I'm happy to say that the improvements in bike power in training have indeed translated to improved racing.
It was the Gullane Beach triathlon yesterday and I was hoping for a good race with a podium place in mind.
Race conditions were excellent for Gullanes standards (last year the swim was cut to 750m due to the swell) the swim was nothing to taxing, with the tide being more favourable throughout the 2lap 1.5k swim. I didn't managed to get into a group for the swim so ended up a few 20 or seconds down on where I would have hoped to be, but in sight of the other podium contenders, well except from Craig, he was setting a blistering pace right from the off.
Exiting the water in 7th I was happy as I still had people in sight to chase down on the bike and contrary to earlier in the year I was feeling positive about my biking.
The bike course from what I remember from the last time I raced it (2003, I can't believe it was that long ago) was tough due to the wind and climbs. Whether it was that I am stronger, of that I've ridden the race roads in training more, but the course didn't seem that hard. In fact it seemed to fly by faster than normal 40k (and Gullane is 42K) courses. After moving throw the feel into 5th Stuart Macleod came charging past, who I knew was a strong biker so I made sure to keep him in sight. Coming into T2 Stuart was still in sight and I was now in 4th place, time to put my running legs to work.
I knew that Craig was going to be way out in front as he is a really strong biker, so catching him was going to take something special. But catching Stuart in 3rd and Andy Turnbull in 2nd was definitely doable, Andy being a strong biker, but not too strong a runner. The run like the previous 2 disciplines is not an easy straight forward one. A 2 lap course which take you up and over one of the Gullane golf courses, with a handful of short but leg draining climbs, is not a fast run. Would this play into my favour.
After weaving my way through the houses at the start of the run I hit the first climb up to the golf course and to my surprise as I turn onto the climb I could see Andy and Stuart 50m ahead off me, excellent I wouldn't normally expect to see Andy until about the half way point of the run, I must of had a really good bike. Passing Andy on the descent he shouted I had about a 30sec gap to Stuart. The course now flattens out now for the 2nd half of the lap which is an out and back so I had Stuart in my sights and was reeling him in. With Gullane being a local race there were lots of club support on the run and everyone was giving great support as I went past transition.
I new Stuart was a strong runner, but I also knew that he was training for Ironman distance racing this year so he mind not have the speed on the flat, so when I came up behind him I move straight past him with a small increase in pace, nothing to explosive cause to be honest I was hurt myself and didn't want to die on the second lot of climbs. Passing transition Penny shouted that I had about 20ms gap so I knew I was at least pull away from Stuart I just had to hang on over the climbs, as his long distance strength might be advantages over the tough sections.
Descending off the climbs and passing back through transition for the last 2.5k Penny shouted that Stuart was out of sight, brilliant all I need to do is keep this pace for the out and back and 2nd place would be mine. I was tying up a little on the return leg into a strong head wind, but held on to 2nd place by 20seconds. Very pleased with the outcome, not running at my best, but thought that might be the case with all the biking had been doing, still 4th fastest run so not that bad.
Well Done to Edinburgh Triathletes for organising a great race. Also congratulations to Graig Dale on a truly exceptional race leading from the off and racing strong all the way to the line, great effort.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Staycation
After an early start to the season with the Stirling Duathlon in March and a crazy spell of 8races in 7weeks over May and June I was glad to have 4weeks with no races. To top off this racing break I also had 3weeks off work where I could get some good training in and hopefully enjoy a good Scottish summer :-)
Getting the training in was always going to be a definite but the good Scottish summer was always going to be a bit of a lottery, but for once I actually won the lottery. What a glorious three 3weeks I have had, I actually got a bit of a tan. Who needs to go abroad when you get weather like this. When I was leaving Oz last year the guy's were saying "do you not wish you were staying in Oz?" and I said No, Scotland is one of the best countries to train in, sure we don't always get the weather, but when we do, I can't think of anywhere better.
So what have I actually been up? Well from looking back over the start of the season I felt my biking just wasn't where it should be so the focus of the three weeks was going to be on biking. As I'm running so strong I felt I could afford to back of my running slightly. So I embarked on some long base mile rides, which included a lovely 115mile group ride to Moffat climbing over 2300m an excellent day's biking with some great company. I also did short high intensity interval sessions where I was working for 2-4min stints at intensities above 10mile TT pace.
