Since about 2006, when I found out the World Champs were going to be held on the Gold Coast, Australia in 2009 I planned on being there.
With Ironman being my main priority over the past 2 season, this year was all about getting faster over the Olympic distance to get out to Oz. Winter training was all going really well and I was supper positive about my chances of getting in the team. However a cold over Easter and a dip in performance at the first qualifying race back in May at the Little Beaver tri start to make me think that I may miss out.
Sunday Past was D-Day, Strathclyde park Olympic distance and the final qualifier for the worlds, it was do or die time. With the previous weekends race at the Scottish sprint champs not going great I was left doubting my performance and hoping it was down to fatigue after a hard block of training.
The week running up to Strathclyde start great with a really tough swim with the club where I was flying, excellent great start to the week. However my next 2 session on the bike and back in the pool blow all that confidence as I was feeling tired and had no power on the bike or in the pool. It was a taper week anyway so the rest off the week consisted of rest days and short aerobic sessions to help keep my legs moving. However rest just didn't feel it was enough so I headed to the Fitnessbox to get a pair of compression shorts just to help with any recovery that my legs were needing. I also started taking ice baths, one a day helps keep the doctor away, or is that apples? I always forget. Anyway I the combination of the rest, compression shorts and ice baths worked and by Saturday my legs were starting to feel fresh and rearing to go.
Race day morning as as so often is the case when I race as Strathclyde it was cold and wet, which I was actually thinking could be in my favour as the English guy's may find the water a little to cold for their liking, I couldn't see it being colder than the Firth of Forth at the start of May so I felt I'd be ok. And I was the right, the water temperature was really pleasant, a nice temperature for racing.
The swim was a deep water start with 2 rectangular laps. As seems to be my track record with Starthclyde swim starts I got off to a shocker. As soon as the hooter went and I put my face in the water to get going I got clocked right in the face by the swimmer in fronts feet. My goggles didn't come off, but I couldn't see anything as both sides had filled with water and been suctioned on to my face. The next 50-100meters was head up survival swimming until I could get my goggles fixed. Finally managing to get my left eye sorted so I could see I managed to get into my rhythm and just not bother about seeing out of the right hand side. Apart from that nightmare start I actually had a really good swim, maybe it was the adrenaline maybe it was just the swim training, but I managed to get going and pass a lot of the guy's who got away from me a the start and exit the water in 20:08, I'm pleased with that.
On to the bike which is always me weakest discipline, so I knew I had to give it everything and not let up for a second. The multi lap course at Strathclyde really helps me as there are always people up the road for you to pick off, even if their not in your heat or that your might actually about to lapping them. Like the at the British Champs David Moffat was racing, so yet again I was using not being caught by him of the bike as motivation to keep going. And like the British it worked as he didn't catch me until the start of the final lap, as he said when he went past "either he's getting slower or I'm getting quicker" I'd like to think it's the later. I came off the bike having passed more people than passed me, I think, it does get confusing on that course with who's where on the course.
Coming out of T2 another E athlete came past me right away so I just jumped right onto his feet and used him as pacing for the first Km. after the first km we were starting to pull David back so I moved to the front to close the gap even further. At the first turn point I noticed I had distanced myself to the competitor I left transition with by about 10-15meters, so knew that if I could just keep this pace up I should be able to stay away from him. For the rest of run David managed to keep about a 15meter gap on me , I just didn't seem to be able to close the gap and it wasn't until the final turn at 7.5k that David managed to get away from me and I really had to dig deep to keep off the guy's behind me and pass a few more guy's on the way back to the finish. When the finish finally came into view it was a welcome sight as my legs were really starting to hurt, I had given it everything I had, now I had to wait to find out if it was enough.
In true Hollywood dramatic style the organisers announced that there had been some problems with the timing system so the results would not be out as early as they had previously thought, more waiting. Finally on Wednesday afternoon the British team manager had made it through the E's on the results had had posted the qualifiers, YES!! success Graham Leitch (Fusion tri) and myself had taken the first 2 of 4 slots in the E category. Gold coast here we come.
