Trains, Travels

Another year gone. Fortunately turning thirty-five has not had an impact on my performance, if anything I climbed the Pyrenean cols better than the day before. Perhaps I am reaching my endurance peak!

Training in France has left little free time. There’s a gulf between my home camp earlier in the year and the work being done in the mountains; time scales and effort are on a different level. Daily fatigue saps mental and physical energy, I’m unable to achieve much in my spare hours. I wonder how I survived Epic Camps when this Iron Camp is so tiring. Is there room to do more? I’ll find the answer in August.

I don’t have the focus to write a training camp review nor complete the Ironman pacing blog I intended. I’ve made excuses and as it’s been my birthday indulge me in a brief contemplation of the year that’s gone.

Settling down

Had I the money I’d continue the travellers lifestyle, but as it stands it is good to be settled. I’d like it to be drier and warmer, but being days of long haul travel from my family isn’t appealing. Wanderlust remains and a long-term objective is achieving the financial freedom to satisfy it. For now I’m happy where I am (though may grumble about the weather).

Coaching

The biggest transformation this year has been coaching taking priority over competing. A casual job has become full time employment and provides sufficient income to support my needs. The success, and speed, of the transition took me by surprise and whilst I’m not complacent I am confident I’ve started a successful career.

It’s about more than funding my own lifestyle – there is a group of athletes relying on me to help them achieve their goals. Some want to break 10 hours at an Ironman, some are starting out and appreciated that I come from a non-athletic background and some even think I talk sense about training. Whatever their reasons working with a mix of athletes has taught me a lot and my approach continues to evolve.

The real test has started; weekends are packed with racing and results follow. So far so good. There have been personal bests and goals achieved, but most importantly lots of athletes happy with performances and keen to see where they can go next.

Racing

Only my performance at ITU Long Distance Worlds stands out; Kona was a failure by the standards I set myself and I’ve not raced since. But this is a positive post and whilst I’ve been quiet I have been working. The cycles of my training are well recorded, but I’ll note again the improvements on the bike. The Pyrenees has confirmed I am that much stronger than I was in previous years.

With running being addressed and swimming limited by motivation at least I’m confident that the coming year can see me return to good form. A positive.

So I have a work/life balance again and I’ve made progress in both. The year has gone well, taking me from an unsustainable, leisurely lifestyle to the beginnings of a long-term career. It remains unconventional, provides a different set of challenges and is deeply rewarding for this. I have five and ten year goals in mind, but I’ll save comment for future birthdays.

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I’ve spent the week without a power meter. Jittery rear braking drew my attention to some small cracks in the rear rim immediately taking it out of action. Whilst it was being repaired I had to take a step back, abandoning wattage and looking at heart rate and speed if I wanted numbers. Both were alien to me, I’ve vague notions of their relationship with power, but little concern for the details – they’ve never mattered. Over the week I became convinced I was working harder in the absence of power.

Without my Powertap I had no way to know how hard I was training, but it felt like more. Perceived exertion was higher, I might be tired or I might be training harder. Speed seemed high too, but that’s so dependent on conditions, it wasn’t a useful guide. I would never know and as I considered the potential to test the theory I realised I could never find out – were I to ride blind to power, but record it, then aware it was a test I might ride harder!

What interested me was that left to train by feel I worked harder. I’ve observed the phenomenon before; the occasions I’ve been without a power meter have felt the hardest. They’re often followed by strong riding when power is returned as I attempt to prove that I was indeed working more. This coming week in the Pyrenees is going to be interesting – I’ve already set new peak powers over the first two days!

There has recently been a lot of discussion of training by feel versus training to numbers. Many coaches and athletes expressing good arguments for both sides. Spending a week purely training to feel and noticing a difference to training with numbers made me consider my own approach.

I don’t see the need to divide into camps – those who prefer to train by feel and those who like to analyse data. I collect data, as much as I can, on the principle you can only make use of it if you have it. Whilst I collect that data I mostly train according to feel, choosing intensity and pace to suit the day. If I feel strong on the bike I’ll push, but If I feel flat I’ll abandon any plans to test myself. I’ll revisit the harder set another day when I’m better able to complete it.

