And now: Semper Barbatus

Salut les amis, venez nous suivre sur semperbarbatus.com. L’aventure continue !

Hi folks, follow us on semperbarbatus.com. The show must go on!

Some more numbers: Frankfurt run

This time I promise it's much shorter: a brief look at how Alain and I ran the marathon in Frankfurt.

First of all it seems that the organisers were honest in their measurement, even a bit too honest it seems: my watch showed 200m extra, Alain's 100 (but he had to start up his GPS first). After 9 hours every step counts, 200m is quite a bit in that case ;-P.

The run was a simple 4-loop affair along the river Main. We had to cross 2 bridges on each lap, giving a bit of an up- and downhill and there were a few cobbles to negotiate - but nothing dramatic. The weather was pleasant, the crowds awesome, so every reason to have a smile on your face :-).

Looking at the 4 laps (10.6km each, give and take a bit):

Lap 1:
Alain - 51:06 (4:45/km)
Nico - 49:47 (4:42/km)

Lap 2:
Alain - 51:37 (4:53/km)
Nico - 49:37 (4:41/km)

Lap 3:
Alain - 51:43 (4:55/km)
Nico - 49:34 (4:41/km)

Lap 4:
Alain - 51:03 (4:52/km)
Nico - 51:06 (4:50/km)

Very small differences overall in pace and both of us very steady throughout the lap. Alain and I were super happy to have avoided the dreaded bonk towards the end of the run and both managed to beat our optimistic targets - Alain to run sub 3:30 (3:27:43) and me to run sub 3:20 (3:19:57).

Thanks again to all for following our journey,

Semper barbatus ;-)

For the nerds: Frankfurt bike in numbers

To finish off our reports on Frankfurt I'm going to dig a little into the numbers of the bike and the run. Alain and I are both using Power2max power meters (thanks again for the support!), and so we can compare pretty accurately how the race played out.

Official winner ceremony: 2012 duel

33 semaines d’un duel acharné se devaient d’être couronnées par une cérémonie protocolaire digne de ce nom. Une cuisine de Painpalais a ainsi été minutieusement choisie et j’ai eu le plaisir de mettre mon plus beau costume pour remettre à La Grande son trophée de vainqueur du duel 2012. 

Bravo Nico.

33 weeks of furious duel had to be worthily celebrated with an official ceremony. A Plainpalais (Full Palace / Geneva quarter) kitchen was minutely chosen and I had the intense honor to take out my most beautiful costume to deliver to La Grande his 2012 duel winner trophy. 
Congrats Nico. 

IM Frankfurt: La Grande's race

Saturday night, 7 July, and I’m lying in bed to try and get some good sleep before the big day. It has been a very long build up – 33 weeks since November – and tomorrow is the day where everything comes together. Or not. I’m trying to focus on all the good training I’ve done, the laughs we’ve had in our “duel”, and the great support I have received from everyone around me (you know who you are :-)). But still there is that dread that always overcomes me before a big race.

33 weeks: Summary

After 33 weeks of training - here is all we did until the Ironman. A whole lot of work for a few hours of racing :-).

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	84	123
Distance	332.3km	390.1km
Time	101h10	112h12
Biking
Sessions	80 (60 outdoor + 20 indoor)	107
Distance	4668km outdoor	6071km
Time	177h40 (163h45 + 13h55)	242h10
Running
Sessions	90	136
Distance	1048.9km	1450km
Time	87h55	116h38
Strength
Sessions	25	30
Time	35h05	19h45
Total
Sessions	294	403
Time	428h20	504h40
TSS	-	27812
Other	entre 68 to 73 kg 20 massages, 8 acupunctures, 4 ostéo, 1 physio 20h10 de ski de fond (12 sessions) 5h30 de marche (2 sessions) 2 camps d'entrainement: 1 sem. Majorque, 2 sem. Martigny	83-89kg Other: 17h14 (10 sessions) almost weekly massages 3 training camps: Teneriffe, Mallorca, Royan
Summary
Goal	Finir la visière à l'envers l'Ironman de Frankfurt... en moins de 10h	Learn from past Ironman races, get faster, have a great duel with Alain
The good	J'ai eu beaucoup de joies et de partages tout au long de ces 33 semaines d'entrainement. J'ai atteint mon objectif. J'ai encore envie de progresser.	I enjoyed the journey I got better at balancing life and training I learned a lot about myself and about sports I got faster without killing myself
The bad	J'ai perdu le duel et je n'aime pas perdre! J'ai rasé ma moustache et je n'aime pas ça non plus!	Alain has more facial hair!
Thoughts	Merci à tout ceux qui on contribuer à ce projet de près ou de loin, merci du fond du coeur car je sais que ça contribue beaucoup à la joie qui est la mienne ces jours. Nico: ne te retourne pas. Un pittbull moustachu arrive!	A huge thank you to everyone! Off to new shores now, expect to see more from the semper barbatus crew!

