London Marathon 2013 – 3 hours 50 minutes & 36 seconds

 

That was hard – very hard. And I’m not doing that again!  In the cold light of day I guess my time was ok. I beat my only previous other marathon time (London again from 9 years ago) by 24 minutes so I have to be happy with that but the second half of the race was just all pain for me.

The background of this is that I got a place through the ballot last year before deciding to concentrate on the triathlon targets for 2013. Consequently, although I’d upped my running distance quite a bit for the last four months or so, I was underdone on the long runs (+20 miles) coming into this. The one long pre race I entered, the San Dominico 20 miler, was cancelled due to the bad weather. Two Saturday’s ago I ran 34kms which was basically three times from home around Roath and the lake in Cardiff. That was fine but on the following Monday, trying to do some intervals, I felt my Achilles tighten. Since then it’s been no running and ice the Achilles twice a day. So I started the race with some trepidation. You don’t get the opportunity do the VLM often so I was going to do it and try and do it as fast as I could.

Here they come to the start at Blackheath. I must have walked a bit quicker!

 

Pre race I applied a non steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) gel on the Achillies and had a strip of Ibuprofen tablets with me. Interestingly on the radio on Saturday they were warning runners NOT to take any NSAIDs as a study of the Bonn marathon had shown issues with kidney and stomach problems. As anyone who  has run the VLM will know it takes ages to get going so I wasn’t worried about going out too fast and putting strain on the Achilles but even before I crossed the start line I could feel the aching irritation of it. 1km first drinks station and I’d popped my first tablet. The pain eased a bit and I tried to concentrate on an even pace but this is not easy at the VLM. I started in one of the middle pens. I’d thought I’d put down a reasonably fast target time on my application but obviously not as fast as a lot of others. It was a little bit irritating how many slow runners started near the front and I mean slow, not someone pacing correctly. The course is actually quite narrow (for 38k runners) and the spectator crowds so huge they tended to encroach off pavements etc. So it was slow/fast for about the first 15km. When a gap opened you really had to accelerate through it before it closed for another few minutes. There were so many runners running around on pavements, jumping on and running on central reservations. This is obviously not good for an evenly paced marathon effort.

I was happy getting to the half marathon marker in 1.44 but then, even after my 3^rd painkiller, the heel pain was increasing and I could feel myself sort of limping. This, together with what I can acknowledge now was tiredness, made me slow down. I was carrying my High5 gels and they seemed to go down ok, but it was getting quite warm. From about 25km it became a battle. I really was thinking of stopping but you realised the crowds just wouldn’t let you. They gave you “encouragement” even if you stopped to walk. I kept going mainly with the thought that my family and friends were at the 35km mark and that’s where I would stop. However by then, and I have to admit with a further tablet, my Achilles had eased a bit so I thought I could finish. As it turns out I got a very little bit of a second wind in the last 5kms and actually felt quite comfortable. Though not comfortable enough to think about a sprint finish at the end!  My splits are below and they are all over the place. Afterwards I made sure I took on plenty of water and it seems like I don’t have any issues with my pill popping. I certainly went way over any recommended limit and I’m not going to do that again but I think it allowed me to finish the marathon. A day later my Achilies doesn’t feel as bad as I thought it would (but only time will tell when I try and run next). Compare this with my quads – aaah!  I wonder how many days I will be walking down stairs backwards.

Split	Time Of Day	Time	Diff	min/km	km/h
5K	10:27:25	00:25:12	25:12:00	05:03	11.91
10K	10:51:25	00:49:12	24:00:00	04:48	12.5
15K	11:15:54	01:13:41	24:29:00	04:54	12.25
20K	11:41:04	01:38:51	25:10:00	05:03	11.92
HALF	11:46:34	01:44:21	05:30	05:01	11.99
25K	12:07:26	02:05:13	20:52	05:21	11.22
30K	12:36:56	02:34:43	29:30:00	05:54	10.17
35K	13:09:00	03:06:47	32:04:00	06:25	9.36
40K	13:39:49	03:37:36	30:49:00	06:10	9.73
Finish time	13:52:49	03:50:36	13:00	05:55	10.14

The First Welsh Triathlon Champion?

