Week IM-10: Preparing for the heat

Switzerland is going to be hot. Much hotter than I’m used to training in – especially considering the last six months, I’ve spent adapting to training in really cold conditions.

I had hoped to get to France or Italy for a week of training all day in hot weather but this now looks very unlikely, especially with Half Ironman UK in the middle of June. I’m going to have to try and find some other way.

What I’ve arrived at is the sauna. I can’t really train inside a sauna, but I can use it just before and after training. On Sunday, I swam 2.8km before getting straight into the sauna. It’s not pleasant but the feeling of being too hot is something I’d be wise to to get as used to as I can, I feel. It’ll likely be high 20’s or low 30’s (C) in Zurich on race day.

I’ve also been practicing with isotonic / electrolyte drinks. These basically are a mix of carbohydrates and salt to replace the energy you’re burning and the salt you’re sweating out. I’ve tried Zym and High 5 Isotonic so far. They both dilute into 1litre of water. Zym tastes a lot nicer but it’s caffeinated and I want to avoid caffeine at least until part of the way through the marathon. High 5 tastes so-so. I’ll use it for earlier in the race if I don’t find something better.

 

Injury reared it’s unwelcome head this week. In the days following the Kildare Half Marathon, it was sore while running on the outside of my right leg (not the knee). I wasn’t sure what it was so I rested it until Sunday. Even so, it started almost immediately when I started running on Sunday and so I had to abandon the run after 2km, which was very frustrating. I’ll go to the physio on Tuesday to try and figure out what’s wrong. I’ve had a few other niggly things this week also– a sore throat and a cough- and combined with the running problem above, it resulted in a weekly total falling far short of what I had planned. It will be something of an unplanned taper for the first triathlon of the year next Saturday – the Velentia Island (sprint) Triathlon in Kerry.

I did one 2.8km swim on Sunday, which went well. On Saturday, I cycled down to Greystones with the two lads who became the first Irish people to cycle around the world. They left 18 months ago and finished the last part of the circumnavigation, from Dublin to Greystones on Saturday afternoon. It was good fun and a good spin back.

Week IM-11: Nutrition, the Fourth Discipline

Last June, I set out at 7am on a Friday morning from Dublin with the aim of cycling to Clochán, on the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry – about 380Km to the south west. It was into the wind, so that made it a bit harder but the first 170Km or so went fine – it was good and sunny most of the day. It started to get tough as I was getting into Thurles, on the way to Tipparary town. I wasn’t feeling great. When I got to Tipparary, after two or three bites, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I was too sick to eat anything that night.

This left me in somewhat of a dilemma. I wasn’t going to be able to cycle 180km without eating, especially having cycled 200 the day before.

I decided to try a new approach to breakfast. I set an alarm for 4am and had breakfast. I went back to bed then. I got up again at 5 and had another 15 minute breakfast. I repeated this 4 times and by the time 8am came around, I was flying it! I cycled through Tipp, Limerick, Cork and Kerry and had a great time on the last 30km out the Dingle Peninsula. It took 19 hours 30 minutes of cycling.

A good lesson to come out of this (apart from the joy of multiple breakfasts) is that what you eat really makes a difference to how your body performs. I put the sickness on day one down to salt imbalances – something I’m really aware of for Switzerland, where the heat is going to be a real issue. Salt and electrolyte imbalances arise because you sweat a lot while training. You then drink a lot of water, which further dilutes the remaining salt. This really only becomes an issue in exertion lasting 8 hours or more, but it becomes quite a serious issue that can essentially totally dissabilitate the body. I’ve been trying out some Isotonic drinks in training as a trial for Switzerland over the last few weeks.

I read a very good book on Sports Nutrition called Eating for Endurance. It’s a short book and I’d recommend it to anyone involved in sport. The main message of the book is that people should stick to the food pyramid. If you’re training a lot, you should eat more of the same. She asserts that supplements are mostly superfluous if you eat properly.

Some extra pieces which may be of particular use to athletes are:

• Antioxidents (which help carry away broken down material from the blood stream) found in omega 3 fish oils
• Vitimen C & E
• Glucasomine (which may help repair cartilage)
• Caffeine in small doses is known to be a performance enhancer

My daily diet consists of two breakfasts, one when I get up, one after swimming/gym. A dinner at 12:30pm. A “lunch” type meal of heavy brown bread around 3pm. Another dinner at 6pm and another lunch type meal around 9pm ,with snacks in between most meals. I try to always eat something at most every two hours. This helps keep my metabolism “fast” – able to quickly turn food into energy.

