Post 123 - A bit more like a "normal" Ironman training week

This week was the first week of properly focused, tough Ironman training, with intensities and durations ramped up compared to training from earlier this year. It’s “no messing about” time now. Less than 3 months left. Throw everything at it from now, get the diet absolutely spot on, get lots of sleep, get the training done. Do what I have to do. Or what I think I have to do, based on years of experience and hard lessons. This week felt a bit more like a “normal” Ironman training week, with tired legs and a tired body by the end of the week, along with a sense of relief that I had got through it.

On Monday I cooked for the week. Wholewheat pasta, sauce, broccoli, carrots, peppers, garlic, onions, ginger, chillis turmeric, salmon/turkey. Monday is an important day. It fuels the whole week. I make a pile of food and it does me through until Friday, so that’s one less thing to worry about when training.

On Tuesday I got on the turbo and did a warm-up, and a tough hour. I worked my way into it, starting off at around 260 watts, and ramping up to 280 by the end. Time distorted as usual. Holding 280 watts for the final 15 minutes seemed like forever. But, I persevered and kept the legs pumping, and got through my hour, having averaged 271 watts and 158bpm. Not bad. Then I did my leg weights, squats, strength work, rubber band work, planks and sit-ups. Then to bed before 10pm, to hopefully get at least 8 hours of sleep before the 6:22am alarm.

I decided I’d do my long run on Wednesday evening instead of on Sunday afternoon. I’d be a bit fresher on Wednesday compared with Sunday, and I want to maximise what I get out of my training sessions while minimising the impact on my body. In previous years I was doing my long runs on Sunday afternoons, absolutely knackered after a tough week of training. Doing them on Wednesday after only one day of training, followed by a day of rest on Thursday, will hopefully benefit me more. This week, my long run was only 90 minutes and didn’t even quite cover 13 miles, but for now that’s OK, and I will gradually build up to 20 miles in my long runs. I’ll build the long runs slowly as I find them tough and they take time to recover from. I got back from my long run and did arm weights and core work.

It was good to have a planned rest day on Thursday rather than destroying myself on the turbo and not giving myself any chance for recovery, as in previous years. I fitted in another osteopath visit. I really don’t enjoy these osteopath visits, having my body manipulated and cracked in such a way. I just shut my eyes, grit my teeth and trust that it is beneficial. Crack, crack, crack. I haven’t felt any benefits yet, but the osteopath has claimed that his treatments have cured constipation, migraines, long-term chronic pain, you name it. But forget all that, if he can loosen me off even just a bit, all the cracking and teeth-gritting will have been worth it.

I also got my re-built Zipp aero front wheel back from the bike shop. I can’t fault Bespoke in London for customer service. They took the wheel, sent to it the UK distributor, from where it went to Zipp’s European HQ in Portugal. The wheel was re-built with a new hub and spokes, and sent back to the UK and to Bespoke. All quite efficient. So hopefully my re-built front wheel will not be falling apart when I’m riding at speed. Bespoke is quite a high-end bike shop and I had a look around. They sell bikes worth £10,000. Below is a photo I took in the shop of one such bike. The new Trek. Electric gears, fully integrated brakes, aero headset, light as a feather, super-aero. Very nice. Bike technology has evolved a lot in the last 10-15 years since I bought my first road bike in 2003, and also since my dad bought his Raleigh Banana road bike 10-15 years before that, probably in the late 1980s. It’s hanging in the garage at home, in need of restoration. A project for me when Ironman is over?

 

They should also sell the road-stone replicas underneath the Trek bike above, denoting the most famous cycling climbs. I’ve done all of these: The Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees, the Col du Galibier and Alpe d’Huez in the Alps, and Mont Ventoux in Provence. I’ve done most of the famous French climbs, the only ones left that I’d like to do are the Col du Glandon and the Col de la Croix de Fer, both in the Alps and on the famous Marmotte route. This route is over 100 miles, looping from Bourg d’Oisans, up over the Glandon and Croix de Fer climbs, down into the Maurienne valley, turning right at St-Michel (I almost sound like a local here), up the Télégraph climb and through Valloire before tackling the mighty Galibier, at 2645m the highest point of the route, then down the Lautaret side before heading back to Bourg d’Oisans, where you’d be pretty tired, and where you could choose to get off the bike, forget about the final climb up Alpe d’Huez, find a pub or restaurant, and go and eat frites and drink beer. Or you could finish the route and haul your ass up Alpe h’Huez… Something to do this summer, after the Ironman?

On Friday after work I went to the pool to do a Critical Swim Speed set of 5 x 400m, each in 6 minutes, with 40 seconds of recovery. These are such tough sessions. I don’t even like to think about how tough they are, so I tried not to think about it beforehand, and didn’t dwell on it when warming up in the pool. “It’s just a few 400s, one at a time, let’s go.” Maybe I am overestimating my swimming ability a little, because I couldn’t hold 6 minutes. I did the first one in 6:03. Then 6:05. I knew I wasn’t going to get any faster. Then it was 6:10. Then 6:15. I was struggling. Swimming through treacle. Going nowhere fast. My last rep was 6:20 and I left the pool thinking I will have to revise my critical swim speed from 1:30/100m to 1:32.5/100m. Maybe then, my rep times will be consistent. I’ll try 10 x 200m next week (even saying it is not nice, swimming it will not be fun), but instead of targeting 3 minutes per 200, I will target 3:05. With 20 seconds of recovery. I won’t think about this any more until I am in the pool and ready to start next Friday…

