Post 65 - Dodging a bullet and hitting a hand

Training done this week:

Monday 2 Feb 2015: Rest
Tuesday 3 Feb 2015: Rest
Wed 4 Feb 2015: 1:10 turbo (1 hour hard)
Thurs 5 Feb 2015: 50 minute fartlek run
Friday 6 Feb 2015: Swim 1.6km (1500m in 22:56), 1:05 turbo (10 x 2mins right/left/both legs)
Saturday 7 Feb 2015: 2:45 turbo, 25 minute run
Sunday 8 Feb 2015: Swim 3.3km (paddle/band/float drills), 50 minute run (30 minutes hard)

Totals: Swim 4.9km, Bike 105 miles, Run 19 miles

Another tough week has passed. I feel I managed to “dodge a bullet” this week, the bullet being catching the dreaded cold. So my mileage was down slightly this week. I had just been thinking that I’ve done well this winter and not picked up any bugs, flus, coughs or colds. It has been really cold this week, and the high pressure weather system means that London’s air is particularly bad, as the sinking air traps the pollution. I really, really can’t wait for the day when I leave London and don’t have to live in such a polluted environment. And as for cycling in London (which I gave up a long time ago), when senior transport figures are making reprehensible statements like those in the pictures below, what hope is there? It’s their taxis and buses that are the killers, with their toxic pollution…

Anyway, I did 14 really tough hill sprints at the end of last week. It was maybe 2 or 3 or 4 hills too many. There is “good tired” and “bad tired”. “Good tired” is when you’ve pushed hard in training, but although you feel tired and sore, it’s manageable. You still recover quickly, you still have reasonable energy levels, and you haven’t pushed yourself “over the edge”, where you become susceptible to illness or injury. “Bad tired” is the opposite: you’ve trained too hard despite maybe being too fatigued and not properly recovered from previous training sessions, you’re not fresh, and you’re really properly knackered.

I was “bad tired” at the start of this week, following the hill repeats and with the cold temperatures. I felt like I was getting a cold. My response to this was to stay warm, wear more layers, go to bed earlier, and eat a lot of Vitamin C: kiwi fruits, oranges, and Vitamin C tablets. It seemed to work, and by Wednesday I was feeling better.

I also took an extra day off training, which helped. Mondays are usually my rest days, and on Tuesday evening this week I had a school event. I try to go into schools semi-regularly as a Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics ambassador. A few years ago, before my engineering career started, I spent time teaching English in South Korea and really enjoyed it. This week I was in a local school from 6pm to 9pm talking to students and parents about engineering, mathematics, subject choices, university applications, career options and work experience opportunities. I got home at 9:30pm with a plan that I could do my usual Tuesday evening training from 10pm to 11pm.

I thought better of this: it was too late, I was too tired and trying to fight off catching a cold. The sensible thing was to take the extra day off training. Perversely, for runners and triathletes, it’s tougher not to train than it is to train, but sometimes you have to be sensible and rein yourself in. By Wednesday, I was feeling better and it seemed like I had beaten the cold before it properly took hold. I thought also that I had beaten the itchy skin from last week and was sleeping a bit better – I had washed all my bedclothes in near-boiling water, I had changed my washing powder, and my shower gel. I use an exfoliating sponge to clean my skin (with training, it gets sweaty, chlorine-y and grimy), so I changed sponges. I gave my room a thorough clean. I used so much moisturising cream every day. I did everything I could think of, and it seemed to work. No itching. Great.

On Wednesday evening I had my first proper blast with my new power meter. It’s basically a new crank arm with a little box of tricks (strain gauges, electronics and stuff) bonded to it. This little pod transmits data to my Garmin computer, which clips onto my handlebars. I’ll give it a few weeks before I write in detail about my experiences with the power meter. Suffice to say now, it was a nightmare to install. Or rather, it was a nightmare to get the old crank off. My housemate is an all-round DIY expert, but it took hours. It was properly stuck. He was using hammers. Hammers! On a carbon fibre bike…! I could hardly watch. It would have been less painful if he had been whacking me with a hammer, not my bike… Finally the old crank came off and the power meter went on.

"Now, how does this piece of crank come off?"

Like hitting a newborn baby with a hammer.
"Don't worry, it sounds worse than it is...!"

On Wednesday evening I went reasonably hard for an hour, and averaged 266 watts. I held about 250 watts for the first 15 minutes, then 260-270 watts for the next half hour, then I was up at 300 watts for the final 15 minutes. I reckon at the Ironman I’ll need to average something like 220-240 watts for over 5 hours. I told myself that my 266 watts was OK for so early in the season. Hopefully I’ll be able to hold over 300 watts for an hour later in the season. Then I did some googling: Bradley Wiggins holds 450 watts for an hour in his time trials… I’ve got work to do…! On Thursday evening, with an eye on the upcoming N.Ireland/Ulster cross-country championships, I did a long fartlek run (one minute fast, one minute slow) and felt good.

Friday was a long day. I’ve been working on my Chartered Engineer qualification for several years now, and it is finally coming to an end. For this, I have to produce plans, evidence, notes, reports and critical reviews of my work every 3 months. This all has to be reviewed and signed off. As my career has progressed and my job has become more demanding and complex, these reports have become more and more time-consuming. When a 3-month period finished, I used to go into work at the weekends and work on the reports. Now, it’s more difficult to work at the weekends as I am committed to my training. Plus, weekend trains are awful and take forever, if they run at all.

