The Ups and Downs of endurance training! The Ups........

Where does the time go! I feel so much has been going on that I haven't had a chance to write about because I am so busy! However, really that should probably be the time to blog the most so I can capture it in a little snippet each day as opposed to having to write epic tomes each time I am on here! So, the long and short of it was that I didn't pull out of the Marshman plus. I did write to the organiser to ask if I could but he was unable to refund my entry instead suggesting I rolled it over to next year. However, next year I am going to be much more focused on the swim side of things so I decided to bit the bullet and go for it!

A last minute B&B was booked in Folkestone - an interesting place that seems on the edge of the world and I set off on Saturday afternoon so I had time to register that evening. Registration was a doddle and I headed back to the B&B to setttle in for the evening. I cannot rate this B&B highly enough - it was lovely and extremely good value for money. The owners were super helpful even providing me with a cool box breakfast for the early morning start I faced.

Up at 4.30am and headed to the race start. The race is a 2,600m swim, 80mile bike and 20mile run. For the first time I actually felt I was cutting it a bit fine in terms of being ready as I struggled to yank on my wetsuit but actually I had plenty of time and the start was a few minutes delayed anyway. I didn't have the normal morning picnic I would to prepare myself for the day ahead as I ran out of time but I stuffed a few fig rolls into my mouth and hit the lake. Everyone was chuntering a bit that the lake was freezing so I waded in gingerly but actually it was fine. I surprise myself a lot in the water. I am ALWAYS freezing cold on dry land - I always have hoodies, jumpers etc galore even on the warmest days and am often found to continue wearing my coat through dinners in restaurants much to Adam's chagrin! However, I seem to manage pretty well in cold water and this time was no different. The water was cold but not take your breath away cold and I got settled in near the front. The hooter went and we were off. I found myself alone quite quickly - not fast enough to stream off with the lead group but too fast for the chasers. Having no feet to follow I just found a rhythm and concentrated on sighting. The course was a bit random as, at one point, you had to go diagonally across the lake which caused me no end of amusement (though also a bit of concern that maybe I was wrong!) as people's sighting was pretty terrible and most just headed straight over to the opposite bank and then swam up it instead of traversing diagonally across. Anyway, swim done in 44mins and I was out on the bike.

I set off pretty rapidly and felt good for the first few hours. Whilst a lot of the course was fast and flat some of the areas by the coast were extremely windy and my average speed dropped dramatically. This came around the 50mile point just as the HIM athletes turned off to the finish. The Plus athletes however had to face another shortened circuit again with the horrid windy section to complete the 80miles. I think the course ended up being a bit short and I was starting to feel a bit fed up of the bike actually by the end, however I was pleased when I finished around 4.25 for the bike.

I really REALLY did not want to run then. I figured I could use the hamstring niggle as an excuse, take away the fact I had a good swim and bike and head home to curl up on the sofa for the afternoon. However, I knew it was important to get some of these long bricks in and test my body when it was tired so after a short pit-stop I headed out onto the run. I promised myself just to run the first 9mins (I was going to practice my 9min run/1min walk strategy for the souble) and if I hated it I could turn around and walk back to transition. Strangely, and this has NEVER, EVER happened before, I felt ok going out onto the run AND, I started PASSING people. Yep, that'd right, elbow-out jogger shuffler, moi! Amazing. The run/walk strategy was extremely effective - I felt fresh and strong for the first 2 hours and then kept on pushing on without the normal massive reduction in pace and motivation. All I had to do was to run 9mins I kept telling myself. And it worked. So, long as I was extremely strict about keeping running again - as soon as it hit the end of tenth minute I had to run again, no matter how slowly, it worked brilliantly. And I finished the run in 3.11 including my little pit-stop. Considering my stand alone race 20mile time is 2.53, I was astonished. Cannot rate the strategy highly enough. These ultra-runners have been onto a good thing for a long time!

