Finally a little write up from The Big Dog Swim last Thursday near Reading. I had the afternoon off work instead of my usual Thursday morning and picked Mr W up from work to drive down to the swim. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere with about 75 people competing over two distances, 1500m and 3.8k.
I was familiar with the lake, having used it for my 10k training in 2010. It is quite small, with a 750m loop, so we were required to swim 5 laps with a little bit extra. Unfortunately, we swam 50m down from the finish for the little bit extra, whilst the 1500m swimmers started at the finish line. This meant that shortly after starting the race, there was a bit of rough and tumble as you tried to negotiate some rather slower swimmers. I felt that I set out strongly, and couldn't see too many white caps (3.8k distance) in front of me. Unfortunately, I was really very tired and by lap 2 I was already flagging. With so many laps to do (another company who runs 3.8k swims does 3 laps...) it was slightly mentally frustrating too to think that I had to finish this one and go around another 3 times. It was very tempting to get out after 1500m and call it a day, writing off the experience to poor planning and insufficient recovery. But I do have stamina and perserverence (or perhaps sheer bloody mindedness), so I kept swimming and by lap 4 I had revived a little. At one point I tried drafting off another white cap, but he was swimming faster and less straight than me so we kept playing leap frog. Eventually I got nearly to the end, and put my head down and tried to sprint with whatever I had left. Which wasn't much. It was a deep water finish and I struggled a little to see where I needed to stop without losing speed, but I got there.
Time was 1:04:10.
Although I was a little underwhelmed by my time, it was good enough for 6th overall and 2nd woman (the race was in fact won by a woman in just over 55 minutes!). I think given that I don't usually race in the evening, and that I was still recovering from the triathlon, the 1500m swim, and probably the 14k from 10 days before, it was a reasonable result.
I do enjoy swimming the 3.8k distance and I hope I can still find a few opportunities for it next year, but I definitely need to balance my race calendar a little better.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Monday, 3 September 2012
Paralympics
On Saturday, I had a wonderfully inspiring day out at the Paralympics. I had been hugely disappointed not to get tickets for the swimming at the Olympics, but hadn't even thought about going to the Paralympics when my very kind colleague offered me a ticket for the heats on the morning of 1st September to go with his sister in law and her husband. I didn't even think about it before saying yes, and spent most of the preceding 10 days feeling really exciting about it and trying to decide which of my Olympic pieces of clothing, amassed in the previous month, to wear.
As the session started at 9.30am, it required an early start. I was up at 5.30am (but had actually been awake since 4.30am!) to drive to the Park and Ride to catch the bus to London. It was obvious that several other people waiting for the bus were going in the same direction, and as I chatted to a woman in Games Maker uniform (who worked in the athletes bar apparently!), the lady in front turned around and turned out to be my colleague's sister in law. We'd been intending to meet at the Aquatics Centre and had never met before so it was rather fun to meet randomly at the bus stop and then travel across London together. The bus was quick and we were in London by 7.15am, catching the tube from Marble Arch across to Stratford. When we came out at Stratford, there was a sea of volunteers pointing us towards the Olympic Park and a procession of people. I'd been a bit worried about long queues, but the longest queue we faced was that for tea!
Here are some pictures of the park:
Here is the first glimpse of the Aquatics Centre
When we got into the Aquatics centre, the swimmers were warming up. I was absolutely astonished to find that we had front row seats, and right by the finish line! The Paralympics were so much cheaper than the Olympics, I couldn't believe that my ticket had just cost £30.
I got a quick picture of me by the pool in my Team GB accessories!
The diving pool was looking a bit forlorn I thought.
At half past nine the officials came on...
...followed by some swimmers and it was time for the first race.
We watched a mix of different races across different classifications. There are 10 classifications for swimmers ranging from S1, the most severe, to S10, least severe, with S11-S13 for swimmers with visual impairments. (We saw the S11 50m freestyle which was also interesting as the swimmers were hit with a little ball on a stick as they approached the end.) The classifications are not determined by the condition but by how that affects how well people can swim, which meant that there were people with varying disabilities in each race. In the more severe cases (we saw some S5 breastroke) this might mean that a swimmer without arms was swimming against one without the use of the legs (which is important in breastroke).