For the race itself, my current nutrition strategy is

Swim: nothing during the swim bar perhaps one or two mouth-fulls of Lake Zurich.

Bike: First 20 minutes: .5 litres water, to let everything settle down

Subsequently (7-8 hours): 100 calories every 20 minutes (200-300 cals per hour). A mix of electrolyte, energy gels and solid foods (muesli bars, bananas). Loading towards the start / middle of the bike to compensate possibly no food during run

Run: This is going to be hit and miss and in reality, my stomach will shut down at some point during the marathon. My aim is to delay this as long as possible and keep taking on salt afterwards. About 100 calories every 20 mintes – a combo of solid or liquid nutrients. Alternate electrolyte Sports Drink and Gel + Water.

This week was a rest week, so was mostly easy cycles. On Sunday, I ran the Kildare Half Marathon. This went really well and I ran it faster than I expected – 1:36:11, finishing in 127th place out of about 2000 (2 minutes behind Vinny). I was very stiff afterwards – from a mix of the fast pace and the fact that it was on concrete. It was many times harder than the 26Km run in the Pheonix Park the Monday before.

Myself, Ciarain and Vinny before the Kildare Half Marathon.

Week IM – 12: The Life of a Full Time Athlete

From Strength to Conditioning

I’ve often wondered before if I could cut it as a full time athlete. Get up early and train. Nap and eat in the afternoon before training again in the evening. The following day: repeat.

This weekend, I got a chance to find out. I took the opportunity of a long weekend to really push it and hit farther than I’ve ever gone before. Over the four days, I would say I approached that routine of a full time athlete.

• Friday: 750m swim, 20km cycle, 7km run
• Saturday: 107Km cycle, 3km run
• Sunday: 1.5km swim, 51km cycle
• Monday: 23km cycle, 26km run

Friday was short and fast. I did a sprint triathlon during the day- 750 meters in the pool, 20km cycle and a 7km run in the evening. On Saturday, I went out on the bike with another lad doing Ironman Switzerland. We did 107Km with some tough climbs through the Wicklow Gap and Sally Gap. I went out for a 3km run afterwards, to start getting used to running on tired legs after the long IM cycle. Sunday was a 51Km cycle and 1.5km in the pool in the evening. I was quite tired on Sunday evening and I was starting to doubt my ability to complete more than a half marathon on the following Bank Holiday morning.

By the time I arrived at the Pheonix Park at 8:15am, the sun was shining and I had more energy than I did for the whole weekend. I wonder how often I’ve gotten to a Sunday evening thinking I was spent when if I had the chance, one more day training would show I was actually just beginning to peak. Either way, we did about 13km before following most of the route of a 10km race that was happening there. I had company on the most of the run but I finished the last 6-7km on my own. Everything seemed to work well – nutrition (eating 100-200 calories every 35-40 minutes), pace, concentration. I was heartened to be in perfect condition afterwards – no sore knees, just slightly stiff ITBs. The 26km took 2 Hours, 22 minutes, which included one or two breaks.

The week totaled 2.25km swim, 272km bike and 33 run.

I had set aside the weekdays this week for gym work. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I concentrated solely on long gym sessions. This was the second last week I had set aside to concentrate on Strength and Conditioning. I’m at the “Max Strength” phase of the weights program I’ve been following and after this week, I move into Strength Maintenance – down to 2 sets from 4 for each machine and slight decreases in the weights.

Luckily for me, young men retain muscle mass for a long time without needing to directly maintain it – just using it is enough. After this week, I will only do weights once a week and I will move time increasingly to flexibility work (which will probably be the most important part of the entire plan, to stay injury free with such long runs). It’s time to turn the strength I’ve built up to purely sport specific advantage. Although, it’s already serving it’s main purpose if I can do a 26km run with no aches or pains anywhere. At last, I see the 2 months I spent before Christmas cycling to the gym in the dark, wondering how my knees would handle the load of the last few months of an IM training plan, paying off in multiples.

