From now on, I hope to write a blog entry once a week, probably on Sunday
evenings. Christmas and New Year are well and truly over and I'm now back with
my nose to the grindstone, from both a work point of view and a training point
of view. The nose will be on the grindstone until at least 20th
July, and hopefully on into October… My plan had been to get through Christmas
and not pick up any illnesses, colds, flus or bugs, to keep reasonably active,
and to not eat too much. This would hopefully allow me to get 2014 off to a
good start from a training perspective. I think I succeeded on all of these
fronts over Christmas - I didn't get sick, I raced three times and did a bit of
swimming and cycling in between, and my weight stayed put.
The two downsides were having my wisdom tooth out and destroying my legs on the road at Greencastle. However, my mouth is now on the mend and I have just finished my course of antibiotics. I no longer need painkillers, and all I have to do is swill a disgusting antiseptic mouthwash after every meal. This is supposed to kill off any germs and prevent infection in the hole where my tooth used to be, but what it actually seems to be doing is corroding my tongue and killing my taste buds, leaving me wondering if it’s mouthwash or acid I have been given. My legs have recovered, but I will need to start getting them conditioned to hard road running again. In time, and with training, this conditioning will come, but the absolute lack of conditioning was a bit of a shock to me in the days after Greencastle.
Inevitably, I will be comparing my progress in training this year with my progress in training last year, and striving to be "up", or "ahead" of where I was at the same time last year. After Christmas last year I caught the flu, which wiped me out for about two weeks at the start of 2013, so I'm already better off. Fingers crossed that I can stay healthy - the flu jab and all of the dietary supplements I am taking should help. In 2013, I didn’t get my triathlon bike until February, so in January 2013 I was fitting in some outdoor hybrid bike riding around the icy, frosty, bitterly cold winter. This time round I will have the whole of January as “extra” training time with the bike, and I won’t be limited by ice because I’m not reliant on riding on the roads as I have the bike set up on a turbo trainer. Hopefully by the time February comes around, I will be a month ahead of last year.
I intended to "hit the ground running" at the start of 2014, so to speak, and get straight back into my "full-time", serious training schedule, fitted in around my "even-fuller-time" job. "Serious" training for me is when I log everything I do and when I am working towards something specific. After the 2013 Ironman racing season, I stopped recording my training. I suppose this was some form of mental release where I was no longer accountable to my training diary. I'm now back recording everything, and I suppose also that this training diary provides me with some motivation in that I need to write something in it every day, and I take satisfaction from seeing all of the sessions I have done being logged and banked. It's a useful point of reference, a good planning tool, and it doesn't accept any bluffs or excuses.
My usual training routine is a 3-week cycle, doing two tough weeks followed by an easier week. This has worked well in terms of allowing my body to rest and recover, and is a lesson I learned from my running days - I can't pound my body week in and week out for an indefinite period of time, otherwise injury and illness tend to strike. The easy week allows me to go into the tough weeks feeling fresh and helps with consistency of training. It is in resting that the body strengthens.
However, coming back to London/Essex after Christmas, I was feeling a bit depleted due to my wisdom tooth being taken out, being limited in what I could eat, being on antibiotics, being behind on sleep and having had a really tough race in Antrim. I decided to make the first two weeks easier than normal, to break me back into the training cycle. Training done this week was as follows:
Sat 4th January 2014: 10K cross-country race, 33:56
Sun 5th January 2014: Rest
Mon 6th January 2014: Rest
Tue 7th January 2014: 1:05 turbo (5mins easy, 5 mins hard, repeated)
Wed 8th January 2014: 30 min fartlek run
Thu 9th January 2014: Swim 3.3k continuous
Fri 10th January 2014: Rest
Sat 11th January 2014: 1:50 turbo (resistance increasing every 15 minutes), 20min run
Sun 12th January 2014: Swim 3k (12 x 250m)
Approximate totals: Swim 6.3km, Bike 65 miles, Run 14 miles.
Plus regular stretching, weights and core work.
I needed the couple of days of rest after the race. Tuesday's bike went OK, Wednesday's run went OK, both of my swims felt sluggish, Saturday's bike was very tough, I planned to do 8 x 15 minute blocks but didn't have the legs for the final 15 minutes at high resistance. The run afterwards felt OK though. The swims were both in my local pool as opposed to in a London pool after work. My local pool is really warm, like swimming in a bath. It gets quite uncomfortable quite quickly and you need to keep hydrated. This contributed to feeling sluggish, although I need to accept that I'm not as fit as I was going into my Ironman races. Similarly for Saturday's bike, I thought I would have the legs for the final 15 and I didn't. Looking back through last year’s training log, just before Ironman Wales I was able to do 3:15 on the turbo, getting progressively more difficult every 15 minutes, so this shows I have some way to go to get back to that level. That’s fine, I have over 6 months to do this as long as I can be consistent in my training, no interruptions, injuries or illnesses. It’s impossible to maintain race-fitness on a year-round basis. I did notice a bit of a niggle around the arch of my left foot, so I will have to keep tabs on this.
On Friday night and Saturday night I slept for 11 hours on both occasions, not because I'm lazy but because I needed to. Overall, I can't be too disappointed with this week as I know that I am not in optimal training condition (antibiotics, painkillers, wisdom tooth trauma, tough racing, lack of fitness and lack of sleep). I was disappointed to learn that the price of a swim in my local pool has increased from £5 to £6. A bit of a rip-off considering you can swim in London for less than a fiver, and in Northern Ireland for about £3. And in the sea for nothing, if you’re fond of hypothermia.
