I’m writing this at the end of a really long weekend, so apologies if there is any negativity it’s just been a tough little week. Aside from the Ironman training I’ve got quite a lot of stuff going on in my life, sometimes this all kind of gangs up into a kind of commitment overload. I’m sure everyone else training for this kind of thing goes through similar phases (and good god, if you have children I cannot even comprehend how you fit it all in), but here is my life since Thursday:

• Thursday, up at 6am for a meeting in London. Get home at 5:30pm, on the bike for an hour at 5:40pm. Finish on the bike, have some food, then drive to Preston for band practice.
• Friday, work in the morning, then take the afternoon off to fit in all my non-work stuff. 1hr15 run followed by a couple of hours at the allotment. Drive to Preston for first gig with the band. Get back late.
• Saturday, up early for 3hr bike ride, spend Saturday afternoon on first aid course.
• Sunday, 1hr30 run, allotment, 2hr swim.

Combined with that, Pilla has been making two cakes over the weekend around the band stuff, my training and the course we went on and is now sat down to work for the evening. Ok, the training is tough, but fitting it in is the challenge, especially if you don’t want to annoy your partner too much!

Having moaned enough now, here is the good news; I did fit it all in. Having said last week week how well my running was going, it obviously struggled along this week, to the point where I really didn’t want to go out today. One of my wisest friends (@vivslack – general inspiration, motivation, useful advice and all round athletic superstar) mentioned last week that you can have runs where everything feels great and runs where everything feels awful, but both are worthwhile. One reminds you why you love running and one gives you the knowledge so you can get through the bad runs. Today was a bad run (note to self, eating curry the night before a run is really not a clever idea), but it got done.

It might be silly but when it gets hard, I do like to remind myself of where I’ve come from and the graph above shows a nice steady increase in miles since week 1.

This week I also had my first real bout of anxiousness about the training still to come. I had to re-jig the plan I’m following to take into account the half ironman I’m doing in week 25 and whilst I was there my eyes focused in on the dreaded week 27, the peak week of my training. To say some of the times are a little daunting is an understatement. I know i’ll do it when I get there, but imagining a 6 hour bike ride followed by a 1 hour run (yikes) on the Saturday then a 3 hour run on the Sunday (yikes) is tough.

Here is a picture of Jodrell Bank from my ride on Saturday, just because it’s awesome:

I did have a good swimming session tonight on the back of last weeks lesson and filming. I really do feel like I’ve made some progress already. I feel pretty good after the swim tonight which doesn’t often happen! Still need more time in the water, but handily enough Salford Quays opens for open water swimming at the weekend (although it’s bloody freezing still at around 6C, so I’m not sure how much swimming I’ll be doing just yet). I’m really lucky with the swimming options available to me, I have the Manchester Aquatics Centre 5 minutes away from where I live with two 50m pools and two different options for open water practice about 1 minute away from where I work. No excuse to not be great at it by the time Outlaw comes around.

In other news the amazing debut of my band Outhouse 57 at Penwortham Live went really well! It’s been a little like training for an Ironman being in that band:

1. It seems like a really fun idea to start with, when you’re not taking it seriously
2. You very quickly take it seriously
3. Training/practice take up a lot of your time
4. You have to buy a lot more kit/equipment than you ever thought possible
5. When it goes badly it goes really badly!
6. When it goes well you feel epic!

After a shocking rehearsal on Thursday, we actually did ok on Friday night. We played ok, got through some mid-set technical difficulty and we got some really nice cheering and compliments after. Just a shame I had to rush off to bed for my cycle on Saturday. Not the life of a rockstar!

This is my training this week. As usual, the other details are here.

[table]Day,Type,Time,Details
Monday,Rest,,
Tuesday,Swim,0:45:00,#9
Tuesday,Running,1:00:00,”Z2 (at 0:10, insert 5 x 1 min PU @ 1min Jog)”
Wednesday,Cycling,0:45:00,Z2 (QC)
Wednesday,Running,0:30:00,Z2
Thursday,Cycling,1:15:00,”Z2 (at 0:10, insert 6 x 5 min Z4 @ 3 min Spin)”
Friday,Running,1:15:00,”Z2 (at 1:00, insert 10 min Z4)”
Saturday,Cycling,3:10:00,Z2 (QC)
Saturday,Running,0:30:00,Z2
Sunday,Running,1:30:00,Z1 to Z2
Sunday,Swim,2:00:00,Masters[/table]

Week 17, done!

