What’s in a name?

My blogging has been pretty woeful of late, but I think I have good reason for that. Y’see, this is predominantly a triathlon blog, documenting the high and lows of my racing and training, with occasional sideways glances at the sport and meandering journeys into the world of tri-surrealism.

And, of late, triathlon hasn’t really been on my mind. I’ve done a few rides and sessions here and there but consistency has been non-existent and I’ve also taken quite a few chunks of time off. Training hard has been replaced by working way too hard, then 10 days of eating and drinking way too much, while life has generally got in the way.

And then there’s the big news. As of the beginning of November, this blog, Desert Tri Tales, will be seeing something of a reboot, a rebranding, a rebirth if you will…  as it transforms into Triathlon and Tulips, or Remrandtriathlon, or Swim, Bike/Boat, Run or…well, I’ve not decided yet, but you get the point. This isn’t due to a newfound love of floristry, 17^th Century art or cruising, but, at the end of October, I’ll be swapping sand dunes and skyscrapers for canals and clogs as I move to the Netherlands.

If I’m being honest, I’ve been hankering after a move back to Europe for a while and the time was starting to feel right. Europe rather than the UK was always my preference – for whatever reason, lifestyle I guess, mainland Europe has always felt like a better long-term fit for me and I’d quietly decided to make a move back by the end of this year anyway. When a pretty young Dutch lass that I’ve been into for a decade or so suggested Amsterdam as a suitable destination, it seemed like the perfect fit.

Swapping THIS...

...for THIS.

So, there we have it folks. The times they are a-changing.

However, I do have five weeks left in Dubai and, although I’m not going to be around for any racing (and will then be moving to Amsterdam at the beginning of winter, so no more triathlon racing for a good six months or so...), I’m enjoying putting a nice big final consistent block of training in before I go. Sure, it’s not for a race or anything, but I’m just enjoying finding a bit of form, spending time swim/bike/running with friends and team mates, and getting to train outside while I still have the chance. And the Dubai weather seems to be obliging too, as summer is finally coming to a close it seems.

Swapping THESE LOCALS...

...for THESE LOCALS.

At the moment, it’s all giddy excitement about the move. But I’m sure there’s loads that I’m going to miss about Dubai too. But that’s a subject for another blog, I guess. 

Fitness testing - the full story

Believe it or not (and I realise that most people won’t), there’s actually a fair amount of work involved with this here blog. I know that it seems like I just scrawl out whatever random musings materialise in my noggin, but I do actually but some thought and time into it... and that’s the excuse I’m using for the couple of weeks that have come between my first two Aerofit scan postings and this here one.

On a serious note, it’s an interesting and worthwhile subject, and I didn’t want to do a rush job. The past couple of weeks I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking competition and just couldn’t find the time, but the best things in life are worth waiting for, right?

So, here we go with analysis of my cycling and running. As it’s been such a long time between these posts, I decided to paste posts 1 and 2 to the beginning to create one long but, hopefully, continuous and intelligible post. If you have an elephantine memory, just skip down to the bottom to the part where you see a load of scientific looking graphs and read from around there.

For the rest....

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Anyone who takes a look at that little bar above (the one that says ‘Follow My Training’) will have noticed quite a difference in the way I train of late. Of course, it still boils down to swim/bike/run/core/stretch, but the way sessions are approached has changed.

Previously, for example, you’d have seen things like ‘24k long run’ or ‘60k bike into 40minute harder run’. But these have now become ‘25k in upper Tz1 [Training Zone 1]’ and ‘60k Tz1-Tz2 into 40 minute run in Tz2’.

So, where did all this extra information on training zones come from? My Aerofit scan.

Triathletes, as I’ve said before, love a bit of geekery – in the form of carbon goodies, shiny new gadgets and analysing data. And there’s lots of data that can be analysed: VO2 max, lactate threshold, average watts etc...

One recent innovation to find its way to the Middle East is Aerofit (it was originally pioneered in Germany but is now available in loads of countries around the world). But, as Sreeya from Aerofit explains, they see their scan as more of a training tool than purely a fitness test used to produce data.

“We see it as the leading fitness coaching service in the Middle East, which guarantees you effective weight loss and improvement in your sports performance. We can provide individualised ‘fact-based’ training plans based on a scientific analysis [called the Aeroscan] of your individual metabolism.”

Fair enough. So, how does it do that?

“AeroFit determines your VO2, anaerobe threshold, fat and carbohydrate metabolism and optimum training zones,” answers Sreeya.

