As I sit in my house writing this, there are numerous things that I am waiting for. What I have realised (which is what I have probably always known) is that I hate waiting for things.
Firstly I have busted my ankle and I am waiting for it to heal. Just a sprain, but bad enough to stop me from running. I can still cycle (all be it very gently), but running is absolutely out of the question. As every good triathlete knows, when you get injured you have to rest. Sadly, every good triathlete (and also the bad ones) are terrible at resting.
Resting is just dead time. Every moment you are not following your training plan is a moment wasted. “Rest day” seems a nonsense. There is no time to rest in triathlon! The truth is that resting is important. Whilst our bodies are excellent at adapting to whatever we throw at them, we need time for those adaptations to take place. This is how a totally unfit lump of lard like me managed to complete an Ironman. As it says in the picture, lots of small efforts repeated day in day out equals success.
This why having to rest is so tough. The whole time you are resting you cannot help but feel you are going backwards. Getting “less fit”. Of course this is true if you do nothing for large periods of time; however occasionally having some time off and letting your body recover is not a bad thing. My busted ankle has forced me to do this, so I am channelling my efforts elsewhere.
I have been doing some weight training, which I love. In fact I was at the gym at 4.45am this morning. Don’t worry, I have not turned over a new leaf. I don’t suddenly love getting up early. My littlest little one is running a high temperature and couldn’t sleep. After my wife trying for ages to settle her it was my turn. I managed to get her off to sleep but then was awake myself, so off to the gym I went.
To be fair the weight training is just what my ankle needs to recover. It needs to get stronger and putting your body under load with weight training makes you stronger, so it seemed a logical thing to do. I am following a Stronglifts 5×5 weight training regime which I have used before (a long time ago) and is great for adding strength without too much “bulk”. Will keep it going through the summer as weight training has numerous other benefits, especially as you get older.
Also tomorrow night Bush and I are back off to Trevor’s Wednesday night Triathlon club. This consists of a spinning session, followed by a stretching session (think pilates on steroids) and then a swim. I am going to duck the swim, but will go for the spinning and stretching. I haven’t seen Trevor since I completed the Ironman, but owe a huge amount to his coaching hints and tips and generosity. Bushy and I both agree we would not have completed the Ironman without his help, so it will be great to see him again and say hello to some of the old gang from his sessions. As a totally shameless plug, if you are a Triathlon buddy of mine and are looking for some simply superb coaching then you cannot get better than Trevor. Check out his website for more info. http://www.zone6coaching.com/
I am also going to go back to swimming, though I am yet to work out when. Probably do a couple of early morning sessions, although my local 50metre pool doesn’t open until 7am weekdays and that would only really leave me about 30mins to swim before I had to head into work. Luckily the open water swimming with the Pompey Triathletes starts this weekend, with the Wednesday evening sessions to start soon after to perhaps I can just concentrate on going to that. Will have to work out what is best. Bit more research needed I feel.
Anyway that’s about that for this blog update. Probably not the most exciting thing you will ever read, but it is too late now, you cannot “un-read” it.
TTFN
James
PS – The other thing I should mention we are waiting for is to move house. Almost up to 11 weeks since offers were accepted the entire way up and down our chain (which is only 3 houses anyway). A cynical person would say that conveyancing solicitors slow things down on purpose to make their ridiculous fees seem more reasonable. And a cynical person would be quite right.
Category: Southsea
Ironman Training and young families…….can the two coexist harmoniously?
My newborn is 3 weeks old. To say I am a bit tired is fair comment. Newborn babies are nocturnal, or at least our one appears to be.
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| The Kraken / a 2 year old |
We also have a two year old. Two year old kids can be difficult customers at the best of times. Throw having to compete for Mummies attention with a newborn baby into the mix and you unleash the Kraken slumbering inside any two year old.
I am also trying to fit my Ironman training around helping my wife with the kids as much as I can. How she is coping with the demands of feeding the nocturnal newborn all night long and looking after both her and the two year old terrorist all day is beyond me. I am constantly in awe of how she manages to hold it all together.
