The Road to Ironman

2014-15 Season Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Wed, 13 May 2015 10:15:00 +0000

Its been a long time coming, but work and life in general haven't allowed me to write much on the blog, but here is a brief summary of whats happened since IM south Africa 2014:

Competed and finished IM Frankfurt with a PB of 10h:32ms
Competed and finished at IM 70.3 World Champs in Mont Tremblant, Canada with a PB of 5h:07ms
Only managed swim and bike at local Jailbreak olympic distance race due to injury.
Competed and finished 2015 IM 70.3 South Africa with 5h:20ms. Disappointed with time, but the conditions were awful and everyone suffered. I placed 8th in my Age Group and would have gone to World Champs in Austria, but I didnt take the slot...or rather, I turned up late for slot allocation!!
Competed in 2015 IM South Africa but DNF. PB on swim by 10 mins (1h:15m), Bike of 5h:52m, and injured on T2.

Not the best season, and definitely nothing to write home about, but I'll take my PB at IM Frankfurt, and my presence at the 70.3 World Champs in Canada as the highlight of the season. I met some top pros in Canada and it was a great experience overall to compete in a world championship event!

After IM South Africa in March I took 5 weeks off training, completely OFF training. Work and life in general haent allowed me much time to swim, bike and run, but it was good to take the foot off the gas pedal! I gained weight and reached 80Kgs for the fist time in 4 years, and it felt great!

The plan is to just keep ticking and stay active for a few months, do a few local 70.3 and shorter races, and look back at IM in the second half of 2016. Below are some photos of the last season!

2015 IM South Africa - DNF

2015 IM 70.3 South Africa - 5h:20m

2014 Ironman Frankfurt -10h:32ms

Ironman 70.3 World Champs - Mont Tremblant 5h:07ms

Ironman 70.3 World Champs - Mont Tremblant - with the MTD Squad

2014 Ironman 70.3 World Champs - Posing with eventual Pro winner, Javier Gomez-Noya

2014 Ironman 70.3 World Champs - Posing with 2014 Kona World Champ, Sebastian Kienle

Ironman 70.3 World Champs - Mont Tremblant 5h:07m

Ironman South Africa 2014 - Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Mon, 05 May 2014 17:31:00 +0000

One month after Ironman, I am finally able to post the race report of what was, to date, my best race in this distance.

Nine months of training were about to culminate in what I was expecting to be close to 11h of racing in PE, so it was about time to travel out there and prep up for the last few days before race day.

We arrived in PE on Thursday and, like last year, I was well accompanied by my wife, kids, and my sister, who had traveled from Angola to not only watch my race on Sunday, but to also race on her very first triathlon on Saturday. It was about to be a very busy and competitive weekend for the Vieira crew!

This year I chose a different Bed and Breakfast as last year’s was a bit too far, and we needed a car to get to and from the BB, so this year we stayed at the cozy Brighton Bed & Breakfast on Brighton Road in Port Elizabeth. We checked in and decided to have something to eat so went out to the mall for a quick meal, and then back to set up the bikes and get some rest for the following day.

On Friday morning I went out for a quick and relaxed swim, then we all went out to the Expo, checked ourselves in and, obviously, spent some money at the different booths. It was all very busy with athletes and their families, and you could feel the energy everywhere. We met up with our Spanish friends Paco and Yolanda who drove from Cape Town to come and watch me. Paco was a heavy smoker who had recently quit smoking and had been following my triathlon training and racing for the past 9 months. I convinced him to give triathlon a go so he was also doing his first triathlon with my sister on Saturday before my race. I couldn't wait to see them both compete, but before that, my power wife was racing the IronGirl 8,5Km run on Friday.

We both headed out to the starting line and we left the kids with our friends and my sister. The the start line was completely packed and we had already talked about her pushing her way out to the front of the pack otherwise shew as going to be slowed down by the "walkers" in the race. We kissed goodbye and off she was, to push her way up to the front of the start line before the gun went off.

There were roughly 1600 ladies doing the race, and many of them were either wifes or girlfriends of guys doing the Ironman on Sunday, but I was surprised to see that quite a few of them were actually racing IM on Sunday themselves and were just doing this 8,5Km race for a jolly! Good for them!

The gun went off and Sonia headed out on the first third of the group, but not quite as ahead as we would have liked. As the avalanche of runners went by, the avalanche of family member ran to the beach road to wait for them to come by us.

She found her way to the front of the pack and passed us in the top 20 as we all cheered and shouted for her. As the whole group passed us to go for a final turn around before coming under the arch and through the red carpet! Once again my power wife was able to come in on the top 20 of this race, with a 20th position overall out of 1600 women, and 5th in her age group! I was so so proud of her! THAT'S MY GIRL!

One more medal for her collection, now if only I could convince her to give triathlon a try! I did, however, convince my sister Helga and friend Paco to try the Corporate Triathlon as their first event in the sport, which comprised of exactly one tenth of the distances we covered in the Ironman making it a 380m swim, 18Km bike, and a 4,2Km run.

On Saturday morning I accompanied them bright and early and I could feel both the excitement and nervousness in both of them, but my only advice to them was to not worry about any times, and just try to enjoy the experience! They both finished the race and had a blast... so much so that Paco registered for the ITU race in Cape Town with me 3 weeks later, and my sister registered for a half marathon in Houston, TX, and is already looking for her next triathlon race to enter! Triathlon does this to us... it gets us addicted!

Right, so by now I had lost my voice from all the cheering and screaming for my family and friends, and I needed to try and relax a bit, rest, and get ready for what was to be a very long day on Sunday! I went to rack my bike and then I headed back to the hotel to rest.

Race Day

I had the alarm clock set for 4:15am, but there was really no need to do that as I kept waking up every hour during my sleep! I already had my bike racked from the day before, but I kept going over the item list again and again as if I was expecting to have forgotten to pack anything in the bags... luckily not!

I left the hotel by myself and got to transition right after it had opened. I carefully placed my nutrition and drink in their place, made sure I had 12 saltsticks for the bike and 6 for the run. I needed to find someone to lend me a pump as I didn't take mine with me cuz I didn't want my wife to have to carry it around the whole day! I find a guy to lend me his pump and as Im pumping my front wheel... puff... the end o the valve (the part that unscrews loose) breaks!! FUCK! Immediately I thought "Ok, run to the hotel and get the spare front wheel (Zipp 404) for the race, no big deal"! I panicked a bit, I must say, but after a few deep breaths I realized I could still pump air into the tyre... and it would stay in! I pumped and pumped ( a bit harder than usual) and "voilá", it was fine! Yeah, big sigh of relieve from me.

I was all ready to go... but no family in sight yet, and the beach was packed! I had spoken to my wife and sister briefly telling them where I was, but they were already calling my wave out to the beach to line up and I was already expecting not to say goodbye to them, when I finally see them when on the phone to them. We kiss, we hug, and both my wife and sister give me a few words of encouragement, while my kids simply kiss me while still half asleep! Bless them!

Boy, I look dead tired here!

Swim

For the first time this year, there were going to be different waves for the race start, and I was on the third wave after the pros and the 18-34 AG. I didn't place myself at the very back this year, but neither did I go to the front of the pack! I was about two thirds of the way back and when the gun went off I followed the crowed into the Indian Ocean. The first 300m were quite agitated and I did get and throw a few punches, but as we turned left at the first buoy it all got better as the field thinned with the faster swimmers gone quite quickly. The whole swim was quite uneventful and relaxed. I remember looking at the right and seeing the sun coming up on the horizon and thinking to myself how lucky I was to be there, with close to 3000 people racing in the sport I love and BAMMM.. (punched in the head by another swimmer) what was a sign to stop day dreaming and keep going! I was actually quite happy to get the same time as the year before, which was 90mins, so all I was thinking about was to keep going and not stress too much. This year the swim was only one lap, which was surely welcomed by me, but it felt like it just kept going forever! i finally reach shore and get out of the water in 1h:14m, 5 minutes faster than the year before!

Bike

For me, this is where the Ironman fun begins! I consider myself a better than average biker and I was ready to shave some time on the field with my bike split. My coach and I looked at my FTP and set my target wattage to 190 for the race, so all I had to do was look at my Garmin and keep the average wattage on 190W, and that would give me good bike time! It was all a bit of a guessing game on the times, because they had changed the course from the previous year where I had an average of 170W for a time of 5h:29m, while this year we didnt really know what the 190W would give me in terms of time!

I headed out for the first of two laps and immediately my wattage was above 200W! I had to pace myself down on the wattage, specailly as the first 20Kms of the bike are on a gradual climb which, obviously, make you push more watts. I was not worried about getting passed on the hill climbs, but I had my eyes on the descents to keep the wattage at 190W to stick to the plan.

After the initial climb and descent we got into the hills, which was the new part of the course this year. I was feeling fine and I knew what was ahead as I had driven the course a few days before! I stayed in the saddle, hugged the tri bars and stared at my cockpit spinning my legs, spinning and spinning! I was not going to fatigue on the climbs so I sticked to the plan and kept the wattage as low as possible on the climbs.

I was feeling very comfortable on the bike, and the wattage was at 192W on by lap 1, but I knew I had to do it all over again and keep the same effort on a hilly ride! As I do my first lap and go through the buzzing town center, I couldn't help but look around everywhere for my family! But as I reached and passed the Ironman arch over the road I thought I had missed them and headed towards the water station on the side of the road for a refill of my Speedfill bottle when I heard "Papiiiii... Papaaaa, Vamosss Miguel, Vamos Papaaa!!!" I almost crashed into the water tent as I was trying to grab a bottle and wave to my family at the same time! Needless to say, seeing them gave me an extra adrenaline boost which lasted long enough to get me half way up the hill out of town!

I do my best to stick to the power on the ups and downs, and just as Im getting ready to go down the first long downhill, my team mate Robbie catches me from the wave behind! It was great to know he was around as he is a great cyclist and very strong athlete who I knew was chasing a podium at that race.

Robbie passed me with a "heeyyy buddy", and soon enough he was a few riders ahead of me, but I always had one eye on him and the other on my Garmin and the wattage.

