Post 114 - Some progress, at last

Two tough weeks done. Two weeks to go before the Northern Ireland/Ulster cross country championships. So normally the week after two tough weeks would be an easier week. But that would mean two easy weeks in the run-up to the Ulsters, and I don’t need a two-week taper, one week is enough. But I also didn’t want to do three tough weeks in a row, because that would leave me wrecked. So I thought about what training sessions this week would be of most benefit to me for the Ulsters, and I decided on two tough sessions this week with a couple of easier sessions in between. The two tough sessions would be very tough but I would have plenty of time in between to rest and recover.

Turbo training is catching on in the house, all 4 housemates now do it

I decided on a hard turbo session for 45 minutes (roughly the same time as it’ll take me to run the Ulsters) and a flat-out hill repetition session. These would be the two key sessions for the week. The rest of the days would be easier sessions or resting. So Monday and Tuesday were rest days. On Wednesday I did the turbo session. A 10-minute warm-up was followed by a 45-minute blast, averaging 275 watts at 159bpm. It wasn’t a fully flat-out 100% maximal effort but I was able to crank the power up gradually in the final 15 minutes and I was working very hard by the end. Not a bad session.

I’ll run the Ulsters in the same way – I won’t go too mad at the start and run too fast too soon, that’ll leave me going backwards rapidly in the second half of the race. I’ll work my way into it and come through strong towards the end. In theory.

After the turbo session I did weights and core work, and when doing my squats, I felt a big twinge in my left knee. Argh. How would this pan out? Everything affects everything - would I be able to train for the rest of the week? How much of an effect would this have? My mood dropped. I didn’t train the following day and hoped that a day off would solve things. I planned the hill repeats for Friday. I went for a short jog to warm up. It felt OK. A lucky escape. But I won’t be squatting or dong one-legged jumping drills for a good few days until I have confidence back in the knee.

Good fuel? Eaten not on Pancake Tuesday but on Wednesday instead,
due to training and work commitments leaving no time on Tuesday

I need to sort out my weekend sleeping. Usually I’m quite tired by the time the weekend comes around, work is tough and training is tough. So I sleep until 11am on Saturday, getting up “early” on Sunday at 9am to go swimming. I get up at 6:20am during the week. But the two lie-ins at the weekend mean that I can’t get to sleep on Sunday night, and then getting up on Monday morning is even more difficult than usual. It takes me a day or two to get back in the routine, and by the time the routine is established again, the weekend arrives to break it again. I should get up earlier on Saturday and Sunday. Getting up at 8:20am at the weekend would still be a 2-hour lie-in, but “only” having 2-hour lie-ins probably wouldn’t mess up my body clock as much as 4 hour lie-ins.

Also, I still haven’t figured out why my legs seem to itch so badly at this time of year. Answers on a postcard… When I start back into full training after Christmas, my legs seem to itch for a couple of months. Maybe it’s the cold weather, or the increased volume of swimming pool exposure, or a response to increased training load or something. I have no idea, but it’s very noticeable and affects my sleep some nights. I use plenty of moisturising cream but it doesn’t seem to make a great deal of difference.

I haven’t gone hell-for-leather in my training since Christmas. I have kept my sessions controlled and I haven’t allowed myself to go absolutely 100% flat out. I‘ve held back a couple of percent, allowing my body time to adapt to the increased workload, trying not to peak too soon. This is intentional, to try not to burn out before the big summer Ironman target race, as in previous years. But the summer Ironman racing schedule is still subject to a massive question mark thanks to my work situation, so I have got other goals along the way, and so I’m trying to strike a balance and get myself to a decent level for the Ulsters. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still trained hard and the sessions I have done since Christmas have been biased towards getting fit for a 12km cross-country race rather than for an Ironman. 

But I wanted to run a session that was absolutely flat out, nothing held back, to see where my level was. Friday evening’s hill repeats would hopefully show me. This would be the last tough session before the race next week, so I hoped it would go well. I feel like I’ve been flogging myself day in and day out since Christmas, without feeling like I’ve been getting much back in terms of fitness gains, and I’ve seen very little evidence of progress. I needed something that would give me a confidence boost going into the Ulsters. But I wasn’t sure I would get it on the hills. I didn’t know what to expect. I planned to do ten repeats, and hoped that I would average just under 70 seconds per repeat.

For context, in my best hill session last year (on the same hill), in April 2015, I did 14 repeats and averaged just under 68 seconds. Earlier this year, at the start of January I did 10 and averaged 70 seconds. At the end of January I did 12 and averaged about 73 seconds (in bad conditions, and in a tired state). I had a couple of things going for me this time – usually I do the hills on Sunday afternoon after a week in which I might have done up to 10 tough training sessions (plus weights, core work and stretching). After so many sessions, I’m usually tired when I do the hills, lacking sharpness and literally dragging myself through. This time, I had only done one tough session in the 4 days before, and the other 3 days were rest days. So hopefully my legs would be fresher and I’d feel sharper. Also, it was a nice evening, dry and not too cold, no wind, and still daylight.

I ran the first one in 69 seconds. If I’d done the next 9 in 69 seconds, I’d have settled for that. But the times just dropped gradually, right down to 65 seconds. I was surprised. I kept wondering if I would fade, but I knew I was feeling pretty good. And I knew I was “only” doing 10, not 12 or 14. By the end, I was still feeling strong enough for my last repeat to be my fastest of all, by a couple of tenths of a second. I wondered about doing a couple more, but then thought better of it. I’d exceeded my expectations and my times had been good. I can build up to 12 and 14 repeats later in the springtime.

I jogged back feeling good about things for the first time in a long time. Finally, some evidence of progress. OK, things had been in my favour when doing these hills this time around – good conditions and fresh legs, but I definitely felt good and strong, and the boost was welcome after what felt like a tough and fruitless couple of months. The rest of the weekend was spent resting and doing easy sessions.

The Ulsters is a big team event, and hopefully I can contribute to the squad. Each club can enter 12 runners, with the finishing positions of each club’s top 6 runners added up, and the club with the lowest total takes the team title, with a historic trophy and 6 gold medals presented. For some reason I seem to run well at the Ulsters and I have a decent record there. I’ve always been in the club’s top 6 finishers and I have contributed to 3 team golds, a silver and a bronze. We are going for 3 golds in a row this time around, and it would be great to contribute to that.

But I know I’ve had a bad winter and some terrible races before and during Christmas, and I know that the club has a really strong squad. I also know that I’ll go there and run like hell (tempered hell for the early part of the race), and do the best I can do, and see where that leaves me. But every other runner will have that mentality too…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 8 Feb: Rest
Tue 9 Feb: Rest
Wed 10 Feb: 1 hour turbo (45 mins at 275w/159bpm)
Thu 11 Feb: Rest
Fri 12 Feb: 10 x hill reps (69, 67, 67, 66, 66, 65, 65, 66, 66, 65)
Sat 13 Feb: 1 hour turbo, 30 min run
Sun 14 Feb: Swim 1.6km

Totals: Swim 1.6km, Bike 45 miles, Run 11 miles