Amazed that the sun was shining and it actually looked like a lovely crisp autumnal day, I jumped on the Focus Cayo Expert this afternoon for what turned out to be an absolutely cracking ride. I had been fearing I might have forgotten how to ride a bike it feels like it’s been so long, but by the time I reached the end of my road I was smiling like a loon. There’s no two ways about it: I love being out on the bike. My weeks of R&R had left me dying to get back on two wheels. I’d barely covered a mile today before I got out of the saddle, cranked up the speed and tested the quads just to see how much power remains after a few weeks of dedicated cake-eating. I was pleasantly surprised, I was actually capable of far more than I anticipated, and held a good pace for the duration of my two-hour workout. I’m aiming to do the same tomorrow, especially if the weather is as surprisingly pleasant as today, in a bid to ease my body back into a properly structured training regime. No doubt the good old British winter will start dishing out some real treats fairly soon though - at which point the mental toughness training kicks in (and the flight to Sydney, hee hee…)

Happy & safe winter training y’all
EK

I had been hoping to start my winter training proper yesterday but some little gremlin had other ideas as I’ve been wiped out with a stomach bug since the early hours of the morning. I haven’t been this ill for yonks and as someone who usually has a voracious appetite I’m saddened to say the most I’ve managed to keep down is a paltry glass of flat Lucozade. Ugh. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to send this horrible little bug packing very soon and resume training…

I have taken quite a laissez-faire approach to training for the last few weeks as I think it’s important to give your body and mind a bit of a break at the end of the season. It was interesting to read on Slowtwitch (an American triathlon website) that Chris McCormack (aka Macca, current Ironman World Champ) takes a seven-week break at the end of his season when he says he does “absolutely nothing - I don’t run and I don’t swim or bike. I let my body heal and put on some weight and recover.”

I think there are a lot of athletes who would be terrified of doing this for fear of losing fitness but I really believe there is a lot to be said for Macca’s approach, particularly if you devote a large part of your life to triathlon (or training for your particular sport) for the remaining 45 weeks of the year. I think triathletes especially are also at risk of becoming tri bores, who do very little other than think or talk about swim-bike-run if they’re not careful. I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s vital to take a break. It also means you can resume training in the autumn significantly fresher - both mentally and physically - than if you’d ploughed on through. I must admit I’ve struggled to do the full Macca and go completely cold turkey on the swim-bike-run front, but then I’m not Ironman World Champ - not yet, anyway ;-)

Happy training - or resting
Cheers
EK

Within the space of the last fortnight it seems autumn has well and truly kicked summer’s butt into touch. Gone are the light evenings riding in just short-sleeved jerseys and shorts. Instead it’s dark before 8pm and the turbo trainer is the closest we’ll get to being on the bike in shorts for the next few months - or am I just a softy Southerner?! With the triathlon racing season pretty much coming to a close, it’s now time to think about winter training, which is both exciting and depressing at the same time. Exciting because I like the idea of knuckling down to some hard work over the coming months with the aim of seeing just how much fitter, faster and stronger I can become for ‘09, but depressing too because I know for sure none of it will happen without getting rained, hailed, sleeted and snowed on far too many times. I guess like many people, once the nights start drawing in and the British weather goes from being dull and grey to being extremely dull and grey, I start dreaming of sunshine and blue skies in an attempt to lift my spirits. I must admit, the time I spent in Australia from last October through to Christmas hasn’t been far from my mind recently. I think I can hear the Land Down Under calling me back…
Here’s hoping you stay warm and dry for a few more weeks yet.
Happy training
EK

The success of Team GB out in Beijing has undoubtedly inspired so many people over the past fortnight - and will hopefully keep inspiring us for another four years. I happened to flick the TV on yesterday afternoon just as the team was landing at Heathrow to receive a heroes welcome. With cameras flashing, TV crews jostling to get the best shots and journalists already quizzing our medallists on what it felt like to be back in Blighty, the likes of Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington looked completely shocked and surprised. They admitted they’d been in a “bubble” in Beijing and so had no idea just how proud and impassioned the nation had been as they continued to make winning Olympic gold medals look as easy as winning the egg and spoon race at a local school sports day.

