Training Week 4

The week didn't start too well with Monday and Tuesday off sick. I got some sort of winter vomiting thing which stopped me in my tracks. I was fine by Wednesday and had a session in the pool that wasn't great and a comfortable hour on the treadmill. My knee was sore afterwards which is still a big concern.

I swam again on Friday and actually enjoyed it. I did some lengths and some drills and I did feel a small amount of improvement. Baby steps! My training is hampered by not being able to use my fins in the pool at Tooting Leisure Centre. Health and Safety apparently. Load of nonsence. Many of the arm drills I've been given in the lessons require you to concentrate on arm position so you don't get much propulsion from the arms and have to rely on your legs. Without fins its incredible tiring.

Saturday's swim lesson was again really good. I am slowly beginning to like swimming rather than feeling it is something to just get through. Who'd have thought.

I went for a run today.  I kept it slow to try and save the knee but I felt strong from the word go and kept the pace higher than I have of late.  I got to about 45 minutes and still felt good but my knee started to twinge.  It was the same story.  It was just an ache that ever so slowly grew but not causing me to slow so I just kept going.  I did 7.2 miles in under 9 minute miles and my HR never left zone 2.  Perfect.

Finally, I will not be doing my Sunday weigh-in.  Its my birthday tomorrow and this weekend has been fairly indulgent.  I went for a 10 course meal last night and there was nothing that was on the weight-watchers lists of healthy meals.  Tonight its roast beef and all the trimmings and I'm sure there will be cake tomorrow.

Stats:
Swimming - 3 sessions, 1.2 miles, 2hrs 6mins
Running - 3 sessions, 16.7 miles, 2hrs, 32mins
Cycling - 4 sessions, 44 miles, 3hrs 5 mins
Press-ups - 343

1000 push-ups

At the start of the 30 week training plan for the Ironman, I decided to do daily press-ups. I would start with 10 on the first day and increase it by 1 each day until I got to 100. Then maintian the 100 each day until August. This was mainly to strengthen my upper body as I've never really worked on it, especially when just doing running and cycling.

It was gone well with very few days missed. Today my total reached 1000 mainly because I have exceeded my planned daily total several times. So that's over 1000 in 28 days. I plan to do the next 1000 in under 25.

Cake

Yesterday, I was off uni with some sort of bug. I felt sicker and sicker on Sunday, feeling like I was going to heave at any minute and eventually doing so. This cut short my planned run.

I had Monday off as a result which again ruined my gym session. I did, however, turn out to be fortuitous as at 11:30 I got a call from my daughters school to say she had been sick. I got her and she spent the rest of the day watching TV. I still felt rubbish but did manage to get loads of work done, finishing my 5000 word essay of dialogic teaching (don't ask).

Today, we were both feeling better but the school has a policy of no-return within 24 hours of being sick so she wasn't going to school. She asked to make cakes (she muct better) so we went to Waitrose, got a load of things and set about making a mess. It was great fun.

We made choc-chip biscuits and a lemon dizzle cake that is pretty good even by my standards. Obviously, with the bowl licking and sampling, the diet took a hit today but it was worth it.

Training Week 3

Another good week. I really enjoyed the swimming lesson on Saturday. I felt I progressed a little and it was good to get the confidence back after a terrible swim on Thursday. I also played 5-a-side football on Friday which was great fun.

My concerns this week are about the amount of running I've done. With only a month until the first of my 20 milers, I need to up the mileage. I was hoping my knee would feel fine by now but I still have a bit of a niggle that worries me.

Swimming
Time in water: 1 hrs 55 mins
Estimated Distance: 0.9 miles

Running
Time: 2 hrs 32 mins
Distance: 14.0 miles

Cycling
Time: 5 hrs 45 mins
Distance: 76 miles

Totals
Sessions: 13
Total Time: 10 hrs 12 mins

The cycling numbers are quite high. I do include my cycling to and from school as well as to and from the gym. I always treat these are exercise and work hard so I feel they should be included.

Next week my aim is to get out on the road bike. It is dependant on the weather but I don't want to do all my miles as a commute on the Ridgeback. My run is also up to 75 minutes but I need to keep raising so I'm ready of the Meon Valley 20 miler in February.

I also successfully completed my press-ups this week. 270 in 7 days. That rises to 300 next week. The weight loss wasn't so good. In fact, it was zero. I lost nothing. I was doing well until Friday when I was feeling down about the amount of school work I have to do and lost all sense of control. Friday night and all day Saturday were shocking. A malt loaf, stake & chips, pick n' mix and biscuits were some of the highlights. The fact that I didn't put on any weight is a miracle. Must do better next week.

