Category: training

And so the story begins……..

On By 00snookIn London Marathon, trainingLeave a comment

City dweller, successful fella, thought to himself “whoops I’ve got a lot of money”……….

At this point, you have either been ear-wormed by the wonderful Country House by Blur, or you have absolutely no idea what the start of this post is all about.

Either way, my training has begun in earnest. Ran intervals yesterday. Out for a long hike early this morning with my mate Ant, and I have a 10 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. I will probably actually run about 14.5km (just over 9 miles), just because this is a nice route from my mother-in-law’s back home.

This morning’s walk – hilly!

Combining running back from places I have been with the family is one of my little tricks for getting some decent long runs in, whilst not missing out on family time at the weekend. If you have gone further afield than your run dictates, just get dropped off at the right distance from home then run on back.

As the distance in marathon training increases, you start to face the quandary of fueling and hydrating yourself. As a rule of thumb, I tend to be able to run for about 90 minutes with no food or hydration at all (depending on the temperature). When we get up towards the 10 mile region, I am likely to be running about 2 hours as I will be going at a nice slow pace. This means I am likely to require both some fuel and some hydration.

And that’s when I developed my drinking problem

Fuel is usually in the format of gels for training runs. If you are reading this and are a non-runner, these gels are essentially a thick sort of sugary paste in a handy foil pack. Nice and easy to carry and you can wedge a few in your pockets and don’t necessarily need to carry a backpack. Very good for fueling on the go.

Water is not so easy, as to carry a reasonable amount you need to either carry a bottle in your hand (it tends to get warm and not very palatable if you do this), carry it on some sort of waist belt (I have never gotten on with these) or carry a backpack with water in it.

My main issue with backpacks is that I find that they warm me up, a lot. Not being able to lose heat through my back means that I tend to run a lot hotter than I would like (one for the pun fans).

So essentially, for these “shorter” long runs (in my case ones under 2 hours), there is not really a good option for me. As it happens, I don’t have any gels and am not going to go out and buy any in the morning, so will probably just run carrying a bottle of water tomorrow and see if I can hang on with no fuel. It is only 10 miles, so should be possible.

At the same time as the marathon training, I am also trying to train for the 3 Peaks Challenge. For those of you not familiar with this, The 3 Peaks Challenge involves trying to summit the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales respectively. These are Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. You have to try and do all this in 24 hours. Usually this is about 13 hours of hillwalking with 11 hours of driving in-between.

In my usual style, I have just decided to randomly do this with my mate Ant. Neither of us has any hill walking experience to speak of, but he is a fit fella and good company so we just decided to give it a go. I am far behind him on fitness, but reckon I should be able to keep up. We take on this challenge at the end of July.

I am hoping that the hiking and hill walking training for the 3 Peaks Challenge compliments the marathon training, but there is a real risk of me doing too much and getting injured if I push the training too far. On the other hand, if I do not do enough training and I get in trouble on one of these mountains due to a lack of fitness, that would also be bad.

I feel that as an endurance athlete (and it is a real stretch calling me any sort of athlete, but please just indulge me) this is the tightrope that you are always walking. You need to push hard enough so your body adapts, but if you push too hard you get injured.

The good news is that the human body is capable of some phenomenal things when needed. Training for a marathon is tough. Chucking in the 3 Peaks Challenge in the middle of this makes it tougher. Plus I have a 100KM through hike with my wife at the start of September.

If there is ever going to be a time that my body decides to be phenomenal, it needs to be over the next 14 weeks.

Wish me luck. I think I am gonna need it.

TTFN

Snooky

Why you should write your own training plan

On By 00snookIn Chestnut Tree House, training, Uncategorized2 Comments

If you are anything like me, you have probably browsed for and downloaded a few different training plans in your time.

Whether you are trying to run a fast 5km, thinking about your first half marathon, or considering a marathon or beyond, the internet is awash with articles and information about how to train.

Also, if you are anything like me, you download these plans, make a nice spreadsheet, plan all of your runs, then something happens and the plan gets derailed. In my case, I usually ditch that plan, spend ages finding a new one and then go again, only to repeat the same old thing.

Training plans that you find online also tend to be fairly generic. If you want to run faster, you include a lot of tempo and interval work into the plan. If you want to run long, you include a lot of long runs. This is perfectly logical, but does not suit everybody. Also, by the nature of generic training plans, they are geneneric. Sounds like an obvious thing to say, but if you really think about it, are any of us actually generic?

You may have a background in swimming, or cycling, or have run when you were younger but not for years. You may have never run at all, or be a seasoned runner looking for that extra edge. You may be overweight, underweight, tall, short, wide, narrow. You may be an over-pronator or an under-pronator. You may run in trainers, or perhaps running sandals, or barefoot. You may prefer trails, or like the road. You may recover fast from training, or slowly. You may want to run 2 times a week, 3 times a week, 4 times a week (you get the idea). More than likely you are a combination of these things, meaning that no two runners are alike. So why do we all follow similar training regimes? It doesn’t make sense.

  • At the 7 mile marker

I recently read a book that totally changed my thoughts on run training. Admittedly it is aimed at ultra running, but I think that the principles apply to all run training. The book (in case you are interested) is Training Essentials for Ultrarunning by Jason Koop

What is most interesting about the book is that there are no training plans included in it, for the reasons I have set out above. We are all different, so Koop gives you his opinion on how to train and then you make your own plan.

Essentially it is split into three main components. These are:
1) VO2 max training
2) Tempo training
3) Endurance training (long runs)

The logic is that you work on the thing you are worst at first, so if you are not quick (like me) you work on your VO2 max to help you run faster. This then means that when you perform your Tempo runs, you are running further at a faster pace. This then has a knock on effect on the long runs (which are slower runs by nature), as you are reaping the benefits from a higher VO2 max and you can run further at a faster pace with the same effort, due to the increase in the volume of oxygen you can process in a given time-frame.

So I built my own training plan. 3 weeks of VO2 max training (flat out hill interval work) followed by a easier week then 5 weeks of tempo work, then about 4 weeks of endurance training. Then repeat.

Now admittedly I am only a few weeks into this plan, but as you can see from my previous post, I am running better than I ever have already. I have no doubt this is down to the interval work that I have been doing, meaning that I can run further and faster on less effort, making the runs more enjoyable and making me want to train more.

The other massive benefit is that because I have written this plan myself, I feel that I am letting myself down if I do not stick with it. When I am following a plan written by somebody else, I don’t seem to have the same emotional investment in it. But I haven’t missed a single session in 3 weeks so far (despite them being very hard) and I am improving fast, so there must be something in it.

So why not give writing your own plan a try. Or (if you like), send me some details about your goals and what your current strenghts/weaknesses are and I will write one for you. Don’t worry though, I do appreciate the irony in me writing a post about you writing your own plan, then offering to write one for you.