After the dunes and the hilly part of the course, I reeled Robbie in and pushed a bit harder to stick to my wattage as it was falling behind at this point. I was able to finish the bike with a 185W BUT, but... my normalized power was 199W, meaning my effort could have given me 199W had I been a bit smarter on my power distribution on the bike. Total bike time was 5h:49m.

Run
I exited T2 at the same time as Robbie and even smiled at the camera when my sister was taking some photos saying "hey... Look who Im hanging with!!" Yeah, that didn't last too long as Robbie was soon gone at lightning pace while I was hanging on 4m:45s/Km for the first lap, which was quite comfortable.

My second lap, however, was a different story. I hit a wall on Km 18 and slowed my pace down tremendously to the point where I was running 6m:20/Km at a point. The way out of to the University is the worst at IMSA because we leave the crowd and the party scene behind. No family to cheers us on, and no screaming crowd to yell out your number even without knowing who you are! Out by the University we are on our own, chasing the guys in front of us and counting the turns to that last water station before we head back to the party scene.

Once we head back to the center of town our head lifts higher, our stride is firmer, and our back is straighter... "I'm ok, I got this!" your body is telling everyone! Every time I went by that crowd I had an extra bit of strength pushing me through! Every time I would go by the MyTrainingDay tent and the guys would scream my name I'd push a longer stride and a quicker candence! It was an unbelievable crew at the tent, and if anyone is reading this... thanks guys!

On lap two I passed a few of my squad mates who were showing signs of cramping and pain. I couldn't really do much but tap them on the back and yell out a "C'mon mate!". I was chasing a sub11h as a personal goal, but I was also chasing Tim and Rob (Yeah Tim.. I know you're gonna read this!!).

I could see Tim and Graham at the turn around point, and I chased them down after the first lap, hoping to close the gap on them on laps two and three. But Rob was behind me on the turnaround point meaning he was either about to lap me, or he was behind me and I did't notice passing him. After the second turnaround, I could see I had gained some ground on Graham, but Tim was actually pulling away! "Bastard" I thought! He's gonna beat me again! I hit a bit of a wall on Kms 19 and 32, but I was able to press on the gas pedal for the last 10Kms. I didnt manage to pass Tim (Yeah... I know you're reading this!) but I did manage to pass Graham and Grant to finish my run with a time of 3h:53m.

Looking Back
Looking back I dont think I could have done anything different or any better. My swim is still where I can shave the most time on as most of the guys who I train with swan anywhere between 59m and 1h:15m. I need to make the swim sessions with the squad and try to leave the water with the pack, and not behind the pack.

On my bike I feel I can still push my FTP 20W-30W towards the next season. If I can come in 30 mins quicker on the bike, then I'll be chasing top10 spots on my AG (provided I swim quicker, of course).

My run was a bit up and down with two slumps which slowed down my pace. I should be chasing 3h:30m in the marathon, meaning I need to shave over 20mins on this year's time in order to hope for Kona spots.

After the race I found my wife and kids and gave them the biggest hug! They were out there the whole day cheering for me and yelling every time I'd go by, and they are a massive part of this accomplishment, specially my wife. I am able to train and compete in this crazy sport of ours because she allows me to! She is the apple of my eye and my queen!

One more year has gone by, and another IMSA completed. Time to relax a bit and start training again for Ironman Frankfurt in July with the Argon18 Spanish Mafia! I can't wait!

IM 70.3 South Africa - Qualified for World Champs

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 11:05:00 +0000

I went to East London with my wife, kids, and my mother a few days before the race, and as part of the racing weekend, I registered both my mother and wife to do the Irongirl fun run! It was amazing to see my 57 year old mother enjoy every moment of what was her first ever competition, even with it being a fun run! There were 1300 ladies running, some just for fun and some others really pushing it hard for great times.

My wife made me very proud once again, coming in 5th in her age group and 20th overall for a total of 37mins on the 8.5Km run, running at a pace of about 4:20/km! Not bad at all and very impressive! She was a bit disappointed as she came out 12th overall at last year's Irongirl during Ironman weekend, but I told her we have time to get her to a top 10 finish in April this year at Ironman South Africa.

On Saturday afternoon I racked my bike in transition and deflated the tires just in case, although it looked like it was going to be a wet and rainy afternoon. On race day I turned up bright and early, right after transition opened at 5am, and inflated my tires, placed my drink behind the saddle, and racked my transition bags. I was pretty much done in 30 minutes or less. The waiting game then started and I was high-fiving my team mates and talking to random people about the nerves and excitement of race morning.

SWIM
As always, I was sure my swim was going to be my weakest result of the day, but I still wanted to beat last year's 47 minutes, so I placed myself towards the left of the holding area out in the beach, and when the gun went of I sprinted like a bat out of hell. The sea was calm and there were no waves, unlike last year, but it still took a good 50 meter sprint to get fully submerged in the water.

I wanted to make it to the first buoy quickly and then relax a bit afterwards, keeping my strokes constant and steady breathing. We must have been about 300 in my wave, but there was not too much punching or kicking around. It was a smooth start of the day. I made it through half way quite comfortably, and as we turn around to come back I start seeing yellow caps passing me. These were the fast swimmers on the wave behind me, and this is when it starts getting depressing... they started five minutes later and they already caught me! Anyway, I didn't let it get to me and finished my swim in 41 minutes, shaving 6 minutes from last year! "Good start, good start" I kept telling myself.

T1
I get out of the beach and run up towards transition where the volunteers helped me get my wetsuit out! I grabbed my bike bag, poured everything out on the ground and repacked it with my swimming stuff, handed it out to the volunteers and ran out of transition with my bike! I didn't know it yet, but I had shaved another minute off my transition time, so I was now a total of 7 minutes ahead of last year's time!

Bike
As I jumped on the bike I had my shoes clipped on, but unfortunately the velcro on the left shoe got loose and I had a bit of a hard time putting it back on while riding the first Km. I eventually fixed it and got down on my TT bars.

For those of you who do not know it, IMSA 70.3 is the second toughest 70.3 in the world. We had a total of 1200m gain in 90kms, and although its 45Kms climbing on the way out of town, you still do your share of climbing on the way back to town on some tired legs on those rolling hills.

The first Kms on the bike were a bit slow as I was getting myself together and basically spinning high cadence. I was behind people who had obviously swam faster than me, but I knew the bike was my strength, so I had to make my move quickly to make the most of the 90Kms available to me!

Before we got on the highway I got off the saddle and started pushing the watts. In the back of my mind I had the number 205, which was what my coach told me to average on wattage, but with a route going up half of the course and down the other half this was going to be very hard to pinpoint!

I was flying on the bike, passing people from waves 2 and 3, which was great for my ego! As you can see from the image on the left, I started the bike on overall position 1751 and AG position 244, and finished in overall position 198, and AG position 33. This means I passed a total of 1553 people, and 211 of those where on my AG. Not too shabby, and again, great for the ego...although the price to pay wouldn't be cheap as I ended up with an average of 213 watts instead of 205 prescribed.

T2
Transition 2 was smooth with no hick-ups at all. I handed the bike to the volunteers, sprinted to get my bag, changed and hit the ground running behind a few of my teammates who had left on earlier waves.

Run

I started the run feeling my legs heavy and tired, and I could already tell I was going to pay for the additional wattage I pushed on the bike. I chased a few of my team mates down and passed them on the first Km, but I was soon caught by my team mate Tim, who was on my wave and I had previously passed on the bike. We stayed together for a few kms but then I took off ahead of him. I gave it my all to try and keep a fast pace, but my legs were just not having it. As I went through Bukers Hillthe first time, I managed to keep running, allbeit very slowly, and pushed hard on the way down from the top. I could see another team mate of mine on a distance, Robb Cragg, who is a much faster swimmer than me, but who I had chased down a bit on the bike. My eye was on him but I was not able to catch him. Not only that, but Tim passed me on the last 3Kms of the race and we all arrived within 1 min of each other!

When I finished and looked at my watch I realized I had shaved 20 minutes from my previous time in 2013. I must admit I was a bit chuffed to not have been able to catch my mates, but that just shows me how important a strong and solid swim is at the start! I should have kept a steady 205 watts all trough the bike, and that would have allowed me a faster run to finish it off. I supposed that's a lesson learned for the next race!

My race official race time was 5h:19m:01s, a bit more than 20 minutes off my 2013 result and 25th on my AG, down from 45 last year!

Later that day I went to the slot allocation ceremony, and along with two of my mates I got a slot to the World Championships in Mont Tremblanc, Canada. My slot was a roll down, but I took it anyway as the experience to race a world championship must be one not to miss!

Now I am only 7 weeks away from Ironman South Africa and the training is very intense. Last week I had 20h of training scheduled (I only managed 15h), and this week I have 24h scheduled, which I will try and do by hook or by crook. My mornings are starting earlier and earlier, but hopefully It will all be worth it if I am able to manage a sub 10h time in SA or Frankfurt. Apart from training with MyTrainingDay I have also secured a private swim coach to work on my swim technique, as this is still the big elephant in the room, and where I will shave the most time on from here onwards.

Thanks for stopping by the blog and showing your support. Please feel free to leave a comment or question for me. Train safely and stay fit!

**QUESTIONS**

Have you ever qualified for a regional, national, or world championship? Where?
Which of the three disciplines is your strongest? Weakest? What are you doing to address the weakest?
What are your A races this year, and what times are you aiming for?

Season Summary - Season Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 22:24:00 +0000

It's been several months since my last post, but as for most of us, life gets in the way of updating my blog and I find myself postponing it week after week! I am, however, out on business and have found a few hours (late at night) to jot down some words in order to summarize all that's been happening.

Personal
The family is loving Cape Town, and I do not think we could have made a better decision or picked a better place to live. The people are very friendly and welcoming, and now that we have been here for just over a year we almost feel like locals already. The expat community is quite large and there are people from all over the world. Cape Town has just been named the top spot to visit in 2014, so that ratifies our decision to move here. My children are quite active with sports and dancing activities, and my wife has started competing in half marathons last year. They are loving life in Cape Town.

Professional
I try not to mention much about my work on this blog as I want it to be purely athletic focused, but I must say that my move here has also benefited my company tremendously and that has taken some pressure off my shoulders, and diminished my need to constantly travel as on previous year while I was in London.