Next week will be more of the same, and if anything I will make it slightly easier than this week to allow my body to recover from the fatigue and antibiotics, and to allow me to break myself gently into the full-time training schedule again.
The two downsides were having my wisdom tooth out and destroying my legs on the road at Greencastle. However, my mouth is now on the mend and I have just finished my course of antibiotics. I no longer need painkillers, and all I have to do is swill a disgusting antiseptic mouthwash after every meal. This is supposed to kill off any germs and prevent infection in the hole where my tooth used to be, but what it actually seems to be doing is corroding my tongue and killing my taste buds, leaving me wondering if it’s mouthwash or acid I have been given. My legs have recovered, but I will need to start getting them conditioned to hard road running again. In time, and with training, this conditioning will come, but the absolute lack of conditioning was a bit of a shock to me in the days after Greencastle.
Inevitably, I will be comparing my progress in training this year with my progress in training last year, and striving to be "up", or "ahead" of where I was at the same time last year. After Christmas last year I caught the flu, which wiped me out for about two weeks at the start of 2013, so I'm already better off. Fingers crossed that I can stay healthy - the flu jab and all of the dietary supplements I am taking should help. In 2013, I didn’t get my triathlon bike until February, so in January 2013 I was fitting in some outdoor hybrid bike riding around the icy, frosty, bitterly cold winter. This time round I will have the whole of January as “extra” training time with the bike, and I won’t be limited by ice because I’m not reliant on riding on the roads as I have the bike set up on a turbo trainer. Hopefully by the time February comes around, I will be a month ahead of last year.
I intended to "hit the ground running" at the start of 2014, so to speak, and get straight back into my "full-time", serious training schedule, fitted in around my "even-fuller-time" job. "Serious" training for me is when I log everything I do and when I am working towards something specific. After the 2013 Ironman racing season, I stopped recording my training. I suppose this was some form of mental release where I was no longer accountable to my training diary. I'm now back recording everything, and I suppose also that this training diary provides me with some motivation in that I need to write something in it every day, and I take satisfaction from seeing all of the sessions I have done being logged and banked. It's a useful point of reference, a good planning tool, and it doesn't accept any bluffs or excuses.
2014 and 2013 training logs... spot the difference...
The 2014 training log will run to 9 pages if I log everything until October.
The 2014 training log will run to 9 pages if I log everything until October.
Gives an idea of the scale of the undertaking...
My usual training routine is a 3-week cycle, doing two tough weeks followed by an easier week. This has worked well in terms of allowing my body to rest and recover, and is a lesson I learned from my running days - I can't pound my body week in and week out for an indefinite period of time, otherwise injury and illness tend to strike. The easy week allows me to go into the tough weeks feeling fresh and helps with consistency of training. It is in resting that the body strengthens.
However, coming back to London/Essex after Christmas, I was feeling a bit depleted due to my wisdom tooth being taken out, being limited in what I could eat, being on antibiotics, being behind on sleep and having had a really tough race in Antrim. I decided to make the first two weeks easier than normal, to break me back into the training cycle. Training done this week was as follows:
Sat 4th January 2014: 10K cross-country race, 33:56
Sun 5th January 2014: Rest
Mon 6th January 2014: Rest
Tue 7th January 2014: 1:05 turbo (5mins easy, 5 mins hard, repeated)
Wed 8th January 2014: 30 min fartlek run
Thu 9th January 2014: Swim 3.3k continuous
Fri 10th January 2014: Rest
Sat 11th January 2014: 1:50 turbo (resistance increasing every 15 minutes), 20min run
Sun 12th January 2014: Swim 3k (12 x 250m)
Approximate totals: Swim 6.3km, Bike 65 miles, Run 14 miles.
Plus regular stretching, weights and core work.
I needed the couple of days of rest after the race. Tuesday's bike went OK, Wednesday's run went OK, both of my swims felt sluggish, Saturday's bike was very tough, I planned to do 8 x 15 minute blocks but didn't have the legs for the final 15 minutes at high resistance. The run afterwards felt OK though. The swims were both in my local pool as opposed to in a London pool after work. My local pool is really warm, like swimming in a bath. It gets quite uncomfortable quite quickly and you need to keep hydrated. This contributed to feeling sluggish, although I need to accept that I'm not as fit as I was going into my Ironman races. Similarly for Saturday's bike, I thought I would have the legs for the final 15 and I didn't. Looking back through last year’s training log, just before Ironman Wales I was able to do 3:15 on the turbo, getting progressively more difficult every 15 minutes, so this shows I have some way to go to get back to that level. That’s fine, I have over 6 months to do this as long as I can be consistent in my training, no interruptions, injuries or illnesses. It’s impossible to maintain race-fitness on a year-round basis. I did notice a bit of a niggle around the arch of my left foot, so I will have to keep tabs on this.
On Friday night and Saturday night I slept for 11 hours on both occasions, not because I'm lazy but because I needed to. Overall, I can't be too disappointed with this week as I know that I am not in optimal training condition (antibiotics, painkillers, wisdom tooth trauma, tough racing, lack of fitness and lack of sleep). I was disappointed to learn that the price of a swim in my local pool has increased from £5 to £6. A bit of a rip-off considering you can swim in London for less than a fiver, and in Northern Ireland for about £3. And in the sea for nothing, if you’re fond of hypothermia.
Next week will be more of the same, and if anything I will make it slightly easier than this week to allow my body to recover from the fatigue and antibiotics, and to allow me to break myself gently into the full-time training schedule again.
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