Ironman Mark

Here’s the route I did today…

Run – Sun 17012010

Which is a bit strange really seeing that I am not running properly yet.  I managed to get a place from someone who can’t do it any more (race rules allow substitutes).  As my running is improving, I thought I might as well give it a go.  I was planning on entering when more slots went on 3 August but that idea went bad when my calf did.

Today’s run went well.  I did 20 laps of the gym’s outdoor track.  This is marked as being 322m long (one-fifth of a mile) but I think it is wrong as I averaged 4:37 per km (7:25 per mile).  I was running at a moderate pace and after a bit of a warm up I was consistently coming in at 1:26 to 1:27 per lap.  That 4:29 per km pace!  So I think that the track is a little, well a lot, shorter than 322m.

By way of comparison about 6 years ago I had a go at leaning to run and got to the stage where I could run 3 miles in 33 minutes.  So 4 miles in less than 30 minutes is quite good!

It is just over three weeks since I tore my calf muscle. After seeing the physio for the third time last week I have been given some weights to do and been told I can do a little running!

So I have.  I’ve been three times over the last four days: 10 minutes really slow.  Then 11 minutes slow/easy and today 20 minutes easy/moderate.  No pain.  But my left calf still feels strange.  It doesn’t move easily and feels like it has lost its smoothness.  The first run I really worried about the feeling but today I just accepted it and concentrated on moving my leg properly rather than letting it take a lazy short cut.

So, hopefully, I am starting to get better.

Yesterday the taper started a bit more.  I did a four hour bike ride “easy” and stopped for a bacon roll and a chat at the lake.  It rained a few times and was really windy.  But I felt confident in the wind.  I also did a 20 min easy run off the bike and my legs felt really good.  A little strange but no where near what it feels like to run after I have done a long ride, putting in a “hard” effort over the last hour.

After the run, I took the dogs for a walk.  Then went to a forest with the son and one of his friends.  They enjoyed it, especially when we found this animal sunbathing!

It’s a slow worm.  It looks a bit like a snake but is actually a legless lizard.  One of the great things about having a phone nowadays is that we can take a photo of it and also check the internet to see what it is – “looks like a slow worm – oh, that’s a lizard – has it got eye lids – yes – definitely a slow worm – look at its tail, a bit less pointy than a snake – oh, the tail comes off if a predator catches it – wow”.  Then two minutes later some other people walk up the path and the kids are all knowledgeable – “look a slow worm, it’s not a snake…”

Today I’ve got a 90 minute easy run planned.  I like this taper business.  But I can’t wait to just go out for a run in the country side with the dogs, not caring how long or what intensity I run for.

Not yet, well may be tomorrow.  It’s two weeks tomorrow to Lanza and I have a five hour ride planned followed by a 40 min run.  Then Sunday is a two hour interval run.  So no sign of a taper yet.  Well actually Tuesday is a little easier than last week (swim is 5 mins longer but run is 21 mins shorter).  I was expecting a day or two of rest days in the taper next week but the first “OFF” day in the programme is two days before the race.  And I am convinced that is only because that’s the day I travel to Lanza.

I am feeling good and confident about things.  Bike is going to be serviced on Wednesday so I hope that goes well.  Only problem is the continuous feeling of tiredness.  I know that is going to be sorted soon though…

Sleep.

I am so tired at the moment.  I sleep really well when I sleep but have been getting to bed too late (after a late training session, it takes me a while to settle) or being woken up in the middle of the night by one of the dogs barking.  Today, I felt completely shattered.  Not good.

Training has been going well even though work is doing its best to make things difficult.  Highlights of the weekend were a 2hr 30 min run on Saturday and a 5 hour bike ride on Sunday.  The last hour on the bike felt really hard.   Next week will be a 6 hour bike and a 2 hour run.  I am probably going to go to Sherborne to re-ride the old ironman UK course to see how I am doing.

I have noticed a difference at the end of the long run compared with a long bike.  At the end of the run, if I sit down it is quite hard to get back up and my legs ache big time for ages.  At the end of a long bike, I am very, very tired and achy.  But after 5 minutes or so I feel fine (if a little tired!). 