*WARNING* I talk about HR zones in the post, which is probably really boring to everyone but me.

*WARNING* There is also a video of me swimming which those of a sensitive disposition should avoid! 😀

It’s funny how quickly the days are ticking off the list, 30 weeks seems like ages when you start (and it is really) but there comes a point in your training when instead of thinking you have ages left, it flips around to ‘do I have have enough time left?!’. I think the answer is yes for a number of reasons:

1. My running has gone mental.

I love the running bit of this training – the HR training really seems to push me and at the same time it’s easy to remember and plan for. A typical example was my Tuesday run this week, which on the plan looked like ‘1hr. Z2 (at 0:10, insert 3 x 6 min Z4 @ 2 min jog)‘. This means I need to run for an hour at Z2 pace, but at 10 minutes into the run, I need to run at my z4 pace for 6 minutes and then return to a jog. I then repeat that 3 times in total, before doing the rest of the run at Z2. The different ‘Z’ zones are based around heart rate percentages but to try and simplify it Z2 is quiet a slow run and Z4 is a ‘oh dear god I can’t keep running at this speed for 6 minutes’. By the time I got to the end of the 3rd repeat I really was struggling, but a couple of minutes of slow running later and I’m feeling ok. Then because you have gone fast, the second half of the run you are really trying to slow yourself down and it feels like you are flying. I love it!

This training is then improving my endurance and my speed and my pace has improved hugely because of it. I started out on a horrid little run on Sunday after a night in the pub on Saturday (bit of mental toughness required). My first mile was 9:30ish and I felt terrible. Soon enough though it all started ticking along and for the last 4 miles my pace was 7:50 min/mile. This is a good minute a mile faster than I was doing my marathon training last year and it really feels like less effort. I seriously cannot wait to get some shorter runs in after this just to see if I can bag a few PBs!

2. I have new kit for my bike

Massive shock there then. I have a new helmet and new aero-bars. This is going to instantly turn me into Bradley Wiggins on the bike, I’m sure of it! I’m much more closely following the training routine on the bike now, where previously I was following a couple of Sufferfest videos, now I’m following the HR training that is working wonders with my running. I did a session last Thursday which left me shaking once I got off the bike.

3. I’m having some swimming lessons

My swimming has been pretty weird of late. I really thought I was making some progress before hitting some mental block or something which really messed up my rhythm.  I still don’t really know why, but I thought I’d try and get some professional training just to build back up again. I had a session with Dave Quartermain who runs the local open water swims in the quays and also the masters session I go to on a Sunday night. I really like Dave, he says great training things like ‘if you are not doing drills 100% right, you are doing them 100% wrong!’ and ‘you need to engage your powerful back muscles’. I love it. I’m not even sure I have back muscles, powerful or otherwise. If it wasn’t for the Sunday sessions my swimming would be nowhere near where it is now, so I’d highly recommend them.

The hour session was really interesting and he did some analysis on where he thought my problems were, which we then did some more drills on. I still have a lot to work on but by the end of the Sunday sessions I’m feeling sore in my back which is a good thing! On Sunday he also did some filming, which is below:

I’m still waiting for the official analysis, but even I can spot a few things wrong with it. I use my left hand to lift up my head, I really need more work on un-weighting it. My kick is too flouncy and not from the hip and I don’t lock my arm enough. I also go too far with my hand on the pull through. It’s pretty fun seeing it to confirm these things and it gives me some good stuff to work on!