 

Sitting on the shelf in our front room, a little bit neglected, is a silver trophy. As always the trophy needs cleaning but if you look closely at the engraving it says;

TRIATHLON
CHAMPIONSHIPS
MENS
WELSH CHAMPION
1978
M. J. G. BATTERSBY

 The event was held in Haverfordwest on Sunday, 19^th March 1978. That’s over 35 years ago. It’s interesting to note that the first ever Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii took place on 18^th February, 1978, only 29 days earlier.

However this was not exactly a triathlon as we know today. These first Welsh Triathlon Championships were arranged and held under the auspices of the Modern Pentathlon Association of Great Britain. The three events were swimming, running and.... pistol shooting!  We had heard mumblings about these triathlons (with cycling) as they had started a couple of years earlier in the USA. I guess the MPAGB wanted to get on the bandwagon.

At the time I was studying for my A-levels and was asked to participate by my local swim club. I’d “retired” from swimming, well the training bit of it anyway, a few years earlier (girls, pubs – you know how it goes) but I was still fairly fit. I also had done some cross country running at school so I thought I would give it a go. I remember learning how to shoot a pistol accurately at the Territorial Army target range in the Drill Hall in Llanelli. The event consisted of a 500m pool swim, a 5km cross country run and 0.177 target pistol shooting. There were breaks in between events, so not continuous like today’s triathlon. It was a cold and wet day (much like most of this Spring 2013) and the XC was run through a bog. Afterwards I was asked to represent Wales at the forthcoming British Triathlon Championships at Crystal Palace but unfortunately it clashed with my A-Level exams.

There can’t be many people on this planet who can say they’ve raced triathlons in five different decades.

So if those pesky cyclists hadn’t got their hands on the sport I could have been a contender!

Here are some old local press clippings.

The pic is mostly the Llanelli swim team. I’m on the far right with the “easy rider” glasses on (it was a stage I was going through!)

 

And we’re racing! (Hopefully)

I saw a physio about my swimmers shoulder and it turns out with a bit of luck and a lot of rehab work it should be ok.  It looks like it’s not directly my rotator cuff but my bicep that is sore. It’s connected/caused by the rotator cuff but not any sort of impingement as I was worried about. It’s good that I picked it up early. The physio thought, and I agree, it’s probably caused by lack of rotation when swimming and my poor flexibility, especially of my spine. So it’s a new set of strengthening, stretching and flexibility exercises and importantly to continue with the bilateral breathing as per my last blog.

Even before I saw the physio another old issue reappeared in the form of tendonitis of my right Achilles. I did my final long run before the London marathon last Saturday (6^th April) which was fine but then on the Monday I did an easy interval session with Cardiff Tri. I was going easy but half way through I started to feel that annoying twinge at the back of my heel. I cut short the session and did a slow jog followed by some intense icing. I did some more light running again this Monday and it was still tight. I’m hoping it’s just a reaction to doing some sprints so soon after my long run. Like the swimmers shoulder, I started getting Achilles tendonitis just before the Ironman 5 years ago. I’ve had orthotics fitted for my “heavy over pronation”. I’ve constantly been doing exercises (heel drops), stretching and then icing after runs for the last few years which I thought had solved (or at least managed) the problem. All I can do now is rest, stretch and ice often until the marathon on Sunday.

