Failure! That’s how I feel about the past week. It’s not been what I wanted on a training level at all. Having backed up week after week of solid training I finally have one that falls apart. Plans disintegrate, consistency fails and I yo-yo from solid days that are still a bit too easy to almost complete recovery days. Motivation sinks and the week finishes with a full rest day.

Yet I don’t feel disappointed. There’s a sensible voice in the back of my head telling me my expectations were simply too high. In the past few weeks I backed up a hard block in Lanzarote with a hard running block. Inevitably when you start putting some of the toughest training you’ve done together and don’t have much rest you grind to a halt.

All the time I’ve been focussing on losing weight too and having some success there. Much as this morning I weigh 1.2kg higher than yesterday thanks to combining a rest day with a belated birthday dinner! It’s additional stress on the body during a stressful period, but the important thing is the major weight loss is now done and I can focus on eating to train much more.

I had the pleasure of meeting up for an easy ride with John Franklin on Saturday. We shared experiences as full time athletes both the good and the bad. It was remarkable how much similarity there was. One of the topics was how vital it is to know your body and as I said to John I know mine well, but get frustrated it won’t always do what I want. When I planned this period the sensible voice in the back of my head knew this crash might happen.

The reality is it’s not that bad though. I may not have had another massive week boosting performance across the board, but I maintained my fitness levels for the week at a very high standard. When I look in my Performance Manager Chart in WKO+ I see figures at similar levels to Ironman New Zealand and way above what I entered races with last year. Take running alone and fitness levels are at an all time high!

The numbers this week disappoint. I’ve not been my usual big volume self, nor can I claim much quality in those sessions.

The numbers

The good

I can find good. Mainly getting back onto the bike, but beyond that I struggle. As mentioned I think the fact I maintained my fitness levels in the performance manager whilst not consistently training is the biggest positive. There was no big fall back here, but no real gains either.

As you can see the first month of my Kona Build has done a lot to bring Chronic Training Load (CTL) on. This last week though has been more of a plateau. An inevitable point in a training cycle and one that you have to deal with. I tried working through it at first, but fatigue just went against me.

Yesterday I made the call to take the day off and rest up. I ate very well and more importantly slept lots too. The result seems to be a lot less fatigue today, but time and a few hours of training will be far more telling.

The bad

My original objective was to train like normal this week so an obvious bad is I didn’t. Whilst I think in the long run the lighter week may do me good it’s still a negative that I wasn’t smart enough in my planning to account for this. I dealt with a plateau in an ad hoc way.

The paltry amount of swimming is terrible as well. I’ve no real excuse that one is purely a motivational issue last week. Swim sessions are poorly timed for me ensuring early starts all round (oddly I can get up early, but starting training is hard!) The result was I failed to go swimming as much as I should have even when the opportunity was there. When I need to be taking forward steps in the discipline it’s a major error.

The very low run volume by recent standards is also a major disappointment. I’ve said one measure of the success of my 100 mile run week would be if I backed it up with another solid run week. I failed. I was just too tired most of this week and struggled to motivate myself out the door. Add to that a slow tightening up of my left hamstring that gave a little discomfort and I was happy to run less.

Sleep isn’t charted here, but is probably the most significant bad of the week. Typically I’d sleep seven to eight hours a night. This past week I was lucky to make six. Bad habits and a mind buzzing with thoughts and ideas would keep me up. I’ve a number of little projects on the go all means of supporting the lifestyle and I find myself routinely distracted. I need to make sleep a priority again.

Thoughts

So a disappointing week which I can explain away. Too far out from Hawaii to be considered a disaster and potentially the rest and the experience will do me good. At least I’m more aware of my fallibility in the face of a plateau. Next time I reach this point I can aim to deal with it in a sensible manner. Constructing my plans beyond next weekend’s ITU Long Distance Worlds has been influenced with a better recovery period built in.

The week ahead is an interesting one I have the ITU Worlds at the end of it, my final race before Hawaii. Whilst I’d like to do well there it’s not a major goal and I’m left with choices. One option is to taper properly this week and go in extra fresh to see what happens. The other is to carry through a hard four day block of training before a two day mini-taper.

General wisdom would say the former gives me the best chance of racing well in Germany. However it impacts Hawaii preparations, giving me two to three weeks of at best maintenance in the middle of my build. A block of hard work now may leave me fatigued for the race, but it would minimise the overall impact of fitnes. Build up a little more till Thursday then lose some fitness over the race and recovery.

Either way the plan is a good recovery week of regular, but light training after Germany leaving me fresh and motivated for the final pair of hard Hawaii training blocks. I know once the ITU race is out the way I need to have extra focus to ensure I train to my best.

It’s almost redundant to be writing this the day after I posted the diary of my run week. I want to be consistant in reporting my Kona build so I’m going back over now familiar ground. I’ll try to base this more on figures and analysis.

