Welcome to my blog. My name is Andy Walker. I began my triathlon journey in the summer of 2008, watching a friend compete, and thought that I’d like to give it a go. Two years on and I consider myself to be an age group triathlete competing in the 45 – 49 year age group, although I hasten to add that I am at the very start of that age group. This blog aims to keep you up to date with my progress as I Try to Tri

In the week leading up to the race I had done nothing. A busy week at work and the need to bring my laptop home meant that I was unable to run home. On Saturday before the race after preparing my bike, which included a rear brake overhaul, I joined my club mates at the race site to set up the finish shute, transition area and registration tent. I even managed a drive around the bike route to familiarise myself with what was to come.

On race day I set off bright and early and got set up for the day, I was so quick setting it up I was sure that I had missed something, but it all seemed to be there and I did my usual walk through the transitions, swim in, bike out, bike in, run out to make sure I knew where I was going. The racks were numbered so there was no judgement on where to rack my bike. As it was I was in the first row just before the bike out, pretty much perfect.

The swim went well I got into a pretty good rythym and started to count up the lengths. It’s a nice pool and as we were two to a lane going up and down on the same side there were no panics, no hastles and the red marker was held in front of me before I knew it.

The run to T1 managed to get the blood pumping in my legs and a quick grab of the number belt, helmet on, glasses on and I was ready to grab the bike for a quick exit. Last year it absolutely pelted down with rain and whilst it was a grey morning it was much better.

The bike went well and I pushed hard knowing that I had several team mates starting right behind me. I wanted to try and keep most of them there during the bike leg although I knew a few that would overtake me before the end. The first few miles up through Earles Colne are mostly up hill but I tried to keep my cadence up to maintain some speed whilst going up hill. The roads leading into Pebmarsh had recently been resurfaced but fortunately the club had managed to get the council to sweep some of the loose chippings off, but there was one hairy moment when I came down hill into a dip and right turn when i noticed quite a bit of loose stones on the road. I held my breath as I tried to steer clear of the danger and I was glad that my front wheel stayed firmly planted on the road.

I was passed by two people of the bike one riding a Cervelo P2 and the other a Cervelo P3, I could hear the carbon wheels coming as they left me for a standstill, but I did manage to overtake a few of my club mates who had gone off a little earlier so overall I was pleased with my effort as I came into T2. On reflection I was pleased that I had managed to keep focused during the bike leg, it certainly helped my time.

T2 also went well, i had not put any socks out to change into for the run which was part by design and part by necessity as I hadn’t put any out! But that made for a quick transition and I was out on the run. It was at this stage that I saw another couple of club mates ahead and so I tried to push through the dead legs to catch them. This effort was worthwhile as I did pass them but as the run continued the harder it got. I reaslised that my focus on the bike had robbed me of energy for the bike, or was it the lack of running for the previous month! I ploughed on but was caught by my faster club mates who came passed towards the end of the first lap, but I dug in, encouraged by the marshalls to finish my second race of the year almost four minutes quicker than last year, a new Personal record.

The event was surperbly organised and went by without a hitch. My thanks to the organisers and marshalls for all of their hard work. I even stuck around to help dismantle everything after the race.

Despite the month of May playing host to my first race of the season it wasn’t the most productive in training terms. My lethargy in April carried through May and my total training hours were the lowest they have been since I started training for Triathlon eighteen months ago, well not quite, but not far from it.

Total Training

Bike

Run

I did manage to complete a longer ride than normal cycling up to meet the club ride and coming back again after the main ride. This was OK but I did the last run back both against the wind and with the rain driving into me, I was not a happy bunny when I finally got home. I’ve added my Garmin summary and you can see how much slower I was on that last tem miles when compared to the first. Never mind, that’s training for you!

Race preparations weren’t perfect. I spent the week leading up to the race trying to fight off a cold. Having let my training drift off towards then end of April, there was no way that I was going to push my training up whilst trying to stop my nose from running. It has become a bigger problem now that I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure as my normal response to the first sight of a cold is to dose up on Nurofen Cold & Flu, but unfortunately my diagnosis now means that no pharmacy will prescribe any form of decongestant to me except paracetemol. So as the week went on, the worse I felt, so much so that I spent Thursday and Friday in bed hoping to let it pass through. On Friday night I was a little better but the thoughts of my first DNS (Did Not Start) were on my mind. Saturday morning showed an improvement and so my thoughts returned to trying to make the start line. On Saturday afternoon I decided to check my bike over, only to twinge my back (falling over whilst carrying my bike stand!).

