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The Big 3-Oh

Growing up in the ’80s, if you’d have told me I’d spend part of my 30th birthday hunting through charity shops looking for a Margaret Thatcher outfit, I’d have told you to take the loopy juice out of your cuppa. However, last Friday, that’s exactly what I found myself doing. The reason? I was staging an 80s themed fancy dress party to celebrate my 30th birthday and the Boy Wonder and I had decided – for pure comedy kicks – that we’d go as Maggie T and Ronald Reagan.

The masks arrived, we promptly put them on (terrifying the cat and our next door neighbour in the process) and I soon realised the mask alone was never going to do Mrs T justice…hence the reason I found myself dodging mothballs in some of Oxford’s finest charity shops until finding the little beauty of a suit you see here…

The party was great fun – thanks to all who came and made such a top effort with costumes – we had a truly entertaining evening.

After the madness of my birthday weekend, I’m now settling into my 30s – time to let it all go now, right?! Errr, nope, not quite… Training is going really well at the mo, I’m even Tweeting about it ;-) I’m doing exactly what I wanted to do this winter: consistent quality training with fire in my belly and a head full of hopes for the season ahead.

A visit to Wiggle HQ earlier this week meant picking up some superb goodies. I was blown away by Exposure giving all of the Team Wiggle athletes their own personalised Exposure Toro Light and Exposure Joystick.

These will come in extremely useful and I know for a fact there was one Ironman triathlete at my party on Saturday night who would not have made it home without his Exposure lights (Hanno biked from Oxford to the party in Swindon and back home again – all in one night – and still came in fancy dress!). That certainly qualifies as a top effort in my book!

Happy training
EK

More 30th Birthday Photos

End of Season Lowdown with Team Wiggle

Our Team Wiggle athletes have had a cracking year, standing atop rostrums the world over in road racing, mountain biking and triathlon. Before they put their feet up for the festive break, we caught up with them all as they reflect on 2009 and look ahead to 2010. For triathlete Emma-Kate Lidbury, it was her first season racing as a pro…

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Team Wiggle 2009 Team Highlights

Q. Looking back on your 2009 season, are you pleased with how it went?

A. It was a tough year as I seemed to be constantly battling with injuries, but I learnt a lot of valuable lessons and was pleased with the results I achieved. It means I know what not to do in 2010 to ensure it’s a great season for me.

Q. What was the highlight of your year?

A. Antwerp 70.3 in August proved a lot of things to me. I was fifth pro woman and never far off the podium pace. I struggled on the run, but that was to be expected after only being able to average about 10 miles of running a week through the season because of injury. Helvellyn Tri was also another highlight – it was a last-minute decision to race it and it totally took me out of my comfort zone, but I loved every second and it renewed my love of triathlon.

Q. What was the funniest moment of your season?

A. It wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back, it was probably suffering my first bike bonk in October. When I finally made it home, I fell through the back door and had the dogs licking my face trying to revive me. I was so spent I couldn’t even fight them off! I blogged about it here

Q. What was the most important lesson you learnt?

A. Balance – not the standing on one leg kind, but the work-life-tri balance. It keeps you sane and at times this year I was guilty of focusing on triathlon at the expense of everything else. Also, it’s only at the back end of this year that I’ve realised how important listening to your body is – I know it’s an athlete’s cliché, but it’s a cliché for a good reason!

Q. What are your plans for winter training? How’s it going so far?

A. I began a structured off-season training plan at the start of November and did a solid four weeks before falling off my mountain bike (on my first off-road outing!). I injured my shoulder and collarbone, so that’s hampered swim training somewhat, but I’ve been more than making up for it on the turbo ever since. I’m hoping to soak up some sunshine in Lanzarote in Jan/Feb as I think the snow/ice novelty factor will wear thin soon!

Q. What does 2010 have in store for you? What are your major races going to be?

A. I’m hoping to do Abu Dhabi in March, which is a 3k swim-200k bike-20k run, so it should play to my strengths and it’ll be interesting to see how I fare over the longer bike distance. I’ll follow this up with three or four 70.3 races from May through to November. I’m really looking forward to having a successful 2010 and getting closer to achieving my potential.

Enjoying a much-needed Coke after a long hot ride while training in Lanzarote

Having a great time racing at Blenheim in June – you can just about see my family heckling/cheering me on

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Where Do Triathletes Go On MTB’s?

A&E, that’s where!

I’d picked up my new MTB from the lovely peeps @ Wiggle a fortnight ago and ever since it had been burning a hole in the garage, so this weekend I was loving splashing about through the muddy puddles at Shotover in Oxford, getting used to the Focus First’s suspension bouncing me about. I’ve only ever ridden road bikes before, so it all seemed like an exciting new world of fun and games.

