Post 80 - A better metric

I was at a low ebb at the end of last week. 2 weeks in Italy had been very disruptive to training, and to my body’s equilibrium in terms of good sleep, good nutrition, good hydration, good training and good recovery. This had manifested itself in a terrible attempt at a metric Ironman bike/run distance (3 and a half hours on the bike and 2 hours of running), which began to fail after 2 and a half hours on the bike, and which came to a pathetic zero-energy halt after not much more than a few minutes of running. I had no idea how I would recover after this, but I didn’t want to waste another week getting over it, so I planned to do a tough training week, see how the first couple of days would go, and take it from there.

On Monday I made proper food for the week – piles and piles of wholemeal pasta and sauce, with heaps and heaps of raw peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, broccoli, carrots, mixed beans, chillies, and turkey breast. Exactly what I need. My lunches got back to normal – sardines, mackerel, raw vegetables and quinoa. My breakfasts got back to normal – porridge with raisins, brazil nuts, almonds, chia seeds, flax seeds, honey, peanut butter and protein powder. My hydrating got back to normal – a 700ml bottle of water per hour, all day. My sleep got back to normal. And all of this helped to properly fuel my body and allow it to train and recover properly.

On Tuesday I got on the turbo trainer and planned for a warm-up, a tough hour, and a cool-down. I had no idea how this would go, coming only two days after the failed metric Ironman. But I warmed up well and I got through an hour with good output. Not bad. My legs felt like two bags of worms afterwards, twitching crazily. A cold shower and compression socks helped to calm the legs down. I got through Wednesday’s fartlek run without any problem, but despite my working week being almost over by Thursday, my training week only starts to get tough on Thursday. Not the easiest of situations to grasp mentally.

I knew that I had some cardiac testing on Friday after work which would mean I wouldn’t be able to swim as usual on Friday. So I went on Thursday at lunchtime to the freezing cold 30m pool close to work. I hate swimming in there – the pool close to the house is much warmer and easier to get into. But, after wimpishly easing myself very slowly into the (literally freezing) water, and turning blue in the process (turning the air blue under my breath as well), I churned out 2500m, with 10 x 30m of very hard sprinting. That evening I did intervals on the turbo trainer: 20 sets of 2 minutes hard and 2 minutes easy. Again, I felt good, and much better than I would have expected after the disastrous previous two weeks and weekends.

I took delivery of some new running shoes this week. I’ve run in Brooks Adrenaline shoes for the past few seasons, and they have been pretty good. Each year, they are upgraded. So I have run in the 11 series, the 12 series and the 13 series. There hasn’t been much difference in feel between each of these models. Last year, when I ran in the 14 series, they felt completely different. I didn’t like them at all. I returned them straight away, and the retailer told me that he’d had a lot of complaints about the 14 series, but there were still lots of 13 series models available, so I had no problem last year getting the 13 series.

This year was a bit different. Brooks have now released the 15 series, so the 13 series are out of production and are very difficult to find. But, with less than 2 months before the Ironman, I don’t want to be making any changes to anything, so I wanted the 13 series again. I scoured the internet, made numerous phone calls, and eventually found and ordered the last two pairs of 13 series shoes in my size in the UK. I was ridiculously happy when they arrived. Brooks’ shoe box even says “RUN HAPPY” on it. But the elation turned to deflation when I opened them and found that they were narrow width shoes (narrow, regular and wide fits are available, I’m regular width). They didn’t fit. Argh.

Yes I will, if I get the right size...

After more phone calls, and insistence that various retailers checked their storerooms, I had word that a retailer was holding 2 pairs of size 9, regular fit, 13 series Brooks Adrenaline shoes. Perfect. I got the credit card out, ready to buy over the phone. I dictated the number, and the billing address (a Northern Ireland address), and was then told for security reasons they wouldn’t send the shoes to London as the addresses didn’t match. Argh. I was told to buy them online, where he said the software would do some sort of automatic address check, and then they could send them to London. So I kept the guy on the phone while I went to the store’s website. And… no availability for size 9, despite him physically holding 2 pairs… “So what now?” I asked. He said he would get his website guy to fix the website, and assured me he would call back. I told him how important it was that I get these shoes. “Don’t worry, we’ll call straight back…” he said.