Unless you’re already pretty health savvy and into the science of fitness, much of this will be as intelligible as a sea lion singing karaoke – what we actually want to know about any of these tests or scans, if we’re being honest, is one thing: will it make me faster?

“You will significantly improve your stamina, speed and endurance by training your body to produce energy efficiently. You will get much faster on the run and bike, be able to estimate your racing times, strategise the right pace for your next race and plan your nutrition intake to fuel your body sufficiently,” says Sreeya.

That’ll be a ‘yes’ then.

“You will see your race times improving and visibly see progress in just a few weeks of training.”

From my basic understanding of the science behind the Aerofit scan, all athletes can choose to train at a wide range of intensities – you can walk, you can sprint, or you can do anything in between. Whether you’re a Kona qualifier, a mid-pack triathlete, or just someone who wants to lose a bit of weight and get a little fitter, the major limiter is almost always time. The data provided by the Aeroscan tells you what intensities you should work at to maximise gains in the time that you have available.

So, what does doing the Aerofit scan involve?

Well, it’s pretty simple really – and no more taxing than the average gym session. A couple of days before, I fill in an information sheet which lists things like my age, weight, how much I exercise and my fitness goals. This sheet also includes a set of fairly straightforward instructions, telling me to keep vigorous workouts to a minimum in the 48 hours preceding my Aerofit scan, and not to eat for a few hours before.

I arrive at the gym at The Address Dubai Mall – one of Aerofit’shomes, along with the Up & Running clinic on Al Wasl Road – and go into the plush changing rooms to don my shorts, t-shirt and trainers.

The only other apparatus involved are a standard stationary bike, a treadmill and the Aerofit mouthpiece – essentially a tube that you place into your mouth and leading to a chord, with a nose pinch that not only keeps the mouthpiece steady but also guarantees that all inhalation and exhalation goes through the mouth. The mouthpiece feeds information into a laptop that records the results.

Before doing anything, I sit down – at rest – and breathe through the mouthpiece for 30 seconds. Then we begin on the bike. I cycle at a steady cadence on an easy resistance for a few minutes and then Sreeya hands me the mouthpiece – I continue cycling just the same put while breathing into the mouthpiece for 30 seconds. 

Sreeya then whips off the mouthpiece and increases the resistance; again, I cycle steadily for a few minutes before I continue but breathing through the mouthpiece for 30 seconds. 

This pattern continues – incremental increase in resistance, a few minutes of normal riding, 30 seconds into the mouthpiece... and then Sreeya tells me to stop, taking down the resistance for me to cool down gradually. It’s pretty painless, took less than 15 minutes and, in terms of perceived effort, I’d say that even at the top resistance I’m still only on 5 out of 10.

There’s a few minutes’ break as Sreeya and fellow expert Markus take a look at the results, walking me through a few of the most obvious points and patterns.

I then jump up on to the treadmill and repeat the process, starting at an easy 8kph (the pace you start at depends on your ability), running for a couple of minutes normally, running for 30 seconds with the mouthpiece on, then upping the pace by 2kph and repeating the process. 

The only difference is that, due to the results I was registering, I stayed on the treadmill longer than I did on the bike and was at a fair old pace (for me, at least) by the end of the scan – just over 17 minutes later. The whole process took around an hour for both bike and run.

Again, I cooled down and watched as Sreeya and Markus looked at, translated and explained my results.

So, here’s the bike results:

And here’s the run:

But what do they mean? Well, let’s go back to the bike.

You can extrapolate all manner of conclusions from this; everything from my base metabolism to how many calories I’ll burn/require during an Ironman bike leg, given my effort of level (as reflected by my heart rate). If you know what you’re looking for, there’s as many answers here as there are questions. But, in a nutshell, these are the vital stats:

Again, you can interpret all this is any number of ways but my primary aim was to discover my training zones and which ones I need to work on most. Information like this:

Sreeya and Markus explain the results:

“Every human body has approximately 1,700-2,000 Kcals of carbohydrate storage whereas a substantially higher amount of fat storage of approximately 80,000 Kcals. Hence, in order to improve your fitness and sports performance or lose fat, it is important to train your body to burn more fat calories, which can happen by training in your correct heart rate zones.

“For endurance athletes, as long as you keep burning fat, you are using an almost unlimited storage of energy and you will be able to perform at these levels for very long periods of time. It is only when a very high amount of your calorie consumption comes from carbohydrates, in your case at HR 128 or 210 watts, your endurance for long distance events will go down significantly.

