Kona 2013 - The Big Kahuna

Photos still to come, but I'll them when I get back home:

Well, I have that slightly empty feeling that is all too familiar and means that the season is over and I have no  more goals left. Hawaii World Ironman Championships was always the Big Kahuna for 2013, and now that its over, its time to reflect.

I chose to acclimatise to the heat and time zone in two stages, with a week in Texas training on old stomping grounds at 30 degrees and 85% humidity, and then a week in Kona itself, watching the buildup to the big day. I enjoyed being out of the circus when it mattered, and got a solid week in sweating it out in Texas, before tapering on the final week, recce’ing the course at the times I would be on it, during which there were no issues, no jetlag and no illnesses, stomach or sleep problems, so really I couldn’t have asked for a better preparation.

Two of the highlights of my pre-race prep were the Kona Underpants run and drinking coffees of Hawaii (Chrissie Wellington’s blend of course) on the outrigger boat in the Harbour. The underpants run was just a really chilled affair where everyone managed to look ridiculous but not be in the slightest bit embarrassed, all in the name of charity.  An incredible sight and a great atmosphere, showing that not all the most serious athletes take themselves ultra-seriously.

So to the big day itself, and we made our way to the King K hotel where the body marking took place. I’d been warned there would be a queue for this, so I took it calmly as an enormous number of volunteers painstakingly applied a 4-digit tattoo to both arms of all 2050 competitors, one at a time! Then we had to be weighed, all before we were allowed to our bikes to put on the fluid, Garmins, and air in the tyres.

I felt calm as I completed my warm up, put some extra Vaseline on, and got into my speedsuit, aiming to be in the water at 6:35, just after the pro start. Although this was a long wait for the start in deep water, I felt calm enough, despite the constant Hawaian drumming, which was guaranteed to put your heart rate up a notch or two.

I held onto a paddle board, looked to my right and saw James Ogilvie, and to my left, and lo and behold there was Richard Newey. Of all the places to meet two clubmates, at the start of the Ironman World Champs in the water with 2000 others!

After an age, we were finally set off with a cannon, and it was into the fray I went. I kept to the left, which definitely worked, and I stayed out of trouble, coming out of the swim unscathed (even at the Body Glove turn boat) in 1:09. I was happy enough with that time, being double what I can do without a wetsuit over a half ironman.  The best part was how beautifully clear the ocean is, and the fact that some dolphins swam with some of the athletes. Definitely not a common occurrence in Europe.

Onto the transition, a quick shower and then the bike course laid out in its 180 Km of windy, hot glory, only to find my Garmin 310xt, trusty though its been all season had decided not to pick up Heart Rate or power, so I had to stop it and restart. This race, I had taken the opportunity to use a new toy, a  Garmin 510 in order to view my rather swanky new right-left power balance which is being communicated from my Vector pedals. This was all very exciting and made the ride a lot more boring. It was hard to stick to my allotted window of power (140-160 watts) which was the same as South Africa earlier this year, as the first half of the course was a tailwind, and many people kept on speeding past. I told myself that they would pay for this later. I’m not sure that they did though, as the folks in this race were way too experienced to make those kind of mistakes.

I caught a member of a pro team near to the turnaround at Hawi, who was also riding to power and we both expressed surprise at the lack of the well-known crosswinds, which had threatened to sweep me over the cliff just a couple of days before. I made good progress into the headwind after Hawi (60 miles) and continued to be above my target ever so slightly, completing the ride with an average power of 161w, which compares very favourably with South Africa at 145. My heart rate also averaged 145, so I knew I was perfectly within the normal bounds for me, and felt pretty good coming into T2. However, I was a long long way down on any of the pointy end, and I knew it.