Excellence

Inspired by this video called Standing Start and a blog by Paul, I got to think about excellence. What does excellence mean to me, do I strive for it and do I ever achieve it?

These thoughts are always challenged by my mate Ed, who has different objectives than I do and he works in a very different way. I am driven by a need to complete things. I love the fact I've done 7 marathons and 98 running races in total. The fact that my marathon PB is probably not as good as it should be doesn't bother me. I guess its quantity, rather than quality. Shaving seconds off my PBs doesn't give me that much joy but doing a new event, specially if its a bit unusual, fills me with excitement and a huge sense of achievement.

Ed, on the other hand, wants to do his best. He wants to say "I did everything I could to ride that event in the quickest possible time". If anything prevents him from doing his best, he is annoyed. He eats as perfect a diet as he can manage, trains as hard as he can, gets the best advice and makes sure he has the best gear he can afford. To enhance his training for the Marmotte, he has a personal coach to guide him through the next 5 months and maximise his training. This is sure to get him a sub-8 Fred Whitton.

I chose not to do the Marmotte as it felt too similar to the Etape. I will do it one day but I needed a new challenge. The Ironman fit the bill because not only is it longer than anything I'd done before but the swim added a huge degree of uncertainty to the event. I truly do not care what time I do it in. All I care about is the medal and being able to call myself IRONMAN.

So, are we both striving for excellence? In the normal definition of the word, I am not but Ed is. He yearns to be the best that he can be. He is willing to sacrifice a lot to get better and better at his chosen sport. I do not. I will sacrifice as much as is needed to complete the event. For the marathons, I didn't really have to lose that much weight so I didn't. For the Etape, losing weight would help so I lost some. Now for the Ironman, I really need to lose as much as possible, partly for aesthetic reasons but mostly to help prevent injury during the volume of work I have to get through. So I will lose it. I do what I have to; not the pursuit of excellence.

Yet, I feel like I have achieve excellence in my own frame of reference. I could not run to the end of the road in December 1999. When I finished my first half marathon in 2000 I knew I could not run one step more. And when I finished my first marathon in 4:59 I vowed never to run again. Yet here I am.

PS. I believe I have represented Ed correctly and positively (he'll soon tell me if I haven't). I don't say that one goal is any better or worse than another. I think having any goals and pushing your limits is all that's important.

Swim Lesson 2

I had my second swimming lesson with SwimForTri today. It started with a few warm-up lengths before moving to a recap of our leg work from last week. Swim from the hips, not the knees is the mantra. This is something I am having trouble with. My legs hang low, I use my knees too much and I flap my legs more and more as I get tired. I just have to keep working on this.

The next phase was to put on our flippers. I hadn't worn fins before so I was shock at just how much they help. It was great fun zipping through the water. We did a few lengths just practising our leg strokes before doing some arm drills. One on our back, rotating our shoulders out of the water whilst keeping our head motionless. The second drill was to swim with one shoulder out of the water for an entire length. I enjoyed this and found it OK.

I now have to do more drills and less basic swimming in the pool according to the coach. She says that there is little point doing length after length with a poor stroke as all you will do is ingrain bad technique. So its mostly drills from now on.

Weight

Last year, I tried to lose weight. I knew that the lighter I was, the easier it would be to climb Mt. Ventoux. I did end up losing weight but it was 90% down to the increased levels of exercise and little to do with better eating habits.

I am now in a similar position with a need to lose weight to aid performance. And so far, its going well. The difference? Well, its the swimming. Not that actually swimming makes me lose weight but wearing nothing but a pair of small swimming shorts makes you very aware of yourself. Every time I think about a chocy bar or a bag of crisps, I just picture myself in a wetsuit and I eat an apple. Vanity is a powerful thing.

My first aspect of my diet I changed is bread. I have blogged about it before but bread is my weakness. I love it in all its forms. I worked out I ate thousands of calories a week on bread as well as all the things I put on bread (butter, jam, pate etc.). It has now been 6 weeks since I ate any bread and it has been a real boost to the diet.

The other is fruit and veg. I ate it when ever possible. Often when I don't feel like it. It just keeps me full all day. It doesn't stop some of the sugar cravings but it helps.