IM Frankfurt in pictures

Thanks to my "little" brother Julian for the pictures of our long day in Frankfurt. He has a most excellent blog with lots of interesting photography here.

IM Frankfurt: la course vécue par Bibi

6h43 l’hymne national allemand résonne au Langener Waldsee. Mais avant :

Cela fait 2 jours que le team Semper Barbatus est arrivé à Frankfurt et que la pression monte gentiment. J’avoue que je n’ai jamais ressenti autant d’appréhension que le soir avant la course où je tentais tant bien que mal d’avaler un plat de gnocchis. Le matin du départ a été particulièrement avare en parole et c’est avec Seb et Nico que nous nous dirigeons vers le parc de change après avoir quitté l’hôtel à 5h.

And the winner is...

With exactly 13minutes 23 seconds.
Amazing race! I loved that duel and I am very proud and happy to be part of this great human adventure.
Congrats Nico, you are definitively Le Grand!!!
Bibi


More to come....

Ready to race

Nerves tense as guitar strings? Pah! Every race is better with a moustache!

The duelers are ready to rock and roll. Rendezvous tomorrow 6:45am, Langener Waldsee!

Final preparations

The bags are mostly packed, the training is in the bag, now it's a question of doing the final preparations. Two key ingredients:

My pace sheet for the bike:

The timing sheet for my family and friends so they can have an idea where I should be when:

Of course I'm not revealing what I wrote down, it's a duel after all :-P

Semper barbatus!

Another Endurance Corner post

Again some shameless self-promotion. My second blog post on Endurance Corner got published today: race day nutrition for bigger athletes

Week 32 (W-1): Summary

Second last week. Alain relaxes whilst Nico keeps on training - whose approach will pay next week?

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	2	5
Distance	5km	21.4km
Time	1h20	5h47
Biking
Sessions	2	4
Distance	115km	278km
Time	3h45	8h11
Running
Sessions	2	4
Distance	18km	35km
Time	1h35	2h35
Strength
Sessions	-	-
Time	-	-
Total
Sessions	6	13
Time	6h40	16h34
TSS	-	937
Other	69kg 1 massage, 1 accupuncture	83-84kg 1 massage
Summary
Goal for the week	Repos et retrouver des sensations	Last bit of peak work, start relaxing and sleep more
The good	Les jambes reviennent!	Feeling great, getting everything ready
The bad	Grosse galère avec les graminées.	Waiting for the race is tough
Thoughts	Les dés sont jetés!	The time is nigh...

Merci!

The last Sunday before Frankfurt: a bit of swimming, a lot of relaxing, and some preparations: the bike is cleaner than in a long time, the chain freshly oiled, and the tri top has received the Bike Passion and Power2Max logo.

A big thank you to Bike Passion, Velocite, and Power2Max for the support!

Vallée de Joux

Little update from last weekend: third triathlon this year and the shortest one to date - Vallée de Joux. Often called the "Geneva world championship" its short and sweet - 500m swim, 23km bike, less than 5km run, and all in the beautiful Jura. My old friend Alex came over from London for his first ever triathlon (another one hooked in the tentacles of triathlon, hehehe), so I joined him in the race.

La course aux gadgets: sport de triathlète

La course aux gadgets est un sport national chez le triathlète et mes collègues l'ont bien compris!
Pour me soutenir et me protéger d'une quelconque attaque d'abeille sur Francfort, ils m'ont tunné mon P3. A en faire palir d'enive plus d'un et a faire trembler tout OVNI ou pas!
Maya, gare à toi!
Merci les amis! Je me sens prêt!

Week 31 (W-2): Summary

2 weeks to go now. Tapering time.....

