Summer loving, had me a blast

Summer seems to be creeping up on us, and I'm loving it. Long nights, plenty of racing, great days out.

This weekend just gone I raced in perfect conditions at the MK sprint, a B race which acted as a dress rehearsal for my second A race of the year over the same course in 2 weeks time (it being the second of my Worlds qualifying races).

Coming back from a 30+ hours training week in Italy, my legs did feel fatigued at certain sections of the bike, but despite this I was very happy with my performance, coming in 49th overall against a strong field, many of whom were familiar names who I think were also treating the race as a warm up to the big one in a couple of weeks.

A race known throughout the Ironman circuit as one of the toughest, IM Lanzarote, was held this weekend too. Tough, not only because of its hills, but also because of the scorching heat which is rarely shielded undercover of trees and other shaded areas.

One competitor who I heard was making a comeback to triathlon, and who was using IM Lanzarote as his comeback race (not, as far as I am aware, having raced Ironman before) was Robin Brew. Robin is a one-time elite triathlete, having represented Great Britain at his chosen sport, swimming, in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics where he came a very, very close fourth in the 200 metres Individual Medley, losing out on Bronze against fellow Brit Neil Cochran.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I attended a Robin Brew Warm Weather training camp in, yes you've guessed it, Lanzarote a couple of years ago. I was, therefore, very interested in tracking Robin's progress throughout the race. Sure enough, his swim was strong - coming out in 7th position overall in 50 or so minutes. He continued this great return to racing with a 5:43 bike - 60th overall - but the results board finishes there. I can only assume that Robin didn't complete the run, so I hope he's Ok.

My new friends from the Steve Trew Warm Weather training camp, from which I returned last weekend, completed their second week there this week in scorchio heat, culminating in racing (or rather, getting round) the Nova Colli - a cycle race of 205 km's taking in 9 famous Italian hills, some of which I cycled the week I was there and can testify to how tough they were. The Lanzarote bike course has nothing on it, that's for sure!

The next couple of weeks see many of them racing at Blenheim and London and, for one (Martin), the Austria 70.3 this weekend where he was trying to qualify, for the second year running, for the 70.3 World Championships in the Sunshine State later in the year. I haven't seen his results yet, but fingers crossed he achieved his aims.

All this sunshine saw me and A-M having a picnic at Hampstead Heath this Sunday afternoon. And what a lovely afternoon it was. We were treated to some live Jazz music which was apparently being broadcast live on BBC radio which rounded off a great bank holiday weekend.

As far as training was concerned, I was using this week as a recovery week following the tough week in Italy and in preparation for a couple of week's build phase. I don't have access to my training diary at the moment, but will post details later.

Next week will be back to some concentrated swim sessions and also some hill, interval and brick bike and run sessions.

Congratulations to Jev for coming in off the bike in first place in his Age Group at the Beaver Middle distance on Sunday, a warm up race for IM Germany in 6 weeks time. Suffering from a bad back, Jev had decided before the race that he would only run 15 minutes of the run, and he stuck to the plan and felt fresh afterwards with no ill-effect from the bike, so it all went according to plan.

Well done also to my tri club colleagues on their great performances at MK, namely A-M, Dan, Stuart, Beth, Gemma, Rats and Jo. Amazingly, my and Dan's bike times were just 1 second apart, but as usual he caned me on the swim! Here's a picture of me, taken by Shires' supporter of the year, Mitten. God knows what I was doing!



Until next week, keep away from those ice-cream tubs and train hard. Alternatively, get the garden furniture out and take in some of those sun-rays and chill, chill, chill, man. You never know how long it's going to last.

Cheers.

C

Il Canto degli Italiani

My favourite World Cup was Italia ’90.

From the moment the first ball was kicked in the opening match between Cameroon and Argentina it was excitement all the way. What made it all the more special was England’s heroic adventures which took them to the semi-final, only to lose out courtesy of a couple of infamous penalty misses by England.

Of course, as we all know, this is where Paul Gascoigne, a little-known 20-something from the North East, was catapulted into the football stratosphere. His tears against Germany, when he was booked following an over-zealous foul on Thomas Berthold, and was thus unable to play in the final (had England qualified), will forever be etched on my mind.

Gascoigne was subsequently signed by Italian club Lazio, but following an injury, never really fulfilled his football potential. In recent times, Gascoigne has been a fallen hero. Alcohol abuse has taken its toll such that now he looks like an aged man, poor and penniless.

A fallen hero in the cycling world was Marco Pantani, one-time winner of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia.