Athletic
Things could not be going better. I can honestly say that, at age 37, I feel I am in the best shape of my life. Taking into account the fact that I had to completely stop exercising for three months last year after IMSA due to my ankle sprain, things completely changed when I joined MyTrainingDay. Kent Horner, SA professional Triathlete, has been the key component to me being in the shape I am. Some of the key factors which have helped me stick to the plan and, therefore, have improved my fitness level are as follow:

-Team bike sessions: Every Tuesday and Thursday we ride from 4:45am to about 7am. These session make me get my ass out of bed and actually go out there and train. Mostly intervals and hill repeats in different variations and intensity.
-Team track/speed sessions: one of my favorite sessions since I am really a fast twitch athlete.
-Long rides with the team: I have been riding on my own since I started with triathlon, and I can definitely feel the difference when riding with this squad. We are fortunate to have people of all levels so there really is no pressure to stay up at the top with the pro triathletes, but over the past few weeks I have been strong enough to hang with them at 29Km/h over 120Km ride, with 1300m total ascent!
-Strava: Now, this really doesn't have much to do with me joining the team, but I am pretty sure we all agree we love to get new segment records, KOM, and PR showing up on the screen when we log our workouts. You can click on the link above to find me and follow my training sessions! :)
-2014 Goals: Last but not least, I have set some tough goals for this season and I know that, unless I put in the hours, I will not be able to achieve them. My goals for 2014 are:

To finish IMSA 70.3 in the top 20 of my AG, and hopefully qualify for the World Championship in Mont Tremblanc. I am aiming at anything between 5h-5h:15m.
To finish IM South Africa under 11 hours.
To finish IM Frankfurt under 10 hours.

I have done three races this season but have not been able to do a race report for either of them. The first one was 11 Global, then Slanghoek and Jailbreak. They were all good Olympic distance warm up races, but where I felt best was at the last race where I ran the 11Km at a 4m:20s average, setting a strava segment run record. Oh, and did I mention my new acquisition? Here she is, my 2014 Argon 18, E118:

Upcoming Races

I am writing this post from Mozambique and I am back in Cape Town tomorrow at lunch time. When I get home I will leave with the family to the Western Province Championships which will take place on Sunday. This should be a good gauge of my fitness level as I head out to East London the following week for IM 70.3.

Thanks for stopping by, but before you leave please share some of your motivating factors with me and the blog readers.

What makes you get up in the morning and get those training sessions done?
Do you train alone or with a triathlon club?
What are your goals for this season?
What is your A race for 2014?

So.. you wanna be a triathlete?

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 15:39:00 +0000

Its been a while sice I blogged, and to get back into it nothing better than a few lines from www.trifuel.com on what our sport is really about:

Fact: you will not become efficient at swimming, biking or running over night. Sorry to burst your bubble. This is NOT an easy sport.

Check your ego at the door because chances are someone fifty pounds heavier than you will lap you in the pool. Not to mention she will be ten or fifteen years older than you.

You will be passed on the bike many times and you will never be the fastest runner in your town.
You will have early morning workouts. Really early.
You will plan your weekends around your swim, bike and run.
You are up while others are sleeping.
You are training while others are sitting.
You will discover others who also follow this blood, sweat and tears cult.
You will eventually get a flat tire... and have to change it all by yourself.
No matter what you hear, triathlon is NOT an inexpensive sport.
Warning, it is extremely addictive, hence the impulse spending on wetsuits, bikes, running shoes, aero bars, aero helmets, speed suits, power meters, GPS heart-rate monitors and many other ‘gotta have items.’
You will hate swimming more times than you like it for the first year.
You will suffer through road trips with whiny fellow triathletes.
You will suffer set backs.
You may experience an injury.
You will develop a love/hate relationship with a foam roller and ice baths.
You will at some point realize you need a coach.
You will hate swimming for the first year.
You will wear tight clothing.
You will not like how this tight clothing fits or looks.
Your age will take on a whole new meaning.
You will discover a whole new meaning for tan lines.
Food will become an extremely important part of your life.
You will learn new words such as GU, cadence and brick.
You will hate swimming for the first year.
You will spend more time on your bike than on your couch.
You may lose a friend or two because you spend too much time swimming, biking and running, and they could careless about your heart rate training, foam rolling pain or 20 mile bike ride.
You will learn patience.
You will be humbled.
You will start to realize you are paying money to put yourself through pain and suffering, but for some odd reason, you LOVE it.

This sport called Triathlon, becomes a part of you. You start to plan your entire year around sprint, international, half-iron or full-iron distance races. Your vacations become racing, and you start to realize that this sport called triathlon could become a life-long adventure.
Many people settle for things in life. They settle for a crappy job, marriage, friends, food, place to live and overall fitness and health.

Those who desire more or those who want more out of life than a drive-thru window and boring sitcom, will choose triathlon or an activity that makes them happy. An activity that will change their life. Triathlon will change your outlook on life, your career, your marriage, your goals, your friends and many other things you thought you had figured out. It’s not just crossing a finish line or a boring finisher medal. It’s the countless hours that got you to that point. A moment in time that you will NEVER forget. A moment that you will discuss with your family and friends for hours if not days after the event. These discussions will most likely be about how you could have done better. At what point could you have swam faster, biked harder or ran more efficient? This is what will go through your head everyday until you get the opportunity to suffer again.

So you wanna be a Triathlete? Enjoy the ride and train hard!

Ironman South Africa 2013 - Report

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sat, 11 May 2013 23:05:00 +0000

Wow, I did it! I still remember the day I woke up in March 2010 and told my wife I was going to register for a triathlon to lose some weight, and now, three years later, I finished my first Ironman race!

A few days after we got home from the race my wife hugged me and asked me if I felt any different, if I felt anything had changed, and I asked her what she meant! She said, “Miguel, you have accomplished something not many people are able to accomplish. Many only dream about it or watch it on TV, but you did it… don’t you feel any different? How does it feel?” That was an interesting question from the person who has been affected the most by my training and dedication. Let's look at my experience in detail before I answer that question for you guys.

Thursday, April 11^th

Our flight was planned for Thursday at 4pm and we got to the airport with plenty of time. As we checked in there was an issue with my wife’s ticket, and they weren't going to allow her to board the plane. This was going to be the worst start to what was supposed to be a great family weekend experience. I was with the airline for close to one hour and they eventually fixed the issue with her ticket.

As we all get on the bus to take us to our plane, my wife notices she had left the baby bag with her purse, all of the baby’s nappies and clothing by the airport x-ray scans. I jumped out of the bus, ran up the escalators, got to the police x-ray scans and, luckily, the bag was there with everything still intact. I ran back to the bus and off we were to the plane. Those of you who follow my Instagram account will remember I had sprained my ankle three weeks before the race and I hadn’t ran since. Well, this little exercise made my ankle hurt and I was starting to have second thoughts about my ability to do the run on the weekend. I didn’t make a big deal out of it and I shook it off.

We landed in Port Elizabeth and there were massive Ironman posters on the airport and all around town. We got our stuff and our transfer was waiting for us outside to take us to our Bed and Breakfast. As we got to the BnB we met up with my Spanish friends, and I realized the BnB was a bit further away from the beach and race than I thought, so we decided I was going to head back to the airport and rent a car so we could get around. I went to the airport, got a car, and went to get my bike from FOTFL. I assembled the bike that night and then we went to dinner somewhere nearby.

Friday, April 12^th

Friday morning Guillermo, Toni, Pablo, Pedro and I woke up early and went out for a swim on the course. We did an easy 1.9Km (1 lap) and then went back to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast Pedro and I went to register at the Expo quickly so we could meet up the guys at the BnB for our morning ride. We got back on time, jumped on the Argon18 bikes and headed out for a 60Km ride on the course. It was fun going out with the Argon18 Mafia guys from Barcelona. We all took our turns up front, Guillermo got away for a while then he slowed down, but it was a great opportunity to ride the course, feel the road, which was very rough, and have a feel for what the toughest parts would be out there on Sunday.

After the ride I headed out to the beach with my wife, sister and children as both my wife and sister were running the IronGirl fun run with 1500 women. It was a very, very colorful race with women of all ages, shapes and nationalities. My wife finished the race in 12th position overall, 2nd in her AG, and my sister finished 48th overall and 8th in her AG. I was very, very proud of both of them, and it was great seeing my daughters cheering their mummy and auntie on during the race!

Baby got BACK

Sonia coming in on 12th position

My IronGirls with their well deserved medals! And our parking attendant on the background

Saturday, April 13^th

Saturday morning we headed out again for an early morning swim, but as we got to the beach we realized there was a sprint triathlon going on and the beach was swamped with triathletes. We decided to head down to the beach anyway and we swam away from their course. This time Pablo, myself and Pedro did a short 700m swim, basically an out and back to the first race buoy, but Tony and Guillermo did a few more and we headed back home.

No more training at this point, and since I hadn’t been to the race briefing before, I decided to go to the 11am briefing on Saturday. Butterflies all over my stomach from the moment I stepped in the auditorium! Hundreds of people from all over the world were in that room, and that was just one of the many race briefs over the weekend. After the race briefing I went to the hotel, picked up the bike and racked it for the following day.

Race Day - Sunday, April 14th

Me and the boys got up and met by the pool at 5:30am. We headed out to the transition area and we each went to our bikes for final check ups. My wife and sister were going to meet up with us at 6:30am by transition.

As I go to my bike I placed all my nutrition in my nutrition bag, and then..FUCK!! I forgot my drink to put on my Speedfill! "Damn, damn... ok, ok calm down" ... "FUCK, FUCK.... calm down" I thought to myself. I remember seeing on the race briefing that the very first aid station was 1Km from the bike start, so all I had to do was remember to get my water at that station! I placed my bike shoes on the bike and secured them to the bike with rubber bands, ready to fly onto it on T1.