After this pool session, I went to the shop and spent another £80 on food. I reckon I easily eat £100 per week. Per week! I remember when I was younger, my mum used to be able to do the weekly shop for £70, for four boys, one mother and one father. Madness. Appetite and economic inflation is in full swing. I also spent a small fortune on energy gels, bars and powders this week. It’s “no messing about” time now, and I need to train with the foods and drinks I will be using on race day. Another small fortune was spent on car rentals for the events I have coming up: a 50 mile time trial in Essex, a 100 mile time trial in Cambridgeshire and the Bristol triathlon. And the Ironman of course. I will also have to fuel the cars for these trips. Ouch. I also spent another small fortune on running shoes. I needed two pairs – one pair to train in and get used to between now and Ironman race day, and an identical fresh pair to race in. An expensive week…

But that’s it now, I am beyond the point of no return for this year, so hopefully things will go well and I will have no interruptions, no work travel and no work relocations to deal with. I don’t want to have to resign, I’d prefer to stay in work, but equally I am aware that I have so much invested in Ironman, and this is my last-chance saloon, as I don’t think I will be competing beyond this year and so I want it to go as well as possible… if things change and I have to commute over two hours each way, or relocate, then training and racing will be compromised…

It was early to bed on Friday evening. I have 12 more weeks left of “living the dream” on Friday nights. Instead of getting up at 11am on Saturday, I got up at 9am. I think this will be less disruptive to my sleep routine. I ate breakfast and got straight onto the turbo, for three and a half hours of painful mental and physical tedium. I watched a couple of films as I ratcheted up the pain from 180 watts to 280 watts over the course of 3 hours, and then back down to 230 watts after 3 and a half hours. If anything, this session taught me the importance of not exceeding a power cap. 230 watts was easy early in the session, but 230 watts was very different and very difficult after I’d been up over 260 watts for 30 minutes. I averaged 213W NP and 207W average, at 143bpm. I followed this with a 3.5 mile run. That was the first time I’ve run straight off the bike for ages. It felt OK.

When I got back to the house, a great thing had happened. Steve had made some “panzer juice” – a mix of smoothies, protein powder, yogurt, porridge and fruit, all blended into a drink. He makes this quite often. Occasionally, if I’m lucky, there is a little bit left over which comes my way. I was just coming in the door after over 4 hours of training, and he was heading out. “There’s some panzer juice in the fridge for you…” Music to my ears, and joy to my knackered body. I made short work of it, then did my leg weights, core work, rubber band work, planks and sit-ups, took a shower, and sat around eating/watching snooker/football for the rest of the day.

Should be mass-manufactured, bottled and sold

On Sunday I went to the pool early (10am is early for a Sunday). I brought my toys, which had been neglected for over half a year: my leg float, my hand paddles, my rubber band for tying your legs together when swimming to promote good body position in the water. I swam 3300m, doing various leg and arm drills. A decent workout. Then I went to the shop and spent another £30 on food. I bought a pulled pork wrap as a treat, but told myself it was only to be eaten when my training week was over (i.e. when I had finished my 10 mile run and arm weights). I got back to the house and before I could even allow tiredness to kick in, I suppressed the voice that was saying “sit down and have that pulled pork wrap and a pint of Guinness and forget about running” and I got ready to run and got out the door as quickly as possible.

Ten very hilly miles and 62:49 later, I was done. I hadn’t run flat out, but at more of a moderately tough tempo pace, averaging 6:17/mile and 163bpm. The London marathon had earlier been won in just over 123 minutes. That’s 4:42 per mile, for 26.2 miles. Crazy. I could hold that pace for maybe 2 miles. With my run over, I forced myself through the final bit of training I had to do – some arm weights and core work. Then a shower. Then the week was over. I went downstairs and had that pint of Guinness and pulled pork wrap. And continued eating for the rest of the day while watching cycling, snooker and football on TV.

With the events I have planned for later in the season, I won’t get many full two-week training blocks, so I will have to make the most of the unconstrained time I have now before my first event on 22nd May. Then I’ve another event two weeks after that, then another event two weeks after that again. Then it’ll only be 4 weeks until the Ironman. It’s actually not long to go, but yet it’s still so damn far away and I have no idea what is going to happen between now and then with regards to my work location and employment status. This week at work, those remaining (a handful of people in a massive empty office) have been moved and squeezed into a corner – management are trying to sub-let most of the office. Since Christmas I have had no-one sitting opposite or beside me. Now I have a pair of coughers and snifflers right beside me. Not great. Another stress I could do without. I hope things will work out but it’s pretty stressful not knowing what is going on at work, not knowing how it’s going to impact my training and what I have put so much into, and not being able to do anything about it.

Next week will be more of the same, and then an easier week. I already can’t wait for the easier week…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 18 April: Rest
Tue 19 April: 1:15 turbo (271W/158bpm)
Wed 20 April: 90 minute run (7:27/mile, 143bpm)
Thu 21 April: Rest
Fri 22 April: Swim 2.5k (5 x 400m), 30 minute turbo (3 x 3 mins R/L/B)
Sat 23 April: 3:30 turbo (213/207W, 143bpm), 25 minute run
Sun 24 April: Swim 3.3k (13 x 250m drills), 60 min run (6:17/mile, 163bpm)

Totals: Swim 5.8km, Bike 120 miles, Run 26 miles.

Post 122 - Non-fun osteo and jittery group ride

This week I had sore legs after the Titanic 10K. Although my 10K time wasn’t great, it had still been a tough run, and my training isn’t properly tailored towards running fast 10K road races. This means that my legs aren’t as well conditioned as they should be for this type of fast road racing. Which in turn means it takes them longer to recover from such efforts. So I had a planned easier week this week, starting with a gentle 1.6km swim on Monday before catching my flight back from Northern Ireland.