Even better news , I also found out that I was successful in my application to the GB long distance squad for the World Champs in Perth, Australia on 25th October. 10 weeks in Oz, I can't wait, I just need to get my flights and accommodation booked as I plan to leave in under 5weeks, AH!!
Finally I have to say a big thanks to Sooz, her Mum and Linda who all came out to support on Sunday and shouted at me endlessly throughout the race, I even heard Linda shouting at me on the run from across the Loch, thats some serious shouting, she's normally so quite as well :-)
Well I better get booking and training as their is still work to be done before Oz.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Racing, it's a funny old game!
Sunday past was the Scottish sprint tri champs at Lochore Meadows. going into the race I was in 2 minds as to how I felt the race was going to go, part of me couldn't wait for the race, after the past 3weeks of hard training I know I was swimming, biking and running really well so was eager to see it all come together in a race. However as much as psychologically I felt good, physiologically my legs were telling me, Not yet!
Race day morning I felt really excited about the race, it was a bit cold and windy, but I felt good. For the swim I had in my mind where I would like to come out the water, in a good competitive position. I knew I would not be able to stay on the feet of Craig Dale or Rory Downie, these guy's are just to quick in the water for me. The aim was to come out in the next group not too far behind them so I had a fighting chance on biking and running them down. Cause of the beach start to the race the swim spread out really quickly and there was no aqua boxing at the start which was good. I got in to the my rhythm really quick in the swim and had a comfortable swim all the way round, exiting the water right where I wanted to be in the second pack, leaving T1 with Andy Turnbull, Graham Leitch and Dan Sims, 2mins down on the lead swimmers a slightly bigger gap than had hoped.
From the bike off Andy and Graham got away from me, I just couldn't seem to get my legs going and generate power to keep them in sight, which was disappointing as I felt my biking was getting stronger. I just had to put my head down an pick off the riders from the previous wave who were out the on the course. I have to say it was great to have them out there to keep picking off, especially going along past Loch Leven as the head wind along there was so strong, if you had been going along there on your own you would have felt like you were going backwards. Thankfully when you got to the end of the Loch Leven road and turned left the wind was behind me and I was able to getting going a bit better. This was also helped by Bud Johnson and Dan Sims and us battling each other all the way back to the loch.
Off the bike and on to the run and it was the same tactics as on the bike, just pick off anyone I saw in front of me and try and real in the guys in front of me. I was running well but not great and with not felling at full power on the bike I'd left myself too much to run down and wasn't able to pull back any places on the run, finishing 7th overall (6th male senior, Sanderson I'll get you at Strathclyde).
Reflecting on the race, and trying to figure out why it all didn't go to plan, I think I was just a little over optimistic on my bodies recovery capabilities after the past 3weeks training. The culmination of my 3week build was my first 5000m track race (16:12, very happy), which I thought, it's hard but short so I can recover pretty quick from that, ready to go for Lochore. In reality, I wasn't just recovering from the 5000m I was also recovering from some very big and hard bike, run and bike-run sessions so my body was needing more time to recover than I initially thought.
Overall not completely disappointed with the race, I had a good swim and at the end of the day the race was always there as a stepping stone for Strathclyde park next weekend which is the final World Championships qualifying race, probably the biggest race of the season so far.
So for this week tapering and watching the tour, go on Wiggins!
Race day morning I felt really excited about the race, it was a bit cold and windy, but I felt good. For the swim I had in my mind where I would like to come out the water, in a good competitive position. I knew I would not be able to stay on the feet of Craig Dale or Rory Downie, these guy's are just to quick in the water for me. The aim was to come out in the next group not too far behind them so I had a fighting chance on biking and running them down. Cause of the beach start to the race the swim spread out really quickly and there was no aqua boxing at the start which was good. I got in to the my rhythm really quick in the swim and had a comfortable swim all the way round, exiting the water right where I wanted to be in the second pack, leaving T1 with Andy Turnbull, Graham Leitch and Dan Sims, 2mins down on the lead swimmers a slightly bigger gap than had hoped.
