XTT 2009 report

Long overdue race report on XTT 2009 on the 26th of September 2009

The day before;

On the Friday I took a half day from work as it was the eldest boys "harvest service" at school which was a lightly religious harvest season celebration with a few songs and such. He was very pleased to see us there. Between that and picking up the youngest guy from nursery I had left little time for packing so it was done in a bit of a rush (which is not good). Luckily, and most unlike me, nothing was forgotten.

So fully packed it was off down to the outlaws in Farnham, which happens to be very close to the race venue. In marked contrast to the Little Woody dinner went down very well, followed by two of Chris's beers and a very good night's sleep!

Race day;

With a very civilised start time of 11:30 race morning allowed for a leisurely breakfast, packing the car and last-minute kit checks. Very little by way of panic or stress and the usual problems with my belly, which was nice. Lisa ascribes this to being "in the bosom of my family". I can't recall bosoms really coming into it but certainly having nice folks around and not being left to myself helps keep stress levels down.

I arrived in good time for registration and really my only panic of the day was thinking that I had lost my race timing chip. It had dropped into the gap between the car and the door of the boot (that's the trunk to our North American readers) and it popped into the air when I finally closed the boot, reconciled to the fact that I would have no timing chip for the day. I racked my bike in plenty of time and was quite impressed with how much racking space was available. Not a big surprise really as I had racked my bike in the wrong race slots (Muppet). After hastily repositioning my kit it was time to get into character. As usual there was plenty of good chat and banter to be had in the transition area.

At about 11:20 we were called through to the start area and allowed into the water. I took the opportunity to get my head in and get some water in the suit so as to avoid the initial shock of the cold water. Water temperature was only slightly lower than the normal temperature in the lake. Just before the off we were called for a pretty informal race briefing and then I lined up with 140 or so fellow athletes ready for the start. It seems that there are two distinct groups in triathlon, with those who are keen to push to the front of the swim start and those who are keen to push to the back.

After the longest countdown in Christendom (he was genuinely taking the Mickey) the horn went and we were away!

The swim;


In a word "bumpy". Bumpy bumpy bumpy swim. As per last year and the water was very murky and with there being quite a few competitors it was all a bit rough-and-tumble in the swim. This was probably compounded by the fact that this year I wasn't immediately dropped off the back of the pack. Without being rough I pretty much gave as good as I got and held my line reasonably well (more on holding one's line later). There was one incident where I was getting sandwiched between two other competitors, both of which seem to be determined to swim diagonally towards each other. Somebody needed a bit of a shove!

Even though the first time was over 350 m out going around the bouy was a bit of a scrum. Now this may all sound very stressful and unpleasant but it wasn't. In fact it was a lot of fun and importantly from me a marked improvement over last year's flap and panic. After the main turn there was a reasonable amount of clear water to be had and with the exception of a minor goggle leak the rest of the swim was relatively uneventful (although calf cramp did threaten on one occasion).

Although I probably sighted a little too often on the swim there were good periods in which I managed to settle into a strong rhythm and overall form was pretty good (punch-ups aside). The official timing has me at 36 minutes but my own stopwatch has me at 28 minutes. I haven't taken 36 minutes to swim 1500 m since last year and it sure felt like a 28 minute swim to me. I exited the water kind of back of the main pack, as opposed to hanging off the end last year (which was a 39 minute swim). Very odd indeed. At any rate it was a good swim from my point of view and I was quite pleased with how it went.

T1 transition;

Now I'm not the slickest at transition, particularly swim to bike as this gets very little practice. I also like socks, can I be forgiven this one small vice?

Socks aside faffing with a hydration pack and putting on my GPS did take a bit of extra time, as did putting on gloves. As an improvement point I think ditching the hydration Pack and loading kit on the bike is probably the way forward. The GPS could also be fastened to the bike for the bike leg and talc in the gloves could be a good move. I would be loath to ride mountain bike without gloves for sake of the fingers.

Bike;


So a bit of time in transition but not ages as before.So out of T1 and off on the bike starting out with a low ratio and easy spin. My swim to bike transition or slow in terms of getting my legs up to speed, as with the previous races the auld gluteus maximus were burning for the first few minutes. I continue to be amazed at how fast some other people make the transition. The bike course was largely non-technical, dry but steep in part making it ideal for a light hard tale but I don't have any light hard tail with gears so I used the hi-fi!

People are fast on bikes, like really very fast. As this was a much shorter race than the little Woody I was happy to go pretty much full burn on the bike and climb the hills more or less as fast as I could and still I was being passed by people as if I was stopped by the side of the trail. I seemed to be surrounded by guys with big calves were liked to dance up hills on mountain bikes. What I did notice (but was not particularly surprised by) was the difference in position and application of effort between road riding on a triathlon bike and off-road on a mountain bike. If you really want to race well off road you really have to train well off-road.

