Looking back is all well and good, but only if it can inform what we do going forward. For me, what we can take from the last year is: 1) We've got a decent level of aerobic endurance under our belts, and 2) we know now that we can go the (sprint) distance. Now we have to build on that.
This year, training is going to be a lot more scientific. A lot of heart rate training, a lot of intervals. A small increase in training hours, but mainly I'm going for more targeted training. The sort of stuff that you can't really do unless you can run for 45 minutes. ^_^
With that in mind, let's talk gear. Everyone loves lovely gear. My priorities this year are a turbo trainer and a HRM. Turbo trainer - this one looks OK. HRM - Garmin Forerunner 305. My god, this looks like the best thing in the entire world. Already earmarked as a Christmas present. Expect me to babble incoherently for months as and when I get one.
Other stuff - I've already picked up these lovely things, and if I'm a very good boy, I might end up with some nicer wheels before the season starts. Did a bit of research and my current wheels are very heavy. Something like these would be just lovely.
Last but not least, I've got targets. Nicked from my training plan, they are: 1) Break 1:05 for sprint triathlon, 2) Complete Ripon triathlon, 3) Break 2:45 for Leeds triathlon. If I manage all that, I reckon the year will have been a success.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Odd's Season in Review - Part 2 - The Race
This is what it's all about, I guess ^_^
Preparation-wise, I think it went pretty well, stopping overnight was a good idea, allowing the day itself to be relatively less stressful. We probably won't need it for Ilkley next year, but it was good to have everything sorted the day before.
I think we were all nervous leading up to the race, although Nom's nerves were slightly more externalised. The nature of the beast, I guess, doing something for the first time, something extremely tough, in front of crowds of people. Still, there were lots of lovely friendly people around, which helped.
It's funny how, as soon as you get into the water, all thoughts suddenly exit the mind. For all the planning to pace myself on the swim, my first 100m was a ridiculous pace. Luckily, after that, I managed to calm myself down and get into a sustainable tempo. It was still a pretty surreal experience, though, to be able to hear people cheering me on. (it must've been pretty loud, because as I got out of the pool, one of my lap counters commented on my 'fan club'!)
My swim time overall was tremendously fast, somewhere around the 10-minute mark. As to why this happened, I'm not quite sure, whether it was the adrenaline, the preparation, or simply the tri suit. One suspects a combination of several factors. Cost myself about 5 seconds struggling to get out of the pool, but you can't have everything.
On to Transition 1, and the glaring hole in my preparations became clear. My transition training was virtually nil, and I think literally nil in the case of T1. If I had practised this, I might not have left my socks in my bag! Upon noticing this, my brain did about 4,000,000 calculations in a second, concluding to not bother with them for the bike.
Everything else went smoothly, and I set off for the bike leg. I think I started out too conservatively, hanging behind riders out of fear of drafting. What I should have done, as I did later, is crank through the gears and blow past them. I suppose I was a little surprised at being faster than other riders! Made another mistake coming onto Carter's Lane, changed gears down too soon, leaving me spinning like a loon on the fairly flat ground. Eventually, though, the gradient did increase, and though it felt tough for me up there, it seemed tougher for others, as I passed quite a few folks. The downhill was still terrifying, and someone actually passed me on there! He was clearly a good descender, he was about 5mph faster than me, disappearing out of sight on the first lap. (Got past him on the uphill afterwards, though!)
Really cool to be cheered as I passed the Lido, although I think I barely acknowledged people. Focus. ^_^ Lap 2 was fairly smooth, lap 3's uphill was really tough. Had virtually nothing left in the tank to be honest, got myself through by concentrating on riders in front, forcing myself past them by mental strength alone.