So, all in all, I managed to put a little sprint on at the end to finish under 8 and a half hours. A really good race and it had me full of confidence that you can do good things from a reasonable base of training. However, I do need to now ramp it up again as that base is not going to see me through the next two months aswell! A good day!

As the time ticks on.......

Gosh, it seems such a long time since I wrote anything down but everything has just been SO busy! After my last blog Adam and I went on holiday to New York as, due to his work commitments, we won't have a summer holiday this year. It was a fantastic trip to a city that is very close to our hearts. We had our first holiday together there 2 and a half years ago and this time round it became even more memorable as Adam proposed! I am fantastically happy and so excited!

I did a little running whilst out there but was certainly feeling that April was becoming a bit of a lax month. Luckily I had just the solution! Two days after returning from New York, I flew out to Cyprus with the RAF Triathlon team for their long distance training camp. I was determined to get some quality cycling in as it has been the one area I am desperately needing miles in. Well it is safe to say that progress has been made with nearly 400miles of cycling completed over the 6 days with my longest ride being a comfortable 114miles (my longest cycle to date!). I did a 6 x 19M loop round the camp boundary and felt comfortable and as if I could easily manage another one or even two laps without it being too much of a burden. I did a 20min run off the bike which was extremely interesting! Whilst cycling was a joy in the warm weather, running was absoutely not! It was hard to get any proper run training in so I settled for a run off that long bike and a quality brick session of 2 x (38M bike, 30min run off) which went well and I was pretty happy with. A couple of open water swim sessions rounded off the camp and I came back a lot happier than I went away!

Training this week however has been back to marginal! I rest over the weekend to let the stresses of the camp be absorbed and went back to the gym on Monday to ease myself back in with a 40min run and weights. However, on doing my squats I think I have pulled my hamstring slightly and it is feeling uncomfortable even after taking yesterday and today off. I may try a swim session tomorrow and see if that helps loosen it off and then I am planning to cycle on Friday. We'll see how it goes but it isn't the best preparation for racing the Marshman + on Sunday. Whatever happens I MUST treat that as a long training session and not a race of any kind. I may even see if I can withdraw and focus on something else a bit closer to home. The extra stress of travel really can impact on things.

Well, that's a quick round up. I feel like I am quite far behind some people in terms of training volume but at least the training camp in Cyprus makes me feel I have this within my grasp. Task for the week is definitely to get some tri bars and lights - I must started getting used to things like that!

Paris Marathon

Here is what I posted on the RunnersWorld forum about my race in Paris:

"Unfortunately for me, I had a shocking race! Felt bit rubbish from the off actually but the first half passed ok with the half mara coming up in 1hr 56. Perhaps in hindsight too fast but I actually felt worse when I began to back off the pace. Before I had even got to half way my gel belt had broken so I lost two of my seven gels and my IPOD wasn't working properly. I was also really struggling in the heat (Paris was warm!) and getting flashbacks to the only other really awful race I have had which was the Great North Run where I got sunstroke - this felt similar as I was feeling nauseous, tired and thirsty. Was really struggling by 30kms when I met my inlaws but I was still 2mins under target at this stage. However, then the wheels came off. I have never walked in a race but I did. A lot! It truly became a matter of surviving rather than racing and I almost comtemplated stopping a number of times. By 35kms, I was a minute over time and I resorted to walking one minute and running 4minutes as it was the only way to break it down small enough mentally to keep me going. Those last seven kms took an absolute age, I was down to around 9.30min/miles when running and then off course this average was brought down further by my walk breaks.
All in all, a very awful race for me - not good at all. Considering this, I am extremely pleased I managed to push on and hold it together just enough for 4.06. Not my target obviously but on reflection, this is still 20 MINS off my PB so I should be absolutely estactic. And I am content at least, sub-4 will have to wait! As most of you know, I am training for other goals this summer and this was only ever supposed to be a 'B' race for me, and the training for the other sports has definitely impacted on my ability to train exclusively for this marathon. So, on reflection: Very hard race which I didn't enjoy but which I am content with and pretty philisophical about!"

