News

As most races back in England seem to be getting cancelled I thought I better kick off the race reports for 2010 with a look at the Noosa Triathlon, Queensland, Australia (21st Feb 10). Well, it's not the real Noosa Triathlon which takes place every October as part of a week of multisport races and attracts around 3000 entrants.... no, this was a little training race organised by Noosa Triathlon Club with around 75 people taking part! In fact it was 2 races, a middle distance event (2km, 90km, 21km) and a short course event (1km, 45km, 10.5km) with about half the field in each race. The club try to organise a ‘training race' about once every month (sort of like our training Duathlons), always of different distances and using a variety of courses. They are pretty lucky really with the choice of swimming in the sea, river or one of the local lakes and pretty quiet roads to choose from, as long as you start early. I was doing the race to finish off my training for Iron Man New Zealand which takes place on 6th March in Taupo. As there isn't really that much exciting stuff to say about the Noosa race itself, I've filled things out with what I'm doing in Australia and how I'm getting ready for Taupo.

Australia

I've been writing a bit of a blog on facebook about Jacqui and my trip over here which I'll dig out the links to if I can find them.

Basically Jacqui decided to go ‘full-time' with this triathlon thing and having the power to see into the future we could tell that England was going to be frozen for most of the winter and thought the sun, sand and surf of Australia sounded like a much better way to kick things off. After arriving on the 1st Jan with no fixed plans and driving up the East coast from Sydney via Surfers Paradise we ended up in Noosa and quickly decided we wanted to stay. You can read all about what Jacqui's been up to on here website / blog / twitter..... www.jacquislack.com

Once we had decided on dates and bought our flights, I decided to enter IM New Zealand as our tourist visa's meant we could only stay for up to 3 months at a time. The race fitted in just fine and I've always wanted to visit. (There was also a Continental Cup Race in Wellington the week after the IM for Jacqui to do). As I've pretty much been off racing for the last two years due to spending my time working/coaching I thought it would be good motivation to get myself fit, but with all the planning in the run up to leaving I managed to ride my bike twice in the last 2 months. Not the best prep for an ironman. That said I was running and swimming a couple of times a week so I wasn't totally unfit. So as soon as we arrived in Oz I hit things pretty hard.

Training

The plan was to build up my training volume over the first 3 weeks then hold it there for the next 4 before tapering over the final 2. Not rocket science, but being short on time and having never raced (or wanted to race) anything longer than Olympic Distance I knew I had to get some miles in. I wasn't sure how I was going to get on with the heat or with the fact I was coming into it with an average weekly volume of about 5 hours, but there was only one way to find out. I knew most of my volume was going to be made up of cycling with my target being 450-500km per week. I decided to set a weekly run target of 60-75km and keep it pretty consistent week on week with quite a lot of quality sessions as I get bored just plodding along and my legs hurt the same whether I go fast or slow. Apart from the hell of the start I wasn't too worried about swim so I decided to take it easy to begin with, just working on some technique stuff and long reps (e.g. 4x1k) and see how I was feeling after week 3-4. For the first couple of weeks I didn't expect to have access to a gym (and thought I would be tired enough from everything else) so I just did a bit of core work and stretching whenever I could, but the plan was to fit in 3 sessions a week once we got settled. These would be working on max strength, using Olympic lifts 3-5 sets of 3-5 reps. Why I hear you ask! Partly because this is something we are working on with Jacqui, partly because holding yourself together (decent form) during an Ironman is a matter of strength as much as endurance, partly because using Olympic lifts stops you from getting too stiff and unbalanced (in fact it can be the best type of stretching there is) and partly because whilst I am taking this IM seriously enough to make sure I get round I want to make use of the time to get fit for racing when I get home.

There were a number of things that I really should have had in my training:

• Rides on my race bike in race position - I only brought out my road bike and am borrowing someone else road bike for the race! So I have not ridden any rides in my race position, I don't know if I will even be using tri-bars till I have had a look at the bike I'm using once I arrive. Not great!
• Practiced using the race nutrition products - I've been doing quite a lot of training (particularly early morning or on shorter, easier sessions) without using bars, gels or even energy drink. Mainly because it's expensive over here and we couldn't bring much with us and partly to get my body used to burning fat (a bit of bad science). I haven't had a chance to test the race drinks (Horley's or something like that which I have never heard of and can't buy here) and Power Bars/Gels. So this could spell disaster on the day but never mind.
• Brick Sessions - I scheduled this Noosa Race as soon as I knew it was taking place and have been running off the bike a bit in the last few weeks, but haven't put in the long bike / run sessions I probably should. We'll see if I come to regret this.
• Swimming in a wetsuit - I've got it with me but the water is so warm here you don't need it when open water swimming. I'm going to have to do this once I arrive in Taupo.
• Long runs and Long rides - Whilst I have run up to 2 hours 15 mins and cycled up to 130km I haven't put in anything approaching race distance. Again I might come to regret this but I focused more on total training volume than the volume of one session. I didn't want to overdo one session then need to take a day off.

