Tuesday, 6 October 2015

James Huxford you are an Ironman, oh wait no you're not!

So today is the day of the race, however this is two weeks after race day and all is going well. So what happened? Basically the Yanks don't like to race on cat 4 storms, something about the rain, wind and 4-5ft swell. Sounds a bit like Weymouth so I saw no issues to race but after we landed in Baltimore a very cheerful car rep told us it was cancelled, I don't think he knew how close to being beaten to death with a bike box he was but I kept calm and didn't butcher him and we went to the hotel to sleep off the jet lag.
On waking we had it confirmed that the race was a no go and that there was a chance it would be run two weeks later (today). After a bit of thinking we decided to knock the return leg on the head and just enjoy the holiday. This was in part because I had already doubled in weight just by being in the states but also due to the cost of getting to Maryland at the end of our trip and all the accommodation faffing that would need doing. 
Also Ironman said I could have 50% any 2016 euro race so that seemed a better way to waste lots of money.

I have already started to plan next years training and I have a few ideas of how to improve on this year.
 But that if for next months blog I think.

Surfice to say the holiday part of the trip has been great and probably worth blog in itself but that would. Be dull as there is no training in it.

See you all soon for a year to ironman up part two!

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

So here we are...... RACE DAY!

Today i am living the life of an international play boy. I have to admit i could get used to it and i have been more consistent than any other part of my training. I think that I shall split this into  two part entry one pre race and one post race.

Pre race:

Training review:
Ah what can i say about my training other than what training? I guess no-one ever thinks they are fully fit or fully trained up and I fit well into this camp. I have not done enough and this is not just panic talking its a fact. having said this I am as ft as I have ever been and I am more than mentally ready to do this.
whatever happens I know that I will flog my guts out to complete this, if for no other reason that I don't feel the need to sign up for the next one on the finish line.

Travel:
Should have taken 4 weeks off work (maybe 5?). But seriously I think traveling a day or two earlier might have been wise.
As to why I am living the playboy life style, its not because of a romantic night with an octogenarian, but we are in the "Escape Lounge" at the airport. Supposed to be £30 of something but we got it "free" due to booking £3,000,000 worth of holidays at Co-op. But it is very relaxed and with Lizzy  making sure we arrived at stupid o'clock we are certainly getting our moneys worth.


Kit:
Happy with all my kit planning at the mo, thought there is a lot of talk about rain of biblical proportions, at least it will be cool!
will let you know next time what i would change.

Well whatever i have forgotton i'll add later and then let you know how it goes soon.



Saturday, 29 August 2015

Late for a reason?

Ok, so I'm normally late writing this thing but this time I have a reason. I won't claim it's good but it is a reason.

This month I have a dirty weekend (week) in Gerona. 3x short (50 miles) rides and 2x long (80 miles). So because I have a heavy bike week, building a few bricks in for fun of course, I have taken it easier over the last week. 
As normal I doubt I have done enough and the Maryland website is full of people doing 40 long rides a day with swims and runs and weight sessions on top. I have stopped worrying about this for the simple reason that just because it works for them doesn't mean I have to go out and compete with their training load. 
I'm on a good place mentally, I think it's more important than an extra run, and physically I'm in good shape too though we shall see how this racks up post Gerona. 

Ok so day before I have to post next months Blog and I'm completeing last months.
gerona was great, there was some brutal rides that took me well out of my comfort zone and put me into a whole world of pain. Even though we never hit the magic 112 mile mark I think that we climbed enough for it to balance out and again my mental focus showed through.

My weight is looking acceptable, still need to drop a bit for ideal race weight but I think another 1/2 stone should do me. That would put me at 13.5st which is fine.
With about 5 weeks  to go I am happy with where I am and the training I have done.
A lot of what I have done with Mark has focused on suffering and I think I have drilled the V into my soul which is going to be useful come race day.

Right back to nights and my doom.
See you in a day or two.


Monday, 6 July 2015

More iron lung than Ironman

Well it was looking like a good weekend. I was nice and relaxed pre-race. I had done enough training and my times on the run were looking good or at least quicker than last time out. However the gods of triathlon had other ideas.

Pre race checks - The bike arrived safely in and we got it back together in one piece. then a quick stroll to transition and get it all racked and my bags hung in the best places possible, last rack and at the end. Sadly things went a little wrong at this point as when we returned the following morning my rear wheel had fallen out. Not sure how this happened but i found it before I started the race so i thought all way set, big mistake.

