Still running

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Owls and stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

Faster and Longer and Shorter and Slower or Something

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

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

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

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

So thats clear then!

That felt good- IM Switzerland race

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...

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!'