Running dominated the week. I learnt a lot about my capacity to keep going and ways to approach big mileage. I was most surprised with how my legs seemed to get stronger day on day. Rather than tiring the constant moderate pace seemed manageable. The toughest aspect was the mental side of dragging myself back out there in the final days!

The impact on my body was heavy. The weight loss that happened in the week was unexpected in size and more than I wanted. Sure I want to be close to my race weight, but even I’m aware I shouldn’t be dropping that much so quickly. No signs of serious problems though I’m clearly closer to my training limits than I have been. Keeping a balance on volume and intensity is important now too much will do me no good.

Some of the niggles in leg muscles seemed to clear themselves up over the week. I did foam roller a couple of times and started wearing compression tights to bed. I was surprised that the compression seemed to help, I’d become sceptical about it, but am reconverted. I even started wearing my socks down at the lake. It did take the edge out of all the standing around!

Fatigue built day on day. If you look at the hours in the table below you’ll notice I ended up biking and swimming a lot less. I honestly couldn’t find the energy for more! Cycling was mostly easy though I was pleased to throw in some solid, but shorter efforts in the second ride of the week. Motivation really struggled leading to the low hours elsewhere. I was tired and by the end if I’d not publicly had the target I’m not sure I’d have made the effort!

The difference splitting runs up over the day makes was interesting. Comparing how I felt on Friday after running 36km over three runs with running 30km in one on Sunday is a revelation. The break down involved in a single big run is so much more significant and I felt the soreness on Monday. It emphasises how the long run has its place you can rack up volume without it, but there’s some specific benefits to be gained from it.

The numbers

The good

I built myself to a new all time high level of Chronic Training Load (CTL) or fitness for running. As the above chart from WKO+ demonstrates I’ve no held such a high CTL since the start of 2009. This is a great place to be as I start to move my run training from largely just volume to a more focussed series of sessions. It’s a good sign that I can handle a high training load of running and should hopefully be able to avoid injury.

This is the first time I’ve had a week where the contribution of Training Stress Score (TSS) from my different activities came mainly from running. Cycling contributed a paltry 355 points to this week’s TSS whilst running accounted for 945 points. What’s worth noting there is whilst my weekly hours were lower than usual my TSS for the week was largely the same.

How compatible TSS from running and biking actually are is another question. I certainly think that 945 TSS of even easy running is far more strenuous on the body than achieved via cycling (assuming comparable intensities). They’ll always be something of a disconnect here so whilst it’s nice to see consistency in the figures, individual sport’s TSS seems more important to me.

The bad

The most obvious bad is how heavily all this running cut into my work load in the other sports. I watched the bike CTL (fitness) I’d built in the last two or three weeks ebb away. Ultimately this had to be accepted I’d made the decision to focus on the run and was reaping the rewards in terms of training load there. As ever it’s easy to plan heavy training loads all round, but much harder to execute. Keeping the balance whilst progressing all three sports is part of the challenge of triathlon training.

It also has to be said my attempts to go swimming were terrible last week. I’m not sure if I can really blame fatigue for this either. Largely I lacked the motivation to get to my time slots efficiently. When your local pool is as warm as a bath it’s not very alluring either! Having been spoilt in La Santa it’s a shock to the system to be back. I don’t think I lost much in the time as the few short sessions I did were good quality, but with ambitions to improve in Kona I need to be working here.

I can’t let weight loss go unmentioned. If you tracked the weight at the end of each diary entry you’ll have noted I lost 3Kg over the week! That’s ridiculously high. I’ve added the chart of weight loss for the last few weeks which I think adds some reality to that process. Firstly be aware that I lost 1.5Kg of that total weight loss overnight on the last day. I had some stomach issues after all.

I suspect my weight after La Santa and in the lead in to the week was coming in a little high. I’d been feeling bloated for most of the period after La Santa and you can see it fluctuates at a higher level than I recorded over in Lanzarote. I have a friend who insists he can never go to La Santa without coming back with some kind of fluid retention that takes a week to clear. Whether that was affecting me I can’t say.

I’m counting the rapid loss as a bad though as I don’t want it falling at this rate. It may have placed me at my target weight for the ITU Long Distance Worlds and I may be very close to Kona weight, but I wanted a bit more control getting there. Big running weeks create quite a hunger I can tell you and my meals have been massive. I do have a food diary for the week and may publish that if there’s interest.

Thoughts

The run focus has been a very positive experience, not just this last week, but those leading up to it. It’s helped to transform my running from something I was getting through to something I’m enjoying again. I’m well placed to really make some in roads into my performance now and with two months to Kona I’ve plenty of time. It’ll be interesting how this volume translates into performance in the ITU Long Distance Worlds, I think they may be too close to benefit fully.

Cycling has ticked a long maintaining a reasonably high level, but it’s time to restore some balance and start working here. The plan for the next week or two sees me focussing more effort into the bike and keeping the run at a high, but reasonable volume. The aim it to bring the bike CTL up to around the 100 level before Worlds. A mini-taper/recovery cycle will make a dent, but then it’s about getting to a peak for Kona.

