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!

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!

I stick to a principle of getting to check-in early. The theory is that if you’re there nice and early the staff are more lenient when it comes to your luggage. Alternatively turning up at the last minute can work too as they rush to get you on the plane. Personally I don’t have the nerve to follow the latter option as a strategy. When my airport shuttle hadn’t shown up at the hotel 15 minutes after it was due I beginning to think I’d forced that way anyway.

Just as I was heading to a taxi rank figuring out how my bike bag would fit in a hatchback the shuttle arrived. I was the last pick-up so at least we were straight to the airport from there. Once we’d arrive there was one final delay as it turned out the driver hadn’t thought to carry any change. When you charge $15 from the city to the airport I’d have thought a collection of $5 notes was essential.

Normally flying BA makes the issue of excess luggage simple. There’s a fixed charge for excess bags and a flat fee regardless of weight. Whilst I’d booked through BA I was flying with Qantas all the way and would be subject to there terms. Qantas operate a much less triathlete friendly system of charging $50 Australian per excess kilogram for long haul. With an allowance of 23kg and bringing a bike and kit home it’s pretty much inevitable I’ll get hit.

A couple of weeks before I’d worked out that I probably had close to 40kg in New Zealand. With Qantas I’d be looking at $850 Australian to get it all home. I spent the last fortnight packing and posting as much as I could. From what was left I’d put as much of the heavy stuff as I could into my hand luggage. The huge Blueseventy backpack I’d got on Epic Camp came in handy there.

At check-in my bags weighed about 30kg once they’d rounded up. Seven kilos excess, more than I’d hoped, but nothing to be done now. It also transpired that whilst there was a gap between landing in Sydney and flying home my ticket wouldn’t allow me to leave the airport without paying an additional fee. Not savouring the idea of nine hours in a terminal I reluctantly went to the ticket office to pay.

Meanwhile the attendant checked my bags in and somehow calculated my excess luggage fee at twice what it should be! When he brought that over to the ticket office I was quick to point the error out. It was bad enough at the correct rate let alone with his mark-up. Some discussion followed in which we established the error in his calculation and the fact I normally paid a fixed fee with BA.

Whether it was a genuine mistake or not, the man at the ticket office looked up the Qantas rate. Sure enough it said $50 Australian per kilogram, but apparently he missed that second part. Instead he charged me a straight fee of $50 Oz for having excess luggage. I knew it was wrong, but this wasn’t the time to prove superior knowledge of Qantas charges. Instead a nervous few minutes playing dumb followed fearing the mistake might be spotted any moment.

From there to Sydney was plain sailing. I’d been put in an exit row and had plenty of leg room. When we landed my name was called out to contact a member of crew. I worried they’d figured out the massive undercharge on my bike bag! It turned out the flight home was heavily delayed.

When I flew back from Kona there was a call for passengers to move to later flights. The airline would put you up in a hotel and pay you for doing this. Unusually I was on a deadline and couldn’t volunteer. Normally not working makes it easier to change my schedule. At the time I made a mental note that if the option came up again I should go for it.

These delays weren’t that serious, but to keep me happy Qantas had booked me a room in a hotel and would pay for dinner too. I’d intended to go into the city (and paid for the privilege) so all of this was a bonus. I headed in, dumped my bags off and caught up with friends as planned. All with the added benefit of a few extra hours and a decent shower and meal before returning for my flight.

When I got back to the airport further delays kept us waiting another couple of hours. I couldn’t have spent 15 hours stuck there especially when half the shops were closed for refurbishment. It seems that whilst they’d been late getting a plane they were now hurrying through fixing a problem with a landing gear. I did wonder if hurrying to fix an issue was really that reassuring.

I don’t know what this says, but I was actually excited that we were returning on a new Airbus A380. It’s just a plane and I’m still in cattle class, but I’d never been on one. If you’re going to be stuck on something for the next 20 hours it’s best to be positive. I think we might have got a bit more leg room than other planes it’s hard to be certain though.

I got through the flight thanks to a decent set of movies, decent food by airplane standards and a neighbour who happily gave up any of her unwanted meals! Very kind, but not helping my plan of avoiding overeating whilst travelling. I’m terrible for boredom eating so once I learnt where the snacks were available I was there between films.