Swim - Very happy with this, came out in 40min which put me bang on target. More importantly the swim was messy a classic washing machine of flailing arms and legs and whilst I didn't manage to free style it all the way but the bits I did I was faster than the people nearest to me, making up places until I got hit again.

T1 - Straight out of the water and up to T1 only a little crisis when the belt fell apart, then out on to the bike with no worries.

Bike - this is where is all goes wrong people. I started all excited and powered up the hill out of T1 and hit the flat. then people start passing me, fine I had done well in the swim so a strong biker would pass me. then more people pass me, this is odd and to be honest it felt hard to get the power out, I was pushing hard but not getting much reward. So i go through my checklist, am i eating? yes, am I drinking? Yes, is there a flat? no. So I keep peddling and I suffering. I continue to spill time and after i get passed by a lady on a mountain bike at 45km who must have started at least 20min after me I decide that there must be something more wrong than i first thought so make the choice to get off the bike and have a proper look. it take me about 30 seconds to realise that my rear break is rubbing on the rim of the wheel. I think what had happened is that when i put the wheel back in at transition it had banged in my haste and just moved the brakes 1mm one way or the other creating a nice permanent brake. So with this fixed I get back on the bike swearing like a trooper and head back up the hill, of course I had stopped 1/2 way up a hill to check this. my race changed at this point, well the bike did, I think the damage was done at this point. I start passing people and get into a good fight with a couple of other racers and knock about 3min/5miles off my time for the rest of the ride. I role into transition 2 about 25min behind target but i think if we average out my later 1/2 of the ride and since even when i had extra brakes i felt good i was on target for the 3 hours I was hoping for.
As a side point i think that i fed and watered well and have now got my fuelling strategy planned out for the full in oct.

T2 - No drama here, straight in and out and all is well for the start of the run. well fed and watered.

Run - the run was bloody, brutal and a sweatfest. I swear the weather was perfect until i hit the run and then it pops up 10c and gets all sunny. great for the crowds not so good for us.
As per normal i set off quick and then died but felt like i worked hard throughout. I ran my way up about 60 slots from the end of the bike to the finish and can claim that as a good result. I have learnt that I hate Red Bull, it's to sweet and just does not suit me. Coke is ok but i think for Maryland I will stick with water and electrolyte drink and then cubes (Mule bar) and bananas for the fuel.

Now for the important bit, the numbers:
- the results are ok, i am not happy with my placing in my age group, I am better than that but if you look at 20min higher on the official results i am much closer to mid field which i am happy with.
The other bit that i am pleased with is my swim, 120 out of 196 is pretty good especially since I can honestly say that a more aggressive swim is possible and with a bit better placing at the start I could avoid some of the fights and just get ahead of it.
If I make sure i put my bike together properly and work hard then i think i can manage the bike numbers better, thought the speed that some of the guys were doing, i'm not so sure. I'm not being negative, but those guys were flying, maybe a new bike would help.

The offical Ironman numbers tell a similar story to the Garmin.
though with different splits. If you look at 50km split you see where the damage is, 2-3km/hour loss over 50km is a bit. Nevermind though it's all a learning experience.



Just so you can see that i did some training during the week before.


What I learnt.
  1. Fuelling well helps
  2. getting the details right mean i can ride quicker
  3. My times my not have been great but i think they show i'm in the right area for Maryland.
  4.  training over the next 90 days will need to focus on distance mainly
  5. i must swim more
  6. the odd bit of speed work is needed.
Its been a great weekend, and now its time for a holiday.

see you in a month.


Monday, 1 June 2015

A month to go.....

Ok, so we have a month to go to Ironman 70.3 Norway! this is not good. As you can no doubt see the training did not go well last week, to be fair the other weeks were better but not all that much to be honest.

This having been said all is not lost, I am feeling pretty good in myself and I think that I'm a lot fitter than I was in the run up to Challenge Weymouth 70.3 last year or The Gauntlet the year before. Where the main issues lies is as normal my lack of consistency in training and diet. Some of this (well most)is my own bloody fault. I need to get my diet sorted first as my main issue is not the size of the engine but the truck it has to shift. I am still sitting at about 90kg and really I should be 5kg lower than this (85ish). the second issue is lack of training. the sessions i do are pretty good and i am seeing great results in both physical and mental performance. However, the sessions are fewer than they should be. this is especially true for swimming. I make no bones about this swimming is the least likely part of the race that I am going to get excited about. My defence is weak I know, I cannot boss the ride or run if i sink to the bottom of the lake but still training is a drag.