All this happened in the week that I have just about finished entering all the races I’m planning to do for this year. It got me worried that any flare up of these issues or other new ones and I can’t race, then I am seriously out of pocket with all these entry fees. Waiting until closer to the event was not an option as this year these events are selling out fast. I think this is partly due to the UK having the AG world championships here in September but mostly the effect of the Olympics on people. It’s getting people active. The organiser of our local Try-a-Tri said that the event sold out in 38 minutes when it went live on Easter Monday evening.  Just about every event I’ve entered is now sold out or nearly full.  I just hope that I can stay healthy and compete as they just about all have a “no refunds” policy. The normal stuff..... “most costs are incurred before the event so unfortunately we cannot offer refunds etc. etc.”  I can’t argue with that, it’s just it seems like a game of roulette committing (and paying) for things so far in advance when there is a good possibility you’re not going to make some starts. You can see this normally from all those DNS in the results from previous year’s races.

Including the London Marathon I’m up to 16 Triathlon and running events entered for 2013. That’s at least 10 more than I would normally do in an average year. I’ve even entered two Triathlons on consecutive days (Sprint & OD ITU qualifiers). In the past I’ve struggled with two Tri’s in consecutive weekends, so that’s going to be an interesting weekend!  The list includes five ITU Tri qualifiers, one ETU qualifier, and one ITU aquathlon qualifier. In amongst all these are two British Champs, two Welsh Champs and three Welsh Grand Prix races, including an off road tri, which I think I’m looking forward to the most. Then there is of course is the ETU Age Group Champs in Turkey and, if I ever qualify, the ITU Champs in London.

That must be over £800 in entry fees I’ve already spent. Wow – just did a search on my accounts software and came up with £798.35. That is just in, probably non-refundable, entries. Let's not think of all the other expenses.

Got to keep fit and healthy now!

Bilateral Breathing

I did bilateral... and I liked it!

The feel of symmetrical magic

I did bilateral just to try it

I hope my coach don’t mind it

If felt so wrong

It felt so right

Don’t mean I can swim tonight

I did bilateral and I like it

I liked it!

With apologies to Katy Perry!

Unfortunately I’ve developed “Swimmers Shoulder”. It’s an irritating pain in my right shoulder when I bring my arm over in the recovery position when I’m swimming frontcrawl. As a lifelong swimmer it’s an occupational hazard. I’ve had it before about 6 weeks before my Ironman back in 2008 and was obviously caused then, like now, by a fairly large increase in front crawl swimming. I got through it last time by cutting back a bit on distance which wasn’t a problem as I was close to the event, some quite intense physiotherapy and then some strengthening exercises. It went away with rest after the Ironman. This time I’m going to have to try and manage it all the way through to September whilst trying to maintain some reasonable weekly swim distances.

So I’ve got a physiotherapist consultation booked this week and I’m back to doing all my old strengthening exercises with various flexi bands. I’m also resigned to easing off the frontcrawl for a while. I guess Swimmers Shoulder has not really been too much of an issue for me in the past because, as I’ve previously mentioned, my first and best stroke is breastroke so little chance of the repetitive over arm movement that causes it. However, you really should swim frontcrawl in triathlons if you want to be any good so I’ve been concentrating on this again over the winter training and hence this situation. Swimmers Shoulder revolves around Rotator Cuff issues in the shoulder. When I suffered it before, the physio explained to me it was due to repetitive strain involving the shoulder joint and the associated soft tissues. As you get older you can manage to keep your muscle size and strength up by exercise and a good diet but there’s not a lot you can do to maintain joints and soft tissues. Pah this getting older!  In this case all you can do is to try and strengthen all the associated muscles around the Rotator Cuff that you don’t normally strengthen. This is where all the various exercises come in. As my irritation is on the recovery phase of the arm cycle, rather than the pull through, it’s possible I might be having internal impingement which is a bit of a worry. I know a couple of swimmers who have had this and it just got slowly worse for them over time. Ending in operations, a lengthy rehabilitation and, to be honest, resulting in not being as fast swimmers as they used to be. 

Having an unsymmetrical stroke almost certainly is a big factor in developing swimmers shoulder. I breathe to the same left side but I have a reasonably symmetrical stroke. Better than most who breathe to only to one side. It’s obviously not symmetrical enough! 

Here's a video Terry, my Cardiff Masters swimming coach, took of my frontcrawl a few months ago before the pain.