It was all absolutely fascinating and utterly humbling. The S6 men were able to swim their 400m faster than I could.
But the highlight was seeing Ellie Simmonds set a new Paralympic record and go through fastest to the 400m S6 final. Here she is at the start (further red cap away)
...diving in....
...swimming along...
...and heading for the finish. WOW.
The session finished shortly after midday so I took a bit of a stroll around the Olympic Park. There were lots of beautiful flowers planted at the sides of the main walkways.
I couldn't resist heading into the London 2012 megastore to come away with a souvenir. I bought a Paralympics Tea Towel. Highly practical, and one of the cheaper things on offer!
Absolutely excellent day out.
As the session started at 9.30am, it required an early start. I was up at 5.30am (but had actually been awake since 4.30am!) to drive to the Park and Ride to catch the bus to London. It was obvious that several other people waiting for the bus were going in the same direction, and as I chatted to a woman in Games Maker uniform (who worked in the athletes bar apparently!), the lady in front turned around and turned out to be my colleague's sister in law. We'd been intending to meet at the Aquatics Centre and had never met before so it was rather fun to meet randomly at the bus stop and then travel across London together. The bus was quick and we were in London by 7.15am, catching the tube from Marble Arch across to Stratford. When we came out at Stratford, there was a sea of volunteers pointing us towards the Olympic Park and a procession of people. I'd been a bit worried about long queues, but the longest queue we faced was that for tea!
Here are some pictures of the park:
When we got into the Aquatics centre, the swimmers were warming up. I was absolutely astonished to find that we had front row seats, and right by the finish line! The Paralympics were so much cheaper than the Olympics, I couldn't believe that my ticket had just cost £30.
At half past nine the officials came on...
We watched a mix of different races across different classifications. There are 10 classifications for swimmers ranging from S1, the most severe, to S10, least severe, with S11-S13 for swimmers with visual impairments. (We saw the S11 50m freestyle which was also interesting as the swimmers were hit with a little ball on a stick as they approached the end.) The classifications are not determined by the condition but by how that affects how well people can swim, which meant that there were people with varying disabilities in each race. In the more severe cases (we saw some S5 breastroke) this might mean that a swimmer without arms was swimming against one without the use of the legs (which is important in breastroke).
It was all absolutely fascinating and utterly humbling. The S6 men were able to swim their 400m faster than I could.
But the highlight was seeing Ellie Simmonds set a new Paralympic record and go through fastest to the 400m S6 final. Here she is at the start (further red cap away)
The session finished shortly after midday so I took a bit of a stroll around the Olympic Park. There were lots of beautiful flowers planted at the sides of the main walkways.
Absolutely excellent day out.
Sunday, 2 September 2012
40 mile Sportive
I am seriously behind with my blog now as so many exciting things have happened in the last 7 days. My husband even asked me on Friday when I was going to write up my 3.8k swim for the blog because he was looking forward to reading it. Well, he, and you will have to wait, as I've decided to blog about today first, and then catch up on everything else that I want to cover in the next few days (3.8k swim, splits from last Monday's tri, photos from my 14k river swim, and my amazing trip to the Paralympics yesterday - so stay tuned).
Today was my longest and fastest cycle ride to date. It was the Ox and Bucks Sportive which was held to raise money for the Children's Brain Tumour Foundation. There were two options available, 40 miles or 70 miles. Obviously we signed up for the 40 miles.
I was quite nervous about it after the disaster of my 34 miles and especially as I've have a lot of events in the last 8 days and not been feeling tip top due to work and not sleeping very well. In fact I wasnt even really sure that I was going to do it until I got out of bed this morning. Well, of course I was going to do it, I like to finish things.
