Easy Recovery Run - lots of boats around

Another good night's sleep - getting back to normality.

Easy 0:30 recovery run this morning, easing me gently into a more intense weekend of training.

Body still not 100% but a pleasant enough run along the seafront. Lots of boats out this morning.

Tomorrow I am back in the pool, which I expect to be a little tougher as I missed the main Club session on Wednesday. Then it is in the saddle for 4 hours. Sunday - long run, which for a strange reason, I am looking forward to.

This time next month - I will be there! A mix of fear and excitment!

Feeling a little better - zoom along the seafront

The nasty 'Man Flu' was still with me on Wednesday morning, however I managed to complete my interval run session as instructed. By the late afternoon I had little energy and with the prospect of a 1:30 Club Swim ahead I decided that it was best to give it a miss and try and get an early night.

After a slightly better night when I managed to get nearly 7 hours sleep I certainly felt a little better this morning. The proposed session for today was a tempo session in aero position. There was however a complication in that I had to drop my wife's car off at Peacehaven. To make best use of the training time I had available today I threw my bike in the back of the car and got in my ride around the coast roads around Brighton and Peacehaven. I was surprised how both hilly and busy the route was so headed for the undercliff pass that runs from Saltdean to Brighton via the Marina - not that long but very quiet and flat, albeit a little bumpy in places. What I do love is cycling so close to the sea - something quite calming - I almost forgot I was supposed to be doing a relatively hard session. Still somewhat in recovery mode I didn't push it too much .

I came out of a client meeting at 5pm only to find a message from the garage where I left the car that it was ready and needed to be collected before they closed at 5:30pm. After a quick change, powered down the computer, tidy desk etc. and on my bike the watch said 5:20pm. I didn't have my Garmin with me but I knew I had a good 8-10km ride to complete in 10mins, which even if I hit the flat undercliff pass again I still had one significant hill climb - Mission Impossible!

Well I might not have completed the distance in 10mins (probably nearer 15 mins) but I did zoom and must have averaged 40kmph, including a hill climb and a bit of traffic getting out of the centre of Brighton.

Not bad for an old boy like me with the latter stages of the dreaded 'Man Flu':

Exciting day - got tickets for the Men's Olympic Cycling Road Race event

At exactly 11am this morning myself and two other colleagues tried our very best to get hold of some Olympic tickets for the Men's Cycling Road Race on July 28th at Box Hill - I understand the riders have to complete 9 loops of Zig-Zag lane (Box Hill) as part of a much larger loop from London through Surrey.

It all started well with the website registering my request quite early and asking for payment details. However, my work colleagues had already got to this point and were kicked out - was I going to be lucky - No!

We persevered - keeping one eye on the stock market and the other on the countdown for another chance to register for the golden tickets, which had just been released. After 3 failed attempts I wasn't feeling very hopeful but suddenly one of the guys struck lucky and had his ticket purchase confirmed. That was followed by another - only me to succeed now.

Finally my perseverance paid off and I secured 2 tickets - very exciting!

I didn't realise but that weekend around Box Hill is going to be a 'Bike Mecca' - there are a number of festivals being laid on for the thousands of cyclists expected to descend on Dorking and the Box Hill area.

Full details can be found at the following link:

http://www.surreyhillsroadracefestival.com/

I believe the festival is open to all whether you have tickets for Zig-Zag lane or not.

It all worked out quite nicely because I could offer the other ticket to my training buddy, Chris (featured in my recent post) as it will be his 50th birthday that same week.

It is also something to look forward to post IM Austria and may help with any IM blues we may be having. Of course we plan to cycle to the event - any excuse to get back on those bikes!

