Not getting slower (much)

Back to Wimbleball for another go. After last year I had a plan to come back ready to attack the hills and make a deal of the run. In the next 364 days things did not seem to go to plan and I came back to the same hills and had the same thoughts like "why do I do this?" and "Can I stop now?"

Race stats

Swim           28:49
T1                5:33   (armageddon*)
Bike             2:59:16
T2                01:44  (tent to myself)
Run              01:46:47

This roughly equates to what I did last year with bike and swim a bit faster and the run a bit slower.Swim was confident and steady. The T1 experience was hell. At most events I am not in the thick of it coming out of the swim. Because of being in the second wave it was packed and the tent was way to small. This was in keeping with the entire logistics for the event which were frankly appalling and do not bode well for the new WTC led Ironman UK franchise. Still I stayed calm put my kit on got my bike ran to the start line and then....

More Chaos. About 50 bikes with cyclists variably attached trying to mount on a sharp hill.Some pushing bikes some trying to get their feet into shoes some falling into the bushes and me shouting encouragement ;-). Too many bikes not enough thought! still I then put the hammer down for the first lap pulling along a varied contingent of others. My objective being to get out of the midfield pack deter any wannabees and find some riders on about the right pace. seemed to work. Probably went to hard the first lap and had to rein it in a bit for the second lap but still result was OK.

Back into to a lovely quiet T2 and out on the run. Soon new what it was going to be and decided to take it steady. Ticked off the laps and came home in a slow time.

Nice to meet with various trilondoners LFTri folk and other racers and in a better post race environment would have stayed longer. However the whole fiasco of queueing to get in and out meant that I was keen to be out as soon as possible. The recovery tent was mean too. You got a bottle of water some gatorade filth and a hog roast bap. Ur that's is folks. No buffet of nibbles sugary salty stuff tea or coffee. Very poor!

 So what did I learn. That my bike and swim are OK. My running is poor and that the more WTC takes out of a race the less the overall experience. will have to wait for another breakthrough some time else...

Ironman training and the NHS. Alike and not alike

Having a well earned rest with a few days off after doing two days of the Tour of Wessex which is quite simply one of the most enjoyable events I know. The photo above shows myself, Lance and Kris who had agreed at the start of the first day we would take it easy for the first thirty km or so until it we got to Cheddar Gorge.  So a full thirty seconds later I fly off down the road with Kris chasing.  A group of 4 formed and we were soon hammering it. It was exhilarating as we flew past everybody and all thougths of control were left in the vapour trail as we tore across the flatlands towards Glastonbury Tor. The rest of the 2 days and 220 odd miles were not quite so fast but were just as enjoyable inspite of our tear up at the start.

Training appears to be catching up and the familiar tiredness that challenges your resolve to start a session hovers around but the commitment to my goal at IM Switzerland remains. In some ways I am perhaps a bit fresher than last year at the same point but not quite so quick (yet!) so long as I dont think about running.

My plan this year is slowly overcoming the obstacles of illness and work and with under 6 weeks to go I am confident of a performance of sorts but perhaps not the next level I would hope for.

So how is Ironman like the NHS. Well if I look simply at the process of getting fit for an IM and trying to manage services in the NHS there are clear similarities. I know what my goals are in both. I know what sort of time, resources and commitments are required to get the expected results. For those training for an IM should recognise the effort in part of the equation coupled with some specific IM knowledge should get you near the outcome you hope for. Coupled with this is the endless ironman logic that you need to keep going, making adjustments improving you capacity and keeping site of the final goal. Like wise you would expect that if I plan for a certain level of NHS activity, develop the services ability to deliver and improve on their existing quality indicators then again we should be somewhere in the ballpark. Howver this is where the outcomes can vary dramatically. In the IM there will be a race, it will most likely involve the swim run and bike bit and will come in at around 140 miles in total. If you have trained hard and dont have a major catastrophe I find the results will reflect the training.

In the NHS the rules change, constantly. One moment you expect to be paid per case the next you are looking at a block contract. One moment you think that you will not be held responsible if you only undertake the work commissioned the next moment you are told you will be responsibile for targets to achieve all the work regardless of whether you are to be paid for it. It is often a strange mix of "third way" internal markets and what I can only describe as neostalinism where we are expected to deliver no matter what the funding or staffing available. So not really like ironman except perhaps for the constanht challenge and the need to persevere through each and every barrier to success.

Back to training it's a lot simpler

Old lessons

750 m swim 50 mile bike 14 mile run
4:22:30 42nd overall
Swim and T1     14:37
Bike and T2       2:19:12
Run                    1:48:41

Had a great days racing yesterday at the Swashbuckler Triathlon. A beautifully set and thoughtfully organised event it was a pleasure to participate but also a lesson in how sometimes we forget what we already know and sometimes we know what we cannot  forget.

