7 Swims in 7 Days

One realy good thing about anything after September 16th is that i don't have to beat myself up if I decide to stay in bed. On Monday I began a 7 swimms in 7 days programme to aid consistancy in the pool. So I've just dane day four and only have three to go. That's four consecutive days of being in the pool by 6 am. and another three of the same. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the swim, once your there it's a great way to start any day and to be honest I've got up at 5.30 so many times now that it doesn't faze me any more. So if your laying in bed around 5.30 - 6.00 am and can't get back to sleep spare a thought for me and all the other early morning swimmers and joggers, even the dog walkers. because whileyou laze in your warm bed, we are seizing the day and life it's self. However come September 17th I'll be tucked up in a nice cosy bed for most of the day.

Week 59 Training log

Week 59. I know, I know, only 6 hours this week, and you’re right it’s not good enough at this stage, but on the plus side I’ve never been so busy with work. It is frustrating though. I can’t go turning the work away for the sake of training. Work must take priority. It does seem however that when I’m not working, the sky is falling in with the sheer weight of water that’s constantly pouring out of it. We have had a serious amount of rain. That’s enough of the excuses, next week I promise to do better, although I am now officially in the taper period which means I have to knock back a fair bit and get lots of rest between workouts. Rest, I can do. One thing that is annoying about work is this. One morning I got up all set for a ride of around 4-5 hours, carbed up the day before, then set about forcing around 1000 calories down my neck to keep me going. The phone rings, I’m needed to go to work urgently, it’s an emergency, they’ve been let down last minute, can I help. There goes my ride and I have the added weight gain of a 1000 calorie breakfast to try and burn off. When I did get out on the bike on Wednesday it was a lovely ride with loads of pace. It should have been closer to 4 hours with distance but I was able to knock it down to just over 3 and a half, I was flying. Since my change in diet where I boosted my proteins and reduced my carbs I defiantly feel stronger in my legs. I can feel them as they turn giving out more power and holding on to it for longer. I’m trying to go over the day in my head, to try and visualize being there and completing each stage. I’ve ridden the bike course numerous times so I know what to expect there. I’m familiar with the roads on the run so I know where the hills are and how big. I’m also familiar with Tenby’s North beach where the start will be. I know I can complete each distance individually. It’s the bits in between that worry me at the moment, the transitions. I’ve done triathlon before so why do I think it’s going to be so much different. Bigger stage yes, but fundamentally surly just the same. These are the areas that I’m having trouble visualising, perhaps youtube can help.

Week 58 Training Log

Week 58. A very busy week in work was ahead of me so I had to structure this week carefully. Tuesday to Thursday I was due to be at the Pembrokeshire County Show So I would be doing no training for three days. This was however an ideal opportunity to place what is known as, my big day. A kind of race simulation day, so Monday went like this. I was in the pool for 6 am where I swam for 1 hr and 20 mins, 1900 mts of full stroke swim and 1900 mts of pull, totalling the race distance of 3800 mts. Home then for a couple of hours rest and refuelling then out on the bike for 5 and a half hours. I took loads of food with me and made sure that I had been carbing up for three days prior to the Monday. I had absolutely no issues with energy loss. It was a really good ride and I feel I had plenty in the tank when I finished. I was fortunate enough on the ride to bump into local superstar Oliver Simon and we rode together for around half an hour o that lifted me a bit. A couple of hours off again and it was time for the run leg. Our poor dog Paddy had been in for most of the day so the run was arranged at the quarry in the mountains so that he could come with me. It was going to be a really tough run in the quarry as its all hills, but I guess I have to endure the tough stuff. I planed a 2hr run and off we set. At the bottom of the mountain, the sun was shining and it was quite warm but within twenty minutes cloud was starting to drift in, and quite quickly. I took a home made energy gel half way up the first hill and it almost put me on my backside. I think my heart was beating so fast climbing the hill that the gel went round my body and straight to my head in a second. Immediately I felt like I was having an almighty sugar low and I felt like I was drunk. For a moment I could barely open my eyes and talk, horrible. It soon passed and I carried on jogging at a very slow pace. The cloud was coming in thicker and faster but we were almost to the top of the mountain. As the summit came close I could feel the temperature dropping and I could see the cloud getting thicker. Soon I couldn’t see more that fifty feet in front and kept losing sight of paddy. My 2 hour run was going to have to be cut short as my priority was now just to get back down safely. By the time I reached the bottom I had clocked up 1 hour and seven minutes. That was going to have to do I’d had it for the day, paddy felt a bit cheated though.