I did occasionally get stuck in traffic on the decent sections of the course (as many people descend like complete Muppets) but the time lost in traffic was minor by comparison with the time lost climbing. I did have to shout at one guy for cutting my line really badly. He shouted "on your right" and I gave him some leeway on the right-hand line but he was unable to make the pass before the trail tightened and cut hard across my front wheel. I explained to him (in words of one syllable or less) that just shouting "on your right" doesn't give you the right to push people off the line. I think he had a good understanding of the concept after our brief conversation!

On the bike I did manage to take on board some gels, plenty of fluid and a full power bar. Overall and enjoyable ride which I finished strong on (the last climb is the kicker) and stormed into transition.

T2 transition;

Rack bike.
Shoes off.
Helmet off.
Runners on.
Grab gel.
Whoosh! Gone!

About as slick transition as I have ever managed!

Run;

I headed out on the run quickly establishing a 5:30 pace. With a lot of bike to run transitions under my belt I was able to maintain very good form after bike. Having established a good run place and settled into my stride I started thinking about where I could stop for my inevitable mid-race p! Shocking every bloody race, and made all the more dramatic by the wearing of a one-piece tri-suit. Quick detour and much scratches from a conveniently placed gorse bush (scratches on my leg) I was back up and running and feeling a lot more comfortable.

Comfortable that is apart from numbness in the feet and due to new elasticated lace is being poorly adjusted which is a schoolboy error of new kit near race day. This discomfort amounted to a minor annoyance rather than a race limiting issue.

On the run I started to overtake people who were fading at this stage of the race. However I was still being passed by people of quite unlikely shapes ranging from muscleman to wide bottomed lady, demonstrating yet again that "fit" comes in a wide variety of shapes.

I was storming along on the run until I decided that I would take a detour down the finishing route rather than start the second lap. Doh! I misread the way marker sign and ran 500m in the wrong direction. I realised just before I entered the finishing enclosure which saved some embarrassment But this added a full kilometre to the run and had a slightly negative effect on morale. Once back on course I took a caffeine gel, gave myself a kick up the arse and got busy trying to pull back some of the lost time. I ran between 5:00 and 5:30 on the second lap and finished a strong, but pushing hard for an overall time of 2:58(Less 5:00 minutes for the extra 1 km giving a true time of 2:53). This represents an improvement of 17 min over last year on the same course using the same kit.



Overall;

A great race with cracking weather run over a good course. I was very happy with the improved time and particularly happy with the improved confidence in the swim. The race had a much better atmosphere than the little Woody, particularly at the finish line where people hung out and chatted post race.

Learning points will include;

More hills on the bike.
TT training does not equal MTB fitness.
Road miles do not equal trail miles on the run, but I did have some trial miles in the legs.
Don't get lost you Muppet.
Caffeine gels rock on the run.

Big Day at Little Woody

Finish: 06:53:14
2K Swim (+400m jog to T1) 00:42:22
100K Bike 04:06:30
20K Run 02:04:20

Race report

The little woody half Ironman distance triathlon was my A1 race of the year and the primary target of all of my training. Overall my training season had gone quite well, almost making the target volumes set out in my plan. I did have a bit of an issue in early June when I was flattened with a cold and I also struggled to recover from the Worcester triathlon, to the point of overtraining. Overall in fact the base phases of my training went very well but I struggled to increase the intensity moving to the build phase. I think the lesson to take away is that I should have been gradually increasing intensity earlier in the season through base two and base three.

A big difference this year to any other year of triathlon training was the high-volume of open water swimming which made a huge difference on race day (more later).

I had a very easy taper/peak phase, due mainly to enforced rest brought on by a strange inner ear infection which did strange things to balance. I did however do to hard sessions about two weeks before the race. One swim plus fast run and one hilly bike set with Marco. In retrospect the fast hilly bike set may not have been a great idea, not because of what it took out of the legs but rather the raised expectation of pace which may have contributed to me going off a bit quick on the bike leg of the race.

I travelled down the night before and stayed over near the race as the logistics of the event are challenging to say the least. The swim start is about 15 km from the race headquarters and the bike to run transition. This meant having to attend the race briefing at the race HQ, picked up transition bags and then drive a considerable distance (with fairly shoddy directions) to the swim to bike transition to rack my bike. From there it was back to a very to star hotel in Monmouth (nice, clean but with a very dodgy clientele). Monmouth looks very pretty but on a Friday night it was full of beer bellies all out looking for a fight, so I gave it a miss. There was little point in trying to get some decent food anyway as my guts had gone into open revolt as per usual! I did manage to eat some off the bland food I brought with me but it was a struggle. I spent the evening setting out my kit and packing my transition bags already for the morning.

