Found my running legs...

Flowing on from last weeks race, I found myself entered in my first midweek 5 mile race for 20 years!
The GYRR 5m series is a great event. 3 races in all, they comprise of two laps of  circuit, based along the flat sea front.
The one thing that had faded over the years, is my memory of how much a 5 mile race hurts! Very intense.
I was pleased to have gone out and done 7k all at around 4:30 pace,  (within a few seconds), then, with a little left in the tank, a final km at 4:13, giving me a final time of 36:24.
That was followed with a strong training schedule, through the rest of the week, including a 10k training run, done at almost my 5m race speed!
On a less than happy note, the falling oil price has finally caught me up, and my employer, CNR Int, has let me go.
It's not a great market at the moment, so there's not much hope over the next few months.
So, with nothing to get in my way, I now have no excuses for not swimming regularly. Hopefully, I will make the most of this unusual training opportunity. It'll give me a new focus ;)

And we're off!... First race, done.

Sunday saw the first race of my season, bringing some good and some bad memories...

It all started at 05:30, when, as I woke up, I realised I had set my alarm 30 minutes too late!

No matter, get the Omelettes made and get out, it was only a short drive. First Omelette made for Sharon, I begin on mine... Cracking the 3rd (and last) shell on the side of the sink, I then pour the egg straight down the plughole, instead of the bowl! So, I make do with a two egg Omelette.

Trying to maximise my time, before leaving the house, I switch on the Garmin 800, to check it's set for the Canyon TT bike. The unit freezes during start up, and won't change. Off and on, again, and it finally starts up. Unfortunately, it had also reset to default settings! 

Really!?... Furious, I quickly went through the settings, again.

Bottles filled, we load the bikes into the camper (Alfie) and head off on the brief drive into Gt. Yarmouth.

First there, I begin to relax, as we wait for registration to set up. I nipped into the pool area, to grab myself a locker key, for later.

It's a dry, mild day. Eventually we get registered. The bikes are racked and our kit set out. I have three hours to wait, before my start time...

At last, it's time to join the queue, grab my timing chip and move to the water.

Just a few days earlier, I had done a 250m TT in the pool and was pleasantly surprised with a time 5:15. I was sure I could beat that in a race situation, but was also wary of going off too quick and making a hash of it. 

Unfortunately, I over compensated and was a minute slower!... Damn!

I ran out of the pool and into T1.

A relatively quick transition, I grabbed my bike and ran out to the mount line (starting the Garmin on the fly), leapt on the bike and was off.

Once settled into my pace, I looked down, to check the data, only to realise that the Garmin was also on a default screen, which didn't include power!

So, back to the old 'Perceived Effort'.

The bike leg was a 3 lap (16km) set up. The outward ride was into quite a stiff wind, but the upside, was the ride back toward the Marina Centre, as I chased the pedals, all the way back.

The bike leg done, I was back in for T2.

Bike racked, lid off and on with my running shoes.

Out on the Promenade, for the 3km run. Again, the outward leg was into the stiff wind, which was quite a grind, but, as per the bike, the return leg of the run was a flyer.

So, before I knew it, the whole thing was over.

Off to the timing van, to collect my timing slip. Slight hiccup, as the timing chip reckoned I'd taken 42 mins for the swim!

Spoke to the technician about it and he said he knew what had happened and would sort it out... "Don't worry"... The famous last words!

It turned out, that over the next few hours, I saw my times change 4 times, and so did my overall position! Eventually, it settled with me at 4th in my AG.

No excuses to be made, but plenty of learnings to take away from this.

Next stop, GYRR 5m series on 22nd April.

Article for my club...

I was recently asked to write a wee article for Tri-Anglia, as a member, to give an insight of training whilst working away...

Training from an Oil Rig.

Coming from a bit of a cycling background and now about to start my second full season as a triathlon I was asked how I manage to fit training in around working away on a drilling platform for 21 days at a time.
Working away, on a Drilling Platform, seriously impairs the training effect.
Although my workplace has a very good gym facility, the one thing I can't do, is swim, which is without doubt, my weakness. That's quite ironic really, as I'm surrounded by water. But unsurprisingly, given my geographical position of 95 miles NW of Shetlands, it is forbidden!
So, my training plans at work are structured in such a way as to take into account the regular 15+ hour days I do, with the odd late night/ early morning call out. Twenty one days straight, no days off, and if the weather is favourable, I may get off as per schedule. But, more often than not, I'll spend 2, or more extra days out here.
Then, there is the training plan for when I'm home. The luxury here being that I have plenty of disposable time, to indulge my craving for pain training.
The downside of being home is that, while I think I'm free to do as I please, as I have done my trip, others (girlfriend/ child/ friends) think differently, so I'm constantly manipulating. Luckily I have a coach who has managed to learn how to structure a training schedule around all these variables, and still manage to get me going faster and better.
Because of my working hours, my training on the rig is generally kept to an hour on the Watt Bike, with maybe a 20 minute brick, or 60 -75 minutes on the dreadmill. So, 6 – 7 hours per week of short duration, quite intense sessions, which do take their toll, over a 21 day period. Plus other gym work. These are then offset, to a degree, by the home training, where I spend more time on endurance training (bike). Increasing the volume to around 14 hours, for bike and run, with further hours to be spent swimming & in the gym! The long rides can be tedious, especially if raining, or I'm fatigued.
The other constant battle is nutrition. At home I try to maintain a good well balanced diet, but the odd cake does prove too much for my powers of resistance, which have always been suspect in the presence of temptation!
At work, takes temptation to another level! Being on a rig is like being on an 'all inclusive' binge. There is always a good selection of food, good and bad, in the Mess. Particularly bad for me, as the cakes are all laid out near the area for returning your plate, so it's easy (for me) to weaken!
The spare hours I get at work are generally spent trying to piece together a selection of races, that fit around my offshore rota, to give me the much needed targets required to keep motivation high. Failing that, I'm surfing online shops, desperately seeking my next.
Now looking forward to some warmer days, so that once I get home, I can get out for some OWS.

Back to running, again.

Oops, forgot to blog, again!...

Following on from the last post, I met up with James Dunne, of Kinetic Rev, and what a transformation!...

I met with James at a local sports facility, where we had a brief chat, just for him to get a feel of what was happening, then headed off, around the corner, for me to run some drills, whilst he recorded me, for analysis.

A few short efforts to begin with, gave the effect of pre exhausting me, to better simulate my natural run. After quite a few passes, with James recording my movement, he had seen enough, and it was time to head inside and go through my paces with stretches and exercises.

At the debrief, in the coffee shop, James went through the video clips and explained how I was pushing off from the foot, putting all my effort through my calf (smallest muscle), instead of driving with the knee, using the larger muscle group. We discussed drills to help me run 'properly' and the need to keep up with the drills and stretches…

What a difference that has made. Paying attention to my run technique, keeping an eye on my cadence has really paid off. Now running up to one hour, and last week I felt confident enough to do an interval session. Having done that, without any niggles, I can now take my running up a level and start focussing on speed again, which is great news, especially with a few months still to go, before the longer races come into view.

If you have any running issues, I'd certainly recommend getting in touch with Kinetic Rev.