Friday, February 17, 2012

Life and Training

Am I alone in this - that my life and my training is linked, when life is good, when everything is settled, training becomes easy and the little set backs liking waking to find your bike has a flat, getting ready for a run and discovering you forgot to recharge your MP3 player arent big deals and you push on.

But when life gets hard training gets hard.  When work stuff refuses to stay in its 9 to 5 box, when that big bill arrives out of the blue, when you and your family are still adjusting to a new way of life (like commuting between Melbourne and Newcastle and all the issues about not being there for your teenage daughter)  it takes bugger all to convince you that today isnt your day and how about we let this session slide.

Well, a review of my training diary over the fast four weeks has made it painfully clear I've drifted into that zone.  I kind of knew it had happened but it was really only when I went back and added up the k's I was running/swimming/riding before and after that it hit me in the forehead.

Well, I have been here before.  This is how I put on 30+ kilos over many years and never managed to shift it.  The key for me is the realization that the link between life and training is real and that it also works both ways.  Yeah, life can drag your training into the shitter with it, but training can pull your life out of there also.

I read an article recently that postulated that the single greatest difference between elite competers and we completers at the back of the field is mental strength. The ability to man up, take the pain and push on.  This applies in a race, in a training session, in a training season and in life.

Well right now my life is a little tough, all that means is that its time to man up.

So I'm off to the pool.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Paying my dues but a good test

I love riding to work. Yeah, sometimes its hard to get started but all in all when I'm on the road I can feel the fat burning, my heart pumping, my lungs expanding and my muscles driving - its an intensely physical thing and I get of the bike sore but invigorated.  Somedays though you have to pay your dues, today was that day.

It poured with rain the whole day, the wind swirled and gusted, the roads were slippery and in some cases sudden storms put the road under over 30cms (a foot in old person speak) under water.  In fact, in one place it was under about a meter (call it three and a bit feet) deep.

But I made it and actually the day turned into a pretty searching test of my latest purchase - some new tyres.

The Wilier came with Vredstein Fiammante Duo Comps.  A basic/entry level tyre but actually, like the Continental Ultra Sports that came with my Avanti (and reviewed here) , I actually really liked them.  In fact the had an enormous amount in common with the Ultra Sports.  The Fiammante's were fast, responsive, gave the bike an 'alive' feeling but were also fragile and short lived.  I reakon I got, maybe 2000k out of them.  Also, more than the Ultra Sports, the Fiammantes were relatively useless in the wet.  I never, really, felt confident on them.  So, when I got my second puncture in a week on the Fiammantes and saw the really squared off contact patch they were carrying I decided enough and ordered something new.

I've got Specialised Armadillo's on the Avanti now but to be frank I havent fallen in love with those tyres.  They arent bad, but they arent good either.  Yeah, they are tough but they feel like that toughness was achieved by just adding more and more layers of stuff until they were both a) unbreakable and b) great heavy sponges that suck the life out of the road.  So I wasnt going there again.  The obvious choice for the commuting I do are the Continental Gatorskins, or if I'm feeling a little more sporty the 4 Seasons.  Both these tyres are insanely popular, always test well and are the tyres of choice of many (perhaps all) of my mates.  However, my undying snobbishness always gets in the way of me doing the simple and sensible and I figured I could strike out from the pack again.  So I looked at both the Vredstein Fortezza Quattro and the Michelin Carbon Krylion (both Conti 4 Seasons equivalents).  Both were tested well and had good reps.  I chose the Michelins purely because I also wanted to test out a new supplier with a nice small, simple order before maybe committing to something bigger .

Anyway, while I will admit to being pretty tentative and cautious the new Michelins did great.  Despite being brand spanking new, still with a layer of protective silicon coating them these tyres were both wonderfully light and alive when I pushed it this morning while also being stable and grippy this afternoon in storms, standing water and slick train tracks and bridge expansion joints.  So, early days and more testing to come but so far the Michelins look really good.

PS. I bought the Michelins and a new seat through Bellatisport, a Swiss company that does a lot of Wilier and other exotic bikes at very reasonable prices.  Again, so far, so good.  My order was handled very smoothly and the delivery was perfect.  On the basis of this (yeah I know, one transaction) I'd recommend them and I will be using them again.