Hope you are all enjoying the heat, and if anybody is at Queen Elizabeth Park this evening and sees a fella in a Chestnut Tree House vest running what looks like horrible hill intervals, that’s me, so stop and say hi.

TTFN – Snooky

Arundel Castle Triathlon – Olympic Distance

On By 00snookIn arundel castle triathlon, bike, biking, grazing saddles, ironman, open water, Portsmouth Triathletes, swim, swimming, training, triathlon, wetsuitsLeave a comment

It’s 3am…….yes that’s right, 3am on Sunday 26th June.  My alarm has just gone off.  This can only mean one thing.  Time for the Arundel Castle Triathlon.

As regular blog readers will know, triathlon involves a lot of getting up early in the morning.  I have complained vociferously about this in the past; however on this occasion I didn’t mind getting up early.  It has been over 9 months since I last competed in a triathlon and I was keen to dust off the cobwebs and get out on the course.

Breaking with tradition, I had actually packed up my gear and put it all in the car the night before, so a quick breakfast and it was out the door and on the way to Arundel.

In 2015 and 2014 I competed in the Arundel Lido Triathlon, which is a pool swim of 800m, then a 40k bike and a 10k run.  Having not enjoyed the pool element of the swim, I was pleased that the same organisers also run Arundel Castle Triathlon, which is a river swim of 1500m, a 40k bike and then a 10k run.

The bike course is different from Arundel Lido.  Flatter and faster.  The run is still super hilly, although rather than undulating hills it is one big drag uphill and then a fast downhill after, although you do this twice as it is two 5k laps.  As for the swim, this is in the river Arun, one of the fastest flowing rivers in the country.  The fast flowing nature of the river is the reason we had to start so early.  The triathlon kicked of at 5:15am, which was “slack water”.  In other words, there would be little to no flow at that point, as the river is tidal.

Arriving in Arundel I parked in transition and quickly got my stuff organised.  I spotted Curry on the way in, and also quickly met up with Dempo, who were both competing with me at this event.  Curry is a Grazing Saddles teammate, but this would be the first ever triathlon for Dempo.

Fielding a whole bunch of “rookie” questions from Dempo, such as “which part of the bike is the front” and “is it OK to swim backstroke”, we were all into our wetsuits and then off to the rivers edge.

This is Dempo

Dempo was swimming in the first wave, due to the fact that he is actually part fish.  Have you seen that film Waterworld?  Well if you have, then that is Dempo.  He has competed in numerous endurance open water swims and his place in the fastest wave of swimmers was well deserved.


Curry and I were swimming in the second wave, so as soon as the first had gone off we were into the water and strategically made our way to the back of the bunch.  I had completed a grand total of 1 swim training session in the preceding 9 months, so was not too confident of a good swim time. 

We had been warned that there was a lot of “debris” in the river, such as seaweed, bits of floating wood etc so as soon as the klaxon sounded and the thrashing upstream began, we quickly swam into a good old bunch of seaweed.

Unfortunately this slowed down those in front, and I found myself swimming into the back of a lot of people.  I probably should have started a bit closer to the front of the pack, but in all honesty I wasn’t bothered.  The group soon thinned out and I was into a rhythm, swimming as fast as I dared on the back of almost no training.  

The floating seaweed rafts continued as we went upriver.  It seemed like forever to get up to the buoy, turn around, and head back to the swim start where we would exit.  As soon as we turned downstream I realised why.  Whilst this was supposed to be “slack water”, there was still a bit of current and it was a joy to swim back to the start with this helping me.

Exiting the water post swim


Hauling myself out of the water it was a quick jog into transition to jump onto the bike.  I had managed the swim in around 34 minutes, which is way off pace for 1500m, but as I had done almost no swim training I couldn’t really complain.

Just out of T1.  Feet still not in shoes!

Entering transition my triathlon pedigree showed through, as in less than a minute I was out of my wetsuit, helmet on and jogging towards the bike mount area.  As soon as I reached this, I jumped on my bike and started pedaling away.  My shoes were already clipped into my pedals so it was just a simple task of slipping my feet into the shoes and off I went.  Well I say simple task.  Due to the shoes deciding to velcro themselves shut it took me about 2 minutes of messing about at a very slow speed to actually get my feet in.  So much for a speedy transition.

Due to all this messing about Curry slid past me on the bike, with a hearty “come on Snooky”.  I thought he was probably in front of me after the swim but it was good to see him as we cycled out of Arundel and up our first little hill towards Crossbush.  I was determined to put in a good bike time so as Curry started to slow up the hill I overtook him and concentrated on a good strong start to the bike leg.

As the bike leg continued onwards I felt good.  My legs felt powerful, my heart rate was in check and I was overtaking quite a few people.  This was a new experience for me, as usually I am the one being overtaken.  My main aim was to try and keep a steady pace and leave enough in the tank for what I knew was a hilly run.  

On top of a hill, with people actually behind me!

During any bike leg of a triathlon, when things are going well my mind always wanders.  On the same day as my triathlon, my friend Mick was competing in his first Ironman event in Bucklers Hard.  I was thinking of him, and his extremely long, tough day ahead.  At the same time I was remembering my Ironman, how it felt and the elation of crossing the line.  Triathlon is a strange world.  Unless you have done one it is very hard to explain, but you feel a connection with every triathlete worldwide.  I was wishing Mick every luck as I sped through the Sussex countryside.

As the kilometres clicked by I made sure to keep hydrated and took on board a couple of energy gels to make sure I had a bit in the tank for the run.  In just over 1hr 20 minutes the 40k was up and I was back off the bike running into transition for the second and final time.  Again I managed a super fast transition, and in less than a minute I was running out of the transition area and off on a 2 lap 5k run around Swanbourne lake.  

Yes that’s right, I run in sandals

I knew this run would have one very sizeable hill in it, but only when I got to the hill for the first time did I appreciate its relentless nature.  Running is not my strong point, and my legs felt a bit crampy as I started to climb the very steep hill.  I was determined not to walk, but inevitably my pace slowed and I was overtaken.  I managed to keep up a slow jog and made it to the top of the hill on lap 1.  It was at this point, about 15 minutes into my run that I started to feel really good.  I knew I had a long downhill before making my way round the lake for lap 2.  Upping my cadence (steps per minute for the uninitiated) I flew down the hill for the first time and overtook somebody.  Yes readers, that’s right, I actually overtook somebody on the run leg of a triathlon.

This was the first ever time this has happened, and to say I was pleased was an understatement.  I knew I would be at least 55 minutes on my 10k, which is hardly Mo Farah pace, but to overtake somebody was sublime.  Most importantly I still felt good, so made the conscious decision to up my pace for the second lap.  This increase in pace felt OK, so as I got to the hill for the second time I powered my way up and felt much stronger than the first lap.  Throwing everything into it I flew down the hill into Arundel, then ran the final kilometre of the run in under 5 minutes (good pace for me) and was absolutely delighted to cross the finish line in 2:57:50, under 3 hours and almost 30 minutes faster than my previous Olympic Distance best.

