IM Austria Preliminary

This weekend I will be attempting my second Ironman race. Last time in 2007 I did IM France. This time I'm going to Klagenfurt for IM Austria.

My previous time was 12:55, and inevitably I'm hoping to try to beat this. But am I as fit? And if so, where can I shave the minutes off?

I read an interesting document recently that took some averages of all the Ironman age-group times from events around the world, and estimated what course was the hardest. It even put times in. All things being equal, it says that I will be about 40 minutes faster on the Austria course than in France. However, I'm not so sure.

Swim

France was a sea swim, which is my favourite. Extra buoyancy from the salt water, which I also find tastes better. It was two laps, so maybe I'll save a minute there, but I'm fairly sure I'll be around the 1:30 mark again. I'm more confident in the water, and not so scared of the distance, and haven't had any cramp problems with my calfs so far - maybe I can push it a little and save 5 minues.

Bike

Austria doesn't have the long slow climbs that France had. However, I'm a fairly good climber and passed a load of people on that section. I may be atypical and so the time advantage wouldn't apply so much for me because of this. I'm not fast on the flat, and I'm not even very fast descending. My bike time for Windsor triathlon this year was only marginally faster (about 1 minute) than three years ago so time will tell if I can do any better. But I guess 1 minute over 40k equates to nearly 5 minutes over 180k.

Another thing to consider is that in France, I was aiming for 25km/h pace. and so I actively slowed myself down at times. The reason was to avoid overdoing it and not finishing. I did beat that average, but I think I'll be a little more ambitious this time. An average of 30km/h would give me a 6 hour bike time - I'd like that, and depending on the conditions, it is achievable.

Run

Both runs are flat. France was very open and simple to plan - 5K up to the airport, 5k back, and repeat 4 times. I liked this, as it made it very easy to maintain a steady pace. Austria has two laps, but I believe they meander through the town. It will be harder to keep track of my progress maybe. I'm not that confdent in beating my 4:26 time - though I have slightly better run training behind me this season. Time will tell.


Barring accidents or injuries, what it really comes down to I think is how hard I want to push it. I think I am more than capable of 13 hours again. I might be capable of 12 physically, but can I mentally make myself do it. I think this is unlikely. I'll try and do a better estimate soon, but right now, I'm hoping for 12:30.

Found an Ironman France 2007 video on YouTube.



Here is the link.

...that's me in the background, at 50 seconds, smiling :-)

Nokia Windsor Triathlon 2009

While it's all fresh in my mind, a race report.

Summary: I had a great day and finished with a time of 2:41:32, beating my PB from three years ago (which was 2:47:55) by over six minutes.

Detail:
My training regime this past year has involved a cycle commute to work. I normally set off at 6:55am, so my 6:50am start was no problem. I woke up before the alarm clock, and easily navigated the 5 minute drive down to the car park. Having said that, I didn't appreciate the time I needed to get ready; getting the wetsuit on, taping gels to the bike, cracking open a new pair of Zogs Predator goggles, pumping the tyres. I ended up slightly rushed and almost forgot to take my swimming hat to the start. I had to run to get there in time as my bike was positioned as far from the swim start as it's possible to get almost.



Swim:
The water wasn't cold, and the current in the Thames was hardly noticable, unlike last years torrent. I started off slow as usual at the back of the pack, breaststroking until I got some space. I really enjoyed the swim up the river, in the bright sunshine. The people in the waves behind didn't seem to be catching me as fast as last year, though I had no real idea of my time. At one point early on, I thought I was doing really well, and had a quick glance behind to see that there were only two green hats behind me. This was a bit of a disappointment, so I tried to swim a bit faster. Turned around at the buoy, and swam back, and oddly this shorter section seemed to take ages. I never felt particularly tired - always my aim in the swim section. This is good as in three weeks I have to do a 3.8Km swim. Worried that I'd miss the hidden exit, I kept looking up, which was a bit silly. Nevertheless I was really pleased when I got out and looked at my watch:

Swim 37:12

Long run down to my bike, managed to get the wetsuit half off as I went, and did a fairly standard time for T1. Could do better with the wetsuit

T1 2:17



Bike:
Hoping for big things from new Planet-X Stealth carbon bike, but interestingly the technology doesn't seem to have made any significant difference to my time from three years ago. However, it was a lot of fun out there, and I passed a lot of people. Too many people passed my though - I can do better with some specific speed training. I'm training for an Ironman race, so have been more interested in endurance. Slightly annoying was a car that got in the way and appeared to be tracking cyclists rather than trying to overtake. I actually had to pass it myself. As usual, one cyclist seemed to be doing my exact pace, so we leapfrogged each other the whole course. Non-drafting makes this complicated and annoying. I was happy to keep the pace brisk, but not kill myself anywhere - ~34km/h on the flat, and ended with an average 33.4km/h

Bike 1:11:55

I don't think there is really anything I need to work on for T2. Perhaps taking my feet out of my shoes before dismounting would shave a few seconds, but I don't like the extra risk of this, and the loss of speed whilst I'm freewheeling.

