The End is in Sight

New Orleans. The city that represents any number of things to any number of people, has represented the last four Mondays of training for me. I have spent the last month here, every Monday, slogging on the Courtyard Marriott's treadmill, finishing off the last parts of training for the second of three Iron Distance races I plan on completing in this three year time span.

There is only 10 days until the next race presents itself to me. As I sit here writing about it all, I try to recall my feelings from last year's approach to Nice. I'm sure that those around me will attest that I was less than relaxed. This year is proving a little different. With no one traveling with me on this journey this year, it feels more of a lonesome endeavor, although many have helped me train throughout the year. As a result, there seems to be less tension. Perhaps, knowing what awaits me? Less foreign an event? Confidence in knowing what awaits?

I feel a little pressure knowing that this year I will be racing in front of my close family and friends. A little different dynamic. My parents were there last year in France, yet this year I will have some of the friends I grew up with watching on. Those who have not seen this part of my present personality yet. I'm excited to have their support.

Race weather is looking very nice for the day. Planning on idyllic British September. 70's and sunny. That's the reliability of British weather. When the cricket season is ending, the weather always improves to what you would have liked all season!

The tapering is in to it's second week. I always find this the hardest to keep up with. The training is winding down and the eagerness to get to the start line tends to lead me in to a lethargic approach and a desire to get it over with. That said, I am certainly less willing to get in to a hotel pool right now and tether myself to the steps for an hour of monotony. Perhaps tonight when I get to Kansas.

Napoleon will laugh, but the pack list is taking shape. There is a long list of things that will get packed this weekend. Amongst others, the bike. I remember last year, when the bike was packed up in the basement of Urban Tri, as it will be this year, the realization that the race was indeed happening. I have a suspicion the same will occur this year. Chris at Urban Tri, as reliable as ever, the man who painted my bike box last year for me, will be packing the bike up again. I could do it myself, but there is something about have the reassurance of a professional do it for you. Knowing that you have done all you can to ensure the bike will arrive in as good as shape as ever. Let's hope United treat it with the same kind of respect!!

We take flight this Monday, enroute to Challenge Henley. May the seats be comfy and the food plentiful. (I suspect not organic!) May the Thames be forgiving! I look forward to it all.

Good luck to us all!

3 weeks and the taper begins

The taper begins!

I find myself at a familiar place. The heavy volume begins to subside. The freshness begins to return. The irony of relief that the hard training is ending and the feeling of closeness to race day. Along with that feeling of closeness comes the slow building of excited butterflies for the race. 

Iron distance tapering really doesn't look like much of a taper, with the exception of the bike volume. That discipline tends to back off, but most other areas keep up the pace until about 10 days out. The hard part is reducing the training and the food intake (my favourite part!) to ensure I can minimize the slight loss of fitness that happens with a taper.  

This passed week went well. Some really good sessions, along with a hard long bike. Came in straight from work and headed out for a four hour ride. That was hard to do and very tiring, especially with the 4am wake up at the start of the day. 

Went out on a trail ride, totally free of the roads, which was a liberating experience. Yet, also a lonely one, which was one of the goals, to gain the experience of being out there by yourself for long periods of time, exactly like race day. 

Running seems to be really coming along. The calf problems from before appear to be concluded. Had a great long run up in Northern Wisconsin on the south shore of Lake Superior. First half was completed with my lovely wife and the went on a long straight 45 minute stretch by my lonesome. Good practice. Slow and steady. Slow and steady. 

Now comes the first week of taper. Going to be tough to juggle the training. Busy work week, coupled with family visits. Lots of sneaking out early before everyone wakes up! 

Leave for the UK in two weeks with my support crew of Neal. I suspect he may well be coming for just the pub experience, but having anyone along for support will be invaluable! Can't wait to get over there and settle in. 

Good luck to us all!

Positive improvement

First stretch of the home leg is complete. Calf stood up well with a few runs and good 2 hour run without too much complaining. 

Credit for the resurgence and repair of my calf has to be given to the rest and dynamic stretching routine provided to me by The Fix studio during my fantastic bike fit I received a few weeks ago. I feel that was key to getting back to running so close to race day. 

One more week remains of heavy training and then the taper begins. Planning is already taking shape for packing and race day prep. The bike again will be packed with the help of Urban Tri, ensuring secure arrival in the UK. 

Sunday also proved not only a successful long run, but also nutritionally. There was a concern about providing the nutrition needed for the run portion. Previously, my nutrition bottle had not survived well on the bike with me. Therefore, I needed to come up with a new strategy. As usual, it was the simplest that proved the best. Four fuel belt bottles full of one hour's nutrition each, to remain dry until the run begins and them mixed with water from the first aid station. Worked well Sunday and hopefully the same result will be realized come September 8th. 