When I was little I did swim bilaterally (for a number of years actually). However when I started to specialise in breastroke and I only got to do frontcrawl in relays I just drifted to breathing on one side only. Then later in masters swimming it was just too much effort (and no need?). Knowing what I knew, even during my last encounter with this pain, I went to breathing every fourth stoke on the left side, rather than bilateral, because I didn't want to do it.

But, if I’m ever going to keep going through this summer I’m going to have to make an effort to try and recover the situation. I’ve now done a couple of swim sessions and whilst the first one was difficult, I managed to do the whole of the second session breathing bilaterally. And at the end, I even liked it!  You really could feel the symmetry.  Another benefit of bilateral is that you can watch your recovery stoke on both sides. Is your elbow in the right place?  Is your hand entry straight?

So that is the plan. Easy off for a bit, get physio, do strengthening and flexibility exercises and always swim bilaterally in training. But come any race I’m sure I’m going to be back to one sided race breathing. After all these years it’s still going to be faster for me come race time.

Thanks – Bike Shed Wales!

At the end of 2012 I was resigned to continuing my triathlons on my 8 year old entry level road bike. Upgraded with some reasonable wheels but still pretty basic and I guess, slow. I wasn’t prepared to upgrade to a decent Tri bike as I couldn’t justify that cost. I also didn’t see the point of getting a new, but cheaper bike. However all that changed. The bike got nicked. That, combined with an unexpected windfall meant that I had the perfect opportunity to get that good bike. I have to say I’m not really into bikes, bike maintenance and upkeep (or cleaning actually). Whether it’s the mountain bike or tri bike I just tend to take it to a local bike shop for a good service at the start of the season and that’s about it. So I had no pre conceptions of what bike I wanted or, in fact, what was out there. I scoured the internet for a tri specific suitable bike. The first thing I realised was that as I am over 6 foot that I needed an XL frame, and that most manufactures don’t make standard XL tri bikes so I was a bit limited for choice unless I wanted to put together my own bike (no I didn’t).

Then I went to the Trek site and found the perfect bike for me. The Trek Speed Concept 7.8, (XL frame). It did want I wanted, in my price range and..... it looked fantastic!  Right, that was it. How could I get hold of one before Xmas. There was one issue though.  The wheels that came with the package were Bontrager clinchers. I’d already realised from last year’s upgrade of wheels how important (and faster) top quality wheels are, so I’d decided I would upgrade to tubs. Bontrager Aeolus 9 to be exact. I didn’t think that would be a problem as I would be spending quite a bit more on the whole package.  I couldn’t do it directly through the Trek website but there were a few dealers listed in Cardiff so I went visiting. First stop, the big national chain. Not at a chance. They would sell me the Concept 7.8 package with clinchers AND the tubs extra, but not exchange them. This is not what I wanted to hear. I then tried another dealer. I have to say they didn’t seem to be interested in selling me anything let alone the change of tyres!  Finally, without high expectations I popped into The Bike Shed Wales on Cathedral Road in Pontcanna. Met JP there and explained what I wanted (I had all the printouts from the internet of the bike & wheels). He went and got John, one of the owners and.... not a problem. They would do the wheel exchange and substitute the tubs for the clinchers at the list price. Great!  I duly paid a deposit and about a week later....

 

Here is JP with the Trek bike with Bontrager tubs



I think there was a bit of a campaign recently about supporting your local bike shop. I for one now fully believe in that. I happen to mention to JP and John the reason for the new bike (the quest for AG Euro & World’s triathlon qualification) and they offered to support me in a number of ways. So The Bike Shed Wales www.bikeshedwales.com became one of my sponsors!

 

 

Bike Shed Wales Colours (Not seen daylight yet due to this stupid winter weather)

 

So I’m recommending The Bike Shop Wales for all your cycling needs. But, as it turns out, it’s not just me. Here is a screen dump photo of from a facebook page of my Tri club. They are talking about fixies. Pete Beaumont is a club coach, top triathlete and knows a bit about bikes so this is high recommendation. Pete allowed me to post his comments. And yes, for the observant - I do get up at 5am!