We set off at 8am and were almost immediately overtaken by everyone else setting off in our wave (the waves were 10 minutes apart). As usual I felt wobbly for a mile or so; I wish I felt comfortable sooner on my bike, I guess that will come with practice and experience. But I soon settled down and was even contemplating trying to grab my drink whilst cycling. I didn't, because I only had one bottle of squash and I didn't really want it all over the road. I practiced my hand signals instead. Because I've had problems with back pain in the past few rides, the plan was to get off at regular intervals to stretch my back out and this seemed to really help. It wasn't actually that long before we saw the 10 mile marker - a quarter of the way through. I was absolutely flying along the first half until we hit the food station just before 20 miles. The first ten miles were hilly, but the second were flatter. After the food station it all got a bit more rolling again and I think we slowed down, but we seemed (with back stretching stops and a couple of stops to pee) to be tackling each 10 miles in about 55 minutes which wasn't too bad. By about 34 miles I was starting to really have to dig in, my legs were tired and it was further than I'd cycled before, but I was doing far better than when I had cycled this far before. Unfortunately it got more and more hilly (in the uphill direction) and I got more and more miserable, culminating in a descent to the finish which I just couldn't manage to get down. Descents are my weakness (and I'd already got off once for a descent that I didn't feel comfortable with); my hands were all sweaty so I couldn't grasp the brakes properly, and I was just tired. I felt so stupid at not being able to manage to last little bit that I just cried.
With some help and encouragement from Mr W, I walked down some of the hill and then got back on for the final 100m and we rode over the finish line together. He could have done it so much faster than me but it was nice to have the company and support. It had taken us about 3h 35 minutes which I don't think is too bad at all. Obviously I need to do some work for my 70.3 because I'll need to go another 16 miles and pick the pace up a bit, but I reckon it's a solid position to be starting from with 364 days to go.
Today was my longest and fastest cycle ride to date. It was the Ox and Bucks Sportive which was held to raise money for the Children's Brain Tumour Foundation. There were two options available, 40 miles or 70 miles. Obviously we signed up for the 40 miles.
I was quite nervous about it after the disaster of my 34 miles and especially as I've have a lot of events in the last 8 days and not been feeling tip top due to work and not sleeping very well. In fact I wasnt even really sure that I was going to do it until I got out of bed this morning. Well, of course I was going to do it, I like to finish things.
We set off at 8am and were almost immediately overtaken by everyone else setting off in our wave (the waves were 10 minutes apart). As usual I felt wobbly for a mile or so; I wish I felt comfortable sooner on my bike, I guess that will come with practice and experience. But I soon settled down and was even contemplating trying to grab my drink whilst cycling. I didn't, because I only had one bottle of squash and I didn't really want it all over the road. I practiced my hand signals instead. Because I've had problems with back pain in the past few rides, the plan was to get off at regular intervals to stretch my back out and this seemed to really help. It wasn't actually that long before we saw the 10 mile marker - a quarter of the way through. I was absolutely flying along the first half until we hit the food station just before 20 miles. The first ten miles were hilly, but the second were flatter. After the food station it all got a bit more rolling again and I think we slowed down, but we seemed (with back stretching stops and a couple of stops to pee) to be tackling each 10 miles in about 55 minutes which wasn't too bad. By about 34 miles I was starting to really have to dig in, my legs were tired and it was further than I'd cycled before, but I was doing far better than when I had cycled this far before. Unfortunately it got more and more hilly (in the uphill direction) and I got more and more miserable, culminating in a descent to the finish which I just couldn't manage to get down. Descents are my weakness (and I'd already got off once for a descent that I didn't feel comfortable with); my hands were all sweaty so I couldn't grasp the brakes properly, and I was just tired. I felt so stupid at not being able to manage to last little bit that I just cried.
With some help and encouragement from Mr W, I walked down some of the hill and then got back on for the final 100m and we rode over the finish line together. He could have done it so much faster than me but it was nice to have the company and support. It had taken us about 3h 35 minutes which I don't think is too bad at all. Obviously I need to do some work for my 70.3 because I'll need to go another 16 miles and pick the pace up a bit, but I reckon it's a solid position to be starting from with 364 days to go.
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
The big challenge
So triathlon completed on Monday morning, it was time to come home and log onto the computer to book the next race... Actually, it's not exactly the next race, but it is my big 2013 season goal: Ironman 70.3 Zell am See, and partly the reason why I set this blog up.
Mr W and I were married in Zell am See in August 2011 (having got engaged there in December 2009), and as such it is a very special place to us. Where better than to make my long course racing debut? We have been planning to go back there for some time and this seems to us like the perfect excuse for a trip and holiday.