He didn’t call back. Argh. I called him back and he fobbed me off with excuses about being busy. Needless to say, the website still had no availability for size 9. But he still had them. So he said I should buy two pairs of whatever size was available online, and when the order came through he would see my name and would know to send the size 9 shoes. Did I trust him? No way… Did I want these shoes? Very much…  What choice did I have? Not much… So I did what he suggested, and thankfully a few days later 2 pairs of the right shoes arrived. I returned the narrow fit shoes. So now I have got a fresh pair of shoes to train in for the next 8 weeks, and a fresh pair to race the Ironman in. Good. One less thing to worry about…

Perseverance brings success. Run Happy...

On Friday after work I headed for the hospital for yet more tests on my heart. I am very aware that Ironman training and racing elevates the heart rate for prolonged periods of time. I’m not sure that in the very long-term that this is a good thing, but I know my competitive Ironman career will be comparatively short. During and after my hospitalisation last year it really hit home to me how I shouldn’t take my body and my health for granted, and that I should really (and I mean really) take care of it, especially with the demands I put on it. I’ve had a barrage of tests done, all of which have been reassuring. However, the tests that analysed my heart have all been done when I have been at rest. This week’s test was to see how it operates under duress. These tests are part of a detailed study sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, looking at the effects of endurance sport on the heart.

Front page of info book/consent form

So I found myself lying down on and being strapped to what looked like some sort of medieval torture device, albeit with pedals attached to one end. It was actually a tilting recumbent bicycle. It had to tilt 45 degrees to open up my chest so the medics could scan my heart while I was pedalling. It was so surreal, riding a recumbent bike while tipped over 45 degrees to the left. But they couldn’t scan my chest using ultrasound probes if I was on a treadmill, or hunched over a normal exercise bike. I had to be lying down, and tilted over, giving them access to my chest and side.

They covered me with slime to allow the probes to couple better and improve the readings, and I pedalled and pedalled, with resistance increasing incrementally. My heart rate got up to about 170 but I was reluctant to go any harder in such a strange position, as I was worried about pinging my knees or hurting my back. The medics got all the readings they needed, and again assured me that everything was fine.

That was my Friday evening, spent on a strange-looking torture bike in a hospital dungeon. It was a bit of a compromise to the usual routine, but worth it. I don’t compromise often. Another compromise this week was accepting an invitation to go to Brands Hatch motor racing track on Sunday to watch classic Formula 1 car racing. This was something I couldn’t turn down. So it meant Sunday was a write-off, from a training point of view. Usually I would do a swim and a long run on Sundays. So I planned to do my swim on Monday (usually my rest/cooking day, but I’d put it down as part of this week’s training block), and combine my long run with a long bike ride on Saturday – I was going to attempt another “metric Ironman”.

My expectations weren’t too high for this training session, as I’d had a tough training week, but regardless, I got on the turbo on Saturday morning and got going. I purposely lowered my output fractionally compared with last week, just a few watts. But I was still outputting comparable figures to what I would like to output on race day. And the bike felt fairly easy. I watched “Touching the Void” – a mountaineering dilemma – you are roped to your climbing partner, who slips, breaks his leg, and falls over a cliff. He can’t climb the rope, and you can’t move because you are on a steep slope with loose snow. You are in a storm, and no help is coming. You are eventually going to slip, and both of you will likely die if you do. Would you cut the rope…?

I got through the bike, and had no idea how a 2-hour run would go. But I ran really well. I was very happy. As dejected as I was last week, I was at the other end of the spectrum this week. Very pleased. I did 17 miles, in 2 hours and 6 minutes, averaging under 7:30 per mile. It felt good, and I could easily have continued. I only need to run at 7:40 per mile in the Ironman to do a marathon that I believe will give me a shot at qualifying for the worlds. I took an hour immediately after the run to do all the immediate recovery stuff – lie down, elevate my legs, drink protein, eat good food, jog, shower (hot and cold alternating), and then spent the rest of the day off my feet. I was in bed by 8pm.

Ideally I’d have spent most of the next day in bed as well, allowing myself to fully recover after the almost-6-hour Saturday training session. But going to Brands Hatch to watch classic Formula 1 cars and lots of other races too, with one of my very esteemed colleagues who I hold in very high regard, in his classic Porsche, is an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often. I took earplugs, a rucksack full of food, and gallons of water. I still had to recover properly and I knew I'd need to eat and drink non-stop through the day, and I didn't want to resort to the burgers, chips and beer from the circuit kiosks...

