It wasn\u2019t just the race that left me feeling wiped. I had a huge moment in my personal life that\u2019s also exhausted me, but in a good way\u2026<\/p>\n
I got engaged a few days after the race and we spent several nights away in the Peak District enjoying some down-time. This small break was definitely needed after a non-stop start to the year.<\/p>\n
It seems only last week that I was lining up for my first race of the season in Portugal. This small break will hopefully revive me for the second half of the year.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Mid-season breaks do go against all the emotional habits you develop when in full training. You fear that you\u2019ll lose fitness and feel sluggish, bloated and weak. But I find it useful to imagine you\u2019re advising someone else to do it and the benefit they will get off doing it.<\/p>\n Breaks are a good time to process what you\u2019ve already achieved this year so far and what you want to do or change going forward.<\/p>\n I took time to revisit the racing I\u2019d already done and also look at my year holistically. I turned 31 last month and I am one of the oldest pros lining up on the pontoon.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a problem, as some of the greatest athletes we\u2019ve ever seen were dominant way into their 30s. Most importantly, I still love doing what I do and this means that I want to get the best out of myself now and use the experience I have gained to race smarter and plan the year in a way to get more out of myself.<\/p>\n I remember being able to jump straight back into full training after a race, but now recovery is taking a bit more time. This probably means I need to dial back the frequency of racing and make sure I\u2019m really ready to deliver at the next one.<\/p>\n That has been my instinct for a while, but the calendar and the responsibilities I\u2019ve had with the federation over the past four years have encouraged me to race a bit more than I think I can cope with, hence the dip in form recently.<\/p>\n Third at Ironman 70.3 Swansea<\/a><\/strong> was a great result and I\u2019m always delighted with a podium as they don\u2019t come round as often as I\u2019d like.<\/p>\n But what I actually delivered wasn\u2019t me at my best. I suppose partly the reason for this is that I haven\u2019t done any specific training for long course.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve barely ridden my TT in position and all the run training I\u2019ve been doing is focussed on 5-10k speed, lest than half the distance we race in middle-distance triathlon.<\/p>\n Luckily the swim doesn\u2019t change too much for me, but the cycling and running really needs thinking about if I\u2019m to reach my potential over the next few years.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> I\u2019ve actually put a few things in motion already. I did some aero testing with WattShop the Sunday before the race and changed quite a bit with my position.<\/p>\n I still need to get used to the change and train my body to produce power in a lower position, which will take time, but I felt the benefit in my speed straight away.<\/p>\n The biggest changes which saved the most watts were getting narrower and getting lower.<\/p>\n Equipment and clothing upgrades saved power, too, and it all added up to quite a significant change, But as I said, I now need to train in position and find a balance between power production and aerodynamics.<\/p>\n What I found out on the bike in Swansea is you need to make sure everything is ready to go and that includes your bike and legs. I spent the first 10 miles on the bike distracted on things, while Alistair vanished up the road.<\/p>\n I\u2019d not loaded the bike course, I lost half of my nutrition and had to force my bars back into position after they dropped on a rough bit of ground. It\u2019s easy to lose a huge amount of time when you\u2019re not concentrating.<\/p>\n Thankfully the chase caught me and I was able to focus on this group and follow their racing lines. I could only really follow and hang on because I was on the limit.<\/p>\n My rear tyre was very soft. When racking in the morning I\u2019d noticed it was flat. The sealant had worked, so I pumped it up and gave it a spin hoping it would seal, but it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Thankfully I had some foam inserts which kept a small bit of pressure in the tyre so you can keep riding safely. That said, I could feel the rim touching the road on every rough patch of road or cattle grid.<\/p>\n Getting off the bike I was pretty spent and had to manage my fatigue and consume my back-up nutrition fast, without over doing it and affecting my stomach.<\/p>\n The run was a fairly lonely affair once I\u2019d caught Maurice Clavel and Liam Lloyd, who\u2019d both been part of our bike pack.<\/p>\n I had one cramp scare after 15km and had to walk a bit, but thankfully it eased off and I was fine for the final stretch. We all saw how cramp can end a race for someone during the Canadian Open.<\/p>\n Looking forward, I have a few ideas with what I want to do. There\u2019s a couple of French Grand Prix\u2019s early next month that I\u2019m looking forward to and then it\u2019s looking at what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n There are some World Cups in Asia and also some middle-distance events, too, so it\u2019s choosing what\u2019s right for me to set me up next year.<\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Nigel Roddis\/Getty Images for Ironman<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Rob Slade Published: Wednesday, 17 August 2022 at 12:00 am It\u2019s been a week since Swansea 70.3 and I will happily admit that I\u2019m still completely knackered! It wasn\u2019t just the race that left me feeling wiped. I had a huge moment in my personal life that\u2019s also exhausted me, but in a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16751,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing.jpg",1500,1114,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing-300x223.jpg",300,223,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing-768x570.jpg",768,570,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing-1024x760.jpg",800,594,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing.jpg",1500,1114,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-on-adapting-to-middle-distance-racing.jpg",1500,1114,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rob Slade Published: Wednesday, 17 August 2022 at 12:00 am It\u2019s been a week since Swansea 70.3 and I will happily admit that I\u2019m still completely knackered! It wasn\u2019t just the race that left me feeling wiped. I had a huge moment in my personal life that\u2019s also exhausted me, but in a good…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The benefits of a break<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-sian-rainsley-engaged-3df08ee-rotated.jpeg?quality=90&resize=480%2C640"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Moving up to the middle<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-aero-testing-9fd399f.jpeg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Learning on the job<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/08\/tom-bishop-podium-ironman-70-3-swansea-2ba6f7e.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"