“Overall, you have a low fat metabolism. Your highest fat burn rate of 63% is achieved at HR 88 and 60 watts followed by a very sharp decline thereafter. Your anaerobe zone is reached at HR 137. Majority of your biking should occur in the aerobe zones, TZ1 and TZ2. Your training should primarily focus on building fat metabolism. Do long bike rides in TZ1 up to HR 110. This will increase your overall endurance for long distance races as you are training your body to burn more fat calories of which you have an almost unlimited amount of storage. In addition, do some bike rides in TZ2 especially during racing season. This will improve your stamina and speed performance and push out your anaerobe threshold further to the right. However, it is important to first focus on building fat metabolism in the low-medium HR to improve overall biking profile.”

Some people show vastly different results in bike and run. They may, for example, be an extremely efficient runner who burns predominantly fat until a very high speed however, when they jump on the bike, they have to work far harder and therefore burn predominantly carbohydrates unless they keep their heart rates very low.

That isn’t the case for me, however; my bike and run show very, very similar results and Sreeya and Markus were able to make almost the same conclusion.

To conclude, it’s clear that I’m a pretty fit person who is well-trained. It’s also clear that I’m predominantly a shorter distance, power athlete, rather than a natural endurance athlete. This is backed up by the fact that, even when a lot younger and when I was a competitive swimmer, I always specialised in the sprint events like 50m-100m fly and backstroke. I made regional school track finals in sprints and hurdle events, but you’d have found me at the back of a cross-country, in spite of my aerobic capacity garnered from swimming. And although I’ve been doing triathlon for a couple of years now, I’ve still not had enough time to build that big aerobic (fat burning) base.

In which case – as I’m saying that the Aerofit scan backed up what I already knew – does that make it pointless?

Not at all. As I’ve explained, there are all manner of results and data you can pull from this and some of the more interesting information for me revolves around the number of calories I burn per hour at a given rate of exertion. This has helped me to really nail a nutrition plan for my upcoming Ironman.

But the zones themselves have proven useful. It’s all very well to say, as someone still relatively new to endurance sports and is built for power rather than distance, I need to train long and easy to build an endurance base. But what is ‘long and easy’. Having those exact figures – those magic numbers if you will – has informed all my longer training since to the point that, when doing my longer  solo sessions, I no longer even have the speed/pace on display on my Garmin, judging everything on heart rate.

A few days ago, I went out and did one of my longest runs I’ll do for Ironman – a 32km effort – and based it purely on not exceeding the 70% (130bpm) heart rate that the aeroscan outlined. This kept it steady but, most surprisingly of all was that, by the end I felt pretty good. My legs were getting a little bit sore (I’d been running on hard paving rather than kinder trails or tarmac so this was to be expected) and I was thirsty (I’d kept hydration and nutrition down to pretty minimal levels) but still felt better than I’d expect to after this sort of training run. Turns out I’d only been running  a little over 6min/km, but the pace is of little importance in this sort of run – by keeping steady and at/under the magic number, I’d felt none of the usual peaks/troughs I’d have expected to feel during that sort of run and, to boot, I recovered really quickly too, ready to train the next day.

The acid test, of course, will come on Ironman race day. Can this training be turned into a goal time over 140.6 miles?

Tri Yas - race report

Gah, don’t you hate it when work, training and, well, life get in the way of some questionable quality blogging action!

Anyway, bit of a round-up. Last weekend, as I said, was Tri Yas – an event I really enjoyed last year and so was excited to do again this year. Last time out, I did the Olympic distance race but this time, as I wasn’t really supposed to be racing at all due to being in full Ironman training mode (11 weeks!), I decided to do the sprint distance race as this would probably have least bearing on any training.

Friday morning’s session was meant to be a 15km run into a 120km bike but I shifted a load of stuff around and got up at the crack of dawn on Thursday morning to do the session before work rather than Friday morning before the race. In the end, I only got 105km of the bike in, due to being chased back to the car by a Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol style sandstorm, but it did the trick.

"Bugger!"

As Yas was an afternoon/evening race, it meant I managed to get (almost all my training in), be a little tiny bit rested for the race and, most excitingly, I got to enjoy my first Friday morning lie-in for probably 18 months.

The race itself was really well put on, with the exception of it dragging somewhat – I had to be there to register, rack up and be out of transition by 3, but my wave didn’t start till 5.15. By the time I left after presentations (there’s a clue as to how I did) it had gone 9pm... which is a long day for a sprint!

There were a few small murmurs about the course being long (turns out the swim was probably 850m and the bike was 22.5km) but it was what it was and, from my point of view, it was about time the swim was long, as every other race this season has been on a notably short swim course.

