Time for the off-season!

The past 2 years during my triathlon journey my season has ended by the last weekend in September and then i've taken a few days off work, had some time off training, and had a bit of a blowout before coming back refreshed. I'm always grateful of this time as boy do i need it by the time it comes around! This year was totally different though. All season i've been trying to get fit, trying to get training back to full speed and then when i recognised i could race late season I was excited to be able to do the obstacle course 5k race mid september all the way up in Scotland, the recent Carmarthen Cotswold Sprint 2 weeks ago, and then last weekend a tough 5 mile cross country race for the club in the local league. The final thing on the agenda was the Carmarthenshire Duathlon, this coming sunday, carried over from March when it was postponed due to freak weather. 

However, i've made the decision not to race on sunday as i feel i'm mentally and physically exhausted and needing some downtime. I tried to talk myself into racing, "just one more race and then you can rest", "you've waited all season to race and now you can", etc. But…if i raced then it would be straight back to work the next day, and then come next weekend i feel i need to crack on with my dissertation as i've thoroughly neglected it during the data collection period - i wanted some mental head space from it for a while! What my body was telling me during training this week was that it was fatigued, that even though i was keeping sessions shorter that it was hard work and my body felt fatigued. I put this down to not having done speed work in my rehab work as the plan at that stage under my previous coach was just to build base back up and get back to fitness. Then, having raced a hard short flat out race 2 weeks ago, with a long run commute to work a few days later, and then the hard cross country race last weekend, i feel my body just isn't used to that level of intensity right now. I know if i raced sunday that whilst i would give it everything that physically i'm not sure how much would be in the tank. Yes, i've lost a fair bit of money over this season through races missed, but…that race was scheduled for March, I had never planned on racing this late into the autumn, and having been readying myself to race from early March of this year, here we are 8 months later and I'm done for the season, mentally and physically. I thought to myself that i should be fresh having not raced all season other than the past few weeks, but, the rehabbing has been draining, if not physically demanding, and i know myself well enough to know when i need to recharge my batteries. That's why when i looked at the training plan my previous coach had scheduled up until December i knew i couldn't achieve it as it was a level far beyond where my body and brain were at.

I'm back to full fitness, i'm grateful for that, but i also don't want to jeopardise that by racing or training when tired, so instead i've decided to take a few days off from training, to have a weekend of doing not much at all other than things that i enjoy, and to have a little blowout. That way, i'll be ready to switch back on and into a higher commitment zone come November. This month in my head is where i add in extra sessions that are not "tri" specific. Therefore, i'll dust off the boxing gloves, i'll get back to the climbing wall, and i'll take part in Turbovember III (turboing every day of November). This will mean i also dust off the sufferfest vids that have lain dormant for a year, and get back to enjoying training, even if it's bloody hard! I'll start doing interval work when running, i'll get the mountain bike out, i'll start building from where i'm at, rather than just sticking to baseline stuff. That doesn't mean i'll do so much that i burn out before the season starts, jus that i'll start adding in the next level of training having got my baseline fitness back up. 

I always know when i need a break, but unfortunately the way my job goes means i have things in my diary booked up for weeks to come, so whilst i can't take any time off work, having a complete weekend off, and a few days off training until i feel recharged, is the next best thing. Mentally i feel pretty fried and physically i feel my muscles have nothing in them to give, even walking up stairs feels a chore, lol. I know i can't really complain, it's not like i have responsibilities like children to look after, i live alone, my time is my own, but i'm someone who soaks things up like a sponge until i need a little rest to let some of those things out again. What do i soak up you may ask…well in my job its typically other people's emotions, other people's terrible life stories, the stresses of colleagues in work who need to offload, trying to find a way to help people who are desperate, often suicidal, whilst also trying to find the time to keep on top of the reports that need writing (and my reports are often lengthy and need a fair bit of mental preparation), scoring up complex assessments that i have administered, and trying to find time to read to provide a better service to my clients. I get frustrated in my job that there's no obvious change on the horizon, things won't get better, and i'm likely to be in a similar position 10 years from now! I internalise all this. I don't get stressed very often (and when i do I'm like a headless chicken who can't speak(, but after a while it wears you down and you need some TLC even if that comes in the form of chocolate, beer, and sofa surfing for a day or so watching tv! So that's the plan…take a few days to not have to think about work, or training, or diet, or anything other than enjoying myself and recharging batteries so that i come back fighting fit ready to last through until Christmas!!