I’m cruising too much in the pool at the moment. Letting my swimming tick over, but not working hard enough to gain speed here. It’s time to maintain a more serious volume of effort which I know helps me a lot. The other key is to ensure two good quality pool sessions a week working on developing my threshold pace. I have to remember I want to be looking at the hour for Kona this year.

I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t have made a more rounded and balanced week of training. I realise now that I didn’t fully appreciate the toll running would take and how tough it could be. I’m glad to be returning to a regular routine and mixing things up. Hopefully I can start to reap the rewards in my running and see improvements elsewhere.

Very much a week of two halves. The first a storming finish to my big week in Lanzarote and the second crashing down to some much needed recovery. I often say how easy it is to plan to keep pushing, but sometimes the body tells you otherwise. Getting back home on Friday was definitely a case of this and I crashed out for most of the weekend.

Obviously I’ve already written plenty about the period in Lanzarote, too much in fact! Looking through the last four weeks of training reports I’d say I’ve been through a good three and a half week block finishing in Lanza. The recovery was necessary and now I can embark on the next chunk of hard work.

I don’t schedule specific recovery days, but prefer to back things off when I’m getting signs that I need it. Usually it takes the form of easier or slightly shorter sessions, but sometimes in more chronic conditions I can fall off the wagon so to speak. Ideally I need to watch those easier days to avoid this extreme case, but something like a training camp can push you over the edge.

The numbers

The good

The good comes from the quality of work done in the sessions this week. Particularly given that all occurred in the first three to four days. Whilst logging up volume I wasn’t slacking off the work required. It’s been a big boost to confidence too showing me how strong I can be even under difficult circumstances. It’s important to be able to take away positives from sessions.

I suppose I can also say it’s good to train to the point where I absolutely needed proper recovery. It shows how much I’d worked and how well I’d progressed. Usually I’d try to tick along, but it just wasn’t an option. Fatigue, motivation, they all dropped to low levels. Rather than push through it I accepted it as necessary and should see the benefits in the long run.

I also shouldn’t forget the experience of trying out some of Roger’s new schedule from Torbjorn Sindballe. There are some interesting bike sessions in there I will be lifting into my schedule from now on. Very focussed towards biking strongly over the Ironman distance.

The bad

Well I missed my numerical goals didn’t I? The target for this week was 130km of running and I ended up running less than the last two weeks. Of course this is all just a consequence of using calendar weeks as a guide and it hides how much I ran in a straight period in Lanza. I don’t feel too disappointed because I made the choice not to try for the week’s target with the aim being to be recovered for this week’s 100 miles.

If I am disappointed with low numbers it’s in both swim and bike where I hoped to at least log a bit more distance during the easy days. Part of the problem with swimming is facilities when you’re back in the UK. You have to choose and manage your time better than I managed as I wanted more sleep! With the cycling it was purely a case of motivation. The weather was lovely out there, yet the idea of more hours on the bike didn’t appeal.

Thoughts

From a purely numerical stand point it would be easy to get very down about the last week. I didn’t hit any numbers I’d typically set myself. A more informative way to look at things is to consider the Training Stress Score (TSS) I’ve been racking up the past few weeks. Whilst week four has been the lowest thanks to the recovery days it still totalled around 1150 TSS so well within the parameters of a decent week.

As you can see on my daily TSS chart the general trend has been an increase in the overall TSS for bike and run. Lanzarote gave an opportunity for a particularly big boost which is most notable for running. The main thing is I’ve been routinely handling days of high TSS for a period of 3 weeks leading into this last one.

If I take my training hours for bike and run I can also be pleased that both week three and week four saw an average combined TSS of 60 per hour. Weeks one and two averaged 50 per hour or below. Not all hours of training are equal clearly the past two weeks has seen better quality even when quantity was lacking.

Overall I’m happy with the first four week block and eager to get on with the next one. It contains a few new challenges not least running 100 miles this week. Also they’ll be a week built around the ITU Long Distance Worlds where I’ll take a short taper. That’ll be followed by a structured recovery week where I anticipate less running and lower hours in general.

A training week of two halves. The first in sunny England with great weather, but relatively easy training as I tried to freshen up for the second half in overcast Lanzarote with plenty of hard work. A travel day in the middle cut into my training time, but I still managed to push out the hours. Aided in particular by the need to rack up serious run volume on the path to 100 miles.

Once I was settled in Club La Santa I soon picked things up. Easy bikes are no longer so easy with the hills and headwinds on hand to ensure plenty of work. Any given ride here notches a few percent higher on the intensity scale than it might back home. Despite that extra load I’ve been comfortably logging run mileage and feeling pretty strong.

