Post 132 - Surviving Italy

This week was all about surviving a work trip to Italy, with 3 weeks left until Ironman race day. The day before going to Italy, I did a flat-out, maximal 100 mile time trial in 3:58, having felt a bit rough in the few days beforehand. Such an effort massively depletes the body, leaving you a bit more vulnerable to picking up a bug and getting sick. In an ideal world, I’d have been able to take a few really easy, relaxing days after the 100, get myself well recovered, and well-positioned to crack on with the final training block before the Ironman.

But, the work trip to Italy meant a lot of stress – I’d be travelling with colleagues who had been ill during all of the previous week, and I’d be sitting in stuffy, manky aeroplanes, taxis, meeting rooms and hotels. Not what I needed. I know from past experience that at best, going to Italy leaves me feeling tired, washed-out and under the weather. At worst, I end up sick. So, the most vital things I brought with me to Italy were not the laptop and the work documentation, instead, they were my tubs full of raw garlic, raw ginger, chilli peppers, vitamin pills, kiwi fruits, bananas, apples and flapjacks. Desperate times call for desperate measures…

On the positive side, the weather was going to be warm and sunny and I’d have a bit of free time in the evenings to sit in a hot bath and sleep as much as possible. I just hoped so much that I wouldn’t end up getting sick so close to the Ironman.

I got up at 5:30am on Monday morning (having got up before 3am the morning before, for the 100), and I flew out to Italy. I had a row of seats to myself towards the back of the plane, and both seats behind me were empty, so no-one was coughing or spluttering in my immediate vicinity. I drank loads of water and the flight attendants probably wondered why I was going to the toilet so much. The view over the Alps was spectacular as usual – I’d love to live in some wee Alpine town, ideally in France, parce que je parle un peu de Francais (yes I know that should have an accent on it but I can't do it on this keyboard). We landed in Italy and then it was an hour in a taxi to our final destination. Then I stood outside in the sun for 20 minutes, upping my level of Vitamin D naturally. Journey survived.

On Monday evening I asked the hotel reception for a knife, fork and spoon, then I ate some of the ginger, garlic and chillis I’d brought, then tried to defuse the heat and pain they induced in my mouth with kiwi fruits. Then I sat in a hot bath for ages. Muscle recovery. Aaahhhhh. Then I had my dinner, and was in bed by 8pm. The hotel is really stuffy and I woke up on Tuesday morning with my mouth and throat and nose all absolutely parched. This leaves you much more prone to picking up infections. Not good. I drank water and turned the hot tap on full blast, put a towel over my head and breathed in the steam, to try to de-parch my mucous membranes. I took some vitamin pills, and had breakfast.

View of the Appennine mountains (hills?) from the top floor of the hotel

Then I had to get through the day. I had brought loads of fruit so was able to graze all day, and I drank lots of water, and went outside as often as possible to get some sunshine on my skin. I tried to sit as far away from coughers as possible. I just gritted my teeth and got though it and hoped for the best. I was doing all I could to stay healthy.

I got back to the hotel and decided to go for a very easy bike ride, maybe 30 minutes. They have old upright daisybell bikes in the hotel that you can borrow. The Appennine hills/mountains are not far to the south, and the countryside is nice. I didn’t make it as far as the hills, but I had a nice, easy, flat, relaxing spin on the bike, which turned into an hour. Oh to be able to do this on a daily basis, or commute like this. One day… I had stupidly forgotten to bring my sunglasses, so every insect in Italy therefore decided that my eyes would be good places to commit suicide.

Nice, empty, quiet, warm, non-polluted roads

I got back to the hotel, spent ages picking insects out of my eyes, had my delicious food (more garlic and ginger and chillis), took another hot bath, then created a home-made sauna – I blocked the bathroom door gaps up with towels, put the shower on full heat and full blast, and sat in the steam for 20 minutes. Then I had dinner and went to bed early again. 

Two very different bike rides, just a couple of days apart...

When I got up on Wednesday morning, things were bad. Glands in my neck had swollen up, and my mucous membranes were absolutely parched again, to the extent that I was coughing up horrible, thick, dry, red, bloody phlegm. Uuuurrrggghhh. I steamed myself with the hot tap and towel again, ate vitamin pills with my breakfast, and wished I wasn’t in Italy.

I got through another day, and that evening I went for a short run. Actually, not a run. A shuffle. Then, it was the usual Italian bedtime routine: garlic, chillis, ginger, hot bath, home-made sauna, dinner and bed. But I couldn’t have another night like the previous night. I didn’t want my glands to swell up any bigger and I didn’t want horrible dry red phlegm in the morning. What to do?

What to do: I filled the bath with very hot steaming water, hoping it would help to humidify the room overnight. Then I took the two bins in the room, cleaned them, and filled them with very hot water too. I put one bin on either side of the bed, and then cleaned my teeth. I was about to get into bed when I noticed one of the bins was leaking and there was water soaking into the carpet. Feck it. Stupid leaky tin bin! I emptied it down the sink, checked the other plastic bin for leaks (all good) and went to bed hoping for the best. I was glad I’d noticed the leak, because if I hadn’t, all that water would have leaked all over my room and dripped onto people who were sleeping in the room on the floor below me… 

One nice sunset photo, and one cryptic sunset photo

Because I had been drinking so much water during the day, I had to get up quite a few times in the night to go to the toilet, and every time I did this I had a drink. This helped to keep my mucous membranes wet, but it meant I slept badly as I was in a vicious circle of continuously drinking and continuously needing the toilet. When the alarm went off on Thursday morning, I was absolutely knackered, but not as parched as the previous two mornings. The swelling in my glands had gone down too. I was grateful that there were no more nights to spend in the hotel as I was flying back that afternoon.