Pantani was Italy’s Paul Gascoigne. A hero to the masses, he too only partly fulfilled his massive cycling potential before dying on Valentine’s Day 2004, aged just 34, from a drug overdose following a period of paranoid self-destruction.

Pantani lived in a town in North East Italy called Cesenatico, and this is where I have spent the last week at the Steve Trew Warm Weather Training Camp. I won’t bore you with a blow by blow account of the week's training, but suffice to say the weather was lovely, the company was great (I made some great friends and fantastic athletes who I will definitely be keeping in touch with) but, above all, the coaching was absolutely superb.

Steve (ex Olympic and Commonwealth Games triathlon coach) and Dan Bullock (ex-220 Coach of the Year and swim coach specialist – runs http://www.swimfortri.com/) provided some first class coaching throughout the week. In particular, Dan’s swim sessions were the best I have ever attended. No heavy distance stuff in the pool, and perhaps only one interval sesion - instead there was a very heavy emphasis on technique.

Not only is Dan obviously a highly accomplished swimmer in his own right, but he is also a great communicator and I picked up a wealth of swim drills which I can take away with me to work on.

The highlight of the week, however, was without doubt an ‘easy’ day out on the bikes, which involved a 40km ride out to an inland village, lunch in a most fabulous restaurant (with the most fabulous wine cellar), then back to the hotel. But what made this day so much more than an ordinary training day was what we were treated to along the way.

First, our peleton (some 30 cyclists) seemed to get caught up amongst a host of classic and rare sports cars along streets lined with spectators. This, we later found out, was the famous Mille Miglia, ultimately won by this Bugatti Type 37.



Next, we found ourselves riding behind a car with some unusual camera equipment perched upon its roof, reminiscent of a giant Webcam. This, we later found out, was taking street level 360 degree pictures for Google. So, watch out for later editions of Google Earth and Google Maps and you might find me waving frantically!

Finally, our route took us past, firstly, the home of Marco Pantani – a flash villa on the outskirts of Cesenatico, and, secondly, to the tomb of the Pantani family, where the great man himself was laid to rest. Having just rode the very same hills which Pantani spent many hours riding, there was an eerie feeling entering the tomb, with his medals and other memorabilia lying there.

A fantastic day, and indeed a fantastic week. Photos to follow.

For the record, here's what I did:-

Tuesday - nothing (travelling)
Wednesday - lots
Thursday - lots
Friday - lots
Saturday - lots
Sunday - lots
Monday - lots
Tuesday -nothing (travelling)

You get the idea!

Total training time - 30+ hours.

Particular mention to my training mates in Italy - Martin (hoping to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships - good luck in Austria on Sunday, mate), Jelle (very strong cyclist from Holland and thoroughly decent guy), David and Andrew (with whom we created the 'team' of the week), Trevor (always with a story to tell), Chloe (always smiling!). There were loads others who I shall definitely be keeping in touch with via something called Facebook.

This coming week I am taking it a bit easier, hopefully fitting in a massage and doing some shorter intensive stuff - concentrating on swimming so I don't forget anything I learned in Italy.

I also have a practice run at the Big Cow Sprint on Sunday which is on the same course as my next Qualifyer two weeks later. Hopefully the weather will hold out, although I am not anticipating the 30+ degree temperatures which I enjoyed last week. Neither do I expect to be joined by any eccentric Italian motorists enjoying their Ferrari's, Bugatti's and Maserati's - more's the pity!

See you next week.

C

Have a Cigar

Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar,
You're gonna go far, you're gonna fly high,
You're never gonna die, you're gonna make it if you try; they're gonna love you.

Ok, as we all know, the lyrics to Pink Floyd's 1975 song Have a Cigar are having a pop at the greed within the music industry, but after my rip-roaring performance at the first of my World Sprint Qualifiers - today's Grendon Sprint - I feel like sitting back and lighting up.

Then reality strikes. I didn't qualify, not today anyway, so No Cigar this time.

Not that I ever expected to qualify outright. I am not so dillusional that I know that qualification for me will fall on the roll-down process, as it would have done 2 years ago had I registered my interest to qualify when I raced at Northampton in 2007, so my aim today was to pass the 115% test which is the first stage of the qualification process.

And I am pleased to say that that's exactly what I achieved, and so I am now in line to qualify in the roll-down.

In perfect conditions I raced as hard as I could, falling over the finish line, completely exhausted and with my lungs and heart stretched to their limits, in a time of 1:15:29. The winner in my age group finished in 1:06:19 which means that I was JUST within 115% of him. Hoorah!





