That was the year that was...

The end of the season and here is Bradley's End of Year Report.

Swim

2008 review:

Colin started the year with great promise with regular improvements at 400 metres. Times down to a steady 6:40. After joining Shires Triers triathlon club in the Spring Colin began structured swim training sessions although this was at the expense of his usual swimming sessions. Nevertheless, times continued to improve, culminating in a 400m PB at the Concorde Sprint Triathlon of 6:29 (first ever sub-6:30 in a race). 1500 metre times did not improve, despite the purchase of the all-singing-all-dancing Blue70 Helix wetsuit.

Aims for next year:

Sub 6:20 400 metre time. Sub 12 minutes 750 metre time (open water). Sub 25 minutes 1500 metre time (open water).

Effort: B
Achievement: B+

Bike

2008 review:

Colin improved enormously this year on the bike and this is down to his hard efforts on his shiny new carbon steed - the Planet X Stealth. Colin's 10 mile time-trial times improved consistently throughout the Summer season, culminating in a PB of 25:09.

Aims for next year:

Sub 25 minute 10 mile time trial. Sub 35 minute 20K. Sub 1:10 40K.

Effort: A
Achievement: A

Run

2008 review:

Colin worked very hard on his running this year, however his run times have not particularly improved, although he did achieve a 5K time trial PB of 21:25, so all credit to him for putting in a lot of hard work. A running plan from tri247 in the Winter of 2007 put Colin in good stead for the Spring of 2008, and he continued this through the rest of the season. Colin would do far better if he was to curb his eating and drinking habits and lost some excess weight.

Aims for next year:

Sub 20 minute 5K time trial. To continue his training plan from Coach Mark K. Colin must appreciate the need for perseverance and keep to the plan religiously. Patience is the key.

Effort: B+
Achievement: C

Core Strength

2008 review:

Despite starting the year with a core strength training plan, Colin managed none whatsoever except for a few 15 minute sessions at the gym after spinning classes. No further comment.

Aims for next year:

To improve core strength by devoting a minimum of 2 gym sessions per week at 30 minutes per session.

Effort: U (Ungraded)
Achievement: U

Races

2008 review:

A very busy and highly enjoyable season, although Colin did suffer from burnout by the end of the year. Transition times particularly pleasing, this as a result of regular transition practice sessions.

Highlights of the season were a PB and a first-ever sub 2:30 at Milton Keynes Olympic, completing the Thames Turbo series, a 4th place at the Bedford Mini and a 25:09 PB 10 mile time trial on the bike. Lowlight most definitely the Vitruvian, but also being (unfairly) DQ'd from the final Thames Turbo Sprint.

Aims for next year:

To build upon this year's very pleasing results by improving at each discipline, to include transitions. Colin must not be too keen to enter so many races, otherwise he might suffer from burnout again at the time of the season when he needs to be at his peak fitness.

Overall comments

Colin has recognised his weaknesses in running and concentrated heavily on this discipline during the year, although this has been at the slight detriment of his swim training. Colin's improved bike times are testament to his hard work out on the road, on the turbo trainer and in the gym at spin sessions. Colin needs to build on his successes of the season and carry this through the Autumn and Winter months ready for his very important World Qualifying Races in 2009.

Overall, a good year. Well done Colin!

*****

The Stealth and Helix are both away for the Winter and only one more week of easy stuff before I am back to it. A mountain bike session last week, and probably another one this week and maybe a swim and run session.

Finally, very remiss of me not mentioning Queen Chrissie's amazing successful defence of her Hawaii Ironman title last Sunday week. With a number of high profile wins under her belt during 2008, doubtless her End of Year Report will make for some compulsive reading. A+'s across the board, no doubt. Swot!



Cheers.

C

AfaffandAfan

I know, I know, a curious title to this week’s blog.

A faff, because I have been faffing around trying to decide what to write about. I had promised myself a review of the 2008 triathlon season, but that went immediately by the wayside after this week’s hugely enjoyable mountain biking, firstly midweek with my mates - Alex, Jev and Jo - over Whipsnade and surrounding trails, then at the weekend at the MTB mecca at Afan.

At the first of these - Whipsnade - Jev, Jo and I turned up a little early and had to wait around for Alex for a few minutes getting cold. All this 'coldness' soon dispersed after Alex turned up and we set off at a swift pace through the trails of Whipsnade. Jo was clearly the strongest and most experienced of us all, whizzing through the trees and dirt tracks, whilst the rest of us tried desperately to keep up. This we did flying through the streets of Dumpstable, reminiscent of the kids flying around on their BMX bikes in the film ET, jumping down concrete steps, through streets and past bemused children on their way to school. A couple of hours later and we were back in Jev's back yard munching on peanut butter on toast and talking of 'men' things (don't ask).

