2013: Tri-ing something new

[marathondan]

So, as previously announced, 2013 will be a year of an Olympic distance triathlon rather than a marathon. Whilst I love marathons, I can’t help thinking that multisport is a healthier way of life than only plodding. I’m not giving up marathons by any means, but I really want to give this a go. And given my total lack of ability at cycling or swimming, I need to put some time into it, so marathon training has to get the boot, this year at least.

A life-changing development to report is that my wife has dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century, with the surprise Christmas gift of a Forerunner 910XT. I’ve never run with a GPS in my life, but now I’ve got it, I suspect I’ll never be without it. This one is designed for triathlon, so has all the setups for the different disciplines at the touch of a button. It will also count your swimming stroke rate, and measure distance in an indoor pool without a satellite (presumably by noting when your arm stops moving; I haven’t tried it yet).

Triathlon seems to be all about the gear, so I will start to personify this stuff to avoid materialism madness. Hence the Forerunner will be known as Malcolm (Malcolm XT). The other major piece of stuff required is a bike. There’s only one suitable name for my bike: Rusty. You may recall that I bought this antique, dating from sometime in the 80s, on eBay for less than the price of a pair of running shoes. Rusty is a Raleigh Stratos, which sounds pretty butch, but cycling provides such a ready supply of double entendres that this particular Rusty will be female. She’s been ridden hard by a succession of heartless men over the years, and now has loose joints and some of her teeth are missing. I’d like to think I’ll lavish TLC on her, and treat her how she really deserves, but the reality is that I’ll probably use and abuse her just as cruelly. But if she can handle it, I’ll stick with her, and take her places she thought she might never see again.

So yes, at least for now, I’m going to reject the received wisdom of spending money on a better bike to make my endurance sport easier. The point of endurance sport is that it’s meant to be hard work. If Rusty can cover 25 miles without falling apart, she’s good enough for this year at least. It doesn’t matter how much slower she is than the competition, because actually I’m only competing with myself.

Despite the tripling of disciplines to be training for, I’m sticking with my policy of only training three times a week. Basically, I don’t really want a hobby that I have to do more often than that. Unless I feel like it, of course. So how, I hear you ask, am I going to train for three sports in only three sessions a week?

The mantra for my marathon training has long been Less Is More ™. My patented system for triathlon training is going to be The Trick Is The Brick ™. I won’t patronise you by explaining that a brick is a dual-discipline back-to-back session, i.e. swim + bike or bike + run. (Oh sorry, I just have.) To get the most out of my sessions, all swim and bike training will, from day one, be a brick: after every trip to the pool, I’ll cycle home the long way; after every bike ride I’ll run a few miles. This will not only get in a secondary session in each sport, but from the start I’ll be acclimatising my body and mind to the strange sensation of transitioning from one mode of exercise to the next. The obvious flaw in this is that the discipline needing most work, swimming, only gets one outing a week. Well, that’s also the discipline that needs the most logistics (travelling to the pool). So for now I’ll have to live with that.

And has there been any actual training, or just talk?

Why yes, there has been a bit. A couple of outings on the bike: at 9ish miles a mere limbering up, barely a third of the target race distance. But I know from experience that there’s no point attempting too much too soon; a month of that will get me into the groove and I can start to increase. Each ride has been rounded off with a trifling one-mile run, nothing more than a token effort at this stage. The first attempt was, as everyone says, very strange, trying to run on legs stuck in an unusual shape, pins and needles in the feet, limbs and lungs already fatigued but all the usual running joints strangely fresh and loose. The second try was a lot smoother, and I knocked out the mile in 8 minutes.

Cycling at night is of course not as straightforward as running at night. Charging lamp batteries is another task to be added to the regular to-do list as the pile of stuff grows. With a dull headlamp, as I found out, on the unlit road sections I’m relying on the distant urban glow and the headlights of passing cars to reveal the otherwise frame-jangling potholes. In time I’ll memorise the locations of the potholes, and learn how to avoid the few seconds of headlight dazzle without swerving into the kerb. In a few weeks, assuming I survive that long, I may also decide that night riding on unlit roads isn’t a good idea.

On the running front, as previously documented, November’s good work fell by the wayside, so I’m rebooting once more, with a few weeks of gentle 3 milers before taking it up a notch.

Last night was the first swimming lesson. That deserves a post of its own.

And off we go.

[Sweder]

Wonderful *orders life-time supply of popcorn & a new armchair*

[Seafront Plodder]

Blimey Dan, you've just upped the ante on these softy runners.

Here's an idea...Stick 'Rusty' in the back of the car and drive to the pool, leaving her locked up there.

Drive home, run to the pool for a swim and then ride home. Hey Presto! 2 bricks in one session!

[marathondan]

Schoolboy error there, SP. It goes swim-bike-run, so there's no point doing a run-swim-bike. I could indeed have just gone for a run after biking home, an idea that I entertained for all of about 1 second.

