the last few weeks.
Triathlon Training Blog, Friday, September 25th, 2015Monday the 8th September was a rest day. What to do? I went to work then went home and felt trapped in the house i exist in. i wouldnt call it living per se. Just an existence.hemmed in. I feel in that house.
Tuesday
Hour in the pool 3k before work , then to mix things up a bit i did a turbo session. This went very badly indeed was supposed to be 5 times 10 mins sweet spots. first 2 sets was really struggling 15 watts down by the third so bailed and tried an easy run instead. This may sound a bit daft. I can understand why it sounds daft and thats because it is daft. Having just established that i hadnt recovered from the weekends exploits i decide to avoid the obvious and come at it from a different angle. 30 min run 3.2 miles.very casual.The sensible thing to do was rest. There’s no arguing with that particular mind set. My mum gave up years ago.
Wednesday
45 minutes in the pool. swimming club has started back up so there’s only one lane which u have to wrestle the silver tops for. I have won upto this point but they are getting smarter/more treacherous.In the evening being a creature of habit i did a 2 and a half hour turbo set. Christ i’m never off the bloody thing.This was a tempo session 15 minute sets with a couple of cheeky sprints chucked in there got the 50 in again weighted average power 220watts. later on in the day i went for an easy run. This does seem like a lot of work in one day doesnt it. Got 7.1 miles in in the hour. Achilles was ok. Not a million miles off a half IM there.
Thursday 3k in the pool trying to keep up with Denzel. forget it. All the IM Wales contenders were in there they are racing on Sunday so it was a scaled down session for them. lot of unspoken tension in the room. Gareth Powell still cant run ,theres lots of aches and pains about.
Of an evening ,just to relax like, there’s nothing i enjoy more than a mind bending turbo session. to help really wind me up so bloody tight like a fucking corkscrew yeah? Not content with failing at one on tuesday i failed at this one two,too. concern but its 3 strikes before u are out and this was number two.I managed 30 mins into this set and just fucked it off. supposed to be 50 seconds on 50 off at 380 watts. 8 times to a set 3 sets.started second set got 3 in couldnt hold the power dropping to 350watts so fucked it off. 11 miles
but got 14 reps in so not a complete disaster.
Into the weekend we go again and we start it with yet another disappointment. A run on friday evening.Did 10k on the road and that was fine and then for some inexplicable reason popped into the leisure centre and did 10 k on the treadmill. except i didnt. i did 9.5 k and my achilles really did not like that. So i hobbled home . SHit.This doesnt sound good at all.
The only good news about the achilles is that it doesnt bother me on the bike at all. A quick phone call to John Rothery and its time to start taking the treatment of this injury seriously. John pulls all the stops out and sees me that day. He does know his business and is pretty confident he can sort this out before race day. Should have called him sooner. He does then rearrange his busy schedule to see me and my torn soleus as much as possible in the coming week. In that time there is a marked improvement. Did i mention ‘should have gone to him sooner’ U cannot argue with that . Team player so a big thankyou to John Rothery for pulling out all the stops and doing everything that could be done in the time frame available.
Of course before i went to see John i squeezed in a 2 and a half hour turbo session where i got the 50 in. this was an endurance session as i am racing again tomorrow.In weymouth. Left for the drive up on saturday afternoon. The miller is racing tomorrow too. This is her ‘A’ race of the season and the one i have being prepping her for.The ITU long course european championships. Its over the iron distance. I am going up as i have a free entry into the half IM on the same day.Heather is racing too. Of they go at 710 am i think it was i’m not starting till 830 so i meander down there in time to see them come out of the swim.heather comes out first and the millar is close behind her. They arent in the same age group so its not really relevant .off they go on the bike.
The swim. Well this went really well upto a point. I really felt i had nailed it this time. Up to the first turn i was in the leading group and was having the best swim of my life. This is a ‘just racing’ event so you cant expect too much from it and they didnt let u down. At the race briefing they told us the huub markers were to mark the turns so as we turned we all headed for the next huub buoy. At this point i had lost the other 3 in the lead group as the conditions werent ideal and there was a fair amount of chop about. So sighting was difficult. So when i got to the next huub buoy i turned for the shore. Except as it turned out it wasnt a turn buoy as stated in the race briefing it marked the middle distance of the far turn so i had turned too early. By the time i realized i was way off course and had lost minutes i rejoined the course in the middle of the pack and headed in. Absolutely gutted as a good time here would’ve buoyed me on the way to kona. 36 stinking mins later i was done with the swim and nearly done with the race. I got on the bike and headed out on what can only be described as a mikey mouse course. Whoever dreamed this one up is a retard. Its like 10 pounds of shit squeezed into a 5 pound bag. twists ,turn after turn crappiest course i’ve ever encountered. Why any one would do this race twice is beyond me. Anyway i smashed it. Got the second best bike split of the day and beat Joe skippers time on strava. well i wouldve except the garmin didnt start on time. But my official time of 2 hrs 20mins 36 secs was 4 secs faster than joes strava listed time. i was a bit gutted that that one wouldnt go up. I got into t2 in 4th place which considering the screw up at the swim was ok. I didnt bother to even try the run.
So i waited for the milla to finish the bike. The weather got worse and the wind picked up. As the first bike finishers headed out onto the run. The locals really havent endorsed this event. When you consider IM wales gets 10,000 people turn out to watch i dont think there could have been more than a 100 at weymouth. It was pathetic. If it was a dog you would put it down.Heather came in first but the milla had had an excellent bike and was less than a few minutes down. Off she went on the run. Now the milla has got special needs written all over her. And she does have special dietary requirements. So i am dressed in civilian clothes ie not looking like a runner. So as she comes out of t2 i run alongside her to make sure that she knows where her special needs bag is with the stuff she needs to keep her in the race. I ran alongside her for 20 metres Then a just racing official jabs his hand into my chest and abruptly stops me running using , what can only be described as, force.I’m not the right temperament for this sort of treatment. So , despite being physically man handled i explain to the just racing official what and why i am doing. He just says’ you were pacing the athlete i could disqualify her ‘ He’s one of those. So i tell him again that i’m her coach she has dietary requirements and i was checking she knew what the deal was, not pacing her at all in my flip flops.
He repeats his mantra. What a complete and utter just racing bell end. I then remind him that race or no race physical assault really isnt a good idea. I have spoken to just racing about this and they pretty much endorsed their representatives actions. So it seems at a ‘just racing ‘ event if you appear to be breaking the rules they will give u a smack and thats ok as u were breaking the rules. Anyway this particular conversation degenerated and i threatened to throw the guy over the wall with his little timing chip system lodged securely up his ass. If windy hadnt have been racing i would have. I was bloody furious. Just racing s response to this has been far from acceptable. They actually defended him even though he had clearly broken the law and completely over stepped the mark as a race day official.
The crowd of 8 on lookers dwindled to 4 .2 of them were waiting for the number 8 to treorchy. The winner approached the finish line and the pa in a monotone voice that would have put a glass eye to sleep announced as such. Like a bad bingo caller. There was no danger of waking anyone up that was for sure. As the race progressed it appeared that the milla had got herself into the silver medal position and was closing in on the leader in her age group. Heather was also on the podium and hanging on . The milla chased hard and another lap would have seen her take gold but she ran out of miles and came in in silver 4 mins behind the winner. Heather too held on to take bronze in their respective age groups. So everything was tickety boo.Well done girls they were both a bit emotional at the end . It was a hard race in difficult conditions.European podiums for both Girls.
Unless the milla is DQed….oops!
