Happy New Year

So it's been a while since I posted anything training related, but that's mostly because it's all been a bit quiet. That was until Christmas Day at least when it all kicked off. Training has come back with a bang since then. 8 training days have passed and I've got in 6 runs (3 of them in double figures) and a couple of bike rides. If only it wasn't so damned cold here it would be like proper training. None of this 10% increase rubbish, I just go from lazy git to training machine in one swoop.

Father Christmas was (as always) good to me with plenty of Tri related goodies. Once again I need to thank Mom and Dad for their rediculous offer to pay our flights out to IM Florida. One day I'll get them out there with me, actually that's a lie, getting my Mother on a plane would make the A-Team getting Mr T on a plane seem a walk in the park. Shell also excelled herself by spending far too much on Tri related goodies, 2XU should give her an account.

So it's time now for a year review. I'm not going to talk races because there was only one real target and we all know I screwed that up. There were a few low key wins, some pb's and some decent podium places. I've got a little Excel file that compares my training over the last 4 years and so it's only fair I compare with my last IM season in 2005 at the 2 years inbetween were a lot more low key.

Swim - The swim is neither here nor there really. I'm fast enough to be good without ever tearing the pool up but the ammout of training I'd need to do to get significantly faster is far more than I can justify. On average I train once a week, occasionally I'll miss a week but these hours will be made up by race day swims. I did 55hrs overall which is about average and the fact that I know I can swim a comfortable sub 60min IM swim (55mins in Florida this year) while just ticking over is a great bonus that many people don't have.

Bike - Here I struggled. It's my weakest event and somewhat consequently my least favourite. Also this years Summer was damn awful which put me off a great many of my planned bike rides. That being said I was suprised to see that I was a massive 40hrs (20%) down on my 2005 total, only putting in 167hrs compared to 208hrs in 2005. This may go some way to explaining why my Florida bike ride was the slowest of my 3 attempts despite a pretty new Tri specific bike and aero helmet which in theory should have seem me closing in on the 5hr barrier rather than 5h20m (5h08m was my previous best there).

Run - Just as much a suprise as the bike time was the run training time which was the exact opposite at 173hrs compared to 138hrs in 2005. This means that I actually spent longer running than cycling which is an obvious screw up but easily done when it's so much easier to pull on a pair of trainers than to mess about getting bike ready (especially in the rain). Although this gave me a high when I effectively jogged around Wolves Marathon in 3h08m it all comes to nothing if I still end up putting in 4h33m at my main event. For 2009 the bike/run comparison needs to be much closer to the 2005 percentage split.

Gym - This was the difference maker in my yearly hours as I've never done gym work before. I crammed 33hrs into the first 3.5months of last year which was 33hrs more than 2005, or any other year come to think of it. The result?........ Hmmmmm. Well I was swimming my head off in March/April, no quicker, but with so much more power and stamina that I was bustig 800m+ pb's any time I wanted. Was I any quicker on the bike/run? I've no idea, although I've had far less back problems that previous years, that could be down to the gym core work or it could be down to my lack of cycling I'm not sure. I'm pondering the idea of making once a week appearances again this year, but the accusations that I've suddenly developed 'moobs' in the last 12 months could also be attributed to my slacking off gym work once the weather (sort of) improved, so maybe I'd be best to stay away.

Onto 2009 then.

Today I started the year in a similar way to the end of 2008, with a 12mile run! This morning I ran to Woolacombe Beach (8.5miles) where I met up with my Tri Club for our annual Dash and Splash. You can read about it here
so I won't bore you with the details.

I really need to sit down at some point and work out what events I'm doing this year. I'm a bit of an old skool Triathlete and still believe I can enter races on the day or the week before, this simply doesn't happen any more and if I don't pul my finger out then all the small local races that I like to do every year will be full. Damn!!

Anyway, that'll do for now. If you haven't fallen asleep yet then you can't be far off it.

Happy New Year everyone. Here's hoping you all have a great 2009 and if we ever meet at an event then I'll love to see you finish just one place behind me :-)

Until next time.

To anybody daft enough to read this muck....

NDTC

Party Time & Bfitday Tri.

Saturday night was the NDTC Christmas Party and presentation night. In my role as club geek I've written a blog post for them here.

Monday 15th was my 39th birthday, hard to believe I know ;-) so on Sunday I made it my aim to complete a bfitbday triathlon. The tale of torture is below, sorry there are no pretty pics.

The day started at 6:30am with a restless dog throwing her toys around the house to wake me up after just 3.5hrs sleep. After a cuppa and some breakfast I made my way down to the pool for 9am when those club members who hadn’t consumed too much alcohol at the previous nights party (not many) were there for a squad swim session. My original plan was to park myself in a lane by the side of them and bang out 5k but I wasn’t really feeling ‘with it’ so thought I’d swim their session with them and tack whatever was needed onto the end. I’d already missed some of the warm up so I just slipped into the water and joined in. 1500m later the group started their warm down so I swopped lanes and continued the swim alone. I only managed another 1000m and I’d had enough, this was a real bad sign because I love my swimming and if I’m getting fed up in the water then the bike and run stand little hope. I decided that enough was enough, got out of the pool and headed to the changing rooms then just as I was about to hit the shower the club coach appeared in his swim gear. He said he was going to join me for a quick 40 lengths. My arm had been twisted and I decided to give it another go. I hit the pool again and literally swam drafting the coach while he swam 1000m in 16mins. With that out of the way the majority of the swim was covered and I decided to push on completing the next 1500m in 22:30. The 5k swim was finally over 1h45m after first getting in the water.

