A year ago if anyone said I’d be training for an Ironman I’d say they were nuts. A year ago if anyone said I’d be swimming in a river and loving it – yep…I’d say they were nuts. A year ago if anyone said I’d do a 100 Mile TT “just for training purposes”…..you get the idea! But here I am doing all these things in preparation for a fairly big event coming up fast on the horizon – 12 weeks yesterday in fact.
The event of the week had to be the East District Cycling Association 100-Mile Time Trial based just outside Attleborough near Norwich. I was quite apprehensive about this event as I hadn’t ridden a solo 100 in about 10 years and last time I did it I couldn’t walk for several days as I had hurt my lower back and couldn’t stand straight. The bike was different, the riding position was different, the equipment was different – everything about it was an unknown. I even sacked off a hard bike session on Thursday just to have fresher legs coming into this event to make sure I would survive.
There I was on the start line at 6.01am – the first man off in the event (thanks Richard Reade!) ready to do this. I planned on sitting on my estimated “Ironman Pace” and promised to stick to it to see if it worked for me. It’s so easy in the first 30 miles to get carried away only to suffer at the back-end of the event. I began riding into it very leisurely, so-much-so my Heart Rate was sitting at 130BPM for the majority of the first two hours. The course was quite repetitive at 22-mile circuits which meant I had to do it four and a half times. Good for timechecks though and seeing how I was comparing to other riders who set off a little later.
I came through the first 22 miles at 57 minutes, not bad…. the second lap was also a 57… that meant I was at least on target for a 4:30hrs ride which I had hoped to do. Adding another 12 miles to this – the Ironman distance, would see me go into T2 in Barcelona at just over 5 hrs. The traffic picked up which created a drag effect and all of a sudden I was 2-3 minutes faster each of the final two circuits. The Heart Rate started to creep up nearer to 140BPM so fatigue was starting to affect me – good job I started out easier!
I crossed the line with a time of 4:14:46 – totally unexpected to be fair. I rode back to the event HQ and had a quick drink and within 10 minutes I was jogging down the country lanes to see what it felt like running after a century – my legs didn’t seem to want to work for about 5 minutes and then all of a sudden I was in running mode and everything was ok. Although I felt tired my legs were knocking out 5-minute k’s so I was having to forceably go slower to keep my breathing under control. Only a few k’s but enough to get to know that feeling I hadn’t felt since Geraardsbergen!
Earlier in the week saw me enjoying another river swim on Monday evening from the Beccles Lido where Beccles Triathlon Club train each week. I enjoyed the previous Friday’s river swim so much I wanted to go in again as soon as I could. A few of us donned our wetsuits and swam upstream to the main road bridge which was 1 kilometre away. Once we clocked 1k we stopped for a few minutes, treaded water and swam with the tide back to the Lido. It was quite surprising the difference between the two paces and how the tide can have an effect on your times. The outward journey was 28 minutes whereas the journey back was only 17. Another 2k in open water completed.
Tuesday was my scheduled tempo session followed by a brick run. I did this in the local gym as i needed to keep the power under control and going out on the road would make this stray quite a bit. Unfortunately the air-conditioning system had broken and I left the wattbike with about 3 litres of sweat under me! A quick tidy up and on went the trainers for a 30 minute treadmill run which was even more of a sweaty mess! Another ticked box.
Wednesday was an AM/PM session as I was in the pool at 6am completing 2k before work. Suzy had set a session for me and I completed it pretty well. The dizziness isn’t there as much anymore (touch wood) but I’m still aware of it. The distraction for me in this session is some guy who lives in that pool every morning and just goes up & down it for about 2 hours EVERY DAY. I don’t think I’d like swimming that much it has to be said but each to their own I guess!
Thursday was supposed to be another early start at the gym for another sweaty wattbike interval set. My massage planned this afternoon put a stop to the local 10-Mile TT I had started attending so there was no choice but to do this early. As my alarm went off there was that split-second decision not to do it. A: Because I was tired. B: Because the gym’s Air-Con was broken and C: I had a hard day at work ahead of me.
That’s the first time in over 6-months I had not completed a scheduled session. Although I beat myself up about it later in the day I’m still quite happy I missed it as I was proper dog-tired later in the day still. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body.
I had been suffering from a niggling hip flexor injury following last Saturday’s 20km run including Park Run Lowestoft so the fact my running program was easier this week meant it was very much welcomed this week. In the afternoon after work I went to see my long-time friend and super-effective sports therapist – Kirstie Cooper. She has a room in Top Body Gym in Gorleston – I can’t rate her high enough. I’ve been to a few sports therapists in my time and she’s the only one I trust my legs with these days. She got right to the problem and although I was clenching my teeth at times and having a bit of a sweat on at times she definitely helped and Saturday’s Park Run was alot more pleasureable.
Friday was definitely an early start and an hour on the wattbike at the gym at an endurance pace was just what I needed. Still a pool of sweat left but not as much as if I had gone harder. I did turn into “one of those customers” when I complained at the reception desk about the hot weather and failed air-con. I also complained about the lack of fans which were there the prevous week but had somehow disappeared after a gym refurbishment. I don’t like being that person, I used to deal with these customers everyday when I used to be in the fitness industry and it wore me down, but enough was enough, I couldn’t go home without saying something.
Saturday was a simple Park Run with a 15-minute bit extra, a much easier week for me running-wise so I was happy with that as the hip was still playing up although Kirstie was looking after that.
post Park Run I donned my wetsuit again and went into the sea – yep, my first sea swim ever. Barcelona is a sea swim so 12 weeks away I had better get used to it. I set off southwards from Claremont Pier in Lowestoft and was surprised by how much ground I had covered in only 6/7 minutes. I looked up and had travelled quite a bit. I turned thinking I had better keep close to Suzy and William (who had also come for a sea swim) and it was so difficult to get back – the tide was obviously quite strong on this beach. It took me nearly twice as long to get back! Dealing with the waves was a new experience – a bit woozy afterwards but “ok”. Only 700 metres but that’ll do to start. A few others had come to see me and support me in my first swim so when Suzy told me this afterwards I was quite humbled that there was this amount of support for me.
That evening Suzy & I went to a wedding reception, something that “normal” people do for a change! “The Hodds” were fellow triathletes so it wasn’t totally normal! That evening the conversation came up regarding 2019 and what our plans were… getting married of course. Oh, and a small 70.3 in Majorca just before! GB age-group qualification for the both of us and dates of championships next year…..but other than that it was “normal”! lol
A good week on the whole, an easy running week, a surprise 100 time and planning for next year!
Training Peaks Geeks…..
Fitness – 113. Fatigue – 120. Form – +13.
Training Stress – 720. 11hrs training.
Swimming – 4800m. Biking – 260km. Running – 23.3km.
Finally – a massive well done to good friend Joe Skipper who won Ironman UK yesterday – a much deserved win for a guy who has not stopped in the past few years to get that top spot. Yesterday – he did! Well done Joe 🙂
This week sees another river swim tonight (monday), the 3rd and last Bungay Black Dog 10k run on Wednesday. My return (hopefully) to the local TT on Thursday and then the Victory Triathlon on Sunday. It’s only a sprint tri (300m/17k/3k) so I’ll do a 3hr bike ride afterwards. It’s one I did 3 years ago and won the Age Group Trophy so it’d be nice to be competitive again – not sure if my Ironman Training will slow me down???