Post 83 - The Hour Record

Bradley Wiggins, Tour de France winner, multiple Olympic medallist, quirky personality and very fast cyclist, was going for the Hour Record at the London Olympic Park velodrome on the evening of Sunday 7th June. I had been lucky enough to get a few tickets for this – around 7000 tickets sold out in 6 minutes flat, giving an indication of the popularity of cycling, and the recent interest in the hour record. Cycling’s governing body has recently changed the rules on the hour record, allowing standard aero bikes, aero wheels, and only permitting standard aero positions to be adopted on the bike (as opposed to some of the unusual contortions below). I’ve never been to a velodrome before, so was looking forward to it.

The "superman" position - now banned

 

The "tuck" position - now banned

The conventional position

I had 4 tickets and was going with housemates/friends/fellow cyclists/athletes. The trek to the Olympic Park started with: “Let’s leave the house at 2:45pm to get the 2:58 train…” After my Sunday morning swim, I was really tired – I’ve recently started going for a sleep immediately after my Saturday and Sunday training to combat the fatigue and to hopefully speed the recovery process, to however small a degree. I slept too long, and found myself with 25 minutes to make lunch, eat, get my stuff together and get ready. The others were in the same boat. Too much to do, not enough time… At 2:43pm they were sitting down to lunch. At 2:45pm we were running round the house, throwing whatever food we could into our mouths, getting water bottles and snacks together, locking up, and the final act at 2:50pm was to shovel what remained of lunch (potato wedges, vegetable and fish) into a plastic bag, to be eaten on the train. Needs must…

 

Look of determination...

We just about made the train, and got to the Olympic Park. I was last there 3 years ago for the 2012 Paralympics. It was a 20-minute walk through the park to get to the velodrome, nicknamed the “Pringle” due to its distinctive shape. It loomed like a UFO about the crowds. Someone who doesn’t know much about sport would think “What on earth is this building for…?” We got there at about 4:30pm, but the Hour Record wasn’t due to start until 6:30pm. There were a few “Team Wiggins” branded camper vans and equipment vehicles parked outside, we went and had a look. One of the equipment vans had bikes, disc wheels, deep-sectioned wheels and turbo trainers packed inside. I asked, “Any chance of a disc wheel?” Nothing ventured, nothing gained… “Yeah, for a small fee mate!” Wiggins himself at this point was probably warming up somewhere in the bowels of the velodrome, but I asked the guy at the door of the camper van, “Where’s Wiggins, is he in there?” “Yeah mate, he’s busy doing press-ups at the minute!” They weren’t giving much away…

We got inside, and it was pretty breathtaking. Support races were in full swing. The velodrome was already half-full. A running track is 400m for a lap, a velodrome is only 250m. It’s a short lap, which means the venue is quite compact, and you can see everything in your peripheral vision – the grandstands towering above the two straights, the whole track, the riders, the warm-up and corporate areas in the middle of the track, the scoreboards and big screens.

 

There were quite a few people in cycling gear – club jerseys, Team Sky jerseys, and various other jerseys. I was wearing my super-cool Belfast Giro d’Italia black and pink jersey. Everyone was given a Wiggins/Rapha cycling cap on arrival at the velodrome – a great idea and a really cool souvenir. Most people stuck these caps straight on their heads, and combined with the jerseys that a lot of people were wearing, most of us looked like proper cycling people. Or, to the uneducated, we may have been fools in lycra with silly caps, watching an even bigger fool in lycra with an even sillier pointy golden helmet ride 220 laps of a track…

 

Miguel Indurain's iconic Hour Record bike was on show.
He did 53.040km in 1994, just after winning his 4th of 5 Tours de France.

Needless to say, this bike would be banned under new regulations.

Still looks cool though!

 I’d always been told that the banking on a track is steeper than it looks on TV, but I couldn’t believe how steep it was in reality. It was like the wall of death – if you don’t hit the banked corners at 20mph or greater, you won’t generate enough centrifugal force, and you’ll just fall off. Also, for first-time track riders, it’s a big leap of faith to actually trust that you can lean your bike right over at a 45-degree angle (something that would be impossible on the flat), and not clip your inside pedal. But it works, because the track falls away so steeply. I’d always wanted to ride on a velodrome, now even more so.

 

The photos don't convey how steep it actually is

I’m far more of a doer than a watcher. If you’d offered me the choice of watching the hour record or riding for an hour on the velodrome, I’d have taken the riding any day. Similarly, watch the Tour de France or go for a bike ride… bike ride any day. Watch TV or go for a run? Go to a cinema (what’s a cinema anyway) or go for a swim?

One of the support races was an elimination race. This was savage. A peloton of riders was lapping the track at high speed, and every two laps, the last rider across the start/finish line was eliminated, gradually whittling the peloton down. This was good for seeing the riders race tactically, climbing the banking, and using it to launch themselves down the final straight in a mad sprint, to avoid the elimination. Really good to watch. One girl crashed and slid all the way down on the inside of the track, shorts ripped and back side on show. She limped back to the central area and off the scene, hands covering her bare backside. Cycling is unforgiving…

It was warm inside the velodrome, with the temperature kept at 28 degrees Celsius. The warmer the air, the less dense it is… the less dense the air, the faster you can cycle through it. But then, if it’s too warm, you’ll dehydrate too quickly, and performance will suffer, so there’s a balancing act… hot but not too hot… 7000-odd sweaty and excited spectators made it stifling inside. The air in the velodrome was very still. There were no draughts. To enter and exit, you have to go through an “airlock” double door system, to maintain the temperature and keep the air still.

There was a high-pressure weather system over London, so the weather on this particular day was really good. Warm, with clear skies. This wasn’t ideal for the record attempt – a high pressure weather system means the air is “heavier”, and more difficult to cycle through. For a recreational cyclist, it wouldn’t make much difference, but at the elite level, every little tiny factor can affect the overall outcome. I later found out that the day of the record attempt was the “worst” day of the past 2 months in terms of high air pressure. I guess ideally Wiggins would have postponed his attempt on a short-term basis, for a few days or maybe even a couple of weeks, until the pressure was lower ad more favourable. But, when you’ve sold 7000 tickets and have a packed velodrome and the world’s media in attendance, you can’t cancel…

The hour record had been set recently by Alex Dowsett, at 52.937km. Dowsett, by his own admission, had been relatively conservative during his attempt, and felt at the end that he still had got a bit left in the tank. It was fairly commonly accepted that Wiggins would break the record, barring a major mechanical problem with his bike. But by how much would he break it? Most people were sure he’d do 54km, possibly 55km. In 1996 Chris Boardman set a mark of 56.375km, using the "superman" position pictured above. This 56.375km has been re-classified as "best human effort" following the rule revision outlawing unconventional riding positions. 56.375km seemed like a big ask for Wiggins, especially at sea level where the air is denser. Thinner air at altitude would help a rider to go faster, but there seems to be an implicit understanding that all hour record attempts should be at sea level. There are so many variables in cycling… if you’re a perfectionist, it can mess with your head, I can attest to that!

The place was packed by 6pm. We had been debating whether Wiggins would still have his big massive beard, or would it be gone? A massive beard wouldn’t do anything for aerodynamics, so I thought it would be gone, given that a small fortune would have been spent optimising his bike, clothing and position on the bike to make everything as aerodynamic as possible. Finally, a beardless Bradley Wiggins emerged to huge cheers. People love Wiggins. He was so skinny. Pipe-cleaner legs and arms. I guess that’s what a lifetime of long-distance cycling does. He was so obviously deep in “the zone”, fully focused on the task at hand, seemingly oblivious to anything around him. He had done all his warming up somewhere else, deep in the depths of the velodrome, so he was ready to go. He cruised round a lap on a normal road bike, head down, barely acknowledging the crowd. No fuss, no dramatics. He got off at the start/finish line, where a starting block had been erected with his aero bike held in place. He got onto his aero bike, with a fixed gear, no freewheel mechanism, no brakes, and two disc wheels. He clipped his shoes to the pedals. The clock counted down from ten. Then, to huge cheers, he was away.

 

One lap, in the zone, before the hour started

Within half a lap, he was up to speed and settled into his aero position. He has a freakishly flat back in his aero position. He was ripping round the track, expressionless. Almost 34mph. Just over 16 seconds per 250m lap. To huge cheers. People were roaring him on. It must have been difficult to pace the early laps and not go too hard, to ensure he didn’t blow up and fade in the final 15 minutes. Alex Dowsett’s lap splits were on the scoreboard, so we could see in real time how far ahead of the record Wiggins was. He quickly went 10 seconds ahead. Then 20. Then 30. It was crazy. We could see he wasn’t quite on 55km pace, but we didn’t know whether he would lift his pace later in the hour. Or if he would blow up and fade.