The race was in the Bucklers hard tidal estuary. An early start and cold water meant it was going to be a reduced swim. The race briefing on Saturday and my experience that morning of just how cold it was at 7 a.m. when I went for my club swim had made it clear to me that keeping warm would be a priority on race day.

Still Saturday was spent 1. Buying a pair of goggles as I had forgotten mine. 2. Buying some water bottles (see1) 3. Buying some energy drink (see 1). 4. Getting my TT bike working since I took it out of storage on friday evening and had not ridden it since IMUK last year!!

4. Was a bit of an error, I had meant to get the TT bike out sooner but the endless rain had put me off. I had also lost the tape that marked my correct saddle height. Cue much fiddling about in the street behind my brothers house in southampton as I tried to best guess the saddle height.

Race day started early (04:00hrs) with a 30 min drive I was a bit leisurely and got to the race with 30 mins to go til I was supposed to be in the water. Cue much rushing around. I had decided to wear my woollen baselayer under my wet suit, and planned to put gloves on as well as my neoprene booties and a water/windproof top in T1. Told to hurry to get down to the start and realise my racenumber is in my bag back in my car and I had no socks (I always wear socks and when the air temp is 2 degrees C I definitely wear socks). I run back to the car grab race number, run back to transition and leave my stripey cotton socks and rush down to the slipway to get in the water. The run down across 200m wet cold grass left my feet numb and the 11.6 degrees C water felt warm by comparison.

I had enough time to get into the water find myself at the front, admire the sunrise and we are OFF! Flat out not sure where I am headed. Use people left and right to guide me. Works well, water not too cold settle in and decide to draft someone as they slowly pass me on my right side. the open water sessions with LFTri are working as let him drag me all the way back at what seems a good pace. Swim was something like 700 m but have no idea if I was fast or slow. Out the water and up the hill and into transition. Takes ages for me to put on booties, top, gloves etc. Watch people going out onto their bike in trisuits, still wet and into a very cold air at 20 mph. Think either they are insane or I am a bit of a southern softie.

Finally off on the bike. Feels Ok and I am not cold!! A beautiful course, sun, horses and ponies and cows, back ache, arm ache, sore undercarriage, look for a distraction. Some guy comes past with the second placed woman. Rather she comes past with him attached like a remora fish so I start giving him some verbals! Helps me forget my back pain no end. I keep hopping past the girl and her escort . Eventually the remora gets cross and starts threatening me with violence but shows no sign of getting out of the draft! Finally I decide to press on and drop the pair! Second lap was a bit better and finally start catching a few riders. This was nothing like last year when it was rare for any bike to come past me! In the first lap I as taken over by a good 10 bikes. Still I knew I am behind on training so just confirms what I thought.

The run was perfect (conditions) but again my lack of volume left me one paced (slow) still the journey of two laps was great and in spite of dropping about 10 places in the last 2 miles I was happy to get the job done. And a first for a long time.. my family and my brother's were there to see me finish.

So I need to bike more run more and get my race prep sorted! 5 weeks to HIMUK, better get the run volume sorted or IMCH is going to be another long day!

Illness Recovery

Last thursday was the first training I had done for 3 weeks and brought 20 zero days of training to an end. The frustrations to someone who relies on repetition to achieve their goals was not really felt until I was starting to recover from  a variety of cold like symptoms. For at least 10 days the idea of any training was ridiculous, but once the rib rattling cough had subsided, the tonsils no longer felt like a flame grilled barbecue and the blocked ears no longer hurt the temptation to start back in was acute. Thankfully a combination of work, family and self reflection meant that I did not rush back into training.
Several things were learnt.

Being ill was a great way to reflect upon how busy I am when combining all the roles of work, family and training. As I recovered there was just more time in the day. Trying to sometimes fit in the training can lead to stress when the time conflicts arise and I cannot manage the session I had planned, not having to do this meant I was more relaxed. This was balanced by my desire to be fit and to achieve my personal goals and to not lose the fitness gains I had banked through november and december. Further the acceptance of a new role at work means that the time pressures are ging to be even greater and this fed into my general review of the trainning plans for the year.

As I started to focus on returning to training I had to reconsider my goals and objectives. Clearly an ultramarathon of 32 miles was not going to be a good reintro to my training. A knock on means that training for the Jurassic Coastal Challenge was also off. Plans to improve running through a super base are gone. Since it is the current mantra of the NHS I thought I should practice what I preach which is "More with Less". So the challenge for the year has changed. It is no longer about setting all time best performance but is about finding out if I can do as well with less time.

Back in the pool and the saddle things felt OK although generally a bit weak. Running was rubbish! To get where I want to be the focus on training will be to look at maximising every sesson done ( a common mantra) but reducing the total number of sessions/hours done.

So the first goal is to regain my fitness level of 3 weeks ago and then hope to start building. It should be fun!

50 runs in 50 days

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

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

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!