first lap though. Coming down one of the sharp descents, perhap touching about 60kph, two guys slid off in front of me and their bikes now led directly in the path that I had to take. I skidded a bit and then squeezed the bike through the narrowest of gaps between straw bail, cyclist and two bikes. It was pretty scary I must admit.
The run was a bit strange really, I had been passed by a couple of GB boys early on and my legs were killing now and they just seemed to have nothing left in them. Secretly, I had hoped to do a blinder of a run but today was just not gonna be the day. A winter of brick sessions is on the cards I feel... The run was a four lapper though and it was pretty amazing running around. I knew I was doing about 41/42 pace so on the last lap I just soaked up the atmosphere as much as possible, I was not going for a medal or anything so it was nice to just run and hear all the GB crowd cheering you on. They all had name sheets as well so they all knew your name - those last couple of k's were pretty good. The legs were sore but it was just so cool to look out over the lake to see the mountains whilst hearing all the GB support crew cheer you on. We had been asked to get a flag on the way into the finish, which I did but I can not find my finishing shot anywhere. For those of you that saw it on the web, I probably looked like some kind of fairy.
Crossing the line was a really good feeling, a lot of the GB boys were all there slouched on the floor looking pretty knackered. Stories were shared and everyone was in good spirits really. Wil and I headed over to the village and made good use of the free massage afterwards - reckon it sorted my legs right out. The afternoon was gonna be a hard one - we had all the ladies to cheer on!
the next day we watched how it should be done with all the pros bombing it around the course. The GB team had an amazing day as well, winning the U23 and Elite races for the men.
After all this we had a big "banquet" to attend. All the elites came down to this as well and it was good to chat to a lot of them. Here is me with the World Champion, Tim Don, in the middle.
Here is Dion and I with Vanessa Raw...arguably the best thing to happen to triathlon for a long time..I am sure you can see what I mean.
My official splits can all be found HERE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)