Hurried text messages to my physio (If only I’d used the right phone number!) went unanswered and thoughts returned to a DNS. Ice packs, Hot Water bottles and good old Voltarol were deployed and more positive thoughts returned to the fore front of my mind. I’ve paid my money, I’ve got everything prepared and packed, let’s set the alarm clock and see how it goes. A DNF (Did Not Finish) is better than a DNS so the alarm was set 05:30am!

Sunday morning and the alarm did its job. Breakfast consumed and I hit the road to Newmarket. I have fond memories of the Newmarket Triathlon as it was my very first race, almost exactly one year ago. I remember it vividly. I managed a respectable 1:14:16 time for the 300m swim, 22km bike and 4km run.

Having completed five triathlon’s last year I wasn’t anywhere near as nervous and my back pain seemed to have eased and my cold seemed pretty much under control. Transition was set up in record time with much less on my transition mat one year on.

The race was extremely well organised and my start time quickly arrived with the 300m swim going by reasonably quickly, transition to the bike was swift as it was only a matter of throwing my goggles down, putting on my number belt, helmet and glasses before pulling the bike off the rack and heading out.

The bike leg started well, feet into shoes, a mouthfull of drink and head down, feet pumping. But then it hit me, bloody hell its cold! climbing out of a swimming pool and jumping on a bike in May in England in just a lycra tri suit is a mistake. I did have arm warmers on the bike, so I put those on (with a bit of a struggle, wet arms, tight arm warmers, while trying to maintain forward motion, you get the picture). Once on the main road I also noticed the wind, (how comes you only notice a head wind) it took me a while to get into a rhythm but once I got used to it I tried to focus on my cadence and see the bike leg through.

The run leg features two loops begining with a circuit of the sports field before joining the roads and an uphill section back to the leisure centre. The first loop was hard coming off the bike and I found it hard to keep my speed up, the second lap was much better and my running legs returned and I managed to pick up the pace. However it was at this time that I noticed the church clock tower and naturally the clock. The current time less my start time was not what I was hoping for and calculations whilst continuing to run meant that my hopes of improving my time were almost redundant. I pushed up the pace, up the hill to finish strongly but to no avail the finish time read 1:15:08.

No PR (Personal Record)! However when checking the detail I swam faster than last year , I ran faster than last year but the headwind had pushed my bike split over last year, costing me at least one mph. On reflection I’m happy, what could have been a DNS or a DNF ended up in a resonaby good early season performance.

 My training in April started off really well with a continued run focus. For the first half of the month I was averaging three runs per week and my running fitness and speed were building nicely. This lead nicely into a club Duathlon that I did based at the old station in Rayne on the Flitch Way. We had a gorgeous day and I was accompanied by Sue and Rebekah who sat in the beautiful sunshine making good use of the tea shop facilities.

The event was just a training session but about twelve of us took part. The course consituted a 1.9 mile run route with a eight mile bike leg in the middle. I have embedded the data from my Garmin so you can see how it went. I was pleased with the sub 8-minute mile run sections and the bike split wasn’t too bad considering I had completed a 35 mile ride on the day before.

The week following was a complete wash out as I failed to do anything except ride on Saturday morning, no swimming and no running. Naturally there were excuses a heavy cold and work commitments, but looking back it was a big mistake to let that fitness go, particularly as my first race of the season was almost upon me. History now, so no point in looking back.

April Training:

Total

Bike

Run

For those of you that have followed my blog you will have no doubt noticed that in the longer distance races my running has been some what disappointing. To help solve this problem March saw a bit of a run focus. I tried to build a run home into my weekly schedule and actually managed 10 runs from work. This has worked really well and I have seen a noticeable imptovement in my run times with about a 3 minute reduction in my 5 mile journey.

My bike training missed out due to the run focus but I still managed to get some good sessions in, including a 50 mile reliability ride (50 miles in 4 hours). We actually only rode for three hours as a good hour was spent in the tea shop in Stisted. Considering we had only finished replacing my wheel bearings 12 hours earlier, it was pretty good going.

