My Ironman Blog

A blog about my Ironman trialthon journey. Follow me from my first day of training to the big day.

Introductions

Hello, I’m Chris Hutchinson and this is my Ironman training blog. I’m going to try and document my training from now until the big day, which is 7th August 2021 in Tallinn. In this blog, my aim is to take you through my journey from start to finish. I will discuss, nutrition, training plans and triathlon kit, as well as the actual ups and downs of the training itself. I plan to put out posts every 1-2 weeks depending on how hectic life gets. Just in case you are unfamiliar with the Ironman, it is a long course triathlon race. It consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile marathon run. My personal goal has been to complete this in under 12 hours. For me this means a 1hr 15min swim, a 6hr 15min bike and a 4hr 10min run with about 15min transition. This is the hope any way, I’ve got to get there first. This will be my 3rd go at the Ironman. My first event was my home town of Bolton in 2017. I came in at 12hrs and 58mins. Let me tell you, this was one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever completed. I don’t like to admit it but there was a small tear when crossed that finish line. After 7 months of training, I had finally achieved something I once thought was impossible for me. It was a great feeling. <img style="float: none;" src="/images/postPics/medals.jpg" > My second attempt was in Hamburg 2019. This is a bit of a dark day for me. The heat in Hamburg on the big day was too much. The organisers nearly had to cancel the swim due to algae in the water and there was talk before the race about no wet suits due to the heat. I had been training in Northern Ireland where the weather is less than agreeable. Then I came to Hamburg where the weather was hitting a blistering 30 degrees without a cloud in the sky. Great for sun bathing, not so good for a 12-hour race. During the race, I completed the swim in a strong 1hr 10mins and the bike in a personal record time of 5hr 53mins. However, during the run, the weather and the heat became too much for me. I stopped 14 miles into the run for a rest and a quick sit down and I never got back up. Cramp hit with a vengeance and It turns out I was severely dehydrated. I ended up in the back of a St John’s ambulance then I was taken to hospital. Race over. <img style="float: none;" src="/images/postPics/hospital.jpg"> Before my Ironman fever, I was once in a rut of going the pub every weekend with friends. One Sunday I was stood outside one pub in Bolton having a cigarette when I saw these guys looking absolutely drained running in some kind of race. After doing some inquiring, I learned about the Ironman. I was interested but I was convinced by peers that I would never be able to complete one. To be honest, I smoked, I ate poorly, did no exercise and I drank every weekend. That was 2015 and the feeling that I wanted to take part in this even never left me. I wanted to do what seemed so impossible, I needed a change, I needed something to give me a little discipline and purpose. At the end of 2016, I had decided to go for it. I got a training plan, I changed my diet, I stopped drinking, completely, I eventually gave up smoking and, on the 1st January 2017, I started training. 30 weeks later, after the hardest training and by far the hardest race I had ever done I crossed the finish line of the Bolton Ironman. I will never forget that feeling. Currently I am a little nervous about going through this journey for the third time but I have a goal of finishing the race in under 12 hours. I think I am also chasing the feeling I had when I finished Bolton.

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Time for a new training plan

For my first two attempts at the Ironman, I had used a training plan from a book by Don Fink called 'Be Iron fit: Time-efficient Training Secrets for Ultimate Fitness 3rd Edition’. It’s a really good book. For me as a beginner, it gave me all the information, tips and tricks I needed to successfully train for an Ironman. The book gives you information on time management (very important), the training cycle, techniques for the three disciplines and a little on strength and conditioning and nutrition. The biggest part about the book however, was the training programs it gave you. There were 3 to choose from, a just finish program, an intermediate program and a competitive program. For my training, I chose the competitive plan from the book. The plan suited me and I was able to manage the training around work and social life. The big problem with the training plan from the book for me, was the lack of strength and conditioning. I would go on a 2-hour run or a 4-hour ride let’s stay and the cardiovascular part of me would feel fine. However, my legs would hurt, a lot. This massively hindered me. To be fair to the book it does have a strength and conditioning section, which is really good and gives the reader multiple workouts to carry out. The problem was, that it was not incorporated into the training plans themselves and for me, mentally, they were a secondary goal to the main training plan. So, when the training got tough, I would complete the training that set out and if I was tired, which was a lot, I pushed the strength and conditioning aside and it was not carried out. <img style="float: none;" src="/images/postPics/book.jpg"> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Iron-fit-Time-Efficient-Training/dp/1493017829/ref=asc_df_1493017829/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310814132050&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15435486421565309477&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007270&hvtargid=pla-496901531404&psc=1&th=1&psc=1">Be IronFit from Amazon</a> Another issue with the training plan from the book, resting in the back of my mind, is the fact that I have not been able to achieve my personal goal of finishing the race in under 12-hours. This might be a little unfair to the book as Bolton was a very hard hilly course and the heat got me in Hamburg. But the feeling was there in the back of my mind. Albert Einstein once said, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.’ Because of these two issues, I have decided to look for a new training plan. I wanted something different, digital and a plan with strength and conditioning incorporated. I did my research and one website kept popping up over and over again: <a href="http://www.myprocoach.net/">www.myprocoach.net</a>. MyProCoach uses <a href="http://www.trainingpeaks.com/">www.trainingpeaks.com</a>, which makes a very good training app. The training plan goes on to the calendar in training peaks and makes it very easy to follow. The biggest pull for me was the fact that all the plans included the strength and conditioning aspect. I looked through the training plans and chose the intermediate 32-week ironman training plan. This plan suited my work and social life the best.

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First Week Disaster

So, I am at the end of my first week. It did not at all go to plan as I had expected. I’ve only completed 3 out of 9 sessions from my training plan… I stupidly thought starting the training plan on the 28th of December, a couple of days before New Year’s Eve would be ok. It was not. My race is on the 7th August next year and I chose a 32-week training plan which starts me on the 28th of December. I was lucky enough to spend the new year celebrations with close family. We had a small party; a lot of alcohol was drunk and I had a sore head for the next couple of days. With age the hangovers get considerably worse. One of the reasons I don’t really drink as much as I used to. This is my excuse for missing so much of the first week's training. The first week of the plan is a fitness test week. You are supposed to complete a fitness test for the swim, bike and run. The threshold values from the tests are then used to set training zones for the next 6 weeks until you complete another fitness test week. Monday was a swim test followed by strength and conditioning. I am currently working in Northern Ireland and due to Covid, the pools are shut. So, I just did the strength and conditioning and left the swim. Hopefully I could come up with a plan for that later on. Tuesday came and it was time for my bike FTP test. I had let myself go over the xmas period and still feeling a bit worse for wear, due to all the beer and bad food, I attempted the test. The test consisted of a warm up then a 20 minute, as hard as you can go, threshold test. I did this on the turbo trainer which, gives power output data.  I did ok but it was hard, I very nearly threw up. A shock to the system to stay the least. My results came in, I achieved 246 watts threshold power and 166 bpm heart rate threshold. Not really knowing if this was good or bad, I put it into the training peaks app. The rest of the week was a bit of a haze. Due to work I was sent back to England and was able to spend the new year with close family. This was great for the party, not so great for the training. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were a write-off. Still feeling pretty bad on the Saturday, I managed to get to a pool before lock down hit England. I did the fitness test, which consisted of a warm up, then a 400-meter best effort followed 5 minutes later by a 200-meter best effort. You then put these times into a calculator on MyProCoach and it gives you your threshold swim pace. I pulled out a 6 minutes 59 seconds 400-meter and a 3 minutes 18 seconds 200-meter. I know what I am capable of in the water and I was fairly disappointed with these results. The New Year’s celebrations had hit a little too hard. The last test was the run fitness test. I had just completed training for a marathon I did at the beginning of December and I had also used MyProCoach for that as well. So, I have a good idea what my threshold is. This was all I needed to convince myself to rest, get over the hangovers and miss the run fitness test. I just used my previous run pace threshold of 6 minutes 58 seconds and the threshold heart rate of 176 bpm. That is the week completed. 3 out of 9 sessions. Drinking and training do not mix. <img src="/images/postPics/training_plan.jpg">

