Post 87 - Last tough training week

The last “tough” training week is now over, and all the training work is now done. From a training point of view, all that’s left to do is taper off and do some easy swimming, spinning and running to consolidate and keep myself ticking over. I made a decision at the start of this week that I wouldn’t train to quite the same intensity level as I would have done in a tough training week earlier in the year. There’s no point in risking anything and injuring myself, and I want the next two weeks to be spent tapering well, not recovering from training that was tougher than it needed to be. Saying that, I trained pretty hard this week, on what was easily the hottest week of the year.

Monday was the usual routine of go-to-the-shop, get home, cook a pile of food, eat and get-to-bed-as-soon-as-possible. The usual pasta, tomato sauce and turkey, jazzed up with peppers, onions, ginger, carrots, broccoli, garlic, turmeric and chilli. I never usually add salt to my food, but it was forecast to be very hot this week, which would mean more sweating, and I’d lose more salt in my sweat. So I added a bit of salt to my food this week. I’ll continue to do this through until the Ironman. I also made sure to drink lots.

 

That'll do for a few nights...

On Tuesday I tried a repeat of my FTP (functional threshold power) test. I did this test in June and averaged 324 watts for 20 minutes. I tried it again a couple of weeks ago but started off too hard and faded after 12 minutes. I tried it again this week. I have a thermostat in my room. It was reading 31 degrees C (90-odd F) as I was doing the test. There was no way to cool the room. Even with the windows open and my fan on full blast, it was all just roasting hot air circulating. A bit like Hawaii might be…

 

Hot...

The test didn’t go well. My guess is that it was simply too hot. To go as hard as I wanted to go in such heat, at over 170bpm for 20 minutes with absolutely zero cooling while sweating loads and losing electrolytes, was too much. I wanted “flat out” to be something like 330-340 watts. In such hot conditions, “flat-out” would have been around 320 watts. I guess earlier in the year when I did a successful FTP test, the temperature would have been well under 20C in my room. A big difference.

On Wednesday I went to the park and did a fartlek run. It was roasting hot on Wednesday as well. My dodgy Garmin watch has finally been replaced, and a new one arrived earlier in the week. I was keen to see if the new one worked any better. My fartlek run is one minute fast, one minute slow, repeated. The fast parts were sub-5 minute mile pace, the slow parts something like 8-9 minutes per mile. The Garmin seemed good. The taste in my mouth got saltier and saltier. There were a few people in the park, lounging in the shade under the trees. I’m sure they were watching me, wondering why I was running, and how mad I was…

 

Final tough turbo session. Ironman world champs on the laptop for inspiration...

On Thursday I did a good interval session on the bike: 2-minute tough intervals with 2 minutes of easy recovery. I alternated the hard intervals so that I was pedalling at a very fast cadence, and then at a very slow cadence, while maintaining a high power output for both the fast and the slow parts. It was a good session, helping with leg speed and form, but again it was very warm. On Friday I swam some 50m sprints, to work on pure swim speed. I did 20 sets of 50m, each in just under 40 seconds, with a slow 50m swim to recover, in around 1 minute. This was also a good session, followed by the final set of single-leg pedalling drills on the turbo before the Ironman. 

 

Salty shorts

I made a few purchases this week. I’ll start using my new swimming goggles – new ones give better vision and also are less likely to leak. I’ll wear in and wash in my new socks, as I think that blisters are mostly caused by old socks. Newer socks are softer and easier on the feet. I’ve got lots of beetroot juice now and I’ll take a shot of it every day until the Ironman – it is full of nitrates and these nitrates are supposed to help with endurance sport. I stocked up on energy bars and gels. Piles of quinoa too.

 

One shot of beetroot juice per day for the next 2 weeks... I'll take any edge I can get...

I also spent time fiddling around with/stressing over/effing and blinding at my bike. I wanted to take it out on the road on Saturday this week to see how it felt, and see what power outputs correspond with what heart rates. Apart from the Bristol triathlon, I haven’t had my triathlon bike on the road at all this year, and I haven’t been on the road at all with my power meter. The damned valve extenders were one problem to deal with. I have 80mm deep wheel rims (good for aerodynamics). Inner tubes with valves long enough for 80mm rims don’t exist (I don’t know why, this is beyond my comprehension).