Transition 2 came, and body and mind were exhausted. This was made worse by a couple of cyclists in front of me as I pulled in, which weren't racing (yet). This caused my brain to break, and I was advised to calm down by a marshal, as I looked fairly lunatical. Lunatical enough to shout incomprehensibly about my socks to Nom, who was unlucky enough to have been in the transition area at the time. This did approximately no good whatsoever. Anyway, socks were discovered in my bag, and I set off running (having technically racked my back in the wrong position, and the wrong way round). Had a brief adventure finding my way out of T2 - it's a fairly long diversion. Also realised I still had my spare inner tube and tyre levers in my tri suit. Luckily, Mrs. Odd was coming across to take a photo, and I threw the tube in her general direction.
With that, off I trotted. At first, had a slightly dodgy stomach, think it was the fluid I'd taken on board during the bike leg. This had settled down by the time I got to Carter's Lane. I knew at this point that I basically had one mile of tough running before the downhill section. But my goodness, it was tough. Once again, my body wanted me to stop, and my brain had to overrule it. It was probably the hardest 10 minutes I've ever put my body through.
Finally reached the top, and the lovely family at the top who were having a picnic and cheering everyone on, and relief washed over me. Knowing that I had just a downhill and sprint finish to go gave me an extra burst of energy, and I absolutely flew down Curly Hill, certainly faster than I've ever run before. Middleton Avenue was quick (although not quite as quick), and, despite nearly missing the turn into Denton Lane, found a sprint finish across the line, where I promptly fell over.
Was kinda hoping to be mobbed by well-wishers, but instead the first person across to me was the guy after my timing chip. -_- Oh well.
1:11:18 was the time, then, good enough for a first effort.
Coming next - Part 3 - the future!
Preparation-wise, I think it went pretty well, stopping overnight was a good idea, allowing the day itself to be relatively less stressful. We probably won't need it for Ilkley next year, but it was good to have everything sorted the day before.
I think we were all nervous leading up to the race, although Nom's nerves were slightly more externalised. The nature of the beast, I guess, doing something for the first time, something extremely tough, in front of crowds of people. Still, there were lots of lovely friendly people around, which helped.
It's funny how, as soon as you get into the water, all thoughts suddenly exit the mind. For all the planning to pace myself on the swim, my first 100m was a ridiculous pace. Luckily, after that, I managed to calm myself down and get into a sustainable tempo. It was still a pretty surreal experience, though, to be able to hear people cheering me on. (it must've been pretty loud, because as I got out of the pool, one of my lap counters commented on my 'fan club'!)
My swim time overall was tremendously fast, somewhere around the 10-minute mark. As to why this happened, I'm not quite sure, whether it was the adrenaline, the preparation, or simply the tri suit. One suspects a combination of several factors. Cost myself about 5 seconds struggling to get out of the pool, but you can't have everything.
On to Transition 1, and the glaring hole in my preparations became clear. My transition training was virtually nil, and I think literally nil in the case of T1. If I had practised this, I might not have left my socks in my bag! Upon noticing this, my brain did about 4,000,000 calculations in a second, concluding to not bother with them for the bike.
Everything else went smoothly, and I set off for the bike leg. I think I started out too conservatively, hanging behind riders out of fear of drafting. What I should have done, as I did later, is crank through the gears and blow past them. I suppose I was a little surprised at being faster than other riders! Made another mistake coming onto Carter's Lane, changed gears down too soon, leaving me spinning like a loon on the fairly flat ground. Eventually, though, the gradient did increase, and though it felt tough for me up there, it seemed tougher for others, as I passed quite a few folks. The downhill was still terrifying, and someone actually passed me on there! He was clearly a good descender, he was about 5mph faster than me, disappearing out of sight on the first lap. (Got past him on the uphill afterwards, though!)
Really cool to be cheered as I passed the Lido, although I think I barely acknowledged people. Focus. ^_^ Lap 2 was fairly smooth, lap 3's uphill was really tough. Had virtually nothing left in the tank to be honest, got myself through by concentrating on riders in front, forcing myself past them by mental strength alone.
