Training begins

January was the start of ``proper'' training, although I'm still not following a race specific training plan I'm trying to establish a good base. With that in mind I've been trying to get into a more regular training routine. In a perfect world, from a training perspective, I could plan knowing every session I write down will happen however other important priorities in my life mean that just isn't going to happen. Inevitably at least one session each week won't work out which means I don't plan in a rest day. One rest day involved my attempt to make a Battenburg birthday cake for Elisa. It tasted really good but I think I need to be more patient with my cake assembly.

Birthday Battenburg

My ideal training for the next few ``build'' weeks looks something like this:

Monday: Swim 400 m or 200 m repeats and an evening run. 

Tuesday: Turbo Intervals and weights. 

Wednesday: BADTri Swim - Speed work

Thursday: BADTri Run - Intervals 

Friday: Long continuous swim 33m pool. 

Saturday: Turbo/BADTri Bike (endurance)
Sunday: Run (endurance)

I think I need to add some flexibility work as I used to do Yoga weekly and I've noticed that my legs are a lot tighter than they have been the last couple of years. Either that or its old age! I think the interval run sessions I'm doing are also taking a lot out of my legs, and there is only so much the foam roller can do to fix that. One thing that does wonders for recovery is pizza!

Delicious home-made pizza!

As a swim benchmark I decided to do a 3 km steady swim. Unfortunately I can't count when I'm swimming so only managed to do 2.8 km. The plan was to go at a comfortably steady pace, to vaguely simulate an IronMan swim, i.e not being completely broken at the end of this. I finished it in 47:30, and felt I'd held a comfortable pace.
My 200s:

3:05, 3:17, 3:23, 3:38, 3:11, 3:24, 3:26, 3:30, 3:28, 3:27, 3:27, 3:27, 3:29, 3:15
these were fairly consistent despite the usual joys of public lane swimming. I'm pretty confident I could hold this pace for another km without too much trouble giving me about a 65 min 3.8 km swim. The last 200m @ 3:15, didn't seem like I was in the red. I'll try and do another benchmark in a few weeks and see if I can hold something a little quicker.  I'd like to think with 8 months to go I can get my average pace closer to 3:10 giving me a sub 60 swim.... Lets see what happens. 

  

  

the whale's vagina?

German Pancake - 300mm+  of sugary goodness

San Diego - discovered by the Germans in 1904 named after a whales vagina...Given the wet weather I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere...

Having had a brutal packed flight from London to Phoenix where my neighbour tried to share my seat with me I arrived in San Diego at the Lafayette hotel surprisingly awake. I was up at 6am the next day and seemed to have dodged the jet lag thanks to my NYE partying. I picked this hotel based on its `full sized' swimming pool, now either the Christmas diet has worked wonders or this pool was a touch short as my pace picked up significantly. I managed a 6 hours walk round San Diego, Balboa park has some awesome trails and I've been kicking myself that I didn't go for a proper run round them when I had the chance. On the Sunday I managed a trip up to La Jolla cove before the conference started on the Monday and my free time dissipated completely.

For the conference week I was sharing an Air B&B place nearer the venue. My hopes of some glorious Californian weather, weren't to be realised as some much needed El Nino rain was pouring in.  The conference was a success from a work perspective. However, being on expenses meant we were eating out for most meals, which although tasty certainly took its toll. I'd hoped to get a few runs in during the evening but in the end it just wasn't possible. I managed to get a 1 hour run in at the end of the week jogging round the waterfront, but the boozing/over eating/lack of vegetables really has taken its toll and I need to get back into the routine of regular runs soon.

For the last couple of days of my trip I've been at the 500 West Hotel San Diego. It was the old YMCA place, so I've had to refrain from bursting into song. I think its better days may have been behind it and although I've stayed in some pretty grim hostels over the years this one has been pretty terrible. Shabby rooms are pretty much a given, but they could at least keep the bathrooms half clean. Though the pissed up guests probably aren't doing them any favours.