Do keep the suggestions for wacky training sessions coming though. And this thread officially has open season on "tri" puns. The winner will get a copy of my forthcoming ebook, "A load of old tri-pe".

[glaconman]

Great stuff Dan. Do you have a race in mind?

There may be local duathalons run on an informal basis near you when there's more daylight.

Plus have a think about some rollers if you're struggling to get out on the bike.

Best of luck

[Sweder]

Plus have a think about some rollers if you're struggling to get out on the bike.

Does having curly hair help?

Tri gags: if at first you don't succeed, tri, tri again
*looks for coat*

[marathondan]

@GM - no I don't have a race in mind yet - too soon to commit! Also I don't like the look of the prices. Not that delaying will have any effect on that, but it's my usual approach to spending money. It sounds like rollers are good for the serious athlete, perhaps who doesn't want to expose his top of the range bike to the winter elements. Personally my plan, for this year at least, is to get out in those elements in all weathers and experience it all to the full.

@Sweder - that's basically your entry-level pun; I'd expect something a little more sophisticated from your good self. (Liked the roller gag tho.)

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Tri as I might, I can't get into this at all, but at least you're tri-ing something new.

But.... I'm just wondering .. are you sure you can swim in a gorilla suit??

[marathondan]

But.... I'm just wondering .. are you sure you can swim in a gorilla suit??

As it happens, I will be obliged to swim in a black all-in-one outfit. But I suspect it will be less flattering than a gorilla suit.

[marathondan]

So, the first swimming lesson. Summary: hell.

I’ve signed up for 10 weeks of group lessons at the local pool. The intermediate group divides itself into three lanes – a group of matey chaps in a range of shapes and sizes, who look like they’d been doing this for a while; a middling and mixed group who look quietly focused and keen to improve; and us, three newbies plus a veteran of a whole six weeks’ lessons.

Unfortunately the normal class teacher is away, and our stand-in – Heather, who until last term was teaching Naomi every week – isn’t familiar with the curriculum for our level. After setting off the faster groups, she comes to us with a clipboard, offering some number of hundred metres’ warmup in stroke of choice, followed by 200m fast freestyle. No, advises Una, our experienced member, we’re not quite at that level. We settle on 300m warmup in stroke of choice, and then we’ll take it from there.

I set off in my steady crawl, nice bilateral breathing, as I’d practiced… when was it... 18 months ago? Hmm, maybe I should have done a bit more practice before starting lessons. Then again, for the last 6 months I haven’t even been able to get my running shit together, so organising myself to swim as well just wouldn’t have happened. This is where I’m at.

OK, so this is going quite well… for the first 25m. 50m in and I’m completely knackered. How can this be? One of my fellow newbies, whose name now escapes me, expresses exactly the same problem I have: fine with the other strokes, but in freestyle I just run out of breath.

Now, everyone always says freestyle is all about the breathing. But I can do breathing – I can hold my breath underwater, I can swim with my face down, I can exhale smoothly, I can do bilateral breathing. No, it can’t be all about the breathing. Surely it’s about technique, efficiency, upper body strength. I can work on those.

Turns out it’s all about the breathing.

The problem seems to be as follows. With a dry-land activity, if I’m running out of breath, I can reduce the intensity but continue to gulp down air until I recover. In the pool, if I reduce the intensity, I also reduce the stroke rate… which means I have to breathe more slowly, and I can’t recover. I flail wildly, become even less efficient, and grind to a splashy halt.

So I need to work on the breathing. A quick web search suggests the breathing might be all about the exhalation. Something to try next time.

Back at the ranch, I struggle through 250m (skipping the last 50) in a mix of crawl and breast stroke. I know things are bad when I can feel myself sweating, in the pool. Right, that’s the warmup, now for the lesson.

She has us kicking with floats, 50m at a time. Ah, that thing I last did about 35 years ago? Well, I know my kick is pretty weak, but let’s give it a go… I push and glide, kicking steadily, head down, gradually slowing down… I’ve come to a complete standstill. I can see the bottom of the pool, and it’s not moving, despite the frantic thrashing of my feet. Oh, now I’ve run out of breath. How do I breathe? I can turn my head to the side, where my arm is in the way, or stick my head up at the front, losing any last semblance of streamlining. Either way, my floppy core can’t hold my body in a straight line, and I have no chance of recovering forward motion. So I limp along, unable to breathe, only moving by pushing off from the bottom or sneaking an overarm stroke, and return to base with a face like a beetroot – a combination no doubt of effort and embarrassment. Need to work on this one, I think.

Next is crawl stroke, but holding a float out front between strokes. This just makes crawl even slower, and therefore breathing even less frequent. Either that, or I don’t really get it. Nightmare.

Back to normal crawl. Ah, this feels so much better without the float, maybe I’ve cracked it… for one length. Then comes the familiar inability to get oxygen in quickly enough. It’s a bit like the first time I ran intervals in a ski mask (hasn’t everyone done that?), except worse.

