Saturday Cycle with Cardiff Tri

Today I got on the road bike again!  I hadn't been on the bike since December I think... it's been a while.  I woke up to blazing sunshine at 7:30am on a Saturday, and I was ready to cycle.  I'de never been out with Cardiff Tri before and was excited to go out with them - the leisure ride sounded like it would be a good way to get back in the saddle as the route was flat and no one would be dropped.

I had a breakfast of 1/4 cup oatmeal with almonds and brown sugar, plus a hardboiled egg and a slice of toast with avocado (I'm hungry!).

The first 20 miles were nice but much colder than I anticipated - apparently 11 degrees isn't shorts and tee-shirt weather.  After 20 miles Brewer Half and a few others did a cheeky 5 mile sprint to the coffee stop, I held the tail for about a mile before dropping off at 20mph.  I pootled there at a windy 13mph but still made it to cake third - I could see two in pursuit behind but was able to hold them off.

On the way back Brewer half and I needed to get home quick so unfortunately had to zip away from the group.  We picked up a spare rider and belted it through the lanes, I took the lead for some at 18mph and we averaged nearly 22 for the 7 mile flat sprint from Newport to Cardiff.  I was completely wheel sucking* by that time but it didn't matter - I only got dropped when Brewer Half and Rob hightailed the last mile to get their Strava up.

In the end it was a 55 mile route, really nice and pretty flat.

When I got home I tried hard to not crash and waste the rest of the day - I had a protein recovery bar and then a big lunch of shrimp stir-fry.  I actually got a fair amount done after the ride, which almost never happenes before since usually I'm too tired to even make food.

I'll have to get on the bike more soon - long cycles are great when the weather is nice - it's pretty, it's quick, and it burns 1,600 calories in a morning!

Here's the Strava!


*wheel sucking is staying on someones wheel because you expend 30% less effort go get the same speed and the person in front gets all the wind resistance and you get sucked along.  It's good.

Swim Session with Cardiff Tri

On Sunday I swam with the Cardiff Triathletes.  They do 3 swim sessions a week, and I make it about once a month.  Each session is different, some focus on speed, others on endurance, but I mostly focus on two things - moving forward and not drowning.

(This is me swimming in Morocco.  Not sure what stroke I can do in 2 inches water)

I used to swim a fair amount - its one of the perks of growing up in California. I was on swim team as a kid and a lifeguard in college.  Swimming is something I generally enjoy and was one of the things I looked forward to in triathlon...

... Until the fateful thursday.  It was about two weeks back, I'm not sure what the problem was, but I was not swimming well. I was gasping and getting "dropped" and everyone was swimming fast and I was swimming slow.  I was trying to go faster and I was getting side cramps and my stomach was hurting and suddenly...

... I did not feel good.  I was half way down the pool and had visions of one fateful day on swim team  when we were all doing laps, and we saw one of the boys stop swimming, and we saw him look around, and then he opened his mouth and spewed chunks of cheerios and milk all over the pool.  I remember watching those cheerios sink and the milk float and the boy cry and thinking... gross.

So with that vision, I realized I was going to be that boy in a second.  And i jumped out of the pool, beelined for the girls toilets, and I'll spare you the details but it was... gross.

(Cat is not me, but my story was gross and cat is funny)

After that I decided never to go swimming again, but at parkrun I met one of the triathletes and as we chatted he encouraged me not to give up.  With those words of encouragement I hit the pool again on Sunday and I did exactly what I hoped to do - swim for an hour and not give up.  I was in the slowest lane and only did 1.25 miles, but I'm not afraid to go back anymore and I'm even looking forward to the next session.

It just goes to show that if you don't give up on things you're moderately bad at, then you'll never stay moderately bad at them!

I'm rubbish at inspiration.  Here's a photo instead:

2013 Races in South Wales (Triathlon/Duathlon/Running/Walking!)

Updated 24/3/2013

I'm going to try and keep a running list of what I want to enter, what I have entered, and what look amazing but will have to wait untill 2014...