T2 1:33


Run:
The run is always harder then I expect it will be. I've done quite a few brick sessions so I didn't suffer from wobbly leg syndrome and felt happy running right from the start. I did feel tired, though not too bad, but didn't feel fresh obviously. I had to put a new elasticated lace on my left shoe and it wasn't correctly tightened. During the second lap, my foot didn't feel right, so I had to stop and tighted the lace. I was fine after that but that lap time is a bit slower and I blame worrying about the foot and stopping to fix it for that. But I was consistent at approximately 16 minutes a lap, with a slight negative split, which is nice. I had enough left for a strong finish - maybe I should have pushed sooner (really got going at the second water stop by Eton College)

Run 48:35

Total Time 2:41:32

Conclusion:
All my times were faster than three years ago (I'm going to try and forget last year's race ever happened :-) ) My overall position was 725th - but considering my swim position was 1444th, I know where I have to improve. I've always known this though. For the record, bike position was 336th which is very pleasing, but run was 601st. I need to keep cycling as I am, and get swim coaching, and do some speedwork for running, before i do this triathlon again.

Nutrition:

For the record.

Pasta dinner the night before, obviously :)
Small banana for breakfast, a few sips of PSP22
SIS caffeine gel as I made my way to the swim start.

2 SIS gels on the bike, and ~400ml of Go electrolyte drink. This was too much - I felt a bit bloated. I usually cycle for an hour before even touching any liquids.

Grabbed a banana in T2, forced down two big bites as I ran. This made me feel worse in fact, but maybe the energy kicked in later. Should have had a gel instead perhaps. Had one sip of water on lap 2.

Only five days to go to the Nokia Windsor Triathlon 2009.

This will be my first triathlon of the year, a small barometer of my fitness. I expect to have a really hard swim (it's been raining heavily so the river will probably have a strong current). I have a new bike and would like to shave a few minutes off previous cycle times. I haven't managed to injure myself yet this year, and if that continues, I am planning on putting in more of an effort on the run.

I'd love to beat my PB, but weather permitting, will settle for beating three hours. I am pretty fit, but I've neglected my swimming, so that's probably going to be the deciding factor.

This is only my 'B' race - Ironman Austria 2009 in under four weeks is my 'A' race, so I need to do what I can to prepare for that.

Equipment - Helmet - Giro Atmos

I decided to do triathlon properly after my first sprint attempt. I used a pretty crappy mountain bike helmet in that event, and it only just passed inspection (didn't even realise at the time that they did helmet inspections).

So I went down to my local triathlon shop, SBR in Windsor, and had a long look at the helmets. I wanted something light, strong, sleek and black (in my black phase, other colours are available). I wasn't quite prepared for the price I would have to pay to get all these features in one package, but it quickly became obvious that the Giro Atmos was the helmet for me.

Here is a very positive review of the Atmos.

I've been very happy with the Atmos. I hardly know I'm wearing it except for the chin strap which I might have done a bit on the tight side. As the review says, it is very light, it has a lot of ventilation (has been used in 35-40C in the south of France), and I'm assured it is strong though, hope never to put that to the test. I've also worn it all winter in rain/sleet and snow - it's probably pshchological, but it also seems to keep my head warm.

Me and my Atmos at the Windsor Triathlon.



Do yourself a favour, and get a helmet like this one, not some cheap alternative from Halfords.

September's cycle commute to work

So I've completed my first full calendar month of commuting to work by bicycle.

"How has it been Robert?" you ask.

Well, it's been pretty good actually.

Temperature:
At the start of the month, I was cycling in shorts and short-sleeved jersey. Very quickly discovered I needed an undershirt, especially in the mornings, and also long sleeves, and then a warm shower-proof jacket, and finally, running tights over my shorts. So now I'm in full autumn gear. Even wearing fingerless gloves is a bit on the chilly side, and my feet were cold this morning too. i don't really mind what the temperature is when I'm cycling, just as long as I'm dressed appropriately.

Funnily enough, when it was warmer, I'd get home in the evening feeling parched and drain a can of Fosters lager in about 5 minutes. I kept that up for a few weeks, but lately I'm not that thirsty at all, so I've given the lager up.

Rain:
I've only managed to get properly soaked about 3 or 4 times. I haven't got any mudguards, so if the road is very wet, I get wet anyway from the spray even if it isn't actually raining. I honestly don't mind cycling in the rain. It's just annoying getting my clothes dry again, and putting on damp clothes to cycle home.