Tuesday through to Thursday were rest days, and they were much-needed. I thought a bit about my strategy for the next 3 months leading up to Ironman race day. From next week, I intend to up the training and throw everything at Ironman for one last crack. Less speedwork, more endurance work, less time on the turbo, more time riding out on the roads, a 50-mile time trial event, an Olympic-distance triathlon, a 100-mile time trial event, and semi-regular osteopathy sessions.

Hopefully...

In 2014 I had semi-regular osteopath sessions. I didn’t enjoy them at all, but every little helps… My back and neck are generally a bit of a mess: stiff, sore, tight, you name it. I’ve got used to it, but hopefully some good osteopathy sessions will help to iron things out and loosen things up a bit. The osteopath I go to see was in the group I went to the Tour of Flanders with in April 2014. His name is Paul. I had my first session of the season with Paul this week. Here’s how it went:

I lie on my back on the osteo table. Paul bends my knee and moves my leg around to loosen out my hips. Then he does the other leg/hip. So far so good. He starts moving my arms around and pressing on my chest. Yep, still OK, I can tolerate this. Then Paul grabs my neck and starts poking at my upper spine. “AAAHHHH FFFFFFFF SHHHHH!” My neck is bad. More poking, prodding and pain. “OK John, I am going to make some adjustments now…” He jerks my head to one side. CRAAAAAACKKKK. “AAAAHHHHH FFFFFFFFFFF!” Repeatedly. “Good, John,” he says. I start to sweat and debate just leaving and not coming back. I can vaguely remember the sessions from 2014 and how unpleasant they were. I can vaguely recall what is coming next.

Sure enough, I am ordered to lie on my side with my top leg hanging off the table. Paul wraps himself around me. I know what’s coming. He starts to bounce on me. “I’m just going to make a small adjustment…” and before I can even take a breath and grit my teeth, boom, like a wrestler, he slams down on me. My spine cracks. “AAAHHHH SHHHHHH!” Same again on the other side. I have to trust that he is a professional and knows what he is doing, and hopefully won’t snap my spine.

I am ordered to lie on my back again. I ask if people enjoy this. “Yes, they love it, they can’t get enough,” he chirps. “And I love doing it as well, it’s great,” he adds brightly, leaning over and putting his knuckles underneath my spine. “Some more small adjustments now John…” He goes down each joint of my spine with his knuckles and body-slams into me on each joint. Slam, crack, grunt, AAAAAHHHHHHHFFFFFFSHHHHHHH, all the way down my spine. Ooooffffff. “Is that it?” I ask. He confirms that there will be no more adjustments. And then he starts a mix of pummelling and shaking of my body and finally, finally it is over. Nine more sessions to go…

On Friday I went swimming, and decided to try to get some time splits during a continuous swim. I decided on 3000m and tried to pace it well. I looked at my watch after 400m, and again after 1500m, and stopped the timer after my 3000m were up. I actually felt like I was swimming quite well, and felt reasonably strong throughout the swim. Other than 4pm arriving and the pool closing for swimming lessons, there was no reason I couldn’t have carried on for an extra 32 lengths, making an Ironman distance swim.

My splits were as follows:

0m to 400m in 6:22, averaging 1:35.5/100m.
400m to 1500m in 17:40, averaging 1:36.4/100m.
0m to 1500m in 24:02, averaging 1:36.1/100m.
1500m to 3000m in 25:12, averaging 1:40.8/100m.
0m to 3000m in 49:14, averaging 1:38.5/100m.
Potential 3800m non-wetsuit pool Ironman swim time in sub-63 minutes.

Although I tried very hard to start at an easy pace, it still wasn’t easy enough and I did fade a bit in the second 1500m. Saying that, I didn’t feel like I was completely ruined, I still felt fairly strong, so some work on pacing will pay dividends. 6:40 instead of 6:22 for the first 400m would be a better pace, so I will work on this. Interestingly, my first 1500m was 24:02, and if I went and did a flat-out standalone 1500m time trial, I wouldn’t expect to be any more than a minute quicker, so either I paced the first 1500m too fast or my standalone time would be quicker than I anticipate (or more likely a mixture of both).

I ran for an hour on Saturday at moderate pace, averaging 7 minutes per mile. I could still feel that my legs weren’t totally recovered, but I felt surprisingly reasonable on the run. On Sunday morning I got up at 6:30am for a group bike ride. Riding well in a group is a skill I don’t yet have – most of my riding is on the turbo, or alone on the road, or with one other on the road. My housemate Steve knows a few serious bike riders, former high-level guys who know about peloton riding inside out. I don’t know anything about peloton riding other than it is stressful, if my sole previous experience is anything to go by when I rode with the same group sometime before Christmas.

You have to not piss anyone else off and ride according to peloton etiquette. Take proper turns on the front. Ride for the benefit and overall speed of the group. Don’t ride too hard at the front. Don’t ride too easy at the front. Don’t sit at the back and wheelsuck, doing no work. Don’t drop anyone in the group. Know the sign language and shouts for any number of road hazards (remember people behind you are “blind” and can’t see the road ahead, so are trusting in your wheeltracks). Make sure that the sign language and shouts are passed along (this can involve swerving round a pothole at 25mph while trying not to crash into the guy who is two inches to your right, with one hand on the handlebars and one hand gesturing down at the pothole so the person behind knows about it – this is a sure-fire way to risk crashing). Don’t stop to pee at the wrong time. Don’t wear the wrong clothes. Have mudguards. Don’t mention that your fingers are cold. Say good morning to everyone. Try to look like you are enjoying yourself and that you know what you are doing, follow all of the rules, and make sure to continue to carry on casual conversations as well, being able to discuss the merits of different groupsets (what?) and then benefits offered by different wheel manufacturers (eh?) and the warmth levels of different base layers (zzzz). And in my case, not knowing the roads, it’s also important to know instinctively where the group is going. Group riding is far more mentally draining than physically draining…