I don’t think a day has passed since the Games began when I haven’t been watching the coverage and felt a surge of pride as God Save the Queen rings out again or a rower/sailor/cyclist/swimmer/runner adds to the medal haul. More often than not I’d feel goosebumps on my skin or a lump in my throat as the athletes stand atop the podium to be crowned Olympic champion - because you can see on their faces just how much the medal means to them and what they’ve endured to achieve it.

So when I switched on the telly yesterday and saw Hoy and Adlington being given the sort of greeting usually reserved for superstar ‘athletes’ like David Beckham I couldn’t stop beaming. At that point, I’d been putting off doing a 90-minute turbo for some time. I knew it had to be done at some point, but my turning on the TV had been one of the last-ditch attempts at distraction. Sure, it distracted me - but in such a positive way that by the time the Beeb was showing Gordon Brown chatting away to Tom Daley I already had my turbo gear on and was muttering to myself “gold medals don’t win themselves - I bet Nicole Cooke never slacked off turbo sessions, get on with it Lidbury”. And I have to say, 90 minutes later I’d completed one of the hardest but finest turbo efforts of all my turbo-ing years. I hope Team GB has the same effect on your training.

Enjoy!
EK

Unfortunately for me my weekend involved a lot of sport, but of the armchair spectator version than actual racing itself. I should have been racing at London in the women’s elite race on Sunday morning, but things started to go wrong on Friday. I went out for what should have been a 30-minute easy run with a few pick-ups in. This has become a tried and trusted session for me just a few days out from races: I pull on the runners, plug in my iPod and have a blast, usually putting in a series of pick-ups around my local park thinking about what the upcoming race has in store and visualising how it could all pan out.

The session had gone well, my legs were feeling surprisingly good post-Antwerp and I was really excited about what Sunday might hold for me, especially after running so well last week. But I was just a few hundred yards from home when I turned my right ankle over and, although I tried to carry on running, I knew from the immediate weakness that something wasn’t quite right. Sure enough, my physio took a look and advised me I would be far better off resting rather than racing. For the next few hours I tussled with the “Shall I or shan’t I?” debate, annoying Ozzer immensely as I tried to decide what the best move was. I think, as with most decisions, you know what you should do, but you don’t want to do it - i.e. I knew I shouldn’t race and risk making a niggle a full-blown injury, but the thought of not racing London was a depressing and frustrating one!

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Raced my first 70.3 (half Ironman) in Antwerp on Sunday and had an absolute blast. The race itself is organised by Marc Herremans, a former Belgian triathlete who was paralysed in a bike accident, and it doesn’t take long to realise the race is run by athletes for athletes. Everything about it was spot on and if you’re ever looking for a 70.3 to do, this one is definitely it. As I’d only ever raced Olympic or sprint distance before and hadn’t really altered my training much ahead of Antwerp, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being a little anxious come Saturday. Add to the mix that I also had a pro slot and it made for one slightly nervous EK. Once the gun goes, though, the adrenaline and nervous excitement has far better uses and I got on with the job in hand. The swim was a bit more chaotic than I’d anticipated, what with the pro men and women starting together, but things soon evened out and I enjoyed drafting Belinda Granger around the majority of the 1900m swim course.

Unsurprisingly she was like a rocket through T1 and, although we made it out onto the bike course at about the same time, I didn’t see her again! She’s an awesome triathlete and I was dead chuffed to see her go on to take the win. We trained with Belinda and Justin Granger last year while in Noosa and they’re great characters.

Before the race, I had feared the run course would be the place where I really felt the difference in distance, but it was actually out on the bike where this happened. The Chrono and I are a well-bonded pair now and I enjoyed the different challenges 70.3 presents - nutrition, for example, plays a crucial part, but I think before my next one I’ll do more near-race intensity work at longer distances. To add to the physical and mental challenge of the race, just as I was starting to feel fatigued on the bike, a huge storm broke out - a great test if ever there was one!

