Ready to race

So we are 3 days away from the big race of the season for me. I say big not because it is necessarily more important that the others throughout the season, but because this is by far the most competitive event I plan to enter this season, with over 2000 competitors.

I also use this even as a reference to how good my form is and how the seasons training has improved me over previous years.

I have done this race each year for the past 3 years and it was the first triathlon I did in the US when I came over from England 4 years ago.

Last year I finished 4th in my age group and if all goes well, I intend to do even better this year. I have done well this year in other races with three 1st place age group finishes so hopefully I can keep this form going.

My taper is going well and I am holding off a cold I think so fingers crossed, I will make it to Sunday fighting fit. My markers also look positive with both my swim and run paces looking good in training. If I can go into the race relaxed and recovered, it should be good.

I am also leading the Sony Pictures Triathlon Team into this race so from a team point of view, it is looking like a good year. We have over 100 competitors fighting it out against the likes of Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, NBC Universal and Dreamworks. We have raised nearly $50,000 for the Childrens Hospital LA and hope to pull out some fast times on the team this year.

Hopefully I will be reporting a positive race next week.

A Bit of Last Minute Coaching

I met a guy called Simon Gowen pretty late into my training. My first contact with him was purely as a radio listener. His show, "The Simon Gowen Show", is a weekly occurrence on LA Talk Radio. It was brought to my attention on one of the LA Tri forum posts. At first, I thought it was a one off featuring the topic of triathlon but I later found that this was the central topic for the show. What a great way to talk about the sport. It's something that I can listen to at work without taking me away from the tasks I need to achieve. As the weeks went on, I found that I was picking up many tips and the focus drew more and more to the Malibu Triathlon. Special guests like Ian Murray (who did my bike fit), Chris Foster (A local Pro), and Brooke Davison (A female pro who was flying in for the Malibu Triathlon), all gave pointers that would ultimately improve my race.

One day, an email came through saying that Simon was to do a talk at Triathlon Lab at their new store in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, I would not be able to make it over that way but I sent some members of the Sony Pictures Triathlon Team over there to check it out. The feedback was great and to top it off, one of our members, Felicity, managed to have a chat with Simon and asked if he would come and talk to us as a team. After some minor arm twisting, Simon agreed to do a lunchtime talk about the mental preparation for the race.

He was a big success and I feel like I gained a lot from what he had to say. The big breakthrough however was the fact that Simon would be training up at Zuma beach in Malibu at the same time as us and asked us to join him. I was intending to do some in and out practices before my main swim but Simon took this a step further and made a full In and Out clinic for us. This may sound basic but getting in and out of the ocean is a fine art. Doing this at race pace is even harder. That weekend, Simon taught us to race.

As a major bonus, Simon also agreed to allow me to tag along with him for the ride on the bike course. He said we were going to do it at 80%. This, I am assuming was his 80% as I quickly ended up pushing it very hard. This wasn't helped by the fact that he put me out in the lead and shouted encouragement and instructions of how and where to attack the course. It also helped to learn good places on the course to drink. This is something I have not done well before so this was encouraging.

The bike was feeling great after my proper fit from Ian Murray. My worries about it not being racy were removed straight away when we managed to finish the ride in 46 minutes. This was 3 minutes better than my previous best and we needed to stop for a stop light and the closed barrier at the turn around point. All very encouraging.

We didn't do the run after the ride as normal and instead, Simon got me to jump straight back into the ocean. This was our ice bath. Getting the muscles into that cold water was lovely and I could feel my whole body relaxing and cooling down. I need to remember that one. I haven't felt so loose in years.

I felt like Simon had helped me out so much that day and I believe I was so much more prepared to race.

To add to this, I had had steady communication with Ian Murray. He has been giving me lots of tips on little things I can do to improve my racing. He is also a great swimmer so as well as the bike fit, I intend to get Ian to look at my swim stroke. Anything to get me faster in the water would be a real bonus and I hear that Ian is one of the best in the business, especially with triathlon specific swimming. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to get my stroke looked at before Malibu but it is on the cards for a future time.

I'm also considering getting Simon to coach me on a casual basis. I have a tight weekly schedule so my time is limited but hopefully he may be able to help me with my running speed.

Back to the beginning

Okay, This isn't actually the start but it is my first blog so I owe everyone a bit of background and a recap. I intend this blog to track my decisions and the progress I make as I meander down my random path to this years Malibu Triathlon. Let me introduce myself.

My name is Dan and I am a keen cyclist. That is to say I am one of those people that actually enjoys propelling myself around using only my own power. I like to run, but I have a bad knee. I like to swim but I don't really make the time to visit the pool at the moment so cycling is my thing. Adding to this the fact that I am a bit of a speed freak, somehow travelling under my own power whilst going faster than my body alone allows seems to make up the perfect scenario.

Right, Lets travel back in time about 4 months so that I can fill in the gaps. Myself and my pregnant wife Sam lived in Marina Del Rey, CA. Due to lack of space for the impending baby arrival we sought a new residence. Finding a nice apartment in Playa Del Rey seemed perfect and within 3 weeks we were moving in. The great thing about both locations is my route to work. Actually there is a problem with the latter location that I will get to in a minute but the important part is the access I have to what is known as the Ballona Creek Cycle path.

This essentially runs from the mouth of the Marina inland to and past Culver City where I work. Pair this with the California sun and I have the perfect cycle route into work. I believe it is about 8 miles each way including the small sections of street at either end.

Now for the problem. The california sun which we come to rely on so much, does actually grow weak in the winter and typically on days where I would prefer to stay warm and dry, I had grown accustom to taking the Culver City bus to work from where I live. This offered great flexibility and was plane old convenient. The new place is relatively in a dead zone for public transport. There is a bus, but I don't really need to head towards Compton so for the moment, I just ride.

So I was getting used to the new location and really enjoying the route into work, but on day three, things went slightly wrong. A combination of a cold, damp day, newly pressurized slick racing tires and
an ill judged tap of the front brake saw me not so upright any more and in fact sliding to a stand still from a speed of roughly 20mph.

Let me add into the equation that I have tri bars fitted to my bike as well as clipless peddles. My Elbow, Thigh and Wrist essentially took the force of the impact and off to hospital I go.

It turned out the I had a fractured Radius, a broken bone in my wrist and a good old helping of road rash to add to the equation. The elbow I suspected had something wrong as soon as I tried to get up. The wrist progressively got worse resulting in repeat trips to the doctors before actually working out it contained a broken bone and my wife had the pleaser or revealing the extent of the road rash while pealing away my cycling shorts. To put is simply, she did not hide her anguish at the sight. Even after clean up, it looked pretty sore.

I suppose the point of this initial round up is to highlight that I was put out of action as far as cycling goes and I resigned myself to being taken into work by my lovely wife. This was aided by the timely arrival of our baby boy, Benjamin in December, which allowed me to take off a whole month of work for paternity leave as well as recover from my injuries.