Sunshine:
I had to buy some lights for my bike. I leave home at ~6.55am, and by the end of the month, this time is before when the sun comes up. It's not so dark that I can't see where I'm going, but I need to be seen by car drivers. I just have a front and rear light on in blinking mode. I cycle towards the east in the morning, and towards the west in the evening. This is a bit problematic at about 5.30pm at the moment, as I'm going straight into the setting sun and cars behind me are blinded and have difficulty seeing me. In a couple of weeks, this won't be a problem any more - it'll be dark. I will have to buy a proper light I think for the front, as some of my commute is along a country road with no street lighting and quite a few deep potholes.

Wind:
More than hills. More than rain. Cycling into the wind is what I hate most. Prevailing winds seem to be westerlys. So I get a bit of a push to work, and have to struggle home. It would be nicer the other way round I think. My times to work are about 5 minutes faster than those home, though traffic also plays a big part in that difference. (Record for coming in is now just over 43 minutes, done today, 2/10/08)

Route:
I take the same route every day. If I leave at 6:55am, I never get stopped at the level crossing in Datchet. Five minutes later, and I do. So I leave at 6:55am. It's more difficult to leave the office at a set time, so occasionally a train is blocking traffic in Datchet on the way back. If this is the case, then I go round by Eton instead. This adds only about 0.5km to the journey.

My route is mostly flat, only briefly made interesting by a climb over a railway line, and over the M25 and M4 motorways, and in the mornings, up past Windsor Castle. This suits my bike well.

Fitness:
I'm riding my Specialized Langster exclusively now, in fixed gear mode. Having only one gear, and not being able to stop pedalling, is great discipline, and I'm positive that my legs are far stronger now than they have been since Ironman France. I am still easing myself into things, not pushing all out. Even so, my times are generally getting faster and I'm feeling less tired afterwards and recovering more quickly too. In fact, I find the whole experience less tiring than my London commute on the Brompton was. My plan is to continue like this until at least Christmas (that's if my contract gets renewed of course). Ironman Austria is not until July, and there will be plenty of time in the spring to increase my endurance.

An unfortunate side effect seems to be that I feel less interested in other training, especially swimming. I'm only managing about one 30 minute run a week on top of the cycling. Again, I don't think this is a problem at this stage. Once my body is fully used to the commute, I will factor the other exercising into my schedule.

Enjoyment:
Not getting bored yet. Feel very virtuous. On Sundays, even if I've had a ride in the morning on my Ridley, I'm itching for Monday morning so I can get on the Langster again - it's a great bike.

Fixie

I popped down to the local bike shop (Stowes of Windsor) and they helpfully flipped the wheel of my Langster over for me.

I'm now riding a fixie !!

I've only ridden back from the shop so far, and my practice over the last few weeks seems to have paid off as I didn't find it too bad. Time will tell, when I head off to the normal rush hour traffic on Monday morning.

It's fun though, I can't wait :-)

Commuter Bike

DSC03868
Originally uploaded by se71

For the rest of my current contract, or at least while it's in it's current location, I'm cycling to work every day. No more trains!


It's about 13 miles each way, and is quite flat, so rather than ruin my Ridley triathlon bike, I thought I'd use the money saved from Southwest Trains and get a new steed.


Fixed wheel bikes are all the rage, and have a lot to be said for them. My new bike, pictured above, is a Specialized Langster, which can run as either a fixed, or a single speed, depending on which way round you put the rear wheel. For those not in the know, the difference is that riding as single speed means that you are able to free-wheel, whereas with fixed, you have to pedal all the time, and pedalling backwards would mean actually riding backwards. Fixed wheel bikes are what those Olympic gold medallists ride in the velodrome.


It has only one gear in either configuration, so you will struggle up steep hills, and have legs like a spin-dryer going back down them. But there are many advantages. On the flat, the gearing is such that you have a cadence (leg revolutions per minute)
higher than you would probably pick on a geared bike. Spinning at 90-100 revolutions per minute is supposed to be good for triathlon training and I think I'm in that range for most of my commute. Having no gears means less maintenance and a lighter bike. I've also noticed that my bike is a LOT quieter than I'm used to.


I'm sticking to single speed for a week or two to get used to the gearing, and I'm thinking seriously about switching across to fixed soon. The disadvantages to fixed are that it's challenging to stop especially in emergency situations, and it's not possible to rest at all y free-wheeling. That latter point is also an advantage, in that you get a much better workout on your cycle trip.


I'm on my second day cycling so far, and am really enjoying the simplicity of this bike. It's also for some reason much smoother over the bumps than the Ridley. I'm trying to pretend I'm on a fixed wheel, pedalling all the time, which is especially hard down hills, coming up to traffic lights, and clipping my left foot in on the move. I have the old fashioned clips and am cycling with trainers, but I will probably change this to a different style of pedal once I work out what I want.


Definitely recommend the experience so far.