Still, with the weather somewhat improved I've hired a bike to explore around the city. I managed a four hour bike although I think I was probably going in circles for the most part. I found it really hard to follow the bike routes mainly because the signage would just stop. But also because I wasn't really sure where I was going. Still random exploring works wonders. The bike I got was an aluminium Giant Defy 105 with disk brakes. Its the first time I've ridden disks on a road bike and I was a bit worried about the juddering sensation under breaking. I've been reliably informed that this is normal, but to be honest I didn't get any sense of improvement over my rim brakes on my bike at home. Anyway, hopefully a quick blast tomorrow morning before I spend the best part of a day trapped on a plane back to London. Bristol is getting snow this week? Not looking forward to the cold.... But hopefully time to get back into training.

West 500 - At least there is space for a bike!

An Xmas Pudding

Pre-Christmas Christmas Dinner with Elisa

With the students away the pool was so much quieter, bliss! This meant less interruptions and chance to do some slower drills, kicking (which I hate) and some paddle practice. I don’t like swimming with paddles when the pool is busy as lane etiquette is pretty terrible and I’m afraid I’ll smash someone in the face. Just ask my friend Sean Baxendale, I took him out doing fly in the team medley at a school gala and I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten.  Despite the emptiness of the pool there was the muppet who got into the lane with myself and another triathlete (I should probably find out who he is) to swim breaststroke in the wrong direction. Why you would choose to do this in a practically empty pool is a mystery to me. Being British I just passively grumbled to myself, but fortunately the other tri-guy kicked them out and we got on with our respective sets.

Anyway, I’ve noticed my pull set times are pretty consistent with my swim which should be a bit of a warning. I think my body position is probably a bit crap at the moment, I typically swim with a minimal effort six beat kick, but I may need to look into something different. I’d rather not just assume a wetsuit will solve all my problems. From Jan onwards I’ll attend some of the BADTri swim sessions on a Wednesday evening, that way I can get a coach to have a look at me and point me in the right direction. Either way, I need to work on my speed a bit, as I’d like to go sub 1 hour in the Ironman swim. This means I need to be hitting 3:00-3:10 for my 200s, I’ve definitely got the pace to do this, but at the moment my endurance simply isn’t up to it. 

Our last Thursday run session left me feeling pretty broken. With a week of work parties and “networking” which involves unavoidable amounts of alcohol I was definitely sweating ethanol. I’m not sure if it was my debauchered state, or that Robbie was trying to make up for a couple of weeks off, but the next day my legs were ruined. As I keep saying here, intervals at the track are really good sessions, and I really appreciate the work Robbie puts into organising them, as I think they’ve definitely helped my form and pacing. I’d like to think I can hit a sub 20 5K and 45 10K, and at a push maybe a sub 40 10K, at some point in the next year. Speed is great, but, I also need to start building up my long runs again to get my body used to being out there for 3+ hours (This may be wishful thinking and more like 4/5). I’m not running Manchester this year, as it cost me a month of training to properly recover, however I’m probably going to build the miles in a similar manner from now until April. 

So Christmas arrived with the opportunity to eat way more cake and chocolate than normal. I know a lot of serious triathletes are super strict with their nutrition and there are plenty of blogs talking about the dangers of overeating at Xmas but where is the fun in that. While I’m well aware of the logic behind this, I’m not competing at a level that necessitates such attention to detail all the time. I eat relatively healthily year round and I’m not going to make any drastic changes to my diet for Ironman, however I might need to keep a watchful eye on the amount I’m eating going into 2016. When I ran the Manchester marathon in 2014 my weight just before it was 88 kg, this is the least I’ve weighed in a very long time. I’m not built like an endurance athlete so getting a BMI close to 20 is never going to happen, I’ve been clinically obese in the past (based on my BMI), but I suspect I may have been a lot fitter than many skinnier people.  Before 2015’s marathon I was 92 kg but I’d been doing much more varied training, more biking, more swimming over the winter and I wasn’t logging the same volume of miles. I ran an overall faster time, although terrible second half, so I can’t see that the extra weight was a sign of lack of fitness.  I seemed to stay about 92 kg until the Cardiff half. However between October and now I’ve put on 5 kg, so I’m currently a touch over 97 kg which is a bit of a worry. I’ve upped my swim sessions and turbo training plus I’ve been doing weights much more regularly, this, together with the possibility of some Christmas podge, could explain the gain. The trouble is, if I am going to stand a chance of getting over the hills in Wimbleball and Tenby I need to get my weight down significantly and at the moment I’m going in the wrong direction. So, my plan, I’m going to start tracking my weight more regularly and see if I can find out what’s actually going on. If I do this with a log of my morning heart rate I’ll have a good idea of what my body is up to over the next year.  

