Week IM – 6:The Wicklow 200;The IM Cycle

I’m writing this over a very, very large meal. It’s gone on for the last hour and shows no signs of abating.

Today, I did the Wicklow 200. It was a 200km cycle through the Wicklow Mountains and the towns that surround them. It started in Greystones . This was the first full IM cycle I have completed this year. Here’s how it went:

0km – 50km: (Sally Gap) (The race started in Greystones and climbed up to the Sally Gap before the long descent to Kilbride. The weather started off fine but out across the Sally Gap, it was strong winds and heavy rain. That’ll toughen us up! I started cycling with a fellow triathlete, Noel, and we set a very fast pace. We started a bit later then many others (you could start any time between 6:30 and 8:30). We both felt strong as we passed the 50km but Noel summed it up well by saying “Don’t get carried away.. this is still very much the honeymoon period”. The descent was fast and it really needed a lot of concentration in the rain and wind. I’m quite a fast descender but in rain, I tend to under steer on corners, so I was a bit more conservative than normal.

50km – 110km (Donard): We flew through the first water stop at the 50km mark without stopping. We continued to set a good pace on what were at times very difficult road surfaces. We stopped then for 20 minutes at the first main pit stop in Donard at 80km. We set a good pace after Donard and I tagged onto a group of strong cyclists for a fun 15km of fast, interesting ascents and descents between Donard and Brockna.

110km – 185km (Slieve Maan, Shay Elliet climbs): It was at some point during the ascent of the punishing Slieve Man climb that the honeymoon period ended. I struck out on my own soon after Donard to essentially simulate the Ironman as much as possible,  using the tri bars and pushing it hard. I passed many pentalons. Before Slieve Man, there was a smaller ascent and fast descent before the real thing. And it was obvious when it arrived. It’s a long ardius climb that reduced several people to walking with their bikes. I grinded up most of the climb with an American chap, passing a lot of people on the way up. And it was tough. It lasted a long time and seeing the tips of the big flags errected at the summit was like an oasis in the desert of pain. The descent from Slieve Maan is long and fast. My speedometer tells me the maximum speed I hit was 67Kmph, but it underestimated the race distance by about 30%, so I imagine it also underestimated that max speed.

At the bottom of Slieve Man, there was little mercy as the Shay Elliet Climb begins almost immediately. It was another tough one. It’s a shallower climb but almost as long. The Tour of Ireland King of the Mountains markings were on the road on the way up. 3km to the top.. 2km.. 1km.. 500 meters.. There were a group of people cheering on the last 100m of the ascent so it seemed apt to sprint it. It’s quite amazing how much better people cheering can make you feel. Or at least how much better you perform so you look like you feel better to them.

Between 150 and 175km, things got tough. I forwent the second sandwich stop at around 145km and in hindsight, it would have been a good idea. At that point, I was still pushing hard on the tri bars and averaging a good 32-33kmph. Around 155km, I felt my stomac beginning to reject food. It was probably sick of energy gels and salted isotonic (4:1). My cycling became more sparadic – pushing too hard for a while then needing to ease off a lot. I was passed by many pentalons.

After the climb just outside Avoca, I realised I was flagging a lot and it was really tough. When you’re on your own, when things are going badly, it seems your mind focuses every single neuron in your brain on the reasons you should stop. I reached for a HyperBoost bar that we had received in the race goody bag. It’s a dark chocolate covered brick of pure, caffinated energy. It could feel my tummy think about it for a while before deciding to moodily crank back into action. I was back over the bars and making good pace by about 175km.