Brands Hatch was awesome. A real old-school circuit, set in a natural amphitheatre, so it’s possible to see a lot of the circuit from a single vantage point. Turn 1 in particular – Paddock Bend – was fearsome. A fast uphill approach to a blind fast off-camber right hander, with the track dropping away at what must have been a 15% gradient. What a sight (and what a sound) to see racing cars taking this bend. A memorable day, but my legs were sore…

Overall a good week, back on track, and with a positive long run after 3 and a half hours on the bike. That long double training session on Saturday will take a few days to recover from, so the first half of next week will be easy (I have to travel to Worcester for a few days, argh, so I won’t have much choice but to do easy training), then I’ll have the second half of the week to train hard, as well as all of the following week. Then a week to taper off for the Bristol triathlon. Less than 8 weeks until the big one…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 18 May: Rest
Tue 19 May: 1:25 turbo (1 hour hard)
Wed 20 May: 30 minute fartlek run
Thu 21 May: Swim 2.5km (10 x 30m hard), 1:25 turbo (20 x 2mins hard, 2mins easy)
Fri 22 May: 20 minute bike (cardiac testing)
Sat 23 May: “Metric Ironman” – 3:30 turbo, 2:06 run (17 miles)
Sun 24 May: Swim 3.1km

Totals: Swim 5.6km, Bike 145 miles, Run 22 miles

Post 79 - The importance of circumstances

This week, I was hoping to be writing about the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial, and how I’d done it in 4:10, and how 4:10 on an undulating and twisty Norfolk 100 mile course is a better performance than the 3:59 I did last year on the pan-flat Bedfordshire 100 mile course. But things didn’t really work out, as I’ll explain. But first…

…The importance of good circumstances: I learned this ten years ago (yep, 10 years…) during the fledgling stage of my running career. I used to go down to the running track every Sunday morning at university and run a tough, fast interval session. One week, I ate pizza for dinner on Saturday night, then less than 12 hours later I was on the track, warming up for 14 x 400m intervals off 2 minutes: 400m run in 70 seconds would mean a 50-second recovery. I’d done this session before, very tough, no doubt, but 14 repetitions were do-able, and I was usually able to average about 70 seconds for each 400m, without the times dropping away. On the morning after the pizza, I got to 4 or 5 repeats and started to feel like absolute trash. My times fell away by a lot more than just a couple of seconds, and I just did not have the legs any more. Not a good feeling. Defeated, I stormed off the track after 8 repeats, lesson very much learned.

The lesson was that you can’t expect good performance if you abuse your body with bad circumstances, in this case, pizza. You need to fuel it well if you want it to perform. You wouldn’t fuel a Formula 1 racing car with red diesel and expect it to be fine, equally (or even more so, because your body is more valuable than a Formula 1 racing car) you shouldn’t expect your body to comply with demands for high performance if you feed it rubbish, or don’t give it the chance to sleep properly, or don’t look after it properly. Junk in, junk out…

Nutrition corner in my room, keeps me fuelled

Ironman training magnifies this concept even more, and extends it to a range of circumstances, all of which affect the ability to train and perform at a high level. Such circumstances include sleep, hydration, nutrition, rest, recovery, stress, injury and illness (however minor). I have to really keep on top of all of these, and I put so much effort into providing myself with the most optimal circumstances possible, with the situation I have. Ideally I’d like to not have to go to work, because this would free up a lot more time to rest and recover properly, and reduce a lot of stress. I would have time to sleep for 10 hours per night, and 2 hours per day. Some people have suggested taking a sabbatical for a few months. This is where pros have an advantage: they have more time, which they don’t necessarily use for more training, but which they most definitely use for more resting and recovering.

But I have to work, so I have to make the best of the circumstances. Ideally I’d like to see a physio more regularly. But everything else is as good as I can make it in terms of diet, hydration, recovery, sleep and so on. All pretty uncompromising and tightly controlled. I find it difficult and frustrating to deal with things which are beyond my control and that go against what I’m trying to achieve.

For the last two weeks I’ve been in Italy with work, although home for the weekend in between. From an Ironman point of view, these trips are tough, and everything becomes sub-optimal: I am unable to eat as well as I usually would, it’s more difficult to hydrate regularly and stay hydrated, I never sleep well in Italy in stuffy, airless hotel rooms, my body “dries out”, travelling on aeroplanes and being in meeting rooms means the air I breathe is stale and manky, and there’s a lot of standing around (generally athletes don’t like standing for any length of time – professional cyclists follow the philosophy that if they are off their bikes, and they can be lying down, then they will lie down, and if they can’t be lying down then they will be sitting down). I don’t like to train hard in Italy as I don’t have access to what I need to recover properly. I wasn’t very happy to get back from Italy and find I was a couple of kilograms heavier, due to relative inactivity and an irregular diet. I did manage a few more hot baths in Italy, good for promoting blood flow to cleanse the muscles.