Anyway, the race was a lot of fun due to the surroundings. The swim took us out into the marina and past the iconic Yas Viceroy hotel before heading back to the dock. I’ve not been swimming fantastically of late but felt good – started aggressively and just kind of kept on going hard. By all accounts, by the time I was heading back along the marina, I’d opened up a lead of 100-200m and came out the water on a time of 10:52 – not bad at all for a swim of 850-900m.

The run from the marina into T1 (the pit lane!) was quite a long one and I managed to pass through pretty quickly without overexerting.

Onto the bike – four laps of the Yas Marina F1 Circuit – and this is probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike. Being such a strong swimmer (and not bad on the bike and run), I’m used to only being overtaken as I fall behind the eventual winners and podium finishers, but the wave start here meant that there were plenty of triathletes out on the course already and I loved zipping past them and into the tight corners. I also felt great and was pushing hard and fast through the pedals all the way around; my aim was to get into T2 before my team mate Ed, who was also in my wave and is a brilliant triathlete and especially strong on the bike and run. Heading into the pit lane after just over 22kms, I was chuffed that I’d managed to hold on to the wave lead, and even happier when my Garmin showed an average speed of close to 41kph.

Again, it was a long T2, but I felt pretty good heading out on to the run and used the Garmin to control my pace. The intention was to hold a 4.10 pace for the first 1km or so and then bring that down. I hoped to break the 4min/km average for the first time but, in the end, that just didn’t happen. I felt smooth, and continued overtaking runners in front, but just couldn’t quite find the pace I’d hoped for. Still, I held on to the wave lead for almost 4km of the run, until Ed ran past me like a steam train. It was just a case of gritting the teeth and getting to the finish line then.

I crossed the line in 1.08.28 which was enough for 3^rd position overall (Ed took 2^nd 50 secounds in front of me, while our other team mate Ian, who was in the previous wave, got the W another 40 seconds ahead of Ed – a Tri2Aspire clean sweep, with another T2Aer, Flanners, also taking 4^th and Didge pretty much walking to victory in the women’s sprint).

Scary helmet people

Being called up on to the F1 podium was very cool, but I was generally very happy with my race. With little to no taper or specific preparation, I swam and biked as well as I ever have while my run was where I’d expect it to be, even if I’d secretly hoped to see a small improvement... a huge relief after a difficult few months of illness and injury and a really great first indicator to me that I’m back on form, which is great with the UK sprint champs coming up in May and Ironman in July.

The aim at the UK champs is to qualify to represent GB at the age group sprint world champs later in the year. If I do mange to fluke that, this is a good base to work from. With the focus on Ironman, I’ve done little to no speed work of late and am confident that, after IM, I can really improve across all three disciplines, but the bike and run in particular. 

Hi de hi, campers...

This weekend I'm boldly going where, well, I have never been before: my first ever training camp. TeamT2A is off on the Epic Jebel Hafeet cleansing camp and it promises to be emotional.

Jebel Hafeet is located near Al Ain - a couple of hours inland from Dubai. It is a mountain that rises, almost out of nowhere, between Al Ain and Oman. Our hotel (base camp) is near the top of the mountain. The road from bottom to top is often named the greatest driving road in the world - 13k long, with 21 switchbacks, it climbs 1,300m... that road will be our nemesis this weekend!

This camp is an annual one for T2A and, in the pst, has resulted in blood, sweat, tears and people falling asleep in their lunch. It's brutal and, with temperatures now rising well up into the 30s, that just adds an extra challenge.

In a way, I'm looking forward to it tho - I'm a poor climber and know that this will really help both my fitness and confidence. Also, with my IM Austria and Challenge Roth (a lot of the team are racing there one week after Austria) now around 3 months away, it's the perfect way to kick off our big IM blocks.

This morning, I packed the road bike, put the lightweight carbon Planet X 50 wheels on there, and made sure I had my most toothy of cassettes on those wheels. At 6ft and 82kg, I'm not a mountain goat and need all the help I can get!

I'm hoping to take lots of pics and blog about the experience for the next three evenings but, if I fail to do so, I'll wrap it all up with a Hafeet summary when we get back on Saturday. That is, of course, if I survive!!! 

Race Report: Wadi Adventure Sprint Tri

It’s a great time to be involved with triathlon – and just as good a time to be involved in endurance sports here in the UAE. Once there were pretty slim pickings but now, during the winter months at least, you could take part in some form of racing just about every weekend. All these new events are great – adding real variety – but you also need to remember to be a little patient as they don’t always get everything right straight away.

Risen, but not shining.