175km – 200km: Having been through the somewhat of a wall (although still not out of the woods), I ran into a follow boards.ie person (Buffolo). I recognised the boards.ie top. He was a good cyclist and we did about 10km together before he went ahead. This really made things a lot easier for this period. Around 185km, things were getting tough again (although I knew I would finish at this stage regardless of whether I could eat any more or not). One thing I noticed as time went on was that the pentalons were getting bigger. These large globuals of cyclists were swallowing people up and they were sticking with them. I too suffered this sticky fate around 185km. I heard a whirring from behind and thought it was an electric car. It was actually a 25 man pentalon. It was travelling about 20% faster than I was and the first 6 or 7 riders went around and moved in front of me. At this point, they began breaking the wind and I sped up by exactly 20% so the rest of the riders filed in behind me. I had been subsumed by the pentalon.

If I was to put a figure on the effort needed to cycle inside a tight pentalon against cycling in wind alone, It’s probably about 50% of the effort. That’s a huge difference. After about 3km, as tired as I was, I thought to myself - “This is a good cycle, but it’s not an Ironman cycle”. I knew I had to finish this thing alone so I dropped off the end of the now very large group and faced the wind alone for the last 13km. I’m glad I did. These were those last few Km when I knew I had the course beaten and I hit the tri bars for the last jaunt back into Greystones.

Getting off the bike at the finish line was a strange affair. I couldn’t straighten up for about 30 seconds. I didn’t feel like I could run a marathon. Eventually I loosened up and had a plate of pasta, which went some way to settling my stomac. Once I had the bike in the car, I went for a short run. I was suprised that my legs were fine, they were tight but not tired at all. I think on race day, it’s going to come down to settling my stomac enough to eat sufficient calories to make the marathon possible. This may mean a large salty meal in T2. If this is what it takes, then that’s what I’ll have waiting there.

After I drove back to Dublin, I went for an 8km slow jog / fast walk. I felt good. Maybe I will be able to do a marathon after all.

Some stats:

• Distance: 200km
• TIme from start to finish: 7:59:58
• Time cycling: 7:32:30 (27:28 at stops)
• Calories burned: 4581
• Calories consumed: ~1900: 1 Chicken Sandwich, 2 caffeinated energy gels, 2.5 litres of isotonic, 2.5 litres of water, 2 Meusli bars, 1 jam sandwich, 1 HyperBoost cafinated energy bar.
• Max HR: 82%. Average HR: 66%
• Max speed: 67Kmph. Average speed: 26.5Kmph

The main lesson for Zurich is a lot more solid food is required. I’ll have several sandwiches, flap jacks, muesli bars and a pasta dinner at both transition and the bag drop at the half way point on the cycle. If I need them, they’ll be there.

On Monday, I did a tough 120km mountain cycle to get ready for the WW200. I went over the Sally Gap, through Laragh, Over the Wicklow Gap, through Blessington and back over the Sally Gap. The weather was really bad – driving rain and wind - and it took everything I had to make the last climb up to the Sally Gap into the wind. I also managed to leave my phone and keys in the coffee shop in Laragh (although I assumed I’d dropped them out of my pocket somewhere), and this didn’t add to the pleasure of the cycle! Luckily, someone handed them in and my kind girlfriend picked them up without me knowing. I was glad to be home, but also glad to have done such a tough cycle.

This cycle meant I broke 400km on the bike this week (and gave my biggest training week so far). A total which gives me a lot of confidence and I can feel myself getting stronger over long distances. Next week I will return to running and compete in Half Ironman UK.

Today’s IM cycle was the second of the boxes checked (Swim and Cycle) and I really feel like I achieved something today. As I’m frequently reminded, it’s not the destination that’s important but the journey. Amen.. But the destination is looming.

IM – 7: TriAthy Olympic. Race 2 of 4

On Saturday, I did the TriAthy Olympic Distance triathlon in Athy, Kildare. The weather was good and everything went smoothly in the morning (long registration queue aside). The race was set off in waves starting with the eldest groups. The aim was probably to have everyone finishing as close to each other as possible. It must be disheartening to be passed be loads of people though.

The swim went well. I started in the first third or so of the swimmers and finished the 1.5km in 31:14. The swim was 600m against the current of the river Barrow and then 900m with it. The majority of the swimmers swam close to the bank against the current. I stayed a little farther out in a group of 3. After rounding the bouy and turning downstream, the groups broke up and everyone powered down with the current. I had a goggle break for the first time in a triathlon. After trying to fix it a few times, I gave up and just swam with the one eye that worked. It didn’t actually make much difference.

