36

Ticking Along Nicely!

All is well here @ EK HQ with training going great guns and a couple of races coming up – the first being the National Elite Sprint Distance Champs @ Parc Bryn Bach this Saturday which I’m really just using as a sharpener ahead of Antwerp 70.3 in three weeks’ time (August 2).

After an injury plagued winter, I’m very happy to report that I’m finally up and running quite consistently and was even able to up my longest run to 14 miles last week, which I know isn’t a mega distance for you long distance goats out there, but believe me, it’s exciting progress for me after an embarrassingly low average weekly mileage through the winter. I’m pretty happy with how training has been going recently and have been ‘enjoying’ some intense turbo-run sessions which hurt like hell at the time but leave you buzzing for hours afterwards. I’ve been trying to work in plenty of recovery time on the sofa. New favourite session = feet up, eating Green & Blacks (thank you Rob!), watching Celebrity Master Chef. What will I do now it’s finished?!

After a fair few months riding a road bike, I’m now getting used to riding the awesome Focus Izalco Chrono ahead of Antwerp. I absolutely loved riding the 08 Chrono last season, but I have to admit this one is even more of a blinging’, beastin’ race machine. It just screams WIND ME UP! I was doing tempo intervals on it yesterday and was having to refrain myself from banging out big watts during my recovery spin down. I simply cannot wait to race it!

Happy training & racing
EK

Some great exposure for Emma-Kate Lidbury in the Oxford Times newspaper and website, reporting on the recent Blenheim Triathlon. Thought it would be great to share this with you.

TRIATHLON: Lidbury shines at Blenheim
2:35pm Monday 8th June 2009

By Ed Mezzetti

Mazda Blenheim Triathlon

Oxford Tri’s Emma-Kate Lidbury was the leading local elite performer at Blenheim Palace – finishing fifth in the women’s race.

The 29-year-old former Oxford Mail reporter was pleased with her efforts in the wet conditions as the sprint distance of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run is shorter than she normally races. Lidbury clocked 10mins 45secs for her swim, 33.54 for the bike and ran 22.17 to complete the event in 1.11.13.

She said:

“It was good in the circumstances. I have not been able to run that much over the last few months due to injury.

“My plan was always to swim and bike well and see what happens in the run. “To finish in the top five was good. I haven’t been training for that sort of distance.”

Lidbury started the run in sixth, but passed Carol Bridge to finish fifth. She added: “It is always a special event as it was the first one I did four years ago. This was where it all started for me.

“There was a lot of Oxford Tri people, friends and family there to support me.

“The swim was a bit of a shocker. “It was more of a boxing match for the first 600m. “The bike stage was just about preservation because of the conditions. “There were a couple of really nasty crashes in my bike pack, but I managed to avoid them. “I was pleased to run pain-free.”

Lidbury is next in action over the Olympic distance of 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10k run at the Windsor Triathlon on Sunday.

Jodie Stimpson won the women’s event in 1.08.24, while Stuart Hayes successfully defended his men’s title in 1.01.10 after pipping top junior Jonathan Brownlee by five seconds.

Hayes said:

“I’m over the moon to come to Blenheim and win here for the second year in a row. “The Mazda Blenheim Triathlon continues to be one of the best events on the circuit and I’m looking forward to carrying this form through the rest of the season. “Credit to Jonny Brownlee to running me very close in what was a solid battle. “I thought he was going to catch me until I kicked in for the last 2km. When he didn’t come back I knew I had him.”

Adam Moore was Oxford Tri’s leading finisher in the men’s open race, clocking 1.12.46 for eighth place. He was followed by Sean Nicolle (16th) in 1.14.22 and Crispin Hetherington (20th) in 1.14.51. Oxford University defeated Cambridge in both the men’s and women’s Varsity Matches, while Worcester Warriors beat Oxford University Rugby Club in the team relay.

