runtilyoudrop

50 runs in 50 days

2011-12-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

On Xmas day I completed my 50th run of 50 minutes in 50 days (give or take). This saw me run just under 500kms in the same time period with a weekly average running time of 6hrs and 20 minutes. This is the most running I have sustained, the only other times I have run 6 hrs or more have been in the peak weeks of ironman training or in the build up to a marathon.

Then I got to thinking. 6 hrs a week is probably not much for a club runner, but I found it tough. I guess to train like a runner is every bit as hard as a triathlete and I am not sure I could cope without the variety. I was still cross training with a couple of swims a week and an average of 4-5 hrs of bike a week but that still equates to quite a doable weekly training volume of 12 hrs or so a week. Yet after a couple of weeks I was tired all the time. I found that whenever I did some sustained efforts whether running swimming or cycling the next few days of running were really tough. No big surprise but this did highlight the effects of intensity when doing constant training. Towards the last week I was focused mostly on just completing the task and found motivation to do anything else almost completely absent.

So the big question is whether this has done me any good? My cycling and swimming have been held back and with still more focus to come with running until the end of March I dont know. The next part is to work out how to train to run 3 marathons in 3 days while also building my bike volume. I have a few events planned bu worry that 12 weeks is not long enough to build the long distance endurance. We shall see.

The athlete's heart

2011-12-11T06:23:00.000-08:00

As I lay in bed the other night I was more aware of my heart beat than normal. All athletes should at some point start learning to listen to their body as it talks to us in many ways. Muscle soreness tells us we have done a harder session or used muscles in ways we are not use to. Muscle pains warn us of impending, or if ignored announce, new injuries. Tiredness tells us we need rest and fever suggests we have some form of infective illness. Part of the monitoring process should include checking your resting pulse from time to time, ideally when you awake as this can warn you about whether your cold is more significant or whether your tiredness is perhaps starting to overreach your fitness.

What about if you are lying there and you become aware that your pulse is skipping beats or has become irregular? Should we be worried? What should we do? Well as I lay there I could feel a strong beat every third or fourth beat and then when I felt my pulse it was occasionally irregular. So I woke my wife up, she happens to be a doctor, and got her to check it and sure enough it was irregular. Half an hour later I had decided either I had some fatal heart arrhythmia or I had athlete's heart syndrome.

So what is "athlete's heart syndrome" (AHS) and what should you do about it? T

The most important distinction of AHS is that it is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning you have to exclude more significant causes of heart problems, and that it is essentially benign, meaning that it is not associated with ill health or indeed sudden death which is pretty reassuring.

So what are the symptoms of athlete's heart syndrome?

Often there are no symptoms but features would include a slow heart rate (the bradycardia of fitness which most endurance athletes are aware of) such as exhibited by TdF cyclist Miguel Indurain who had a resting heart rate of 29 (which is definitely pathological in a non athlete). Other features might include occasional ectopic heart beats, leading to a slightly irregular pulse, but otherwise there is little else.

Where the problem comes is when you have either an ECG (electronic tracing of your heart rhythm, or an echocardiogram of you heart- an ultrasound scan of your heart which can look at how your heart functions).

What should you do if you have an irregular heart beat or other "unusual symptoms"?

1. See your doctor and get some tests

Firstly you should see you doctor and explain your symptoms: they should arrange some blood tests and a ECG. The blood tests are to exclude biochemical abnormalities such as a low a plasma potassium level, and other things that can cause problems such as an overactive thyroid which can cause arrythmias. They should also enquire about risks factors for arrythmias such as excess caffeine, alcohol, recreational drugs and fatigue all of which can induce abnormal heart rhythms. If you have had arrythmias then you should also have a 24 hr ECG and an echocardiogram.

2. The ECG, 24hr ECG and Echocardiogram

The ECG should be able to identify if you have a pathological heart rhythm, but here it gets difficult. Just like Miguel's heart rate being too slow for the untrained, fit people may have findings on their ECG that would be abnormal in an untrained person. So there is a grey area, and what if you only get the arrhythmia occasionally? If there is still concern then you can have a 24 hr ECG which essentially means having your heart monitored for 24 hrs and an echocardiogram to assess your heart function. The 24 hr ECG should identify if you have a significant risk of heart arrythmias but again should be interpreted with caution since some arrythmias are normal in the fit hea

rt!

3. What is a fit heart, why does it cause problems interpreting tests and who should I see?

As we train (say more than an hour a day) our heart gets fitter, which means amongst other things the muscle of our heart gets bigger. This occurs especially in the bit that does the most work, the left ventricle or LV for short. When the heart muscle gets bigger it becomes more efficient at pumping blood and is one of the reasons why at rest our heart rate becomes slower, as with each heart beat we can pump more blood around our body. Enlargement of our LV can be pathological and his is one of the key causes of sudden death and is therefore a cause for concern when it is seen on an ECHO study of you heart. It is very unlikely that an athlete who has been training for more than a year at a high level will have a pathological cause of LV enlargement. Where concern arises there are some subtle differences in the pattern of the echo changes between the fit heart and the abnormal heart, and perhaps the ultimate test is to detrain for a period of 1-3 months in which case if it is an athletic heart the LV enlargement should reverse. Where this does not occur it may be pathological (the condition is called HOCM) and would need further tests.

4. Should I be worried?

Sudden death in training athletes is very rare. Pathological findings are most common in those with less than a year of athletic training under their belt. In the older mid life crisis athlete (typically late thirties early forties with a history of little previous exercise and general poor lifestyle e.g. smoker etc) it is usually due to coronary artery disease resulting in a "heart attack". If you are this person and get chest discomfort on exercise you need to get a check up. In the younger athlete new to regular training
it is nearly always HOCM or occasionally a pathological heart rhythm. A family history may exist in which case you should have a screening test but unfortunately in some the first they know of it can be too late.

Happily for me my heart studies were completely normal, for an athletes heart, so I can continue training.

Belligerence

2011-11-27T06:52:00.001-08:00

bel·lig·er·ence /bəˈlɪdʒərəns/ [buh-lij-er-uhns]

noun

1. a warlike or aggressively hostile nature, condition, or attitude.

2. an act of carrying on war; warfare.

So I started running everyday on Nov 1st. The goal is to run everyday for an average run of 50 minutes and to try and get to 50 days (Xmas more or less). The rationale behind it is that it will make me a better runner by building the resilience and strength to then carry me through a more challenging programme of some form of ultra training in the build up to the Jurassic coastal challenge.

Now I am a strong believer in repetition and have had read about and spoken with several who have done this sort of thing in the past. When you think of what Eddie Izzard achieved in running 43 marathons in 51 days this should be a doodle for a multi ironman finisher right! Well firstly I had been recovering from a slight calf niggle, then there was a significant event which curtailed running for a day so 2 days lost in the first week. Not good and even with the unplanned rests I was finding the backing up of day to day runs pretty tough. Alongside this was a slightly reduced training schedule but still 3 bike sessions and 2 swims a week. I started "Zombie" running. This is how I would describe the running when you are tired and really feel like anything other than running but know you are committed to trying to reach your goal. Shoes slapping the pavement (no barefoot runner me!) listening to podcasts of IM talk and Radio 4 I get the run done.

The problem is days where I only have a single slot to get some training done (such as Thursday when I usually ride) and so the running takes primacy. Long days of work mean that recently I have had to run at 0530 which is really tough- my body does not like it and takes ages to wake up and start functioning. Stiff joints suggest I am ageing and at some point you start to really question the why! A few days in New York was a good break in the routine and a new arena to run in. Jet lag meant I was awake good and early and found myself running round central park with an amazingly large number of fellow runners, who I had to race obviously.

Which leads to the point of this which is managing the fatigue. With the constant stress of a daily running each additional session is reflected in the following days run. The hardest days are those after a long bike session, or when you push a bit hard (such as beating the American joggers in Central Park) the day before.At 35-40 miles a week this is almost as much running a week as I ever do but somehow feels harder than when I have longer runs but with days off. I am now running against myself, the belligerence to complete the task fights with my more cerebral voice that says there are probably better ways to get the same training effect, but now I don't care. I will be the runner that does the task, I will run at any time day or night to get the job done and I will be tired!

Hard work

2011-10-29T09:12:00.000-07:00

Went for a gentle 4 hr ride today. It was hard work. As someone who feels I should be able to ride for 4 hrs without much fuss it came as a surprise as I started to find in the last hour that I had become one paced (slow) and tired. I recognised that I had done some reasonable training in the week and some fatigue had developed: I know I have not done many long rides in the last 6 weeks with one thing and another: and yet still I expected to be able to ride better than I did.

This self image reminds me that it is hard work that enables me to be the person I imagine. It is not some divine innate genetic makeup, it is not anymore the youth, and it is not a consequence of opportunity to train. This hard work AKA training is achieved by doing the sessions in spite of myself. Trying not to lie in on a Thursday morning because it sounds like it is raining outside and the ride will be wet and cold and dark! Not expecting myself to be able to just swim faster because I should do by now, I have had enough practice, but to remember it is the consecutive sessions that make me faster, not the single session.

Running is where I believe I have most to gain in my drive to become a more complete Ironman. With my goal to qualify for Kona next year I felt that I really need a strong focus to put down some big base running numbers. I attribute this years IM mara PB to a number of things including a greater amount of running!! I dont think this game is rocket science. With this in mind I plan to take on the Jurassic Coastal Challenge which is 3 hilly marathons in 3 days running along the coastline of my youth between Poole And Weymouth and beyond. The challenge will be to try and complete this within myself so to speak.. probably a big ask but without this strategy I might well blow a large hole in any IM training planned through April and May.

The plan is to try some everyday running (just as soon as my calf injury clears up). I plan to try and string together a minimum 6 runs a week through November and December. 30 mins will be enough to qualify as a run but an overall average to exceed 40 minutes a day (which at 4 hrs a week is close to what I can sustain based on previous years). The idea is to build in straightforward resilience to injury (although this could be a good way into injury!) so it looks like my alarm clock is going to be a bit earlier and I think i could do with a new headlamp.

We will see how strong my appetite for this hard work is, I still plan to ride and swim so will need to be conservative in my efforts across the week. I hope that by the end of December I will be running strong and ready then to move into some more extensive run training to get me ready for a 3 day ultradistance endurance challenge.

Detraining, weight gains, life gains

2011-09-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

6 months of focussed training towards my season goals and I had reached a point where I needed rest. My year is split in two. I allow six months where Ironman takes shall we say a higher precedence in my scheduling and then six months where I push it further back and focus on the rest of my life. Summer holidays are my time to focus on my family and as a consequence training is allowed to be completely random and non focussed. This meant I ran about 3 times a week across the month of August in a variety of scenic and invariably hilly locations, such as the bay in Brittany pictured above. Cycling was almost largely limited to slow pootling about at the pace of a fit 9 year old and swimming was mostly surfing and bodyboarding.

At the end of IMUK I weighed 76kg. This increased to 78 kg when I rehydrated. By the end of August after some serious quality barbecues supplemented by red wine I had boosted my weight to 83.6 kg. Healthwise this is probably my ideal weight. I know when I train the weight will move again but feel that below 80 kg I become susceptible to colds and general illness. The month off was clearly necessary to put my body back together after a punishing schedule of races and working but the payback when I went round Regents Park with the Rouleurs was to be spat out the back afer 4 laps of tempo riding and swimming felt more like controlled drowning.

Experience however is a wonderful thing. With the return of school and work schedules comes the more regular training slots and sessions with London Fields Tri. I know that slowly the muscles will get acclimatised again and the specific fitness will recover. That said I am in no rush to do anything other than keep ticking over. I have started back doing weights to build a bit of muscle mass as a buffer against age and injury, and after much decision have decided this autumn I will mostly be doing cyclcross (of which more later!).

Next years goal is simple. I plan to try and qualify for Kona.

IRONMAN UK 2011

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Short report 10:15;19 12th 40-44AG

I will start this by saying how much I enjoyed the UK Ironman race and how much I rate the course which was a big surprise to me! My previous experience of TRIUK the old organisers was abysmal. Their approach to everything seemed wrong and their finished product was often poor. That said there is a lot the new race organisers need to improve on but the swim bike and run courses were all great. Most credit must go to the people of Bolton who really seemed to take the race to their hearts as the support out on the run course was fantastic and their encouragement seemed so genuine. I think the race should stay in Bolton but they need to work on the athlete experience pre and post race.

So to race day. I was feeling a bit rough still with the tail end of a viral infection and was wondering how it was going to go. I got out into the lake early as I was worried about there being a crowd at the start line. I need not have been, there was plenty of room and compared to the start of the HIMUK it was positively gentile. The water was nice and warm, and off we went. I took the first 200m a lot easier than at Austria, which was possible as there was much less crowding. At the first turn at about 700m I found the feet of someone who could swim straight and just a bit faster than me. Perfect, I then drafted him for the next lap. He pulled me past several groups although I finally lost his feet at a turn and could not get back. No worries I felt strong and cruised the last 800m in without a clue what time I had done.

SWIM 56;41 (so it the swim distance was short!!!) 15th AG 91 overall

Out onto the bike. As per plan I started quite steadily. This still saw me flying past any number of good swimmers (that is anyone faster then me in the water). To begin with it was all reasonably flat, although road surfaces were poor so I rode the white line with some effect. The route takes you north up towards the 34 mile circuit that you repeat 3 times to make the bulk of the course. Soon I started going up, past a feed station a quick decent and thanks to WIGANERS guide to the route new I must be about to start the sheep house lane climb. It was not so bad and easily done first time round in the saddle with a 39x26 gear. The next part of the loop was downhillish and flatish. This saw me catch up with Jo 4th female before I pushed hard on another flattish section which saw me catch the third female pro. I was then surprised by a lot more steady rises where I soon lost the 3rd pro. None were really too hilly but nothing was too flat either. This and quite a lot of twists and turns made for hard work on the bike. Still as I finished the first lap and repeated the climb of sheep house lane I was feeling strong. Unlike Austria there were no big bunches and I spent most of the time riding on my own.

The second lap followed the same pattern as the first: fast on the flat section after sheep hill and then surprised, you would think I would learn, at the long drag in the second half. I was however hot and conscious that my nutrition was not as good as it could be and I had backache. This is usually because I have not spent enough time in the saddle or my blood sugar is low. The truth is I think I was going a bit too hard so my HR was too high and hence my gut was not tolerating the food as well as I would hope. The third time up sheep hill I was out of the saddle and no longer had a choice over my cadence. I was not able to push quite so hard on the next flat section and was caught by a line of 3 others. I kept with them but started to feel tired, my legs were dull and would not respond to my commands for more power without a large amount of effort. At the end of the third lap I had 112 miles on the clock and expected a quick arrival at T2. Sadly for me there were still a few more miles which hurt more then they should. Finally of the bike, a quick change and I was out onto the run.

BIKE 5:40;57 (114 miles?) 6th AG 48th overall

Another quick change and Iwas out on the run. I had driven this bit in a car the day before and new the first 3 miles were essentially downhill. My legs felt dreadful. At Austria I had run the first mile in under 7 minutes and then settled into a 7.45 min miles for the next 16 miles or so. This time the first mile was only just under 8 mins and that was downhill. Usually it takes me 3 or so miles before I know how the IM marathon is going to be. This is because that is how long roughly it takes to forget I have just cycled 112 miles and focus on how far exactly I have to run! 3 miles in and I still felt rubbish. Every 2-3 minutes I would here the flop flop of trainers as another good runner (anyone faster than me!) slowly gained and then passed me. I had been passed by over ten in the first 5 miles.

Well ironman is not meant to be easy. So I knuckled down, banished the demons and put my race face on. The run route into Bolton town centre was great. The crowd support was huge and the run was hilly. Did I mention that? After a run from T2 down to Bolton town centre we then did 3 x 6 mile loops (only they were a bit shorter than that). Half the loop was positively up hill and half was down hill. My uphill miles took about 40 secs longer than my downhill ones!!

Great support from some trilondoners Lotte and Andy in particular helped me through some of the darker patches. Using all the tricks to keep the mind focused on short term goals, positive thinking and the desire to just get the thing done I was soon running down the hill for the last time. My maths had me a bit suspicious for the finish time since I reckoned to be running just under 9 min/mile but the finish seemed to come at least 15 mins early! My run had let me down.

RUN 3:32;51 12th AG 71 overall

TOTAL 10:15;19
I needed to run 10 mins quicker to get a slot for Kona. Coulda woulda shoulda.

There is always next time.

The best laid plans and of mice and men..

2011-07-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

.. Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain.

Just about sums up where I am heading into Ironman UK. A cold took hold last weds and by Saturday I was under its spell. I forced myself out for a 40 min run and then retired hurt for the next 2 days to the sofa. Plans to keep the training rolling were shelved. Out of 7 days I drew 4 blanks and those day I did train were pretty useless. The last two days have seen a recovery and I have done a few simple sessions to try and kickstart my body.

So what for the race. With the virus clearing I think I might run into some form but I am not certain of this. I think degree of conservatism in this race is called for. Unlike IMA I am not chasing any PBs (besides it is not the race for this). I also think I cannot afford to throw myself into the race and hang on, At probably an hour longer I need to think more about racing and nutrition. With this in mind I will start out conservatively on the bike and look to build into the laps. Riding without having seen the course before I will aim to be smooth rather than hurried on the first lap. I will wait til the third lap to see if I can push and hope to finish having completed my nutrition goals and with enough in the tank to run a solid 3:30 marathon.

Times here look slow, IM lanza slow which means I should expect to add at least an hour to my IMA time so my goal is to go 10:30, anything more will be a bonus.

Halfway?

2011-07-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

So I am roughly halfway between IM Austria and IM Bolton. After exceeding all my expectations at Klagenfurt I have found the motivation to go on towards Bolton with a bit of confidence in my step. I have managed to gently ease my way back into training post Klagenfurt with some gentle swims and bike rides and now 2 runs. The fatigue seems to be easing and my legs are coming back.

Having read around doing Ironmans only 4 weeks apart and having done ironman races 6 weeks apart on two occasions I have clear ideas around how I want to approach this period. Given that I am a the subject of my own training trial I thought I should go with my hunches which is as follows.

Week 1 saw me do 4 and a half hours of exercise capped at a HR of 130 (in fact anything that felt like exertion). This week I have started to build my workload and plan some specific sets including hill sessions on the bike and some speed work on the runs (since I figure I can bank on the endurance from the ironman marathon just done). Next week should see me hit a build week of around 18 hrs (from Sunday to Friday) and then I will be into a short one week taper.

Will it work? I dont know but I feel confident for having a plan, I will listen to my body and the fatigue that is inevitably there and we will see what happens. The balance between fitness and fatigue will be different for the next race and I will be trading a bit more fatigue against a bit more fitness. If I get it right then I think this could be my best performance if I get it wrong then I will learn from this and try something different next time. Lets go Bolton.

Sleepless in Klagenfurt- a race report

2011-07-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

It is 3.30 in the morning Monday about 13 hrs after finishing IM Austria here in Klagenfurt. My legs are extremely sore and I have got sunburn in some interesting places in spite of using my reliable (sic?) P20 sun protection. Unable to sleep I have plenty of time to share my race experience from yesterday.

The build up to the race has been pretty solid. A bike crash about 5 weeks ago was a slight hiatus which saw a few weeks where training was uncomfortable due to a cracked rib or two but otherwise the buld has been good. Two weeks back I did UK 70.3 which is a tough course and saw me worried about recovering in time for this race... but by the beginning of last week with a short taper I started to feel good.