Needless to say I was more than pleased.  Dempo was finished well before me (no huge surprise there) and Curry crossed the line shortly after I did.  I also bumped into an old friend from a previous job, who had finished in the top 20.  Superb result Andrew!

Almost over the line



So all in all a good day of competing.  Not bad for an old man who had only done 5 weeks training.  Having had a chance to reflect on this triathlon it is now clear to me that I must be fairly fit.  For those of you who have read my blog from the start, you will be aware what a great feeling this is for me.  I went through injury, self-doubt and sheer panic as I blundered my way towards Challenge Weymouth last year.  9 months on from that my fitness has stayed with me enough to be able to do a sub 3 hour Olympic Distance triathlon on very little training.  To say I am chuffed would be about right. 

Spurred on by this success, I have booked a half Ironman in September.  Only 11 weeks to go till that event, so as soon as this is published it is time to write a training plan.I’m really looking forward to the race and hopefully beating my previous half Ironman best time.

TTFN

Snooky








It appears I have forgotten how to swim

On By 00snookIn cycling, Portsmouth Triathletes, running, swimming, training, triathlonLeave a comment

So we are well into May, and the Triathlon season is upon us.  Last year I had a lot to aim for, with all of my events building up into the September Ironman.  This year it is a bit different.

With no major event looming at the end of the season, my desire to train has been low.  That, combined with an ongoing ankle injury, has meant that I have been doing way less training than I should be (by way less, I of course mean none).

Determined to get back into my training, I went for a brief bike ride last week.  Just over an hour on the bike and I was hooked again.  It is strange how you don’t really realise how much you have missed something until you have the chance to do that thing again.  Being reunited with my bike and riding through the Hampshire countryside, I couldn’t help but think back and remember how I rode this same bike 112 miles, and then ran a marathon.  That seems like eons ago.  I still can’t quite believe it.

Spurred on by this re-kindling of my love of cycling, Bushy and I went out on Sunday for a sociable few hours.  We got lost, but managed to eventually find our way to a pub which sold a very nice drop of local ale.  Not having the pressure of training for a specific event and just riding the bike for the fun of it was great.  We just enjoyed a nice sunny day cycling.  What better way to spend a Sunday morning.

Now all of this talk of not having an event to train for is not exactly true, as on the 26th June I am competing at the Arundel Castle Triathlon.  This is an Olympic Distance event, which means a 1500m swim, 40k bike and then 10k run.  Either I am incredibly arrogant or overly self confident, but I don’t see completing this event being an issue.   In fact, I reckon I could go outside right now and complete this.  That being said, there is a distinct difference between completing and event and competing at it.  So with about 5 weeks to go, I have embarked on a proper training plan.

This plan is simple.  Train 6 days a week.  2 swims, 3 bike rides and a couple of runs.  Easy right?  Should be around 10 hours training a week which I can fit in fairly easily without it impacting my home life too much.  As usual, most of my training will either be very early in the morning or late at night, but I am used to this and it isn’t a problem.  My wife is on a exercise campaign too, meaning that we can train at the same time in the evenings and I am not abandoning her to go training all the time.  Plus, there is no need for the mega long distance work I was doing for the Ironman, so time is not so much of a factor.

With the plan in place, I set about training this week.  Monday was a beautiful evening, so I jumped on the bike when I got home and whizzed up and down the hills which are right outside my house.  Only 35 minutes of riding, but 3 decent sustained hill efforts behind me I chucked the bike into the garage and then was straight out for a run.  These sessions are known as “brick” sessions, where you cycle and then run afterwards.  Designed to mimic the transition between Cycle-Run in a triathlon, they are a vital part of any triathletes training plan.

I am back into my barefoot running, so without further delay it was off with my shoes and onto the pavement.  I love barefoot running, but it can be tough on your feet for a while whilst you adapt.  As I had done no barefoot running for some time, I took it easy and only did 10 minutes, managing just over a mile.  There was some gravel and broken tarmac but I handled this well and have no signs of blisters etc so my form must have been good.  Great success!

With Monday training behind me I woke up on Tuesday feeling good.  I was planning on going for a 6am sea swim with some friends from the Pompey Triathletes, but I woke up later than planned so this was out.  Instead, I swam in the evening at the local pool.  This is where the trouble began.

Starting off my swim session I felt (if you pardon the pun) like a fish out of water.  I seemingly had forgotten how to swim.  Combined with this was the fact that swimming really seemed to aggravate my injured ankle.  This left me having to swim without kicking.  This is fine in a wetsuit where your legs float, but without the buoyancy a wetsuit provides my legs sink like a stone, acting like a giant brake behind me.  As I hauled and battled my way through consecutive lengths I was absolutely exhausted.  The chap swimming in the same lane as me must have had a bath in Lynx deodorant, as I could taste this as I was swimming along.  Hardly ideal.

After about 1000m of swimming I was done.  My calf felt like it might cramp and I was fed up.  Swimming used to be my strong point.  Now it was apparent this was no longer the case.

Arriving home to cook dinner I discovered that my wife had hurt her knee running, so all in all not a great day of exercising for the Snooks.  My ankle was swollen up.  I was not happy.  Waking this morning my ankle is hurting again.  The ongoing saga of an aging triathlete.  

Still lessons learnt and on with the plan.  I will not be swimming in a pool again unless I absolutely have to.  I don’t enjoy the chlorine in the water, don’t like having to turn around at the end of the length, don’t like having to avoid the other people and would much rather swim in open water.  So it looks like 6am sea swims are the way forward.

Perhaps see you at the beach?

TTFN

Snooky

16 days to go – now to get rid of my cold!

On By 00snookIn bike, biking, challenge weymouth, Chestnut Tree House, competition, cycling, fundraising, ironman, Middle distance Triathlon, motivation, sponsorship, swimming, trainingLeave a comment

I have a cold.  I have had a cold for over a week now .  It just doesn’t seem to be going away.  I caught this cold off of my kids and we have a whole household of coughing, spluttering, snotty people.  Nobody has escaped.

All logic says that when you have a cold you shouldn’t train.  You should give your body time to recover from it’s illness and then resume training once you feel better.  Quality, after all, is better than quantity.

Ignoring my own advice, on Sunday 24th August Bushy and I went down to Weymouth to ride the Ironman bike course, all 112 miles of it.  I felt less than brilliant when he picked me up just before 6am on the Sunday.  My cold was in full effect, energy levels were very low and I had slept appallingly.  Usually Bushy and I will banter away with each other constantly when we meet up, but on this morning he commented that I seemed to have nothing to say for myself.  Clearly I wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

Arriving at Weymouth

The weather forecast for Sunday morning in Weymouth was bad.  Not light rain, but heavy rain and wind.  Regular blog readers will know how much I love riding in the wind.  Unperturbed, Bushy and I trundled along down the south coast towards Weymouth.  As we got closer and closer the weather closed in and by the time we arrived it was like a monsoon.  We parked in the car park that will be the transition area on the day of the race.  As you can see from the picture, the weather was not the best.