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Covid

So, after my disaster of a first week, training has improved, slightly. Due to work, I have been living out of a hotel. This coupled with the awful weather has made some of the training a little difficult. Getting good healthy meals has been difficult and I have succumbed to the huge number of takeaways on the high street near the hotel more than once. The biggest impact has been Covid. As many of you will know, England went into a national lock down on the 4th January 2021. I understand this is necessary, people are dying and the NHS is stretched due this this horrible virus. I have had a first-hand experience of some of the impact it has had. So, I know how it important it is to stay at home and save lives. A side effect for my training, because of the lock down restrictions has been the closure of the swimming pools. Swimming is a huge part of the Ironman and because I am one of the lucky ones to be a fairly strong swimmer, it hinders me somewhat. I normally put a lot of emphasis on the swim and rely upon it a lot to give me a good time. I know it’s only an hour to hour and a half of a twelve-hour race but the shorter the time the better. The swim is my favourite sessions of the week. There is something about being in the pool for me that I really enjoy. It also helps with the run and the bike. First of all, its low impact and gives the muscles a rest from all the hard run, bike and strength and conditioning sessions. Secondly it really helps with breathing and cardiovascular fitness. You have to be able to really control your breathing while swimming and this massively helps blood oxygen levels which, in turn helps the rest of the training. There is nothing I can do about the pools being shut and it is far too cold to do open water swims. I have two swim sessions a week, one on a Monday and the other on a Thursday. So, I have decided to do an endurance run on the Monday and an endurance bike on the Thursday. I have also found a dry land swim training program that gives some helpful dry land swim specific strength and conditioning workouts to do. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK2DFGKVKsw">Strength Band Workouts from GTN on YouTube</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=megCSTJxSPs">Body weight Workouts from GTN on YouTube</a> On the Thursday I will do a bike ride followed by some of the strength and conditioning exercises in the videos above. I already have the programmed strength and conditioning on Monday so, I just do that instead. The run and the bike are unaffected by the pandemic and I have been progressing fairly well with them. I have a long bike on a Saturday and a long run on the Sunday. I am fine with the runs; they are just over an hour at the moment. I really enjoy getting out, running slow and letting my mind run free, they seem to chill me out for the rest of the day. The bike rides are a little longer than I am use to at this stage of training. My previous plan for the other two Ironman’s I trained for start off fairly short at about an hour to an hour and half. I am currently hitting two and half, pushing three hours. They are taking a bit of getting used to. In the long run I know they will be a great help. The longer rides early on, I hope, will give me extra endurance later on. Food, has been my other big issue over the last couple of weeks. I am in a hotel for 6 weeks in the middle of a town that is full of takeaways. The hotel does not offer meals due to the pandemic. I am able to get some meals at the place I work, which are fairly healthy. But I cannot get these all the time. There are no cooking facilities at the hotel. Therefore, when I have missed a meal, I am forced with two options; try and find something from the supermarket or go for a take-out. The options from the supermarket are slim pickings. I can get a salad or a butty, or I can get I cold quiche. Other than that, there really isn’t much else because I don’t have the cooking equipment. While training, I’m hungry, a lot and a butty or salad doesn’t make the grade. Therefore, I opt for the takeout. I have succumbed to, pizza, kebabs, chippy’s, subway and burgers. This is not ideal food for training. Where are all the nutrients my body needs…. I am at a very early stage of training at the moment, I still have 29 weeks to go to the big day. Things are going fairly well all things considered

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A Very Cold Ride - 30th Jan 20

This morning I set out on my weekend long bike ride. I had to do 3hrs 10mins followed by a 20min run straight off the bike. I've done this now a few times, so I thought it wouldn't be too much of a drama. How wrong I was. I neglected to have a proper check of the weather, which turned out to be a big mistake. It was one of the coldest rides I've ever done. Unbeknown to me, a cold snap from Scandinavia had hit the U.K, making this particular Saturday a chilly one. Add to that the wind chill and I was having a really bad time. I had my gloves on and luckily, I had taken a spare pair of thin running gloves, just 'in case'. I started the ride and within an hour I knew it was going to be a bad one. My toes had gone numb and I my fingers were starting to go numb. I pulled over for my usual toilet break and popped on the spare pair. I now had two pairs of gloves on and double the air insulation. I should have been sorted right...? Wrong. It helped for about half an hour but by that point, an hour and half into the ride the cold had hit me hard. I couldn't feel my feet, never mind the toes and my fingers were numb with next to no dexterity. It was at this point I made the worst decision I think I have ever made on the bike. I had planned my route as I normally do, on my little Garmin Edge. I was following it and turned down a small B road with a sign saying, 'Road Closed - Flood'. In my head, for some reason, I thought this doesn't apply to me I'm on a bike. So, I carried on. First big mistake. I cycled down the lane and saw the reason for the sign. The fields either side of the road had flooded, but up to this point the road was fairly clear as it was on higher ground. The road then dipped for about 400 meters and in the dip was, the 'flood'. I stopped and went through the thought process of whether or not to continue. Not realising how deep it was, I decided to carry on regardless, I'd come this far, right? I think I got about 4 pedal stokes in before I nearly fell off. Quickly unclipping, I managed to get off the bike. The water was up to my knee by this point. So, I thought what to do again. I was already wet, my feet were already cold and numb and I come this far, right? Again, I carried on, I was completely off the bike now pushing it through the 'flood'. The water ended up half way up my thigh at the deepest point. At this point I didn't really realise how cold I actually was. I got back on the bike and carried on. <img src="/images/postPics/puddle.jpg"> You'll never believe me, but round the next corner, there was another 400 meter stretch of 'flood'. At this point a tractor was making his way through. I pulled the bike to the side let him pass and contemplated life. I have no idea what he must have thought. I now had a decision, carry on through the next 'flood' or go back through the last 'flood'. I had come this far, right? I got through the two stretches of water and carried on, trying to act like nothing had happened. It did however have a big impact on me. I still had an hour to go. Because I was so cold, I hadn't really been drinking or eating. I had to stop to get an energy bar out of my pocket because my hands were so cold and numb. All I wanted to do was get home now. I had made the worst decision ever going through the water. I had to keep stopping to shake my hands out to try and get a little blood in them, they were that numb it was becoming dangerous. I couldn't feel the brakes, I couldn't feel the gears to change them and I didn't know if I was gripping the handle bars properly. The second pair of gloves were not doing what they had done before. I’d had enough and ended up stopping to set my Garmin to take me the quickest way home. I think it got confused and it ended up adding an extra 3 miles on to the ride. This just added to my woes. I did, finally, make it back in 3 and a half hours. On the way back, while constantly shivering and praying I was gripping the handle bars properly, I had decided to give the 20min run a miss. I needed to get warm. When I did get back, it was emotional. My hands had no dexterity, it took me what felt like an age to remove shoes and clothes. Parts of my feet had actually gone blue. I did eventually get warm enough to write this post, but it took a long time. Looking back, lessons will be learned from this ride, study the weather and do not ride down closed roads.