What I am up to for the rest of the week

After the 'Big Bike' week Coach MT has this one down as a 'Normal' week. Details as follows:

Mon: 1:00 Swim (strength based - main set 4x 600m with paddles and pull-buoy) - DONE
Tue: 1:15 Bike - Aero strength ride - DONE (part of commute - actually got 2:00 in the saddle)
Tue: 0:40 Strength exercises at home (squats, lunges, etc.)
Wed: 0:50 Run - main set of 20x 30sec strides
Wed: 1:30 Club Swim
Thu: 1:30 Bike - tempo session in aero position
Fri: 0:30 Optional Run + 0:30 Strength exercises

Then would you believe it is a 'Triathlon' weekend (anyone would think I was doing an Ironman!):

Sat: 1:00 Club Swim
Sat: 4:00 Bike incl. 3hr tempo test
Sun: 2:15 Run trying to negative split (do 2nd half faster than 1st)
Sun: 0:45 Swim - open-water - get in the lake!

In total 15:50 - keeping the momentum going.

I also have next week's schedule already in the diary but will leave that to a future post - all I will give away is that one session is 10 hours and Coach MT ends with the following comments:

'Finish with recovery strategies and then thank the family for being away all day!'

Need to take better care of myself

I need to take better care of myself...

Still trying to get rid of this awful flu - the worst part is the coughing in the evening and during the night, which is playing havoc with my sleeping. I am simply not getting enough hours - normally 6 hours is fine for me but more recently it has been more like 4-5 hours. In hindsight I supposed it would have been better to stop all training for a couple of days, dose up and try to get rid of the flu symptoms quickly.

I opted to train through it in hope that the odd Lemsip or two would do the trick - well it hasn't.

On top of the flu I stupidly did not apply enough sun tan lotion on my back when I ventured out in the tri suit at the weekend. I was warned! Thought I would be OK - another schoolboy error!

So now that is also effecting my sleep, waking me up if I turn over in the night onto the 'red bits'.

Oh well, these things happen - could be a lot worse.

Actually thinking about that point, Matt Ryley from the Club (featured in an earlier post), after breaking his neck in 2 places is now back in training and may even attempt some or all of the Ironman event in July - simply amazing - respect!

I suppose my dose of 'man flu', a bit of sunburn and a few lost hours on the pillow doesn't sound too bad after all.

Dress Rehearsal - 160km in the saddle

Been a bit of an epic weekend.

Friday night - tough Zone 3 session on the turbo in the 'Cave of Pain' - sweating buckets!
Saturday - Club swim (open-water skills + 1,500m test) + 1:30 easy ride
Sunday - 5:30 cycle on tri bikes + 20 mins transition run + 1,500m lake swim

The total for the week was over 17 hours - I think that is my record. The training is getting much more specific now with instructions from Coach MT to use the same bikes, clothes, tri kit, and nutrition that we are going to use on the day.

This morning started at 7:30am when I met my old training buddy and neighbour (Chris - pictured above) who had worked out a route for a 5 hour bike session. We headed down to the coast past Bognor Regis and stopped after 2:30 at Chichester Marina (where these pictures were taken). Thereafter it was back via Arundel, Worthing and then home.

After just over 5 hours and 1-2 km from home, Chris informed me that we were 10 miles off of 100 miles so we kept on going to reach the magic number. In total 5:26 and 160km (101 miles in the bank) - not far off an Ironman bike distance.

It was great cycling with Chris - I would have hated to do that bike session on my own. He is getting very strong in his overall training and preparation. While I can now quite comfortably hold 30-35km per hour in the aero position for some length of time, Chris can push it 10%+ higher than that. He is off on a training camp with the Coach in a fortnight's time so I expect him to be even fitter on his return, just in time for the taper and IM Austria to follow.

For those interested in the route and stats here is a link to Training Peaks:

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/NM7FNYUNB4CR3F5JT2IAGTWHAI

Another couple more heavy weeks await - more on that in my next post.

Less than 40 days - the week ahead

With less than 40 days to go to the big day I expect some serious training sessions ahead before the taper period.

Not a good start as still sufferring a little from a sore throat and bit of a cold but fortunately I feel better today than yesterday.

