Cycloclub inspired blog!

What seemed a distant ambition is about to become a rather scary but exciting reality, as the entries open for Helvellyn Triathlon 09 on the 1st Nov.

So when I read about Cycloclub's (internet-based club with ton of good info on training, bike repair, nutrition, and all sorts..) initiative to encourage blogs from folk with a particular aim - with some prizes! - it seemed a good idea given I've never had a bigger or clearer aim in life! What's a blog though, I wondered!

When I decided to do this event at this time, in summer 2006, I'd just bought my first pair of goggles and was learning 'proper' swimming, having only ever done breaststroke with my head out of the water. My route to discovering triathlons started when struggling to walk up hills (which I love doing), with like-minded singing folk - I wasn't getting enough of the 'singing whilst waiting for the slow coaches' so decided to get fitter. We live near glorious beaches so I would struggle to run extremely slowly, with stops, about 3 miles along the beach, and then throw myself in the sea to cool down. I decided this was almost a triathlon - all I need do was cycle to the beach..Did this for a couple of years with not much improvement. The breakthroughs came firstly due to my marathon- mad sister informing me that I was never running long enough to get past the pain barrier - which she said was at least 4 miles, my friend suggesting the local tri-club as a great way of getting cheap swimming lessons, and buying proper running shoes.

2009 seemed far enough away to get fit enough by.

The event consists of 1500m swim in Ullswater, a very picturesque, but cold, lake in the fantastic Lake District; 38mile bike leg which includes a roughly 3 mile section of 1 in 4 uphill, mis-named 'The Struggle'. I drove down it and walked up it pushing my current bike, in May - and thought it would be better named 'The Impossible'! And lastly, a 9 mile run to the top of Helvellyn (3118 feet) and back.

I have just completed my 2nd season of doing triathlons and am loving it. I'm working at improving very steadily - from the absolute bottom - when I was picked up from flat on my face pourring with blood half way through a 10 mile run event that I had thought was 10k! Being last has a whole set of perks of its own, I've discovered! You get dedicated attention and conversation and encouragement from your own personal backmarking marshall - and a really big cheer - especially if you time the 2nd transition to coincide with the winners awards ceremony! In a recent event, (by far my most gruelling to date), I was the only competitor to benefit from amazing views at the top of the run route, as the mist lifted for the first time that day.

So where am I up to? Can now comfortably manage 'sprint' triathlons (750ish-m, 20k -ish, 5k ish). Not fast, it must be said - but I am less often in the bottom ten of late. I really only worked more methodically on swimming in the first season - went out on the bike (my sister's redundant racer which I paid £100 to get overhauled. Does ok for me but I'm not sure if it's the right 'fit'), and ran regularly but with no plan or method. Wasn't til season 2 that I managed the whole swim using all freestyle and no breast stroke. I also started working on core strength and healthy eating, inspired by Cyclo-core, which is a company/network/club/magazine in USA which came up when I googled for 'hill training'. I bought some really useful DVDs which make core-training exercises much easier to remember and do - I enjoy them now as I've improved loads. I think they're making a difference - a friend, who I've also persuaded to do Helvellyn, was getting left behind on a steepish hill recently, which hadn't happened before. He commented that I was recovering from the hardest bits quicker. I've also been discovering, from subscribing to Cyclo-club, pedal technique. I was amazed to discover swimming was so technical - and lots of work lead to lots of improvement. Well it seems to be the case with biking too.

My main achievements in season 2 were buying and using clipless pedals - which enabled me to do some of the drills described in Cyclo-club, and learning to swim in open water. Knowing Helvellyn was starting to loom, I knew I had to beable to get a mile in open water in a wetsuit. This seemed like it would be impossible back in May, when our tri club started it's lake and sea swims. People kept saying I just needed to keep at it and spend time in the water - as I despaired of ever getting more than 10 strokes without stopping to look around - it's so disorienting with no lines on the bottom, or lengths to get to the end of! And the lake is so dark, and doesn't taste great either! The sea's loads lighter and I have this notion that the salt is killing germs! Waves are fun too. Getting a mask helped alot, rather than goggles. I entered my first open water event at the end of June, St Mary's Loch, near Selkirk. It was 750m, so at least I'd done the distance in the pool, if not outside. I made it, which was really exciting - and having been in the sea alot didn't find it as shockingly cold as alot of folk. The bike was mountain-biking, which I'd never actually attempted! Borrowed my son's bike. But the most massive achievement was getting round Kielder Triathlon..I really hadn't trained for this. I'd been working towards my first ever 'standard' or 'olympic' distance event, at Druridge Bay, just down the road. This seemed daunting enough, but I knew that for any chance of making Helvellyn next year, I had to beable to do a mile open water swim. My brain couldn't even contemplate the bike and run til I knew I could manage that, as it had been so far out of reach at the beginning of the year. So I'd reckoned on Druridge taking roughly 3 and a half hours. When flooding caused it to be cancelled due to sewage in the lake, I entered Kielder instead - same length swim, shorter (30k instead of 40k) bike - but hilly and technical mountain bike route, and very hilly 8k run. I hired a bike. But vaguely comparable I mistakenly thought! It took a marathon nearly 7 hrs for me to do! More like a half-ironman! But I was so elated to have managed - especially doing the 1500 swim and staying relaxed. I'm sure I made it round so much better that I would have predicted as I'd paid alot of attention to nutrition before and during the event. Used Hammer Perpetuum, endurance fuel containing complex carbs and protein, as recommended by Cyclo-club - in a 5hr bottle (ie the hrly amount times the predicted no.hrs in one bottle mixed with water, so a bit revolting!), and HEED (Hammer energy drink using only complex carbohydrates - no glucose or fructose etc), which I put in a Camelbak bladder. Also didn't have breakfast as early start, as recommended by Hammer and Cyclo-club, and didn't use solids at all. The best thing is I now know I can keep going for the the time I'll need to for Helvellyn - so I am much more confident about getting round ok.

In summary, for this over long intro to my blog, I'll look to the future. It's been hard getting re-motivated to train following Kielder in mid-Sept. It's also hard to know how to organise the coming year. One of the main obstacles is that I need a new bike - I don't have enough gears on my current one for steep hills. Can't afford one just yet though - and I'm daunted by all technical, and will probably just hand myself over to the hands of local bike shop - who are into tri stuff too, and supportive. But I've no idea if this is the best way of doing it - probably not the cheapest. But I think they have pay monthly options...I just bought my first wetsuit, having been using a third-hand one which now resembles a rotting fishing net! Apparently this is the cheapest time to buy. Spent £70 for a basic orca one at half price. I also spent my birthday money on an intermediate-advanced tri training plan and runner-core DVD, from Cycle-core, which I hope will kick start me and give me some idea how to organise myself. I'm planning on lots of core-work, pedal technique using cyclo-core drills on a borrowed turbo-trainer (haven't got the hang of this yet), and swim technique work back in the pool again - though still, amazingly, managing some sea swimming each week with my mad friend! We haven't been this week yet though, and it snowed yesterday...and some spin - biking, also new.

So I'm hoping Runner-core DVD will arrive in time to start the training plan proper on Monday, by which time I WILL have entered Helvellyn!