So far I have managed to stick fairly closely to my training plan. I missed out on a bike ride over the weekend cause of family commitments but otherwise I have made all my other training sessions. I can only put this down to the fact that my wife understands my motivation for wanting to go out training and is willing to stand by me whilst I do so.
Either it’s that, or she is so knackered that she doesn’t have the energy to object. The more I think about it the more I think it is probably this; however I will make hay whilst the sun is shining and continue to train as often as possible.
So I guess the answer to the question “can Ironman training and raising a young family coexist harmoniously?” is yes, provided you have a supportive partner, or one that is so tired she will go along with anything.
Sunday 15th March is my first Multi-Sport event of the year, the Portsmouth Duathlon. Curry and I competed in this last year and I am keen to see if I am faster one year on. Fingers crossed for a good finishing time; however I do want to hold something in reserve as I am desperate not to do anything that may harm my Ironman training.
Competing at close to 100% capacity can result in injury as you push yourself. A safer option would be to coast round at 85-90%. I am hopeful that my 85% effort will be faster than my 100% effort from last year.
Looking back on my write up of last years event (click here to read it) I was suffering with shin splints at the time. These devils are thankfully well in my past, so my running should be quicker purely because it is pain free. I also have a nice shiny new bike to debut in it’s first ever race, which should be substantially quicker than the previous one. I weigh less, should be more fit and am generally in better condition than I was a year ago.
“Surely he can’t go wrong” I hear you all thinking to yourselves. Perhaps you are right. Competing is a funny thing and as long as I prepare properly and keep my head there is no reason I won’t be able to improve on last years finishing time.
All I have to do before Sunday is a brick session tonight (bike then run), a swim and bike ride on Thursday, a long run on Friday (which will be at least 2.5 hours) and a long bike ride on Saturday. Total amount of training ahead of me before Sunday’s race day is around 7.5 hours.
Nothing to it, or as Aleksandr would say…………………….Simples. 
TTFN
Snooky
Everything is in place………I might just pull this off
For the first time since I undertook the challenge to complete an Ironman I am starting to feel that it might just be possible.
When I first told my loved ones of my intention to compete in an Ironman Triathlon I received the following comments:
My Mum – “Are you sure James. It sounds like a lot to take on”
My Friends – A mixture of utter astonishment and general sniggering
My Nan – “Well my dentist does Triathlons dear and he is much fitter than you”
Cat (my wife) – “You’re going to die”
Now of course all of these comments were completely fair. I was out of shape. Very out of shape. I weighed over 16 stone, couldn’t run to the end of the road without stopping, hadn’t ridden a bike since I was about 10 and the last time I swam anywhere was when I swam from the side of the pool to the pool bar on honeymoon.
Over a year later and things are rather different. For the first time in forever (to quote from Frozen) I am starting to feel fit. Weight is slowly dropping off, despite my tendencies to eat entire bags of Doritos and quite a bit of chocolate. Also I have recently had a great success………..
I CAN RUN !!!!!!!!
All be it not very far (haven’t done more than 6k for a while) but I have no shin pain, the post run calf pain is starting to disappear and I am really starting to feel very positive about this whole endeavour.
Good thing too, as I have a charity place for the Brighton Marathon. Bushy and I are running for Chestnut Tree House, which is the hospice that cared for Amber and her family, towards the end of her fight with Neuroblastoma. The marathon is in April and is a great target to aim for. I can’t wait to strap on my Luna Sandals on the start line, raising some money for this incredible charity and ticking off an important milestone on my way to the Ironman in September.
Some of my regular readers may wonder how I have suddenly managed to start running injury free and why I am starting to feel a lot more fit all of a sudden. I can put this down to a few factors. The first one is my discovery of barefoot/minimalist running. To do this topic justice would require an entirely separate blog post and it is my intention to post this soon. The second reason is down to one man, Mr Trevor “Tufty” Payne.
Trevor runs two Triathlon training sessions at a gym here in Portsmouth. The first one is a mobility class, perfect for improving my flexibility and mobility (which is something I sorely need). The second session is a Bike/Mobility/Swim or a Bike/Run/Swim session. Lasting 2.5 hours, this is an intense workout and is absolutely superb.