There are 25 athletes who have registered their interest with the British Triathlon Association to qualify for the World's. Of them, 21 were racing today. I came 10th out of the 21, just 3 minutes off an automatic qualification, and that has now given me the confidence to go forward to the MK and Blithfield Sprints on 7th June and 26th July respectively and secure a place.

Congratulations to a tritalk forumite, Iain, who I have been cyber-talking to on the forum. Iain secured a place at the Worlds today with a 3rd place (same age group as me). Well done, Iain, and hopefully I'll see you at The Gold Coast!

Also, a big well done to my mate Dan from the tri club who is joining me on a few races this year. Prior to the race, never have I seen anyone with such a 'wish I wasn't doing this' look on his face, but I think all this was a smoke screen because he went a beat me by 2 minutes! Well done, Dan.

Another feature of racing around the country is that you get to visit the local hostelries after each race. At Duston, A-M and I found a lovely pub nearby called the Fox and Hounds in Harlestone, then today we came across the Cowper's Oak in Weston Underwood (see picture up top). Finding ourselves a garden table in the sunshine, we tucked into a nice lunch and, for me, a couple of well-earned beers. The life of a triathlete is not exactly 'play hard, work hard', more 'work hard, work harder', so it's nice to reward myself after a great day at the races.

This week was a taper week. Here's exactly what I did:-

Monday – bike - easy around Grendon bike course
Tuesday – run - fartlek
Wednesday – run - 30 second sprints
Thursday – bike - easy 45 minutes, swim - open water at Liquid Leisure
Friday – complete rest
Saturday – bike - easy sprints, run - easy sprints
Sunday – race – Grendon Sprint

Next week (Tuesday to be exact) I am off to Italy for the Steve Trew triathlon training camp. Past experience at the Robin Brew training camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote shows that speed and endurance increase 10-fold with a week of intense, stress-free training, which again I am hoping will set me up for the next qualifier at MK.

Until then, the champagne has been left on ice for the time being. After analysing today's results and my overall performance as against the others in my Age Group, I am sure - even positive - that I will be popping it open before you can peel the wrapper off a Panama!

More next week.

Cheers.

C

A DNF, a good day at the offce and roll on D-Day

You might recall from an earlier blog that I attended a talk by Steve Trew at the TCR show. He was talking about 'the mind of a triathlete' - all about bringing positives out of negatives.

I have also been reading Joe Friel's 'Triathlete's Training Bible' recently and, coincidentally, I am currently on the chapter about - yes, you've guessed it - the mind and psychology of a triathlete.
I had never really had to use this form of psychology in a race before. Until today that is.

Today, just seven days before one of the most important races of my life, I suffered my first ever DNF at the Bedford Sprint.

And I'm very happy that I did.

I performed well on the swim, punctured on the bike, and PB'd on the run (they let me continue onto the run). So, I have come out of the race feeling extremely positive about my race speed. The failure was mechanical - out of my control - not physical, and I feel fit, ready and up for the challenge at my first World's Qualifier at Grendon next week. Had my DNF been as a result of an injury then it would have been a completely different story.

Steve and Joe would have been proud of me. About 2 miles into the bike I could feel the tyre unsteady around corners, looked down and it was only half-inflated. I knew it wouldn't last the whole race and didn't want to put myself in danger so I calmly turned around, coasted back to transition and continued onto the run. Unflustered, I posted a 19:11 on the 5K (first ever sub-20 minutes) which I am absolutely thrilled with this close to Grendon. I am biking stronger and quicker than ever, so all's looking good for the trip up the M1 to Northamptonshire next week.

The best supporter in the world, A-M, was there to watch it all unfold. She even had time to catch me running out on the bike before the fateful flat. I look quite good, don't you think???



Big congratulations to Peter who joined me for the race. It was Peter's first race and he coped admirably under the pressure (a lot more relaxed than I was in the my first race) with a very creditable time. Well done, sir! Also, a big fat pack on the back to Andy from the tri club who also had a very pleasing race. Andy's training for the UK Ironman later in the year and is getting some race practice in.

As far as training is concerned, I have really stepped this up a gear. Here you go:-

Monday – rest day, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Tuesday – interval brick session: bike - semi-hard intervals, run - sprint repeats
Wednesday – bike – gym spin (fixed wheel), run - intervals, swim – 400m TT in 6:47, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Thursday – brick session: bike - hard intervals, run - tempo
Friday – run - hill and sprint repeats, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Saturday – swim - open water at Liquid Leisure
Sunday – race – Bedford Sprint

So, here I am. Eventually, after months and months and months of training - alone or with clubmates or other training partners - D Day is finally here. I am almost already visualising writing next week's blog having secured a qualifying place. Wish me luck!

Cheers.

C