Pleasingly the weight is melting off too and without much loss in energy. The way things are looking I’m well on target for goal weight at ITU Long Distance Worlds. I’ve reached the point where it’s no longer impacting my running. Overall it feels like I did a few weeks out from Kona last year I’ve just got a couple more months of work this time.

The numbers

The good

Despite starting the week with relatively low volume days of running I managed to step my game up once I was in La Santa. Multiple double run days with one totalling just over 30km saw me hit the weekly goal without problem. Pace hasn’t always been that hot, but the main thing at this point is I’m logging up the miles. I finished the week with a challenging, hilly long run that was testing to say the least. It wasn’t fast, but it was far from easy.

I’m pleased to find I could support some slightly stronger riding. Whilst I’m happy to back down the bike intensity for a while it’s nice to be working a bit harder and coping. There’s room for a few more solid efforts in my training back home. Of particular note this week has been the threshold ride I mentioned in my last post. Not only for the realisation that my aerodynamics could be costing me, but for introducing a good structured session to my week.

The bad

It’s been good increasing the swim volume, but I’m finding my pace in the pool frustrating. To be honest I know people say that La Santa pool is slow, but it’s infuriating! I feel quite strong in the water, but just don’t seem to be hitting any notable times. Lots of focus on a good catch and body position, but where are the improvements?! Hopefully they’ll come in time at the least I think endurance is improving.

Whilst the biking has been a little bit more intense I don’t feel my rides are consistent enough. Hard sections up hills are paired up with far too much cruising on the flats. Partly fatigue, but also I’m not being focussed enough and allowing my mind to wander. If it weren’t for the environment here I don’t think I’d be working as hard as I have on the bike. That said I have to trust that the key sessions will deliver the results and the rest is just bonus.

Thoughts

The coming week has a bit more training with Roger as things pick up. I’ll be joining him for a few of his quite challenging sessions along with my own additional training. Things could get interesting as there’s some long bikes with large chunks of hard work towards the end. Manageable on their own, but throw in even more running and it’s going to test me.

That said I’ve been fortunate to have this opportunity to come here and train and it’d be far worse to waste it. Worse case I end up crawling home from a training session. I’ve not broken yet, but throw in some pace work to the volume and the cracks may show. I’ve seen the paces planned for Roger’s runs and I’ll only be joining him for a few of them. My legs are all about volume right now, speed work will follow.

Still I enjoy a challenge and I’m looking forward to arranging a massage with The Tri Touch once I’m back in the UK. I have a feeling my legs may be desperate for it by then. The coming week is looking to be the biggest yet and will hopefully help push me to the next level.

That lump sticking out in the wind is me on my race bike taken at Ironman Western Australia. Sure I’m about to have a snack (race photographers always seem to catch me eating or sticking my tongue out), but I’m not going to win prizes for aerodynamics. I’ve not let this bother me over the past couple of years the practicalities of moving around meant only one bike could accompany me and a road bike seemed the smarter option.

Earlier this week I went out and did my first threshold session of my Kona preparations. Me and another rider using a section of the A4 for a couple of 20 minute out and backs with a 10 minute steady ride in between. Two of us meant we could do it time trial style and act as each others minute man. A little added performance incentive for the session.

With races a way off I’ve removed the clip-on aerobars from my bike. It’s more comfortable without them as I can hold the top of the bars if I want. Taking them off makes the bike more pleasurable to ride and they go back on easily enough once I’m near to racing again. So in effect I’m riding a plain old road bike and enjoying it.

There I am on a road bike and planning to ride the session on the drops. My companion however is on a Cervelo P3C along with tri bars. We’re both equipped with powermeters a powertap in my case and a Quarq in his. So as well as knowing the time it took we’ll know the power for each interval. Things are lining up for a good session as my friend goes off and I time a minute before I start.

What follows is 21 minutes of pain! Working hard to keep my power up over the course. Into a head wind on the way out and then pushing to go faster with the tailwind. It doesn’t matter how tired I am when I’m in that mode I’ll push as hard as I can. As I cruise along on a side road for the steady section and regroup with my friend I discover he did it in 20 minutes.

Round two and I’m keen to make some inroads into my time. This time I go off first and within 5 minutes my friend comes flying past. Actually having him in sight makes a big difference to motivation as I manage to keep him there for the rest of the ride. The result is another 21 minute lap and my friend done in 20.

So unsurprisingly being on the drops on a road bike is slower than on a time trial bike and aerobars. Hardly revolutionary and not something I’ve worried too much about over the course of my Ironman career. When we download our respective data what shocks me is the difference in average power. On both laps I average 15-20 watts more than my friend to go a minute slower!

Again drops versus aerobars it’s not so surprising, but seeing this in raw numbers is enough to make me think. Clearly the next time we do this session I need to have the clip-ons back on the bike. I want to see what difference that makes to our respective power and time. Assuming a similar difference in average power how much closer will being a bit more aero make me?