So after a day of rest I was back in the saddle today with a Zone 2/3 TT ride to work and return later this afternoon. If I am feeling up to it there is also the long club swim tonight (1:30).

In terms of the rest of the week:

Thu - 1:00 run at IM pace or quicker (min 10K in distance with warm-up / cool-down)
Fri - 1:00 Bike interval session + 0:40 strength
Sat - 1:00 Club Swim + 1:30 easy bike technique / skill focus
Sun - 5:00 Hilly ride + 0:20 transition run

So with my charity bike ride and this week's sessions the focus is very much on the bike. I expect that means running next week!

A small dose of 'man flu' - bike upgrade time

After a great long weekend of easy cycling with the boys (I am already missing all the friendly banter!) - approx. 160 miles in total I had planned to get right back into the serious training today with a zone 3 TT session and transition run. However, my body had slightly different ideas when I woke up on Tuesday morning. The previous late night (got home from the Guernsey trip at 2:30am) also didn't help.

I decided it was best to skip the day's sessions and pick it up on Wednesday. Probably a wise choice because by the evening I had little energy and decided to use the time to upgrade my Tri (TT) bike's bar end shifters and cables, which I had been meaning to do for some time. These new Campagnolo bar end shifters look great and cleverly zero back to the horizontal - more aerodynamic!

All the gear - no idea!

Day 2 - Ride for Rory

Day 2 of our charity event - Ride for Rory - almost completed. Another 40 miles this morning from Lyndhurst in the New Forest to Poole docks to catch the ferry across to Guernsey.

Weather was brilliant - the highlight of the day was the 6 mile coastal bike path from Boscombe to Poole via Sandbanks - a great finish and lovely to cycle along the coast for such a long stretch.

Once we get to Guernsey I understand we have a long hill climb left to our final destination where we are meeting the Guernsey press who have been following our progress. So far the team have raised over £5,500 - a great effort.

Whilst in Guernsey I hope to do a lap or two on the bike and may be an easy run. Might be a boys weekend but can't take my eyes off the training!

Day 1 - Ride for Rory

Just chilling before bed. Completed 150km today on the bike with my old school buddies and in celebration of Rory.

Had a bit of a bad start - bike computer dead and had the wrong bag - too big to carry on the bike for Day 2 - I forgot to read the e-mail, schoolboy error!

Not to worry, soldiered on. Pretty easy going riding - mostly Z1-2 except on the hills.

One of the boys (Dave B) was really struggling on his horrible heavy Halfords bike so swapped him for my carbon beauty (£2K bike vs. £150). I ended riding his bike for probably 3 to 4 hours - not nice but I suppose good for training! Credit to Dave though - I would not like to commit to a 150 mile plus ride with the bike he has - respect!

Another 50km tomorrow but first sleep!

An odd kind of week ahead

I finished off the week with another lake swimming on Sunday – this time increasing the lengths up to six (approx. 1,500m). Not much warmer but nice to swim with more of my Horsham Amphibians Triathlon (HAT) buddies – there must have been at least 10 there yesterday.

Just completed an easy Z1-2 recovery run (only 30 mins) after the tough weekend of training. Tonight is back in the pool, the main set being a timed 1,500m continuous swim.

Thereafter it is a bit of an odd kind of week. The Coach has me down for a ‘Muscular Endurance’ session on the bike tomorrow – main set is 4x 10min in a big gear, which I might try and do during my morning commute. The return being an easy recovery ride.

I am not sure of how many of the sessions I will able to complete on Wed-Thu as I am off to Aberdeen for a Heads of Office event. I will take my trainers and running gear but the opportunity for quality training time will be limited. I should have access to a hotel gym (hopefully with spinning bikes) but certainly no pool. I return very early on Friday morning to try and get to my favourite corporate event of the year – a mountain bike day on the South Downs with a number of accountants, lawyers, corporate financiers – what I have to do for the sake of networking!