Bushy and I have been attending these sessions for over a month, with Curry joining us recently. Trevor is an ex professional Triathlete, specialising in Iron distance races during his career. He is a superb coach (even if he does take the piss out of Bushy and I rather a lot) and I find his sessions hugely inspirational. He has given me exercises to do at home which I do every day, agreed to write me a training plan specific to Challenge Weymouth and is generally a huge asset to my training.
So to wrap up this post I would like to say a thank you to Trevor for his help so far and for his excellent training sessions that I love attending. I was never really a believer in having a “coach”; however I am very glad I met Trevor and can’t wait to see just how fit he can get me ahead of Challenge Weymouth. I must also mention a special thanks to Josh Smith, who is one of the readers of my blog and was the person who put me onto Trevor in the first place. Look forward to doing some training with you when you are back in the UK Josh.
Finally to all of the readers of this blog and to those of you who have sent me nice comments about it, a huge thank you to you all. I’m really starting to love all this training and am pleased that as the winter progresses I will be able to share with you my increasing fitness and join as many of you as I can for a run/swim/bike, or perhaps just a pint!
TTFN
James
PS – If any of you are looking for a Triathlon or Fitness coach please check out Trevor’s website. You won’t regret getting in touch with him. http://www.zone6coaching.com/
This wetsuit’s made for walking……….and that’s just what I’ll do.
Last Thursday Bushy and I decided to go for a swim after work. Most normal people swim in a swimming pool, where the water is a reasonable temperature, they have changing rooms for your use, lockers, and hot showers. There is a great pool near where we live in Portsmouth. In fact more than one. We decided to go for a swim in the sea.
I picked him up after work and we drove to the beach. After parking the car, we got our stuff out and started to get changed into our wetsuits when I realised, “what am I going to do with the car key?” In the not too distant past you could have just swum with the key in your pocket, but my car has a fancy zapper style key, which would surely not take well to being submerged in salt water for an extended period of time.
There was no choice, what we had to do was obvious. We drove to my house, put on our wetsuits and then walked through the middle of Portsmouth to the beach. It’s about a 15 minute walk, and takes in part of Albert Road (a popular Portsmouth nightlife area), so as we strolled along, two middle aged men in wetsuits that are probably a little bit too small for them, goggles in one hand, swimming cap in the other we had more than a few funny looks. One cheeky young lady even took a picture of us. I mean, as if it is that unusual to see two men walking around in wetsuits at 8pm on a Thursday evening.
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| Southsea Beach |
Arriving at the beach we walked into the sea, and off we set. It is about an 800m swim from where you get in to the submarine blocks, which is the route favoured by the Pompey Triathletes on the Saturday morning swim, so we stuck with that. Once you get to the blocks you turn around and come back, for a total of 1600m (which by happy coincidence is also exactly 1 mile).
Bushy and I both swim fairly strongly. Neither of us is super quick, but we can hold our own in the water and are both confident swimmers. What seemed strange is that we were making very very slow progress. There is often a current off of Southsea beach, and tonight was no exception. The current was strong, so strong in fact that it took us almost 50 minutes to swim the 800m to the blocks, which is not quick at all. The way back was a vast improvement, and we both took the chance to work on our sighting on the swim back.
Sighting is where you raise your head out of the water to try and make sure you are going the right way. This has obvious uses. Firstly, you make sure you are pointing the right way and secondly, it stops you from swimming some sort of exaggerated meandering route, rather than the more direct A-B route that would be favourable. I am terrible at sighting, and need all the practice I can get. On a normal 800m swim I reckon I swim closer to 1000m because I seem to be constantly either pointing at the beach, or the Isle of Wight (neither of which are ever in the right direction).
To prove the strength of the current, the swim that took us 50 minutes on the outward leg took 10 on the way back, and we were soon out of the water and walking back to my house.
A very successful swim, great company, great fun.
So if you are a resident of Portsmouth, and you see two men in slightly too small wetsuits walking towards Southsea beach one evening, don’t just gawk at us and laugh, come over and say hello. More than likely it will be me and Bushy, as I doubt anybody else is mad enough to wander around in their wetsuits.
TTFN
James
Snooky's Adventures 