I took a bit longer to get to the beach than planned as the mandatory toilet stop took a bit longer than expected due to a quite long line as you can imagine! When I finished pooping I went looking for the guys but they were already by the beach, so I called my wife, met up with her, my children and sister and we said our goodbyes! As my wife was helping me put my wetsuit on and as I was pulling the left sleeve up...... "rrrriiiiiiippp" a big rip on the sleeve! I could not believe that! A ripped wetsuit 5 minutes before the swim start on my first Ironman! My wife looked at me, I looked at her and she told me "You'll be fine baby, you'll be fine, just don't think about it". I was scared shitless at this moment as swimming is my worst discipline, and I was imagining the rip extending down and up my suit creating drag and letting loads of water in!!! "Time to man up... time to man up!" I thought as I headed out to the beach to start my swim. "It is what it is, so just deal with it" I thought!

3.8 Km SWIM

I placed myself towards the left, about three quarters of the way back of the pack. The first 300ms were a bit choppy as it was 1800 of us, but, to be honest, I felt quite comfortable and didn't feel a bad punch or kick at all. As we got to the first buoy it must have taken us about 3 minutes to go around it because we were just so many swimmers out there. I took my time and after the first buoy I was off. There was another buoy half way to the end of the first straight line, and I made sure I was in line with it all the time. I went around the first lap in 42 mins, and as I exited the water I didn't see my family so I jumped back in for the second lap.

The second lap was fine with no problems at all, other than making sure I was in line and not swaying to the sides as I had done before at other races. Sighting was not an issue as there were hundreds of swimmers around me, so I made sure I was always near someone. I chatted with a guy on the last 400m as we both stopped to sight, and we pumped each other up with a "C'mon, lets do this", and we were off!

I exited the water in 1h:28mins, which was 15 mins ahead of my planned time of 1h45mins. I was happy the rip on my wetsuit didnt make a difference and didn't extend any further, but not too happy about the fact I need to "invest" a substantial amount of money on another one!

SWIM GPS

As I exited the beach and went up the steps I was still feeling a bit dizzy, as you do, but managed to get my wetsuit out and get my bike bag from the rack. I didn't rush out of transition and I actually took a bit of a breather before heading out on the bike, chilling a bit while I put my Quad and Calf compressions on. Transition 1 time was 05m:39s

180 Kms Bike

As I head out of transition and hear my family cheering for me on the sidelines my adrenaline levels shot right up to the roof. it was great seeing and hearing them cheer from me! I jumped on the bike on the move, placed my feet in the shoes, and made sure I grabbed a drink on my way past the first aid station.

The way out of town is uphill and a bit of a challenge at this point given we were all still tired and dizzy from the swim. Nonetheless, I kept on going, ramming those gears on my way up the hill. I remember what Guillermo said when we went out on the course recognition ride on Friday,"This is the typical course where if you go too hard on the first lap, you reach the last lap completely dead", so I made sure I was going fast, but not too fast to ensure I still had something left in the tank for the last lap.

My pace was good and I was averaging 32Km/h, with a few stints over 70Km/h. I was not looking at my wattage at this point as I was aiming for a 6h ride avaring 30Km/h, so I knew I was ahead of schedule with this average. I passed hundreds of people, and I was only passed by two guys, who obviously had paid quite a lot of attention to their leg strength as they both had MASSIVE legs! Note to self, improve leg strength next season!

I was taking my Gu gels and my saltsticks every 30 minutes as per plan, and I was feeling fine, with no tummy issues, no cramps, and my ankle was not bothering me at this time. On my second lap I starting taking some pain killers as I was expecting my ankle to start hurting on the run, and I wanted to delay it as much as possible. I cramped a little on the last 50Kms but I was able to shake it off by standing on the bike and slowing down the pace a bit.

Following my cramps, the
unthinkable happened!
I started having issues with my gears and Iwas not able to keep the rear derailleur on the little chain-ring to keep the speed up. It slowed down my pace and two guys managed to pass me. I couldn't believe it, mechanical problems on my first IM!! Everyone's nightmare! I kept playing with the gears and I realized that it was my Di2 battery which was dying on me, so I tried different combinations between the front and rear rings to keep my speed up, but at this point I was riding at 27Km/h and I was not a happy man! The last 30Kms were the longest, as I was expecting the worst to happen, but I managed to reach T2 in a time of 5h:29mins, half an hour ahead of schedule and with plenty of energy still left in the tank.

BIKE GPS

I was happy to be 45 minutes ahead of schedule (15' on swim and 30' on bike), but the hardest part was still to come. As I got my run bag I went to the medical tent and told them about my ankle injury three weeks before the race. They applied some cold spray, tapped me up gently, and sent me on my way in 07m:14s

42Kms Run

Before the race Guillermo told me that an Ironman doesn't really start until Km 28 of the marathon, and I remembered those words as I exited T2. I was praying for my ankle to hold up, and really looking forward to that finish line... but I still had 42Kms to run!

I ran the first lap with no issues and very little pain, but I was still taking my pain killers, which ran out on me in the middle of lap 1 of the marathon. as you can see from my GPS below (click for details), I managed to run the whole of the first lap without stopping once, BUT I ran out of saltsticks on lap 1, and I knew cramps were about to kick in at any minute, but that was due to a dumb mistake by me, having placed my saltstick tube in my run bag with no pills inside it! Dumbass!!

I went around the first lap in 1h:24m, meaning an average pace of 6m/Km. From the second lap onwards it really was downhill, with lots of pain on my ankle. I managed to hold on to the pain by walking the aid stations on the second lap, getting me around in a total run time of 3h:48m, lowering my average to 6m:48s/Km. But it was the last lap that killed me. At this time I was walking most of the way around, and my ankle was not having it any other way! My total running time was 5h:20ms.

RUN GPS

Post Race

When I crossed the line Paul Wolf, the race director, shook my hand and asked me if I wanted to give my son back to my family. I handed Angelo back to Guillermo and Monica and asked them to find my wife, who was about 20 meters away from them on the stands. I then headed out to the massage tent where I had a 10 minute leg and back massage which, at that moment, was the best thing I could wish for! As I am getting ready to get up form the bed I hear my wife shouting my name at the entrance of the tent so I go towards her and she hugged me and kissed me with tears in her eyes! "You did it baby, you did it!" she said to me! I hugged her and thanked her for having been there and having put with all my training to be able to reach this goal!

Although it was not the sub12 time I was looking for, I am still happy with my time taking into account the fact that it was my first ever IM, and I raced it with a recently sprained ankle! It was a bitter sweet feelinb, but as one of my Instagram and Tweeter followers said, "there will be other days to chase times, you are an Ironman Miguel".

I get emotional when I think about what I have achieved with my training and racing. People who don't share this sport and lifestyle find it hard to understand, and many think we are crazy for doing what we do... putting our bodies through the long and tough hours of pain on our training and racing, but they don't have to understand it, as long as we do!

So what did I tell my wife when she asked me what I felt like that morning a few days after the race? I told her I didn't feel particularly different. I told her I felt the same, apart from, obviously, still feeling a bit sore from the race! I told her I was now even more hungry for Kona because I had a taste of what racing IM was like. Because of the bitter sweet feeling from having had to walk the best part of the last 14 Kms! Because I knew I was on pace to go sub11, but my ankle made me add an additional 90 minutes to my time! I told her I felt the same, just a bit more hungry for the goal we all have, which is to go to Kona, at least once in our life!

Lessons Learned

No more running in the dark on training days. That's how I sprained my ankle three weeks before the race.
No matter what, always recharge my Di2 battery prior to race day!
Make sure ALL my saltstick tubes have salt pills in them, specially my run tube!
Pay more attention to strength/core training next season. Definitely not enough done this year!
Continue working on my swim, as I need to get closer to 1h swim time

Ironman South Africa 70.3 Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 17:51:00 +0000

The road to Ironman got a little bit shorter this past weekend in Buffalo City, South Africa, as I completed my first 70.3. After my DNF at Jailbreak, I must admit I was a bit nervous about this race, specially the week following Jailbreak, but it all eased off as time got closer.

Weeks leading to the race

For those of you who do not follow me on Instagram, I was pulled out of the water on the first lap of the swim with massive cramps on both legs! My coach says it was a severe case of starting a race already dehydrated on a very hot day, but that just put more doubts on my swimming ability with little over a month till IMSA70.3. So much so that on December 10th I withdrew from the full Ironman South Africa taking place in April in Port Elizabeth.

In order to improve my swimming technique and confidence I started swimming lessons with a private coach at 5:30am three times a week at my gym, and I noticed the changes immediately. The cycling and running had been progressing nicely, and I was feeling very confident on all three disciplines with two weeks to go.

Race Week

On race week my wife and I left with the children on the Wednesday before the race. I sent my bike with Paul Kaye's company, Focus on the Finish Line, and I picked it up on Thursday at the official bike shop in East London. Took it back to the hotel and assembled it carefully.

Thursday night I went for a gentle run and my right ankle was hurting me a little bit so I stopped right away and ended up only running 4Km.

Friday morning was the official swim practice so I went out to Orient beach with the wetsuit and did what most people were doing, a short and quick lap around the first and last buoy just to get a feel for the water temperature, waves, and just to have a swim in the ocean really. It felt good and I was relaxed and, most importantly, I did not cramp, which was a relief given what had happened at Jailbreak! That afternoon I went to race briefing and noticed how big this event was going to be! A packed theatre with capacity for 1500 was completely full, and this was the first of three planned race briefings.

Saturday morning I went for a 1h ride and explored the run course on my bike. Boy this was going to be a killer! Nice and flat at the beginning, with a pike at Bunker's Hill, then flat again at the top and a descent back to the beach! "No problem" I thought... "I got this".

After the bike session I went out for a quick 20min run and called it a day. Went to the hotel, had lunch with the family and took the bike to traisition before I went back to the hotel for a nice, long nap in the afternoon.

Race Day

I woke up at 4:15am as I planned to be at transition at 5am. Good thing I got there early as I needed to inflate my disk and I didnt have a disc adaptor for the pump. I went to the official shop and they had one, which I bought. I took my bike to the top of the transition area where they were inflating people's tyres, but my front 808 wasnt taking in any air, and although it was still hard, it surely wasnt at 140 which is what I like them to be at. Oh well, I was gonna have to race it like that, but I did get the disk inflated.

I placed my bike shoes on the pedals with the velcro open and hung them with some rubber bands I borrowed from another athlete since I had forgotten mine. At this point I thought I had everything ready so went on the mandatory trip to the loo before putting my wetsuit on and heading out to the beach.