From the bike off Andy and Graham got away from me, I just couldn't seem to get my legs going and generate power to keep them in sight, which was disappointing as I felt my biking was getting stronger. I just had to put my head down an pick off the riders from the previous wave who were out the on the course. I have to say it was great to have them out there to keep picking off, especially going along past Loch Leven as the head wind along there was so strong, if you had been going along there on your own you would have felt like you were going backwards. Thankfully when you got to the end of the Loch Leven road and turned left the wind was behind me and I was able to getting going a bit better. This was also helped by Bud Johnson and Dan Sims and us battling each other all the way back to the loch.
Off the bike and on to the run and it was the same tactics as on the bike, just pick off anyone I saw in front of me and try and real in the guys in front of me. I was running well but not great and with not felling at full power on the bike I'd left myself too much to run down and wasn't able to pull back any places on the run, finishing 7th overall (6th male senior, Sanderson I'll get you at Strathclyde).Reflecting on the race, and trying to figure out why it all didn't go to plan, I think I was just a little over optimistic on my bodies recovery capabilities after the past 3weeks training. The culmination of my 3week build was my first 5000m track race (16:12, very happy), which I thought, it's hard but short so I can recover pretty quick from that, ready to go for Lochore. In reality, I wasn't just recovering from the 5000m I was also recovering from some very big and hard bike, run and bike-run sessions so my body was needing more time to recover than I initially thought.
Overall not completely disappointed with the race, I had a good swim and at the end of the day the race was always there as a stepping stone for Strathclyde park next weekend which is the final World Championships qualifying race, probably the biggest race of the season so far.
So for this week tapering and watching the tour, go on Wiggins!
Monday, 6 July 2009
It's good to be training
As much as I love racing, it's why I compete, it's been nice to have the last 2 week free to train and what a two weeks it's been.
This season I've been training with a powertap on my bike, so all my sessions are controlled by specific power zones which has made session far more productive. Another great benefit of the powertap is that you get great feedback on how your improving. Over the last 2 weeks my average aerobic, tempo and threshold powers have all seen big increases (20-30W) from the start of summer. I'm really looking forward to my next TH power test in 2weeks where my new power zones will be calculated as I'm working at the top end of these zones.
On Thursday at work we were getting trained on the new CPX (Cardiopulmonary Exchange) machines we had bought and we need to run a VO2 max test on them to get a feel for how they worked. So I took the opportunity to get a performance test done as it would be good to see where my running was at this point in the season plus I hadn't done one in a while, and in some strange way I do enjoy the pain of them, strange I know. The test that we did was 3mins at 10kph, 3 at 13kph, 3 at 16kph then keeping the speed at 16kph begin to increase the gradient 2.5% every minute. The last time I did this test I scored 65ml/kg/min after complete the 10%stage. I was aiming to try and get further than that. The test as it always does felt easy at the start, however this time it was still feeling comfortable during the 5 and start of the 7.5% stages which was a new experience and a very promising one. As treadmill gradually climbs up to 10% you really start to feel the legs burn but I was adamant that I was getting through this stage and with the help of the rest of the guy's in the lab, Les, Rus, Sooz all shouting at me I got through 10% and the treadmill went up to 12.5%. And I thought 10% was steep and sore, it had nothing on 12.5%. the next 30secs seem to go on and on as I was moving up and down the treadmill fighting against gravity trying to pull me off the back, try and finish 12.5%, another push to the top of the treadmill, but this time no amount of shouting from the guy's was going to do anything for me. Done, the big red bottom was hit and I hit the floor. Happy to hear the test was a success, the new kit works and I had ran further than I had ever done before and recorded and VO2max of 66.5, a good day's work.