The cycle was quite fast. There were a lot of people on the course due to the aforementioned wave setup but the roads were wide so this didn’t cause too many problems. I changed the gearing setup on my bike last week for two upcoming races: the Wicklow 200 and Half Ironman UK. Both have some tough climbs, and so I changed to a compact crank set (this gives smaller front chain rings). This essentially took away some of the “hardest“ gears and put in some “easier” gears.

I won’t try and explain much about gear ratios, because frankly, I don’t know much about it over the simple math: engaging a smaller chain ring at the front means each turn of the cranks turns the wheel less, and so it requires less effort. The opposite is true also – bigger front chain rings, or smaller back ones mean each turn of the cranks is harder, but gets you further. Here’s an article on Compact Crank sets.

I wondered if I’d loose power on the bike at the higher end because I’ve sacrificed the harder gears for easier mountain climbing but I didn’t. I have a high cadence compared to most cyclists anyway, probably because I grew up beside the mountains. The cycle was a two lap course of the 20km loop. There were no turns or hills to speak of so it was simply a matter of keeping a good aero position and powering for the full distance. I finished the cycle in 1:11:19 which I was very happy with. The fact that I wasn’t tired at all made it very, very difficult not to do the run – I was on to set a good time.. But after the injury problems during the Velentia run, I’d been advised to take 10 days off running. Knowing that tendonitis has the potential to go on forever if I keep inflaming it, I resisted the temptation and called it a day there.

When I got back to Dublin on Saturday evening, I went out on the bike into the mountains for a while. I felt like I had a lot more to give so it was worth using it.

I Sunday, I completed my first full, straight IM swim of 3.8km in the 50m Westwood pool in Clontarf. It took 1hour 24. I’m happy with this considering I generally swim about 10% faster in races, owing to the extra buoyancy of the wet suit and the other competitors. That would mean translate to about 1:17 – 1:20. I was a small bit stiff afterwards but not too tired. I hit the sauna afterwards again for some “heat training”. For the week, this was by far the biggest swimming week of my training so far – 10.25km.

After the swim, in lieu of being able to train for running by actually running, I walked the 15km home with a heavy rucksack. I figure it might do at least something to keep the running muscles ticking over. I actually found a lot more tiring than a 15km run.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were composed of an AM: Swim and PM: Bike. My morning weights sessions have now all been replaced by swims. I think I benefitted hugely by the 6 months I worked on Strength, but now it’s time to spend the last 6 weeks concentrating solely adapting the body to the very long distances of the IM race.

This was weekend number 1 of 3 competing - I’ll be doing the Wicklow 200 next Sunday and Half Ironman UK the following Sunday, June 20th. I think I’ll get the first real picture of how prepared I am come the finish line of HIM UK. I’ll be wearing my Ireland cycling jersey and I’m hoping for some good signs.

IM – 8: Fish Mode and the HTFU Philosophy

I removed all running from the training plan for this week to try to get the tendonitis a chance to clear. I took the opportunity to push the swim distance on a lot.

Over Tuesday and Wednesday, I did two swims which covered the IM distance of 3.9km and for the week, I covered just under 8Km. I wanted to push it quite a lot to see how I handle long swims with no breaks (as in 2.5km straight instead of 5x500m with 20 seconds break in between each set). The answer turns out to be quite well.

There are several defined periods, I find after about 200m, my arms get a bit sore. This lasts about 200-300 meters and then disappears (essentially the warm up). Some time between 750m and 1Km, I enter a period of flawless swimming. It only seems to happen when the water feels cold, so I must be fully warmed up at this stage. I can only describe it as “fish mode”. Nothing feels tired, my HR and breathing stabilise to a comfortable level and I can swim my fastest then.

