Brick by Brick

I left my training session to later today as I had some shopping for sports gear to do :O). The Technical manager(Wallis) and I did a quick bike lube service and put on my new bar ends and put the cadence sensor back on the crank. I'm still waiting on my tri-bars.

Todays session was to be a close to full length event, with 3 weeks to go I'm peaking my long distance training now and will have one more long session on Thursday holiday this week and then I'm moving to swimming and short interval training for bike/run.

It was blustery wind and a little overcast with the odd shower, wind coming directly from the south so would kill me all the way down the N5 then cut across at right angles on my N93 out and back leg. The return on the N5 would be plain sailing with the wind at my back.

70K cycle leg in 2:27:20 which is an average speed of 28.4kmph. It seemed quite long on the outbound leg and I got a second wind about the 45km mark and really got a good pace on. Road conditions as ever vary from bad to really bad, especially when I was on the cycle path.

That 70K time would extrapolate out to a 90K leg of around 3:15. I'm hoping for better roads and less wind. One can always live in hope.

Average cadence was 80, Total climb was 2415ft, which if correct is pretty much in line with Switzerland course. Max cadence was 118 and max speed was 56.9kmph.

I was pretty whacked at the end and my back was stiff and sore and I was a little unstead on my feet for the first minute off the bike. I timed the transition to run at 3:45. This included a 500ml drink and a sports gel. Changing my shoes and top and getting my running head on.

I did the whole session in my new tri suit but with a cycling top(new one sent by Stu and Chico) and a running top for each leg. The tri suit was OK but padding on the bike was less effective than my cycling shorts.

Run leg was 16K in 1:24:27. I was running nice 4:45 and 4:55 km times for the first 4K but my legs just gradually got slower. I managed a second push around the 12k mark and kicked up my average again. Average speed over the whole run was 5:25 per km. Average heart rate 151bpm and max was 165bpm. I think I can go faster if I was pushed. I need more competitive drive.

Swim Drills

Did a swimming session last night.

400M warmup

40 minutes of worked drills on reach, breathing, relaxation and leg work. I've come to the conclusion that swimming is more like golf than running or cycling. Its more technique than fitness. You also need to remember the oxygen debt problem that you get at the start of any exercise is much more severe in swimming than other sports due to the limitations on breathing. No need to panic, its all much nicer after the first 300m or 10 minutes. Well maybe nicer is an exaggeration, it just stops getting worse :O)

600M slow and steady practice

200m warmdown and stretching.

I'm sore today, probably hardest swim session I've done. Need to get my mind on relaxing in the swim leg and just cruising round the buoy and back. No need for heroics. Finish in a state to continue. I still need more confidence in this leg. Truth be told I'm frightened and excited by it in equal measure.

Quick Dip

1100M swim in a rather pathetic 25:50. First 300M were very windy but after that I got my oxygen deficit back I was going along fine. Nice big 50M pool and facilities but a little busy. Some bugger nicked my quid out the locker as well.

Costa Del Sunderland

Sunny in the North East, out for a run at 6:30 round the River Wear and past the Durham cricket ground where the test match will be taking place over the next few days. 10K in 52:45 and 11.6K in 1hour.

Sunderland Swim

Taxi pickup at 7am and off for a 1km swim in Sunderland Aquatic centre, I didn't get into the 50m pool as it was closed so I had to swim in the 33m diving pool. Not too busy but I wasn't really motivated to put in a big distance as it wasn't the big pool. I'm trying to switch to bi-lateral breathing now as its faster and I think with some more practice I can do it for the full distance. Its more tiring as I'm breathing on every 3rd stroke rather than on every 2nd or 4th. This forces you to breathe on both sides when normally I breathe on the right. I spent half the session breathing only on the left to get used to the sensation. That was fine except it damaged my ability to breathe on the right...I just need to blend them in together.

I also changed the way I breathe out and am doing it more controlled and it feels less uncomfortable on the 3rd stroke when I slow down the exhale in that fashion. To get a feel for this blow out all the air in your lungs and then see how long you can stay like that, its not long. Even if you keep them 30% full they feel less stressed.

I want to be able to swim 4KM and maybe 5km in the pool, non stop before Switzerland. That will give me enough confidence in my swim leg. I might try and get another swim in tonight depending on what time we get finished here.

I walked it from the pool to the office :o)

Sunday double

I was lying in bed around 7am this morning looking for excuses in my mind as to why I could not train today. The best I could come up with was calling Philippe to say I'd forgotten that it was mothers day and that I had booked lunch for Alison and so I could not train.

