My standard week

well done to all those people who did IM Kona. Boy do i wonna go there!

Since my training is a bit awry at the moment I thought I would review what I aim to do in a standard week.

Monday

Rest day with option for extra swim or run p.m. if not too tired after days work

Tuesday

45 min bike into work and 45 bike home then a 2hr block (usually long run)

Wednesday

a.m. swim if pool open (no lights in winter)

p.m. 1 hr run whilst me children do their swimming club

Thursday

a.m. 2-3 hr bike including interval sessions

currently modified to be 2 hr run then 40 min hill session

p.m.

swim if possible (sometimes late at work so pool closed)

Friday

a.m.

swim in summer

p.m.

second long run if possible(1-2.5 hrs depending on where I am in training)

Saturday

4-6 hr bike

Sunday
1hr swim
1hr run



In general i usually miss one of the 3 swims and one of the runs depending on what is happening at work. this means I have to be flexible and keep reworking my schedules.

This generally works well and meshes with all my other roles and time commitments. By keeping to the same strict routine I can achieve a regular 12 hr week of training with potential to increase this at peak times. It does not however lend itself easily to changing up sessions especially in winter when it comes to getting the extra swimming in unless I find a new venue for swimming which would come at a time cost per swim. This time could theoretically be out to better use elsewhere in my training week should I have the necessary discipline, experience tells me this is unlikely.

In general I try to rotate through 3 swimming sessions (steady state swim say 45-60mins non stop, long intervals say 10 x 200 as main set, and short speed work including 3 x 4 x 100 on long rests). In winter I am usually less discipline with my swimming and try and do differen sets to keep the interest up).

Running has been done for the last year at goal race pace for IM e.g. 8 min/miles for most of it. Speedwork seems to leave me injured, see current 2 week gap in run training following first 10km for a year!

Bike is done again a lot harder most of the time than those I occasionally train with. If I have a 4 hr ride I will do it pretty much at a pace that is the wrong side of comfortable. And that is basically what I have done for the last 2 years with a few modifications.

The big question is can I do it any better. Well I am sure with more time I could do more but that is not an option. Perhaps I could do more focus each week on different disciplines but again I am not sure that would do more for my training.

Looking back my best running has been achieved after a winter of consistent running and my best bike was this summer and came from a good base but then a few key sessions prior to IMCH (which were IM lanza, a few 100 mile rides where I just felt good and some solid thurs morning rides). I have yet to achieve a best swim!

In general it takes about 8 weeks to get me into the groove, once there I can start to ramp up the hours a bit. However being a fulltime dad and doctor there are limits to the fatigue my work and family can put up with. I probably use my perceived fatigue, especially when it comes to days when I lose any desire to train, as an indicator of where my training limits lie.

Now I think if it get it right, hold the weeks together without injury, then a full 16-20 week build up to IMDE should see me going faster than ever.

Enjoy the training

I must say that I have really enjoyed the training this week. Not sure why really. The running is going ok and enjoyed a steady 10KM today in 41.30- would have been a bit faster if I had not got cramp in my right hamstring as I kicked for home in the last K only to find it tighten up. Instead of a last K in sub 4mins it took 4.30 which rather took the shine of things. However since this was on the back of a hard 5 hr bike ride yesterday I hope there is more speed to come.

Part of the fun this week has come from changing around some of my routine a bit and particularly good was a session of hill repeats on Parliament Hill in Hampstead. Each breathless climb was rewarded by the most fantastic views across London before dropping down again to repeat the exercise. This is going to stay in the programme for at least the next eight weeks. I think it is pretty good for building leg strength and should also help me to get up onto my toes a bit more- which I is probably a good thing. Sadly I got yet another rejection from the London Marathon (a total of 5 in 7 years) so more motivation for a good run at Luton.

Not much to add really. A big shout to all those in Kona and hope that your days go well.

Still running

I am please to report that I have managed an entire week of running without incurring any significant injuries. A total mileage of 38 miles in the week sees me at a level I have not managed for nearly 18 months ( when in IM training mode in my heaviest weeks I may get to 40 odd miles but rarely more!). Since I am on a run focus it is interesting to see how much quicker I recover and how much less fatigue I feel.