Race day

04:45 get up.
05:00 try to get some breakfast down, this involved much chewing but little swallowing of my muesli! I can never eat properly prerace which is a bloody nightmare particularly as I favour longer distance events (Muppet).
05:15 exit hotel with all my race bags ready to go (or not...?)

A quick drive across to the race HQ, drop off my run bag and catch the bus. While sat on the bus I did in last mental run through of my kit. Then it struck. Where is my hydration pack? Oh no! Hanging neatly on the back of the chair in the hotel. Nice. So bit of a mild panic followed by a minor brainwave. I asked the driver to give me two minutes grace and dashed to the car to pick up some bottles and a broken behind the seat bottle rack which had two cages attached. Dealing with this last-minute panic actually helped settle my nerves on the basis that this was the customary stuff up of the day out of the way.

Arriving at T1 borrowed a set of Allen keys and sorted out the cages. There was plenty of good chat to be had in transition with lots of nice folks doing the race. There was a little bit of extra standing around as the full distance race had got off to a slightly late start. The swim entrance and exit was somewhat, shall we say, rustic. The lake water was relatively warm but also very murky.

And they're off

The swim started into the sun which meant that there was no chance of actually citing the navigation boys but as the course follows the lake shore getting lost wasn't really an option. There was a nice amount of argy-bargy and contact at the start and good measure my goggles leaked for the first time since I've owned them. Previously I think all of these factors would have been enough to upset me greatly (like the panic attack I had at Hawley lake last year) but the tonnes of open water swimming meant that I wasn't fazed in the least and quickly, after emptying my goggles, I settled into a good strong rhythm and exited the 2 km swim in 40 minutes feeling in good shape for the bike ride.

Big bike

Now I knew from the fact that there was a double loop for the full distance and a single loop for the half distance, plus the ride from swim start to race HQ, that either one race was long one race was short. It turns out the little Woody draws the long straw. The bike course actually feels like two different courses, one hilly course on twisty lanes and one rolling course on open roads. My target pace off 28-30 KPH was ambitious on that course.

The weather on the day was perfect and the scenery is pretty good, which keeps the mind off things. However over the second half of the bike leg I was feeling very close to the dreaded bonk and was doing all I could to get as much food as possible on board. The feed stations on the route were well-stocked with the notable exception of something salty. I was saved at the second feed station by a nice woman who gave me peanuts which were intended for her husband, but she taught he could spare a few! Thanks Misses. The final climb into Coleford on the bike nearly did me in and at that stage I was thinking I would almost certainly drop out after finishing the bike. Over the last mile or so I talked myself into finishing even in the event of having to walk most of the half marathon. Overall the bike was 99 km with about 1000 m of climbing. Nice. I was glad to hand my bike to the nice man in transition.

Run Fatboy run.

Still toying with the idea of a DNF I sat on the very comfortable white plastic chairs in transition and put my runners on. Looking left and right I was seated with two other athletes who looked like decent endurance racers who had also just finished the bike. Encouraged by the fact that I wasn't in poor company I talked myself into (and to some extent was talked into by a nice man with a beard) making a nice steady start on the run and seeing how things went from there. Out of transition, a long pause in the feed station, and off onto the run I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. This sorry for myself feeling lasted all of about two minutes as my run legs kicked in and I was putting out a very steady five minute kilometre pace. It's very strange the difference between the two disciplines and how you can be almost broken on the bike and yet well able to run. I thought this may have been a false dawn rather than a second wind so I deliberately throttled back on the run pace over the first quarter of the course. This was a wise decision as though I didn't ever feel like I was going to have to walk I did flag somewhat over the midsection of the run. On the last quarter of the run I hit a bit of a purple patch which may in part have been due to taking in caffeine. It was very nice after feeling horrendous at the bike finish to be able to finish strong on the run.

And we're done

The finish itself was an anticlimactic affair as there was little atmosphere at the finish line. One was left with the feeling of "okay so that's that done, what next". The showers however were cracking. It makes a real difference to have a good shower at the end of the race. Showered, shaved and with a burger and chips in the belly I arrived home looking apparently "normal". Which is a good sign. My legs were quite sore the next day but other than that no apparent ill effects.

Overall view

I was quite happy with the swim, particularly the degree to which I was comfortable in the open water. My technique needs a lot of work still but my strength and endurance on the swim have never been better.