Following a brief discussion, mostly consisting of “are we really going to do this” we got out of the car and started to get ready.  The plan was to create an aid station in the boot of Bushy’s car.  We would carry enough food and water to get us round one lap of the 56 mile course, stopping halfway to resupply and then go around again.  Neither of us are particularly quick on the bike, so we were aiming for 4 hours for each lap. This is an average speed of 14mph, which is by no means fast but about right for our Ironman bike pace.  Remember that we have to run a marathon after cycling 112 miles so we need to leave something in the tank!

You can just make out our
new friend and his bike

Getting ready to ride at the same time was a very nice chap who told us he was there to ride the bike course in preparation for his first ever Ironman.  He was older than us, but whippet thin and one of those people who just looked fit.  Tall and lean with a very nice beard, he clearly knew he was a better triathlete than us and we clearly knew it too.  I remarked to Bushy that I often wonder what other triathletes think of us when we meet them.  We looked like two blokes who woke up one day and said “lets do an Ironman”.  He looked like a seasoned and well prepared campaigner.  It is funny how accurate looks can be at times.

Chatting further with our new friend, it turned out he was going for one lap round the course as he was in his “taper”.  A taper is when you reduce your training load to allow your body to maximise its strength and endurance ahead of your race. Made popular by top flight endurance athletes who train really hard and then back down to allow their body to reach peak fitness, it has slipped into the amateur ranks and many triathletes spend as much time talking about tapering as they do talking about how light their bikes are.  Anyway, he was tapering 3 weeks out from the event, which is a fairly long taper.  Each to their own I suppose, plus only an Ironman triathlete would consider a 56 mile bike ride to be “reducing their training”.  Soon we finished chatting and he was off into the gloom and rain on his very nice looking bike.  

Not long after this, after a considerable bit of messing about (I am the master of messing about), we headed off into the gloom ourselves.  It was raining…….hard.  The first part of the bike course is a climb up onto the “Ridgeway” and then you have about 35 miles of rolling Dorset countryside before another long gentle climb and then a drop back down into Weymouth.

One lap of the bike course

We made sure to stick to our nutrition plan (something to eat every 30 minutes) and cycled along, sticking fairly closely to our target average speed.  It was very very wet and we rode through numerous puddles and areas of standing water.  Within about 20 minutes we were both soaked…….and we stayed that way.

In nice weather I imagine the bike course would be absolutely beautiful, but in the rain and gloom it was hard to see where you were going, let alone any sort of view.

Cool map showing the topography of the course

Towards the end of the ride I started to feel bad.  Just lacking in energy.  Slow and lethargic. It was obvious that my cold had caught up to me.  I was pleased to have gotten as far as I had before feeling poor. Bushy whizzed off into the distance and I was playing catch up.  I had very little in the tank, was freezing cold and my wet clothing had rubbed my skin in a few places that you don’t want rubbed. Approaching the end of the first lap there was no way I was going out for a second. Competing in weather like this is fair enough. Riding for “fun” in awful conditions is something quite different.  

When we got back to the car for the end of lap one I told Bushy that I was done.  When it came to calling it a day, he didn’t take much convincing and soon we were into our dry clothes and on the way home to Pompey.

Despite not making the full 112 miles, 56 miles had been ridden in awful conditions.  The best part about it is that we had completed one lap of the course in just over 3hrs 35mins, which was 25 minutes faster than planned.  We had also averaged 15mph, 1mph faster than planned and allowing for the awful weather this was a great result.

On the day, in decent weather and when I do not have a cold (hopefully) then I think the bike course will be great.  112 miles is a very different beast than 56; however as soon as I start lap 2 of my bike ride on the 13th September I will know that all I have left is 56 miles of cycling and a marathon.

Whilst to most this sounds like a lot, to me I am half way done and only have half way to go. I will be half way to being an Ironman!

Before I go, a very quick update on my fundraising. I am absolutely delighted to say that I am 60% of my way towards my fundraising target of paying for a day’s care at Chestnut Tree House.  The generosity that people have shown towards my endeavour is astounding, with well over £4000 raised so far.  A brilliant total, so to those of you reading this who have donated thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You have been with me every step of the way during my training.  Every time I go for a swim, ride or run I think about those kids at Chestnut and all of the kind people who have donated to my cause.

It sounds like a cliche, but at some of my lowest points during training the kind words and donations that my supporters have given me have picked me back up again.  I cannot lie about it, training for this Ironman has been tough, but it has also been the greatest journey of my life so far.  In 16 days time that journey comes to its end.  I will have covered 10’s of 1000’s of miles in training.  I will have only 140.6 miles to go.  Nothing to it……………….right?

TTFN

Snooky









One bad and one extremely good.

On By 00snookIn challenge weymouth, Chestnut Tree House, cycling, running, swimming, training, triathlonLeave a comment

Last week has been a bit tough on Iron Snook!

What started with a simple filling in my tooth ended up as me having 3 days off work and experiencing the most intense pain I have ever felt.  I don’t want to go into massive detail, but lets just say I had an infected tooth which took 4 days of very strong antibiotics to get under control and the pain was so bad I was begging my wife to pull the tooth out with pliers at home.  Luckily she said no, the infection seems to be better (though is still a bit painful today) and soon I can go back to the dentist and get it sorted once and for all.

Not a good picture, but left is Mike and right is Bruce

This infection has meant no training.  I was in agony and in no condition to do anything.  Because I felt better by Friday night, I agreed to meet the boys for a bike ride on Saturday morning.  Following a week off  of exercise and fighting an infection this bike ride was very tough going indeed.  I felt extremely weak.  I also tried a quick 5k run on Saturday evening which was equally tough.  Waking up this morning I felt like I had been run over by a bus.  Clearly I am not quite over this infection yet!

On the positive front the scenery we saw as we wound our way around the Meon Valley was simply stunning.  I feel genuinely privileged to live in such a beautiful part of the world and to be able to go and enjoy stunning summer mornings on my bike with my friends.

This is a part of the Ironman training that was totally unexpected for me and is rapidly becoming the bit I am enjoying the most.  If it hadn’t been for this little Ironman adventure I would never have learnt the peace and serenity you can get from running for hours on end, riding you bike for 100’s of miles or simply swimming along in the sea.  Some people say to me “isn’t the training boring” or “I just couldn’t be bothered with cycling for hours on end”.  Before I started my training I felt exactly the same.  I also found the training such hard going to start with that it was never enjoyable, it was simply hard work.

After exercising consistently for a few months you stop feeling awful every time you go out and you start to see and feel the beauty in exercise.  I genuinely believe that our bodies are built for endurance activities.  You start to unlock something primitive inside yourself.  You feel the need to run.  You feel more alive when your heart is pumping hard than you do when you are sitting still.  It is a bizarre and wonderful feeling.  