Transition 2 came, and body and mind were exhausted. This was made worse by a couple of cyclists in front of me as I pulled in, which weren't racing (yet). This caused my brain to break, and I was advised to calm down by a marshal, as I looked fairly lunatical. Lunatical enough to shout incomprehensibly about my socks to Nom, who was unlucky enough to have been in the transition area at the time. This did approximately no good whatsoever. Anyway, socks were discovered in my bag, and I set off running (having technically racked my back in the wrong position, and the wrong way round). Had a brief adventure finding my way out of T2 - it's a fairly long diversion. Also realised I still had my spare inner tube and tyre levers in my tri suit. Luckily, Mrs. Odd was coming across to take a photo, and I threw the tube in her general direction.
With that, off I trotted. At first, had a slightly dodgy stomach, think it was the fluid I'd taken on board during the bike leg. This had settled down by the time I got to Carter's Lane. I knew at this point that I basically had one mile of tough running before the downhill section. But my goodness, it was tough. Once again, my body wanted me to stop, and my brain had to overrule it. It was probably the hardest 10 minutes I've ever put my body through.
Finally reached the top, and the lovely family at the top who were having a picnic and cheering everyone on, and relief washed over me. Knowing that I had just a downhill and sprint finish to go gave me an extra burst of energy, and I absolutely flew down Curly Hill, certainly faster than I've ever run before. Middleton Avenue was quick (although not quite as quick), and, despite nearly missing the turn into Denton Lane, found a sprint finish across the line, where I promptly fell over.
Was kinda hoping to be mobbed by well-wishers, but instead the first person across to me was the guy after my timing chip. -_- Oh well.
1:11:18 was the time, then, good enough for a first effort.
Coming next - Part 3 - the future!
Odd's Season in Review - Part 1 - Training
2 weeks seems long enough to put the season into perspective. So, on the eve of the new training season beginning, I'm going to outline my thoughts on how the previous year went, and how I hope the next one will go.
It's amazing to thing that, a shade over a year ago, we were struggling across the Greenway with bikes made out of brick, barely swimming, and not running at all. Safe to say that our progress has been superb. Of course, that's due to the sheer amount of training we got through. It wasn't particularly scientific (apart from the periodisation, I guess) and it certainly wasn't technically the best, but I guess it was suited to a bunch of well-meaning novices.
Personally, I'm pretty pleased with my efforts in sticking to the training plan I'd created. It was spoilt a little bit in the summer by cricket taking over my Saturdays (for the last time...) and there was, of course, the odd little lapse, due to the weather or being under the weather, but I think I did pretty well. Documenting my training via MapMyTri helped with this, as did having strict weekly hours.
As far as the individual disciplines went, I think my running training went the best. Possibly not surprising, as running doesn't require much planning or forethought, and isn't a particularly technical activity. It also helps that it can be done in the freezing cold. ^_^
Swimming, not so much. However, I hadn't prioritised swimming highly, what with it only taking up 10-15 minutes of the race. That's definitely something to build on in the coming year.
Coming next - Part 2 - the race!
It's amazing to thing that, a shade over a year ago, we were struggling across the Greenway with bikes made out of brick, barely swimming, and not running at all. Safe to say that our progress has been superb. Of course, that's due to the sheer amount of training we got through. It wasn't particularly scientific (apart from the periodisation, I guess) and it certainly wasn't technically the best, but I guess it was suited to a bunch of well-meaning novices.
Personally, I'm pretty pleased with my efforts in sticking to the training plan I'd created. It was spoilt a little bit in the summer by cricket taking over my Saturdays (for the last time...) and there was, of course, the odd little lapse, due to the weather or being under the weather, but I think I did pretty well. Documenting my training via MapMyTri helped with this, as did having strict weekly hours.
As far as the individual disciplines went, I think my running training went the best. Possibly not surprising, as running doesn't require much planning or forethought, and isn't a particularly technical activity. It also helps that it can be done in the freezing cold. ^_^
Swimming, not so much. However, I hadn't prioritised swimming highly, what with it only taking up 10-15 minutes of the race. That's definitely something to build on in the coming year.
Coming next - Part 2 - the race!
Sunday, 13 September 2009
We are not dead!
Well, we did it.
