Outlaw Half Race Report

Preamble: Last weekend I opened my 2016 race account at the Outlaw Half in Nottingham. While preparing, I found reading my old race reports very helpful so decided to write this one up too. First, why the long silence?

After a great 2013 I had big plans for 2014. However, I trained too hard too early, got sick and had to bail on the Wilmslow Half marathon, the Outlaw Half and a bunch of time trials.

I transferred my Ironman entry from Bolton in July to Mallorca in September. By then I was reasonably fit but not in the right place to race. I got beat up in the swim & didn’t enjoy the draft-fest on the bike. After 70km, the lights just went out and I recorded my first ever DNF.

So after 4 years racing 70.3s and 140.6s, I decided to take a step back. 2015 was also rather stressful work-wise, so consistent training fell by the wayside. I got back on the horse in July and decided that for 2016 I’d re-visit Roth via the Outlaw Half.

"We can rebuild him; we have the technology,"

Training: Back end of summer, I re-built some fitness then started testing and structured training in the Autumn. 3 weeks easy over XMas and NY, then a solid block leading to a bike camp in March.

Training was going well and my test events were encouraging. April 3rd, half marathon PB at Wilmslow. May 7th big PB at the Dukinfield 50m TT. May 21st, 3 km Media City Swim was slow but I put that down to cold - swim times in the pool were good.

Final prep: So in the build up to the Outlaw Half I was feeling pretty good. Lighter training the week before. Friday: short turbo with some hard intervals, pre-race massage, drove down & set up camp. Saturday: drove around the bike course, big pasta lunch, race briefing, short run with a few accelerations, got my kit ready then dinner - energy bar and 4 slices of toast with peanut butter and lots of salt, early to bed.

Who is more anxious, me or Gary?

Awake at 4:15 am, two Clif bars, cup of coffee & 250ml electrolyte. Trip to the shower block then the final preparation; sun cream, pump up tires, race kit on. Race venue just over the road from the camp site so early in transition, nice and relaxed.

The Swim: Air temperature was only 7^oC so once suited up I got cold. But as ever Jacky was on hand with a solution. 

Swim route

A few other Man Tri Club mates toed the starting line; Rich Hyder in wave 1, Simon Granger in wave 2, and Gary Wolstencroft in the same wave as me;  good to chat to  dissipate some pre-race nerves.

Waves 1 and 2 went off at 6:30 and 6:40. I watched carefully to see how the starts played out. In the shallow water, it was pleasantly warm, 17 degrees.

Wave 3

For the 6:50 wave, I lined up right at the front but to the extreme far left, near the bank. Great choice, not on the race line but I had clean water the whole way around. Well, clean apart from the blue green algae which made it pretty murky.

The 1.9km swim was one anti-clockwise lap of the rowing lake at Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre. Very well organised, lots of marker buoys, plenty of safety support and big inflatables at the turn points. Official swim split 32:53.

It was still cold so T1 and bike mount were slow, but uneventful. One lap clockwise around the lake then on to the road. All plain sailing. Now I put the hammer down.

Swim done!

The Bike: the 90km bike takes you out north-east through Radcliffe-on-Trent then on a northern loop to Oxton and Southwell. Re-trace your steps then on an eastern loop through Orston before returning to Holme Pierrepont.

Bike route

Like the swim, organisation was fantastic: route very clearly marked, key junctions well marshalled and overall traffic management excellent.

The road surface was pretty good by UK standards but the organisers had marked out every single pot hole and crack, apparently using over 12 litres of paint. Quality organisation!

Route largely countryside & the early Sunday morning roads were quiet, no issues with cars. A few supporters along the way. Very nice.

In the business end of my cassette

For the geeks part 1 - power rocks: WKO4 currently has my FTP modelled at 232 watts. My normalized power for the Dukinfield 50m TT was 219W, so my plan for the 90km bike was to aim for an NP of 210W.

I set my Garmin 510 to show just 4 values: 3 second power, lap NP, heart rate and cadence, as these are the only things I can control. Take care of these and everything else (time, distance, speed etc.) takes care itself.

3s power varies considerably but I set the 510 to auto lap every 10 km and aim to keep the NP value close to my target without letting 3s power and HR get too high.

I hit 206, 213, 214, 208, 212, 210, 205, and 208 with an overall NP of 209W. Pretty amazing pacing if I say so myself!

I mount my Garmin as far forward as possible so I only have to drop my eyes to see it, allowing constant surveillance of both data and the road. And Di2 electronic shifting makes it so easy to keep my cadence where I want it to be, somewhere in the 80s.

