Alu Friday!

One of the toughest challenges of being a triathlete is keeping training fresh and interesting, but also challenging. You’d think that, with three sports to choose from, variety would come naturally but, in my experience, it’s the opposite. In order to make sure we pay the right amount of attention to each discipline, and then focus correctly on speed, strength, endurance, technique, tempo – the list goes on – it becomes easier to unquestioningly follow a plan that differs little from week to week.

I always try to consider my week and, before sessions, decide what it is that I want from them but, even so, some weeks pass and I can’t remember what I did when.

One way I like to mix things up is by entering lots of events – runs, bike time trials, open water swims – which, as well as providing good training, help you prepare for race environments and nerves.

But I’ve decided to go one step further and really push myself – both physically and mentally. Next Friday (November 26^th), I’m doing the Spinney’s 80km bike tt, followed quickly by the Zoggs Mina Mile 1650m sea swim. I’ve decided to make this into Alu Friday.

Basically, that means completing a Half Ironman (according to the Mohs Scale, Aluminium is half as ‘hard’ as iron…) over the course of the day. By parking up short and cycling to and from the Spinney’s TT, I should be able to easily add on the extra 10k I need to complete the HIM’s 90km cycle segment.

Alu Man?

On to the 1.65k swim – a couple of hundred metres warm-up and swim down should see me reach the HIM distance of 1.9k. This should take me through till about midday, so I’ll then get a few hours rest until the sun cools a little and, around 4ish, I’ll head up to Arabian Ranches, where two laps of the 10k loop with an extra little section around a lake thrown in on the second lap, will see me come home for the 21k run section.

I’ll be doing my best to keep time for the whole thing (some parts will obviously be done for me – I’ll add the rest on to those times) with sub-5.30 being my goal…I’ll be taking Saturday off but I need to bear in mind that I’ve an Oly just over a week later.

Over the past few months, I’ve experimented with different nutrition a little – I know that all different varieties and flavours of Gu do the job up to a point, I like jelly sweets, Farley’s rusks, cookies and bananas all seem to work…as do fruit punch Gatorade, water and flat coke.

I’ve not really tried much by way of savoury food tho, which may not be a problem for a HIM but I think needs sorting by next September, ready for my first full IM. There’s plenty of time to get that right but I’ll try to incorporate it into the Alu Friday during the afternoon break - paninis, I hear, are the way to go.

In the meantime, it’s a big week or work and, possibly, moving house – all the while trying to fit in some sprint work ready for the GT tri this weekend.

A mad, bad January

It’s been a couple of busy days since I last posted…although probably a little less busy than my cousin Zoe, who gave birth to a baby she-giant a couple of days ago…well done Zo!

In order to make it through some heavy days of work and some sporadic but decent workouts, I’ve been reduced to filling up my events calendar by coughing up for a few more races. I’ve already posted on here about training here in Dubai, but I thought I’d share my schedule with cyberspace, so you get an idea of the small but growing endurance sports community here in the UAE…you can also let me know whether my January is manageable or a bit too mental!

This weekend: Burj Al Arab 1k swim for Medecins Sans Frontiere

Nov 19: Race 3 – Golden Tulip sprint tri series

Nov 26: Spinneys 80k bike time trial, followed an hour or two later by the Zoggs Mina Mile 1.6k swim

Dec 4: Eleven – Sea Dubai International Olympic Triathlon

Dec 10: Spinneys Dubai 92k Cycle Challenge

Jan 14: Tri Yas – Oly distance

Jan 21: Dubai Marathon

Later on Jan 21: Fly out to Thailand for 18 days and 1500kms of mountain biking through Laos and northern Thailand

Feb 18: RAK Half Marathon

Feb 25: Dubai Roadsters Coats-to-Coast ride (220kms)

March 12: Abu Dhabi International Tri (short course: 1500m, 100kms, 10km)

March 18: Zoggs Mina Mile Swim (a whopping 6.5km marathon swim!)

March 25: Race 6 – Golden Tulip sprint tri series

There’s a couple of other aquathlons/duathlons and 10kms here and there that I may add, but this is basically the rest of my race season.

I have to confess, I’m both excited and a little concerned about that January. With my first Ironman next September, I’d love to get a sub-4hr marathon in as this would give me loads of confidence that I could manage a 5hr marathon (needed for my 12hr IM target) later in the year.