Also on Saturday, managed to complete a race day simulation. Felt good, once I had shaken the negativity of being road raged on the way to the lake. Fantastic weather for it. Couldn't have asked for more in that department. Great bike following the swim, with a relaxed transition run after. Lets hope it's a good sign for September. 

As the day gets closer, beginning to build on the excitement of the big race and having the family and friends out there for added motivation. The pain is guaranteed. The support is what dulls the pain and keeps you plodding. It's that feeling that provides me the energy to finish such a long race. 

Good luck to us all!

Longest ride 2013

Last year saw a much higher volume and less frequency in bike training, which led to a resentful feeling towards getting in the saddle. 

This year has seen a different approach,  with more frequency and a few less miles, with my longest ride measuring 85miles so far. That all changed yesterday with a key long bike ride. The longest on the calendar. 100 miles plus 3 miles transition run. 6.5hours of training (swiftly followed by an ice bath)

It was the perfect weather for it. Overcast for the majority of the ride, even too chilly for the first few hours. Like most riders, at the halfway point of a century ride, I felt great. However, as usual miles 60-80 were a slog. Just kept turning the pedals over whilst distracting myself with the beautiful farm country you find in Minnesota. 

I like to describe the mile 80 and on feeling as your legs giving up feeling tired. You don't have a burst of energy, just a "numbness". They don't hurt anymore, but they don't feel either. The discomfort subsides and the spinning plods on to the triple digits you are striving for. 

The last ten miles always seem to drag by. When you are alone out on a bike, there is no one to distract you. Not a sole to cheer you on. A cheer squad is one of the big advantages of a race day.  Therefore, those last ten miles are brutal, in my humble opinion. A Chris Froome or a Richie Porte to draft behind wouldn't be a bad thing. 

Waiting for Napoleon to catch up at mile 50!

Almost there!

I find great relief when I make it back and  get to go for a run. The relief is found in the difference in muscles used and the joy at not pedaling anymore. As long as the nutrition was followed, this is, and was yesterday, the most fun part of the workout. It normally is on race day too, seeing people again, cheering for you, tends to reawaken you for a short while in to the initial parts of the run. My cheer team yesterday consisted of Maggy our black lab/brittnay mix. She is always very excited to go for a short midday run. Tongue flapping to the side by the end, with a flicker in her eye from the fun she is having - mostly from the rabbits as opposed to the running!

The recovery is the next best thing of the day. Time to chow down. Admittedly, I'm a little unorthodox in this area. See picture. Don't worry, there was a bountiful fruit recovery smoothie as a side!

 Don't knock it until you've tried it!

These are the last two "big" weeks before the joyous tapering begins. Which means only 4 weeks to race day. I can already feel the butterflies building. 

Good luck to us all!

Calf and learn

It started off as a hotly anticipated long run, spanning two states, North Dakota and Minnesota. I was due in to Fargo in the mid afternoon and was looking forward to following a half marathon course I had found online, which snaked its way along the Red River, either side of a line marking the Minnesota and North Dakota border. It couldn't have been better conditions for a long run. 2 hours in 70F beautiful summer weather. Certainly a welcome change from the 90's I had been training in of late.

However, an hour in to the run, not long after my trusty biking colleague had left my side, that my left calf popped up to ensure I knew it was there. It was immediately obvious what the origins of the pain was. A strain? Cramp? It wasn't uncommon to experience muscle fatigue after a day of flying and then heading out for a long run. However, this pain became progressive and there came a lot of stop-starting, stretching and walking. I was still 3 miles from the hotel I was faced with 40mins of awkward running and walking back. Certainly not ideal for 6 weeks from race day.

With every setback there is an opportunity. The focus, after I had finished sulking, immediately began to focus on what I could do. Fortunately, the discovery that biking provided no discomfort at all set out a week of biking and swimming. Not a bad thing really, based on the premise that I am not your strongest cyclist and I had been neglecting the swimming side of things. Yes, there was and is a continue subconscious pull calling me to go for a run. Just a short one. However, a week off of running will allow the injury to repair and also help my biking a lot, if not my posterior pain! 

This week has also encouraged some good recovery work, loosening many of my tight abductors and hips, a source, no doubt, linked to the possible calf injury. A lot of rolling in the basement and reflection of how my body is doing. Again, a positive, if not painful, step along this training route.

It also gave me time for experimenting with Training Peaks - a new toy, which has proven, so far, a usual tool in logging all this training malarkey.