Pre-packed: el bici en la boota

On then to last weekend’s race – it was centred around Wadi Adventure, a cool new rafting, kayaking and outdoor activities park in the inland town of Al Ain. Given that a lot of local tris kick off at 6am-ish, I was delighted to read that this event wouldn’t start till 8am. But then my heart sank a little when I worked out travel, allowing for getting lost etc...to cut a long story short, it was another 4am start!  

Attempted shot of sunrising in the desert from the car came out as quite a cool artsy pic.

Wadi Adventure itself is a great venue – about the cleanest changing facilities and most immaculate transition I’ve come across. There was a nice, relaxed vibe before the race (just 150 or so people were racing) and I even managed to get into the crystal-clear manmade lake for a long warm-up swim, which I rarely usually manage.

An empty transition.

A full transition.

The briefing, however, was a bit confused and ended up being a bit ‘well, you’ll know it when you get there’... famous last words. This is always a particular concern for me; as swimming is my strongest discipline, in all but the very top level of racing, I’m usually first out of the water and, now I’ve added a bit of strength to my cycling too, often first through a lot of the early stages of the bike course. Advice to race organisers part 1: if the course is anything less than a completely straightforward out and back or loop, give a very detailed map or, better still, use a map for the briefing so you can point and explain the route.

The flat flat flat lake for the swim.

The hooter sounded and, feeling good and conscious of my newfound confidence for going hard in the swim and not dying on the bike, I went as hard out as I ever have. The still swimming pool like waters made for fast swimming tho weren’t ideal as far as final positioning goes, as a rougher swim tends to work more to my advantage.

It was a two lap swim course and I came out of the water with one other swimmer – clearly a member of a relay team – in just under 9mins (750m swim). Later, quite a large bunch of us were told we’d missed a buoy on the first lap. It was only to the tune of maybe 5m overall but I’d offer another word of advice to race organisers here: if you’ve kayaks in the water anyway, one of them should be ahead of the lead swimmer. This always happens at the bigger events, as they recognise that everyone else can simply follow feet – the lead swimmers don’t have this luxury. We’d never cut a corner on purpose, but if you’re the first swimmer and you see a buoy, you’ll head for that – a kayak helps you not to make that honest mistake. Anyway, I think we ultimately weren’t given a time penalty as it was a very small advantage and so many people made the same detour.

Coming out of the swim (thanks to Probike.ae for the pic)

I was second out of T1, just the relay team was ahead, so I set about reeling in the relay rider in front, which I achieved quickly. I felt strong. After 8.5k, Nick Tipper came past me – to be expected and holding out that long was the mark that I was cycling pretty well. It was a multi-loop course with odd bits tacked on to the beginning and end and, to add to the confusion, T1 and T2 were in different places. I kept the pace up and kept my average up around 40kmph, which I was really happy with given that there was a long steady uphill stretch of about 1.5k on each of the loops. This, previously, would have been my downfall but since Wales I’ve been working hard on my bike strength and I kept the power on (for me!) as I charged past other triathletes that I was lapping. 

The good riding continued until the end of the second loop when I was directed by a marshal off the looped circuit and down a straight road – this made sense as there was a sign saying to do exactly this and, in the briefing, we’d been told it was two times around the loop before heading straight. I got a few hundred metres down that road when I realised I should be able to see Nick ahead, but couldn’t. I slowed and it occurred to me that this looked a lot like the road into transition – but my Garmin had only clocked 16-odd kilometres for the ride so far...it was obviously another loop. I swung around and headed back out, angrily chastising the marshal as I passed (I feel bad about this now – poor guy was only doing his best) but it was frustrating. Turned out I’d done more than one kilometre extra and a slow one at that, looking ahead and then having to turn around.

Back out on course, I recognise in retrospect that I went a little too hard trying to make up what I’d lost. Amazingly, I still seemed to be in second place tho. That lasted till 18.5k of the bike when Olivier Godart, a very strong triathlete who wins many of the local sprint races, stormed past me. I hit T2 just behind him (34min ride) and headed out on the run.

Final advice for race organisers: starting a race at 8:30am in the UAE isn’t ideal for us triathletes who don’t possess a lean, gazelle-like frame! It was well up into the mid to high 30s by the time we hit the run and I felt every degree of it. I could see Tom Muller (cracking young triathlete) wasn’t far behind me and knew I’d unlikely be able to hold him off on the run as he’s a much faster runner than I am. It was a tough, dry 5k and I suffered – Tom caught me after 4 and a bit kms, relegating me to 4^th (my 4^th 4^th of 2011 but still no podium!) and I took a long look behind, saw there was a huge gap and cantered in and across the finish line in a time of 1:06.

