Process goals

Following on from the brilliant Ironplanner race resume, I now present to you the concept of process goals, mantras, themes and magic from the same book. A process goal is a specific rule you make for yourself that address only things you have control of (so nothing to do with weather or time). The aim is to give you things to focus on based on technique... Based on their examples I've come up with these, which will probably be written on my transition bags!

Swim process goals:

• Calm glide
• Sit high in water
• Arms land at shoulders width

Transition 1

• walk out of water calmly
• drink and eat
• Make my skin comfortable
• Use the loo!

Bike 

• calm start
• Fuel every 30 minutes
• Be prepared for the climb

For the climb 

• Patient steady climb, looking down and pedalling
• don't stop
• Feed at top

For the descent

• Light braking with reason
• Keep right
• Calm and reasonable - I am in control

T2

• Be calm, take time and stretch
• Fuel and drink
• Make me skin comfortable. 

Run:

• Take food and fuel every 30 minutes
• Steady first half
• reason with pain, what's really the problem?
• Smile

My mantras:

• Run: Light, easy, smoothe. 
• Till I collapse
• Just keep swimming
• For the descent: I'm confident and in control. 
• Up hill: I think I can, I know I can
• Swim: glide, calm
• Run: tippy tappy tippy tappy
• Smile. Enjoy. 

Race theme: ironplanner suggests you create a theme for the day which makes it sound enjoyable rather than scary! So.. 

The swim is like a Swimtrek holiday adventure, exploring new Mediterranean islands.  The bike is a climb to the best views and a fun and relaxing descent towards beautiful villages. The run is alongside my loved ones to bask in the crowd's support. At the end is a beginning to a new adventure. 

My magic: (for energy boosts)

• lungs that can breathe easily and calmy
• Cool breeze that takes the heat away
• Laughter that erases pain
• Lightness so my legs feel nothing. 

Tired

I am very very tired. I'm probably on the lowest training I've had for six months and getting the most sleep. Jon's doing literally everything around the house now and I am still SO tired. The tiredest ever, more tired than after a 60mile but a deep in my muscles tired.

I'll never give up on race day ever. I'd walk, carry my bike, all sorts to get home. But gosh these 8 days of "lighter training" feel a chore.

I went out for a 2:45 bike ride and 1 hour run. I was freaked out by traffic and had to come back. I've treated myself to a hot shower as I am a bit stiff after yesterday's ace swim and realised I feel like I am coming down with something. So I ate a pack of minstrels and ecinecea! I'll run and bike this afternoon, even though it means hurtling down the East Lancashire Highway - at least they have a cycle lane.

More cheery posts to follow.

Race resume

The excellent book Ironplanner recommends doing a race resume to total up your experience and keep you calm and focussed when you panic that you have not done enough. 

I've not yet totalled up all my training mileage but here's my Race Resume to date... 


Rowena Harding: Ironman Mallorca 70.3 Race resume

Objective: Finish 70.3 distance before the cut off times

Education: 
• Swim camp in Lanzarote with Swim for Tri: 7 days, 7 swims
• Technique lessons with Uswim in open water and 50m pool
• Coaching with Ironman Nice finisher
• Watt bike training session with Triathlon Online
• Bike coaching session with Niklas Cook
• Seminars: Chrissie Wellingotn, Andy Mouncey
• Running School lessons
• 19 weeks of coached training

Achievements:
• 4 marathons: 2 road and 2 off road
• 1 Ultra of 32+ miles
• Can run for more than 6 hours!
• Half marathons: road and trail
• 1 sprint tri
• 1 duathlon: off road
• Eton 750m open water race
• Swimathon
• 60 mile sportive

Personal attributes:

• Commitment: I stuck to training plans during holidays, personal life, change
• Mental strength: I won’t give up and  I preserver through physical fatigue and keep smiling
• My spirit doesn’t tell the time: I focus on what I can achieve
• I am brave and I have performed outside my comfort zone many times. 
• I am determined to finish and stubborn
• I can prove I can do long endurance events. 
• I can be very positive in the face of adversity. 
• I don’t panic in open water or mass swim starts. 
• I run negative splits. 

Experience: 

• I have rode over nearly all of the Ironman Mallorca bike course twice on roads open to traffic, in warm weather, with little fuel and using clip ins for first time. I have also tackled some of the course with cross winds. 
• I have swum the Ironman Mallorca swim course and swum in the water whenb cold, and choppy with wind. 
• I have swum in dark cold open water at Lakeside, Eton (with fog in the morning!) and Salford. 
• I have run flat hot roads including part of the Ironman Mallorca course, Berlin in 27C and Athens. 

Motivation:
• Even if I finish last, I will be a finisher. 
• I am one of a small number of women who compete in this sport
• Once I have completed the distance, no one can take that way. 
• This will be the hardest physical and mental athletic challenge I have completed
• I have learned things about myself and I will learn more about myself
• I have raised awareness and funds based on my beliefs and values
• I have committed to the training thorough a lot of change. 
• A lot of people believe in me and have invested in me. 