Must have been at least 94 degrees C

I also wasn’t very happy to get an email on Wednesday morning, from the organisers of the upcoming time trial in Norfolk, saying it had been cancelled. Such events would have to obtain police permission months in advance, council permission, local authority permission, they’d have to complete a risk assessment, health and safety assessment, etc etc. And the local council had decided, a few days out from event day, to do some roadworks, bring in some heavy machinery, dig up the road, and put in a 24-hour traffic control system, complete with traffic lights. You can’t time-trial through a red traffic light. Very disappointing, not only for the 100 or so cyclists who had entered the event and made arrangements, travel plans and hotel bookings, but also for the event organisers who had been left fairly high and dry by the council – surely the council would have known about the event and surely the works could have been postponed by a few days…? At such short notice, the organisers had no option but to cancel. 

Given that all my bike training this season has been on the turbo trainer in my room, I really wanted to get out on the road and do the time trial, and learn how my power figures translate onto the road, find out what speeds correspond with what power outputs and heart rates, and find out what outputs I could sustain for 100 miles in a racing situation. In the past two seasons I've also done the Icknield 100 mile time trial in Bedfordshire, usually a few weeks after Norfolk. But it has also been cancelled this year - it ran up and down the A1 dual carriageway, starting at 5am on a Sunday morning when there isn't much traffic. Up to a roundabout, turn, back down to a roundabout, turn, back up, down, up, down. This year, permanent traffic lights were installed at one of the roundabouts, so that put an end to what was probably one of the fastest and flattest 100-mile courses in the UK. So, no 100-mile time-trialling for me this season in the build-up to Ironman. I'm disappointed about this, as the 100s have always been good training sessions for me, and good gauges of fitness. 

Another thing I wasn’t too happy about this week was a small niggling feeling in my right calf. Usually these niggles are fine and go away after a few days, but as I move closer to Ironman race day, the stakes get higher and higher, and there is less opportunity to recover from anything that might go wrong. I got back from Italy, and tried to work out a Plan B for the weekend, given that I wasn’t going to Norfolk. I decided I’d swim a 1500m time trial on Friday evening, which I completed in 22:57 in a 25m pool, without tumble-turning. I’d hoped to be 15-20 seconds faster, but sub-23 was acceptable.

Then I decided I would try to do a longer bike and run session on Sunday, using Saturday as a short trial for my right calf. I started off on Saturday by getting the baby oil out and spending half an hour massaging my right calf. I hoped this would do it some good. Then after a 30-minute turbo and a 20-minute run, I had enough confidence to go ahead with a longer and tougher session on Sunday, but I also had enough sense that if my calf felt sore on Sunday, I’d call it quits. I can’t afford a full-blown injury at this stage. I was fully tapered at the weekend, as I thought I’d be riding a flat-out time trial in Norfolk, so I decided to do a “metric Ironman” session on Sunday, at race pace, and was expecting a good session.

A “normal” Ironman features a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. A “metric” Ironman involves a 2.4km swim, a 112km bike and a 26.2km run. Instead of the swim, I’d do some weights, then roughly 3 and a half hours on the bike (i.e. on the turbo trainer, in my room) would be around 112km, and a 2-hour run would be the 26.2km. So I got my drinks made up, got a pile of energy gels at the ready, did my stretching and weights, and got on the bike.

Fuel

All went well for about 2 and a half hours, I was averaging around 230 watts, with two sets of 5-10 minutes of harder pushing per hour (to try to simulate hills), where I got up to around 260 watts. It has been interesting to note that when on the bike, getting up off the aero bars and into a more upright position lowers my heart rate. For the same wattage, my heart rate usually drops by around 5-10bpm, sometimes more, when I’m off the aero tri bars and on the uprights.

On the go

After 2 and a half hours, my legs started to get heavy. They shouldn’t have, because sitting at 230 watts shouldn’t have been too difficult. Then my power started dropping off, and everything went downhill from there, I ended up struggling to push 200 watts, with my heart rate skyrocketing. No power, no energy. I fought through to 3 and a half hours, feeling awful. I knew there was no way there would be a 26.2km run to follow, given the state I was in, but I thought I’d go out for a short jog after the bike.

I could barely get down the stairs, which wasn’t a good sign. Needless to say, my run pace was dreadful and I only managed 20 minutes. I got back to the house, having used up every last ounce of energy. I was ruined. So ruined. The worst training day I’ve had in four seasons of Ironman training. That’s what you get though – poor input equals poor output, it’s a fairly simple and uncomplicated equation. Two weeks of poor circumstances in Italy led to this dreadful performance. I ended up glad that Norfolk hadn’t happened, because it would not have been pretty.