Pontypool 10k - February 24, 2013

It's a 10k and it's in less than 4 weeks.  It would be silly for me to enter.  Then again, it might be good to time a 10k and then I can have something to look forward to with the half.  The Duathalons have 10k runs as part of them and I really never run more than 5k ... so something to think about maybe?  

South Wales Three Peaks Trial - March 23, 2013

This isn't a race but it looks quite fun!  I would probably chose the Gold route - A circular walk of 20 miles around the Blorange, Skirrid, and Sugar Loaf.  5000 feet of climbing in the gorgeous countryside of Abergavenny!  There's also a Platinum route, but it's 17 miles, more challenging, requires navigation, and it's not Circular.  I dislike things that are not circular! 

Entry Fee: £5  ENTERED - WISH ME LUCK!

ISCA Duathalon - April 7, 2013 

I'm getting more interested in duathalon.  Mostly because there are more of them, and I can't really do open-water swims until I get a wetsuit, and I can't get a wetsuit until I come to terms with the fact that OMG being athletic is SO EXPENSIVE.  But this Duathalon looks nice - it happens in Newport and consists of a 4.2km run, 16.35km bike ride, and 4.2 km run.  

Entry Fee: £26

Vale of Glamorgan Duathalon - April 21, 2013

The Vale is Lovely and this is a fairly short race: 3.5mi run / 16mi bike / 1.6mi run.  It's a local Race so not too far to travel, and would be nice to see how I do if I really push myself - I could aim for a good and/or competitive time instead of just a "finishing" time.   

Entry Fee: £35.35 (£29.95 if I join WelshTri)

Amman Valley Sprint Tri - April 21, 2013
Camarthen is a bit far - but a Sprint Tri seems a good reason to travel!  400m Swim, 16km bike, 5km run.  Sounds like a good morning!

Entry Fee: £35

Tour of Pembrokeshire - 27th April 2013

50, 75, or 100 miles.  The 100 mile route looks truly stunning, and truly leg destroying.  I would be inclined to chalenge myself for the 75, and both an challenge and incline it would be at 6758 feet of climbing.  There's 1000 feet of climbing between the 37th and 41st mile.  EEK

Entry Fee: £25

Cardiff Try-a-Tri - May 5, 2013

I did this race last year - Cardiff Tri is the group I infrequently train with.  When I join I'll have to marshall one event - not sure if I'll marshall this or the Cosmeston open water tri.  Still good to keep in mind, though soon I won't be novice anymore and I won't be able to do novice triathlons  (at least I think that's how it works).  400m swim / 16.1km bike / 4.6km run.  It would be great to compare my times this  year to last on the same course, see if there's any improvement (or transitions that take less than 3 minutes)

Entry Fee: £ ?

Blaenafon Triathlon - May 12, 2013

This would be very ambitious for me - it's a middle distance tri, meaning 1/2 mile of swimming, 28 mile bike ride, and 7 miles of running.  The running I already know will be terrible, but the bike ride has the following description:  28 miles in total. Most is on minor hilly roads with 2 major climbs and some lesser ones totalling about 3000ft of climb.  The fact that they used "hilly" and "major" and "lesser" all to describe 28 miles of cycling sounds... terrible.  I may hold out a bit on entering, this really would be a challenge.

Entry Fee: £37 (£32 if I join WelshTri)

Sadly I'm away with work that weekend - hope it goes well for all who entered!

City of Bath Triathlon - 9th June 2013

The City of Bath Triathlon is both an Olympic Distance (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6 mile run) and a Sprint tri (750 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run).  Both are pool based, and it's one of the only pool based Olympic distance triathlons I've seen close to Cardiff.  Also, Bath is an amazing city.  I would be inclined to enter, though looking at the results it's highly probably I'll come in last.  I'm a little worried about the swim, and may have to trial myself to do a gym-based triathlon before I commit to entering.  There are only 100 people in the race, and the standard looks quite high.  Bath would be a great place to do a tri, so I'll definitely think about it!