Three Month Review

Approaching Easter and once again the weather is absolute rubbish. Heavy rain and winds here in Cardiff but snowing a bit higher up on the mountains. This cold, wet weather is now forecast to last until mid April. I seem to remember no Indian summer for us last autumn and it getting cold last year already in October. So to my mind that’s about six months of winter! How does that work?  Therefore, for everyone, training outside has been challenging to say the least. I suppose I’ve been lucky in that through work I’ve had a few weeks away in warmer climes (Australia, South Africa and Morocco) and probably got a bit more Vitamin D than most. However, as anyone who travels regularly will know, it’s very difficult to do quality training whilst travelling.

 

I got my registration documents and race number this week for the London Marathon, 21^st April. It’s coming far too quickly for me to do it justice. Then again it’s not far enough before the Euro AG Triathlon champs for me to recover. But I’m glad I got in through the ballot. I see that the ballot closed at 125,000 entries and I guess there are no more than 25,000 places for ballot entry so those are quite long odds. London was my first and only marathon (outside of Ironman) which I did ten years ago. This is my third ballot application since then so that’s not too bad. Thinking back to that first marathon, I was so unprepared. I remember I bought a couple of pairs of generic running shoes in the States at a flea market. No doubt they were fakes as I got both for $20. It was only a few years later, and knackered legs, that I found out I was a very heavy over pronator and if I’d kept with that type of shoe I probably wouldn’t be able to walk now, let alone run. These days, with the help of the internet, I’m fully kitted up with the right gear and I know what to do. It’s just a matter of doing it!  For my very long pre marathon run I chose this weekend to enter the San Dominico 20 mile race in Merthyr Tydfil. The current temperature prediction for Merthyr for Sunday is -2C to zero. It will probably be either raining or snowing. Oh what fun!

So to review, like most I guess, I’ve done most of my training indoors in the last three months. In fact, looking at my logs, the last time I was out on the road on a TT bike in anger was at the London Tri back in September. I have tested both my new TREK Triathlon bike and my second hand road training bike out on the flats but not really training. It’s all been on the mountain bike, spin classes and on the turbo trainer. Run and swim training has been ok, but as always, subject to managing little niggles. In the three months I’ve hit both 5km and half marathon PB’s which I’m really happy with. However my swim times are rubbish. I entered a few events at the recent Welsh Masters Swim Championships but bailed out after only two of the events. Although my 400m time was 10 secs better than last year it wasn’t what I was hoping for with the training I’ve been doing (I also wanted to watch the rugby which might have had something to do with it).

I suppose the biggest fear of veteran age groupers is being hampered or fully curtailed by those injuries and conditions that you are more susceptible to getting, and take much longer to recover from, as you get older. I consider myself fit for my age (as you get older you always have to say that –“ I did well in that race for my age”) but the older you get the harder it is to get over any injury. A while back, before I was 50, I had a discussion in a pub with some guys who had already turned 50 and more. They swore that the “tipping point” was 50 years of age.  This is when things really start to go downhill. I didn’t believe them at the time. Now I do.

As an example, I got a new heart rate monitor for Xmas. So the first time I used it after Xmas I got this (after a long run).

 

A very nice rash and graze from the hrm strap.  OK, now I cover the offending bits with a plaster and smother it in Vaseline, but three months later the scar is still very prominent and does not want to go away. 15 - 20 years ago it would have disappeared in a couple of weeks. 25 years or more ago, it would have been gone in a week. That’s the problem as you get older. You just hope you don’t come off your bike as any cuts or grazes will mark you more than an Ironman tattoo. One of the biggest problems for older athletes is that whilst you can generate large, strong muscles with training and the right diet, protein shakes, amino acids etc. there’s not a lot you can do with the supporting soft tissue (tendon’s, ligaments etc.). Which, no matter what you do, basically shrink and get hard with age and struggle to support the muscles you’re trying to develop. Hence my two big problems of swimmers shoulder (rotator cuff injury) and Achilles tendonitis. I know all ages can get these problems it’s just that it’s much harder to manage when you’re older. It requires lots of work on the supporting muscles (around those you are actually using) with strength exercises, physio, and particularly in my case with my Achilles, ice the tendon after every run to get the blood flowing through.

