Archive for the ‘ironman’ Category
A glimpse at the life of a full time athlete
Earlier this month I did a week’s training camp in Lanzarote. What an eye opener. And what a great week!
It was a triathlon/running camp organised by Martin Yelling, Liz Yelling and Ian Corless. Liz obviously focussed on running (she’s in her pre-London phase so was training hard, herself), Martin and Ian focussed on the bike with the help of pro ironman triathlete Joel Jameson, and Loughborough Uni-based swim coach and Olympic team psychologist Dave Fletcher led the swimming, again helped by Joel. The coaches were top notch - all so good at what they do, but also supportive, inclusive and generous with their time. And they all had a sense of humour and made even the most gruelling sessions … less gruelling.
There were two runs, a swim and a bike each day which we could all dip in and out of as we wanted. My focus was on the bike as it’s my weakest tri discipline, but with such a good swim coach on hand I’d have been mad not to swim every morning, too.
My routine went something along the lines of wake up, banana, swim, breakfast, bike, food/rest/food/sleep, wake up, banana, swim, breakfast etc etc. By the end of the week I’d trained for almost 30 hours - more than double my previous max week total. That might be a normalish week for an elite triathlete, but for us campers such big volumes were extraordinary and not sustainable for much more than a week.
Most people’s focus was on working hard to make the intelligent most of the camp’s offerings, then relaxing and eating properly to recover from one session and gather energy for the next. With no normal household or work responsibilities it seemed normal to do at least two sessions a day. After a couple of hard days I had an ‘easy’ day - although I’d already swum for an hour and biked for two! The ‘easy’ bit was a whole afternoon and evening off with no session planned. I begun to wonder how on earth I ever thought one session was enough back at home. But of course a training camp’s not normal and, unless you’re very lucky - or a professional full-time athlete - it’s hard to fit that level of training and recovery into a regular day.
In fact I was over-reached by the last day. Over-reaching is the first stage of over-training. Heart rate can be erratic, mood temperamental, sleep impaired. I’d been unable to sleep well at all for the whole week which certainly didn’t help my recovery but on the last day I was experiencing a few tell-tale signs. My heart rate was stratospheric during the easiest of warm up drills in the pool. Then I threw a strop on the bike when it was too fast for me (well… it was meant to be an easy recovery session and it was proving a tad faster than that).
To avoid over-training I thought I’d been very careful: picking my sessions, not doing the run sessions (because I know I take a long time to recover from them and I wanted to have energy to do the major bike sessions properly)… but I’d obviously done just a bit too much. Alternatively, perhaps I got it right, but the lack of sleep meant I didn’t get the full recovery my poor body so desperately needed.
Luckily over-reaching is fully reversable with a few days off and it was obvious to us all that the week following the camp needed to be an easy one to help us recover and let the training bed in. If the camp had been one day longer I would have exploded. Martin was very nice and said it meant that I’d got it about right.
Now, having been back for just over two weeks, I’m starting to feel the benefits. My energy levels are returning and I mashed through a long bike at the weekend in a much shorter time than it would have taken me this time last year - at the same sedate perceived exertion level and heart rate. And that was at the end of quite a big week.
So. I’ve booked for next year. I’d recommend a training camp - but make sure you get one that has the right level of activity and ethos for you. I’m so glad I went on this one rather than a cycling-specific one - I just don’t think I’d have coped. Club la Santa in Lanzarote is a mecca for this type of activity and I can see why. And the silly tan lines for 2011 are coming along nicely.
Tags: Add new tag, cycling, heart rate, Lanzarote, nutrition, over reaching, overtraining, recovery, sleep, swimming, training, training camp
Train, recover. Train, recover. Repeat.
Well, I’m well and truly back into ironman training. This is week 6 of a 30-week programme. At this stage it’s all low intensity endurance work, building up the ability over 10 weeks or so, to swim and bike the full ironman distance (swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles). Running, for me, takes a bit of a back seat. In fact to do an ironman at my level, full marathon training just isn’t necessary.
This has been brought home to me this week. I did a 10 mile running race at the weekend because it’s a great club outing and a hilly, challenging course. I didn’t race it, but used it as a training run, running to a heart rate that kept me firmly aerobic. At no time was I working hard and I had a lovely time. But that evening the tell-tale hammered legs syndrome kicked in and today, two days later, they’re still feeling heavy.
And that’s why you don’t do too much insane run training for ironman! It takes so much out of you that it can impede the rest of your training.
So the focus is fully on getting in the miles at the moment, recovering and resting well between efforts, eating well, then doing it all over again. It’s a long haul to get to the start line unscathed and fighting fit - so it’s best not to blow it early on.
Tags: heart rate, ironman, nutrition, recovery, rest days, running, training to heart rate, Winchester & District AC
I am an ironman!
Lou finishing Challenge Roth, July 2010
Well, I did it! I completed my first ironman-distance triathlon on 18th July 2010 at Roth, Germany. I’ll write more about it soon but for the timebeing all you need to know is that I am thrilled to have done it in 13 hours, 46 mins and 24 seconds.
It was very ‘doable’ and I had no real problems although I’ve got to be much more technical next time about what I eat on the bike so that I avoid a bloated tummy and nausea on the run.
I’ve entered Ironman Regensburg in Germany for 2011 and am hoping that an extra year of cycling in my legs will help my time improve. Watch this space!
My first over-distance swim
The other day I ended up swimming further than the ironman swim distance (3.8k or 2.4 miles). I merrily swam 4k in 1 hour 24. Very happy with that. I did the 3.8k distance in 1.19 which bodes well for the ironman.
I understand that swimming in a pool is easier than in open water because in the pool you can see, there’s no current, the water temperature is good and you get the advantage from pushing off at each end. But in open water you’ll often have the benefits of a wetsuit to help so perhaps there isn’t too much difference.
A wetsuit helps your buoyancy and helps the water flow better over your body which reduces drag. Richard Hammond’s programme last Monday on BBC1 showed in slow motion photography how water distorts a human body when it’s swimming. You could see the skin and fat rippling and dimpling as the water passed over. Contrasted with the firm skin of a dolphin, you could see why swimming is relatively hard.
Let’s hope my new wetsuit (an Orca Alpha) toughens up my skin in all the right ways and makes up for the lack of pushing off to be had in lakes, sea and canals!
Tags: Add new tag, open water, swimming, wet suits