I set out to make amends on the run, knowing that the first 10 miles of Ali’I drive would be where I could do some damage. I went past 26 women during this section, feeling pretty good, drinking and eating gels, and not really feeling the heat at all, since it had clouded over. I was watching my Heart Rate a little on the uphills but it never hit the 164 point where I start to notice a meltdown. So I plodded on at 5 min/km pace to the 13 mile point, telling myself not to walk until then. I knew this was where it would get tough, as they told us in the briefing that no spectators would be allowed from this point on until we got back to the finish (pretty much 25.5 miles/41km). This was agony.  After having lots of shouts and encouragement, it become instead the gruelling glances from those who were 10 miles ahead of me on the course and knew they were nearer to ending the pain than I was by at least 80 minutes. I am sure that I improved their day no end, but it didn’t do much to spark mine. I met a girl who had decided to run/walk, so we walked some aid stations from Makala at about 13 miles to the turning to the Energy Lab at 16. Turns out, she was 3 months pregnant and was ‘taking it a lot easier than normal for her at Kona’  - this is the kind of competition once can only marvel at in this event. Sadly, some of those who I’d worked so hard to get past came back. That was soul destroying and as I ran down into the Natural Energy Lab I became more determined that the goal to finish before daylight ended at 6:14pm would be the one to work towards. I felt my head spinning out of control, and decided that walking was safer than running with such low bood pressure. I’d taken 5 Nuun’s during the bike, in addition to all the Powerbar Perform, but it clearly hadn’t been enough salt. I also gave one to another girl who was suffering at Hawi, so now it was time for Karma to turn to me, and a hapless runner who was rattling with the sound of salt tablets caught up to me. Recognising the telltale noise, I asked if I could have one. He happily agreed, and I wolfed it down with a banana and a pretzel to add some more salt for good measure. I also knew that in 2 miles I could get my Special Needs, which contained Nuun. Almost immediately the salt tablet took effect, and I was able to run again. I hadn’t had any cramps, blisters, stomach distress or other issues, but salt balance is still something I haven’t quite mastered, since the same thing happened at Roth at about 14 miles. From the special needs point on, I went back to running in between the aid stations, and made good progress again. Turning onto Queen K at last for the final 6 miles, I could see the sun starting to drop towards the horizon on my right hand side, and the aid station announcers started to refer to us chasing it. I looked at my watch and calculated that at 37km, I could still do my last 5 km in 25 mins and be home before sundown. It was interminable, but I’m pleased to say I got there at last. Final Turbo finisher, and beaten by all the non-pregnant athletes in the age group, or so it seemed. I got a big thanks from the girl who I’d given the Nuun to, as she was stretchered into medical, having finished just, and there was a lady who collapsed rather selfishly in front of me at the finish line itself, spoiling my photos a little!!

I tried to hand myself into medical as I could not keep standing up but they refused to take me, and said I had to drink chicken soup instead. When I did this in South Africa I’m afraid it was not the last I saw of the soup, but I managed better in Roth thanks to the wonderful Mrs G. This time I was all on my own, staggering around, trying to get my stuff out of transition, finding nowhere to change,  and realising my phone didn’t work, so that was all a bit upsetting. But I made it out after a massage, and I have been walking around fairly well ever since, no real damage done.

I am very proud to have realised my Kona dreams this year. Its been the hardest and most rewarding season yet for me, starting on March 2^nd in Abu Dhabi, with a 2^nd at IMSA, 1^st at Roth, and a few 70.3s along the way. Now I’m looking forward to taking on some new  personal challenges, but I can only recommend the journey, as ever. You will definitely learn more about yourself. I still maintain that ‘Plan the race, race the Plan’ is all you can do. And that is what I did. No drama, no heroics, just a solid race against the best in the world and the Kona Winds. I’m not disappointed, just humbled.

PS For anyone who doesn’t know, the word Kona, in Hawai’ian, means wind from the South.

Garmin Vectors - power for the girls?

So, at long last I feel like its time to write the review of the new Garmin Vector pedals. I purchased mine through Primera Sports in Bournemouth, who mailed them to me using a 48 hour delivery service, and they arrived in a huge box with lots of packing 6 days ago, on Sept 24th. It was very exciting to open them from their chocolate box style packaging:

However, I was more than alarmed to find they came with some cleats which were red in colour. I immediately called up the shop to ask why, and they told me that the colour does not relate to normal Look Keo pedals. They are a float of 6.5 degrees, whereas I use 4.5 degrees. So I am leaving my grey cleats on my shoes rather than change them before the race. I don't understand why Garmin would not offer the same cleats that riders are used to, but there we go. I took them to the mechanic Chris Bailey as he was finishing my rebuild of the bike ready for Kona. We assembled them in about 5 minutes, starting with the left pedal per the instructions. The washer goes next to the crank, then the metal part of the Vector pod, then the pedal. Once tightened by hand, they should be tightened to 25 foot pounds with a torque wrench with a claw foot. I have done it twice with a 15mm spanner and no torque wrench and it worked. The angle of the pods does not matter, and you do not need to get it to read the message about angles being checked during calibration. Mine worked following only a static calibration. But I did enter the crank length on my Garmin 510. There is no option to do this on the 310xt, but they both read the same, so I guess the 310xt must have worked it out.