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	3	5
Distance	12.1km	15.8km
Time	3h20	4h10
Biking
Sessions	3	5
Distance	318km	322km
Time	9h40	9h45
Running
Sessions	4	4
Distance	38.1km	40.8km
Time	4h	3h02
Strength
Sessions	-	-
Time	-	-
Total
Sessions	10	14
Time	17h	16h57
TSS	-	1055
Other	69kg 1 massage, 1 osteo	83-85kg
Summary
Goal for the week	Un peu de repos puis une répétition générale en fin de semaine	Intensity to get to peak, race on Sunday
The good	Le travail est fait et bien fait! Il ne reste plus qu'à faire du jus.	Had fun in Vallée de Joux, and a decent result (6th)
The bad	Petits ennuis mécaniques avec un vélo qui n'en fait qu'à sa tête!	Too much work stress
Thoughts	Plus que jamais, je suis heureux de savoir que la course approche. J'adore cette période!	Only two more weeks!

#trainingcampinmartigny

Le résumé!

Crazy inspiration - RAAM

Last week I blogged about Matt's participation in RAAM. It was really bitter to learn this weekend that he had to pull out. He picked up a chest infection and fever on the second day and battled on for two days until he finally had to withdraw. A huge blow after a year of preparation.

This shows the cruel nature of long distance racing: the longer and harder the event, the greater the preparation and sacrifice to get there and the greater the risk that something goes wrong. And it's not like you can do another one quickly. I can only imagine what it feels like having to bury your dream of RAAM after a few days in. But I'm sure Matt will recover physically and get his enthusiasm back :-).

As much as I was hoping that I would be writing this about Matt, this year's RAAM is an amazingly dramatic story: the two leaders in the solo category, Reto Schoch and Christoph Strasser are fighting the closest of all battles. After 6 days and 17 hours of racing they are separated by only 8 minutes. That's insane! I cannot imagine how tough this is, not only physically, but mentally.

It is already insane to think that these guys are in the saddle for more than 20 hours a day and have been crossing the continent at an average speed of almost 25kph. That's 25kph including sleep and breaks. So they are riding fast - probably averaging above 30kph when they are in the saddle. But then there is also the mental dimension of having your competitor so close by. I cannot imagine the tension that puts on the riders.

Go and check out the leaderboard and RAAM site for the latest results.

I hope Alain's and my little duel will be fun and that we can take a leaf out of the ultra endurance boys' book: battle on till the end!

Peaking - definition and truth

An approaching race calls for a peak. What does that mean? I was curious and looked up the definition:

peak ¹  (pk)n.

1. A tapering, projecting point; a pointed extremity: the peak of a cap; the peak of a roof.

2. Abbr. Pk.

a. The pointed summit of a mountain.

b. The mountain itself.

3.

a. The point of a beard.

b. A widow's peak.

4. The point of greatest development, value, or intensity: a novel written at the peak of the writer's career

 Hmmm. The truth looks more like this:

peak ¹  (pk)n.

1. From the french piquer, "to sting"
2. Periods of great  intensity leading to even greater suffering, making subsequent suffering appear easier

Happy race preparations :-)

La Grande

 

 

Week 30 (W-3): Summary

3 weeks to go now. Taper will start soon...

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	5	4
Distance	21km	14.3km
Time	6h10	3h42
Biking
Sessions	4	4
Distance	432km	308km
Time	14h40	10h12
Running
Sessions	5	4
Distance	86km	59km
Time	6h55	4h41
Strength
Sessions	-	1
Time	-	45min
Total
Sessions	14	13
Time	27h45	19h21
TSS	-	1176
Other	68kg	84-85kg
Summary
Goal for the week	Faire du volume et finir séché	Last big volume, IM sim on Saturday
The good	Des séances à pied incroyables et un stage tout bonnement magnifique dans son ensemble	Good weather at the end of the week. Good cycling legs, running good too. Got through the run sim despite feeling lousy
The bad	La chaleur et les pollens ont exacerbés ma fatigue de la fin de semaine	Too much work stress. Suffered on the IM sim
Thoughts	Frankfort here I come!! :-) Merci Karen, David et Mike pour ces deux semaines et ces entrainements	Final stretch!

Francfort, ça se prépare!

Les entraînements s'enchaînent et le poil pousse...