The beautiful Meon Valley

Recently I have had this feeling almost every time I have gone out to do some training.  Don’t get me wrong, training is always hard, but there are periods within the effort when you feel a real sense of inner peace, a kind of tranquility that is hard to describe.

It is during these times that my thoughts almost always move back to my motivation for doing this Ironman race in the first place.  Of course, this is the wonderful Chestnut Tree House, who (despite NO Government funding) manage to care for 300 life limited children and their families year after year.  They rely on over £3,000,000 of charitable donations every year just to stay open.  They are the ONLY children’s hospice in East Sussex, West Sussex and South East Hampshire.  Without Chestnut, there would be no children’s hospice care in any of these areas.   

I am hugely grateful to all those who have sponsored me so far and genuinely feel like you are all with me every moment of my training.  Chestnut Tree House means a huge amount to me personally and any support that people choose to give them is simply amazing.  This is where my one “extremely good” from my blog title comes in.

One of Chestnut’s Charity Shops

My sister is marrying a splendid fella called Damian. Damian’s Mum and Step-Dad (henceforth known as Jean and Vince – because those are their names) have a games party every year at their house.  Their friends and family come along, play garden games (largely devised and created by Vince), make merry and generally have a jolly good time.  This year the party is extra special.  I am hugely humbled and massively proud to say they have decided to make the party a fundraising event and are donating the money they raise to Chestnut Tree House.

The huge effort that Jean and Vince are going through to host this party and raise money has been inspired by my efforts and also by the story of Louise and Steve (which you can read by selecting the “Motivation” tab above.  This massive show of generosity from Jean and Vince and their friends who will attend the party almost brings me to tears.  When I started on this road to the Ironman I never expected that I would receive so much great feedback about my blog and never expected that I would inspire others to raise money alongside me.  It is truly humbling and makes me believe that perhaps one man can actually make a difference and help this truly amazing cause.  Not on his own, but with the help and support of others WE really can make a difference.  Every single penny that goes to Chestnut helps families who are in the most desperate of times, the most challenging of circumstances.  Nobody ever expects to outlive their child, but knowing that Chestnut Tree House are there to care for children who’s lives are cut short and help them and their families make the most of the time they have together, is a comforting thought.

Sensory room at Chestnut Tree House


Chestnut Tree House is a wonderful place, filled with fun and laughter and if you ever get a chance to visit I would strongly recommend that you do so.  I am immensely proud to be competing at Challenge Weymouth to raise money for Chestnut, massively humbled at the efforts of Jean and Vince to help support my cause and hugely looking forward to only 9 more weeks of training before the big event.

Thank you all for reading my blog.  The updates will be coming more regularly as we get closer to the big day.  Only 2 weeks until my half Ironman race in Kent and then the big push towards Weymouth begins.

As always, any and all support you would like to give to Chestnut Tree House and to me via my JustGiving page would be hugely appreciated.  

https://www.justgiving.com/Iron-Snook

TTFN

Snooky










Is Insanity during Ironman training absolute insanity?

On By 00snookIn challenge weymouth, Insanity, ironman, training, triathlonLeave a comment

Bit of a cryptic blog title I agree, but all will make sense I trust you.

At work we have a gym.  It is a nice little gym with bike, rower, X-trainer and a pulley weight stack.  We also have a TV and on this TV I have gotten into the habit of working out with Shaun T at lunchtimes.

Shaun T
Mr Motivator

For the uninitiated, Shaun T is a muscle bound motivational guru who makes Mr Motivator look like a bit of a wally (lets be honest, he was a bit of a wally anyway).

If you are a fan of late night television, you may well have seen Shaun T advertising one of his workout series. In his catalogue he has Insanity, T-25, Insanity Max 30 and others.

Again, if you haven’t heard of any of these let me explain.  Insanity (my favourite) is 40-60 minutes of interval based workouts with long intervals of exercise combined with short periods of rest.  It has at least 10 minutes of stretching in each session and a long warm up (which is tough in its own right) and is a great workout which only uses body weight as resistance.  There is a hell of a lot of jumping up and down involved, plenty of press ups and plyometric movements.  

I first had a go at Insanity before I ever started this triathlon business and it was very hard indeed.  In fact, I didn’t even make it through the warm up the first time round.  You work out 6 days a week and it batters your body if you start from almost zero fitness base (which is where I was at the time).

Now I am a lot fitter, I really enjoy these Shaun T lunchtime workouts.  Sometimes we do T-25 (25 min workouts) and today we tried the Max 30 for the first time (30 minutes of non stop effort and very tough). I am joined every day by my colleague Sarah (who is some sort of fitness monster) and we have other colleagues who join in occasionally.  When I don’t feel like working out at lunchtime I don’t and skip these days.  Essentially I pick it up and leave it whenever I want.

People who have done Insanity seem surprised that I am doing it on top of my usual triathlon training, but I must admit I feel good.  It is something to do at lunchtime, I enjoy the workouts and there is no doubt it must be good for my overall fitness.  I seem to be able to do the workouts without any hint of injury (other than a minor elbow issue today) and can’t really see any reason to stop.

Perhaps in the long run these lunchtimes would have been better spent going for a run, but there is only so much running I want to do (as it does tend to injure me) and I would have thought the cardio workout you get from Shaun T is as good as the same amount of time running.

So is it insane to do Insanity at the same time as Ironman training?  The answer to that is almost certainly YES if you plan to do the full 6 day a week Insanity, but as I pick it up and leave it when I like and only train when I am feeling good I can’t see it doing any harm.

Besides, I get to spend lunchtime with this bunch of lookers!

TTFN

Snooky



Injuries, Jellyfish and bloody bumpy roads

On By 00snookIn bike, biking, challenge weymouth, Chestnut Tree House, crap roads, cycling, ironman, jellyfish, resiliance, running, training, triathlonLeave a comment

As I sit and write this it is 75 days until Challenge Weymouth.  75 days until I don my wetsuit with 2000 other masochists and stride into the surf of Weymouth bay.  This brings me onto one of the things I would like to talk about…….jellyfish.

All along the south coast of England we have record numbers of Barrel jellyfish appearing just off of our shoreline.  Juvenile Barrel jellyfish are normally predated on by fish, keeping the numbers of adults in check.  Over-fishing has caused less juveniles to be predated, meaning that there are literally 1000’s of these jellyfish growing into adulthood.

A barrel jellyfish photographed off the Dorset coast

Adult Barrel jellyfish can get big.  I mean really big.  Up to 6ft wide and weighing in at up to 35kg (77lbs, or 5 stone 7 lbs).  Articles from marine experts are saying that there may be 10’s of 1000’s of these aquatic fellas off of the Dorset coast.

