Well… I came across this clip again today. Unfortunately it’s quite appropriate given my current lack of training. Anyway, hope you enjoy it!
So, more updates to come soon on my IRONMAN Frankfurt journey.
Category Archives: Training
Winter running
Well I’ve done a few “winter” runs recently with the temperatures hovering between 1 and 5 degrees celcius. They have been chilly runs and I’ve had to wrap up in several layers to stay warm. On the plus side, I’ve not had to run in any rain, sleet or snow yet this winter.
The fun thing I’ve been doing to help pass the time and not think about being chilly is to look for Christmas decorations and lights. In the past week or so I’ve seen many more Christmas trees through windows and other assorted Christmas decorations on front doors and around houses. It really does make running in the cold more pleasant.
One of the season’s last evening swims
Well last night’s lake swim will be one of the last of the season I guess. Too dark too soon. The swim itself went ok, only 1000m before I decided to call it a night. I did notice my wetsuit rubbing on my neck though, which it has not done before. Maybe it was trying to make me faster by dragging me by the scruff of my neck?
I’ve got three weekends of racing ahead before my tri season ends. Once the races are over I’ll ease off a bit while trying to keep things ticking over. Maybe a late in the year 10km before a short break. After the break the training will resume in preparation for next year’s big races….
Sports drinks, hydration and a mythical enemy?
Here is an interesting article (Ref BMJ 2012;345:e4737) from the British Medical Journal which discusses the need, or lack thereof, for sports drinks during exercise and endurance activities.
The long and the short if it, according to the article, is that the necessity for sports drinks has been overemphasised by the sports drinks industry. It appears, from the article, that there is not much really relevant research into the relationship between hydration, sports drinks, performance and general health. The conclusions one can actually draw from the research also hinge on the subjects within the tests – real endurance athletes and their sports versus “everyday-Joes” doing 15-30minutes of exercise in the gym.
I guess my take on it is drink some water for activities lasting less than an hour and drink some sort of drink containing some calories and electrolytes when you exercise for more than an hour. It seems to work for me – for rides longer than two hours I tend to consume 200-400kCal per hour depending on what and when I’ve eaten and what training I have planned for after the cycle. Then there are the race-like training sessions where I try and dial in my hydration and nutrition to match race day prep.
Anyway – read the article (and associated comments) and decide what you think. Let me know your thoughts on this. I’m going to try and find some other articles discussing this and if I find any that I think are useful I will post a follow-up.
BMJ 2012;345:e4737
Articles about “Ironman nutrition” and “training fatigue”
Here are two interesting articles I stumbled across. The first contains some pro racers’ tips for nutrition during races. The second is an interesting article from Joe Friel about fatigue and the relationship to CTL/ATL.
http://www.triradar.com/training-advice/ironman-nutrition-pro-secrets/
http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/06/question-why-am-i-so-tired.html
Hope you find them interesting and/or useful.
Yikes, I amaze myself sometimes
So, I was looking over my past events last night and noticed something that I had forgotten. I noticed that I had less than one month between my first ever triathlon and my first half-Ironman race. WOW. That was pretty gutsy for me. I look back now and am not sure I would recommend such behaviour. It does however, make me think about just what is possible when one puts their mind to something.Maybe that Ironman race next year isn’t so bad afterall.
I did a “sortof” triathlon in training yesterday. Did a 1600m swim set, a 15mile bike ride and a 2mile run. Transistions were pretty slow (ok, a trip to buy groceries between the swim and bike) however. The 15 mile loop may become a time-trial course of sorts for me over the coming months. It’s got some decent stretches for TT aero-bar position and has a short-sharp hill at about 10miles. I look forward to reducing the time to complete the loop 🙂
Three years’ stats
Well I did some simple statistics pulling from WKO+ for the past three seasons. I based a season from December through to end November of the following year.
date from 01/12/2010 01/12/2009 01/12/2008
date to 30/11/2011 30/11/2010 30/11/2009
run duration 45h47:02 82h01:12 65h07:36
run distance 527.126km 957.505km 727.656km
bike duration 15h28:04 115h46:42 158h04:18
bike distance 260.632km 2409.497km 4337.618km
swim duration 6h04:00 30h26:00 36h58:00
swim distance 18.45km 94.031km 104.613km
(Yes, I realise we’ve not quite got to 30/11/2011 yet… so will update the 2011 season once it completes)
The figures include treadmill and Computrainer sessions along with training sessions and races.
I hope that I manage to do more training over the 2012 season – probably slightly down on the 2009/2010 season due to less free time these days. Maybe I should set some training targets for the 2012 season?
The bike average speed varies somewhat due to extensive use of the Computrainer in the 2009 season – due to the ERG training I was doing at a relatively higher wheel speed than on the road the average speeds are inflated. So the times are probably more useful to compare than pure distances.
Silence is golden
Well it has been a while since my last blog post. Figured I had better write a quick few lines to let you know I’m still alive!
Firstly, here is a link to a great article by Joe Friel about recovery. Definitely worth a read: http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/09/how-to-recover.html
Since my last serious post I have completed a few races – Ironman Swiss 70.3, London Triathlon, and the National Club Relays. All good fun. Managed to PB in Swiss 70.3 and London Triathlon so am pleased with my recent performances.
My training leading up to the Windsor Half-Marathon and the New York Marathon is progressing well. Touch wood my legs are holding out with the increased running volume. This weekend I have the HSBC Standard Distance Triathlon at Dorney Lake. My main goal is sub-2h30 – with the secondary goal of beating my work colleagues who are doing a relay team race.
My swimming is holding steady and doesn’t appear to be improving significantly. I have increased my swim session duration, but have unfortunately reduced my swim frequency. Over the winter I hope to maintain my swimming and hopefully get a bit faster.
My cycling is going well – my last few weekly 10mile time-trials have definitely improved my 30minute (CP30) power output. Over the winter I am looking at trying to not loose too much power while I rest up.
I will hopefully write up some brief race reports over the coming days.
Some shin splint info
Some useful info regarding shin-splints…
Training update… boo hiss to colds!
Hi,
Well a quick update on the training front. Over the past few weeks I have ramped up the training after my lay-off from the Sinusitis. I can tell I have lost a serious amount of fitness and will battle to get to any decent level of fitness for my Swiss 70.3 race in 59 days time. I have done some good sessions in the gym and some medium paced outside runs. I was getting a good rise in my TSS score. I say was because I appear to have picked up a sniffle and a scratchy throat.
I will ease off training for the next couple of days to try and shake this cold before it develops into anything serious. If I don’t shake it soon I fear that my Swiss 70.3 race may need to be called off. This year is not turning out well from a health and fitness point of view…