Think that about sums it up! I am disappointed not to go sub-4 but it was always supposed to be a 'B' race for me and I couldn't possibly have had as perfect a preparation as I would have liked as my goals are elsewhere. It was also a tough race on the day so c'est la vie! I may try and target sub-4 again in an Autumn marathon or I may just save it for another time. Recovery has gone well - I felt surprisingly ok and was ready to train again by Tuesday. I gave it another day of rest to make sure and I am now ready to hit the pool in an hour for a 3 x 1km swim set. On the turbo this evening in advance of my bike fitting at Velomotion tomorrow!

It's all about the bike!

So, I don't know any triathlon or cycling blog that doesn't use that title at some point! This play on the words of the infamous title of Lance Armstrong's book is now prolific in the consciousness of people training for crazy biking challenges! In this case, it is about the bike. A very beautiful new bike complete with blue Kona flowers that has been leant to me by a local MK distributor (http://www.multisportdistribution.co.uk/) of Blue Competition Cycles. Our local bike shop, Corley Cycles, sponsors a team who are utilising Blue Competition Cycles and Fusion clothing and I watched the team clean up at the first of the Big Cow duathlons a couple of months ago. The bike is beautiful and I am so looking forward to getting out on it after the stupid marathon is done! Maybe it will finally inspire me to become a great cyclist or at least enjoy getting out there a bit more. Either way, I'm going to look a lot smarter come August! :)

Speaking of the marathon, it is driving me nuts! I have true taper madness (a phenomena that sets in for all people training for the marathon in the last few weeks before the race where they have to fully cut back on training and starting feeding their faces with carbs!) which is making me grumpy, sluggish, lethargic and generally cursing the marathon daily. It is exasperated by reading the forums (http://www.tritalk.co.uk/) and seeing quite how much stuff other people are doing while I am confined to the sofa! I am starting to panic slightly about my lack of biking and am planning to hit it hard starting Monday, well, maybe Tuesday, hmmmm, or Wednesday! I would absolutely love to go sub-4 in the marathon and plan to race as hard as I can even though I should be not knackering myself (it's only supposed to be a 'B' race!) because I would love to get the season off to a great start and a sub-4 would fill me with confidence. I know I have done slightly less training than I would have ideally especially because of the need to cross-train and I know it will be close on the day. A hypotherapist friend has got me doing positive mantras on a daily basis and really all I can do now is relax, be confident in the training I have done and give it all on the day. Fingers crossed for me please!!

A little bit of swim, bike and run......

When I last checked in to tell you about Lanzarote I was in recovery mode from a tough 20miler - the Asbhy 20. Despite everyone's assertions that you should run your LSR (Long Slow Runs) at precisely that - a slow pace, I wanted to build some confidence for Paris and I believed if I could do this 20miler (it's hilly!) in around 3hrs I would be able to go sub-4. So I decided to race! Whether this was a good idea or not I don't know. The first 10miles were a very comfortable 90mins and then the work started. It was a two lap route so we knew what was coming and there are certainly some hills to work on esp at mile 5/15. My pace did start to drop probably around 15-17miles though I think this was terrain orientated rather than major fatigue as, when it let up around 17miles, I had a fast mile (sub-9) between 17-18. Miles 18-20 were uphill back into the village which wasn't ideal so the pace slipped again though I pulled out a speedy last 800m so I obviously had a little something left in the tank!! Overall, 20miles in 3hrs and 1min (including a puppy rescue!!) so I am pretty pleased and feel more confident that with a fair wind and everything going right on the day, Paris may be sub-4 territory!



The 20miler did however, as I was told!, leave me too knackered to get much training in this week. I had Monday off then a triple training day Tuesday which probably contributed to the fatigue. I had wanted to do a tempo run but my legs were too tired so I did an hour of 10(5mins run/1min walk) to practice for the Double IM. It was very stressful physically but mentally it was tough. Doing such short chunks of running means you don't seem to get very far very quickly but it is just something I'll have to get used to I suspect! A swim and a turbo and I had a good day. Wednesday I limited to just swimming because I knew I would need to start tapering down and not knacker myself.



