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

Transitions and Transitions

In a triathlon, the concept of going from the swim to the bike, and from the bike to the run, is called 'transitions', and the specific area set aside to do all this is called the 'transition area'.

The transition area is a place of frenzy where athletes' only concern is for themselves. When you're in there, it's like everything you do goes in slow-motion whilst everyone around you seem to speed effortlessly from start to finish. It's where a race can literally be won and lost. Well executed transitions can shave a couple of minutes off a race time, and just think how much swim, bike or run training you need to do to gain the same time-advantages. It's free time. Easy time.

I have become somewhat of an expert at transitions over the years. At Duston recently I came out of the swim in last place out of the five in my wave, but was out on the bike well ahead of the four others. They never did catch me up.

So, I thought I would share my knowledge with a few friends and club colleagues this week by holding a transitions training session over the local village green. Two hours later and I hope they went away with some useful time-saving tips - subsequent feedback certainly indicates that they did.

Whilst transitions take us from one part of a race to another, life also seems to take us from one thing to another. This week saw the final game of the season for my Under 11's, and the time it has free'd up now gives me the opportunity to crank up the training.

The team were up against one of the title-contenders so we weren't expecting too much, but I have to say that all the boys acquitted themselves very, very well and came away from a very close match just at the wrong end of a 2 - 1 scoreline. It's been a long, hard season, but we have ended up with more players than we started with which means that we must be doing something right. They do seem to have enjoyed themselves and, after all, that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Here's the mottley crew (me in the middle at the back)...



Doing something you enjoy is of course very important. I enjoy swimming, biking, running - in particular, I enjoy putting it all together for race days. After a thoroughly enjoyable start to the season recently at Duston, I am positively salivating at the thought of the season ahead.

Before then, though, there's plenty of training, and this is what I did last week:-

Monday – swim - club swim, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Tuesday – bike – very hard interval session
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - 30/30 interval session, swim - 400m TT in 6:55, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Thursday - rest day, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Friday - bike – hard hill repeats, run - hard hill repeats (hopping)
Saturday – swim - open water at Liquid Leisure
Sunday – bike – semi-fast road bike with Dan and Robin from tri club

This week I am starting a more intense, interval-based training regime in order to improve speed. Plenty of brick (back-to-back run/bike) sessions, some open water swimming and some specific hill and speed work. Nothing for the faint-hearted.

I will be ending the week at Bedford which I have been looking forward to for a long time. I haven't done this race since the end of the 2007 season, and at a time when I was riding my old bike, so I am looking forward to a PB. I am going up with Peter, one of the guys from the Old Thatch Cinema Society, who did actually do a triathlon about 20 years ago but is now getting back into it. Peter was at the transition training last week and has promised that he won't try to beat me with his new found transition skills! I might just have to tie his laces together in transition when he's not looking just to make sure...

More news same time next week.

Cheers.

C

A week of two halves

Not since the infamous episode with David Lloyd gyms have I been so frustrated with certain service providers as I have this week.

This time it was the turn of my Internet Service Providings (Fonejacker fans will appreciate the deliberate mis-spelling) and mobile phone provider who have been the cause of so much annoyance.

My internet at home has not been working for about 2 weeks. I have managed to temporarily get around this by logging on at the gym (ironically) and at friend’s houses (overstaying my welcome, no doubt), but I took the plunge this week to finally try to get it sorted. Generally, I have always had quite positive experiences with overseas call centres, but this time was an exception. After some tests conducted over the phone, I was told to go and buy a new modem and if that isn’t the problem then they will call out a BT engineer to come and correct the line. If it isn’t a fault with the line then I will have to pay their call-out charge which starts at £160.00!!! So I think I’ll go and buy a modem and hope that's the problem.

Next was my mobile phone. I have had sitting on the side a new phone for the past 14 months and the reason which I haven’t used it is because everytime I look at it I think of the mammoth task ahead of transferring all the contact details from one phone to the other. Nonetheless, I decided this week, whilst trying to sort out my internet, to take the plunge and get the pnone sorted too. A couple of phone calls later (again to various call centres), and I was no nearer sorting it. In fact, I was actually further away, because they cancelled the SIM card on my current phone and the SIM card on my new phone did not work when I tried to use it. I phoned them again and all they could do was refer me to their website and have a look at the FAQ’s. Now, as we now know, I have no internet, so I was going round in circles. So I gave up. More news in the coming weeks, no doubt.

A completely different and far more satisfying experience was my first race of the season – the Duston Sprint on Sunday.

I billed this race as a 'B' race to give me some race practice, but also I wanted to compare my time with last year’s time. And I am happy to report that I smashed last year’s time by over 2 minutes, coming in at 1:04:42 in 38th place (out of 449 finishers) and a very pleasing 6th in my age group (out of 68).

Here's a (very bad) picture of my race watch taken after I crossed the finish line to prove my time, and then there's me in action...





To be frank, I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. A swim PB at 6:17, two super-quick transitions, 25th overall on the bike and I even managed to overtake people on the run! This sets me up nicely for my next practice race at Bedford in 2 weeks time which also doubles as a ‘compare against last time’ race (last time raced end of 2007). And then of course there's the first World's Qualifier at Grendon the week after.