So, here is the history of all the teething problems I have had and why. I think that the support available on the Garmin 1-800 number is very effective, but its not easy if you are not on the continental US.

1. The pedals did initially pair with my Garmin 510 and my Garmin 310xt, but it requires a lot of determination to get this to happen. At least 5 goes at pairing and receiving the 'power sensor not found' message seems to be normal. After cajoling, they paired, and then calibrated successfully. I took them out for a first ride and they read consistent power, albeit a little haphazardly with zeros creeping in every 5-10 minutes..

2.Every ride you are supposed to re-calibrate. I noticed, that following static calibration, it took about 5 minutes for full power readings. This is apparently a known fault and can be fixed by upgrading the firmware. I was told this by Garmin support but I am not inclined to try to upgrade my firmware at  this time, as I have never had success using my ANT stick and without a good wireless signal while I am travelling I think its too big a risk.

3. After I disassembled the bike to travel to Texas, I stored the pedals  in their box for travel. per the recommendation, and then reassembled as soon as I arrived on Friday. I tightened the pedals manually, and then took the bike to the shop to have them do it with the torque wrench. I could not get them to pair with the Garmin this time. So after several calls to Garmin, I took them off again and found that there was a washer in between the pedal and the Vector pod, ie the wrong side, which was preventing them from reading. After removing this they would pair and calibrate. But they were still reading bad data. So I removed the batteries on both pods, and calibrated again. This fixed the problem and they are now paired and reading correctly, if a little low. But no random zeros this time. So I think that is as good as they will get, and I will test using this set up before I dismantle the bike again for the flight to Kona.

I would recommend that anyone deciding to buy the pedals has a means to compare them to another source of power at the start of the installation, and makes use of the Garmin Support helpdesk. Generally though, they are a great source of power recording for the less technically or mechanically able athlete who just wants to be able to travel. use multiple bikes and download the power readings straight away using the same Garmin Edge or Forerunner that they are used to.

Houston, we have no problems.

Well, I'm out in Houston, Texas doing some pre-Kona training to get my body used to the heat and humidity that will be a part of the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona on October 12th. After a very hectic last few weeks, I'm pleased to say that I can now chill a bit more and fit some blogging in between training.

So, back to ITU World Champs at London. This was an amazing experience, racing in front of the home crowd, with people I knew lining the course and shouting my name to give me the best motivation yet. I believe it was the best performance I was capable of under the conditions. I finished 13th in 2:08, and was rewarded with a hug from Chrissie Wellington at the finish line. The swim was shortened to 750m which was very disappointing for such a big event on a world stage. This was due to the difference in temperature between the water and the air, but for September in the UK, in my view, it was a very predictable situation. Had the race been one week earlier, we may have had a freak weekend of warmer weather but as it was, many athletes were bitterly disappointed with the organisers' decision.

Anyway, I raced as hard as I could and was pleased to have got there in the first place, and been part of a memorable event. It was, however a challenge not to get a cold when there were some 13 hours of hanging around in the freezing cold rain at Hyde Park over the weekend.

But I survived healthily into my taper for Kona and now I'm sucking up the wet blanket training conditions in Texas, and remembering all the things I miss about living here. I can buy stuff in 24 hour stores, I have been musing over the strange collection of Britishness that is collected in the International section of the supermarket: 'Marmite, Ginger Nuts, and Golden Syrup' how odd. Plus I while away my hot and sweaty runs by looking for alligators, sighting of which doesn't happen too often in Bushy Park. So far, its been 3 turtles, one racoon, several rabbits but no armadillos.

So today's task, apart from running and swimming in the heat, is to work out why I can't get my new Garmin Vector pedals to work since I unpacked the bike in Texas.
They worked fine last week, so more tweaking is clearly needed. Will update you when I finally get some good data from them.

2013 - a monster season is nearly over

Well it does seem a bit late to be updating my blog now, after most of this year's racing is done and dusted but the real reason I haven't been keeping things up to date is the fact that juggling a job, and training 20+ hours a week in seeking my goal of Kona this year has left very little in the way of free time for blogging!

No excuses. The trophy cabinet is overflowing, its been another amazing season, almost beyond what I thought was possible and yet my 2 biggest races for the year are still ahead of me:
Firstly, the ITU standard distance Worlds, on Sunday in Hyde Park, and then of course the big one, Kona itself on 12th October, one month from tomorrow.