Since getting into tri, I have been keen to try something really challenging, and this will be the biggest challenge! I don't yet have any interest in doing an Ironman as I can't see how I could fit the training into my current life-patterns but I think the 70.3 should be just about do-able.
For those of you unfamiliar with 70.3 events, they are half the distance of a full ironman. This means a disproportionately short (compared with an Olympic Distance Tri) swim of 1900m, a 90km bike, and then a half marathon. The swim must be completed within 1 hour and 10 minutes (that's the bit I'm confident about), the bike and swim by 5 hours, 15 minutes, and the whole thing within 8 hours, 30 minutes. The bike cut off is what makes me nervous at present. I've cycled maybe 50k so far, but certainly not in the half of the time allowed to me. So there will be a lot of cycling training going on.
We've booked the time off work and we've booked to stay in the hotel where we were married from. Nearer the time, we'll be looking at booking somewhere to stay on the way down there (we have conveniently located friends about halfway in Heidelberg).
I've already started looking at training schedules and have a vague idea of what I will need to do in my mind come the start of 2013; more excitingly, I've been looking at races that I can do in the run-up. So far I've found a pool-sprint in March, Blenheim tri in June, an Olympic distance in early July, and I'm hoping that a half-iron-aquaman (the run and the swim without the bike) will fit into the calendar too. I'm not going to completely abandon my swimming either as I hope to do my 10k swim again in May, date depending. Oh and lots of R.E.S.T. will need to go in the schedule too, I know I can't properly train for this distance without taking a rest day each week! But more on this all to come, I hope to blog about my journey to the 70.3 and I hope that you will follow it with me!
Monday, 27 August 2012
Things I learned from my second triathlon
Rather than a race report, here's a list of things I learned today in my second-ever-triathlon. It was good, and I enjoyed myself, but goodness me a lot of things could have been improved on. I'm documenting them here to help me through next time, and help other aspiring triathletes.
1. Make sure you pack everything the night before.
And I mean everything, not forgetting the things that you normally put on, because if they're not in your bag, then you WILL forget them. Just because you always put on your watch after your wedding ring, does not mean that you will do this on the morning of the race. I got to registration and realised how naked my wrist was... [Fortunately Mr W was on hand to lend me his, but it's big and chunky and not pink]
2. Make sure you pack EVERYTHING the night before.
For example, not just your race belt, but also safety pins to attach your number to it with. This error had us raiding our first aid box for safety pins, and when we found only one, sticking my number to the belt with a plaster. Not ideal.
3. If you can't do a recce of the bike course in person, have a good look at the map.
Not necessarily just to look at where the hills are, which Mr W was trying to scare me with last night, but to get a feel for the different villages that you will be going through so that whilst out on the bike, you have a sense of how far through it you are and when you're coming up to the end.
4. Get some R.E.S.T.
A triathlon two days after a painful 1500m swimming race and 8 days after a 14k swim is never going to feel good. My arms felt tired still at the start of the swim which meant I was never going to get a great time. I think I was about 6m30s for the 400m swim (the timing chip recorded my run out of the swimming pool centre too) and I know I can go at least 15s faster.
5. Dry your feet
I'd taken along trainer socks as opposed to proper socks this time (because last time I just looked stupid wearing fashion day socks with my trainers (because I don't yet have any sports socks), and thought it would be easier to get my feet in them. Because the distance between the swim and transition was a lot shorter than in the last transition that I did, my feet didn't have much time to dry. Trying to jam wet feet into socks isn't easy and I definitely lost time here. Maybe standing on my towel whilst I put my helmet, sunglasses and raced belt on before attempting the socks and shoes might have helped [*of course proper triathletes will use cycle shoes, without socks, probably clipped onto the bike already, but I'm not at that stage yet)
6. If you're using new equipment, make sure you know how it works.
I have clever new laces called Greepers which work on a principle that you don't ever need to tie them, you just pull them closed. However, although I've used them twice (and LOVE them because there's no danger of the shoes coming untied), in the heat of transition I couldn't remember which bits I was supposed to pull on to do them up. Oops! Another good 30s lost here.