Getting in the big miles on the bike is the killer as it is the most time consuming aspect of training and I felt that this was a limiter in the race and I was quite dissatisfied with just how rough I felt finishing the bike. Hillclimbing has never been my strong suit but this really showed strongly in the race. For next year I will have too treat this as my limiter and focus a lot on strength in the bike..

A good run though! I felt strong as soon as I made the transition from bike to run and I probably could have pushed harder at my confidence not been knocked by nearly DNF off the bike.

I have always counted biking as my strongest element and it came as a bit of a surprise really that this should be the weak link in this race.

After a long season of training I have mixed feelings about the race as I am not sure I am satisfied with my performance? Or maybe I am? I think I let it sink in for a week and see how I feel about it then.

Milestone Event

I'm still here and still training. With the exception of time lost due to a serious lurgy ( illness to our overseas readers, usually a heavy cold or some such) I have managed 3 solid periods on base training and I am now into the build phase.
Given last years frightful swim performance I have spent a significant amount of time on the swim, particularly open water swimming in the local swimming lake which has improved my open water technique, sighting and overall confidence in the open water.

I have also been doing a number of longer bike sets and bike to run sets encouraged and inspired by my new trek equinox triathlon bike! It is all carbon Aero loveliness, if somewhat uncompromising in terms of comfort.


So big miles and the weekly training volumes of up to 12 hours have hopefully set me up well for the move to the higher intensity training of build phase. To put this to the test I competed in the Worcester double sprint triathlon at the end of June. The race was a 1500 m lake swim, 55 km bike and 10 km run. So a bit longer than the standard Olympic distance race. My brother and sister-in-law also travelled over to compete in this race (it was the brothers third race and his wife's second). The brother and I did the double while his missus did the sprint distance, which she entered two days before!

On the day it was cracking hot, 30° C. coupled with a long bike this made fluid intake and fuelling critical for the race. I had a great swim (28 minutes, a PB) and a good transition to bike. The first lap of the bike course was somewhat hard as it took my legs quite some time to warm up to biking after the swim. Overall though a good bike averaging 30 km/h.


Terrible Photo!!

A quick transition to run and a good first lap but the heat and fatigue definitely slowed me down on the second lap, but then again that's probably the idea.

Total time 3:20 which was six minutes behind the brother. Overall my kit performed well. The new tri-suit is extremely comfortable if somewhat uncompromising in the fashion stakes, and my team zero wetsuit is an improvement over my old faithful snug suit. Kit highlights would have to be however body glide and cayenne goggles from Aqua sphere (they rock).

So! Base done and build phase off to a flying start aimed at delivering a credible half iron performance at the end of August.

Almost like a whale

Morning.
Good Swim session, overall aim to swim E3 endurance session.

300 wu
Drills
3X400 off 10 min
200 cool down

Total of 2000m.
Good because I held reasonable form in the last rep.

Evening.
30 min on the Turbo.
10 min wu
10 min 100+ cadence
5 min spin up intervals
and 1 leg drills
5 min spin down

Overall a good mid week training day.

Cheeky Blast

I'm supposed to be base training, you know controlled effort levels and that sort of thing.. but today I was a bit stuck for time as Lisa was still feeling a bit shook, so I had an hour to train in (more or less) so I went off full bore on the mountain bike for an hour! Yay :-)
Weather was excellent and trails are dry so it was one hour ten at pretty much, but not quite full steam. It was that or no training at all, and it was fun. Remember fun?

Session 1:10, 25km 200m of total climb.

It's all starting to creak!

And I don't mean the bike.
Up and out early this morning to do the first of two sessions planned for today. Overall training hours planned 1:30. The morning session was a 50 minute run most of which was straightforward over distance easy running but I also added six minutes off strides/drills.

Drills were as follows:
2X Heel kicks+ High knee
2X Bounds + front kicks
each with a pick up sprint at the end and a jog back.

After pretty much the first week of serious training the whole body feels a bit tired and worked over. Tomorrow is set to be a reasonably light day with Tuesday as a rest day.

Second session of the day was a 40 minute strength session focusing on abdominals and leg strength. One leg squats are more manageable now then they were last week, though the heels together squat exercise does seem to be putting a lot of strain on the lateral anterior tibial muscles.

The main planning goal of the week is to book up all the main races for the season before they all sell out!

A distance ride on the cross bike.

Planned training hours: 2:30 hours.
Session plan: over distance bike ride with rolling hills to be covered at level 2 and level 3 exertion.
Overall a good ride (2:20 in the end) though left knee continues to be problematic. I cut the ride slightly short as Lisa and the boys are still feeling a bit ropey with the sickness bug.