27th Sept - Adventure Race

Rat Race London 2009 with Jonty Saunders and Henry Dyson

6hrs 22

This event consisted of orienteering on foot and bike, kayaking, climbing and abseiling. Really impressed with the other guys who held a good pace all day. Results still be published but think we got top 10 out of 400 teams.

19th Sept - Fell run

Fell run in Langdale with Pete Hart

24.2km, 1,757m ascent - 3:44

Went to my 2nd Fell and Rock Climbing Club meet. Great to get back on the fells for some running. Weather was pretty average: poor visibility and pretty damp for most of the run, but cleared up when we got to Pike O'Blisco. Was cool to discover the Jake's Rake scramble on Pavey Ark - great little route and worthwhile addition to the fell run (Pete's doing). This would be a great winter climbing route - must go back in snow/icey conditions tooled up.

Route: Raw Head FRCC hut, Pavey Ark (Jake's Rake), High Raise, Angle Tarn, Bow Fell, Crinkle Crags, Pike O'Blisco

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13663333

14th Sept - Run

Vicky Park lap with Hinksy - 27 mins

9th Sept - Run

Vicky Park laps

6.82 km - 29:19

Stopped due to blisters, otherwise fine - easy pace (4:18/km).

4th Sept - Bike

London to Godalming on tandem with VB

80km - 4hrs

26th August - Swim

London Fields Lido

1.5km - 27:36.2

Feeling ok. Long time last swim.

8:46.5
9:23.7
9:26.0

22nd August - Bike

Hackey to Tunbridge Wells (via Blackheath, Biggin Hill, Westerham, Penshurst) on tandem with Beaney.

65km - 3hrs

Good weather, nice day.

8th August - Bike

London to Brighton on the tandem!

100km - 4hrs

Beaney was a very strong 'stoker' (2nd rider). Had a great ride and motored up Ditchling Beacon. Nice weather.

5th August - Bike

Vicky Park TT lap

6:57 (PB)

30th July - Bike

30 miles fast on fixed gear bike

Plan

I have had some time now to think about my Ironman Switzerland race:

Positives

Progress on the bike over the last year.
First half-marathon, lack of jelly legs.
Mentally tougher.

Negatives

Little progress in improvement on swim (but courses can be inaccurate).
Massive explosion on the third 10K of the Marathon.
Ironman running is still hugely slower than standalone run PB.

My goal for 2010 is a huge improvement in my Ironman PB, now 11 hrs 21 seconds. I want to go low 10 hours and I'm aiming for the following improvements:

Swim 1:05 (10 minute improvement on current Ironman split PB)
Bike 5:20 (10 minute improvement on current Ironman split PB)
Run 3:30 (32 minute improvement on current Ironman split PB)

plus 10 mins for transitions (1&2)

Total time 10:05

These are pretty significant improvements in all three disciplines and it's probably fairly ambitious to consider them linked in the same race, but I reckon that with more effective training, and particular attention paid to (a) my swim technique (with more short distance/speed training) and (b) my distance running off the bike (3rd 10K of the marathon), this may be achievable.

I'm pleased with the long bike sessions that I did in April to July this year, but I definitely neglected my running due to my knee injury. I just hope that this clears up soon so that I can put in a big winter of run training.

My swim is poor and seemingly however fast/slow I go, I don't feel anymore whacked when I get out of the water, so it'd be great to get some improvement here. I put a little bit of speed-work into my swim sessions over the last few months but not enough to see real gains.

I'm taking a few weeks off proper training and will only do 'fun' and 'when I feel like it' sessions. It has been cool to watch the Tour de France and I'm inspired to do some riding. I'm riding to Paris with VB on the tandem in September which will be really fun too. In terms of racing, my next event is October's Beachy Head marathon but I may enter some low-key stuff in the meantime just for fun.

27th July - Swim

London Fields Lido

Aiming for 15 X 100m off 1:45. Could only do 4, so changed to 1:55, did subsequent 11 off 1:55.

Felt really hard. Shit session.

25th July - Run

1 X Canal lap (with Limehouse basin), plus Vicky Park big lap

13.1km - 1hr 10

With Martha and VB. Felt very easy, but knees sore afterwards.

12th July - Ironman Switzerland

Ironman Switzerland - 11hrs 00:21 (PB)

The swim split was faster than Roth in 2008, but slower than Austria in 2007 but I'm not too disappointed with this since the Swiss course involves getting out of the water at halfway and running for 50m which didn't help my rhythm.

Following a good season of bike training I was pleased to get a PB for the bike split on a course that must be 20 mins slower than Roth. I held a high gear and felt strong virtually throughout despite some significant hills, which I hadn't erally given credit to before the race. There was an 18 minute lag between my first and second laps. I did 2hrs 37 for the first lap, 2hrs 55 for the second and 5:33:29 overall.

I started the run strongly, going through the first lap (10.55km) at 4:58/km pace, second lap in 5:28/km pace and the first half-marathon in 1hr 50. I then exploded between 20 and 30km with long sections of walking - I was physically and mentally exhausted. My third lap pace went out to 7:17/km. I got back on track with a strong-ish last lap at 5:42/km pace, but by this time I was only running for a second half marathon time of 2:17, and a disappointing overall Marathon time of 4:07:23, which is slower than my 2007 and 2008 times.

Ultimately, the second half of the run is where I lost the half-hour that would have allowed me to hit my target of 10hrs 30, and this is where I need to focus for a more balanced race next year. I didn't take on enough solid food on the second lap of the bike. There were only Powerbars available on the first lap which must have contributed to hitting the wall at 25km on the run. I will need to take my own.

Having said all this, 11:00:21 is a PB, and not a bad effort on a harder Ironman course than I have done before. I have entered Roth for 2010 and am looking forward to a better finish next year.

Splits as follows:

3.8k SWIM - 1:11:59

T1 - 3:34

180k BIKE - 5:33:29 (PB)

T2 - 3:55

42.2k RUN - 4:07:23

5th July - Swim

Parliament Hill Lido

Warm-up, then:

10 X 90m off 2 mins

Splits varied between 1:30 and 1:16

Feeling fine.

29th June - Swim

London Fields Lido

Very busy so difficult to get any rhythm. Set-out to do ten 200s on 3:15 but just too crowded. Did 30 mins at tempo/fast.