New 1500m WR - 14:34min

Just watched Sun Yang's WR 1500m swim in 14:34min, beating Hacket's 10 year old record. Awesome, I swear he had a 2-beat kick , that he was breathing straight off the wall without a dolphin kick and had a front quadrant stroke. He's been watching me in the pool again!!! Fantastic to watch. I'm sure I counted only 25ish strokes per 50m. He was gliding along until the last 50 where he absolutely let rip.

Shingles

Burning, itching, painful spots appeared on my face, hands and soles of my feet over the last week equals Shingles. (Image - obviously not me - showing a very mild version for breakfast viewing). So that explains my inexplicable exhaustion over the last few weeks and up and down training stats even during the taper for Roth particularly on the bike. With a CP30 of 360W and I was unable to hold 280W last week for more than 20mins simply did not compute. Although my running has been awesome. Go figure. Well I have bloody Shingles. Well that's IM Wales bloody cancelled as well then!!! Fuck, shit, bollocks.

DNF

I had a personal disaster in Roth.

Bizarre injury getting out of a lake on the Wednesday before the race. It looked someone had taken a double Stanley knife to the bottom of my foot and it hurt like hell - freshwater barnacles WTF!!! Needless to say I was in pain and limping like a gimp all the way up to race day. Lets put it this way I would have pulled out of the race if I'd been back in England.

To the race,
I was feeling good in myself and in top form fitness wise. Personal Bests in training for the swim and bike in the lead in and 6 months of injury free running 5 days a week for 6 months.

I set off in the Elite AGers wave and was going pretty well when after 400m bang hamstring cramp in my right leg (suspicously the dodgy leg!). Lost the draft and feathered the swim from there on in trying to prevent the cramping. Got out of the swim thinking oh well at least 60mins at worst - 68mins on the watch WTF!!! Now I know something is seriously wrong. Put it to the back of my mind as its a long day and I can bring it back with a fast bike.

Wrong - on to the bike and the hamstring wasn't the problem now. I immediately had a painful back spasm down my right side (the dodgy leg side! Mmmmmmmm). This was so painful I swear a tear formed - a very small one obviously but a tear all the same. I would have pulled to side of the road and bailed after 10miles but this was a AAA race after all so I took a large dose of HTFU and kept going. After 30miles I knew this had been a bad move but the bike course is a difficult one to drop out from as it has split transitions and its not obvious how to drop out unless you just want to sit there for hours plus I wanted to go up the Solar Berg at least once. The pain was so great that my HR was in the 160s (IM pace is 120bpm for me), my RPE was through the roof but my actual power was deep in zone 1 ie no effort at all normally. Again WFT!!! Now the hamstring and the back had gone I couldn't put any power down or get in to aero position at all. In fact even sitting up hurt as well. Only getting out of the saddle gave any relief. To cut a long story short. I finished the bike (5:50hrs terrible but at least I know what no effort and agony means timewise now) and managed to prevent myself from blubbing for both physical and psychological reasons.

There was no way I could of run a step without causing a serious injury.

However, the race has caused quite a lot of reflection both good and bad and I really don't know if I want to do IM Wales now. Do I need/want a coach anymore etc.

One thing I do know is that I love training and I do love all 3 sports (well maybe not swimming that much at the moment). I saw a good quote the other day and I will leave with that...

“Commitment is doing what you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you."

Neilly G

Ridley Noah (Good News)

Had a great bike ride today followed by an ez brick run.

IM pace WU for an hour and then 2x 30mins @ 85% of CP. On the 1st rep my hr was so low that I thought I have to go for it on the next one as I haven't done a bike test in a while. (Don't tell my coach!) To cut a long story short I now have new best ever bike stats and at last a greater than 4W/Kg power to weight ratio. It may not seem like much to some of you bike ninjas out there but I'm a big guy for a triathlete and it now means I can back off the intensity at Roth and still produce a decent bike split.

Gettin' it done.

Neilly G

Flatout at work

A good week in Spain training followed by a difficult training week at home.

My final week;s training in Spain was good with my first sub 23min (1500m) swim and 2 very successful sessions where the heat and lack of hydration opportunities made them pretty hardcore. One was a 2.5hr trail run in the mountains and the other was a 5.5hr ride where I averaged 280W in the middle 4hrs. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Both done at altitude (well 1500-ish metres for a wimp like me). This made for 19hrs training during the week in total. Nothing earth shattering but I don't need a training camp at this stage that takes 3 weeks to recover from. All in all good stuff.

This week has been a bit a struggle and the lack of consistency has be hard to swallow as while I can't hit any of the high volumes regularly that are taken as the ideal, I have tried to make up for it by religiously hitting my key sessions. This week, however, I had to deliver a course single-handed at short notice and prepare a big presentation which meant little sleep and 3 days of zero training hours. One way of getting a recovery week in I guess (in hours anyway) but I did manage to do a 2hr run and a 4hr hardcore turbo session.

Looking forward to a couple of good weeks training and the Taper leading to Roth. Should be a fun race as I'm in the elite AG wave. Ha, ha. Oh well my swim and bike will probably stand the test. Before that though there is a flat 156mile sportive to attend to aptly named 'Flatout in the Fens' near Peterborough. I will be putting my bike strategy to the test there. The hardest part will be getting the 350+ calories in every hour so I don't bonk over that length of time.

Gettin' it done.

Neilly G

Trek TTX 9.9 SSL (Weekly Round Up)

Training today: Excellent OWS today. 5 laps of 800m and a quick run off it. One lap with paddles on. Felt really good in the water.

Weekly round up:

Swim (x3) 3hrs
Bike (x4) 8.5hrs
Run (x5) 4hrs

Total - 15.5hrs

Neilly G

I Got Tiger Blood, Man!

“I’m different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man.” You said it Charlie!!!

I had some good stats for my bike test today. Big jump in my CP5 and a decent rise in my CP20. Swimming stayed the same which is to be expected as I've been averaging 2 swims a week this month. Not worried about this as its all a compromise to get the balance of sports right to get me faster on the run in the summer.

Don't just do your best, do what's required. Oh, and have Tiger blood flowing through your veins like Charlie Sheen.

Neilly G

Neil Pryde Alize

Racking up the training nicely, and the weather's bloody changed for the better at last!!!

Trg today: Double run day.

am 90min ez run.
pm 30min tempo run.

30min flop in the pool.

Neilly G

Moots Compact SL

Trg today:

Bike - 2hrs Force. 6x 10 mins @ 45rpm.

Neilly G

Food Temptations

I felt like eating a lot of food after my training today but I resisted. A recovery shake, an apple and some pineapple with admittedly 3 bowls of homemade vegetable soup for dinner.

Trg today:

5hr Computrainer ride incl intervals.
30min transition run.

I have never worn so much clothing indoors to exercise and still been cold (and sweaty!!!). It was 3 degrees C in the garage. I had full winter gear on sans the jacket.

Neilly G

Squats on a Bike

My crap bike - Giant TCR Composite :-) - has been dusted down, mudguards added, oiled up and is now purring like a cat again. One hour on it doesn't sound much but outside with Powercranks on is not a simple proposition when you've not been on them in a long while. Nice to be outside again though. Who knows if they actually work but they are harder than normal cycling by a long shot and that must add some training effect. It's definitely HTFU squats on a bike training.

Trg today:
Bike - 60min Powercranks.
Swim - 60min Power Swim. Band, paddles etc.

Neilly G

Moser

Trg today:

Bike - 60min power 3x 10min.
Swim - 60min strength tempo inc 8x 200m.

Neilly G