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The Longest Turbo Session

Training has been going steady. I am now back home in Northern Ireland and things seem to be looking up. I am able to eat well again and I have my setup at home back. There is more space in the garage or the front room for the strength and conditioning sessions and I have the turbo constantly set up which, stops a lot of faffing about. When I got back to NI, I had to isolate due to the Covid travel restrictions. I had planned it so I would get out of isolation on the Saturday ready for the long ride. I had a 3 hour 20-minute ride followed by a 20-minute run. I am not a lover of the turbo trainer and use it for ease and convenience. I am good up to about an hour and a half on the turbo but anything over that, really starts to become uncomfortable. The turbo has no give, its rigid and doesn’t move. When you’re out on the road, the bike moves your constantly making micro adjustments to keep balance and you can come out of the seat whenever you want. I know you can do this on the turbo as well but it’s just not the same. My backside starts to hurt after a while and there is nothing to take your mind off the fact that you’re stationary in a garage. At least on the road you have a goal, you’re going somewhere and there is normally beautiful countryside to look at. On the Saturday in question, I woke up and read the weather. I was not making the same mistake as I did a couple of weeks ago. The readings were dire, it was cold with potential of snow and high winds. Not cycling weather. I was going to have to do the session on the turbo after all… To keep my mind occupied, I set the laptop up with a film to watch on the mammoth session. The film of choice, Titanic on Sky Go. It’s a 3-hour film and good enough to keep me stimulated for the ride. I set up in the garage and started. The first hour wasn’t too bad. At the hour point, I got off to take my standard toilet break. As I walked outside to get back to the house, it was white with snow. I had made the right choice by not going out.  <img src="/images/postPics/turbo_legs.jpg"> I plodded on for the next hour and twenty minutes, Titanic doing a good job of keeping me focused. At this point I decided to have another little break. I needed to get off and have a little walk around. I only took 30 seconds or so, but it was enough. I got back on and struggled through the last hour. It was really uncomfortable, I had to keep coming out of the seat, just to give myself a break from sitting. I managed through the last hour and then went for the 20-minute run. I’m so glad I suffered through the turbo trainer because it was bitter cold outside. My hands were numb just after 20 minutes, I would not have been able to survive for three hours out on the bike.

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Fitness Test 2

I’m now near the end of February and I have just completed my second test week. The training program I am on goes through a cycle of hard training, a rest week, hard training then a rest combined with a fitness test week. I have currently just done the fitness test combined with the rest week. The amount of time actually training has dropped from 11 hours last week to 7 hours this week. I just have to complete the three fitness tests again. The constant fitness tests this program makes you do is a real benefit. The threshold, heart rates, pace and power are put back into training peaks and it automatically updates the relative zones for each training session. This means I am training at my optimum capability. So, when the session wants me to do some easy zone 2 work, I’m actually in zone 2 as opposed to a zone that the fitness test in week one gave me. It basically means the training changes with my fitness levels. You’re most likely wondering how I did. After the first week disaster, I was hoping for a significant improvement. I did not get it. I have improved but not by the margin I was expecting. It’s the first time I have done this training plan, maybe it was a bit naïve of me to expect anything at all. The first test at the beginning of the week was the functional threshold power (FTP) test, on the bike. For this, to keep it consistent with the first, I used the turbo trainer. Again, the test started off with a 10-minute warmup, followed by the 20-minute FTP test, then a cool down. In total it was only about 45 minutes long. It was hard, really hard. I mean the test is a maximum effort so, I don’t know why I was expecting anything else. The results came in and I had improved by 5 watts for the FTP, 251 watts up from 246 watts. I had also improved by 5 bpm for my threshold heart rate, from 166 to 171 bpm. My next test was the swim. As we know with the lockdown restrictions, all the swimming pools in England are closed. There is nothing I can do about this and worrying or stressing over doesn’t help anyone. Because this was a combined test week and recovery week, instead of the swim I just went for a really easy steady state run. My last test was the run. A 5-minute warm up, followed by a 30-minute best effort, then a 5-minute cool down. I had not done the run test in the first week and just taken the results from my marathon training I had done at the end of last year. I’d actually taken my thresholds from the last fitness test at the end of the marathon training, when I was the strongest. Therefore, when I did this test, there wasn’t much improvement. I improved by 1 second for the threshold pace, from 6:58 to 6:57 minute per mile. For the heart rate, the results I got, I thought were unreliable. I was getting far higher results than I’ve ever got before. Due to this I am keeping the threshold heart for the run the same at 176 bpm. One real positive from the fitness / recovery week was the Sunday ride, I actually had nice weather. The wind was a little high but it always is, other than that it wasn’t too cold and the sun was shining. I really enjoyed the ride and finished wishing the ride was longer. With it being a recovery week, the ride was only 2 hours long, I felt like I could have easily doubled that. <img style='float: none;' src="/images/postPics/lough_works.jpg"> That’s the fitness tests done for a good few week now. Not really a great improvement. I am confident they are accurate though. More accurate that the test I did in week one. So hopefully now I can start to see a steady improvement. Only time will tell.

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Who Knew Food Was Important?

