Trains, Travels

This is a somewhat novel situation, my memory of my previous Ironman tapers is one of feeling absolutely smashed at the start of them. With just under 2 weeks to go to the race I don’t really feel too bad, but equally not too great. Warnings not to over do it or test my fitness sit in the back of my mind. The problem is – what is over doing it or testing your fitness? I can’t really say for sure if something I’ve done so far is too much and I doubt I’ll know after the race either. Frustrating and I find myself routinely checking out articles on tapers just in case I can glean a final bit of information.

I suppose what’s particularly unusual is I have a little bit of confidence and optimism already. It worked wonders in Busselton. In fact I think it’s essential. I need to go into the race, any race, with a plan and a belief that it’s perfectly within my reach. I already have it all formulated in my head. I’ll put it up again before the race as I did with IMWA. To me that’s a step in demonstrating commitment to the goal, no denying my success or failure after the fact.

When you are exhausted from weeks of heavy training the taper seems easier. The idea of testing fitness seems ludicrous because training is a slog. When you’re not quite that fatigued the thing is you can test fitness. I could go out on the bike tomorrow and chase a new PB and quite possibly grab it. It’s really tempting too because whilst it may deliver a little more fatigue or a little less recovery it shores up that confidence. I won’t though. Tomorrow I have a few hours of riding where I will throw in a couple of 10 minute efforts on a not particularly challenging climb.

All of this leads up to the key question bothering me at the moment. Am I getting the balance right? I’m not going to go into too much detail or talk numbers. Some of the concern comes from an interest in the Performance Management Chart in WKO+. Over the past few months I’ve not let it dictate too much, but followed the graphs with interest. I am coming to better appreciate the relationship between my training loads and fatigue. It’s at the point that I can largely see how I felt good on a particular day or poor another. I’m not sufficiently advanced to fully appreciate these values in an Ironman taper. Here I’m still feeling my way. Research suggests a careful reduction in training to minimise loss of fitness, but eliminate fatigue. Reality proves this to be the training equivalent of walking a tightrope.

Since my last day off and last post I’ve had a pretty decent weekend. I spent Friday heeding the warnings about pushing too much. Firstly at the pool where a surprisingly sore shoulder (still) put me off doing any serious work. I was happy enough to be getting a lot of consistency in my times. Then on the bike I scaled back plans as I found myself pushing into a headwind. Not because it was too tough, but because it was too easy for me to work harder. This was one of my good days and with Saturday and Sunday having some key training I decided not to burn too much energy. Potential mini hill repeats became a shorter, flat ride.

Saturday was the training I was excited about. A very hilly ride with Pete which guaranteed there’d be no taking it easy. An early start for a change too and having had great weather all week it was time for some showers. The other part of the plan was to test out some possible pre-race nutrition – two cans of V! A single can has some kick, two is even better. I headed out into the rain fuelled up on energy drink. As an aside one of the early conversations as we warmed up was how living here puts you off training in the rain. By UK standards these were pretty ordinary and it was probably about 20C at 6 in the morning anyway.

I’d suggested taking in Kennedy Drive and Tomewin and Pete suggested connecting them by Hogans Road which he assured me was nice and steep. My anticipation for this ride was driven by a desire to test myself against Pete. I know, the taper rules say no testing your fitness. This however would be too good a sign to miss out on. When I first arrived I would get dropped on the really steep stuff. I simply couldn’t put in the burst of power necessary, my legs lacked the strength. I know I’m climbing better so when we hit the Kennedy Drive climb and Pete moved ahead I stuck to his wheel.

Come Hogans Road and I was pushing from the start with no idea what was to come. At first it looked like Pete’s memory of the place was a bit off and it really wasn’t that tough. Then it kicked in properly and we both started to grind away. The road passes through some amazing, serene rain forest (particularly appropriate in the rain). Tranquil apart from the climbing induced heavy breathing. With neither of us wanting to take any risks our descents on the wet roads were comically slow.

To top off the work done so far there was Tomewin. A second, possibly third visit that week for me. Pete pulled away a little at the start and my legs definitely had less to respond with. I kept him comfortably within sight the entire way though and in the process set a few new PBs in the training software! Down the other side and Pete was done for the day leaving me to ride the next two hours over undulating, but not so extreme terrain. To finish it off I threw in an hours brick run all very comfortably at a higher pace than normal. All in all a pretty satisfying days training with an all important confidence boost. The question being, was that too much?

When I woke early on Sunday morning the answer seemed a definite yes. My legs felt like lead and I could realy use a few more hours in bed. Unfortunately I was also entered into another race – 8Km run race at Runaway Bay. So 40 minutes of cycling there at an easy pace that felt desperately hard to hold. Then a somewhat disappointing 30:19 for 8K putting me ever so slightly below 16Kph a bit poorer than my half-marathon PB! Still I think I can fairly claim I was tired and at least it was a quality workout. It was an odd race to experience. I didn’t suffer in the way I did for the previous month’s 5K. I never felt I was working quite that hard, it just wasn’t really possible to get there. Easy pace felt even worse on the way home! The headwind didn’t help!