Back on the radar

The Bringer of Pain - The Foam Roller!

With work piling up blogging has taken somewhat of a back seat. I found it hard to justify writing a blog post when I was seriously behind in submitting a journal paper and a conference paper. The paper might be of interest to all you carbon road bike lovers. As part of a post-doc I completed last year I've been doing research for the HiPerDuCT program, The aim is to introduce ductility into  high performance composites, the idea being that things like your bike don't fail catastrophically if you over load them - thereby hopefully avoiding something like this. The work is now off to a journal called Extreme Mechanics Letters, which has a pretty awesome name by engineering standards. The conference paper has been looking at how to improve manufactured quality of thick composites - think wind turbines. Not likely to be much use for your bike, but it does mean I'm off to San Diego for a conference. This means some winter sun, which in turn means a chance to get some miles in on a bike while exploring a new city - watch this space for photos.

So what's happened while I've been away?

I ran the Aztec west fast 5K in 21:34 (21:31 off my watch). I'm reasonably happy with my time and think its probably a reasonable reflection of where my training times would put me. However, I think there is definitely scope for a bit of improvement... I'd like to think if I keep the training up I'll dip under the 20:00 mark. Though as my friend John reminds me I don't need to run fast in an Ironman.  The course is a nice fast flat run - three laps around a business park in North Bristol. I had to admit, it was a touch worrying when in the line for the loos a couple of "youngsters" (I'm still totally down with the kids), were discussing their target times. I'm going to take it easy and just go under 17:00.... I may be a little out of my depth here. In the end I decided the plan was to try and get a feel for how I'm running, avoid using the watch too much, and just aim to keep an even pace. 

My splits, 3:57, 4:16, 4:21, 4:44 (Bah!), and 4:12, were fairly respectable, and I managed to out kick a couple of people at the end (I think they may have had 20+ years on me though). The kick, although good for me place wise, meant I probably left too much in the legs. I think next time I need to sit on  4:00/km and suck it up when it gets hard.  If I blow up then at least I know I've given it everything. Next one is in Jan so we shall have to wait until then to see.

One cool thing that has also started has been the BADTri trail runs. I was a bit apprehensive about doing them given I've had a few bad sprains on my ankle from playing cricket. Fortunately, while muddy, they've not been quite as bad as some of the manure filled fields we used to suffer through in high school cross country.

The first one, up at Leigh woods, was done on the night of the new moon for extra darkness. Once the group spread out a bit it was pretty tricky finding your way through the mud and the trees but really enjoyable. Running with a head torch really focuses you. I did one lap of the course but the second time round someone shouting for help meant we ended up stopping to investigate. We didn't find anyone, the forest is like an echo chamber in the dark. In the end the police were called, but I have no idea what happened. There was nothing in the news so lets go with a positive outlook.

The most recent trail run was at Stoke Park. Slightly more open but with a truly viscious hill to run up. I could just about keep my grip walking but some people were flying up. I got lost running across the fields, but then, so did everybody else. This was a bit more of a mud-bath but again really good fun and hopefully adding a bit of variety is going to help with my all round performance. My highlight was managing to stay on my feet for all the slippy muddy parts, but then falling over on the packed trail. Standard. Note to self. Watch your own feet.  