Training has been going steady over the last couple of weeks. The weather has improved ever so slightly, which has meant more outdoor rides and less time on the turbo trainer. Swimming pools are unfortunately still closed but I’m hopeful they will be open soon. On the plus side, I have recently gained access to gym equipment and a rowing machine. This means my strength and conditioning sessions have become more productive. My Saturday long rides are now at three and half hours long and I’m really enjoying most of them. I have done one or two with sore legs, making them a bit of a slog, but on the whole I’m really enjoying the rides. With the weather being a bit kinder, I able to take in the scenery and just enjoy myself. I am training in the same place as when I trained for Hamburg Ironman in 2019 and I am currently covering a lot of the same routes. My aim in the next month or so, is to find some new routes and do a bit of exploring. I have the Mourne Mountains about an hour drive from me and I hope to be able to do some exploring over the hills there. As the swimming pools have been closed, I have been substituting the swims with a run and a bike every week. I now have access to a rowing machine and I am going to substitute the swims with a row. My aim is to try and mimic the swim sessions on the rower as best I can. The theory here is, it’ll give some of the muscles I use on the bike and run a rest and it’ll work my cardiovascular system in a slightly different way. I hope it will also mix up the sessions a bit more and hold off any boredom that might set in. Another positive result I have had over the last month or so, is the impact of good food. If you have read my older blogs, you will know that at the beginning of the year I had to work away and ate a lot of takeaway food. Not a great diet for, someone training for an Ironman. I am now back on healthier food and the results are impressive. I feel like I have more energy, I am more awake, I have lost the extra kilograms I put on while I was away and I feel stronger. During the first lockdown in March 2020, I had decided I had put on too much weight and wanted to do something about it. I was the heaviest I had been in years at 92kg and that doesn’t sit right with me. I listen to a pod cast by Dr Chatterjee called, <a href="https://drchatterjee.com">Feel Better Live More</a>. Specifically, I was listening to pod cast number <a href="https://drchatterjee.com/episode-29-amelia-freer-on-what-we-need-to-eat/">#29</a> with Amelia Freer. She had some simple tips for healthy eating and the way I understood it, I should, stop eating sugar, eat far less bread and pasta and don’t eat processed foods. She has a book out which, I read that gives far more details: <img src="/images/postPics/amelia.jpg"> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LKWWFAU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o09?ie=UTF8&psc=1">Eat. Nourish. Glow. By Amelia Freer</a> After reading the book and listening to the pod cast, I really wanted to try the new life style. I did not want this to be a new diet, it wasn’t, diets don’t work, they imply there is an end at which you can start eating what you ate before. That just defeats the object, I wanted this to be a life change and it was, I am still eating in the same style now. I cut out sugar and milk in my coffee, I stopped eating bread and pasta and I mostly eat whole foods. I do still eat meat but instead of the meat being the main ingredient, it has no more importance than what is on the rest of the plate. There are some meals I don’t have any meat at all. I have realised it the nutrients that are important and high nutrient to calorie ratio is very important. This is especially true for someone like me who is training 12+ hours per week. Nutrients help maintain my stamina and strength as well as helping recovery. Meat is very low in nutrients but very high in calories, this is not ideal and there are much better alternatives. That being said, I do like meat and I will continue to eat it. Since march 2020 when I weighed in at 92kg, I have been living this life style and I now consistently weigh 80kg. This goes up and down slightly, depending on the amount of training I am doing. However, I lost the majority of this weight without extra training, I just changed the way I ate, did the same training and the weight simply dropped off. I use to think food had very little to do with weight loss and it was how much you trained; how wrong I was.

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Can Anyone See the Wind?

Some positive news in this week’s blog, I now have access to a swimming pool! Due to my line of work and the requirement to keep fit, I have been given access to the swimming pool on site at work. I have to book in advance and only 6 people are allowed in the building at one time, this includes the two life guards, but I have a swimming pool! I went for my first swim on Friday and had to decide what session to do. I went back through my training a chose a recovery swim from a couple of weeks ago. It consisted of a warm up, a pyramid of freestyle and pull combinations, then a cool down. About 2 kilometres in total. It was so good to get back in the pool, it broke up the monotony of just the bike and run. My swim fitness has suffered though, I could comfortably sit at 1 minute 50 seconds per 100 meters, I swam an average of a 2 minutes pace on Friday. I hope this will improve as I home in my technique with drills and improve my swim fitness. My plan for the swim now is to do another week of ‘acclimatisation’, a fitness test, then try to jump back into the sessions currently set out. I will assess the impact this has on me and adjust from there. But it’s exciting I now have a pool! I do still have access to the rowing machines and I did manage to do a few sessions instead of the swim over the last couple of weeks, before the pool become available. The sessions were hard, maybe a little too hard and I managed to acquire some quite big blisters on my hands which, are still uncomfortable now. I am glad I don’t have to bother with them anymore.  In my last post, I did mention that I wanted to get out and explore so, I decided to get out and do one of my favourite rides from 2019. This is a ride I have only done once before and I thought it was a good place to start. The route starts with 20 miles of rolling hills and a lot of climbing then, there’s a fast 5-mile downhill section, followed by a 22-mile flat ride by the coast. A really rewarding ride.   <img src="/images/postPics/coast.jpg"> The only problem was that this time I did it, I had to contend with the wind. Last time the 22-mile flat session by the coast was a really rewarding fast section. This time, it was a really hard slog against the wind. On that road I can average 20 mph without trying. This time with the wind, I was averaging 14 mph, if I was lucky. I know the wind is part and parcel of cycling but this spoiled what had been a really good ride. It’s just sole destroying and it took all the fun out of the ride for me. The session didn’t get any better there. I had a half hour run after the ride which, is fine. But on this occasion, after 20 minutes, I got stomach cramps and really need to use the toilet. With Covid restrictions, no public toilets were available and I was a half hour away from home. Don’t worry I didn’t leave a deposit in a bush somewhere; I just had a very uncomfortable ride home. I made it back, this time. <img style='float: none;' src="/images/postPics/larne_downhill.jpg"> This bout of stomach cramp however, was the start of a fever for me that wiped me out for 48 hours. I had aches and pains all over, cold sweats and a blinding headache. Maybe a bit of flu? Whatever it was, it made me miss my long run on the Sunday and really annoyingly, my first swim session. I was just not up to it. I did do a few sessions later on in the week I maybe should have thought twice about doing. In hind sight I should have given these sessions a miss and rested. But training is training.  All is well now and I am back in the full swing of things.

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The Proof is in the Pudding

Two weeks have gone by since my last post and I am, at last, starting to see some gains. I can now physically see changes in my body, my training sessions are improving and I’ve just had my third fitness test week, which was a great success. I said in my last post that I had access to a swimming pool. The first full week I had access to it… it was shut. Not enough life guards apparently. On the upside I have been able to do some swims this week, which was a big relief. The timing was actually really good as, this week has been a recovery and fitness test week. The first swim session was a nice an easy recovery session. This let my find my stroke again. The second session was actually a fitness test. This gave me a great opportunity to reassess my swimming zones so, the next swim sessions should be more beneficial. These fitness tests come around every six or seven weeks and are a great way to keep my training up-to-date with my personal fitness level. The tests assess my threshold pace, heart rate and power. These fingers are then used to update my zones. If the numbers are better the zones get harder and vice versa. The first test was the threshold running test. This consisted of a 30-minute best effort with a warm up and cool down either side. Last time I did this in February, I was a little disappointed and only improved my threshold pace by 1 second. I hoped for a much better result this time round I set out to complete the run fitness test. I started the 30-minute best effort and I was feeling really good, my pace was close to 6-minute miles. Feeling strong I carried on and after 20-minutes or so I was still close to 6:30 minute miles. I was more than happy with this and I knew I could quite easily keep it up, if not improve towards the end. Then disaster struck. I got stomach cramps and the overwhelming urge to go to the toilet. I soldiered on as best as I could in the predicament, but I could see the pace dropping. With about 2-minutes to go, I put a stop to the test. I was nearly walking and it was not a true reflection of my abilities. The cramps ruined what could have been a really good effort by myself but I decided to take the results as they were. This was a recovery week and doing the test again without knowing how much I could improve, I thought was just not worth it. Training has been hard recently and I needed the rest. Even with the hiccup, I’ve actually been able to see all the effort pay off. I improved my threshold pace from 6:57 to 6:41 minute per mile, a massive 16 seconds. I am over the moon with this. I did think that my run sessions were becoming a little easy. This new setting should now keep me on my toes. I managed to record a threshold heart rate pace of 175 bpm; similar to what I had before. So, all in all a great success for the first test. Things got even better from there. Next was the cycle threshold test. This was a 20-minute best effort with a warm up and cool down either side. I had toyed with the idea of doing the test out on the road. This would enable me to get an idea of the power I should be achieving out on the road. But I decided to go with consistency. I had done the test on the turbo for both tests in the past so, I was doing it on the turbo again. I was feeling really strong for this test, I had just had a full day off beforehand. I started the test a little conservative, but quickly realised I was feeling very good. Before I knew it, I was hitting wattage above 300. I didn’t even think I was capable of this. I didn’t slack off either. I managed to keep the wattage hovering around 280 to 310. The last 5-minutes were hard though, very hard. I think this was maybe more psychological than physical. <img src="/images/postPics/hillview.jpg"> The results were in. I achieved a functional threshold power setting of 281 watts. This is a huge jump from 252 watts; an increase of 29 watts! As you can probably imagine, I am unbelievably happy with this. It is my highest FTP that I have ever recorded! Finally, it was time for the swim. This test involved a 400-meter best effort, a 5-minute recovery swim, then a 200-meter best effort. This was done with a warm up, a small swim session and cool down either side. I didn’t really know what to expect from the swim. I was immensely disappointed with the result I got in January. Then I just had a goal of getting under 7-minutes for 400 meters; I achieved 6 minutes 59 seconds. I achieved what I wanted but, I know I am better than this. The only excuse I had was that I was still a little hungover from New Year. I got to the cold pool in the early morning and did the test. To be honest, it was a bit of a blare. I remember just trying to push as much as I could. I really did want to improve on the test at Xmas. The effort paid off; I did improve. I managed to swim a 6 minute 41 seconds 400-meter and a 3 minute 13 seconds 200-meter. This was more like it. I am definitely fitter now than I was in January, but it just goes to show the impact alcohol has on performance. I am content with this result considering I haven’t really done any swims since Xmas. My plan now is to jump straight into the planned swim sessions with the current zones given by the test I have done this week. All I can do is see how it goes. If it becomes too hard or starts to impact my other training sessions, I will just lower the intensity and slowly build it back up. I will, of course, keep you informed. Test week is now complete. I will see how I cope with the impact of the new zones over the next couple of weeks. I am on the whole really happy with my improvements. The proof really is in the pudding!

