Trains, Travels

Well here I am in Kona. My first day here, but rather than writing about how great it’s been swimming in the ocean or riding the Queen K I’m saving that to start talking about the taper. I have already deviated from the plan with Steven inviting me on his ride. What was to be one hour of easy riding became 4 hours 30 minutes of moderately paced stuff (actually the Powertap says it was easier than I thought, I was just knackered). Harder than I wanted and my legs were sore thanks to hours of flying and little sleep. The plus side is all the swelling seems to have gone down!

Eating paleo is proving pretty easy here too which is a big bonus! Plenty of options as long as you’re selective. All been low on carbs so far with lots of proteins and fats. Hopefully that’ll see me lean through to race day. You want to be lean here believe me. When all the athletes are out on parade there’s no room for body fat! I’m told I look like I fit in so that’s good.

Enough of that though – the taper plan. As mentioned recently I’m breaking this down into the bike and run separately. Today’s post is about the evidence from my previous races which is guiding my plan for Kona.

Bike Performance Management

Not a chart, but a table pulled from WKO+ then with a bit of work in Excel assembled here (also with some callings on my old web developer skills!) What we’re looking at here is the four weeks leading up to each of my Ironman races this year. I’ve arbitrarily chosen to look at the ATL/CTL/TSB values on one day each of those weeks. The idea being to see how they changed over that time. Then knowing how the race went and how I felt during it I can assess the value of the figures.

As a reminder Acute Training Load (ATL) is sometimes known as fatigue I want this to be fairly low for a race. Chronic Training Load (CTL) is fitness, a high value should mean better performance really. Also the advice out there suggests not dropping it more than 10% during your taper. Finally Training Stress Balance (TSB) is the difference between the two and called form. Positive TSB is good, but too much is bad! The guidelines I’ve seen talk of values in the 10 to 20 range prior to a race.

That out the way from my four races I would say Ironman Australia was a poor day for me and I never felt good at any stage. Ironman Lanzarote is discounted unfortunately as my injury at the time ruined the race. Roth was a good race though I felt a little tired on the bike, but went well on the run. Ironman UK was also good the bike picked up towards the end and the run was solid.

If I’m going to learn anything from these numbers it seems Roth and UK are my guides and Oz is what to avoid. I’m a little wary with Ironman UK given that it was unusual circumstances leading up to that. From the data though my suspicion is that a TSB of 20ish will be good for the bike here. I may try and get it as high as 25 given I felt tired in Roth. The massively high TSB in Oz helps explain why I felt so flat on the bike out there!

Feeling tired in Roth might have something to do with the relatively small change in CTL. In fact an increase over the 4 weeks leading into the race. Even considering the shorter taper I opted for as the UK was my main race it was a small decline in the final week. I think I need to be much closer to the 10% drop off figure for the duration of the taper here. The UK was an exceptionally heavy drop off due to the struggle to train between the two. Not strictly relevant to Kona, but with ITU Long Course Worlds two weeks after Hawaii getting myself moving again will be essential this time.

Lanza might have had potential too!

Run Performance Management

Well I can skip the explanation of terms this time! Look at the figures and 10 to 15 stands out for TSB. Lanza might have been a little low, not that I’ll know for sure. Oz may have been a little too high. More significantly in Oz I think the drop off in CTL was once again way too high. Clearly no where near as high as for the UK, but again I cite special circumstances.

I suspect that the very regular nature of my run training now lends itself to a smaller more controlled lowering of CTL as general daily stress isn’t too bad even if CTL can end up quite high. My focus on consistency lets my body tolerate a very steady level of CTL. The biggest thing is dropping the ATL enough to get the positive TSB and a bit less fatigue overall. Simply shortening my longer runs and cutting a couple of regular runs is nearly enough for that.

Overall Performance Management?

Just for completeness this is the overall performance table. It combines the values from bike and run. Previously I had been using this as a very rough guide during my tapers. To be honest in the past my tapers were far closer to art than science! Really digging into the numbers like this is all new to me!

The problem with viewing the combined table is overly tapering for the run or bike can hide under tapering for the other. Whilst there are interactions between the two, they both use the same limbs after all, in terms of tapering I now feel that viewing them separately is important. A TSB of 30 to 35 may be great for racing, but probably not is it’s made up of a TSB of 50 on the bike and -15 on the run for example. I’d expect to be running very poorly in that extreme instance.

The factor that is a little more surprising here though is how high the combined TSB seems to end up being. Again the UK is exceptionally high, but Roth is also 35. Guidelines talk of 10 to 20, but I’m now considering that in individual sports. The resulting total TSB is much higher as a consequence, but seems to work well.

Whilst CTL is high, the percent change doesn’t vary much from 10% still. That remains fairly true. As before you’ll note how small it was for Roth and how large for the UK. In planning Kona I should be hitting much closer to 10% over the taper period.

A final limitation of the combined chart, in fact of all of this tapering system. The lack of swim training stress. I can’t taper swimming individually at the moment and it obviously doesn’t factor into the combined table one bit. I aim to work on this in the build for Western Australia and hopefully have something in place so I can work with data in the coming year.

In the end there is an element of art to tapering and however much I try to bring maths and science into it I’ll be going on feel a good amount of the time. I was surprised when I came to draw up the final taper plan for Kona that I had so much training to do in the time. It wasn’t anywhere near as restful as I usually do. It eases off as the race gets closer, but still has a solid amount of work in week one. A taper week over 20 hours? I’m not 100% sure of that one!

