Daz Does Tri

The irony of today is that I'm going to watch the World Champs in London but I seem to have put my back out last night and can't run !! Frustrating as I was going to run last night and just knobbed it off to head out this morning :/ Off to Ventoux on Wednesday, should be a good few days strength work but just hopinh now I can get on a bloody bike!

It's more difficult than you think. To break it down, I guess it's most important to narrow down and group the most important factors... Must be in school holibobs I have my oldest starting private school, this shit costs enough already without wasting school fees! Bike course must be flat, negligible wind Off low power I can ride a decent time on a fast/flat course. I'm happy with a flatter course with less VI climbs as I'll level out my low ftp. Dream scenario for me is 180-190w which I can ride a fast 5hr ish bike split but still be able to run fast (relatively) off the bike.

Don't tell anyone, I think I'm going to try and go Iron distance again next year. Let's hope this time it goes a bit more to plan than last time :/ Biggest problem this year on reflection is not really having a goal other than to ride quick. And I had more shitty days that good ones and being shit in bad conditions just made things worse an pilled the pressure on.

Coming to the end of July and TT season is pretty much over for me now. I've focussed on bike only all year and I have to say the results are overall a bit disappointing. It's been a strange season with some great results mixed in with some awful ones. Consistently inconsistent has been the best way to describe it. Best race was a Wednesday night on F2D/10 where we got float conditions on a fairly slow course. 20.56 and within 30 secs of Ian, Rich & Nic was surprising and a springboard (I'd hoped to start narrowing the gap). Alas what's really been shown up this year is and even bigger gap between my performance when it's flat and fast against any time the road goes up hill or into the wind (or even worse, both)!

Since the start of the year I have concentrated fully on the bike. To be blunt, I'm fed up with being average and if I can't ride a decent bike split then I will never get anywhere near page one of results in tri !! So far this year I have ridden 3 x 10 mile TT's - all on shit courses or in shit conditions (22.37 on H10/8, 23.00 on e2/10 and 23.51 on e33/10). Power has risen from 217w NP on the first race to 240w NP on the last one. It's a decent progression but I'm still dissapointed off the winter I have put in. I'd hoped to be riding 250w-260w for 10s by now. I also have 3 x 25's under my belt - 1.00:22 on the tough e1/25b, 56.19 on r25/3h and 55.17 on r25/3h. Power over 25 has been shocking - 201w, 216w & 215w.

So it feels a bit strange to post straight after a year catch up with another year catch up, but it's been a funny old year to say the least. I started the year with the sole aim of going ~9.30 at Ironman Austria. Training went really well in the build up, I hit pretty much every session, the numbers were good and confidence was high. I'm confident that I'd have hit my target, but that's easy to say when you didn't even toe the start line. That Ironman itch isn't going to go away that's for sure!

So, 2016 was the year I was supposed to get closure on my last Ironman performance. I trained well, didn't have many issues in the build up and got some really good training banked. The bike was in great shape after a 1.57 50 mile TT and a completion of the Tour of Wessex, I was swimming well under the hour pace for open water in training and I'd run a 3.02 marathon off little run training. I was really looking forward to having a go at Austria.