After about 2km, my form starts to get more ragged and I started to lose concentration. Bearing in mind this is after around 80 laps of the 25m pool. I concentrate hard on form at this time. Worse form means less efficiency, which means slower swimming which equals worse form and so on..

Finally, the minute I switch from counting the lengths I’ve done to how many I have left (typically around 250m from the end and the light appears at the end of the tunnel), my form returns and I can almost always finish strongly.

Holding concentration really is everything. It’s interesting to note that many ultra endurance swimmers have physiological problems. It is, after all a very solitary pursuit. The Man Who Swam the Amazon describes Martin Strell’s mammoth swim of 3,274 miles from the source to the finish of the Amazon – one of the most dangerous rivers in the world. At the beginning of the swim, he had people in boats looking out for crocodiles, snakes and the awful sounding Caribu fish (they are an invasive species..). In the last few days of the trip, Strell declared that he had been talking to the fish under the water and had made friends with them. There would be no need for danger spotters anymore. 

I plan to make friends with as many of the species in lake Zurich as I can prior to the race.

On Saturday, I spent 5 and a half hours on the bike with Justin, another guy training for IM Switzerland. The weather for the first 2 hours alternated between ‘heavy rain’ and ‘downpour’. It certainly wasn’t easy but we completed it eventually, after a puncture. Coming back over the Sally Gap, we experienced some very unusual conditions – small pockets of blue sky, almost like the eye of a hurricane surrounded by rain clouds, inside which visibility was almost nothing.

I have a wrist band for when times get very tough like they did on Saturday. It’ll be no stranger to endurance athletes. It simply says “Harden the F**K Up”. IM training is no time to feel sorry for yourself. The HTFU band is a good reminder of that.

IM – 9: Velentia Island Triathlon

I did my first competitive triathlon of the year this week – Velentia Island Sprint down in Kerry. I plan to do one  competitive triathlon of each length this summer – Sprint, Olympic (Tri-Athy on Saturday 5th June), Half Ironman UK on June 20th and IronMan Switzerland in July. This was the sprint.

Everyone got the ferry from the island to the main land and the swim went from there back to the island. I was in the second wave. Someone blew an air-horn in the crowd about two minutes before the first wave was about to start and a rather large false start ensued.

I completed the swim in 13:42. When the second wave started, I was towards the front. It took me a while to settle as there was a lot of jostling and it was a tight pack for much of the section – elbows and feet flying everyone. I was happy enough with 13 minutes.

The cycle went well also (38:15). It began with a climb for about 3km before leveling off for a lap of the island, with some incredible views. I was passing a lot of people from the first wave of 250 and I had a good battle with a triathlete from Pirhanha tri club. These are great to push you on. I had one bottle filled with zym caffinated isotonic, and it worked quite well although it’s quite carb heavy so I was craving water by the end.

I had good transitions but unfortunately, despite resting a lot during the week, the injury I picked up during the Kildare HM came back almost as soon as I started running. It’s tendonitis in the right leg owing to stiffness in the hip, ITB and calf. It slowed my run a good bit – 23:13. I’ll be working on this a lot next week.

I finished in 1:16:16. In 126th place out of about 520. On Sunday, we went for a really enjoyable cycle around the island, part of the Ring of Kerry and Lumanagh hill. In weather as good as that, there’s nowhere better than Kerry.

 

After the race; myself, Vinny and Kevin.

I didn’t run at all this week before Saturday to let the tendonitis clear. I tapered on Friday before the race. This resulted in quite a low weekly total:

Most importantly, I took some learnings from Velentia for Switzerland:

• The bottle on the bike was warm by the time I got to the cycle. For Zurich, have an ice pack to keep them cool.
• Bring water as well as isotonic on the bike.
• Put good sun cream on my whole arm if I’ll be wearing a sleeveless top.. Which I didn’t for Velentia resulting in some humorous looking sunburn.
• Bring a hat.

It’s all a learning experience. 9 weeks to go.

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!