I was feeling very calm, and at the beach I met my wife who had arrived at about 6:20am. I gave her my swim bag and went on a quick swim to feel the water and waves. We then waited for the pros to go and we kissed goodbye so I could go join my wave (3) which was leaving at 7:15am.

THE SWIM

I placed myself towards the left (facing the ocean) as there were a lot of people bunched up on the right hand side of the starting box. When they lifted the rope, we started running, but I took my time getting in the water, placing myself at about the middle of our group.

There weren't really many elbows or punches, at least I cant remember getting hit, and the swim to the first buoy was quick and smooth. At this point is where I started following some guys but decided to not look up and just swim, which was not a wise decision. I kept swimming, assuming I was still following that group of guys I was with, but the swells had taken me towards the third buoy, and when I realised I had to retrace back to the second buoy, but this time against the swells! My mind started going at 1000 miles/h and all I could think of was "what a fuck up, what a fuck up"!!! Nevertheless, I kept going and thought to myself, just get out of the water!

I had told my wife I was going to be about 35 mins, but with this stupid mistake I ended up getting out of the water at 47mins. This was 11 minutes quicker than at Half Challenge Barcelona, but slower than what I had planned on doing.

I jogged up from the beach to the tent, but then I did take my time at the tent putting my socks and compression on. T1 time was 5m:38s

BIKE

I jumped on the bike and purposefully did not push until we got on the highway. As we got on the N2 and I saw those rolling hills I about shat myself on my lycra! I was not expecting those hills for 45Kms. I did know what the course was like, but I hadn't driven the course, I had only seen it on paper. Anyway, I knew I had to push hard on the bike as this is my strength, but when I looked down at my Garmin I noticed I was only going on BPMs as my Garmin 910XT was not picking up speed or my power! FUCK! This was the second race where this had happened! Not acceptable from a $400 watch! GARMIN, I hope you're reading this! NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Ok, so I could only go on BPM so I tried to keep it at about 165-175 depending on whether I was climbing the hills or not. I was able to keep a good pace, and got to the half point pretty fresh, but pretty pissed off as I couldn't see any of my readings or averages on the Garmin. I was drinking my electrolytes and taking my staltsticks so my legs were fine and I was not cramping at all.

I passed 250 athletes on my age group, and I was only passed by 5 guys, all from the 4th wave, meaning they were all older than me and were racing on the 40-45 AG. I'm not sure what that says but, I sure hope Im that strong when Im on that AG. Overal bike time 2h:50m:30s.

I handed my bike to the volunteers and headed out to the tent only to realize I had left my watch on the bike so I quickly went back to the bike, got the watch back and quickly got on the tent. Changed in 3m:14s and headed out to the run.

RUN

As I exited the changing tent and headed out to do my run, I started feeling my legs cramping a little bit, but it wasn't much so I kept going. I wish I could tell you my pace throughout the first lap, but, again, my Garmin was only going on BPM, so I tried to keep it high but comfortable, pushing it when I could, but I had to walk a bit on my first time up Bunkers Hill.

As I went by the hydration area on Bunker's Hill I walked up for about 20 meters just to catch my breath, and them I kept going at a slower than normal pace. Once I got my first bracelet and headed back to the beach, I was passed by a speedy girl and for about 2Kms I kept up with her and that helped my average. When I got to the bottom I followed another guy and was feeling quite well at this point. At the beach I was passed by another quick girl and I followed her all the way up to the turn around point then she was gone!

I pulled myself all the way home and made it through. As I went by Paul Kaye he announced me as the first Angolan to EVER finish an Ironman sanctioned race. Although this is a half Ironman, I am still very, very proud of my accomplishment.

It started in Triathlons back in January 2010, three years ago, when I took on triathlon as a means to lose some weight. Today, I am here writing this post on how I finished one of the toughest Ironman 70.3 in the world. My overal time was 5h:39m:41s, and I finished in 45th position within my Age Group.

Race Stats
Race Time: 5h:39m:41s
Gender Position: 241
Age Group Position: 45
Swim: 47m:24s
Swim Position in AG: 279
Swim Position in Gender:1616
Bike: 2h:50:30
Bike Position in AG: 29
Bike Position in Gender: 132
Run: 1h:52m:53s
Run Position in AG: 41
Run Position in Gender: 239
Official results can be seen here.

Now, I know I can tackle this course, and I have already registered for the 2014 race with a plan to qualify for the 70.3 World Championship in Las Vegas. I know I can improve 30mins on my time, putting me within the top 10 in my age group with a chance to qualify. All I have to do is train hard, put in the hours, and hope for the best job on race day.

As a consequence of having had a relatively good race, I decided to re-enter the full Ironman in PE as Im confident I can take it on. My swimming has improved dramatically, my bike is still my strength, and my running is solid. The aim this year is to just finish the races, time to think of qualifying will start in 2014.

IN MEMORY OF KEVIN STAESSEN and BERTON BOSSMAN

The tragic and negative aspect of this race was the death of two young men on the swim portion of the race. This was kept from all the competitors during the race, but they both died of cardiac arrest during their swim, and one of them was on my wave. Two young and apparently strong an healthy men died competing in the sport they love, in the sport we all love. It just goes to show we cannot take anything for granted as we are here today but gone tomorrow. My thoughts are with their families, and I ask everyone who reads this blog to please try and stay safe out there, whether on the road riding our bikes, running, or swimming, please be careful.

Lessons learned form IMSA70.3

I didnt have a drink bottle before the swim. Thankfully my wife was there with some money and we bought a drink. In the future I need to carry something with me.
I didnt deflate my tyres when I racked the bike. Newby mistake.
I didnt carry a disk adaptor for the trip, NOR did I have one on my saddle bag in case of a flat.
I only left one of the velcros opened on my bike shoes, I had to open the other one when I got on the bike. Obviously not ideal!
Garmin 910XT malfunction. Cant do much about this one!

QUESTIONS

What was your toughest race to date? What distance was it and what was so tough about it?
Have you raced IMSA70.3 before? What did you think about it? Will you do it again?
What race mistakes have you made in the past? In which of the three disciplines were they?
When is your next race? What distance is it?
Do you have any questions for me? Shoot!

Finisher at Ironman 70.3 South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:25:00 +0000

After my DNF at the Jailbreak I didnt really feel like blogging much and didn't event post a race report as you can see.

Now, having finished Ironman 70.3 South Africa with a time of 5h:39m, Im very confident I can tackle any course as this was a toughie and is considered one of the top 3 toughest 70.3 courses in the world.

Here are some photos of me when I finished, and when the official photos are our I will post a full race report.

Jailbreak Race Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:17:00 +0000

This weekend I am finally escaping from jail! Jailbreak that is. Jailbreak is a triathlon with two distances, Maximum Sentence and Minimum Sentence. I am doing the Maximum Sentence which will see me swim for 2.2Km, bike for 88Kms, and run for 21Kms. It is just like a Half Ironman (HIM) distance race.

The race takes place at Brandvlei Prison in the Worcester area of western Cape. It is a region famous for its great winelands which means FLAT and fast roads for us to race on! Im very excited about this race.

This afternoon I had a meeting with my coach to go over the last few weeks of training and to set up the plan for this weekend's race with a distance a little bit longer than a HIM with a swim 2.2Km instead of a 1.9Km. The meeting went well and I confessed to have gone over the BPM on a few of the longer runs because I wanted to go faster rather than smoothly. Neil explained that he wants to change me from being an explosive athlete, which I previously was with my tennis and track and field background, and wants me to get accostumed to the long, steady, easier runs with lower BPMs. Makes sense, and I took notes on it.

We talked about my swim, which I feel still sucks, and he told me not to worry about it too much this weekend. We agreed I can look at maybe getting some private lessons in the new year and, hopefully, improve my strokes and times. One of the local tri clubs is hosting a week long swimming camp and I think I will join it. We also talked about my rides, and I told him I had no problem with the rides, other than the loneliness of leaving at 5am every saturday, so he agreed to get me in touch with some other hardcore early risers to join me. He did say Ind tat getting 5h and 6h rides in the next few months in order to be read for Ironman South Africa in Apri.

Race Plan

Right, Neil asked me to do as follows:

2.2Km Swim - Relaxed and smooth strokes. Bring it home and dont worry about the time.

88Km Bike - 7.5 to 8.5 out of 10 on Perceived Exhertion.

21Km Run - 7.5/10 on Perceived Exhertion and try to keep a steady pace. Bring it home.

So, this is the official race plan according to my coach. We did not talk times, splits, or AG position! He basically wants me to take this race as a long, tough training day in order to prepare me for bigger goals such as Ironman South Africa and Ironman Austria next year. But, and you know there was a but, I do have my own plan, which stems off his guidelines anyway. I basically want to bring it home under 5h! I will follow his instructions on the swim, but will push hard on the bike and on the run. I reckon I can bring the swim under 1h (I know, no comments please!), the bike under 2h:25m, and the run under 1h:45m. My last HIM time was 5h:15m at Half Challenge Barcelona earlier this year, so now I must try and improve from there. This is MY plan on the paper! I obviously need to make it work out there... so let's see what happens.

Nutrition plan is to take 6 Powerbar gels on my bike and the Speedfill with Maxifuel's Viper Boost. Im still contemplating whether or not to take two additional bottles in the back of my saddle. I'll make the call race morning. Detailed plan is:

Breakfast: Oatmeal and Powerbar Energize bar

15 minutes before swim: Powerbar Gel

T1: 1 Powerbar Gel, 1 Saltstick pill

BIKE:

-Viper Boost Drink: Drink as and when I feel I need it

-Powerbar Gel every 45 minutes

-Saltstick pill every 30 mins

T2: 1 Powerbar Gel, 1 Saltstick pill

Run:

-Powerbar Gel every 45 minutes

-Saltstick pill every 30 mins

It all looks very good on paper, I just need to make sure I implement it on race day!

Zipp Sub9 Disk Wheel

Now, you will understand me wanting to go fast on the bike, and the reason is my bad ass new disk wheel. I just got back from London and I picked up a Zipp Sub9 Disk with a Powertap at Wiggle.com for a bargain. I couldn't wait to see it on my frame and here is the result. My superbike! Meet ONYX

Onyx - My Argon18 E118 TT Bike

Onyx - Zipp Sub9 Disk on the frame. No clearance problems whatsoever.