We were out for about 4 hours. It started off freezing. So I wore two jackets, but I haven’t got any cycling-specific jackets. I have what I need to race triathlons and turbo train indoors, not to deal with 4 seasons in one day on the roads in the UK. As it warmed up, I unzipped my jackets. Then on the flats and downhills, when the speed increased, my jackets were billowing like parachutes, and because of the drag I barely had the legs to do my turns on the front. Matters weren’t helped by me losing a full bottle of water following a thump into a pothole at high speed that I had no warning of. It was a split-second decision: stop and retrieve it (and spoil the group’s momentum), or carry on. It was quite a busy road and within the blink of an eye we were already a long way past the bottle. Not knowing we’d be out for 4 hours, I decided to leave it. Wrong call. I was dehydrated and destroyed and gagging for a drink by the end.

All that said, it was actually quite an enjoyable ride, infinitely more interesting than being on the turbo, and hopefully I was a better group rider this time around. Chatting to the “boss” of the group, I learned a lot about pacing and power output. Just following his consistent output was useful, and seeing how gradients and winds affect power output. Wattage can vary a huge amount without you even realising. A consistent power output on the bike, with no “spiking” of power, is vital to Ironman success.

I used a power meter on the road on Tenerife and was surprised at how easy it is to spike your power. Any acceleration, any sort of small incline, any gusts of wind, a rough road surface, they can all cause big spikes in power. You might be looking to average 230 watts. Accelerating out of a corner could see you spike at 500 watts. Not good for Ironman. This will leave your legs ruined for the marathon. “Variability index” is a measure of how consistent your power output is. A high variability index is bad. Low is good.

Average power is average power, that’s fairly self-explanatory. It accounts for freewheeling (periods of zero power). “Normalised power” is what your average power could have been for a ride if you had been completely consistent in output. Normalised power is always higher than average power, because putting out power consistently and smoothly is less tiring than surging, accelerating, spiking and freewheeling. “Variability index” is the ratio of normalised power to average power. At Ironman UK last year, my variability index was 1.07 (although my data from this race isn’t good data because I was freezing cold). Ideally variability index should be as low as possible. A value of 1.00 is the lowest possible. For an Ironman, variability index should be less than 1.05. So I have work to do on my pacing and smooth outputting of power – no surging or spiking.

Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is the theoretical maximum power you can sustain for an hour. Multiplying a 20-minute maximum by 0.95 gives a good approximation. Last year I was in the region of 310 watts for FTP. “Intensity factor” is given by dividing normalised power by FTP. An intensity factor of 0.71-0.72 would be good for an Ironman bike – hard, but not so hard that there’s nothing left for the marathon.

So I need to do a few FTP tests, and then based on an intensity factor of 0.71 or 0.72, work out what my normalised power should be for the bike, and then try to keep my average power as close to this normalised power as possible. I hope I can get my FTP to 310 again this year. This means my normalised power for the Ironman UK bike should be something like 222 watts. This seems do-able, given that I had a terrible, freezing bike last year at Ironman UK and still had a normalised power of 215 watts. If I am aiming for 222 watts NP, then with a variability index of 1.035, my average power should be 214 watts. If my weight is 69kg, this will be 3.1 watts per kilogram. Realistically, anything under 3 watts per kilo will not be good enough to qualify for Kona. Sounds easy…?

A few weeks ago I changed the decals on my Zipp racing wheels, and it was a complete pain in the ass, as the existing ones were so difficult to remove. I was relieved when the project was finished. Then I happened to see on the internet that Zipp were recalling all models of my front wheel from 2010-2015. There was a safety issue with the hub, and in the worst case it could shatter at speed. Not what you want. Your Ironman and season wouldn't just be ruined, but you could be killed. So I had to leave the wheel to the bike shop, from where it was sent to the UK distributor, from where it was sent to Zipp's EU headquarters in Portugal to be rebuilt or replaced. The bike shop who sorted this out for me is Bespoke in London and they have been brilliant. Zipp? Less so. I wouldn't buy Zipp wheels again, they have just been a complete pain - bearings, hubs, adjustments, deep rims, decals (OK, that was my fault), everything. Such expensive equipment shouldn't be such a nightmare to own.

I don’t have many photos to upload this week, so here are a couple of links to a couple of funnies. I think I may have posted one before. (Are they funny? True? Exaggerated? Or just idiotic/pitiful/unhealthy/blinkered/etc/etc/etc?)

http://www.220triathlon.com/training/10-reasons-why-you-should-never-ever-date-a-triathlete/10891.html

http://www.220triathlon.com/gear/race-t-shirts-what-yours-says-about-you/10850.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03dFMG8nR4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3MvFbORKEk

This year I had always said that I wouldn’t be training intensely for the first few months of the season. I want to try to avoid burning out by the time the summer comes around. I had always said that after the Titanic 10K, with 3 months to go until Ironman, I would start training with absolute focus and commitment, doing the required volumes and intensities for iron-distance racing. I’ve been training since Christmas, don’t get me wrong, some good, tough training, but not really Ironman-specific. I hope that I now have a decent base from which to really ramp things up. Hopefully with a good three months, I’ll get to July having just reached my peak (not like in previous years when I hit a plateau in April/May and had to fight and stress to maintain it. It’s very difficult to maintain a good peak for more than a couple of weeks). This will mean I will be fresh and not burned out for Ironman UK, which will hopefully lead to less stress and a better Ironman performance.

