A testing week

A good week this week.  It was always going to be a challenge as coach Murphy had set me a tough programme, which just happened to coincide with a very busy work schedule.  However, I managed to do everything, bar one 70 minute run session.  The downside was that I had to load most of the training to the back end of the week, so I finished feeling quite fatigued.  Going through my training records has highlighted a pattern of missing one of my sessions the day after a rest day, and this is something that I am going to have to address.  (Should be easy to solve now that the days are getting longer).  Highlight of this week was undoubtedly Ian's bike/run session at Preston Sports Arena.  Two hours of cycling, including a 1 hour trial, riding 'through and off' in gangs of 8.  Superb interval training, although riding at a slightly faster speed than normal made the run section (pyramids going from 200M to 1200M in 200M increments) rather painful!

Totals for the week:  11km swim, 119Km Bike, 48Km run.  A key milestone too - since the start of Feb I have exceeded the total swim distance required for the Deca (Just need to get fit enough to do it all in 24 hours now!)  Bring it!

An ordinary bloke

I guess I should introduce myself, now that I’m two months into preparing for the Deca.  I’m a 47 year old bloke, who is no great athlete, but has always been active, mostly in mountain sports like rock and ice climbing, mountain biking and various winter sports.  I have an interest in sport psychology and more generally, what makes some people excellent at certain things.

I’ve always liked taking on a challenge and although I’m a long way from being a good athlete, I do enjoy testing myself and having a taste for what I call ‘an adventure’.  I got into triathlon a few years ago because I wanted to do an Ironman – I just couldn’t understand how anyone could do such a thing, yet the idea never seemed to disappear from the back of my mind.  And that’s pretty much how my sporting career goes – I learn of an event, it starts to sound exciting and then I start musing over how it might be possible to do it.  Consequently, I do a lot of things once or twice and then want to do something else.  Not a great strategy for excelling at something, but it does add variety to my life.  Entering competitions and studying sport psychology have really emphasised the difference between what I do and what it takes to actually race with the intention of winning. 

I’ve done a few Polaris events (orienteering on mountain biking), got roped into a C Class KIMM once, ran the Nid d’Aigle race up Mont Blanc, and twice took part as an age grouper in the Winter Triathlon World Championships.  If this starts to sound impressive, it isn’t – I’m OK if I go at my own pace, but rubbish if I actually compete against others.  So why do I do it?  For me the answer is simple – at the end of my life I want to look back on things that I have done not what I talked about doing.  The Deca is the latest in a long line of activities that I fit the category of ‘daft....but what if it were possible?’

A better week (and staying warm on the bike)

Well, a better week than last week, for sure.  A total of 12K swimming, 112km cycling (with no dramas!) and around 35km of running.  So the distances are slowly coming up, and I am undoubtedly feeling fitter already, but my mind keeps telling me that there is so much still to do.  Due to pressures of work, I had to re-jig my training plan for this week, which meant that most of the longer sessions happened at the end of the week, so I finished properly fatigued and also having to miss one 70 min session on the bike.  So, today’s rest day is very welcome!  Also, the final few sessions were not of the best quality in terms of adhering to the required heart rate zones, but as this challenge is about doing the distance, I was more focused on this aspect and treated the sessions as an opportunity to improve my mental toughness.  On that subject, I’m about halfway through Jason Selk’s book, called ‘10 minute Mental Toughness’.  It’s actually quite a good read – it’s really a ‘how to’ book, which takes a complex topic and turns it into something practical that an athlete can use.

I also had my first session with a sports nutritionist this week.  An hour spent with Helen Walker confirmed a lot of what I suspected – all my favourite foods have to go and the rest of my life will consist of surviving on a diet of cardboard and water.  OK, not that bad, but I am eating too many simple carbs, and not taking enough water and could do with increasing my protein intake.  Helen also had some really interesting things to say about the timing of eating various foods.  She’s recommended a couple of books on the subject so will be looking into this further.

Most pleased with the swimming this week, one session of 4.2Km and another of 4.5Km, so I’m learning to establish a sustainable, if slow, pace.  It ain’t half boring following that line at the bottom of the pool though!

Big week this week, with Ian Murphy putting in some hard sessions, before an easier week at the end of the four week cycle.  I get to mix it up in March a bit with a week in the French Alps, so some running and cycling will be replaced with some cross-country skiing at altitude.  Also, just for fun, I decided to enter a 5 hour endurance race (mountain biking and trail running) which will take place in April.