I’ve been thinking about Lanzarote and what might happen.  So one day soon I will write down my race plan.  That will help me think things through and get my head straight.

I ache big time.  My legs and shoulders.  No idea what I did to my shoulders, it may have been the swim on Friday but I don’t think so. 

The legs are suffering because of last night’s run.  For various reasons, yesterday’s long bike became a long run.  I started some time after 7pm and so it was very dark on the unlit “fit track” when I finished.  I did the same route as last week but changed the pacing.  Last week was a negative split run.  Yesterday was 5 min intervals, with 1 min easy recovery.  I worked much harder and ran quicker overall (5 minutes quicker for the same route).

So this morning, I have to do my long bike.  It has to be a point-to-point ride which means that I can’t just tack a bit on to last week’s ride.  If I took the shortest route to “Point B” on the south coast, it would be about 52k.  However, a five hour ride means that I have to do something like 135k.   So I’ve been playing with maps this morning and have worked out that I am going to take a slight detour and go via Salisbury.

What I think is incredible is that I can only just hobble up the stairs at the moment.  Yet, I am going to ride a loooong way!

I did this on Sunday and finished in 1:30:22.  A fantastic result, an improvement of 4:36 from last year.  The course and conditions were the same as last year and last year I thought I did incredibly well.  So I am chuffed.

It was a very cold morning and I got a bit cold waiting around.  But when the sun came out it felt really nice and warm.  The plan had been to run with the 1:30 pace maker but I couldn’t find him at the start.  Then a minute before the start I saw him pick up his flag and run to the start.  But he was about 30 metres behind me.  So I ran my own pace to start with and after nearly two miles he caught me.  I then ran with him for the next mile and a bit but decided to increase the pace a little.  By the half way mark, I was about 30s or so ahead of 1:30 pace and feeling comfortable. 

At about mile 9 I noticed that more people were going past me and that I had slowed a little.  Mile 10 was the same.  I then heard the 1:30 pace maker coming up behind me so I pushed the effort a bit more and stayed ahead until just before mile 13.  He went past me at the turn out of Green Park into the stadium.  I couldn’t keep up with him going up the hill and there was no sprint in me as I got towards the stadium.  So I finished in 1:30:22.  A very good result.  In fact it is better than very good.  I ran 13 miles at a sub-7 min mile pace.  Wow!

Some other notes for next time: After about 9 miles, my forefoot hurt.  My legs were my limiting factor, not my heart.  I did a 2hr40 bike/20 min run the day before.  My calves feel very tight!

This week has been pretty poor in terms of training.  I had a sore calf from Friday last week which stayed sore until Tuesday.  Then on Wednesday I hurt my quad when the chain broke.  Wednesday evening I could hardly walk up the stairs.  Even today, it is still sensitive to the touch.

I did a 3hr ride today, followed by a 20 min run.  It was really windy and I had a 60mm front wheel on so I really noticed the gusts.  I was quite scared a lot of the time for the first hour or so and then I felt more confident.  I still don’t plan to use it in Lanza but I figured that if I could get used to the UK winds with a deep front wheel, I will be confident with a normal wheel in the Lanza wheel.

The run was much easier after 3hrs than 4hrs+.  Not sure why but it was.  Because my quad has been really sore I decided to push the pace up a bit on the way back.  That felt fine so I feel confident that I will start at Reading tomorrow.  However, I am not confident that I will be able to finish.  We’ll see.

…and feeling really good about myself.

That’s the power of exercise!

I’ve just been to the gym and done an hour on the spin bike. The first 20 mins was a warm up. Then I did 20x 1 min all out intervals with the resistance on the highest settings. After that I got off and did 10 mins on the treadmill at 17kph, with a short cool down.

Saturday’s long run went really well. I did the same route that I did a few times last year and was 6 mins quicker. Fantastic!

Sunday’s long bike didn’t go as well as I would have liked. I guess I as pretty tired going into it but I was slower than I would have liked. Also my neck still aches in the aero position. I think I will have a go at moving my aero bars up a little and see if that helps.

Lanzarote is less than 10 weeks away. It’s getting a bit too close for comfort. I am confident about the swim and the run. But still nervous about the bike and especially about my bike position. Stil, I’ve got a few weeks to crack it.