35

Feeling a little flat…

Unfortunately Lady Luck wasn’t on my side at the weekend @ Windsor. A flat rear tyre early on in the bike – and no spares or CO2 – meant it was game over before the fun had even started. I was out of the water in fourth place and was then looking forward to working hard on the bike to get up amongst it. I’ve been riding really strongly recently & I believe a top three finish yesterday was well within my capabilities.

Instead, I sat chatting to marshalls on the roadside while waiting to be picked up by the broom wagon! But looking on the bright side, it has certainly taught me a few things:

1. Always carry some means of fixing it, no matter how short the race (it was incredibly frustrating yesterday). Big thanks to Paul Gardiner – I think that was your name – who stopped while I was roadside to see if I was OK and kindly donated some tyre sealant. I’d been roadside for 30mins+ by then so it wasn’t worth getting back on but I’ll be carrying that next time!

2. I saw “the other side” of the race which you never appreciate when you’ve got your racer’s head on. While sat in the marshalls car waiting for the broom wagon, I could hear the various communications over the radio system between the marshalls throughout the 40k course & race HQ – a very slick operation I must say. I don’t think athletes realise or appreciate half of what goes on behind the scenes to make the races the great events they are. John Lunt & Human Race did a terrific job yesterday, Windsor is a truly great race – hopefully next year I’ll get to finish what I started this year!

3. My legs are fresh today so I can get back into training much sooner than anticipated ;-) Bring on that next race…and NO flats!

Huge thanks to my family for getting up at silly o’clock to come to watch me race yesterday. They saw me briefly at the swim exit and were then very surprised to get a call from me at about the time they thought I’d be coming into T2 – d’oh! Needless to say the jokes started coming thick and fast on the way home: “What’s up Eek, feeling a little deflated?”, “Bit tyre-d are we?”, “Didn’t you get pumped up enough for this race then?!”…A right bunch of comedians, all of them ;-)

Happy (puncture-free!) training & racing
EK

34

Tis the season to be racing…

Raced Blenheim yesterday as my opening race of the season and considering my last few months have been injury-plagued, I was pretty pleased to place fifth in the women’s elite race. As Stuart said in his Blenheim blog (BTW, congrats on a great victory Stu), it was bitterly cold yesterday which was always going to make racing a bit more ‘interesting’. My lips were totally blue pre-race and I could barely feel my fingers, so from about 8am onwards I was just dreaming of a hot bubble bath.

The swim was carnage and I seemed to get mixed up in a right old boxing match. The first transition was quite disastrous too, so once out on the bike course I knew I had some serious work to do.

It was the first time I’d used my Lightweight wheels aboard the Focus Cayo and BLOODY HELL they are out of this world! A few blokes in transition were literally drooling over them. OK, so riding carbon wheels in the pi$$ing rain on a course which can be sketchy at the best of times isn’t conducive to uber-fast bike splits. I was pleased to bike strongly and intelligently in testing conditions and come out with the fastest bike split and into T2 in the lead pack.

The run @ Blenheim yesterday reminded me of the run at Vancouver last year. That is, I couldn’t feel my feet at all, and it took a cursory glance at the ground to check there were still feet attached to the ends of my legs, such was the extent of numbness.

The last few months have seen me barely running because of plantar fasciitis. It’s only been since mid-April onwards that I’ve been consistently running so I was quite pleased to make it through the 5k yesterday pain-free. Today the dreaded PF knows it’s been raced on, but I’m rolling a frozen Coke bottle under it as I type in the hope it’ll feel improved tomorrow and I’ll be able to resume training OK this week then race Windsor next Sunday. Goddam injuries, gurrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Injury prevention is the key and making my body strong enough to withstand the training I want to put it through. Last week, I went to a new massage therapist, Rob King in West Swindon, who made what I think could be a breakthrough discovery for me – my right leg is longer than my left! This could explain a few things so I’m hopeful that with a heel raise and continued injury prevention work I’ll be right where I want to be later in the year. Patience is a virtue…

