Zero to hero... and back to zero!

What a crazy seven days since I last wrote... this time last week I was layed up with a decent case of gastroenteritis having just stumbled through the most miserable training run of my life...

By Tuesday morning I was back in the pool for a decent 5k technique based swim set... and that evening I got 35 minutes through my weekly 40 minute tempo run feeling pretty good before a slightly elevated heart rate (a good sign that you're not quite recovered) persuaded me to stop the session. It's rare for me to can a session early but with one eye on my final long run before the London marathon which was scheduled for the Thursday I took the sensible option for once. Keeping Wednesday's bike easy I was raring to go on Thursday afternoon and looking for a serious confidence booster ahead of what is probably (possibly tied with UK 70.3 on June the 15th) my most important event in the lead up to Germany.

My normal pre-marathon 22 mile route starts from our house, follows the course of Leeds half marathon, takes in a nine mile detour about 8 miles in, then follows the course through town and back home. Having done the same run three weeks ago in 2:43 at an average heart rate of 139 I wanted to up the stakes a little, get straight into the 140's and hold a steady effort all the way. Two hours and 32 minutes later an average heart rate of 145 (max 154) had seen me average 6.56 per mile and raised my pre-London confidence through the proverbial roof, the previous week's frustrations suddenly seemed no more than a distant memory...

The 24 hours leading up to today had been hectic to say the least with Saturday going something like this... 5am alarm, 5.30am 2 hour turbo, 8am breakfast, 9am marshal at HPTT, 11am run club meeting at Virgin, 12.30 easy seven mile run with a few hills and strides, 2.30pm lunch, at 8pm we were at a wedding reception in Harrogate, midnight bed, 4am (actually 3am) up to watch Alistair competing in the first round of the ITU world cup (not sure of the complete story yet but basically he led the best triathletes in the world out of T1 before crashing on the bike and coming home 43rd... see HERE) which didn't finish before it was time to pack the car and head off to...

Standing on the start line of the Stokesley duathlon (5k run, 30k bike, 5k run) this morning, I had two goals... 1. to work the bike as hard as possible and 2. to average a higher heart rate in the second run than the first (something which I didn't manage in the Ballbuster). It was also our tri club's annual duathlon champs and I had hope to be mixing it up for the title. People are notoriously bad at pacing duathlons and when the gun goes it's pretty normal for everyone to head off in to the sunset at their max effort only to blow-up spectacularly by half-way through the bike. With a field of under 200 I was hoping for a top ten and true to form come the second mile I was back in about 50th place... no worries I thought, a super-speedy T1 should see me make up a good ten places, a strong bike another 25 leaving me five more 'targets' for the second run. Flying in to the first transition I was somewhat surprised to see my bike helmet was nowhere to be seen and with most of the field flying past it seemed like that was it race over. Fortunately Ben G's other half Sarah was spectating and spotted it about 30 yards from where I'd left it, whether it had been caught in a gust of wind or kicked by a careless athlete who knows, but having spent what seemed like a lifetime in T1 I was on the bike and with nothing to lose had my foot flat to the floor....

Being able to adjust goals mid race is a key skill if you are to keep your focus when things aren't going to plan, many an endurance athlete has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by being unable to come up with a decent plan B at short notice. With my chances of making the top ten out the window and most of LBT miles up the road I turned the bike section into a straight time-trial... knowing my good mate Ben G would be giving it everything and that we are normally pretty close on the bike I was chasing his time. Twenty minutes later I was feeling good, flying through the field and back on track to achieve goal number one... then suddenly...

BANG!

A flat front tub (tyre) and I'd achieved yet another first in my athletic life... my first DNF (did not finish). I've never DNF'd any kind of endurance race or challenge in my life and pride myself in the fact that as long as I am able I will always keep going... we learn most about ourselves in times of adversity, my proudest achievements have often come about from situations that others would consider failure... but with 15 miles of road ahead of me and no spare tub the only sensible option (carrying on would have meant wrecking a carbon fibre race wheel and taking a serious safety risk) was to put my energy in to cheering on Ben, H, Khara and all my brilliant LBT team mates.

I am feeling a little 'flat' about doing less than half a job today but it was great to see Ben and Donna take home the respective titles of male and female LBT duathlon champs (I think this is correct but haven't seen the official results yet), H get grips with the bike, Khara look so strong running off the bike in her first ever multi-sport event, Mark Redwood flying on the bike once more and all the rest of the LBT athletes representing the club so brilliantly.

Today's picture is obviously a video... it's Chris McCormack in T1 on his way to winning the 2007 Hawaii Ironman... I wonder what was going through his mind knowing that he'd lost the race by a matter of seconds the year before. (Thinking about it I may have posted this video before but it seems fairly appropriate given my great impression of a headless chicken in today's T1).

Next Sunday H and I are racing the super hilly 50 mile time trial 'the Circuit of the Dales' and I get the opportunity to make amends for today ;) Hopefully Alistair will do the same in New Plymouth...

See you in seven,

T.