He was riding a 58-14 gear, and had made a last-minute adjustment to make the gearing slightly easier, meaning he’d hold a higher cadence. Still he remained expressionless. I watched him really closely for any sign of fatigue, any shifts in body position, any grimace. Nothing. Pure concentration. I guess he was well within himself until half distance. He rode 25 miles in just under 45 minutes (if I remember right). For reference, the fastest I have ever ridden a bike was the 100 mile time trial in Bedfordshire last year, which I completed in 3:59. I averaged a fraction over 25mph. Conditions had been perfect. Dry and no wind, on a flat course. The 50 miles between 25 and 75 miles were my fastest miles, I probably averaged about 26mph. For a standalone 25 mile time trial on the road, I could maybe average something like 28mph. If I did it on the track, I doubt I could break 30 miles in an hour. The difference between 30mph and 34mph on a bike is huge. And hugely impressive. I’m going to do another threshold test in the next couple of weeks, I hope to hit close to 350 watts for an hour, as a maximal effort. Wiggins would probably hit 450 watts. Crazy.

 

Spot the rider... very low frontal area

I tried to set up some arty photos. I really like taking photos, and I really should buy myself a good camera. My photos were limited by the (dis)ability of my phone camera to take good shots, especially when zoomed in. I picked out a good “diagonal” photo, and was able to have a single audience member in the bottom left, the UCI rainbow stripes on the track, Wiggins, and then in the top right of the shot, a race official on the inside of the track, seemingly oblivious to what was going on, staring into his mobile phone. It took a good few attempts to get it right. I couldn’t pan with Wiggins when zoomed in because he was too difficult to track and I’d never have got everything else in the shot. So I had to frame everything else, and wait for Wiggins to come into the frame, but it literally was “blink and you’ll miss it”, so I had plenty of failed attempts before I got one I was reasonably happy with. It’s still a poor-quality photo with low resolution due to a bad camera, but it’s not a bad composition.

 

Nope...

 

Not quite...

 

That'll do...

Wiggins kept battering on, and in the final 15 minutes I started to see some tiny signs that he was tiring. His lap times dropped a tiny fraction, his speed dropped by a tenth of a mile per hour. He was still going pretty strong though, and I certainly wouldn’t say he was “fading” or “blowing up”. But the face started to grimace a bit. He was 1:40 ahead of Dowsett’s record, with 10 minutes still to ride. In the final 10 minutes, he didn’t pull out too much more of a time gap relative to Dowsett, which was indicative that Dowsett had indeed been quite conservative in his attempt, particularly in the first half, as he had enough energy left to finish strongly. Wiggins didn’t put too much time into Dowsett after 50 minutes had elapsed. But still, he was 5 or 6 laps ahead of Dowsett…

The crowd must have really lifted Wiggins in the final 5 minutes. Everyone was on their feet. He got a huge cheer when he actually broke the record, but he still had a couple of minutes left to go. After a few more laps at huge noise levels and intensity, a hooter sounded to signify the 60 minutes were up. You must still finish the lap you are on, so after crossing the finish line he climbed the banking to scrub off some speed – no freewheeling on these bikes. He took a lap to get down to a slow speed, and got up off the aero bars, hanging off the bike. He recovered enough to give a wave. I wondered what he’d do when he came to a halt. Most people just fall onto the floor, exhausted. Not Wiggins – he stood up, raised the bike over his head, and likely reflected on an hour well-executed.

 

Just done it (not my pic obviously!)

 

The official distance came up – 54.526km. About a mile ahead of the previous record. A big performance. I doubt there was much more he could have squeezed out of himself. But I wonder if, deep down, he was a bit peeved about the high pressure. For the same energy expenditure and performance, he could have gone maybe as much as a kilometre further. A few experts on social media seemed to agree. It’s maybe a good thing that the record had been hindered slightly by conditions, as others may feel more inclined to take it on. 54.5km is a more breakable record than 55.5km. Maybe even Wiggins himself will feel like another go at some stage in the next year? Dowsett will certainly try again, and he has age on his side. The man they call Spartacus, Fabian Cancellara, might fancy a crack. The “Panzerwagen”, Tony Martin? There are a few names out there who could run it close.

Laps of honour

Anyway, it was an evening to celebrate a well-executed maximal performance and a big world record. Wiggins got onto a road bike and rode a couple of laps of honour, waving and taking the cheers. Then they interviewed him. I was interested to hear his thoughts – he does offer some gems. They said something along the lines of “Congratulations, a huge new world record, how do you feel?” To which he answered, “That’s the closest I’ll ever come to what it must feel like to have a baby…” He said that his wife and kids are now experts on air pressure and weather conditions, and he also talked about having his hair and beard cut at a local barber’s, and the usual barber shop small-talk: the barber had asked him what he was up to for the weekend. “Not much mate”, Wiggins had answered. Just an hour on the bike, not much, nothing special at all… Wiggins also spoke of his relief that it was all over, the training, the build-up and the execution. It’s tough. I can empathise.

He kept the crowd entertained during his interview, and seemed quite nonchalant about the whole thing. Media duties over, he rode out of the arena, to huge cheers. Job done. We then went and ate Mexican food – I spoiled myself – a ginger, beetroot and carrot smoothie, steak, broccoli, sweet potatoes, salad, and chocolate bites. I’m sure Wiggins was enjoying a beer. I didn’t have any beer. I guess that makes me a better athlete than him… I didn’t get to bed until nearly midnight. That’s the latest I’ve got to bed this year…

Great day. A video of the final seconds of the hour is below:

Post 82 - Good miles

Training done this week was as below:

Mon 1 June: Rest
Tue 2 June: 1:10 turbo (2 x 20mins hard, 4min recovery: 290W/159bpm, 297W/167bpm)
Wed 3 June: 30 minute fartlek run
Thu 4 June: 1:30 turbo (11 x 4mins hard, 4mins easy: 230W building to 340W)
Fri 5 June: Swim 3k (20 x 100m in 1:27-1:28, recovery to 1:40), 1 hour turbo (single legs drills, 10 x 2 mins right/left/both)
Sat 6 June: 5:05 turbo (201W/134bpm), 25 minute run
Sun 7 June: Swim 4km (3.8km in 62:07), 30 minute run

Totals: Swim 7km, Bike 185 miles, Run 13 miles

Things went well this week, and I put in some good miles and big numbers on the bike in particular. I say “good miles”, despite not actually ever doing any miles on the bike out on the road, all my bike time is spent on the indoor trainer. This is a much more time-efficient, productive and safer way to do the training. At the start of this week, I felt I had a sore knee. This was brought on by the hard 70-minute hilly run on the road which I did at the end of last week. Running hard up and down fairly short and steep hills isn’t good for the knees, but I had thought it would be a good training run as the Ironman UK marathon is hilly.

So on Monday this week I was feeling a bit anxious and had no idea how my knee was going to be. I thought I’d just jump on the bike on Tuesday and see how it felt – if it was bad, I’d jump straight back off the bike. As it turned out, I did a really good bike session, and at the end, my knee problem had gone completely. The body is a funny thing – sometimes it just needs a blast of exercise to clear out any problem. Tuesday’s bike was a warm-up followed by 2 sets of 20 minutes of hard effort, with 4 minutes of recovery in between. I pushed 290 watts at 159bpm for the first 20 minutes. The 4-minute recovery went far too quickly – by the time I had recovered a little, stood up on the pedals for a minute, had a drink and an energy gel and another drink, it was time to go again for the second 20 minutes.

The second 20 minutes went so slowly. Time distorts when you’re exercising hard. But I managed to push 297 watts at 167bpm for the second 20. The last time I measured my functional threshold power during a 20-minute test, I pushed 324 watts, so there was a bit of a trade-off in terms of going hard but not so hard that I was really ruined afterwards. I was pleased with the session. In previous seasons I’d have followed my Tuesday night bike with a short run, but this year, I’ve decided it’s more beneficial to have 30 minutes “extra” time to myself, to eat dinner without being in a mad rush, and to get to bed in good time to get at least 8 hours of sleep. The bigger picture is more important, and Ironman training isn’t just swimming ad cycling and running, it’s a holistic lifestyle, every aspect of which affects every other aspect. Wednesday night was the final test for the knee – a fartlek run – a mix of fast and slow running. I got through that too, and felt a lot better. Ups and downs, as usual. Down on Monday, up on Wednesday. But I still have a little bit of a niggle in my right calf, it doesn’t feel 100% but in the past couple of weeks it hasn’t restricted me in terms of having to compromise any training. I also did my weights and stretching on both evenings.

 

Turbo trainer selfie... anything to try to pass the time...
probably taken during an easier interval,
I doubt I could set up a turbo selfie at over 170bpm...