A change of direction, the end of a coaching relationship

I've been doing a lot thinking over the past few months, during my injury time and also my rehab, bringing me to my recent return to racing, about what works for me, what suits me when it comes to training. I've found it very difficult to stick to a training plan, not because i'm trying to avoid doing the hard work, as i enjoy those sessions where i feel like i've pushed myself and know these sessions are helping me reach my goals. But, with the job i do, there are days where my head is banging, or my mind is racing at 100 miles an hour, and i might not feel like being stationary on a turbo on those days, i might prefer the fresh air of a run, as running is my cathartic time. I accept that over the past few months I've gotten out of the habit of early morning training sessions and as such I would skip sessions but then fit them in later in the week. However, as a coach i accept that this must be very frustrating. I have seen people before pay for coaching but then add in extra sessions without the coach knowing, or not follow what the coach has written. When i've seen that i've questioned to myself why the person is paying the money. So, when it came to me not feeling able to follow a plan i started to ask myself whether coaching was for me, or whether i needed to just go it alone again.

I never intended on getting a coach. I thoroughly enjoyed my first season in triathlon where i organised my own training. I'm well read, so I take on board a lot of information about training plans, and feel that i know enough to make a decent job of it myself. I know that i may not be the best, but I'm a decent athlete and looking at my race results for local races i have placed no lower than 8th (my first tri), with two wins, one second place and three third places over the past 3 seasons across triathlons and duathlons which is a total of 10 races, not a bad record. When it comes to my race goals, it's never about winning, or placing a certain place/percentage in a race. For me it's about doing the best i can on the day and seeing where this leaves me. I will maybe have times in mind that i want to achieve across each discipline, and if i've done the course before then i'd be looking to improve on that, but for me the motivation is all internal, and the goals are performance goals (looking at my own performance to reach certain times, etc.), and sometimes process goals (where i'm wanting to maintain good technique throughout the run even when fatigued, or sustaining a certain average speed on the bike), rather than outcome goals which are about where you place in the race, who you want to beat, etc.

When i have trained myself I have enjoyed the flexibility to change my plan around to suit my life, and also to introduce new ideas into training to mix things up, which is great when I have a stack of triathlon220 magazines waiting to be read! During my injury layoff I didn't have a plan set by my coach, Simon @bodybullet, instead I was doing what I could and when i was training I was either following a rehab plan that had been given to me from a physio or a kind personal trainer I got chatting with on Facebook, or i was keeping my HR controlled as I had learnt from Simon. Also, in the 2 weeks leading up to my recent win at the Carmarthen Cotswold Sprint, i was between training plans and so didn't have a plan to follow, instead managing it myself and creating a race taper that suited me and how i felt. During these times I've thoroughly enjoyed myself as it feels like I'm free, that the pressure is off, and it's just down to me.

I originally started working with a coach because i felt i should, having found out I had gotten a roll down place to the European Champs in 2013 for Olympic distance. However, that didn't suit me so at the end of the 2013 season i went back to training myself. Then an opportunity came along to work with Simon, someone that i had followed on twitter and was intrigued by his methods and success with his athletes, and it kind of felt too good an opportunity to turn down. However, in some ways i was gutted as i had just bought the entire range of sufferfest turbo vids, i had bought the Don Fink triathlon books, and I had rollers, kettle bells, trx, that suddenly became obsolete. I was concerned I had wasted a lot of money on things that i now wouldn't use. 