Thanks to all my family & friends for the support out on the course yesterday and to all the people who shouted “Come on, Wiggle!”. Wearing the Wiggle logo always gets a few good shouts ;-)

Happy training & racing
EK

For full results follow the link below
www.triathlonresults.co.uk/

33

Fun In The Sun

I’m sitting typing this in a cafe in Palma airport in Majorca at the end of a really great week’s training. My coach Steve Lumley has been running a two-week camp out here and I joined him and about a dozen other athletes for the final week of swimming, biking and running in the sun. Yes, I know it’s hardly been five minutes since landing back in Blighty from Oz but I was keen to keep up the momentum with another solid training week and get to know Steve better as I’ve only been working with him since the end of last year.

The riding here was fantastic with stunning scenery, great hills and very cyclist-friendly motorists (not something you find in Oz). I think my favourite ride was Sa Calobra on Thursday which I’d say probably qualifies as the toughest climb I’ve done yet. With 10k’s of steep switchbacks at gradients I’d dread to calculate, it definitely kicks the butt off Obi Obi (a tough one near Noosa) and was more challenging than the climbs in Lanzarote. This was a great baptism of fire for my new Focus Cayo Lightweight, which I’d only picked up from Wiggle HQ the week before, and the two of us are bonding very nicely.

I think there’s something about tackling a mammoth climb which leads to great bonding moments between rider and bike, especially if (a) the climb has been hyped up by those around you as an unconquerable beast so trepidation levels are high and (b) the scenery around you is so beautiful.

Majorca wasn’t all about the bike, though. I was dead chuffed to also get some good running in. For the first time in what seems like a long time I was able to run off the bike pain-free. Well, there was plenty of pain but just not pain in any of my injury sites – yippee! ;-)

Happy training
EK

32

Back in Blighty

After almost five months Down Under, I’m now back home and settling in well. I have kit everywhere, a mountain of unopened post dating back from November and more laundry than Dot Cotton would know what to do with, but despite all that, it’s surprisingly good to be back. Although I miss not having the beach on my doorstep and glorious sunshine beating down, I had started missing home, so I guess I must be a home bird at heart. Both my sisters, my mum and my little one-year-old nephew came to meet me at Heathrow and after 20+ hours on a plane I can’t tell you how great it was to see them.

I miraculously seem to have escaped without suffering from jetlag (wearing my compression ‘pyjamas’ and drinking water like a loon must work) and am already back into training here. I did a great 85-mile ride on Easter Monday, the majority of which was the Cotswold Spring Classic, and was amazed to actually be too hot for most of the ride – what have you done to the weather, it’s really nice?! I have to admit the long ride wasn’t all about training, though, it was more about burning off the vast quantities of chocolate and cake I ate over the Easter weekend (see pic of me & my cousin Josh who baked me a welcome home cake – thanks Josh!)

(more…)

31

Rain Go Away…

Rain rain go away…

With just under a month left of my time in Oz, I spent the weekend making the most of the sunshine, but Cyclone Hamish now has other ideas. He’s loitering with intent about 200km up the coast from us here in Noosa and we’re getting the dregs of it, resulting in seriously wet and windy weather.

In fact, I am currently sitting here toying with the idea of doing a 90min-2hr turbo rather than a 2hr ride, which must mean the weather’s bad as I’d usually rather ride in snow, sleet and hail than get on the turbo. I can already hear you crying: “Toughen up, you big softie” and I agree: my aversion to rain and wind must be a sign I’ve become softened by the Aussie sunshine.