ESCAPE COURSE

Swim start and transition area


Bike course. Mostly flat with some easy hills

Run course, mostly flat

Jailbreak Half Distance Triathlon

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:16:00 +0000

It has been quite a long time since I last posted, but I have been very busy with work, travelling, and trying to fit in my training and family time on my days.

Things have now settled quite well in Cape Town and my wife and children absolutely love it out there, which makes my life much easier when I need to concentrate on work.

Training has been going well, although I must say I have missed some of the double daily sessions on my schedule as I try to workout early in the morning (5am-6:30am) to leave the rest of the day to work and family in the late afternoon. My wife and I sometimes go to the gym together at the end of the day, and when we do that I am then able to fit in my second workout session, but it doesn’t happen as often as I would like it to.

I have not raced since the Barcelona triathlon in July, and I am feeling the bug again. I had planned a race in Mauritius, but had to cancel it due to an unplanned trip to Mozambique for work. My wife then decided we weren’t going to Sun City to race the 11Global triathlon…but I am sticking to my schedule and will fit one more race before the end of the year – JAILBREAK

2.2Km Swim – 88 KM Bike – 22Km Run are the distances I will have to cover, and I am comfortable with all of them but the swim! I am still not where I want to be in my swimming. My 2013 schedule is quite tough with Ironman South Africa 70.3 in January, Ironman South Africa in April, and Ironman Austria in July, my swimming times need to trim down a lot and I need to dedicate a few more hours to the pool.

My rides in Cape Town are absolutely lovely. I usually get up on Saturday mornings at 4:15am and ride from about 5-9am, going for about 100Kms on a route that takes me through hills to work on my legs, and straights to work on speed. Its a great place to ride...as long as the wind is not blowing!

Here are a few photos from my recent rides and runs. I will post something a bit later on with a rae plan for next weekend's Jailbreak.

---QUESTIONS---

What is your next race and distance?
Have you had to cancel any races recently? If so, why?
Do you struggle to balance training and family time? How to you cope/manage real life with this hobbie of ours?

Trying to stick to it

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:32:00 +0000

After all of the latest travelling and me being sick for a few weeks, I was able to finally start with the training program Neil designed for me. So far so good, and my body is reacting fine. A few of the tests were worse than I expected, but I suppose that leaves plenty of room for improvement.

My racing schedule will be changing as well as my wife is not so keen in going to Sun City so I might just do the Jailbreak and thats it.

I will keep trying to stick to the program and make an effort to post more often.

Training in Cape Town - Getting Serious

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:27:00 +0000

Summer is over... and spring is about to start! Weird huh? But thats exactly where I am here in Cape Town with the European Summer behind me, and the African summer about to start. Since making the decision to move to CApe Town, I have been looking for either a triathlon team or a coach to make me a better athlete, more competitive, and potentially even help me qualify before I change my age group.

After looking, and talking to several people in the UK and in Cape Town, I can now say I have a coach who is BTA Level 3 coach and trains several Ironman triathletes....Neil MacPherson!

His wife Diana has been to Kona in 2006 and has had podium finishes in several IM sanctioned events.

http://www.dinamic-coaching.com/

I am very excited about getting involved with a professional coach who has taken people to Kona and hope to see my results improving. I will be doing som testing this week and hope to post my results on here soon.

Summer Update

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Wow, where to start? It's been nearly three months since I have last updated my blog, but between the birth of our baby boy and our move out of the UK and into Cape Town, South Africa, I'm sure you can understand my lack of time to write on the blog.

In summary, we are all well, training has suffered a but, but not much, we have moved to Cape Town and are now settling well, and my wife and kids love it here. Here are some random photos from the summer in Barcelona, and I wil make an effort to keep the blog more up to date with news of my training and racing.

New bike. 2012 Argon 18 Gallium Pro.

Triatlon de la Vila de Barcelona - July 2012

New SRM Power Meter on the E118.

Bike Porn

Angelo is a little angel!

My princess!

My treasures... my reason for living

Goodies from the US. My sister brought them for us!

Meet Angelo Vieira

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 00:02:00 +0000

Few moments in life are so full of joy and rich in feelings as the birth of a child. Angelo Vieira was born this past week and my life is richer and fuller. Indeed, I am a blessed man!

Angelo Vieira

Me and my baby boy

The Vieira clan

Goodbye London - Hello Cape Town

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:02:00 +0000

That's it, my last few hours in London! It's been 6 years and a lot has happened, but now it's time to move to Cape Town and hopefully make the business grow.

My wife and daughters are very excited and that makes me feel much better about the whole move, now we just need to get there, settle in and make the most of it. Since my last minute decision last week to come to London to finish packing and get the house ready for the tenants, I have been surrounded by boxes and more boxes of our stuff, 27 in total, and today I am finally done with everything.

Luggage ready for the trip to Barcelona

Tomorrow the truck is coming to pick up the boxes to ship them to Cape Town, and in the afternoon I'm catching a flight to Barcelona, which is where Sonia and the girls are. Sonia is expecting our third child (a boy) anytime now so I can't wait to get to Barcelona and be next to her these last few days, but more relaxed now that the house is done.

We will be in Miami Playa (Tarragona) for the summer, and in September the 5 of us will move to Cape Town to start our new life.

This week there was no training as I needed every single minute (literally) to get all the boxing done, and finish the last errands before the move. I did, however, register for Ironman South Africa in 2013, and will do the same for Austria as soon as registration opens in July. Saturday morning I will restart my training with the new goal of going sub 5h at my next HIM in October, The Midlands Ultra, Africa's fastest HIM race apparently.

For now, I will leave you guys with a few videos of Cape Town. Enjoy!

Gracias Javi - Thanks Javi

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:04:00 +0000

(English Below)
Este post lo pongo en Español y se lo dedico a Javi. Gracias por haberme encontrado en Facebook y por enviarme estas fotos del Half Challenge de Calella. A ver si este verano hacemos unos Kms en bici o corriendo por Casteldefells.

Ya tengo ganas de entrenar en España, y tendré 2 meses y medio para hacerlo.

This is a quick post to thank Javi who follows my blog from Spain and saw me on the course and decided to take a few pictures of me as I passed by. He also found me on Facebook and we have a good friend in commun.

Thanks for the photos Javi. I hope we are able to meet up in Casteldefells and go for a jog or for a ride over the next few months I'll be in Barcelona.

Half Challenge Barcelona - Finisher

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:39:00 +0000

We started the day with the alarm clock going off at 5am. My wife and I had our daughters sleep at my in-law's hotel room so we could leave early in the morning. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, my very pregnant wife and I walked the 400 meters to the bike area. I had already left the bike on the bike park the previous evening, so all I had to do was put my bags in the transition tent, and tape my gels to the bike!

PRE-RACE

As you can imagine, I was very nervous leading up to the race, but I surprisingly got calmer as the start time approached. I placed my bags in the tent and headed to my bike to put my gels on the bike, and I noticed I had two gels less than what I needed. I headed back to the hotel while my wife waited for me at a bench by the transition tent. I got the gels, ran back, and I still had time to hang for a while with Sonia as my wave was about the 6th to go out.

At about 7:50am I got in the water for a quick out and back swim to feel the water temperature and to loosen the muscles a little bit. The sea was flat as a pool, and the water was perfectly clear and I could see the bottom of the sea till about 60m out. As I was swimming on my way out I banged head first with another guy on his way back in! "Damn this is a bad way to start the day" were my thoughts at that time. Anyway, I shook it off and got back to shore to stretch a bit more and be with Sonia.

Swim

As my start time approached I kissed Sonia goodbye, kissed her BIG tummy, and headed out to the start area with the rest of my age group. As I mentioned before, I was surprisingly calm at this time! I really was expecting to be shitting my pants right before I got in the water (literally), but I suppose I had done all I could up to that point and now I only had to try and complete the distance.

At 8:20 the gun went off and we hit the water! I started on the right hand side, towards the middle of the pack, and got in the water with everyone around me. To my surprise there were no kicks, punches or elbows!

I got to the first buoy easily enough and then made the right turn for the long stretch to the end. This is where things got a bit crazy! I was with a group of guys on the buoy, and as I made the first 200m swim away from the buoy I became isolated and noticed no one near me! I stopped for a second and looked around me to see I was heading towards the beach and was not following the swim line, like everyone else.

I got back to the line and headed towards the turn buoy after the 500m stretch and made a left. and then another left for the 750m segment. The same thing happened here and I also started veering to the right away from the beach and as I made the correction to come back to the swim line, I (literally) got swum over by the wave after mine! It's a bit frustrating, I know, but my plan was to take my time on the swim and just do the distance as I am aware of the fact that I am a crap swimmer and it is the one point need to trow money at with some lessons when I get to Cape Town.

I make the last left turn towards the shore and this felt like and eternity as there was a current which took us sideways and I could see the sea floor and how quick I was moving to the left of where I needed to go. I finally make it to shore and try to keep my composure and not stumble as I get of out the water!

OFFICIAL SWIM TIME: 48m:14s (my goal was 55mins)

Transition 1

I get out of the water as quick as I can and I head out up the tent to get my my wetsuit off, place it in the bag, and head out with my bike gear.

OFFICIAL T1 TIME: 4m:36s (goal was 3mins)

Bike

As I head out of transition I followed about three guys on their bikes through the streets of Calella, but as we hit the N-II I got off the saddle and just took off. The bike course was awesome as it was flat with some rolling hills.

I was feeling well on the bike and I passed lots of people. The conditions were great as there was no wind and the roads were closed and wide enough for everyone to feel comfortable. I felt great on the E118. On the first 1/4 of the course I noticed my saddle was moving and I thought about stopping at the bike support tent to get them to tighten it a bit, but I was able to manage with it like that. Im sure this happened because I stopped by my LBS to setup my XLab Turbo wing on friday before the race and the mechanic had issues installing it. He must have loosened the saddle to get the bolts on, and either forgot to tighten them back on, or didn't do it hard enough!