As I have started to be interested in obstacle course racing so i was keen to add different elements to my training, as variety is what i thrive on, i'm not one for rigidity and doing the same type of session at the same time, every week. As such I had asked Simon to include new things in my plan as prior to the Spartan race in Edinburgh I had already started adding in burpees, pull ups, etc., so I too was starting to add things to a plan. I like having different things at my disposal and I wanted to get back on my boxing bag once the off-season came along - what a great way to get the abs firing and let out some frustration at the NHS! I've recently bought a 10kg weighted vest from Simon, and a sled that i will attach to a harness that i will wear and then pull it behind me. The idea behind this is the extra resistance, so i'm waiting for a tyre to come so i can carry that, and also pull it on the sled, as part of a circuit type training with other exercises thrown in life press ups, burpees, planks, etc. What fun that would be!! OK, you might not see many triathletes training in this way, but then maybe i'm not like most triathletes, in that i don't like the routine, I like the fun of training even if it is bloody hard work, and i like to keep things interesting to mix things up every now and then, especially over the winter. 

So much so that i came to the decision to end my working relationship with Simon. I've learnt a lot from Simon in terms of training the heart appropriately, and how shorter sessions that are done right are more effective than longer sessions that train at the wrong intensity. However, I knew that i would not be able to sustain the training plan that Simon had written for me. Yes, i will start going back to swim squads, and yes, I will follow a rough plan in my head. But, if i skip a session I have the flexibility to make it up later in the week. If i fancy a run, then i can do that and not feel guilty that i am messing around with the plan, again! I know that training regularly and consistently is key, and I will do that to the best of my ability that suits me and my life. I also accept that i might never be as good as I might have been had I been able to commit to a plan day in day out. But, I'm OK with that, as i'm happier in the knowledge that i can get the rollers out, I can dust off the boxing gloves, I can use the sufferfest vids, I can add in some extra exercises in the gym. Perhaps i don't need these things to be a good triathlete, but i do need these things to feel I'm getting the most out of my training in terms of what it means to me. I love training, i love variety, and yes i happen to be OK at triathlon, but i also happen to be OK at obstacle course racing, or running, or cycling, or tennis in the past, etc. So i want to keep things interesting with my training for me, as this is what i enjoy. The rigidity drives me to boredom which makes me switch off. 

Simon commented that he never has an "off-season" with his athletes, that they don't peak for one particular race, so the training remains ever progressing over the winter months. However, I'm looking forward to having some weeks where i get back climbing (which didn't happen last winter), where i box, where i do some sled work with a weighted vest on. This will help recharge my batteries whilst keeping my fitness levels up before i start to build for the 2015 season. yes, i will look at my Don Fink books for plans for my half ironman races next year. but i might not follow these to the letter as i know in my mind what i should be doing really, having had plans from Simon for the Outlaw Half last season which I wasn't able to race through injury. My training in my 1st season was along the lines of 3 swims a week, 3 runs a week, 3 bikes a week and some gym work. I think within that you won't go far wrong if you have one long session a week in each of these, one threshold session, and one HR controlled bike, or steady swim/run pushing the pace a little.

However, what i started this week was maximising my time by run commuting to work as i'm sick of spending up to 50 mins in the car for a journey that is less than 8 miles! This week i did the 14.11 mile return run in an easy pace of 2:16 total run time on one day. This means that come cross-country race tomorrow I will have run about 23 miles in a week. I have NEVER run that before! Plus, my calf feels good!! :) So, the plan is, run to work and back once, if not twice a week when the diary allows, but I might instead run once and then take the mountain bike the other time, so I'm getting home quicker on the bike one leaving me able to do a brick run session, or another session after the bike leg home. This will certainly help the mileage aspect and mean I'm fitting my training in around my life and enjoying doing so. 

As I'm no longer working with Simon I don't necessarily need to use the wattbike now so i'm thinking about leaving my gym and move back to one which has a pool within the complex, again maximising time so i could gym and then swim, rather than having to travel elsewhere for the double session which for me, just doesn't happen! This would also mean better access to a pool so maybe i might swim more. Basically, I'm coming to the end of my season with one final race left next week, and then i want to have a long overdue chinese takeaway, before i knuckle down, commit to my flexible but consistent plan, and then enjoy the training :) Happy training folks!!

Late season bonus…returning with a win!

