Hamilton Sport

Putting the hammer down trying to make up a bit of a deficit in the swim. 2nd fastest bike on the day which is kind of a cool stat to have. I take a bit of pride in my cycling and it generally gets to me when I give away any time on the bike leg. Luckily went into this one pretty strong and had a bit of a breakthrough training wise. I don’t think making progress on the bike is difficult but see many struggling to up their performance on it. If you feel this sounds like you then maybe it’s worth a chat. It’s just about turning a bigger gear harder!!

Tight margins and so little time separating the top 10 overall at this years Aquabike world champs. Happy to be once again pushing in the front pack. That’ll be it for now as I hang up the suit for the foreseeable.

⚒️ Hammers Hammering: on her way to a podium place at the standard distance national champs. Fantastic to grab a bit silverware before the season concludes. A massive congratulations!!

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Back in training for ITU Aquabike world champs in October. Stepping down to standard distance means I’m gonna need to burn hotter over the shorter but more intense distance.

Tense on 3. Proper shoulder pump after this one.

Bitta racing, sure what else would you be doing.

Todays tested Tuesday gets a proper science twist. Here we compared interstitial glucose to blood glucose measures following the consumption of different carbohydrate containing beverages. Long story short you should use caution when using CGM point measurements during periods of rapidly changing glucose environments.

Delighted to present this data to the crowd here annual conference in Glasgow.

Zoom zoom zoom. Good ole steady aerobic power. What’s your favourite power builder session?

Still making little breakthroughs in my swimming. Not the fastest but I can certainly see them up the road. My whole triathlon life has been a project. I love problem solving sports and it’s lead me into the dark hole of a PhD programme. Sometimes rewarding but always challenging. I read a quote the other day saying “you spend the time terrified about being wrong while trying to convince everyone you are right”. This is a lot like training I think. You have to trust the process and when the time comes; drop the hammer!!

For the last 2-3 months the weather at home as been much cooler than normal. Only last week I was wearing long bib shorts on a long ride because it was only 8degs. A good 10 degrees short of what it normally is this time of year. It was touching 30degs in the afternoon sun on Saturday which I haven’t been exposed to since last year.

After the initial settle period after the swim I could tell my power output was relatively low and Heart rate was coming up very quickly after small surges. I was also feeling really sapped and winded super quick on small hills etc.

I was drinking reasonably well and had a reasonable amount of sodium in my bottles so hydration was not a major concern for me. As it was a freshwater swim but I still had salt stains visible from the picture you can tell I was sweating and evaporation was taking place. But the dry heat just kept coming.

On reflection I estimate my average wattage on a fairly steady course was 50w low of what I’d expect. On a bad day let’s call it 40w off.

On the final lap I finished my bottles so collected an extra bottle of water from the aid station. The top wasn’t screwed on properly so most of it went all over my face and legs. It had come from a cooler so it was pretty icy. I actually nearly jumped a bit from the chill. The strange thing was that I instantly felt my breathing was doing more and strength came back into my legs. I was suddenly 30w up and felt like I could be aggressive again rather than hang on and chew up the kms.

Long story short is heat makes a difference, being heat ready or acclimated can be done effectively, but needs to be done. Hydration alone is only one issue, often core temp is separate. Cooling with a simple splash over the head and neck works! Done again every lap or opportunity id have taken water on and simply used it as a cooling strategy. A little bit of experience goes a long way in being proactive. Lesson learned.

Gold!