So yeah, I’m definitely going to do this thing!  The gory details of the weeks training are here. What I completed this week was:

[table]Day,Type,Time,Details
Monday,Rest,,
Tuesday,Swim,0:40:00,#6
Tuesday,Running,1:00:00,”Z2 (at 0:10, insert 3 x 6 min Z4 @ 2 min jog)”
Tuesday,Swim,0:40:00,#7
Wednesday,Cycling,0:45:00,Z2 (QC)
Wednesday,Running,0:30:00,Z2
Thursday,Cycling,1:15:00,”Z2 (at 0:10, insert 6 x 5 min Z4 @ 3 min Spin)”
Friday,Swim,1:00:00,Lesson
Saturday,Cycling,3:30:00,Z2 (QC)
Sunday,Running,1:15:00,Z1 to Z2
Sunday,Swim,2:00:00,Masters[/table]

Week 16 has been a bit of a trial. Since I started training I’ve been pretty lucky and have not had to travel much with work. Don’t get me wrong, I do like travelling it’s just with the training I always thought it would be a right pain. And I was right.

I had a three day trip to London planned, leaving on the Monday night. Normally Monday is my rest day but I had this idea of swapping my rest day for Tuesday so I could at least have one day off training on the trip. This was a fine idea in principle but I was so zonked out from the epic ride through the snow on Sunday I just couldn’t bring myself to get out running. This meant I had to plan three days training around the trip which meant taking an absolute mountain of kit. It also meant some very early starts – 5:45 for two days. This was not fun. The first day was the real challenge, I dragged myself out of bed and was knackered, I grabbed my watch to find it had run out of battery on the journey somehow and I checked the plan which showed I really needed a watch to do intervals. I then realised I’d forgotten my hat and it was cold. I was just about ready to jump back in the bed. As I write this I realise it’s not much (Oh no! No hat? The humanity!) but I suppose I was looking for excuses not to go. I convinced myself to go out and see how felt for a bit….

…. and 1 hour later came back with the whole run done, including the intervals. It was pretty fun too – the run took me down the embankment of the Thames and right past the Houses of Parliament, which is the last 2 miles or so of the VLM, so for the second time in a couple of weeks I got to relive last year. Wednesdays brick session was aborted due to the hotel gym bike being taken but I did manage to get a swim done in the Oasis swimming centre in Camden – although sadly the outside pool was in use for an over 60’s session! I got back pretty late on Thursday and had to pretty much jump straight on the bike for a 1 hour session. This wasn’t much fun, I didn’t want to do it and I wanted to stop a lot. I got it done though, in large part thanks to Pilla cheering me on 🙂

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In comparison the rest of the week was pretty smooth (like playing on your home ground at football), although I did experiment with some food strategy on the bike ride on Saturday. I think I’m going to get pretty sick of sweet things on the day so after discussing this with Pilla, she came up with the following:

1. Malt loaf (I LOVE maltloaf)
2. Mini sausages

This might sound a bit weird but it seemed to work pretty well. I had a lovely little bike ride through Cheshire, probably my favourite so far (it circled a lot around Jodrell Bank, what’s not to like?) stopping for malt loaf and sausages. Ideal! In other news my swimming has regressed. I don’t think I’m doing enough drills and my technique has fallen apart after I thought it had got a lot better. I still have time to fix it though so I’ve taken up some 1-2-1 lessons with the guy leading the Sunday masters session. Last week he described my swimming as laboured so he’s definitely taken on a challenge with me!

The gory details of the weeks training are here. What I completed this week was:

[table]Day,Type,Time,Details
Monday,Rest,,
Tuesday,Running,1:00:00,”Z2 (at 0:10, insert 5 x 3 min Z4 @ 1 min jog)”
Wednesday,Swim,0:45:00,#9
Wednesday,Running,0:15:00,Z2
Thursday,Cycling,1:00:00,”Z2 (at 0:45, insert 10 min Z4)”
Friday,Running,1:00:00,”Z2 (at 0:45, insert 10 min Z4)”
Saturday,Cycling,3:30:00,”Z2 (at 2:50, insert 5 min Z4) QC”
Saturday,Running,0:15:00,Z2
Sunday,Running,1:30:00,Z1 to Z2
Sunday,Swim,2:00:00,Masters[/table]

Halfway! At least in terms of weeks I have hit the top of the peak and it’s all downhill from here. Actually in my head it’s better than that because I started training about 4 weeks before the official start date to get used to the schedule and the last three weeks are tapering. Add into that mix the week I have doing the half ironman and I think that’s 11 hard weeks of training left. That is no time at all really. Gulp.