Here we are post-ride....



All this, however, was simply pre-amble to what was to come later in the week at Afan. Joining up with other members from the tri club for their annual pilgrimage to South Wales, we treated ourselves to two hard days of MTB'ing around some very difficult and technical tracks (difficult for me, anyway!), with a very enjoyable Curry night spliced (or should I say 'spiced') in between both days. Here are links to our first day's cycling on Penhydd (with A-M) and The Wall.

My highlight of the weekend was a fabulous run down 'Energy' on White's Level, the type of route that gets serious MTB'ers frothing at the mouth and, also, in a moment of extreme foolishness, a black run - thanks to Jo who assured me that I ‘would be alright, except for the very steep bit at the bottom which you can get off and walk down’. ‘Slide’ down might have been a more appropriate thing to say, because it was a wee bit on the, er, vertical side. Huge fun though and I can see why people love the sport.

Big up to Tony and Paul for enduring, and surviving, pretty bad falls – the former ending up with a hole in his shin, the latter ending up over his handle-bars. If that was me I would have cried and called for my mummy, that’s for sure. Also, congratulations to Anna (aka Mitten) for enduring a tough time on the settee all weekend, sipping (or should I say slurping?) on a glass of red wine for the most part.

Here's the guys and gals fuelling up....



As far as exercise is concerned, that was it really. I haven’t run for a couple of weeks, and have only swum once. With another couple of weeks of off-season recuperation ahead of me, I am still enjoying taking things easy and am thoroughly enjoying doing things 'for the fun of it’, rather than as part of a hard training schedule.

Next week I promise to review my 2008 season before it’s too late and I forget what I did, although this might be a hard promise to keep given that I have another couple of MTB rides booked into the diary. All this blogging – such a faff!

Until next week.....C

Out with the old, in with the...er...old

No, not another blog about mountain biking or such like.

I have a client who was a very successful A & R executive, discovering the likes of The Boomtown Rats, Sinead O’Connor and Kool and the Gang (get down on it!). He is now no longer in ‘the business they call show’ and is enjoying his well-earned retirement. Out with the old, so to speak.

I recall very amusing stories over the years involving some famous singers, bands, musicians and the like. One involved a very young, and foul-mouthed, Bob Geldof calling around record companies to get a record deal. Apparently, Sir Geldof eventually did quite well for himself, and also for the world in general.

Another story involved one of my client’s young ‘runners’ (an errand boy) whilst he was at EMI who was very keen to get involved in the music industry. This young lad had absolute no musical ‘ear’, apparently, but had a big mouth and was very canny. His name? Simon Cowell. Mr Cowell is currently doing quite well for himself, but not, as many would argue, for the music world in general. He has been around for a while now so he’s not exactly new to us, and is currently very prominent on our TV screens with the new series of The X Factor. In with the old, you could say.

Recently in the worlds of triathlon and cycling there has been a similar scenario.

Simon Lessing won the South African National Championship in 1988 at age 18, the International Triathlon Union Olympic distance world championships in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1998, the ITU long course world championship in 1996. He had wins at big non drafting classics at Chicago and Alcatraz, dominated the French Iron Tour, was victorious at the 1994 and 1996 Goodwill Games, and triumphed at an indoor race in Bourdeaux and a super sprint in Koblenz. Add to this a still-standing course record Ironman debut at Lake Placid, up to a flash of greatness in July 2008 in which he broke his own course record at Boulder Peak – Simon Lessing was the perfect illustration for an encyclopedia entry on excellence, triathlon version.

Lessing was the best in the world just as I was getting into triathlon and so was a great inspiration to me. Regretably, but I suppose inevitably, he announced his retirement from competitive racing this week at the age of 37.

I never raced against Simon, but a friend of mine, Simon Lamport, did and I remember an amusing story he told me of running down the home straight at the Windsor triathlon (on his first lap of 2), when the crowd lining the edge were shouting and screaming his name. “Simon, go Simon. Yeah, go, go, go. Simon, Simon, Simon”. Just as he flung up his arms, taking in the applause, Simon Lessing then sprinted past him towards the finish line (lap 2 of 2) whilst Simon Lamport turned the corner to continue his race.