So today has been another day off to allow for a bit of recovery. I went on a long tour of the coffee shops and enjoyed another sunny day. I considered going to the cinema, but it just seems wrong when it’s so nice out. Back to a bit of training tomorrow, but nothing too hard. Just in case!

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The last time I posted something, almost an entire week ago, I was clearly a little rattled. It took one day to get back on track. Typical after I post about poor motivation, poor performance and the little doubts in the back of my mind! Thankfully the weekend and most of this week has bolstered the sense that maybe I can pull this race off! Great timing as officially I’m tapering.

Having effectively wasted (my opinion anyway) two days of the previous week I was keen to put a good effort in on Saturday. Actually thinking back I stated my plans for the weekend in a bid to kick myself up the arse. Not everything went to plan of course. I got to the pool to find the main one being used for waterpolo and the other by the junior squad. The rest of us relegated to a shared double width lane. I spent an hour dodging people and mostly doing easy swimming with drills. It all felt very unproductive and reminiscent of public pools back home!

The day was heating up well though with a few hints of clouds in the sky. No excuses there not to get in the big ride planned. I’d made the decision to finally go and ride the Numinbah Valley. I’d ride up Springbrook and drop down into the Valley, then head South to Murwillumbah. Depending on time I’d then keep going and turn back up the coastal road. I was told Numinbah was good riding, but isolated and tough. In fact the way it had been described to me had if anything put me off. The impression was you’d be lucky to get round there unscathed! Still I’ve been here 6 months and never ridden the route.

Within a few minutes of heading out I remember thinking how stiff my legs felt and how it didn’t bode well. I was determined to get some good training in though so nothing was going to alter my plans. I rode easy over to Springbrook giving me a nice hours warm up before the climb. Last week I timed the climb riding with my race wheels on. Much as I’d enjoyed riding without all the usual data being recorded it had bugged me a little not to know what the power was for the climb. So when I passed the picnic area at the start of the climb I attacked and held it to get me up to the top in 24:20. The result is I now set some new PBs in my power data! Also I was a quarter of the way through the ride and pretty stuffed. Definitely going anaerobic in the last kilometre!

Repeating my tough climb in a matter of days was far too encouraging to have any consideration of shortening the ride. I dropped down into Numinbah for the first time taking it really easy on the steep descent. What I learnt is that Numinbah is not that tough, nor that isolated and in fact is a beautiful place to ride. The road is undulating with an overall rise until you drop down into the Tweed valley. It’s a little cooler in there as it’s generally more sheltered. The views of the forest and rising mountains are spectacular too. As usual I didn’t have my camera with me!

In Murwillumbah I stopped off at my usual Shell Servo. It’s run by a friendly South African man who clearly never recognises me as he largely asks the same questions. Where I’m riding… If the cars bother me… I prefer it to the far more common it’s a bit hot to be out riding isn’t it? I always wonder if these people really think that once it’s over about 28C you should stay indoors? A top up of fluids and a solid intake of V was enough to pick my riding back up again. The rest of the trip whilst uneventful was at a solid pace. Net result was a 170km ride with over 2500m of climbing in a little over 6 hours. I finished the day with only a 30 minute run off this. That felt great too!

I compensated for the short swim on Sunday by getting in the full 5K. Then back out on the bike for another beautiful days riding. This time taking things a little easier and even bringing along the camera! Today’s picture is one of the views over the Tweed Valley. When it comes to riding I’d say that area is more my base than the Gold Coast. Despite planning to take things easier I still threw in a climb over Tomewin and went at it hard. The weekend has given me some confidence that my time here has started to transform my riding.

So now I’ve started my taper. The first thing I did was look at the planned taper and its execution for Busselton. Man, I didn’t run much, in fact I didn’t train much! In comparison to my plans the reailty was very light indeed. This time I’m aiming to stick a little closer to the plan and train a little bit more. Not that the Busso taper failed, but I think it could be better.

Tapering brings a whole new set of concerns is this too much, is this too little? I’m over that general feeling of low motivation and concern about performance. If I can get to the line in Port fresh… The way I’m riding right now and the work I’ve done on my run… It might just work! Actually the biggest problem right now is letting go. It’s hard to plan workouts without trying to build at the moment. I shouldn’t be testing my fitness now, instead allowing it to level off and then giving my body time to recover. It’s so tempting though, the way I can ride… I could go out and smack a few hills for fun!

Today will be my first rest day of the taper. I’m deciding that right now and sticking to it. Everyday since Saturday has had some solid training in and it’s time to let a bit of recovery happen. I shall go out and enjoy the day instead. Some long walking, maybe a trip to the cinema this afternoon! It’s still hard to make this choice – in the back of my mind I’m wondering if perhaps a short bike, or swim, or run would be appropriate! Better to be reigning myself in that struggling to do anything though.

Right now I’m pretty excited. The weekend consolidated some signs that were all ready there and I was just ignoring. Once again I’m fitter than I’ve ever been. I’ve made a step up in my cycling. My run endurance is greatly improved. My swimming is strong and in a place where I think I can start to make real progress. All these things are great news with a race almost 2 weeks away.

