Taper Phase
Weather brightens up in Shangai. Very hot and humid in Singapore.
Monday; Rest day.
Tuesday; Easy bike RPE = 4. 20km. Higher cadence. Low gear.
Wednesday; Arrived Singapore, torrential rain. Day off.
Thursday; Swim 2km in out door pool. About 2km run to pool and back. Bike easy 25km.
Friday; Swam on course briefly, bike around 16km to course and back.
Saturday; Easy bike ride, around 40km. Plus another 5-8km to check bike in.
Sunday; Race Day.
Clear day with promise of heat to come around mid morning. Conditions good. No wind.
Swim 1.9km : 40 mins 54 secs. Course was a twist on the usual with an inner lap followed by an outer lap. Tough swim with wave start so lots of swimming through previous age-groups and a great battle at the first few turns. Decided to stay wide and avoid other swimmers, but still very difficult to do as we have over 200 competitors in our age groups. Got kicked in the face at one point by a swimmer doing breakstroke! Slow time for me but as I have not been doing any swim training about what I expected.
Bike 90km. 2 hours 51 mins 32 seconds. Course was 3laps of 30km very flat with a couple of fast sections near the airport. First lap was overcast and cool. Plan was to take it steady and to hold back as much as possible for the run. As the course was fast and flat this would be hard so I really had to remind myself to hold back. Took on electrolytes early and often and the aid stations were good to get water. By the second lap it was starting to get hot and with the staggered start it was hard to know where you were in regard to other racers. Started to see a lot more drafting packs of riders which was annoying but with the heat it was best to save energy for the ride and run to come. Didn’t take any many gels as before so stomach felt better and the idea to have a Boost chocolate on the second lap worked well as the taste perked me up. Remembered to slow right down on final hydration station and drink a full bottle of water and electrolyte. This meant I didn’t cram on the run. Nice ride but the drafting was terrible with packs of sometimes 20-30 riders coming past peleton style. Drafting essentially means you are able to go faster and expend less energy as you are riding in the slipstream of the rider in front. It’s cheating as triathlon is an individual sport. But with the course designed like this - 30km, flat and with 1500 competitors, it’s unfortunatly inevitable. At least I know for myself my times are “clean”. My chain came off at one point but luckily it only took a minute to get it back on.
Run 21.1km. 2 hours 8 minutes 47 secs. Three laps of 7 km. Really hot by this stage. Although the temperature was 30 Cwiáth the 98% humidity it felt like 39C and many people were feeling the pressure. Lots of people were walking and I saw many crammed up. This may be down to lack of training for an endurance race but it’s also likely they didn’t take on enough water and salt along the bike course. When you are cruising at 30kmh, it feels cool and you don’t notice that you are losing hydration through sweat. Once your body loses a certain amount of salt (it’s difference for each person), it cannot function correctly and start to cram up. I was hoping to run 2 hours to reach my sub-6hour target and set up fairly steady using a couple of running as a pace guide. The last few races I have not run with a watch, GPS or heart rate monitor and just take it on feel. The first lap was solid and I felt good. After about 10km, I took a bathroom break and was good up to teh turn around 11km. The guy I was pacing pulled away for a while and I could just keep him in sight. Continued to throw down the water, electrolyte and ice sponges at aid stations - didn’t take anything solid on the run, just too hard to digest it. After about 14km I was back with my paceman - the second lap was slow - around 43 minutes. I need to run 40 min laps to break 2 hours and that seems unlikely. Took it steady until 17km and then started to open up a bit. Took less time going through the aid stations so I pulled ahead of the guys running similar pace to me. By this stage the good runners were already ahead so for the last couple of km I was passing people. Always a nice feeling at the end of the race when you are burning up! I decided to hammer the final kilometre and once I went through the 20km, I knew I had just over 1km to go - a loop around the ski park. I really pushed it, much harder that I ever have in a race - especially given the conditions. It hurt to an extent but not that much. I was flying past competitors - probably about 30-40 in the final kilometre. I finished strong and that feel good. Although the time was slower than I hoped, given the conditions it was positive and importantly I cracked the 6hour mark for the first time.
Felt surprising good after the race and not too sore the day after. I can feel my endurance is improving and finishing these types of races steady and strong is a good morale booster for challenges ahead!
Total: 7 sessions plus race
Triathlon Training Lingo
*RPE means Rate of Perceived Exertion and relates to the intensity of each session. I have stopped using a heart rate monitor [although I used one for a couple of years] because I want to exercise more by ‘how it feels’. RPE = 10 is full-out effort, while RPE = 1 is just enough intensity for the session to be called exercise. Endurance sports requires a good base of low intensity effort and over time building up intense efforts with longer sessions.
A brick session is a bike ride followed immediately by a run. It’s purpose is to simulate the conditions of a duathlon or triathlon race where the bike transitions into the run without stopping. It trains your leg muscles to run while tired.
HR means Heart Rate and is a measure of your level of exertion; higher heart rate means higher intensity. Plus over time you should be able to lower your HR against intensity. The fitter you are the lower your resting HR will be. A good measure is to wake up in the morning first think and take a HR measure. This should drop over time as your level of endurance fitness improves. Mine HR drops to low 40s when I am training for a long race.
Upcoming races - signed up.
Jinqiao 8km road race
Fuzhou Olympic Distance Triathlon
Full Ironman in Busselton, West Australia on 9 Dec 2012
Results in 2011/2012
Half Ironman in Singapore on 18 March 2012. 5hrs 47 mins 42 secs. Personal Best.
3.3km Ocean swim in Wellington, New Zealand on 29 January 2012. 1 hour 7 mins.
Half Ironman at Lake Wanaka, New Zealand on 21 January 2012 [race bib:1197]; 6 hours 5 mins. Personal best.
5km swim in Lake Taupo, New Zealand on 14 January 2012. 1 hour 53 mins. Personal best and longest distance swum.
Half Marathon in Changhsu, China on 27 November 2011: 1hr 56mins for 22km course. Personal Best time.
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