I am back on the bike from this weekend as I believe you have to keep the long rides going winter, spring, summer or autumn, to misquote a song :-)

so now starting to try and pick a way to train for Luton Marathon. As ever sustainablity would seem to be the key. I am currently trying to get up to 2 x 2hr runs a week, with at least 2 other runs a week. The idea of running a marathon every week is frankly not sustainable (at the moment) as I just dont have that sort of (muscular) running endurance, nor indeed the time in my life to fit another 4 hr session in without sacrificing my weekend bike.

If and when I get to back up a few solid 50 mile weeks it might then be something I consider (so the end of October maybe). That would still leave me short of the miles I would like to get in by Luton to start contemplating a sub 3 but I would hope I could run a 3.14 in a controlled fashion.

Which still leaves me thinking about a sub 3! I guess it will depend on progress by Luton, but if I get there in good condition then I will be looking for another marathon in february- any ideas?

Been a while but life has been demanding and for the time being the old work thing has to take a bit of precedence. That said I managed to knock out a 3.33 marathon at the 3 to go marathon on sat 12th sept which was pretty good considering the complete lack of significant running between my last IM and the race. The race was great and one I can strongly recommend as a good day out (a slightly odd statement for anyone who does not have a strong background of endurance training I guess). I set out to run 8 min miles and was pretty much bang on for the whole race except the last 3 miles when my legs stiffened up (lack of training). I also ran out of things to eat at about mile 18 which may have been a factor. My plan is to try and run a marathon or equivalent distance once a month through the winter (injuries etc permitting). So the next one will be in October, possibly a lumpy one in Surrey hills failing that a homemade tour of all the major london parks.

Other goals for winter training are to see if I can manage a 200m non-stop butterfly, which gives swimming a slightly different angle. In addition I will try and do more swimming strength work all of which is designed to keep me motivated across the winter.

Cycling will be left to be done as and when I feel. In general I shall aim to stick with a 4 hr ride most weekends to keep things going but as I plan to work on running and therefore I am going to avoid any heavy bike work.

It seems likely that next year will be the last season for IM racing for a while since the time commitments are starting to impinge on the other world. I think I may well focus on a single discipline for a year or two and perhaps try and do some other endurance challenges like cycling to somwhere far away, doing a mountain marathon or swimming something challenging.

In the meant time I'll just keep plugging away at this autumns goals.

To do two or not to (do) ((2)) ?

July 1st this year I logged on early to get a space for IM Germany. This was going to be my A race for next year. I was still toying with the idea of doing IM Lanza for the third time but decided that maybe a family holiday at easter would be better way to spend a week in Lanza and the date this year for some reason is no longer in synch with the school summer half terms (but this may not be insurmountable).

Then I raced IM Switzerland and found a course I liked, unlike TomW, particularly the run which is heavily shaded and has plenty to keep the mind alert. Even better they changed the date to the 1st August bang in the middle of school hols.

So now the dilemma. I feel I have done well racing back to back IMs with a 6/7 week gap but I am less confident about the 4 weeks. With 6 weeks I have managed to put in some top sessions in weeks 4/5 and have felt this has really boosted my second IM (especially the hard 100 milers) but I am less sure about the 4 weeks.

I know some such as Russ have done very well but I think this has been off a much bigger background training volume than I can achieve. I dont know yet whether I "train on" after my first IM race, to steal a phrase from horse racing, and if so whether this will work across a shorter distance. Ah well, I guess there is an easy way to find out!! Hotel booked for Frankfurt, hotel booked for Zurich, looks like IM 6 and IM 7 are on the way.

Back to the training. Needless to say running has been hampered by calf strain. rested up for the Dextro race at weekend and felt it go as I ran towards T1 out of the swim (new Oly p.b. of 24.06) had a good bike but not that fast (1.07-I have done very little by way of training since July14th) and managed about 800m of run before I packed it in.

