Post 153 - The big, the good, the bad, the ugly

I had a whole day off after the Stirling triathlon. My legs and body usually feel reasonably fine after a sprint triathlon, I seem to be able to race hard and recover quite quickly after the sprints. The one standard distance triathlon I’ve done this year took a bit longer to recover from, and I’m sure the half Ironman will take longer again.

I planned a really tough, long, intense week of training. I’d then have an easier week to taper before the Eyemouth sprint triathlon, then one more moderately tough week, then a week to taper for the half ironman. A really “hard” week results from combining session length with session duration. Long, easy sessions wouldn’t necessarily make a hard week. Short intense sessions would be a bit tougher. Long, intense sessions together… well… got to do it and got to get through it.

So on Tuesday night it was off to Arthur’s Seat to do hill repeats on the bike. I wanted to alternate each repeat with normal pedalling, then high-gear low-cadence pedalling, then low-gear high-cadence pedalling. So, little mini sets of three. I thought I’d do 15 repeats, so 5 mini sets of normal pedalling, fast pedalling, and slow pedalling.

It was tough mentally at the start, with 14, then 13, then 12 still to go. And tough physically at the end to keep going and maintain pace. The “normal” pedalling felt natural, with my usual cadence of just over 90rpm. The fast pedalling was like a hamster in a wheel, spinning furiously while lactic flooded the legs. The slow pedalling was just churning away, loading up the muscles. I got to 14 and said to myself after 15 I’d do another 3, to make 18. Then I got to 18 and said I’d do two more for good measure. 20 is a nice round number. 20 was my limit though as my time for the twentieth hill dropped away a bit. Still, over 40 miles and well over 3000 feet climbed isn’t bad for a school night…

Screenshot of session profile (top) and heart rate (bottom red line)

Wednesday was a sprint swim session, doing 4-length intervals (100 yards) in around 1:15-1:20, with recovery up to 2 minutes. It was good to swim fast as most of the swimming I’ve done this year has been more endurance-focused. With the fast swimming I had no confidence in my tumble turning so it was the touch turns instead, with the odd tumble thrown in, inevitably cocked up.

Thursday was a club running speed session. 3 x 2.2km (around 7 minutes of hard off-road running). I didn’t know what the recovery was until after the first repeat. “2:30” said the coach. “2:30?!” I repeated, a couple of octaves higher… There were two in the lead group, me and another guy, working hard together and not wanting to give much away to the other. I had a strong third interval and thought, “I feel OK, let’s go for one more…” I did this one solo and it was much tougher, coming in 10 seconds slower. But given the intensity of the first three, I’ll take it. A great speed endurance session for the half ironman. Shame that the friction burns I got on my left foot at Stirling when running with no socks had re-opened and were bleeding again... these need to heal, quickly!

Friday was single leg turbo drills for almost an hour, followed by a continuous 3k endurance swim, trying to work on my tumble turning. The turns seem passable early in the session, then get worse. I’m currently only doing them at the deep end as the shallow end seems way too shallow… hopefully in time I will be able to do them in shallow water, but I’ll need to be able to do them well in deep water first… practice, practice, practice…

I went home and got my bike ready for back-to-back long rides of over 100km. These would put strength in the legs for the half ironman. Saturday saw 72 miles down in the Scottish Borders on a pretty nice day. I felt reasonably good on the bike, but not so good in the 5k run I subjected myself to immediately afterwards. I spent the rest of the day eating, stretching, doing core work, eating, eating, eating, and went to bed early.

Almost Alpine

Same again on Sunday, on a hillier route. It was mistier outside, and much more of a slog, with a little bit of a niggle on the inside of my left knee, which I hoped wouldn't get worse. I was lacking a bit of zip in the legs. But I just had to get through it. I was sweating a lot. Forcing it hard. Hoping it wouldn’t rain. You don’t realise how hard you’re working until you have to stop at a junction, and then you feel your legs absolutely cooking, and then you have to get back up to speed again, and again, and again… 67 miles was followed by another 5k run and I felt a bit stronger on this run. A good sign. So far so good, on this big training week.

I weighed myself straight afterwards and the scales showed 60.6kg. Seriously lightweight. Admittedly seriously empty as well, a bit dehydrated, and in need of food, liquid and recovery. Which I duly sorted out for the rest of the day…

!