Data - yum yum!

For the geeks part 2 - Aero rules: As described elsewhere, I’ve put a lot of effort into getting my new bike as clean as possible in aero terms. While I haven’t done any wind tunnel testing - yet :-) - I love reading about other people’s aero testing, and a few principles emerge.

No. 1. Textured fabric is faster than skin, hence the emergence of sleeved trisuits. So I treated myself to a Castelli Free Sanremo - very nice.

No. 2. Visors rarely test faster than sunglasses so I ditched the visor on my Giro Air Attack for TT specific Endura specs.

No. 3. Helmets are very position and person dependent, so while the Air Attack isn’t the most aero option, it doesn’t create the “shark’s fin” effect when you drop your head.

No. 4. Between The Arms (BTA) is the most aero position for a  water bottle.

No. 5. A bottle right behind the seat and a bentobox right up against the stem incur minimal drag penalties, so good locations for spare tire, CO2, multi tool and other emergency bits and pieces.

And finally, I put toe covers on my shoes which was a godsend as it never got above 8 degrees. But they also offer an aero advantage - score!

Uber clean cockpit

Bike nutrition: A 500ml BTA bottle with eight decanted High 5 isogels. 750ml electrolyte on the down tube. Slugged gel every 20 minutes but never touched the electrolyte & didn’t use either aid station.

T2 pretty empty considering I started in wave 3

Net effect, carved my way through the field, constantly overtaking so that when I arrived back in transition it was pretty empty. Nice! Official split 2:29:55.

The Run: T2, uneventful, feet like bricks but settled into a good pace, aiming for 4:15 per km.

Run route

Clockwise around the end of the lake, out to the river, 6km out-and-back, re-join lake, clockwise back to transition, repeat. Again, organisation fantastic, plenty of aid stations and now a lot more support. The toe path on the out-and-back was a bit tight, especially on lap 2 but all good.

Cups of electrolyte at the first few aid stations and a gel after 8km but that was enough. Saw Simon flash by a couple of times on the out-and-back, but no time to chat :-)

Nobody overtook me on the bike so when somebody passed me on the run it got my attention. Turned out to be the then leader Simon George who was two waves and a lap ahead of me. A bit later another runner came by looking incredibly strong. That turned out to be Karl Alexander who mowed down George, and went on to win by just 8 seconds. You can read about their battle here.

Feeling good on lap 1

Meanwhile, I didn’t know my position but was confident I must be near the pointy end of my age group. I was holding target pace pretty well, averaged 4:16 per k for the first half. Then I faded a bit; average pace for the second half, 4:21 per k.

Somewhere around the 15k mark, a 3rd person overtook me and drifted off. From his number it was clear he was in my age group. Turns out that was when I went from 2nd to 3rd in my age group. If I had known, could I have given chase? Official run split 1:30:53.

High-fiving Jacky in the finish shoot

Post-race: Staggered up to finisher tent, loads of great food but I had no appetite so watched Rich wolf down his chilli and rice. Post-race shock started to kick in and I got very cold; felt terrible, never want to race again. Once again, Jacky to the rescue with my recovery bag full of warm clothes and protein/carb shake.

Slept like a log that night. Day off on Monday, easy swim and a spin on Tuesday, massage Wednesday morning then felt good to resume training by Wednesday evening. Mega-motivated for Roth now!

Bottom line: 36th overall; 3rd in M45-49; 4hrs 38mins total and my fastest ever half.

My gong

Dukinfield 50m TT

Drilling it on Twemlow lane

Happy with my pacing

Even won some cash

Wilmslow Half Marathon 2016

First road race in 3 years, still got the same pain face!

But pleased to crank out a PB - Strava file here.

Reflections on winter training.

Today, in her annual Christmas message, the Queen talked about using this time of year as an opportunity for reflection: "We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock."

So I thought I’d follow her example and take stock of my winter training; pause, reflect and think about how best to proceed into 2014.

My plans for next season are Wilmslow half marathon (March 23rd), Outlaw Half triathlon (1st June) and IronmanUK in Bolton (20th July 2014). 

As last year, I put together a 12 week “Winter Training Block” to get me through October, November and December before getting "serious" in January.

So how did it go? The graphs show the comparable 12 week periods, 2012 on the left, 2013 on the right. The bar graphs below show hours per week, with planned hours in grey, completed hours in colour. (Done with the help of Training Peaks, beta version)

% time dedicated to each activity

Last year I mapped out a very precise swim plan and stuck to it like glue. The reward? A 400m PB in early January.