To my surprise everything has gone pretty much as planned. We had a few wet days where I had to shorten or occasionally miss a ride because the roads were dangerous. I also had a few days were I was tired, but just took half a day off or shortened a couple of sessions and usually felt good by the next day. My first day off was the day after the Noosa race and to be honest I was bored by the end of the day and couldn't wait to do something the next day. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to someone I was coaching but it just worked ok for me this time. I think the warm weather and plenty of R&R in between sessions has made a real difference as has the motivation/inspiration of some great training partners when I wanted to push myself.

For those that like facts and figures below is a summary of each weeks training with detail of an ‘average week' once I'd reached peak volume (I think I've spent too much time with Skip).  If you don't then move along quickly:

(Discipline | Sessions | Distance (km) | Duration (hh:mm)

Week 1: 17:43

Swim 4 11200 03:45:00
Bike 4 180000 08:00:00
Run 5 48000 04:08:00
S&C 3 0 01:50:00

Week 2: 20:50

Swim 4 11400 04:05:00
Bike 4 258000 11:20:00
Run 8 62300 05:25:00
S&C 0 0 00:00:00

Week 3: 27:05

Swim 5 16900 06:05:00
Bike 10 402000 15:50:00
Run 5 58000 05:10:00
S&C 0 0 00:00:00

Week 4: 28:33

Swim 5 13300 05:10:00
Bike 8 477000 17:35:00
Run 6 72000 06:33:00
S&C 1 0 00:15:00

Week 5: 32:45

Swim 5 16500 05:35:00
Bike 7 487000 17:35:00
Run 4 60000 05:15:00
S&C 3 0 3:20:00

Week 6: 26:35

Swim 6 17500 06:00:00
Bike 5 330000 11:20:00
Run 4 65500 05:30:00
S&C 3 0 3:45:00

Week 7: 30:48

Swim 5 22000 07:15:00
Bike 4 405000 14:00:00
Run 4 73000 06:33:00
S&C 3 0 3:00:00

Week 7 finished with the Noosa Race (21st Feb) then I have 2 weeks to taper till the race.

Monday

• 09.30-11.00: Swim: with squad at Noosa Aquatics 90 mins (4.5-5k - 2-3k Hard aerobic swimming. 1-1.2k with bands / towels around ankles!)
• 11.00-12.00: S&C: Stretching, Core and 2 x Olympic Lifts 60-75 mins
• 16:00-18:00: Run: Long Run 90-120 mins (increase pace final 20 mins)

Tuesday

• 06:00-09:00: Bike 70-90k steady
• 12:00-13:00: Swim (2-3k with main set of 12 x 100 as 25 fast, 75 easy)
• 16:00-18:00: Run - Interval Session (15k - Main set of 5-8 x 1k @ 80-85% Max HR then descend to max over final 3. Rest around 2-3 mins of steady jogging)

Wednesday

• 09.30-11.00: Swim: with squad at Noosa Aquatics 90 mins (4.5-5k - 2-3k Hard aerobic swimming. 1-1.2k with bands / towels around ankles!) or own swim if tired. Every other week this would be swapped with a 90 min beech swim session with local surf club which was intervals in and out of water. Well knackering.
• 11.00-12.00: S&C: Stretching, Core and 2 x Olympic Lifts 60-75 mins
• 16:00-19:00: Bike: 60-90k sometime done to practice IM pace or slightly faster.

Thursday

• 06:00-09:00: Group Ride - Out and Back. Steady on the way out then chain gang/race on the way back. Hard work. Followed by 20k easy to finish.
• 13:00-15:00: 15k run. Usually with main set on treadmill in the gym. 30 mins WU followed by a ‘tempo' set at 15-16km.h with intervals totalling ~30 to 40 mins. E.g. 3x10 or 3/6/9/6/3 with 1 min between

Friday

• 09.30-11.00: Swim: with squad at Noosa Aquatics 90 mins. As other session, but I would usually swim down a lane to make it more aerobic.
• 11.00-12.00: S&C: Stretching, Core and 2 x Olympic Lifts 60-75 mins
• Afternoon off!

Saturday

• 06.00-09.00: Group Ride as per Thursday with a group ride out and chain gang/race back except on a route along the coast which is longer.
• 14:00-15:30: Ironman swim. Something like main set of 4x1k or 2x2k, etc with 1 min between intervals, alternating straight swim, paddles, pull buoy, etc. Always at target IM pace.
• 16:00-17:00: 10-12k run with 10x100-150m ‘sprints'. Not flat out but just to work on form with long jog/run recoveries between.