Then on Saturday I am joining a group of old school buddies for a Charity bike ride from Caterham in Surrey (where we went to school) to the New Forest – 150km in total. On Sunday we cycle another 45km from the New Forest to Poole before boarding a ferry to Guernsey. Full details can be found on our Charity Page – Ride for Rory:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=RideforRory&isTeam=true

This will be great training in terms of distance, however as it is a team event, the pace is likely to be at a leisurely pace to accommodate all the riders’ abilities, which I understand to be quite varied!

Next week should be back to normal – with only 47 days to go, I need to keep the momentum going.

Mega-session complete + crash-test dummy

So mega brick session today...

Started with a 1:00 club swim this morning focusing on open water skills - fast race starts and swimming on feet.

Within the hour (journey home + quick change) I was on my TT bike for a 3:00 race pace session. It was also an opportunity to try out the aero helmet (sonic the hedgehog) and practice some race nutrition. I met up with Paul and Danny from the Club and we maintained a keen pace (30km per hour plus) even on a rolling course.

The only real drama was when I looked behind to see if Paul was OK only to find my front wheel veer into the pavement. I was catapulted over the top of the bike but fortunately rolled onto my right shoulder and only suffered a bit of 'road rash'. The bike was also OK - I cannot believe I got away with it so easily - that could of been the end of my Ironman dreams there and then - what a plonker!

At 3 hours into the ride I had done exactly 90 km, which was bang on my target (somewhere around 6 hours for the full Ironman would be great). If we had planned the route better I should have stopped then however I was still someway from home. Finally ended up doing around 105km in 3:30.

Quick chicken wrap and a protein bar and I was back out on the street this time for a 1:30 run at race pace. Despite the earlier hard sessions and a slightly painful shoulder I managed to keep a relatively decent pace and completed the run as instructed.

After a chocolate protein shake I was back in the groove - this time tackling cutting the lawn, which was more like a jungle after the recent rain.

And after that - well 'cream-crackered' I was!

Going to enjoy a lie in tomorrow morning for a change and take it nice and easy, although hope to get in the lake again for an easy swim in the afternoon.

Final words before bed - glad to see Matt back today at the Club swim - an amazing recovery after breaking his neck - he swam today! And finally - good luck to Chris in his 70.3 event in the New Forest tomorrow - he will be in the lake at 5:30am - now that's commitment!

Splash and Dash - first swim in the lake

Finally got in the lake - first of the season.

Three of us braved the elements and took the plunge - on with the rubber and out with the Body Glide (can I say that?)

Jumping in and swimming the first length (around 250m) was a bit of a rude awakening but after that it got easier.

Swam 4 lengths in total just to get back into it and a general feel for the water.

Over the coming weeks I will build up to around 10-12 lengths.

Hope to have another go soon.

Test week – progress so far

So after the big volume week I have a few test sessions planned…

Monday started poorly – I had a swim in the diary but the pool was shut for Bank Holiday. Not too worry – at least 3-4 swims planned for later in the week. Chill day with the family.

Tuesday I was on the TT bike clamped in the turbo in the ‘Cave of Pain’ – not much pain though, just couldn’t get into the session. The instructions were to complete a 20 min warm up then 5x (1 min hard in ‘big gear’ + 1 min easy spin). Thereafter the main set was 30 min tempo work where the last 20 min would be used to test the ‘lactate threshold’ heart rate (LTHR). The idea of the set was to push it and get into Z4+. My effort was closer to high Z2 – no commitment. The speed and power were decent enough and higher than race pace but way off what I did in the test 3 weeks ago. I finished the overall set with a 20 min transition run on the treadmill (rolling program).