La moustache fait son volume et ça, c'est important!
Je travaille fort et promets d'être au top!


N'est pas Semper Barbatus qui veut! 

Matt is doing RAAM - follow on Facebook!

Matt Warner-Smith is starting his second Race Across America (RAAM) today, a solo 5000km journey from the west coast to the east coast. Nonstop racing until you arrive. It's gruelling and tough, with the best riders getting there in about 9 days, riding about 20 hours per day - insane! Matt did amazingly last time when he came third on his rookie attempt, so we are hoping that he will do just as well again, or may be even better :-).

There is a Facebook group where is crew will post updates throughout the week. Go, sign up and show your support!

Cheers
Nicolas

Progressive overload

Having a little fun with the training statistics. Starting last September, when I did Wales IM and recovered afterwards, this campaign for Frankfurt has been a pretty nice build in terms of training volume and associated training load. In April and May I hit pretty high volume - 74 and 81 hours, of course aided by the training camp in Mallorca and the week in France.

Week 29 (W-4): Summary

Les dernières semaines où ça charge la mule:

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	4	3
Distance	20km	5.6km
Time	6h	1h33
Biking
Sessions	3	4
Distance	400km	160km
Time	13h40	6h33
Running
Sessions	3	6
Distance	61km	48km
Time	4h56	3h40
Strength
Sessions	-	1
Time	-	15min
Total
Sessions	10	14
Time	23h36	12h01
TSS	-	685
Other	68-69 kg	84-85kg 1 massage
Summary
Goal for the week	Volume sur 5 jours pour mieux me reposer le week-end! :-)	Recover! Get on top of work
The good	Tous les entrainements sont passés et le plaisir est au rendez-vous.	Feeling good at the end of the week
The bad	Quelques bobos, mais qui se gèrent.	A bit more stress at work than I would have liked
Thoughts	Les jambes reviennent, le plaisir est là. Magnifique stage chez Karen à Martigny avec Averell. Encore une semaine à ce rythme, que du bonheur!	Feeling great, can't wait for Frankfurt

Sunday DIY: improving the bike front end

A little bit of Sunday DIY to improve the front end of the bike: a holder for the bottle cage that sits between the arms. So far I had installed it straight on the aero bars and stem, but the bottle wasn't flush. Instead of buying a stupidly expensive Xlab holder I made a little home-made solution out of a plastic box I got from Nico at Bike Passion. A little summary in pictures:

The box

Sides cut off and the holes for the bottle cage:

Final version installed with cable binders:

Start numbers and times for Frankfurt

So it has been decided: Alain gets to start at 6:45 with the pros, I get to start at 7 with the humble amateurs. The "almost also duelers" from Tri Genève - Christophe, Steffen, and Seb will be starting at 7:00 (Christophe), 6:45 (Steffen) and 7:00 (Seb).

This will be a fun race to follow, since Steffen and Seb have thrown down the gauntlet at the recent Triathlon du Sud half Ironman by taking first and second. Overall. Not age group.

Start numbers and times:
Alain Boschung - 148 - 6:45
Nicolas Theopold - 2822 - 7:00
Steffen Doebert - 813 - 6:45
Sébastien Jossi - 1771 - 7:00
Christophe Kolly - 1866 - 7:00

Gear review: thoughts on the Lake TX312 triathlon shoe

The post man brought a nice shiny pair of tri shoes this morning. Although I have some very light, stiff, and well functioning Biomac shoes I could not resist ordering these to check them out. The TX312 is the new top of the line Lake shoe and has a funky heel-closure system that allows you to slip into the shoe from the back and to tighten it with a Boa cable system.

To put the answer first: although these shoes are very pretty and beautifully built I will be sending them back for a couple of reasons.

A new toy...

Great little addition to the gimmicks shed: a new holder for the Edge 800. The folks from racewaredirect.co.uk make this custom mount using 3d printing technology. Puts the Edge in a very nice position, a bit like an SRM Powercontrol. They also make a time trial version for aero bars, but unfortunately my aerobars are curved, so it's no good for that.