I have a huge number of people to thank for getting me here in such good physical and mental shape - Jennie Wilson at JWSportstherapy, Brendon Wylde at the Sporting Brain, and of course Speedo, Powerbar, CompressportUK, Profeet, Freespeed, and Sancture Sportifs, who have all helped me this year and whose products I can absolutely wholeheartedly recommend. Without them i'd be slower, more broken, and very hungry!!

I am very proud to be appearing in the current issue 291 of 220 - see the pic below - with Chrissie Wellington. I am pleased to say it was a complete blast and a real pleasure doing this photoshoot and the interview, in which she really did give me the 'no holds barred' view of what to do to prepare for Kona, and how to celebrate afterwards!

I have been basically training 4 days a week and working 3 days ever since December 2nd 2012 in order to achieve my goals for the year which were:

1. Qualify for Kona

2. Complete Abu Dhabi long course 

3. Arrive at the start fit and complete 3 ironman distance races in a year (IMSA, Roth and Hawaii) –

a. podium in Age at Roth if things go well, 

Well so far, Abu Dhabi was an AG win and second overall,  South Africa went to plan in 10:37, apart from a puncture, but I still got 2nd and the slot, followed by an AG win at Roth in 10:28 and a few AG wins along the way just to keep the record looking strong (Berlin 70.3, Swashbuckler, and Vitruvian). A little blip was Wiesbaden 70.3 where I only managed 6th in Age, which was the kick I needed to work a bit harder through August.

And here we are, the hard work is done, now its about keeping the body together to the start line, believing in the plan, and just enjoying the racing. That is the one thing that I think I won't have a problem with. I have been thinking long and hard about whether to carry on after this season (before you ask, I'm still undecided) but the one thing that doesn't ever wear thin is my love for racing. If you could race without all the hard work and preparation, I'd do it! But right now, I know I need to give my best to this season and then rest, properly, before I think about next year. So I have entered nothing, made no commitments, and will listen to my body and see how I feel. 

For the tale of two opposite World Championships (one short, freezing cold and slippery, the other very much the epic, hot, windy painfest in the Lava Fields of Kona) you will have to tune in again in a couple of days.... 

One last piccy to remind myself of the painface - this one was fixed for most of the Roth marathon:

Wet and windy bank holiday in Auckland

Well, I have flown 36 hours in order to experience a bank holiday weekend not unlike our own in the UK!

It is 3 days before the Age Group event in the ITU World Triathlon Championships, 2 days before the men's elites, and 1 day before the women's elites. And we are all hoping against all logic that the weather will improve. Its currently about 7-10 degrees at night and up to 15 in the day (if you're out of the wind and between showers!) and I've seen a lot of athletes really worried about race day. The organisers are saying no clothing over the top of your national race suit unless its an unbranded clear jacket (who has one of those??!)
This is me at the top of the Savage Memorial, one of the aptly named 4 sharp little climbs on the bike course, which we have to do 4 times.

So on Monday it will be mind over matter. To be honest, after racing in Eton at 10 degrees air temp, and swimming in Shepperton at 9 degrees water temp I am well prepared. Although there is no way I'd have gone out on my bike at home in gale force winds like we had this morning. I rode my bike around the North Shore and investigated lots of lovely areas like Mairangi bay and Brown's Bay. Its a really sport-oriented culture here - many people live here and compete at a high level in all sorts of sports - Surf live saving, netball, rugby as well as swimming for New Zealand. Down at the Millenium high performance centre there are silver ferms every where you look, and even Olympic medal-winners hanging around on poolside coaching the kids. And down at the Triathlon Expo we had Hamish Carter and Javier Gomez (top pro athletes) meeting and greeting the athletes today.

The last week has gone about as well as you could hope - highs being training in the Parnell Baths (above, sea filled and 17 degrees) and the wonderful food and company of the Mckenzies who I am staying with, lows being my ribs still giving me grief, and my luggage not arriving for another 24 hours after I did.
But I'm feeling relaxed and confident ahead of the race, based on having done all the hard work this summer, and testing out the swim course earlier, plus the bike course and going for a blustery beach run yesterday.

The parade of nations was fun, and we all got to wander around in our GB kit while checking out all the other nations kit and deciding what is worth swapping for.

Hope you like the photos, and that this conveys some of the preparations and the excitement ahead of the big event. Hoping to get a good view of the elite women's race tomorrow from the Grandstand, and another couple of days of getting blown about before it all kicks off at 09:20 (GMT-12) on Monday i.e. 9:20pm UK time on Sunday.