I’ve had a few days off training this week as I’ve had pipes through my nose into my gullet measuring pressure and pH (for 24hrs). Not easy to train like that, especially with a monitor strapped to your side and a cold (but snot’s the issue!). It’s another age related thing, but not directly to exercise and fitness, just age. There’s so many other little things I could go on about (don’t get me started on bone density, mineral deficiency and stress fractures) it becomes boring but worse, very negative. I think you just have to keep going and see what happens. Two things I hope I never get problems with are shingles and inner ear (balance) problems. These are two conditions prevalent in the over 50’s and I know quite a few friends and athletes being knocked for six and out of things for months/years by these. For shingles, it’s estimated that 1 in 4 over 50 year olds, who have had chicken pox will get it to some degree. I don’t think (haha) I’m a hypochondriac, just pro-active in my heath, but when I was offered a vaccine against shingles last year (for money) I jumped at it.

My next goal?  To be able to walk on Monday after the 20 miler.

"A goal without a plan is just a wish"

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”   ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I’ve come to realise that if I’m going to be successful in my goal(s) then 90% of getting there is in the planning.  Probably more accurate would be juggling priorities. I still have the tri champs’, swim champs’ and London marathon goals but the logistics around each are difficult enough let alone doing any sort of training for them.

I’m just about set for the European AG Tri champs in Turkey in June. Luckily the family decided to make it our holiday. So we’ve rented a very nice, but low cost villa on a beach, through AirB&B near Alanya for a couple of weeks either side of the competition. We also got cheap flights with Easyjet, I guess because we are arriving a bit earlier and leaving a bit later than most. Even the in-Laws are coming from Germany. They are going to do their normal trick of cycling around the country for a few weeks before we get there. I’ve even paid the event registration to British Triathlon.

Doing all this made me think more of the planning for the AG World Champs in Hyde Park in September. This is particularly hard as I have no idea if I’ll even qualify. It looks like every aspiring age grouper wants to qualify, seeing how the qualifying races sold out so quickly, so it’s going to be tough. And then the main qualifier for the Olympic distance, the Liverpool Tri, hasn’t even opened for entries yet. Anyway, I happened to see that the official travel agents (Nirvana) were already selling accommodation packages for the event in London. Apart from the “Athletes’ Village” (read student accommodation at Imperial College) they had a few apartments actually on Hyde Park. They looked great (for the family) and quite reasonably priced so I swallowed hard, jumped in and booked them for the 3 nights Thurs thru Sunday.

The apartment looks ok on the website??

 

So we are going whether I qualify or not!  Sprint or Olympic, who knows?  If I don’t qualify it’s probably a waste of money and a bit of an inconvenience but then I saw the organisers had arranged a ballot for an “open to all” AG race on the Saturday (nothing to do with the AG world champs’). At first I wasn’t interested until I saw that they were offering a full refund (less £15 admin of course) if a successful ballotter then did qualify for the world champs. So as “insurance” I’ve now also entered the ballot for the open sprint race with the hope that, if successful, I won’t have to do it!  Planning Planning Planning!

In the pool, on the road and in the gym things seem to be going ok. I’ve had a few days off for the normal flu that everybody seemed to get but it wasn’t so bad for me. I’m about half way through my base training phase.  I did a half marathon at the weekend and surprised myself by taking just under 7 minutes off my PB.  I was happy with that. This weekend is a change of sport and another focus – the Welsh Masters long course swimming championships in Swansea. And I’m going long! 400’s, 800’s and, for some reason, the 400 Individual Medley. Oh well - cross training at its best.