 

Thursday night was bike intervals. I did 11 sets of 4 minutes hard and 4 minutes easy. The turbo trainer is a funny thing. I’ve found I really have to build into my sessions, starting off easy and building to the level I want. If I’m doing a long ride at 210 watts, I’ll spend the first 30 minutes building up from 150 watts. If I want to do 10 intervals at 300 watts, I’ll have to do the first few at something like 230, 250 and 280 before reaching the target. I don’t know if this is because it takes time for the turbo trainer to (literally) warm up, or if the resistance of the turbo decreases slightly as it warms up, or if I go better if I use the first 20% of a session to get myself properly warmed up. Whatever it is, on Thursday I started off at 220-230 watts (not much, way below my threshold), and built to 330-340 watts (beyond my threshold) by the final few repetitions. The final 20 minutes of this session was pure pain, but these painfully intense final few intervals are what makes the difference, and I was pleased that I felt strong. 

 

I always get the legs up as soon as I can after a tough session,

meant to help the lactic to drain away

 Again in previous seasons I’d have followed my Thursday night bike intervals with a run, but it’s more beneficial to get half an hour extra in bed, and also to go to bed after having properly “come down” from such a session, and allowed my dinner a few extra minutes to digest. My intent to do 100m repetitions in the pool last week had been scuppered by the half-term, and a pool full of squealing kids (and parents…), so I had no space to swim fast. This week was different, and I had a lane to myself. So a critical swim speed session of 20 x 100m was nightmarishly on the agenda. These sets are so tough. My critical swim speed is about 1:30/100m without a wetsuit in a 25m pool, without tumble turning. So the idea is to do 20 x 100m in 1:30, with a 10-second recovery. So hard.

This season, I’ve really learned the importance of warming up well – not just cruising easily for 5-10 minutes, but spending a good amount of time, elevating the heart rate, doing some intense effort, and then getting into the main session. If I had more time available, I’d spend even longer warming up and cooling down, but I do the best I can with the time I have. After a good warm-up in the pool, I got going. The first interval was too fast (as usual) at about 1:27. The first one always feels really easy. After a couple more intervals, I had settled into 1:30 pace. After a few more, I had settled into 1:28 times, with a few 1:27s as well. Fast times, for me anyway. I wondered if I’d fade in the second half of the session. It got so tough. 10 seconds to recover is nothing. You don’t even have time to take a drink. You’re gasping for air. 3 gasps and it’s time to go again. But I held the times, and finished 20 sets strongly, all under 1:30. I was very pleased with that. Then it was single leg turbo drills and weights before an early night.

Saturday was an exercise in mental strength rather than physical fitness: 5 hours on the turbo. 5 hours is a long time to batter away in my room, with only YouTube and iPlayer on the laptop for company. I wanted to do a long 5 hour ride, not necessarily at too high an intensity, but more just time in the saddle. I threw in a few tougher 10-minute spells to try to replicate going uphill. The time passed slowly enough, with one major panic in the middle: my fan stopped working…! Without the fan, I can’t turbo train – I would melt or sweat myself to death. Literally. There would be nothing left of me but a puddle on the floor. The thermostat in my room was reading 26 degrees Celsius (i.e. roasting hot), and on the hottest day of the year, my fan had decided to give up. After about 10 seconds, I was starting to drip, thinking I’d have to bail out and try to get the fan working again. Then thankfully it decided to come back to life. Alleluia. I got through a full 5 hours and 5 minutes, at just over 200 watts and an average of 134bpm. I took on over 3 litres of fluid. It was longest turbo session I’ve ever done. I followed this with a 25-minute run. Then I did weights and stretching.

Immediately after this, I weighed myself. I’d say my “normal” weight at the minute is about 68-69kg. I weighed 66.6kg after 5:05 on the turbo, 25 minutes of running, and weights. I then proceeded to eat and drink and eat and drink and eat and drink and eat and drink and eat and drink. And then I weighed myself again. 69.4kg. I’m not a calorie counter by any stretch of the imagination, I focus more on eating good quality food and satisfying my appetite rather than counting calories and trying to hit a “target” weight, but it’s interesting to watch how my weight varies with training.

 On Sunday I went to the pool and decided I’d do an Ironman-length swim. It’s good to do endurance swims, and I wanted to see what sort of time I’d do. Swimming is usually a bit stressful, because usually people go in the fast lane who have no business being in the fast lane. I wanted a clear, uninterrupted swim for my 3.8km, and not be messing about trying to dodge slower swimmers. I just about got a good hour in the water, three breaststrokers got in the fast lane after the first 30 minutes, but I think they soon realised they didn’t belong in the fast lane. When I need to, I can do a few strategically-timed hard kicks which generate big splashes. Generally slow swimmers who don’t even put their face underwater don’t like these splashes and get the hint… I did my 3.8km in 62:07, which I was pleased with. Wearing a wetsuit will make me a good few minutes faster, as will swimming in a group. As will being fresh and rested and tapered rather than totally knackered. So I should be well set for an Ironman swim and first transition in 60 minutes.

Usually on Sunday afternoon I’d do a tougher run – either a long run, an interval session, or a 60-70 minute hard run. But Bradley Wiggins’ hour record attempt on Sunday evening put paid to my Sunday run – I was lucky enough to get tickets for it. The hour record will get a blog post by itself. I did Sunday’s run the following day, but I’ll record it as part of this week’s training block. I didn't even do a tough run, I thought I'd had a good week, plenty of miles in the legs, I was tired and had a lot of tidying and washing and cooking and cleaning to do, so I just settled for an easy 30 minute run. No need to risk wrecking myself at this stage.

So, it was a good week of training. I did a lot of really good quality bike miles, I felt good, although it is very tiring and I am hungry and thirsty all the time. I think things are looking good at the minute, and I said to myself after my Ironman-length swim on Sunday, if that was my final tough training session, and all I had left was 2 weeks to taper before the Ironman, I’d settle for that at this stage. I've thought over the past couple of seasons that a focused build-up from the start of January through to the end of July is maybe one month too long. But I am where I am, and I still have 6 weeks to go, and it’s going to be so tough to keep everything together, to walk the proverbial tightrope and balance training hard but not too hard, to not push myself too far and pick up an injury or an illness, to deal with the stress of work, to get through it all. At least I know I’ve done it before, so I will do it again. Nothing else for it but to get through it…

Post 81 - Wetsuit testing and a cool jersey

At the start of this week I was still tired after the decent “metric Ironman” I’d done last weekend, so I knew I’d need a few days to recover from this. Yet another work trip (this time to Worcester in the UK) meant that I wouldn’t have been able to train hard until Friday anyway. I managed some easy training and a couple of days of resting during the first half of the week.

One “highlight” (if I can call it a highlight) was running along the River Severn, just south of Worcester, out into the countryside, on a sunny and warm evening. I ran past a junction in the river, where a big sign pointed north to Birmingham and south to Bristol. The sign also stated the number of locks to pass through in each direction. So Worcester is obviously an important waterway staging point. This was confirmed later in the hotel, where a small display indicated Worcester’s historical importance, being halfway between Birmingham and Bristol. I ran on to a tall footbridge over the river, where I paused for a few moments to take it all in. I wished I'd had a camera with me - that'll be a hobby for after Ironman and for when I've left London - going for adventures with a camera and taking cool photos...

On this short run in Worcester, it was good to get a sense of place and direction in a natural environment, to look at the horizon, to see hills in the distance. I love exploring in these circumstances, whether by bike or by foot or by canoe or whatever, going under my own power. In Northern Ireland, and in Aberdeenshire, I can do this. In London? I can only ride my bike on an indoor trainer in my room, and I run endless laps of housing estates, hardly knowing if I’m facing north, south, east or west. Joyless, and very mentally tiring.

Having survived the trip to Worcester, I had a bit of a chat with work to see if my work trips could be minimised in the next 7 weeks. It really is make or break time now, and if I have to travel frequently in the next 7 weeks, I may as well not bother taking to the Ironman UK start line. It was a tough question to ask, for a number of reasons, but I had a favourable response, which hopefully clears the way for a good 7 weeks and a good showing on Ironman race day.

The 2015 Giro d'Italia has just finished. In 2014, the Giro started in Belfast, and went along the Causeway Coast - amazing, scenic roads I ride all the time when I'm at home. The Giro was awesome in Northern Ireland. I wrote about it in Post 21. I didn't go home for it, as I was too concerned with training. With hindsight, with what happened in the run up to Ironman UK last year, I wish I had gone home for it. Anyway, I bought the jersey below and it arrived this week. How cool?! I think I'll wear it to Bradley Wiggins' hour attempt in the Olympic Park velodrome next week (yep, I managed to get a few tickets for it,,.)

