Tris and tribulations: December 2017

I have just completed my last race of the year this last weekend and so this seemed like the ideal time to write a blog reflecting back on all my sporting endeavours in 2017. It’s going to be an enjoyable blog to write as it has been a fantastic year. The highlights of which have been:

· Qualifying for the European Sprint Duathlon Championships by winning my age group at Clumber Park for the second consecutive year

· Winning a silver medal in my age group on my Team GB debut at the European Duathlon Championships in Soria, Spain

· Taking my first overall female win at a triathlon (Dorchester Dash)

· Going on to win my target triathlon A-race of the year, The Brutal Half Iron Extreme Triathlon, in North Wales

· Finishing as first female at all 6 of the multi-terrain races I entered this year: Weston Friendly 5 Mile, Totnes 10k, Killerton 10k, Templer 10 mile, Otterton Reindeer Run, The Scrooge.

· Being largely on top of my injuries throughout the year, being able to piece together some consistent training and allowing me to start and finish all of the races I entered in one piece (a miracle in itself by my previous track record!)

When I read all of that back, it brings a small smile of satisfaction to my face. There have been some incredible experiences garnered along the way to achieving all the above, including some excellent bike rides with some really good friends (you know who you are, coffee buddies!); some fab training rides with the Honiton Spinners and some (almost) enjoyable sea swims with my buddy Bishy the Fishy. I participated in my first ever cycling time trial (10 miles in 26:45), and my first ever hill climb (4^th place at Chineway). There have been sportives completed with friends (The Nello, with Moira) and alone (Moor to Sea). Parkruns a-plenty have featured, including 9 new venues, in addition to relaxed training runs with my hubby. Humpteen laps of the pool have been swum, including my longest ever swim of 5k (200 lengths) at Swimathon (Christ on a bike, that felt like a slog!). I have seen improvements to my bike and swim times; my run times have actually dropped off a bit over the shorter stuff, but losing a bit of top end leg speed has been the trade-off for improving my cycling and my performance overall: something’s gotta give!

I have achieved all of the above by myself, with no assistance from any coach or even any training plans. Up until now, my training has all been done to feel and done rather spontaneously without much forward planning. If I woke up and the weather was nice, I would go out on the bike; if my legs were aching, I might have opted for an easy swim. My development as a multisport athlete has all been very organic and, to a more experienced eye, probably very naïve and amateur. It has brought me some great results, of which I am extremely proud, but I decided that I was at a point whereby I could go on playing at being a runner who dabbles in multi-sport by doing a bit of cross training on the bike and in the pool and probably still do ok because I have a pretty decent fitness level, or I could try and introduce some proper structure and triathlon focussed training to my routine and aim to take my multisport performances to the next level…. I decided upon the latter, so I recently enlisted the services of a triathlon coach.

For the past 7 weeks I have been coached by my cousin-in-law, Chris Dominey, of Tri Coach Cornwall. Not gonna lie, it has been a complete shock to my system and, at first, felt like a bit of a loss of control and freedom as I have handed over all responsibility for deciding what training I do and when to him. My previous self-coached approach was rather ad hoc, and so the jump to having extremely structured and set workouts given to me 3 weeks in advance that detail explicitly what I will be doing every day for the next 21 days has been a massive one. It has meant being much more organised regarding getting kit ready the night before and writing down the workouts in advance so I don’t forget them once I get to the pool / gym etc. Having a structure to my swim and indoor bike sessions has been great in terms of me not needing to think about what to do once I get there, which invariably led to me doing the same long aerobic swims session after session, or just sitting aimlessly on the bike for an hour and pedalling at the same intensity, or else relying on my one go-to bike workout of 1 min off, 1 min off x 30! I have been using the Watt bike at the gym for most of my indoor bike sets and – following a ghastly 20 minute all out FTP test – I am now working to power. Again, this is all new to me. Previously I would just go on feel, or RPE scales, and not pay any attention to heart rate, cadence, power etc. Previously I would do the same training all year round and just aim to maintain a high level of fitness. Chris’ approach, using the Training Peaks software, sees me go through phases of training and the workouts are tailored according to the phase (I am currently in Base 3, so starting to increase my strength and endurance with longer reps on the bike, and more tempo runs). To seasoned triathletes, this will all seem obvious, but it is all very new for me and I have to trust that I am doing enough and that the intensity is appropriate for the stage I am at in my race build-up. One thing I have definitely noticed is that since working with Chris, I am much less tired; furthermore, – and I am probably putting the curse of death on myself here – I haven’t been ill at all, whereas before I was picking up a cough or cold virus every 4 – 6 weeks or so. No doubt this is due to the sensible scheduling of the workouts, allowing for rest and recovery between hard sets, but also due to the fact that I have been doing the majority of the work at a much lesser intensity, so I am not constantly fatigued. The one thing I do find hard is the lack of flexibility to be able to just do things on a whim, such as a nice long bike ride with friends because the sun is out and they invited me, or an extra run because I just feel like it, but that is the trade off for what will hopefully bring me better performances in the qualifying races in February and March. It is also a bit of a departure for Chris, as his background is mainly in coaching long distance triathletes, so writing training plans for a duathlete is a new challenge for him… as is reining in a headstrong female athlete with a love of running who wants to race all the time! Thanks to him for his patience so far! 😉