This year I re-visited my stroke with a Swimsmooth video analysis. This was really helpful, pointing out a slight cross over and sub-optimal catch on the right side.

However, while reconstructing my stroke, it looks like I lost a bit of focus and my swim training has clearly been a bit less consistent. I’m currently 15secs off last year’s PB.

I feel that my stroke has improved so now it’s time to regain some focus, put in the hard graft and hopefully gains will come.

It’s on the bike where I need to improve if I want to get more competitive in my age group. So I was happy to see that my aim to ride on Saturdays and Sundays panned out to some extent, resulting in more winter mileage.

VO2max intervals and Sufferfests kept me going on the turbo. Re-testing will determine whether it’s had any impact on my 5 min and 20 min power.

Last winter was all about running rehab, hence all the walking and slow build up: maximum 5km runs at 6 min per k pace. This resulted in a great base and an injury-free 2013.

This winter I continued the slow running but superimposed XC races and a few track sessions. So far so good, and I’m looking forward to a good training block before the Wilmslow half where I hope to attack 1:20.

Trips to the gym have been rather sporadic this year.  Not sure why. Interestingly, if you ignore the walking last year, my total training hours are similar, so maybe I’m at my natural limit.

So with the extra hours on the bike, something had to give: if ever I felt tired I’d sack off the gym, reasoning that they are the least important sessions.

I’m still a bit tubby, ~2 kgs heavier than this time last year. But that was part of the plan – honest guv. Last year I did quite a bit of trimming down over winter. This winter my diet has been healthy but I’ve not restricted myself.

The plan now is to lose those 2kgs before Wilmslow; the first week or so will be tough as I cut down on “white” carbs.

Anyway, overall I’m pretty happy with how this year’s winter training went. A few work-related trips disrupted my rhythm but overall I’ve been pretty consistent, averaging 13hrs per week.

This process of reflection has helped me re-focus and I have a pretty good idea what I need to do as I move into the “Base Phase” of my Annual Training Plan. 2014 is just around the corner and I’m looking forward to it. 

For more regular updates, I plan to post more regularly on Stava.

Anyway, that's enough, time for Doctor Who. Good luck to everyone for 2014.

Challenge Roth 2013 – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

(Update August 2013 - Pics added, click any one for a slide show)

Pre-race nutrition

Pronounced “rote” by the locals, “wroff” by the Brits, Roth, a small town in Bavaria is host to one of the most iconic ironman-distance races in the world.

It’s big, with 3000+ competitors; it’s popular, selling out a year ago in 45 mins; it’s a spectacle, with awesome organization and razzmatazz; plus it’s fast - world records are held here.

Dawn in T1

My A-race for 2013, my third ironman-distance race, and the plan was to break the 10-hour mark.
 

First the ugly. We recced on Friday, driving one lap of the bike course. This got me excited – rolling terrain through farmland and forest, tarmac smooth as marble. A few sharp turns in some of the villages, a few climbs, but nothing to worry about.

Calm before the storm

Except one thing: at 45k & 130k, three hairpin bends on a fast descent. Straw bales strapped to the metal barriers scream CAUTION. Lap 1, I’m approaching the first, sharp and down to the left, I move right to turn as wide as possible, I’ve scrubbed my speed.

Just before I initiate, a big guy hurtles past me, brakes hard, tries to turn but back wheel locks, releases brakes, straightens ups and slams into the straw bales. Over the handlebars, over the barrier and into oblivion.

Crowds gathering on the far side

Meanwhile, my only safe option is to complete the turn correctly. Looking back over my left shoulder, the next two riders are pulling over. 

This all happens in a few adrenaline-fuelled heartbeats and gravity is pulling me forward; I carry on. Moments later I feel guilty for not stopping & going back. I hope he’s ok, I suspect not.

Now for the bad. My A-plan was swim steady, 1:05, then on the bike, target an average power of 180W to yield a 5:15 split with enough in the tank for a 3:30 marathon. Add 5 mins for transitions, target time ~9:55. If things go well/really well then maybe 5-10 min faster run to give a fantasy time of 9:50 and a now-you’re-taking-the-piss time of 9:45.

Good views from up there!

Jacky’s encouragement at the bike-mount line told me that the swim and T1 had gone to plan. Meanwhile however, my Garmin 510 bike computer has gone to sleep; no worries just switch it back on. Ok, but it’s not giving me any power data – bugger. Fiddle with it for a couple of mins, no joy.