Week 28 (W-5): Summary

The race is beginning to rear its head - last ditch big training:

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	4	3
Distance	14.9km	10.8km
Time	4h30	3h07
Biking
Sessions	4	5
Distance	200km	616km
Time	6h10	19h30
Running
Sessions	3	4
Distance	42km	54km
Time	3h50	4h06
Strength
Sessions	-	-
Time	-	-
Total
Sessions	11	12
Time	14h30	26h43
TSS	-	1490
Other	69 kg 1 massage	85-86kg Training camp and holiday in France
Summary
Goal for the week	Un peu de repos avant le stage	Final training camp. Get good simulations in, bike lots, enjoy the time with the girl and the family :-)
The good	La fatigue disparait gentiment.	Got in a huge week but still felt really good. Breakthrough session on an Ironman simulation. If the race works like the simulation it will be scary.
The bad	La fatigue est toujours trop présente.	Did not complete the prescribed 2.5h challenge at the end of the week.
Thoughts	C'est la dernière ligne droite, il va falloir travailler, bien manger, se reposer mais surtout rigoler et prendre du plaisir...	Working hard and enjoying it!

Endurance Corner post

A blatant bit of self promotion today: a few days ago I had a blog post about managing your coaching relationship posted on Endurance Corner's site. Check it out here if you are interested.

Week 27 (W-6): Summary

C'est le début de la fin:

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	3	4
Distance	12.2km	14.2km
Time	4h	3h51
Biking
Sessions	2	2
Distance	135km + home trainer	175km
Time	5h05	5h27
Running
Sessions	3	5
Distance	54km	89km
Time	4h20	6h57
Strength
Sessions	-	1
Time	-	45min
Total
Sessions	8	12
Time	13h25	17h01
TSS	-	998
Other	69 kg 1 acupuncture, 2 osteo	85-86kg 1 massage
Summary
Goal for the week	Première semaine du dernier bloc. Du rythme de course et une longue sortie à pied	Get a good first simulation workout in
The good	La plus longue sortie à pied derrière moi.	Good running, nice weather, leaving for France
The bad	La plus longue sortie à pied derrière moi.	Simulation on Saturday didn't go too well - bad stomach!
Thoughts	La fatigue et les doutes m'envahissent. Je travaille à me focaliser sur le seul objectif important pour moi: passer la ligne d'arrivée après 2 années de travail.	Training camp! Time to put the finishing touches on a long campaign! Enjoying the feeling of being stroooong!

Bliss is...

...a training camp cum family holiday in France, in Royan to be precise. My trusted Garmin Edge is leading the way through the vinyards around Cognac and to the hallowed gates of St Emilion. The sun burns, sweat flows, but the legs are good, watts are there, and a dinner with oysters soothes body and soul. Onward to Frankfurt, we are laying the final stones of the building that will hopefully come together on 8th July. ...and bliss is also a week (almost) without internet. More updates when I'm back. LaGrande

The arms race continues...

Secret weapon #376

Motto for this weekend: "Mommy......"

I know training is getting serious when I'm afraid of the sessions ahead. Well, it's that time again (last time was the 5 hour all out bike challenge). This Saturday holds the first of a series of Ironman simulations:

Life is an uphill struggle... and sometimes swimming is

Legendary footage from a race in France recently:

W26 (W-7): Summary

Recovery is dealt with, now off to the final bit of hard work!

	Bibi	La Grande
Swimming
Sessions	1	5
Distance	3.2km	16.8km
Time	1h	4h42
Biking
Sessions	3	3
Distance	215km	206km
Time	6h	6h56
Running
Sessions	1	3
Distance	13km	32.5km
Time	1h05	2h32
Strength
Sessions	-	2
Time	-	30min
Total
Sessions	5	13
Time	8h05	14h41
TSS	-	809
Other	69 kg 1 acupuncture, 1 massage, 1 osteo	85-86kg 1 massage
Summary
Goal for the week	Récupération et recharge des batteires pour attaquer la dernière ligne droite	Recover, get ready for the finishing straight
The good	Magnifique week-end dans l'oberland bernois à la recherche de la terrasse parfaite pour boire le café avec ma chère et tendre! Que du bonheur!	Good recovery, spirits are high, body is without niggles, feeling strong - awesome!
The bad	Quelques douleurs, un peu le rhume	Nothing much to say
Thoughts	Tellement bien de se sentir motivé comme au premier jour à attaquer ce dernier bloc et sentir cette course pointer le bout de son nez! I like!	Just six weeks to go? Bit concerned about the coming month, lots of work on the horizon.