Now not all of them are going to be as big as the one on the left, but there are jellyfish the size of bin bags washing up on the coast all over the place.  Portsmouth has had a few and over the weekend there were large numbers washed up in Swanage.

I don’t want to come across as a big girls blouse, but I am less than happy at the thought of sharing my swim at Weymouth with these underwater whoppers.  Their sting is only as strong as a stinging nettle and poses no threat to humans; however I imagine that swimming into a 35kg jellyfish will be more of a shock than anything.  My toddler only weighs 15kg and I wouldn’t want to swim into her.  Plus she doesn’t sting.

Spotted off coast of Boscombe at weekend.

Made slightly worse is the fact that the swim at Weymouth is in September, when the sea is at its warmest.  If we have any sort of onshore breeze or current there is going to be a fair few jellies sharing the water with me.  

Just the thought of this makes me very nervous.  I am not exactly sure why.  They pose no threat to me; however there is something primordial and spooky about jellyfish.  There are beautiful sea creatures and I would never harm one, but also I am happy never to get that close to one.  I feel the same way about tarantulas (and I wouldn’t want to swim with any of those either).

My wife is convinced that if there are loads of jellyfish about at race weekend then the organisers of the race will do something about it.  I am not so sure, but we will have to wait and see.

I also seem to have picked up a little niggling injury.  Well I say little, we will have to see how much worse it gets, but I am definitely officially injured.  Self-diagnosis has led me to believe that I am suffering with a form of Plantar Fasciitis 

As you can see from the picture on the left, this is a strain in the fascia just after the heel bone.  A very common running injury, which manifests itself in pain in the arch of your foot.  I only have it in my right foot and bizarrely it goes away whilst exercising and comes on at periods of rest.    Recommendations on how to fix this vary hugely.  Some say to rest, ice etc; however there is a large movement away from icing injuries like this, as it may slow healing.

Others say to keep exercising but at a lesser level.  It is a bit of a mine field and hard to work out what I should do.  Luckily I have a bio-mechanical coach who I trust 100% who is going to take a look at me and hopefully give me some exercises to help this go away.  He is a former professional Ironman and will understand that I cannot just stop training with only 75 days to go.  Fingers crossed Trevor can get me sorted out and I will be on the way to recovery soon.  In the meantime I am going to back down on my running, but keep the bike work up and increase my swimming.  I have hardly been swimming at all if I am honest, so this little injury is probably a blessing in disguise.

Lastly I want to have a moan up.  A good old fashioned complaining session.  What us in Pompey would refer to as a “squinny”.  The more I spend time on my bike, the more I love it.  You start to feel at one with your machine, instinctively knowing when to change gear, when to stand on the pedals to finish that final hill, when to push on the flat etc.  The only thing that affects my enjoyment of my cycling time is the road quality (or should I say total lack of quality).

Broken tarmac – easy in a car.  Horrible on a bike

When you cycle you keep to the left of the road so cars and other faster road users can overtake.  This is just good etiquette.  The problem with doing this is that the shoddy road surface is even more shoddy the closer you get to the verge.  There are potholes that are actually small caves and endless miles of broken tarmac (an example of the sort of thing I mean is on the right).

When you are in a car this broken tarmac is nothing.  You just smooth straight over it.  On a super stiff road bike with very narrow tyres this is not a comfortable surface to ride on.  You can hack it for a while, but after a few hours of constantly bumping over this sort of stuff it starts to wear very thin.

Occasionally you can find some stretches of road that are blissfully smooth.  Mostly it is this bumpy crap.  So my moan up is this.  Hampshire is one of the most affluent counties in the UK.  We all pay a tonne of council tax to live in such a beautiful county.  Take some of that council tax and fix the roads up a bit.  I am fed up of jolting along on tarmac that should be in much much better condition.  That is not to mention the cycle paths, which seem to have a special sort of tarmac that breaks up even more than the roads do.  Just bloody well sort it out.

The roads in Surrey are much nicer.  That’s probably why everybody who lives in Surrey thinks they are better than everybody else.  🙂

Anyway that’s it from me.  Big week of training this week, injuries, jellyfish and crap road surfaces not withstanding.

TTFN

Snooky




















Arundel Lido Triathlon – 1 good, 2 not so good

On By 00snookIn arundel lido triathlon, ironman, running, swimming, training, triathlonLeave a comment

It’s 04:10am on Sunday 24th May and my alarm has just gone off, must be time for the Arundel Lido Triathlon.

Yes, you have read that right, 04:10am.  Bloody early.  I had awoken off of the back of 4 hours sleep.  Normally I would blame a lack of sleep on the kids keeping me awake; however The Noodle was at Grannies and Mia had not woken me in the night.  My lack of sleep only had one person to blame……….me.

Unlike my usual triathlon preparation (of doing everything at the very last minute) I had decided to organise my gear the day before.  The problem was, I only finished doing this at about midnight.  I had planned to organise everything during the day on Saturday.  All was going well until my wife and I decided to buy The Noodle a trampoline.  She was staying at Grannies on the Saturday night as we didn’t want to take her to the triathlon on Sunday morning because she would just be bored.  She had been such a good girl recently, the trampoline was a little present.  Well I say little.  It’s actually pretty big and takes up a good chunk of the garden.  Anyway, we bought it on Saturday and wanted to build it before she came home on Sunday after the triathlon.  How hard can building a trampoline be?  Turns out not very, but quite time consuming.  The 2 hours I had set aside for triathlon prep was eaten up by trampoline building; hence why I found myself still organising my gear at midnight.

L-R Mike, Me and Bushy


Never mind the 4 hours sleep, today was a big day.  Other than Curry (who didn’t want to take part in the triathlon due to being ill a few weeks before) the whole of the Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team were competing.  This was exciting.  I had also competed in Arundel the year before (as my first ever Triathlon, read all about it here), so had a benchmark to beat and to see if I have gotten fitter over the last 12 months.

As my wife got our baby Mia ready to go, I ate some delicious porridge, made myself a peanut butter and jam sandwich (to eat 90 minutes before my start time), loaded the gear in the car and just after 5am we were off to Arundel.  Arriving just before 6am, I saw my friend Neil’s van, parked next to him and unloaded my gear.

Then I was straight into the routine I know only too well know.  Off to the registration tent to get your competitors pack.  Number for your helmet, number for your bike, timing tag around your ankle and then into transition to rack the bike, assemble your cycling shoes, running shoes, sunglasses etc under the bike and you are ready to race.

During this time I had been chatting to my fellow Grazing Saddles team members and to a few other people I knew from the Pompey Triathletes who were also competing that day.  The buzz was great.  Andy was swimming first and I gave him a huge cheer as he got out of the pool and made his way to transition.  Quickly running round to the bike exit we saw him come out and immediately proceed to cycle the wrong way.  Fortunately we shouted at him, he turned around and was on his way onto the bike course.  Neil was next to swim; however I didn’t see him get out of the pool as I was already queuing up for my swim start time.