Unfortunately, as we were going over some jumps, I somehow managed to catapult myself off the saddle, over the bars and smack-bang-wallop onto my left shoulder. I heard something crunch as I landed and then felt a not-so-nice burning feeling in my left quad. Ouch. As I stood up and the rest of the gang came to investigate what I’d done, I knew my shoulder just wasn’t right. Arrrrgggghhhh! Then followed that pain which makes you want to laugh, cry, scream, swear and run around all at the same time.

We were soon up at the John Radcliffe where an X ray showed a subluxed left shoulder (partial dislocation) plus a good gash on my leg. In recent weeks I’ve been having probs with my right shoulder too, which subluxes of its own accord, so for the time being I’m going to be getting stuck into physio and rehab.

It is frustrating, as I was just getting into the swing of winter training, but I am 110% confident I’ll be out of this sling and back in action before Christmas. If not, I know what’ll be top of my Christmas list!

Happy (accident-free) riding
EK

41

Every Day’s A School Day

You know it’s going to be a windy ride when your iPod is blown out of your ears just a few miles from home and you’re pushing 200+ watts and barely moving! Training this weekend was a blustery affair and my decision to do my long ride on Saturday turned out to be just plain crazy. I was about 25 miles from home when trees started blowing across the road, pub signs were being thrashed across car parks and motorists were looking at me as if I was totally nuts. For once, the motorists did actually have the right idea. What sort of crazy fool would ride in this weather?! Answer: the sort who is getting back into consistent training and is keen to keep going now I’m back in the groove.

Last winter I overegged the tri training pudding slightly and came into the New Year injured and lacking that ‘zip’ which is needed come race season. This year, therefore, I’m doing things differently. As many friends and mentors keep telling me, it’s all about training as hard as you can consistently train – with plenty of emphasis on the ‘consistent’ part.

Running injuries have always been my downfall so it’s that I’m monitoring most closely, but I’m also mindful that at this time of year it’s all about enjoying every single session. I can honestly say that is the case – even on the turbo (help, what’s wrong with me?!)

I also thought last year that if I zoomed off to Australia for the winter I’d automatically come back a faster, fitter, stronger athlete – but learnt the hard way that that’s not necessarily always the case. Sure, the sunshine makes it dead easy to get out of bed and nail your sessions each day, but that was part of the problem. I was a million miles away from the people who prevent me from nailing myself day after day and rein me in when I needed reining in. This year, then, staying at home is the new going abroad. I’m not promising that I won’t moan about the weather at times – but just tell me to button it if I’m on here Bloggle-ing about the terrible snow/ice/hail/rain. Surely that’s half the fun, right?!

Happy (warm, dry & safe) training
EK

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Getting back into the groove.

Bonked. Broken. Toasted. Spannered. Call it what you like, but that was me after my first ride of Winter Training 09 yesterday. It was supposed to be a cruisey three-hourer with a few of the Swindon Tri boys – and maybe it was cruisey for them – but for me, ouch.

Admittedly, I didn’t make life easy for myself by taking minimal nutrition (a Go bar and a titchy Sainsburys cereal bar). This minimalistic feeding approach became skimpier still when I (a) dropped the unwrapped Go bar two hours into the ride into a pile of cow dung (the six second rule certainly doesn’t count in this case) and (b) realised we’d be out for 4h30, not three hours. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem as you’d just rock up at the nearest shop but living and riding in the sticks like I do, this was such a rural route that there were NO shops en route at all. Cue me dying on my ar$e, feeling dizzy, getting the shakes and wondering where on earth my fitness had gone.

You might also have been wondering where my blog entries had gone. Apologies. I realise I’ve gone a bit Bloggle AWOL in the past few weeks, but I’ve been dashing about doing all sorts of cool and crazy stuff, most notably being in Kona, Hawaii, for the World Ironman Champs. Absolutely awesome. The race – and the place – definitely live up to all the hype. I can quite safely say that watching Chrissie come across the line in record time was one of the most amazing – and inspiring – experiences ever.