I emptied the bath and bin, I steamed myself under a towel, I ate my vitamin pills and breakfast, and had my final morning with work in Italy. Then it was off to the airport. London was experiencing bad weather, so the inbound flight from London was delayed and we were late taking off from Italy. I didn’t have a great flight back. I was sitting with the window on one side of me, and some obnoxious, coughing, spluttering guy on the other. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. I put the overhead air vent on full blast to divert his germs away from me, and he tutted and glared and coughed and spluttered. I looked behind and saw that the back row of seats were free. So I told him I was very ill and needed to sit near the toilets, and escaped from his vicinity.

The flight was late getting into London because of the rain, and all the trains were delayed because of the rain, and I was very late getting home. I went home via the osteopath and had another decent treatment session. My body is definitely a lot looser now, which is great. I had planned to do a short turbo/run session when I got back, but it was late (the trains were all fecked up too due to the rain), and I was tired, and it wasn’t a key training session, so I ate my dinner and went to bed. I’d been looking forward to this dinner all week - before I went I struck a deal with my housemate - I gave him my leftover pasta on Sunday night, and he would cook for me when I got back from Italy. It’s always nicer when it’s made for you… I recounted the things I'd had to do in Italy to try to get through it. In doing so, and watching his reaction, I realised just how far removed from "normality" (whatever that is) my life has become. But, I do what I have to do...

I had to think hard about what to do over the weekend. I was exhausted. The 100 miler, and travelling to Italy, and being on the knife-edge, had taken its toll. I had planned to do a hard swim and single-leg turbo drills on Friday, an early start for a 200km bike ride followed by a run on Saturday, and another hard swim followed by a long run on Sunday. But I decided I needed to tone that down. I would be asking for trouble if I tried to do all that in such a tired and depleted state.

So instead, on Friday, I decided I’d go to the pool and do a steady 4000m. I’d do the same on Sunday and make this a “long endurance swim” weekend. Two steady long swims shouldn’t take too much out of me. I learned that starting slowly makes the overall time quicker. I was able to glance at my watch at key intervals during the swims. Here’s a breakdown of my split times for the two swims:

Friday:   1500m in 25:20. 3000m in 52:40. 3800m in 67:20. 4000m in 70:55.

Sunday: 1500m in 25:30. 3000m in 53:30. 3800m in 65:15. 4000m in 68:40.

I was almost a minute slower after 3000m in Sunday’s swim, but in the final 1000m I was much quicker, not because of any effort to swim faster but just because starting slower means you finish faster. I didn’t swim either of these swims particularly hard, so to swim an Ironman length swim in a pool with no wetsuit in 65:15 is good. My heart rates were quite low immediately afterwards as well, definitely no higher than 150bpm. Maybe this is the way to do the Ironman swim, nice and easy, no pushing hard at all… Usually after the swim, for the first hour in the Ironman bike I am fighting to get my heart rate down from over 170bpm to under 150bpm. An easier swim would mean it wouldn’t get anywhere near 170bpm, setting me up for a better bike and run hopefully. I might lose a couple of minutes in the swim, but should gain it back in the bike and run.

I didn’t do any single leg drills on Friday evening and went to bed early, having decided against a 6am start the following morning for a 200km cycle as well. It wouldn’t have been a good idea as it would have been massively overdoing things. The 3:58 100 miler proved I’m in good shape, there’s not much more to gain now, but a lot to lose.

Instead on Saturday I had a much, much-needed lie-in and did a 2-hour turbo, with a “pyramid” of leg speed and leg strength drills. It was good: beneficial without taking too much out of me. I followed it with a short run. Then I did my weights and core work and had another early night. On Sunday morning I went to the pool and did another 4000m. I then ate and rested, and later in the afternoon, forced myself out for an hour of hilly running. I didn’t push too hard and ran just slightly quicker than 7 minute miles, up and down a lot of hills. Then I finished off with more core work and weights.

It seemed I had gotten away with things. I hadn’t got ill, I’d got through the Italy trip, I’d been sensible enough over the weekend to know to listen to my body and tone my training down. I knew I was in good shape, the 3:58 100 miler had confirmed that. I was really excited after my 3:59 100 miler two years ago, but I’m not as excited this year. I haven’t allowed myself to be. I know only too well how quickly things can go wrong. I just need a good final three weeks, and a nice day on race day, and for things to go well on the day for a change. Too much to ask? Hopefully not…

I’ll have one more tough week next week where I’ll do an FTP bike test to see what my power output is, and I’ll base my Ironman bike pacing on the results of this test. I’m already not looking forward to doing the test – you basically go as hard as you can for 20 minutes and it is not pleasant. I’ll also try and do a “metric Ironman” at the weekend, which will be a 112km bike (instead of a 112 mile bike as in the Ironman) and a 26km run (instead of a 26 mile run as in the Ironman). I’ll do these at race intensity and hopefully it’ll set me up well.

Saying all this, as I was going to bed on Sunday evening, knowing that Monday was a rest day, I felt that my right quad was sore. Hmmmm. It was sore enough for me to take two anti-inflammatories before I went to bed. It’s a big thing for me to decide to take anti-inflammatories. There was no reason for my quad to be sore, I hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. And at the time of writing, on Monday, it still doesn’t feel right. and I've had another couple of anti-inflammatory pills. I hope this doesn’t turn into another major curveball at this stage…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 20 June: Rest
Tue 21 June: 1 hour bike
Wed 22 June: 20 minute run
Thu 23 June: Rest
Fri 24 June: Swim 4.1km
Sat 25 June: 2 hour turbo, 20 minute run
Sun 26 June: Swim 4.1km, 60 minute hilly run (6:52/mile, 149bpm)

Totals: Swim 8.2km, Bike 65 miles, Run 15 miles