The Training Blog of markryan

i carn’t beleve how lazy ive become at posting on here, so here goes.

ive just raced my first middle distance triathlon in a time of 5 hrs 2 mins and 59 secs
my splits were swim 30min 30sec, bike 2hrs 57 min, run 1hr 35 min.
overall very happy with my swim and bike and only 3 mins of my target time.

here is the race report:
Competitors battled through severe weather conditions on Saturday to take part in this years Cleveland Steelman race. The event consisted of a 2km swim in Ellerton Lake, a 90km bike and a 12 mile run. With rain showers and grey clouds looming all morning around the North East, it was only a question of time before the heavens opened. Luckily the rain held off until everyone was out on to the two-lap bike course but when it started to rain, it poured down. Thankfully there were no incidents out on the bike course, even though the surface water was over 4 inches deep in some parts of the scenic course.

The conditions by no means deterred the competitors with fierce racing at the front end of the field. First out of the water, with a 3-minute lead was Tony Weed of Hartlepool Triathlon Club, following were Georgie Rutherford and Lisa Tweddle of NE31 Triathlon Club. However, out on the bike the race really began with Richard Hunt of Kudu Bikes certainly showing his biking strength by clocking a 2hour 20min minute bike and giving himself a seven minute lead over Phil Smith of Total Racing Inc. The women’s race changed lead a number of times over the 90km with Denise Parkin from Ryton Tri arriving back in transition as first female, closely followed by club mate Jaci Swinbank and Helen Macvicker of Leeds & Bradford Tri Club. Out on to the two-lap trail run and with weather conditions improving. Richard Hunt hung on to 1st but his lead was shortened by quick runs from Total Racing Inc team mates Phil Smith, who claimed 2nd, and Phil Coulson finishing in 3rd. In the women’s race the run saw the placings change once again as Georgie Rutherford ran through from 4th to claim 1st with Helen Macvicker in 2nd and Denise Parkin in 3rd.

i was 7th in age group and 15th overall so not to bad. not very happy with bike, thought i could have been faster but i was 3 mins faster than last year so thats somthing at least i know where my biggest weekness is.

today i needed to take the bike to the shop for a check before this weekends crash. so i arranged to meet a mate who is not much of a cyclist for a short spin to encourage him out on his bike.

its 23.5 mi to the bike shop, that took 59 mins very happy with this.
then when we met up we did 13 miles and this took 66 mins. we must have looked odd what with john on his city bike and be on my triathlon bike especially as i was following him at his pace.
the journy home was hard riding into a really bad head wind for the whole 23.5 mile.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 06/10/2008
• Time: 11:19:29
• Total Time: 3:40:00.00
• Distance: 60 miles
• Average Speed: 16.36 mph

easy swim with 500m race pace effort, not happy with my pool swimming at the moment probably all the open water swimming ive been doing.

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 06/09/2008
• Time: 12:26:49
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Distance: 1,500 m
• Average Pace: 2:00.27/100m

my lack of cycle training following my bike crash is starting to show. so today after night shift i decided to leave the car at work and cycle the 24 mi home. apart from rain and a headwind the ride went fine. even the police car that tried to tag my ass with his car mirror when he passed did not spoil what was a enjoyable session.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 06/07/2008
• Time: 05:45:00
• Total Time: 1:20:00.00
• Distance: 23 miles
• Average Speed: 17.25 mph

this 5km is the one used in next weeks sprint triathlon, the first half is up hill so it takes it out of you legs but if you judge it right a fast return and negative split are on the cards. today i did just that with 11:28 up hill and 10:27 down so sub 22 min. last years run leg was 24 min.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/06/2008
• Total Time: 00:22:00.00
• Distance: 3.11 miles
• Average Pace: 7:05.03/mile

just a short swim finishing with 300m of kicking drills. then straight into a 5km run.

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 06/06/2008
• Total Time: 00:18:00.00
• Distance: 1,000 m
• Average Pace: 1:48.06/100m

this was the first time ive been on my bike since the race and i carn’t believe how nervouse i am and the faster courners. i was also out in heavy rain and this did not help especially as my fancy new “waterproof” club jacket is anything but.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 06/05/2008
• Time: 18:30:00
• Total Time: 1:15:00.00
• Distance: 21 miles
• Average Speed: 16.8 mph

well i arrived a the pool stressed and tired after my exam so an easy session was on the cards. the only thing i hate more than missing training is junk training but at least im swimming again.

Workout:

• Type: Swim
• Date: 06/02/2008
• Time: 14:00:00
• Total Time: 00:40:00.00
• Distance: 1,500 m
• Average Pace: 2:39.78/100m

im a little behind on my posts mainly because i havent been training much. mostly because it’s taken longer to recover from my crash (wrist and elbow still sore) and race than expected and also because ive been doing my exams. so im afew days ahead as i post this.

this run was before my exam and was really just to take my mind off it. i just took it easy but my upper limb joints were really sore still and that spoilt it abit.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 06/02/2008
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 00:30:00.00
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Pace: 7:30/mile