Race day had all the usual shennanigans including the never ending queues for a toilet in the hour before race start. Into the water went 2800 racers and as ever there was no way they could hold the athletes back and with a boom of the cannon (well maybe cause i could not here it) we were off.

I had decided to go in the middle and fight for my space and try and get pulled along in the melee. I guess it worked. at the first turn (after about1.2 km) thee was a massive squeeze as we all converged on a buoy and I was literall lifted out the water!! Better up then down I thought. You then swim across and then back up a canal. Sighting was tricky and I guess I veered all over the place. The last km is up a canal which is always fun and finally I was sprinting for the swim exit.

SWIM 59.54 a new pb.

Transition this year was a 400m run away. Smoothly through transition and I was off. I settled into a groove and rode within myself. I know this course well it being my third time here and new to save my efforts for the second half. plenty of bikes whizzing past but I was happy with my pace. There was an additonal 400m stretch with a dead turn to account for the new sited transition. The first time round this I managed to overcook it and ended up in the soft verge and then the ditch. No harm done but for some dented pride and a valuable 30 seconds or so. I laughed and a fellow Brit said it looked really funny but promised to keep it to himself.

the only other experience form the first lap of note was having an improptu shower from Mario some t@sser who thought it woud be Ok to empty his bladder on a downhill with me only about 20 metres behind. I shared a few anglosaxon words with him!

Second lap and I was ready to work. With a headwind and it being quite flat there was quite a bit of bunching. that said I worked farily in a paceline and more often than not was pushing past at the front. There was some blatant drafting going on and unlike others I saw a number of racers get time penalties given. The second lap I managed to get round the corner without mishap. I had this pleasant period where on mostt of the steady up hill sections (as opposed to the sharper climbs) I was picking of riders constantly. This was a new experience for me in Iroman (and one I like!) although the bunches would then come back to you on the gentle downhills that followed.

I faded a bit in the last 20 km but concentrated on tapping out a steady rhythm and was soon back into T2. I had no idea what my bike split was as my computer had failed.. which probably helped as I had no real conception of how fast I had gone!

BIKE 4.53.22

and out onto the run. My first mile split was a sub 7! I also had a massive stitch which lasted about 3 miles and I think is related to my bike crash as it was on the same side. For the first 30 mins theere were a number of runners who went steaming past, which is normal for me, but after a while they stopped. I was now doing some solid 7.40 splits which felt good and my body was telling me to go faster. My brain said you have never sustained this sort of pace and if you think you can go faster then wait til mile 20! So I settled in and tried to keep it consistent. At about mile ten I saw Steven coming in the opposite direction. Now Steven is much faster than me and I assumed he must have had a mechanical on his bike or something as I had never been this close (and still had no idea how fast I was going). At this point I though a sub 9.50 was about wher I was at!

By halfway I was catching and passing plenty including some who had gone off to fast. This a new experience for me in an ironman! The pain was starting to turn up a notch but I focused on getting the gels down and drinking. Mile 17 and bang my righ hamstring cramped like I had been shot. No reason why, it just did. I spent about a minute stretching and trying to run. I could not, I stretched again and watched as all the racers I had overtaken went past. I started walking, then stretched then walked. A gentle jog broke out. The niggle was there but I was able to keep going. I paced myself of a slower runner for about half a mile, then he felt too slow. I started to push again, no more hamster niggles. My legs started to feel stiff and tired but I only had a quarter of the run left to do.

At the last trunaround I had the pleasure of passing the incontinent Mario, which I enjoyed greatly. By the last 2km I was done, the wheels came off and even though it was only 2km I had nothing left. This was a new experience as nearly always in the past I have always been able to dig out a bit of a grandstand finish! I think I was passed by about 10 others in the last 2K!!

I ran along the front before the turn into the finishers chute. My name was called out. Then I saw the time. The only thing I could think was it was wrong!!

RUN 3.24.05

RACETIME 9.24.55

Unreal. I had done PBs for every stage. My bike was 10 mins faster than ever before and my run a full 15 minute PB!

Any other year that would see me at Kona. This year you will need to be around 9 hrs dead to get a slot. The 40-44 was also as fast as the 35-39s. Why does my generation race so fast?

Known Knowns

2011-06-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

So pretty much my training is done. A few more sessions and a race next week and then taper and it will be showtime.

This year I have learnt some more things about myself and my training. I know that it would be hard to get any more training done in my current lifestyle. The tolerance of my family and friends is matched by my stubborn persistence to do the training, but I have found my limit to time and reserves for IM training. I have learnt that probably early season weight training and a big winter running base seem to reduce my propensity to injury. I have learnt that less intensity earlier in the year allows me to manage more later. I have learnt that I can win a race but that this does not motivate me (well maybe a little),

I have enjoyed the company of others in training which helps reduce my "blind" areas but perhaps this is the area for greatest potential. Do we ever take enough notice of what others say. Is this rectified by having a coach? I am starting to see the value of letting others see more of me, the so called hidden areas. Doing IM is not always comprehensible to others and trying to explain the perceived benefits to others makes one evaluate the benefits that you get yourself. Finally remains the unknown unknowns. And I don't know what they are.

Twist or stick?

2011-06-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Time comes as we get to the pointy part of the season, as the ironman race looms large, where we have to start deciding how much more fitness we can get out of the remaining time, and how much risk of injury and illness that final push may carry.

Put simply, and to plagiarise as ever, you've trained to train, your now trained to race an you wonder whether you might just be able to get that bit extra in the last few weeks to train to win (whatever your win might be!)

I know my body pretty well and have no doubts that the weeks 6-3 prerace are where I can make some real differences, but some for good and some for bad. Put simply my goals are to max my running volume, see my bike load climb and sustain or increase my swimming. Much like everyone else then... but with the increased training load comes stress, both the physical from the training itself but also from maintaining the rest of my life as a partner, parent and worker. So after two great days at the Tour of Wessex I bailed on the final day. This was probably necessary as it allowed a faster recovery to get back to the rest of my training programme, and enabled me to be back with my family a day early which was a real pleasure. That said I was still carrying the aches and pains of my bikecrash and was not sure I was on track to meet my goals. Nearly 16 hrs of training in the next 6 days saw me overcome the painful ribs and log some solid running. By Sunday night I was tired, had a sore calf and a bit of a sore throat. Today is a rest day.

So now I have to decide how hard to push this week. The plan says more of the same but the body feels tired and a bit worn. But that's how it is meant to be isn't it? Surely the peak block of training should see you close to your limit but not beyond, so that you can gather up all your fitness gains, shed a bit of fatigue in your taper and go out and smash it. I have done enough IM to know now that so long as I dont crack I should be able to make those goals, but run a risk of getting overcooked!

Twist or stick... I still have enough time to push the envelope a bit more, but will look for signs of real deterioration. If I have two sessions in a row where I feel I cant hit my own goals I will rest 48 hrs and then try again. If the sore throat develops then the same rules apply. If however I can hold it together then I have 12 more days before HIMUK to put those finishing touches towards a PB at IMA.... Oh yeah it is also about this stage in training when we start getting unrealistic ideas about how fast we are gonna go come raceday.

Ouch!!

2011-05-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is where you end up after a long ride and a sudden change of plan! Cycling is inherently dangerous!!

This accident resulted in a broken collarbone and a some pain, an enforced rest from raining and no little annoyance. But it could have been worse.

I have also suffered this week after a freak accident whch saw me hit a 2 inch block of wood in the road that punctured both tires and through me to the ground at about 20 mph. It hurt and I have the road rash and bruised ribs to show for it. I also get to share in the frustration of not being able to complete my training goals, cycling seems OK but swimming and running are out... good job I am dong a 350 mile cyclosportive over the weekend so I hope to be back running and swimming by next week.

So what are the risks in cycling and what can we do about it. It starts with setting out with the correct equipment. Make sure you bike works, the brakes are in good condition and you tires or OK. Make sure you have the appropriate clothing, especially cycling gloves and a helmet. Your hands will save the rest of you from significant injury but dont grind out the palms of your hands, cycling gloves have padding where they do for a reason (and it is not really to make your griip easier- its to cushion your hands in a fall onto your outstretched palm). As my hands are my livelihood I try to wear gloves even in a race.

The evidence for helmets is overwhelming if you view it correctly, There is a population study from australia that suggested that the wearing of helmets discouraged people from cycling and as a consequence there was a net reduction in total health benefit from cycling. It did not show as is frequently quoted that wearing of helmets themselves does anything other than reduce risk of serious head injury. Helmets save lives so you would be a fool not to use one.

The remaining risks are down to how you cycle and how you interact with other road users. As a lifelong rider in a busy city I can be pretty assertive in the way I ride which ensures visibility (good) but can lead to conflict (bad) but most city road users develop some degree of acceptance (probably related to the frequency of traffic lights) of each other. Country side road users seem to regard cyclists as more of a nuisance and often seem to be in more of a hurry. Any feedback to them of their inconsiderate driving is limited by the lack of aforementioned traffic lights. So we you need to learn where the roads are safe, how to avoid hotspots and how to reduce conflict. After 42 years I am slowly getting more mellow (OK hard to believe) but I do now try to smile and adopt a positive attitude in my response to other road users.

Finally speed increases risk. Take care especially on fast descents when you are tired... which brings us neatly back to the start of this post

oops I won something (well sort of)

2011-05-10T11:53:00.001-07:00

Sunday saw me take on the Marshman Middle Distance Triathlon based down in the Romney Marshes around Lydd in Kent. Set up as a staging event for those doing a summer IM it is almost exactly 8 weeks before IMA which is ideal if you follow the Friel 30 week IM plan (not that I do). Still it is a good event and a perfect run out to see how my training is going. I did it last year and it was a bit basic and more like an old school race and none to bad for that.

So i rocked up at 06:00 to register and found that my race registration had gone missing..... seems like I forgot to do it! No worries they had a few late withdrawals and I was given a slot in the third wave of the race.

The Race Director had heated the water in the watersports lake to a balmy 17 degrees compared to the chilly 12 of last year, and with minimal fuss we were off. I sprinted the first 20 strokes as normal expecting a bit of bumping but soon realised that the groups had been seeded (effectively) by swim time. So for the first time ever I lead the swim!! After about 600m I started catching some slower swimmers from the group ahead (who perhaps had been more aspirational in the expected swim times). The swim went steady and in the final third I started to catch up with the middle of the pack of the field ahead. Most of them seemed a bit surprised to have me cruising past but it gave me great motivation in the last few 100 metres; Time was 31.06 (32) slower than last year but I think the swim was longer.

T1 was a mess, I was not at all prepared and it showed. Mind you I felt calm and when I realised i had lost my racing chip I spent a good minute looking for and finding it among the mess of my wetsuit.

Out onto the Bike which is Flat Fast and Windy. I was soon passing riders at regular intervals and reeling them all in. I was not passed the whole ride and picked up a few pacers who hung onto me with varying degrees of success. I felt strong most of the way but lacked a bit in the the third quarter of the bike, but picked up in the last quarter. Time was 2.29.41 (17) new pb.

T2 was a bit more successful but still managed to lose about 200 yds on a Belgian guy who had been pacing with me during the bike... annoying and again I think I was a bit dazed but none to bad really.

Out on the run I had my Belgian mate to chase down, and was motivated by his comment as he passed me in transition, "Now we see how well you can run".

It took me about a mile and a half to close the 200 yards, my HR was way up but my runs always start so no surprise there. when I caught up with this guy I had a quick chat, noted his Im gear and established we are both doing IMA this year. After a minute or so I started to chase the next runner and so on. It felt too easy but I had the speed and I was not gonna waste it.

The only person in the race to pass me came by at mile 10, he went on to run a 1.27 HM but I hung with him for a mile or so then backed of cause it was hurting too much. I told myself that if this was my A race I could have stayed with him for the last 3 miles, not sure it was true but this was not the day to use up those mental reserves.. and probably I went a it far into the red as the run was quite hard for the last mile or so but my pace did not drop dramatically.

I finished by passing one more runner with 200 metres to go. Time was 1.33.22 (new pb) for the run and a finish of 4.39.36 also a new pb. Confident I had at least 2 minutes to shave of my transitions (and clearly something to focus on) all in all a very satisfying day out. Overall I was 19th and first Veteran home (over 40 and first in my AG.

Nex event will help to sort out my bike which will see me doing the Tour of Wessex whilst I boost my run volume to try and keep the speed for the more challenging IM marathons to come.

A good days training

2011-04-30T02:28:00.000-07:00

Me doing the London Fields 5k Swimathon

After reading an article by Dave Scott in this months 220 magazine I got to thinking about how many sessions a week I do where I come out feeling like I achieved my goals and felt good in the process. Some of the training I do is to get the session done... I strongly believe in consistently repeating the same weeks sessions until they start to feel easy at which point volume or intensity are increased. My tightly scheduled week means I know what I am doing when and what my goal is. Most of my sessions are tailored to fit in the long run and bike each week. After the 5K swimathon (1hr 20mins) which I did three weeks ago I have now also made a commitment to a long swim (>4KM) every week.

So this year I have reduced some of the length of my non endurance sessions and put a greater focus on quality in each session. So far it seems to be working. But it is challenging. It seems to be much easier just to get in the pool and knock out 3km than it is to do a set of drills, main set etc. Like wise cycling where for each session I have always figured more is better, but am now starting to focus on more specific sets in each session.

So yesterday I had a new wetsuit to try out. A zone 3 aspire swimsuit to replace my blueseventy helix which I don't think ever fitted me properly. It went on nicely but does seem a bit thin. Once in the water though I was more than happy. I proceeded to do my quality endurance set of the week which was a warm up and drills followed by 30 x 100 of 1:50. The goal is to keep the 100s consistent with a rest of 15-20 secs. I have been building this up and aim to be doing 40x 100 ny peak week. Funny things started to happen. Firstly I kept coming in on 1.25-1.28 which is about 5 secs faster than I expected (even with a wetsuit) secondly I got faster as I went on. With 18 reps done I decided to up the ante and did the next 12 of 1.45 coming in each time on 1.25 and putting in a final dig of 1.18 for the last 100.

Put simply that is the best swimming I have ever done! Which considered it is off the back of 2 x 20 hr weeks of training (pretty much my limit) suggests am I in good form. Or maybe this wetsuit gives me superpowers! Which of course gives me something else to worry about... can I keep the form and will my superpowers disappear?

Training in the Gaps

2011-04-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

One of the problems with training for an Ironman is having to work in the gaps in between training sessions. I am sure there are plenty out there who at my age (42years as you ask) have completed part 1 and 2 of their life plan through some successful business enterprise which they have managed to achieve alongside rearing a family. I imagine these guys who now have to commit a few days a week to keeping business ticking over and have the luxury to devote several days a week to focused training.

I know of several people who are out there "living the dream". This can take various guises. Some sell up and take to the road in a hope of achieving elite athlete status, some just want to give it their best shot and decide to take a few years as out of the mainstream, and some try to make it a new business venture combining their passion with coaching and training to create an all round triathlon lifestyle. For those of us who seek to augment their life through ironman these options may be a step to far, and besides I quite like my life the way it is. The challenge is as ever to find the gaps to train in.

This saw me getting up at 6 on sunday to then cycle my bike into work where I had a few patients to see. I then cycled in an arc keeping within 30 mins or so of work in case I had to respond to an emergency calling me back into work. I focused on doing some hill reps where I worked hard on each steady climb. After a few hours of this I then headed back pushing hard on the bike in time for lunch at my mother in laws, to celebrate mothers day. This was a relaxed affair with good food and cake. After about an hour stop I was back on the bike setting off towards home and threw in a few laps or Regents Park to bring my ride time up to the allotted 5+hours. I found that my energy levels remained good in spite of the stop start nature of the ride. Once home a few domestic chores were sorted before I took my children to their swimming lessons, and combined this with a 45 min HR capped run and about 20 mins stretching before watching the last half hour of their lesson to show them some support.

Finally I got home cooked supper and slumped onto the sofa at about 8.15 to watch Robin Hood with the kids before bedtime.

That was a fairly extreme way of getting a long ride in but it worked. Some days it does not and that can be frustrating. Would I like to have a day off a week to train in? Sure I would but I cannot justify it against the other demands so I just need to keep training in the gaps whilst I enjoy the challenges of work and the love of my family.

Planning the season

2011-03-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

2011 looms large and I am going to try a few things differently. Specifically I am going to race a bit more to se if this gets me faster. I plan to use the races to build up my speed and hopefully will see me setting some new PBs.

So my season goes
1oth April Dragonslayer Duathlon
8th May Marshman HIM
28-30th May Tour of Wessex (3days x100miles+)
19th June UK HIM (wimbleball)
3rd July Ironman Austria
31st July Ironman UK

then I will see if I have any desire t race again.

The plan sees a race every 3-4 weeks but each has a role.

The duathlon is really just a run out for my new tri club London Fields Triathlon. I thought about it last year and regretted not registering. It is a challenging race as the bike is 20 laps around Hog Hill race circuit which has a mean little hill every lap. The aim here is to generate some hard bike speed (and a bit of running as an added bonus).

Next comes the Marshman which is a nice flat course and a chance to see where my training is. It will be a controlled race but it will definitely be a race and not an expensive training session. I hope to see a steady bike split sub 2.30 and then a low 1.3* 21 km run.

Next comes the ToW. This year I will try not to dig such a large hole on the first day. The training effect I am after is to develop some serious muscular endurance, the hills will do that, but recognise it usually takes a 4 day reccovery slot after before my training can start up as anything more than recovery.

Once recovered I will have two weeks of peak training culminating in HIMUK and here I am not too sure. I will be exactly 2 weeks before IMa and as such is quite close if I have a bad day and it is not really a course on which you can ever take it easy. the run especially is quite tough. I am hoping that my fitness at this stage will see me having a solid race but may even consider a run walk strategy for the run to avoid trashing my legs oo much. The next two weeks will be a taper/transition hoping to get me to IMA in a race ready state. I think my revoery from HIMUK should see me just peaking at IMA so long as the fatigue I have built up can be shed in the last 14 days.

I know IMA well and it is a course that suits me as long as the sun dont shine too much.

4 weeks later and I will set of for IMUK. The plan for this will be to train through with 3 weeks of steady work (OK some recovery but back on the bike for a long slow) ride the following sunday) and see how I go. I have raced IMs 6 weeks apart and felt great. Not sure how this will go....

.. but I like the plan.

Honesty and Process

2011-01-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading an excellent book by a surgeon, Atul Gawande, called complications in which he talks specifically about how and why complications occur in medicine but also calls extensively upon evidence from other areas of society in particular industrial processes and aviation.

Clearly if you are responsible for the safety of others, such as the CEO of an airline you want to know you pilots and planes are as safe as they can be and that you are going to "minimise" the risk of any "incidents". Airplane crashes cost lives and business, and as a consequence the aviation industry has some of the most complete process analysis of risk and an understanding of how to minimise this risk. The weak link in this is usually human beings. Protocols are no good if they are not read, taught, understood and applied. Human beings may also do all of these things but unlike a computer may decide to ignore them, forget them or remember them incorrectly.

The challenge in medicine is that the range of variables you have to account for are far greater than those that affect the aviation industry, but even where there are well defined protocols and limited variables, Doctors will often go with their gut instinct when making a diagnosis. Now your gut instinct may well be quite good as it generally represents your subconscious brain representing your experience and knowledge from previous similar situations. However the evidence suggests that where we vary dramatically from standard diagnostic protocols we are more often wrong than right. In other words we should go less with hunches and more with evidence- and computers give us that evidence. Computers diagnose heart attacks on an ECG more effectively than humans- fact. Computers (when fed with the right data) are more accurate at diagnosing appendicitis than humans- fact.