Back in July when i was back running and cycling without pain I felt confident enough to enter a late season race when the Carmarthen Cotswold Sprint returned to the race calendar after a 23 year hiatus. It was only a short race with a 400m pool swim, a 23k bike, and a 5k run. I was looking forward to at least having raced in 2014 having thought this season was a write off, and also to see where i was at, having rehabbed from injury but not done any speed work running and hadn't gone flat out on the bike, only done some threshold pace intervals on the turbo. As for my swim…well, i've found that without being part of a squad i quickly find reasons to skip swim training during the week and have only been managing one swim a week at best, so i knew my swim time would be far from what i would have wanted if i had been swimming 2-3 times a week consistently.

I registered the morning before and drove the route from Johnstown to Llansteffan and back and lucky i did as there was a very sharp left turn at the bottom of a hill just before the turn around point, and then on the return there was a big left sweep that was sharper than it initially looks, and again when going down hill. However, i was pleased the road surface was looking good and nothing too challenging on the course. That night, i slept remarkably well before a race, maybe because it was a pool swim so no anxiety about drowning, and also because i was approaching this race as just being able to race. I found i had started to put pressure on myself in 2013, but the only person you can race is yourself as that's the only person you can control. Also, i didn't really know any names in the race entry list other than a few girls from the club, so i had no idea who i was racing against. However, the nerves did set in after standing pool side for a while waiting to start the swim. No idea what the nerves were for, other than the pre-performance anxiety that is very common. I just calmed my breathing and focused on watching those already in the pool. 

Having had a season off from silly o'clock weekend mornings for races I was up bright as a button at 5am and my ever-suffering parents picked me up to head on down to Carmathen. I had seen there was fog forecast and so much so that the race was delayed by just over 30 minutes to try and let the fog lift as much as possible. It never really lifted, but with the light brighter it at least enabled drivers to see us as the majority of people don't have lights on their bike, i know i don't on my race bike. The other factor was the temperature. We've been very lucky throughout the summer and the autumn so far with it being warm but it picked race day to be cold, not rising above 7 degrees all morning!

I'd brought plenty of clothes with me to choose the right combination…I had toe covers on my shoes which left my feet feeling comfortable throughout, a godsend given the number of times i've had frozen feet in the past because of my raynauds, I went for a snood for my head to keep the heat in and the breeze off on the bike, but the rain/windproof jacket i went for wasn't getting over my wet body so i went for a rapha gilet which i'd already opened and practised getting on and off over my head. Stupidly, i'd already put my helmet on thinking i was going for the jacket, so i then had to take it back off to put the gilet over but then it was getting stuck to my wet skin so wouldn't roll down my back, doh!! i was thinking to myself "god, this is the slowest transition ever!" Thankfully, whilst being slower than i'd have wanted, i was by no means the slowest, probably about average, and I felt comfortable on the bike, my hands weren't too cold (given they are usually freezing), and whilst i felt the breeze on my arms i can't say i was cold as such, not as some people suffered. For that i think i have to thank the combination i went with and the rapha gilet was awesome. Yes, they're expensive, but I've come to appreciate you often do get what you pay for and i thank the gilet for keeping the cold off my chest and leaving me comfortable throughout, unlike some who had to pull out with hypothermia! As soon as i stopped, went inside and then came back out again to get my bag from the car i was freezing, blue lips, teeth chattering, shaking incessantly, so believe it, it was cold!

So the race itself…I was pleased that the swim was a side by side swim, without having to worry about  lapping or being lapped. I haven't swam as much as i should have really but when you're injured it's hard to keep the mojo high, and i'd gotten out of the habit of early morning swims so i had only been managing one swim a week at best. However, during those swims i was feeling good, and definitely feel my stroke has come on a lot since March when i had time with @bigdaveakers a great swim coach. I couldn't get an accurate swim time as the swim included the difficult jump out of the 2m deep end of the pool, and then the run out of the pool and around the side of the leisure centre into transition. I think i swam close to what i had expected though so i was happy enough with that. 