A frustrating (and cold) week

I was really looking foward to starting Ian's plan for February, but the week didn't go entirely as planned.  My first run session was on a cold morning at 5.15 am and I just couldn't elevate my pulse into the required zone.   Worst of all though was the long bike session planned for the Saturday.  It was meant to be a steady flat ride for 4 hours but at 1 h 50 I suddenly started to get so cold that I couldn't hang on to the handle bars.  I stuck with it for another 20 minutes until I found a store where I could stop, get warm and eat some food, but immediately I set off again I was in trouble.  It took me 15 mins to do the next mile and I eventually made it to a pub on the East Lancs road, where I climbed off.  I used to be in a mountain rescue team, and have done a fair bit of winter climbing so I can recognise the difference between cold and the onset of hypothermia and this felt like the latter.  (One of the symptoms to look for is when you are so cold you have stopped shivering).  For the first time in my cycling career I had to phone someone to pick me up and over the next 30 mins as I slowly warmed up I experienced uncontrollable shivering and feelings of nausea.  And this was all down to a combination of not fuelling myself properly, not enough warm gear and going on an unfamiliar route where I didn't know where the cafe stops were.  Once I got home I binned any hope of doing my run session and spent the rest of the day in bed, just making sure my core got properly warm again.  On the plus side it's taught me a lot, and it's definitely not something I want to experience again. 

Other sessions went quite well this week.  I did my first 'Brick'  (75 mins bike, 30 mins run) and it was nice to do this, if only for adding a bit of variety to my training.  I'm not sure how important these sessions will be to doing a Deca.  They are key sessions to do in shorter distance triathlons, and you do still need to be fit to do the run section after all that biking, so it was good to get such a session into the programme.  Also the 90 min easy trail run on Sunday was just that - easy, and I took that as a sign that my base fitness is improving.  Finally, I did 11.2 k of swimming this week, with one session of 4.2k and although this is all very slow, I do seem to be developing the ability to swim longer at a sustainable, steady pace.  Maybe this Deca thing is actually possible! 

Off to have my first session with a sports nutritionist tomorrow.  Should be interesting.

A 'big up' for Paul

I thought I'd already told you about Paul, but I haven't so here is a little about him.  He's a keen triathlete and a very strong swimmer, with many top finishes to his name.  He's really enthusiastic about his physiotherapy work and it's very interesting listening to him explain the mechanics of the body.  (He's also got a nice friendly way of telling you that basically you are a bit of an old git and many of your aches and pains are just down to wear and tear!  And here was me, thinking I was crap!).  What is especially good about working with Paul is that he gives practical advice which seems to have immediate benefits.  I've set up to have a regular 'maintenance check' with him every month.  You can find Paul at:

http://paulsandersonphysiotherapy.co.uk/

Things start to get serious!

A quiet week to finish off Ian's first 4 week block of training.  I managed to get every session in, but had to fit it all in around a busy work schedule so the latter half of the week was loaded with more exercise than I wanted to do.  Overall this week I did 10Km swim, 116.5Km bike and 25.3Km running, all done in Zone 1.  I start Chris's core programme this week and I also started work with a physio, Paul Sanderson, who has given me some stretches to do.  These seem to be making a big difference to a persistent shoulder problem that is most noticeable while swimming.  One knock back this week was being told that I wouldn't be able to use the local cycle track for the bike section of the Deca.  It would have been an ideal venue, but it wasn't a total surprise that I wasn't allowed to use it.  No reason given, but I'm guessing that insurance and Health & Safety issues played a large part.  I've got a few alternative routes in mind and now just have to go and check them out.  As I tell more people about my challenge it is all seeming to get a bit real now, and the level of commitment is ramping up, as is Ian's training plan for Feb!  I'm going to have to be more disciplined about when I do my training now, if I am to follow his plan.  Off to see a dietician this week, which should be interesting.

January's stats

Just completed my training records for January.  After not quite a full month of proper training, courtesy of Ian Murphy, I did a total of just over 50 hours, 28.2k swim, 504k bike and 127k running.  Weight loss was exactly 2kg and a reduction in body fat of 1.5% points.  I feel very positive that I'm making progress, but also still daunted by the amount I have to do.  The distances recorded in January correspond to 74%/28%/30% of the full Deca distances respectively and that all has to be done in 2 weeks!  One other positive is that I don't feel so exhausted after this amount of training.  In the past, I've got fatigued and then had to stop training for a while.  It's obvious that Ian has me on a gradual path of progression and this seems to be working for me.  Train smarter not harder, as they say.

So a good start and it is only the beginning.  Bring it on!