One of those down dog moments that I am allowed to have as it's my blog right?!

I'm not sure what the limits on painkillers are but today I'm testing them. They are making me sleepy. Or at least I am sleepy. I'm writing this while waiting for the microwave at work. I originally wrote that I am waiting for the photocopier. I can't concentrate till I eat, but I can't eat till I get to the photocopier.

Today, as well as dozy and dizzy I am mostly overwhelmed. I thought we had moved through that phase already. I feel very alone. And small.

While I am totally gutted for them, I really miss that I have lost a twitter partner in crime in training, someone who works as hard as I do to motivate themselves into the pool onto the bike. None of this rah rah smash it 24.7 just a real person also trying desperately hard to be a real triathlete. It makes me a kind of awful person that in some one else's misfortune I can think of myself.

Jon did marvellously at his ultra despite having low training in the last three weeks. I could never imagine doing lighter training than intended and finishing such a big endurance event where a lot of people DNF or DNS and come 18th! He is amazing. I am very proud. But also daunted. You know, someone who is that strong naturally isn't going to understand why you hyperventilate when you miss 3 training sessions in a row. Again, it makes me a kind of awful person that in someone else's glory I can think of myself.

So continuing the theme of my self obsession, this morning I am dog tired - no bed till after 11pm when I should have got myself at least 8 hours sleep. I am very sore; I fell down the stairs after my ride and run yesterday compounding back pain to create a pull muscle, hence ibuprofen high. I am not able to focus well at work but I am able to focus acutely on:

• not having the kit I want to race in
• not having my fuel plan
• having to think of a way to record my online training plan so I can focus on what I have achieved and save it for posterity
• wondering if I have booked post race accommodation.
• Spending time reviewing all the to do lists to see what I have forgotten
• fundraising plans
• making spectator plans
• getting into contact with mum - my support and benefactor
• and a million other things that make the plan come together.

Anyway I think the microwave is free now. I might go stick my head in it.

Going for a swim

On January 1st I decided to do a Polar Swim with Uswim - a sort of welcome in the new year by immersing yourself in freezing cold water experience. It was a great thing to be part of - lots of people joined in, hot bodies in bikinis, large bodies with Channel swimming protection and everyone in between. There were "skins" (people just in bathers) and "suits" taking to the FOUR degree water. 

I was pretty scared but in good company as old hands gave tips on getting in, controlling your breathing and giving it a go. Unfortunately I couldn't even make the first buoy as the pain in my head was too intense but as witnessed by Jon, I gave it a decent go and I can't think of a better thing to do on a New Year's morning. 

So here we are at the end of April and the "Summer" open water season has commenced. You need to be a bit flexible with descriptions here in the North. I wanted to get as much open water practice as I could before Mallorca, even though I will be in a warm and salty sea. I felt that weaning myself off lines in the pool and ends of the pool could only be a good thing but if I wanted to get the most out of the Summer season, I needed to start acclimatising as soon as it opened. 

So even though the official temp was only 4 degrees warmer than new year I tried to leap in this morning. It felt like my feet were burning. I could get my whole body in but the burn in my feet was awful. Then my hands, and oh my jaw, my ears, my head. Encouraged by Jon (and the wit of the Uswim crew) I kept making myself try a little harder each swim out to a buoy only 20 metres away. It took a while to get my  breathing under control, then to get my bilateral breathing going, then to stop my jaw from screaming. 

I was actually grateful to the bad traffic we had getting into Salford, which meant I only had 30 minutes of painful attempts before they closed. Box ticked on acclimitisation, I still need to do some serious miles for training. Perhaps Wednesday it will be 9 degrees and I can do a proper loop of the Quay. 

Above: being a big wuss. But I got in!

Here for Polar Swim New Year's Day pics

Three weeks to go

Three weeks of to do lists, meal planning, getting bags with the right kit, changing my timetable for open water sessions, having run stuff for wherever my bike ride ends. Three weeks of travel logistics,bike handling practise, making sure I have enough fuel ordered, that my race clothes work (why no tri laces for Kinvara 2!), that I have prescriptions (yes doctor I need an inhaler for each transition). Three weeks of training - including two weeks of taper madness.

Thankfully something echoes from the words of wise triathletes on twitter (cheers traight talkers Viv Slack and James Coldicott).

In these three weeks I will attempt to deliver:

• one perfectly focussed mentally perfect brick (30 + 10) this Sunday - dropping the Sportive down to a 30. Maybe.
• one more hard yet fun group cycle with Team Glow - next Sunday's D ride
• one mentally awesome pool swim - Swimathon weekend next Friday
• lots of open water fun - starting this Saturday for water temperature acclimisation and ending with race distance perfectly executed before swimming back in Mallorca's clear seas
• fun runs on trails - preferably with Jon
• lots of bike handling practise - through the cones, pick up drink bottles!
• really energised strength and conditioning sessions: put the effort into the final rep, set and core rip!
• hot pilates for stretch, relaxation and heat acclimitisation
• lots of time into eating well, beefing up the immune system
• and even more time into mental prep, typing up my visualisation plans, getting my spectator plans prepared, logistics and of course getting the very important fundraising started. Yes I haven't actually started!