It just goes to show that all that training DOES pay dividends and it has now given me fresh impetus for more. If I can just lose 7 or 8 pounds then I reckon that will help shave off more valuable seconds from the bike and run. Less beer, more orange juice, me thinks.

As far as training is concerned, this is what I did in what was a rest week leading up to Duston:

Monday – bike – 10 mile TT in 26:10, 50 press-ups and 49 sit-ups
Tuesday – rest
Wednesday – bike – gym spin (fixed wheel), swim – 750m TT in 13:12, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Thursday – rest
Friday – bike – transition practice and one-legged drills, run – 6 minute test followed by 30 sec intervals, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Saturday – rest, 50 press-ups and 50 sit-ups
Sunday – race – Duston Sprint

Top marks to Paul C (aka Pablo) from the tri club who posted a half marathon PB of 1:39 this week at the Redcar Half Marathon. Great training for the UK Ironman into which he (and other club mates) are entered this year. Also, to Beth (also from the tri club) who managed the 60 mile Hatfield Sportive. Beth came to Afan a few weeks ago and showed us all how strong a cyclist she is, and 60 miles on an undulating course is no mean feat. Well done, Beth.

This week’s *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is another non-sport related website – Freecycle. If you have any stuff you want to get rid of then you place it on the site and people contact you to come and pick it up – free of charge - and likewise if you see anything you fancy which others want rid of then you contact the donor and arrange collection. To be honest, there is a lot of tat, but I have managed to grab myself a few things, including a walker trainer for the garage. I think my David Lloyd membership ends at the end of this month, and so the walker is a very useful addtion to my gym in the garage which is coming on nicely.

Next week I am due to run the London Marathon after successfully getting through the ballot this year after years of trying. Ironically, I am not doing any distance running his year so I have rolled-over my entry until next year. It’s a race everyone says is a must-do race, so that’s something to look forward to after this year’s shenanigans have finished.

Have a great week, and here’s hoping for some more of this lovely sunshine!

Cheers

C

The yo-yo effect

It’s strange. My kids' football team play brilliantly one week, with a very convincing 3 – 0 win, then the following week they play far below their capability and lose 10 – 1. They yo-yo from good performance to bad performance, to good performance, to bad, and so on.

My diet is suffering from this yo-yo effect too. One week I stay off the booze, watch what I eat, and all’s good. Then the following week I can’t stay away from the Easter Eggs, the local Pizza Express, or the beer and wine rack at the supermarket. My weight generally stays the same, but nonetheless I don’t feel particularly fit for my gluttonous habits in those weeks.

Training, thankfully, hasn’t been suffering the same fate. Consistency is the key, and consistent is what I’ve been. Sticking to the 12 week sub-40 minute 10K plan, that’s what I’ve been doing, all culminating on the 7th day on the 12th week in the Dorney Lake 10K Easter Sunday run race at, er, Dorney Lake (would you believe it?).

Now, the race was billed as a flat, fast race at which a PB was possible, so I went into it all guns blazing. 43:30 minutes later and I crossed the finish line, having achieved a PB but not having achieved my aim of sub-40 minutes. Truth be told, I never actually thought that sub-40 was on the cards but I had hoped for sub-42. I think my problem was that I yo-yo'd during the race – by that I mean I set off too quickly too early, faded half way through, and then finished strong. Not to worry, I did a PB and I know now that I need to put some more work in.

I have decided that my yo-yo diet, sleeping patterns and alcohol consumption are mostly to blame for my not achieving my running aims, and so I am making conscious efforts now to improve those habits, starting with my second self-induced alcohol ban of the year until I go to Italy on 12th May for the training camp. At least 8 hours sleep per night, plenty of water, no chocolate and continuing those press-ups and sit-ups. If I can lose half a stone in weight (currently 12st 11) then I know this will contribute to faster swim, bike and run splits, for sure.

Training these past two weeks went like this:-

Monday – rest
Tuesday – bike – 10 mile TT (first of the year) – 25:30, run – 6000m fast in 26:17, 50 press-ups and 46 sit-ups
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill – 5000m fast in 22 minutes, swim - 750m TT in 12:59
Thursday – bike – hard intervals with Jo from the tri club, run – easy 30 minutes, 50 press-ups and 47 sit-ups
Friday – bike – MTB with Robin from the tri club, run – short intervals
Saturday – run - 60 minutes hard Ashridge XC with tri club A Group
Sunday – bike – 10 mile TT with tri club (organized by Rob, aka Bananaman)

Monday – swim – club swim (intervals)
Tuesday – bike – Bedford Sprint route – 46:59 (very windy!), run – 5K Bedford Sprint route – 20:25 (PB)
Wednesday – rest
Thursday – run – 8000m fast in 35 minutes, 50 press-ups and 48 sit-ups
Friday – run – sprints
Saturday – rest
Sunday – run race - Dorney Lake 10K – 43:30 (PB)

Many congratulations to Jev who raced his first race of the season - the National Age Group Duathlon Champs at MK - on the last day of the tax year (5 April). A tough group of athletes and a very credible placing racing on his beautiful Cervello P2C. Well done, mate.

