Post 178 - Ironman training week 7

An easy week to let the body and mind recover after 2 tough, relentless weeks

I spent time making list after list of the things I need to do, buy, get, sort. And then gradually ticking things off the lists, and adding things to the lists. Triathlon is meant to be three disciplines. Ironman is at least 10... swim, bike, run, transitions, weights, core, stretching, sleep, nutrition, logistics, science, procurement, black art, organisation, management, you name it...

I finally decided to enter the damn thing. I've got through 7 weeks of hard training. I've had niggles but they've been manageable. I've been able to tolerate and cope with the training. There's no reason that I shouldn't make it through the next 5 weeks. So I paid up, nearly £500 for the entry fee alone. Horrendous. I couldn't even bring myself to do it - I had to get a friend at work to take my credit card and put the number into the online form and click whatever it said - "enter" or "pay now" or something. So that's it - I'm all in now.

Then, literally an hour or two later, the following came up on my Facebook:

Not even funny

I gave myself Monday and Tuesday off. I spent all of Monday after work in the running shop. I need a pair of "fresh" running shoes for the Ironman, with their cushioning fully intact and not worn out. In the running shop I had a proper gait analysis done (with my running stride being videoed on the treadmill and played back) by someone who knows what he is talking about. I've always ran in stability shoes because I was told years ago I had flat feet and that stability shoes are the best type of shoes for flat feet.

It seems this is not so. I was immediately told that neutral shoes would be best because although I have flat feet, they don't collapse in to a very great extent. Therefore I don't need stability shoes. So I tried on every neutral shoe in the shop, while being analysed and filmed on the treadmill. This was a big change for me, and I will have to see how the new neutral shoes go in training before deciding whether to race an ironman marathon in them.

I was told that my stability shoes were preventing the load being evenly distributed across the foot, meaning that the outside of the foot was taking a lot of impact. Makes sense, given the pain and problems I've had with callouses on the outside my my feet. Neutral shoes will allow the foot to roll in a bit more and allow the load to be spread more evenly. I was even told that this would reduce the wear rate on the soles of the shoes. It did all sound like a silver bullet, but it also did seem to make sense. 

I decided on (i.e. was told that these would be best) a pair of Asics Dyna-Flytes with a kevlar sole as a fairly "safe" bet, and a revolutionary pair of Hoka shoes with a carbon fibre "rocker" insole. These feel absolutely bizarre to stand in but apparently they are tremendous shoes, and I am told all the pros are giving up their shoe contracts so they can run in these Hoka shoes. I also picked up a few new pairs of highly-recommended running socks. We will see...

They look benign...

As a random digression, here is the reason why my rice and veg and falafel
do not get boring night after night... impossible to repeat the same dosage and combination.

With Monday and Tuesday being rest days, I did a one-hour turbo followed by a 30 minute run on Wednesday. In the new Asics shoes. They felt OK, but you could run in anything for half an hour... it'll be the long runs that determine if they are a success or not. I was also told that (especially for the new revolutionary carbon fibre soled shoes), I could run a bit on the treadmill to see how they feel, and still return them if I didn't get on with them (at £170 per pair, I would be keen to return them for a refund if they don't work for me). 

On Thursday I did a swim, then on Friday I packed up my gear and headed for Bolton for a couple of nights, to train on the new Ironman UK bike course. They had originally advertised Ironman UK 2019 as being on the old bike course that I know so well from previous years, which was a big reason to choose Ironman UK - knowing the course is worth a lot. A few months ago, this was all changed, as they brought out a new course for 2019. Which meant I'd have to go and see it, because knowing the course is important...

All the Ironman bags:
Ironman UK x 5 (x 6 coming up)
Ironman Wales x 3
Ironman Weymouth x 1

Ironman race disasters x 9

We arrived to the hotel on Friday afternoon in torrential rain. There were an older couple just getting off their bikes and unloading everything into their car. I guessed they had been out on the course. They were like drowned rats. I asked them how it was. The short answer was that it was terrible.

Which tied in pretty well with all the online chat and comment and podcasts about the new course - terrible, dangerous, far too tough and hilly, awful narrow dangerous roads, potholes everywhere. Having heard all this, it was very important for me to get to Bolton, and ride the course, and learn it, learn where the dangerous spots are, learn where to take it easy, learn where it's OK to let fly, learn where the potholes are etc. And have some idea of whether it would be best to use a light, nimble road bike on race day (good on hills and descents), or the time trial bike (good in a straight line on the flat) - not a straightforward decision...

The course record holder on the old course was interviewed about the new course on a podcast (listen from 21:50 on the link below) - not much good was said about it.

https://player.fm/series/the-triathlon-brick-session/ironman-bolton-with-brian-fogarty 

I hadn't been looking forward to seeing the course, and after talking to the pair of drowned rats, now even less so. The weather forecast was terrible, so Friday evening's training was on the treadmill in the gym. I had stupidly forgotten the Hoka shoes so didn't get a chance to try them. Saturday was no better, it was apocalyptically bad weather. 

It would be foolish to ride in weather like that, on narrow roads, up over windswept, misty, rainy moors and hills, so we took to driving it. One-third of it was fair enough then the hilly, narrow roads started. Steep descents, broken by tight turns. It wasn't a great drive. In fact it was a terrible drive. If they get rain on race day, they will have to shorten or cancel the bike - on the Sheephouse Lane descent, part of the road had turned into a lake.

Saturday evening's training involved a soul-destroying hour on an exercise bike in a gym, without a fan in my face as I have in my flat, then a mucky but enjoyable run around the reservoir behind the hotel. Sunday was a better day, and I headed out on the bike course. It's a two-lap course, so one loop would be about 50 miles.

The first third of the loop was fairly flat and reasonable, on fairly main roads, through Bolton. Not great cycling in the traffic, but should be OK on race day. Then the hilly sections started. The road surfacing actually wasn't too bad. The hills weren't ridiculously steep, but they were frequent. Relentless. It is a course that will reward patience and discipline to take it easy. I noted the important braking areas. I capped my power to around 200 watts. Took a couple of wrong turns. Then started to ride a bit harder, and after my 55-odd miles, I wouldn't have wanted to do another 55, so I now know what "too hard" feels like on this course. 

But on the whole, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was slower than I thought. I didn't push super hard, and didn't have any aero gear, wasn't properly tapered, but I'd hoped to be faster than I was at less than 17mph...

Anyway, some of the scenery was nice:

I'm fairly confident in my bike handling abilities, and now my knowledge of the course. My strategy always had been to freewheel the downhills, to allow recovery, to set me up for a better run. I won't be racing downhill, so this will be a safer strategy, and if I keep my wits about me and keep my hands ready on the brakes instead of on the aero bars, I should be OK. Assuming my front brake doesn't fall off like in South Africa... I think the big danger will be on lap 2, when the leaders and faster people (myself included) start to lap the slower athletes, who may not have the best bike-handling abailities or awareness of how to ride when faster people are passing, especially on the narrow, twisty roads. At least I know all this now. It is what it is. Same for everyone. 

Training done was as follows:

Swim 2.1km, Cycle 140 miles, Run 13 miles