So why is it that humans often continue to go on with a pattern or process that if they viewed the evidence more carefully they would realise is the wrong decision? This has something to do with what drives human behaviour. Anthropologists would have us believe that whilst many of us are happy to go with the flow or follow process it is the rebels amongst us who choose to do things differently that are exhibiting the human traits that have made us the most successful* species on the planet. It is the rebels that take risks that can find new advantages in the ecology thus increasing their likelihood of procreation and survival (before we all got sophisticated and started wearing Lycra).

However as we start to get a greater and greater grip understanding of the science of a whole range of situations the advantages of the "rebels" start to be lost to those who are most adept at understanding and applying the science.

So finally we get to triathlon. It has to be said that most of the knowledge of training and exercise is based upon very poor science. If you want to know whether training regime a or b is better you need to get a large number of similar talented triathletes. Get them all to train strictly to either of the two regimes and then test them all in an equivalent valid test at the end of the raining process. Given everything we know about what affects performance including periodicity, diet, general health, weather and god knows what else the trial would have to include hundreds in each training regime to give us reliable evidence. so currently a lot of training is not based around science but about "gut feeling and experience" based on a coaches previous observation of the effect of training and their outcomes.

This is still a long way from the optimum but you can see how the "science" is starting to creep in such as in this post on the EC post how the scientific knowledge can be used to predict a certain level of expectation. So lets here it for the barefoot funning.... the science suggests that it is a quick root to injury for many and there is no evidence it helps you to run faster. But is that the point?

Running faster?

2010-12-27T09:52:00.000-08:00

For all of you out there who struggle on the run I am trying to find the answer. The strategy of IM pacing in full of nuance, dark arts and so on. As a 6x IMer I have always raced on feel and my best race had a 3.38 marathon in it. My PB for a standalone is 3.18 but that was 5 years ago. I know that I dont run well on hot and hilly courses (see Lanza and then last year at IMDE where I think the heat got me). The challenge for me has been to significantly improve my run endurance so that translates into a faster IM marathon.

I have tried a variety of ways to reach the targets I set for myself. Volume I think is part of the key and I have certainly raced better of a solid block of 6 hr run weeks but as a time limited IMer this is often difficult, if I am to maintain the bike volume of typically 9-12 hrs during the build phase and to keep 2.5-3hrs of swimming in the mix. This year I achieved my volume but it was all done at a steady pace never exceeding my IM pace. This was based on some observations that until you are targetting a specific volume (say 6 hrs running a week) speed work is unlikely to be beneficial for an IM racer unless you are running right up at the front of the pack. I liked the idea of this since it should "lock in" your race pace and maximises the benefit of each session by avoiding the hangover into the next session associated with faster running... But I often found myself running fatigued and plodding away doing my own version of the IM shuffle but in training.

I think that in order to run well you need to train to run with good style so that you learn to recruit the right muscle groups and get a good balance and style. I think to achieve this you need to either be doing drills when you are fresh (a state not commonly associated with an IMer in the midst of their build blocks of training) or you need to find another way to promote more balanced running. The obvious option is to either do some speedwork or hills or both. The advantage of this is it engages my brain a bit more so I am not merely slogging out another run but I am thinking about the session and hopefully will increase training effect. As ever there is always a balance which is the risk associated with increased running stress. Now I am sure for you 65kg types with a good running history their is probably less of a need to focus on the running training in quite the same way. But for the heavier athlete we need to develop the strength to go with the endurance since we have got more mass to carry.

So having decided this year I will concentrate on trying to get a faster IM mara time and see where I can cut back on the bike training hours without losing the important bike strength. I now just have to work on and implement the plan... which for me means an ever more cautious approach to how I increase my run stress and a hope that this years prehabilitation in the gym is gonna help strengthen me so that my body can greater withstand the demands placed upon it.

To this end i have joined RussC in the advent challenge which has helped push up the run volume this month. Next month I will go back to a more balanced 3-4 run week but try to keep the overall volume about the same building towards an early April marathon (sussex or brighton) as a staging post and also an attempt to get a 3.14.xx so i can go GFA in the Virgin London Marathon in 2012!

so there we have it. time to remember how to ride a bike!

Habits of partially achieving ironman

2010-11-18T13:32:00.000-08:00

I am currently engaged in a process of attempted personal reprogramming to try and understand how to maximise my potential as a manager of people. Some may have read Stephen Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people, but to be honest I dont know that you are missing too much if you gave it a miss. If you have read it or are a self help/self improvement book junky then you will appreciate the importance he places on developing long term sustainable "habits" of behaviour that can support your personal achievements...

Reading about these habits it sounds like IM training all over again and there are clear parallels between the habits required to achieve your life goals and those required to be successful in Ironman. The important factor amongst all of this is achieving life balance in any pursuit and to extend the good habits to all aspects of your life. This means it is no good to aspire to be the best at IM if you dont adopt all the behaviours that will maximise your potential. Its not just about completing the training schedule that you set for yourself (hopefully a realistic and achievable set of plans) although that in itself is a Major part of the schedule but it is also about the other stuff... What other stuff ?

Well when you finish your long sessions do you take care of sorting out your recovery food, get some rest, remember to clean the bike, log the details of your training session (where I am sure you monitored HR and effort). Do you do your stretches, core strength exercises, always do the full warm up, or do you go to hard when you should be going to easy, go to easy when you should be going hard. Had an injury and not done all the rehab you should have done, binned a session because bed was to comfy and the rain a bit wet. Probably not because you are all Ironman right!

The one thing you learn is that you need to get consistent, do the same thing again and again and slowly it gets better, faster, stronger. This is the habit that leads to successful IM racing. Without this basic habit you can forget about your build, peak, muscular endurance, taper and all the other details of IM racing. There are no shortcuts to consistency.... but also if you are to sustain and grow as a person or as an Ironman you need to apply these habits to your personal life; be consistent in your relationships, be consistent in your approach to work colleagues whether they are the boss or the office cleaner and most of all be consistent in your goals and personal expectations.

That which does not kill us..

2010-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

.. makes us stronger (Nietzsche 1844). This is pretty much underlying principle of ironman training, though it is perhaps not a good idea to push yourselves too close to the limit, since for most of us it is a hobby and not a matter of life and death.

What is certainly true is that the achievement in finishing an ironman race to the best of ones abilities can inspire confidence and a sense that one can overcome all sorts of adversity. Achieving your goals in an IM race will involve a significant period of sustained suffering which is in turn built upon a solid foundation of regular and prolonged training, and further suffering. The reward comes not only in that endorphin euphoria of the finish, and the restless night that often seems to follow race day as you lie with aching legs and sunburned and chafed limbs, but in the knowledge that you set out to meet a challenge, followed through with your plan and delivered.

These are important life skills that do you well in a whole host of other scenarios whether it be managing an injury or illness, setting out on a new business plan or indeed learning a new skill. Taking and applying that perseverance to your life challenges, and the knowledge that you know how to carry out your plans and deliver are valuable attributes. Ironman therefore can teach you how to be better at that which you choose to do, you just need to remember the lessons it teaches you.

Back to training-

2010-09-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

As may be seen my goals for the next few months have changed a while back to refelct my off season goals and to try and start a new phase in my ironman racing career. A period away from ironman training has helped to renew my passions for cycling and running (the less said about swimming the better at the moment). The questions I ask are what should I do differently in my training,if anything, where should I cut my training schedule what should I spend more time in and most importantly how can I get quicker.

After 6 ironman races I know where my key limiter is, which remains my running, and although I am sure my tendency to go hard on the bike may be a limiter, I am equally sure that the gains are to be made in better run training and the challenge is how to make sure I reflect this in my training plan. The problem is that with limited resource (time) and the fact that it always running I find the hardest to recover from plus a tendency for injury it always seems to be running that I fail to achieve my training goals on.

To try and keep the balance I am hoping to get into the gym to do a bit of conditioning every week, I am toying with the idea of barefoot running but think this may be a step too far, although I am currently moving towards neutral flat running shoes. I am also embarking on a course of management training over the next 6 months (only the odd day) but I am hoping to take some of the lessons into my training and racing.

My first lesson is from Aristotle

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.

So I plan to develop the habit of being an excellent runner!

Keeping going

2010-08-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

No matter what you do or where you do it there always comes a time when your motivation dips or some barrier comes up that seems to block your way forwards. Ironman as an event and as a lifestyle is not terribly forgiving from this aspect. Consistency and perseverance are important attributes to successful racing: fatigue through training, injuries, poor performances and the other things in your life (you know the little things like keeping a roof over your head, sustaining the important relationships in you life and putting enough food on the table) will all challenge this resolve.

If you cannot reconcile these differing demands the stress from the failure to achieve your goals can make matters worse rather than better and can feed into a spiral of failed goals. Stress about ones lack of achievement which leads to setting new more unrealistic goals (this week I will run 80 miles to make up for the fact that last week I did not run at all). These truths run through all peoples lives and it is how we manage the periodic dips in personal performance at home and at work and how we respond to the barriers placed in our way that define us. Ironpeople tend to be those who will persist at a challenge and devote time and energy to overcoming an obstacle (training longer).

This application that our sporting choice necessitates does us well in a number of situations- however we all understand that this application can sometimes lead us into problems- typically we might get overuse injuries, fatigue and burnout in our sporting life but what about our other world where we come up against a limit of our promotion prospects, career development and or personal development (assuming we are not all pro athletes). This is where the second maxim of training smarter comes in. Most people approaching IM usually start with the train longer and then come round to the train smarter and this is almost certainly a natural process in Ironman. We start by trying what we think should work (train longer)and then learn from this what may or may not work and as a consequence we learn to train smarter.

The shortcut is to use the knowledge of a coach to help you train smarter from the gitgo (start). In life we learn through trial and error (mostly) where our particular skills lie and those who can persevere and keep putting themselves into the mix (train long) and can reflect and learn from their experiences (train smart) would expect to see reward in terms of career progress and achieving life goals.

When we come up against a motivational barrier it is time to take a third approach and that is to reflect. Look at what you want to achieve in your athletic pursuit or personal endeavour, identify what is blocking you and try and map a new way forwards. Finally much as we approach our training to the next IM race break your goals down into achievable chunks and celebrate your successes along the way. Which is why I took this picture, where my motivation to train which has been mislaid somewhere was overcome by the beauty of being able to ride through some fantastic countryside.

Dextro London Tri

2010-07-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

Result 2:08:27

Swim 00:24:05
Trans 1 00:03:25
Bike 00:57:54
Trans 2 00:01:52
Run 00:41:13

3rd in AG 4th Vet (over 40) 48th overall

I had trepidations about doing this race as it was raining, I had not done any significant training in the last 2 weeks, I was regretting not being in Switzerland to do the IM as planned and I could not really see the point. Just goes to show that sometimes if you have already done the training, and you have no expectations the race will come to you. This was by no means a spectacular result but shows that I can still be competitive and that with some focus on swimming and running I could get close to 2 hrs.... ish.

The swim was quite peculiar, only 50 odd souls in the wave at the start made for a hassle free swim. Problem was I am used to having lots of other merry souls around me to do the sighting in the swim but after the first turn I swam this race largely alone, Like I said a bit strange but did allow me to pace myself to a not unreasonable time. The other feature of the swim was large quantities of pond weed which was quite a handicap in the first 300m of the leg.

A 400m run from the serpentine to transition was a bit tough but soon I was out on the bike, somewhere I generally feel pretty comfortable. The bike course was definitely "technical" with a wet road surface and some tight corners there was plenty of chance for serious mishap. Each lap also had a dead turn at either end which meant a fair bit of sprinting out of the saddle to get back up to speed. I had a great time, I was not caught by a single cyclist and overtook many- at times you had to surge past some meandering cyclists so that you could get the line through the next corner. Anyone who has followed me thru London traffic will appreciate how much I was in my element. My split times on the laps were all within 10 secs of each other which was also pretty cool. Saw a few less fortunate riders who had hit the deck but had no problems myself. Back into transition I was quite excited about having to only run 10kms. A 4 lap format I followed my normal training schedule for 4 sessions. First lap I settled in and tried to find my running legs, second lap I concentrated on my running form trying to stay upright with a fast cadence this sort of worked. Third lap is about survival, I was passed by somebody I decided to hang on as long as I could, which got me to the fourth lap where I tried to see how much I could suffer, nothing like Alistair Brownlee did, but I was able to retake my paceman for the third lap and finished strongly.

All in all a good day and a new pb. Ok the bike leg was at least 2.5km short but it what with the dead turns and the race controlled corners where we had to slow down I think it was very bit as good as my last race at the London Olympic 3 years ago. And what did I learn....

.. maybe I'm not so slow!

Mum

2010-07-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sadly my mother passed away last week after a prolonged illness but the knowledge can never prepare you for the pain and disconnection of bereavement. Much of my time training in the build up to my last race was spent thinking about my mum. The solitude of early morning rides and runs was a personal space where I was able to try and reconcile myself with a future where my mum would no longer be there. Always interested to hear of my tales of overseas travels and racing, a voice that never once questioned my need to train for this crazy pursuit, I will draw on her spirit and strength to guide me over the coming months.

Ah Feck

2010-07-07T04:56:00.000-07:00

IMDE Race Report

Times (AG position)

Overall 10:16:40 (57)

Swim 1.07:15 (83)

T1 4:25

Bike 5.07:01 (36)

T2 1:49

Run 3.56:09 (117)

As I posted coming into this race I felt I was in good nick, cycling was the strongest I had been and i thought my running was somewhere near the mark and swimming was normal for me!

Stayed in Ibis hotel which was clean and dull. Perhaps walked too much on the thursday and friday as the various places e.g. expo, swimming venue were all spaced apart and I chose to walk mostly but don think this had much bearing. Also used public transport with my Ironman ticket pass which was good.

Saturday was real hot reaching over 40 in the sun and the peak recorded temp was 36 degress. Luckily some cloud appeared for Sunday morning but it was still warm(28-30C) and humid with soem commenting that it was like Kona weather!

Swim was a non wetsuit which was odd but also kinda fun because I dont really like wetuits, well I like the fact they make me a whole lot faster, but i dont like all that black rubber and constrictions it puts around you. The start was not as bad as I had last year at Lanza which was pretty bumpy and I had no out of body experience like IM Swiss, I managed to draft a lot and just settled for following the more distinctive swimmers around me, which was much easier since they were not all wearing black suits!

Came out in 1.07 which was OK and about par for what my training was telling me!

Out onto the bike and I soon felt great, I was flying past all and sundry even though there was a slight head wind as we raced up a closed section from the out of town lake to the centre of Frankfurt. I felt about right and was happy to swap positions along the way with a few other bikes. There is a short section through the centre of Frankfurt before we headed out into the countryside. There are a few hills and a notbale cobbled section but non of it was demanding and i stayed in my saddle throughout. After a while i found nyself in a well tempered pace line including Mladin, Luis and Christoph. By well tempered I mean we all kept our distance, dropped back a bit when overtaken and generally obeyed the bike laws. The presence of multiple draft busters meant I saw very little drafting. This legal paceline proceeded at a steady 22.5 mph average for the next lap or so of the course. If anything I felt I could go faster than most and spent more periods off the front. In the whole of the next 100km only 2 bikes came past, and I felt strong throughout.

On the second lap at about 130 km I started to feel sick. I have had this before on an IM bike leg and it is usually where I have eaten too much. I stopped eating and drank only fluids for the next 10 km and then had to back off from the paceline when this did not work. By the time I got to Bad Vibel (about 20 km from the finish with a small diversion this year) I was feeling a bit better. I had however dropped about 20 bike positions in this time but was managing to track a large bunch as we approached heartbreak Hill for the second time. This bit I enjoyed as I powered up the hill and passed lots of my fellow racers. There then follows a slighlty teduious decent into the town centre and T2.

Final split was 5.07.01 which was for a distance of 185km ( which means if it had been 180 km I would have nailed my sub 5 bike split!) and I was happy with that. I was slightly concerned that i had not eaten enough but I was probably only a gel or two short of what I had expected to get through (12 gels and 2 energy bars if you ask).

Out on the run it took about 3 km to sort my back out (again a normal thing for me) and I was running 5min/km which was target pace. Settled down running with a couple of younger brits and chatted for a bit. Thought the run course dull but there is a nice section in the trees from about 7-9km which relieves the boredom. It is a 4 lap course and I finished the first lap in 56 minutes and felt OK. Somewhere in the second lap everything fell apart. This is unusual for me. I expect to struggle in the thrid quarter but in my last two good IM runs I have found myself running in the zone in the second - but not this time. It then just became an IM slog. The sun got hotter and I just could not find any running strength in my legs. The little man came back and sat on my shoulder telling me to quite and have an ice cream. The last lap was about completion until I got to the last checkpoint when they gave you the fourth (purple) wrist band, about 4 km from home. At this point I decided that you can suffer running slowly or suffer running fast and that if this was the case faster seemed a better option since it would not last as long.

I set off, picking up Will from Bad tri club who I had been chatting with on and off during the run as we crossed paths. The next 3 or so Km were almost certainly the fastest I have ever run in an IM (sadly my garmin had packed up). I reckon we overtook a good 14 athletes with there purple wrist bands and kept the pace all the way into the finish stand. The pain had gone and was replaced by a sense of unease that if I could do this now then why not before...

At the finish my legs went wobbly and I took up the "catchers" offer of a mobile bed to lie down and have a bit of a rest. After a bit of resuscitation I gathered my bit up and went back to the hotel.

Why could I not run to my capacity. PossiblyI went too hard on the bike, but I don't think this was a significant jump compared to last years efforts- an improvement yes but nothing to dramatic and I was certainly in better condition. Was it a nutrition problem? Maybe but again I would have expected that to hit me later. this leaves two things.

1. lack of running condition. This year I have been more conservative in my approach to running: which has kept my Achilles at bay but maybe left me lacking the correct muscular endurance.

2. I did not like the heat and humidity.

Only one way to find out......

.. see you racing again soon.

Racing

2010-06-27T06:21:00.000-07:00

So it is nearly raceday and time to commit to my goals. When you are feeling good in the run up to IM in my experience this is no guarantee of a good race... which leaves me with mixed feelings since I know that my bike is the strongest ever and that my run training has been solid if not spectacular.

I would like to feel that I can post a solid bike to put me in the zone for an AG place to Kona if I run a pb (and then some) in the marathon. Sometimes the 40-44 AG can be unforgiving.. they often seem to race faster than the younger AGers, see the results at yesterdays ITU European longcourse champs where the top4 AGers were 40-44!

So back to my goal which to work means I need to keep every run split at 5min/km or better and that is where the racing comes in. Hitherto I have only ever really aimed to meet a certain target or even just to complete. Will the concept of "racing" help or will it just mean I pace my race more poorly than normal and have a really bad split somewhere in the marathon. Well I believe I am fit enough to reach my target and have done (enough?) work to put me in the frame. So it will be time to use up the mental resource to push through that vital third quarter of the marathon and know that come the last 10km I will be racing for the finish and not just for the clock.

I'm Spartacus

2010-06-14T06:37:00.000-07:00

Well not really but I am the midnight centurion. Midsummer is soon upon us and a Tri London tradition of celebrating with a century ride around Regents Park is bout to be reenacted. This will be my fourth 100 mile outing (that will be 38 laps as you ask) with the record currently standing at 4hrs 45ish mins as fastest and 7hrs something as slowest (the Nadir in both time and light as it was done on the darkest and coldest night in December 2007).

