Daz Does Tri

Good solid weeks training last week. Only missed 1 easy bike but did do an extra run. Pretty happy with the week but very tired. Sessions were not exactly as planned, Tuesday's run was better although still an easy session. Thursday tempo was only 5.59 avge for 10k but I held back with Dan for 3 (6.01, 6.03, 6.13) and did the other 3 (5.53, 5.51, 5.53) and felt good but still not like I could go loads quicker. Very tired bike Wednesday (19.4 avge and struggled into the wind) and a slow and heavy legged long run Saturday.

Last couple of weeks I finally feel like I've managed to hit a bit of form and it's no coincidence that I've had a nice routine going. The whole year I've always had something going on that's shifted things around. I've never settled into a routine and pretty much trained on the fly. I'm not looking for Iron hours but just getting the right sessions in at the right time seems to be working well. I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking to this over the winter as it seems top be working.

Triathlon, like being sick takes planning. Just like needing to make a doctors appointment 2 weeks before you actually get ill, the world of triathlon moves fast and you have to book races 12 months in advance. So, this year for me has been a strange one. I still don't know what my best/favorite distance is. Mid-season I was still considering anything from sprint to Iron Man as focus for 2015! Sprint - Did 1, got DQ'd in it. Lessons learned the hard way however this is probably going to be my best distance in terms of being competitive. Didn't enjoy it as much as I'd have liked - felt very panicky and rushed and never really got into a rythm until the run spread out. Best swim % all year to be fair.

Having time to reflect I can only blame myself Spoiler alert - it doesn't end well!! I'll preamble this blog with a note that I know it's going to sound like some kind of elaborate justification for getting DQ'd for drafting. How saintly I am am how I would never dream of drafting! I'm honestly not, as much as I can say I didn't intend to draft, I WAS drafting and I did deserve to get DQ'd. So it was the Big Cow sprint triathlon ETU qualifier at Milton Keynes yesterday. If anything at the very least it's a mouthful! This was to be my first attempt at sprint distance. After a slightly disappointing standard last week I was hoping this would make up for it. To be fair I fancied sprint could actually suit me more than standard as I tend to push harder on shorter distances in running. I also wanted to weigh up my options for next season over what distance to focus on so good chance to see if I can Q for a champs with no roll down spots.

I train about 12 hours a week for tri. My typical week is made up of roughly 6 hours cycling, 4 hours running and 2 hours swimming. I'm guessing that's fairly typical for a triathlete of my standard. I don't do any core/circuits and stuff and spend probably 6 hours on top of that travelling and farting about. That's quite an investment in time for someone with 3 kids who runs their own business. I certainly don't take myself seriously, however I'm deadly serious about my results. I want to be a competor not a completor . Don't take me the wrong way, I believe we have our goals and getting to the finish is as important for some as winning is for others. Trust me, I've run for Great Britain (proper track and field, not age grouping) and I've been 2 stone over weight trying to get round a marathon after 10 years of doing nothing but eat and drink. I just want to be the best me I can which in my mind is finishing high up the field (overall). So

The funny thing about Triathlon is that you never really know where you are in the race if you're not in the first group out of the water. As a poor swimmer, I make a judgement call on the effort I'm putting in. Same on the bike, I pick a pace based on last years results and see how it gets me. I know I'm overtaking people in my age group but I have no idea how many are in front. I just know it's A LOT! People from other waves are a variable time in front so I've also no idea where I am over all. So again I aim for swim / bike / run splits and hope they are good enough. The problem with that is it's basically bollocks!

I got the invite from Coleman to go on a trip to Mt Ventoux some time ago. It was all pretty vague but luckily one of our pals Tony was organising so I was fairly confident it would go ahead! If anyone knows Coleman, odds of something happening that he organises are about 3/1 at best, so I did worry it may not happen! However, we hit the 7:31 out of St Pancras on a wet Wednesday morning and arrived in Avignon by about 3pm local time later that afternoon basking in glorious sunshine. The journey went by pretty quick, helped by plenty of cards and coffee on mainly empty trains. Playing a 36 Euro cash game, I was reloading within 10 minutes but finished the journey nearly 100 euro up #result