Of course here I am on day two of the taper and I’ve done far more than intended. The ride today was much bigger than expected! Still it seems to have helped clear some of the travel out of the legs and hopefully tomorrow’s bigger ride will feel much nicer. What it does mean is I can reduce some of the training later in the weak to balance things out. And that means more time in coffee shops. Perfect!

Part two will look at projecting the numbers for Kona and possibly that ITU World Champs too. I’ll also put out the taper plan and notes on how it’s going. Before I post that I’ll try and get a more colourful Kona experience blog up. I’ve had a great first day and am really looking forward to the week ahead.

Just a quick one as I’ll be boarding my flight to Kona a little later this morning! I’m excited and can’t wait to get out there!

I’ll blog and get as many pictures as I can whilst I’m away so hopefully those of you following events here can get a good feel for what’s going on. I still have my week five analysis to do for those that prefer the more analytical stuff (does anyone?) More interestingly there’s my taper to talk about. That’s waiting on my working out how best to represent some tabulated data.

This taper could be interesting, as I discussed a post or two back I have some new ideas about the numbers coming out of Training Peaks WKO+. I spent some of yesterday playing with my planned workouts and seeing what they meant for race day. I’ve ended up with more training than expected at the moment! Not sure how that will actually work out.

For all the talk of science and maths I’ll be sticking to some basic tapering rules of listening to my body and how I feel more than anything else though. I want a good first race in Kona as well as having the experience. Should you want to follow me on the big day my race number is 1492 and ironman.com will have tracking.

Right I need to get ready and go. Next time it’ll be Aloha from Hawaii!

Whilst I’m offering value here I can’t guarantee quality. We are two days out from the official start of the taper and I’m on some heavy days. I’m sorry to say I need my sleep more than I need to post to this blog. Plus of course I’ve been distracted by some analysis relating to tapers anyway! I shouldn’t promise when I’m going to deliver these things.

Power : Heart Rate

Presented more for completeness than anything else. As mentioned in my week two analysis I’ve come to consider this graph of limited value. There’s a number of reasons for that. In the case of the third week of training the fact my powertap ran out of batteries lost some data. Immediately we’re lacking the complete picture.

I’ll admit though it was the fact that the numbers weren’t higher than week two that first got me thinking. It was an ego thing, the line should be rising as I get fitter! I noticed in my training it was harder to raise the heart rate outside of climbing. Not that I couldn’t, but there’s a bigger mental step involved.

My initial thoughts were along the lines of limitations of the samples and the influence of the environment. For example when climbing in the Pyrenees you can often be on a Col taking an hour to complete. You’re working all that time and so at a higher heart rate and power. Compare with my riding back home where my longest hill is done in twenty minutes and only the last five are really that hard. One thing this means is I have much more data for 130 BPM and above than usual. In a way this data is probably more ‘fair’ as a representation of my riding.

So why the drop? Well it was obvious really and has been pointed out in conversation too. Fatigue! After two very solid weeks coming from being completely fresh I was tired. A couple of light days before I hit the climbs didn’t cut it as a true break. What the chart lacks is a way to factor in fatigue.

Currently I’m contemplating whether the best value for this sort of comparison would come from only using specific, focussed sessions when you know you’re rested. Races for example would be perfect. That Roth line may be the most useful on there. A side effect of all this is I’ve ordered a wheel cover to convert my powertap to a disc wheel for some of my up coming races. You can’t underestimate the value of racing with power and this way I get the benefits of aero too.

Week 4 was very much about recovering and really adds nothing to the chart so I’ve not included it.

Fatigue and Rest

So how about that fatigue then. If I pull up the Performance Management Chart from WKO+ you get to see just what it was like. I’ve had it pointed out that my last post was quite confusing if you’re not familiar with the software. I can only apologise I just didn’t want to explain the terminology again. I suggest reading here to better understand it. I will work on my own page to cover the data as a quick reference in the future.

Back to the chart then. Look at the start of week three highlighted in yellow. The thing to note is that my Training Stress Balance (TSB) is already negative. You can see it had an increase before the week started thanks to those two days off, but I start the week from a point of fatigue and build from there.

Then I really ramp things up. Taking my Acute Training Load (ATL) or fatigue as it can be known up by about 50%. That’s a massive shift again. I was very aware in the week that I was doing this to myself and a little uncertain how it’d go. I was increasingly tired, but found that a good eight to nine hours sleep a night was doing a lot to combat the issues.

When it came to the final day’s big ride and I saw TSB already below -100 I was a little nervous. I’ve never taken it so low. With an extra nap though and a good night’s rest beforehand I got through the final big day relatively unscathed. Had I had power data it would be very interesting to see what the affect was.

If I learnt anything from the week in terms of fatigue it was firstly that I can cope with a lot more than I thought, but it does affect quality. It becomes harder to do the hard work and not to slack off. Having mountains helps as there’s no easy way up them! Secondly the value of a lot of sleep is immense. Get enough and you can deal with very big training days over and over again. Finally a day with a 32km run and 60km bike in is not an easier day in the scheme of things!

Skimming through week four the only thing to note is how much I had to let things drop down to recover and start to get back on track by the end of the week. I couldn’t back up really big weeks like that too often. The numbers for week four are a little low because I don’t assign a Training Stress Score to swimming at the moment.

DOMS! Should I lift?