I had my watch going off every 15 mins for my nutrition plan but, for some reason, it didn't go off (time to get the 910XT). Since it was a two loop course, I timed my gels and saltstick pills with landmarks, so every time I hit a turnaround point I would have a gel, half way through I would have a salt stick, another gel at the turnaround at the other end, so on and so forth. I decided to have my energy drink randomly and not synchronize my every movement. I did, however, run out of my drink and on my way back from the second lap I had to grab a bottle of water from the aid stations.

I managed to keep a good pace of 32.4Km/h for it to be my first HIM. I was able to avoid being passed by anybody else, apart from Stanyslav Kyrilov who was the 2nd pro overall.

Saying there was massive drafting on the bike is an understatement!! Unbelievable the pelotons I saw and passed on the bike! I did, however, see and hear the refs on the bikes whistling at people and giving them warnings, but, if anything, the only negative thing with this course was the sheer amount of riders on the course, which obviously caused the pelotons, otherwise it was perfect.

Towards the end of the bike I was feeling my quadriceps tightening up and I was afraid it would get worse with cramps. Hopefully the 4 salt stick tablets I had tacken during the bike session would do their job and stop my cramping on the run!

I hadn't seen my wife or daughters all through the race but it was my fault as I told Sonia I would be passing in fron of our hotel at each of the two laps, and that was not the case. I only passed in fron of our hotel as I was going back to T2 and I saw Sonia, my girls and my in-laws from a distance. As soon as they saw me they starting yelling "GO DADDY, GO DADDY" and that put a massive smile on my face as I waved and yelled back at them.

OFFICIAL BIKE TIME: 2h:37m:21s (my goal as 2h:30m)

Transition 2

As I approached the dismount line I see my good friend Jordi Casas yelling "Come on Miguel, Come on!!". I was so happy to see him and I definitely noticed the burst of adrenaline I got from seeing him. As I pass Jordi and approach the dismount line, I started to undo my shoes and swung my right leg around the bike to get off the bike whilst it was still in movement. There were a few of us arriving at the same time so it was a bit of chaos, but no accidents getting off the bikes or entering the bike park.

I ran up to my position and racked the bike and ran inside to the transition tent to grab my bag and change to do my running. I tried putting my socks on as quick as possible but the quicker you try to put them on, the more your toes get stuck on the socks. Anyway, finally got the socks on, shoes on, cap and glasses to hit the road.

OFFICIAL T2 TIME: 1m:50s (my goal was 1 minute)

Run

I get out of the transition tent and as I headed out of the town of Calella I saw Jordi again yelling for me! I gave him a high five as I ran past him and I was feeling good for the run. I looked at my watch a few times and I was running 4:30 and 4:35/Km, which was not sustainable for much longer. My legs were surprisingly well after the bike, and I was not cramping which was great news at this point in the race.

I eventually slowed down and maintained low 5min/Km pace for pretty much the rest of the run. I was passed by a few guys but I was not too worried about that if I'm honest with you. As I mentioned on my previous post, my main goal was to finish this race and set it up as a time to beat for my future HIM distance races.

A few kms after the run started I felt my arm sleeve was hurting me a bit so I removed them and placed them on my back pocket for the rest of the run.

My legs were fine, but I could feel the cramps wanting to come in slowly towards the second lap of the run. I wanted to take some more salt tablets but I had left my saltstick on my bike, and even if I had brought it with me to the run I only had 2 more tablets as it only carries 6 in total, and I had 4 on the bike. Well, 2 tablets would have been better than no tablets, but I had man up and put up with the pain!

I got my sports drink and my water at every station, but I made an effort to not stop or walk at any point during the run. I did miss having my own sports drink on the run, but my drink bottle belt was too big to wear during the race, so I suppose a 4 bottle Fuel Belt is in order for the next race.

As I got to the red carpet at the turnaround point to start my second lap, I see my wife, my daughters and my in-laws! They were all screaming and yelling for me "GO DADDY, GO DADDY" and that just made me push harder for the last 10.5Kms.

The second lap was just dealing with the pain and trying not to walk, really. It was as much mental as physical as my body wanted to stop but my mind kept pushing and saying "just a few more Kms, just a few more Kms". I had a few guys on sight every few hundred meters, and I would try to catch them to motivate myself, and it worked. I would pass the guy with the green suit, then go for the one with the black one, etc etc. Im sure I was also the target of a few people behind me, but I was not too worried about that this time around.

As I got to Calella and I had the red carpet in sight I had a final burst of energy which pushed me all the way home. As soon as I got to the grandstand area I saw my father in law holding Alexia up in his arms and I grabbed her as I ran past him to cross the line with her in my arms. I did it, I finished a half Ironman race.

OFFICIAL RUN TIME: 1h:50m:11s (Goal was 2 hours)

OVERAL TIME: 5h:15m:46s
131/228 in Age Group
610/1360 Overall

Full AG Results

My forerunner has been acting up and does not let me see the overal time in between sports, so I could only see my swim time during swimming, bike time during my bike, and my run time during my run. I was only able to see my overal elapsed time when I crossed the line and I hit the stop button, and I was so happy to have beaten the 6h mark

I never would have imagined I would complete a half ironman distance race back in March 2010 when I decided to sign up for a local triathlon to lose some weight. It is a great feeling of accomplishment after all the hard work and training endured mainly in the past year.

Everyone who I speak to who is involved in triathlon agrees with me that this is an extremely addictive sport which leaves you hungry for more every time you finish a race. It is all about new challenges, new goals to either beat your previous times, or to move up to longer distances. So far, this has been the longest distance I have ever competed in, and I already have my goal set for the future, but that's for another post. For now, I want to enjoy the cramps I've been feeling for the past few days and pig out on some good old Spanish food. Soon enough I'll be back to training for my next HIM in October, where, surely, a new personal best will be set in South Africa!

Lessons learned from my first half Ironman distance race

Must improve my swim time. No surprise here, but my time really is embarrassing
Always tighten ALL bolts before race, even if pros have looked at it before race
Get the Gorilla Cage for my XLab Turbo Wing as I needed more drink
Must start running without socks to see how I get along
Carry additional salt stick on number belt for run next time
Get 4 water bottles fuel belt to have own sports drink on run
Definitely set myself tougher and more realistic goals for the future

******** QUESTIONS ********

What was the toughest part you had to overcome when completing your longest distance race? Was it the mental or the physical side of the challenge?
Did you have any mishaps during your HIM/IM races? What happened?
What is your weakest discipline? Have you been able to improve it substantially since you started tri'ing?
Your one piece of advice to me would be______?

Half Challenge Calella - Race Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:21:00 +0000

Less than 10 days to my first half Ironman distance race and I can already feel the nerves and butterflies in my stomach. So many questions and so many unknowns, specially given the fact I do not feel I am arriving at 100% level to my A race of the year. As I took on this journey I wanted to be cautious and not jump straight at an Ironman race as many people do, but rather climb up the distance latter slowly to eventually complete an MDot race.

The Half Challenge Barcelona race will be a good testing ground for my fitness level (or lack thereof), and will allow me to gauge what needs to change as I move to the ultimate distance, the full Ironman, in 2013. Some of my worries, however, are as follows:

-Not enough time in the pool in training. Too much travel during Base and Peak phases lead to minimal time in the pool.

-Not enough open water swimming done. As of today I've been to the lake once to train this year!

My cycling and my running are quite strong and I feel much more comfortable with those disciplines, and I woud be lying If I'd tell you I'm not dreading the mass swim start with over 1300 people at the same time. Lots of punches and elbows will be thrown at me...but I'll make sure to throw a few of my own :)

My TrainingPeaks program suggested I'd jot down my race plan for the race so I will use this post to summarize what my intentions are for the days leading to the race and the race itself.

Tuesday - May 22nd

I have been in London by myself with our oldest daughter since my wife has already left for Barcelona due to her pregnancy. We will be travelling from London to Barcelona on Tuesday 22nd of May in the afternoon.

Wednesday - May 23rd

On Wednesday I have a bike tune up scheduled with Guillermo from Argon 18 in Spain. Since I am planning on bringing the bike in a Bike Box I will need help assembling it again and I do not want to mess it up right before the big race. There is no one better than Guillermo to fine tune an Argon 18 in Spain so I am taking my baby to the man himself on Wednesday at 9am!

Thursday - May 24th

On Thursday morning I will go to the American School of Barcelona as I have promised my good friend Jordi Casas I would visit the school where he works and where I also worked from 2000-2006 as a PE teacher. I must say I am really looking forward to this and can't wait to see which kids still remember me! This ought to be fun!

On Thursday evening there is an annual reunion at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra which is where I got my MBA back in 2006. I have confirmed my attendance but I will see how I feel that day. I would only go if I knew some of my classmates would be there as I looked at the programme and it looks a bit boring! Alternatively I will stop by the expo at the race which opens on Thursday as well.

Friday - May 25th

Check in at Hotel Maritim in Calella in preparation for the race. It will be myself, my wife, our daughters and my in-laws staying there until Monday evening. All going well I should be able to go out for a short ride to see the first Kms of the bike course, and a nice out and back swim of about 1Km to take it easy on the legs and arms. After that I will potentially check out the expo again as there is always an awesome atmosphere at Spanish races.

Saturday - May 26th

Rest day, east pasta, and try to enjoy the expo with Sonia and the girls, and eat some more pasta. At this point all systems should be ready to go so I should try to relax and enjoy myself without any physical or mental stress. I will need to have my race bag ready with all my transition needs and yes, I will have a proper checklist handy just in case!

At 10am I will have to pick up my race pack and attend the race briefing, and after lunch I will need to rack my bike in the transition zone, and get my bike and run bags ready.

Sunday - May 27th

The race starts at 8:20am and transition opens at 6am. I will need to wake up at 5 to be there promptly at 6 but I should be fine as the hotel is about 10 minutes walk from the starting line. My nutrition plan is simple! Two Powerbars and a banana for breakfast! Some Maxifuel Viper Active to ease the solids down, and right before the swim I'll take a Powerbar gel (Mango, Passionfruit, Guarana).

Race Plan

Main goal is to finish! This will be my longest race EVER, and although I know I have done everything I could to get to this point fit, healthy, and mentally prepared, there are too many variables and unknowns that can just throw all the hard work off course. Having said that, I would love to pull a sub 6h time, but I know it will not be easy, specially given the conditions under which I have been training (mostly cold), and those which I will face on race day (scorching hot).