Over five hours late into the UK with a final few frustrating delays as the plane taxied to a free gate. At least I was back home. My bags had turned up too and clearly I’d got away without having to pay much for the excess luggage. All in all a good result.

I’ve followed my usual plan for dealing with jetlag. Go to bed at the appropriate local time and pretend it doesn’t exist. At the least it works in getting my sleep synchronised, admittedly I’m still feeling tired today. I’ve noticed that my legs are still swollen from all the time on the plane. Hopefully I’ll see my ankles properly in the next few days. It makes me suspect it’s a combination of a race and the travel that makes me swell up for so long after an event.

To make things more complicated I also threw in a half-marathon on Sunday. Not strictly a race as I ran as a pacer. Having to pace 8 minute miles was a different kind of challenging and without a Garmin I was still accurate enough. I did finish with my slowest half-marathon time ever, but it was great to have helped others achieve their race goals.

Now it’s back to normal training. Over coming my dislike for cold and wet weather and settling into a routine. There’s three weeks to get myself ready for the hard work to come in Lanzarote.

Here I am again at a period of change. All packed up and with one final night in Wellington before I head back to the UK. As always there’s mixed feelings there’s a lot I like about New Zealand, but then there’s plenty I miss from home. Let’s be honest once I land back home it’s only three weeks and I’m off to Lanzarote!

There’s a lot more change to come. Right from the start of my journey I’ve had things tightly plotted out. Races entered twelve months in advance, tickets booked, somewhere to stay… I may have been moving a lot, but it was well planned. Check my schedule and you’ll see it’s suddenly looking pretty blank. For once I can’t tell you exactly what I’ll be doing over the next year.

The question I’m most commonly asked is how I afford to do all of this. My answer to that is changing. Unfortunately I’m not independently wealthy and their are limits to my funds! Once I’m back in the UK it’s time to start addressing the bank balance a bit more. The horrible truth is I’m going to have to do a bit of work!

I’m not expecting sympathy. Actually I’m looking forward to what’s ahead. There’s a lot of potential on the horizon, but not too many definites. I can say my aim is to build a lifestyle still focussed on training. I’ve come a long way in these last two years and feel there’s more to come. I’m not giving up now.

I’ve mentioned before a long term objective of achieving a sustainable lifestyle within the world of endurance sports. I started down that path with my coaching and I’ll be continuing further down that route in the coming months. I’m looking to achieve a balance whereby I can work just enough to support my continued development as an athlete.

My first step will be working with the guys at the Tri20 Swim Centre in Reading. Aside from helping out at the lake I’ll be running some training camps in the Dordogne. If you’re thinking about training camps over the summer check them out. The aim is to provide everything from start to finish so all you need to worry about is training. I’ll be on hand to guide training and help plan sessions for the week. Of course how much you do is entirely up to you.

It’s certainly going to change the way I structure my training. I’m hoping it might introduce a bit of discipline again. I may pack in a lot of training in a week, but I’ll admit without work my time management isn’t what it used to be. Can’t do any harm to get on top of that again and be a little more efficient.

For now though the focus is Lanzarote. Once I’m back in the UK it’s all about the build. I’ll be getting back into hard training and preparing myself to break 10 hours there. I want to get back on the age group podium too! Let’s not be shy with our goals.

These past few weeks have been a little easier than I’d intended. In fact my original plan was to almost train through New Zealand. Things didn’t quite work out that way, but it’s not been an entire waste. I opted for a swim focus and I mean a focus. Last week I managed 41km in the pool! That’ a record for me and remarkably despite fatigue by the end of the week I started hitting very comfortable sub-1:30 100s.

Two months of a lot of swimming seems to be paying off. It’s easy to accept a 1 hour swim as good enough, but the reality is if I want to progress further I need more. Coming out of the water in 55 minutes would make a massive difference to my position and the way the bike would play out. That’s the goal to keep working till I can swim at least a 55 in an Ironman.

It’s getting late and I have to get up early for my flight. Next time I post it’ll be back in the UK. One last change to mention – I promise to get back into the blogging habit. Less of the silent treatment.

