2013: A first coached racing year. The coach, races and Results.
About 11 months ago I started my first personal coached plan with Jo Carritt through the training business she runs with her partner Steven Lord: Every Day Training. 10 months of discovery of what such a plan entails, of performance improvements, and ultimately discovery of myself.
Last year’s setup
I didn’t race a lot in 2012, but given the relatively low amount of training I did, I didn’t do to bad. I set PBs in pretty much all the races I has entered early in the year. Half marathon, half ironman, sprint tri with a PB 5K along the way, and also got very close to my Olympic tri PB. But after this fantastic start, I managed to pick up a nasty knee problem further compounded by a foot injury just a week before the Outlaw, where I initially had big hopes to crush my ironman distance best. It wasn’t to be, but I did smash my swim best time by 5 minutes and flew on the bike until having to jog/walk a 4h40 marathon to complete the event. My last race of 2012 was the 70.3 Lanzarote at the beginning of November. With the knee and foot issues in the summer, I wasn’t too optimistic given the course profile and the expected wind, but I had a fantastic race and finished 15th of my age group. Even being the first edition of a race with a scary profile (so possibly a bit less competition than usual), 5h12' on the volcano island was a huge confidence boost, and one to culture dreams of getting closer to the top spots, where the 70.3 World Championship slots are awarded. There and then I had set some goals: go to Vegas! It changed location since then, but although I’d really like to test myself against the Nevada desert, that’s being part of an event with some of the very best athletes that counts. It could take years, or even never happen, but I had decided I’d try to get to the level where I can qualify. Outright or more realistically through roll down.
A coached plan
A coached plan was for me the next step in trying to achieve better than I ever had. To prove myself and others that there’s a lot more in that body of mine. Granted, some do it on their own and have the discipline to do so, but I’m one who sometimes needs a right ol' kick in the butt to get going!
With some encouraging words from Paul Smernicki from the BLL guys (Get plan. Do plan, remember? http://www.blacklinelondon.com/get-plan-do-plan-fly/ ), it’s with this in mind that I went on to search for a private coaching plan that would not cost me an arm and a leg, but would also be specific enough to me so it would not feel like another blanket plan some “coaches” use for everyone.
Through Training Peaks and their coach/athlete matching program, I had a few good suggestions, but I didn’t get the “click” that I was after and it all felt a little too much “shark attack” rather than “getting to know each other”. It’s probably a very personal thing though, and I know TP is working very well for many out there.
Having talked to Sarah Bowen when I was in Lanzarote for the 70.3, she recommended Every Day Training, as her own coach is Steven Lord. I contacted EDT after the race and got a response from Jo Carritt, who had room for another athlete to coach at the time. We discussed where I was at, and what where my goals and it felt right straight away. After a few nice exchanges by email, I had a few tests to do in each discipline to check what my current fitness was.
This was early December 2012 and I haven’t looked back since.
Hitting it hard
I had not done that much volume before the last winter and, initially, the quantities that were on the plan looked massive in comparison. Especially the swim sets. I was genuinely scared to enter the pool feeling that the lifeguards would have to fish me out. I distinctly remember being in there one morning and thinking to myself that Jo was only looking to break me. That I wasn’t good enough anyway, and that I had reached the point where I should just admit defeat and dial it back to my pre-coached life. It was only a 2K set! But there were a lot of them! How more wrong could I be!?!
By keeping in mind the “get plan, do plan” moto, I got through it. I also have the chance (and sometimes the curse) to live with possibly the most self-driven person I know. Ellen has been going through this with me, and managed to cope with my initial tiredness and lack of attention to small things at home. I do know she kept it to herself at the time. I had also changed jobs recently when I started the plan and was commuting a lot more than before, so there was a lot to adjust to!! But after the initial shock (the sought after kick in the backside) I settled into a rhythm with my eyes firmly set on my first big race of 2013: ironman Lanzarote.
Before this, I managed to set a new half marathon PB at Wokingham (by 4min!!), and through a lot of turbo work (early 2013 was perfect for outdoor enthusiasts, right? Note sarcasm…), got to know myself more on the bike and have good power figures to target at the coming races. As Jo did put it, I would have a love/hate relationship with the turbo sessions. I think it was alright initially, and except annoying the neighbours, I got on quite well with power and pedalling technique both getting better. This was early in 2013, and the weather getting better gradually helped translate this into some nice road sessions and solo TTs around Richmond park. Power work would get tedious later in the year though, going on the road to do long race prep intervals.
Early in the year, I could already see the benefits of “proper” training. With 3 swims a week, 3 runs, 3 bike sessions including power development and a long ride at the week-end, it was a lot more than anything I’d done previously, but all was going very well in all 3 disciplines. I’ve clocked more long rides and long runs than in almost the entirety of 2012, and I even started to actually enjoy running at some point, looking forward to get out of the door for a long one.
Disaster?
That was until the first week-end in March doing some off road hill reps, where an old injury came back. Twisting my left foot a week prior to the Outlaw 2012 had finally caught up, and I was forced to forget running (and initially also kicking in the pool), for the best part of a month. With only 1.5 months to what I thought would be the biggest race of my life, it couldn’t have been worse.