Me and Bush waiting to swim

Making the triathlon even more interesting than normal was that Bushy and I had exactly the same swim start time.  With us being fairly evenly matched on the bike and Bushy being a bit better on the run it was set to be a straight race to the finish for us two.  We had spiced things up with a little wager.  Whomever out of us finished last has to wear a ballerina costume (complete with tutu) along to our next triathlon club training session.  The stakes could hardly be higher!!!!

Chatting away to Bushy as we waited he was telling me he was a bit nervous, but surprisingly I was calm.  Having raced at Arundel the year before I knew exactly what to expect and was really looking forward to seeing what I could do.  Arundel Lido Triathlon breaks down like this.

800m swim – unsurprisingly this is in the Lido and consists of 32 laps of 25metres each.

40km bike – 25 miles in old money, the bike course is two laps consisting of one long climb, a fast downhill and then a quick rolling section of the A27 before you start the second lap

10k run – the run is very hilly, taking on a steep offroad uphill section before dropping back into some rolling hills then a final fast 2km downhill to the finish.

Soon Bushy was called forward for his swim and a few moments after I was invited into lane 5 to get prepped.  Swim hat and goggles on, the marshals count your laps and tap you on the head when you have two to go, saving me having to count them myself, which I am absolutely awful at.  With 3 to 4 other swimmers per lane it can get congested, so to make things easier for the faster swimmers if you get tapped on the foot you have to wait at the end of the next length, let them past and then carry on.

I was counted down by the starter and then my swim had begun.  Despite the fact that I enjoy swimming, in all my previous triathlons the swim leg has never gone well.  I have either failed to get into a rhythm, gone out too fast, or otherwise gotten it wrong.  At Arundel, I was determined to swim smoothly and put in a good performance.  One lap done, on the return lap my left hand kept colliding into the wall.  The lanes were narrow and to avoid a collision with the swimmer coming the other way I had to keep left.  Sadly there was a wall there and I just kept hitting it.  To avoid this I had to shorten my left arm stroke, which threw me way off.  So much for a smooth swim.

Just about to High 5
my wife


Due to the problems with the wall I was not making good progress.  This resulted in me getting tapped on the foot a few times, causing me to have to stop at the end of the lap.  I knew the swim was going to be slow, AGAIN.  In my head I just kept trying to relax and not worry about it.  A couple of minutes lost on the swim could easily be regained on the bike if I rode well.  Failing to get into any sort of rhythm with my swimming I eventually was tapped on the head and two more lengths done I was out of the pool.  Hoorah.  Seeing my every supportive wife at the pool exit and giving her our now customary high 5, I ran into transition.

It was no surprise to see that Bushy’s bike was already gone.  He clearly had a better swim than me and was already out on the bike course.  There was only one thing for it, I had to catch him up.  Helmet, cycling shoes and sunnies on I was quickly out of transition and on the open road.  “Here we go” I thought to myself, mentally preparing for the first long climb of the bike course.

Into the climb I was almost immediately overtaken by number 25, who set off up the hill like he was being chased by something nasty.  I rode the hill as quickly as I dared, mindful of the fact that expending too much energy early in the ride is not a good idea.  40km is far enough that you cannot afford to go flat out from the start.  It requires a bit of pacing.  Up the hill, down the other side then onto the rolling section of A27 I was feeling great.  I even manged to catch up number 25 (who must have been quite some distance ahead). Keeping the water consumption up to try and avoid the dreaded cramps that I sometimes suffer with, I was through my first lap in good time and ready to tackle that climb again.

As I started the climb for the second time I still had not caught up Bushy.  Him and I are about even when it comes to bike riding.  I am probably a bit better up the hills, but he is faster on the flat and downhill due to his super duper aero triathlon bike.  The thoughts of the tutu were already going through my head.  If I couldn’t catch him on the bike I had no chance, as he was guaranteed to be quicker than me on the run.  Then, in the distance, slowly making his way up the hill I thought I might have spotted Bushy.  I have spent enough time following Bushy on the bike to recognise his unorthodox riding style; however I was still too far away to be sure.  Giving myself a little pep talk, I dropped my bike down a couple of gears, gritted my teeth and set about catching him.

To my delight my legs responded well to the extra pressure I put them under.  My quads were screaming, but I could push through the pain and was slowly reeling the rider in front in.  As I got closer I could see it was number 51.  That was Bushy.  I had caught him up.  We still had over 15km to go.  Perhaps that tutu would have his name on it not mine.

From this point I quickly caught him and overtook, pushing hard to the start of the downhill.  I knew that he would be quick downhill.  His triathlon specific bike has a much more aerodynamic riding position than my normal road bike.  Coupled with this, Bushy is fairly fearless.  An aero bike and a fearless rider tends to make for quick downhills.  Exactly as I thought, a couple of hundred metres into the downhill he overtook me.  I could see the grin on his face as he flew past.  In normal riding circumstances, I would quickly tuck in behind him and use the aerodynamic slip stream to keep up.  The effect of this slip steam is really quite pronounced and you can easily keep up with faster riders if you stay right on their back wheel.

Bottom of the downhill
on lap 1

Sadly for me, drafting (as this slip streaming is known) is not allowed in triathlon.  If you get caught drafting you could face disqualification.  With draft busting motorcyclists out on the course keeping an eye on things it just isn’t worth risking.  Plus it is cheating.  Bearing this in mind I decided all I needed to do was keep him in sight.  There was as short climb at the bottom of the downhill and I knew I could catch him up there.  

Down on the drops, pushing my biggest gear I managed to keep Bushy within about 25 metres of me as we started to approach the flat just ahead of the short climb.  I closed to within about 15 metres and then exactly as predicted Bushy started to slow on the uphill.  I pushed my bike and my legs as hard as I could and overtook him again.  Lactic acid building, my legs screaming I crested the short hill and pushed even harder on a brief downhill the  other side.  Quickly we were onto the A27 and as this section is flat and fast Bushy whizzed past yet again.  Keeping my eye on him I kicked one final time and overtook him just before a short sharp downhill run into transition.

At the bottom of this downhill there is a round-a-bout that you have to go straight on at.  Flying down the hill towards the round-a-bout I tipped my bike in and got a huge rear wheel slide.  I was clearly on the edge and extremely close to crashing.  Recovering from the slide sucked up a huge amount of momentum and once again Bushy went flying past and it was a short drag into transition.  I decided to just follow him into transition and rely on being faster changing from bike to run that he was.

Practically neck and neck into transition he racked his bike and then there was no room for mine.  Desperately trying to wedge my bike in between his bike and another competitors bike Bushy very kindly helped me.  Running shoes on I was out of transition in a very quick 45 seconds with Bushy hot on my heels.  At this point I felt I only had one chance.  Go out quickly at the start of the run and hope that he cannot stay with me, generating a gap which I can hold for the rest of the 10K.