So now a period of rehab, slow running... and then a little matter of the 26.2 miles on sept 12th. I know its probably not sensible but sometimes I just cant help myself... promise to self, take a taxi cab number and remember to run slowly.

Owls and stuff

Been back from hols for 7 days and it is clear I need more of them. My daughters and I had a fantastic time camping in France. The highlight was on a campsite in the Il de Re near La Rochelle. After a hard day of lying on the beach, eating oysters and steak, and lying on the beach again I found sleeping a real pleasure. On the second night there we were awoken by the blood curdling screech of a psychotic axe murderer, or a small owl depending on whether you were inside or outside the tent. Said owl was sat in the tree above our tent emitting its blood curdling noise to which there was a reply by his mate from the other side of the campsite... after a while it was no longer funny as we all stood outside our tent beneath the tree where the owl was doing its thing.

I shone our biggest torch on full beam and gave the owl a full on disco strobe effect. The owl started to jig from side to side "doing a Micheal Jackson" as my youngest put it, bobbing and weaving its head from side to side... but still giving it large with the terrible noise. It was one of the funniest things my daughters and I had ever seen. Each time we flashed the owl with the light it did some more bobbing.

Eventually when we stopped laughing and as the owl still showed no sign of going I threw a tent peg at it...well in the vicinity, the screeching stopped but there was aloud clanking as the peg fell onto the roof of the caravan next door! Back inside the tent we hid and giggled awaiting the shouts of an angry man from the caravan.. It never happened and eventually we giggled back to sleep.

Suffice to say that training was not a priority across the week although I did manage a beautiful 16km run around a lake with my 22 year old nephew ( he went out fast but blew at about 12 km- who says I am competitive) and a fantastic ride around the lake the day after on my MTB.

Back home and I have decided to try and swim every day in the build up to the dextro tri this weekend. Last week saw me put in 7 swims in 8 days (some kind of record I am sure) recording nearly 20KM. i wonder how the swim will go? As posted last time I am trying to mix and match my run training... so after the 4x 400m speed set and tried a tempo run friday and had to stop due to cramp in a hamstring! Sunday run had to be aborted as said strain had not ye settled.

Sadly the bike to has been somewhat neglected.. even the turbo session I tried did not seem to work since when I tried to push my willing was not there and I climbed of disconsolate. But hey you cant have it all and if the running and biking have to slide for a bit then so be it.. frankly I would much rather another week of screeching owls and french campsites.

Faster and Longer and Shorter and Slower or Something

So there goes another season of Ironmannery. I guess I should review the season's progress and stuff like that but I can do that another day. For now I plan to focus on my goals for the next few months which are essentially running.

Around this time last year I tried a bit of running (50 mins or more) for every day of september, as part of a planned build up to Luton Mara. I managed 29 runs in september and on the 30th ignored my body which was telling me I had had enough and followed the macho voice in my brain which said go for the last run to complete the goal. Result was me pulling up after 20 mins of running on stumps with a trashed calf muscle and my running suffered for most of this year as a consequence. So I learnt, yet again, to listen to my body and not the little voice in my head.

This year I want to learn to run faster. I plan to try and do some 10km style training while also building towards Luton Marathon. Goals are very simple, a sub 40 10km and a sub 3.15 mara. The first stages towards this include some fast work in the next 13 days before I do the London Dextro energy Tri. Can I start getting some fast twitch fibres back on line in that time? I will find out.

Once that is done I will start on some regular short interval work coupled with weight training and some plyometric type stuff. Obviously I will need to keep some long runs to keep me on track for a marathon and will enhance this by mixing in some hill sessions. The plan is to keep the running mixed and challenging whilst of course listening to my body and not the little voice in my head saying I could just do a bit more. Swimming will be done for recovery, bike will be maintained but running will be the focus. I will try and put up some planned sessions over the next few weeks and would welcome any advice on top sessions to improve my 10km speed (and no I am not doing a Maffetone- I want to feel fast rather than believe that at some far of point in the future I might be fast).

So thats clear then!