So, the only slot I can find to devote a few uninterrupted hours to my Chartered Engineer work is on Friday afternoon. There’s a lot to do: all my quarterly material already mentioned, then a comprehensive annual report/assessment, then a detailed application. Then a professional interview with senior Institution personnel. I look forward to finishing it all off!

Usually I can leave work at around 2pm on Friday, and I would usually go to my local pool to be in the water for 3pm, followed by a turbo session. Now, I’ve been staying late on Fridays to work on my Chartered Engineer qualification. This means I’ve been swimming on Friday at lunchtime in the pool near work. The freezing pool. I hate swimming in there. OK, I’m a wimp when it comes to cold water, but this pool really is cold. Right now I don’t have a choice. So on Friday at 11:55am I was sitting with my feet in the water, turning blue and steeling myself to get on with it. I planned to do a 1500m time trial. I do these occasionally. In 2013, just before Ironman UK, I squeaked under 23 minutes for the 1500m. This was followed by a really good 55-minute Ironman swim. In 2014 I didn’t get under 23 minutes for the 1500m.

To get an “honest” time, I need my lane in the pool to be quiet. If there are too many people in the lane, you lose time swimming around them or waiting for a clear bit of water to overtake. Thankfully it was reasonably quiet and the other two guys in my lane were considerate, pausing at either end to let me pass. So I got an honest time. For some reason, the pool didn’t feel as cold as it normally does, so I didn’t start too fast in an effort to get warm, and I wasn’t gasping for breath in the cold water. I felt quite strong, and felt that I held my pace well, not dropping away in the second half of the swim. I didn’t feel super-fast, but I clocked 22:56 and was very pleased with that. 22:56 so early in the season is a good sign. I’d hoped to get under 23 minutes in June, not in February. I haven’t even really done any fast swim sprints yet. Although I have been doing some very specific and regular weights sessions. There will hopefully be a good improvement on 22:56 before the summer.

I got home at about 8pm on Friday evening after a long day at work, got straight on the bike, and did my single-leg drills. Then dinner, then straight to bed. I need my Friday nights and Saturday mornings, I can (and do) sleep as long as I want. But at 2am on Saturday morning I woke up with the damned itchy legs again, and that was it, terrible sleep for the rest of the night. I was raging. I think after every swim I do, I’ll have to really thoroughly scrub and rinse the chlorine off.

On Saturday I did a longer turbo – 2 hours and 45 minutes. I was able to crank out almost 300 watts in the last half hour. I’ve also started doing very short, sharp, hard bursts for 30-40 seconds every 10 minutes, pushing over 400 watts. This is to try and mimic the Ironman UK course – it’s very stop/start, with lots of braking, tight corners, and then the need to accelerate often from slow speed. This turbo was followed by a short run which felt great. Then some core work and weights. Then a shower. Then some lunch: Low-fat houmous, raw vegetables, sardines and squeezed lemon/lime juice. Then some dinner: I’ve started eating quinoa and tofu, to break the monotony of pasta, pasta and more pasta…

On Sunday, today, I did a good pool session with my toys – my hand paddles, leg float and rubber-band-thing-for-tying-my-legs-together. It has started to feel like spring. Today was definitely warmer, and I didn’t need a hat or gloves on my run. I saw some yellow flowers sprouting. The evenings are getting longer. And the 6 Nations rugby has started. Spring is here, or near enough.

During my run today, I was battering along at about 5:40/mile, with a few minutes left to run. Some girl was running towards me, looking a bit tired. I stuck my hand out. I don’t know why. High-fives are common in an Ironman, especially on the run. They are a little boost, something different from putting one leg in front of the other 3 times per second, for an hour or more. I cycled up Alpe d’Huez last year in a blur of pain, adrenaline, gasping for breath, heart hammering. In these conditions, you don’t take a lot in, you just fight to keep going. Tunnel vision, to an extent. As I pedalled up, towards me came some guy jogging down the mountain. He had trekking poles. He’d probably been going for a good while. I’m sure his legs were shot to pieces. He had the same laboured expression as me. I stuck my hand out. He stuck his hand out. Slap. No words exchanged, but more was communicated in that split-second slap than words could ever say. An acknowledgement of the suffering, of the pain, a meeting of like minds and spirits, an unspoken “keep going, you’ll conquer it” between two members of the same endurance family. Awesome.

So I stuck my hand out for this girl, I’m sure she wondered for a moment what the hell I was doing, then a flash of realisation, I saw a knackered but spontaneous half-grin that said “awesome” and “thanks” and “we’re in this together” all at the same time, slap, our hands met… and in an instant, it was over and we were running our separate ways. It lifted me, and even though it was only a split second, I could see that it definitely lifted her. So, high-fives from now on if anyone is running and we pass…

And so ended another week. I’m pleased with how things have been going so far. I’ll taper down now for the N.Ireland/Ulster cross-country championships next Saturday and hope for a strong run. And for no injuries running in the muck and uneven ground. One unfortunate thing is that I have to go to Italy again next week with work. I really wish I didn’t, but it’s got to be done. Hopefully I’ll be able to eat well and sleep well, and not get sick – I’ll being supplements, cabbage, fruit and veg, and hope for the best.

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