So, it’s been a good week tracking into uncharted territory. In another life, maybe I could have made it at as a full time athlete. One weekend at a time!

Week IM – 13: Active Recovery > Nothing

 

The week started relatively easily this week. On Monday and Tuesday, I did short swims (750m) in the name of “Active Recovery” after WAR. From my own experience, proactively healing an injury is always more effective than doing nothing. That may mean stretching it few times a day,using a foam roller, Physio massage or low intensity swimming. It has been proven to speed musculoskeletal recovery times and the accompanying endorphin increase has the all important mental boost.

I went to the physio on Wednesday morning to get my calfs loosened out. I had tight feet also, apparently. I’ve been instructed to stand on a tennis ball to loosen out the feet and lower leg muscles. On Thursday, I was back to a normal 2.4Km swim set.

This weekend was a big weekend. The first classified as an “Iron Weekend” by Going Long. On Saturday, I did 115Km on the bike and a 15minute sea swim in Portmarnoc. I’d organised to cycle out to Portmarnoc strand with two other hardy souls at 10:30am, so I got up early and did 60Km down to Enniskerry/Bray before that. When we got to Portmarnoc, the sea was mighty cold! Colder than I remember it on Christmas day (and I had no wet suit on then... Perhaps the obligatory yule-tide hot whisky effected the heat perception).

On Sunday I did just over a half marathon, 23Km, in 2:16:00, at an average HR of 67%. I was surprised how tired I was afterwards on Sunday. Perhaps it was the cumulated tiredness of the two days or perhaps I just need to work a lot on long runs over the next few weeks. I’ll do the latter and hope for the former.

This is the half marathon in the Pheonix Park:

In total this week, I did 5.4Km swim, 199Km bike and 23Km running.

Week IM – 14: The WAR

This week was the start of the competitive season. I raced in the Wicklow Adventure Race. This was 18Km mountain running, 55Km bike through Wicklow and 2Km kayak in Loch Dan. And it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

I had forgotten the excitement that comes with racing and standing on the start line on the crisp but sunny Saturday morning, it all came back. The atmosphere was fantastic – a lot less competitive than most triathlons I’ve done.

I started in the non elite group of about 250 at 8.20am. The 120 Elites started at 8. I stayed with the leading group of about 10-15 for the first run (about 11Km) over the ridge up to the top of Sprink Mountain and then back down around the upper lake. We were going at a fast pace and we started catching the elites towards the end of the run – which was essentially flying down the mountain cheese rolling style. There was a ~20km cycle then to Loch Dan for the 2km Kayak. Those both went well. I was still with the leading group on the cycle to the second mountain run about 15km from there. The group was dwindling at this stage. The cycle went up from Roundwood to the Sally Gap which is fairly punishing. After climbing for 10 or so minutes, we rolled over the “BEGINNING OF THE 10% INCLINE.. OH YES!” with a slight grin (read:grimace). By the time we got up there, 2 people had cracked and the group was down to 3. Another dropped off during the run where I was pushing very hard to keep with the other guy, he was a strong runner. It was starting to get very tough on the second part of that run where it gets very steep. The view around the top was really good though – it’s funny, you spend 20 minutes looking down, concentrating on the next step (because the ground is so uneven) then you look up and notice an amazing view all around..

We were still together at the end of the run and started the bike together for the last 25km cycle up over the Sally Gap and back down into Laragh. On the climb to the Sally Gap I got a fairly bad cramp in one of my calves. The leg locked up so I spent about two minutes trying to get it to loosen out. I’ll try and figure out whether this was to do with salt deficiency or just exertion. I’d fallen behind quite a bit at that stage so I spent the next 30 minutes or so pushing hard to try and catch up. I eventually did with about 10km to go, on the last climb before the descent into Laragh, so I decided not to slow but to go for it.. so I took off like a bat out of hell up the rest of the climb and flew down the last 6 or 7km over the other side down over the tri-bars (66km/ph was the fastest I hit). I finished in 4:28:35,  62^nd out of 422 and, I think, first (or maybe down one or two if someone passed without my noticing) of the 250 non elites.

The lake at Glendelough:

I was happy to have the legs to attack on the bike after 4 hours of hard work. Now I have thirteen weeks to get strong enough to attack after 12 hours of work.