This week's *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is Spotify, a free online music database introduced to me by my parents this week, which seems to contain every single song ever produced! You can’t download the music (it’s only available to stream), so log in, pick your song, and enjoy…

This coming week I have an easy week in anticipation of my first triathlon of the season – the Duston sprint – as one of my warm-up races for the World Qualifiers. Dan, a friend from my tri club, is hoping to join me but he has been having terrible injury problems recently and so might not make it. Hopefully his injuries will heal soon because he has great potential and it will be great seeing how well he races over the coming season.

My final big day of drinking was Good Friday where A-M and I spent the day in London on an historic pub crawl. Patronising many pubs along the Thames in Wapping, the scene of many pirate hangings in the 16th and 17th centuries (see picture up-top), we returned to our homesteads in a very hazy state indeed. Not as hazy as those scallywags who, in years gone by, had been hung over the Thames at low tide, their bodies somewhat yo-yoing over the water until they died from the hanging noose or by drowning from the rising water tide washing over them. Nice, grim stuff!

Until next week, C

Normal service will be resumed...

......next week!

Lots and lots to report from last week. Ironically, too much doing this week too (work and training) which means I have no time to sit down and blog (I can hear the sighs of relief already).

Will bring you all up to speed (pun intended) at the weekend.

Bye for now.

C

Motormouth

This week saw the welcome return to our screens of Alan Sugar, the mighty motor of all mouths, in this year's The Apprentice.

Another sorry collection of wannabe businessmen and businesswomen. More often than not cringeworthy stuff, but great entertainment all the same which glues us to the TV screens each Wednesday evening for the next 10 or so weeks. My prediction for this year's winner is a guy called James McQuillan or, failing that, Kate Walsh (because we all know that Sugar likes a bit of blond totty!).

Another motormouth was my son, Adam, who shouted and screemed words of encouragement to his football team from the sidelines this Sunday. Less 'Man of the Match', more 'Mouth of the Match', and if you know Adam you'll know what I mean.

Adam was unable to play courtesy of a broken little finger whilst at his girlfriend's house Saturday morning, but such is his devotion to the team that he insisted that he came along to cheer them on. Actually, I think he secretly wanted everyone to see his war wounds - he does like being the centre of attention does my Adam! Anyway, his cheering must have done some good because we ended up wining 3 - 0 in a hard fought game against a team with whom we always have closely contested games.

It is fair to say that we haven't had the best of seasons, and so the few times we do win we celebrate FA Cup-style. The picture up top was taken directly after our match and the lucozade (the boys' version of Champagne) was flowing freely, I can tell you!

Son number one (as in first born), Joe, was also motormouth in his game Sunday afternoon.

'Motormouth' as in 'spouting off to the referee' motormouth, resulting in a yellow card in a grudge match against a particularly unruly and unsporting team. To be fair to Joe, he was the shining light for his team (he got Man of the Match!) and the opposition recognised this by knobbling him everytime he got the ball. It wasn't until the final ten minutes that he finally lost his rag and retaliated with some harsh and colourful words against his opposing number 8. Joe did get the last laugh though by helping his team to a 3 - 1 win. Sweet revenge!

Training is going from strength to strength. Some hard run and bike sessions (mostly intervals), and a swim, and I am a week closer to my first race of the season at Duston on 19th April. That race will be a real test of my winter running and cycling training because I can compare it with last year's time, and although my swimming has taken a back seat I figure that the time lost on the swim will be amply made up for on the bike and run (famous last words).

Here's exactly what I did last week in training ......

Monday – complete rest
Tuesday – bike - tough 2 hour interval session with Dan from the tri club, 50 press-ups and 42 sit-ups
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 30 minutes at zero gradient, swim - 400m TT, 50 press-ups and 43 sit-ups
Thursday – run - hard intervals, 50 press-ups and 44 sit-ups
Friday - run - easy 45 minutes with Jev
Saturday – run - 90 minutes Ashridge XC with tri club, 50 press-ups and 45 sit-ups
Sunday - no training - basking in the glory of two football wins!

Next week is much of the same, but with a couple more swim sessions planned, and is the penultimate week of my sub-40 minute 10K run plan. If I can get my 400 metre swim time down to 6:30 then I will be more than pleased with that. I did 6:59 last week after a hard spin and run brick session at the gym so I reckon that 6:30 is do'able.

*WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is http://www.motionbased.com/. I upload my training data from my Garmin 305, as do millions of other GPS users from around the world, and can do all kinds of wonderful things with the data. Truth be told, it is probably TOO powerful for my modest needs but, with an imminent tri training camp to Italy, I shall be downloading to my 305 some routes from motionbased which have been uploaded by people who have been on previous training camps there. It's handy to see where I am going and what type of sessions I will be doing, including (very usefully) the type of terrain I will be training on.

Until next week, happy training, or whatever it is you have planned.

C