However, I must set time targets as per my program and give myself a realistic time goal to aim at achieving. Having looked at last year's results, this is my realistic goal:

Swim: Under 55 Minutes - I will start in the back of the pack and am expecting to get my goggles punched out of my face at least once. I am also expecting to panic a bit so I want to be realistic rather than hopeful.

T1: Under 3 minutes - No major reason, just what I saw some of the average guys did on 2011's results

Bike: Under 2h:30mins - I think this is realistic and achievable.

T2: Under 1 minute

Run: My fastest +20Kms run was 1h:48m for 23Kms at an average of 4m:42s/Km. That would have been a total time of roughly 1h:40m for the 21Kms. Obviously that was without the swim and the bike before the run, so it is not really comparable, but I will add 20 minutes for the tiredness I will feel, cramps, and hope to do a half marathon in less than 2 hours! Let's see how I get along :)

Overall: I would be happy to manage to finish, honestly! But anything under 6h:20m would be a plus! It is only my first half ironman race and I have time to improve so I need to enjoy myself out there!

Race Nutrition Plan

When I did the Ballbuster a few months ago I rode and ran on gels. I do, however, feel I will need to have some other source of nutrition, specially electrolytes (sodium and potassium) during the last two legs of the race. I suffered from major cramps which prevented me from finishing within 4 hours, and I do not want the same thing to happen so here is what I plan to do:

Start of Swimming: 1 Gel

T1: 1 Gel, 1 Salt Tablet

Bike: I will set my Forerunner 310XT for an alarm every 15 minutes to follow this pattern of nutrition:

-15 mins: Drink

-30 mins: Gel

-45 mins: Drink

-60 mins: 1/2 Powerbar, Salt Stick

-75 mins: Drink
-90 mins: Gel
-105 mins: Drink
-120 mins: 1/2 Powerbar, Salt Stick

-135 mins: Drink
-150 mins: Gel
T2: Nothing. Grab gels from the running belt out on the run
Run: On my +20Kms runs I usually take 2 gels so I will do the same here. I will take one at about Km 5, and another at about Km 15 for the final push.

There is no science behind this, but rather what I feel my body wil need to cope with the 90Kms of riding, and to prevent the cramps on the start of the final 21Kms of running. I'm sure by next time I will be able to have a better idea of what works and what doesn't.

All in all I hope to be able to enjoy my day out there. I know it will be hot, and I know it will be tough. I know there will be times when my mind will ask me why I put myself through this and there will be times my body will tell me to stop! But I also know the feeling I will get once I cross that line will be great, and I know I will be hungry for more afterwards. I know my wife and daughters will be waiting for me at the line... and I know I will do this! How well will I do?... well, that's a story for a different day!

**********QUESTIONS**********

Do you usually prepare a race plan for your races? For all your races or only for the longer distance races?
Do you follow a race day nutrition plan?
On your IM and HIM races do you do the full swim a few days before? Why?Why not?

Kona Ironman Videos - Motivational Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:16:00 +0000

There have been quite a lot of posts about Ironman motivational videos and Kona's world championship videos on the various tri forums I follow, so I decided to put together a post about the videos I have on my computer and Iphone which I use on the turbo trainer, and some other ones which are just inspiring and motivational. All the videos you need in one spot...indulge yourselves! This is Turbo Trainer Heaven!

Full Ford Ironman Championship Videos

2012 Kona Ironman
2011 Kona Ironman
2010 Kona Ironman
2009 Kona Ironman
2008 Kona Ironman
2007 Kona Ironman
2006 Kona Ironman
2005 Kona Ironman
2004 Kona Ironman
1995 Kona Ironman
1992 Kona Ironman
1989 Ironwar Dave Scott v. Mark Allen

My top motivational Ironman videos:

Till I Collpse
Essence of Ironman
Ironman Inspiration
Ironman - You Will do This
Aussies Abroad Chris McCormack
Aussies Abroad 2011 Kona Special
Aussies Abroad Crowie Special
Ironman Brazil 2007 in Portuguese
Brownie28's Favourite

Epic Ironman Videos

Ironman - The Crawl
Ironman, Julie Moss
Paula Newby Fraser Hitting the Wall

Lovely Rides

Stelvio 45 Mins
Fiesta Island 54 Mins
Klausen and Pragel 1h:20mins
Zurich 1h:40mins
Bellingham 1h:04mins

Which of these is your favourite? Do you watch it on the trainer or while relaxing on the couch on your latop/iPad? Any other videos you would recommend me to post here?

Today's Training

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Nice and early turbo session at home:

Distance: 30Km
Time: 47 Mins
Avg Speed: 38 Km/h

Max Speed: 56 Km/h

Avg Watt: 206 W

Max Watt: 312 W

Avg Cadence: 94 rpm

Max Cadence: 199 rpm

23Km TT run session

Tonbridge Triathlon Race Report

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:04:00 +0000

Today was a great day for racing. The sun was out and not a drop of rain during the race. I couldn't believe it when I got up at 5 and opened the window to look outside.

I had prepared my bag the night before and, just in case, I was taking my rain jacket for the bike in order to avoid what happened to me at the Turbo Thames last month. I got to Tonbridge school at 6:30 and since the start was from 7am-11am, there weren't many bike on the racks at that time. The standard distance athletes started early and the sprint distance would start after us.

She is racked up and ready to go

This was exactly double the distance as last year's race meaning it was an 800m pool swim, a hilly 50Km bike ride, and a flat 10Km run.

I got to the pool and the swim was ok'ish, but still slow for where I would like to be. We were 3 per lane and my swim time was 16m:31s.

T1 was long because we had to get out of the swimming center, go to the other side of the sports center and find our bike in transition. Not opnly that, but I also had to put on my bike jacket as it was cold and Im not about to get sick two weeks before the half ironman in Barcelona. T1 as 3m:35s

I still remember the bike course from the previous year and I know it was going to be challenging. As soon as we get out of the school grounds, there was a short 2Km of flat surface and then it just hit us! See the graph of the bike course below:

2012 Tonbridge Triathlon Olympic course elevation profile

To be honest I actually did feel pretty good throughout the whole course and was only passed by three guys who looked like they were on the turbo trainers! Very strong cyclists. There were a few climbs were I could see people struggling and I actually felt quite proud of just going by them. I can definitely feel I am in much better form than last year, but still far from where I'd like to be as I can see some guys with bike splits 15 minutes faster than me. My time for the 50Km bike split was 1h:47m:54s.

T2 was a bit faster that T1, but still not in the top 10 overall. T1 was 1m:30s.

The run was nice and flat around the school grounds and it was great to have a few people to chase. I'm the type of guy who feeds off of people in front of me so having people on the course was great. I must have passed about 30 people from different age groups, and I was only passed by two guys. Total time for the run was 38m:07s at 4m:20s/Km pace.

I came out 10th in my age group and I can say I think it was a good race. On a negative point, I lost my salt stick. I took it of the bicycle to take one about 15 minutes before the run and I cold not put it back on the holder so I stuck it in my back pocket and, needless to say, when I went to check if it was there after the race it was nowhere to be found.

I was trying to take a photo with the reverse camera on the iPhone.

Positives from the race

I was able to swim 800m with little/no rest
Felt really good on the hills. I feel Im a better cyclist that this time last year (9th in age group)
Run pace was good at 4m:20/Km (6th in age group)

Negatives from the race

Slow swim. Not in top 10
Slow T1, although it was a long transition and far from the swim, there were guys on 40s
Got passed by three guys on the bike. Im not doing my E118 any justice!!!
Lost salt stick on the bike course

Now I gotta taper (or not?) for my half ironman distance race in Barcelona in 15 days. I just want to stay healthy and injury free at this point, but I would love to get my weight down to 75kgs by race day. That's 2Kgs in 15 days!... I should be ok.

Are Group position: 10th
Overall Position: 21st

Swim: 16m:31s

T1: 3m:35s

Bike: 1h:47m:55s

T2 - 1m:30s

Run - 38m:07s
Total: 2h:47m:32s

Brik Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Today was a good day. I woke up at 6:30 and at 7:30 I was out of the door. The plan was to go to Box Hill and do a few rounds of it to strengthen the legs and get them used to hard climbs. There was no traffic and it was a beautiful morning, very sunny and un British I must say, specially given the last few weeks of rain we have had.

At 8:00 I was at the top of the B2032 completely out of breath! That hill is a KILLER with over 120m incline in less than 2Km. Here is the GArmin feed. Click the image for full details.

Here is the detail of the climbs:

When I got home I got the best welcoming anyone can get:

As I got home my wife and girls were off to the park and I made a deal with my wife that they would go ahead of me and I would run to the park to meet them so I could get my brik workout done.

I have a stiff neck and shoulders from being on the aero position on two continuous long rides so I need to a) stretch my neck much more and b) strengthen my shoulder muscles at the gym with some core exercises (plank). This week I'll stretch much more and, hopefully, in the future the neck will feel better.

The making of @Argon18bike E118

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:22:00 +0000

I love my Argon18 E118

23Km @ 5:00/Km - Shin Splints

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:43:00 +0000

Today I should have ran at 5am but it was pouring at that time. Needless to say, I got back in bed! Since I worked from home today I was locked in my office fighting off my daughters as they kept coming in the office wanting to play with me. I feel bad pushing them away, but they assume since I am home I do not have to work...doesn't quite work like that.

I had a heavy (but lovely) Spanish lunch my beautiful wife cooked up, and afterwards I dedicated 10 minutes to my daughters and allowed them to practice their face painting skills on me. No photos of this, but let's just say that Dennis Rodman looked like a model next to me with my painting.

By 6pm no clients were answering the phone so I decided to go for a run since it had stopped raining. Below is the 23Km route I usually do:

I had a bit of pain on my left shin and it slowed me down a bit on the second half of the run. I will be off my legs for a few days...but I gotta keep it up. Calella is less than two months away.

My @Argon18 E118

noreply@blogger.com (Miguel Vieira) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:10:00 +0000

This view is precious....

The background is not bad either! View from the top Box Hill, Surrey.