I will have a slightly lighter week over Christmas but I can’t afford to back off too much as the qualifier is so early this year (Feb 18^th). I certainly can’t afford a 9 week long cough-cold-chest infection combo like I had at the start of this year as that hampered my training from Boxing Day right until the end of Feb. As I am also going up to the standard distance this year, which is 10k run – 40k bike – 5k run (double everything of the sprint), I need to keep my bike miles up over the winter and try and get out and ride once a week as I don’t have the luxury of waiting until spring comes to ride outside. Easier said than done with this cold snap we’ve had as I am a notorious wimp in the cold conditions and coming off on black ice is not something I can afford to do at this stage of my preparations….. or, indeed, ever.

Anyway, to finish off with a few stats, followed by a few photos, that demonstrate a bit more ably than my waffling how 2017 panned out….

RUNNING:

2017 mileage (up until 19^th Dec.): 815 miles; 107 hours of running time, 56’000ft elevation gain

5k SB: 19:10 (first run at Clumber Park duathlon, didn’t actually race any 5k only races in 2017)

10k SB: 40:15 (Ivybridge 10k)

Race performances:

Feb.: Weston Friendly 5 – 1^st lady, 3^rd overall

May: Ivybridge 10k: 3^rd lady

June: Welsh Castles Relay Stage 16, 8 mile mountain stage in Brecon Beacons: 3^rd lady

August: Totnes 10k, 1^st lady

September: Killerton 10k, 1^st lady

November: Templer 10 mile, 1^st lady

December: Otterton Reindeer Run 6 mile, 1^st lady

December: The Scrooge 7.5 mile, 1^st lady, 4^th overall

CYCLING:

2017 bike mileage: 3240 miles

Longest ride: Moor to Sea Sportive, 64 miles

10 mile T.T.: 26:45

SWIMMING:

Total swim distance: 190’000mtrs / 190k

Longest swim: 5k

2017 Swim SBs: 200m: 3:22, 400m: 7:02, 600m: 11:18, 1000m: 18:42, 1500m: 28:36

Duathlon Results:

Clumber Park Sprint: 4^th lady, 1^st age cat, 1:08:40

Soria ETU Championships Sprint: 11^th lady, 2^nd age cat, 1:15:21

Triathlon Results:

Stourhead Mega Sprint: 3^rd lady, 1:56:01

Honiton Sprint: 2^nd lady, 1:06:03

Dorchester Dash Sprint: 1^st lady, 1:14:09

Portishead Sprint: 2^nd lady, 1:24:20

The Brutal Half Extreme: 1^st lady, 7:15:15

Thank yous to:

My physio, Nigel Wilman - this has been the longest stretch I have gone uninjured since Feb 2013!
My coach, Chris, of Tri Coach Cornwall
My training buddies for their encouragement, interest, support, and friendship.
My amazing husband, Matt, without whom none of the above would have been possible.