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All the Gear, No Idea

p>With the Covid restrictions lowering across the U.K, I have managed to book myself onto a standard triathlon. I plan on using this as a training race, just to make sure I remember how transitions work, get used to the race environment and get used to competitive open water swim part. However, my current wetsuit has a hole in the arm pit and my tri-suit has seen one too many races. With this I have decided to splash out and buy new ones. But what do you buy? There are so many suits out there. <img src="/images/postPics/sunburn.jpg"> I started with the tri-suit. I was looking in the price range of £100-£200, which I would assume would give me a decent suit. My current tri-suit is a 2XU armless suit. This is great, no chance of chaffing, but the issue I had was the sunburn. In Hamburg and in Bolton, my last two Ironmans, I suffered from sunburn. Bolton gave me a horrible vest tan than took an obscene amount of time to go away and in Hamburg, I got some very nasty blisters from the sunburn. <img src="/images/postPics/trisuit.jpg"> I’m guessing, like most people do, I started by checking the multiple lists of best triathlon suits. I really like the 2XU suit and was pulled towards that brand. I looked through the lists and got my list down to three. This was based on the review from different sites and user reviews. (Also, a little to do with money…) The first one was, the <a href="https://www.wiggle.co.uk/2xu-performfullzip-sleeved-trisuit-1?utm_source=affiliate-window&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=Skimlinks&utm_term=Skimlinks&utm_content=Sub+Networks&sv_campaign_id=78888&sv_tax1=affiliate&sv_tax2=5425%7C5509%7C159115&sv_tax3=Skimlinks&sv_tax4=220triathlon.com&sv_affiliate_id=78888&awc=1857_1619280633_cb6a1ea79f2cf43066e1b586c38ca773">2XU Perform Suit</a>, the second, the <a href="https://mytriathlon.co.uk/zone3-lava-short-sleeve-trisuit-mens-2020/">Zone3 Lava Suit</a> and the third, the <a href="https://www.wiggle.co.uk/2xu-comp-full-zip-sleeved-trisuit-2?sku=103258429">2XU Compression Suit</a>. I’ll just add the pricing from when I bought mine is different to what it is now. I’d read that the 2XU compression suit was a good choice for long course distances, with that and the pricing at the time, I decided to go with the compression suit. Sizing can be an issue with these suits. I went for a medium and I think I go lucky; it is a really nice fit. <img src="/images/postPics/wetsuit.jpg"> Next was the wet-suit. This was the harder of the two, I mean where do you start? The brackets are budget, anything up to £250, mid-range, between £250-£500 and the top end, which can be over a grand. I had a browse at all the ranges and found that I would be best suited in the mid-range group. The wet-suit I have at the minute is a Zone3 suit and I really like it. It gives me good buoyancy and is comfortable. The suits I actually wanted were a little out of my price range. I had looked at the <a href="https://www.wiggle.co.uk/huub-varman-35-wetsuit?utm_source=affiliate-window&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=Skimlinks&utm_term=Skimlinks&utm_content=Sub+Networks&sv_campaign_id=78888&sv_tax1=affiliate&sv_tax2=5425%7C5509%7C159115&sv_tax3=Skimlinks&sv_tax4=220triathlon.com&sv_affiliate_id=78888&awc=1857_1619281688_e49eb1630d6c90dfbe948a5841d36556">Huub Varman Suit</a> and the <a href="https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Orca/38-Wetsuit/LS3S?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&co=GBR&cu=GBP&glCountry=GB&id=1016205">Orca 3.8 Suit</a>. But the end I ended up going with the <a href="https://www.wiggle.co.uk/zone3-mens-aspire-wetsuit-1?sku=101831606">Zone3 Aspire Suit</a>. The price was in my range, it has good reviews and I was impressed with my last suit from the same brand. Again, sizing was an issue, I toyed with medium, medium tall and medium large. They were all so close to each other. Doing some further research and reading I decided to go with the medium tall. I, luckily had chosen right again. It is a snug fit but I am happy. I’m not going to lie this week has been hard. Going from the recovery week into a full-on week with swimming, which I’m not used to; it hurt. I have decided to pick up the swim sessions from the plan as they are without any sort of build-up. This may have been a mistake, the two sessions I had this week have been hard. I also got called to have the Covid vaccine, which absolutely knocked me for six, making the weekend bike and run a lot harder than they should have been. The first swim session this week was more of an endurance session. I covered 3.4k but the last couple of 200-meter efforts were in zone 3. This caught me off guard after a much longer session than I’m used to. The second session was a threshold session. It was a lot shorter at 2.4k, but the main set was all in Z4. This was hard. I am going to crack on with the swims as they are and hopefully, they will get easier. I will keep an eye on my performance in other areas though and make sure there is no negative effects. I got a phone call early this week to get my Covid vaccine. I was actually happy about this as it could make travelling easier. We are planning on traveling to Estonia via air travel. At the moment with the travel restriction and Covid, I don’t know what will be required to enable us to fly. I when in for the vaccine on the Thursday which was good because Friday is my rest day. I needed that rest day. I felt like I was hungover all day, I just had no energy to do anything. This carried out on to the Saturday. <img src="/images/postPics/view.jpg"> On Saturday I was feeling a little better, but I had a 4-hour ride and a half hour run to complete. I set off feeling a little less than my usual self. With about an hour left to go on the run, my heart rate started to go up, and I started to feel really week. This wasn’t helped by the head wind that I was experiencing on the way back. I just had no power in my legs. I was pushing out about 140 watts; were I normally push at least 170 watts. I just made for a miserable last part of the ride. For the run after that transition, I just gritted my teeth and got on with it. It was only half an hour after all.