Beyond that I’m excited to test this fitness out back home on my old routes. Hell, I’ll be honest I almost wish I didn’t have a race coming up! I feel like I’m in perfect shape to really start training and to take things further. This Ironman is almost an interruption! Part of the plan is to execute a taper, race and recovery that sets me up to pick this training back up very quickly in April. With luck that’ll give me a month to play with things before Lanza!

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Twenty-Two days till Ironman Australia. Close to, but not quite taper time. I’m already feeling a little bit of the race nerves coming on though. Right there in the back of my mind are those questions. The ones about whether I’ve biked enough, run enough, swam enough or done them at suitable intensities when I have. I’d be surprised if I wasn’t getting these thoughts to be honest. However as of Thursday what happened to my motivation?

Wednesday was an OK day. The weather was a little poorer and with well worn biking legs I decided to focus on a long run. It went well too. The first three hour training run I have done since… Well a very long time ago, in fact I think when I was just training for marathons. It wasn’t perfect, my route wasn’t ideal as it left me without fluids for 90 minutes whilst I ran inland. Dehydration wasn’t a big issue though I’m growing to accept that my failure to hydrate much on runs may be extending the recovery period. Anyway, the run was done and I threw in a somewhat half-hearted swim afterwards (I was tired by then). So overall the day felt pretty successful.

Thursday’s plan was to be a nice easy day to recover from the past 4 days. In that respect I give it a thumbs up. I went out on the bike and didn’t need a bike computer to tell me my legs were dead. Downloading data afterwards simply amused me with a 101BPM average for my heart rate. Yeah, that one was really easy. I should have swam as well, but discovered the main pool was being used for waterpolo and the other one was heavily crowded. I canned it. Right that’s not so bad really, after all it was an easy day?

Friday’s plan was get up early, go swim 5K. Pick up newly rebuilt powertap wheel. Come home and get out for a 4 hour ride. Finish it all off with an hours run. I swam… 3.5K.

What’s up with that? It didn’t start well as I changed my alarm 3 times following a poor nights sleep. I was having a fantastic dream mind you. It’s unsuitable for this blog though, but fantastic… Anyway. When I did get up I arsed about for an hour before getting myself out the door. By the time I got to the pool I was probably about 3 hours later than planned! To be honest the swim wasn’t too bad though. I did a test set to prove my swim times have improved lately and to establish a new baseline for training. They have and I did!

Then I stopped off for brekkie and coffee before making my way to the bike shop and picking up my shiny new wheel. I’d forgotten just how shiny they can be, maybe I should clean mine more often. My phone went off whilst I was in the shop and rather than being the scammers from the Philippines it was my sponsors Jaggad. They had some great news for me, they’d chosen me as one of their athletes to get a free entry to Ironman Oz! I can’t say how pleased I was with that! I’ll be racing in their new custom team kit with a big kangaroo slapped on it. Apparently it’s very bright, but hey that seems to be my criteria for race kit these days! Yes I will also be racing in it in the UK and anywhere else even though I’m not an Aussie. If they actually made British kit in red,white and blue with a badger on I’d race in that.

By this time of day a 4 hour ride was clearly out. I considered a 2 hour run instead, the weather was poor anyway so I was happy to put off the ride. I was also happy to put off the run! I sorted out my training wheels back onto the bike, that didn’t take too long. Then I decided to change my cleats over on my bike shoes. They’re desperately needed I managed to pull my left foot out the other day! This proved to be more difficult than expected. I assume everyone has a preferred stopping leg – the one you unclip and stand on when you come to a stop. Mine is my left leg and on both my road and tri shoes the cleats are mostly worn on this side. Unfortunately to the point that in each case one bolt was well and truly locked in place. Changing two pairs of cleats took me about an hour! It involved allen keys, a pen knife, several screwdrivers, a hammer, a hacksaw blade and some pliers in the attempt.

Long story short I went from one easy day on Thursday to two in a row. Not driven by fatigue just an odd and unsettling lack of motivation. I’ll admit the current very British weather doesn’t help and I actually wish I had a turbo trainer here! There’s other factors though. My plan is a bit to flexible right now and I’m not holding myself accountable enough to it. I am getting good training sessions in, but not always well timed or with a little too much up or down.

Something I’ve considered for a while now is getting a coach. I think a bit of input on structure, plus additional accountability would be a big help. My training in Oz has increased my fitness of that there is no (real) doubt. I just feel that to really make the next step up I need to be a little bit more focussed in how I work. Something I could do myself? Perhaps, but I’m not sure that’s realistic. I’m waiting till after Ironman Oz and will start looking properly once I’m in the UK again. I’m open to any suggestions or recommendations!

So it’s the weekend coming up. Weather actually looks OK. I’ve got my training set-up back in shape and I’m well rested. The plan is to make Saturday a distance focussed day. Get up and get to that pool early for a 5K set (no slacking). Then out on the road for a 6 hour ride with plenty of hills in. Then run straight off that for an hour. Sunday I’ll aim for more modest distances, but a little more intensity. Fatigue allowing of course!

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