A very specific piece of fatigue I experience was DOMS! I’ve not really had it before, but made the mistake of doing a big weights session just before I went out to France. I think I ended up pushing bigger weights than usual on the legs because I felt it for the first few days of the trip.

Fortunately it passed and I don’t think the soreness was too much of an issue, but it raised questions about the value of weights in my training. Reading around the topic online it would seem DOMs isn’t uncommon when starting back at weights or doing high loads. On this occasion it was almost certainly the latter.

I’m not going to go into too much detail for now. Weights are a contentious issue in endurance training. My feeling is that they aren’t strictly necessary and if time constrained you shouldn’t worry too much. Core work is more important in the overall scheme of things. I do however think regular weights work is beneficial for my swimming and my running. I’m not convinced it’s done much for my cycling. Also whilst I’ve been losing weight for my race, it helps ensure muscle mass remains.

During week four I experienced a bit more of the DOMS as I got back to the gym, but I’m pleased to say as I come to the end of week five that’s all cleared up. I will continue weights in the program, though will be a little easier in my reintroductions after time off from now on!

Recovery

I’ve already mentioned the benefits of sleep. This is huge! Once I’m comfortably hitting over eight hours it became much easier to tolerate big day after big day. Despite the building fatigue as the week goes on I was still able to keep going with a slight dip on day five. I’m trying to replicate the sleep pattern more at home. With more distractions it becomes a lot harder though.

Once back home in week four those hours of sleep did suffer, but I cut back the biking and running and focussed on the swimming. Time in the pool was less stressful on the body and it gave me some chance to recover. As you can see in the chart above I’m still in negative TSB though. That was a big training load I put in and it takes time to get clear of it. My Kona taper should deal with the rest of that, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

My original plan for week four had been to get another solid training week in. The reality was that I wasn’t able to do as much as I wanted to. Just too plain tired so I had to stick to keeping things simple and doing what I felt I could manage. Despite this I somehow ended up with another big week by hours, but a little shorter on overall load.

Positive Signs

I could be disappointed with how week four went. It wasn’t what I had on paper, but reality doesn’t always live up to the plan. By the end of the fourth week I was starting to feel a bit more like normal. A swim focus had got me past any concerns I might have had that the absence of swim time in France might have set me back. In fact week four was great for getting me back into pool swimming.

My running and biking has picked up and I’m definitely feeling a little stronger for the time in France. Right now I’m feeling pretty strong and positive. The only thing holding me back is the fatigue in the system and that’s what the taper is all about. I’m in good form and excited to see what happens when Kona comes around on the 10th.

Week five is now almost over, but before I analyse how it’s gone I’ll be doing a couple of posts on my taper plans. As my last post covered a bit I’ve some new ideas to work with and will have a much more specific taper period for it. Having discussed it with others you can see some of their thoughts posted already. Maryka has a three parter looking at her taper and Steven has adopted a TSB model into his training analysis.

OK, this should have been my Kona Build week three analysis. Actually I was planning a double whammy of week three and four (reality is week four isn’t too interesting!) Then Maryka asked an interesting comment back in an old post. With an easier day and a bit of time on my hand I ended up plotting some entirely different graphs and looking back at some data from the past. That said it’s been interesting and may have something for the future.

Basically the question was had I looked at run and bike ATL/CTL/TSB separately (I’ve covered the details of the Performance Management Chart before, go here for the details if you’re not sure). In my previous post analysing Ironman UK the chart I presented was the combined ATL/CTL/TSB values. You can see it again just below if you don’t want to read the post.

My observations at the time were I’d been very close to Joe Friel’s recommended 10% reduction in CTL with my one week taper to Roth. Then for Ironman UK, I’d had a massive drop in CTL probably something like 30% to 40%. Far more than Friel would recommend it represents a significant drop in fitness. The other value to consider, TSB or form, was pretty high at nearly 50 for Ironman UK. Typically recommendations I’ve seen suggest a positive value around the 10 to 20 mark is appropriate. Most people find that when it’s too high then they race poorly as well.

I didn’t plan such a massive drop between the two races, it was more a matter of necessity! My legs were tired after Roth and I struggled to train well. Severe soreness in my calves prevented me from doing any real run training. Fortunately things started to come together after a couple of weeks. I recall a relatively short ride with a friend after those two weeks where it was obvious I was starting to get my bike legs back. With running somewhere in the week before Ironman UK I could finally run without any pain!

The Performance Management Chart and the values it tracks were designed for cyclists utilising a power meter for accurate performance tracking. The ability to assign a pace based run TSS is a more recent addition. As such how well the combined values work is open to question. More generally you do have to learn what works for you with races. Whilst the 10% drop off of CTL or the TSB sitting in the 10 to 20 range is a guideline it’s not a rule.

The Bike

As requested I broke out the values and initially posted a graph in a comment on the original post. I rushed and didn’t present all the values though! So this evening I’ve spent a little more time to make things more presentable! Below is the Performance Management Chart for the bike.

Starting from just after Ironman Lanzarote you can see after about a week I started some training again. I’ll admit that I rushed back into things from frustration with the events in Lanza. Not feeling so trashed from the long, but lower intensity race I was able to return to training quickly. It wasn’t until the third week after Lanza that I properly started training though.

Skipping past my build I had a single weeks taper for Roth (first red line). Starting around the 6th of July my CTL (fitness) is around 100 and drops to about 90 prior to race day – exactly on the 10%. Also note the TSB (form) value is around the 15 mark prior to the race. Both are right on the mark for recommendations.