The plan now was to sit down for three days at the county show and make as many balloon animals as I could, all the time allowing my legs to recover. Friday morning I set up the Turbo trainer in the garage and forced myself to do a forty five minute session of high cardio work. I don’t mind the Turbo when I watch a film at the same time, but when its just music in the headphones it’s hard to keep going. You soon get bored of watching the pool of sweat form under the bike. Forty five minutes up, not a second longer I eased up for a cool down or warm down, which ever way you want to look at it. Trouble was I eased up a little too quickly and began to see stars in front of my eyes as my heart raced to push blood round a body that had suddenly stopped working. I tried to increase the cadence a bit while I gathered myself together and soon felt normal again. Despite the boredom that was a really good short session. It’s not often in my type of training that I push my heart to those kinds of limits, perhaps on big steep hills or in a short time trial mode, but not often. Saturday morning and it was the same again, only this time I didn’t slow down quite so quickly, An unexpected turn happened on Sunday morning. A ladies triathlon relay team known as The Old Birds had lost their cyclist for the bike leg due to an accident. They asked if I would stand in for her, not because I’m a lady / bird because I’m obviously not, and I’d like to think, not because I’m old, because I’m not that either, am I!!!

I was delighted to stand in. any extra training at this stage is good as long as it’s relevant. All I had to do was wait for the swimmer to pass me the band and I could cycle like there was no tomorrow as I didn’t have to save anything for the run. Despite the rain coming down I really enjoyed the ride. I pushed the heart the max once again as I buried my head to avoid the wind. I came in after eleven miles in 33 minutes which I was quite pleased with as it’s quite a hilly route. I think The Old Birds were pleased with their overall performance and hopefully I did alright for them. I’d like to say to The Old Birds that I would be happy to stand in again for any like in the future, but my condition still stands, I’m not wearing the T shirt.

A brief spell of work followed the triathlon then I had a monster to confront. My longest run before the Ironman . A twenty miler lay ahead and hopefully in or around 3 hours. When this run was put into the schedule I hadn’t planned on a sprinting bike leg in the morning. Still here we go. After the initial awkward beginning of around 2 miles I settled into a rhythm and felt quite good. I was conscious not to go out to fast as I had a long way to go, but the pace I was setting felt quite brisk and comfortable. I was feeling the same at around the 10 mile point. I became aware of a slight ache in my knees, nothing to do with previous injuries, just a ware and tare joint ache, I slowed up a little and hoped that it would pass and sure enough it did. I carried on to around mile 16, a little slower but still fairly steady. I was determined not to walk the hills as I have done in the passed but run the whole way unless taking a drink or a jelly cube, in which case I’d stop for one minute. Between mile 16 and 18 the rhythm seemed to just vanish and I found myself taking long slow strides, short fast strides, short and slow and generally all over the place. Leg muscles started to hurt at this point and I could feel that a hamstring cramp was imminent. I battled to the top of the hill that I was on and then slowed it right down as I reached the summit. I only had 2 more miles to go and I was doing alright for time so I very slowly began to increase the pace and concentrate on my strides and rhythm. It was a tough 2 miles but at least I had the rhythm back which is a huge help. I made it home in 3 hrs 3 mins which I was ecstatic about. I ran my self a cold bath while I downed a banana milk shake. I was wasted for the rest of the evening but I had done it. I didn’t have to run for more than 2 hours again until race day, thank God. It was that thought that got me through the last 4 miles, I don’t have to do this again.

Week 57 Training Log

Just a quicky this week. Not much time for training at the begining of the week due to a hectic week with work. Managed to get hold of some sort of stomach bug at the end of the week so that put pay to that as well. Note to self. Must try harder!!!

Week 56 Training Log

Week 56. I’ve had an extremely busy week with work this week so I wasn’t able to do all that I had hoped for. I was pleased at the end of the week to see 14 hours there. Combining so much work and training has had an effect on fatigue levels though. I was really beginning to feel tired in the middle of the week and started planning to drop or shorten a few sessions. By Saturday and my longest ride I had nothing left. I then made a fatal error which I hope not to do again, ever!! A combination of things contributed to me blowing up after 2 hrs on the bike. The new diet is going well, I dropped 3 pounds in a week and a half and have enough energy for the average training session. I have learned from my mistakes in the past weeks and before my ride on Saturday I had extra carbs to help me on my way. I took cereal biscuits with me and a bottle of home made gel. What I didn’t allow for was the fact that I was already dead on my feet before I even started. Within the first 2 hrs I had taken most of the nutrition that I had with me because I was struggling so much. My breakfast lasted about an hour and as soon as that was burnt up I was left empty. Of course by the time I had gone through all of my nutrition I was too far from home to simply turn back so I had to just plod on. When you blow up on the bike it’s a horrible feeling. Still 30 miles from home with absolutely no energy left, the peddles turn so slowly and the average speed drops with every mile. Other cyclist breeze by you like your standing still with a chirpy “ Morning”. Looking at it after I was so stupid. I knew I was already tired and I knew I was going out for 60 miles and I knew I would use over 3000 calories, yet I had around 500 for breakfast and took with me less than 1000. You do the maths. 56 weeks in, still making mistakes, still learning.

A big run on Monday started the ball rolling and I think with the week of work that I had ahead of me I struggled to recover from that run, so the rest of the week was broken up into shorter sessions. I think also that I have had a soaking each time I’ve gone out this week, typical August weather.

