Vote John/(Sorry Kitchner!)

It's the closest I'll ever get to a Kitchner-esque 'tashe,
but I still look more like a 70s porn star.

Ah a return to crappy paint-doctored images, this can only mean a special occasion. I found out today I have been nominated for the Triathlon 220 Age Group triathlete of the year. I am genuinely honoured considering some of the names that are on the short represent the best in short, middle and long distance racing in the country. (I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a tad out of place, but what the hell!)

So faithful blog readers, mobilise your friends, family, pets and alter-egos and vote en mass for John.

VOTE HERE

On a more important note, what ever happens thank you to every single person who nominated me, it means a lot. Also, votes for Dave Wardle, Sky Draper, the Tri247 website and all things Hillingdon would be a votes well spent.

1 year older (again)

With annoying consistency my birthday roles round each and every 29th of November. Between the ages of 0-21 it was a novelty to be celebrated with gusto but I seem to have slipped into the mid-20s malaise where its worth a meal out and a beer rather than a huge piss up with several days recovery to follow.

Before writing this I looked back at the similar blog I wrote this time last year regarding where I had come from and where I thought I would be in a years time and once again I am reminded that even the loftiest goals are attainable through hard work and perseverance. I always had a Kona slot in mind when I sat at the Hillingdon Xmas bash in 2008 but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be the top British age grouper at the event. It has been yet another fantastic year and even though a quick review of 12 months of blogging reveals some major lows, they are out-weighed by the phenomenal highs.

I already know what my targets are for next year in my three "A" races (Roth, Louisville and, if Louisville is a success, Kona) and this year I have more riding on my results than ever. I have told myself that, extenuating circumstances, aside I MUST hit 2/3 of my targets in these races to even consider continuing with triathlon as a career into 2011. These targets are written in black and white on my bedroom door so there is no escaping them.

For once I won't be sharing these targets (yet) as they seem, even to me, to be lofty. Only time will tell if I have ideas above my station (in which case I'll be sat here in 12 months time writing about a significant change in direction) or whether I really can make it in what is one of the toughest and most competitive sports on the planet.

I'll finish with a quote I read on Gordo Bryn's website this last week from the swimming coach Dick Jochums. "People will do the minimum required for success. This is why extremely motivated people can compete with extremely talented people."

Amen Dick, Amen.

Part of new regime is to get strong. I think the paleo diet has its advantages for sure, but if you aren't careful it is just too easy to lose weight and when you're 6'4" this isn't always a positive. I raced South Africa at 73kg and thought skinny = fast. Well at Kona I was about 79kg and I out split myself in the bike and the run, my swim was only 90s slower and without a wetsuit. The last few weeks have seen me hitting the gym and for the most part I've enjoyed it but one thing really annoys me, the people!

I am fortunate enough to have been coached for two years by people who know what they are talking about. An ex-olympic rower and the coaches at the English Institute of Sport taught me how to lift weights. No mean task given I'm not famed for my above par coordination. The contrasts between a "proper" gym and a commercial gym are many. Proper gyms have lifting platforms, free weights, people who have leg muscles, people who have a core and therefore DO NOT require a weight belt for bicep curls. They have athletes who spend as much time lifting as they do resting and no one, repeat no one, would even consider bringing a bleeding mobile phone into the gym to use between sets. No one wears baggy jogging bottoms or casual trainers and the main goal is performance, not the holy trinity of biceps, shoulders and chest!

Anyhow, imagine my delight when looking for the changing rooms at my nearest track I walked into a room I hadn't seen before and was greeting by the site of lifting platforms, bar bells with proper free weights and a proper squat rack. I've just finished my first session there and it was blissfully painful. Know waiting for the bloke on his mobile, in fact, not a mobile in site as I was the only one in the room, free to punish my errant quads as much as I wanted... heaven.