7. If you must have water on the run and there aren't any water stations, choose a decent water bottle.
Not having managed to drink on the bike as I haven't learnt to do that yet, I decided to grab my water bottle so I could get some fluid on the run. My bottle is neither easy to hold nor has a sports top. I got fed up carrying it over 5k with the water sloshing around AND I had to unscrew the cap to get water out.
8. Wear a headband.
This is the easiest lesson I learned in today's tri, on the run leg this time - I've only just bought myself a headband after having had hair in my eyes whenever I run, and today was its first outing. What a treat it was to run without hair flapping everywhere!
9. Don't plan to do anything afterwards.
I've been home, and in bed for a few hours. I have got to wind myself up to do some packed lunches for my husband this week, but I really wish I didn't. Next time I'm planning to do that the day before!
10. Enjoy yourself!
Like my last triathlon, I found myself smiling for most of it, especially when there were people around to smile at. It is good fun, and if it isn't then I guess you'd wonder why you were putting yourself through that torture!
I think my overall time was about 1h42 minutes, for what was 400m pool swim, 22.5k bike and 5k run. I'll be interested to see how my splits break down, I was especially pleased with my bike (after much initial wobbliness and terror I actually started going pretty fast!), but also with my run as I have barely had any chance to do run training. It'll be interesting to see where I finished overall, probably right down at the bottom, but I was certainly saved from being last by the guy with a flat tyre...
1. Make sure you pack everything the night before.
And I mean everything, not forgetting the things that you normally put on, because if they're not in your bag, then you WILL forget them. Just because you always put on your watch after your wedding ring, does not mean that you will do this on the morning of the race. I got to registration and realised how naked my wrist was... [Fortunately Mr W was on hand to lend me his, but it's big and chunky and not pink]
2. Make sure you pack EVERYTHING the night before.
For example, not just your race belt, but also safety pins to attach your number to it with. This error had us raiding our first aid box for safety pins, and when we found only one, sticking my number to the belt with a plaster. Not ideal.
3. If you can't do a recce of the bike course in person, have a good look at the map.
Not necessarily just to look at where the hills are, which Mr W was trying to scare me with last night, but to get a feel for the different villages that you will be going through so that whilst out on the bike, you have a sense of how far through it you are and when you're coming up to the end.
4. Get some R.E.S.T.
A triathlon two days after a painful 1500m swimming race and 8 days after a 14k swim is never going to feel good. My arms felt tired still at the start of the swim which meant I was never going to get a great time. I think I was about 6m30s for the 400m swim (the timing chip recorded my run out of the swimming pool centre too) and I know I can go at least 15s faster.
5. Dry your feet
I'd taken along trainer socks as opposed to proper socks this time (because last time I just looked stupid wearing fashion day socks with my trainers (because I don't yet have any sports socks), and thought it would be easier to get my feet in them. Because the distance between the swim and transition was a lot shorter than in the last transition that I did, my feet didn't have much time to dry. Trying to jam wet feet into socks isn't easy and I definitely lost time here. Maybe standing on my towel whilst I put my helmet, sunglasses and raced belt on before attempting the socks and shoes might have helped [*of course proper triathletes will use cycle shoes, without socks, probably clipped onto the bike already, but I'm not at that stage yet)
6. If you're using new equipment, make sure you know how it works.
I have clever new laces called Greepers which work on a principle that you don't ever need to tie them, you just pull them closed. However, although I've used them twice (and LOVE them because there's no danger of the shoes coming untied), in the heat of transition I couldn't remember which bits I was supposed to pull on to do them up. Oops! Another good 30s lost here.
7. If you must have water on the run and there aren't any water stations, choose a decent water bottle.
Not having managed to drink on the bike as I haven't learnt to do that yet, I decided to grab my water bottle so I could get some fluid on the run. My bottle is neither easy to hold nor has a sports top. I got fed up carrying it over 5k with the water sloshing around AND I had to unscrew the cap to get water out.
8. Wear a headband.
This is the easiest lesson I learned in today's tri, on the run leg this time - I've only just bought myself a headband after having had hair in my eyes whenever I run, and today was its first outing. What a treat it was to run without hair flapping everywhere!
9. Don't plan to do anything afterwards.
I've been home, and in bed for a few hours. I have got to wind myself up to do some packed lunches for my husband this week, but I really wish I didn't. Next time I'm planning to do that the day before!