Cringeworthily posed... but a cool jersey...
The "BELFAST" writing is designed to look like the Titanic Quarter exhibition
centre in Belfast, where the Titanic was built and where the Giro started.
The building itself is designed to look like the Titanic.
See below, Titanic-shaped Titanic exhibition centre in the background:

I’ve also been doing some reading on turbo trainer resistance and power output. It seems there’s a school of thought that even though a watt is a watt, not all watts have an equal toll on the body. My turbo trainer’s resistance is set quite high, so when I am riding, I generally don’t need to use high gears to produce high output. It’s very noticeable that when I stop pedalling, the high resistance of the turbo trainer slows the back wheel to a complete stop very quickly, within a second or two. Although I often practice single-leg cycling drills to ensure I am applying power throughout the pedal cycle, it is inevitable that there will be points on the pedal cycle when power application varies. At the “pushing down” part of the cycle, I’ll be applying more power than on the “pulling back” part, when one pedal is at the bottom and one is at the top. I’ll call this low-power phase of the pedal cycle the “weak spot” – it’s not quite a “dead spot”, as my single-leg drills prove.

So for the “weak spot” in every pedal stroke, the back wheel will be decelerating markedly, and for every new “push”, I will be re-accelerating the back wheel, and wasting energy to do so. On the road, the back wheel would coast for ages during freewheeling. With my turbo setting, it was coasting for one or two seconds if I stopped pedalling. So I have decreased the resistance of the turbo trainer away down to a low level. This means I’ll need to use higher gears to produce comparable power outputs, but it also means that the back wheel of the bike coasts for much longer before the resistance of the turbo trainer brings it to a stop. Now, instead of coasting for a couple of seconds, it coasts for maybe 10 seconds. So the back wheel slows much less during the “weak spot”, which means less power and effort is expended in re-accelerating it with every pedal stroke, which should have a cumulative effect of helping to keep my heart rate and breathing rate lower, and making it easier to output the same wattage for a given length of time, when compared with the high resistance setting. I’m interested to see the effects this will have, and I’m also very interested to actually get out on the road to see how different it is.

I also spent some time thinking about what data to display on my bike’s Garmin computer when I am racing. It can show a maximum of 8 data fields on a single screen, but it can scroll through 5 different screens at 5-second intervals. In total, maybe 40-50 different data values are available. I want to keep things simple, so ideally I wanted only a single screen. I decided on the “vitals” that I deemed were essential to know during an Ironman. These essentials were time, distance, speed, average speed, cadence, heart rate, average heart rate, power (3-second average power rather than instantaneous power, to provide a smoother reading), average power, normalised power, and intensity factor. That’s 11 pieces of data. 11 into 8 doesn’t go, so I had to work out how best to display this over 2 screens. I decided that 3-second power and normalised power will alternate, as will time/average speed and distance/intensity factor.

The thought process...

...screen 1 of the results of the thought process

Screen 2 of the results of the thought process

On Friday, my swim was a bit compromised. I wanted to do a critical swim speed (CSS) session of 18-20 x 100m in 1:30 with 10 seconds to recover between each. I know these 100s are tough, but I got myself mentally ready for it. And the pool turned out to be packed, as it was half-term. Full of youngsters. There was only one swimming lane, and it was quite busy. I can’t get into a single busy lane and blast up and down at top speed, it just ends up annoying everyone including myself. You can’t swim a proper session in these circumstances. So I ended up doing kicking drills and arm drills – basically whatever I could to make my swimming speed as slow as possible. It’s interesting to note how slow kicking-only actually is – so much of the swim power and speed comes from the arms. After the swim, I did single-leg turbo drills, then had a wetsuit-fitting exercise.

One of my friends recently did an Olympic distance triathlon in preparation for the Staffordshire half Ironman in a few weeks. He abandoned the race after one lap of the swim. He sent me a forum link, where he had posted a description of the problem – he felt his arms were really heavy and he literally could not swim properly. Some forum trolls called him a bottler, but he’s not a bottler. I guessed it was a problem with the fit of his wetsuit. So he came over and I had a look at his wetsuit. He was able to put it on in 5 minutes flat – far too fast. It was hanging off him. I kept telling him to pull it up, and he kept trying to pull it up, but it just kept slipping back down. He looked like the Michelin man (albeit black rather than white). The suit was far too big, and must have completely filled up with water when he was swimming. Water is heavy. No wonder he couldn’t swim. It would have been like cycling with an open parachute trailing behind.

I then put my old wetsuit on. I’ve never swam in a wetsuit with a tri top underneath, so I wanted to see how it felt. It took me ages to get it on, working it up the legs, up the chest, up the arms, getting the shoulders as loose as possible. I don’t think I would get it on at all without my Suit Juice and BodyGlide. It felt good, and I didn’t notice the tri top underneath, it wasn’t restrictive at all. Chris watched with interest. He then tried my suit on. I knew it would fit him and I knew he would get it on, but I knew it would take him a while. He has bigger muscles than me. So he spent the next 30 minutes squeezing into it. It was a good fit, I’m sure he’ll swim a lot better in it. Wetsuits should be very tight on land, the magic happens in the water, you hardly notice them. They take a while to put on properly, you need to spend a while working all the material up as high as it will go, getting it all into the shoulders, to give the arms freedom of movement. They should seal really well too, and not let water in. Hopefully he’ll go well at his half Ironman in my old suit.

Bit of an effort for Chris to squeeze those massive arms into my old wetsuit

On Saturday, I was quite looking forward to the turbo session with lower turbo resistance and higher gears, to see if it would be less tiring to maintain a typical output. However, it was difficult to compare it with previous sessions, as I had decided to do a shorter but tougher turbo session of 2-and-a-half hours. It went quite well and I was pushing around 280-290 watts for the final 30 minutes. I look forward to doing an exact comparison next week – I can replicate one of my previous long turbo sessions, ride at the same power output, and see if my heart rate is any lower.

On Sunday I hit the pool as usual and did drills with my hand paddles. The session went as follows: 250m normal swimming, 500m with paddles/leg float, 250m normal swimming, 500m with paddles/leg float/ankle band, 250m normal swimming, 500m with hand paddles only, 250m normal swimming, 500m with hand paddles/ankle band, 250m normal swimming, 100m slow swimming. Tough enough. I was unusually knackered after the swim, so I went for a sleep when I got home. After an hour and a half of shut-eye, I really had to force myself to get out and run. I was really very tired, and not looking forward to a 70-minute hard hilly run. But it had to be done, so I went and did it. My legs are still sore after this run. It was tough.

I’m at the stage now where I really don’t need to take any risks and will try to ever-so-slightly tone down the maximum intensity, hopefully this will help me to get through the next 7 weeks without any problems. For this reason, I’m not even 100% sure if I’ll do the Bristol triathlon as planned in 2 weeks. I’d love to do it and it would be a good warm-up race, but the Olympic distance race will be very fast and the hard 10k run at the end will hurt my legs. It’s risky. I’ll see how I go in the next week, and decide if the benefits of competing outweigh the risks. Maybe I’ll do it, but not flat-out. But this would be difficult. A race is a race. I’ll see…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 25 May: Rest
Tue 26 May: 30 minute turbo
Wed 27 May: 20 minute run
Thu 28 May: Rest
Fri 29 May: Swim 2.6km (leg/arm drills), 1:05 turbo (single leg drills, 7 x 3mins R, L, B)
Sat 30 May: 2:30 turbo (246W NP, 148bpm), 25 min run
Sun 31 May: Swim 3.3km (paddle drills), 70 min run (1 hour hard, 10 hills)

Totals: Swim 5.9km, Bike 90 miles, Run 18 miles.

Post 80 - A better metric

I was at a low ebb at the end of last week. 2 weeks in Italy had been very disruptive to training, and to my body’s equilibrium in terms of good sleep, good nutrition, good hydration, good training and good recovery. This had manifested itself in a terrible attempt at a metric Ironman bike/run distance (3 and a half hours on the bike and 2 hours of running), which began to fail after 2 and a half hours on the bike, and which came to a pathetic zero-energy halt after not much more than a few minutes of running. I had no idea how I would recover after this, but I didn’t want to waste another week getting over it, so I planned to do a tough training week, see how the first couple of days would go, and take it from there.

On Monday I made proper food for the week – piles and piles of wholemeal pasta and sauce, with heaps and heaps of raw peppers, onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, broccoli, carrots, mixed beans, chillies, and turkey breast. Exactly what I need. My lunches got back to normal – sardines, mackerel, raw vegetables and quinoa. My breakfasts got back to normal – porridge with raisins, brazil nuts, almonds, chia seeds, flax seeds, honey, peanut butter and protein powder. My hydrating got back to normal – a 700ml bottle of water per hour, all day. My sleep got back to normal. And all of this helped to properly fuel my body and allow it to train and recover properly.