On another note I "raced" the Thirsk 10 miler on Sunday. It was a great day and although I was given strict instructions not to race I thought I'd put the hammer down in the last 2 miles as a birthday present. The photo below was taken just before the aforementioned hammer was dropped. As with all pictures of me at running races I seem to look like a giant.

(Literally) Cooking with gas

As my 24th birthday approaches (although according to the latest issue of Competitor I've already reached that age!) I was desperately trying to think of a blog post. Having nothing to note in training (weights make my muscles hurt, I'm still not a very good swimmer etc, etc...) I got thinking about what I do with the time I'm not training, eating or sleeping. Whilst this is a very small segment of my life most of the time I have spare is taken up with cooking. One thing I have really enjoyed about having a bit more free time is that I have been able to really improve my culinary repertoire, as well as being able to experiment a little more. This got me thinking about how my diet has changed over the last few years of my life and I was able to break it down into four distinct periods:

1. High Fat/Low Clue - this involved me having 2 meals before 8am, usually Frosties with full cream milk and then a full breakfast sandwich on the way to school. A full breakfast sandwich is exactly what it sounds like, bacon, egg, sausage, mushroom, cheese and extra grease. Lunch was often a battered sausage and chip butty (at a recession busting £1) and each day usually featured at least a pack of fig rolls. (AKA the moob diet.)

2. Low fat/Low Clue - in an attempt to lose weight I simply tried to cut out all fat. I must have been eating less than 10g of fat a day and all I ate was low fat food. Like many people I assumed this was the best way to be healthy not realising that many low fat/"healthy" foods contain a multitude of additives and artificial ingredients to keep the fat down. Equally, I was blissfully ignorant of the importance of good fats. I lost weight but felt like crap.

3. Uber-carb - When I arrived at University my rowing coach gave me various nuggets of advice, some were gold nuggets like HTFU (first time I'd heard this) others were nuggets of a different kind like "you cannot eat too much". This is a lie, you can and I did, moreover it was mostly made up of carbs. Here's a "You are What you Eat" style break down of a typical day:

• 3-5 XL malt loaves
• 8-12 Weetabix
• Pasta and Pesto
• 4+ Sandwiches
• All you can eat ride pudding
• Pasta bonding, an all you can eat pasta buffet which usually culminated in someone being sick.

It now seems odd that we didn't see the flaw in eating literally thousands of calories in our pre-race carbo loading when the race lasted, at most 6 minutes. I sincerely apologise to anyone who used a toilet after me during this 3 year period.

4. Variety is the spice of life - my current philosophy is that, in moderation, most things are OK. I try to keep all foods that have been processed at a minimum and usually read ingredients and avoid buying something if I couldn't make it myself. I do a lot more of my own cooking so I know exactly what is in things and look to hit 10+ servings of fruit everyday. At this stage in the game (pre-Xmas) my diet is far from perfect, but in January I will become strict on my diet and stick with the "help or harm" philosophy: if it isn't going to make me faster, it ain't goin' in my stomach.

To break up this text heavy blog, here are a few of the meals I have enjoyed creating in the recent weeks.

YUMMY!

And through the magic of the iPhone...

...I bring you photos of Hawaii, and only 3 weeks late!

On the way back from Hawi, the suffering was about to beginThe finish, I'm alot happier than I look, honest.

The first 20 miles, best 20 miles EVER!

And we're back...

Post race spin/posing

A wild donkey, incidently, how I felt in the pool today as well

Another long time without posting, although if you follow the Twitter updates you'll have been given a truly breathtaking tour of San Fran via crappy iphone photos. Lucky you!

Well the new season is upon us, in exactly 13 hours I'll be stood at the side of the pool for a 2200m technique session which is going to take forever. I thought I'd bite the bullet and do 1500m this evening to make tomorrow less of a shock. It turned out to be long course set up at the pool! I think it's going to take a couple of weeks to get back to normal. I had a great time in San Fran, did some good running and tried to lose a little bit of the post-Kona moobs (limited success, another 2 weeks before I'm feeling trim me thinks) but other than that spent a lot of the time reading, a lot of it drinking coffee and the rest of the time planning next season.