Simon Lessing - very regrettably, out with the old.



Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive years, from 1999 to 2005. He is the only individual to win seven times, having broken the previous record of five wins, shared by Miguel Indurain (consecutive) and Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil.

Armstrong survived testicular cancer in 1996. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and his prognosis was originally poor. He retired from racing on 24 July 2005, at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but, very recently, confirmed that he will return to competitive cycling for the 2009 season. I am not sure I am happy with this. He went out at the very top of his sport and I fear that his comeback will not be the spectaculor all-conquering return that everyone is hoping for.

Lance Armstrong - a rather sceptical in with the old.



The first of four weeks of completely unstructured exercise and training this week. A club swim (quite hard actually), a couple of hard’ish MTB sessions (one with Jev, the other a wonderful pub-crawl with Anne-Marie) and a couple of football training sessions. I am not making a log of my sessions, which is part of the off-season recuperation, and am thoroughly enjoying the lack of pressure, both self imposed and from my running coach Mark K.

No triathlon races to report this week, but a 'big up' to my mate Alex (far left below) who posted a PB at the Ridgeway Run organised by my running club, Tring RC. After loads and loads of long, hilly runs over Ashridge during the Summer, Alex's training has obviously paid off at this week's race.



That is not to say that there is nothing going on in the world of triathlon. The biggest Ironman race of the calender, Hawaii Ironman, is taking place as I type this blog and doubtless I shall comment upon it next week.

For the moment, however, all us Brits are routing for Chrissie Wellington (amongst others). Last year, Chrissie took the Ironman world by storm by winning Ironman Hawaii at her first attempt. Then it was most definitely ‘in with the new’ and I suppose you could say this year, still as a relatively newcomer, it is ‘in with the newish’. Good luck Chrissie.

Cheers.

C

Out with the old, in with the new

Season 2008 ended with a no-show - rather like it started.

I was entered with my mate Jev into the final Bedford Sprint of the series. Waking at 5am to heavy wind and rain, a couple of texts later between myself and Jev, and that was it – ZZzzzzzzz – back to the warmth and comfort of my bed.

Reminiscent to what happened at my first race of the season – the Thames Turbo sprint in April. The circumstances were similar – a quick peek outside the previous night to see heavy snow and that was it – no way, and a no-show.

Now that the season has ended and that aspect of my life has (temporarily) closed I am moving into another phase. Enter my new coaching companion for the next few months – Scotty.

Scotty is my new (and first) Mountain Bike, and she and I have already forged a strong bond between us with a slow romantic jaunt in the woods on Saturday (see pictures up top from the top of Pitstone Hill over-looking a long-time local open water swimming venue). When I say slow, I mean REALLY slow - I have run the same course quicker. Here’s my online training log to prove how slow I went.

Many of my friends – Alex, Simon, Paul, Jev - have recently been extolling the virtues of MTB'ing, especially for some off-season interval-type training, and I am positively salivating at the thought of getting down and dirty with Scotty over the coming months. This starts with a much-anticipated forthcoming trip to the Afan Valley in Wales with my tri club on 17th and 18th October. I have to admit that the cycling is really going to be secondary that weekend (no doubt to the scorn of the serious MTB’ers). Food, beer and great company are higher on the agenda for me.

Another person who has finished one phase of his life is my youngest son, Adam, who has just taken his 11+ exam this week after many months of concentrated coaching and practice. Adam's results come through in November so, fingers firmly crossed, here’s hoping for his success. Whatever the results, he has put in 150% effort and I am very, very proud of him. Well done, Adam.

Hardly seems worth putting it up, but here's what I did last week:-

Monday – no training

Tuesday – no training

Wednesday – run – easy at 180 strides per minute, 60 minutes

Thursday – no training

Friday – no training

Saturday – bike - great, fun Mountain Bike over Wacky Racers course

Sunday – no race or training (Bedford no-show)

Over the next few days I shall be evaluating my season and sit down and make plans for 2009. But until then I have hung up my wetsuit and am taking 4 weeks out to recuperate and recover from some hard training and a hard season's racing. Combined with some lurv with Scotty I am sure to be rejuvenated in time for the start of next season’s base training come mid-November.

Until next week, C.

A Tangled Web....

A friend of mine emailed the following story to me this week (stay with it - it's pretty good):

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes'.

The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else; the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. Do one more run down the ski slope. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented. The professor smiled. 'I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend.'