Things have even been reasonably quiet at work in terms of travelling. There haven’t been any trips for a couple of months now. Travelling will really mess things up in the final three months as I have a lot of training to do. Hopefully I will manage. However, one big stress is that there is now the very real threat of an office move hanging over me. This will turn my 70-minute each-way commute (15 minute walk/40minute train/15 minute walk) into 2 hours each way, including a tube ride. I hate the tube. I don’t think I could do such a commute every day, and I don’t have 4 hours per day to waste on commuting. Plus I am having some issues at work over non-payment of contractual bonuses. I’m starting to think very strongly that it’s time to find a new job (and to leave London), but at this stage in the Ironman season, I am reluctant to make any big life changes. Hopefully things will work out so that I can continue to work through until the summer, and it won’t have too big an effect on other aspects of my life.

I can’t wait for everything to be all over to be honest. When you are going through hell, keep going… then you come out the other side and things are hopefully better.

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 11 April: Swim 1.6k
Tue 12 April: Rest
Wed 13 April: Rest
Thu 14 April: Rest
Fri 15 April: Swim 3.1k (400m 6:22, 1st 1500m in 24:02, 2nd 1500m in 25:12, 3k in 49:14)
Sat 16 April: 60 minute run (7:05/mile, 152bpm)
Sun 17 April: 55 mile bike

Totals: Swim 4.7km, Bike 55 miles, Run 9 miles.

Post 121 - A slow 10K

This was 10K race week, and I had entered the Titanic 10K in Belfast. It would be a gauge of where my fitness is, and a tough workout. Last season, in March 2015, I ran a 10K in around 33:30 on a hilly course in Aberdeenshire. By May of 2015, I was fairly confident I would have been able to run a 32-minute 10K, but my training plan in 2015 meant that I didn’t enter any more standalone 10Ks that year. I wish now that I had gone and run a 32 when I’d had the form for it. I’ve never ran a “good” 10K, and my PBs for other distances would indicate that my 10K PB should be better than 33:16. When I was 18 or 19, a coach told me I had it in me to run sub-32. That has been something in my head for the past 12 years. However, Ironman training doesn’t really allow for proper 10K training. This frustrates me a bit, that in doing Ironman training I can’t achieve my potential in each individual discipline. Triathletes often say, “Doing triathlon means I am not very good at 3 sports…” Doing Ironman means you don’t need much speed either, just an ability to go and go and go and go at moderate intensity for a long time.

I know that this season I have purposely not trained as intensely up to this point as I have done in previous years. This is in an effort to peak for the Ironman race in July, and not to peak in April, ending up frazzled and overcooked by the summer. The Titanic 10K is a big annual 10K in Northern Ireland, attracting maybe 1500 runners. It’s held in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter where the ill-fated ship was built over a century ago. The race route loops around the same shipyard site and docks where my grandfather (and grandmother’s brother) spent their working lives. aI ran the Titanic 10K in 2013 in 33:40 or so, and so knowing that the course would be a flatter and faster than the Aberdeenshire course last season, I was expecting to run 33-something, and wondering about sub-33. I did feel quite positive after a really good interval session last week where I felt strong and fast.

I tapered off during the week. My return flights cost £32 with Ryanair. Bargain. I caught my flight back to Northern Ireland after work on Thursday. I missed a display of the Northern Lights on Thursday night. Bummer. I went for a short swim on Friday, and a short run on the East Strand at Portrush on Saturday. The last time I ran there was in June 2011, at the Causeway Coast Olympic distance triathlon. The sea temperature was 12 degrees that day and the brass monkeys wouldn’t have fancied it. My wetsuit ripped before the start, I forgot to put my number belt on in the first transition and lost about 3 minutes when the marshals sent me back, and anger took me to the fastest run split and third place overall at the end of the day. I need to figure out why I can’t deliver a good Ironman marathon. I’ve only done two Olympic distance triathlons, but I’ve had the fastest run split at both of them. If my Ironman run was as good, I’d probably be a multiple Kona qualifier…

Stuff seen in Northern Ireland

I headed down to Belfast on the Sunday. It was a bright and breezy day. I did a warm-up jog and some strides. It was far windier than I would have liked. It wasn’t going to be a particularly fast day, as it was just too windy. The course had two out-and-back loops, so the run was going to go as follows: run into the wind for a couple of kilometers, get blown back, then run out along a different road into the wind for a couple of kilometers, then get blown back to the finish. Despite the wind, I still expected to finish in under 34 minutes.

It’s actually quite a historical course. The shipyard at Belfast would have employed half the city from the end of the 19th century to the1970s and 1980s. Most famously, or infamously, the Titanic was built there. Then the shipyard suffered a decline as manufacturing and shipbuilding moved to eastern Europe and Asia. The two big yellow cranes remained though, two landmarks dominating Belfast’s skyline. The area has undergone a bit of a transformation in recent years, with a bit more work at the shipyard and a big regeneration at the docks. The area has been renamed the “Titanic Quarter”. There’s now an exhibition centre dedicated to the Titanic story, there are nice apartments, office blocks, and concert halls. There are tourists. There is the Titanic Quarter 10K. The vibe is good. I’ve heard many stories about the shipyard over the years, but it must have been a hard place to earn a living, and by all accounts, we should be grateful for health and safety in the workplace nowadays.

Designed to look like the bow of the Titanic looming over you

It’s always handy at a race to have someone with you, and the parents had come down to watch. So I was able to warm up in my tracksuit and stay warm, stripping off just minutes before the start and dumping my top and bottoms with mum and dad. I was glad to be able to change into a tracksuit straight after the race too. We lined up and I told myself to run sensibly in the first couple of kilometers, into the wind. I had my Garmin watch and heart rate monitor on so I would hopefully be able to judge the race well. In the first few hundred metres I was running at sub-5 minute mile pace. Way too fast. I backed off, but my first mile was still 5:15, far too fast into such a strong wind. I hit the first turn and on the first run back, with the wind behind, I had settled into the race, but deep down I knew the whole thing was already compromised by over-exuberance in the first mile. Mile 2 was 5:20 but my heart rate was already up at nearly 180.