10. Enjoy yourself!
Like my last triathlon, I found myself smiling for most of it, especially when there were people around to smile at. It is good fun, and if it isn't then I guess you'd wonder why you were putting yourself through that torture!
I think my overall time was about 1h42 minutes, for what was 400m pool swim, 22.5k bike and 5k run. I'll be interested to see how my splits break down, I was especially pleased with my bike (after much initial wobbliness and terror I actually started going pretty fast!), but also with my run as I have barely had any chance to do run training. It'll be interesting to see where I finished overall, probably right down at the bottom, but I was certainly saved from being last by the guy with a flat tyre...
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Final 1500m race of 2012
So yesterday was off to Box End Lake for the final 1500m race this year. The race was the fourth in a series of which I've managed to attend all and achieve reasonably consistent, if not improving, times.
After swimming 14k last weekend, I was a bit worried about my preparations. But it all seemed to go to plan - three gentle recovery swims building in length followed by some speed work on Thursday where I managed to do a new pb in the pool for 1k of 15:37 which I felt fantastic about. Friday was a planned rest day but I just felt exhausted. Work over the last few weeks has been taking its toll and maybe I was coming down with something.
I didn't really feel like going to the race but I knew I'd feel worse if I didn't go. And waiting to start, I couldn't see my arch-rival which meant that I basically just had to get round to come third overall in the series (it sounds better than it is as I think only three women were actually in the running in the end for a series prize as you needed to attend 3 of the 4 races).
The race was good and bad. I felt tired from the beginning, an overhang from last weekend perhaps along with feeling under the weather but my stroke was strong and looking at the weeds on the bottom I seemed to be going well. One breakaway pack were a long way in the lead, but for me it is rarely about position as that's so variable depending on who and how many turn up, and all about the time.
As I rounded the penultimate buoy with about 350m to go, I looked at my watch and saw that I was on track for another pb. I am not quite sure what went wrong but what was painful already was just increasingly painful and I had nothing left to give. I also seemed to lose the ability to sight, corroborated by my husband on the banks, and as I hit the bank ready to stagger 5 metres uphill to the timing chip I could see that the clock read 22 minutes. I was so tired it took me another 10 seconds to get to it and then I had to lie down on the grass to recover. OUCH.
However, when I saw the results in the evening, it transpired that the breakaway group had been almost entirely male and I was actually second woman back for that distance. Too bad there were only 6 in the race!
So my times this season on that course have been:
22:03
22:21
21:59
22:11
And I've come 4th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd.
I'm pretty pleased with it really as I only ever entered the distance in the hope of sharpening myself up a bit for longer distances. Now I'm keen to see if I can break 21 minutes, and I'm hoping with the coaching I have lined up in Feb I might just do that!
PS: husband is still mending my computer and I'm still typing this on my iPhone...sigh...
After swimming 14k last weekend, I was a bit worried about my preparations. But it all seemed to go to plan - three gentle recovery swims building in length followed by some speed work on Thursday where I managed to do a new pb in the pool for 1k of 15:37 which I felt fantastic about. Friday was a planned rest day but I just felt exhausted. Work over the last few weeks has been taking its toll and maybe I was coming down with something.
I didn't really feel like going to the race but I knew I'd feel worse if I didn't go. And waiting to start, I couldn't see my arch-rival which meant that I basically just had to get round to come third overall in the series (it sounds better than it is as I think only three women were actually in the running in the end for a series prize as you needed to attend 3 of the 4 races).
The race was good and bad. I felt tired from the beginning, an overhang from last weekend perhaps along with feeling under the weather but my stroke was strong and looking at the weeds on the bottom I seemed to be going well. One breakaway pack were a long way in the lead, but for me it is rarely about position as that's so variable depending on who and how many turn up, and all about the time.
As I rounded the penultimate buoy with about 350m to go, I looked at my watch and saw that I was on track for another pb. I am not quite sure what went wrong but what was painful already was just increasingly painful and I had nothing left to give. I also seemed to lose the ability to sight, corroborated by my husband on the banks, and as I hit the bank ready to stagger 5 metres uphill to the timing chip I could see that the clock read 22 minutes. I was so tired it took me another 10 seconds to get to it and then I had to lie down on the grass to recover. OUCH.