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What a Difference a Bike Makes...

My training plan has given me a well-deserved rest week this week. Training has been ramping up and the intensity is now starting to get hard. Finding the time to get training sessions in around work and home life is starting to get slightly harder as the length of the sessions increase. The weekend rides are slowly transitioning from being really fun and enjoyable to more of a ‘let’s just get this over and done with’. So, a recovery week right now is ideal. But don’t get me wrong I’m still training, it’s just the length and intensity of the sessions have decreased. Some exciting news for me this week, as I’ve managed to get myself booked on to a couple of triathlons. I have an Olympic distance tri this weekend and a half distance Ironman at the end of June. The Olympic distance tri is a 1500m swim, a 25-mile (40k) bike and a 10k run. This will be my first Olympic tri believe it or not so I don’t really know what to expect timing wise. I think I will be happy with anything under 2 and half hours. The half distance Ironman is 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1-mile run. For my last half I got 5-hour 28-minutes. So basically, anything under 5 and half hours and I’ll be happy. For my long ride last week, I had a 4-hour 20-minute ride followed by a half hour run. The only problem was that the weather was horrendous. If you have read my previous posts, you’ll know I did a 3-hour plus turbo session due to weather a few months ago. The prospect of doing that again did not appeal to me at all. Due to this, I decided to brave the rain and wind and go out regardless. Things did not go well. Only 20-minutes in the ride, my chain had come off and got stuck in the pedals. With the force I was peddling with, I had managed to twist a chain link. With no tools to fix the issue, I tried to carry on. Bad idea. Every time the twisted link came round it forced a gear change. Essentially the bike was unrideable. I turned around and nursed it home. This left me with the awful prospect of spending 3 and half hours plus on the turbo, only this time, I had nothing set up to watch. I got back quickly, transitioned to the turbo and started the slog. I had been watching a TV series called ‘Humans’, luckily this was all setup on the laptop and all I had to do was press play. So, I sat there pedalling away for just over 3 and half hours. I did have to get off and have a little walk about a couple of times, to give to rear end a bit of a rest bite. I really don’t know how some people manage it week in week out. Staying on the turbo for that long is not for me and I will not be doing it again. Unless of course, another situation like this comes up... <img src="/images/postPics/turbo2.jpg"> Luckily for me my bike was just about to go in for a service and I only had one short ride on my back up bike. But what a difference a bike makes! On the same route I can easily average about 18 mph. On my backup bike, which is an entry level bike, I could only manage just under 16 mph. This is the one thing that annoys me about triathlon and cycling in general. If you are competing, the quality of your bike makes a big difference on performance. Take two people who have the same power output, one on my backup entry level bike and one on my midrange Canyon Endurance bike. The guy on the Canyon wins. <img src="/images/postPics/trees.jpg"> What this boils down to is money. It’s as simple as that. The more money you plough into your bike, the quicker you go. Two people with the same physical abilities can have vastly different results all because of the money spent on the bike. It’s not like running or swimming, both of which, for the most part are based on physically ability. I hate it when I get over-taken by someone riding a top of the range tri bike. Yes, they might actually be better than me but the frustration is still there. What gets me even more is the fact that the bike is longest part of the Ironman. Spend money to do better.

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First Tri of the Year

I have finally managed to complete a triathlon, albeit with some Covid restrictions. I had signed up for the Dorney Olympic distance triathlon and it went ahead last week. Working out my possible timings for each discipline, I said to myself I would be happy with any time under 2-hours and 30-minutes. So let’s see how I did… It was an early start, I had to travel an hour and half to get to the triathlon and had to be there at about half 6 in the morning. This meant an eye watering quarter to five wake up time for a quick breaky and coffee then the drive to Dorney. I had packed my things the night before. I have to visualise what I’m wearing at every stage on the race just to make sure I don’t forget anything. My packing list for the triathlon was as follows: <ul> <li>Wetsuit</li> <li>Swim goggle’s</li> <li>Swim hat (just in-case)</li> <li>Swim ear protection</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Tri suit</li> <li>Race belt</li> <li>Talc</li> <li>Towel</li> <li>Vaseline</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Helmet</li> <li>Gloves warm</li> <li>Gloves cycling</li> <li>Cycle glasses</li> <li>Socks - pre talc’d</li> <li>Cycle shoes</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Bike computer</li> <li>Water bottles</li> <li>Bike lights</li> <li>Saddle bag</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Carb drink</li> <li>Carb bar</li> <li>Gel</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Run shoes</li> <li>Run jacket</li> </ul> Some of these items were extra items put on the list just in case they were needed. I got to the event, registered and headed towards the transition area. After the quick mandatory helmet check and the check of my race number I was allowed into transition. I racked my bike and laid my bike and run kit neatly next to it. I then visualised the way in and out of transition for the swim to bike and then the bike to run. I have done triathlons before and when it comes to it, I have not known where to go or in fact where my bike was in relation to the swim exit. So, it has become a ritual of mine to make sure I know. After this I got my wet suit on and I was ready for the start. The 1500-meter swim was first. I had been told the water temperature was a chilly 13.5 degrees Celsius. Because of Covid it was more like a time trial start rather than a mass start which, was fine with me. It meant less hustling for position and more actual swimming. I slid into the water and set off. I swam really hard for the first 100 to 200 meters and didn’t realise how cold it was until it was too late. I now was out of breath from swimming to hard and had a delayed shortness of breath due to the cold water. I couldn’t put my head under the water any more. I started to panic a little, I had an overwhelming feeling that I didn’t want to be in the water. I took a condor moment to try and calm down and pretended to fix my goggles. I got over taken by the person behind me. This didn’t work and the panic got a little worse. I stopped again, then started doing breast stroke. I got over taken again. At this point I had a little chat with myself. I’m a fairly strong swimmer, it was a little cold, I was in a race and doing breast stroke. What was I playing at? I started back with the front crawl, starting with a breath every stroke. Then I did a breath every 2 strokes and after a while I started back in my normal rhythm of a breath every three strokes. There was a buoy rope line just under the water guiding the way. I latched onto this and before I knew it, I was at home again. I swam hard. Open water is my favourite discipline and I was a little annoyed at myself. It didn’t take me long to regain my first lost position, then at half way I retook my second position. In the end I over took about 4 swimmers. I was swimming hard. I came out of the water with a respectable 23-minutes 39-seconds. I came out of the water and straight into transition. My hands were really cold so transition took me a little longer than I wanted but I made it out in a slow 3 minutes onto the 40k bike ride. I felt fairly strong for the first part of the bike. However, I had done my normal training the day before which was a 4-hour 20-minute ride and that ride just happened to be a hard hilly route. Due to this, after a while my legs and hips started to feel the strain. I pushed on regardless, as I always do and tried to maintain a steady pace. I kept my heart rate in zone 2, sipped my carb drink at regular intervals and didn’t really push too hard. The last thing I needed was an injury or to ‘bonk’. The bike route was not all that interesting, it was 8 laps around a loop near the lake. One thing it did have was it was fairly flat. I came off the bike in 1-hour and 7-minutes. Into transition for the final time and my hands were still cold so, causing me to have another transition time. That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it. I couldn’t do up my laces on my running shoes because of the lack of dexterity in my fingers. T2 took me a time-consuming 2 minutes. Out on the final part of the triathlon, a 10K run. I felt surprisingly strong on the run. I set off at a blistering quick (for me anyway) 6:30 minute miles. I then settled at 6:50 minute miles. The first 5k was fairly easy, then I dropped my energy gel out of my tri-suit. I think this probably had a mental effect on me because the last 5k was hard.  I maintained the pace but mentally it was pretty tough. I finished the run in 40-minute 8-seconds. Extremely close to a PB for me. There are several things I will take away from this event onto my half ironman at the end of June. First, I need to calm down on the first part of the swim. I need to get my bearings and acclimatise myself to the temperature. Second, I need to buy some elastic laces, tying shoe laces with cold hands is too hard and slow. Finally, I need to think about training the day before. Either rearrange my training to have a day off before or make my route easier, I just need to be fresh to get the most out of the race. <img src="/images/postPics/time_sheet.jpg"> My total time was 02:16:55. I was over the moon with this. Considering I had done a hard session the day before, this time was well under the time I expected. It just goes to show that all that training is paying off!