I have Fridays off work so after my early morning swim session I headed out on the bike for a 5hr ride into the Scottish borders. The plan was to head down to Broughton and finally get up and over Tala. I've always heard it was a big climb but have never made it down there. The ride down was nice not too warm thankfully, as the day before the temperature had been in the 30's, with a slight head wind which helped to keep me cool. When reaching the bottom of the climb I finally found out how steep the Tala was, 20% according to the sign at the bottom, surely it can't go on for too long, or can it. I ride with a 25 on the back and I was out the saddle all the way pulling on the bars trying to keep the bike moving. I wasn't moving very fast but I was generating a lot of power, 400W+ at times. Finally made it over the top and what a lovely long fast descent down to St Mary's Loch and a tail wind all the way to Moffat and the next big climb, the beeftub. The beeftub is a far nicer climb as it's just long with a far nicer gradient where you can get into your rhythm and stay seated all the way to the top. Again it's another climb I hadn't done before, I'd only ever come down it on my big Ironman preparation rides last year, so I was really looking forward to getting to climb up it.
It's a great climb and I managed to hold my target power zone from bottom to top, I was starting to fatigue a bit nearing the top as I had now been in the saddle for over 3:30hrs keeping to the high end of my aerobic power zone. Starting the descent back to Broughton the rain came on and didn't stop all the way home, which I'd have to say was really pleasant to cycle in as it wasn't cold. Thankfully I had left the car at leadburn to reduce the ride by 1:30hrs at least as I was starting to feel my legs coming into the final few miles. That was my longest ride since my Ironman training last year and 1hr quicker than what I was doing for my 140K rides last year, largely thanks to the pacing of the powertap and the slightly better weather conditions.
A great ride and happy to say I've finally been over Tala and the beeftub.
On to Saturday and the Edinburgh Triathletes 5k running TT. On starting the warm up I felt my legs were really tired from the previous days ride so I wasn't sure what I was going to be capable of so just went for it and just wait and see how long I could last. Myself and Dan Sims were set of first on the out and back course. I went straight to the front to set a high pace from the start which is often my tactics in in running races. I was surprised as at the start my legs felt good and breathing felt relaxed and it sounded like the elastic between myself and Dan was beginning to stretch. On one of the short downhill stretches I increased the cadence to try and create the gap, and it worked I managed to pull away from Dan and at the turn around (7:23mins) I had a 10meter gap. Now it was all about getting home without loosing too much time as it was now up hill and into a head wind. With my trademark sprint finish over the last 200m I came home in 15:34 and new PB by a long way, absolutely delighted particularly with the 140K in my legs from the previous day, woohoo!! Dan was not too far behind, not sure of time but probably under 16mins aswell, good running mate.
After the end of a solid 2weeks of training it was off to visit some friends down south for the rest of the weekend before getting stuck back into another hard week of quality training in preparation for the Scottish Sprint Champs at Lochore Meadows on 19th July where hopefully all this good swim, bike and run training will come together.
This season I've been training with a powertap on my bike, so all my sessions are controlled by specific power zones which has made session far more productive. Another great benefit of the powertap is that you get great feedback on how your improving. Over the last 2 weeks my average aerobic, tempo and threshold powers have all seen big increases (20-30W) from the start of summer. I'm really looking forward to my next TH power test in 2weeks where my new power zones will be calculated as I'm working at the top end of these zones.
