Post 156 - Frustrations

Things have been a bit frustrating recently, since the Edinburgh half-ironman disaster. I was always going to give myself a few days off after the race, which I duly did. Eating rubbish, switching off mentally, doing no training, putting on weight. The lowest weight I’d been prior to the race was 60.6kg (admittedly after a long training session), my “normal” weight seemed to be around 62-63kg, but in the space of a few days I went up to over 65kg. My legs were still sore from where they had been cramping, and I was happy to be a slob for a few days. My next race wasn’t until 3 weeks later so I had enough time to be a slob and then get back into a bit of training before the Gullane Olympic distance beach triathlon, near Edinburgh.

A week after Edinburgh, I went to London (well, Kent/Surrey) for a “stag do”. Not a boozy, 4am thing, but mostly cycling out in Surrey and Kent. London was stifling, over 30 degrees, and I was glad I didn’t live there any more. We did some good cycling out in the countryside, punctuated by pub/food stops, and I ate a load more junk throughout. Steve has done next to no cycling for the best part of a year so towards the end, he was knackered and hanging off the back of the group. I started to drop back to him, another guy (Mac) dropped right back to him, and whatever Mac said or did to Steve, it worked a miracle because the next thing, Mac and Steve came charging through like an express train and we all time-trialled our way towards the end of our route. Honestly the most unlikely and incredible thing I’ve seen in cycling, I don’t know how Steve managed it. I did a short 40-minute run the following morning and it was baking hot. It was a good weekend. 

On Sunday, when not in the pub, wedding suits were tried on... hungover...

The following week I did some bike hill repeats at Arthur’s Seat and felt reasonable. I hit the first one as hard as I could, to see how quickly I could do it (3:20), and by the time the final sixth one came around I had dropped 20 seconds. It felt so tough. Then it was off home to N.Ireland for a long weekend. Again, as at the stag do, it would be tricky to control what I ate, but again I just shrugged it off. Some downtime wouldn't hurt. The Gullane race wasn’t a priority race, neither was the St Mary’s Loch race a week after that, but the European Sprint triathlon championships 2 weeks after that again was a big priority, but I still had a lot of time between now and then.

I did a tough beach run at home, in 19:28. My best time down the beach (and I’ve done it literally hundreds of times) was 17:47. The 19:28 seems slow in comparison, but the tide was high and the sand was soft and uneven, so conditions weren’t fast. The following day I went out on the bike with my dad, and we cycled the coast road, from Portstewart to Larne, via Ballycastle, finishing with another 20+ miles uphill to Ballymena to catch the train home. Almost 100 miles in total. It’s billed as one of the most scenic roads in the world, and that’s not far wrong. I said to dad he would need to take it easy for the first couple of hours, to make sure he had energy left for the second half of the ride. My plan was to thrash the hills as hard as possible, and use it as a proper training ride. Roughly speaking, the first third would be hilly and tough, the middle third would be flat and fast, with a tailwind, and and final third would be a long drag up away from the coast.

There’s a viewpoint overlooking White Park Bay which dad said he can get to in an hour if he pushes it and has a favourable wind. So I thought we might reach it in 1:15 or something. We got there in 1:01. Fast riding. We dropped down into Ballycastle, climbed up past the vanishing lough, dropped down to Cushendun, and then halfway between Cushendun and Cushendall we detoured up a very steep hill to an old ruined church. “A wee gem” as my dad said, and it was. Dating from the 12th century, with gravestones all around, overlooking the sea, set in a wooded glade, with a little stream bubbling behind. An unreal place. We met a girl who had lost her husband of 30 years to cancer, she was doing a sponsored 354-hour walk to raise money for charity. Fair play.

White Park Bay view point

Vanishing lough - unsurprisingly vanished with the recent warm weather

We stopped in Cushendall for a bite to eat, then it was flat flat flat all the way to Larne on a spectacular coastal road – the sea and Scotland off to the left and huge cliffs, glens, villages and landscapes to the right. Great cycling. Another short stop on the outskirts of Larne fuelled us up the long hill towards Ballymena and the train station. I powered up the final hill (so did dad to be fair, he is a machine) and so ended a great cycle. We got the train to Coleraine and then it was another few miles on the bike back home – these were the worst miles as it was later in the evening and I was freezing.

Halfway round the coast road I was given an order:
"Text your mum and tell her to put beers in the fridge..."

Got home. Straight to fridge. Beer destroyed. And not by me!

I went down to the beach the next day and did mile repeats on some nice hard sand, with a slight tailwind going out and so a slight headwind coming back. You’re never as fast on sand as you’d be on the road. My times were 5:08, 5:25, 5:08, 5:32. I went visiting relatives that evening, and went for a swim the next morning, doing various sets of 250m drills, including 3 x 200m at pace (all in 3:45, so 1:30/100m pace, which was pretty good). So far, all was well. I’d had a bit of a break, I’d got back into training, and I was feeling strong.

The catalyst for things going wrong happened that afternoon. I was in the amusements, playing the basketball machines with my brothers. It got quite competitive (the previous high score was 150 or something, by the time we were done it was 243). I should have known better than to be stretching over a basketball machine on my tiptoes for half an hour. It made my calves very tight. We all said the same thing.

I planned on a bike ride the next morning before travelling back to Scotland, but it was raining, so I had a rest day instead. I wasn’t too disappointed with this as my calves probably needed a break. Looking back, I should have gone for a massage to loosen them. I got back to Scotland and the next day, did a very hard turbo session, with intervals of up to 400-500 watts. My calves were so tight. Then the next day (stupidly following a hard session with a hard session the next day) I ran some hill sprints. I hoped to do 10. I got to 4 or 5 and my right Achilles felt sore, and I was definitely not running naturally. Was it so bad that I couldn’t continue? Should I have stopped immediately? The old conundrum of when to run through pain and when to stop… the perfectionist in me hates compromising my training. In the end I did 8 hills, and the jog home wasn’t very comfortable.