So how do I compete with this? Well for the diet side of things we are going Carb free for a bit (week to a month dependant on results) though I want to be fueling correctly in the run up to the race. If i can loose 5kg in a month that would be over the top, however I plan to have dropped 1/2 that target weight and then fuel with limited carbs pre race to get the best results. Initally I will bring in carbs in the AM only (oats etc for brakfast) then more later in the day.

As for training i plan to get out into open water this month and get 3-4 sessions in at Allerthorpe to get 1) the distance (1900m) in and also 2) get used to the water and wetsuit thing again.

To end on a bit of a high, my rides and runs are going well, i feel pretty good and i'm ready to go sub 6 for the 70.3.

Next month i will be late publishing (shock horror) as i plan to write after the event. on the other hand i might do a little one the a race review......

see you soon

Sunday, 10 May 2015

Only 8-9 days late, i'm getting better!



Ok so how did it go last month? well from my last post until today at least.

I am trying to make it look exciting by 
adding lots of images but when it comes 
down to it there has been a bit of hit and miss with the training. 




I think part of the problem was that i was on nights again, I know I always blame the nights shifts for a poor showing in the training stakes and really i could get around it if i really tried, but I really do suffer when the shifts kick in both in desire to train and in energy levels.


A further issue is that i seem to be loosing a lung or two. this is not just me complaining for once either, i have been given a diagnosis of Bronchial Spasm. basically i cough my lungs up once in a while.
This is fun and has been made all the more fun by having to take Salbutamol to fix it as now i can claim to be a pro cyclist..... I use drugs to improve performance :)

We are also into the summer league series too, last time out was Pocklington, a "rolling" course with a couple of killer hills chucked in for fun, See below/to the side.

the important thing about this race is that i knocked 1.30 off last years time. this supports the idea that i am getting better and that all this training is paying off as last years time  was by no means shabby as far as i was concerned.

This Tuesday is Tadcaster so we shall see how things go there. Ideally i'd like to take some time off but i think i'll be happy with staying about the same until i know what my chest is doing.

Well thats it for this month, next time i will tell you more about Tadcaster and one or two other 10k's depending on how quickly i get writing and i might even have a lung too.

Bye for now.

Saturday, 18 April 2015

I'm back.... and what an interesting time it has been.

So it has been a while since i last posted. An exciting mixture of chaos at work and general tomfoolery has meant that i have had neither the time or the inclination (mainly the inclination) to attack a blog post.

I have reflected (spot the nurse) on what i want out of the blog and what i am willing to put into it and i think that more posts is not the way forward. what i plan to do now is go for once a month and then just share some rambling reflections on how the training is going and what events are coming up.
What i will also do is link in some snaps of my training week and if i ever get a full green week i might share that with you too. Below is week one of the 1/2 plan i used for Weymouth and so I plan to use it again for Norway. This cunning little plan starts officially on Monday so that is when this all gets serious.
The aim is of course to stick to this plan religiously but i have a feeling that with the way my life is looking over the next few months that may be difficult. Lets be honest i haven't got a great history on that front.




On a brighter note I have a new toy, its my race bike for both Norway and Maryland. In the end after much soul searching and budgeting (Lizzy said I had to choose one bike not 3) i have got my Wilier Cent1 Air. Its black and red and white and goes like the clappers, a little slower when i ride it granted but it is a dream to ride. Its Ultegra Di2 and did i mention it's fast?
it looks so good i am going to share a picture with you all. You must admit she is pretty.
I will love her and pet her and call her George.....

I also was a bit sensible, not very, but a bit and got a serious bike fit done for both road use and in a TT position. This was done by the very nice Jon Cooper at http://www.yorkcycleworks.com/ , though every time I went in I ended up buying more stuff.

The plan is to get this bad boy set up so I can get all sexy and aero on it and still walk at the end...... I mean run of course.


Right I'm off to be produtive now for a bit and i shall post again at the start of next month.
Missing you all already.