On Tuesday I got on the turbo trainer and planned for a warm-up, a tough hour, and a cool-down. I had no idea how this would go, coming only two days after the failed metric Ironman. But I warmed up well and I got through an hour with good output. Not bad. My legs felt like two bags of worms afterwards, twitching crazily. A cold shower and compression socks helped to calm the legs down. I got through Wednesday’s fartlek run without any problem, but despite my working week being almost over by Thursday, my training week only starts to get tough on Thursday. Not the easiest of situations to grasp mentally.

I knew that I had some cardiac testing on Friday after work which would mean I wouldn’t be able to swim as usual on Friday. So I went on Thursday at lunchtime to the freezing cold 30m pool close to work. I hate swimming in there – the pool close to the house is much warmer and easier to get into. But, after wimpishly easing myself very slowly into the (literally freezing) water, and turning blue in the process (turning the air blue under my breath as well), I churned out 2500m, with 10 x 30m of very hard sprinting. That evening I did intervals on the turbo trainer: 20 sets of 2 minutes hard and 2 minutes easy. Again, I felt good, and much better than I would have expected after the disastrous previous two weeks and weekends.

I took delivery of some new running shoes this week. I’ve run in Brooks Adrenaline shoes for the past few seasons, and they have been pretty good. Each year, they are upgraded. So I have run in the 11 series, the 12 series and the 13 series. There hasn’t been much difference in feel between each of these models. Last year, when I ran in the 14 series, they felt completely different. I didn’t like them at all. I returned them straight away, and the retailer told me that he’d had a lot of complaints about the 14 series, but there were still lots of 13 series models available, so I had no problem last year getting the 13 series.

This year was a bit different. Brooks have now released the 15 series, so the 13 series are out of production and are very difficult to find. But, with less than 2 months before the Ironman, I don’t want to be making any changes to anything, so I wanted the 13 series again. I scoured the internet, made numerous phone calls, and eventually found and ordered the last two pairs of 13 series shoes in my size in the UK. I was ridiculously happy when they arrived. Brooks’ shoe box even says “RUN HAPPY” on it. But the elation turned to deflation when I opened them and found that they were narrow width shoes (narrow, regular and wide fits are available, I’m regular width). They didn’t fit. Argh.

Yes I will, if I get the right size...

After more phone calls, and insistence that various retailers checked their storerooms, I had word that a retailer was holding 2 pairs of size 9, regular fit, 13 series Brooks Adrenaline shoes. Perfect. I got the credit card out, ready to buy over the phone. I dictated the number, and the billing address (a Northern Ireland address), and was then told for security reasons they wouldn’t send the shoes to London as the addresses didn’t match. Argh. I was told to buy them online, where he said the software would do some sort of automatic address check, and then they could send them to London. So I kept the guy on the phone while I went to the store’s website. And… no availability for size 9, despite him physically holding 2 pairs… “So what now?” I asked. He said he would get his website guy to fix the website, and assured me he would call back. I told him how important it was that I get these shoes. “Don’t worry, we’ll call straight back…” he said.

He didn’t call back. Argh. I called him back and he fobbed me off with excuses about being busy. Needless to say, the website still had no availability for size 9. But he still had them. So he said I should buy two pairs of whatever size was available online, and when the order came through he would see my name and would know to send the size 9 shoes. Did I trust him? No way… Did I want these shoes? Very much…  What choice did I have? Not much… So I did what he suggested, and thankfully a few days later 2 pairs of the right shoes arrived. I returned the narrow fit shoes. So now I have got a fresh pair of shoes to train in for the next 8 weeks, and a fresh pair to race the Ironman in. Good. One less thing to worry about…

Perseverance brings success. Run Happy...

On Friday after work I headed for the hospital for yet more tests on my heart. I am very aware that Ironman training and racing elevates the heart rate for prolonged periods of time. I’m not sure that in the very long-term that this is a good thing, but I know my competitive Ironman career will be comparatively short. During and after my hospitalisation last year it really hit home to me how I shouldn’t take my body and my health for granted, and that I should really (and I mean really) take care of it, especially with the demands I put on it. I’ve had a barrage of tests done, all of which have been reassuring. However, the tests that analysed my heart have all been done when I have been at rest. This week’s test was to see how it operates under duress. These tests are part of a detailed study sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, looking at the effects of endurance sport on the heart.

Front page of info book/consent form

So I found myself lying down on and being strapped to what looked like some sort of medieval torture device, albeit with pedals attached to one end. It was actually a tilting recumbent bicycle. It had to tilt 45 degrees to open up my chest so the medics could scan my heart while I was pedalling. It was so surreal, riding a recumbent bike while tipped over 45 degrees to the left. But they couldn’t scan my chest using ultrasound probes if I was on a treadmill, or hunched over a normal exercise bike. I had to be lying down, and tilted over, giving them access to my chest and side.

They covered me with slime to allow the probes to couple better and improve the readings, and I pedalled and pedalled, with resistance increasing incrementally. My heart rate got up to about 170 but I was reluctant to go any harder in such a strange position, as I was worried about pinging my knees or hurting my back. The medics got all the readings they needed, and again assured me that everything was fine.

That was my Friday evening, spent on a strange-looking torture bike in a hospital dungeon. It was a bit of a compromise to the usual routine, but worth it. I don’t compromise often. Another compromise this week was accepting an invitation to go to Brands Hatch motor racing track on Sunday to watch classic Formula 1 car racing. This was something I couldn’t turn down. So it meant Sunday was a write-off, from a training point of view. Usually I would do a swim and a long run on Sundays. So I planned to do my swim on Monday (usually my rest/cooking day, but I’d put it down as part of this week’s training block), and combine my long run with a long bike ride on Saturday – I was going to attempt another “metric Ironman”.

My expectations weren’t too high for this training session, as I’d had a tough training week, but regardless, I got on the turbo on Saturday morning and got going. I purposely lowered my output fractionally compared with last week, just a few watts. But I was still outputting comparable figures to what I would like to output on race day. And the bike felt fairly easy. I watched “Touching the Void” – a mountaineering dilemma – you are roped to your climbing partner, who slips, breaks his leg, and falls over a cliff. He can’t climb the rope, and you can’t move because you are on a steep slope with loose snow. You are in a storm, and no help is coming. You are eventually going to slip, and both of you will likely die if you do. Would you cut the rope…?

I got through the bike, and had no idea how a 2-hour run would go. But I ran really well. I was very happy. As dejected as I was last week, I was at the other end of the spectrum this week. Very pleased. I did 17 miles, in 2 hours and 6 minutes, averaging under 7:30 per mile. It felt good, and I could easily have continued. I only need to run at 7:40 per mile in the Ironman to do a marathon that I believe will give me a shot at qualifying for the worlds. I took an hour immediately after the run to do all the immediate recovery stuff – lie down, elevate my legs, drink protein, eat good food, jog, shower (hot and cold alternating), and then spent the rest of the day off my feet. I was in bed by 8pm.

Ideally I’d have spent most of the next day in bed as well, allowing myself to fully recover after the almost-6-hour Saturday training session. But going to Brands Hatch to watch classic Formula 1 cars and lots of other races too, with one of my very esteemed colleagues who I hold in very high regard, in his classic Porsche, is an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often. I took earplugs, a rucksack full of food, and gallons of water. I still had to recover properly and I knew I'd need to eat and drink non-stop through the day, and I didn't want to resort to the burgers, chips and beer from the circuit kiosks...