I drove home and thought about the rest of the day. Feeling a little better I dragged my bike out of the shed for the 2nd time in 2 days and the 2nd time since IM Florida on 1st November. I’d got a route lined up which I’ve done hundreds of times before without any problem. I knew I didn’t need fuel as I never do, but I mixed a bottle of Nuun because I was probably de-hydrated after partying and swimming. Out on the bike there was no rush, 5miles, 10miles, 20miles went by without any problem but then disaster struck. At 30miles my body felt as though it was draining of all energy, this couldn’t be right. I could stop off at a shop for supplies but being only 10miles from home it wasn’t really worth it. That 10miles was a long long way, damn I was struggling. Finally I made it home after 2h10m at 18mph. I walked through the door grabbed an energy bar made myself a jacket spud and crashed out on the bed for an hour totally spent.

The afternoon ticked on, darkness came and I started having real doubts about my ability to run 9miles on this day. Finally I got my act together and changed into my running gear. I’d got to pop something to a friends house in the village so I decided that I could run there and then zigzag around the local streets building my way towards my 9mile target, so off I went. It wasn’t pretty and there were plenty of times when I just wanted to stop and walk, but finally....... after 1h07m...... I staggered back into the house Florida it seemed impossible to think I’d struggle so much and mentally it was every bit as tough to complete as the Ironman.

Now I’m happy though. At least it means I haven’t got to go out and do it this coming weekend because I’d failed................ phew.

Relaxing

So you've spent the best part of a week (or maybe more) running around organizing and helping out at Ironman Florida. All that's left to do is the presentation night and party. What could you possibly find to do that would kill 20mins.

Click here to see Triathlon legends and race crew pushing each other to the limit on the white beaches of PCB.

If only Moonpie and the Bigun new this was happening, they'd have been kicking some butt :-)

Kristmas Kaper

Well I'm not training, but that doesn't stop me racing now does it.

Did I say racing? Well, you know what I mean.
This weekend was our Tri Clubs Christmas Swim/Run event organised by t'other half Shelly. After spending most of Saturday listening to her swearing as she cooked hundreds of mince pies for the competitors and wondered around making sure everything was ship shape it was a relief to actually reach Sunday.
The race had a rolling start (Time Trial syleee) and my roll was to stand poolside and make sure everybody set off when they were supposed to, then all I had to do was jump in the water, swim 600m, put on my race kit and go for a run around the local park. As it's a super serious race and there's a lot of pride at stake I had to remember to leave some for the sprint finish (below).
There's not a lot to say about the race really, the pic says it all....... Oh yeah, I came 4th and didn't even get the best fancy dress prize, but with Shell in charge that was never going to happen even if my costume had been the originally planned mankini which really would have seen me arrested.

Results are here.

Race day pictures are here.

and the days race report is here.

Browse and enjoy :-)

It's the end of 'Mo'vember

There hasn't been a lot going on in the life of Iain this month. Training has been almost none existant and it's now hard to believe that tomorrow will be a full month since IM Florida.
This weekend we travelled up country to see the folks and meet up for our pre-christmas meal with aunts, uncles, cousins etc etc.
I took advantage of the time up there to take the pup out for an off road run at one of my favourite haunts. Jeez it hurt.
I used to rule this place, hitting all the hills real hard and smacking anybody who dared to come training there with me. Training in Devon has made me soft though. Although the general area is much hillier the local runs are pancake flat, especially the ones I can do and let the dog run free. Sure I can still run, but show me a hill and I'm in trouble. I used to run over there for 90mins and finish by sprinting up 'Jacobs Ladder', it was the sting in the tail that any training partners used to hate and I used to love. Yesterday I hit 'Jacobs Ladder' twice and on the first attempt I had to stop and walk halfway through - disgraceful!
Anyway, back to the meal. It's a fairly big old gathering and as it's been going on for a fair few years the relatives have witnessed many a Florida haircut, so me turning up with a multi coloured barnet isn't a strange sight, but how's about me turning up with a good old Mo?
I'm a lazy toerag and quite often find myself walking around with far too much facial hair which I then get the shears on and dispose of all in one hit, the thaught of leaving some has never appeared, but it is Movember after all, so here it is. For one time only. Iain with a Mo (and a stupid face of course).

Hmmmmm, turns out that for some odd reason Shell quite likes it and now wants me to keep it for next weeks big Aquathlon, where my out of shape backside is no doubt going to get well and truly kicked by some kids. We'll see ;)