Ironman Mark

I’m pleased with the bike session I did today – 20 x 1 minute, high resistance, low rpm intervals.  My breath was like a dragon’s and steam was coming off me.  The bit that really pleased me was that I did the whole session properly.  All of it.  Every last minute. 

I also did a swim today.  It was very different from yesterday’s in that I put the effort in and hurt.  Actually, I didn’t hurt all the way.  I just did 15 x 100′s hard.  Then I eased off a bit for the rest of the session.  Not sure how far I went as I didn’t plan it.  

Yesterday, I was disappointed with my swim speed.  I got a new toy that allows me to time how quickly I swim (a bit like a stop watch).  As I haven’t swam properly since May, I was pretty upset to see how slow I was.  So, I decided to turn over a new leaf and start swimming a bit more… vigourously!  And regularly.

I also decided to reset all my pb’s.  I am living in the past.  My 400m pb used to be 5:55.  Yesterday I did it in 7:12.  Oh, dear.  Yesterday’s time was at the end on 90 minutes swimming, was at a low intensity and so is not a real pb.  However, it gives me something to start from.

Anyway, tomorrow will be another swim, an hour run and perhaps a short bike session.

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…

Last year, I would have said that it was 30 seconds per 400m quicker.  In June 2009, my personal best for 400m was 5:55 without a wetsuit and 5:25 with a wetsuit.  Both of these were done when I was feeling pretty fresh.

Today, I went to the pool to check that the moths had not got to my wetsuit.  I only did the first half of my session with it on because I felt like a boil-in-the-bag.  The fast 400m in the sessions are normally done in around 6:09 to 6:12.  The quickest has been 6:03 on a day when I had some good motivation (someone behind me and I was feeling angry). 

The first fast 400m was in 5:31. I was going fast, but not pushing it fast.  The next fast one was 5:25 (with the first 100m on 1:17, reaching 200m on 2:40).  This was pushing it fast but again not all out.  The last one, without the wetsuit was again pushing it fast and came in at 6:09.  Normally, I would be chuffed at 6:09.  But to get 5:25, wow! 

So how much quicker?  I am not sure because none of the 400′s were “all-outs”.  If the 5:25 was equivalent to my previous best of 6:03 then that is 38s per 400m’s quicker.  I don’t think I pushed the 5:25 as hard as a 6:03, so I am going for 40s per 400m.

That’s 10s per 100m quicker!

But I am not sure that that is realistic.  It sounds too much more than the 7.5s per 100m last year.  So why the increase?  Well, part of it will be differences in perceived effort.  Part of it may be differences at less than “all out” speed.  Who knows.

What I need to do now is do a full session in the suit, see how all three quick 400′s are.  Also see how quick the moderate and easy 400′s and compare them too.  If the moderate/easy ones have the same time differential then I know that I wasn’t going all out on the fast 400m. 

So then the question is how quick could I go if I was doing an all out 400m rather than as part of a 4,000m set?  Also, how quick could I do it if I was feeling fresh rather than my permanently tired state?  I think I could do sub-5:20.  A bold statement but I think that is reasonable.  Once Lanza is out of the way, I’ll give it a try.

…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.

… if you are getting as little sleep as me!  Some of it is my fault but most of it is to do with one of the kids being poorly and so having to clean the sink at 1am or get up at 4am the next day because one of the dogs is barking to get out.   Aaagh!

Some of it will be because I’ve been training quite hard too.  This week has gone well.  Best day of the week was yesterday.  I did a 4,000m swim session, that included 3 fast 400m in 6:09, 6:10 and 6:12 – pretty consistent.  This is not as fast as last week (6:03, 6:05 and 6:16) because I am tired and because my normal ‘shadow’ in the pool wasn’t there to make me go quicker.   At lunch time I did a treadmill run that included 12x 1 mins at the treadmills top speed of 12mph.  It felt surprisingly easy.  OK, that’s not really true.  It just didn’t feel as hard as you might expect.

This morning I am up early because of the dogs.  As soon as it gets light I will be off for a 4 hour bike ride.  Then I’ll go for a 40 minute run when I get back.  After that I would love to sleep.  But it ain’t going to happen – too many chores.

I did the Henley River swim last year.  This is what I wrote before my blog was hacked.  I still want to do it again in 2009…

Out of interest, I got quoted in the Henley Standard.  I guess they read my blog!

Next week is the start of the Henley Royal Regatta.  I am not a rower and so don’t know much about it.  I’ve learnt that some of the best crews in the world come to Henley to race up the river.  They race along a straight course in the Thames.  The course is completely straight because they put wooden logs along the course.  It is 2,112m long and it goes up stream so it is “really” a bit longer.

I think 5 years ago some people thought it might be a good idea to swim the course.  They decided that they didn’t want to get run over by anyone training on the course and so they started at 04:30 in the morning.  Over the next three years it got bigger but was still an “informal” swim.  I first heard of it last year but could not make the date.  This year they made it “formal” and I could make the date.  So I did it.