We do a bit of backstroke coaching, which is a lot better. We do quite a lot of resting and wondering why it’s all so hard. Then that’s it. I’m hoping for a more structured lesson next week.

I jump onto Rusty, wait for Malcolm to contact the mothership, and take a 5 mile route home. Being on the bike is a great relief – suddenly all that’s required is honest graft, no technique to worry about, at least not at my basic level.

I’ll do some reading before the next lesson – swimsmooth.com seems good. Also I think the normal teacher will give a lot more technical advice. And it may well be that my policy of only one session per week will have to go out the window. I’m not disheartened. My performance with the float was probably worse than 6 year old Naomi’s, and I have returned to a childlike level of ability. Hopefully I’m not too old to learn.

At least I’ve dispelled any suspicion that this was going to be too easy. I want to be able to swim a mile in 6 months’ time, and at the moment I can literally only manage 25m before I run into problems.

This is all good. You may recall from past, slightly more daft, challenges, that I crave the fear of not knowing whether I can do this. I know from experience that a hell of a lot can be achieved in 6 months.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Wow, that all seems like quite a challenge. I'm waiting for my brother-in-law who lives 5 minutes down the road to build his lap-pool (about 12 months time) before starting a swim challenge of my own... so, thanks for the warning!

Still, nothing worth doing is ever easy. Go for it, Dan!

[Bierzo Baggie]

Good luck Dan,
I'd say that improving technique at our age is as difficult as learning a new language. It'd probably be easier if you were starting completely from scratch... no bad habits to "unlearn".
I'm sure you'll hit the distance sooner than you think though.

[marathondan]

Totally agree BB, the comparisons that occurred to me were learning to dance or to play a musical instrument. The adult brain is hard to retrain. As yet I don't even know what my bad habits are... more water torture tonight.

[marathondan]

Week 1 progressed with a 3 mile run down by the canal. The high cadence is becoming second nature now, and my old gait seems lumbering by comparison. With Malcolm along I was able to measure pace for the first time, and found that I'm naturally running about 30 sec per mile faster than my normal easy pace. Which is good news. But slowing down - shortening my stride - makes the tippy-toes mincing action feel even more ridiculous. While I'm only messing around with 3 miles, it doesn't matter too much. No excuse for that any more though - I should increase the distance.

Then a nice (daylight) bike + run session covering an hour in total. Best pace to date for the bike, and 2 miles covered comfortably on the run, again at faster than normal easy pace. I'm just very gradually starting to feel a rhythm to this now. Well, on those two disciplines, anyway. More on the dreaded swimming later.

[Sweder]

Impressive start. Sympathies on the swimming, my nadir and the reason I will probably never attempt a triathlon. Though to be honest I was never much of a cyclist.

[marathondan]

Though to be honest I was never much of a cyclist.

Me neither. Then again, I was never much of a runner till I entered that first 10K... 12 years ago.

[Sweder]

Though to be honest I was never much of a cyclist.

Me neither. Then again, I was never much of a runner till I entered that first 10K... 12 years ago.

Good point. January 2013 marks ten years exactly since SP dragged me off my sofa and into a pair of running shoes. I'd celebrate, but I'm (sort of) on the wagon (now that I'm safely out of the clutches of Satan - er, El Gordo)

We've come a long way, Baby

[marathondan]

An interesting piece here which raises some wider philosophical questions about sport.

[Bierzo Baggie]

An interesting piece here which raises some wider philosophical questions about sport.

Nice speech ... but how would we know everything she says is true?
Just a thought.

At a guess I'd suspect that when large amounts of money are involved a rich and varied selection of performance enchanting drugs and masking agents will always be available. And not just in cycling. No way of us knowing who is really clean and who isn't. If any of them really are 100% clean. I mean who do you believe? And what does "clean" really mean? Not taking substances from an arbitrary, ever-changing list? Not taking any dietary supplement at all? What actually is a level playing field and has it ever existed?

Try reading Laurent Fignon's book on cycling in the 80s (he wrote it shortly before his death and didn't weigh his words...not that he did much anyway). His generation took amphetimines. As did many of the generation of professional cyclists before him (Tom Simpson anybody?) And what Fignon seemed to be suggesting was that this was more innocent than the EPO-generation of recent years and could hardly be classed as cheating!!

Professional sport, best watched from a distance and with a healthy dose of cynicism.
The real stuff is what we do....

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

An interesting piece here which raises some wider philosophical questions about sport.

Nice speech ... but how would we know everything she says is true?
Just a thought....

Professional sport, best watched from a distance and with a healthy dose of cynicism.

The real stuff is what we do....

Too true. Whilst Armstrong always rang alarm bells (I don't recall him *ever* saying he didn't take drugs, he only ever stated the half-truth that he'd "always tested negative") he had the slick, super-confidence and uber-success that makes us mere mortals go along with the story.

As George Sheehan used to say, the real heroes are at the back of the field, and that's where I'll always go for inspiration. Which is why I love RC so much... extraordinary superheroes without the BS.