Brands Hatch was awesome. A real old-school circuit, set in a natural amphitheatre, so it’s possible to see a lot of the circuit from a single vantage point. Turn 1 in particular – Paddock Bend – was fearsome. A fast uphill approach to a blind fast off-camber right hander, with the track dropping away at what must have been a 15% gradient. What a sight (and what a sound) to see racing cars taking this bend. A memorable day, but my legs were sore…

Overall a good week, back on track, and with a positive long run after 3 and a half hours on the bike. That long double training session on Saturday will take a few days to recover from, so the first half of next week will be easy (I have to travel to Worcester for a few days, argh, so I won’t have much choice but to do easy training), then I’ll have the second half of the week to train hard, as well as all of the following week. Then a week to taper off for the Bristol triathlon. Less than 8 weeks until the big one…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 18 May: Rest
Tue 19 May: 1:25 turbo (1 hour hard)
Wed 20 May: 30 minute fartlek run
Thu 21 May: Swim 2.5km (10 x 30m hard), 1:25 turbo (20 x 2mins hard, 2mins easy)
Fri 22 May: 20 minute bike (cardiac testing)
Sat 23 May: “Metric Ironman” – 3:30 turbo, 2:06 run (17 miles)
Sun 24 May: Swim 3.1km

Totals: Swim 5.6km, Bike 145 miles, Run 22 miles

Post 79 - The importance of circumstances

This week, I was hoping to be writing about the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial, and how I’d done it in 4:10, and how 4:10 on an undulating and twisty Norfolk 100 mile course is a better performance than the 3:59 I did last year on the pan-flat Bedfordshire 100 mile course. But things didn’t really work out, as I’ll explain. But first…

…The importance of good circumstances: I learned this ten years ago (yep, 10 years…) during the fledgling stage of my running career. I used to go down to the running track every Sunday morning at university and run a tough, fast interval session. One week, I ate pizza for dinner on Saturday night, then less than 12 hours later I was on the track, warming up for 14 x 400m intervals off 2 minutes: 400m run in 70 seconds would mean a 50-second recovery. I’d done this session before, very tough, no doubt, but 14 repetitions were do-able, and I was usually able to average about 70 seconds for each 400m, without the times dropping away. On the morning after the pizza, I got to 4 or 5 repeats and started to feel like absolute trash. My times fell away by a lot more than just a couple of seconds, and I just did not have the legs any more. Not a good feeling. Defeated, I stormed off the track after 8 repeats, lesson very much learned.

The lesson was that you can’t expect good performance if you abuse your body with bad circumstances, in this case, pizza. You need to fuel it well if you want it to perform. You wouldn’t fuel a Formula 1 racing car with red diesel and expect it to be fine, equally (or even more so, because your body is more valuable than a Formula 1 racing car) you shouldn’t expect your body to comply with demands for high performance if you feed it rubbish, or don’t give it the chance to sleep properly, or don’t look after it properly. Junk in, junk out…

Nutrition corner in my room, keeps me fuelled

Ironman training magnifies this concept even more, and extends it to a range of circumstances, all of which affect the ability to train and perform at a high level. Such circumstances include sleep, hydration, nutrition, rest, recovery, stress, injury and illness (however minor). I have to really keep on top of all of these, and I put so much effort into providing myself with the most optimal circumstances possible, with the situation I have. Ideally I’d like to not have to go to work, because this would free up a lot more time to rest and recover properly, and reduce a lot of stress. I would have time to sleep for 10 hours per night, and 2 hours per day. Some people have suggested taking a sabbatical for a few months. This is where pros have an advantage: they have more time, which they don’t necessarily use for more training, but which they most definitely use for more resting and recovering.

But I have to work, so I have to make the best of the circumstances. Ideally I’d like to see a physio more regularly. But everything else is as good as I can make it in terms of diet, hydration, recovery, sleep and so on. All pretty uncompromising and tightly controlled. I find it difficult and frustrating to deal with things which are beyond my control and that go against what I’m trying to achieve.

For the last two weeks I’ve been in Italy with work, although home for the weekend in between. From an Ironman point of view, these trips are tough, and everything becomes sub-optimal: I am unable to eat as well as I usually would, it’s more difficult to hydrate regularly and stay hydrated, I never sleep well in Italy in stuffy, airless hotel rooms, my body “dries out”, travelling on aeroplanes and being in meeting rooms means the air I breathe is stale and manky, and there’s a lot of standing around (generally athletes don’t like standing for any length of time – professional cyclists follow the philosophy that if they are off their bikes, and they can be lying down, then they will lie down, and if they can’t be lying down then they will be sitting down). I don’t like to train hard in Italy as I don’t have access to what I need to recover properly. I wasn’t very happy to get back from Italy and find I was a couple of kilograms heavier, due to relative inactivity and an irregular diet. I did manage a few more hot baths in Italy, good for promoting blood flow to cleanse the muscles.

Must have been at least 94 degrees C

I also wasn’t very happy to get an email on Wednesday morning, from the organisers of the upcoming time trial in Norfolk, saying it had been cancelled. Such events would have to obtain police permission months in advance, council permission, local authority permission, they’d have to complete a risk assessment, health and safety assessment, etc etc. And the local council had decided, a few days out from event day, to do some roadworks, bring in some heavy machinery, dig up the road, and put in a 24-hour traffic control system, complete with traffic lights. You can’t time-trial through a red traffic light. Very disappointing, not only for the 100 or so cyclists who had entered the event and made arrangements, travel plans and hotel bookings, but also for the event organisers who had been left fairly high and dry by the council – surely the council would have known about the event and surely the works could have been postponed by a few days…? At such short notice, the organisers had no option but to cancel. 

Given that all my bike training this season has been on the turbo trainer in my room, I really wanted to get out on the road and do the time trial, and learn how my power figures translate onto the road, find out what speeds correspond with what power outputs and heart rates, and find out what outputs I could sustain for 100 miles in a racing situation. In the past two seasons I've also done the Icknield 100 mile time trial in Bedfordshire, usually a few weeks after Norfolk. But it has also been cancelled this year - it ran up and down the A1 dual carriageway, starting at 5am on a Sunday morning when there isn't much traffic. Up to a roundabout, turn, back down to a roundabout, turn, back up, down, up, down. This year, permanent traffic lights were installed at one of the roundabouts, so that put an end to what was probably one of the fastest and flattest 100-mile courses in the UK. So, no 100-mile time-trialling for me this season in the build-up to Ironman. I'm disappointed about this, as the 100s have always been good training sessions for me, and good gauges of fitness. 

Another thing I wasn’t too happy about this week was a small niggling feeling in my right calf. Usually these niggles are fine and go away after a few days, but as I move closer to Ironman race day, the stakes get higher and higher, and there is less opportunity to recover from anything that might go wrong. I got back from Italy, and tried to work out a Plan B for the weekend, given that I wasn’t going to Norfolk. I decided I’d swim a 1500m time trial on Friday evening, which I completed in 22:57 in a 25m pool, without tumble-turning. I’d hoped to be 15-20 seconds faster, but sub-23 was acceptable.

Then I decided I would try to do a longer bike and run session on Sunday, using Saturday as a short trial for my right calf. I started off on Saturday by getting the baby oil out and spending half an hour massaging my right calf. I hoped this would do it some good. Then after a 30-minute turbo and a 20-minute run, I had enough confidence to go ahead with a longer and tougher session on Sunday, but I also had enough sense that if my calf felt sore on Sunday, I’d call it quits. I can’t afford a full-blown injury at this stage. I was fully tapered at the weekend, as I thought I’d be riding a flat-out time trial in Norfolk, so I decided to do a “metric Ironman” session on Sunday, at race pace, and was expecting a good session.

A “normal” Ironman features a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run. A “metric” Ironman involves a 2.4km swim, a 112km bike and a 26.2km run. Instead of the swim, I’d do some weights, then roughly 3 and a half hours on the bike (i.e. on the turbo trainer, in my room) would be around 112km, and a 2-hour run would be the 26.2km. So I got my drinks made up, got a pile of energy gels at the ready, did my stretching and weights, and got on the bike.

Fuel

All went well for about 2 and a half hours, I was averaging around 230 watts, with two sets of 5-10 minutes of harder pushing per hour (to try to simulate hills), where I got up to around 260 watts. It has been interesting to note that when on the bike, getting up off the aero bars and into a more upright position lowers my heart rate. For the same wattage, my heart rate usually drops by around 5-10bpm, sometimes more, when I’m off the aero tri bars and on the uprights.

On the go

After 2 and a half hours, my legs started to get heavy. They shouldn’t have, because sitting at 230 watts shouldn’t have been too difficult. Then my power started dropping off, and everything went downhill from there, I ended up struggling to push 200 watts, with my heart rate skyrocketing. No power, no energy. I fought through to 3 and a half hours, feeling awful. I knew there was no way there would be a 26.2km run to follow, given the state I was in, but I thought I’d go out for a short jog after the bike.

I could barely get down the stairs, which wasn’t a good sign. Needless to say, my run pace was dreadful and I only managed 20 minutes. I got back to the house, having used up every last ounce of energy. I was ruined. So ruined. The worst training day I’ve had in four seasons of Ironman training. That’s what you get though – poor input equals poor output, it’s a fairly simple and uncomplicated equation. Two weeks of poor circumstances in Italy led to this dreadful performance. I ended up glad that Norfolk hadn’t happened, because it would not have been pretty.

