This is long overdue but it's again time to dust of this blog and start writing again.
Also past due is my race report so I guess I'll start there.
Recently I completed my third full Ironman race at the Asia Pacific Championship race in Melbourne and, by all accounts I had a successful outing with a personal best in the each leg, crossing the finish line 30 minutes earlier than last year. About this time last year I sat in a goal setting session with the club and penned a target for this race and signed my name to it. The magic number was ten hours, thirty minutes, more than an hour faster. Part of the exercise was to ensure the goal was actually attainable and should be interrogated occasionally to validate this. Late in the year I realised that, though I was making steady progress, when I broke down the race into the legs and assigned expected times to them the math never equated to the target I had set, therefore the goal was changed accordingly to anything under the 11 hour mark. This was based upon a swim between seventy and seventy-five minutes, a bike leg of about five and a half hours then a sub four hour marathon. When I crossed the finish line in St Kilda I had stopped the clock 14 minutes over my reset target. My swim and ride had been very close to expectation but the heat and high UV seem to have equated to a slower run (a result seen by most of the field). 1:14/5:38/4:14 plus transition times.
In my racing "career" spanning the past seven years I have progressed from the short, fun races (sometimes referred to as "enticer" races), through the challenge of the Olympic distance race and have found my niche in the long course world of half and full Iron distance triathlon. Along the way I have also dropped out of the Clydesdales ranks, shifting from a racing weight in triple digits to mid to high 80's. Over the course of these years I have inadvertently collected a number of tools and steadily built a band of collaborators to advance my efforts and hone my race day outings. Each link in this chain has brought me closer to the pointy end of the field. Five years ago, when I stepped up to Sprint distance races I joined the team at Tri Alliance and soon learned the benefits of a structured training plan. I was enrolled as a social member which allowed for 3 sessions a week, I used this to focus on getting to a more efficient swimming stroke, and a combo session to mix things up. It wasn't long before I turned my attention to longer races and decided to upgrade my membership accordingly. A daily targeted program had me completing Olympic and half Iron distance races. Another season saw me competing at this distance as well, now firmly in the middle of the pack. Setting my sights higher meant I needed to begin limiting my losses on the run course, an OK swimmer, decent cyclist meant that I spent the final third of my races watching guys branded with my category letter blowing past as I'd tumble down the standings. A six week running technique course with Tony Benson gave me a few tools to work on and had almost immediate impact as I finally broke the two hour barrier for a half marathon and then subsequently repeated this feat and the conclusion of the Shepparton 70.3.
The next item I added to my training arsenal was the strength program that had always been a link in my Tri Alliance calendar but I had never fully utilised and again I saw improvements in my results.
Each addition to my toolbox and supporter I add to my crew has brought me to this point some of the greatest changes have come courtesy of my most recent acquisition, my sports nutritionist. As the kilometers are added to the course map and race day becomes longer fueling becomes a super important fourth discipline that cannot be ignored. Everybody is different and therefore there is no one generic fueling plan that works for everyone. Sweat loss rate, gut function, metabolic rates and the volume and types of foods/fluids that can be effectively process are all different from athlete to athlete. When you consider the fact that, during the course of an endurance event there is no way to fully replace the fuel you are burning, the most effective method of limiting those losses becomes so important. Longer training sessions, higher intensities and the need to remain consistent for extended build periods all lead to the requirement to be adequately fuelled before and during the sessions and then to recover for the next one.
Over the past 8 months or so we've modified my diet and have had regular body composition measurements to track the progress, we've completed a sweat test to quantify my electrolyte requirements create an effective hydration plan tailored specifically for me (inadequate hydration actually derailed my initial foray into long course racing where my legs cramped upon exiting T2 after a pretty good time on the swim and ride) and have also set up a race day nutrition plan. Over the course of this time the testing has shown that my body fat percentage has decreased steadily and my weight has also decreased yet when I weighed in at registration a few weeks ago the scales read a flat 95kg.
It has been a few weeks since I clocked my thirty minute personal best and have also added a second record at the Olympic distance (18 minutes) and have had time to reflect on what went well and where I could have improved further. I know I did well but I also know I could have done better and it was with this in mind that I contacted Margaret at Fuel Right Nutrition and head coach Ollie from Tri Alliance to find the next steps to launch to the next level. Together, with my ever supportive family and my directeur sportif (sometimes known as The Wife) we are already working on the plan of attack for the 2015/16 season.
The band is together, the goals are being set aggressively, all that's left is to follow the advice and execute. It's time to get fast.