But I download data from every workout, I log details and keep notes on how it felt. I plot Performance Management Charts and compare the development with previous seasons. In this respect I am analytical; everything is studied – work load and intensities assessed, compared and checked for progress. At times it may influence my plans, but mostly how I feel on a given day says a lot. Plans and performance goals are tweaked according to how I’m responding to the training so far.

Most weeks my goal is to perform certain sessions across the disciplines – long rides, threshold work, long runs, speed work in the pool. A variety of workouts focussed on differing areas of fitness. I have overall performance goals I’m working towards and I focus my attention on races as they approach, but mostly I look to the margins for improvement. When I couldn’t run I put my attention on cycling and helped to transform my abilities there.

Spending a week without power didn’t change the nature of my workouts, though it seemed to increase my effort. Each day I trained by feel and was then mildly frustrated not to be able to download data and quantify the work done. I was stuck with gross estimations based upon heart rate, but I trained and estimated and my methods remained the same.

There’s much to be gained on both sides – planning and looking at the details of how you train, but being adaptable and responsive to how you feel. The important thing is that you do train, you do put the work in – this is what makes the difference. Whether you go by feel like many or you record every second of every session doesn’t matter if the right work is being done.

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Yesterday I returned to the track for my third coached session with James from Kinetic Revolution. A fortnight has passed since we started working on my technique and in that time I’d practiced and trained to help embed the changes. Sessions have been short, but very specific; the goal always to run well. Quality over quantity.

I know I need to commit to whatever it takes. It may be entirely different to my previous training, it could be boring and it might be hard, but I came to James for independent, expert advice and the only way to benefit was to fully adopt it. No adjusting to fit my personal preferences, just do what I was told. That level of commitment is essential to effectively adapting.

The initial sessions set out the principles of the new technique and began the process of adopting it. I felt I took to it well and whilst it required focus I was hitting my stride. From an injury perspective my calves felt less strain under the new form – a very positive sign. After a few days I was more confident and optimistic than I had been in months.

James provided me a set of strengthening exercises and run workouts to practice. In duration or effort these weren’t challenging, but always required me to maintain form. The runs targeted three areas – developing my ability to hold technique at low speed; kilometre repeats at my steady pace to get used to working; and short strides to overemphasise form. The strength exercises involved series of single leg squats and variants upon that theme.

I did as I was told and diligently performed the strength and conditioning work daily. At first the results were sore glutes and discomfort on stairs; two weeks later whilst the exercises make my hamstrings and glutes work, the DOMS are gone. Already my stability feels enhanced, during yesterday’s dynamic warm-up lunges were performed with minimal wobble. The change is noticeable when I run – footfalls feel solid.

Every evening I worked though the conditioning routine and every day I ran. Mostly slowly attempting to develop my feel for the new technique. The exaggerated motion of the strides was in many ways easier, giving strong feedback on the correctness of form. Holding technique at a full range of paces is vital so I focussed on the hardest area – keeping good form when slow.

Running felt easy. I began to doubt the accuracy of my pedometer – speed didn’t match perceived exertion. Uncertainty dominated these sessions; I’d play with pace, throwing in short sprints to enforce correct technique. I worked hard to slow down, but never managed to reach 5:30min/km pace. Pleasingly I could cruise at 4:45min/km, but I wanted the control. Run with good form from my slowest to my fastest effort.

The track confirmed the pedometer was right. James put me through four 1km repeats with a goal pace of 4 minutes. I hit 3:30min/km for the first feeling I’d worked, but not pushed. We focussed on technique and I attempted to ease back whilst still maintaining a fatiguing effort; my priority was developing triggers to maintain form. Every 100m I’d make a concerted effort to emphasise technique.

The remaining reps came in marginally slower, but felt more controlled. Running like clockwork: I was a machine going through a set of motions and it felt comfortable. I noticed a tendency for my right arm to slow whenever concentration drifted so it became the centre of attention. I focussed on keeping a crisp arm swing throughout each lap, using the 100m triggers to remind me. When the right arm worked, technique fell in place – it was a metronome dictating my form!

Two weeks have turned my outlook around. I run without concerns about my calves; I actually look forward to the training again. It goes beyond returning to run fitness, I am convinced I can run faster. It will take time, but I’m committed – a year of work will see me running better than ever.

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