The next morning I could barely walk. My Achilles was not good. I also had pain down the inside of my right knee. Not what I wanted. I did a swim and that evening, did a load of self-treatment – foam rolling to loosen my calves (painful), anti-inflammatories, ice, hot-cold-hot-cold-etc shower treatment, self massage, compression, you name it. I repeated this for the rest of the week. To be fair, it eased a lot in 24 hours, up to a point, but it hasn't yet eased beyond that point. I didn’t know whether I’d race Gullane or not. I did a 10-minute trial jog the night before (after 3 days off running), and I could run, but it was uncomfortable. Hammering out a 10K run might have been possible, but it could well ruin the Achilles. I’ve got 2 big races coming up – the European sprint and the world half-ironman. I really don’t want to miss these.

So I called Gullane off. Probably sensible. Instead I went for a 70 mile cycle out in the Borders, on a few new roads – really nice cycling through the hills and along the river valleys. I was trialling some new sports nutrition called Tailwind. I needed to trial something after the Edinburgh disaster, and after all the stomach and gut issues I’ve had in previous ironmans. Tailwind is an all-in-one drink mix, containing calories, carbs, electrolytes, salts, everything you need. It promises “no more gut bombs” and is “all you need, all day”. And they say you won't feel hungry when you take it. Lofty promises, if it does all that it'll be worth its weight in gold. It seemed decent. I paced the 70 miles pretty well, starting easy (relatively) and maintaining power. I averaged 230 watts and it felt pretty hard by the end. It's funny how it feels like such a breeze at the start. So the power figures are a good barometer for the half ironman in South Africa (I started at 270-280 watts in the Edinburgh half… hmmmm).

Scenic toilet stops...

I came off the 70 miles with a sore left knee, and still with pain down my right knee and groin, and still with a sore Achilles. This is not good , training is going to be compromised big time now as I will not be able to run. And I have no idea when I will be able to run. I want to be hammering the training now, with only 3 weeks left before the euros. I have (had) high hopes to challenge for a podium at the euros but as it is right now, I am kind of losing interest - again the perfectionist in me says that if it's not going to be perfect, what's the point... We will see how things go. But it's strange how you work so hard in training and after months, you finally feel the flow, things are happening, going well, feeling strong, and it doesn't take much to derail things, and when one thing starts to derail, others start derailing too and you end up starting almost from scratch again months later. That seems to be my experience anyway.

Ironically, I did a Sunday swim, and I felt good and strong in the water - as good as ever? Possibly... It was a really tough set - 250m warm up, 10 x 100m, 500m easy, 10 x 100m, and 250m cool-down. My average for the first set of 10 x 100m was around 1:24 - 1:25, which (for me) was a really strong set, as good as ever. Recovery was up to 2 minutes. The second set dropped but I still averaged under 1:30, which again was pretty decent swimming. I tried a jog in the evening, on the grass, and it wasn't great. After a few minutes my Achilles was getting too sore so I packed it in. Not good at all. This is the business end of the season, with two big international races coming up, and I currently can't run/compete. 

Another thing I am messing around with is a new aero helmet. My one is very tight, it presses hard on my ears and after a while gives me a thumping headache. It's old technology too, about 8 years. It doesn't have an integrated visor and I am losing time in transition trying to force sunglasses on with the tight ear flaps. So I ordered 4 aero helmets online and wasn't keen on any of them: The Met Drone (easy to put on but far too big and like wearing a huge goldfish bowl), the Lazer Wasp (tricky to put on, not well ventilated and the straps slid about too much), the Rudy Project Wing57 (the visor integration wasn't great and ear flaps seemed flimsy), and the Giro Aerohead (just did not like the look of it and not convinced the aerodynamics will suit me - it has a short tail and I'd prefer something longer to cover my neck and upper back, as I can hold an aggressive aero position). So they will all be sent back, and the hunt goes on. Assuming I do Glasgow, I want to have a new helmet sorted before then...

Like eggs from above

Training done was as follows:

M 2/7/18 Rest
T 3/7 Rest
W 4/7 Rest
T 5/7 Swim 2.4k (paddle drills)
F 6/7 Rest
S 7/7 Bike 70 miles (Surrey/Kent)
S 8/7 40 min run

Totals: Swim 2.4k, Bike 70 miles, Run 5 miles

M 9/7/18 Rest
T 10/7 Bike 6 x Arthurs seat reps (short/full): 3:01/20, 3:10/30, 3:12/32, 3:15/32, 3:12/31, 3:20/39)
W 11/7 Run 19:28 (beach)
T 12/7 Bike 95 miles (coast road)
F 13/7 4 x 1 mile beach (5:08, 5:25, 5:08, 5:32, with 5min recovery)
S 14/7 Swim 2.6k (sets of 250m drills, 3 x 250 in 3:45)
S 15/7 Rest

Totals: Swim 2.6k, Bike 125 miles, Run 13 miles

M 16/7 1:20 turbo (20 x 30sec hard 400-500W, 2:30 rec)
T 17/7 8 x hill repeats (74, 71, 71, 72, 73, 75, 75, 73)
W 18/7 Swim 1.8k (2 x 10 x 50m, 40-43 sec, rec to 1min)
T 19/7 1 hour turbo
F 20/7 20 min turbo (single leg drills), 10 min run
S 21/7 70 mile bike (65.4 miles 144bpm, 232/230W, 3080ft)
S 22/7 Swim 3.1k (2 x 10 x 100m, 1:25/1:29, rec to 2mins), 5 minute run

Totals: Swim 4.9km, Bike 120 miles, Run 8 miles