Well it's been 7 weeks since the Bastion and no update, shame on me. Well to be honest I haven't raced much, in fact just once and that ended early with a sliced tubular. After the Bastion I took things easy for a couple of weeks, allowing myself to fully recover before embarking on the process of building again for Challenge Weymouth on the 14th September. Now 9 weeks between the two should be plenty of time, but once you allow for the recovery from the Bastion and then the taper for Weymouth it left around 5 to 6 weeks of quality building.
Now I could have just got straight back into training, but both my coach and I share similar views on recovery, you aren't going to get fitter if you are suffering deep down fatigue, or you might get fitter, just at a very slow pace. Our view was to get recovered from the Bastion and then crack on with the quality sessions that really build fitness. Having those 2 weeks of relatively easy training did mean my CTL dropped a fair amount, could I get this back in the time available. The plan was slightly compromised with me having a holiday with the family, though even then I was pretty sure I could get enough decent training in. The best part of the holiday though was we were in Weymouth so a great chance to recce the course whilst there.
The only race I had planned was the Tri Spirit Events Owler Aquabike, basically the IM swim and bike, with the plan from the coach to attack the bike as hard as possible. That was music to my ears really and although the swim was shocking (just not enough swim training done), the bike was going well to plan, by 50km I had got myself into the lead, and then a sudden deflation on my disc tub. Looking at the tub it was clear it wasn't going to be repairable as a bit of flint had sliced it pretty good. I wasn't carrying a spare tub in this race so that was game over. I wasn't too unhappy, though it would have been nice to finish the event as the Tri Spirit Events crew really do some special gifts for finishers, maybe next year.
Even though I managed to get 10 hours of training done whilst on holiday, most of it while the family slept and before breakfast, I knew I would need to up the hours somewhat to achieve at least the similar training load I achieved pre the Bastion. The next 3 weeks were real solid weeks even with work related time issues etc. I did take another week off work as well to get a big week of training in, it did the job though with a great ramp in CTL, and a ramp in fatigue at the same time obviously. This last week although still a build week wasn't as tough and I managed to ramp up my CTL again to get it to a higher level than I did before the Bastion. Now this should mean I am even fitter, especially the run fitness, the next 2 weeks of tapering will hopefully see me go into Challenge Weymouth in even better shape.
What of my hopes for Challenge Weymouth? Well I have been public with saying I aim to finish in sub 10 hours, is this possible, well I think it should be. The bike course certainly is going to be faster than the Bastion bike course, I can see at least 30 mins being knocked off here alone, if not more. The weather gods may dictate otherwise, but the rolling nature of the course just means keeping your average speed up will be so much easier. As for the run, well it is flat as a flat thing, and all tarmac so with better run fitness (including faster long run speeds in training) and the fact it is flat should mean I can perhaps knock 30 mins off this. Now the swim is the unknown here I suppose, I haven't done much sea swimming, and if the wind blows the wrong way it could end up being quite a slow swim for me. So sub 10 isn't far out of reach in all honesty, but I think it will rely on the bike leg being as fast as I hope, and me being able to run like I have in training. I hope to do well in my age group as well, but without going through every 45-49 athlete there is no real way of knowing how I will fair, I guess I just need to concentrate on me and do the best I can on the day.
I do know something though, it will be great lining up with some of the UK's fastest pros on what should be a great event. I have no doubt that getting the fastest bike split will be beyond me in this event, especially with the likes of Stephen Bayliss, Joe Skipper, Craig Twigg, Karl Alexander and others but even so I am really looking forward to it and no doubt the next 2 weeks will fly by.
P.S Any pointers on knocking 10 mins off my IM swim time in the next two weeks, going to need all the help I can LOL
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