Trains, Travels

Last week we held the third swim trials at the Tri2O Swim Centre. With the season coming to an end and the British summer not performing attendance was a little lower than usual. There was still forty swimmers in the lake keen to practice a mass start. As it was I think they got off pretty lightly and no casualties were taken.

I used the event as a chance to test my recently purchased Kodak Playsport video camera. Overcast conditions meant poor lighting, but the rest is down to the cameraman! I list athlete, coach and web developer on my CV, but it’ll be a while before I add video production!

Hopefully it gives some sense of the triathlon mass start. The lake will see this on a larger scale with the Reading Triathlon on Sunday 12th. Entries have closed, but there’s still one more swim trial on September 30th. The water will be cold, the skies grey, but it’d be a great way to finish the open water season (I’ll be enjoying the warm seas and sun in Hawaii mind you!)

Now to come up with my next video project to practice those film making skills. Open to suggestions on that one. I’m sure there’s a director somewhere inside me!

Like so many endurance athletes I almost live in fear of losing fitness. Whilst I’ll rationally acknowledge the need for rest and recovery as part of the process there’s a part of me loathing the lost training time. Tracking training load has probably made it worse as I now have a graphical representation of the process. With that in mind I present this chart.

In the month since Ironman New Zealand I have not been so busy! In a period of five weeks I’ve allowed my CTL (fitness) to drop by about 100. What was I doing over those five weeks to let that happen?!

I wasn’t cycling much and neither was I running that much. On the other hand there was quite a bit of swimming. Unfortunately swimming doesn’t contribute as much to my training load as does biking or running. Cutting those two out ensured a decline especially when I’d been maintaining such a high level for CTL.

After most of my events I’ve returned to normal training after a couple of weeks. This time I was travelling back home in that third week. Then in the fourth week when surely I’d have got back to a routine I managed to get sick. For the fifth week I don’t really have any great excuses! The weather was better (but still not what I’m used to), but the motivation was lacking.

There were a few issues. I’ve had a lot of tightness in my calf muscles and the large volume of swimming had left me with quite tight shoulders. Running more than about 10 minutes caused my calves to start locking up and that’d last for at least a day. I’d experienced something similar after Roth last year, though on that occasion it cleared up quite quickly. The shoulders made swimming more uncomfortable than usual. I was willing to put some work in, but it wasn’t much fun. A massage from The Tri Touch has addressed these two issues and I should be able to get past them now.

I’m not here to make excuses for what’s happened though. It wasn’t the rapid return to training I’d planned. Instead it’s probably been the longest break from structured training I’ve had in two years. The thing is for all my previous fears of losing fitness I’m feeling great for the break.

Sleep has improved massively with eight hours becoming normal when I’d struggle to get that in the past. I feel fresh most of the time, days without experiencing a sense of fatigue. Appetite has stabilised and with a healthy diet I’m losing some excess weight even without hours of exercise. There’s a lot to feel positive about.

The truth is whilst I focus on how little I’ve trained I’ve not been sitting on my backside either. One of those weeks involved forty kilometres of swimming and last week not cycling much still involved almost six hours on the bike. Endurance athletes not only fear losing fitness they develop a somewhat skewed perspective on what constitutes being lazy.

With Ironman Lanzarote getting ever closer I started looking for some reassurance that I didn’t need to be too concerned. At the simplest level just scanning over the graphs confirmed my CTL is still higher than it was six weeks out from either Lanzarote or Kona last year. I started from a lower base point and reached a decent peak in five weeks on both occasions. I can do it again!

A bit of research into detraining revealed that whilst your body will start to lose fitness after as little as a week off it doesn’t take that much to slow the decrease. When I have gone for a swim, bike or run in the past week I’ve found it quite easy to put in some quality work. The emphasis is on quite there is something lacking, but it doesn’t seem too big. With all the fear of lost fitness and performance it’s a relief to find there’s still something in the engine.

Not that I’m proposing regularly taking a long break from structured training, but it clearly has its place. If nothing else the mental break was needed! Two years is a long time to focus primarily on training, I was probably due some time off. That’ll be it for the rest of the year. I’ve still got ambitious goals for my races ahead and that’s going to need work.

There’s five weeks to get myself ready for Lanzarote and go after that sub-10 hour goal there. I may have made that a little more challenging for myself. It’s not the preparation I had planned, but who knows perhaps it’ll have done me some good.