Today’s post is dedicated to laziness. After a week off training and so much of everything else I normally do it seems appropriate. It’s also a bit of a mix of content as there’s not too much to tell from a seven days spent mostly laying about doing nothing! I do have a chart though.

Binge Eating! I promised myself a week off and time away from the Paleo Diet. I think I delivered on all counts there. I treated myself to a Domino’s Pizza (Full House for those interested). I know, they’re not the best, really that wasn’t the point. It was all about having some greasy, junk food I enjoy. It ticked the boxes on that count. I have eaten a load of cake and I really mean a load. I ate bread for a while, but found it didn’t do much for me. Completely at odds with the avoiding healthy foods I had porridge for a change! Fish and chips, biscuits with my tea, deserts and puddings with my meals… The list could go on.

Unsurprisingly there’s been some weight gain. I expected as much, but trust in my ability to get to race weight. Being back on the carbs I noticed how easy it is to eat a lot. I definitely found that I was hungrier in general and that despite eating a lot of food soon felt hunger once more. Not so surprising with cakes, chocolate and biscuits, but porridge is promoted as giving long lasting energy. An omelette seems to do a much better job in that regard.

Today marks a return to proper Paleo eating. I’m glad to be back! Some of the foods off the diet are fun in moderation. I can’t deny a fondness for cake. Outside of that though I genuinely enjoy Paleo more. The large meals of salad and vegetables and protein emphasis leaves me feeling much fuller. Hopefully it won’t take too long to undo the damage of my binge week!

Ironman UK Bolton Course For those interested I’ve uploaded the course from my GPS. You can download it from GPSies.com. The route is exactly as ridden, 3 laps of the course on the day. Plenty of waypoints so nice and accurate too. I’ve seen people searching for this in my logs so hopefully it’s a help to them.

The Taper

A little bit of a revisit to the subject of my Ironman UK taper. With the advantage of hindsight I guess I can claim it worked! At the very least I can say I was able to achieve my goals. I’ll never know if I could have done better by another route.

Another of my favourite charts – straight from WKO+. I’ve mentioned them before, but to recap we have Acute Training Load (ATL), Chronic Training Load (CTL) and Training Stress Balance (TSB) corresponding to what might be termed fatigue, fitness and form. I’ve referred to Joe Friel’s blog and his views on tapering using this chart before. The aim is to have as high a fitness and form as possible come race day. Tapering reduces fatigue and improves form, unfortunately it also reduces fitness. So objectively the aim is to maximise the improvements in form and minimise the loss of fitness. Friel suggests that you want a taper to result in no more than a 10% decline in fitness.

I’m mentioning these details because if you look at my chart above and follow the CTL (fitness) from a week prior to Challenge Roth through to Ironman UK you’ll notice far more than a 10% drop. I don’t think it’s surprising to find that I couldn’t stick to that guideline racing this close together.

I tapered a single week into Roth and did stick very closely to the 10% reduction in fitness rule. I’d say I raced well in Roth, though felt I wasn’t as free of fatigue as I’d like. Whilst fatigue (ATL) and form (TSB) would suggest I should be pretty fresh. I think the reality of my months of training and racing weren’t showing through.

Immediately following Roth I attempted to follow a plan that had plenty of light training. There were mixed results and I managed to train regularly, but certainly couldn’t manage much in those sessions. The result was there was no chance of limiting myself to a 10% reduction of fitness over that time. CTL declines pretty steadily over those three weeks. What training I did prevented it completely plummeting. In the final week before Ironman UK you can see it plateau a little as I’m able to train a bit more. At this point though the drop off was so large I was no longer concerned about any kind of 10% rule.

Performance on race day was pretty good. I felt none of the fatigue I’d experienced in Roth and definitely felt able to work well throughout the race. I would be hard pressed to identify a loss of real fitness between Roth and the Ironman UK. If there was it was more than compensated by that significant reduction in fatigue. My view is that after many months of high volume training with little break I needed a solid rest. As it happened a three week period of light training between the two races proved ideal.

More about recovery

So I come to a full week off training for even more recovery. You can look back at the chart and see fitness dropping even further! For the past week I’ve felt terrible. My legs have been stiff and once again I’ve been retaining a lot of fluid. I’m curious to find out potential causes of this reaction. It’s only been Roth and Ironman UK where I’ve experienced fluid retention in recovery. Why it’s occurred for both these races, but not before is an interesting question.