I'll be working with a new coach this year, Alan Couzens will be guiding me and trying to make sure I'm not burnt out by Christmas and my goal races will be Roth in July and Kona again in October. I'll be aiming to qualify at UK which is only 2 weeks after Roth but I'm hoping this is a short enough time to hold fitness and long enough to regain freshness. Bit risky but a simple life would just be boring.

I'm currently on the search for sponsors and a job which will fit around my training and racing schedule, which does not make me an employers dream I'll admit, so it's been a hectic 48 hours since getting back to Sheffield but hopefully things will start to come together by mid-November. I've also got the excitement of my UK athletics Level 1 coaching course to look forward to which will be a nice change and a it's fantastic to have some new paths to explore. If any readers know of any NFP organisations working with kids in sport please let me know as I'm eager to continue my work in education in some way even though I'm not in the class room full time.

There is no doubt this year is going to be one of the most challenging I've ever had but I'm ready for it and I WILL make this work!

Later.

Kona 2009

My body needs to sleep but my head won't let it, probably a combination of too much sugar today and some residual adrenaline still pumping through me. If IMSA is anything to go by then I'll be dead to the world from Tuesday through till Friday. On the plus side this affords me some precious time to write my blog. An advanced warning, it's probably going to be fairly long.

Before the race I did my usual race plan, projected splits, HR and power limits, nutritional plan etc. All in all it was just over an A4 page in Time New Roman font size 12, so it isn't just GO FAST scribbled on the back of a beer mat with some speed lines drawn around it. To eke out every last second of your potential in an Ironman takes planning, discipline and some luck too, and all of this on top of the training, but it's all self-inflicted and I wouldn't change it for the world.

My goal time... 9:50.

Race week was incredible, in fact the whole build up was incredible. We'd chosen to stay a little way out of town and whilst this had its drawbacks it was nice to be away from the hubub immediately before the big day. All the admin went off without a hitch, a statement of how well this race is run. Bike check in took around 5 minutes, significantly less time than I spent pontificating on whether 8 gels would be enough for the bike or did I need 9? Should I take a chocolate energy bar or would it taste too sweet in the heat and, most importantly, could I get away with a full white race kit? The answer to this last question was yes, yes I could, a response which no doubt pleases the readers who refer to this blog as "John porn", you know who you are.

At 5 I headed over for body marking and enjoyed a surprisingly calm build up, there were nerves for sure, and the anxiety dreams had come think and fast (my favorite being the one where I forgot to rack my bike with wheels and only realised when I came to T1 to find just my frame in the rack) but when all was said and done I knew what was required. Having come out early I was prepared for the tough conditions, I'd taken on Madame Pele the week before and come out 2nd best, I wasn't scared but I was respectful and knew that hydration and nutrition were key.

Thanks to some solid advice, when the cannon went off at 7am I had a great position and had one of the best swims I've ever experienced, I found some feet and sat on them, when they moved and hopped onto the next convenient set. There was the usual argy-bargy but for my first non-wetsuit event I was real pleased to exit on 1:03, my target had been 1:02 but I always knew that was on the optimistic side and I felt I'd given myself a good start.

Onto the bike and up the first half of Palani I must have been passed by at least 50 riders. I was under strict instructions to keep the power below 260w and I was failing, those passing me were flat out sprinting and must have been pushing 400+ To give you an idea this is about 100 watts more than the QUICKEST cyclist of the day would produce, needless to say I saw many of these people again. Once we completed the in town segment of the course we went onto the Queen K to start the real ride, a 107m out and back ride along a landscape which is amongst the most barren I've ever experienced. As we left town the sun got stronger and I started to feel good, my legs warmed up and I think I had one of the best moments of my life to date when as I over took a line of about 10 cyclists going past a group of spectators I heard people shouting "go 1829". I saw people giving me the hang loose sign and when I responded even more people waved back. It was incredible, in 35 degree heat I got goose pimples from the excitement, the realisation that I was taking part in the race I had read about since before I even started this sport. For some people 3 years doesn't seem like an awful lot of time but for me it felt like ages since I'd first seen the video of the Iron War between Dave Scott and Mark Allen and Team Hoyt crossing the finish line within the cut off. It was a good thing I checked the power meter as this excitement seemed to have increased by watts by about 20% and I sure as hell wasn't going to finish the race fueled by adrenaline and fond memories!