It still starts at 4:30am.  Registration is 3:00am to 4:00am and so I planned to turn up at 3:30am.  This meant getting up at 2:00am and leaving 30 minutes later.  I did this and got there at 3:30am only to find that I had shrunk.  I’m average height but most of the men in the club house were much, much taller than me.  They were mostly rowers.  Some might have been corporate finance – they’re always tall too.

At 4:00am we left for a ten minute walk to the start.  It was a beautiful morning, a little bit of mist on the river and no wind.  Absolutely perfect conditions.  A quick race briefing (go that way, stay in the course, the finish is at the end) and we were in the water. 

Here’s a picture of the course with the Regatta is in full swim.  It was likely that except there were very few people in the crowd at this time in the morning.

We started by the island at the top and were aiming to swim towards the bridge.  There was a current but it was nowhere near as strong as Windsor.  Also, there was little opportunity to swim in shallows and the course was bounded by wooden logs, I decided just to stick to left hand side rather than to try and guess where it was best to swim.

The start was a bit of a bun fight and I swam quite hard but not all out.  People went past me.  After about 400m I started to go past the people who might have gone a bit hard at the start.  As there was no bike or run afterwards, I had decided to go harder than I did at Windsor. 

After about 1k I saw a group of people ahead and pushed a bit harder to catch up.  I then eased off a bit and drafted in the group for a bit before carrying on.  For the last part I swam with a bloke without a wetsuit.  He was a bit ahead of me and then a bit behind and then I “wobbled” into the centre of the course and I think he may have beaten me.  There was also someone who stuck to my legs/side for the last 1,000m or so.

I had no idea where the finish was and that was kind of frustrating.  Eventually I got to it.  I couldn’t do a sprint finish as I had been sprinting for most of the swim!  By the finish my side hurt with the effort I had put in and my arm muscles felt like they were running out of strength.

I finished in something like 37mins plus change.  The winner did it in 29m 30s or so.  Karen Pickering, an Olympic medallist and former world champion came 7th in about 33 mins.  I think I came 19th out of 87 or so and so I was very pleased.

My average HR (inc 2 mins before the start) was 170bpm and my max was 179bpm.  I have never swam so hard!

If dates allow, I definitely want to do this next year.

… before Lanzarote.

How do I feel?  Generally pretty good.  I nearly always ache these days though.  Sunday’s and Monday’s are probably the achiest days of the week but then again every day aches.

In terms of swim, bike, run? 

- Swim: no worries.  I am swimming more than ever. 

- Run: I can do it.  I am running more than ever too.  The “average” of my runs is more than an hour (compared with 40 or so minutes last year).  Also, all my running is being done at a much faster pace this year.  However, most of it at the moment is on a treadmill.  But that is getting me stronger in the mind.

- Bike: This is the issue.  I don’t feel I am good enough yet.  My legs just aren’t as strong as my heart and lungs at the moment.  Also, I am not hugely comfortable in the aero position at the end of my long rides.  But there is a lot of time to go yet.

Yesterday I did a 4 hour ride.  I didn’t run straight after but I did a 50 min run later in the afternoon.  This was cross country, in the rain and mud, with the dogs.   They loved it!  They slept a lot afterwards!

I am on a train on the way home. I have had a good day and I think that is about to end. There has been a huge amount of snow at home and I’ve been told that I won’t be able to drive anywhere near to the house. One of my neighbours walked three miles home. Another has taken over three hours to go 15 miles or so. And she is still not back.

This morning’s swim was hard and honest. I did 4k (Inc 3x3x400m). The three fast 400m were on 6:12, 6:15 and 6:12. A new record. The 400m were done fast, 10s, moderate, 10s, easy, 1min. I felt shattered all morning.

I’ve got an all-out interval run this evening. Once I have done that I will have done all the sessions over the last 7 days exactly right! Another record.

I’ve done my swim session today, the second of the week.  And I am feeling shattered after it.  It was only 3.7k but I did put my heart and soul into it.

Today’s session allows me to swim short, fast intervals.  The main set is 3 x 10 x 100m, with paddles and pull buoy.  After each 100m I get 10s rest.  After each 10 x 100m I get an extra minute.  Excluding the 10s rest on the last 100m of each set, I did it in 17:12, 17:09 and 17:34 (last week: 17:20, 17:30 and 17:36).  Before last week, I had been doing them on 1:50′s per the pool’s clock.  Last week, like this week, I used my watch - so some of the improvement is probably because I am now used to swim this way.

I found the last 10x 100m really hard.  My arms and upper body just could not get me through the water quick enough.  It was more an issue with my muscles rather than my aerobic system.  Although as these were “hard” 100m’s I was very out of breath at the end of each 100m.

This evening I’ll do a 90 minute negative split ride.  Maybe on the turbo or perhaps on a spin bike at the gym.  Not sure yet.  It’s not going to be outside today because there is still lots of snow.  I couldn’t even drive up to my house the normal way this afternoon and had to reverse back and go a different way.