Dubai Marathon

However, due to the Oly on Dec 4 which is one of my main events, I’ll probably not have the chance to shift towards more run training till about 5 weeks before the marathon…which isn’t very much. Add to that an Oly the week before the marathon and then heading straight off on a cycling holiday (averaging 90kms a day every day on MTBs)…hmmmm…should be interesting!

As I said to one of my tri buddies, James, by the time the Abu Dhabi International comes on March 12 (I feel this event is going to give me a decent indicator as to how my IM prep is coming along) I’m either going to be in the greatest shape of my life or in a whole world of pain.

Abu Dhabi International Triathlon

The idea is that a month of fairly intensive marathon training over Xmas will help my running come on leaps and bounds, as will the experience of simply spending 5 hours a day in the saddle for more than two weeks. Then I put that all together for Abu Dhabi.

I look at this events calendar and I know it’s going to be tough but I’m almost drooling – I can’t wait to get my teeth into some of these events and, I think, it’s that attitude and enthusiasm which will help me through. Attitude and determination are 90% of the battle, right? Right?

Race Report – Al Jazira Triathlon Race 2

The Al Jazira triathlon series in Ghantoot, as I said, forms the bread and butter of our racing season here in the UAE. Now held more or less monthly, this weekend saw the second race of the winter series. It was a special one for me as it marked almost exactly a year since my first ever triathlon.

I did my first over this course (750m swim, 26k cycle, 6k run) in January last year and have done four with the weekend being my fifth. My time has come down each time – 1.34 first time out, then 1.30 and 1.26 last season. The first race of this season, I hoped I'd knock a few minutes off as I'd trained hard and well over the summer...the week before the race, however, was somewhat interrupted – a press trip to Oktoberfest in Munich, a couple of overnight flights and a tight deadline in work meant I'd trained little, slept very little and felt pretty dehydrated. I posted a 2 minute PB with a 1.24 but, with a far better lead-up, I felt that I had another couple of minutes in me this time around and was excited to get going.

The swim start - all images by Probike.ae

It was a perfect morning for racing – bright and sunny with a cooling breeze but nowhere near as windy as it can get. The swim course is in a channel leading to the sea that curves around the Golden Tulip Al Jazira Hotel. I'm always nervous about the swim as it's by far my strongest discipline and I know I have to give a good showing. Fortunately, one of the top guys from the local Tri2Aspire team went out really hard and I was able to draft him the whole way – usually it's me leading, so I was surprised by how much better this felt. I was able to sight less and concentrate on keeping my breathing easy and fluid. Coming out the swim, climbing up the steps (killers!), past the pool and into the transition area, I felt as good as I have at this point.

Transition was smooth and, although I was a little slow and awkward getting my shoes on on the bike, I settled into a good cycle position and speed fairly quickly. Then the strangest thing happened – it felt good, really good, and fast.

As a strong swimmer and very novice cyclist, I'm used to seeing an endless procession of speedy racers flashing past me, but just a couple were trickling past. And, while travelling a lot faster, they weren't exactly tearing off into the distance – I was almost keeping up. By the halfway point on the ride, there were still a number of guys who I know as being top-level racers who hadn't yet passed me. Although I started to fidget and feel a little sore in the last quarter, the realisation of a really quick (for me) bike split kept me going.

I got into transition and, despite dropping my bike while trying to rack it, I didn't panic and felt OK hitting the run. Which was almost a carbon copy of the bike leg. If I were mid-pack, I'd be a decent enough runner, but up near the front I'm still found wanting. Being so much further forward than I usually am at this point, I expected a wildebeest stampede of runners to fly past – a few muscled past, one or two did leave me for dead but, by and large, I felt good, strong and fast.

The last few metres, heading down to the finish line, I was almost giddy...1.17...I was on for a 1.17!!!

1.17.13, it turned out...and I was blown away. 11^th in the men's 16-39 category.

I realise, in retrospect, that this was the result of a summer's good training – in the last race, it was a miracle I'd even finished given the week before it I'd had...with a good lead-in, this time I saw all the benefits.

There's three weeks till the next race – though that'll purely serve as a brick workout ready for the Global 11 International (olympic distance) race a couple of weeks later. But I'm ready and raring to go. Just hope I can prove that this week's race wasn't a complete fluke!

Triathlon: from this...

...to this, in almost exactly one year.