However, when I saw the results in the evening, it transpired that the breakaway group had been almost entirely male and I was actually second woman back for that distance. Too bad there were only 6 in the race!
So my times this season on that course have been:
22:03
22:21
21:59
22:11
And I've come 4th, 4th, 3rd and 2nd.
I'm pretty pleased with it really as I only ever entered the distance in the hope of sharpening myself up a bit for longer distances. Now I'm keen to see if I can break 21 minutes, and I'm hoping with the coaching I have lined up in Feb I might just do that!
PS: husband is still mending my computer and I'm still typing this on my iPhone...sigh...
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
From 14k to 1.5k and beyond
So, with a 14.1k swim completed on Sunday, my next race is at the opposite end of the scale, a 1.5k which is the shortest distance that I race. I feel like I'm going pretty well and would love to beat my PB of 21:59 if possible to end the season on a high
It's not actually my last race of the season. Oh no! Saturday kicks off 9 days in which I will race 4 times, and then there are four more races before the season ends in eight weeks time. So in order of occurrence I have left to go a 1.5k, a sprint tri, a 3.8k swim, a 40 mile sportive, a 3k sea swim, an Olympic distance tri, a 3.8k swim and a 2.6k swim (yes, the latter is a rather odd distance).
When I swam 10k back in May, it took me nearly 5 weeks before I was feeling race ready again, possibly something to do with the small matter of my first ever tri only 2 weeks later, and I know I definitely did not give myself the best possible recovery (even swimming 2.5k in a 50m pool the next day!).
So what am I doing differently? I'm trying to listen to my body. I have swum both days now since the event, but only a slow 1k yesterday, and a faster 1.75k today. I'll do another recovery swim tomorrow - my arms are still feeling tired now but no longer sore - before some speed work over 3k on Thursday morning and a rest day on Friday. I wanted to fit in a run to keep my legs ticking over, and I may head out tomorrow night, but I will be guided by how tired I feel (I still have an hour of cycle-commuting each day!).
Between the race and tri, I'll maybe fit in another speed swim session or recovery swim, depending on how my body feels, and then after the tri, I'll have to work out how I feel to give myself the best possible chance of doing well in my 3.8k on Thursday 30th. I was so close to breaking the hour for that distance back in early July, and I was convinced that it was the rather odd course (with multiple turns per lap) that cost me the extra 18 seconds, so I really want to be in the best shape I can be to challenge that!
Does anyone else have any thoughts on how to manage training and recovery around multiple events?
It's not actually my last race of the season. Oh no! Saturday kicks off 9 days in which I will race 4 times, and then there are four more races before the season ends in eight weeks time. So in order of occurrence I have left to go a 1.5k, a sprint tri, a 3.8k swim, a 40 mile sportive, a 3k sea swim, an Olympic distance tri, a 3.8k swim and a 2.6k swim (yes, the latter is a rather odd distance).
When I swam 10k back in May, it took me nearly 5 weeks before I was feeling race ready again, possibly something to do with the small matter of my first ever tri only 2 weeks later, and I know I definitely did not give myself the best possible recovery (even swimming 2.5k in a 50m pool the next day!).
So what am I doing differently? I'm trying to listen to my body. I have swum both days now since the event, but only a slow 1k yesterday, and a faster 1.75k today. I'll do another recovery swim tomorrow - my arms are still feeling tired now but no longer sore - before some speed work over 3k on Thursday morning and a rest day on Friday. I wanted to fit in a run to keep my legs ticking over, and I may head out tomorrow night, but I will be guided by how tired I feel (I still have an hour of cycle-commuting each day!).
Between the race and tri, I'll maybe fit in another speed swim session or recovery swim, depending on how my body feels, and then after the tri, I'll have to work out how I feel to give myself the best possible chance of doing well in my 3.8k on Thursday 30th. I was so close to breaking the hour for that distance back in early July, and I was convinced that it was the rather odd course (with multiple turns per lap) that cost me the extra 18 seconds, so I really want to be in the best shape I can be to challenge that!
Does anyone else have any thoughts on how to manage training and recovery around multiple events?
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