Not a great week. Not a great two weeks in fact. I’ve entered the Bristol Olympic distance triathlon on 14th June, but I also need to make sure I do a good metric Ironman between now and July. I need to recover after the last two weeks (that’s an unusual thing to say that I have to recover from doing basically nothing in Italy, normally you have to recover after training hard), I need to refocus and re-evaluate and plan the next 9 weeks (7 weeks really, because the two weeks before Ironman will be tapering weeks), and get myself onto that Ironman start line in the best shape possible. 7 (well, 9) more weeks. It’s going to be a tough period, and hopefully next week will be better…

Training done this week:

Mon 11 May: Rest
Tue 12 May: Rest
Wed 13 May: 20 min exercise bike, 10 min run
Thu 14 May: Rest
Fri 15 May: Swim 2.6km (1500m in 22:57)
Sat 16 May: 30 min turbo, 20 min run
Sun 17 May: 3:30 turbo (224W NP, 147bpm, 0.73 IF), 20 min run

Totals: Swim 2.6km, Bike 86 miles, Run 7 miles

Post 78 - Maths and formulae

This week I had to go to Italy with work. Next week I also have to go to Italy with work. Not ideal, with the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial following immediately afterwards… lots of stale aeroplane air, carrying heavy luggage, hot meeting rooms, squeezed taxis, standing around, eating strange hotel food, sleeping badly in stuffy hotel rooms, unable to train as I want… none of which is great, all of which causes stress. Buuuuuut what can I do other than drink lots of water and cross my fingers?

Italy was hot and sunny. I managed a short and easy 30 minutes on the exercise bike in the hotel gym on Tuesday evening. I didn’t want to push hard because it’s impossible to set an exercise bike up properly and to get a good fit. I don’t want to push hard on an ill-fitting bike and end up wrecking my knees or back. Plus, pushing hard in a hot and airless hotel gym is pretty much asking to get sick. After the 30 minutes, I jumped in a hot bath, right up to my neck, to try to heat all my muscles and allow them to de-tension a bit. On Wednesday evening I went out for a short and easy 20-minute jog, and jumped into another hot bath. It was scorching (on the run and in the bath) and I was sweating so much that I poured an entire litre of cold water over my head (in the bath). As well as treating myself to a scorching hot bath, I also treated myself to some steak...

Who photographs their food anyway?!

It was uncomfortably hot at night, but I didn’t want to put the air conditioning on. It’s an old hotel, with an ancient ventilation system. Turning it on would have been asking to get sick. So instead I slept with no covers and tried to make the best of it, but I didn’t sleep great. It’s not that long since I was in Italy and it was freezing, icy and snowy, when I filled the bin in the hotel room with hot steaming water, and I put it beside my bed to try to humidify the room at night. The things I do. Crazy.

I had brought with me three big tupperware boxes full of oranges, bananas, apples, flapjacks and vitamin tablets. Fruit is delicate as I discovered to my detriment on a previous trip, when I opened my bag to discover squashed banana mulch all over my stuff. Put the fruit in a tupperware box and at least it is protected.

My Garmin bike computer was also protected by one of these boxes, and I spent some time this week fiddling about with it in Italy. Having invested in a power meter this season (I say invested rather than bought, it makes me feel better…), I now need to work out what data I want to have displayed when I am on the road. I still haven’t worked this out. A single screen can have 8 data fields displayed, and ideally I don’t want to have to programme the Garmin to scroll through different screens, I want it all on one screen. But there is too much data for a single screen – I want to be able to see current speed, average speed, distance, time, cadence, heart rate, average heart rate, 3-second power, average power, intensity factor/%FTP, and normalised power. So I’ll have to get my thinking cap on and sort my power meter data fields. I've also been buying a few bits and pieces because I'll have to get my bike serviced before the time trial next week.

Possibly the best tyres you can buy:
Continental GP 4000 S II with black chili compound.
At £60, they better be good and not puncture...!

Bike servicing orders...
To this was added "properly lube chain and transmission",
"replace any bearings if necessary", and "check greasing of
all bearings including wheel bearings and regrease if necessary".
Need to have 100% confidence in the bike!