In terms of my time, I was actually pretty happy as, allowing for the time I lost on the bike mix-up and my easy finish, it would have probably vied for my 1:04 sprint PB. And this on a course that was a little windier and plenty hillier than the one my PB was set on. In some ways, I was a little gutted about the position – there’s no doubt in my mind that I’d have been far too far ahead in 3^rd place to be caught on the run if it hadn’t been for the misdirection; I also feel that my run paid for the extra 1.3km and the way I rode to ‘catch up’ that time.

But what goes around comes around – that’s the second time that something outside of my physical fitness and ability has cost me a podium (last time it was a mechanical) but if I race long enough and hard enough I’m sure I’ll be the beneficiary of someone else’s misfortune. Also, just as my 4^th in the Eton Sprint taught me to check my bike thoroughly pre-race, maybe I learned this time not to leave it to the briefing to check out the course. I know for sure that the next time I tackle a slightly odd multi-lapper, I’ll be keeping a closer eye on my Garmin too, and letting that determine when my laps are done rather than a marshal who has to guess just how many times 150 racers have been around!

Turns out I was far from the only athlete to make that mistake - many didn't realise until too late that they'd missed out a loop and were honest enough to come forward.

So, in short, a disappointing result but one with plenty of positives to take from it. And well done to Nick, Olivier and Tom who all raced brilliantly on what was a tough, honest course, as well as Heather and Cath who totally sandbagged all the girls and took the top two open female positions. Nice work!

Race report – Aerofit sprint race 1

As I explained in my previous blog, this weekend saw the beginning of our local season here in Dubai with the first of the Aerofit sprint races in Ghantoot (part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi...about 40 minutes drive from Dubai).

Going into this race, as I also said previously, I didn't expect much from myself as I was definitely still carrying some Ironman fatigue in my legs and, just as significantly, had done almost no training for this kind of race – training for a short, fast sprint (just over an hour) is very different from training for a long, endurance race like an Ironman (12 hours). Turns out I needn't have worried too much.

Although this series has been a regular monthly feature on the tri calendar for the past few winters, this year the location has changed slightly, so it was in effect a new course for most of us. The Golden Tulip Hotel Bungalows are a great location for it though and transition is superb – with around 250 participants (capped at that number – these races are very popular) it used to get a bit crowded in the old transition area.

So, on the day, I was up at 4am and I had a quick shower (tip from Chrissie Wellington – helps to turn up feeling awake), some porridge, a chocolate bar (probably not the best thing in the world but I find it hard to take in calories in the morning – one of the things that always goes down OK is a spot of Cadbury's so...whatever works!) and a can of iced coffee. I'd already pumped my tyres and packed my bike in the car the previous night and packed my bag, so all I had to do was put on my trisuit and the shorts and t-shirt I'd also laid out and go. I really recommend a bit of prep like this the day before – when you have to be up at 4am, it helps to have as little as possible to do or think about.

I got to the venue just after 5 (6am briefing, so 5 was ideal) and had time to register, set my transition area out, make sure the bike was in ship shape, fill my aerobottle, stretch etc. I love the atmosphere at races as more and more people arrive – there are nerves, of course, for any race, but for me it's a super cool experience.

Briefing over and it was time to get in the water and warm up. And then, before we knew it, it was 6.15 and the klaxon sounded...we were off! The swim was an oddly shaped one. The hotel is pretty much at the central point of the beach. We started all the way down to the left, swam out to a pontoon just 30m or so away from shore, then swam parallel with the shore for most the distance. The sand as we entered the water was mushy and oily – like quicksand – so even though it was shallow I just dived in and started swimming as soon as I could and then swam hard to get away from the crowds.

To be honest, I got a bit lucky on the swim. One of the really top local triathletes, Ian, came down just to do the swim as a kind of race practice (think he's maybe injured at the mo so no bike/run) and he went hard, so I was able to just get on his feet and draft the whole way. Another of the top guys, Nick, did the same, drafting off me; I think the three of us opened up quite a sizeable lead. The swim was a bit short in the end (around 650m instead of 750m) although that probably wouldn't make much difference to the overall times as, finishing the swim at the far right end of the beach, we then had to run around 250m across the sand to get off the beach, before running through transition. By the time we'd done this, Ian had stopped and Nick had passed me so I was in second place. This is familiar territory for me at this point in the race but in the past my transitions have been fine rather than good, and I've often lost position. I've been practising transitions a bit of late and that paid off (it's great when you see a result from some hard work) as I headed out on to the road still in second.