After reading Ironwit's blog, I have a few other things to think about. I train for treats. Doing a hard session on my bike or running tends to give me guilt free eating. I feel I can spend an afternoon eating what I want. With a big event like the Fred, it lets me eat what I want for the rest of the day but I just can't turn if off. I eat like a horse for a week.

The other problem is that I need to up the calories to take into account my growing levels of exercise without eating bad things. I'm fine at the moment but when my training gets to 10+ hours a week, I know that a bowl of soup at lunch won't be enough.

Finally, I have no physical target for my weight loss. I have found that setting targets usually results in disappointment. I will likely end up missing the target and feel like I failed. My aim is to continually have a downward trend in my weight until at least May with a blip in April as I eat bread for 1 day after the marathon. Yum!

Training Week 2

This was really my first week of proper training but it is week 2 in Don Fink's 30 week program so week 2 it shall be called. I really enjoyed training this week. It has gone well. I can feel myself getting better and stronger which is always encouraging. The progress I've made in the swimming is also filling me with confidence.

Swimming
Time in water: 2 hrs 18 mins
Estimated Distance: 1602 meters

Running
Time: 1 hrs 25 mins
Distance: 8.6 miles

Cycling
Time: 5 hrs 10 mins
Distance: 69 miles

Totals
Sessions: 13
Total Time: 8 hrs 53 mins

Now, non of these figures are quick. Far from it, they are painfully slow and at times, it has been hard to follow the program and not run or cycle faster but I have to keep telling myself, its not about speed. Speed does not matter. Endurance, form, technique and staying injury free for 30 weeks are what its all about.

Next week is very similar with a slight increase in Sunday's run and I will increase one or both of the swims from 35 to 45 minutes.

Fred Whitton Places

I just found out that I have a highly saught after place in the Fred Whitton. It is key to my training and a ride that I really enjoyed last year. I'm chuffed.

My mates Ed, SimonO and Bob have got places as well as blog friends Rob Shipman and John Sutton. The race for a sub 8 hour time is on.

First swimming lesson

I cycled in the pouring rain up past Liverpool Street Station to Market Sports gym for my first lesson with SwimForTri. I didn't really know what to expect and I had images for doing an hour of lengths and struggling. I had my new flins, pull-bouy and tight speedo jammer swimming bottoms. Was this really me?

There were 8 in the class and as we talked to Maxine, the coach, it seemed that we were all at different stages. The two other blokes in the group both looked quite athletic but said their swimming was poor. All of the class were planning a triathlon during the year. I didn't mention the Ironman, only the Blenheim tri.

We began with a couple of lengths to show Maxine our current ability. I tried to concentrate on some of the things I had read about in Don Fink's book and I did OK. Next we looked at drag and pushed off from the side in an aerodynamic (aquadynamic?) shape and then a bad shape to see the difference.

Then we did some kick drills. We had our hands together out in front and tried to go as long as possible with just kicking. If we came up to breath, we just got back in the same position afterwards. This felt harder than it should have been and it wasn't long before I was told why. My legs hang deep in the water and I kick with my knees instead of my hips. I tried to correct it during the rest of the lesson but its something I will have to work on.

We finished with some breathing exercises designed to teach us to breath out of out nose and then in through the mouth. I did feel better doing it this way then just using the mouth. It reduced the feeling that my nose if sull of water which I hate.

All in all, a good lesson. I didn't feel out of place and it is pleasing to hear others talk of the same problems and fears about swimming that I have.

Busy morning

I had my induction at my new gym booked for 8am today so I got up in the dark and dressed in many layers before heading out on my bike to ride down to Tooting. We don't have all the snow in London like most of the rest of the country but it is cold here and a bit icy.

I did my pointless induction ("Have you ever used a treadmill") and then went to the pool. This was my first swim in a 'proper' pool with other swimmers and I was nervous. I chose a lane with the least people and set off next to the pool-side. My aim was for 30 minutes of easy swimming, trying to think about my breathing and to relax. The first length of the 33 meter pool was fine. I felt relaxed and comfortable. However, as I turned and swam back away from the wall, I got panicky. I felt really uncomfortable with the realisation that I could not stop. Given how good I felt on the first length, I knew this was ridiculous but I couldn't stop the feeling. So I moved to the side of the pool and did my lengths next to the wall. No one seemed to get annoyed by this and I was able to complete the 30 minutes. It was a start of sorts but the thought of doing 119 lengths in less than 2:20 seems impossible.

