Peak Week 1 leading up to the Cayman Triathlon

Only 15 days to go to till the Cayman Triathlon and I am just about to finish Peak Week 1. I am finding it harder to get up for workouts in the morning than what I did earlier in the year so I just end up doing my workouts in the afternoon which is fine as the volume of training is much less now than a couple of weeks ago.

I am looking forward to taking some time off training during December but I would still like to carry on running during December as it is one of the "coolest" months of the year in the Cayman Islands.

After a disappointing 10 mile bike time trial on Sunday I am feeling more positive about my level of running fitness after a great 5x5min interval run session at Zone 4 pace this evening.

Easy recovery day tomorrow and looking to support my wife Jana during her 13km run in preparation for the Cayman Islands half marathon on the 4th of December 2011 http://www.caymanislandsmarathon.com/. Nope, I am not planning on doing a 13km run tomorrow as a recovery session. I am planning on a very easy 1h bike ride on my racing bike and will pass Jana at stages to drop off drinks for her during her run. She is pretty excited for her long run in the morning as she just got her brand new Asics Kayano's this week which Addie picked up for her in Miami (Thanks Addie).

If all goes well, I will be in Rose Hall, Jamaica in 3 weeks time with my wife and our friends Marius and Lara in order to compete in the Jamaica olympic distance triathlon. The race has been marketed pretty well in the US edition of Triathlete magazine. I know that two years ago Greg Bennett actually won the race so it seems like a couple of pro's come down from the States every year to compete. Certain sections of the race will take place on the property of the Iberostar hotel where we will be staying for the long weekend.

I am also looking forward to following the Xterra World Championships on Sunday. I will definitely be rooting for the South African Caveman Conrad Stoltz to take the win. Lance Armstrong will also be taking part and after his 5th place finish at the US Championships he will definitely be in contention for a top 10 finish.

I am glad that I took my phone along on my run this evening as I managed to snap this picture at sunset time.

Race report - Cayman Islands National 10mile time trial

This is just a quick blog update and an attempt to start blogging more regularly.

Seconds after the race start

The Cayman Islands National 10mile time trial took place on the 16th of October 2011. A link to the photos taken at the event can be found here: http://www.caymancycling.com/national-10-mile-tt-2011.html

Overall I was disappointed with my race performance yesterday. My time was 23:25 which was 1min and 24seconds slower than my time from the 2010 National 10mile TT championships. I have to add that the weather conditions was rather atrocious compared to 2010. About 5min into my TT rain was unleashed from the sky together with gusts of wind that made it rather scary riding with the S60 wheel in front and a S80 wheel in the back.

With two olympic distance races fast approaching during November I was concerned about taking risks on the wet roads yesterday. I had a bike accident on a wet road during November 2008 and since then my confidence has not been the same cycling all out on a wet road.

I reviewed my Garmin data this evening and compared my stats from this years time trial to last year's national time trial. What I found was that my average heart rate was actually 1 beat per minute higher than last year's TT but my max heart rate was 4bpm lower.

Overall my TT ride was good enough for a 3rd place overall in the open division which I was fairly happy with but know that I am going to have to put in a huge effort during the Cayman Islands Triathlon in 3 weeks time to achieve a new personal best of 2:12 or faster.

Receiving my award for 3rd place in the Open division

Ultraman

The Ultraman World Championships

After still being on a high from finishing Ironman Switzerland just over 5 weeks ago I cannot help but wander what the next event or challenge would be.

Fellow triathletes here in the Cayman Islands have been asking me when I will be doing my next Ironman and I do not really have an answer to this question at this stage. I find that training for an Ironman requires so much time and dedication that it just works better for me to do an Ironman once every two years while doing olympic distance and half ironman events in the years I do not compete in an Ironman event. In this way it also give me adequate time to focus on my weakest discipline or areas identified where I can further improve for my next Ironman event.

I came across two Ultraman websites this evening and cannot help to wander what it would be like to compete in this event. I definitely still have to do some more reading up about the Ultraman World Championships and how to go about being invited for this event. Here are two good websites on the Ultraman event I have found:

Ultraman official website

Ultraman - Wikipedia version

Definitely an event to ponder and think about for future years.

My Ironman Switzerland - Official race photographer pics

I was rather excited this morning to finally order and receive the download link for my Ironman Switzerland race photos taken by the photography company Finisherpix.

Here are a couple of my favourite pictures from the race:

Getting a pic taken at bike checkin the day before the race

Out on the bike course on my new Felt B2 pro 2011.

The end product after 15 weeks of hard training. Getting the race splits I more or less wanted on the swim and bike and a much better than expected race split than expected for me on the run.

Bellagio, Italy

Staircase in Bellagio, Italy (Lake Como)

After Jana and my recent trip to Switzerland and Italy I have picked the picture above as one my most favourite pictures taken with our Nikon D3100 SLR during the Italian part of our trip in Lake Como Italy. As one sets foot in the harbour in Bellagio there are a couple of staircases leading to shops and restaurants in Bellagio but really liked this staircase as it definitely plays the part of a staircase in a quaint but very popular Italian village.