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Double Sport Weekend

Matt — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:28:10 +0000

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.

A decent week training

Matt — Sat, 22 May 2010 09:08:47 +0000

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.

Update! New bike..

Matt — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:27:59 +0000

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.

First ride out on new bike
Cycling for 01:44:59
26.86 mi @ 15.4 mph

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.

The Bike Question

Matt — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:00:52 +0000

Currently I’m riding a hybrid – it’s a Carrera Subway 2. It’s relatively light considering and gets me to and from the pub. For the Roade Sprint Triathlon I basically removed anything that could be unscrewed (mud guards, lights, lock etc.), added thinner slick tyres (Continental Sport Contacts – which were excellent) and Shimano M424 SPD pedals (a compromise SPD pedal as I can use them with normal shoes or my Specialized bike shoes).

This probably isn’t ideal for a 112 mile IM bike stage.. or even the 60 mile Cowman bike stage..

I need a proper bike.

It’s easy to get distracted by bikes. It’s easy to buy carbon fibre bits. They’re cool. But I’m looking for up to £1,000 of bike that I can ideally purchase through the UK Cycle-To-Work scheme (a cunning way of avoiding various taxes and saving up to 50%).

I’ve narrowed my choices down to,


Carrera Virago Carbon TT Road Bike 09	Boardman Road Bike Team Carbon Medium 09	Focus Cayo 105 2009

One of the above is a ‘proper’ triathlon bike – the other two a standard racing bikes. Currently I’m erring toward the latter, I can always get a more tri-specific bike next year. I’ll let you know what I do. No hurry for now with the winter season coming up.