It was then off to the gym. I did a 35 minute run on the treadmill which was OK. I had a little discomfort in my right knee which is a hangover from December's marathon. I must be mindful of it and I might need some physio when the mileage increases. I then did a lot of stretching, used the foam roller, did press-ups and then some weights. A good session.

This is actually my first week of my 30 week program but I start properly on Monday as I wasn't sure what condition my leg would be in after the operation. Thankfully it seems fine.

New Gear

With my new training program based entirely around heart rate zones, I needed a decent heart rate monitor. I have my Garmin Forerunner 301 which has heart rate but I have always found its performance patchy. It ofter loses reception and even when connected, it has too many random spikes to be entirely useful. So, after lots of research, I have ordered a Garmin FR60. It gets great write-ups and comes out best against its competitors like the Suunto t3c or the Polar RS400 or Polar F11.

Then, after the key broke off in my lock on my run-around bike, I have been getting the bus everywhere. Its a waste of £1 per trip and it takes three times as long. So, I took a big gulp and went down the local bike shop.

I came back with this; a Ridgeback Rapide Speed hybrid. £300 was the least I could spend and still get a decently made bike with mudguards and a rack. It rides well, seems sturdy, has a triple and changes pretty quickly. It feels like an unusual position compared with my road bike but I guess that's expected. I've never going to do long rides on it so that's not a problem.

I could have got a slightly cheaper bike from the Internet or a slightly better bike for £300 but I wanted to support my local bike shop. I would hate to see it disappear.

Becoming a swimmer

I've never been much of a swimmer. Not because I tried and failed but because I never really tried. I did learn to swim when I was at school and I passed the usual distance badges but I never took it further. Then, I got very body conscious and decided that taking my top off was not nice for anyone.

It has taken many many years, a desire for a new challenge and a great wife telling me not to be so stupid. Centre Parks was a great place to start. Compared to some of the people there, I look like an athlete. As I mentioned in my previous post, the first swim was a splash around with the kids and the second was a proper 40 minute swimming session.

I did a bit more before the end of the holiday with mixed results. I have to concentrate so hard to avoid swallowing water and as soon as I get tired, it goes to pot. I also still feel a panicky when out of my depth which I am going to have to overcome. I guess this will improve as I get more experienced and stronger.

I have changed gyms to one in Tooting which has a pool and I plan to get another few sessions in before my lessons start on the 16th.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all. I hope your celebrations went well last night. Fairly tame hear in Centre Parks with a meal and then impressive fireworks with my wife and kids but all good fun.

I can't quite believe its 2010. It seems only yesterday I was sipping champagne and saying how shocked I was that it had changed century but that was a decade again and a lot has changed.

Looking back I achieved a long in 2009. I took up cycling again, covered nearly 4000 miles and completed the Etape. I still managed 570 miles of running and finished a very tough marathon. But that is all in the past and like a shark, I need to keep moving, focus on new goals and make plans (does a shark make plans). And that of course, is the marathon and the ironman.

With this in mind, I really want to start training. Its been over two weeks since the operation and its all going well. I had my stitches out on Tuesday and all my wounds are closed. I still have a bit of pain where I am bruised but nothing too bad.

After leaving my Mum's in Devon, we went to Longleat for four days in Centre Parks. I went swimming with the girls and just had a mess about and a little swim to see how I felt. I had been told by different doctors to wait between 3 and 6 weeks before exercising but I felt completely fine after the swim. No pain, no discomfort, no issues as far as I could see and feel. Foolishly or not, I declared myself fit.

So yesterday I went for my first proper swim in about 8 years. There is no dedicated swimming pool in Centre Parks but given the number of wave pools, slides, rapids and outdoor heated pools, the main pool area is not that busy. I'm guessing its about 20 meters across and I started doing laps. My aim was between 30 and 45 minutes. I think I did about 40 mins with a small wait for the wave machine half way through. I tried to concentrate on some of the technique I had seen in a swim DVD that came with a Tri220 mag. I also listened to things my daughter had told me about pointing your elbow (she is an excellent swimmer). I was fine at times but struggled to breathe when turning to my left. Got a few mouthfuls of water and had a few panics. I did 28 widths and was pleased but know I have a long way to go.

I have also done a bit of cycling with my daughter on a tag-along. She is getting big and there are a lot of hills so its hard cycling. I might have overdone it a little yesterday so I'm taking it easy today. Then back in the pool tomorrow as I want to get as confident as possible before my lessons start on the 16th.

I wish you all well with whatever plans you have for 2010. Special thoughts to Ed who is still struggling with his chest. Get well soon.