I survived Italy and used the weekend to catch up on sleep. I’ve found it’s much more effective to go to bed at the same time each night, rather than staying up a bit later at the weekend and then sleeping very late. Last season, I used to really binge on sleep at the weekend, and stay in bed until as late as 11am. Now I try to get up between 9 and 10am at the weekend, which keeps my natural body clock slightly more aligned. During my weekend swims this week, I felt that my right shoulder and down through my upper right arm was a bit sore. So much so that on Sunday in the pool, I mostly did kicking drills without much arm action at all. I hope that tapering down for the 100 miler next week and not doing much swimming or weights will allow it to settle. I also noticed that my right calf is a bit sore, and again all I can do is hope that the easy tapering week ahead will allow this to settle down too. Cross my fingers and hope for the best…

My Ironman bike strategy this year will be to “spike” as little as possible. I’ll really try to minimise spikes in heart rate and power output – this will mean taking it a bit easier up the hills, using lower gears, and not accelerating too quickly out of the corners. I’ll keep everything nice and steady and controlled on the bike. This will hopefully set me up for a better marathon. I’d rather lose 5 minutes on the bike and gain 20 minutes on the run.

With the power meter, I can now do a lot of number analysis. I like this, as I enjoy working with numbers, graphs, data and science. With the power meter, I can know the intensity factor (IF) and variability index (VI) of my training (and racing). These are interesting figures, but to understand these, some other values must be discussed. The power meter tells me my instantaneous power (based on a 3-second average). That’s easy to understand. It also tells me my average power – again simple to understand – the numerical average of my power for an entire session, including any times at zero power (for example when freewheeling).

It also tells me the normalised power. This is a bit more difficult to understand. When riding, power output is rarely constant, especially on the road – hills, weather conditions, road surfaces and all sorts of factors combine to make a power output graph look “jumpy”. Normalised power is simply an estimate of the power output that could have been maintained for a ride if the power output had been completely constant. Normalised power will always be higher than average power. Makes sense…?!

Variability Index is another important measure. If a ride is not “consistent” and involves lots of surging, climbing and accelerating, it stands to reason that normalised power described above will be much higher than average power, and the ride will feel tiring. If a rider maintains a consistent power output, then the normalised power and average power will be more similar. VI is a measure of how steady a rider’s power output was. Normalised power divided by average power equals variability index. Let’s say I did a smooth turbo session at an average of 250 watts for 2 hours. Let’s say that my output for this turbo session was fairly consistent, with no surges or high-intensity efforts. My normalised power might therefore be 255 watts. My VI would be 255/250 = 1.02.

Now, let’s say I cycled the Ironman UK bike course – a tough, hilly, twisty 112 miles. Let’s say I averaged 210 watts for 5-and-a-half hours. Let’s say I didn’t hold back, pushed hard up the hills, and accelerated hard out of the corners, and generally rode the course as if I didn’t have to run a marathon afterwards. My normalised power might be 240 watts. My VI would be 240/210 = 1.14. The closer the VI is to 1.0, the smoother the output over the whole ride. VI is very important for Ironman triathlon pacing, and should be less than 1.06.

Next, we have Intensity Factor (IF), which requires knowledge of threshold power. My threshold power is the maximum power output I can sustain for one hour. A one-hour threshold power test is a very tough session, so it can also be calculated by multiplying the 20-minute value by 0.95. A couple of months ago, my 20-minute test value was 324 watts, giving a threshold power of 307 watts (I’d like to think this value has improved since I did the test, and I will re-test myself in the next few weeks).

Anyway, the IF is the ratio of normalised power to threshold power. If I did the Ironman bike and my normalised power was 240 watts, given that my threshold power is 307 watts, then my IF for the Ironman bike would be 240/307 = 0.78. Generally, the intensity factor for “recovery rides” should be less than 0.75. An IF of around 1.0 could be sustained for a 40km time trial (roughly equivalent to a 60-minute threshold power test).

All this data can also be used to work out my Training Stress Score (TSS), which helps to determine how much rest is needed after training and how hard the training was. TSS = IF squared x time in hours x 100. A “very high” TSS would be 450+, requiring several days of recovery. But back to IF…

Generally on tough, twisty, hilly Ironman courses (such as Ironman Wales and Ironman UK), it’s easy to “spike” repeatedly. I know this from experience, as my heart rate got to over 170bpm on quite a few occasions in the bike section of these races. This would have led to a high intensity factor and a high variability index, setting me up for a poor marathon. My standalone run times indicate that my Ironman running should be much better than it is. So, maybe the problem is with the bike, and I need to calm things down, keep the bike nice and smooth, and preserve myself as much as possible. Then I might run a better Ironman marathon.