No worries; because I’ve had the odd power-Garmin hiccup in training, I planned for this. Evoke plan B and pace by heart rate, which has worked well in the past; target upper zone 2 with a cap of 155 bpm on the hills. But I’m not getting any heart rate data either. BAD Garmin!!

Swim well underway

After a few minutes pressing buttons I decide that (a) this is dangerous and (b) I’m wasting time and mental energy. So,  I evoke a C-plan: “feel and feed, feel and feed”, i.e. pace my effort based on feel and just make sure I take nutrition bang on schedule, forget about everything else.

The trouble with "feel" is that when you’re tapered and in race mode, going fast feels easy, at least it did for the first lap: average speed ~36kph – that’s on course for a 5 hr split – far too fast. Indeed, at ~100k it got tough; after that a lot of mental focus was required to keep the pace up and the energy bars down. End of lap 2, average speed dropped to below 35kph.

Swim exit

Due to stop-starting my Garmin I didn’t have an accurate time but clearly inside 5:15. However, having overcooked the bike, I was suffering and staring down the barrel of a “melt-down-marathon”. I’d blown it, dejection as I ride into T2!

But, ironman-distance is nothing if not an emotional roller coaster; dealing with highs and lows is part and parcel. So, never mind, press on.

Smoothly through T2, I’m on the run. Jacky again shouts encouragement. Start off very easy but what to do? THINK! Can I salvage this? And here comes the good; I look at my watch and hatch a new plan. It’s about 1:20 pm. My wave started at 7:05-ish, so the original sub-10 plan meant I needed to be on the run by 1:30. I’ve got a nice buffer, use it wisely. THINK!

The bike!

The A-plan was to build to 4:45k/min pace and hold for as long as possible, then start walking aid stations in the final third as the inevitable suffering began. The backup was designed for oppressive heat; revise pace to 4:50-4:55, walk aid stations sooner. Both should deliver a sub-3:30. Overcooking the bike meant that either could end in disaster: the C-plan on the bike necessitated a C-plan for the run.

I elected to deliberately walk the aid stations from the start, something I’ve never done before. Walking 20-30m every couple of km allowed me to lower my heart rate, stuff cold sponges in my tri-shirt & shorts and drink plenty of cold fluid to cool the engine. Hopefully this would allow me to recover from the bike.

Pushing hard on the bike

This wasn’t capitulation, I wasn’t taking it easy; in between aid stations I focused hard and I ran strong, keeping form and regularly looking at my more trusty Garmin 310 to keep my moving pace close to 4:45 min per k. But the deliberate & frequent walk-breaks broke up both the physical and metal effort, much like an interval session.

Start of the finish chute

And the strategy seemed to be working; 10-15k in and I was feeling much better, I’d had a few energy gels, fluids were going down easily, not too much sloshing about, a quick pee stop told me I was hydrated. By the half way point I started to minimize the walking, grabbing sponges on the move and stopping only seconds for a mouthful of coke.

Home!

As I approached the 29 km marker I felt awesome so put the hammer down. This doesn’t necessarily mean I got faster, but by increasing perceived exertion I aimed to maintain pace or at least slow any decay.

With 5 k to go I was hurting real bad, calves could pop any moment. But I stayed relaxed: “You’re deep into an ironman, of course it hurts”. Plus, I took satisfaction from beating my local competition. Early on, my walk-the-aid-station approach, meant I was overtaken quite a bit – an unusual experience ;-)

Bag collection

Between stations, I’d catch up, then as I cooled and refueled, they’d get a lead on me. But not by then end; in the last 10k they were walking and/or slowing dramatically – I left them all behind. Apart from relay runners, I remember only 1 guy that I didn’t re-take.

The result

And finally, the finish chute appears, Jacky is there again, cheering me on. No idea of the time, well under 10, did I see a 9:46:xx on the screen, or maybe that was someone else? I’m destroyed, I don’t care, shuffle through the finisher’s area, an emotional moment by myself, find somewhere to sit, head bowed, mind blank, don’t move for ages.

Finally muster the energy to move into the finisher tent, massage tables full, see bank of computers with race results, type in 1168 – click Stephen Taylor – 9:41:25 – un-frickin'-believable!

Just goes to show; sometimes things work out for the better when they don’t go quite to plan.

Official splits: Swim (1:04:57), T1 (2:54), Bike (5:07:15), T2 (2:02), Run (3:24:20).