A rather curious start to this week’s blog, I admit, but, as I enter a very busy period in my professional working calendar, I am trying to make sure that I don’t lose sight of those things which are important to me - the golf balls - and I find that the only way to do so is by organising my time efficiently. Enter ‘mind-mapping’….

Mind-mapping is a fantastic new find for me. It helps me organise my days so well such that I manage, just, to keep my head above water. Curiously, mind-mapping works not be remembering things (as the title would suggest) but by plotting things down on paper in a spider-web type format (see the image up top). I start the day by writing my mind map, which is made up of all the jobs I need to do that day, and ticking each one off as they are done. Some jobs lead to others which is where the map can look a little messy, but it’s not half as messy as if it was all in my head.

Recently, my training has benefited from a bit of mind-mapping. At the beginning of the week I sit down and plan what I am going to do that week and, often, this leads to other sessions. For instance, this coming week I intend doing a brick session (hard bike, followed by hard run), and so the map will show a ‘run’ and ‘bike’ sprouting off from the ‘brick’ bubble, then specific instructions sprouting off from each of those. Confused?

I have found that this type of organisation has revolutionarised both my professional life and personal life. Similar to the internet and email, I don’t know how I ever coped without it.

Having found some 'mojo' this week, I was able to put in a little more training than usual, but as it is nearing the end of the season, I have not been at full-steam. This week’s training looked like this:-

Monday – swim - club swim - intervals

Tuesday – no training
Wednesday – no training
Thursday – run - 45 minute tempo run

Friday – run with my mate Alex - long(ish), hilly Ashridge run, 63 minutes - 3rd fastest ever time

Saturday – no training

Sunday – bike - 10 mile time-trial, time 25:23 - 2nd fastest ever time - very pleasing final TT of the year

Next week’s exercise mind-map simply looks like this:-

You might notice that the only entry is my final race of the season on Sunday - the Bedford Autumn Sprint. I have competed in this race for a few years now and Sunday's race will be a true test of how my training has progressed throughout this season. Last year I came 49th out of 260 with a time of 1:15:47. I already have it mapped out in my mind how I am going to approach this race - something which, for once, I don't need a spider's web to help me with.

Cheers.

C

Desperately Seeking Mojo, Baby!

One of my pet hates (and I know this is going to sound ridiculous) is when people end their sentences at a higher pitch. You know what I mean – making a statement but making it sound like a question. Read this sentence out loud:

“I’m going to the shops?”

Or, how about:

“I’m feeling very happy today?”

Annoying, isn’t it? No? Well I think it is.

I have heard that we have our Australian cousins, in particular their daily soaps (Neighbours, Home and Away, etc.) to thank for this particular type of talking. It is predominantly spoken by teenagers and 20-somethings, but more recently I have even heard it spoken by people in their 30's and 40's. Arghhh! They should be bound and gagged, simple as.

There has been a definite proliferation of peculiarities like this filtering into society over recent years. Another is ‘text language’. Now, I think texting is a great way of communicating if you have something you need to say quickly and be done with it – something like ‘on my way home, put the kettle on’ or ‘go upstairs and wait for me there’ :-). What annoys the hell out of me, though, is the terrible abbreviations in 'text speak’ which make the whole thing incomprehensible, i.e. "gtg, spk l8r", translated as “got to go, speak later”. Texts are great, but, please, please don’t let the grammar and spelling slip. There’s no need for that.

A particular word which has sneaked into the English language recently, and one which I am hearing on a daily basis, is ‘mojo’. This is a definition of the term ‘mojo’ from Wikipedia:-

'Mojo (pronounced /ˈmoʊdʒoʊ/) is a term commonly encountered in the African-American folk belief called hoodoo. A mojo is a type of magic charm, often of red flannel cloth and tied with a drawstring, containing botanical, zoological, and/or mineral curios, petition papers, and the like. It is typically worn under clothing.'

In popular British culture, the term 'mojo' is used to express one’s level of happiness, and I think it has become popular since being used by Austin Powers. How it has gone from being a magic charm to an indicator of happiness I’ll never know, but that’s not important in the context of this week's blog.

The point of all this is to say that I have lost my mojo (which I think you could have guessed by the 'angry' tone of the opening paragraphs!). Well and truly. It does happen occasionally, usually when I am overworked, under-exercised, under-fed and under-slept, but strangely I think that it is now because I am actually over-raced and feeling a little burnt out from the constant weekly racing. You see, weekends, in the context of triathlon, should be spent training, with the odd race interspersed here and there, but instead I am racing every weekend and hardly training at all. My sleep is being affected, as is my nutrition strategy. My work is very busy at the moment too which I think is also contributing to my current loss of mojo.