Entry Fee: £43.70 (£36.30 for the sprint distance)

Cymmer Afan Tri - July 27, 2013

This was the first Triathalon I ever entered, I did the novice route in 2012.  I will definately be entering the full distance route this year.  The event is a 600 metre swim, 24k mountain bike, 6k run.  Last year I was mostly new to mountain biking, this year I'll get some practice in to really rip it up.  Afan is one of the most beautiful areas in South Wales and it's an awesome place to run a Tri.

Entry Fee: £37 ENTERED - WISH ME LUCK!


Kinetica Gower Triathlon - 10th August 2013

It's an open water triathlon, it's supposed to be awesome.  No list of South Wales Triathlons would be complete without mentioning it.  Sprint distance (750 m swim, 24 km bike, 5km run).  If I ever become a real triathlete who does real swimming (open water) this would be a great race for me to do.

Entry Fee: £42

Forrest of Dean Off Road Duathlon - September 7th, 2013

Andy did this one last year, and it nearly killed him.  Then again, he did the on-road duathlon, so maybe I would find it easier off-road.  HAHA that's a lie.  Forrest of dean is lovely though, and the mountain biking is all very do-able, and I can do the same Duathlon the day after on-road for only an additional £15.  A good way to shock me into Half Marathon shape?

Entry Fee: £20 (£35 for both races?!)

Cardiff 10k - September 8th, 2013

A 10k would be  a good way to prepare for a 1/2 marathon!  But also, if I hate doing a 10k, I am not going to want to do a half marathon.  And I've already entered the half.  But I think a 10k would be fine, and this race always looks fun enough and with a good atmosphere.  I may wait and see if anyone's giving away their place right before the event instead of pre-registering...

Entry Fee: £24 (which seems steep for a 10K!)

Cardiff Half Marathon - October 6, 2013

Running is not really my thing, but I think a load of my friends are planning to sign up, and it would probably do me good to have a proper running race to look forward to.  I'm not sure what my goal time would be - somewhere less than 3 hours?  I'll have to do some proper training I think....

Entry Fee: £30  ENTERED!  WISH ME LUCK!

Monday Interval training with Cardiff Tri

Tonight I did my first running training with Cardiff Tri.  I had no idea what I was in for and it was a bit of a shock.  I do interval training on the treadmill - 20 seconds at a time.  This was 2 minutes at speed and 2 minutes recovery.  I knew I was in for trouble when the 6 minute jog to warm up was at 9:30 minute mile pace.  That's not a jog for me - that's a run.

I sometimes wonder why I picked triathlon and I think it's because I don't know what I want to do and triathlon is the perfect outlet for indecisiveness*.  There are a lot of people who are good at running who get into tri for the challenge... a few people who are originally swimmers, and some people who are originally cyclists.  In fact I think, through no science at all, that the split is like this:

Runners: 60
Bikers: 30
Swimmers: 10

Anyways, I managed to run 6.1 miles today, which is longer than I've ever been out before.  I kind of lost the will to "interval" after about 6 goes, but I did keep on moving, and that was victory enough.

The cool thing about triathlon - or maybe just Cardiff Tri - is that everyone is friendly and supportive.  At the 2 minutes everyone ran off and I fell steadily behind, after 2 minutes they used recovery to come back and find me, 2 minutes later they sprinted off again.

I'm not sure if I was really ready to do the interval training yet - doing 6 miles of interval training as the next step up from 3 mile fun runs was a bit intense.

On the other hand, at this rate I can just double again to 12 miles and I'll be ready for a half marathon in a few short weeks!

The good thing about being so rubbish on the first try is that I can only get better.

I didn't get a photo but this is how I felt after:

*If only triathlon was quadrathalon and included flying trapeze.  Or pentathlon but instead of all the running and jumping included lightweight barbells and push-ups.  (editors note: my brewer half just commented that I would still be bad at it.  He's probably right.  He keeps it real.)

Swimming Sunday

My birthday was awesome, relaxing and food filled.