I set off as quickly as I could, but could hear that he was only just behind.  Remarkably I actually felt OK and was hopeful that I might be able to maintain a quick pace for my 10K.  Less that 700 metres into the run, I knew those dreams were shattered.  My old friend cramp kicked in and my left calf locked.  Immediately my pace dropped considerably.  Bushy caught me up, gave me some encouraging words and then slowly ran off into the distance.  With my calf in absolute agony I knew there would be no way to catch him.  The tutu was mine.

At this point I stopped for a wee.  I needed a wee anyway, a bit of rest for the calf wouldn’t do any harm and the race against Bushy was already as good as lost.  Starting running again I was struggling to maintain any sort of pace at all.  Flashbacks to the Brighton Marathon were running through my mind, where quad cramp had caused me the huge problems.

Concentrating on trying to maintain my running form, I ran up and up and up.  I was forced to walk briefly when the off road section got really steep.  Bushy passed me going the other way and I knew from experience he was about 2 minutes ahead of me.  That was a lot to catch up, but anything can happen.  Running back downhill from the highest point I started to feel a bit better.  Concentrating on my breathing and my running form seemed to be alleviating the cramp a bit.  My calf still hurt, but just a bit less than before.  Running through the rolling hill section I was managing to maintain around 6min/km pace.  I knew that Bushy would be quicker than that and once again when we passed (he was on the home stretch as I made my way to the turn around point) I calculated we were still 2-3 minutes apart.  As Bushy passed me he said “I tell you what Snooky, this is going to be fecking close”.  I wasn’t quite so sure but was determined to do as well as I could.  

Soon enough I was on the final 2k which is downhill and then flat to the finish.  I pushed as hard as my leg would let me.  Struggling to get any quicker than 5:20/km I had to dig very deep to keep going.  My left calf was absolutely screaming.  In the back of my mind I was genuinely nervous that I might be doing some serious damage to my muscle.  A year ago I would have stopped and walked, but this was not the Snooky of a year ago.  I am a new, fitter, leaner version of myself and I was not going to give in.

Mike and I across the line together


Just as I approached the finish I was caught up by Mike (Grazing Saddles teammate and superb triathlete).  I had seen him a few times on the run where it crossed and knew he wouldn’t be that far behind.  We crossed the line together and the race was done.  

I was in pain.  A lot of pain.  Limping around I was seriously concerned I had done some lasting damage.  Quickly comparing times with Bushy what I already knew was confirmed.  He had finished around 4 minutes faster than me.  His superior running had won through and the tutu would be mine.  I really didn’t mind about that.  He is a great mate, it had been a pleasure to race some of the bike leg against him and it was always a bit of a longshot for me to beat him.  I ran a 55 minute 10k which is only 3 minutes slower than my PB and he still beat me. Well done Bushy.  It will be a pleasure to race with you at the Ironman in September.

Bushy and I compare times.  He has won!

  
All of us were finished.  Neil had put in a superb time for his first ever triathlon and finished second out of our little gang.  Despite Mike being ill in the run up to the triathlon and unable to train he had still finished first out of us lot and an extremely impressive 22nd overall.  Bushy was third, I was fourth and Andy was 5th.  Everybody had performed well.  We were all tired but had given it everything.  Now it was time to go back to my place for a well deserved BBQ.

Initially, after the race, I was a little down heartened.  My swim had not gone well at all.  The bike ride was good.  In fact, I was second quickest out of our gang on the bike.  My run was hampered by cramp yet again.  If only I could just get one race where the whole thing goes to plan.  Having had a bit more time to think over my performance, I think there is a lot more to be positive about than I may have realised.

12 months ago I took 2 hrs 54 minutes to complete the course.  On Sunday it took me 2hrs 28 minutes.  That is almost 30 minutes quicker.   A massive improvement and something I should definitely be proud of.  Last year I finished 7th from last overall.  This year I finished 78th out of 105 competitors.  Again a huge improvement.   

There are a number of things to be learnt from the weekend.  Firstly, I definitely need to work on my swimming.  More time in the pool required.  Secondly my cycling has come on a long way, but there is still room for improvement, especially around those pesky hills.  And finally onto my running.  Neil constantly reminds me that a year ago I was struggling to run more than a mile and this is absolutely true.  Despite this I would like to do a bit better on the run, although I appreciate this is very unlikely to ever be a strong point of mine.

All in all a very successful event.  Was great to compete with the team and I am really looking forward to my half Ironman in a couple of months time.  8 weeks to the half Ironman, then only 8 more until the full distance.

There is a LOT of training to be done before then.

TTFN.

Snooky


Here we go, the ramp up is starting

On By 00snookIn challenge weymouth, Chestnut Tree House, cycling, Don Fink, training, triathlonLeave a comment

So, as I sit and write this it is 123 days until Challenge Weymouth.  Not an especially significant number you might think. It is not so much the number of days left that is significant, but rather the phase of the training I am about to enter.

The plan I am following is split out into distinct phases. These are the “Base” phase, followed by “Build 1”, “Build 2”, “Peak” and then finally the taper down to race day.

Base phase is exactly what it says on the tin, designed to increase your base level of fitness.  In all honesty I have not put quite as many hours in as I would have liked due to wanting to be at home and help my wife through a challenging time with our kiddies.  That being said, I am fairly confident that my “base” level of fitness is not too bad and so missing some training sessions during this phase has not phased me (see what I did there).

Next week starts the “Build 1” phase.  This sees me increasing my training load, putting in extra time and distance in all three triathlon disciplines.

I am aiming towards the following:

Weekly training targets:

  • Cycling – 250 miles
  • Running – 50 miles
  • Swimming – 8 miles

If you prefer to think of this in time rather than distance, we are looking roughly like this

  • Cycling – 15 hours
  • Running – 8.5 hours
  • Swimming – 4 hours

You don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that this is around 27 hours training per week, which is a lot.  It’s more than an entire day every week devoted to training.  

This leads us nicely to the $64,000 question, “How the hell are you going to fit all this training in?”

Luckily there are a few things in my favour.  It is only my intention to hit the mileage/distance targets about for the 3 or 4 weeks before tapering off ready for the event.  This allows me to ramp up the training gradually.

Also my wife is being amazingly supportive.  Despite the fact that our lovely 2 year old daughter seems to have morphed into a terrorist and our 12 week old baby is permanently attached to her, she is happy for me to train almost as much as I like.

Lastly I live a very convenient 20 miles away from work, meaning that I can cycle into and back from work fairly regularly.  This is decent mileage and has relatively little impact on the family.

So all in all things are looking good.  I am feeling strong, the training is going well, I am blessedly injury free and am starting to really look forward to the big event in September.

Below are a few pictures of Bushy and I on a recent bike ride just to prove that training is actually fun.

TTFN

Snooky

Just setting out.

Quick pitstop
An excellent demonstration on how not to change an inner tube

Still going, 45 minutes later