Post 40 - Last tough training week

Training done this week was as follows:

Monday 25^th August 2014: 1:10 turbo (1 hour hard), 20 minute run
Tuesday 26^th August 2014: Rest
Wed 27^th August 2014: 20 minute turbo (5mins/2mins max), 30 minute fartlek run
Thurs 28^th August 2014: 1:25 turbo (10 x 4mins hard, 4mins easy), 20 minute run
Friday 29^th August 2014: Swim 3km (3 x 10 x 61m off 1 minute), 1:15 turbo (8 x 3mins L/R/both)
Saturday 30^th August 2014: 3:15 turbo (with 6 x 5min hard “hills”), 30 minute run
Sunday 31^st August 2014: Swim 3.8km (paddle drills), 100 minute run

Totals: Swim 6.8km, Bike 160 miles, Run 29 miles

This was my last tough week of training before Ironman Wales. My last week of Ironman training this year. Specific Ironman training started this year on 7^th January, so that has been 8 months of full-time, tough training, fitted in around a full-time, tough job. All that is left now is a 2-week taper. I’ll still train, but nothing too long and nothing too intense.

I feel very fatigued at the minute, because I haven’t really stopped since Ironman UK on 20^th July. I had a couple of days off after Ironman UK, and a couple of days off to rest up before going to the Alps, but apart from that it has been full-on. Normally I would never train hard for more than 2 weeks without then having an easier week. This time, for various reasons, it has been pretty much nearly 6 tough weeks in a row. So I’m in need of a rest.

I think I have maybe overtrained in the last few weeks. Overtraining isn’t a good thing. Generally, increased training results in increased fitness, but there comes a point where further increases in training do not bring the same proportional increases in fitness. This is the point where real fatigue sets in, where recovery takes longer, and where there is a much greater risk of injury. In France, particularly in the final few days, my back was getting sore on the bike. During my final long turbo session, where I incorporated 6 repetitions of 5 minutes at super-high resistance to mimic the hills of Ironman Wales, I wasn’t as powerful as I would normally be. I don’t put this down to a lack of fitness, I put it down to fatigue, heavy legs and overtraining.

I have got 2 weeks now before Ironman Wales to rest and recover, have a couple of massages, have an ice bath or two, do lots of stretching, lots of sleeping, lots of fuelling up and hydrating, along with a few nice easy training sessions. Hopefully by the time Wales comes around on the 14^th September, I will be fresh and ready to go. Although I’m fatigued, by and large I am healthy and injury-free, apart from a sorer-than-usual back. This will be put right by some ice, heat, massage and rest (I hope!)

Some stuff I’ll be drinking every day: beetroot juice is meant to be good for endurance athletes. Let’s see. It doesn’t taste, and comes with a warning that it is normal to have pink urine after drinking…

 

Some stuff I have been and will be eating every day… My meals taste awesome...

 

 

Some stuff I won't be eating every day. This is an actual product, on sale in an actual supermarket near me...

It’s difficult to gauge where my fitness levels are at the minute. I think I’m not quite where I was before I ended up in hospital, but I would like to think I am not far away. The upcoming two easy weeks will do me a lot of good, and going into the race fresh will be a big benefit. I haven’t really been fresh for any of the training sessions I’ve done in the past few weeks. Knowing the Wales course will also be a big advantage, and having competed there last year, I know what to expect and am better placed to plan and execute a better race.

Also this week, I have been wearing a 48-hour heart monitor. This is further to all the tests and diagnostics I underwent before I went to France. They all came back totally normal, and this 48-hour heart monitor is a final test, to be sure to be sure that there are no problems with my heart. It was a bit of an inconvenience to wear, and it made sleeping a bit awkward, with all the wires hanging off me, and the little recorder box having to remain very close by. It also made me look like a bit of a freakish science experiment, resembling some sort of cyborg half-human, half robot.

 

I was given a spare set of electrodes and instructions on how to change them over, so that I could disconnect myself to take a shower, and not end up smelling like a mouldy rag. Ideally, I wanted to have a few cases of ectopic beats when wearing it. I also wanted to train really hard when wearing it, and get my heart rate as high as possible. This would allow the cardiologists to analyse my heart when under stress, and when the ectopic beats were happening. The nurse who wired me up instructed me to do everything possible to try to bring on these ectopic beats: drink coffee, drink Red Bull, get stressed, sleep badly, do whatever training I thought would bring it on.

However, I don’t drink coffee or Red Bull, I have recovered from the leg infections, I didn’t intend to deprive myself of sleep, and I’m a bit less on edge compared with the run-up and aftermath of Ironman UK. The holiday did me good. So my cases of ectopic beats haven’t been as often or obvious in the last couple of weeks. I did train hard, at high heart rate when wearing the monitor. I’m currently waiting for the results to come back, but I fully expect them to be fine, and so does my cardiologist. So there should be no problems.

It’s a strange feeling to think the season is coming to an end. All the work is done. All the tough sessions are done. It’s a bit anti-climactic to be honest. I had seen myself getting in good shape for Ironman UK, and hopefully qualifying for Kona with a good performance there. It was very deflating to have that knocked back. My entire 2014 and all the work I did had been geared to that race. However I am grateful that I have the opportunity to put a Plan B into action, even if preparation for Wales hasn’t been ideal. In an ideal world, I’d have had a come-down after Ironman UK, and some time off to rest and recover, and then another build-up to Ironman Wales. However, the world isn’t ideal, and time and work constraints have meant that I didn’t have much of a come-down after hospital/Ironman UK, and I have just blasted straight through to Ironman Wales.

But, this is the best I can make of the situation and I hope that I will have a good day in Wales…