Whilst this started me pondering the issue of aerodynamics a couple of friends sent me power files from a recent race they’d done. Both very good athletes and had great races. What was most interesting though was looking at the power data. Rider A has a powertap whilst rider B has an SRM both were riding similar wheel setups (disc and aero front) and time trial bikes.

Rider A averaged 245 watts whilst rider B averaged 242. Despite such similar efforts and being on the course at roughly the same time Rider A went 10 minutes faster than B. Allowing for the powertap power figures to be a little lower than the SRM due to being later in the drive chain that’s perhaps a 5-10 watt difference between the two of them. That difference was seemingly enough to give rider A 10 minutes on B over 120km.

Rider B has a new coach who has suggested his time trial postion needs looking at. He also admits that it is quite up right and ‘similar to mine’. Seeing the data from this race brought home to him the difference it is potentially making. If he could ride the same effort, but in a more aerodynamic position then rider A shouldn’t be able to get 10 minutes on him.

Obviously this also makes me thing. I love my road bike it’s a pleasure to ride and I have had great results on it (that picture from IM Western Australia is taken during a 4:55 bike). It’s not stopped me getting the odd top thirty Ironman finish.

The question is if I averaged the same power in those races, but was on a time trial bike and in a more aerodynamic position how much faster would I go? Or another way to think of it how much harder am I working on the bike compared to the other guys finishing the bike around me?

I haven’t worried about this in a long time, but now I wonder if I need to dig out and clean up the old, old Cervelo P2SL frame I have. Or perhaps start looking for cheap time trial frames out there. Of course if any bike manufacturers, retailers or others feel like providing me a frame that I can use to beat my 5:15 in Kona this year don’t hesitate to get in touch!!

Kona is a tough race and I’m getting fitter than ever, but I want to make sure I’m not giving a single minute or ounce of energy away to my competitors.

Second week of training stats and I topped the numbers from week one. Whether big numbers along are a good thing is another matter altogether. Still it was a solid week with some progress made, particularly towards race weight. I’m pretty happy with how things are going with the odd caveat of course, but mainly I’m glad to feel like I’m heading back to peak condition.

I suppose I should also use this post to mention it’s my birthday today. Thirty-four years old, unshaven, a mohican and not had a proper job in two years! To celebrate I’ll be off to the lake for a swim, followed by a testing threshold session on the A4 and finally a decent run in the afternoon. I’m even going to allow myself a little bit of carbs today! Nothing crazy mind you there’s a goal weight to aim for after all.

Apart from becoming an old(er) man the other excitement this week is an unexpected trip to Lanzarote. My friend Roger Canham e-mailed me offering a free bed at La Santa for the week. How could I resist? Any debate on whether to go or not was short lived and I’d soon booked some flights and started making plans. Should make for interesting stats next week.

The numbers

The good

All three sports saw an increase in volume last week admittedly only slight in the case of swimming. The important one is the 20km extra running this week. I’ll admit it proved tough to hit that volume with everything else going on, but I made it and my legs still work. There were one or two stand out sessions in the week too. The benefits of being lighter seem to be kicking in as I ran a harder aerobic session at my fastest pace in months.

Similarly in the water I’m starting to feel good again and I’m back up to my previous pace. Great because it gives me something to work from. Having rejoined my local Masters squad it was fun to do some hard sprint efforts with loads of rest for a change. Something I may incorporate a bit more of into my own training.

The bad

Bike volume is there and I can ride all day (on little to no food too), but at the moment it’s all very easy. There’s a notable reduction in effort over my training period in Lanzarote. It’s not that I’m unable to ride that hard, but rather I don’t consistently do so during a session.

Mostly I’m fine with that at this point in time. I’m choosing to keep ride feeding as low as possible and to keep riding relatively easy. The benefit has been I’m better able to do the hard work I need on the run right now. It would be nice to mix in a session or two that’s a bit tougher on the bike. Hopefully the impending first of many weekly threshold sessions will help there.

There’s also a little bit of tightness in my legs that worries me. It’s nothing too significant and I’ve felt this before, but the location coincides with the one time I’ve had shin splints. Any discomfort there always puts me a little more on edge than it should. Definitely getting time for another massage with The Tri Touch.

Thoughts

Overall happy with the week. A lot of long and relatively easy training, but that’s where I want to be. I’m getting stronger running which was the focus of the next few months after all. I’d like to work towards having a few more quality bike sessions in there with the running. Hopefully a trip to Lanza will help with that, there’s no easy riding over there.

The trip should also help me hit the next weeks running goal. Warm weather (which we’ve been enjoying here too) and some superb trails right out the door from La Santa should get me out on the road. Looking forward to the 10K loop up into the hills once again.

Finally a link to a great piece over on Endurance Corner. Gordo sums up the points he picked up from the top athletes at their recent camp. Lots of interesting thoughts and ideas to take on board. I often think of a comment made by Gordo about aiming for 5 hours of aerobic exercise per day as a pro. I’ve managed to average that, but haven’t hit it every day in a week. Another mini-goal!