The bike was two laps of a 5k out 5k back course and 20km exactly – not the 22km mooted. It's also traditionally where I start making my impressively determined move towards the back of the field, although I usually run out or real estate on my pursuit of last place and end up around 20^th in this race. I didn't expect any better today for the reasons I stated at the beginning and the first 5km was certainly a struggle. I found it hard to control my breathing and had to spin quite hard into a bit of a breeze and very slight uphill – but, while Nick was increasing his lead, he wasn't tearing away from me like he would have in the past. In fact, during the whole first 5k, only two more guys (the eventual winner and a relay cyclist) passed me towards the turnaround point.

Halfway through the second 5km stretch, two more guys I know came past – Tony was part of a relay team and a strong cyclist, Roy is a great triathlete who tends to win the veterans (plus-40s) category every race. But I stuck with them and started feeling really great, finally controlling my breathing and cadence. Being careful not to draft, from then on the three of us worked with each other in something of a pace line to keep going hard to the end. It was without doubt the strongest I've ever felt on the bike during a race. I've simply never been quick enough to work in this sort of pace line with the good riders. I rode around 31mins for the 20km (just under 40km/h average).

Tony and Roy got a few seconds on me heading into T2 but, again, I had a really good transition (opting for a white running cap which I'd left ice melting in – a genius move, really helping to cool me down on what was a very humid [mid-30s even at 7am] morning). I left T2 a few metres behind Roy and, as I headed out, I could see that I had a pretty solid lead on a lot of guys I'd have expected to be beating me.

The run, I knew, was where I'd suffer and I immediately cramped and hurt – inevitable with my last real run being a hilly Ironman marathon less than three weeks ago. I was determined to see it out tho, and just shortened my stride and set small goals. I was passed by one of the brilliant young racers – Tom – whose run makes me look like I'm taking a gentle stroll, but he was the only guy to go past up to the halfway point. There, I downed a sports drink, threw a water over my head and carried on. Amazingly, only one more veteran came through right until the end when a relay runner caught me. The run was an almighty effort, I have to confess, but I came in with a time of 21:30 for the 5km run which isn't too shoddy at all.

My final time was 1.05.24 and my position was 7^th overall and 4^th in my category (open men). Admittedly, two or three of the guys I'd usually expect to be jostling for the podium weren't racing but, all told, a very good day's work and far better than I'd expected. In a lot of ways, it was the perfect start as it set a genuinely competitive marker for the season ahead, while I also know exactly where I can make improvements in all three disciplines, which is the ideal position to be in.

Last year, as my second full season doing triathlon, I think I lost sight of the wood for the trees a bit and focused so much on time and position that I stopped enjoying it. While parts of the race were certainly painful, one of the things I was most pleased about was my attitude. I soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed the race...how it's meant to be.

In summary then: a great start and amazing (but surprising) to see how all that longer Ironman training has translated into the shorter stuff – especially on the bike. Onwards and upwards then!

Get Ready For The Dubai Tri Season

Bright and early tomorrow morning, our local triathlon kicks off here in the Middle East with the Aerofit Sprint Tri. And I do mean bright6 and early – due to the heat and the logistical issues of closing roads down to drive-happy Duabians, all our races kick off at an ungodly (should that be an un-Allahly?) time. Tomorrow, the gun will go of at 6:15am, which means a 4am alarm call for me.

This series has been the bread and butter of the local tri scene for a while. There area other races but this one takes place almost every month throughout winter and so is a god chance to test yourself and see how training is progressing. For beginners, it’s also a really nice and friendly way to get involved – well, it’s how I started.

Although a ‘sprint’ tri, in the past it’s been a little idiosyncratic in that it’s been a 750m swim around a seawater canal (following the canal in a semi circle so no buoy turns), followed by a transition that involved running up 50 steps (my quads are burning just thinking about it), a 26km bike and, finally, a run that measured around 5.6k.

For this year, however, the course has changed slightly to be much closer to a traditional sprint with a slightly longer bike ride of 22km the only deviation from the traditional 750-20-5 set-up. It’s also a loop swim in the sea.

I’m really excited to get racing again – I love the atmosphere and  camaraderie or racing – although, if I’m being honest with myself, I’m not expecting much in terms of my performance. It’s less than three weeks since Ironman and I’ve done next to no training since then – you’re really only supposed to pick it up again after three weeks. On the small runs I have managed, my legs have been slow and heavy, as if they’re made from some particularly hideous lead and treacle alloy. Then there’s the fact that the training you do for short stuff differs markedly from the way you train for the long slog of Ironman, so I’ve little speed in my legs anyway.

