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Treated myself to a new Garmin. I’ve got the 310XT which is waterproof. Here’s the track from this morning’s OW swim at Broggie.

I’ve also got the cadence sensor, which is now fitted to my Cayo. I’ll see how well that works out tomorrow. So far though I think it’s pretty good – not sure I’d race with it though as it’s quite big and will certainly make getting out of the w/suit harder.

My main goal this year is going to be the Olympic Distance MK Tri at the end of July. Right now I’m fairly confident I could probably complete a 70.3, although I have doubts about my knee. I’ve got my first Tri of the year coming up in a couple of weeks, the Big Cow Sprint which takes place at the same venue as the MK Tri. Without compromising my MK Tri plan too much I have started some exercises that I hope will benefit my sprint time.

Swim Drills
I’ve been following some suggested swim drills from 220 Triathlon (“Lunchtime Swims“). I probably need to improve my stroke too, but I think this will have to wait until the winter season now.

Intervals
I hate intervals! They’re always so painful.. but they do seem to work, particularly with my run pace. At the gym I’ve tried mini brick intervals. 5min race pace ride (difficult to judge as the kaiser bikes don’t seem to show speed), followed by 1k run, then 5 min rest. Once the sprint tri is out of the way I’ll bump the distances up, 8/10min ride & 1.5-2k run.

Brick Sessions
My old next door neighbour used to say, “Once you get off your bike, always go for a run no matter how short.” I like it because it feels like it’s preparing me for race day and helps me judge how quickly I need to pace myself. I’ve tried Olympic distance brick sessions, and today a sprint distance.

Transition Practice
I definitely need more of this! I can still make a complete pigs ear of getting out of my wetsuit. I’m still not sure what my bike shoe strategy is through T1 (Run in them? They’re road shoes, so no single strappery, no pull tab on the heel. I’m sure I’d cockup mounting bare foot). Socks? Bike gloves (I always wear them at the moment).. the list goes on. I’ve been practising getting in and out of my wetsuit, at least I know I have to do that (here’s a great video that I’ve found useful “Flawless Triathlon Transitions“)

General training levels have gone up by mixing in at least one ride to and from work into the week, plus heading off to the pool on a couple of lunch times for some distance or drills. I had a bit of a break by heading up north to visit family, but at least got a few decent walks in – although my walking boots seemed to trouble my heel a little.

The early morning Saturday OW swims at Brogborough are good as they mean I get something done on Saturdays before I have to look after Jodie, this week I was great as I had ample time to get a mile done and still be back home by 8.30. Since Jodie had a Tennis taster at the gym I also got time to put a 45 minute run in on the treadmill and make sure my heel was okay from the walking.

I finished off the weekend with an Olympic Distance brick session (40k Ride, 10k Run). This was good and bad. I tried out a couple of things. Firstly some SiS gels (The Smart1 caffine / carb gel at about 12mi on the bike, then an Isotonic Carb Go gel at around 22mi ready for the run). I think I prefer the Smart1 although the other was okay too. In a OD Tri I think I’d probably pack a couple more. I also took 500ml of SiS PSP22 on the ride, again this was pretty good.

The other thing I tried was not wearing socks. I think I should have researched this a bit more as this didn’t go wholly to plan. On the ride I had no problems at all even though my dhb R1 bike shoes aren’t Tri specific. The run started off okay except for a tiny bit of grit in my left shoe that kept me distracted, but it was my right that got worse. The first 5k was okay, but after that something started to rub on the inside edge of my foot, then toward my end – possibly because I was changing my gait the heel back to rub too. Probably talc in the shoes would help, I might see if I can identify the seam that was rubbing and coat it in something too. Anyway, I’m sat here typing with two blister plasters on – so a painful lesson learned.

Got over to Broggie on Saturday morning for my first OW swim. Met up with some of the TeamMK guys who were great and helped myself and a few other newbies in our first foray into lake swimming. Broggie is obviously really popular on a Saturday morning as the carpark got quite full with swimmers. There were probably about 10 TeamMK’ers and maybe 20 or more from Boxfit Tri Club (it’s one of their ‘home’ lakes). Many swimmers had turned up with bikes so were clearly planning on brick sessions.