March Training:

Run

Bike

February’s weather was a bit better than the snow we had in January and whilst I did manaage to get out and train at the weekends, my mid week training was almost non existent. I managed to attend all four of the club runs on the Sunday mornings.

The first session included a tour of the Discovery Centre trails including a number of timed loops around the 800m lake. Each lap included 3 tempos going flat out for a minute followed by a steady minute and then finally a minutes recovery pace, repeated in line with the sharp tones from the coaches whistle.

The second session was based on the flitch way starting from the coffee shop at Rayne Station. We ran out for 15 minutes, had a minutes recovery and then had to retrace our steps to get back to the station within 14 minutes giving a decent negative split session.

The third of the sessions was a hill repeat workout on the flitch way having toured the local roads to avoid the water logged park. We did have to run through ankle deep water to get home, but at least it was at the end of the run rather than the begining.

Si in summary February’s training covered 14 training sessions with a total distance of 172.4 miles in 14 hours 50 minutes. This was split as follows:

Run

Bike

Straight after Christmas we began celebrating the first anniversary of this blog (well, we didn’t actually celebrate it and seeing that I am playing catch up I am actually writing this in April, so we didn’t actually celebrate it at all). My first run of the year marked the introduction of my new running shoes. my wife kindly bought me a pair of Asics Gel Noosa runnnig shoes for Christmas and I have to say that I have been thrilled with them. THey are definitely the coolest pair of trainers I have owned and they have been a pleasure to run in. In fact the first run they were too quick for me and I physically had to stop in order to slow myself down!

January also saw me christen the turbo trainer. I invested in a Sufferfest cycling video download which gave me a solid 1 hour workout, the downward spiral, covering 21 miles with a cadence averaging out at 79rpm.  I have also invested in their two other videos, the Fight Club and Revolver, I thoroughly recommend them (http://www.sufferfest.com).

As January came to a close I did manage to get out on the roads with Born2Tri and we slipped our way around a very icy 34 miles, it was treacherous in parts but it was nice to be out on the roads.

January training covered 16 training sessions with a total distance of 102 miles in 9 hours 51 minutes. This was split with seven runs covering 21.72 miles in 03:07:42 h:m:s and 9 bike rides (including an occessional commute) covering 78.71 miles in 05:43:13 h:m:s.

Winter has hit British soil and we now face another battle to get us out of the door!

Having said that November has been a pretty mild month and overall I have been pleased with my training. I have managed to maintain a good solid schedule although exams toward the back end of the month did mean a bit of prioritisation.

I feel that my fitness has improved and my commitment to train has remained despite not having set any goals for 2010. I do have a good reason for that but it shall remain a secret for the time being.

Highlights in the month include:

Turbo Training

In preparation for the more inclement weather I have invested in a turbo trainer in order to maintain and build my cycle power over the winter months. I have only completed one session which featured a 10 minute warm
up spin followed by a 50 minute tempo effort maintaining an 85 cadence whilst building up the resistance. I did throw in a two minute all out sprint (I think that Mark Cavendish needn’t worry just yet) for good measure before finishing off with a 10 minute cool down. Not a particularly inventive session but a good taster for the hours to come.

Track Session

I also managed to get along to one of my tri clubs track sessions where we did rolling efforts building up the effort from 30 seconds to 2 minutes with each effort followed by a double time recovery. It was a good session and although I was lapped by the big guns, I was also able to put a few behind me as well, which was very pleasing as it proved to me that my running focus is starting to pay off.

Run Focus

Having mentioned it I will reflect that during November I have been trying to build my run fitness by increasing the number of runs each week. I am attempting to run 5 times a week with Mondays and Saturdays off. It doesn’t happen every week as things get in the way but the intent is there and it
is paying off.

Website Developments

Now you wouldn’t have guessed by the lack of design on this blog but I have designed a few websites in my time and my Tri Club asked me to have a look at their website with a view to bringing it up to date and giving it a look and purpose more in tune with the club image. The finished article can be found at http://www.born2tri.com/ so far response has been very favourable.

So that about wraps up the November update I am now going to start writing my Christmas list, where shall I start……………………….

