Back in the game!

So, Ironman Switzerland it is then.  After almost a 12 month lay-off, Ironman is back in focus.  Switzerland.  My very first.  2009.  Where the addiction and fascination with the sport really took off.  “No more” I cried during the last lap of the run.  “Never again” and “stupid sport” were also heard during the long run in to the finish.  “What’s the point of this sport?” was repeated in darker moments.  

This will be Ironman number 12.

Entering Switzerland has me fired up again.  Training.  Focused training, oh how I’ve missed you.  Reading.  Listening.  Watching.  Can’t get enough Ironman and triathlon talk at the moment.

Plotting, oh the plotting.  Making a schedule where I can fit training in, where it fits in with the family, where I can still spend time with Lynn, where I do not neglect everything else.  That’s the challenge, right there.  It’s easy to become obsessed and let it take over everything.  The hard part is to recognise this, and adjust accordingly.  The family are on board, positively encouraging.  Not turning their encouragement sour by over-doing it is the key.  

Filtering.  Deciding on the approach to training, particularly during the winter.  Train slow in the attempt to build solid endurance, an aerobic engine?  Include more intense sessions with a focus on improving power and pace?  Researching different scholars of the sport.  Different viewpoints, different approaches.  That’s the fun, right?  Coming up with an approach, a method, that works for me, that fits with my lifestyle.

Goals.  Where to begin?  How high do you aim?  How big should the goal be?  What will fire me up?  What will get me out of bed in the early mornings or keep me training when all others have gone to sleep?  On the other hand, do I really want a big performance goal?  Is part of the joy just the fact I can do this sport, whilst also living a normal life – with a wife, three children, a business.  Do I need to reach for a sub-10 hour goal?  Do I aim at getting closer to the top age groupers?  Do I use 2017 as a progression year, to have a crack at the big one in 2018?  Or am I happy participating and seeing what I can do with what I’ve got?  That’s a tough one to wrestle with.  When the reality kicks in, and there are other priorities to deal with, will these fit with my race goals.  How do I adjust?

The answer, in part, is smaller goals perhaps.  Not necessarily race related, more progression and training related.  A goal of four runs per week.  That’s a small, achievable goal isn’t it?  Done for the next 40 weeks though, and that frequency and consistency transforms me into a much better, more robust Ironman runner than I’ve previously thought I was capable of.  Power on the bike is pretty low in comparison to good age-groupers.  Increasing power on the bike by 5 watts per month.  Sounds straightforward, achievable.   Easy to digest.  That’s 50 watts of extra power available on race day.  Build speed on the swim.  Fast 50m and 100m efforts.  A 1.05 all-out effort translates into comfortable 1.20 cruising pace.  A sub 60 second swim in a gala is still in focus.  That’s 50m training efforts at 30 seconds.  Can these goals be done?  Can they be achieved at the same time?  Will achieving bike power goals impact on the swim intensity?  Don’t know.  Set them, aim for them, recalibrate them as we go along.

Lots of thinking to do.  Lots of information to digest.  Lots of dreams to have.  Lots of training to do.  Ironman Switzerland 2017.  Exciting times ahead. 

Ironman Barcelona 2015 - 10 Week Training Summary

Here is a quick review of my last 10 weeks leading into Ironman Barcelona.

Training time was at a premium.  During this period Lynn had a serious car crash, we moved house, it was the summer holidays and we needed to entertain the girls, and then we had to adjust to increasing commuting time for the girls school runs.  Training, although usually high priority for me, was not high on the family priority list!  That said, Lynn gave me some great support and encouraged me to find time for training, often sacrificing her own spare time to support me.

A couple of quick observations:

• I had almost two weeks out whilst trying to get my left knee fixed - it had been swollen, crunchy and cracking since the end of May and I had tried - in vain - to train on it.  The MRI and the cortisone injection was the last throw of the dice!
• Run training was limited throughout.  Long run peaked at 1 hour! It was painful to run beyond that.  I tried to make up for that in the last few weeks by increasing frequency of shorter runs.  Most of this running was steady - nothing particularly fast.
• All bike training was indoors on the turbo trainer.  Managed to do quite a few 2 hour + sessions to try and build some endurance.
• Swim training was consistent, notching up 18 sessions (all in a pool) during the 10 weeks.  However, all sessions were 40-50 minutes.
• All gym sessions focused mainly on core work, with some low-weight leg exercises as the knee started to get better.

In summary then.  Over the 10 weeks, I averaged just less than 8 hours per week, with an average of 8 sessions per week.  78 sessions consisted of 24 bike sessions, 20 run sessions (including 5 short runs in race week), 18 swim sessions and 16 sessions in the gym.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 10 8 hours 26 minutes	Turbo – 70’ Tempo	-	Turbo – 180’ 6x20’ @z3	Run – 30’ Easy	-	Turbo – 75’ Strength endurance	Turbo – 150’ 5x20’ @z3
Week 9 8 hours	Run – 55’ Steady	Turbo – 60’ 10x3’ @z4	Gym – 25’ Swim – 60’	Gym – 25’ Swim – 50’	-	Turbo – 60’ Strength endurance	Turbo – 144’ 3x30 over/under
Week 8 6 hours 50 minutes	Gym – 45’ Swim – 40’ Turbo – 75’ 5x10’ z3/4	Physio	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Gym – 50’ Swim – 40’	Gym – 55’ Swim – 45’
Week 7 3 hours 6 minutes	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Turbo – 50’ 4x8’ z3	MRI Scan	Turbo – 75’ 10x5’ z3	Gym – 60’
Week 6 8 hours 6 minutes	Turbo – 70’ 5x10 z3	Run – 35’ Steady	Cortisone injection	Gym – 30’ Swim 40’	Run – 35’ Steady	Turbo – 120’	Turbo – 120’ Tolerance efforts
Week 5 10 hours 29 minutes	Turbo – 120’ Z3 efforts Run – 10’ Brick	Gym – 50’ Swim – 50’	-	Turbo – 55’ 10x3’ z4	Gym – 20’ Swim – 45’ Run – 65’ Steady	Turbo – 120’ 4x20’ z3	Swim – 60’ Run – 35’ Steady
Week 4 10 hours 30 minutes	Gym – 25’ Swim – 40’ Run – 30’ Steady Physio – 70’	Turbo – 70’ 3x10 z4	Run – 30’ Steady Swim – 55’	-	Run – 48’ Tempo	Turbo – 140’ 3x30’ over/under	Gym – 40’ Swim – 45’ Run – 35’ Easy
Week 3 12 hours 14 minutes	Turbo – 150’ 5x20’ z3 Run – 50’ Brick	Gym – 30’ Swim – 25’	-	Turbo – 70’ 5x10’ z3	Gym – 40’ Swim – 50’	Turbo – 95’ 2x20 z3 1x30’ race pace Run – 60’ Brick	Turbo – 120’ 4x20’ Run – 30’ Brick
Week 2 7 hours 43 minutes	Gym – 40’ Swim – 45’	Physio	Gym – 20’ Swim – 40’ Run – 40’ Easy	Turbo – 50’ 10x3’ z4	Gym – 30’ Swim – 40’	Turbo – 60’ 2x20’ Race Pace	-
Race Week	Swim – 40’ Run – 30’ 4x2’ efforts	Run – 25’ Steady	Run – 20’ Steady Swim – 35’	-	Bike – 40’ Run – 10’	Run – 15’	RACE DAY