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After a few weeks of what seemed like relentless travelling and racing, I’ve recently been enjoying some solid weeks of training - and with the sunshine making the occasional appearance too the Chrono and I have been loving being out on the road. I think above all else consistent training is the key to good performance, so it’s great to have clocked up a few good weeks now since Vancouver. My next race is a fortnight away, Antwerp 70.3, which will be my first half Ironman event. I’ve only ever raced Olympic or sprint distance, so stepping up a distance will be a good challenge for body - and mind! The beauty of 70.3 is that you don’t need to alter training that greatly from Olympic distance training, although I have been doing some longer brick sessions which have been experiments with nutrition as much as training sessions. You sometimes learn things the hard way. What do you get if you do 100k on the bike followed by a 75min run on two bottles of energy drink and three gels? You don’t get home easily, that’s for sure…

It has been a crazy fortnight since I was last bloggling - in fact I’ve crammed in so much it seems impossible that it was only two weeks ago. After the Worlds in Vancouver I went on holiday in the Rockies for a week, combining a train trip and a road trip to go to places such as Banff and Jasper. It was a great trip and it was nice to leave all my tri kit back in Vancouver and have a complete break from training for a few days (well, I did actually sneak a run in).

I had barely been home and got over my jetlag from Canada when it was time to pack up again and return to Heathrow, this time to fly to Nice to watch my boyfriend Ozzer do Ironman France. Boy what a race that was! It was 30C in the shade come the afternoon, so it was no surprise to see so many people suffering in the heat. Ozzer coped with it all brilliantly to clock an Ironman PB of 11:20. He and several others had been trying to convince me to “go long” next year, but watching that race has put me off it for a long while! I think I’ll keep things short and fast for the time being, although I’m now looking ahead to my first Half Ironman/70.3 in a few weeks. What with so much travelling and holidaying recently, it has been tricky to train consistently, but now I’m back home I should soon be able to get back into my routine. Mind you, right now I’m so frazzled that it feels like I need a holiday to get over my holidays…

Happy training & racing
EK

PS Have included my favourite pic from the race in Vancouver - I absolutely loved riding the Chrono on that bike course!

Hey, well I came here with one unashamed goal and that was to win gold so I’m more than a little gutted to say I have a silver medal in my suitcase :-( It wasn’t for lack of trying - I swear! I led what was truly a weird, surreal race from start to almost finish (with 200m to go a storming 35-min 10k running Aussie came past me - ouch!) but just didn’t have what was needed in my legs to get me down that goddam finish chute first. The GB support was amazing and it’s a race I will never ever forget. My legs are still aching, the Chrono is all packed away and I’m off to the Rockies first thing tomorrow for a week’s holiday with my mum, so I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve had a great time, I’m looking forward to some time off and thank you to every single one of you who tried to shout and holler at me to get me over that finish line first - almost!
Cheers & happy training & racing - it’s always worth it, even if you don’t quite get it every single time…

See ya back in Blighty soon
EK

For a very long time it seemed like the race season might never come around - it felt like I was just training and training and training…But all of a sudden I’m seriously in the thick of race season with the Big One - the Worlds in Vancouver - looming large.
I fly off to Canada tomorrow and will be staying with friends in North Vancouver ahead of the race, which is on Saturday week (June 7).

Things have been pretty hectic over the last few days, so I haven’t had that much of a chance to think about it all, but it is definitely both exciting and a little nerve-racking to think the main race I’ve been working towards is approaching at lightning speed.

I know I shouldn’t be nervous: I’m on great form and continue to train well, but I guess I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t feel at least a few butterflies when I visualise the race and the various ways it might unfold. I’m not sure which I should be more nervous about, though - the race itself or flying from Heathrow Terminal 5 with the Chrono!

Will hopefully have a great result to tell you about next time I’m on the bloggle.

Cheers
EK