Not a great week. Not a great two weeks in fact. I’ve entered the Bristol Olympic distance triathlon on 14th June, but I also need to make sure I do a good metric Ironman between now and July. I need to recover after the last two weeks (that’s an unusual thing to say that I have to recover from doing basically nothing in Italy, normally you have to recover after training hard), I need to refocus and re-evaluate and plan the next 9 weeks (7 weeks really, because the two weeks before Ironman will be tapering weeks), and get myself onto that Ironman start line in the best shape possible. 7 (well, 9) more weeks. It’s going to be a tough period, and hopefully next week will be better…

Training done this week:

Mon 11 May: Rest
Tue 12 May: Rest
Wed 13 May: 20 min exercise bike, 10 min run
Thu 14 May: Rest
Fri 15 May: Swim 2.6km (1500m in 22:57)
Sat 16 May: 30 min turbo, 20 min run
Sun 17 May: 3:30 turbo (224W NP, 147bpm, 0.73 IF), 20 min run

Totals: Swim 2.6km, Bike 86 miles, Run 7 miles

Post 78 - Maths and formulae

This week I had to go to Italy with work. Next week I also have to go to Italy with work. Not ideal, with the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial following immediately afterwards… lots of stale aeroplane air, carrying heavy luggage, hot meeting rooms, squeezed taxis, standing around, eating strange hotel food, sleeping badly in stuffy hotel rooms, unable to train as I want… none of which is great, all of which causes stress. Buuuuuut what can I do other than drink lots of water and cross my fingers?

Italy was hot and sunny. I managed a short and easy 30 minutes on the exercise bike in the hotel gym on Tuesday evening. I didn’t want to push hard because it’s impossible to set an exercise bike up properly and to get a good fit. I don’t want to push hard on an ill-fitting bike and end up wrecking my knees or back. Plus, pushing hard in a hot and airless hotel gym is pretty much asking to get sick. After the 30 minutes, I jumped in a hot bath, right up to my neck, to try to heat all my muscles and allow them to de-tension a bit. On Wednesday evening I went out for a short and easy 20-minute jog, and jumped into another hot bath. It was scorching (on the run and in the bath) and I was sweating so much that I poured an entire litre of cold water over my head (in the bath). As well as treating myself to a scorching hot bath, I also treated myself to some steak...

Who photographs their food anyway?!

It was uncomfortably hot at night, but I didn’t want to put the air conditioning on. It’s an old hotel, with an ancient ventilation system. Turning it on would have been asking to get sick. So instead I slept with no covers and tried to make the best of it, but I didn’t sleep great. It’s not that long since I was in Italy and it was freezing, icy and snowy, when I filled the bin in the hotel room with hot steaming water, and I put it beside my bed to try to humidify the room at night. The things I do. Crazy.

I had brought with me three big tupperware boxes full of oranges, bananas, apples, flapjacks and vitamin tablets. Fruit is delicate as I discovered to my detriment on a previous trip, when I opened my bag to discover squashed banana mulch all over my stuff. Put the fruit in a tupperware box and at least it is protected.

My Garmin bike computer was also protected by one of these boxes, and I spent some time this week fiddling about with it in Italy. Having invested in a power meter this season (I say invested rather than bought, it makes me feel better…), I now need to work out what data I want to have displayed when I am on the road. I still haven’t worked this out. A single screen can have 8 data fields displayed, and ideally I don’t want to have to programme the Garmin to scroll through different screens, I want it all on one screen. But there is too much data for a single screen – I want to be able to see current speed, average speed, distance, time, cadence, heart rate, average heart rate, 3-second power, average power, intensity factor/%FTP, and normalised power. So I’ll have to get my thinking cap on and sort my power meter data fields. I've also been buying a few bits and pieces because I'll have to get my bike serviced before the time trial next week.

Possibly the best tyres you can buy:
Continental GP 4000 S II with black chili compound.
At £60, they better be good and not puncture...!

Bike servicing orders...
To this was added "properly lube chain and transmission",
"replace any bearings if necessary", and "check greasing of
all bearings including wheel bearings and regrease if necessary".
Need to have 100% confidence in the bike!

I survived Italy and used the weekend to catch up on sleep. I’ve found it’s much more effective to go to bed at the same time each night, rather than staying up a bit later at the weekend and then sleeping very late. Last season, I used to really binge on sleep at the weekend, and stay in bed until as late as 11am. Now I try to get up between 9 and 10am at the weekend, which keeps my natural body clock slightly more aligned. During my weekend swims this week, I felt that my right shoulder and down through my upper right arm was a bit sore. So much so that on Sunday in the pool, I mostly did kicking drills without much arm action at all. I hope that tapering down for the 100 miler next week and not doing much swimming or weights will allow it to settle. I also noticed that my right calf is a bit sore, and again all I can do is hope that the easy tapering week ahead will allow this to settle down too. Cross my fingers and hope for the best…

My Ironman bike strategy this year will be to “spike” as little as possible. I’ll really try to minimise spikes in heart rate and power output – this will mean taking it a bit easier up the hills, using lower gears, and not accelerating too quickly out of the corners. I’ll keep everything nice and steady and controlled on the bike. This will hopefully set me up for a better marathon. I’d rather lose 5 minutes on the bike and gain 20 minutes on the run.

With the power meter, I can now do a lot of number analysis. I like this, as I enjoy working with numbers, graphs, data and science. With the power meter, I can know the intensity factor (IF) and variability index (VI) of my training (and racing). These are interesting figures, but to understand these, some other values must be discussed. The power meter tells me my instantaneous power (based on a 3-second average). That’s easy to understand. It also tells me my average power – again simple to understand – the numerical average of my power for an entire session, including any times at zero power (for example when freewheeling).

It also tells me the normalised power. This is a bit more difficult to understand. When riding, power output is rarely constant, especially on the road – hills, weather conditions, road surfaces and all sorts of factors combine to make a power output graph look “jumpy”. Normalised power is simply an estimate of the power output that could have been maintained for a ride if the power output had been completely constant. Normalised power will always be higher than average power. Makes sense…?!

Variability Index is another important measure. If a ride is not “consistent” and involves lots of surging, climbing and accelerating, it stands to reason that normalised power described above will be much higher than average power, and the ride will feel tiring. If a rider maintains a consistent power output, then the normalised power and average power will be more similar. VI is a measure of how steady a rider’s power output was. Normalised power divided by average power equals variability index. Let’s say I did a smooth turbo session at an average of 250 watts for 2 hours. Let’s say that my output for this turbo session was fairly consistent, with no surges or high-intensity efforts. My normalised power might therefore be 255 watts. My VI would be 255/250 = 1.02.

Now, let’s say I cycled the Ironman UK bike course – a tough, hilly, twisty 112 miles. Let’s say I averaged 210 watts for 5-and-a-half hours. Let’s say I didn’t hold back, pushed hard up the hills, and accelerated hard out of the corners, and generally rode the course as if I didn’t have to run a marathon afterwards. My normalised power might be 240 watts. My VI would be 240/210 = 1.14. The closer the VI is to 1.0, the smoother the output over the whole ride. VI is very important for Ironman triathlon pacing, and should be less than 1.06.

Next, we have Intensity Factor (IF), which requires knowledge of threshold power. My threshold power is the maximum power output I can sustain for one hour. A one-hour threshold power test is a very tough session, so it can also be calculated by multiplying the 20-minute value by 0.95. A couple of months ago, my 20-minute test value was 324 watts, giving a threshold power of 307 watts (I’d like to think this value has improved since I did the test, and I will re-test myself in the next few weeks).

Anyway, the IF is the ratio of normalised power to threshold power. If I did the Ironman bike and my normalised power was 240 watts, given that my threshold power is 307 watts, then my IF for the Ironman bike would be 240/307 = 0.78. Generally, the intensity factor for “recovery rides” should be less than 0.75. An IF of around 1.0 could be sustained for a 40km time trial (roughly equivalent to a 60-minute threshold power test).

All this data can also be used to work out my Training Stress Score (TSS), which helps to determine how much rest is needed after training and how hard the training was. TSS = IF squared x time in hours x 100. A “very high” TSS would be 450+, requiring several days of recovery. But back to IF…

Generally on tough, twisty, hilly Ironman courses (such as Ironman Wales and Ironman UK), it’s easy to “spike” repeatedly. I know this from experience, as my heart rate got to over 170bpm on quite a few occasions in the bike section of these races. This would have led to a high intensity factor and a high variability index, setting me up for a poor marathon. My standalone run times indicate that my Ironman running should be much better than it is. So, maybe the problem is with the bike, and I need to calm things down, keep the bike nice and smooth, and preserve myself as much as possible. Then I might run a better Ironman marathon.