Last year was done as a TT and we will repeat the effort this year, but hopefuly as a 2 or 3 up TT team, with full aerokit to boot. This fulfils a whole range of things. Firstly it is clearly atypical behaviour and therefore a good thing! Secondly it is a good test of aero position and bike kit prior to an A race and third, I had my best IM race ever last year after doing it so clearly I need to do it again.

The enjoyment I get from this sort of activity is not appreciated by most but reading stories of endurance runners doing the Grand Union Canal Race or the run across America suggests that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Part of me is long since acclimatised to working long nocturnal hours since as a junior doctor I used to go to work on Saturday at 8 am and return from work on Monday at about 7 pm and could sometimes go the whole 60 hrs on 4-6 hrs sleep. I know some countries (USA for instance) still work their juniors this hard but thanks to the European Working Time Directive this is now illegal. I think on balance this is a good thing but still feel that the self awareness and discipline that I learnt through working in theses conditions are not easily replicated elsewhere.. and when I engage in these activities I find my self saying "well at least I have a choice over this and it is not work!"

I know for instance that by about 0800 tomorrow after a night with minimal sleep I will still feel pretty lively, that I will start to dip around lunchtime and that unless there is something I have to concentrate on sleep will beckon. I have learnt that a shower and shave is worth about an hours sleep (you'll have to trust me on that one) and that a good breakfast will help offset the fatigue (especially a high protein and fat fry up) and finally that a 20-30 min powernap can leave me ready for a further 4-6 hr stint. Finally I have also learnt that If I am not asleep by 10 pm I may find my body tired nut unable to switch off due some strange affect of the fatigue. This was all supported by research in which I was a guinea pig but I seem to remember it also involved drinking, something else that also seems to no longer be quite such a part of the junior doctor curriculum.

Tired!

2010-06-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been tiring. Blending a few flights with a couple of weekend races and trying to keep the training rhythm has proved challenging. In the last 17 days I have not slept in past 6.30 on a single day, and while you can go to bed early it is not always easy. Not that I am moaning, this is my choice and something I find invigorating, it is just some days at a bout 4 ish I get the urge to have a nap (and occasionally do).

The tour of Wessex was a fantastic. Although I only did 2 days it is an event that a wholly recommend to anyone who likes cycling and especially those IMers looking to dig a bit of a fatigue hole/build a foundation in their training. The routes are great the organisation is just so, and the cakes provided at the end are great. I am already planning next year.

About this tiredness, the question is, as you make that final push to peak fitness, is exactly where the limit lies and what the most benefit to be had is in these last few weeks. Sure I understand "you can easily lose a race through overtraining in the last few weeks" sort of thing and have had my own troubles in the past, but knowing that there are only three more Thursday morning sessions does incline me to be a bit more reckless with my efforts. For instance even tho' today I felt inert at as i set out to do my early morning ride planned set of a few hill repeats followed by 4 x 20 mins HIM pace... I felt less inert by 6.30 as I raced around Regents Park in a paceline that was averaging over 25mph (thanks to the bike boys Damian Tim and the man in yellow who today was strangely wearing black)... for sure it was not the session I had set but the fatigue and weakness were overcome by the company of friends, and the set was broadly similar to what I set out to do. Currently I am favouring the lots of hours and careful as I run approach there is a lot of Achilles trouble about and I have had my fill of this before and before and another time too! That said with running as my key limiter the temptation is always there to do that bit more. The next two weeks will define whether I have achieved my goals since I aim to do2 x 7 hr running weeks.

Finally the summer solstice approaches and I fancy another 100 miler. And fancy a go at the 4hr 42 odd we managed last time, I am hoping for a bit of help with this one!

Marshman

2010-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Marshman results
Time 4.42.03

16th overall 3rd V40+

Swim 29.16
T1 2.37
Bike 2.31.29 (2.29)
T2 2.15
Run 1.36.23

Finally managed to commit to enter and complete an event for 2010. I have failed to reach the start line for 5 running events this year, for various reasons not only due to injury, and thought I was going to have to pull out of this one after I succumbed to some viral gastroenteritis on thurs night that had lead to 3 ward closures at my hospital!

The Marshman is a niche event (I guess) that fills the need for a HIM or HIM+ distance about 6-8 weeks out from an Ironman. It is billed as being efficient but with no frills which again I guess it sort of does. The race takes place on and around Romney Marsh in the shadows of the Dungeoness Nuclear Power Station! This is an area I know well since we often come down for weekends had ridden extensively FLAT course. First impressions were good with a high ration of smart toilets to competitors, always a good thing.

The swim start was nice and relaxed, we all got into some cold water, a gravel lake type affair usually used by waterskiers et al, and then he called us together and blew the hooter. Water was cold but I had a clear run up the lake to the first buoy. Tried drafting a bit but my technique either leaves me constantly touching the draftee's toes, or if I draft off the hip, banging into them! (I guess I need to work on swimming straight). Soon was catching the early burners who went off to fast and settle into a rhythm. It was cold and my fingers went numb, 29 mins and a bit later I got out of the water.

T1 was quite time consuming as I put on arm warmers, HR strap and watch, gloves (my hands are my career), hat socks shoes, shades.... Try to adjust arm warmers.... give up and head out. The ride was fast and flat. Went out trying to keep to what I felt like IM pace when 2 guys went past me, so I went a bit faster. Felt comfortable until about 30 miles when my position felt funny and I thought my legs had grown. Realised my seat was dipping down at the front (on my lovely new bike). I had adjusted the seat position on Saturday and clearly not tightened up the single bolt enough. I stopped to try and tighten it but already knew I would need 2 allen keys to affect this properly and only had 1. This worked for a bit but then I got that sinking feeling again as the saddle loosened up once more. With 20 miles to go I made a decision to try and balance myself a bit more and was pulling the nose of the saddle up intermittently. By about 48 miles the saddle was generally loose and I had to balance on the fulcrum to stop it tilting either forwards or backwards. Did the last 8 miles in a big gear since this meant I was bearing more weight on the pedals and less on my now tender perineum! Was pleased to get to T2 in a ride time of 2hrs 29 mins (but the split time was slightly longer due to stopping twice for the saddle). I felt that I had plenty in reserve and could have gone longer and or faster if I had not had the seat problems or was doing an IM.

Set out on the run and was surprised to bump into TriLondons star triathlete Adam Chadburn who asked me how many laps the run was going to be. "One big one I said" Adam looked perplexed. It transpired that one of the marshalls had misdirected him onto the mini marshman course and he had done an "extra 4 km lap" which put him alongside me. After running alongside me for about 500m I suggested he best get on and see what he could retrieve of the race (and as you can see he still did well). I also felt good and settled into a good rhythm. In spite of this I still soon had that familiar sound flap flap flap of someones trainers coming up on me, this happened about 6 times meaning I had dropped 6 places but caught one. The run was pretty tough including a section across a field, and then a long beat up along by the sea, where I chased some very slow tourists who were cycling in the same direction. Stuck to my plans of trying to run at IM ish pace. About 1 hr in I realised I was catching a couple of runners, they were still a long way off but definitely getting nearer. I ditched the race plan and started counting 20s (20 right footfalls) and pushing my self a bit. Sure enough they got closer. I passed them with about 2 miles to go and then saw another racer a bit further up. He was too far away to be caught running at the pace he was going but you never know. There was one last feed station at 19.5km, he stopped for a break and then saw me coming and set off again, but now he was close. Feeling good I sat in behind him fora few hundred metres then pushed on past. I felt good and still had more to give but arrived at the finish sooner than I thought, again across a dodgy pitted field which could have turned an ankle or two!

Very pleased with performance, learnt about the dangers of not tightening things properly and now know where to focus my energies for the next 5 weeks with an emphasis on more running endurance and perhaps some bigger swims as well as a few Open water sessions.

Today I am a bit sore where the saddle was pressing!

The three evils of Ironman

2010-05-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

This week I gave a talk at my hospital about some aspects of Medicine and Ironman. Whilst doing this I camE up with what I have decided to call the 3 evils of ironman. Sure they are nothing new but I thought they might perhaps shed a bit of light on the issues facing some of us as we race. So what are these three evils?

Hypoglyceamia, Hyperthermia and Dehydration. Or in other words bad nutrition strategy, overheating and not replacing your fluids enough. What is interesting is how these are all linked and related to one other thing, your race strategy.

Hypoglycaemia (aka Bonking, the wall etc) occurs when you have used up most of your energy stores. Plenty has been written on nutrition and IM racing. The key factor being that without eating you cannot sustain a high enough power output to RACE your race. You may have all the fitness you like but if you race too hard to soon and dont feed you will become energy depleted. Your race then starts to fall apart because, as your blood sugar starts to drop, you become less efficient meaning that to sustain the same energy output your heart rate will rise more than it would with an effective nutrition strategy In addition your "central governor", the little voice in your left ear, will start telling your body to slow down for fear of your exercise causing your body long term damage. So the key is to find the optimum race speed/power output/HR that you can sustain and effectively digest your food. This takes practice but surprisingly few of my fellow IMers do religious nutrition training in the same way as we simulate the swimming, biking and running. Having done a few IMs most of us kind of think we know what it takes, but in practice a lot of people eat less in the race than they need or equally find they have to "review" there eating strategy on the side of the road.

The next factor to consider is how hot you get when racing. At above 25C most of us Brits who have not yet acclimatised will find the heat they generate challenging. If you do not dissipate the heat one of the first things that will happen is that you will lose your appetite.. a fatal mistake if this happens in the first few hours of your bike leg as you will not eat nor probably drink as much as you should. Since you have done all this training it will probably not be until the last third of the ride that this starts to become a factor, if you were not gonna run after it then this would not be an issue... how many of us get to the end of a long bike and then need a few long cold drinks to refresh.. perhaps we should practice getting home at the same weight we left (a good measure of successful hydration).

Clearly the more dehydrated we get the less efficient we get at losing heat since this is largely dependent on sweating. In addition dehydration pushes you heart rate up making us less efficient (so using more energy) and making us hotter still! This might explain in part the huge dropout rate from IM China of around 30%. Admittedly it was really hot (?38C+) and windy, but these extremes of temperature need specific adjustments in your race plan. Being less dense e.g having a low BMI and by just being smaller you have a huge advantage in the heat, and to some degree with hydration too since you need too drink less volume.

So I am now going to try doing a few rides where the objective is too come off the bike after 5 hours weighing within 0.5 kg of the weight when I left the house, and not feeling I so hungry I could eat a 17 egg omelette, chips beans and all the rest!

Slow?

2010-04-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Its a funny thing but the more I train the slower I seem to get! Actually this seems quite a common theme when I start hitting the training a bit more. I guess it is just the cumulative fatigue that takes the edge of the training... I certainly see this most with my swimming which seems to almost regress as I increase the amount of running and cycling I do. Perhaps this is not so surprising as I tend to do all my swimming alone and the motivation to chase someone is not usually there... and it is probably my least favourite discipline.

The other factor is the improvements I seek come hard as all those training for IM know. Cycling form seems to creep forwards almost imperceptibly and yet I know with application I can suddenly find myself doing stuff that a few months ago was just not possible. The big question is whether I can resist the temptation to push just that bit too hard usually a bit of running speedwork (which turns into a monster session) which seems to always lead to a calf strain and then patchy further run training. I know what the consequences are likely to be and I know that some speed sessions is unlikely to benefit my 3.40 marathon time and yet I still get the overwhelming desire to do it! Rereading Friels bible the skill is to hold back and obey the 10% rule for increasing you training load. So why do I feel the need to do this session.

Probably it is all ego: the desire to show myself I can run fast(er) and the sneaking suspicion that if I just butch up a bit my running will magically come together..

Experience of 5 IMs suggests that I am not going to dramatically increase my speed without a radical change in my training.. but this time around I am going to try and see if I can get to the start line without any significant running injuries which must surely help.

Everything else is up for grabs tho' and somehow I am gonna turn into a fish! Oh and a new bike is clearly gonna make me 10 minutes faster (I wish).

Club Le Santa

2010-04-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

Spent the last week in CLS. What a great break from the endless winter we have had.

Summary of training

Thursday 2 hr bike
Friday 9km hilly run 3km swim 2hr bike
Saturday 5hr bike ride 2.5km swim 1hr ballroom dancing
Sunday 2.5km swim 10 km run
Monday 2km swim 1hr 5 a side soccer 2.5 hr bike
Tuesday 3km swim 10 km run
Wednesday 2.5km swim 1hr ballroom dancing 3 hr bike
Thursday 3 x 15 min turbo then 4km treadmill run @ 4min/km

'bout 25 hours training and learnt how to dance the tango!

Flow

2010-02-26T10:08:00.001-08:00

Thought I would write about something I really dont understand but recognise in my day job as a surgeon and my hobby as an ironman.

The concept of flow to me is what it feels like to be travelling effortlessly downstream in a fast moving river where you are in control and expending minimal effort. This not to be confused with flow of blood in an artery for instance which whilst important is something altogether different. I will try to expand upon this...

Complex operations can take 4-6 hours to complete and are not unlike an ironman (ok maybe a half ironman event) in many ways. There is always a lot of preparation involved in undertaking planned major surgery, there is the event itself and then there is the recovery period afterwards (both for me and my patient!). Leaving aside the patient side (although not to ignore it as there are plenty of things I can do for my patient before they undergo a procedure to improve there chances of a successful outcome) there are plenty of things I need to put in place before an operation in much the same way as you would plan your race before you do it.

Assuming the planning goes well and the organisation works I can sometimes find myself operating without stress or worry. Whilst the process is challenging anything that disrupts the progress can be rapidly circumvented and overcome and the operation seems to flow seamlessly through to a hopefully successful completion. Some people talk about being in "the zone" which I guess is much the same thing.

Experience tells me that this situation can be difficult to sustain. External and internal factors come into play. Most external factors can be controlled; keeping the environment quiet without unnecessary interruptions such as mobile phones, not having other activities requiring my attention planned into the same time period, having clear understanding of the working relationship and responsibilities of those around me. Internal factors such as self confidence, frustration, anxiety and so on are more challenging but again are overcome by familiarity with the procedure, planning for the unusual or unexpected and maintaining a sense of progression towards the goal of completion of the procedure all help to sustain the flow.

Now tell me there are not parallels in IM racing. The external factors are largely beyond your control by the time you start your race but will hopefully be accounted for by your preparation, training, equipment, nutrition plan and so on. Finding the flow or getting in the zone comes when you have got all this controlled and after 20 + weeks of focused training you find yourself in the race doing the things just as you planned. The challenge comes when things start to "get complicated" much like they can in a complex operation. It is how you respond at this point and how you get back into the flow that can determine your race. When the legs start hurting, the nausea kicks and fatigue starts to limit your performance how do you manage it.. can you focus adjust and then get back on track or do you splinter and come to a messy halt?

The resilience and resolve to stay on track is clearly crucial to my patients when I am operating and I think is enhanced by my knowledge of the physical and mental reserves I have developed through IM racing.

Thoughts on running and training for an IM marathon

2010-02-08T01:40:00.000-08:00

The standard question for those starting out and to some extent those experienced IMers it would seem is:

How fast should my IM mara be if I can do a standalone mara in X?

So how fast can you run and how fast should you run? A straw poll of tripetalk/slowbitch suggests about 30 mins add on is not unreasonable. Those with a faster standalone marathon time e.g.sub 3 may see less slippage whilst those with slower times may see more. Alan Couzens has written extensively on this topic and gives a lot of science behind this topic but still I some times find it hard to find the "take home message" in what he writes.

After 5 IM races I have a few thoughts on pacing IM marathons based on personal experience and observation. Sure I am pretty MOP but my performances are consistent with my training. Here are a few rules as I see it!

1. The stronger you bike fitness the faster you can run. The secret is holding back some of that speed on the bike in the race- which for most of us is nigh on impossible! I still find it hard to believe that if I finished my bike leg 5 mins slower it would have any other impact on my IM time than to make it 5 mins slower!

2. I train by doing all my runs at IM pace and almost none faster. I am older (42) and prone to running injuries. I find that by running at IM pace the fatigue of the rest of my training and life makes this plenty fast enough thankyou. Toying with speed sets incurs risk of energy and for what benefit. The only speedwork I might do is a HM or 10Km race. I would love to do more hill running as I think this is a great source of running strength but hackney is very flat! Having said that my best IM marathon has yet to happen!

3. You gotta get your calories right on the bike. I judge my bike speed by feel and the need to get the calories in. For a 5 hour bike I use 1 litre energy drink for first 45 mins then 12 gels 3 energy bars and water for the rest. If I am doing it right the food all goes down and stays down and I may be able to stick in that little bit extra calories in the last 10 mins of the bike (also helps to keep focus). If I start feeling sick, hot sweaty unwell whatever I tend to slow a bit and drink water until the feeling passes. In effect this means I keep my HR below 140-145as I know that when my HR exceeds this I cannot effectively digest food.

4. Setting out on the run I always feel crap with my HR jumping all over the place, by back is stiff and I cant get straight and any leg worries I have will be there! In spite of this MY FIRST 10 KM IS ALWAYS MY FASTEST! I use this knowledge in two ways now. Firstly I no longer worry about feeling slow so dont try and chase any athletes pushing past and secondly I settle on trying to find a comfortable rhythm before working out what I can eat and when.

5. Eating on the Run- Experience has taught me that the coke will be fizzy, the drink at IMCH gives me cramps, the cup will split and I will throw most of it up my nose, but the gels are usually reliable and predictable. I now carry six gels for the first 2 hrs. I try and eat a gel every 20 mins just before a feed station and follow this with water. I try and work out where and what gels are on offer and then plan my restocking when I am on my last gel (they do run out sometimes). Again this gives me a focus e.g. concentrate on timing of gel before aid station etc but also avoids the vagaries of cups of variably mixed "EZO" or whatever 'nergy drink.

6. When I am feeling good eat... a common mantra but a true one. So when I felt good at 15 km in IMCH I ate 3 gel in 30 odd minutes which carried me on to the last 10km (at which point I lost my discipline or reached the envelope of my fitnees) where I suffered for not eating and thinking I could start racing!

7. Hilly rides take longer and have a negative impact on your run split. Stands to reason that if you are cylcing for an extra 45 minutes at the same power output you are likely to run slower afterwards. I also prefer more temperate race conditions and have struggled in the heat (either that or the reason for performing slower in Lanzarote is that I have not been as fit!)

Managing an(d) IM

2010-01-29T12:31:00.000-08:00

In spite of being back into training for three whole weeks my weight has still risen and I now stand a full 7kgs heavier than when I started IM Switzerland back in July.

Spent last Friday chasing Jevon's rear wheel around Hertfordshire for about 5 hrs in the pouring rain. This was mentally quite a challenge and demonstrated how far away I am from my peak fitness of July last year. I was also impressed at how hard Jev was able to go this early in the year and suggest he will be flying by the time we get to Zurich. Would like to be able to run more but I am nursing my achilles tendon again for reasons that I am not sure about (it flared after the most moderate of running sessions). I sympathise with anyone out there suffering from one of the many endurance sport injuries that afflict us hope you get better soon (Jo)

Have just started embarking on a few work projects and I am developing my skills as a medical manager and have started noticing how similar training for an Ironman and my role in management is. I guess it should be obvious but there are clearly a number of skills that transfer directly form one to the other.

