Snow, sniffles and seasonal excess

It has been a while since I last blogged, thought it was about time I did…

Firstly, I’m currently on the sofa with a loo roll and a duvet having managed to pick up a bit of a cold… I think this may be due to some rather full on seasonal excess (too much drink and too many late nights) but I suddenly find myself with an evening free.

Since the Vit I have been taking a well earned end of season break, recommencing winter training in October.  During the autumn I enjoyed the early part of the cross country season, a few late sportifs and my first Parkrun experience (very highly recommended) and the Dark and White trailquest series with my pal Rebecca Sore.  I’ve been planning my 2011 season, with Jack and have been addressing a couple of personal projects, namely my nutritional strategy and swim technique.

On the first project, I’ve been working with Performance Nutritionist and friend, Martin MacDonald.  I have made some fairly fundamental changes to my diet and hadn’t really realised how far from optimal my diet has been in the past.  Already I’m experiencing some benefits to my altered nutritional plan, not least a more structured approach to recovery nutrition which is enabling me to complete two sessions a day with greater benefit, hitting my second session of the day better fuelled and therefore maintaining training ‘quality’ across both sessions.

I am definitely ‘leaning up’ despite that not being a specific nutritional goal at the moment, although I can’t quite boast the awesome results of one of Martin’s celebrity clients, Clare Nasir...

On the second project, Duncan and I spent an informative afternoon in the endless pool at swimcam with the very knowledgeable, swim smooth trained Christian.  Christian has given us some really good stuff to work on over this winter period.  Jack continues to back this up with some awesome swimsets (awesomely hard that is).

The weather has presented it’s own challenges over the last month or so but I’ve rather relished the snowy running, mostly completed off road.  Less enjoyable perhaps are the 3hr turbo sessions I’ve been completed in my ‘turbo dungeon’ aka our kitchen!  Still, it is a good test of mental toughness… Whenever possible, I’ve got out on the roads on my trusty winter bike, complete with gatorskin tyres or got out on my mountain bike. 

Training motivation is being bolstered by planning a 2 week training camp in Mallorca in April for 18 triathletes and great friends of mine, I can’t wait to be training with the sun on my back but, for the moment at least, that seems a long way off!

My first training target for 2011 is the Brighton Marathon, I will be running this for Brain Tumour UK and in memory of my late brother-in-law, Bruce Shea-Simonds and I’d be really grateful if you could find the time to visit my justgiving website and, if you can, donate to this wonderful charity.

I will be leaving the Christmas partying and drinking behind as we enter the new year and my training moves up a gear.  Onwards and upwards to a big Ironman season in 2011...

See you out there people, keep on training hard!

Luvie

The Vitruvian

It is not even 6am and I’ve been up for the last two hours with a cramping calf after yesterday’s Vitruvian efforts... do I care? Not remotely!


Yesterday concluded my season for 2010 and what a year it has been, it has possibly been one of my best seasons in 13 years in the sport and it has me reflecting on why that is?

I started the year with 2 season goals, two ‘A’ races and a full season (April – September) of racing. The goals were to get back under 2:20 for the Olympic Distance and to break 5hrs for the Vitruvian (the bike course is 5k short admittedly!). The first goal was missed by a whisker in Athlone (A race #1) when I took 7th in the European age group championships, but given the horrendous conditions (so windy they banned disc wheels!) I’ll take 2:20:52. So to goal #2 and 6am yesterday I was racking my bike for the Vitruvian Middle Distance Triathlon (A race #2)!

My week lead in had been far from ideal, I’d had a tight calf for about a week and on Tuesday I only got 20mtrs down the road before it had locked solid and I couldn’t even get it to the ground... panic starts to creep in (okay, so it didn’t ‘creep in’, full scale panic, tears and emotional breakdown was a better description), luckily for me I have my very own full-time, live in Knight in Shining Armour and ‘fixer of shit’, the ever-so wonderful Duncan Shea-Simonds! Dunc is something of a marvel, calm in the face of adversity, logical and philosophical at all times and, helpfully, a qualified sports therapist ...and yes, occasionally, he does wear his underpants over his trousers ;-).

Dunc set about carrying out daily massage (doing just enough of the right stuff as deep tissue work would have ruled me out of the race) and skilfully managing a combination of ice and compression alongside the treatments. Dunc refocused me by reminding me of the incredibly consistent year of training I’d had and to keep faith in the talent and skill of Jack Maitland in ensuring that I peak at exactly the right time, the hard work was done! There was no running I could have done last week that would alter yesterday’s outcome but plenty of benefit to not running and resting the calf completely so, other than a tentative 10min jog on Friday, it was a case of wait till Saturday and suck it and see.

Discussing this with Jack in the post-race debrief the calf injury ended up being more influential than I thought! I really didn’t know whether I’d be able to run a half marathon or not so took the brave step to ‘race’ the Vitruvian to the end of the bike and see what happened on the run...

Over the longer distances I’ve perhaps been guilty in the past of not committing enough to the bike and relying on my run strength to pull me back up the field. Yesterday’s race ‘plan b’ forced me to commit to an ambitious schedule and saw me turn in the 3rd fastest women’s bike split of the day and a 2:32 for 85k (probably equating to about a 2:40 something over the full 90k) and saw me lap quicker than I had for just one lap of the same course in the Dambuster Triathlon earlier in the season.