Did I say I wouldn’t post weekly analysis of my training this time round? I lied.

Kind of. I’d guess that for most people who read this blog what I do in training is of interest. I don’t want to get bogged down in numbers or end up writing long posts about every detail. Just something relatively short and to the point, top level stats, the good and the bad and some thoughts.

Why? Well apart from helping ensure I regularly put content up on this blog it helps keep me accountable. If I go off the rails (in triathlete terms) then my weekly report is going to look poor. The last thing I want is to post about a week of lounging in the sun eating cake!

Sometimes I read blogs from competitors, people I know or names I recognise from races. I see the training they’re doing and it makes me nervous. I need to ensure I can beat that! It’s a good nervous that makes me work harder and get faster. Maybe I’ll provide that motivation here, but I’d rather that than competitors thinking I’ll be a walk over.

The numbers

The good

The big thing this week was I settled into a routine. More than anything else regularly getting up at 5:30 and getting on with training was an important step towards achieving my goals. Ten days of earlier starts have gone and I’m still fine with it. The most important part is getting to bed early enough which is toughest on Friday’s when I have Master’s till 21:00.

I was pleased to get back into running so quickly and to find it both enjoyable and easy to do so. There was a lot less physical and mental stress there than I imagined. I have a terrible habit of building running into a herculean task in my mind. Then I get out there, run and am surprised it’s not so bad.

Swimming is pleasingly steady I don’t feel I’ve lost much ground though there’s work to do. I have some ideas for sets in open water too which should make swimming at the lake more interesting and challenging. Cycling has been mostly easy or steady as I want to focus on building run training at the moment.

The bad

Despite keeping my routine I failed to train well over the weekend. A mix of factors including fatigue from what had been a busy week, a later night on Friday, some knee problems and a slight dip in motivation. Saturday was a light day thanks to my ITB/Knee giving me problems which an easy run confirmed I’d be best to rest. A bit of work with a foam roller seems to have done the trick though.

I didn’t managed to catch up on rest for Sunday and after a morning on the dock at the lake just couldn’t get myself going. In the end I accepted it and decided with so many hours already done in the first week back, better to rest up ready for the coming week. An unplanned zero day, but I’m promising myself not to let that happen again for a while. It did make me consider the volume/structure of my plan as I need to ensure I can complete it and am motivated to do so.

Thoughts

Only a couple of gripes for my first week properly training again and I’m happy with that. I was a little over-ambitious in my plans for the first week, but got through a lot of work despite this. I’m generally pleased with where my fitness is right now I’d say I’m already in a good position to work from. More importantly I’m feeling more motivated and enjoying the process of training again.

For the coming week I’m not aiming to change much other than to ensure I hit my weekend goals this time. If I can do that I’ll also manage to increase my training volume/distance for the week. The important thing is to progress my running towards the 100 mile goal for July. With a proper long run at the weekend and a couple of extra sessions I’ll easily take the next step there.

A bit more is probably the key philosophy for this week.

In the past couple of months I’ve not been the athlete I should have been. It started after Ironman New Zealand when my recovery dragged on for weeks. I broke my routine and dropped so many aspects crucial to my lifestyle. Whilst I admit the break ultimately did me good I made some mistakes and set myself up to perform below my best in Lanzarote. If I’m honest I never felt I was at my best for Taupo or Lanzarote whatever the performances may suggest.

For two weeks after Lanzarote I feared I was falling back into the pattern that followed New Zealand. Fatigue was only one factor encouraging me to rest, more significantly I lacked motivation. I could accept not wanting to train a week or two after a race, but last week when I intended to start back things rapidly fell apart. A day or two of training and then fatigue kicked in and motivation vanished. I was worried.

Somehow a week ago today routine kicked in. Early to bed and early to rise and feeling fine with it. The diet started to perform and weight began to drop. By Monday I kicked off my training program properly and have stuck to it since. So whilst I ran on Tuesday afternoon I thought about the commitment required for my goals. More importantly I realised my motivation was back, I was enjoying the run and looking forward to more.

Which brings me to confession.

First and foremost I’m guilty of cruising through the year so far. I started off well and had some good moments to begin, but then started to slip. Not too much at first, but a little into New Zealand. The long break did me good, but I completely failed to make good use of the time!

I worked hard to build back some fitness in three or four weeks ready for Lanzarote, but what kind of preparation was that? I cruised into the race relying on the months of training that had gone to carry me through. Cruising through races isn’t what this is supposed to be about. Planned appropriate preparation is the name of the game.

I allowed my weight to go out of control and was particularly guilty of turning a blind eye to it. I only stepped on a set of scales two weeks after Lanzarote to be shocked to weigh in at 81.5kg! I have no idea what I raced Lanza at, I knew it was heavy, but this explains the run speed.