Tables exist to tell you how hard you should ride the Ironman bike. For me, I’m looking for something around 5:30 for the bike at Ironman UK. In a flat Ironman, I’d be well under 5 hours, but for Ironman UK, I’m looking at 5:20 to 5:30. According to the table below, if I assume that I am a “proven, strong Ironman runner” then I should ride at an intensity factor of somewhere between 0.73 to 0.75 to give me an optimal Ironman bike time which will also allow me to run a good marathon. This optimal Ironman bike time will be slower than if it was a standalone bike time, but Ironman is a sum of three parts… This level of holding back on the bike requires a huge amount of discipline and trust in the numbers.

On Saturday I did 2:20 on the turbo, with 2 hours at around Ironman intensity. I made the second hour a bit tougher than the first. For the first hour my IF was 0.73 (bang on for an Ironman), and for the second hour it was 0.81. The power difference between the first and second hour was 27 watts, and my heart rate only averaged 12bpm more for the second hour. So there’s a fine line between “too hard” and “not hard enough”. I’ll do a few more longer sessions at Ironman IF to learn how it feels and to see how my heart rate responds over a longer time, and to see how running feels afterwards.

A purist might say that all this data detracts from the age-old business of racing without technology, of judging by feel, of going at it without being “guided” by timers, beeps, power meters or heart rate monitors. I did the 2013 Ironman season without a power meter or a heart rate monitor. In 2014 I had a heart rate monitor, and it helped a lot. In 2015, I’ve got the heart rate monitor and a power meter, and they both help a lot. There’s a justifiable argument that says without these tools, you are disadvantaging yourself, and with the data available and the assistance with judging how hard to push, they are definitely useful. Unlike doping, heart rate monitors and power meters are completely legal, and are used by pros and amateurs alike, almost as standard. I’m looking forward to getting all this data on the 100 mile time trial next week.

But equally, you still have to have the fitness, the discipline and the strength. No amount of gadgetry or equipment or anything else can help you in the Ironman “death zone” beyond mile 16 of the marathon… then it comes down to pure guts and determination, when you find out how much you really want it…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 4 May: Rest
Tue 5 May: 30 minute ex bike
Wed 6 May: 20 minute run
Thu 7 May: Rest
Fri 8 May: Swim 3k (5 x 400m: 5:55-6:20, 40 second recovery)
Sat 9 May: 2:20 turbo (1 hour at 221W/141bpm/IF 0.73, 1 hour at 248W/153bpm/IF 0.81), 25 min run
Sun 10 May: Swim 3.1k (250s, normal/legs), 30 minute turbo, 30 minute fartlek run

Totals: Swim 6.1km, Bike 66 miles, Run 11 miles.

Post 77 - A back massage and a big weekend

My training over the next few weeks will be a bit disjointed and a bit disrupted by a couple of work trips to Italy. Also, tapering for and recovering from the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial will mean a couple of weeks of taking it easy. So I have to be flexible, to adapt and make the best of circumstances. Normally after two tough weeks I would have a full week of easy training, but with going to Italy next week, I decided to only take half a week easy, and then train hard during the weekend before going to Italy. In Italy I can do some light training, and then the weekend after that I can train hard again, then I’ll likely be out to Italy again where I’ll taper for a week before the 100 mile time trial. This seems like the optimal way to get the training fitted in around Italy, and to get myself to the start line in Norfolk in a fit and fresh state.

So during this week, I had three full days off training. No swimming, cycling, running, stretching, weights or anything. I was tired from the previous two weeks of tough training, and the three days off did me no harm. A mental break as much as a physical break. A trip to Phases Sports Therapy during the week did me no harm either – Des spent some time working on my back to loosen it out. It was good to chew the fat with him and have my back ironed out. After the treatment, I did have a bit more of a spring in my step. Des has been working with a few good athletes over the past year or so, and has seen his treatment sessions deliver big performance improvements. I’m hopeful that if I can have four or five good treatment sessions on my legs, I will see some similar performance gains which will help me on the road to qualifying for the Ironman world championships.