One of the things I also did was look at what makes me such a strong runner, and I believe it is largely down to one session, my long 18km Fartlek session at 10k race pace, so I figured I need to do a likewise session for my biking to get the same results. To do this I took my Garmin GPS data from my run session and just multiplied all the rep and recovery distances by 4 and plugged them back into my Garmin so it would beep at me when I had covered the rep or recovery distances, a great training tool. Once I knew the exact distance of the session I planned a route that was hilly, quite and free of traffic lights and went out and berried myself on the bike for just under 3hrs at a time, it definitely achieved the desired affect.
To mix up my training and to keep it fun I also decided to get some regular mountain biking in seen as I didn't get any done over the winter due to the snow, plus I feel mountain biking is a great training tool for developing strength and bike handling skills. Not to mention I was planning on racing the Dirty tri at the end of July so was really wanting to get my eye back in off road. We are incredibly lucky having some of the best mountain biking facilities in Scotland with Glentress and Innerleithen just a short drive into the borders from Edinburgh and more routes easily accessible for day trips. Kirroughtree down near Stranraer was one of the 7 stanes centres that I hadn't ridden previously so made a trip down with my team mate Niall to experiences some different routes. Well worth the 2.5hrs drive, we did the red and black routes both of which were really enjoyable routes, different from what I am used to at Glentress and Innerleithen which is great for improving your skills, so you don't just get good a riding what your used to.
So has it all worked? From my last threshold power test I'm more powerful than I've ever been, an 18watt increase in 9weeks from my previous test and not only that but I'm the lightest I've been since my university days, which weren't yesterday, ha ha. So all in all I'm very pleased with how my three week bike specific block of training has gone, not only has my fitness improved by I have had a really enjoyable time, some may think it's a strange way to spend your holidays, I on the other think it's a great way to spend your holidays. The true test will be this weekend at the Gullane triathlon to see how the training and power increase translates to racing, hopefully it all equates to strong racing.
Getting the training in was always going to be a definite but the good Scottish summer was always going to be a bit of a lottery, but for once I actually won the lottery. What a glorious three 3weeks I have had, I actually got a bit of a tan. Who needs to go abroad when you get weather like this. When I was leaving Oz last year the guy's were saying "do you not wish you were staying in Oz?" and I said No, Scotland is one of the best countries to train in, sure we don't always get the weather, but when we do, I can't think of anywhere better.
So what have I actually been up? Well from looking back over the start of the season I felt my biking just wasn't where it should be so the focus of the three weeks was going to be on biking. As I'm running so strong I felt I could afford to back of my running slightly. So I embarked on some long base mile rides, which included a lovely 115mile group ride to Moffat climbing over 2300m an excellent day's biking with some great company. I also did short high intensity interval sessions where I was working for 2-4min stints at intensities above 10mile TT pace.
One of the things I also did was look at what makes me such a strong runner, and I believe it is largely down to one session, my long 18km Fartlek session at 10k race pace, so I figured I need to do a likewise session for my biking to get the same results. To do this I took my Garmin GPS data from my run session and just multiplied all the rep and recovery distances by 4 and plugged them back into my Garmin so it would beep at me when I had covered the rep or recovery distances, a great training tool. Once I knew the exact distance of the session I planned a route that was hilly, quite and free of traffic lights and went out and berried myself on the bike for just under 3hrs at a time, it definitely achieved the desired affect.
To mix up my training and to keep it fun I also decided to get some regular mountain biking in seen as I didn't get any done over the winter due to the snow, plus I feel mountain biking is a great training tool for developing strength and bike handling skills. Not to mention I was planning on racing the Dirty tri at the end of July so was really wanting to get my eye back in off road. We are incredibly lucky having some of the best mountain biking facilities in Scotland with Glentress and Innerleithen just a short drive into the borders from Edinburgh and more routes easily accessible for day trips. Kirroughtree down near Stranraer was one of the 7 stanes centres that I hadn't ridden previously so made a trip down with my team mate Niall to experiences some different routes. Well worth the 2.5hrs drive, we did the red and black routes both of which were really enjoyable routes, different from what I am used to at Glentress and Innerleithen which is great for improving your skills, so you don't just get good a riding what your used to.
So has it all worked? From my last threshold power test I'm more powerful than I've ever been, an 18watt increase in 9weeks from my previous test and not only that but I'm the lightest I've been since my university days, which weren't yesterday, ha ha. So all in all I'm very pleased with how my three week bike specific block of training has gone, not only has my fitness improved by I have had a really enjoyable time, some may think it's a strange way to spend your holidays, I on the other think it's a great way to spend your holidays. The true test will be this weekend at the Gullane triathlon to see how the training and power increase translates to racing, hopefully it all equates to strong racing.
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