The Aussies can’t handle it if they have to so much as pull on arm-warmers, so maybe I should just put on my bike gear, toughen up and get soaked like a proper Pom. At least it’ll be a good way of preparing myself for what’s to come when I return home in April ;-)

Happy training
EK

30

Birthday Madness Part 2

Birthday Madness Part Two

More fun follows…

So how do you top 10k in the pool?! A big birthday ride, of course! Never have I woken up so early on my birthday – even I was shocked by my being wide awake @ 3.45am, it was like being a kid on Christmas morning all over again. Although we weren’t setting off until 5.30am, I was too eager to get into my pressies sent all the way from Pommie Land to go back to sleep, so I began unwrapping the box sent by my lovely Mum to find all sorts of goodies that I’ve been dreaming of for weeks including Percy Pigs from M&S – GET IN! (These tasted even better, if such a thing is possible, 100k’s into the ride when I also got Belinda Granger into them, see pic!)

Although the first 20k’s saw us losing three of the 8-strong group (not through anything sinister, just mechanics etc), we soon cracked on and headed out to the redneck town of Gympie, which was roughly the halfway mark. It was from this point on that the temperature and humidity really cranked up and I was shocked at how much water/energy drink I was guzzling and STILL not needing to jump in a bush for a pee (which is an occupational hazard here anyway because you never know what might bite your butt!)

The route took us through some truly stunning Aussie countryside which is surprisingly green and almost English-looking in places with its rolling hills and grazing cattle. I think it’s a good sign that I felt strong throughout the ride and then enjoyed a great 2k swim in the ocean just minutes after getting off the bike. Walking up the beach post-swim at about 12.30pm after 7+ hours training, I really felt chuffed, honoured and fortunate to be spending my b’day doing something I love so much. Here’s hoping my 29th year is as enjoyable as the previous 28!

Happy training
EK

29

Birthday Madness Part 1

I’m one year older and wiser, so why the heck did I voluntarily arrange to do a 10k birthday swim?! I must be mental, but yesterday morning, come 6.15am, I embarked on a swim session feared and loathed by many – 100 x 100m! Joining me in this mammoth event was Ironman champ Hillary Biscay, who is also out here training until April, and her boyfriend Doug (you can read her blog about it here )

Being a rookie pro, this was the first time I’d done it, but it was #6 for Hillary – crazy stuff! What surprised me more than anything, though, was just how much I loved it – ALL!

I don’t usually like eating before I swim but I forced down a couple of slices of toast about an hour before and then it was time to rely on energy drink and a gel (which I was ’saving’ until after #60). Setting off on #1 was funny, as I swam along thinking: “Only 99 to go!”, but sure enough, we soon started ploughing through them. To give our bodies a chance to warm up we did the first 10 on 1.40, then the next on 1.35, then 70 on 1.30 then the final 10 on 1.25 [this was in a 50m pool]. Numbers 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 and 100 were pretty special! I climbed out of the pool to get my camera to take this pic afterwards and my head and legs were a little wobbly, but it was nothing a quick sugar hit couldn’t sort out!

The fun doesn’t stop there, though. Very shortly I’ll be setting out on a 180k ride followed by an ocean swim off it. Bring it on! Will tell you all about it in Part Two…

Cheers
EK

Training is going great guns here in Oz and I’ve just come to the end of a training block so am this week enjoying a ‘rest’ week. It seems strange calling it a rest week as I’ll still be doing more training than I would have done during an average/high week when I was working last year, but I can’t tell you how excited I am at the thought of not having to get up at 5am or earlier every day this week! Breakfast in bed – yippee!

My new PowerTap arrived last week so it’s been great fun playing with that. Hopefully it will prove to be a really useful training and racing tool. Already I’ve seen how I tend to smash my way up hills thrashing out big watts only to coast down them at zero watts – time to change my ways methinks!

I’m feeling a lot stronger on the bike after some consistent riding through December & January so it will be good to train by power through February & March. The Aussies are in their race season now so it’s hard not to get swept along with race fever and be tempted to do a lot of race pace/high intensity work, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is winter base training time otherwise by the time our race season arrives I’ll be well and truly spent.

A call home to the UK this morning served as a great reminder that it’s winter. My mum was cranking up the central heating and telling me about all the snow on the ground, which was hard to imagine while sitting here putting on Factor 50 sun cream!

Enjoy the snowball fights…

Cheers
EK