Ironman Mark

Just saying…

2009: 1 December 2008 to IM Lanza in May 2009

Swim: 76:40
Bike: 147:23
Run: 81:39

2013: 1 December 2012 to IM Lanza in May 2012

Swim: 39:29 (only 52% of 2009)
Bike: 84:55 (only 58% of 2009)
Run: 64:41 (only 79% of 2009)

So, September has come and gone.  How’s it gone?  Quite well.  For the most part, I have trained consistently.  I had a couple of days off for a weekend away and a day with no exercise (plumber/work issues).

Overall:

Swim: 8:13
Bike: 24:33
Run: 14:29

Overall: 47 hours 17 mins

That averages out at 1:31:32 per day, which compares to:

Feb 09: 1:31:50
Mar 09: 1:36:09
Apr 09: 1:57:54
May 09: 1:41:10

So a good start bearing in mind that there is something like 229 days to go.

In terms of Eddington Numbers since mid-July:

So what does that mean:

- Swim: I’ve not done much swimming, and when I did, in July/August, many of the sessions were quite short.  A couple more swims and I’ll get to 1,600m.  But it will take 11 more swims to get to 30 mins.

- Bike: Still early days.  Three more rides and I’ll be at 33k (the distance to work). But it’ll take a lot more rides to get over 34k.

- Run: Again, it’s still early days.  A couple more runs I’ll be at 30 mins but, because I’ve done quite a few 30 min runs, it’ll take a lot longer to get above that.   Distance wise, it’s going to take quite a while to get above 12k.

I saw this car in Rome on the day that I should have been doing Wimbleball.

I feel better.  But I am probably only as fit as that car.

This week I have done just under ten hours.  One day off and only a tiny swim on another.  On the Monday I was not really in the mood. Definitely not good.  On Wednesday my lunch time got cancelled because of a very late notice meeting at work.

On the good side though, I did a great run on Friday morning: 19.6k in 1:47.  Mixing units, that’s just under 9 min miles.  I was pleased.  I am going to be looking at doing more early Friday morning runs like this.

I did little intensity this week.  Mostly easy on the bike and the run.  Swimming was all very easy.  What little there was off it.

In terms of Eddington Numbers:

These are low but they are going in the right direction. They will get higher though as the weeks progress.

My highlight:  Running to the gym with Jack.  The eye opener – watching Jack do weights in the gym.  He works very hard and is scarily dedicated.  If only I could get some of that on the bike.  My FTP would rocket up with that motivation.

For the next week, my aims are:
- to swim more: I want to do at least two sensible swims
- a good long run on Friday
- to get quite a few more one hour plus rides in, including one on my tri bike

Well that was a good week.  I surprised myself by doing quite a lot on the bike.  Altogether, I did just over 11 hours of swim, bike and running (and surfing).   Well, not much swim, quite a lot of bike and some running.

The picture is of a run I did earlier in the year.  I ran along a river near Ringwood.  Then the idea was then to turn left and run along a footpath.  But it had been raining a bit.  Oh well.

Here’s a comparison between my training for Ironman Lanzarote in 2009 and 2011.  Remember I felt great for 2009.  And the opposite for 2011.  2009 I trained well.  2011 I lost motivation and worked some long hours at work.

The numbers are for the six months before the race:

Swimming

2009 swim: 226k (average 3.1k)
2011 swim:  124k (average 2.5k)

So I swam 82% more in 2009

Interestingly, in 2009 I did 59:37 in the race but 57:30 in 2011.  Was I really quicker in 2011?  No, I think it was because the tide was out!  I was 7th percentile in 2009 and 10th percentile in 2011.  But overall that’s not a huge difference for nearly twice the amount of swimming.

Is there a message here that I don’t need to swim as much?  Or does all that swimming help my bike?

Biking

2009: 152 hours
2011: 123 hours

So I rode 24% more in 2009.

Number of rides over 3 hours:
2009: 18
2011: 8

And that includes the race!

In the actual race:
2009: 6:30
2011: 6:48

Run

2009: 84:04
2011: 74:51

That’s 12% more in 2009.

Eddington numbers

Swim (based on 100m = 1)
2009: 32
2011: 27

Bike (based on minutes)
2009: 55
2011: 60

Run (based on minutes)
2009: 45
2011:  44

So the Eddington number for the bike has given a perverse result.  2011′s 60 sounds much better than 2009′s 55.  But if you look at the total time for the longest 26 rides, it is:

2009: 94:40 (average 3:38)
2011: 69:37 (average 2:40)

A very big difference.

I had planned to start a proper plan for training towards Ironman Lanzarote next week but don’t feel recovered enough from the PCC yet.

I had outdoor type of day (dog walk, Go Ape, dog walk) and still feel very tired.  Also, my left hip flexor is a little sore (this started on Wednesday for some reason) and my legs still ache from the PCC.  It has taken my legs a lot longer to recover than I expected from the PCC, certainly longer than it took to recover from an ironman.

We are now 27 weeks away from Lanzarote so it is no hardship waiting a week.  I will probably still do similar number of sessions to what I was planning but they will probably be a bit easier, especially the running ones.

Training is not going well at the moment.  There’s a few reasons for this:

• I had a cold last week and am just getting over it.
• I’ve had quite a few lunch time meetings or conference calls.
• I’ve had some long meetings and dinners.
• Getting home late means that I feel less than spritely in the mornings.

Worse than that though, I’m feeling guilty and pressured about things.  I have a programme.  I want to stick with it.  But I can’t because something gets in the way.  Or I am too tired.  Or whatever.  But it’s all adding up.  Especially when family stuff is added to it.

So, I’ve been thinking and thinking.  The more I think about it, the more I realise I need to get back to enjoying it.  If I want to go for a run (rather than a planned turbo session) then I should just go for a run and enjoy it.  At the moment, I’d either go for a run and not enjoy it, or do the turbo and wish I was running (or, at the moment, be sitting at my desk wishing I could go for a run or do the turbo).

I can’t see things are going to change for a while either.  There’s more family stuff coming up.  And I’ve also come up with a great idea at work which I suspect will keep me very, very busy.

So, I think I am going to have to throw the plan in the bin for a while.  Train how I want, when I want (or when I can fit it in).  It will hit me at Lanza but I’d rather be happy and pretty fast than unhappy and a bit faster.

But I still want to think about it a bit more.

It’s been a year of two halves.  January to May – training really hard for Ironman Lanzarote.  June to December with a chest infection, then with a torn calf, then with extra home duties because of Wifey’s broken foot. 

I did a brilliant Ironman.  I was really chuffed, swimming was great, bike was good and running was good.  I had an (almost) perfect race.

January to May was 41% of the year.  And in those five months, I did 65% of the year’s swimming, 68% of my biking and 42% of my running. 

Overall:

- Swim: 63:16

- Bike: 181:15

- Run: 166:44

- Total: 446:09

That compares to around 419 hours in 2008. 

The big difference is the split between the first five months and the last seven.  If I carried on like I did the first bit then I would have done well over 600 hours in the year. 

The saving grace of the last part is my running.  In November I did over 25 hours of running.  That’s more than 10 hours more than I did in my peak ironman training month in March.  Pretty good!

In weight term, I’ve put on just over 10 pounds since May.  Oh dear.