First time out and the initial entry into the water wasn’t too bad. But shortly afterwards it does get quite cold on your face, and the tightness of the wetsuit can feel a little claustrophobic. I started with a few strokes, but I quickly found the sensation and experience a bit overwhelming and it was a bit like I’d completely forgotten how to swim. What was comforting was finding that the buoyancy of the wetsuit means you can easily roll onto your back and tread water without difficulty, so it’s quite easy to take a break.

We swam about 400m out to a platform by which time I’d warmed up nicely and was getting more accustomed to the sensation, it was a little off putting to see plant life below me though as we approached the platform! The swim back to the shore was much more pleasant. I’d adapted to the wetsuit which encourages a more gliding style of swimming and easily built up a rhythm. In total we probably only did about 800m but that’s by far the longest I’ve swum without touching the bottom / side etc.

All in all a really good first OW swim – I think Saturday mornings at Broggie will become a fixture, and hopefully another morning during the week too.

Finally getting my arse in gear. Got a mile swim done in the pool on Monday lunchtime, the usual 5mi (quickish) run home after work on Tuesday. Wednesday rode the 7mi to and from work on the hybrid (note to self – needs a service, metal on metal grinding is not good). Thursday another 45 mins in the pool doing various drills, would have gym’d on Friday (but didn’t) and then this morning met up with the TeamMK guys for my first OW over at Broggie (Brogborough).

Tomorrow I hope to get another long ride in and a quick run afterwards.

The good thing about this week is that none of these activities required a massive change to my usual day. I’m hoping this can work as a basis for a routine week and then I can look to increase the distance (take the long way home) or fit an extra run or ride in where possible.

I’ve picked two upcoming local Tri’s that feature an openwater swim (rather than Pool sprint). So obviously a wetsuit is a necessity (in this country). So I’ve got myself an Orca S2 from Wiggle and a tri-suit for underneath. The S2 is usually £99 from Wiggle, but currently I’m on their platinum discount scheme and got a bonus day so made a 15% saving. Also you can return the suit at the end of the season and get a refund mean a season’s hire is just £50.

Having never worn a wetsuit before I’m hoping it’s the right size. I struggled into it and it’s certainly tight – but not uncomfortably so. I’m yet to swim in it but the arms and legs seem flexible enough. Taking it off took an age too! Once I’d put it on and take it off in the comfort of my own home I tried again, this time a bit quicker – so I think it’s all down to technique. Perhaps it’ll be easier when it’s gotten wet too.

After I’d expended several gazillion calories getting in and out of the S2 I headed down the gym for a bit of a swim (without the suit) and some core / stretching work. My swimming has suffered a bit as I’ve been focussed on my bike / running recently with the Duathlon, it showed in the pool as I never really clicked into a rhythm. I need to work more swimming back into my schedule, and hopefully get some open water swims in with the TeamMK folk, probably early mornings so it doesn’t come as a complete shock to the system when I get to a race.

Reduced the bike distance slightly today and introduced a running session to give me a 1hr/1hr brick session. I haven’t done a whole lot of running recently so this was a refreshing (and tiring) change.

I’d also switched my Specialized MTB shoes and SPD cleets for more rode oriented Wiggle dhb R1 road shoes and Look system pedals. They’re much harder to get on with as the lack of grip of the shoes and the smoothness of the pedals means there’s no option to pedal whilst unclipped (something I’d gotten used to approach junctions with my SPD setup).

Anyway the bike went well, I thought initially I was quite slow but then realised I’d been in the top cog for the first few miles anyway so pace was good (17mph average, even with some slow traffic through Newport). The run was also good, with no knee issues at all – although I should have taken a drink with me as a few sips during “transition” weren’t really sufficient after an hour in the saddle and then nearly an hour on the paths, given it’s only mid-April it was quite a hot and sunny day.