We ran back to the start/finish area where a good crowd was gathered, and then turned to head back into the wind for the second “out” part. This was a long, tough drag. My pace dropped to 5:50 per mile. I was struggling. I looked at my heart rate. Over 180. That is really maximal for me, and there was still half the race left to go… Two guys had been sitting in my draft for about a kilometer, and as we caught up on a wheelchair racer who was having a tough time into the strong wind, I went up on the footpath, slowed a bit, and let them come through. I then took my turn to shelter behind them. It was such a tough section. My mile splits for miles 3, 4 and 5 were 5:35, 5:48 and 5:40. Finally we hit the turn and it was a couple of kilometers straight back with the wind behind. I had taken too much out of myself in the first quarter of the race, and didn’t make up any ground on the home stretch. My final mile, with a strong wind behind, was only 5:27. It was a classic case of going 20 seconds slower in the first mile would have saved 40 seconds overall.

In the end, I didn’t even get under 34 minutes. I wasn’t too pleased. Partly it was due to poor race execution and pacing, partly it was due to a slow, tough and windy day, and partly it was due to a lack of fitness. There was strawberry flavour protein milk at the finish line and I gulped down a whole bottle. Then I looked to see that it contained 45g of sugar. Urgh. I went for a cool-down jog around the docks. Then I ate some food, and went home with sore legs. It wasn’t exactly a groundbreaking race for me.

Oh well, I’ll treat it as a stepping stone. A tough workout. I don’t often operate for 30 minutes at 180bpm. I averaged 5:30 per mile and 178bpm for the whole thing. I maxed out at 185bpm. That really was maxing out. My race summary is below:

Mile 1: 5:15, 171bpm – started too fast
Mile 2: 5:20, 178bpm – tried to ease off, heart rate high
Mile 3: 5:35, 181bpm – going to be a long second half of the race
Mile 4: 5:48, 179bpm – into a strong wind, running through treacle
Mile 5: 5:40, 178bpm – out at the far end of the course, surely I can lift it on the home straight
Mile 6: 5:27, 179bpm – not much left in the legs to run a fast final mile
Mile 6.21: 1:14, 182bpm – not my day, finishing in 34 minutes.

We went out for dinner when we got home and I treated myself to a pint of Guinness, a Mexican burger, a pile of chips, and a cheesecake. My legs really were pretty sore and I was tired. Then I sat up and watched the end of the Masters golf tournament with my brother, burping and farting all the while. Put brothers together and some things never change… I didn’t sleep too well. I had sore legs, was really fatigued, dehydrated, bloated and was probably still trying to process the 45g of sugar, Guinness, burger, chips and cheesecake. Burp.

What happens now? I’ll take an easy week to recover and rest and recuperate. And then it will be exactly 3 months until Ironman UK. It’s time to get serious. There will be no more “oh but I don’t need to be super-fit too early in the season” excuses. The season is creeping up on me, and time is moving fast. Ironman is only 3 months away. Not so long ago it was still 7 months away.

So I will force myself to do what I have to do. Fully focused training. More endurance rides. Smarter training this time around. I don’t need to kill myself with fast, intense training. More rides on the road. Better rest and recovery. Better practice with my nutrition and hydration strategy. Better-paced cycling and running. A 50-mile bike time trial event in Essex on 22nd May. A 100-mile bike time trial near Cambridge on 19th June. The Bristol Olympic distance triathlon on 5th June. Regular (or at least semi-regular) osteopathy treatment to loosen my back. And then hopefully arriving, fresh, to a fitness peak in mid-July where I will finally deliver a good Ironman and qualify for Kona…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 4 April: Rest
Tue 5 April: 30 minute turbo (10 x 1 minute hard)
Wed 6 April: 20 minute fartlek run
Thu 7 April: Rest
Fri 8 April: Swim 2.1k
Sat 9 April: 15 minute run
Sun 10 April: 10K run, 34:18

Totals: Swim 2.1km, Bike 12 miles, Run 12 miles.

Post 120 - A bit more progress, and cake

It feels a bit more like summer now that the clocks have changed. The evenings are brighter. I’ve even been running in shorts, in daylight, in the evening, after work. Good. Every little helps. I’ve got one more week until the Titanic 10K road race in Belfast and then I will switch my focus to pure Ironman and endurance training for the final 3 months before Ironman UK in July. In the meantime, I’ve been upping the intensity of my training as I am hoping for a good run at the 10K on 10th April.

My hill repeats last week were a bit disappointing, but conditions had been windy and not great. I had developed a bit of a sore back after the hill session, so I’ve spent a lot of time this week with a heat pack on it. It’s not so sore that I can’t train, but it’s sore enough to be uncomfortable. I’ll see about setting up a weekly osteopath visit to loosen it up in the 3 months before Ironman UK.

I intended to have the usual rest day on Monday following Sunday’s hills, and then I wanted to do another bike FTP test on the turbo on Tuesday – warm up, then go as hard as you can for 20 minutes, then cool down. I’d done the test last year and hit 324 watts for 20 minutes. I’d like to beat that this year. I did the test again at the start of February this year and hit 307 watts for 20 minutes. I hoped to be around 315 this time around. having a rest day on Monday would help my legs to be fresher for Tuesday.