That said my recollection of the Roth bike is my legs felt tired to start and took the first lap just to warm up. Certainly I rode much more strongly in the second lap and the power data supports this. Was my ATL (fatigue) too high, or possibly I need a slightly higher TSB for a good bike?

As you can see from Roth onwards There’s a steady decline in CTL and TSB levels out around the 30 to 40 region. By Ironman UK race day (second red line) my CTL has dropped by around a third and my TSB is at about 32. Both way outside the guidelines. I’m not entirely sure those guidelines apply to that particular race combination though! Perhaps they should, but as mentioned I couldn’t train well enough to hit those numbers. Ideally prior to the race I would have wanted a bike CTL around 85 and my TSB around 20 I think.

My performance on the bike at Ironman UK was pretty good, though I didn’t feel it was spectacular. Slow to start again, but strong in the final lap. I wonder if I had been able to train more in the gap I might have been capable of a better performance? As it was it worked well in the end, but it’s an interesting question.

The Run

We’ll go straight to the races this time. My one week taper for Roth again yielded a 10% reduction in CTL and a TSB around 15 prior to race day. Spot on the guidelines and the result was my first Ironman marathon close to the 3:10 mark. Clearly a good performance so those guidelines seem to have worked well.

My impressions of the run was I was a little tired and for some of the middle section I had to push to keep close to my goal pace. However come the last 10km I had plenty in the tank and was able to finish very strongly. Pacing was good and had presumably been so throughout the race.

As mentioned post-race I discovered I just couldn’t run – it was too painful! I made my first real attempt about ten days later and was slowly able to introduce very short runs. You can see from the low ATL values in that period I never did any significantly stressful run. The result was my CTL dropped by almost 40% from Roth to Ironman UK. We’re way off those guidelines here.

Consider the TSB though and as with Roth it’s not far off 15. My run was again close to 3:10 so a great performance! It was hard work and I had to dig a bit in that middle section to maintain a solid pace. I was definitely less fatigued (ATL was lower too). Once again I managed to finish strongly and push the last 10km home.

Looking Forward

Picking through this data got me thinking. Whilst I’ve looked at the Performance Management Chart regularly and tried to use it as a guide I’d never been entirely happy with the results. I suspect the issue is trying to consider combined values for running and biking. Fine as a rough guide to current training, but I now think it hides some details. It’s time I tracked the two separately particularly around races.

From what I’ve seen for the bike I think that 10% drop is relatively important, but more significant is where the TSB lies. My gut feeling is that it was a little too low for Roth and a bit too high for UK. Somewhere between the two lies the perfect value! My aim for Kona then is to taper so as to produce a Bike TSB around the 20-25 mark. Probably as close to 20 as I can. I’ll also look to do this whilst significantly reducing fatigue (ATL), but going for the 10% drop in CTL.

For the run I’m aiming for that TSB of 15 yet again, it’s worked well so far so let’s keep it as a starting point. Otherwise I’m sticking with the 10% drop in CTL as it seemed to work well enough for Roth and I don’t feel there was nay major benefit to the big drop leading to Ironman UK.

This will be interesting to track in the lead up to Kona. My plan is to continue my build week as planned and then track these values carefully during the taper, using it as a guideline to how I train in those two weeks. I’ll override the plan to keep the values heading in the direction I want. Easier now I have goals. How this will translate to actual race day performance is an open question of course!

The Swim??

OK, I know there’s nothing here about swimming. The problem is what I’ve read about estimating a swim TSS is plain awkward. It’s awkward enough that I’ve never been willing to put the work in! Obviously if I did my viewpoint would now be I would need to consider the values separately in terms of a taper. Identifying ideal TSB, CTL and ATL from a series of races to set the goal parameters.

Coincidentally on my easy runs the past day or two I had been considering whether to attempt estimating swim TSS after Kona. It seems to be a missing component. Most notably in my week four Kona Build data whilst my hours are about normal my overall TSS is low. The reason is a lot more has been contributed by a heavy swim load with lighter bike and run. It’s a short coming of the combined chart at the moment as it doesn’t truly represent my training load.

Of course then you start to wonder how those gym sessions should be factored in…

That turned out much longer than planned. Thanks to Maryka for the question, it’s provided some very interesting food for thought. Go read her blog, it’s very interesting. I’m impressed by her highly analytical approach to training and the results she gets on it. Week three analysis should finally arrive tomorrow, better late than never!

I’m back home in the UK after an almost perfect week in the Pyrenees. Perfect because all the wet weather gear I packed ‘just in case’ remained in the bag. I have a slightly silly cyclists tan which whilst not ideal does mean I saw plenty of sun. All in all a great trip with a lot achieved.

Before I dive into a post analysing the week and with lots of musings over data I thought it’d be more interesting to quickly run over some of the highlights. So today a reprieve from data and graphs and instead a few camera phone photos and routes and cols. We’ll worry about what good or bad it’s done me later.

Day 1 – Arrival
Swim – 2km! Bike – 0km! Run – 6.5km

Tentative plans to get some decent training in on my arrival day soon went out the window with the realities of travel. A couple of hours waiting for a train in Toulouse meant no chance of riding. Still I discovered it’s easy enough to eat Paleo in airports and train stations in France.