That should keep me busy then!?

What I learned in Mallorca

I've just come back from Mallorca where I spent 5 days self coaching myself through a training camp style scenario to prepare for my first half ironman in THREE weeks and SIX days. As a novice I learned a lot out there, so if any of these tips can be use to you, or someone as crazy as me, then share the wisdom. Or the obvious!

For those doing Mallorca 70.3

• There are geek pics of the bike route here and a small bit of video (best watched with the volume down, sorry!)
• The ascent really didn't feel that awful. It's 7.7km of a 5.5% climb. I climbed Cragg Vale a few days before and it didn't feel that much different. [Postcript: apparently analysing statistics, Cragg Vale is way gentler, though same length and my local climb (front door to Saddleworth Moors) is steeper though a tad shorter.] Having said that, it will be hot. I think that the climb won't get people who have trained on hills. But the heat will. My approach was to stay calm, steady, even heart rate and not ever stop. This meant I never topped 10km/h (bear in mind I am a total novice). 
• The descent is awful not that awful. I am worse at descents than climbing and I once pulled a finger knuckle from gripping the brakes so hard! The descent is fairly open when steep or flatter as a hairpin, the hairpin is a natural chicane. That said, a chicane feels a little technical for someone new like me, and if the roads are shared to traffic, you'd need to bear that in mind. 
• The heat. It was only 21c on one of my passings of the hill, the heat totally saps your energy if you don't have fuel ready in time for it. 
• The bike course is very flat and fast at the beginning meaning you have enough time to recover from the swim, get the salt out of your mouth, eat a cheeseburger if you wish and be ready for the hill. The course is then fast and flat again after the descent so technically if you prefer not to fuel on a descent, you can do so after. 
• There is shade on the climb and descent of the bike course from roadside trees. There are some exposed places too. The start of the ride is most exposed. 
• There are cross and head winds in Mallorca. I felt them: once on the climb (embrace them as something to cool you down), on the long straight back to the finish (shout at it) and in the reeds back to the finish (shout again). The cross winds did move me about a bit (I'm about 52kg and on a standard bike). 
• There are quite a lot of bugs near Alcudia, as there's nearby swamp land. Get used to running and biking through bugs! They are small enough to inhale and worth wearing glasses for. When they were really bad I put my head down and let them bounce of my helmet like gunfire! One bug exploded across my glasses. A bug in the face at 40kph hurts!
• On the run, the section along the beach is hot and full of glare. The sand is white, and the path is white. Consider sun glasses and a visor. The path on this section is a little rough and it's possible to stumble on tired legs and eyes.
• The sea swim should be calm in the morning. One afternoon when there was a lot of wind, it was really choppy and so I swam into the waves out and with them back. Otherwise it's calm, clear, you can see seaweed, small to medium sized fish. There are baby rays and hermit crabs but I reckon they will move out for the race! The sun is in front of you for the swim out and in your eye line. The shore curves, on the short edge of the rectangle so be wary of curving if you use it alone to navigate. 

For general tri / bike fun in Mallorca:

• Learn to handle a hairpain with traffic - it's a fright to come up across a coach on the same side of the road as you!
• If it's been a while since hot weather training, don't get wind or sun burnt then jump into the sea - it stings!
• Brace yourself for cross winds getting even worse when being overtaken by a big truck - my bike practically flew. 
• Navigating is easy in Mallorca as the roads are very well signposted. I used other people's map my ride routes and a road map, then jotted towns or route numbers on a sticky label which was posted on my handlebars. 

For total newbies:

• Mallorca is a great place to build your cycling skill. It has some great roads, with specialist cycle lanes, slip roads and very well sign posted traffic junctions. Generally traffic is sympathetic to cyclists especially solo meek ones! 
• I hired from Max Huerzler who had me at hello with their Swiss efficiency. I loved my bike. It made my Decathlon £299 special feel £2.99. I was able to trust the brakes, tyres and pedals so much more. It did cost me a pretty penny to hire but the peace of mind I got from knowing it had just been looked over by experts was priceless. 
• I need to practice my handling so much more to be able to emergency fuel on the climbs and descents. I'll be doing this on the track from now on. On the flats in Mallorca, I decreased speed and focussed on three separate movements: remove fuel, consume fuel, return fuel. 
• You can never do enough brick sessions. I'm considering a few stretches before my run as my calf muscles burned after a few rides. 
• My wetsuit removal sucks and takes four minutes! I need to come up with a quick system! 
• My pedal / cleat arrangement is as loose as possible. This really helped me gain confidence and use them for the first time! I also unclipped very early at junctions and when really nervous, spun the pedal so I knew I couldn't accidentally clip in. I had one big fall and it was mostly because I forgot that turning right was turning right! 

If there's anything else people want to ask, let me know. I'm going to do a blog post on DIY training camps and training alongside a family holiday too. And of course some Mallorcan bike rambles and photos.