Also past due is my race report so I guess I'll start there.
Recently I completed my third full Ironman race at the Asia Pacific Championship race in Melbourne and, by all accounts I had a successful outing with a personal best in the each leg, crossing the finish line 30 minutes earlier than last year. About this time last year I sat in a goal setting session with the club and penned a target for this race and signed my name to it. The magic number was ten hours, thirty minutes, more than an hour faster. Part of the exercise was to ensure the goal was actually attainable and should be interrogated occasionally to validate this. Late in the year I realised that, though I was making steady progress, when I broke down the race into the legs and assigned expected times to them the math never equated to the target I had set, therefore the goal was changed accordingly to anything under the 11 hour mark. This was based upon a swim between seventy and seventy-five minutes, a bike leg of about five and a half hours then a sub four hour marathon. When I crossed the finish line in St Kilda I had stopped the clock 14 minutes over my reset target. My swim and ride had been very close to expectation but the heat and high UV seem to have equated to a slower run (a result seen by most of the field). 1:14/5:38/4:14 plus transition times.In my racing "career" spanning the past seven years I have progressed from the short, fun races (sometimes referred to as "enticer" races), through the challenge of the Olympic distance race and have found my niche in the long course world of half and full Iron distance triathlon. Along the way I have also dropped out of the Clydesdales ranks, shifting from a racing weight in triple digits to mid to high 80's. Over the course of these years I have inadvertently collected a number of tools and steadily built a band of collaborators to advance my efforts and hone my race day outings. Each link in this chain has brought me closer to the pointy end of the field. Five years ago, when I stepped up to Sprint distance races I joined the team at Tri Alliance and soon learned the benefits of a structured training plan. I was enrolled as a social member which allowed for 3 sessions a week, I used this to focus on getting to a more efficient swimming stroke, and a combo session to mix things up. It wasn't long before I turned my attention to longer races and decided to upgrade my membership accordingly. A daily targeted program had me completing Olympic and half Iron distance races. Another season saw me competing at this distance as well, now firmly in the middle of the pack. Setting my sights higher meant I needed to begin limiting my losses on the run course, an OK swimmer, decent cyclist meant that I spent the final third of my races watching guys branded with my category letter blowing past as I'd tumble down the standings. A six week running technique course with Tony Benson gave me a few tools to work on and had almost immediate impact as I finally broke the two hour barrier for a half marathon and then subsequently repeated this feat and the conclusion of the Shepparton 70.3.
The next item I added to my training arsenal was the strength program that had always been a link in my Tri Alliance calendar but I had never fully utilised and again I saw improvements in my results.
Each addition to my toolbox and supporter I add to my crew has brought me to this point some of the greatest changes have come courtesy of my most recent acquisition, my sports nutritionist. As the kilometers are added to the course map and race day becomes longer fueling becomes a super important fourth discipline that cannot be ignored. Everybody is different and therefore there is no one generic fueling plan that works for everyone. Sweat loss rate, gut function, metabolic rates and the volume and types of foods/fluids that can be effectively process are all different from athlete to athlete. When you consider the fact that, during the course of an endurance event there is no way to fully replace the fuel you are burning, the most effective method of limiting those losses becomes so important. Longer training sessions, higher intensities and the need to remain consistent for extended build periods all lead to the requirement to be adequately fuelled before and during the sessions and then to recover for the next one.
Over the past 8 months or so we've modified my diet and have had regular body composition measurements to track the progress, we've completed a sweat test to quantify my electrolyte requirements create an effective hydration plan tailored specifically for me (inadequate hydration actually derailed my initial foray into long course racing where my legs cramped upon exiting T2 after a pretty good time on the swim and ride) and have also set up a race day nutrition plan. Over the course of this time the testing has shown that my body fat percentage has decreased steadily and my weight has also decreased yet when I weighed in at registration a few weeks ago the scales read a flat 95kg.
It has been a few weeks since I clocked my thirty minute personal best and have also added a second record at the Olympic distance (18 minutes) and have had time to reflect on what went well and where I could have improved further. I know I did well but I also know I could have done better and it was with this in mind that I contacted Margaret at Fuel Right Nutrition and head coach Ollie from Tri Alliance to find the next steps to launch to the next level. Together, with my ever supportive family and my directeur sportif (sometimes known as The Wife) we are already working on the plan of attack for the 2015/16 season.
The band is together, the goals are being set aggressively, all that's left is to follow the advice and execute. It's time to get fast.
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