Note the swim, that’s the most I swam in my entire time out there. A short trip to a local lake in lovely sunny weather. A couple of decent laps in the wetsuit. All very pleasant. Fatigue from training the rest of the week would minimise my will to get in the Endless Pool to swim.

I finished the day with a short run through the local village. Lowlight being an insect managing to fly smack into the side of my face and sting me. Reacted a little and started to look like the Elephant Man until I got some antihistamines.

Day 2 – Testing the Bike/Legs
Swim – 0km! Bike – 91km. Run – 17km

Decided to get straight into a routine with my morning run. Out the door before breakfast and off on the marked 10km loop. Pace seems slow, partly because it’s a lumpy route much of it on trails. Also I think my decision to do a gym session on Saturday is paying me back. My legs are sore!

After breakfast where I did indulge in a little bit of carbs I opted for a relatively simple ride. The plan was Col de Larrieu, Col de Buret and the Col des Ares before heading home. Short and simple. Always feel a little nervous on the first ride in the mountains, will my legs be up to it? Once I was past the Larrieu I started to debate the route. Too easy?

Before the Col de Buret there’s the option to turn off towards the Col de Portet d’Aspet and the Col de Mente. I’ve never climbed the Mente due to weather issues on my last trip. I couldn’t pass it up and headed over to it. The sun was shining and it was time for a real climb!

I got up the Mente no problems though have to admit to finding it a bit boring! Not sure why, but it was just one of those climbs I couldn’t get into. Lots of switchbacks, but never felt that exciting. Still first major Col done and a quick descent into St Beat that made me suspect my descending was coming back. The rest of the ride was a slog into a headwind on a busy road so not so fun.

The perfect way to finish off the day was to eat, rest and then get another run in. This time out along a local flat bike path in the heat. I’d been promised it’d be great preparation for Ali’i Drive. Hopefully in Kona things will go better as a lack of fluids in the day led to severe stomach cramps and perhaps some minor heat stroke when I got back!

Day 3 – A Trip Abroad
Swim – 0! Bike – 120km. Run – 17km

Once again I headed out on the 10km run first thing. Legs still felt sore which was frustrating, but I settled for a volume emphasis on running this week. My bike route today would be a climb up to Superbagneres, then back down and over the Col du Portillon into Spain before heading home.

Superbagneres was a much more enjoyable climb. My mood was good and the gradient about right for the day. I settled into it and made my way up the quiet roads. The only real interruption being the odd bit of resurfacing being done. At the top it was a remarkable dump! Everything run down and nothing open. A promising looking cafe being gutted for renovation. So as was standard it was straight round and down the hill to Luchon. Being on the paleo diet for athletes and needing some carbs in training I ate a Pain au Chocolat!

I headed up the Portillon low on motivation again. It’s a pleasant shaded climb with some fairly harsh gradients. Admittedly it was early days and by the end of the week I was fully acclimatised to long slogs up 8% hills. Far better than the climb itself was the descent the other side. Open, fast roads you could speed down all the way back to France and St Beat.

Rather than face the busy main road I detoured towards the Luchon side road to make my way back. Still had a strong headwind for the return! After yesterdays experience I immediately transitioned to my run to get it out the way before any stomach or heat issues could take hold. It seemed to work and I felt much better even with the heat.

Day 4 – Going Long
Swim – 10 minutes! Bike – 141km. Run – 17km

Third proper day in the saddle and I felt I’d done enough pottering about. So once agan it was out first thing for that 10K run. The soreness from weights was gone, though instead I had fatigue from more recent training! My planned ride was to head over the Portet d’Aspet and over to St Giron before turning round and heading home. It’s a bit of climbing to start the day, but then mostly rolling on the route back.

The legs felt pretty jaded from the start. On the Col des Ares, the first climb of the day, a wiry old guy went past me! I really felt I had nothing to answer and just let him go. At the least I should stress this guy was a cyclist, not one of these old guys with their knees sticking out on the bike. The Portet d’Aspet has some nasty sections in so I was a little concerned.

Once on the climb things picked up. Gravel laid down for road repair was slightly unwelcome as it irritatingly stuck to the tyres. I settled in to a reasonable rhythm until I caught a group of Dutch cyclists. With a bit of motivation I started powering up the climb picking off the group one by one. I think I got the lot by the time I’d made the top! I was also greatly relieved that a long descent to St Giron would let my legs recover!

Whilst the rest of the ride avoids any notable climbs I couldn’t resist popping back over the Ares and climbing it the other way. Once back home it was straight out on a transition run again. Back on the flat, hot road feeling reasonably good despite the mileage. Then I actually got in the Endless Pool! It’s hard to claim 10 minutes splashing about getting used to how it works as a swim, but that’s all I did. Shocking. If one thing lacked in my week it was structuring in swimming properly. Something to bear in mind in the future.

Day 5 – Easy day??
Swim – 30 minutes! Bike – 60km. Run – 32km

My plan for the week was two three day blocks with an easier day in between. I will note that an easy day can’t really include 32km of running! I went out into the heat on the cycle path for a 20km stretch, before finishing the run off with the 10K trail loop to work the legs over. It certainly did and I was pretty worn by the end.

Fortunately the rest of the day was pretty slack. I rolled down to Luchon. Stopping in a boulangerie for a mini-pizza (yes, a break from Paleo) before returning home. Then I finished the day off by actually spending a whole 30 minutes in the Endless Pool. I got the hang of it and found it quite useful for studying your own stroke.