Getting treatment on my legs means that I will finally have to shave them, and that will be a sad day… But, whatever I have to do…

In terms of miles, this weekend was probably the biggest weekend I’ve done in training: 6.4km in the pool, about 120 miles on the bike, and 19 miles of running over three days. Friday’s pool session was tough. I like Friday afternoons in the pool, because the pool is always very quiet, and I can usually get a lane to myself. This week, I was doing 100m repeats, with the swim and the recovery taking 2 minutes. Do the 100m in 1:30, and you get 30 seconds of recovery. I wanted to do at least 20 repeats, and I also wanted to pace them well and not fade in the second half of the session. After a first 100m in 1:26 (too fast as usual – the first 100m feels so, so easy), I settled into 1:29 repeats. And I hoped I could sustain them. I got to 17 or 18 repeats and was starting to blow hard, but the times didn’t drop. In the end, I did 25 sets of 100m, all below 1:30, and I was happy with that. Single-leg bike drills followed, while watching Ironman Kona videos on the laptop for inspiration:

Saturday was to be a long turbo session. I needed to do 4 hours, with a 100 mile time trial coming up in a couple of weeks. So I got ready, and I got on, and I pedalled. I worked through the gears, getting progressively tougher every 15 minutes. At the start of each hour, I throttled back, but the starting resistance for each hour was progressively tougher than the preceding hour’s starting resistance level. Also, during this session I “kicked” every 10 minutes and really lifted my power output for 20-30 seconds. This was to simulate accelerating out of a corner and getting up to speed – Ironman UK will have a lot of braking and accelerating on the bike, and I wanted to practice this. After four hours I was pushing close to 300 watts, and I did 4:20 in total, followed by a short run. Not bad. Plus, I’d got to watch a lot of snooker on the laptop in 4 hours and 20 minutes…

On Sunday I hit the pool again and used my hand paddles, leg float and evil-rubber-band-for-tying-my-legs-together. A good pool session was followed by steeling myself for a long run. Of all the sessions I do, I dislike long runs the most. I find them tough on the body. But I have to do them. I’ve slightly changed my running training strategy this year and have been/will be doing a bit more speedwork and fewer longer runs. Too many long runs can create a bit of staleness and residual fatigue, so I’ve been mixing my running training up. But this means I have to be very careful not to get injured, and to make sure I am properly recovered.

Anyway, it was long run time this week so I stretched and warmed up and headed out. It was a bad day for a long run – quite hot and very humid. It had rained heavily earlier in the day, but a strong sun had come out and was now evaporating all the water off the wet ground. I like to try and do significant chunks of my longer runs off-road – in parks or along trails – so this worsened the humidity. It was like running in a tropical jungle and I was sweating a lot.

The idea behind my long runs isn’t to run them super-hard, risking injury and leaving myself wrecked for days afterwards. The idea is to just get used to running for extended periods of time. Ironman marathon pace will be something like 7:30-7:40 per mile, which for a standalone run is quite slow.

I started off at 7:30 pace, nice and easy, and without even trying, my pace gradually came down until after 14 or 15 miles I was running at under 7 minutes per mile. I got through the run, got back to the house and got a load of fluid down me. Then a protein milkshake, a banana, a flapjack and some porridge. Then I went outside and lay down and elevated my legs, to help to drain out any lactic acid. What you do in the 20-30 minutes after any tough session is crucial, and it will define how well you recover from it.

 

Feet up, lactic draining...

Nice decoration on the wall... great house 

After I had done the crucial things – eaten, drank, taken on protein, elevated my legs, done a little jog and had a shower, I was happy to sit in front of the TV and eat pasta, vegetables and salmon, while watching the first day of what looks like a classic snooker final. I’m a bit gutted I won’t get to see its second-day conclusion as I’ll be flying to Italy. Also during this week I got a pair of £60 cycling shorts for £37.99. If the pad’s comfort level is on a par with how futuristic it looks, they should be a good pair of shorts…

So next week I’ll be in Italy, I’ll train hard next weekend, then the week after this it looks like I’ll be back to Italy, where I’ll taper down for the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial on Saturday 16th May. Then I’ll take a week or so to properly recover, then it’ll be two more tough weeks, a week to taper for the Bristol triathlon, a week to recover from that, a final 2-week training block and 2 weeks to taper for the Ironman. Sounds straightforward… So near and yet so far. So much done, and so much still to do. I’ll get there. Hopefully… All I know is that I’m doing everything I can to maximise my chances, and I have to trust that’ll be enough…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 27 Apr: 14 hill reps: 70, 69, 68, 68, 68, 68, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 68
Tue 28 Apr: Rest
Wed 29 Apr: Rest
Thu 30 Apr: Rest
Fri 1 May: Swim 3.1km (25 x 100m off 2mins), 1:05 turbo (single leg drills, 7 x 3mins R, L, B)
Sat 2 May: 4:20 turbo, 25 minute run
Sun 3 May: Swim 3.3km (paddle drills), 110 minute run

Totals: Swim 6.4km, Bike 120 miles, Run 26 miles