Sleep, pain and the Land of the long white cloud

I'm just getting ready to head off to Auckland this weekend for the ITU World Championships.
The past 4 weeks being back at work seem to have flown by, but its been a good experiment in extending my peak conditioning phase while not actually putting many hours of training in. The dark mornings haven't helped, but I've managed 5 mornings of 6am alarms to train before work this week.

Its been hard to train effectively with my ribs still recovering from the bike crash, but I keep reminding myself that, as Chrissie says: 'pain is a conversation between the mind and the body'. I proved that by racing successfully at the Votwo race in Dorney, rather annoyingly being beaten into 2nd by 15 seconds - a result of having raced in the men's wave not the women's. That will teach me to get too big for my boots! That, together with the Speedo Hampton Court Swim had proved to me that I can handle the cold in a swim again, after getting used to the balmy bath temperatures in Las Vegas.

Anyway, as usual I've been thinking.... about two different things. Firstly, now is the time to be planning the race season for 2013, and I've been helping out athletes both new and old to the sport to enable them to both assess their current season, learn from it and to form the right goals for next year. Its very rewarding and it is good practice for me to make sure I can answer the same questions for myself to my coach Tom Bennett at T2 coaching like:
1. what are my strengths and how to make the most of them?  Answer: work ethic, resilience. I will be looking at another set of mentally tough races next year to test my resilience in 2013!
2. What are my weaknesses? lack of self confidence and sometimes self-belief. I really surprised myself this year because deep down I didn't think I was capable of the results I've achieved.
3. How will I do things differently in 2013? - I have learned a lot about myself, my ability to make great leaps in performance by raising my game, and I know the conditions I need to allow this to happen next year. And rest is the key.

This is my second point- I'm thinking that there is something to be said for sleep being key to being able to make breakthroughs - for one simple reason - pain thresholds. I've noticed that while my ribs are still inflamed, I feel very forlorn, like the little meerkat that was bitten by the snake on the BBC's Life of Mammals and I am not able to push myself as my pain thresholds are not good enough.When I've slept a bit more, then I'm much more able to withstand and push through the pain -this is a well documented phenomenon, see Pertovaara et al. and any number of references to the HPA axis in response to pain.

So I'm thinking about ways to get myself new targets for next year based on achieving a set number of hours of sleep. We all know how hard it is just to get to bed at a decent time during the week. I think I need competition to encourage me. What about a strava equivalent for logging your sleep hours? No idea if it will catch on, but I want to be proud to rest more in 2013, and I'm looking for incentivisation.

Speaking of sleep, I need to try to get a whole lot of that during my 36 hour journey starting this Sunday- I've never raced this far from home so it will be a new experience to fly in on Tuesday and race the following Monday with a 13 hour time difference.

Have a great weekend and for those racing Kona - have a blast, I'll be following in envy ahead of setting this as a goal for the future. And of course it will be one way of staying awake on Saturday to make sure I sleep well on the long flight!

Back to earth with a bump

Well, I'm back at work now, sitting behind a desk each day, and commuting for the best part of 3 hours a day, just like the rest of society. And its not only a shock, its tough not to eat comfort food all day to get over the depression. I keep reminding myself how much it hurt all day every day to push myself as hard as  I did all summer, not to mention how little money I had and all the times I had to avoid going out anywhere to save cash!

I am 4 weeks away from my last race of the year in Auckland, and its all about staying sharp now. Unfortunately I hampered my own preparations this weekend when I came off my bike- due to my own muppetry - I had failed to properly tighten the cassette on my wheel and the gears slipped in a very inconvenient manner leaving my Vegas tan on the pavement, and a couple of ribs and some other bones bruised.

So now I'm nursing the bruises, and trying to get  in some short sharp interval sessions when I get home from work in time. So tonight I finished training at 9:30pm, and I'm pleased to say my legs still feel great;  I pushed some good intervals out, fuelled rather strangely by Nigella cooking and the Masters of money - a programme about economic theory.

Anyway, I now have to rediscover the balance needed between work, training and sleep to get my best performances. I am so pleased that I decided to spend the summer training full time and I know what it feels like to really push yourself in a way that I would never have been able to otherwise, with the appropriate attention to rest, recovery and conditioning. I think I can maintain my fitness just til the end of this season, with any luck, and hopefully my bruises will mend in time for me to squeeze a couple more races in, before its the long, dark off-season and mince pies, festivities and endless turbo training!