Day 6 – Going Longer
Swim – 0! Bike – 161km. Run – 10km

Right being rested it was time to up the game. I started out with the usual run and then headed out for a monster ride. I planned to string together a bunch of favourite climbs. First up was the Port de Bales. A fairly significant opener with a real mix of gradients on the way up with some stern stuff to get you working. Plenty of livestock too!

Topping that felt good and the descent was fantastic, once again I found myself handling things comfortably. I wasn’t willing to state it aloud, but I really felt I was descending properly again. A few kilometres from the bottom you turn off to climb the Peyresourde. Boy that hurts the legs to start! Not so steep, but after twenty minutes downhill they aren’t expecting it. Still I love the Peyresourde so soon got my legs back. I’m not sure why I like it so much, because it has one of the dullest peaks around. Not planning to stop for coffee or crepes it was straight over for a fast descent.

On a trip out to the Pyrenees the previous year I’d climbed the Hourquette d’Ancizan in pissing rain. I remember the climb fondly despite this, possibly because of the crepes and frites we warmed ourselves with after the descent. Climbing it this time I learnt I’d forgotten that it was quite long and tough to start. At the least it had some spectacular views midway through. The descent the other side is scenic, though finishes in a slightly cyclocross fashion.

I paused for a Mars bar at the bottom before heading up to climb the last section of the Col de l’Aspin. Another favourite, though usually when climbed from the other side. From the West it was a shorter climb and over quickly. However the descent was great fun. The East side is an enjoyable, challenging climb and a fast descent. Midway down I caught an exceptionally nervous car and had to over take. My descending really must be improving!

A lot of climbing done I took the easier route back over rolling terrain. As I got close to home I realised I was close to 160km and with a few diversions I boosted myself up for a century ride. I was knackered when I arrived back and decided 10km was plenty of running for the day.

Day 7 – No Really an Easy Day
Swim – 0! Bike – 75km. Run – 6.5km

I woke on Saturday and knew today wasn’t going to be the big day I planned. So out on the run it was an easy decision to cut it short and opt for the 6.5km loop over the 10K. I gorged at breakfast, including lots of carbs. My body was demanding it!

In the end I decided to ride up to Nistos Cap Nestes and back with no extra riding involved. One solid climb to give myself a workout. Getting to the climb is a drag and my mind wasn’t in the mood. Add to that my powertap had run out of batteries so I had no power info for the day. Motivation was low, but I stuck to it.

Gravel was everywhere on the climb, covering the road for the first couple of kilometres. I seriously questioned the wisdom of continuing. Sticking to my guns I worked up the climb and was rewarded with some spectacular views. The sun of the past week had vanished so I was a little chilly. The top was a disappointing car park and a closed cafe. So a quick turn around and back down the rough and slightly nerve wracking descent. I reigned things in not wanting to take any risks at this point.

A good climb left my legs feeling a lot better and I cruised home much happier for it. The rest of the day was spent lounging around with my feet up. My body needed some rest!

Day 8 – Really Going Long!
Swim – 0! Bike – 190km. Run – 10km

Something must have worked on the previous day because I knocked out the 10K a little bit quicker than previous days. A big breakfast and very short nap before heading out on my biggest ride of the day. The plan was to go up the Tourmalet, then back over the Col de l’Aspin and if I was feeling up to it the Peyresourde. A big day for sure especially when you add an extra 10K to the start with a wrong turn!

With 70km already on the clock by the base of the Tourmalet I started on the climb. I really wasn’t into it and the whole day seemed like a slog. Somewhere way up the side of that mountain though the mood turned and by the time I reached the top I was loving things. I’d gone up in bigger gears than I’d been climbing in previously and felt really comfortable. Great stuff. I paused at the top for the picture. Explained to a concerned Frenchman I had a gilet to keep me warm on the descent and headed down before I got cold.

Holding back at my corner where I crashed on my first trip out there. I soon caught a car and had to wait till I could over take. Descending was going well again apart from a sketchy moment on rough road where my rear wheel started to slide. At over 50kph that might not have been pretty, but I stayed upright. It wasn’t too long till I was at the bottom and relatively warm again.

Feeling much happier and keen to get my big ride in I headed for the Col de l’Aspin. Once again climbing from the less interesting Western side. That meant a long gradual run in until those final few steep kilometres. The kilometres ticked over quickly and it wasn’t long till I was at the top. I enjoyed the descent yet again. Catching cars and almost another cyclist! At the bottom I had a choice, the easy route back or over the Peyresourde.

I’ve never climbed the Peyresourde from that side and I was feeling keen. The choice was easy. It’s a long drag in and the 10km of actual climbing is pretty tedious. Throw in a little drizzle and I was questioning the wisdom of my choice. Too late now, I was committed. The thought of the fast descent back to Luchon spurred me on. Was I actually enjoying descending?!

There’s a moment near the top where you see a side road with cars on it and think ’shit there’s more’. The relief when you turn the corner and see the actual peak just in front of you is huge. Then it really is fast downhill with some handy signs in the villages on route to let you know your speed. I was soon in Luchon, it was all over far too quick! All that was left was a slog home for 30K into a headwind. The knowledge I’d hit 190km for this helped pushed me on and I arrived back at base feeling pretty content. That was it my big week was done.