Check this blog post on eating habits from Gordo it pretty much nails things on the head. I saw the downtime as too much of an opportunity to do what I liked and not enough of a time to minimise impact on performance. I’m also a little guilty of swinging the other way and under eating in a bid to drop the weight fast.

My motivation since New Zealand has been low. I’ve not had the urge to go out and train. I’d make excuses about the weather or needing more sleep, but ultimately they were excuses. I wasn’t making the choices necessary to ensure I could train. The drive I’ve felt in the past year was gone and it was worrying. Especially when I’ve set myself tough goals, there isn’t really room to be messing about.

And that brings me to commitment.

Last year before the few weeks of training between Ironman UK and Hawaii I wrote about the need for commitment. That all applies again just for sixteen weeks not five. Easy to say, but after admitting how far I’ve gone off course in the past month or two perhaps not so easy to do.

Fortunately I’m typing this five days in to a very successful training week. I’m not talking about performances in training, but suddenly everything has clicked. It’s been a long while since I’ve felt like this. Motivation is back in spades. I’m tired, but getting myself out there and performing better than I expect.

In fact the last time I felt like this was about seven weeks before I raced in Kona. The drive I had last year is back, just a couple of months earlier. Perfectly timed for all the hard work I’ve planned. I’d better get used to feeling tired for a while. To be honest I can’t wait to see how hard I can push myself and what will come of it.

After a mini-meltdown it’s good to be back and committed to training again.

It’s closer than I thought. Though to put it in perspective I’ve not had eighteen weeks to prepare for a race in a long,long time. Admittedly I do have one other major race in the middle of this period. My place on the GB age group team for the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championship is now confirmed. That feels more like a logical step on the path to a successful race in Hawaii than cramming in extra races.

Monday morning my Kona build begins. I’m not planning to repeat last year’s weekly analysis of my training that was fine when it was seven weeks, but eighteen seems too much. I’ll start off by writing about my aims for the coming months. A step towards leaving behind the slightly unproductive self of the last two weeks and becoming the focussed athlete I need to be.

Whilst I’ve mostly stuck to recovery this week (in other words sat around a lot) I did make the switch to the Paleo diet. I’ve visited the topic a number of times before and I don’t think it takes much to come away from this blog thinking I’m weight obsessed! Truth is I am. There’s a definite correlation between my weight and my race performance to the extent I feel both New Zealand and Lanzarote went better than I’d expect from race weight. Just think how they’d have gone if I’d been properly light!

The goal is to reach my race weight (around 69-70kg) by mid-July. I’ll then be able to test things out at ITU Worlds in Germany, but more importantly the final two months of training will be at race weight. Being able to focus just on the training and put weight loss aside is sure to be a benefit at that point. It also give the opportunity to experiment going slightly lighter. I don’t think there’s that much room to go lower, but I have been as light as 66-67kg in the distant past.

I don’t want this to turn into a weight watchers blog so let’s focus on what I’ll actually be doing to get fitter in the next few months. Some of my recovery has been spent planning the next couple of months of training. The focus is run and swim with cycling taking a back footing. There’s plenty of room to improve the bike, but I want to focus on making the most of my strength and reducing my weaknesses. I’ll be working to maintain my current level of cycling, but the aim is to be on the bike sooner and to be quicker once I’m off it.

During my months in New Zealand I spent a few ferry trips into the city reading about Arthur Lydiard. I liked the approach perhaps for no other reason than similarities to my own attitude towards training. To that end I decided that once Lanzarote was out the way I’d structure my run training using the Lydiard system.

Lydiard was a fan of big mileage typically giving his runners something in the order of 100 miles a week. Whilst he advocated running as much as possible and believed you should run as much as you could he also prescribed a series of sessions to perform. On the larger scale he felt runners did too much high intensity work and not enough aerobic conditioning.

The plan starts with a period of pure aerobic conditioning. This shouldn’t be confused with easy running which whilst there is plenty of that there are regular time trials, hillier runs and the weekly long run. This period should be as long as you can allow before you embark on a month of strength orientated work. Utilising hill repeats and structured sessions with short burst of sprinting to develop greater leg strength.

Building this into the plan takes me up to the ITU Long Distance Worlds. Following the race I’ll embark on a month of anaerobic training where I focus more on structured track work, sprinting and harder efforts. All the time Lydiard believes you should have plenty of aerobic running too. The final period continues the theme from the anaerobic phase, but becomes a little more race focused in terms of the sessions you perform.

Part of Lydiard’s reasoning for such high run volume was the aerobic fitness it develops. As a triathlete I also develop the aerobic system through cycling and swimming. That said my aim is to maintain as high a volume of running as possible and as a specific goal have at least one 100 mile run week.

Since I became a triathlete I’ve largely let running tick along, relying on the speed I’d developed in the past to get me through. It’s a change to adopt such a structured program and a challenge too. Despite saying I’ll focus on running, consciously cutting back cycling proved more difficult than I imagined. It’s all too easy to build an unrealistic plan where I’ll run 100 miles, bike 300 and swim 20 all in one week. The hours required fit and allow time for eating and sleeping, but the reality of executing that is another matter!