Hopefully, the forthcoming week will prove successful, following the week of resting the calf. 

Good luck to us all!

My long bike route this week:

It's a sprint!

The first clap of thunder woke me up at about 3:30am with a loud introduction that rattled the windows. As I rolled over to check the radar to be sure the thunder wasn't a precursor to a rare tornado in the area, I saw lots of red, in a continuous line, stretching from north to south, indicating the severity of the storm that was passing over head. "Ah good", I thought, "this should be by soon and leave race day clear". Not quite. 

The 2013 edition of the Lifetime Triathlon Minneapolis was less that straight forward. The storms began to self sustain, rolling back on itself and not moving from the area. By the time I had called Napoleon to get a ride, it had rained about 2 inches and would rain 2 more by the time it stopped later that morning. As we past thought the bike route on the way to transition setup, the water was half way up the tires. The creek,  having broken it's banks, was now covering much of the International bike route. Not a positive for time trial biking. A sinking and oddly somewhat of a relieving feeling began to pass over me. Perhaps there would be no race today. Fatigue had been hanging around a little since the beginning of the main Ironman training earlier in the week and although the Olympic distance would be a good indicator of my fitness, I wasn't overly enthralled with actually competiting.

At 7am the course was closed and contingencies would begin to play out. By 8 we were all racing the sprint distance course. Half the amount expected. Double the effort. Adapting was needed, which again added to the experience bag that I was slowly collecting throughout all this triathlon malarkey.  It was definitely a good one, as I now had to apply some of what I had read to the diverse situation developing ahead. Longer warmup. Bike bottles removed. Nutrition adapted. Transition was ready.

A sprint really is exactly that. All out mayhem right from the gun. Don't look back until the finish. This distance is not what I would expect to do leading in to an ironman race, but that was what was on the menu and onwards I thrashed. I very crowded and chaotic 5min swim later and I was on the bike. Much to my own surprise, I went out harder that I had done before and maintained it the length of the bike course. Certainly not setting any records, but certainly putting out a good showing for my lowly bike skills. The YouTube video by Joe Friel on biking technique, which was watched the night before, appeared to having a desirable effect. With the fastest bike split of my racing career behind me, I thrashed out a respectable 5k at a much higher pace that I would have expected from a slow poke, long distance guy, like yours truly.

Crossing the finish line, I knew I had to be close. Very close to Napoleon. A quick check an the most depressing 20seconds of my triathlon life came in to view. 20seconds!!! That was the margin of "victory" he put on me. How depressing. Yet how encouraging, to have discovered that my body was capable of putting out that kind of speed.

Now on to the next 6 weeks of much higher volume and much slower activity.

Good luck to us all!

IM Base and July 4th

I must admit, planning my training, I could never had imagined coordinating a recovery week with a holiday week. However, that's indeed how it worked out this year. Doubt I could stumble in to that again. AND I didn't have to work.

So, here I sit, July 5th, feet up with a cup of warm "Joe" watching the last 30KM of Stage 7 of the Tour de France. Woke up a little worse for wear, but with a recovery week on the schedule, not too much to worry about. However, the next couple of days will be spent doing some serious recovery work and fueling for the beginning of the IM specific base period ahead.

What does this mean? A lot more volume combined with some very long rides. These are the weeks where the biking begins to reach for 6 hours with 30min runs after. This year, however, planning will be improved, with some early morning starts, which will lead to finishing at more reasonable finish times. The routes will be different with meeting points with different riders around the city, making the longer rides a little less monotonous. The goal is to not allow the bike to be a point of resentment by race day. Hopefully, I will be able to meet Napoleon and a few others around the rides and make these long training efforts an enjoyable time on the bike.

Perhaps a little inconvenient, Lifetime Fitness Triathlon takes place in 8 days. It's a yearly event that I do as part of a team. Good speed training, as it is an Olympic distance event. However, I'm sure I will have to play it smart as I will be tired from the long week of training that will proceed it. Looking forward to it though, as it is such a good cause we race for in Fraser. Our final year. Time to go out in style.

The final thought of the day lies with my current contemplation of Ironman Boulder 2014. A good friend of mine has stepped in and offered to sponsor my entry in return for me wearing his logos on my race day kit. A lot of thoughts are running through my head currently. What if I get injured? What if I fail to finish? How will I cope with the altitude? It's a daunting prospect, but one that brings quite a temptation to compete in this fantastic spot for an Ironman. Sign up is in 10days, so this all could be irrelevant if I don't click the mouse at just the right time.

Good luck to us all!