At the turn around I still felt good and (probably in error) put in a push on the down hill. As we made the turn back towards Kailua the combination of a hot headwind and an increase in the temperature made it feel like I was turboing in a sauna wearing a bin liner. The power took a dive and my traps were killing me meaning I wasn't riding the aero position for long periods of time. This funk lasted from 35 miles to go until the airport, about 10 miles out, but as I went down the hill into T2 a combination of caffeine, sugar and a second dose of adrenaline pumped me up for the run. My bike goal was 5:15, I came in on 5:13. I was bang on target.

Leaving transition for the last time I knew there was still a hell of a lot of racing to do. As with the bike about 20 people immediately over took me and, once again, I saw most of them later. I settled into 7:30 miles whilst we had the shade and focused on taking in gels and water. As the race continued I felt as good as can be expected and made it to mile 10 in 75 mins. However, the remaining 16 miles were going to be 16 of the toughest I'd ever run. The hill up Palani made my legs scream and from then on it became a death march. The temperature was at 105F (40C) and the humidity was killing me. I must have drunk over 10 litres of fluid in 7 hours and washed the same amount over me again but I had only been to the toilet once. At mile 13 I began taking in coke at the aid stations and slowly began picking of the athletes in my AG, I had no idea how many were in front of me but I thought I might be in 6th of 7th. Seeing the solar panels of the Energy Lab was bitter sweet, only 8 miles to go but 3 of those were through one of the hottest 2 square miles on the planet. At mile 19 my intercostals cramped and I had to ditch my HR strap and my fuel belt, I was going to finish fulled on coke. I picked of another person in my AG and I worked out I was maybe in 6th. I figured there was no chance of making the top 3 so was racing for myself and my time. By mile 20 I was just telling myself to not walk, just don't walk. Mile 20 through to 22 were just under 8min pace but 23 to 24 was killer and I was over 8:30s. Some how I managed to take in a combination of coke, Gatorade, an orange slice, ice, water and another coke in one aid station and as I saw the last hill of the day I pushed for home. I picked of three more athletes and started the descent down Palani, my quads liked this even less than going up it some 100 minutes earlier but I knew if I went hard a sub 3:20 marathon was on. I went but didn't make my target and with it sub 9:45 slipped away, that said it was a big PB on a tough course on an even tougher day.

My marathon prediction had be 3:25 so going 3:20 put me 5 minutes under my target of 9:50. I'd clearly missed some athletes in my AG as I came in 8th, 9 minutes off a podium spot, which it turns out are 5 deep in Kona. I raced my heart out and there was no way in hell I could have made the top 5 with what I had today. Having said that, I was chuffed to be te first British age group athlete over the line and the 3rd British male over the line including PROs. It's a different game all together here and there were times I felt like I had brought a water pistol to a gun fight. To run a 3:20 in 40 Celsius and have only the 8th quickest split in my AG shows the depth of the field. I hadn't planned on coming back next year but am now reconsidering. I want to rock up fully ready and prepared with no niggles and uninterrupted training, then maybe I'll be stood on the stage with the men's 25-29 winners instead of in the crowd...

It has been a fantastic ride and I am very satisfied with my 2009-10 season. I've progressed massively in 12 months but feel I've yet to make the step upwards I know is within me. Time and patience are key in this sport and I have plenty of both.

Bring on 2010!