On Thursday at work we were getting trained on the new CPX (Cardiopulmonary Exchange) machines we had bought and we need to run a VO2 max test on them to get a feel for how they worked. So I took the opportunity to get a performance test done as it would be good to see where my running was at this point in the season plus I hadn't done one in a while, and in some strange way I do enjoy the pain of them, strange I know. The test that we did was 3mins at 10kph, 3 at 13kph, 3 at 16kph then keeping the speed at 16kph begin to increase the gradient 2.5% every minute. The last time I did this test I scored 65ml/kg/min after complete the 10%stage. I was aiming to try and get further than that. The test as it always does felt easy at the start, however this time it was still feeling comfortable during the 5 and start of the 7.5% stages which was a new experience and a very promising one. As treadmill gradually climbs up to 10% you really start to feel the legs burn but I was adamant that I was getting through this stage and with the help of the rest of the guy's in the lab, Les, Rus, Sooz all shouting at me I got through 10% and the treadmill went up to 12.5%. And I thought 10% was steep and sore, it had nothing on 12.5%. the next 30secs seem to go on and on as I was moving up and down the treadmill fighting against gravity trying to pull me off the back, try and finish 12.5%, another push to the top of the treadmill, but this time no amount of shouting from the guy's was going to do anything for me. Done, the big red bottom was hit and I hit the floor. Happy to hear the test was a success, the new kit works and I had ran further than I had ever done before and recorded and VO2max of 66.5, a good day's work.
I have Fridays off work so after my early morning swim session I headed out on the bike for a 5hr ride into the Scottish borders. The plan was to head down to Broughton and finally get up and over Tala. I've always heard it was a big climb but have never made it down there. The ride down was nice not too warm thankfully, as the day before the temperature had been in the 30's, with a slight head wind which helped to keep me cool. When reaching the bottom of the climb I finally found out how steep the Tala was, 20% according to the sign at the bottom, surely it can't go on for too long, or can it. I ride with a 25 on the back and I was out the saddle all the way pulling on the bars trying to keep the bike moving. I wasn't moving very fast but I was generating a lot of power, 400W+ at times. Finally made it over the top and what a lovely long fast descent down to St Mary's Loch and a tail wind all the way to Moffat and the next big climb, the beeftub. The beeftub is a far nicer climb as it's just long with a far nicer gradient where you can get into your rhythm and stay seated all the way to the top. Again it's another climb I hadn't done before, I'd only ever come down it on my big Ironman preparation rides last year, so I was really looking forward to getting to climb up it.
It's a great climb and I managed to hold my target power zone from bottom to top, I was starting to fatigue a bit nearing the top as I had now been in the saddle for over 3:30hrs keeping to the high end of my aerobic power zone. Starting the descent back to Broughton the rain came on and didn't stop all the way home, which I'd have to say was really pleasant to cycle in as it wasn't cold. Thankfully I had left the car at leadburn to reduce the ride by 1:30hrs at least as I was starting to feel my legs coming into the final few miles. That was my longest ride since my Ironman training last year and 1hr quicker than what I was doing for my 140K rides last year, largely thanks to the pacing of the powertap and the slightly better weather conditions.
A great ride and happy to say I've finally been over Tala and the beeftub.
On to Saturday and the Edinburgh Triathletes 5k running TT. On starting the warm up I felt my legs were really tired from the previous days ride so I wasn't sure what I was going to be capable of so just went for it and just wait and see how long I could last. Myself and Dan Sims were set of first on the out and back course. I went straight to the front to set a high pace from the start which is often my tactics in in running races. I was surprised as at the start my legs felt good and breathing felt relaxed and it sounded like the elastic between myself and Dan was beginning to stretch. On one of the short downhill stretches I increased the cadence to try and create the gap, and it worked I managed to pull away from Dan and at the turn around (7:23mins) I had a 10meter gap. Now it was all about getting home without loosing too much time as it was now up hill and into a head wind. With my trademark sprint finish over the last 200m I came home in 15:34 and new PB by a long way, absolutely delighted particularly with the 140K in my legs from the previous day, woohoo!! Dan was not too far behind, not sure of time but probably under 16mins aswell, good running mate.
After the end of a solid 2weeks of training it was off to visit some friends down south for the rest of the weekend before getting stuck back into another hard week of quality training in preparation for the Scottish Sprint Champs at Lochore Meadows on 19th July where hopefully all this good swim, bike and run training will come together.
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