But a work evening out was planned for Tuesday night, and it was one of those ones where you sort of have to go. The plan was to go to a ping-pong bar (yes, yes, a ping-pong bar, one with actual table tennis tables, not the kind you find in seedier parts of Thailand), play some ping-pong, drink some beer and eat some pizza. I think ping-pong is a great game, and I played quite regularly for about 6 months while living in Sydney in 2010. But that was a long time ago. I was keen to try my hand at it again.

So this meant that I shifted my rest day to Tuesday, and did my bike FTP test on Monday. Not ideal, as my legs were still tired from the 14 hill sprints I’d done the previous day. Oh well, it’s still early in the season and I decided that I fancied a bit of ping-pong, and accepted that the FTP test would be compromised. In the end, I managed a whole 2 watts more than 2 months ago. I averaged 309 watts for the 20 minutes, at an average of 170bpm. I’d have hoped for a bigger improvement to show for 2 months of training. So I was a bit disappointed, but it had at least been a really tough and intense workout. I was absolutely dead by the end of the 20 minutes, I’d turned myself inside out. So tough. I’m on my limit when my heart rate goes to 180bpm, and it went to 180bpm towards the end of this FTP torture. After very intense bike sessions, my legs twitch for a while, and they were twitching like mad on Monday night.

I went to play ping-pong on Tuesday, and managed to restrict myself to two beers (bottles, not pints), and one pizza. I wouldn’t say I was ever “good” at table tennis, but I certainly wasn’t much good on Tuesday evening, having not played for 6 years. It’s a frustrating game and you need a clear head to play well, but it’s a good game. It’s very skilful, and it was a lot more physical than I remembered, darting around the table. If I ever get my own house, I might buy a ping-pong table. I managed to get away “early” and so got home by 10pm, and was fortunate to be handed a leftover lamb casserole when I got back. I do live in the best house with the best people…

On Wednesday I went out for a fartlek run as the sun was setting. In shorts. Great. My Garmin told me that for the fast spurts, I was running at or under 5 minute mile pace. My legs were sore after this as I had done hill sprints on Sunday, an FTP test on Monday, table tennis on Tuesday and the fartlek run on Wednesday. I decided to spin the turbo for half an hour on Thursday evening, just to try to get the blood flowing and the lactic shifting.

I went to the pool on Friday intending to do a tough sprint session, but then thought better of doing too many intense sessions in too short a space of time. I planned to do an important running interval session of 6 x 1km over the weekend, and wanted to be fresh for that. So I just churned out 3100m in the pool. The longest swim I’ve done this year. I didn’t feel too strong in the second half of this swim, but I’ve only been swimming once a week so far this year. I’ll up this to twice a week from mid-April after the 10K. I’d rather swim 3 or 4 times a week, but simply don’t have the time to fit this in and recover, so twice a week will have to be the compromise.

Normally I’d do a bike on Saturday and a run on Sunday, but the Tour of Flanders one-day cobbled cycling classic race was on Sunday. 2 years ago (time really does fly) I’d gone out to Flanders with my housemate and group of his friends to ride the Tour of Flanders cyclo-sportive on the Saturday, and watch the pro race on the Sunday. We rode the same course as the pros, over the same cobbles, up the same cobbled hills, along the same narrow, winding roads. It was an incredible, memorable and crazy weekend. Cycling on cobblestones? Never again! A ragdoll in a hurricane has it easier… (See Post 16 of this blog, dated Monday 7th April 2014 for the lowdown on our trip to the Tour of Flanders).

I’d suggested to my housemate Steve that we should go for a bike ride before The Tour of Flanders came on TV. He was knocked off his bike in September last year, and the shoulder operation that ensued meant that he hasn’t been on the road for over 4 months. He has been on the turbo trainer quite a bit recently and was feeling like he had itchy feet (or itchy legs, or an itchy ass, or whatever else cyclists have that itches to get out on the road) for getting back out on the road and seeing if he could manage. I suggested we go for a “cake spin” on Sunday morning at 9am, ride out into Kent, stop at a café and buy cake, then ride home and sit in front of the TV watching the Tour of Flanders for the rest of the day. He thought this was a good plan, so I had to do my run on Saturday.

This run would be my last tough training session before the 10K next week, so I wanted to make it a good one. 6 intervals of slightly more than 1km, finishing with a steep uphill section, with 2:45 to jog back down to the start. Nightmarish. I did this session at the start of February and averaged 3:46 for the 6 reps. One month later, I averaged 3:41. What would I do this time around? I hoped to average under 3:40. The weather was good. Warm, bright, dry sunny and calm. Shorts and t-shirt. I wouldn’t have the conditions to blame if it didn’t go well.

The first one is always a tricky one. How hard to go? It’s a bit of a black art. Hard enough to be hard, but remember that you’ve got 6 to do… I got to the finishing lamp-post at the top of the hill and looked at my watch. 3:28. 3:28? What?! 3:38 surely? I looked again. Nope, 3:28. Well, that was fast. Too fast? I’d find out… I followed with another 3:28. Then a 3:26. Ridiculous. I wondered if I’d keep them all under 3:30 or if I would blow up. 3:27. Then 3:28 again. One more to do. I was really feeling it. Bailing out wasn’t an option. One more. Hammer it. Get under 3:30. I could feel the strength ebbing. Grinding up the hill. Kick, kick, if you don’t kick then it’s not enough to keep it under 3:30. I got to the finishing lamp-post, and hit the lap button on the watch…

…3:29. Then I collapsed onto a wall. I had nothing more to give. This was a really good session. Absolutely full-on, nothing held back. I was pleased. My times were good. I had worn a heart rate monitor and had my Garmin on, and when I looked later on Strava, I saw I was running the 2-minute flat section of each interval at under 3 minutes per kilometre pace. My heart rate was over 180 for the final stretch of the last 5 intervals, so I had been working really hard. I averaged 3:28 for the 6 reps. 18 seconds quicker than the same session in February. Much better than the paltry 2 watts of improvement in my bike FTP this week. And that’s what I will take into the Titanic 10K next week. Good enough for sub-32? I very much doubt that. But, good enough for a PB and sub-33? Possibly…

I knew it had been a maximal session when I couldn’t stop sneezing and snotting for the rest of the day, so I made sure I kept as warm as possible, ate lots of vitamin C (a couple of kiwi fruits, a glass of freshly-squeezed lemon juice and a glass of freshly squeezed lime juice), and hoped not to get sick. I was thankfully OK in the end, but I really was on a bit of a knife-edge for the rest of Saturday.