The day after was awesome too, I hung out in my house all day and then went for drinks and tapas in the evening.

Sunday I thought I should probably get back to exercising  but I realized how quickly the ennui can set in when activity stops.

Last week I did the following:
Monday: Weights
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: Weights
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing

When Sunday rolled around I really didn't want to do anything.  In fact, I couldn't understand how I used to get psyched for exercise.  Everything seemed so hard and effort-ful.

My friends were headed down to the indoor climbing wall, and with little else to do besides putter and avoid exercise I decided to go.  I've not been climbing seriously for about a year so I faffed around top roping some 5 and 5+ and then led a 5+ and then climbed a 6a+ just to prove I could.  Then to a bit of bouldering and some silly strength exercises and I was done.

I've also not been out with the Cardiff Tri Swimming for a while and I decided to rejoin them tonight, for their 90 minute session.  15 minutes in I was tired.  30 minutes in my arms felt like they were falling off.  My 400s became 100s and since we were swimming in an olympic pool the laps were longer and the 100s were shorter, if that makes sense, which it doesn't.  After an hour I gave up and went home.  I don't think I finished my 100s, and I didn't get my 900 meter swim in at all, but I must have done at least a mile of swimming.

And now I'm so tired, and I like being this tired, and I'm looking forward to a weights session with Geraint tomorrow to whip me back into shape!

Oh and a massage - my birthday treat to me.  That's tomorrow as well.

It's been a good weekend!

An Independent Triathlon Thursday

Today I did what I've decided to call an "Independant Triathlon" An Independent Triathlon is where you go for a swim and a run and a ride in the same day but transition includes watching tv and tweeting.

It all started this afternoon when I was feeling antsy but didn't know what to do, so I did some laps around Maindy Track because I had no better ideas.


When I got back I watched an episode of storage wars, then did a fairly slow 5k (34 minutes).


I wondered if my lethargy was caused by the fact that I've eaten nothing but cheese and bread and chocolate and more cheese and more bread for the last 3 days.  So I made this shrimp and veggie stir fry with noodles and avocado and Sriracha:

om. flipping. nom.

I love Sriracha.  It is like spicy asian heaven.  Sometimes food does not have enough spice, and I just add Sriracha, and KABLAMO food is delicious.

So spicy. So delicious.

In the evening Andy and I went to the Cardiff pool for swim training with the Cardiff Tri club. We got there a bit early, so like true athletes we spent 30 minutes on the slides:

HORRAY SLIDES!

All in all it took me 6 hours for my independent triathlon.  Also everything was in the wrong order, and the distances were wrong too!  How wrong? So wrong!

1) bike 9 miles (35 minutes)

Transition: 1 hour

2) run 3.3 miles (35 minutes)

Transition: 3 hours (including dinner and playing on slides)

3) Swim 1.25 miles (60 minutes)

Then I ate cake with ice cream.  That's recovery eating, right?

Water Polo Tuesday

On Tuesday I made it to the Cardiff Tri  swim session.  The session started at 7:30 with the usual hour of lap swimming broken up into hard and really hard bits.  Sometimes I felt like an amazing swimmer, gliding effortlessly and gracefully through the water.  Most of the time I felt like a drowning seal.  As a special christmas treat the second hour was a game of water polo, which I had never played before but which is completely awesome.

Why water polo is awesome:
Flailing is an integral part
It is agressive
You don't have to run (or be seen running)
I am agressive

I wasn't particularly good, but I was particularly agressive.  I'm not sure which team won, because there were some dodgy fouls, but all in all it was loads of fun, and a lot of effort.  I played defense, which seemed natural from my short lived football/soccer career, but really I just flailed around in the pool for an hour.  It did make me remember how much I enjoyed playing team sports and how agressive/competitive I can actually be - I need to bring a little more competitiveness into my cycling/running.  Winning is exhilarating  finishing is expected.

New goal: feel more competitive during cycling.
Step 1: go to Maindy and not be last on the Maindy Strava segment:

Step 2: nail it.