Week 55 Training log

Things are beginning to get a little tricky now that the kids are off school. I am now having to implement a plan which see me getting up for training around five in the morning to try and squeeze in a couple of hours before Joanne goes to work. Then, depending on what I did that morning and through the rest of the day I will try to get some time in when she comes home from work. Fortunately I have her blessing to carry this out because she knows how tough it is having the kids at home. Monday I was at a swimming gala with my daughter all day and we left early in the morning to get there, around six am. When we arrived home in the evening it was about seven and reluctantly I took myself on a one hour run. Tuesday and it was Joanne’s turn to do the gala run, only they didn’t have to be there quite so early. So I was able to fit in an early morning swim concentrating mainly on arm pull I covered about 2500 mts in the hour. I may have said this before but a swim first thing in the morning does wonders for you for the rest of the day. Later that morning I took the dog and my son into the hills. He rode his mountain bike and I run up the slopes. Paddy was way ahead of both of us and had to keep coming back to check on us, before heading off into the undergrowth with his tail in the air and nose fixed firmly on the ground. I was in second place while my youngest struggled with the slopes on his bike. We endured this for forty five minutes before deciding to turn back. The lad on the bike was close to tears by this point. Paddy looked on in disbelief as we turned back down the hill. (what, only half a walk today) Wednesday and my mother in law was kind enough to look after my youngest for a few hours while I got out on the bike. Jo and my daughter were at the gala for a few days and were staying over. This ride turned out to be one of the toughest training rides I’ve ever done. About a week ago I read an article about triathletes training ridiculously hard but were unable to shed any weight. The article went on to say that while you are training in this manner you take on a lot of carbs, for energy, and understandably so. The trouble is this, although the high amount of carbs isn’t responsible for any weight gain while you are training, they do make it a lot harder to lose any weight. This is a trap that I have fallen into. Before training in the morning I would fill up on oats with raisins and almonds, and on big training days I may have bagels as well. Lots of carbs. On completing the session I would sometimes have more porridge oats or rice pudding. None of which is bad food when your training hard but if your trying to shed a few pounds like I am, it’s too many carbs. The article says that lots of carbs or carbing up is great pre event, or before a mega session, but on a day to day basis you should be able to get enough energy from natural proteins and vegetables. Now, I was eating all this natural protein and vegetables, only trouble was, I was eating all those carbohydrates as well. As long as I was putting the hours in I didn’t gain any weight, but Ironman is just over six weeks away and I would now like to start reducing the excess baggage. So, breakfast now is eggs, scrambled or poached on one piece of toast, followed by fruit, perhaps three pieces. I think the reason for Wednesdays ride being so hard is that it was the first big session that I’ve done on the new diet and I missed the early performance benefits that the carbs used to give me. I headed up into the hills and at a few points within the first hour and a half I thought I may have to get off and push. Eventually the energy kicked in and things became easier but that first part was worrying. You wouldn’t want to race that way but I guess for training it’s fine. The ride consisted of a lot of up hills, long shallow ones, short steep one and long steep ones, there were a few down hills but each one of those led to an up hill again. I was meant to be tough and it delivered. I was hoping to get my race day sun tan on this ride but despite being very hot the sun was reluctant to come out from behind the clouds and I came home the same pale rider that I went out as. Thursday turned out to be a day of rest so I took my son and nephew to the beach for the afternoon with the dog. This was perfect, the boys could occupy the dog while I got to work on both resting and my tan. I slapped on the factor 15 and laid out. Cut a long story short, factor 15 was by no means enough and my race day tan is now more likely to be a race day peel. Friday and I was on the bike for 5:30 am, a beautiful morning was dawning and it felt great to have almost the whole road to myself. I enjoyed a fairly relaxed ride just above recovery rate and banked another thirty miles in the legs. Later in the afternoon I did a run of 1.15, partly cross country and partly road. A good combination day of ride, time to recover and then a run. Saturday was a full day of work so it was a rest day as far as training goes with a big day planned for Sunday. 6am Sunday morning I was on the road again for a four hour ride, a really nice ride. I fuelled up on a couple of bagels with jam so as not to have an energy lag early on. The ride felt good from the start and I had plenty of energy throughout the four hours. Like Friday I had plans for the afternoon. A few hours rest after the ride and Paddy and I went into the mountains for an extreme strength running session, 11 miles of hills off road. Just like Friday, an excellent combination day.

Week 54 Training Log

Week 54. Looking back over week 54 it was a bit of a disaster. A bad week of weather was forecast so it was going to be a case of dodging the rain. Monday, it was pouring with rain so I abandoned my 14 mile run and went to the gym for an hour and a half, working on muscular endurance. Tuesday was very much the same. Where I once had a 4 hour ride scheduled I now had another two and a half hours in the gym. One hour on the gym bike pushing a big gear at high cadence followed by one and a half hours on weights. My legs were shot. By Wednesday a pattern was emerging. Again my schedule said 3 hour ride and again I found myself in the gym. Working Thursday so I decided to give the muscles a rest. 5.30 am Friday and I was on the road on the bike for a swift ride focusing on power and speed, time trial mode. Followed this with a short brick run. Later in the day I attended the Masters swim class at the pool where I coach. That was probably going to be it for the week as I was away all weekend, but I found myself with time and energy on Sunday to fit in a 1 hour run. Thus ending a less than perfect week 54 training. There’s always another week. Can’t say that for much longer though.