I went to bed early, to be up and away on the bike at 9am, to be back for midday to watch the Tour of Flanders. I set the alarm for 8:30am. I planned not to have any breakfast. There is logic to this. Fat-burning, rather than carb/glucose burning is a good thing for endurance athletes. The body has enough fat reserves to fuel an Ironman, but the body will burn carbs/glucose in preference to fat, and there aren’t enough carb/glucose reserves in your body to fuel you through an Ironman. This means you need to top up your glucose stores as you go (energy gels, bars, sports drinks etc) and if you get this wrong, you’ll end up in trouble, and the longer the race, the worse the effect. Eat too few carbs in an Ironman and you will bonk/blow up/fade/”die” spectacularly. Eat too many carbs (80g per hour of carbohydrate is as much as the body can process, although people will show variance: one person may tolerate 90g, another may not even tolerate 70g) and they will back up in your guts and stomach, and the body will get rid of the surplus in one or both of two ways. Use your imagination…

So training the body to burn fat means, in theory, better performance in an Ironman. I am going to experiment with fat burning this season. In general terms, this means training while “fasted” i.e. getting home from work and training without eating the usual piece of toast and peanut butter, or an energy gel or bar of something, or bowl of porridge. Or, more usefully and realistically, getting up at the weekend and going for a bike ride/turbo session without eating breakfast, and riding for a couple of hours, before starting on the energy gels and drink.

Sunday morning was my first try at this. I’d have no breakfast, ride for an hour to a shop/café, then buy a piece of cake, then ride home. I knew I would wake up and be absolutely famished as usual, but I told myself I’d grit my teeth and get on the bike, and hopefully when on the bike my mind would be occupied and I wouldn’t be thinking about feeling hungry. In the end, I didn’t have a choice because for some reason my alarm didn’t go off, and I woke up at 8:51am. 9 minutes until departure… It was a bit chaotic, rushed and sleepily dopey trying to get myself and my bike awake and ready, but I managed to be all set not long after 9am. With nothing in my stomach, we set off. I had no idea how it would go, and I had an emergency gel (or two) stashed away in case it didn’t go well, but I hoped not to have to use them.

In the end, I was fine. Admittedly I wasn’t pushing too hard as Steve was a bit tentative (it was his first time on the road for over 4 months, and his shoulder is still dodgy), but I felt great on the bike, and it was just a relaxed hour to ride out to the Ide Hill shop/café overlooking the Bough Beech reservoir. It was busy with cyclists. I bought my breakfast: a massive slice of carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Nice. There was a bit of a breeze and we were getting cold, so we didn’t delay. I ate Steve’s leftovers too, and for the first 20 minutes on the way back, I felt a bit sick… I didn’t puke though, and we made it back just as the Tour of Flanders was starting. Good stuff.

It was painful watching the pros ride on those cobbles, and on the narrow roads. It would have been a lot worse if it was wet. It is a crazy, crazy race. Those cobbles hurt like hell to ride over. Even the commentator, former Irish cyclist Sean Kelly, when talking on live TV, got a bit carried away, referring to “those bloody roads…” He didn’t sound like he had any appetite to ever ride them again. I don’t either. On the one hand I’d love to go back and do it all again, it is just complete madness, a massive cycling festival weekend with beers and frites thrown in, but on the other hand, those cobbles? Those bloody roads? No thanks, I like having feeling in my hands and arms and arse and legs and feet. I like my bones and bike intact, not smashed to smithereens.

During Flanders, I was handed a cup of coffee from the expensive coffee machine that has taken up residence in the house. I've never drank coffee. Or tea. I was told that this is as good as coffee gets. I almost didn't want to like it, I don't want to develop a habit. And I didn't like it. Good. No coffee for me then. Lizzie Armitstead won the female Tour of Flanders in a close sprint finish, and in the men’s race, Peter Sagan got away on the final climb, the Paterberg. A dusty cobbled climb, with sections of over 20% gradient? Insanity. If it was wet?! Words fail me. After the final climb, there’s still 13km to the finish, but these are some of the flattest, widest, smoothest and most open kilometres of the whole day. Sagan time-trialled his way to the finish line, taking victory, but it wasn’t assured until he was about 2km from the finish, as he had Fabien Cancellara (the man they call Spartacus) breathing down his neck, 20-odd seconds back. It had been over 4 hours of viewing. Time well spent…

Peter Sagan wheelie-ing over the finish line at Flanders

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 28 Mar: 50 minute turbo (20 minute FTP test: 309W/170bpm for 293.5W FTP)
Tue 29 Mar: Rest
Wed 30 Mar: 40 minute fartlek run
Thu 31 Mar: 30 minute turbo
Fri 1 Apr: Swim 3.1k
Sat 2 Apr: 6 x reps: 3:28, 3:28, 3:26, 3:27, 3:28, 3:29 (2:45 recovery)
Sun 3 Apr: 2 hour bike

Totals: Swim 3.1km, Bike 62 miles, Run 13 miles.