I went out for the papers and croissants just after 8:30. I came back and Team Kennedy manager asks me right away. Have you called Philippe ? I said not yet but I've sent him a text as he may have been out last night and he doesn't need me getting him up before 9am. I was secretly hoping he was also looking for an out....no such luck. He'd done 60k on his bike yesterday and was as keen as ever.

Texts were exchanged and I managed to negotiate us down to a 45K cycle and 17k run. Philippe was looking for the full 90k cycle plus a run of 15k minimum. I said I'd do the full 90 on the bike but not the run as well....Thats how it goes when your heart isn't quite in it yet. Even once we agreed 45K and we were out on the cycle leg I was still lying to myself that I didn't need to do the run leg when I got back anyway....

It was a fantastic day weather wise, sunny and blue skies. Only downside was that it was a little windy. We set off for Namur and traffic and other cyclists excepted I was managing to hold my own and not drop back too much. Only fly in the ointment was that after 20 minutes when I had a look at my computer I could see my pedaling cadence wasn't showing up . When I looked down I could see the crank attachment had fallen off at some point. Needle in a haystack to find it on the way back and I was pretty pissed off as I only bought it two weeks ago..

We were soon heading down the N98 and I was as usual sitting just behind the point where all the hard work was being done, straight into the wind. Once on the main road and off the cycle path and into our rythm I didn't get dropped. I had to work hard on the hills but I managed not to fall too far behind at any point. After what felt like no time at all Philippe said we were halfway and had to turn back. I did at this point offer the 90K option but no run but Philippe said we needed to do a double session. He was right of course and I was thinking well I could just do the 90K and be done. Avoiding the horrors of the bike-run transition on a sunny Sunday is well worth cycling another 45km for. We turned back and the run leg was still on.

On the way back I even had the cheek to lead for a couple of km's but it was with the wind in my back and it gave Philippe a chance to have another picnic on the bike. Normal service resumed on the N5 and I did drop back a bit with about 8KM to go as I was looking for the bit that fell off my bike. Amazingly I saw it and picked it up and so I now just need to put it back on. We finished 45K in 1hr:28min which is a good time and I felt OK.

Running gear on but my watch wasn't working right as I needed to change the battery and didn't have the time to mess about. I ran again in my cycling shorts and just changed my tee shirt. I managed to stretch my legs on the bike by standing up on the pedals for a few hundred metres and they were not as heavy as they felt last week when I did the bike-run session.

It was pretty hot now and I was happy I'd downed 500ml of sports drink on the last 2km on the bike, I knew that last time out I hadn't taken on enough fluid and I could feel the positive difference this run. I was however having to drink when I didn't feel like it, just ramming it down my throat for effect. Like drinking cans of warm lager before a school disco.

Our pace was pretty even around the 4:40 per km mark for the first 4km. Then we dropped to around 5:00 per km. We went round by the school to avoid M.Hedgehog but instead of one big climb you get faced with a much longer medium climb that really saps your legs.

I was pulling a little distance out on Philippe as he was suffering in the heat as he had a black top on and with long sleeves. His knee was also taking no prisoners. I was though expecting him to pass me like a steam train at any moment.

I finished the run and although the last 2km were a little sore on my legs I was still in pretty good shape at the end and adding another 4km would have been possible for me to do the full 21k.

I ordered tri bars and a tri suit this week to hopefully claim me a couple of minutes on cycle and on the transitions. The suit you wear for the whole race and despite it making you look like the wettest gay in the village it does speed up transition as once out of your wetsuit you are only ever changing shoes. I saw the positive side of the suit for others in the race two weeks ago.

The tri-bars allow you to have a much lower position on the bike and improve your aerodynamics. Therefore making it easier to keep a slightly higher pace, especially on flat sections.

Legs currently feeling OK but I know I've been out. I'm in the UK this week so training opportunities will be limited. I will be taking my running gear and my swimming gear though.

Swimming Session

Did a session at the pool, worked on technique rather than just banging out the laps. The new lower arm reach with lifted elbow seems to be paying off. My 33m times were around 55 seconds on my old stroke and I'm now around 45-48. I did a 400m test swim at 9:26. Still pretty pedestrian pace if you are a swimmer but faster than I was before and with what feels like a bit less effort required. Its a much slower stroke and requires less shoulder strength.

I then did some exercises with Philippe helping me in the shallow end, I was getting some of it but was still finding it hard going. I finished with some easy 50M laps as the full pool had opened up. Not a strenuous effort but progress, the 400M time would have been a 750M time of around 17:30, last week I was around 21 minutes for 750M. OK its was open water and mayhem start but it still looks and feels like an improvement.

We were out at friends for dinner last night and although I'm not drinking(1.5 glasses wine) we did get back very late and so I was very tired this morning and spend most of the day dozing in the garden. I think I just needed a day off.