Thursday I was back on track with Interval training - much tougher than normal, probably from the accumulated fatigue but all the timings were there and I completed my 6x800m a happy child. On Friday I wanted to get a good solid swim in so I decided to don the wetsuit and do a 5km swim mimicking the Double IM. I stopped every 1,000m for a swig of H30 Pro and Water and swam consistently throughout. I have had to start learning to swim without tumble-turning as this is not allowed in the Double - another mental challenge! This was actually easier with the wetsuit on as it is weird tumble turning in that, and I was happy to record a total swim time (with stops) of 1hr 31mins. Maybe sub 2hrs 20 is achievable!!



I was due to have Saturday off but Adam needed to run so in the spirit of motivation (shaming him into getting out of bed!) I joined him on a 4.5mile run on Saturday morning. My legs were tired and just running sub 9.30min/mile pace was tough. I felt better by the end to keep up with Ad's sub 8.30min/mile pace but it wasn't a relaxing run! We then headed into London as Ad has an appointment with the wonderful Profeet to get his gait analysed and see if he needs orthotics. I think he found the whole process really interesting and was happy to find out that he is actually a really neutral runner and probably doesn't need as much support as his shoes have been giving him and that this could actually be the thing causing him pain. He has a pair of more neutral shoes that he wore for the marathon last year and tried them out yesterday on a 12miler and felt much better - yippee! I really pray for him to have some pain-free running especially on the day! After a lovely lunch with two of my closest friends, Aleks and Fi, we traipsed round London a bit more until our feet and legs were crying for mercy and we collapsed back onto the train home. A swift dinner and I was ready for my epic cycle the following morning!



At 7am, damning the British Summer Time, I dragged myself out of bed for the MK Cycle Sportive. I had originally signed up for the 100M Colossus route but, trying to sensible, thought, that whilst, tapering for Paris, the 100km option would be better. The route runs all the way round Milton Keynes so there were plenty of drop out points if I was struggling and Ad could always come and get me if I had problems. The first 2hrs passed and I was really enjoying the ride, however, I knew after that we were going into fairly unknown territory. Due to concentrating on marathon training my longest cycle has been 3hrs on the turbo and 2.5hrs in Lanzarote so I knew it would get harder. However, after a quick feed stop to replenish, I decided I would be cross if I didn't finish although I had good reasons and pushed on. I felt ok to just before 75kms and then I really bonked big style. It was a full on headwind for miles and I started to get very fed up! I took an emergency gel and glugged down my H30 and struggled on. Around 85kms we hit the border of MK again which was weird considering we still had 15kms to go - were we going to have to loop around the city a few times??! Still, at this point the wind was behind me, the road surface was better and flat and I began to whizz along over 30km/hr again, so I was happy. At 90kms I saw the sign for The Bowl and was ushered into the car park and onto the finishing straight. Confused I headed over the timing mat and approached an official explaining I was 10kms short and might I have gone wrong somewhere. However, it turns out the course was just short which they apologised for. I wasn't worried. After 3hrs 40mins of ride time I was quite happy to be getting off the bike! It was by no means an epic ride and I have so much work to do on the bike but I am so pleased with myself that I finished and got a little bit less fearful of the bike in general. I am going to have to rack up 1000s of miles before the Double IM so I must learn to love my little bike! On that front, I may have a cheeky solution to inspire me but as I have rambled on and on and on, I'll save that for next time!!

Where to start....!