Entries are capped at 250 for these sprints and demand is high so I had to enter weeks before Ironman. I decided I’d feel awful if I’d fully recovered and was raring to go and couldn’t race coz I hadn’t entered; now that I’m entered, I figure I may as well race. Worst case scenario, I’ll try to hammer out the swim and bike and pull up for the run if I feel I might do myself any damage – if I feel OK, I’ll carry on. It’s not going to be fast, but it’ll lay down a marker on this course for me to try to improve on as the season and my fitness progress.

Anyway, between now and the start line lies magazine deadline day. This means I could get out of work anywhere between 6pm and 2am…which has happened before and isn’t the ideal preparation for a triathlon, no matter how short. So, two days of endurance events the way I see it!

Check back over the weekend and I’ll have a full race report for you along with some pics of the first race of our local season. Cheers! 

And breathe...

Another week of training done and, after my down-on-my-luck rant in my last post, the plan to throw myself into some training really paid off in the end. The scores on the doors for last week? 7.3km of swimming, 333km on the bike and 45.5k of running. There were a couple of hours of conditioning and flexibility in there too, but who’s counting (well, actually, I am…).

As I’ve said before, I know that the ride is the key to success at Ironman Wales and that’s the reason I really got behind that this week. It was a long weekend here in Dubai thanks to a public holiday on Thursday; while I was way too busy to stay away from the office all day, I did get the chance to tackle a long holiday ride with the Cycle safe group on Thursday morning. The ride was scheduled to be a 120k out to the Abu Dhabi border – I decided to park up 15k away (taking the ride to 150k). The final 30k or so were very hot and windy but, other than that, the ride went well – the longest distance I’ve ever ridden in one go and I felt generally quite strong..

On the road again...

The following morning, I rode out to meet the Roadsters. Given the previous day’s exertions, I decided to do the shorter 80k ride rather than the usual 120. I didn't realise that while the 120 was a long steady ride at around 34kph average, the 80k ride wasn't an easy, shorter spin but an all-out sprintathon! From the halfway point, we were averaging 44kph on the way back…inevitably, my legs gave out and I slowed down and rode in with another group who’d fallen off the back, before riding back to the car (making the ride a 90k-er in total). The pace was tough but I'm glad I tried that distance – once Ironman is over and we return to the regular triathlon season here, I’ll alternate between the longer steadier ride and the shorter faster one; long rides build endurance in the legs but, as the old saying goes, if you want to go fast, you’ve got to practise going fast… 

Wait for me...

On Saturday, it was a nice and easy 2 hour spin on the Bab Al Shams coffee ride – one hour out to the hotel in the desert, coffee and a Danish there, then an hour back. It’s amazing how having built up my endurance over the past few months, a 60k ride now feels like a walk in the park – even this time last year, 60k was still a good ride for me. Now it’s a warm-down!

Outside Bab Al Shams after a coffee stop.

There was some running thrown in over the weekend too (just 16k or so total), but the real success wasn't the mileage put down but the fact I loved every minute of it. The enthusiasm and joy I was lacking at the beginning of the week have come flooding back. I can’t wait to get to IM but, just as much, I can’t wait to get back from IM and for the regular triathlon season to begin. It may take me a while to get my speed back (IM is about long, steady aerobic performance; sprints and Oly distance races need speed and power that need to be trained for in a different way) but I know I’ll feel the difference from all these miles I’m clocking up. The 20k bike section of a sprint tri must feel pretty short and easy when you’ve spent months doing regular 120k+ rides…

Typically, with all this positive energy and motivation firmly entrenched in the noggin, this week is my easy recovery week. Recovery weeks can be frustrating. I’ll still be doing around 8hrs of training, but it’ll all be done at very low intensity, and it’s a far cry from the 20hrs I did last week. These weeks are important – heavy training breaks down muscles so that they repair bigger and stronger; without time to repair, you never see the benefits of all that training and put yourself at risk of injury. But these weeks are frustrating! I’m taking the opportunity to get on top of work, have a tiny bit of a social life and do some tri admin – cleaning my bike and chain, inventorising what I have and what I’ll need for Ironman…the week will soon be over.

And when it is over…phew, I looked at the next four weeks of my programme this morning and these are the make or breakers. They’re vicious and make the last few weeks look easy but I 110% trust and believe that if I follow the programme and don’t miss a session, the next four weeks will make sure I get around IM Wales in decent shape. Four weeks that will decide how my day goes on 11 September 2011. Bring ‘em on!