Regular training wise, I managed to ruin myself in the pool. I occasionally get a bit of foot/toe cramp when I'm swimming and I can usually tell when its about to come on. If I flex my toes while I'm kicking, I look a bit daft but it usually goes away. This time, it didn't work, and I ended up with a horrific full leg cramp. I was coming to the end of my set which was 15x200m @ 3:15+30 rest and pushing off my whole leg locked up. Fortunately I managed to drag myself out of the pool as the lifeguard didn't bat an eyelid as I was rolling around looking like a muppet trying to stretch it out. I suspect my lack of proper recovery after the previous nights track set may have contributed. Anyway, my calf's been a bit shitty since then, so  as penance for improper recovery I have been inflicting further pain via the foam roller. Bringer of such miserable pain. Lets hope its sorts out my calf.

The 4th discipline

One of the things you hear pretty regularly in triathlon blogs/posts/websites/adverts is the importance of good nutrition. Now, for sure, I agree, filling your face with a dirty burger and pies every day isn't really going to cut it when it comes to getting a balanced diet, but sometimes cake is simply unavoidable. This week it was my birthday, I'm turning 30, getting old, and so cake was required - In VAST quantities!

The first effort were my brownies, I made two batches given my previous attempt to kill those with a peanut allergy. I forgot to photo the plain chocolate ones, but this shows off the peanut butter layer nicely

They went down pretty well in the office so I managed to avoid eating the whole batch myself.

For the second cake I have to give exceptional credit to Elisa. Having introduced me to s'mores, she managed to take all the marshmallowy goodness and turn it into a birthday cake.

The photo doesn't really do it justice. Layers of brownie, cookie/biscuity base and marshmallow frosting, with some toasted marshmallow on top. I have to admit, even my sweet tooth was overcome but thankfully we had plenty of people to share it. So many calories! Thankfully the 1.2km of climb I did up Burrington Coombe on the bike somewhat offset this.

In general, the last weeks training has been a bit of a shambles with a lot of work and house related stuff meaning the only serious sessions I got in were a bric and the BADTri track session on Thursday. The track session was good, running 700s followed by 200s,  I'm hitting 2:45 for the 700, and under :39 for the 200.  Its giving me hope that I might have a good chance of running a sub 20 5k so I think I'll try and enter the Aztek West fast 5k on 24th November. This week is looking a bit more chilled out, so hopefully I can get back into more of a routine, I'm looking forward to a trail run on Friday which will add a bit of variation.  

Watt a way to improve

Aside from the wonderfully pun-tastic title this post raises a bit of an issue I've noticed between 'feel' and raw data I've been getting from my turbo trainer. Back in August I bought a turbo trainer from Bike 24, when it finally completed its journey over the sea (Several return trips to from Dresden to Koln), I've been using it for some structured bike sessions. The trainer, a Tacx i-vortex, seemed to have everything I wanted, decent enough brake, it can do 7% gradients (and 800 watts), and had good reviews on feeling as close to real pedalling as you can get without spending more than I paid for my bike. I got the TdF edition, not because I have delusions of grandeur, but because it was a bargain.

Anyway, I don't own a power meter, its something I don't feel I can justify at the moment for the level that I train/race at. As with all these things, I try and think about what the value for money is to me at my level of racing. I would notice the difference between a £500, bike and £1000 one, but I doubt if the change from £2000-£5000 would be noticeable to me. So my only exposure to power data has been in spin classes and on the wattbikes in the gym. In the spin classes, I've noticed that my average power for the 45 minutes was usually around the 250 watts mark including the warmup/down with peaks anywhere from 400 to 800 depending on the intervals. Anything like 200 watts or lower feels very easy, genuinely spinning. These figures aren't too impressive. they certainly won't get me a green jersey, but on the Tacx 200 watts feels like a bit of a slog. I've pissed around with the calibrations, wheel psi etc. but it doesn't seem to make much difference. The Tacx's power is obviously measured at the back wheel, but surely I'm not loosing THAT much in mechanical loss? Anyway, it seems to be repeatable, if not accurate, so I may have to take these readings with a pinch of salt. I wonder how reliable it actually is?