I think I’ve achieved some degree of balance with more swimming and running and less cycling than previously averaged. The test will be the next month if I can cope for that period I can make it all the way to Kona. I’ll soon know if I’m setting expectations too high.

Today’s post comes from a far colder climate. I’m sat at my parent’s house in Reading and it’s pretty damn chilly far as I’m concerned. I’m not feeling too bad for hours of flying though I do have massive cankles once more. Just hoping that the swelling will have all gone in time for my next race, it’s only round the corner.

After all the excitement of the race I had a couple of days left in Kona. Time to chill out, relax and most importantly recover. Also as this blog will reveal time to compensate for months of denying myself sugars in a mass binge! I’m now more of the opinion it’s important to relax things a little after my races. I know I can get back on track quickly and mentally it’s good.

It’s rare that I sleep well after a big race. My legs are usually just a bit too stiff to comfortably lie in bed. This time I woke at about 3:30 in the morning and was absolutely starving. A midnight feast followed as I raided the fridge along with the remains of the pack of bagels. Once the hunger was gone I managed a couple more hours before I gave in and accepted I was up for the day.

After further essential snacking I headed down to the pier at around 7am and went for a swim with Steven and Jo. Swim seems a bit of a grand term for the 15 minutes of splashing about I did, but it’s the thought that counts. With arms feeling better than legs it wasn’t too bad just not fast.

Far more important than the swim was the buffet breakfast that followed. After the previous weekends two and a half plate meat fiesta I paced myself a little bit better. Mixing in carbs in the form of pancakes along with a lot of meat added a bit of variety too. I did my best to ensure I got my money’s worth at least.

Everyone’s plans largely revolved around relaxing as much as possible. That said Steven, Jo and I headed up Ali’i Drive on our bikes for a spin. It took most of the length of the Drive to actually feel OK and none of us were willing to go up the short, sharp climb at the end of it. We returned quite quickly, not sure if that was a tailwind or the draw of coffee and cake at Lava Java. If you ever want to overdose on sugar I recommend the Tear Cake. It’s massive and coated in toffee and icing. Delicious and possibly enough to fuel an entire Ironman.

The evening brought race events to a close with the Awards Ceremony. As with the Opening Banquet food was pretty good, though I mainly focussed on the cakes this time. I think the caterers were expecting this as they seemed far better stocked than at the opening. I worked hard to ensure I’d taken in a months worth of sugar by the end of Sunday. The ceremony itself wasn’t too bad. With so many age group awards it can drag a little, but none of the speeches went on too long.

As it finished the skies open and rain poured down. Those who’d been here the year before could now smugly break out their rain jackets. The rest of us got wet! We headed down to Lu Lu’s for a while, but by the time it was livening up I felt too tired to do a thing.

Another night of poor sleep led into Monday. At least this time I didn’t need to eat a meal to get through the night! Swimming started my day with another solid 15 minutes of effort! Then it was breakfast at Splasher’s. At this point my aim for the day was to return to Paleo so my usual Meat Lover’s omelette was ordered. We followed a long breakfast with a long coffee.

It was the next coffee break at Lava Java where my Paleo intentions collapsed. I could try to blame Steven for offering to get me a cookie, but the speed with which I accepted makes it nobodies fault but my own! It was delicious I’ll give it that. I made the decision to worry about the diet once I’d got home and relaxed a little. Most of my weight gain is fluid anyway.

An early dinner and a stop off for ice cream was followed by goodbyes to many of my Kona companions. People were either heading home or to other islands. I was definitely a little jealous of the latter group! I had a quiet evening of bike and kit packing ready for my own trip the next day.

What a lazy final day Tuesday was. I didn’t swim and I didn’t make a pretence of being on a good diet. Sure I still had the meat lover’s omelette, but I added a side of French Toast. Splasher’s French Toast is delicious and I’m pleased I could tempt Rachel and her boyfriend John into having some too. It’s better to be bad in company!

A morning of shopping for my nieces followed. I spaced it out by consuming chocolate coated macadamia nuts, delicious! Lunch consisted of two, yes two, incredibly dense Lava Java muffins. Not quite the sugar bomb that the Tear Cake was but filling in their own right. Highly recommended to try if you’re out here. After race day of course!

Sadly all the remained was to head for the airport and home. I’ve grown to like Kona a lot. Sure there’s not masses to do right there in town. I love the climate and pace of life though. Chilling at coffee houses is my thing after all. It’s not the most varied training venue on the other hand so once you’re back to real life and not race week it might be tougher.

It was a fantastic trip and experience. I had a great result off the back of it too. I’m not sure it’s really sunk in yet. Really enjoyed spending my days training and relaxing with so many friends. I know I have to go back again next year!

(For those interested I’ve another Kona race report on Tri247)