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The hardest Week, Made Harder

After the success of my triathlon a couple of weeks ago, I am now challenged with the hardest week of the training plan. I chose a medium plan this time so, the intensity is not as high as I’ve had in previous plans. The peak week I’ve just had was just under 15 hours in total. The difference with this plan however is the difficulty of the speed workouts during the week. The week started with a long pool swim on the Monday and my first problem. It has just been a bank holiday and all the local pools were shut. In the past when this has happened, I’ve signed up for a trial at a gym with a pool. I go to the gym ‘try out the pool’ and decide it’s not for me after getting my session in. With Covid this time round, I found this harder than I expected. My next option was open water swimming. Luckily for me the weather was ideal and the open water place I normally go to was open. I got my session in. After this was the two speed sessions. One on the bike and one running. Both of these have been hard in previous weeks, this week was no different. The change however, was the fact that the sessions were now at there longest. The sessions were basically a long interval session with very little rest. I was working really hard on both the bike and the run for about 55 minutes each time. These sessions were hard. Towards the end of both sessions, you can see from the power/pace output that was struggling to maintain the required goal. But I made it through to the end and completed both sessions. On the Thursday of this hard week, I found out I had been promoted a work. This put me in a great mood and the two sessions I had that day, a high-power low cadence bike session and an interval swim session, went surprisingly well. The down side of this promotion was the inevitable celebration drinks on the Friday. This posed an issue for me as I had the long bike and run over the weekend. So I didn’t have to do the long bike hungover on the Saturday, I organised an early finish at work on the Friday and did it then. I felt really strong on the bike and completed the 4-hour 50-minute ride feeling very happy with myself. I had a 20-minute run straight after which went just as well. I had the drinks Friday night and lasted the whole night waking up the next morning feeling so much better than I expected. I don’t know if was due to the increased fitness, the large amount of water I consumed or just good luck but I didn’t complain. Sunday came and I completed my 2 and half hour run feeling like I could have easily carried on. For what was billed as a really hard week, I felt quite confident and strong. Next week is a recovery/fitness test week. This is the last fitness test I will do before I complete the Ironman. I will be excited to see if I have improved since last time.

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A Mediocre Test Week

So, this week I have had my final test week of the training plan. This means the Ironman is now only 8 weeks away. A little nervous tension is building. This last time I attempted an Ironman in Hamburg, the weather got me and I ended up in hospital. I just hope this doesn’t happen again. The test week didn’t help with mixed results… First up was the bike fitness test. As with the other tests, this was a warm up, a 20-minute best effort, then a cool down. Last week’s training was hard and had taken its toll on me. Although I had a day to recover, my legs still felt week. I did the test and did improve but only by 5 watts, from 271 watts to 276 watts function threshold power. I felt fine in a cardiovascular view point but my legs were heavy. Not disappointed but not over the moon. From the bike test I was on to the run test. Again, this followed the same format. I had a 30-minute best effort section to make it count. I struggled with this, actually going backwards not forward. I went from 6:41 min/mile to 6:48 min/mile. As you can imagine I was disappointed. There were multiple reasons that could have caused the result, fatigue from the previous week, I did the test too early in the morning, I had no food beforehand… Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. I took it on the chin but it made me think, this is how it can go on the day. If I have a bad day or don’t get things quite right, not enough sleep, not the right food, bad race nutrition, the weather being too hot, I’ll have a bad race. I need to be on top of my game and control everything I can. The last test was the swim. A 400-meter best effort then a 200-meter best effort. I got 6-minutes 22-seconds for the 400-meter best effort and improvement of 21-seconds. For the 200-meter I got 3-minutes 2-seconds, an improvement of 11-seconds. This was the best result of the 3 tests and it put me on a high for the end of the week. I am so happy my swimming is coming on so much, especially with the dire start to the training, with the pools being shut due to COVID. With test week done, I have my final race next week, a half Ironman distance race in Cheshire England. I am really looking forward to this race.

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Cholmondeley Half

My final race week has arrived. I was excited and nervous for this race. This would be my final race before the big day to make sure I knew what I was doing. My ‘loose’ aim for this race was to come in at just under 5-hours 30-mintues. My personal best time being 5:28. I had one dilemma with this week, it wasn’t planned and I had a 5 hour ride the day before the race. The training plan FAQs state if this is the case, then only do half of this ride. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to get all my training as well as the race. So, I decided to change my training plan up a little and do the long ride on the Thursday and push my day off to the Saturday. This worked quite well ish… I planned an 84-mile ride for the Thursday with a few hills for good measure. What I didn’t realise was that the ‘few hills’ were significantly harder, steeper and more frequent than I’d planned for. This was a really hard ride. It took me 20-minutes longer to complete than I planned. The hills were relentless and I was shattered after. My legs were shot. Not great news for the race in a couple of days. <img src="/images/postPics/hilly_ride.jpg"> Race day came and I was nervous, the lady at check-in even noted I looked nervous. Hopefully I won’t be as bad in Tallinn for the real thing. The location for the day was beautiful. It was based around Cholmondeley castle and the weather was ideal, not to hot but not cold either. The swim was a 1.9 mile lake swim, the bike a 56-mile hilly route around Cholmondeley and the half marathon run took us around the castle grounds. <img src="/images/postPics/swim_half.jpg"> I was aiming for an ambitus 30-minute swim. They set us off I a time trail manner every 10 seconds. There was no placing on swim times, it was just a free-for-all. This didn’t really bother me. With the gaps, there would be plenty of room. Due to the size of the lake, we had to do 2 laps of the swim course. If I started the second lap within 15 to 16 minutes I would happy. I started and took it fairly easy. I didn’t go as hard as my last Olympic distance tri but I was trying. There was no panicking this time, I had taken the first 400-meters or so easy. I got out for my second lap and I was on 17-minutes, not great. I tried pretty hard on my second lap but to no avail. I didn’t get my target time and came in at 34-minutes 56-seconds. Not horrendous but slower than I’d like. <img src="/images/postPics/bike_half.jpg"> After a quick 3-mintue transition, which included a 200-meter run, I was out on the bike. I knew the course was hilly so I had prepared for a slow-ish bike. Anything under 3-hours 30-minutes and I would be happy. The route was, what turned out to be, a very quick 3 laps around Cholmondeley. The first half of the lap was a lot of downhill and the last half had 3 fairly hard hills. These hills were short and sharp, which meant they didn’t affect average speed too much. I was completing each lap in around an hour. On the first 2 laps I had been head to head with another acer and on the final lap we had a bike of a chat about the race. I got the feeling he was really trying to beat me. This was all I needed to up my game. I really tried on the last lap and ended up coming in off the bike in 3-hours and 2-mintues. I was over the moon. <img src="/images/postPics/run_half.jpg"> Another quick 1-minute transition and I was out on the run. Before working out what kind of time I was aiming for, I just wanted to find my feet and settle into the run. After a while I was maintaining about 8 min/mile and I realised I was on for beating my PB. I felt good, so I stepped up the pace and ended up finishing the run in 1:43. I was really happy with this and it meant I had beat my PB by 3-minutes. I came in at 5:25. Happy