In particular

Goal setting

For ironman it is obvious your goal is the next IM race, the race time, qualification. Some of these goals merge with people out there trying to seek some progress year on year and some (like me) seeking some form of life balance (?) through the whole experience. The clearer your goal e.g. I want to go sub 10, get to Kona .. the easier it is to target your energies towards that goal. Likewise in my work project the clearer the goal the easier it is to work out how to get there- but in medicine it is not as easy to for instance to change and improve the delivery of emergency care for trauma patients. This is not a single event but a whole variety of activities. However by having a strong goal or target the steps towards it can become clearer.

Motivation

Having identified your goal it is helpful to look at your motivation towards the goal. Why am I doing a 6th and 7th IM this year? what will be different to 4 and 5? Why do I wan to keep going? For me IM is to a greater or lesser degree part of who I am and what I do. I fell better through what I have learnt from IM, I enjoy the process (see below) of training for IM and enjoy having a goal (see above) to help me through the short cold winter days. It also provides stimulation, sights smells and sounds that otherwise pass us by and the occasional special moments (I get to see a lot of Foxes as I cycle around London in the early hours). My motivation in work is different but also derives from a need for challenge and stimulation but also a desire to do things better and to do things my way ;-). A greater challenge is to transfer this motivation to others, and to do this you have to convince them of your plan and goals.

Process

I like process. I love the way that at the moment there is no chance I could race an ironman without serious risk of major physical injury and pain. However knowing as I do that by following a graduated system of training I am 100% (injury permitting) certain that in 6 months time I will be able to give a good account of myself. This is achieved by following a now familiar process- sure I can tweak it and might need some external input but given the time available and other life commitments I am more than happy with my performances so far. I like the fact that it is the knowledge coupled with belief in a incremental rise in training stress can lead to this change which is both reliable and predictable. I hope that some of the projects I work on will follow a similar path: the challenge is that this is more like my first IM and I have some mistakes to make and some knowledge to acquire- nonetheless the similarities are clear. Above all the doggedness in applying process to training and racing will hopefully transfer well to my work challenges.

Chunking

I am not sure if I have heard this phrase or just made it up. I find that if I am around management consultant types if you use the right sort of language in a bold and expressive manner they will often nod knowingly as though people always talk about "chunking"- No disrespect and I guess it is the same in any group that has their own language (tribars, bonking, diskwheels and gels anyone?).

So what does chunking mean? Well to me it means breaking things down into smaller chunks to make them manageable. IM training is all about that; think macro, meso and micro cycle, think swim, run and bike, think endurance, tempo, threshold. The breakdowns are endless but provide us with a way of coming to terms with what is otherwise potentially an overwhelming event. It also provides us with suitable staging posts along the way so that we can measure progress as we move towards our goal when hopefully we are able to get them all to work to their best ability on the same day. Similarly most medical processes are an immensely complicated interaction of different activities, involving complex equipment, complex skills and introduce the additional challenge of working with other humans.

Working or training, when it all works it is a wonderful thing to behold and can feel much the same whether you hit the groove in a race or training and everything just seems to flow or the team around you rises to the challenge and responds like a well oiled machine...

....when it doesn't happen well that's pretty much a normal day and it is how we respond to this that defines us. The good take stock, reflect learn and improve.

The rest, well they are the rest.

Beautiful swim

2010-01-08T02:07:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was a "free" day with no pressures to do be or anything else. As it was frozen outside I decided the day would include an outdoor swim and an indoor bike ride.

The swim was in the outdoor heated paradise that is London Fields Lido. As I can see the pool from my house I waited long enough through the morning til the sun was shining onto most of the "fast" lane before heading round. The air was a chilly -2 degrees C and there was sheet ice around the edge of the pool. Changing in the outside cubicles to maximise the elemental effect it was mighty chilly. Amazingly to my feet the pool was as warm as a bath, and the forty odd other people using the pool seemed to be having a great time. Easing gently into the water the mixture of the yellow sunlight rising white steam and azure blue of the water was sublime. Quite simply it was the best swim of the year which was quite a shock since a) I am seriously unfit b) I have had some great swims this year in Zurich, Lanzarote and Cornwall and c) it was such a surprise.

It reawakened in me a bit that has perhaps been missing over the last few months which is a realisation of how enjoyable these endurance pursuits can be. Focusing on this aspect should enable me to see myself back into some more solid training as I recover from what would appear to be a pandemic of different injuries (calf, hamstring, back and now Achilles). I am not seeking any sympathy and understand why I have had injuries, but they do allow a bit of perspective into the overall pursuit that is ironman. The biggest conclusion I have come away is that I am genuinely happier and in a better place when I am training than not. draft

Starting Over

2009-11-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

Training has not progressed in the last 3 weeks and I have logged my lowest hours of training in a 4 week period since about 2003! As a consequence I am now a full 7 kg heavier than prerace for IMCH in August.

I managed to strain a back muscle as a consequence of jumping back into the saddle, both literally and metaphorically, a bit too fast. This left me literally unable to train since running, swimming and cycling were just not possible. This was interesting as I watched my fitness decline still further and I had untold reserves of time to ponder in... except obviously work, family and sleep rapidly expanded to fill the vacuum leaving me wondering where on earth I plan on doing any training.

That aside I did reflect on what must now be declared a pattern of injury come autumn time. I think this reflects my pattern of autumn training which hitherto has been very goal orientated ie I will try and run faster longer etc and has not neccessarily been based on recuperation or consolidation. With that in mind I am hoping to focus on getting some strength back and may even join a gym for a few months to do a som core work and to mix up my sessions a bit. I hope this will then see me back and ready to train hard in the New Year......

written 2 weeks ago

My standard week

2009-10-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-22T08:21:00.001-07:00

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)) ?

2009-08-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-10T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

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!

That felt good- IM Switzerland race

2009-07-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Short report

Swim 1.04.47

T1 2.04

Bike 5.04.37

T2 1.30.1

Run 3.39.55

Total 9.52.56

Long report

Usual prerace nerves exacerbated by feeling very unwell on Monday and Tuesday such that on Monday I had to leave work early and spent most of Tuesday sleeping. Not sure what it was but will call it a tummy bug.

By weds I was feeling better and did a run in the evening. When I got to Switzerland via London city airport (gotta be the best place to fly from, no queues no hassle) I had enough time to book in and build my bike before joining a supervised romp around the bike course. That was a real blast. I went way to fast for the first 30 km hanging onto the heels of a big German engine chatting with Jon Hotchkiss who was venturing into IM for the first time but clearly has a lot of talent in the faster stuff. We then headed into the hills which were none to bad before charging down some real fast descents. I binned the ride at about 80km foregoing the pleasure of heartbreak hill until raceday. It was by far the hardest session I have yet done in a race week and left my legs buzzing a bit!!

Friday I managed a swim and met up with another Jon who I first met in at the start of Lanzarote in 2008, 2nd time at London Oly and this was our third meeting. We had a cool swim out into Lake Zurich and generally enjoyed the vibe of bobbing up and down in a water in the middle of some great backdrops. Saturday I focused on being as laid back as possible except for a tiny jog and a small ride down to transition. To be honest I still did not feel great unlike my prerace health before Lanza where I had felt fantastic.

Raceday and I had slept well but was still not sure how I thought it was going to go. I was worried being ill might affect the latter stages of the race and my lack of appetite may have affected my energy stores. Time telescoped and there we all were waiting for the off drifting past the start line. Eventually as is often the way in mass water starts someone at the front had enough and bolted for the open water end everybody charged after... there was no gun or signal!!!

Head down I was going well, rounded the first buoy, started hitting my stroke and felt like I was swimming well and gently passing up through the field. As we closed in on the second buoy the field tightened but there was only a bit of argy bargy, as I came out of the water to sight I could not really see in the distance so relied on what is a normally a good sense of direction but on Sunday was clearly broken. Next time I look up I am headed towards the apocalypse, well about a 1000 swimmers all coming directly towards me. I must have turned 180 degrees and was heading back where I came from. Now totally confused I spied an amused canoeist who gently showed me the way I should be heading. The rest of the swim followed with minimal mishap but my mojo was clearly blown and I struggled thereafter to find a rhythm and could not shake the nagging doubt that I was constantly headed back into more mayhem.

Finally out of the water at T1 I was surprised to find it raining slightly. Soon I was hammering out onto the bike course. I had already decided as soon as was feasible that I was gonna put the power down hard. I know it is not what the books say but 30 km on the flat is what I am made for! Sure there was some big bunches gathering but a strong headwind meant that even at a race legal 10 m you still got a big benefit from those in front making it much harder to get off the front of these packs, but on the first lap that is exactly what I did. A few rumbling discwheels came past but mostly it was me doing the overtaking. Into the hills on the first leg and I felt solid if not great. There are a few long drags then some great fast swooping downhills which I really enjoyed. A bit of light rain made me a bit tentative on the corners but otherwise it was all good. At about 70km you come back to the lake before heading round to "heartbreak hill" this is a short sharp climb quite close to the race venue and is stacked with spectators who crowd in close and give you a great lift. I was passed by several going up the hill but i had plans. On the descent I started to crank it up again and started blasting past a few riders as we hit the lakeside again for another 35km speedfest.

The second bike leg I felt strong. A headwind along the flat and a failure of the commissars to punish anyone meant that drafting was rife. I got caught by many I had already overtaken after about 10 km of the second lap. Even sitting 10m of the back (ie draft legal) there was a huge advantage as they blocked the headwind by riding 3 and 4 abreast and the same deep! Twice I tried to get of the front but with a large chasing pack they kept coming back. After the second time I chose to stay draft legal behind the pack and bide my time. With about 5 km before the turn off I jumped off the front and put in a hard effort, this worked in the pack behind spread out considerably and also meant I got to the next feed station with only a few others in close company. There was then a moderate hill where I was passed by most of the freshish riders who clearly had benefited from their draft behind me. I recovered quickly though and was sonn pushing past again. The next 30 km were amongst the best I have felt when racing IM. I dont remember many passing me but felt like I was slowly working my way through the field. I think some of this was an illusion but nonetheless I was able to hold a good pace. Soon I was back to the lake and the flat before heartbreak for the second time, this time I started slower but gradually built up pace knowing the climb and responding to the disco beats being played, I am always a sucker to a good tune, and again came flying of the top and back towards transition.

Soon I was back in for T2 and a quick change out onto the run. A quick systems check and apart from a stiff back I felt good. In the first K I was caught by a tall 50ish y.o. german wearing a kona hat. I decided to track him as his pace felt about right.. and I did a whole lap on his shoulder! He did not want to talk and I was happy to let him sort the pace out and just focus on staying with him! As the run progressed I felt good going into the second lap and worked out that with stead progress I should be able to do another sub 10 which is always good motivation! The second lap went well, once I had discovered the energy drink gave me stomach cramps (like clockwork about 60 secs after drinking it) so I changed to gels and water and the digestion issues seemed to ease, or maybe I was slowing ;0.

The third lap as ever was tough, my thighs tightened up so I changed to a high cadence short stride which at least kept me going. The battle this time was easier though and for the first time since I have started racing IM 26 miles did not seem to far. Mentally this was a great breakthrough and before I knew it I was onto the last lap. My stride eased up a bit and i found running easier for a while. Funnily it was when I realised I had about 35 minutes for the last 4.5K to go sub 10 that the pain came back. Still I kept going by visualising my normal 10 km run around Victoria Park and knowing I run that very week and imagining that was where i was. The last turnaround is about 3 km away from the finish and at this point I felt strong enough to push for home. I focused on an upright body and a good stride and.. it worked. I picked up at least 6 places in the last leg and went flying back towards the finish. I was very surprised to see the time on 9.52.5... so went hard down the shute to make sure it stayed a 9.52 (last year I did 9.53 at IM Austria).

Race done and I felt good. Big shout to Tom W and Helen T and to Jon doing his second IM.

I have found my race and with a 9.37 seeing me to Kona I think I might be back and hunting next year (59 min swim, 5hr bike, 3hr 29 run and I should have a chance for Hawaii!!). There again I said something the same last year and have not made the jump yet... but I think this time I might be able to do it.

See you out there somewhere.

"Once more unto the breech...

2009-07-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

This is the line up for the start of the first multisport event of the middle ages. This involved running climbing then fighting. The guy being played by larry olivier was the race director who can be seen here getting ready to set of the of the pros in shiny hats in the foreground. The hatless AGers can be seen in the background behind the stockade. As seems to be the fashion these days they will be held back for a few minutes to let the Pros have a clear field so to speak. The tents in the background are part of the event expo with the familiar sponsors flags, Then as now they sold bits of flashy kit that the anxious competitors would purchase even though they did nopt need them. You know the stuff, portable sword sharpeners, spare lightweight shields, carbon fibre lances and so on.

The full and highly motivating quote from Wil Shakspyr goes a bit like this*(see at the end of post).The call to arms is where I feel I am on the cusp of IM Switzerland. If I can gather up the motivation and get a bit of luck, mojo whatever I think I could race well this sunday. The no taper taper was pushed yesterday when I followed the group bike tour. Following a large german and Jonathan Hotchkiss at around my racepace for 70km was great fun but maybe a bit unwise, we shall see. Still the racebuild here in Zurich seems good and the weather is gonna match it. Just hope I can find my sinews stiffened enough to see me home strongly.

*Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.

Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Am I better for doing IM?

2009-06-23T03:36:00.000-07:00

Is this heresy? Last Sunday I was suffering from motivation issues since having got up early to do a long ride I was faced with a Deluge of biblical proportions outside combined with thunder and lightning made seek shelter on the sofa with a scared cat for company. The option to get on the turbo at that time would have meant waking the household which is probably a bit unfair at 6.30 so I elected to wait and read a bit. Children stumbled downstairs at 7 and we spent an enjoyable half hour just chatting and watching rubbish on the tv. Eventually at 7.45 I thought it not unreasonable to start up on the turbo since my wife is usually getting up at this point. Sure enough the rain stopped and outside was looking better but at this point I was committed to 150 mins of turbo hell.

As the house sprung into life around me kids and cats wandering in and out of the spare room where I was spinning away and time passing incredibly slowly as it always seems to on a turbo I got to wondering whether the life as an Ironman was still a force for good. A recurring theme at ironman races where I meet with other racing dads is that its the wives who suffer. Is it fair me shooting out the house every sunday even if I am back by 12. Do my children understand why I need to go out for a 2hr run on Friday evenings and does the time I take out of the family through chasing my personal goals compensate by enabling me to have a better balance through the rest of my week?

Undoubtedly through being fitter I have more ability to cope with the stresses of general life. But training for Ironman actually involves a lot of time trashing your fitness through further cycles of training and can leave you feeling a bit ratty some times. I guess this is however no more than I get anyway and in fact I feel more calm since IM than in my preIM days and I often find the process of training helps me to work out the day to day stresses of life.

With less than 3 weeks to go to IM swissroll I am feeling solid but nothing spectacular. I have a traditional midnight 100 miler (38 laps of Regents Park) to be knocked off and a few more runs then a whole year before I do another IM

Same

2009-05-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

So that was lanzarote. One year of training later and I raced nearly identically in every aspect to last year. Except that at nearly every step I felt fitter and stronger, even when I felt tired and slow out on the marathon course. I guess I had a choice of finding perhaps 5 minutes more out on the run but once I felt a sub 11 was beyond me I was not to bothered about the time and started to enjoy myself!

So to the swim start. This was my roughest of 4 IM swims. I got kicked punched blocked and generally chucked around. I think last year was just a lucky swim. As a consequence I was quicker in my second lap and had the joy of overtaking numerous others as I came back against the tide on the second lap. I am not sure why the swim was so rough this year but I was struggling to swim straight and found myself close to the bouys which was probably the cause of all the grief.

Out of the sea and on to the bike. Last year I went off like a bat out of hell. This year I felt much more evenly paced and generally enjoyed most of the bike. My key mistake was to believe the Km markers which were completely out. I guess I wanted to believe them too! (they were well short and at half way showed me headed for a 5.30-40 split time when in reality the 170 km matker came with about 25 km still to go instead of the 10 it should have been.) This lead to me virtually sprinting the last 5 km in a desperate bid to get under 6hrs (and I failed.. tho' not on my bike computer). Could I have gone faster? probably. Could I have gone significantly faster? I doubt it. So there must be a lesson there somewhere.

Out onto the run and I really struggled to get my HR down. Accroding to my HR monitor it was stuck at 170. Either my HR monitor is bust or I have a problem... I think the HR data is out of wack. But I still took a while to get going, and as I wrote in the intro could perhaps have found a bit of pace as the run went on but not more than 5 minutes max.

A week on I can honestly say I really enjoyed the race, perhaps most of all down to the fab support from tri londoners both in the race (Jo, Marc and Alex) and from the sides (especially Steven and later in the day team Sayer).

I need to think a bit more about what I have learnt in this cycle of training but now its time to start focusing ahead to this years "A" race- Ironman Switzerland

My aching heart

2009-05-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

Feeling as I do at the moment which is to say as fit as a fiddle and happy as I can remember I thought it worthwhile to look ahead at what to expect post raceday and specifically at some of the science on what racing an ironman does to your body.

Obsessed as I am I recognise the impact an ironman race has on my body in the days after. Lets face it you cant help but notice as you struggle down the stairs (and if you dont know what I mean are you sure your racing hard enough?).

There is quite a lot of evidence that, at least in the short term IM has a potentially quite serious impact on your health and hence the very serious advice that you should not race if you have a bad cold. Some colds are caused by viruses that can cause myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) and this is something you really want to avoid. It also reflects the stress doing this event can put your body under thereby making you susceptible to the risk of serious harm from a virus you would normally shrug of after a few days.

So what is the evidence for harm following an IM race. There are two principle effects. The first is that an Ironman reduces the function of your neutrophils (so called white cells that help fight acute infections) and at the same time is associated with quite a marked inflammatory response as part of your immune function response. This inflammatory reaction is what classically happens when we get a serious injury, have an operation or have some other stress put on the body (and can be induced by heat stroke, alcohol poisoning and may other things). The effects of this can be to cause tissue swelling (odema) and pain. It almost certainly occurs in response to the micro trauma associated with 10 odd hours of continuos exercise and the muscle damage associated with this exercise. It will probably be exacerbated by dehydration, heat stress and getting you nutrition so wrong you race prolonged on empty and hence catabolise your muscle a bit more than is strictly necessary. There is alot of science to suggest this state can last up to and beyond 2 weeks post race.

The other principle effects are on your heart. Tests that are typically used to determine whether someone is having a heart attack work by detecting enzymes and proteins released into the blood stream from damaged heart muscle cells. Perhaps the most common of these tests is a test for Troponin T a protein found specifically in cardiac muscle. While it can be raised as a consequnece of other things it is typically raised in response to damage to heart muscle cells. Worryingly this is found to be raised in nearly all IM finishers and when present in what are termed clinically significant levels are usually associated with significant abnormalities of heart function when studied using an echocardiogram. In fact nearly all IM finishers demonstrate some mild impairment of heart function in the first 24 hrs post race. The significance of all of this is not clear. Troponin T levels can also be raised in association with muscle injury and perhaps this is the cause but this would not explain the abnormal heart function.

On a happier note we are no more likely to have knee problems than a non Ironman age matched population.

So in summary ironman takes a toll on your body but this is largely recovered from by 3 weeks. To reduce this train well, race well and recover well.

Finally we will also live longer and find the path to secret super powers foregone by our mortal colleagues.

(sorry but I made that last bit up)

Where did I get to?

2009-05-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

I thought the proximity of a taper would be a good time to review my goals from last autumn against reality and try and get my excuses in early!