Day 9 – Kicking Back
Swim – 0! Bike – 48km. Run – 6.5km

Well almost done. With my flight being in the evening I had the morning to train. I opted to keep the run and bike short. It was probably the toughest bike ride I did all week. Tiny climbs, but my mind was done with this. I’d done my training this was no fun! I pushed through on a local loop taking in a couple of little hills. I got it done fairly slowly, though thanks to a headwind not so easily.

All the training done I packed up and chilled in front of the TV!

All in the main seven days totalled up around 850km cycling and 110km running, both solid volume. The lack of swimming was a shame, so clearly I need to hit the pool and lake lots now. I’ll do some proper training analysis for the week in the next day or two and also have a lot fo thoughts on future training coming from this. Certainly if I get my recovery and environment right there’s the potential to train harder in the future. I’ve some ideas for ways to structure my training too. Exciting times are ahead!

I’ll try and keep this coherent, but I’m writing this in between my easy day training sessions. The great thing about training camps, even when you’re on your own is they take you away from so many of the distractions. Life is much simpler – eat, sleep and train. Just an occasional break to write something about training from four or five days ago.

So back to the graph. I’ve added on week two and you’ll notice a couple of other changes. The data from my race in Roth is there and the lines are curvy! I’ve opted to use a polynomial regression as I was curious to see how things varied over the range of heart rates. I’m going to put a huge caveat in now. Looking at this data and also week three’s data I have to emphasise this is really rough statistical territory. Those plots are using Excel’s polynomial trend line function, it’s not cleverly planned. Data sets are relatively small and potentially easily skewed. The figures are there as a rough guideline for me.

If you accept all that, what do you see? Firstly right up to the 145 BPM mark I’m putting out more power than in the previous week and training/racing blocks. A good sign right? To an extent I think so, it indicates a return to fitness. My perception is that cycling isn’t such an effort as in the first week and I was able to put in some solid sessions on hills working in the 230-250 Watt region. I’m pretty happy seeing that.

I don’t want to jump ahead of myself, but data from week three made me reconsider some of this analysis. To an extent the shape and nature of the curve is very much determined by how I structure my training that week. How much it reflects the way I train versus fitness is something I don’t have an answer for yet. Over time I would expect to see trends reflecting changes in fitness, but individual weeks may be too small.

Week two was much more structured than week one. I approached the bike with more hill repeats and deliberate efforts and less general riding. Part of this results in there being more data for certain heart rate regions than others. You’ll notice that in the second week I’m outputting higher power for lower heart rates and for the very highest heart rates. The hill I used to train favours a fairly steady rate of work and finishes with a punishing last kilometre. How much of the division comes down to that?

Another piece of information to note is the average heart rate for week one and two data. For week one it was around 120 BPM, but week two drops to 111 BPM! Now obviously there’s warm-up/cool-down riding and easier sections in there. Descending on hill reps for example. Still the work in week two tended to be easier, lower heart rate riding with specific bouts of intensity. I think it also continues to point to the vast range of variables actually influencing this chart. I’m going to consider some of those variables in week three.

Without becoming too negative and completely rejecting what I’ve done so far I am reading this as a return to fitness. Whilst I didn’t have the complete freshness of week one I was able to put in some very solid work and am clearly not wildly far from previous performances. All good stuff. This topic will be revisited when I start looking at week three (probably Monday).

Outside of cycling I have stuck to my daily run and swim schedule and managed two complete weeks running and swimming everyday. In both cases the result has been a drop in perceived effort for my performance. I’m pretty confident I’m back where I was with the running. Swimming I’m less sure of. It’s taken a while, but I’m finally starting to feel a little more normal in the water. How that relates to race performance I’m not sure. My relative training versus racing performance in swimming is probably a topic I should revisit in the future.

The last two days of week two were a little off plan. Breaking down the bike and travelling took more out of the schedule than expected and I simply didn’t have the time, energy and let’s be honest motivation to train more. I sneaked in an extra gym session which to be honest has proved a little unwise prior to a big training camp. DOMS is not fun when you’re riding up a mountain pass! The result was a slightly lower training load than intended, but as a plus a bigger break prior to week three.

A part of me that likes to see big numbers was disappointed. Fortunately 4 days into the next week and I’m seeing far more interesting data and achieving so much more. Definitely a moment of the bigger picture taking priority. It’s all too easy to get hung up on the small details.

I’m waffling now. I promise the next week will be a far more interesting post or posts (I might need two it’s that good!)

This is really just a quick post to apologise for the lack of posting. I am a couple of days into my big training camp in the Pyrenees and it’s taking a lot out of me. If not for some pretty solid training there’s always the insect sting to the face that has me on antihistamines! Or alternately there’s getting a minor dose of heat stroke or similar yesterday from a lack of fluids in training. Neither were fun, but fortunately haven’t had a big impact on what I’ve been able to do. Plus getting at least eight hours sleep at night is a great way to survive these things.

Training here is going well, I’m putting in some solid days and hopefully will see the rewards a little further down the line. Top tip is not to lift weights the day before coming out on a big training camp, that really made my limbs suffer on day one! That aside I can see the affect of fatigue in my riding today, not quite as strong as the first day. I also need to relearn proper pacing for this kind of climbing as I’m suffering later in the rides. One more big ride day tomorrow with the biggest ride yet. Then an easier day.

Easier meaning a long run, a good swim and a short ride, but all easier of course. I’ll follow the with another three day period, this time trying to put in a bit more work than the first three days. All in all it should build a lot of fitness back up and give me some interesting data to talk about the following week. On the subject of data I have the chart ready and will post my analysis of week two on my easy day. Hopefully I’ll have the time and energy then.