Equally as inspiring (although he refuses to accept it) was Ozzer’s race. He’s the first one to say he suffered like a dog and not much of his day went to plan, but when everything that could possibly have gone wrong pretty much did, he didn’t quit. He wanted to DNF from about 60 miles into the bike, if not sooner, but he didn’t. When he reached the finish line he barely recognised me he was in such a bad way, but in getting there he achieved more than that highly coveted Ironman Hawaii finisher’s medal. I look forward to seeing him doing battle on the Big Island in years to come and settling that score. Who knows, maybe I’ll be there too. The Kona atmosphere is simply unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced and it’s so infectious it’s hard not to want a piece of it yourself. One day…

I was also there in a work capacity, writing for Triathlete Europe magazine. I’m pleased with the 11 pages of copy I filed for them and hope it conveys some of the magic of Kona. It’s in the November issue – available at all good magazine retail outlets now ;-)

Not much more to report from EK HQ at this stage. I do promise to get on the Bloggle more frequently from now on and I’ve also made it my mission to Tweet every day, you can follow me and my madness here

Happy training
EK

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Just for the Hell of it…

After Antwerp 70.3 back in August, I knew I needed a break – both mentally and physically. I was feeling a bit toasted and wanted some downtime. But after a week or so of not doing much training, I found myself looking for another race, a reason to get my butt out of the door if you like. That’s when I discovered the Helvellyn Triathlon… It promised a skull crushingly cold mile-long swim, a 38-mile bike including some crazy hard hills and to finish it off a nine-mile run up then down Helvellyn (which @ 3118 feet is England’s third highest peak). Before I could think too much about it, I found myself signing up, which most of my friends thought was the final indicator that I had totally and utterly lost the plot. “What?! You’ve signed up for Helvellyn? Do you know how hilly that is? You thought Belgium was hilly! How on earth will you and your time-trialler’s quads cope with that?!”

It’s true. I’ve always favoured flat races and it turned out Helvellyn was full, so I just became a reserve and thought no more of it. Phew, that was close…Until an email pinged into my inbox last week telling me I was in if I still wanted the place. Before I could think about it too much and try to talk myself out of it, I got my credit card out, signed up…and then felt very very nervous. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m the furthest thing from an off-road, mountain goat type. Oh well….

Fast forward to Sunday morning and there I am, knee deep in Ullswater Lake in the Lake District with not one, not two, but three swim caps on. The Worlds in Vancouver last year saw us swimming in 11C water. The water on Sunday was a balmy 12C. I was actually so psyched for it being teeth-chatteringly freezing that I barely noticed my little fingers cramping or my chest tightening up. I realised I was swimming along and smiling. This was so crazy it was fun. I was loving it!

It wasn’t so much fun trying to get three swim caps off in T1 with rigor mortis fingers, but hey, it’s all part of the challenge. I’ve never really viewed T1 as a time to relax, warm up and put on layers of clothing, but that’s what it became. Reaching the mount line in calf guards, tri shorts, tri top, bike jersey and arm warmers with a waterproof and nutrition stuffed in my back pockets had been interesting to say the least.

Out on the bike course, I had an absolute ball. I’d been warned to save something in my legs for Kirkstone Pass as it was a properly hardcore Northern 1:4 climb which would totally smack your ar$e. They weren’t wrong about that. Ouch Charlie. I reached my max bike heart rate (previously only seen in black out lab tests!) but still could not wipe the stupid smile from my face. The Lightweights were in a league of their own and were truly brilliant. I hadn’t even thought about what position I was in at this point in the race, but the crowds at the top of Kirkstone were loving it: “You’re first lady!”, “You go girl, first female!” Terrific support – and just the boost you needed after the quad-sapping beast.

Then came a fast and furious descent followed by an undulating seven miles or so back to T2. Time for the run – wicked! I say run…but I soon realised it was more of a hike/climb/scramble. You had to leave T2 with your own food, drink, full body clothing, space blanket, map of the run route, compass and whistle. I’d decided to suck down a Smart Gel every 20mins or so to keep me on it. My legs felt surprisingly good, but I knew it was very early days. I could see people ahead of me walking – what’s wrong with them, I thought? Then I realised it was actually faster and more efficient to walk than run. My new Asics off-roaders were serving me well and I just felt alive: wind-thrashing-against-your-face, heart-rate-@-90%-of-max-type alive. I’d spent so long looking down at where I was planting my feet that it was only at the top when I looked around me that I realised just how high up I was and just how beautiful the Lake District is. Awesome scenery.