Tables exist to tell you how hard you should ride the Ironman bike. For me, I’m looking for something around 5:30 for the bike at Ironman UK. In a flat Ironman, I’d be well under 5 hours, but for Ironman UK, I’m looking at 5:20 to 5:30. According to the table below, if I assume that I am a “proven, strong Ironman runner” then I should ride at an intensity factor of somewhere between 0.73 to 0.75 to give me an optimal Ironman bike time which will also allow me to run a good marathon. This optimal Ironman bike time will be slower than if it was a standalone bike time, but Ironman is a sum of three parts… This level of holding back on the bike requires a huge amount of discipline and trust in the numbers.

On Saturday I did 2:20 on the turbo, with 2 hours at around Ironman intensity. I made the second hour a bit tougher than the first. For the first hour my IF was 0.73 (bang on for an Ironman), and for the second hour it was 0.81. The power difference between the first and second hour was 27 watts, and my heart rate only averaged 12bpm more for the second hour. So there’s a fine line between “too hard” and “not hard enough”. I’ll do a few more longer sessions at Ironman IF to learn how it feels and to see how my heart rate responds over a longer time, and to see how running feels afterwards.

A purist might say that all this data detracts from the age-old business of racing without technology, of judging by feel, of going at it without being “guided” by timers, beeps, power meters or heart rate monitors. I did the 2013 Ironman season without a power meter or a heart rate monitor. In 2014 I had a heart rate monitor, and it helped a lot. In 2015, I’ve got the heart rate monitor and a power meter, and they both help a lot. There’s a justifiable argument that says without these tools, you are disadvantaging yourself, and with the data available and the assistance with judging how hard to push, they are definitely useful. Unlike doping, heart rate monitors and power meters are completely legal, and are used by pros and amateurs alike, almost as standard. I’m looking forward to getting all this data on the 100 mile time trial next week.

But equally, you still have to have the fitness, the discipline and the strength. No amount of gadgetry or equipment or anything else can help you in the Ironman “death zone” beyond mile 16 of the marathon… then it comes down to pure guts and determination, when you find out how much you really want it…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 4 May: Rest
Tue 5 May: 30 minute ex bike
Wed 6 May: 20 minute run
Thu 7 May: Rest
Fri 8 May: Swim 3k (5 x 400m: 5:55-6:20, 40 second recovery)
Sat 9 May: 2:20 turbo (1 hour at 221W/141bpm/IF 0.73, 1 hour at 248W/153bpm/IF 0.81), 25 min run
Sun 10 May: Swim 3.1k (250s, normal/legs), 30 minute turbo, 30 minute fartlek run

Totals: Swim 6.1km, Bike 66 miles, Run 11 miles.

Post 77 - A back massage and a big weekend

My training over the next few weeks will be a bit disjointed and a bit disrupted by a couple of work trips to Italy. Also, tapering for and recovering from the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial will mean a couple of weeks of taking it easy. So I have to be flexible, to adapt and make the best of circumstances. Normally after two tough weeks I would have a full week of easy training, but with going to Italy next week, I decided to only take half a week easy, and then train hard during the weekend before going to Italy. In Italy I can do some light training, and then the weekend after that I can train hard again, then I’ll likely be out to Italy again where I’ll taper for a week before the 100 mile time trial. This seems like the optimal way to get the training fitted in around Italy, and to get myself to the start line in Norfolk in a fit and fresh state.

So during this week, I had three full days off training. No swimming, cycling, running, stretching, weights or anything. I was tired from the previous two weeks of tough training, and the three days off did me no harm. A mental break as much as a physical break. A trip to Phases Sports Therapy during the week did me no harm either – Des spent some time working on my back to loosen it out. It was good to chew the fat with him and have my back ironed out. After the treatment, I did have a bit more of a spring in my step. Des has been working with a few good athletes over the past year or so, and has seen his treatment sessions deliver big performance improvements. I’m hopeful that if I can have four or five good treatment sessions on my legs, I will see some similar performance gains which will help me on the road to qualifying for the Ironman world championships.

Getting treatment on my legs means that I will finally have to shave them, and that will be a sad day… But, whatever I have to do…

In terms of miles, this weekend was probably the biggest weekend I’ve done in training: 6.4km in the pool, about 120 miles on the bike, and 19 miles of running over three days. Friday’s pool session was tough. I like Friday afternoons in the pool, because the pool is always very quiet, and I can usually get a lane to myself. This week, I was doing 100m repeats, with the swim and the recovery taking 2 minutes. Do the 100m in 1:30, and you get 30 seconds of recovery. I wanted to do at least 20 repeats, and I also wanted to pace them well and not fade in the second half of the session. After a first 100m in 1:26 (too fast as usual – the first 100m feels so, so easy), I settled into 1:29 repeats. And I hoped I could sustain them. I got to 17 or 18 repeats and was starting to blow hard, but the times didn’t drop. In the end, I did 25 sets of 100m, all below 1:30, and I was happy with that. Single-leg bike drills followed, while watching Ironman Kona videos on the laptop for inspiration:

Saturday was to be a long turbo session. I needed to do 4 hours, with a 100 mile time trial coming up in a couple of weeks. So I got ready, and I got on, and I pedalled. I worked through the gears, getting progressively tougher every 15 minutes. At the start of each hour, I throttled back, but the starting resistance for each hour was progressively tougher than the preceding hour’s starting resistance level. Also, during this session I “kicked” every 10 minutes and really lifted my power output for 20-30 seconds. This was to simulate accelerating out of a corner and getting up to speed – Ironman UK will have a lot of braking and accelerating on the bike, and I wanted to practice this. After four hours I was pushing close to 300 watts, and I did 4:20 in total, followed by a short run. Not bad. Plus, I’d got to watch a lot of snooker on the laptop in 4 hours and 20 minutes…

On Sunday I hit the pool again and used my hand paddles, leg float and evil-rubber-band-for-tying-my-legs-together. A good pool session was followed by steeling myself for a long run. Of all the sessions I do, I dislike long runs the most. I find them tough on the body. But I have to do them. I’ve slightly changed my running training strategy this year and have been/will be doing a bit more speedwork and fewer longer runs. Too many long runs can create a bit of staleness and residual fatigue, so I’ve been mixing my running training up. But this means I have to be very careful not to get injured, and to make sure I am properly recovered.

Anyway, it was long run time this week so I stretched and warmed up and headed out. It was a bad day for a long run – quite hot and very humid. It had rained heavily earlier in the day, but a strong sun had come out and was now evaporating all the water off the wet ground. I like to try and do significant chunks of my longer runs off-road – in parks or along trails – so this worsened the humidity. It was like running in a tropical jungle and I was sweating a lot.

The idea behind my long runs isn’t to run them super-hard, risking injury and leaving myself wrecked for days afterwards. The idea is to just get used to running for extended periods of time. Ironman marathon pace will be something like 7:30-7:40 per mile, which for a standalone run is quite slow.

I started off at 7:30 pace, nice and easy, and without even trying, my pace gradually came down until after 14 or 15 miles I was running at under 7 minutes per mile. I got through the run, got back to the house and got a load of fluid down me. Then a protein milkshake, a banana, a flapjack and some porridge. Then I went outside and lay down and elevated my legs, to help to drain out any lactic acid. What you do in the 20-30 minutes after any tough session is crucial, and it will define how well you recover from it.

 

Feet up, lactic draining...

Nice decoration on the wall... great house 

After I had done the crucial things – eaten, drank, taken on protein, elevated my legs, done a little jog and had a shower, I was happy to sit in front of the TV and eat pasta, vegetables and salmon, while watching the first day of what looks like a classic snooker final. I’m a bit gutted I won’t get to see its second-day conclusion as I’ll be flying to Italy. Also during this week I got a pair of £60 cycling shorts for £37.99. If the pad’s comfort level is on a par with how futuristic it looks, they should be a good pair of shorts…

So next week I’ll be in Italy, I’ll train hard next weekend, then the week after this it looks like I’ll be back to Italy, where I’ll taper down for the North Norfolk 100 mile time trial on Saturday 16th May. Then I’ll take a week or so to properly recover, then it’ll be two more tough weeks, a week to taper for the Bristol triathlon, a week to recover from that, a final 2-week training block and 2 weeks to taper for the Ironman. Sounds straightforward… So near and yet so far. So much done, and so much still to do. I’ll get there. Hopefully… All I know is that I’m doing everything I can to maximise my chances, and I have to trust that’ll be enough…

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 27 Apr: 14 hill reps: 70, 69, 68, 68, 68, 68, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 67, 68
Tue 28 Apr: Rest
Wed 29 Apr: Rest
Thu 30 Apr: Rest
Fri 1 May: Swim 3.1km (25 x 100m off 2mins), 1:05 turbo (single leg drills, 7 x 3mins R, L, B)
Sat 2 May: 4:20 turbo, 25 minute run
Sun 3 May: Swim 3.3km (paddle drills), 110 minute run

Totals: Swim 6.4km, Bike 120 miles, Run 26 miles