So, whose to say the spin bikes aren't a load of crap. Well on Wednesday this week they had a wattbike challenge at the university travel fair. Not being competitive at all I threw my leg over and had a crack at it. The aim was from a slow spin to try and see what the peak wattage we could hit was. Having set it up I noticed I was spinning the pedals easily at 220 so I'm further inclined to believe the Tacx has its own special Dutch watts. Anyway, I had a couple of pushes and came away with 971 watts frustratingly short of the kilo. Respectable effort compared to those up on the board, but there were a couple who'd just broken 1100. Having not eaten yet I managed to stuff a tuna sandwich down my face and have a meeting with my research tutees's about their cycling infrastructure project (Hopefully more on that to come). This was followed by a trip for coffee with my friend Tim, which resulted in a return to the travel fair, for more free stuff and another attempt on the bike. In the mean time the uni cycling club had been down and there were a few more 1k+ with 1330 being the top of the pile.  Tim had a strong showing, just short of 900, but my second attempt I managed to push 1191. Who needs EPO when you can have a tuna sandwich and coffee!!!!   

 

Cardiff Half Marathon

Last weekend I ran the Cardiff half marathon for Cardiff Women's Aid along with quite a few other runners, as a group we were raising money for the CWTCH project (Cardiff Women Taking Charge) which aims to raise awareness of domestic abuse in the Cardiff area. I don't normally raise money for charity when running races like this but the charity does really good work and I know that any money raised will actually go to a specific project. Together the group raised well over £2000 so it was definitely a success. 

This was Elisa's first half marathon and she absolutely smashed it, getting a time of 1:57. I'm really impressed with how committed she was to her training plan, and how sensible she's been in building up her mileage. Training was trickier in Canada, but I think running in the heat (I know, not snow?!?), really helped.

I'd planned to race the Bristol half two weeks earlier and just enjoy Cardiff for fun. Unfortunately Bristol  clashed with Ironman Wales which I wanted to go and see so on race morning I was hoping to get a decent time in. The start was a bit hectic, and so I was rushing to drop my bag off when I probably should have been warming up. I managed to fight my way past the crowds to get to the pens. I'd hoped to drop in at the back of the faster group at the 1:45 cutoff aiming for around 1:40 but as I'd signed up with a time of 1:45 I wasn't allowed in that pen due to my bib colour. Note to self, don't be so conservative with my time next year.  So I was at the back of my pen with the 2:00 runners and we were off before I knew it. 

Cardiff is a big race, second biggest in the UK by all accounts and it was definitely more congested than Bristol. I spent the first 4 miles trying to get past people with limited success. I felt like I was running terrible lines and the stop/start speed-up/slow-down wasn't helping my rhythm. At about mile 4 I got stuck with a bunch of people running 8 minute miles, when I really needed to be doing 7:40s and my chances of running under 1:40 had pretty much disappeared. Towards mile 10 my ankle started to ache and I ended up running a couple of slow miles. I managed to drag it back a bit and was hoping to squeeze under 1:45 but my ankle just didn't want to let me sprint. So I was 16 seconds over which is pretty frustrating. I ran close to the same pace for the first half of the Manchester marathon so to not knock any time off is pretty abysmal. Still. Lessons learned. Get to races earlier!

Also, who wants cheese and onion crisps in their post race snack bag :( My milkshake was much more enjoyable!

My mile splits
7:58 
7:45
7:41
7:56
7:51
8:02
8:02
8:03
7:58
8:23
8:27
8:16
7:59
0:48

Watch time:
1:45.16   

Official chip time:
1:45.12