I suppose I should summarise the Waddle to Windsor now that I've waddled there, waddled around, then waddled home again.
First, looking at my training volumes for the year to date before the race:
2013 - - 2014
1040km - cycling - 663km
230km - turbo - 472km
1270 - total bike - 1170
278km - running - 316km
45km - swimming - 20km
87kg - lard - 89kg
Training has been just about as sporadic as last year. Running has been more about getting my run fitness back (-ish) for a race, then having several weeks off, then starting again. Cycling has been better: slightly lower volume, but better quality (more turbo) and I am far more likely to aim for a hill now than go around it. Swimming has been far less, but sufficient to maintain my form and make use of the transferable fitness.
My earlier predicitions for a possible sub 2:40 all fell apart with a nasty chest infection and lack of training, so although the volumes look reasonable, there was not enough consistency leading up to the event. And I didn't lose any weight.
At the start of my 6 week panic I optimistically thought:
Swim 0:30:00 - 1:17 slower (damage limitation)
Bike 1:12:00 - 2:32 faster (new bike, more turbo work)
Run 0:53:00 - 1:53 faster (better running generally)
Transition 0:04:00 - 0:34 faster (practice getting my kit off)
After some training, I revised the swim time down to 27mins, the bike up to 1:15 and the run up to 55. I kept the 4mins of transition for a 2:41 target. Still tough.
My weight has stayed the same, or perhaps increased slightly. This is my fault: my diet, lifestyle and sleep have all been poor and I have had a tendency to wallow a bit in self-sympathy. I can correlate exercise consistency against my own ups and downs pretty well. I'm not the first person who has this issue, nor will I be the last.
Anyway, while I am extremely suspicious of the 'official' timings for Windsor Tri, which I'll cover in the traditional Race Report, I'll use them to compare like with like for last year (2013 in brackets)
Swim - 28:10 (28:43)
T1 - 2:32 (2:30)
Bike - 1:14:49 (1:14:32)
T2 - 3:48 (2:04)
Changed LayoutWaddle - 57:56 (54:53)
I was also trying to make a nice graph showing training volume against time. Sadly, Garmin Connect outputs data in such a way that I got bored trying to mangle it into something sensible with Excel. Suffice to say last year my training was pretty steady, whereas this year an early rush of enthusiasm (headed up by the most excellent Tour of Sufferlandria) got swamped by 'other shit' and I commenced a 4 month taper of decreasing volume and, crucially, quality.
So, my analysis on Windsor and the year so far:
Swim: I'm OK at this, and as long as I have some fitness and my expectations are not what they were 5 years ago I can do OK. This year, the current was stupidly strong so for many reasons the swim would be slow. However, I've learned to important things - how to swim in a my wetsuit (a revelation I only hit upon in the last two weeks!) and how to swim in a mass start situation.
Bike: Despite a lack of preparation and consistency, my new bike ripped it up. I'd have been a few minutes slower on the old one. Also, I was chuffed and it felt great. Ignoring the clock, I love my bike. There were some positional niggles, which I can blame myself for, but I have a great position and can do good things on level and downhill. Sadly, show me an incline and I'm floundering. When I get to the point where my position and bike is giving no advantage, my shite-ness shines through and I get dropped like a proper fatty.
Run: For me, this just takes consistency. Doing the training to make 5min/km comfortable (-ish) requires just a little consistency from me. I hate to admit it but underneath this lardy, over-shouldered swimming frame used to be a middle-distance runner - although we were all great when we were 18, weren't we? I blew up at about 5-6km at Windsor owing to this lack of training and excess weight.
Weight: Poor diet, excess alcohol, poor training, excess alcohol, 4 hours sleep per night, excess alcohol and a lot of stress have given me the full house of excuses. All of these are under my control - other than certain outside influences on stress, but I'm trying to learn the 'Chimp Paradox' approach to dealing with that. I could/should lose 10kg of body fat. It would help everywhere.
So, overall, all this crap amounts to:
Windsor 2013: 2:42:44
Windsor 2014: 2:47:15
A minute and a half lost to the new transition layout, three minutes lost due to blowing up on the run. I would consider my roughly equal bike time a victory for my bike and bike fitting. My swim time is a victory given the strong current and lack of training.
Waddle done.