Yesterday evening it was in the pool for the long Club Swim – as per usual I had to jump into lane 1 with the faster swimmers and those club members training for an Ironman in 2012. The set was as follows: 1,000m easy warm up, 5x 500m descending times (i.e. getting harder each set), then 8x 25m sprints (95% effort), and a cool down. All in all another 3.8km swim. My 500m sets were pretty consistent (between 8:45-8:59) although I didn’t get the pace right to descend the sets as instructed. I was pleased that I am doing the distance on a regular basis will no ill-effects and still have enough fuel in the tank for some sprint sets. I treated myself to a nice Chocolate protein shake to replenish my carbohydrate stores and repair some of the damage ready for my LTHR run session, which was next.

So that brings up to date and this morning’s LTHR run. Despite the horrible conditions (heavy wind and rain) I ran along the seafront – normal plan: 10-15 warm up, then 30 min tempo run (quite hard – well above IM race pace). The last 20 min being used to test LTHR. Actually the rain and wind was not a hindrance and helped to cool me down. I ran relatively well with an average speed over the last 20 min of 4:36mins per km, LTHR of 150 and cadence of 90 steps per minute. This is very similar to my results 3 weeks ago, however that was one of my best tests.

So another opportunity to jump into the lake this afternoon (after last week’s failed attempt) – mad I know. If I can dodge the storms and thunder / lightening that are forecast I am sure I will be OK!

Friday is a rest day – Yehh!

Saturday – a mega-session of 6-7 hours DIY half-IM distance swim, bike and run.

Sunday – more rest I hope!

A decent week of training

As I lay in bed with a cup of tea and my iPad on Bank Holiday morning I am considering last week's training - all in all a decent week - I would say that I was able to complete 90% of the schedule as instructed but certainly got the hours in - nearly 15 hours in total.

Sat / Sun was a bit of a wash out with the weather but I think we are all getting used to that. After my Saturday club swim I managed a 1:48 off-road run up on the muddy South Downs. My legs were a little fatigued but I still got in a 3 hour cycle yesterday with the boys. It was quite cold and wet and needed all the winter clothing including rubber overshoes and thick gloves. Despite all the gear I still got cold and damp and after 3 hours had had enough. The plan was to do 4 hours although I did do an extra couple of rides during the week so had the time in the saddle covered.

The only session I missed completely was the open water swim on Thursday. Hopefully we can get in the lake this Thursday.

Great to see a number of my Club mates competing in the Steyning triathlon yesterday. We planned our Sunday bike ride to go via Steyning and I enjoyed watching a little of the event - one of the first in the season. Lots of first timers trying it out, which is also interesting - triathlon is becoming a very popular sport and I am very pleased to be part of it.

A bit of a rest day today. Supposed to be swimming tonight but I think the pool is shut because of the bank holiday. Nice to rest the legs and get some DIY done - long list!

This week is interesting in that I have hard test sets separated by some rest days and then on Saturday a DIY half ironman distance set to complete - what fun.

Mid week update

Just returned home from the Club swim - another long session: 400m warm up, main set of 3x 1,000m, then 8x 25m sprints and 200m cool down - if by magic - 3.8km in total (IM distance). My 1,000m sets were not overly fast, however I can now keep a relatively constant pace. I also am managing to zone out focusing on different elements of my stroke, which makes the time go more quickly. Coach MT recommends this as a good technique for race day, focus on one element of your stroke at a time keeping a nice steady pace. He would prefer I lose 5-10 mins of the swim but come out the water relatively relaxed and with plenty of energy for the long bike and run ahead.

Otherwise I am nicely on track this week completing all the sessions so far as instructed, including quite a tough cadence set on the turbo this morning.

Tomorrow is a faster interval / stride set followed later in the day by a possible open water session in the local lake. I have my wetsuit ready but am still unsure whether it will work out as planned. We always have a bit of fun and games organising open water swims, mostly trying to adhere to the local council's rules, which I suppose are there for our safety, albeit it appears to get more and more complicated each year.

It's back on the bike on Friday before the longer weekend sessions. Let's hope for clear skies and a bit of sun!