It has been a while since I penned a post but I have not been idle. My off season training plan remains unwritten but I am continuing to swim, bike and run regularly. In fact I have been enjoying this more laid back
approach although I am trying to stick to my established training routine.

I still swim with Born2Tri on a Monday night where our swim sessions are focusing on technique rather than speed and I normally manage to cover about 2.2km during the hour.

On Tuesday I will generally run to the main line railway station on my way home from work, in time to meet my wife to watch my daughter’s swim session with her Swimming Club. This run can be anything between 2.5 miles to 6.2 miles depending on time, weather and my general level of energy at the end of the working day.

On Wednesday I try to run into work, which can be either 2.5 miles or 4.5 miles, and this tends to depend on how far I ran on the day before as my feeble body doesn’t cope very well with back to back runs!
Having just invested in a turbo trainer I hope to add a bike session on a Wednesday night when I get home from work, but as I only bought it at the weekend this is still only a good intention.

On a Thursday I always intend to run home from work again but I haven’t managed to do both a Tuesday and Thursday run in the same week yet.

Friday is my rest day at the moment but I would like to get an additional swim session into my week but it would either have to mean an even earlier alarm call or an after work swim on a Friday evening, so neither has happened yet.

On Saturday I am still managing to go out for a longer bike ride, generally covering between 30 to 40 miles but as the weather gets colder and wetter I might switch to a turbo/run brick session.

And finally on Sundays I either go for a run with my wife or I referee one or two soccer matches, these aren’t as good as a run, where we normally cover about 6 miles but they do contribute £20 a game to my Triathlon fund, which is how I bought the turbo trainer, so better than a poke in the eye!

As for next season I am yet to decide on my race schedule but I would like to return to as many of the races that I completed last year so that I can measure my progress, hopefully a positive one. This should mean a return to Newmarket, Braintree, Norwich and Blackwater although I will be missing the London Triathlon. I did enjoy it last year but I’m not too worried about doing it next year.

I may try and squeeze another Olympic Triathlon race in addition to Norwich but I’m not sure which. I might try the Dambuster in preparation for doing the Vitruvian half iron distance race in 2011!

Keep Tri-ing

Another week has passed by and I am again standing on the train home from work, flushed and a bit sweaty, but unlike my fellow travellers, of whom many others are a little flushed and sweaty, mine is due to just having finished my Tuesday run!

You’ll be glad to know that my run this time last week helped ease the pain in my quads and despite a few days off at the end of last week the efforts of the weekend have not caused a recurrence of the stiff muscles.

At the weekend I found myself cycling alone for a change on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in Essex. I hadn’t got a route in mind but with GPS and a reasonable sense of direction I set off. After about twelve miles I found myself turn into a road just after another cyclist and it quickly became obvious that we were going to be cycling at a similar pace, so I asked him if he would mind me tagging along for a while. We actually cycled together for about twenty miles and it certainly helped maintain our pace and it transpired that he was also a triathlete and we discussed various races and our plans for the coming year, such as mine are at the moment. I mentioned my tri club, which was fairly local and he mentioned that he had been along on a couple of rides with the club before and that he had been thinking about joining a club to help with his swimming. I truly hope he comes along, so should the guy who rides the Specialised Tarmac bike happen upon this blog, thanks for sharing your ride with me. My only regret, such as it is, is that we didn’t exchange names! We are a funny lot us Brits.

On Sunday I joined my wife and her friend on a run, with ‘pyramid’ efforts nestled in the midst. It is the first time that I have done efforts on the road and only the second time since returning to training and its hard work! Its not that the efforts were particularly bad, we did a 1min-2min-3min-2min-1min effort with a minutes recovery in between. I had to hang on for the run home after and in all we clocked 6.1 miles so it made for a good session on the back of the 45 mile bike ride on Saturday.

On Monday I joined the tri club for its weekly swim session and its amazing how much better you feel after a swim if you’ve had a tough day at the office. We are getting back to basics now that race season has come to an end for all but a few, so this week we did some drills followed by a mock 1500m open water swim at a steady pace. The mock element was that we weren’t allowed to kick off the wall at the end of the pool. It was a long slog for the 60 lengths but it was a chance to get into the zone and focus on technique.

So another week has flown by, still no goals for 2010 and no training plan, but at least I got a couple of runs, a ride and a swim in the bag.