All 3 of us completed the Ilkley Triathlon without puncturing, crashing or falling into a skip. In some cases, by only a narrow margin, but we did it regardless.
I managed to get round in 1:11.18, which I have to be happy with really. Slightly annoyed that if I'd gone 19 seconds faster, I could say it was 1:10, but not bad for a first effort.
Splits: swim 10:25 (v.happy, might have been sub-10 for the swim itself), bike 37:08 (not terrible, but not the best, this is probably where I could have made an odd minute up), run 23:45 (good, especially if this includes T2, which I think it might have done, and the rather large detour to get out onto the road).
The only calamity I suffered was forgetting to get my socks out of my bag before the race, causing me large amounts of confusion, and forcing me to shout incomprehensibly at Nom, who was unfortunate enough to be in transition at the time. Thus, the new slogan of Having A Tri is "Aaaargh, socks!"
PS. it hurts.
All 3 of us completed the Ilkley Triathlon without puncturing, crashing or falling into a skip. In some cases, by only a narrow margin, but we did it regardless.
I managed to get round in 1:11.18, which I have to be happy with really. Slightly annoyed that if I'd gone 19 seconds faster, I could say it was 1:10, but not bad for a first effort.
Splits: swim 10:25 (v.happy, might have been sub-10 for the swim itself), bike 37:08 (not terrible, but not the best, this is probably where I could have made an odd minute up), run 23:45 (good, especially if this includes T2, which I think it might have done, and the rather large detour to get out onto the road).
The only calamity I suffered was forgetting to get my socks out of my bag before the race, causing me large amounts of confusion, and forcing me to shout incomprehensibly at Nom, who was unfortunate enough to be in transition at the time. Thus, the new slogan of Having A Tri is "Aaaargh, socks!"
PS. it hurts.
Monday, 7 September 2009
One week to go
Eek.
Actually, not eek - I think we've prepared pretty well, and I reckon we'll do decent enough. Assuming we don't get assailed by punctures, that is. Seems like I'm due *sigh*
Hope we can all have a relaxing week leading up to the race, my schedule is as follows:
Mon - Run 30 mins
Tue - Rest
Wed - Swim 30 mins
Thu - Bike 30 mins
Fri - Rest
Sat - Run 30 mins
Sun - Pizza 120 mins
After that, I'll be glad to get some rest, before starting the slow, long distance stuff over the winter. 10 mile runs FTW!
Actually, not eek - I think we've prepared pretty well, and I reckon we'll do decent enough. Assuming we don't get assailed by punctures, that is. Seems like I'm due *sigh*
Hope we can all have a relaxing week leading up to the race, my schedule is as follows:
Mon - Run 30 mins
Tue - Rest
Wed - Swim 30 mins
Thu - Bike 30 mins
Fri - Rest
Sat - Run 30 mins
Sun - Pizza 120 mins
After that, I'll be glad to get some rest, before starting the slow, long distance stuff over the winter. 10 mile runs FTW!
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Lost the Nom...
Went for a run last night (about 3 miles in average 6.9mph unless you're the Corporal charging off ahead like a charging thing a mile before the end). Returned to Veg/Nom Towers to find that Nom had gone AWOL. Hence another 20 minute run round the park and along park of the Green(fly)way in search of the Nom, who had gone the long way round and turned up in Veg/Nom Towers shed.
Note to self, tag my Nom.
One week and one day to go. Eeeeeek.
Note to self, tag my Nom.
One week and one day to go. Eeeeeek.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
No luck in getting to Ilkley, episode 311...
Last night's swim-bike in Ilkley had to be cancelled due to a lack of Nom. Confusion and two cakes has led to a lack of Ilkley swim-bike tonight. Last week's Ilkley swim-bike had to be cancelled due to my appointment at the garage with a broken car. And we've just learned that there are no trains home on Sunday 13th September. Hmmm...is this a plot to keep us away from Ilkley? Or is fate looking after my health?
:( no Ilkley.
:( no Ilkley.
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