But my lovely other half happens to be a physio http://www.physioellen.co.uk/, and one who’s specialising in sports rehab. Not that I want to get injured at all, but I’m lucky to have had Ellen’s support for getting back to running. With Jo tweaking the plan and Ellen giving me some stability exercises, I slowly went back to walking fast, then using a run/walk strategy both in training and racing at Lanzarote. That was the big race on my calendar, and even with the injury before, I still had a fantastic day concluded with a 3h29' run/walk marathon. I equaled my fastest iron distance time on a tough course, with my dad for witness. Training hard paid off big time. 10h37, 25th in AG and 117th overall. How about that for a training and rehab plans that work!!
Too much, too soon
With Lanzarote over, I then made the mistake to go too hard in the Swashbuckler two weeks afterwards. It was too close but I had registered for it a year before, well ahead of registering for Lanza 70.3 and full IM, and I was supposedly only going to have fun with the guys from my club. I actually had a fantastic race! But instead of holding back, I stupidly smashed it. And in doing so I smashed myself and had massively underestimated the drain Lanza had been. I was feeling fine in the interim 2 weeks with a very much reduced training load, and had fallen into the common trap of overdoing it. This had some bad effects on my return to training after that, feeling ran down, and not motivated.
So one word of advice: listen to the coach! Mine’s clever, focused, dedicated and, boy, she knows what she’s talking about. But that said, even if Jo has had some steering in my training and adapted some of the sessions due to my injuries, she’s never tried to stop me from doing the races I had entered, and did let me do my own mistakes. Intentionally or not, this has been very formative too, as I’m now more likely to pay attention to HOW I race as much as how often.
Be flexible
I had a little bit of a breather after the Swashbuckler, my next race being 5 weeks away for the Outlaw, where I was initially only going to do the bike leg of a relay. Having done all the miles, a long race, and plenty of power work, I was very much looking forward to blitz my 112miles bike record. Unfortunately, the team runner got injured too and went on to do the bike instead, while I accepted to do the run. Initially a bit hesitant, it went on alright. It was a very hot day and I waited for the best part of 45min in the sun for our cyclist to come back, so conditions weren’t ideal. Adding to this a narrow course in places and shredding the upper of one shoe to bits at the half way mark, I can consider myself happy with a 3h17' in the end. We adapted the training plan with this goal in mind as soon as we knew we had to switch legs in the race, and Jo has done a great job there as well to accommodate the change!
New records, but devil is in the details
Then came the long break. Long break from racing that is. 2 months far in the distance was 70.3 Zell Am See. A supposedly fast course set in beautiful Austria. With a second marathon under my belt in 7 weeks, it was with relief that the training plan adjusted a bit more towards cycling, while keeping focus on speed work for the run so I’d get a little closer to the 1h30 on the ½ marathon. And it worked! No, It worked superbly well!
Not only did I swim my fastest 1.9K race ever, I also biked my fastest 90K and ran my Fastest 70.3 half mara ever too! Previous record of 4h55 got destroyed in the pouring rainy of Austria, and even if 4h39' is something I’m likely to keep as a record for a while, it could have been a lot better. Transitions, transitions transitions! Something to add to your training routine if it’s not already there! It wasn’t part of mine, especially for such stupidly wet and cold conditions, and because I wanted to have a few layers on, I’ve wasted more than 13minutes in T1 and T2 combined… I should have worn something under my wetsuit, and that’s something I’ll try and correct this coming year! But I should have known before the race, and more importantly: practiced! Sicne that race, I made a point into racing with fast transitions.
With a sprint triathlon before my last 70.3 race of the year, it was the perfect time to practice being quick through T1 and T2. That was a fun, no pressure, race, and I had a blast to get a new sprint tri PB, while practicing swimming with layers under my wetsuit and very fast transitions required by this style of racing. That set me up well for the last assault to a 70.3 top 10.
Icing on the cake
70.3 Lanzarote was a month earlier than last year, but it still felt far at the end of the racing calendar. I was still training hard and following the power intervals on the plan, but these were increasingly becoming tedious and un-motivating. It really was time for the season to end. I didn’t have as good a race as last year, feeling wise, but I reached the goals I had set to myself in the lead up: sub 5 hours over the renown hard profile of the volcano island, and a top 10 in my age group. I’m not sure these fantastic results were expected by anyone, including myself, but even more surprisingly, the 4 slots available in M30-34 went all the way down to 11th place! Year 1 of coaching, last race of the season, and achieving all the dreams I could think of already!
Thank you coach! Thank you very much!
10 months after I started with Jo and after thinking numerous time she’d kill me in the process, I’ve accomplished things I would have never thought I’d be able to do. At least not so soon! And for squeezing out some of the very best of myself this year, I can only thank her!
Let’s do it all again!
I’m now at the end of my “rest period” and I’ve already kick-started my 2014 season with back to back week-ends of racing duathlons. Two weeks ago was the Hillingdon autumn road duathlon on their road circuit, where I’ve done too many laps on the bike and still didn’t do too bad. (My brain is now back on!) This morning was the first off-road duathlon in the Human race series, the Wildman, just for fun! That was fantastic, and incredibly hard! Last time I rode a mountain bike was probably 15 years ago, I never did it “for real” on mud or rocky terrain, so it was a whole new experience for me! There’s plenty to learn in there as well, and although I’m not hoping to top the rankings or make it what I will do in the future, it’s a welcome change from the road boredom I experienced on those long solo power interval rides.
In the mean time, I’ve signed up for another year with Jo, and the first month of my training programme just arrived… Chop chop!!