So, you have to buy hellish valve extenders, break the thread on an existing inner tube valve, use plumber tape to taper up the threads, screw them together, and seemingly, hope for the best when pumping up the tyres. I’m sure I didn’t have anything like full pressure in my tyres at the Bristol triathlon. Despite having had them taped up last year, they had all come loose. Steve prevented me from completely losing the plot, and got them sorted out. So I was able to pump the tyres up hard. I have very little confidence in these awful extenders. Entire forum threads are devoted to discussing how terrible they are. And yet no-one will produce an inner tube with a single valve long enough for deep-rim wheels. I also spent ages reading up on the internet and watching videos about Zipp wheel hubs and bearings, how tight the bearings should be, and how much play should be in the rear wheel. It all seems a bit subjective to me, and another hassle I could do without.

I took the bike out into Kent on Saturday. It was hell. Bad roads, potholes, grit, glass, debris, traffic, pollution, junctions, traffic lights. It was literally the least enjoyable bike ride I’ve ever had, and one of the reasons why I’m getting out of London soon. I spent the entire 4 hours crapping myself. I was hardly able to get down into the aero position at all. I didn’t do much meaningful riding throughout the 4 hours, and so I didn’t get much meaningful data from my power meter, as I’d hoped I would. I followed the bike ride with a strong 60-minute run in the heat, at just over 7 minutes per mile, much faster than the Ironman pace I think I need to maintain.

 

The legs are quite ripped at this stage, at full fitness, at the peak.
Just let me get through the 2-week taper with no issues...

My tyres had been immaculate prior to this ride in Kent, almost brand new. After the ride they were cut up, so this means I’ll need new tyres. I can’t risk riding the Ironman on cut-up tyres and getting a puncture or a blow-out. That would put paid to qualification. But I don’t have a lot of time to get new tyres and find some way to get them worn in. Also, there was an awful creaking noise from my bottom bracket when I stood up on the pedals. I’ll need to get this sorted out too, and again I don’t have a lot of time in which to do it. I’m sure I’ll figure something out, but it’s another hassle I could do without.

Sunday morning saw me in the pool doing drills with my hand paddles, pull buoy and rubber band. Sunday lunchtime saw me watching the Formula 1, doing my ironing, and eating my lunch. Sunday afternoon saw me do a short 40 minute run, with 2 x 10 minutes at around 5:30 per mile. I was going to do 3 of these intervals, but decided that two would be enough, there was no point in hurting my legs (or worse) with two weeks until race day. My replacement Garmin watch seems to be functioning well. Sunday late afternoon saw me watching the final kilometres of Stage 2 of the Tour de France, and Sunday evening saw me grunting and grimacing on the physio table, having work done on my back and glutes. 

 

Good timing, back from my Sunday run just as this was starting...

And that was my final tough training week. Now it’s just two weeks of tapering left, plus getting everything organised, sorting out the bike, tweaking equipment, sleeping as much as possible, drinking lots of water and beetroot juice, salting my food, carbo-loading, and hoping for the best. I’ve done the absolute best I could with the circumstances available up to now, and as such I believe that I have a legitimate case to hope for the best on race day. I look forward to actually getting on the start line and getting on with the race, because at that point, there really is nothing more that can be done, changed, thought about etc. The only thing left when on the start line will be to race… Hopefully the weather will be kind. No rain, not too hot, not too windy, and a bit overcast would do nicely…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 29 June: Rest
Tue 30 June: 1 hour turbo (20 min FTP)
Wed 1 July: 30 min fartlek run
Thu 2 July: 1:30 turbo (10 x 2 mins hard/slow, easy, hard/fast, easy)
Fri 3 July: Swim 3k (20 x 50m fast, 50m slow: 0:40/1:00), 1:05 turbo (10 x 2 mins R/L/B)
Sat 4 July: 4 hour bike, 60 min run
Sun 5 July: Swim 3.3k (paddle drills), 40 minute run (2 x 10mins hard)

Totals: Swim 6.3km, Bike 145 miles, Run 20 miles