I was very tired though, but had one more day to get through. One more really tough session before the half ironman. Planned for the Monday evening after work, a 14 mile hilly run on the half ironman course. Just one more day. I went to bed ridiculously early on Sunday night to try and recover. Some people complain in the winter that they never see daylight. I hadn’t seen darkness for a few days! Not that I’m complaining… I’ve got 2 layers of blackout blinds and heavy curtains in my room, so it stays dark when the day breaks at 4am. Good sleep is important…

I had very little energy on Monday but got home from work, got changed into my running gear, and headed out. 14 miles to get through. 90 more minutes. Then I could switch off a bit mentally for a day or two. Despite best intentions, there wasn’t much in my legs. I knew straight away. I was knackered. 14 miles was too big of an ask this evening. 14 miles of hard, fast running up and down those hills. No way. Be sensible. I packed it in after less than a minute. The right call. I went home, had dinner and went to bed early. Another day with no darkness seen…

I tried again the following evening. My legs felt better, but still not fresh. They’d be good enough to get through it though. I seemed to run better as the miles passed, and seemed strong on the hills. I could feel the friction burns on my left foot. I should have taped them up and used vaseline. About halfway through the run, a little urge in my guts… Bah… I don’t want to stop and find a toilet, I want to get through this, it’s my last really tough session before the half. I want to run it well, no breaks, no sitting on a toilet. 40 more minutes and I’ll be home, for all I care I can then sit on the toilet all night if I can just get through the next 40 minutes…

The urge passed. Then it came back 10 minutes later. OK, I might actually have to stop. I can stop at the bottom of the hill, there’s a public building down there, I can go there, they’ll have toilets. But I felt OK at the bottom of the hill and the stubborn-ness in me saw me keep going. 30 more minutes. There’s a swimming pool at the top of the hill, I can go there if I need to. I got up the hill. I should have stopped at the swimming pool. I didn’t. A few minutes later I had to stop at the side of the road and do a bit of hard clenching. Then all the emergency situation alarm bells started ringing and I just about managed to dive into the bushes, stumbling through nettles to try to find somewhere where (hopefully) no one would see. Not pretty.

I felt totally wiped out, guts in pieces, stomach in pieces, energy levels shot to pieces, legs cooked and stung by nettles, and already cooling down alarmingly. Whatever it is in me that keeps me going got me back running to try to finish the run at the same hard pace. But it wasn’t happening, I felt truly awful, and I had to admit defeat. It was a long, miserable, slow 3 mile shuffle home, and straight into the shower.

Not how I had envisaged it going, not what I wanted, and not what an already-depleted body needed. I wanted to be coming off this session with it having gone great, having smashed those hills, feeling confident. Not this.

After the bad mood had subsided a bit, looking at it rationally, it was the first real negative since I started back seriously at the triathlons/duathlons in February/March this year. I suppose I was due a bit of negativity as things had been going so well. At least I wasn’t injured. I’d get over it. But I felt terrible. I felt awful the next day. No energy, absolutely knackered, and unbelievably hungry. Appetite out of control. I listened to my body’s demands and ate and ate and ate and ate. I went very early to bed again – sleep is a good medicine – and allowed myself a long lie-in the following morning (flexible working means I can work from home from time to time and I worked from home the next day, which meant I could stay in bed until 8:45am). So that meant over 12 hours in bed, coupled with massive amounts of nourishment and hydration. I started to feel a bit better.

It’s unlikely there’ll be any training that’s remotely tough/long/intense now before the Eyemouth sprint triathlon this weekend, I will just recover as hard as I can and do a little bit of easy training to keep things ticking over, and will hopefully feel progressively better and more recovered as the week progresses.

Training done was as follows:

Mon 4 June: Rest

Tue 5 June: 40 mile bike (20 x ~2:35 hill reps, alternating normal/low/high cadence)
Wed 6 June: Swim 2.4km (2 x 10 x 100yds, 1:15-1:20, rec to 2mins – 1:22-1:27/100m)
Thu 7 June: Run 4 x 2.2km, 2:30 rec (7:07, 7:09, 7:06, 7:18)
Fri 8 June: 50 min turbo (single leg drills, 3 x 5mins R/L/B), Swim 3k
Sat 9 June: 72 mile bike (136bpm, 3380ft), 5k run (21mins)
Sun 10 June: 67 mile bike (128bpm, 4265ft), 5k run (20mins)
Mon 11 June: Rest
Tue 12 June: 90 min run (10 miles hilly, 3 miles easy)
Wed 13 June: Rest

Totals: Swim 5.4km, Bike 195 miles, Run 17 miles