I am actually enjoying myself believe it or not!

So onto the run and straight away I was conscious of the calf tightness but took the decision to use a bit of sports psychology to ‘shelve’ my concern and focus on other things happening in my race, my watch, my nutrition and, weirdly, doing mental arithmetic (don’t ask!) ...anything to distract myself from the pain in my calf. I actually felt good and was clipping along strongly but found things unravelling with 5-6k to go, probably slowing a minute a mile for the last 3 or so miles (usually where I start to move up the field) and concluding with a 1:38 half marathon. I did manage to turn on a bit of a finish (being a former 800m runner I do pride myself in a decent finish) but wasn’t quite sure which of the 3 finishing banners I should be running towards... sure sign I’d ‘got it all out’! Luckily a medic scooped me up and found me a plastic chair ...never has a plastic chair felt so good. Okay, so I blew on the run a bit, but I couldn’t have been more chuffed 4:45:37 and, for the first time in my triathlon career, the bike was my best discipline.

Swim 30:57 (4th)

Bike 2:32:22 (3rd)

Run 1:38:31 (5th)

Bringing me home 5th Overall – delighted!

In the coming weeks I’ll be setting 2011 goals with Jack and obviously I’m starting to think about target time for IM in 2011, I’ve always worked on the basis that your IM goal = HIM x 2 + 1hr. So accounting for the short bike course ((Vit+10mins) x 2 + 1hr) I guess sub 11 is possible? I don’t know about this, it sounds very ambitious and 29+ minutes is a lot to take off an Ironman time ...no doubt Mr Maitland will have a view on this too!!!

Finally then, my thoughts on the key ingredients for a successful season and hitting form at the right time...

1. A properly periodised programme – I can’t take credit here so thanks Jack

2. Stay healthy – this leads to consistent training, eat right and rest properly. With the exception of the calf injury, I’ve managed to stay healthy and injury free – rest and recovery is all part of your training programme and is the thing I see many triathletes neglecting (except for you David Beale if you are reading ;-))

3. Race frequently to develop your speed endurance but remember you can’t ‘peak’ for every race and you have to accept you can’t bring your A race to every event and but for 2-3 races a year the rest are just tough training sessions.

Well I’m now off to enjoy some downtime but look forward to spectating at the Bala Oly next weekend and seeing my husband, friends and clubmates race, with absolutely no desire to be racing myself and comfortable in the knowledge that, for 2010 at least, my work here is done.

Stay healthy and thanks for reading.

The story so far...

So, next year is going to be a big year for me, but first a little bit on my Ironman history...

I completed my first Ironman in 2005 and achieved a sub-12 hour performance in my debut at Ironman Canada (I was also only 4mins off Kona qualification at roll down) so felt that maybe I had some potential over the Ironman distance and perhaps it was something I could do well in?

 It was some 4 years later that I made my return to Ironman distance, keen to realise my potential, this time with the help and support of a first rate coach (and friend), Jack Maitland. 

My 2009 target was a sub 11.30hr ironman.  Ironman Switzerland was the event!  Sadly, things didn't quite go my way and a mechanical that had me sobbing on the side of the road for 25mins and some gastro issues on the run meant I missed my target by half an hour, finishing in a disappointing 12.01.  I was however confident that the 11.30hr target was very achievable and entered Challenge Barcelona the very next day.

Managing the 10 weeks between the two events was going to be a challenge but through Jack's careful management of my recovery, a further block of training and my taper and some words of support and encouragement from my good friend and talented long distance triathlete, Craig Twigg (himself not a stranger to Ironman disappointment), I arrived in Barcelona in great shape and full of confidence.

Challenge Barcelona 2009 saw me achieve my Ironman PB - 11.29 and left me confident that I was capable of more and so to 2011...

I have entered Challenge Roth and will revisit Challenge Barcelona before I return to Ironman Canada in 2012 with my eye on Kona qualification, I will also have moved up an age group which, while still uber competitive, could prove significant!

So what am I going to do in 2011 to better my 11.29?

Focus on the detail - I will, for the first time, be working with Performance Nutritionist Martin MacDonald.  Martin will be helping me to both ensure that my Ironman training diet is right (through the use of food diaries, dietary analysis and monthly consultations/support) and my race nutritional strategies are optimised.

Quality, quality, quality - I am happy that I've 'done enough' (I never have a problem motivating myself to get the miles in) in perparing for previous Ironman races but have I done enough in terms of specific training at 'race pace'???  Something Jack and I will be focusing on in 2011!

Race more - next year's Ironman preparations include a spring Marathon, a 100mile cycle time trial, 2 weeks big bike miles in Mallorca at Easter, among other things.

With a little help from my friends... I am in the fortunate position to have an Ironman husband, Duncan Shea-Simonds, and some great Ironman friends and training partners, next year I will continue to train with my great friends Rebecca Sore, Julie McFarland, Helen 'H' Oscroft, Martin Burder and Richard Jeggo (all of whom will be joining me in Mallorca).  These guys and girls support and inspire me every day and are always there to encourage me when the chips are down... but most importantly they are the best husband and friends a girl could hope for.  Never under estimate the role that your partner, family and friends play in achieving your Ironman goals!

So I hope to bring you regular updates as to my progress over the coming year.  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and happy training :-)