Improve your triathlon run

Run-4-it Edinburgh have invited me to talk at their Edinburgh store on Monday night about triathlon running and some tips to improve it! I’ll be a bit nervous so come along and show you support if your in town.

I think the assumption is that because I manage to run 3 sub 3hr Ironman marathons out of 5 races and have a PB of 2:49:50 I must have some idea what I’m doing! Hopefully there is some truth to that and if not there will be a Q+A at the end so you can ask me anything you like.

2010 racing

I am excited about the coming season and delighted to announce my 2010 racing.

I will be joining the brand new Tri-Grand-Prix series which promises to be a superb. We’re excited to have the opportunity to race some of the worlds best athletes at different distances and on some really unique courses. The TGP team are passionate and committed to providing top level events and support for athletes. Now it’s up to us turn that passion in to top level racing.

It so far consists of two races, the Outrageous half in Kent on May 30 and the Zarauzko Triatloia on June 13.

I would hope to complete my early season racing with a return to the greatest race in the world Challenge Roth. . . .  if I can secure an entry on July 18. Later in the season I  look forward to my return to the superb Challenge Barcelona event on October 3 which is now out of the hands of Evolution but still organised by Jordi González with the support of Challenge  and Felix Walchshöfer.

Dr Who Turbo Fartlek!

Dr-Who

The first exclusive Total-Racing-Int TRI T-shirt goes to Sophie Mullins who is keeping fit in her bedroom with the help of David Tennant and her Dr Who Fartlek designed to alleviate boredom and aid winter endurance!

1) Load an episode of Dr Who (I use BBC iPlayer)
2) Jump on the Turbo
3) Cycle easy/moderate/flat out as the music and/or action suggests.
4) Repeat until pink.
Sophie is running London in April does a three-episode back-to-back extravaganza once a week so I gave it a whirl! Here set up with my Nintendo Wi streeming me Dr Who episodes to by turbo room!

And here’s the results!!!!

Time 2:30min, Average 271watts, Peak powers:

2hr =285

1hr =294

10min=316

1min=373

30sec=423

Once I got in to it, the idea all started to make sense each episode building to a crescendo of sorts and I got the idea you could essentially turn any of your favorite action drams in to turbo sessions if they have good pacing like Dr Who. The only thing I would change would be to go in to each episode with a clear idea of some intervals or intensities I want to do during the climax sequence!!! Main points were:

1) Warm was very awkward trying to work the Wi so I would be pre prepared next time. Up to the first 15-20 min should be build or if stringing multiple sessions together like here ride solid in your aerobic zone (75% or so I averaged 270 here).

2) It can be a be a bit random trying to follow the music so when it started getting pensive on Episode 2 “Utopia” I took it up a gear to 85% threshold 1/2IM pace and held that.

3) Dr Who seems to have a solid thriller finish/ chase section at the end of each episode. In episode 1 “blink” (which is still giving me nightmares) it was quite sustained and full on so I did some threshold stuff trying to maintain it for at least a minute at a time despite the music. If I had been prepared I would have done 3x2min @ 95% or something with 1min recovery. During the Utopia episode the climax was much more up and down between alien chase and the transformation of “the Master” so I got some structure in there with 30sec at 110-120% threshold with 60-90sec recovery at 75%.

All in all I had a great workout! 10/10 for boredom relief, doesn’t score so high on structure and reproducibility but hopefully I have given you some ideas to improve that. Great stuff Sophie and best of luck with London!

G