Monday, February 13, 2012

My times from the last event

Well Tomaree was a little quicker processing the times than back in September and I have a little more detail to add to yesterdays post.

My times were:

swim 9:14
ride 44:54
run 31:30
total 1:25:38

Looking at the times my gut feels were pretty right.  I was second out of the water but 6th out of T1.  That hurts.  My ride was solid, but not spectacular, as I thought I pretty much maintained by position, losing grip with the leaders but keeping the guys behind me at bay.  I will admit to being surprised that I lost almost 8 minutes to the leaders on the ride, on the other hand considering I was probably in T2 for about 30+ seconds and a little slow to start this means I was averaging about 30 kph whereas the leaders were riding at 36ish kph.  

Now, 36 kph was near enough to my speed in the Brighton tri but that was a more forgiving course and I was on the Wilier which is, in general, 2-4 kph faster than the Avanti in equivalent conditions.  But, more than anything I think I paid for not knowing my speed or having a target.  I thought that not having the Garmin along wouldnt hurt too much but now I know I was wrong.  KNOWING I need to be doing 35-36 to compete with the leaders and KNOWING my speed doesnt mean I'll magically start hitting a winning speed but it will sure increase the odds.  I am pretty confident that if I can remember to bring the Garmin next time and push to target I'm sure I could hold 32-33 kph.  Now that would that drop me to around 40 minutes for the ride, not winning yet but getting there.

Now the run. It was the disaster I figured it would be.  Now the real problem is that I was running at around 5 minute k's which is as fast as I've ever managed to run.  So in this instance if I want to get better here I've got to change something, because right now I'm hitting a wall.

More on this later.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

I survived another event

Well I got another tri under my belt today.  Nothing huge, just a little club event, but on the other hand its a useful step between my longest tri so far (a classic sprint of 750m/20k/5k) and the Olympic distance I'm shooting for in a few weeks.

First a little on my club.

My club (when I'm in Newcastle) is Tomaree Tri Club, a great little club based around Soldiers Point just north of Nelson Bay in NSW.  There are a couple of tri clubs in and around Newcastle and I'm sure there are great people in all of then but I chose (and recommend) Tomaree for one reason.  The swim course for its club tris.  Whereas all the other clubs in the region make do with pools for their swims, Tomaree has a truly gorgeous open water swim.  Its lovely.  

Anyway, the club runs an event each month in spring and summer.  Each event has a short and long course.  So far I've only done the short course at Tomaree, a 250m swim, an 11k ride, and a 3k run.  I did ok but wanted more.  I did that back in Sep 2011 and since then I've lost a bunch of weight (probably about 15kg), got fitter and done a full distance sprint so I was ready.

The long course is a slightly shorter than normal swim (about 500m) but then slightly longer than normal ride (22k) and run (6k).

So did that today and went pretty well.

As I discovered at my Gatorade tri, I'm a decent swimmer in a wetsuit.  As a result while there is a bunch of way better athlete's there than me I was second out of the water.  As usual I sucked in T1 and got passed by a bunch of people.  But on the ride I stabilized the damage, I got passed by 1 guy and I passed 1 guy, so all ok.  Actually not quite that great, I suspect a few others closed up on me without actually getting to pass.  And that all came home to roost on the run, again I was slow and again it cost me a bunch of spots and I tumbled backwards.

Still, this time my form was strong and all in all I am happy.  The swim was excellent, I still dont train enough but I'm getting though.    My ride was solid, I was down of the bars for 90% of the ride, I powered out of the corners and hills and kept up my cadence.  I need to get fitter and stronger but all in all ok.  My run sucked.  I need more speed.

Ok, so all this analysis is based on feel so far.  The club hasnt done the timings yet.  I'll post those when they come through.


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Travel.

Melbourne to Newcastle is near enough to 1000km. I have to walk to the shuttle, catch a shuttle to mlb airport, wait for a plane, fly 1000km, wait for a bus to newcastle from the airport, drive to newcastle, walk home. This whole trek takes five and a half hours. The hardest part is the wait for the bus into Newcastle.

So close but so far.