I’ve a long ride tomorrow so I guess I’ll find out if a break has done more harm than good. It could be I’m just clutching for excuses for being so slack!

As if the weather back here in the UK wasn’t enough to put me off. I’ve just had my first bout of sickness in a while adding another week of little training to the tally as we close in on Ironman Lanzarote. Initial frustrations have turned into quiet optimism though.

I’m not short of potential candidates for the source of the sickness. Not long off a long haul flight and back in the UK with it’s unfamiliar set of viruses to expose myself to. Though I suspect freezing myself half to death on a photo shoot for 220 Triathlon didn’t help. After a morning posing in just my tri kit it took the rest of the day to warm back up.

Two days later I ran to the pool taking the longer route to kickstart a program of running half hour every day. Demonstrating how long it’s been since I’ve been in cold weather I headed out inadequately equipped. Gloves and a hat are in order for future reference. My legs tightened up way beyond anything I’d normally expect, especially given I’m not pushing the pace.

I ran through it till I reached the pool where I’m grateful for the break. I’d planned to do a lot of band and buoy work so no need for the legs! Cold weather isn’t the only thing I’d forgotten as it’s clear I’ve been viewing UK pools through rose-tinted glasses. I can recall claiming New Zealand swim facilities weren’t much better than home. Once I was in the murky, warm bathwater of Arthur Hill I’m longing for Freyberg!

It didn’t take much swimming before my shoulders start to cease up. Putting it down to having had a few days break I persevered through to 3.3km throwing in a test set of 110m (Arthur Hill is an odd length) to check I’m still up to speed. I’m not far off despite feeling like a brick in the water. Relatively satisfied I jogged home the short way to minimise the discomfort.

I’d expected a little soreness, but this went beyond that. Plans to get back on the bike eroded to be replaced with plans to mostly lie on the bed. Since arriving back in the UK I’ll come clean and admit my motivation has been weak. It wasn’t much of a strain to give up on the bike ride when it looked like rain at any moment. A stronger sign of problems ahead was the lack of any taste for an afternoon coffee. Weird!

I went to bed early thinking a good night’s sleep would see me refreshed and I could get up for a swim, run and gym combo. When the alarm rang at six the next morning I didn’t hesitate to shut it off. A couple of hours later and I finally woke up. I’d slept at least 9.5 hours that night which for me is an achievement. The concerning thing was I still felt terrible and worse I didn’t want coffee!

I couldn’t stomach the idea of the usual omelette or fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. Toast was all that held any appeal. Another bad sign was the struggle I had to finish two slices. No coffee, no apetite, things were wrong. I spent most of the rest of the day back in bed followed by another early night.

Eight and a half hours later and things take a turn for the better. I still don’t have much apetite nor desire for coffee, but I don’t feel too bad. Normally I’d rush back into training, but remember that lack of motivation? I pop over to the Tri20 Swim Centre to see the grand opening of the new shop facilities and if anyone is mad enough to swim in the lake. They are. It’s about 9 centigrade in there. The rest of the day was spent with family, potentially spreading the disease further.

Easter Sunday saw the return of both apetite and taste for coffee. I could have returned to training, but instead I indulged in the Easter tradition of over-eating. Dinner with the family, more of a Christmas dinner than an Easter one, but then I’ve missed the last two. I also made a second attempt at baking date scones. I’m very close to getting it right now, attempt three should see them perfected. No, not great for an athlete trying to be Paleo!

I’m back to normal now in fact I’m feeling better than normal. A long weekend spent mostly in bed with little to no activity has left me feeling really refreshed. I’ve not felt like this in a while certainly not this year. Most of my time in New Zealand was spent fatigued either from my current training or previous weeks work. To actually feel fresh is a novelty!

Actually it’s amazing the difference being completely rested makes. I’ve heard it said how easily endurance athletes can come to view a constant state of fatigue as normal. It’s all true. In the past two years two weeks is the longest break I’ve taken after an Ironman and by break I mean no structured training. A little fun training always sneaks in at some point along the line. I’ve generally returned to full training with recovery still to go.

What was going to be a frustrated rant about my own laziness had I blogged last week is now something more positive. I can see the value in the break I’ve unintentionally had. I feel pretty good and I’ve six weeks to get myself back into top form for the next race. Been there before. There’s still time!