Today’s picture is my set-up for a brief bit of swimming after all the other training. Yes, I did have a mug of coffee pool side!

In the little gaps of time between training, when I’m not sleeping or eating or possibly wasting time with Twitter I think a lot about training. You’ve seen some of the fruits of this with the graphs I’ve filled recent posts with. Don’t worry, there aren’t any today, but I have started on some for my week 2 summary this Sunday. No one should be surprised that a lot of those training thoughts revolve around Kona. It’s looming large on the horizon and whether I can get into shape for it, especially sub-10 shape is the big question. I’m not myopic though and I also ponder the bigger picture and what’s to come.

Going beyond the race in Hawaii I have another six to nine months training full time before reality bites. I want to make the most of this time and step things up a gear. A big push so that next year’s race results reflect a new athlete. The biggest question is how?

I will get to running in a moment after some more general points. Buried in past post or comments I have said I feel like I’ve reached a point where I’m really ready to train. Typically this was close to a race so perhaps a good sign I was fit. What I would say, just two weeks into a new training block is I have really reached that point. It’s easy for me to train regularly and volume is never an issue. I’m at a point where I can work on increasing the intensity, uping the training load more to get bigger results. That’s where the focus of the next nine months lies. Not just training lots, but working harder than before.

My best fitness has come after extended blocks of hard training. That means knocking out the 30 hour weeks and uping the intensity as I go. I’ve been involved in a very interesting discussion on tritalk regarding training which includes a link to the perfect analogy. It’s about building the house, or in this case renovating it to a higher quality. My house is sturdy and reliable, but it needs to be finished off. I can go into my training knowing that all the biking, running and swimming I do is well within my grasp and what’s needed is harder work.

I will also briefly note that my best racing comes when I work myself into the ground in a training block. I need to be exhausted so that in the last week prior to taper I struggle to hit each session. In fact if I’m failing to hit some sessions I might take that as a good sign! Then a two or three week hard taper. Reduction in volume, but still intensity when I can. In Training Stress terms build up a very high Training Stress Score (TSS) then crash it down a little. It’s not entirely text book, but my gut feel is it’s worked for me. Kona and Western Australia will tell a lot on this. I’ll review it again before the races next year.

Anyway, the run…

OK, so this post was about running and run training. Partly because I’m considering the what next for my run training and partly following email with Steven about his running. Fortunately I’m not in the situation of having to rebuild my running following a nasty injury. You should check out Steven’s blog to see what he’s having to cope with. A minor bout of Shin Splints a coupld of years ago is the nearest I can come to understanding the frustration.

My last two races included what I’d consider breakthrough runs for me. Finally coming in around the 3:10 mark, much closer to where I felt I should. It’s a great start and I put it down to a range of factors. Improved bike and run fitness over the last year being one, but also significantly was weight loss and better pacing. Finally learning to control the bike and the run pace so you can push in the last 10km was a revelation!

Of those factors, there’s probably still room for a little bit more on the weight loss, but not much. I think I’ve seen the biggest impact I’m going to get from that. With pacing I think there’s room for me to up the pace sooner. For that I need a race and the guts to try it. Ironman Western Australia perhaps? What I can do in training is work more on finishing my runs at a higher pace. It seems to be coming in naturally at the moment and I’d like to explore it more.

Really the key is to improve bike and run fitness. I need to be getting off the bike fresher and a faster natural runner. It’s really that simple. Given I’m discussing running I’ll put the bike issue aside. We’ll just assume my bike fitness is such that I’m arriving in T2 ready for a decent run.

My current run protocol is very, very simple. I run every day for at least 30 minutes, sometimes more. Most days I just run those thirty minutes around a local loop. How close to thirty I come is a good indicator of fatigue and fitness. One day a week (at least) I do a longer run typically over two hours. That’s about it. It gets me into shape to comfortably run an Ironman marathon, but it doesn’t build speed.

Increasing fitness comes down to increasing load and recovering from it. I’ve two options, increase the volume or increase the intensity. As usual I’m opting for a middle ground route! Recent runs I’ve noted that my pace picks up considerably throughout the half hour run. I started to think that perhaps I could get a lot simply by extending my run by another twenty to thirty minutes. If I could spend more time running at the higher pace my body will adapt towards that – perfect. So I will be uping the length of the daily run to 50 minutes minimum in the next training cycle.

The second way I’ll look to increase volume is to include a double run day once a week. Morning and evening runs with all my usual training in between. At least at first keeping the pace nice and easy for at least one of them to ensure I survive. Another option I’ll consider is a second long run. Not every week, but perhaps every other. In every case the aim is more time running per week, but minimising the risk of injury. Depending on location, finding trails could be a big benefit on that count.

I addressed intensity in the run up to Roth and Ironman UK by running regular short races. It’s my prefered way, I’m far better at racing than doing intervals. Without run series to hook into I’ll need to look at throwing in interval work one way or another. Some fartlek running and tempo work in the week at the very least. Whether I should try a return to a bit of track training is another question I need to weigh up.

Looking forward I’m simply looking to increase the training stress of my run training and rely on fitness to follow. Like that it seems a little too straight forward. I’m not sure there’s anything more complex to it though. Run more and run harder. Recover, adapt and get faster. Right? If anyone has experience of getting down to the 3 hour mark for Ironman marathons I’m very keen to learn more!