So, here I am, not training and with little enthusiasm, frankly, to do anything. Look at this paltry display of training over the past week:-

Monday – no training

Tuesday – no training

Wednesday – no training

Thursday – bike - 10 mile time-trial, time 25:59 - three seconds quicker than last time (four weeks ago)

Friday – no training

Saturday – monster brick session - bike - hard interval session, 1 hour 40 minutes - run – easy at 177 strides per minute, incorporating hops, strides and sprints, 45 minutes

Sunday – no training

I think I just need to give myself a good kick up the backside and get back to work, both socially and professionally. I plan to take the brakes off after the Bedford Sprint on 5th October for a month in order to recuperate, but until then I need to find my mojo again. I know it's there, ready and waiting - its just finding it which is the issue.

Big-up this week to Jim from the tri club for a fantastic performance at the challenging New Forest Middle Distance, placing 27th out of 326 finishers!

Cheers and next week I will be more cheerful. That's a promise, Baby!

Colin

Inspirations and Innervisions

Highlight of the week is without doubt last Monday’s Stevie Wonder concert – his first UK live appearance in over 10 years and I woz there!

From the opening number – 'All Blues' (a Miles Davis cover) – to the close with the fabulous 'Superstition', we were mesmerized by the man’s talent and showmanship. It was easy to forget that he is blind, such are the wonder (no pun intended) of his songs and musicianship.

Stevie Wonder was blinded from complications at birth and so has no concept of what the world looks like, other, I suppose, than what he can make of it from his other senses and in his imagination. Despite this, or maybe because of this, he developed an amazing talent for song-writing and performing at a very early age. His breakthrough came at the age of 12 when he had a major hit with ‘Fingertips’ (with a young Marvin Gaye on drums). Such an inspiration to us all.

How can one not also be inspired by our fantastic paralympians? We thought that our able-bodied team did well (and they did), but what about their less-abled counterparts? The medal board currently shows that we are in second place – behind China but, more significantly, ahead of the Yanks, with 40 golds, 22 silvers and 25 bronzes. Wow!

There has been a noticeable increase in disabled triathletes at races at which I have participated recently. At last week’s miserable Vitruvian (see previous blog post) there were athletes who were cycling on their specially adapted wheelchairs (blinged up with Zipps!). A couple of weeks prior to this at the Bedford Olympic they were there too. And the same goes for this week’s race – the Dorney Orca Olympic distance at Dorney Lake, the same venue as the very popular Eton Super-Sprints.

All this has been very humbling. I am honoured and priviledged to be racing with these phenominally gifted and determined athletes and to line up with them on the start line provides fantastic inspiration as the season nears its end.

So, to this week’s training and racing – training was put to the back burner in order to recover from the Vit and also to taper for the Orca Olympic, but here is what I did (don’t laugh!):-

Monday – recovery day
Tuesday – recovery day
Wednesday – recovery day/tapering
Thursday – run – Ashridge XC with Alex – 5’ish miles – as fast as possible at 177 strides per minute
Friday – tapering
Saturday – tapering
Sunday – race – a very enjoyable Dorney Orca Olympic (1500m open water swim, 40km bike, 10km run) – 2:31:04 (just missing out on my second sub-2:30 of the year!) - see photos below (copyright the lovely Anne-Marie – thanks A-M, the best supporter
in the world!)





A big well done to Jev who, returning from a post Ironman Austria period of easy training and racing, posted a fantastic 1:10 in the Dorney Orca Sprint distance. Results not up yet so don't know his placing, but you can bet it'll be up there with the big boys.

This coming week I need to get back into the swing of things. The last two weeks have been a bit of a washout because of the Vit – the first week tapering, the second recovering – and so I will be increasing the intensity for my next (and final) race of the season – the Bedford Autumn Sprint on 5 October.

Another inspirational song by Mr Wonder last Monday was ‘Visions’ from the 1973 Grammy award winning album ‘Innervisions’ (a must-have for any self-respecting music fan). A beautiful song which brought the house down - all about the hope that a world of peace might one day exist. For me, my current vision is less dramatic (and a lot more selfish), and is my hope that I can emulate those fantastic less-abled athletes with a similar display of determination when I compete in those much-anticipated World Championship qualifying races next year.

Cheers, and bye for now.

C