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The End is Near!

So, I’m in my last week. All the training is done now and I can’t change anything. This last week is a huge taper to the race on Saturday. All the hard work has been done and I just have to turn up at the start line and try hard my hardest. After already completing one Ironman and attempting another, I know just how hard it is; I’m nervous. In the last month I’ve been playing around with nutrition on the long brick sessions (bike then run). I have decided to go for more of a real food plan. Previously I have alternated between an energy bar, an energy gel and Cliff Blocks. This was fine but on my long after the bike, I have struggled with gastro issues and started to feel sick. So, I decided a change was in order. Now I am going to alternate between an energy bar and a small bag full of a new potato, a Soreen slice, dates and dried bananas. This has worked well for me. On the run I am just going to have a camel back with energy drink in it and take water from the aid stations. I have found dehydration on the run hits me hard and I need to keep a strong eye on it, to the point where I now have set alarms to remind me to drink. I am hoping all these measures will work well for me on race day. My personal goal for this race is to get under 12-hours. To do this I need to be swimming the 2.4 miles in under 1-hour and 20-mins, to do the 112-mile bike in under 6-hour 30-mins and finally complete the 26.2-mile run in under 4-hours. For me the is a huge ask. My long runs have been slow and I’m scared this will let me down come race day. Stopping dehydration will be a big part of my game plan. I am under no illusion this race will be hard. Nervous tension is building. All I can do, is my best… <img src="/images/postPics/sun rise.jpg">

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Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy

The day has finally arrived and gone. I have completed my Ironman in Tallinn, all 140.6 miles of it. So, after all my training, how did I do? The day started at 03:30 in the morning for a healthy breakfast of toast, and muesli with natural yogurt rounded off with a cheeky coffee. We set off to make our way to catch the bus, which would take us to the start at 04:30. The race would start at 06:30 but before that I had to make sure my bike was fine, giving it, a final check and I had to get my wetsuit on. The weather forecast for the day was grim. 19 mile per hour winds, heavy rain and chance of thunder storms. A hard day had just been made harder. Before I knew it, was time to race. The 2.4-mile swim was first. This is a long swim and I’d learnt from my practice races not to go out so quickly. Pacing is incredibly important on an Ironman. Go out to hard, to early and the end of the race will be even more painful. I took it fairly easy all the way round the swim. I had a few close calls with people swimming into me but on the whole, it was a steady swim. I came out of the water at 1:14:59. I wanted under 1:20:00 so that was the first job done. <img src="/images/postPics/tallinn_swim.jpg"> Into transition 1 and it had started to rain. My swim to bike gear was pretty wet. It took what felt like an age to get my wetsuit and my bike gear on. I did manage it in 00:5:45 and I was off on the bike. The bike was a 2-lap course of 112-mile. I felt strong on the first half of the bike and made pretty good time. I had a strong tail wind for the first half of the lap and a strong head wind on the second. The head wind was hard to deal with, Tallinn in places is very open and on the bike with the strong 19 mile per hour wind, I got blown about a lot. I stuck to my race plan, paced myself well, ate every half hour or so and drank a lot of fluids. I had to stop for 3 toilet breaks on the ride but I knew I needed the fluids in me for the run. I somehow managed to maintain a decent speed on the first lap, but on the second the weather came in. The bike route in normal conditions is a fast route but on race day it was hard. I finally came into to T2 finishing the bike in 06:05:31. <img src="/images/postPics/tallinn_bike.jpg"> I was in and out of T2 pretty quickly but nature called again and this time it was a slightly longer break but it did give me a little time to do a time check. I was on just over 7 and half hours into the race leaving me with 4 and a half hours to complete the 26.2-mile marathon. Getting under 12 hours was a real possibility!! The run was a 4 lap, 26.2-mile route around Tallinn city centre. I started the run far to quickly. I struggled adjusting the cadence from the bike to the run. I needed 10-minute miles to do just over 4-hours 20-mintues for the marathon, which would easily bring me in under 12-hours. I was running 8-minutes 20-seconds per mile for most of the first lap. My legs did finally adjust and I started running 10-minute miles, for a while at least. I got through the first two laps ok. I was hurting but it was ok. From past experience, I knew the third lap was the hardest. I was mentally prepared for this. That doesn’t mean it was easy. I just kept thinking about the 12-hour goal and I was constantly batting away the strong urge to stop. This lap was tough. Seeing family and friends who were supporting me helped a lot. I had gone down to between 11 and 12-minute miles. But because of the fast first lap, I was still on course. At the start of the final lap, I had 1-hour 15-minutes to get under 12-hours. 1-hour 15-minutes to complete 6 and a half miles. I had fantasied about being in this position, I thought it would be a dream position to be in. In reality, I struggled to work out how I was going to do it. My legs were shot, I was in so much pain and I was slowly checking out mentally. I stayed as strong as I could, I had to. It is unlikely I’ll ever do this again. So, it was now or never. I got my head down and just pushed as hard as I could. I was so happy that I had paced the bike and swim well, it now gave me what I needed; just. The last lap was a bit of a blur. I just gave it everything. Half way though the lap and the timings were tight, very tight. I got to the last mile and half and I had just under 20-minutes to go. Easy right..? Not so much. My head was down and I was running as fast as my body would allow… <img src="/images/postPics/tallinn_run.jpg"> Emotions were high as I crossed the finish line. I had give it absolutely everything. There was nothing left. I didn’t know straight away if I had done it. I was in a daze and I didn’t really know what was going on. Then I just heard my sister shouting at me that I had done it. I checked my watch and it said 11:58:35. Wow! I had done it. The effort was worth it! This race was hard and until you do it, I think it’s difficult to understand just how hard. The emotion and feeling on crossing that finish line is indescribable. It’s taken me three attempts to succeed. I’m just happy, this part of my life goals has now finally been ticked off. <img src="/images/postPics/tallinn_cert.jpg"> Nothing worth having comes easy!

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