This week has been a challenge for a couple of reasons. Number 1 as usual is the weather, number 2 is feeling on the edge of pushing my running too much and number 3 is trying to cram in all of regular life. On Thursday I cancelled my scheduled 1 hour run because my legs were feeling tight – I’m pretty good at spotting when something isn’t right and if you push through those warning signs too often you end up with injuries. I was supposed to be doing a 14 mile run around coniston in Saturday which would have more than made up for it. I’ve been wanting to do that Coniston 14 race evert since I started running so when I found out my friend Viv (sporting hero) was doing it I jumped at the chance….

…. Only to find out of Friday it had been cancelled due to the snow. Boo!

On Sunday we had quite a busy day planned with a family birthday party in Preston and band practice, I also had a 4hr ride and 30 min run combo to do. Obviously the only solution was to ride to Preston and for Pilla to meet me there. It was a pretty epic adventure, I used ridewithgps to plan a route and used my garmin as a mini sat nav. despite a couple of weird road it worked pretty well until….

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/activity_288585926.gpx”]

…. Well I didn’t factor enough in for the snow. I did avoid the hills which I thought would be a nightmare, only to find myself in the middle of nowhere when I bumped into a couple of stuck cars. I got off my bike and despite being warned by a couple of friendly runners (I think they said there was ‘no way’ I’d get through – challenge accepted thank you) went ahead. Cue almost bumping into a wall of snow. It lay between two fields, completely filling up the road. I have never seen anything like it.

At this point I had to get off my bike and clamber through waist deep snow. At times like those you do have to wonder why you are doing it, but the sense of accomplishment having spent 4hrs in the freezing cold, trogging across snow drifts and gale force winds only to finish and hop out for a quick jog definitely put a smile on my face!

So bring on the second half of the training because if I can get through that, a couple more rides in the spring sunshine will be nothing!

As usual the actual details are here.

Oh and ps, I’m sure you’ll agree my bike looks pretty fetching in the snow, doesn’t she!

Last week was a busy week which has carried over to this week and probably will into next too. We stayed with family down in London village over the weekend. It’s funny how normal my training feels to me now and yet when you are around other people it does kind of feel crazy getting up going out every day like arranging your journey home around getting your run done in the morning and getting home in time for the long swim later.

Pilla’s brother Mike is a pretty good cyclist (much much better than me) and took me out on Saturday which I was looking forward to. Unfortunatley the weather decided to play some tricks on us – we had pretty torrential rain, high winds and low temperatures. We headed off to the north downs, which was fine for a while although I was feeling pretty done in (I did a killer Sufferfest turbo session on the thursday – see below). After about 90 minutes I got cold and soggy and we decided to head home. We cut the ride down to 2:30 instead of 3:30 and it was a good job – by the time we got home we were both frozen, it took about half and hour, a warm shower, and several cups of sweet tea before I stopped shaking! Good times!

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I’ve been reading the Bradley Wiggins book about the Tour de France last year, and what do you know, my sufferfest video this week was based on footage from the Tour last year. I did an hour on Thursday which left my legs very messed up, but it was very fun at the same time.

I did a couple of runs over the weekend that took in Greenwich and Blackheath – in case you didn’t know that is the start of the London Marathon and one of it’s most iconic scenes – the route around the Cutty Sark. I have some strange and conflicting memories and feelings about that race – for me it’s been the one race I’ve been really unhappy about but at the same time it’s the one I really want to go back and do, I’ll never forget some of the moments last year. The pain from that day and running out of gas badly kind of inspires my training this year, I know it can happen and I’m going to do my very best to avoid it come July 7th. Who knows, maybe next year I can put all this IM training into good use by going back and smiling the whole way round the London Marathon! My Saturday run details are here.

My training is stacking up nicely and again, the story this graph isn’t telling is the increased intensity my runs and cycling are building in:

I had a tough swim on Sunday night and couldnt keep up with the faster lane. Talking to the guy who runs the course at he end he said he really wanted to get his teeth into my technique. I thought ‘great’! He then said ‘because it looks really laboured’. Ouch! I’m sure it does, I’m not a natural but he seemed pretty confident he could get it sorted so I’m hopefully going to have a couple of 1-2-1 sessions maybe.

As usual the details are here.

Oh yeah, I’m now into my 15th week. Otherwise known as HALFWAY! Get. In!