And the descent?! Hilarious. Pure comedy. The kind fell runner bloke who ran past me @ 800mph and shouted: “You’re not a fell runner!” was indeed correct (but, please note, if I ever see you in a pool or lake I will undoubtedly enjoy shouting and pointing: “You’re not a swimmer!”). I came down Helvellyn painstakingly slowly while the mountain goat fell runners just flew right on by. Part of me was craving the sight of flat concreted roads but the other part was saying “Suck it up Lidbury, this is what it’s all about”. When I finally reached the outskirts of Glenridding I could not stop beaming. Like everyone else, I was in a fair amount of physical pain, but the sense of achievement was the biggest anaesthetic out there. I was jibber-jabbering like a crazy fool by the time I reached the finish line. Brilliant fun. I simply cannot recommend it enough. As I sit here typing with an ice pack on each quad, maybe now it really is time for some off-season downtime before beginning winter training…

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Antwerp 70.3

Triathlon does a lot of things for a lot of people, me included. It’s taught me how to hurt, suffer, be strong, let go and laugh at myself. I’ve learnt when to shut up, put up, push harder, eat more, eat less, drink more, drink less, be selfish, be selfless, be a friend and be a fighter. It’s also given me some totally ridiculous gifts, of which few will come in handy in other walks of life. The most recent (courtesy of Antwerp 70.3 at the weekend) are:

1. Learning to moonwalk down the stairs (going down ‘normally’/facing forwards hurts my legs too much. DOMS Or delayed onset muscle soreness really does suck!)
2. Learning to drain blisters. I’ve now perfected the ‘double drainer’ thanks to too much spare time on the ferry and too many safety pins. Yuk. Sounds gross…and it is.
3. Bursting blood blisters. I watched in amazement as blood catapulted across my living room after I’d ever so gently stuck a safety pin under my black toenail (it wasn’t black before the race I hasten to add!). Wish I’d got it on video, the YouTube hits would have been out of this world!
4. That’s enough, I think I’m embarrassing myself…

So, as you can tell, Antwerp was an adventure. For me, it was Half Ironman #2. Would I love it as much as last year? Would I do as well, go faster, race harder? The answer to those questions is yes, yes, yes and yes. I had a great swim, I really felt strong in the water. I’ve had a few swims this year when I’ve just felt completely empty – Windsor was probably the worst – but on Sunday I was just all there. Once out on the bike, I was surprised at how long it took me to get into a rhythm but after 30 mins of sticking at it I was going well. I’ve mostly been training on my own this season and nearly always listen to an iPod on the bike so the first thing I noticed was the silence. No music, just me, myself and I. Oh, and the wind and rain. Cheers Antwerp. Rough weather aside, I was chuffed to feel so strong from 50k-90k. Last year, it was totally the other way around. And the run? Well, that was always going to be a trip into the unknown…

I’d not run much through the winter and spring because of plantar fasciitis but was hopeful that high bike volume would help see me through. The run at Antwerp is three 7km loops through the city centre. It’s torture at times as you run past bars where people are sitting enjoying a lazy Sunday lunch, eating great smelling food, quaffing wine and sipping their Leffe (my fave Belgian beer). It takes all my sports psych skills to focus back in on the race once I see someone sitting there guzzling a Leffe. Or worse still a cherry beer. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm….Anyway, yes, three loops, eyes off the beer. Lap one was the usual jelly legs and constant positive self-talk. Lap two I felt awesome and thought I might be on for a sub-1:25 run split. Lap three…good God, it felt like someone had poured Leffe into my legs, followed by 10 tonnes of concrete. I think the lack of run conditioning came to bite me on the backside in the last 5-7km, but given my run mileage this year I can’t be disappointed with it. Unfortunately on this lap I dropped from 4th to 5th pro chick, but hung in there to clock a finish time of 4:16, six minutes quicker than last year. Happy days. Now it’s back to moonwalking until the DOMS subsides…

Happy training & racing
EK

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It’s Race Week!

I love waking up on a Monday morning when the end of the week heralds something special – a big race! This Sunday I’m racing Antwerp 70.3 and it’s a race I’ve been really looking forward to for a while. Sure, I’ve enjoyed doing a couple of sprint distance races this season but the longer stuff is what really appeals. (BTW, my last Bloggle was written a few days before the National Elite Sprint Champs where I finished 5th – OK considering the high mileage and little rest I’d had that week!)

Anyway, back to Antwerp…I did this race last year and loved it, it was my first foray into longer distance racing and the atmosphere and crowds were fantastic. It’s run by Marc Herremans, a triathlete who was paralysed in an accident while training in Lanzarote and he’s an inspirational character to say the least. His event is definitely run by athletes for athletes and it’ll be great to get back there. It looks like the women’s pro field has a few big names in it again this year (I spotted at least three Ironman Champs, but didn’t want to spend too long oggling the start list…) so it’ll be great to see where I’m at. In the meantime, the tri geek in me loves planning out nutrition, pacing, race strategies…Bring it on! Will let you know how it all goes…

Happy training & racing
EK