Back in August I set some big swimming goals of doing 15000m feb through March (current average is 8000m). I was gonna avoid injury (managed to have a total of 7 weeks of no running between now and then) and was gonna get a power meter for the bike (failure due to sales issues!). Along the way I have ditched 3 running events (snowdon marathon, luton marathon and brentwood half) and have lost 4 regular training partners to slipped disks and broken wrists, and prolonged sabbaticals!

In spite of this I feel in a good place and have enjoyed my training more than I can remember. The crucial point this year is when I feel that grey fatigue I either bin or shorten the session. I still dont know if this is good or bad. Sure there are days when we just dont feel like getting out there but equally endurance training does require a degree of pushing on through if the gains are to be maximised.

Yesterday I knocked out a solid 6hr 106 mile solo ride taking in all the hills I could find so I guess the bike is there or there abouts. Running is slightly backwards and swimming is where it is.

For me there is still a few key sessions to fit in including a solid 70 mile mid week bike ride and a set of 3 x 2-2.5 hr runs in the next week before the taper starts with 11 days to go.

B minus

2009-04-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

The picture is the Barcelos cockerel famous to portuguese legend and Nandos!

So back from Lisbon and I am not entirely sure what I have learnt (except for the cockerel legend). Overall I kinda did what I set out to do but somehow it was not entirely satisfactory. The swim was a solid 30 mins (and a second) so just above my target but pretty much where I want to be. It was quite a feisty affair with 600 in a mass start with a turn at 300m. The field appeared to me quite talented with a significant number using this event like me as a warm up to Lanzarote.

A leisurely transition and the out on the bike a 4 lap course. My plan was to go steady on the first and then push hard on laps 2 and 3 then hold on for the 4th. This worked well; I had a familiar dead leg feeling out of the swim but allowed them to slowly tune up to speed. The bike was essentially an out and back with a 1 mile hill just before turn around. We had a whole section of motorway closed off for us which was fantastic, but there was a strong headwind on the way out which was less good. It did make for a fantastic return leg with speeds topping 42 mph, and in general was good practice in holding a tight aero position for a sustained block of time. I was disappointed to clock what I thought was a slow 2.37 for the bike leg but the whole field was at least 10-12 minutes slower than last year which again puts me about where I felt I should be. I did however start to fade of the pace a bit in the last lap with a few I had passed in lap 3 clawing me back and then riding away from me. I felt that I had may be a bit more power to squeeze but it was not easy and settled on maintaining a steady rhythm through the last leg.

Finally out onto the run. I wrote the plan was to run steady 8 min miles as per goal IM pace. Fact was I had only one pace and that was to keep going. I think/hope it was down to a lot of running in the last 10 days and the deliberate non taper for this race (OK so I had a rest on friday but trained as normal the rest of the week) otherwise I think I could be in trouble come May 22nd. I got progressively slower on the 4 laps and was struggling a bit on the last. Still I posted a 1.43 which was worse than anyone who finished above me (so yes I did go backwards through the field on the run quite spectacularly) but was pretty much my target time (even if it was probably on 20.5 km).

I guess I learned I am still an aspirational AGer with no discernible talent but a lot of enthusiasm and that the breakthrough to elite superstardom will have to wait another week, lifetime or dimension.

As for the race itself. I think it is fab. The wind aside it is pretty well organised, a good strong field, fantastic venue found myself good accommodation and for a capital city relatively cheap. I think I may well be there next year if I am not doing London Marathon (or perhaps even the lisbon marathon which was the weekend before!)

Tuning up

2009-04-18T03:46:00.000-07:00

As I start to focus down on the first race of the year, a nice little tune up race in Lisbon I have started to think about where there might be any little hidden benefits that might make me race quicker without expending more effort training.

Some new kit has been purchased including a new wetsuit, since my 4 yr old xterra suit now has more holes than augusta golf course. This I tried out yesterday and due to the upside down zip had to ask random bloke to secure me inside said suit. Once done I positively flew up and down the pool finishing my set with 10x100 coming in on 1.25 for EVERY length. I have also got some lovely new carbon easton attack aerobars which definitely make me feel quicker and some shiny new silver bike shoes (ditto).

Kit aside and without unearthing some magic new training programme, where are the other gains to be made. Certainly nutrition is a key factor as is getting adequate rest in the peak training stages. I am not sure what significant gains are to be had there but will continue to get to bed early and to take afternoon powernaps where possible. I have decided to use some torq recovery drinks for replenishing the energy stores after long/hard sessions (cheers stef)but again what are the margins for performance enhancement?

Perhaps one of the key factors to enhance race day performance is keeping calm in the build up and during the race itself. I guess some of this is a given in terms of your natural temperament and clearly some can be developed through practice races. I find the prerace build up can sometimes be like the period before an exam when fellow contestants boast either about how much or how little the have done and seek assurance from you that you have done more or less than they have. People who engage in this sort of stuff are often to be found doing one last "session" the day before the race and frankly good luck to them.

Having avoided other peoples' ego trips in general I love the prerace day or two as at is often the first time in several weeks I can be alone and can really turn off my brain and body (assuming my family are not with me). The luxury of an afternoon nap and time to read, fiddle with the bike, watch a few dvds is all part of my prerace taper. The other big step is building a positive state of mind. No matter what you have done up to the 2 days before raceday, a good or bad build up, the last 48 hrs are for being positive and developing a frame of mind to see you through to the finish line. Quite how you do this I guess is up to you. Personally I use a lot of positive mental imaging, and allow my own natural self assurance ;-) to build me up to the race.

So for the race I would like to see a sub 30 swim, a 2.25-2.30 bike and then I will aim to run 8 min miles and no faster (which should see me going gloriously backwards through the field). I have to remember this is a practice race and not the main event (which my take some in race discussion with my ego)

There is gold in them hills

2009-04-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

I spent the last month hanging out for a long awaited weeks holiday in Majorca. Back at the planning stage it was either Majorca or Lanzarote and when we looked at it in darkest December Majorca seemed the better choice. We already had a week in Lanzarote at the IM so a change of venue seemed the thing and the weather looked OK and the facilities for my own spring training seemed good. Sadly the week of sun they had before we got there stopped the day we arrived, dark clouds moved in and it rained for 6 days straight, pretty much without a discernible break. The first we saw of the sun again was as we got into the car to head back to the airport!

But we had a great time. The villa was fab and got on a special "recession offer" complete with freezing pool which my kids enjoyed in spite of the rain. We stayed near Pollenca in the hills to the northeast of the island. We enjoyed good food, long walks, lots of swimming in a brand new and empty heated 25m pool, the odd bottle or two of red wine and a few runs across the hills with my missus. In addition I got to explore a few of them there hills.

I have cycled a few thousand miles since I started triathlon, but have only ever taken my bike overseas to race. Majorca afforded me the first chance to try out some long hills and this was an eyeopener. Majorca was absolutely full of cyclists, a bit like Richmond Park at 11 on a sunday morning only bigger. I tried out a few hilly rides before negotiating a day away from the rest of the family for a 6 hr ride (ish) where I took in a few 500m climbs and then another 900m climb at an average of 6% incline. And now I understand about hills.

The necessity to keep going at a steady heart rate and the relentless nature of the climb forces you to develop or build your muscular endurance which is surely the key to a good IM bike ride. Each climb is followed by a downhill recovery and then repeat. No number of Boxhill repeats can mimic this. An equivalent sustained effort on the flat can be done but sees you travelling further and faster and is harder to keep steady since at speed minor variations in incline etc have significant impact on you effort levels. Also when you finish your long climb you are at the top of the hill and that is always a good feeling.

So my advice for those who want to improve their training is to move to the nearest 1000m steady climb and train on it. Failing that I have always maintained that East Anglia is too flat so perhaps they could build us a mountain there to train on there!

Push On or Hold Back

2009-03-23T01:48:00.000-07:00

As the build phase of training starts to kick in I am feeling surprisingly good. Two consecutive weeks of 17hrs training and no injuries to report. This being my 4th IM build up I am use to this feeling and the temptations that come with it. The challenge is to know when to push just that little bit more and when to hold back. The Lore of Running has some interesting things to say but the bit I found most applicable is that if you feel tired and fatigued climbing two sets of stairs then it is time to back off a bit! To the non IMer this may be obvious but it is amazing how much you can tolerate in day to day life as you ramp up the hours.

Most of you will be familiar with the valley of fatigue as shown in the diagram. The idea is that progressive cycles of increasing load (grey columns) ultimately result in better fitness levels (blue). The evidence for this is marginal especially for athletes who are time limited since it can be a challenge to fit these variable hour patterns into a working career. What I think is clear though is that at a certain volume you get to a state where the training is not working any more and the fatigue starts to prohibit recovery and performance in subsequent sessions. At this point you need a break (so say the experts). Again this will depend on lots of variables like how hard and how long the sessions you do are. However there is also the real world which does not always follow the set plan. If after 2 weeks you are feeling shot then surely it is time to take a rest, if you are feeling great then should you push on for another week of training and perhaps more intensity... and that is the real fun in IM training.

Knowing where the edge is between too much and just enough takes experience and practice. The "wise" advice is that it is better to turn up undertrained than overtrained. This is advice I would agree with for those new to IM since there is a whole learning process to go through but for those slightly longer in the tooth you have got to be prepared to experiment to find that balance. Last year I felt similar at this point in my training leading up to IM lanza, in fact if anything I felt stronger on the bike and was running faster. This year however I am trying to bring my bike to a peak a bit later (I think my biking was better about 4 weeks pre lanza than it was come race day) and I am focusing on more time and less intensity on the running, only putting in any sort of speed work in the running n the last 4 weeks. Finally doing a second IM 6 weeks after the first showed me that perhaps I am better of a short taper so this year my last big volume weekend will extend up to 13 days prerace.

Hopefully the next post will tell how good this plan is.. otherwise I will have learnt a bit more about how to do it the wrong way.

Happy when I am running

2009-03-10T04:31:00.000-07:00

So the last few weeks have been difficult. Training has been hampered by a calf muscle that goes into cramp after a few miles running and if I continue leaves me unable to run for a few days and then the cycle repeats. Easy, you say, dont run for a bit then start back gently, get a massage etc. Did that same thing happened. Frustration starts to creep in and a fear that I will never be able to run more than 4 miles again

Look back through my training logs and I see a pattern emerging, bike volume goes up, calf injury occurs and running volume comes down. Found this out in 2005 (my first season of tri) and the nice sports physio said my hamstrings and calf muscles were shortening and I needed too do regular stretches...... so it only took me 4 weeks to recognise the cycle and make the diagnosis and institute the corrective treatment (stretching - lots). If I was this bad in my day job there would be a lot of very unhappy patients out there . Such is the limits of self coaching but at least now I feel I have regained control of the situation.

This echoes the comments of Steve who has a tough time with an injury out of the blue these last few weeks which has taken him out training for a while. Personally I find the impact of injury psychologically hard to deal with. When an injury occurs and you find your training slipping back all the commitment so far seems wasted and the motivation to make more commitments to training starts to wain as your inner voice starts to ask what is the point of getting faster or working harder on the swim and bike if you are not going to be able to run at the end of it. This happened somewhat last year when I got a similar injury 22 days out from IM Lanza and I think may have contributed to a relatively poor race. The challenge is to focus on your rehab and maintain a positive outlook but this is often difficult when you face an all or nothing scenario: basically your season is about racing as well as you can at the IM race and not even being able to start would be a complete disaster for most (the exception being those who race multiple IMs). Luckily last year I learnt that you can bounce back from one race to the next so even if I were to DNS Lanzarote I would still have Im Swissroll to aim at.

But none of this matters, I have started stretching, and I am running again. A week off serious training with a bit of manflu probably helped me recover some form and yesterday I ran 6 miles steady with no problems and today I feel GREAT. So the stretching is back in, the running volume will head up again (yeah, I know like watch the volume and intensity) and I will run a sub 3.40 at Lanzarote, or I wont but at least now I feel that might be possible!!

What is the bigger picture? Macro- Meso- Microcycle

2009-02-23T04:45:00.000-08:00

So I reckon that if I swim at least 15000m a week for 8 weeks, cycle 250 miles for same and run about 50 miles a week in the build phase of my ironman prep (weeks 13-5) then I should be on for Kona or there abouts (see older post somewhere). Problem is that represents 26 hours+ training a week never mind the getting dressed undressed washed prepped etc. Add to that some recovery time and we are talking in the region of 40 hours a week.

Devoted as I am to my goals I could not do this whilst maintaining a career, family and marriage and whilst to some it would appear that these are not limiters I do Ironman to add quality to my life and not to take away (macrocycle or big picture). To maximise my benefit from the training I do it is probable that I have a tendency to go a bit harder than is ideal in an effort to get more, but maybe this helps me to do just that.

I do know that I can nail about 17-20 hrs training in a working week when I have everything on song (the mesocycle). This requires all the usual planning and a clear limit to the timescale over which this will occur (about 4-5 weeks), otherwise the rest of the life starts to build up and things start to get in the way. I have also become much more disciplined in my response to niggles and injuries and I will readily not do a session if I think injury is a likelihood (although this last Autumn would suggest otherwise).

This might give 6-8 weeks of 10 hrs cycling 5 hrs running and 3hrs swimming which aint too be sniffed at(microcycle). Add a week or two where I push the limits a bit and who knows what I might achieve but I still think a breakthrough for me will come in my fifties (thats probably extending the definition of macrocycle a bit far) when my kids are at Uni and my life may be simpler.

So what I am trying to say in a long winded way is that I am starting to accept that the limits in my performance will be due to external limiters (time) but in reality it is the internal limiters that ultimately count: I like my life, family and career too much to let the necessary obsession overwhelm me. The problem is this gives me an excuse to accept a "lesser" performance because I did not have the time to do the training I would have liked, and this can be demotivating....
So I need to put up a goal. That will be 10 hrs 45 mins for Lanza including a sub 1 hour swim and a sub 6 hr bike (see last years results)... that should do for the motivation.

Getting whupped by the young 'uns

2009-02-02T06:36:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I did the Hell of Ashdown which was essentially a 62 mile sportif over all the hills they could find in and around the Ashdown forest in Kent and Sussex. I new it was gonna be cold and bottled out of riding there and back as well as the ride itself and settled on a plan to go hard as I could.

Just after I started a trio charged past me and up the first hill. I chased hard and caught up on the descent when we all slowed due to the ice here and there on the road. A bunch of 5 me included proceeded to run along at a good lick. The first few climbs I managed to hang on but with the successive hills the youth soon started to gap me on the climb and I had to work to catch up each time.

After a water stop I set out on my own into a strong headwind. All was going well and I had a nice rhythm going and was gently passing cylists and apart from 2 keen club cyclist pacing each other was not myself being passed. Then 2 things happened: firstly Ollie another trilondoner said hello as we waited for the only set of lights in the day to change before vanishing up the hill without a back ward glance, then we got caught in a blizzard. My mojo went completely and I decided a safe roll in was the best way to cover the last 15 miles (which turned out to be 6!) and with only 4 miles to go I blew a rear tire and had to change it in the sub zero. Following other bike tracks through the snow is a novel way to navigate through a cycling event but worked OK

At the end I felt a bit dejected because I thought my bike was going strong but all is not lost. Firstly Ollie ripped the legs of everyone there that day to post the fastest time of anyone secondly, well i did not do too bad all things considered.

What have I learned. I think it is time to use a bit of bike competition to get me going that bit harder on the bike rides.... so its time to find a new partner or two!! Also I reaffirmed the knowledge that bikes and snow dont mix.

beam me up scotty

2009-01-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

Power is the way forwards. As a keen ironmanner but neccessarily limited by time due to the other stuff like wife, children, work house refurbishment etc I have to maximise my training efficiency. While I would love to spend my weekends knocking out century rides sat and sun there is a fair chance I might find the keys to the house changed if I did this repeatedly. the alternative apart from previously mentioned time management techniques is to maximise the benefits of each session hence my recent post about using my turbo.

The next step is to maximise the benefit of the long rides and other sessions. To do this I plan to start using a powermeter to try and get used to working in the right power zones and ultimately to race according to power. Will this improve my overall racing? I do hope so.

So I have emailied powercylemeters.com and will hopefully be learning the wonmderful things that power can do for me. This I hope will be money better spent than a new bike (which is kyboshed due to the pound weakness anyway).

Did a solid weeks training of

Monday rest

Tuesday 2hr bike(30miles) commute 4000m swim(10x400) 75 min turbo threshold set

Wednesday 6 mile run

Thursday 2 hr turbo

Friday 1hr swim (speedwork) 6mile run tempo

Saturday 85 mile bike steady

Sunday 45 min continuos swim 2hr (15 mile) run

for about 17hrs training.(which is about one third of what steve did!)

Next week is a bit less but have the Hell of Ashdown at the end to put some spice into it.

And I feel good.

Hard work and drinking

2009-01-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

It is time to start getting stuck in, weather permitting to the hard work that will see me through to Lanza in May. As was the case last year I am currently firing on all cyclinders if a bit gently and under distance for the running. The ice cold weather has made cycling somewhat hazardous and christmas also had some effect on regular training. Nonetheless I feel good about the prospects and have decided to go the month without any alcohol (well except for the first 3 days!!!!).

The aspects of alcohol and training are quite interesting to me. Clearly large volumes of alcohol and good training are not easy bed fellows though I have always found a 2 hr run one of the most effective cures for a bad hangover (once you can overcome the nausea and headache and provided you have large quantities of ribena - the perfect sugary rehydration fluid). The most significant impact of excess alcohol are, I think, the dehydration and the fatigue. Fatigue because the only times I stay up the wrong side of midnight these days are if I am raising hell (or more perhaps more accurately spilling curry into my lap after a night reminiscing about the good old days) or I am working. This fatigue makes successful training the following day unlikely (2 hr runs not withstanding) and eats into free time that could otherwise be put to different use.

Of more interest is the value of alcohol when used in moderation alongside a regular training programme. Does a glass of wine a day really have a dramatic effect on training? Is there any reason why it should impair our benefits from regular training. There is lots written about how harnful alcohol can be but almost none of this refers to moderate or low intake of booze and there has been little research into this. anecdotally the tour de France competitors used to drink heavily during the race. They were almost certainly using the anaesthetic effects of alcohol to help them overcome the pain of extreme fatigue and it is quite a good source of calories too!

Clearly I argue from the basis that a little of what you like is not gonna be to bad for you (is it?). Hence my normal training week consumption of a glass of wine or two on most nights, but I hasten to add not proceeding on to the rest of the bottle which used to be the case. If I abandoned all booze whilst on my training programme, say for the next 20 weeks, would I get fitter? I am not sure but I feel the quality of my life would be lessened so I shall resume a glass or two of wine with my supper from february.

Til next time

Oh and by the way if anyone wants to know what to get me for my birthday, or any other occasion, a bottle of the above would be fine.

Its all about the bike

2008-12-22T01:02:00.000-08:00

So training has officially started in earnest. I've opened up a new xcel spreadsheet and logged in some key events on the way to Lanzarote. I am now almost running without niggles and managed to swim 4 times last week. The winter solstice is gone and I have plans. Key in all of this is as ever the bike training.

At lanzarote last year I felt disappointed with my bike (6hrs) and even IM austria at 5.04 was not quite what i hoped for (sub 5) so what are my plans to go faster. Looking at last year I think I peaked a bit early for Lanza on the bike, this year I plan to keep going large up to 20 days out. I also did not do many 5hr+ rides and this year aim to remedy this (but this means an even earlier start to fulfil family commitment to be home by midday). To help I am considering doing the tour of flanders but its proximity to Lisbon half IM in April is not gonna sit to happily with family commitments. Failing that I think a few more reps of Box Hill will probably do it.