When I have been away for such a long time it is so difficult to know where to start to get back on track! I think I may have to break this down into a number of posts otherwise anyone reading it will certainly get bored before the end! I think the first big thing was that the main reason for me being away for so long is that I have been out in La Santa, Lanzarote on a warm weather camp with the RAF. I have been to La Santa before with the swim team and it is an excellent facility - everything you could possibly need for training is there. I was a bit nervous before I went as I didn't know anyone else going and had the usual nervous that everyone was going to be much quicker than me. I was especially nervous about the bike as we were scheduled for 4hrs a day and it is hard to manage logistically if you are a lot slower than everyone else. Running and swimming are much simpler but the distances covered are a lot less so it is less important how quick people are. However, in four hours we could be covering a range of about 48-68miles depending on people's pace which is a big difference to get over and I was worried about being dropped and getting lost! However, most of the girls going were of a similar standard and we stuck together every day on the rides which was great. Riding out there makes you super super strong as the hills and the wind is never ending. I also managed to get a bit braver on my descending (I am SUCH a wimp) and clocked up a reasonably impressive 55km/hr on some of the descents.

Cycling was really the focus for the week and we rode 5 days out of 6. Swimming was less of a focus though there was still the opportunity to swim every day either in their wonderful open air 50m pool or down at the lagoon. I probably swam 3 or 4 times of varying distances between 2.5-4kms. I was worried about when I would manage to fit the run training in given that I have been sticking quite closely to my Paris schedule and when I get back I will only have 4 weeks until race day. I knew I wanted to get at least one longer run in to keep the endurance ticking over. Luckily there was a half marathon race scheduled for 7.45am Tuesday morning (good practice for an early start too as Paris starts around 8.30 I think) so I decided to race that and then add a few miles to the end. I really wanted to keep a steady pace and then add 4-5miles to the end but, of course, when it is an actual race scenario it is hard not to be competitive. The terrain out there was so tough - the roads are all very uneven to run on and coupled with heat and hills it was quite tough. I managed a respectable 1hr 56 but I knew I had pushed a bit too hard to then carry on much further. I forced myself to 2.5hrs and just over 16miles which wasn't too bad and will at least keep the mileage going. Those last three miles were down around 10min/miling though as my legs were pretty tired especially with all the riding we had been doing!

There was also a few other races organised during the week, a duathlon, aquathlon and a mini tri. We were all supposed to compete in the mini tri but a few people were suffering from the increase in training so formed teams instead. Having run 16miles the day before and wanting to get in a good bike ride in the afternoon, I also voted for the team option and swam a 400m TT in my relay. Around 6.30 which was ok but not too speedy. Still having had 3 months out of the pool it's not too bad. I used my wetsuit a couple of times during the week to try and get used to it as I will be planning to use it for the Double Ironman and need to get used to it in a pool. The first time I was in a rush to get it on and it wasn't that comfortable but in the mini-tri it felt pretty good.

All in all a really good stint of training especially for my cycling. I feel my run training has slipped a bit as I didn't make many more of the scheduled sessions (did a 4x1m interval set though which felt good) but hopefully the bike endurance will keep me on track. It has really enthused me for cycling outside again - the good weather makes all the difference though does result in very dodgy tan lines! So no excuses for the return home - I need to bite the bullet and get outside on the bike!

Herbalife - my wonderful sponsor!

Now, naturally I am biased but I just felt the need to write a quick note about how wonderful my sponsor Herbalife actually is! Not only do they have absolutely fabulous products which support my training in ways too numerous to mention but they support me emotionally as well. I have never had the priveledge of being a fully sponsored athlete before so maybe this is the norm but they have really taken the time to make this a very personal relationship and I couldn't be more grateful.

A common problem all endurance athletes will face is how to get their partner and loved ones to fully support them on whatever mad challenge they have come up with. And, believe me, this support is absolutely vital to you being able to complete something - without it your home life is going to be unhappy and when that is the case it would take a very unique person (and possibly not that nice) to be able to ignore it all and give their all to training without getting totally stressed out by it all. Herbalife have been 100% inclusive to my partner Adam, from being extremely welcoming to him when we travelled to meet them, to allowing him to accompany me to various sponsorship engagements and even giving him some kit to wear. To include him at this level is extremely special of them and has helped enormously with his 'buy-in'. He was extremely impressed with the whole set-up when we went down to meet with Herbalife at their offices and has echoed my sentiments that I have been extremely lucky to have secured such a supportive sponsor.

Herbalife - I'm very grateful!!