100 posts and still nonsense

Wow! Today is the 100th post on our bilingual-Ironman-duel-and-stupid-videos blog. Thanks to all of you readers readers and internet bots who got our page count to a mind-boggling 5,288 (and counting!).

Rumor has it that Alain is thinking of taking his writing and video editing full time and I am waiting replies from The Onion, New York Times, and The Economist. I have a friend who knows a guy who's sister is dating the assistant to the Secretary of the night porter so it won't be long 'till its adios Blog and hello journalism. But until then, of course, we will keep providing high low quality journalism nonsense on a highly regular random basis.

But this wouldn't be Bibi vs LaGrande if we didn't think up something special for our 100th blog post. After a long and intricate research and development phase that started before a mythical training camp in Riccione, of which only the old folks still speak, we are happy to present to you our motto in triathlon:

Because every race is better with a mustache! Coming to a race near you some time in the future. Maybe.

My approach

Alain has explained his approach to Ironman training here before, so now it's my turn to explain a little my philosophy and approach to this whole duel thing. I'll give two versions.

The short version:

The long version:
In my development as an athlete I come from a different background than Alain. I wasn't very good at sports when I was young and never really competed. Over the years I've dabbled many different things, from snowboarding to kite surfing, rowing, mountain biking, and tennis but always as a keen amateur without thinking I had the capacity to do well in competition. My triathlon passion came about mostly by chance when I decided to sign up for the club to go swimming rather than join a gym. The goals were pretty modest at the time: finish an Olympic distance tri in under 3 hours.

A common theme across the sports, though, is that once I get interested I like to immerse myself in the experience and understand really what's going on. Pair this with a love of technical gimmicks and toys and you can see why I'm all about sports science, articles, power meters, and testing ;-). With that info out of the way something about my approach - finally!

It's not by chance that I ended up with Alan Couzens as my coach: he has an amazing amount of knowledge and experience in physiology, coaching, and long distance events. I count myself lucky that he had a slot for me on his roster and I now get coached next to athletes who have done sub 9h Ironman races or came 2nd in the Ultraman world's. I actually learned about him when I asked a question about pacing a half Ironman when I prepared for Rapperswil in 2010.

I honestly don't think that I have a very special talent. But working with Alan has shown me that you don't need that if you want to be at a level to qualify for Kona. The ultimate limiter to progression is how well and consistently you can train for a long period. The body takes a long time to adapt.

This realization has given me comfort and has made me relax about the progress I make. The last two years I worked very hard, trying to get to my goals quickly. That was a mistake in that I was overstretched and often so exhausted I couldn't even sleep anymore. We have now switched the balance to more volume and consistency in the workouts but I train less intensely. As a result I am less exhausted and when I am exhausted I want to sleep, rather than being over-revved.

In practical terms it means that I am going from a training year of about 650 hours to about 800 hours - more than 20% increase, but the decreased intensity makes up for some of the difference. This is a lot of training and the challenge becomes one of logistics - making work, life, and training fit is not easy when you want to hit 20 hours per week often. This approach does not mean that I only do endurance training without quality - but the focus has shifted somewhat to lower intensities. We had seen that my short numbers were stronger than my long numbers, so we are focusing on building that endurance and durability.

Another important change has been the addition of strength training. I am still pretty weak compared to some of the muscle powerhouses, but the slew of squats, lunges, and core stability exercises seems to have helped in preventing injuries.

Before Mallorca I was wondering what this longer and slower training had done to a distance that you can race quite hard. PBs on the swim and bike reconfirmed that improvements are still coming, only the run was a bit slower, but I felt I was limited by the heat.

The last thing I focus on a lot is race execution. I like to have a good plan for how to race, especially on Ironman. It's easy to go out too hard or to mess up your day because you are not feeding yourself well. So before the race I try to have a very good idea of how hard I want to go on the bike (in watts), what food I want to take on when, and how hard I want to run. These are usually upper limits to slow me down if I am tempted to go out too hard because the legs are fresh and I am rested.

As a consultant I need to boil it down to a set of simple bullet points:

• Train consistently - do training you can absorb and keep at it
• Be patient - take pride in the work, the results will come
• Easy on the intensity - it breaks me down, so dose it well
• Execute your race - have a strategy, but stay flexible

Thanks for bearing with me :-)
LaGrande