My key weapon this year however is to get a bigger power base under me to try and improve the climbing. To this end I have started on my own pyramid sessions (actually they are more blocky than pyramid but hey). I start with a 30 min TT on my imagic and take the average power out put for this (currently about 270 watts on the imagic- not sure how accuate this is).

Using this is my base I then undertake the following sessions (every 5-7 days)

Warm up 4 mins pedalling then (3 x 1min high cadence 110+ at max power then 2 min recovery) then I do

Week 1 3 x 12 mins 270 watts with 2 min recovery between each set

Week 2 3 x 15 mins 270W

Week 3 5 x 10 mins 270W

Week 4 2 x 20 mins 270W

Week 5 CP30 (30 min tt based on weeks 1 -4)

then go back to week 1 on new wattage.

What I learn is that

a) my first tt is always way under what I can actually do

b) the first set often is the hardest

c) the jump from 3x12 to 3x15 is the worst

Using the imagic I can look historically at performance although calibration is an issue. Each step is designed to be doable, just! Last year I did this for dec jan and feb but then started riding outside all the time and lost this session. This year it is gonna stay all the way to taper time- I hope it will give the extra top end power and stickability for climbing... yeah I know you can go and climb hills but none of those round here last 12 mins or greater. Climbing at steady state is a power based issue and one I need to learn better, perhaps I should angle my turbo too!

Last year I saw a good 15% improvement in power for the CP 30 teast across 2 cycles, so this year I plan to do 4 cycles should make for 30% improvement ;-)

We all need Friends

2008-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

It is with great sadness that I realise two of my most motivational training partners and friends are about to embark on a journey that will take them out of my sphere perhaps indefinitely. Steve and Jo are both hardcore IMers who introduced me to the concept of early morning training on a weekday (like 0400hrs and earlier) and in whos company I have had the pleasure of whiling away many an hour circumnavigating regents park (somewhere around 1500 laps I would guess).

I must say I am distinctly jealous of their plans including a visit to New Zealand and a chance to do another epic camp. The idea of setting out on a cold winters morning to go around on my own does not appeal but hopefully some of the newcomers will stick around a bit when the season kicks in.

My training is currently all about the bike. I am riding a steady 75 miler every weeekend and trying to start pulling it together. I start to feel quite excited about the prospects of another hard build and maintain endless positivity towards the whole process. the only issue at present is swimming since my beloved lido is beset by darkness and therefore closed more often than not when I want to use it.

More regular posting to follow as i develop a theme for this years training...

More more more

2008-10-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

I dunno what it is about IM events but the more I do the more I wanna do. Once you have done one you go one of two ways I reckon. Either you back off and go back to something less time consuming or you want more. (But sometimes you have to call it quits, peel off the dodgy lycra and curl up with a pizza and dvd because that's more fun. edit by Mrs runtilyoudrop). Is it the overdose of endorphins that some of us become addicted to? Is it the order and demands of a tough training schedule that brings discipline to our daily life? Maybe its just having an excuse to buy some new kit, on the subject of which the assos 3 layer winter glove system is comfortably the best I have yet encountered if a bit pricey.

Point is I have already committed next year to 2 IM races and sit here contemplating entering Norseman an event that sits out there lurking desperately waiting for me to do it!! On the same level there is the New Zealand Coast to Coast, IM Japan, IM Brazil, Elbaman.......

... is this an illness, an addiction perhaps or just a passing phase?

Well who cares. After 3 weeks nursing a dodgy achilles the running has recommenced, swimming is starting to feel like something I like rather than a chore and I spent 5 hours out on my bike on sunday morning in the continuos rain and absolutely loved it. The hunger is back and I want more power!

Feck Achilles

2008-09-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

September has been distinctly challenging. Work, family and trying to run everyday have left me worn out. The goal of running every day through September was worthy but not achieved. I managed 27 out of 30 days. The desire to start putting in the long runs led to the day after a long run when I found myself trying to run around Victoria Park on legs that felt like wooden stumps. The consequence of this was due to my stubborness I did not stop and walk but ran on and paid the following day when my achilles flared up.

Trying to stick to the rule of no more than a 10% increase a week I may have taken a slight liberty but thought my background training would help. The bruised heels and flaming achilles I sit here with right now speak otherwise. Do I stop and sit it out or do I stretch, do my heel raises and carry on? I have never found that rest got rid of my AT so I run on and use some brufen.. the running is considerably less enjoyable though.

So it seems that I cannot run every day or at least not yet and perhaps it has been quite a while since I did any serious training (I guess August was mostly rest!!)

I am still trying to rationalise the voice that says I should stay in bed, drink more beer and hey just kick back for a bit. It all sounds tempting but I have a goal to achieve and I am going after it. October will see some interesting running and a gradual build back up to cycling every Sunday at least 4hrs. The programme begins in earnest after I have recovered from Luton marathon (2weeks without running but a kick start to the swimming)so that is December.

Need to get the buzz back first though.

Its called the Maff, The Monster Maff

2008-09-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

Everybodys talking bout the new sensation, come on baby do the Maffetone. Better than slice bread and twice as good for you. The answer to all your training woes and soon we will all be able to race like Mark Allen.

At least thats what it says on the tin. Essentially the maff strikes me as doing a controlled period of base training whilst undertaking an objective test of whether your training is working every 4 weeks or so. The key point is that at no time do you go into the threshold zone and above, or level 3 and above, or Borg >13 or >5 if you like new Borg!, or whatever other measure of exercise level you wanna use. The point, I think, is that this allows maximal training effect with minimal downside of injury and so on. The question is who is it most likely to work best for.

If you are an elite top-end AGer the reality is you probably train too hard too much of the time (at least thats what the Maffia will have you believe). By allowing a period of base where the body recovers and probably develops that all important aerobic base, you are then in a position to build on this with your natural talent and top end speedwork (like Mark Allen). If you are a middling time limited AGer is this gonna work to get the speed up come the new season?

More and more I feel that a genetic component is huge part of this and to some degree no matter how hard you train if you aint got it you aint ever gonna have it, and a naturally high VO2 Max is always gonna be an advantage. In addition I also think that response to training is also hugely variable (and firmly based in our gene pool) and there is lots of evidence out there to support this but most importantly I think IM also has a huge component of self determination.

Nietzsche's "will to power", the idea behind superman and the belief that the only thing that holds us back from superhuman efforts is our psyche, is another way of describing this. In other words personal belief will get you a long way in IM racing. Would also make a dead cool race nutrition brand.

If I did not think this, then the idea that my genetic limitations may never allow me to achieve my goals would lead to rapid disillusion.

But back to me and the Maff. I am gonna try it, sort of. Being a bit of an iconoclast I could never do it in the fully prescribed way. For a start the method of choosing you HR limit is pretty random, take 180 subtract your age add 5 for good behaviour and so on. Not terribly scientific whether empirical or metric. But I am gonna do all my runs at a HR of less than 145, except for the 10KM on the first sunday of every month and after 10 weeks I think I might start to sneak in a bit of speedwork if things are going well.

My target is to get up to 8 hrs running a week by early October which will be 2 hrs more than I have ever averaged before. This should be around 60 miles a week. To facilitate this I am backing of on the bike riding to max 6 hrs a week and swimming 2 x weekly. This should put the volume in place to see me through my first marathon which will be hilly (Snowdon Marathon) on Oct 25th. I aim to run this at training pace so somewhere around 8 min miles with the idea that I can recover quickly to get back in training. I will not race but use this as a key session in my build to the second marathon in Luton. If the plan works then I should then have 1 week recovery and a 4 week build including some speed sessions followed by a 2 week taper.

All being well I should be able to run a solid 3.10 marathon and possibly faster. The leap of faith required is 1. to avoid injury. I am ramping up the hours quite quickly but think I should have the base to tolerate this so long as I stick to the Maff. I will need to exert caution around the 10km races since these have caused me trouble in the past. 2. If I can get the hours in will they enough give me the endurance to maintain a faster pace come race day. 3. Will introducing a 4 week set of speedwork be enough since I intend to go quite easy even at that stage to avoid injury.

End of the year 2008

2008-08-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

Sadly my tri exploits have come to an end for 2008 as a recurrent calf strain has reared it's ugly head and reduced my running to a slow shamble. Have not quite got it back together since IM Austria and wont to get a focus on moving towards 2009 which means recovering from this years racing and starting to build towards next year. With 2009 being my 5th year of triathlon I think I might be starting to learn about what does and does not work for my body. The key challenge is putting it all together and sticking to the plan.

So my aims are 1. to minimise time lost to injury (as follows) 2. to prolong the base until end of March 3. to do all running following the Maffetone method 4. to follow my own schedule of weekly turbo sessions to build my threshold power 5. to swim 15000m a week for the 12 weeks from feb through to april.

To help me get my bike training on target I plan to train by power from February so will be visiting cyclepowermeters.com to hire a power meter for the build up to Lanzarote. I am also entertaining the introduction of a new bike to the household since the cost of upgrading my soloist with new aerobars and bits is about the same cost as a new P2C dura ace courtesy of R&A bikes (well not quite the same cost) and I deserve a 40th birthday present.

Finally I am going to have another go at 100 days of sit ups. The idea is to achieve a minimum of 40 situps and 20 pressups every day for 100 days. Should be easy but does not seem to be. that said it gets easier and after about 14 days you start to get mission creep. Last year I managed 41 days- we shall see.

Being Dad

2008-08-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Ironman is all about the work/life/family/triathlon balance for your average soon to be fortysomething Age Grouper.

My children are still malleable enough to accept that daddy trains and does stuff and that this is 'important' to him, my partner however is far more acutely aware of the balance and the variations thereof. Hence the necessity for early morning training and the need to be able to shrug of the fatigue from a 6 hr ride and take the family out for an afternoon of fun. like all things it has to be worked out but it helps if you can take time out from training, even if what this really means is talking about it less and accepting a few missed sessions. Summer holidays provide significant challenges to a training programme and the balance when there are two working parents and 7 weeks before term starts. This combined with going away to foreign lands for your hols leads to a more flexible approach to training.

To which end I found myself running up an alpine mountain with 2 special forces trained fortysomethings (retired, and if I told you their names they would have to kill me :-) ) used to such alpine pursuits. Whilst I was doing this my children were swimming in a lake on the other side of a mountain. I let my two mates have their fun on the way up and then punished them by runninng down the other side. We did about 2000m ascent, 2500m descent and covered in the region of 18 miles in 5 hours, and as it was a holiday we had two beers along the way by way of refuelling. Nutrition being the fourth discipline of triathlon we then ate an enoromous meal with plenty of wine whilst the kids ran around and watched the firework specially laid on for us (and the other 40,000 people alongside the lake).

Apart from this I admired the people cycling up the mountains and wished I had brought a bike with me (alas it was not to be). Instead I did a Via Ferrata 350 m of vertiginous ascent hanging of the side of the mountain. I think it was payback for running down the mountain.

For my third and final session of training I took the dog for a run. Said dog has different ideas on running and after 10 minutes decided we had gone far enough and wanted to return home. After a further 5 minutes of cajolling the dog won over and we turned at which point the dog finally started running properly racing me back home. Strangely enough after 30 mins of running I felt like a rest too.

Too fill in the work life family balance I spent the rest of the time doing dad things, like letting my kids fly down a zip wire, quad biking and trampolining. All in all being dad is more important than everything else, but like many others I choose to be a dad who does ironman and I hope they see it as something positive. too which end next week I am back on the programme.

Baby I got the Blues

2008-07-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

Came back to earth with a crash. Got off the airplane at 6.00 p.m. on thursday week ago and was called in to work at 7.00pm. Life goes on and the willing suspension of all things non-ironman has to come to an end at some point. Looks like next year is lining up to be a cracker though. Have confirmed 2 ironmans (?sp) or should it be ironmen, 2 marathons and a weeks training holiday. Who says it is obsessive.

Feeling a lot more worn than after IM Lanza earlier this year and feel in need of some proper rest. Allowing the sessions to be done how and when I feel which mostly means short and low intensity. That said did my hardest bike session this year which was 3 mins flat out 3 mins recovery repeat x 10. This was a hard core high intensity session done with 5 others which wrecked my legs for a few days. I am focused on the London then the Vit but only in as much as I reckon I should use my fitness to put in a few races. Deep down I am already brooding over how to get the 3 mins on the swim, the 10 mins on the bike and the 10 mins on the run. To the swim I will devote an extra hour a week, to the bike I will put on more power using the turbo and go back to more hardcore Sunday rides and the run I will let take care of itself (with a winter focus on marathon running).

I figure that with me going up to 40-44 and a good day I could track down that elusive Hawaii slot. Although maybe the hills at IMCH will not be ideal going for me. Back to the day job.......

Yeah Baby!

2008-07-15T01:55:00.000-07:00

So do I feel a better person now? 2 days ago I raced my first sub 10 ironman. Against a backdrop of clouds and mountains and amidst some thunder storms I had a pretty good day all round. I have really enjoyed coming back to austria for the second time and there is definitely something quite soothing about returning to an IM course. I arrived 3 days before race day with plenty of time to settle in and avoid too much pre race stress. Shared a room with Declan for 2 days which was good company in the hotel porker (porcia) which I cannot recommend unless you like early 80s marble and chintz. Did the usual expo stuff and got the bike checked over on thursday. Friday had a good morning swim with a nice bunch of tritalkers thanks to Jevon and reminded myself why this is the best swimming venue I have been to so far. Friday I chilled out completely after a drive around the course to reacuaint the brain with the route. By saturday I was feeling good and had a nice calm to myself. I swapped hotels and then picked up the family from the airport. A quiet family supper then early to bed.

Raceday arrives and no traumas although rain looks likely, what do I care at least half my winter rides are done in the rain and I love it. Soon we are standing at the edge of the water and I decide on the right side this time with Jevon and Declan behind me for company:-). I know the drill this year as well, when they say enter the water that essentially means we are off and so it goes. I had a fairly steady swim, always keeping myself in control. Probably could have gone faster as when we got to the canal section (the last 800m) I was able to speed up and start picking of those ahead of me like pacman racing along a maze. Straight through T1 but had a major calf cramp as I pulled on my shoe then out onto the bike. The start was the usual high speed stuff and I was one of them! I had thought I would have a go at doing a sub 5 bike split to see if could at least recover my cycling mojo after Lanzarote. We had rain on the first lap. On the flat and some of the downhills I was a match for anyone, only on the hills was my form somewhat lacklustre, on the first pass of the Rupi climb I found myself going backwards but settled for a steady spin up the hill without going into the red at all. Over the hill and I was flying and soon went past the trunaround in 2.28 and some seconds, a sub 5 could be on I thought. Soon after I was passed by the first of 3 significant peletons of riders. I fully understand the concept of pacing of another rider but some of my continental friends especially the more italian names like alfonso seemed to think that the 10m rule means you all have to be within 10m of the lead bike (all of you!) any way they seemed pretty skilled in group riding so I dont think they were unsafe.

I felt pretty tired around 130-140 km but managed to keep my focus. Second time up the Rupi was much the same as the first but as I came of the top I decided I would hammer it home. I wound up my legs and went hard, there are a few rises where I would spin for a bit but soon as we were back on the rolling stuff (most of the last 30 km is downhill) I was back on the gas and it felt good as I cruised past some of the "bunches " of riders giving them a bit of abuse and daring them to chase me, some did but most did not.

Hit T2 at 5.04 something so dropped around 7-8 mins on my second bike leg. I definitely had a bit of lactate (or whatever) in my legs and was soon out on the run feeling a bit heavy and regretting my 40 minutes of lunacy in the last hour of the bike. For the first 30 mins I was not a happy man. First km that I timed myself on (from 2-3 I think) had me at 6min/km. I thought this was going to be lanza all over again, my legs were dead and I was making a deal with myself that if I took over 4 hrs on the run then my IM days were over (hey I was tired and emotional). I decided to HTFU and get a rhythm going. Next splits I did was for 3km and showed 15:20, suddenly my whole race changed, I discarded the previous split did some maths and realised if I could hold this I would do a 3.35-3.40 mara (my personal gold medal run time).

Suddenly I was on again. Knowing my usual run form I also expected it to get easier at least for a bit, and as I set out on the second quarter it did. This time I had a plan, when the running feels easy, eat a la Fink. So I was doing a gel every other feed station and "ezo" energy drink plus the odd bit of banana. Sure the food made me feel a bit sick but by pushing on I was banking my nutrition for the seond half (that was my plan anyhow) and keeping my splits on goal. At 21km ther was a race clock running and I think it showed me with about 1.55 to spare for a sub 10 but I cannot be sure. The third section was tough, as ever, but I was now catching and passing more than being caught and even able to track a few faster runners for a km to try and keep my pace up. I also elected to walk alternate feed stations to get a proper drink. When I got to the last 6 km I did some bad maths on the clock and thought I had only 35 mins to do the last 6 which was gonna be tough. I asked myself how much I wanted it and how much pain could I take. The answers came back as 1. Lots and 2. More.

I had been running with a group for about 3 km and decided it was time to push, and they dropped away, I also decided I would push fast through the feed stations. Counting down the kms there was again a rogue 6 min km but this was then followed by a 4.52 so I felt better but carried on pushing. When I got to the race clock about 1.4 km from the finish I was amazed to see it on 9.4something, my maths was wrong I had the sub 10 in the bag. I eased off but the realisation that the pain was the same whatever speed meant I picked it up for the last km. I was trying to find my family but could not see them. Finally approaching the chute I did not want a repeat of last year, I looked overtook the guy in front and stretched a bit to make sure there was a gap and into the chute, my name got called and I had done it 9.53 and some.

My next thought was where could I have found those 3 minutes.......

Todays thought is where can I find those 23 minutes .. see you out there.

p.s. Melly I love you.

2008-07-09T06:35:00.000-07:00

So here we go again. Another ironman looms up and I feel different about this one. Strangely confident in my ability to complete but also perhaps a touch indifferent to the time it will take me. Having followed Tom and Helen through their year of training towards a tough goal I recongnise that sometimes completing is enough and times dont need to matter. Having read one of my thursday morning training partner's race report on the other hand I vicariously live the thrill of a successful racer. So what is this race to me I ask and why do I leave my house in total chaos with polish builders who do not entirely inspire confidence even if I could speak their language! (if I am lucky on my return i may have a wood floor like the one opposite).

This race will be one to enjoy, to celebrate and to find out what another year of this life has done to me. It should confirm my decisions to put my health and mental wellbeing as a priority. It also marks the end of an era as I move into the world of veterans of the fortysomethings. Does this mean I can sit back a bit- somehow I doubt that. Does this mean I can race faster slower or differently again probably not. As I look ahead I like to see someone who becomes more accepting of their own failings as well as more tolerant of those in others but also someone who is that bit more enlightened and who can learn how to go faster... because I am not sure my knees will hold out long enough to get a 75-79AG qualifier slot for Kona

Doing things right

2008-07-03T01:41:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Aneurin Bevin, Founder of the NHS (60 years this week). I thought I would look at how my work practices and training for an ironman are similar and how they inform each other.

