Another few weeks of training under my belt and already I’m feeling fitter & faster than I did this time last year. According to the Training Peaks App my fitness is as good as it was in April this year when I competed in East Coast Triathlon on Yarmouth seafront so I guess the only way is up – famous last words, i’ll probably drop down with a bad cold for the next 6 months and be back to square one!
Last weekend I took part in a Mountain Bike ride around Dunwich Heath, we (Beccles Triathlon Club members) were “guided” by Chris Bradford – one of their cycle coaches and he took us round his usual jaunts and paths. I had an old MTB that I’ve never really been out on in the past few years, I bought it for the Rock Estate Thursday rides but they’re now all on their fast road bikes and I haven’t been on one of these rides for quite a while. So after a quick check of the gears and pumping the tyres up she was ready to go.
Suzy rode too, she was given a MTB by a friend so we pumped the tyres up and oiled the chain and stripped it of all it’s accessories and it was also good to go – albeit about 10kgs heavier than mine!
We all met in a car park off the beaten track near Walberswick and off we went, a nice sunny crisp morning, with 5 minutes we were slipping & sliding around. I don’t think my bike knew what hit it, even though it was built for this my large frame wasn’t. It was a few days afterwards I was still suffering with aches & pains in my core muscles. Chris took us round the heath in different directions, finding steep descents, steep climbs, fast grass paths, tricky gravel pits and finally a decent coffee shop and lovely cake!
It’s hard to think that a year ago I would be out doing 60-70 miles getting my head kicked in by my team mates and coming back home feeling like I’m not getting anywhere. Now i’m coming back feeling like i’ve experienced something new and used my bike fitness to do accomplish some new goals – in return I’ve got fitter!
The weekend just gone has been a low-key affair, the highlight I suppose (if you call it that) was a Personal Best at Park Run on Saturday morning. I had set out to run hard one week and easy (with William) the next. This Saturday was the hard bit, where I thought I would struggle with a stiff north wind – instead I pulled out a 22:17 which is about 10 seconds better than any Park Run i’ve done in the past 18 months. It wasn’t really a goal as such but it’s good to know I’m heading in the right direction. To top the day off William recorded a Personal Best of 29:11 too, some 20 seconds off his time from over a month ago. We celebrated with some Triathlon friends who took us to a Vegan Cafe in town where I killed a couple of Lattes (Oat Milk) and some chocolate cake.
Standard past two weeks have been as follows:
Monday: A bit of a rest day where all I do is a 1800m swim in the local gym. It’s essentially a “10x100m” session with a bit at the front and a bit at the back to make up the distance. I’ve been told to swim at my CSS which is 2:10 but find myself constantly coming in around 2:00-2:05 each 100. Maybe i’m getting quicker or maybe I’m pushing too hard? I’m sure I’ll be told which one as soon as they read this note!
Tuesday: This is a AM & PM split day. I get before work and complete a 45-60min steady state run either in the gym or outside. Today it was outside as the weather was dry and I don’t think I could handle an hour staring at guys pushing/pulling weights they can’t lift with good technique – the “inner Personal Trainer” comes out and I can’t help myself but get annoyed. In the evening it’s a 1-hr threshold bike session, usually done on the Wattbike. I struggle the first 10-mins as my legs are trying to get over the morning’s efforts but I soon get into the groove and i’m fine after that. When I say “fine” I mean I survive.
Wednesday: This is a AM & PM day too. Weight training in the morning before work as I want to be strong this year and not just fit. Breaking this down a bit more I found that when I was Personal Training I was quite strong as I would demo exercises and keep strict to my own weights regime. Since leaving the fitness floor I have done little weight training and I have become quite weak. To use as an example I used to stack the chest press machine (100kgs) and now I shake & wobble at 40kgs! AND I get muscle soreness for a few days afterwards too. My aim is to be strong again so I can make my muscles work harder – this will in-turn make my cardio system work harder whereas all I had last year was my fitness to get me to where I wanted to go, which would surely plateau at some point (and it did). 2019 I will have strength & fitness so hopefully a year of PB’s across the board. In the evening it’s a quick 45 mins on the bike at a low intensity to just ease off those aching muscles – but still getting a training stimulus and then off to the pool for a distance-based swim which is chosen at random by my number generator on my phone.
Thursday: A lay-in….yes! But a double session in the evening where i’ll do a 1-1:20hr tempo session on the bike closely followed by a brick run of fast/slow running using long intervals of 4 minutes to 2k’s.
Friday morning is one of those rest days again but first I’ll swim with the Tri-Masters club at the local pool at 6 in the morning before enjoying my rest.
Saturday is the “one hard, one easy” Park Run and in the afternoon I’ll do a hard 90-min threshold session on the bike. I think these are getting easier, I still die quite a few times and the legs are burning but I think I’m becoming mentally strong dealing with them.
Sunday is whatever’s left – usually another 90min bike session or a MTB ride or a Cross Country run organised by Suffolk XC League. In the evening it’s another weight training session followed by a steam & jacuzzi.
I would’ve thought I was going to miss the team club runs, and in honesty I do to a certain degree, but there’s alot to be said for not getting up at stupid o’clock and going out in the freezing conditions to get battered. Instead I’m focusing on what I need to be physically (and mentally) strong for next year. I watched a recent podcast where the guy said it’s weird that we do all those miles in the winter when the weather is bad when in fact we can go just as hard and get just as much benefit if we push on the indoor trainer over these harsh months and then extend our fitness when the weather warms up and we’re able to go out riding further distances without freezing our backsides off!
This new atttitude doesn’t sit too well with some and as such I have been ostricised to that end, maybe I’ve ostricised myself by taking this stance but you’d think these friendships would withstand different training options, alas no.
I read a facebook post about a telephone being a two-way device – then it got me thinking a little (alot actually) about how many times I visit my team mates and call them and then look at the times they have visited me and called me. Sadly they don’t balance, this decision to take this style of training has only amplified this and I’ve had little/no contact with any of them since I took up triathlon. This saddens me but I have to walk my own path and if people choose to be friends with me along the way then that’s a bonus, if they don’t……well……they don’t.
I try not to dramatise things but as a sufferer of anxiety and depression from time to time I do get absorbed into thinking why I make the effort to see people and it’s ok for me to do that – but when I don’t make the effort or can’t find the time people are so used to ME doing it that they can’t be bothered to come & see me. I can count on one hand the amount of times i’ve been visited by friends & family but the list is alot bigger the other way round. Life is life – I get that but really, does a knock on the door once in a while say more than anything else? Then I remind myself about the things that were said about me in summer of this year and things I’ve been told that are said about me behind my back even to this day and then I think “why do I get upset about this”? Why?
Enought about that, time for the training peaks geeks section:
Week 1
Fitness 101, Fatigue 114, Form -11.
870 TSS. 13hrs training.
Swim 5900m. Bike 210km. Run 17km.
Week 2
Fitness 106, Fatigue 134, Form -15.
954 TSS. 13hrs training.
Swim 5700m. Bike 255km. Run 26km.