Sunday

• 06:00-10:00: Long ride. 100k plus.
• 16:00-17:00: Open water swim with Noosa tri Club at Main Beach 2k out/back.

Noosa Triathlon Club Race

Time to get back to the race in Noosa. I'd opted to do the shorter distance and as this was my last training session before the start of my taper I was feeling pretty tired and treating it very much as a brick. Wearing a 4 year old tri-suit with a broken zip, knackered helmet, a bike that had no seat pin, severely creaking cranks and need a wash/tlc; some worn out running shoes and cycling shoes with worn through carbon soles I wasn't looking too sharp and was hoping everyone else wouldn't be taking it too seriously. When I showed up in transit at 5.30am I was met by lots of carbon bikes, deep section wheels and people looking very much up for it. I realised I would have to pull myself together. Having ridden the 5km down to the start at Lions Park and a quick jog to the toilet then I considered myself warmed up and headed down to the swim start. For my race it was one x 1km lap around an island in Noosa River with the long race doing two. As we started a few sprinted off and formed a group of about 5. I settled in a few metres behind with one other swimmer and that is pretty much how it stayed. As I ‘woke up', I closed slightly and as I peeled off to exit whilst all those doing the long race carried on for a second lap I realised I was winning my race. Never having lead out of a swim before I now ran into transition and proceeded to faff for twice as long as necessary as if the race was all but done, only when I saw the next swimmer coming into transition did I get a move on.

The bike didn't go great. If I'm fit I'm usually good at this bit and don't often have people come past me. Well I was definitely fit, if a bit tired and lacking time trial practice, but there were 2 problems. I didn't really want to go too hard with the Ironman less than 2 weeks away and I was riding my road bike and couldn't really get into a good TT position. Two guys came past me at 10km which gave me someone to track off but I still lost a fair bit of time to them by the time we got back to transition.

With a quick T2 I was off on the run to try to catch them both. I was met with quite a reception as Jacqui was there with our landlady (or adopted mum) Jo and 4 of their friends who had come over for dinner the night before and were staying at a hotel by main beach. This gave me a bit of a boost and I ran well on the outward leg of the first lap (we have 2 to do in total). I caught the guy in second after about 2km and thought I would get site of the leader coming back from the turnaround, but I never saw him. Apart from at the turnaround point there was no signage on the run and I ended up going the wrong way. I stopped at the Elvis café and asked if anyone had seen any runners before I was joined by the guy I had just overtaken who said he had no idea which way the run went either! We could see the back of a sign in the distance that turned out to be the turnaround. We had added about 400m onto the first lap as well as another 30 seconds deciding where to go. I also lost my mojo and started to feel tired as I didn't think I had a chance of catching the leader now (not sure I wouldn have anyway). The rest of the run felt more like a tired plod as I was running for nothing, comfortable in second, no chance of catching first and feeling tired after 30 hours of training that week. I was over the moon to get to the finish and eat as much fruit bread and cake as possible before anyone else finished. It also felt great when I realised that everyone doing the long course race hadn't even finished the bike yet! Jac and me headed off to a café for a chocolate milk shake (best recovery drink ever) before heading back to see the end of the long course race. It was hot by then and it looked really hard work.

On the whole I enjoyed my first Australian race. I'm really into low key club races as they give you the motivation you need to push harder than you would in training without all the fuss and expense. Everyone's seems more relaxed too so you don't get any of the stress. The weather was perfect, food at the finish was a bonus and only a short ride home meant I was all done by 10.00. I didn't feel as good as I had hoped in the race as I wanted to cruise and finish feeling strong, but instead I was knackered and couldn't wait to stop. Looking back I shouldn't have been surprised as I've never done an Oly after such a heavy block of training. I'm now happily enjoying my two week taper. We travel to New Zealand this Sunday night and will get to Taupo on Tuesday. Hopefully I'll get a couple of days to check out the course and ride on the bike I am borrowing before racing on Saturday 6th. Unless it's a complete disaster I'll write another report to let you know how it goes!

Latest News - We've just heard that Jacqui has got a start in the ITU World Cup Race in Mooloolaba on March 28th! With lots of athletes using it as a warm-up for the World Champ Series opener in Sydney the field looks like being pretty stacked. I think the nerves are kicking in already......

Even Later News as it has taken so long to put this online - Jac did the World Cup race and finished 25th out of 42 starters on a pretty brutal course. No bad as she was seeded 40th going into it. You can read her race report here.