A good session anyway, I’ll hopefully get a long ride in next week but still try to put some sort of run on the end of it.

So far this year my work load seems to be a stumbling block to any significant training. To tackle something serious like 70.3 or full IM and need to be able to fully commit to training for it and that isn’t happening right now. Given that I’ve been re-assessing what’s realistic – especially given that I’ve only recently had a proper road bike and I’ve yet to even begin open water swimming.

The likelihood of any open water swim being possible until May is low given the cold water temps right now. I’ve decided to start off with a Duathlon at Silverstone race circuit. A 2.5mi Run, 10mi Ride then 2.5mi Run. Silverstone is relatively close to where I live and offers a chance to compete on the famous motor racing circuit.

Following on from there of I’ve got a list of a few more ‘possibles’,

June 6 – Big Cow Sprint 750/20/5
June 29 – Silverstone Duathlon 2.5/10/2.5 (2nd race in the series)
July 4 – Cowman 1.9/92/21 or Cowman Sprint 750/20/5
July 25 – MK Tri 1.5/40/10
August 12 – Silverstone Duathlon 2.5/10/2.5 (3rd race in series)
August 15 – Beverley Tri 400/20/5 (my old school town, close to my parents)

Some of these are open water. I’d like to do at least one this year.

Wow, seems like I haven’t posted anything since Mid-January. Nothing much has changed, a ton of work from the office has meant I’ve not had any motivation / energy to get out a do anything. So I’m pretty much doing the same old every week. In addition a couple of my long runs have been spoiled by a recurrence of my knee problems which isn’t good for moral. On the positive side though my swimming is improving as I’ve been putting in 1 mile swims on Friday evenings (in the pool).

In an (expensive) attempt to give my motivation a kick I took the plunge and bought a ‘proper’ road bike. After weighing up the options (see earlier post), I did what everybody does and bought something more expensive. In the end I opted for the Focus Cayo Ultegra 2009. Same full carbon frame and forks as the 105, but with an upgrade to the Ultegra group-set. 220-Triathlon had given in a 10 out of 10 in the ‘mid-range’ price bracket – so I’m hoping it’ll see me through the next few years.

I had a few scary nervous rides up and down the street trying to get the hang of riding on roads, working out how the gear changes, forgetting where the brakes are etc.

So Today I switched my Sunday long run for a ‘first ride’ and actually felt much more settled than on my short test runs. I wasn’t pushing on particularly, just getting used to it. On the open road it’s great and when I remember to pedal through the full motion I can really feel it surge on.

Currently I’m using my Shimano SPD pedals whilst I’m waiting for some Look Classics and new road shoes to turn up… for once I managed to avoid speccing up, although the dhb R1 carbon road shoes for only £80 from Wiggle were very tempting.

Anyway – ride 1 done. I’ll have to try and get out on the roads more now the evenings are lighter.

Ran home in the snow on Tuesday – which was great. Conditions had conspired against me over the past couple of weeks and I thought I wouldn’t get the opportunity, but luckily the snow held out (as did my knee). It was a good run, not quick, but very enjoyable. Shame it couldn’t actually snow whilst I was out thought – that would have been fun.

I got a swim in on Friday, just shy of 1600m – I got a cramp in my foot a couple of lengths from the end which was annoying, but what was encouraging was that I could even get that far having not swum for several weeks.

Finally closed out the week by trying my new Mizuno’s out on my Sunday run. I told Laura that I wouldn’t be long as I was wearing new shoes and probably wouldn’t push it (plus my previous knee issues). I planned on doing about 5mi, but whilst out realised that it would be closer to 6 when I got back. Then approaching 6 felt good and put a bit more on to take it closer to 8. Then right near home decided that since I was having no problems, and the conditions were good I’d put an extra final loop of the lake on taking me up to just over 10! Excellent. I hadn’t gone prepared for that though so didn’t take any water, otherwise I could have probably gone on further.

Mental note. Don’t leave it to 500mi before replacing shoes again.

Time to get a (proper) bike..