These last 10 days have been dominated by work with a a sequence of days on call (I lead a team of doctors delivering acute care for patients in a hospital) and a subsequent large patient workload which increases the demands on my weekly schedule (but luckily coincides with a reduction in hours of training- not bad on the planning front that). In addition I have been filling out paperwork to justify my pay and hopefully get me more; the key to this is a process called clinical governance which is essentially a philosphy of healthcare geared at doing things right.

Most people are clear what they want from a doctor; they want him to be polite and caring, knowledgeable, empathic, highly skilled dutiful and so on but above all have good results so they get better, especially when it comes to surgery. It is quite easy to appear to be all these things whilst actually not delivering the care patients need and likewise it is possible to exhibit none of these characteristics, at least to the incidental observer whilst actually delivering the highest quality care. The problem is how you determine whether a doctor has the desirable qualities. The process of CG if done correctly requires honest self appraisal, monitoring of you delivery of care across the year from many different perspectives (e.g. patients, colleagues, community etc) and participation in all the aspects that govern this such as audit of outcomes, attendance of meetings, further education all culminating in an annual status report where you go through the years work with a colleague summarise what was achieved and then set the goals for the coming year.

And it struck me that the parallels with training for ironman are all there. Successful racing starts with an honest appraisal of where you are starting from. It then requires the development of regular habits that if done correctly over a period of time will gradually reward you with improving performances. You need to perform regular assessments along the way (such as the odd time trial or race), and when you make mistakes look at what went wrong and learn lessons from it- and hopefully avoid making the same mistake next time. Overall you need to be honest with yourself about what you are doing and whether you are meeting your targets. It is this honesty that comes from racing at ironman: when you step out there it is easy for everyone to see how well you have performed. In my work this process is a lot less transparent but the ideals remain with me.

As I face my annual ironman appraisal by returning to IMA I wonder how honest have I been with my training this year: I felt my biking was going to be much better this year than last but IM Lanzarote was not terribly encouraging. If I dont meet my goals will I be discouraged- no I will respond by using the knowledge from this year to drive me forwards next year to try and get better both as an ironman and as a doctor.

Define "crazy"

2008-06-23T01:16:00.000-07:00

Last week was another solid block of training but hampered somewhat by work and reality. The reality being that sometimes we get tired and need a bit of a rest. The highlight of the week had to be the midnight 100 miler.

A key session in my weekly training is an early morning ride on thursdays spent circling a traffic free Regents Park. By starting (relatively) early I can get a 3 hr bike ride followed by a full english breakfast and be in for work by 9.30. The motivating factor is that there is usually company with Steve often there from 4 or earlier and Kevin who does odd shiftwork often there even earlier. It works a bit like a drop in cycling social club with others joining as the morning progresses so that by 6.30 there can be as many as 8-10 cyclists flying round the park. Various sessions are undertaken though it sometimes descends into an ever faster group ride.

Last year at this time I arrived to find Steve and Jo there good and early and decidedly tired looking. Then they dissappeared which is unusual as they normally do breakfast. It transpired they had decided to skip sleep the night before and had gone pretty much straight from an evening swimming session to go round and round the park with the aim of doing 100 miles to celebrate the summer solstice or to build for IM Switzerland, hence they were very tired looking.

Wind forward six months and we thought a winter solstice bike ride would be a good idea. 100 miles done on the coldest night of last winter in London (Temp as low as -7 C) was a true challenge. Water bottles were frozen after 45 minutes and the cold just made any speed impossible. It was done though in around 7.5hrs and chalked as a mental toughening exercise.

Now back to last week, I wanted a crack at 100 miles in 5 hrs and Steve was a willing partner in spite of a massive week of training at epic camp the week before. We started at 1 and were going well after a gentle start and at 65 miles were on target for the 5 hrs. Then the wheels came off with steve imploding as his previous weeks training took its not to suprising toll. I pushed on but by this stage with the speed around 19.8 and not able to find any more diesel I was happy to just complete aided by Kevin who's rear wheel I sucked for a good 45 minutes.

So is this crazy behaviour or is it just different behaviour. Personally I really enjoy the challenge of doing these sessions which stand out of their own right and enable me to challenge myself. To most the idea of getting up to cycle round a closed park 38 times in the name of fun is a fairly straightforward definition of crazy. So this week I wont get up til 04:00 hrs and will only do 70 miles cause that is normal!

Putting in the hours

2008-06-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

This year I have been coaching myself which is fun and a big learning experience. Part of the trouble with having a coach is that I can have unpredictable work hours whereby I may be called in to work in the middle of the night or at a weekend and this then plays havoc with any fixed training plan. I also find the stress from some days in the office can magnify feelings of fatigue and I might skip the odd session at the end of a long day.. sad really because once I get out there I feel so much better!

Following on form IM lanzarote with another race in 7 weeks has been interesting. I allowed 1 week of almost complete rest but was at club lesanta so did some pilates, stretching and a bit of swimming. By day 5 post race I was ready for a very gentle 1 hr ride.

On return to the UK (so 1 week after IM lanza) I managed a steady 4.5 hr ride and felt surprised by how little fatigue I had.

The last week or so of training looks like this.

Saturday 1hr turbo bike warm up (230 watts) 2hr run (8 min mile or so)

Sunday 5 hr bike session

Monday 1 hr swim (400m, 10 x 200, 6 x100m)

Tuesday 1hr bike to work (series of 1 mile hard efforts with breaks at traffic lights), 1 hr bike home steady then 1hr 30 mins (8min mile) run

Wednesday 1 hr swim (400m, 4 x 800m)

Thursday 2.5 hr bike including 2 x30 mins hard (and 2 punctures) then 50 min run (8 min mile) later did 1hr swim (40 mins steady then 4 x 100, 8 x 50)

Friday 2 hr 15 min run (8 min miles)

Saturday 1hr 30 min turbo (incl 6 x5 mins LT) and 50 min run straight off

Sunday 5hr bike and 45 min run

Reading what some friends of my have done at Epic training camp http://www.epiccamp.com/ reminds me that the limits may be a lot further away than I think. With a solid 2 year training history of maybe 14 hrs a week I should be able to manage a 2 week spike in hours so long a I am careful on the intensity and get enough rest and eat well. So next week will be a repeat of this one with an extra 100 mile ride on Thursday when I will ride through the night (for a laugh) then sleep through work and pushing out one of the long run to 2.5 hrs.

Will all this work- I have no idea but it is fun learning what stick I can cope with. Setting goals for IMA they are one of three a) 5hr bike split or b) sub 10 or c) sub 3.45 marathon.

I am sure I can do one of these!!!

Selfish or focused?

2008-06-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

One of the appeals to many in undertaking an IM is that the events are largely under your own control. As all those who make the journey realise it will put you into conflict with those around you if you allow it too- and as you start to change it is sometimes difficult for those around you to adapt to this change.

How do we offset this focus on our own goals, should we worry about this and where does it end?

Personally I find that the advantages of training include the obvious like being fitter, the collateral benefits such as significant reduction in alcohol intake and the organisational benefits I have touched on before. It is still though a big step to deny my family my presence, or perhaps not (;-), as I set out early on a Sunday for a long ride. Even if I am back by 11 the morning is gone and after 5 hrs riding I am not the most energetic! I would argue though that on my return I am ready to focus on my family and I feel all the better for having been out and done the work.

The question still remains though as to what value we can attribute to our obsession and whether there are ways in which we can give back on the time invested in training, beyond the personal hoped for longevity and sense of well being.

One aspect which I would like to try and focus upon is how we can use our obsession to support others. The fringe benefits of encouraging others to pursue physical fitness both within our families and our workplace are well recognised but sadly these effects are small.

Living as I do in a mixed ethnicity multicultural inner city area with the associated socioeconomically deprived I have started to wonder if there is a way of harnessing the immense energy, skills and wealth of you average ironman to help the local community. Do we have a responsibility through our advantage and ability to help those around us to achieve some of their potential too? And if so how do we do it?

Does this mean I am going to start a hackney youth tri club?? Well I do not think I am the individual to do this. But could I support an aspiring youth athlete and help them to achieve some of their goals? Probably.

On a personal level I am now able to run, which is a blessed relief. I also recognise the pattern of injury that goes back to 2005 and is essentially down to tight hamstrings (I think). So I am back on a programme of post exercise stretching which I am sure will be a force for good as I head towards IM Austria.

reality bites

2008-05-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

IM LANZAROTE

Swim1.02 T1 5.21 Bike 6.00 T2 6.36 Run 3.56 Finish 11.10.57

race report

Somewhere in my dream world I thought I could train for an ironman and not do too much pain. Have read the bible (friel) and it seems to suggest that this might be the case but Saturdays race suggests otherwise. Whilst my prep had not been perfect I was confident of a good bike split at IM Lanzarote. My result was not what I wanted. No breakthrough performance here. A solid race with no dramas and a run that was as good as I could have hoped for but no top 100 bike split which was my aim.

Looking for reasons it is hard to identify just one thing. Maybe I did not train hard enough, maybe I did not train long enough. Reading this made me think about my diet. Maybe it is finally time to confront my inner tweenie and stop eating all the sugar I still crave so badly in order that I become a better fat burner.

Not one to look back and remembering I am in it to be positive, I learnt I love the race, I learnt my wife is a top supporter and I learnt that for me it is enough to just be in it and that there is a lot to share with your fellow athletes as you push through the latter stages of the race.

The necessary obsession.

2008-05-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Todays title lifted from gordo lifted from someone else. Thought about it as I was writing a detailed race plan to cover the build up and every aspect of raceday that I could think about.

So what is this necessary obsesssion? well it refers to what is needed to succeed at long distance tri. An ability to let it overcome all sorts of other considerations to the point where it can be overwhelming. Looking back at the last 6 months to the man in the street my behaviour is beyond the obsessive. But to an aspirational age grouper it is probably about par for the course and we would share this obsession. To my partner it is just about tolerable given the clear sense of wellbeing that I get from my training.

I think human beings are hard wired for this sort of thing. It is what makes our brains such an amazing tool and enables us to overcome all sorts of complex problems and keep trying until we find a way through which for you proto human being must have given us a considerable survial edge.

Coming to IM racing I find it mimics my career in many ways. Long periods of training to perform a complex task (operations), learning all the little bits that when put together make for a smooth and successful performance. When repeated over time some of these bits become almost ingrained patterns of behaviour (at work) and I try and bring this to my racing. Performing on the day to the best of my available abilities is all I can hope for. But I would not settle for anything less either, so anything else that I can control come raceday I will.

So when it comes to my raceplan how many Co2 cannisters should I carry come raceday? The obsessive can find reasons for at least 5 cannisters. The truly focused might go without. I take 3!

5 days to go. Thanks Jev for the support. The mara is gonna be a mystery but the swim and bike are a cert for a good time.

Dealing with adversity

2008-05-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

So after 6 months of hard training, was at the best I have ever been then my running goes of the rails with a calf injury. Not sure why as it was a low volume running week but may have been the accumulation of fatigue with too much top end work. Not run for 10 days and starting to wonder what will happen come race day.

So how do I deal with it?

Look at the positives. The swimming and the running are the best they have ever been. Swimming marginally so but the biking feels great, which makes for a good first 7 hours or so of the race.

Accept what is done is done. There is nothing I can do now that will change what has happened and I should recognise that I have learnt something about my training and try to avoid the same scenario next time. With acceptance then comes the ability to try and look for solutions and ways of rationalising what has happened. It is important to examine what lead to the failure so that I do not repeat the same mistakes (injuries are failures of training in the same way that accidents are never the result of divine fate but the result of a number of smaller incidents that were potentially avoidable).

So what for Lanzarote? Firstly got to remember I do this for fun and if I am risking serious injury come run time then it may be a long walk or DNF. Secondly focus on nailing the swim and the bike and seeing how good I can feel as I head out for the run. Third believe that come race day it will be OK, I have done lots of run training, I will have had a long run taper, it will work. Strong mental visualisation of success and easy running are important to me in my preparation. I do the same for work and it seems to benefit me by finding the extra edge in race performance.

Finally remember that it will be a great place for a holiday with the rest of my family, and that there is always next year.

five pound swimming pool hustle

2008-05-05T06:33:00.000-07:00

This last week after near 300 miles of bike in the week before I focused on swimming and put in 4 sessions for a total of 14,000m. This has had repercussions, like I got cramp in my calf when only 10km into my long run on friday but also benefits.

The clear benefits are in this series of 3x (5x100m of 20,15,10 and 5 sec) Ok I was in a wetsuit but the times 1.22,1.20,1.25,1.24,1.25,1.24,1.25,1.28,1.24,1.26 etc are all under 1.30. This is the first time I have managed sub 1.30s more than 5 x in a row so I was well chuffed and happy that a sub 1 hr should be in the bag (allowing for waves and general idiocy on my behalf). The flip side of this was that the pool was busy with 2 lanes out of action so a lot of fastish swimmers crammed into half the space of normal.. and I loved it. In doing so I must of crossed a few other swimmers and generally been a bit irritating to some of the others in the lane... so maybe not such a good thing, but when you are on fire it seems to conquer all other considerations.

Now to the hustle. My youngest was challenged by the pool attendant to do the swim test (again... for the 6th time in 2 years). I said she could swim to the end of the pool and back no problem. The pool attendant looks her up and down and says no chance. I said you wonna bet he said £5.

2mins 50 secs and 100metres later we were £5 to the good, so there are benefits from taking them to all those swimming lessons. And a well happy daughter to boot.

I just hope that now London has a new Mayor we are notgoing to see drastic cuts in the funding of facilities like the local pool.

Otherwise things are looking good. Made a rash boast that april would see me over a 1000 bike miles, but reality kicked in and got to 800 something. If you want to read about someone who really puts the miles down read this.

http://web.mac.com/stevenlord/StevenLordsWebsite/Welcome.html

19 days to go to Lanza, currently doing some skin training in the sun. Looks like no running for a week though as calf is worse than I first thought, ran for 10 mins and it shut me down and I had to walk home.

Its gonna be a hot one

2008-04-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well not so sure about being a better person through ironman but I am definitely a happier one. Did my 48 hr sojourn to lanzarote and discovered it is a) very hilly b) very windy and c) very hot. Spent best part of weds doing 100 odd miles around the island followed by a 30 min run off the bike and then finally a 30 min swim in a lagoon near club lesanta. A solid days work with Declan who plans to claim be the fastest irish ironman sometime this year and who gave me a good working over on the bike.

Learnt about the joys of getting a speed wobble at 40+mph (I touched my breaks and the world went wobbly as I hurtled down a hill). In the time it took me to stop after crossing the white line twice and avoiding two almost certainly fatal collisions (through no skill or effort on my behalf- it was all I could do to hang on) I thought about several important things. I realised how much my two children and wife mean to me and what a stupid way to die having a bike crash would be; I realised I am not quite so tough as I thought and would pay a lot to avoid a repeat of that situation and I realised how I really should have tightened up my front skewer a bit more when I put the wheel back on.

Advice as to how to get out of a speed wobble appears to be as follows.

1. Accelerate out of it- so I am doing 40mph all over the road and I commit to going faster....
2. Grab hold of the cross tube to dampen the vibration.. so I let go of a bucking bronco and try and get hold of the tube, by which time I have wiped out big time.
3. you'll like this.. do a bunny hop... at 40 mph FFS
4. try cadence braking... my bake does not come with ABS

or my solution hold on for grim death, pull on brakes as much as you can and shout loudly " am not going to f34king crash and die today thankyou god.

That aside Lanza was great even the 10 km run (1 lap of the course at race time 2p.m.) in 31 degrees of heat and wind. So I am working on how to stay cool in the heat, which is why I have added a picture of Torbjorn Sindballe in his hot weather gear!!

Organisational chaos

2008-04-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

Never having been a A plus student in the organisational league I tend to structure my life in a way that minimises the need for being too organised. That is not to say that I don't plan things and that I don't make lists and the like. It is just that I usually lose the list and change my plans so neither are desperately helpful.

Triathlon and in particular Ironman impose the demands of organisation upon me by matching my desire to achieve with a recognition that it needs focus, planning and assessment of where I am going with it all. Through Ironman I have become someone who (nearly) always makes a packed lunch, who knows what they are doing a week next Thursday and who can have frank discussions with themself about how things are going both in and out of training. Equally I now have tremendous indifference to the car I drive, the latest trends and so on.... unless of course we are talking about carbon fibre bikes or the latest swim suits.

So this Tuesday I am flying to Lanzarote for a 48 hr training camp. This has required some organisation staring with a prolonged campaign to persuade my partner of the benefits of said camp which I will be on my own for. In 2 days I hope to cycle the Im lanza course 1.5 times. Swim in the sea twice and manage 2 runs. How do I plan what to take.. write a list and then carefully assemble everything in to my bike box. No. I start by dissembling my bike, as I do this I start to collect things I think I will probably need, gradually box gets fuller. When I can no longer close it I take the odd bit out and then seal it shut. Should work.

So does this make me a better person. I doubt it, but I am more aware of how my desires impact upon those around me, and the need to have other things under control while I pursue my hobby. I am better at committing to what I will and will not do and prioritise all things. The issue that remains is always how highly you prioritise your training especially the long runs and rides which are demanding mentally physically and temporally and therefor have the biggest impact on life outside IM.

Fitting it all in

2008-04-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest challenges to a working father is finding the time to fit the training in without alienating yourself from family, friends and work. Sometimes it runs on a knife edge and the stress can start to effect all things. Achieving the balance requires planning, flexibility good time management and motivation.

Ironfit by Don Fink gives some inspiration (but not much). Fitting a 20 hr training week into a 50 hr working week and still being there to pick kids up from school and taking them to swimming, generally be dad and be a support to my partner requires a lot of Juggling. Luckily the nature of my work enables some flexibility as I am to some degree my own boss. A fixed and fairly rigid schedule outside of work and maximising the use of early starts is the main key for me. The last part is an endlessly tolerant partner who reminds me of the necessity to participate rather then just be present for the family (although sometimes I can only just about manage being present) and who will challenge my need to train when it encroaches too much on the rest of the activities.

To this end I am early to bed and early to rise. An hour run is often snuck in before the family gets up on a weekday. A regular 3 hour ride on thursday morning, starting at 04:30 is another key session. My long ride at a weekend is always done by 12 on a sunday and saturdays as often kept free from any peak time training (so again I get up early and I am often back by 9 having done a 2.5hr brick session).

Funnily I often feel I have more time than I used to. I always make a pack lunch to ensure I have what I want to eat when I want to eat it and do not waste time queuing to get it. I organise my work diary to maximise effectiveness at work and to eliminate dead time and avoid taking on projects that do not have clearly defined endpoints or outcome measures. Finally I still watch tv but not as much (I was once a full blown couch potato) and usually only watch specific programmes that I have recorded.

More and more I try to make my training part of my lifestyle, such that it no longer feels odd to excuse myself from company to go and do a 1 hour run (like when visiting friends) and then pick up where we left off.

Mind you we all need a rest sometimes and I look forward to tapering in 4 weeks.

Where it began

2008-04-07T05:22:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would have my own space to work out why I do ironman and how it can make me a better person.

I have been doing triathlon since 2005. This followed a painful first london marathon in 2004 after which I swore I would never do anything like it again. My training prior to this had been a decade of sleep deprivation as a junior doctor, at least 20 cigs a day and the very occasional game of 5-a-side which was largely undertaken at a walk.

From my first sprint triathlon at Blenheim 2005 to Ironman Austria 2007 was a fairly seemless progression up the endurance scale. Having got there I found an event I wanted to do again and learnt some hard facts along the way. Not least I was suprised on the impact for good (mostly) that doing triathlon has been and how I hope it continues to do so.