After my less than swift T1 out onto the bike! The thing with it being a pool start means you have no idea how you're doing because everyone sets off at different times. However, i always look to overtake as many as i can and try and keep anyone from overtaking me. If i do this then i feel i've done my best. I was surprised that the bike was a whole lot more challenging that it looked! The course profile showed a steady climb for a while which you repeat on the return leg. However, the course was either going up, or it was going down, there was not much in-between! The climbing started within a kilometre or so from the start so no real chance to get the legs firing and i always find it demoralising when i'm in my lowest gear on a hill when the hill doesn't even seem that big! There was no heart rate monitoring on this ride, it was all about turning the legs as fast as i can in as decent a gear as i could. Going downhill and along the sections that were flat i felt great, but going uphill it just seemed steeper than it actually was! i think it was because the road kept climbing, even gradually, and was a very cheekily deceptive bike course! My average speed, working it out from my bike time and the course distance was over 17.5 mph, but nowhere near the kind of average speed I'd have expected from the course profile. However, i did pass plenty of people, i was zipping along in aero position on all but the climbs, and i did feel i was putting in a good shift. The only person who overtook me on the bike was a guy that i had overtaken going up a hill who quickly put the hammer down and re-took me (don't think he'd like being chicked!!). Now i haven't practiced transitions since last year, nor getting feet out of shoes and having a speedy T2 but i was pleased that i had learnt from past races where i slowed too much getting feet out and losing time getting to T2 dismount line. This time, i got feet out onto shoes and then was able to speed up getting to dismount, then a super speedy T2 where i could hear the guy on the microphone commenting on my transition, lol!

You can see the guy in the distance who i sprinted past

I've always found that i run well off the bike, even when i don't practice brick sessions often. I think i'd done a couple brick sessions in the past few months, but maybe because of my strength, I find that once the initial few steps are out of the way then i'm soon into my stride and feeling OK. The run course had been altered due to weather affecting the initial route, so we now had a 2 lap run along pavement with only a little up and down over a bridge. I actually don't mind laps because then you can judge your pace well and know how long you have left on your 2nd lap when you reach certain points. I know from photos of me running that i work hard when running and never look good! However, it seems to be relatively effective as I was able to settle into a decent pace from the off (no gadgets to tell me this, just my own feeling) and then the plan was always to pick up the pace on the second lap. From the turn around point on the 2nd lap was when i really picked up the pace, i could hear it in my breathing, but other than a couple of speedster young blokes passing me on the run, i was the one chasing down people and passing them. I could tell that i was running faster than the other girls out on the course but all i was focused on was running my own race and finishing strongly. I always have a kick, so the final turn into the school, about 600m out i'd say i picked up again and then i could see a guy in front of me and with about 60m left i turned on the sprint to finish strongly, much to the delight of the announcer!

I had no idea how i had done, but i felt I might be on for a podium, given that this race was mostly first-timers. I knew the field wasn't as stacked as if i had been racing earlier in the season, but I still didn't know how the other girls had done, especially if there had been a very fast swimmer who would have had a large advantage over me after the swim.

However, when my name was called out as the overall female winner i was almost a little choked, a lump appeared in my throat! The only time i have felt this before was when i was winning a 10k race for life race years ago and other women were clapping me as i was leading - i was almost crying then!! I was chuffed to bits!!!!!!! I hadn't come into this race to win it, i'd come into it to get back racing and to test everything out. Yes, i wanted to do as well as i could, but to come away with a win, an awesome trophy, and a cracking day pack backpack from the sponsors Cotswolds Outdoors was amazing!!!! WOOHOO!!

Looking at the results later, i was even more chuffed that i had placed 1st female on the bike and the run, with a 5k PB!! I've only ever run a 5k as part of a triathlon but i knocked 45 seconds off my previous best, and i had to make sure the length was right to be sure it was a PB! I was chuffed with this given i had been managing my own run pace when running my steady/slow runs (not determined by coach) and that i hadn't done any intervals, threshold work, or sprints since last season! My swim was 8th female which wasn't bad given there were a few swimming squad swimmers there, and i was 15th overall in the race (124 took part), so a good run out all round :)

Love my ice cream cone trophy!

So happy that i was able to race at pace in 2014 and to come away with a win was great! One more race planned now, which is the delayed Carmarthenshire duathlon that was postponed in March due to weather. So, a 5k/30k/5k race coming up next weekend. Again, for me this is just an opportunity to race, treat it as a training session working at threshold pace and see how i get on. Then, once that is done, it's time to continue to build and hope i stay injury free :)