My training volume for the week is lower because I tapered for WAR. Tapering essentially means doing less than the usual training volume in the hope that the body will overcompensate in recovery – repairing muscles and so on. “Carbo-loading” is also practiced in the build up to races – this allows muscles to build up as much glycogen as possible (glycogen is the body’s way of storing carbohydrate, which is the most efficient fuel, followed by protein and then fat). In practice, a few extra plates of spuds and pasta.

Week IM – 15 : The Real Fun Begins

I mentioned that I had completed the base period in January – that was effectively the grunt work – weights, swimming and runs in the dark. January, February and March was Build 2, where I was starting longer cycles, still keeping the running distance down. With 4 months to go, I started the Build phase this week: probably the type of training regime that you would most associate with an Ironman program: long, hard sessions – long cycles, long swim sets, mountain running and increasingly long runs. The hope is that the technique, strength and efficiency I concentrated on developing over the last 6 months will materialise to make the super-long distance stuff possible.

Next week is the start of my competitive season – I’m doing the Wicklow Adventure Race (WAR!). It’ll be ~18Km mountain running across two mountains, 55km cycle through the Wicklow Mountains and 2km Kayaking across Loch Dan. It’ll be a good, tough start to the season.

We went out for a 70Km spin on Monday which turned out to be an epic battle in gale force winds.

I got a puncture also, the first I’ve gotten on the La Pierre bike in about 3000Km- fair enough. It’s no harm getting the cobwebs out of my tube changing abilities also, lest it happen in a race.

 

 

 

 

 

I had some shorter evening spins during the week and a good run on Wednesday.

On Saturday, Kevin and I ran Lug na Coille, the highest Mountain in Leinster at 925 m (3,035 ft). We ran from the bottom to the top in 1:08 and back down in 43 minutes for a total of 1:51. I was happy to break 2 hours, although the IMRA record for the mountain run is an unbelievable 48 minutes. Unsurprisingly, a Kerry man set the record. The mountain is covered in bog so running down uncontrolled is both a lot of fun and not much impact on the knees. It’s like running on a giant sponge. There was still snow up at the top:

I learned that mountain running in cotton socks gives solid blisters:

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all a big week this week. As the title suggests, from here on in, things get serious.

Week IM – 16: Crossing the “He’s Crazy” Line

Sometimes when talking to people that aren’t hugely into sport (or whatever you want to call endurance racing), they’ll ask about distances or training regimes. As you begin to talk, it’s often possible to observe an interesting set of stages in their reaction.

“I usually swim in the mornings before work”

-“So you’re a swimmer? That’s good. You must be tired in the evenings”

“I go running some evenings also. I do most training at the weekend”

-“Oh.. And how long is this race?”

“Fairly long – 3.9km swim, 182km cycle and a marathon”

“Oh…kaaayy”

At this point, the empathy at the start of the conversation is gone. At first they appreciated what you’re doing. A bit of a challenge perhaps. Then they hear a bit more and think they’d certainly have no wish to do such a thing.. Then they ask the distance of the IM race. At this point, there is an obvious transition. This is the point at which they think to themselves “Yeah. He’s as mad as a bag of spiders”. And that’s usually the end of the conversation.

I know this because I used to think it myself while reading a similar blog by an Irish female training for Ironman Hawaii. She was getting up between 5 and 6 am to run, before swimming before work. I thought it unbelievable at the time.

The reason I noticed this a lot this week is because of a cycle on Saturday. I was staying in a hotel for the weekend with a buffet breakfast. It seemed like the correct course of action to go in hungry. I got up at 6:45am and met Vinny down on the coast road near Dublin city. We cycled through Dun Laoghaire and along the coast road through Killiney, Dalkey, Shankhill, Shanghana and Bray. It wasn’t windy and there were no cars on the road at all. It was the perfect time to cycle..

It was somewhat of an experiment but it worked out very well. You can take my word for it!

I did a lot of swimming this week. I did three sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday covering 5.45Km.

On Friday, I headed up to Tibradden and Three Rock mountain to run. I’d forgotten how much fun mountain running is. The top is still covered in snow, which made for some fun stepping-stone running through it in runners. There’s a great view from the top. The Wicklow mountains still look like they’re stuck in an ice age and there’s a view across the whole of Dublin and Dublin Bay.

4 Months to Switzerland.