With the week now done I’m looking to get myself moving again and very slowly introduce training. Level off the loss of fitness and then start a gradual increase in a couple of weeks time. I wonder if the extensiveness of the taper for Bolton will help in the overall recovery process. Whilst the past week did feel awful I’m starting to feel good now. Hopefully a proper massage tomorrow will have my legs ready to start some exercise.

Generally I’ve bounced back in two to three weeks after a race. I’m looking to be a bit more gradual about it this time. My focus now is on good dietary habits and a bit of weight loss ready for training. I’ll be thinking through the Kona build in a future post.

Today’s picture is courtesy of Helen, go and check more of Helen’s photography or Tom and Helen’s blog. All good stuff as you can see from the awesome race photo.

Effectively I’ve spoilt the ending right from the title! I’m too happy with the result to wait though. Almost exactly one year after going full time I’ve booked my Kona slot! It took a while, but I’ve achieved that particular goal. Just got to remain healthy and get myself there in good shape now! However this is supposed to be the full length race report from Ironman UK.

As mentioned previously I arrived in Bolton on Thursday so I could get ahead with my final race preparations. Various factors made Saturday a little more stressful than I’d like. Poor weather made bike racking a bit more of a process than expected with some confusion as to what was going on. The briefing happening at the (dry) Reebok Stadium also ensured more driving about too. When I eventually got back to the hotel I was feeling pretty tired! Probably a good job as I needed an early night for an even earlier start.

The alarm went off at 3am on Sunday morning, of course I’d woken a few minutes before anyway and was up. The usual routine of race breakfast (Powerbars, bagels and some honey) and getting ready then off to the race start. Got there with plenty of time so quickly had the bike set-up and was ready to go. I felt remarkably calm and relaxed despite the fact this was my last chance to get a Kona slot. Sure I had big goals and expectations, but I knew what to do. I can only assume it’s from racing so much this year, each race is a little less daunting.

At around 5:30 we were herded towards the swim start. With a narrow entrance to the waterway it took a while to get everyone in. I made sure I was up front and in the water early. Whilst it let me warm-up a little and position myself as I wanted it also allowed me to get quite cold! I’m sure I described the water as quite warm the other day. It is when you’re swimming, but floating there you start to feel the temperature. I moved myself about to keep warm and kept a position up front and not too far from the inside of the field.

A short delay to get everyone into the water and then we’re off. I went out fairly hard, but rapidly set into a comfortable and manageable stroke. I’ve been happy with my swimming of late and was feeling strong in the water. Then just after the second turn as I started the next lap I got a cramp in my right calf as someone tapped my foot. Never had that in open water before! I paused and looked up only to be told I should be swimming in the direction I had been swimming in by the guy who’d tapped my foot. I was somewhat bemused by that one!

Experience with calf cramps in the pool have taught me to relax the muscle and let it ease out. I was quickly off again, but nervous as to whether the calf would hold up. I could feel twinges in the muscle and was very aware of where the cramp had occurred. Frustrated by this and being told where I should be swimming I pushed harder. Soon moving into clearer water. The field thinned out around me as the second lap progressed and I had few people to draft off. I felt strong though so wasn’t worried, I was optimistic I was moving up the field.

When I got to shore I nervously stood and found that whilst I could feel the cramp in my calf it wasn’t too bad. So I jogged up the slope at a relatively easy pace. The time on the watch was a shocking 1:08 which left me with no doubt that the swim was long. I knew not to worry about this with plenty of time to claw back positions. Besides it’s not until you see how many bikes are in transition you know how you’re doing anyway. I only need worry if half of the bike racks were empty!

It was a long trip back up to transition so plenty of time to check out how the leg would hold up. So far, so good. My T1 time is pretty poor and I put this down to a couple of things. Firstly I was very tentative in changing – again worried about my calf. Secondly I didn’t prepare my arm warmers well so putting them on damp arms took ages! I won’t make that mistake in the future.

Finally out onto the bike and it was pretty much straight into the climbing. Any plans to keep my heart rate low to start went out the window. A short block of hard riding had me above my planned heart rate ceiling. I did allow myself some spikes on climbing so I wasn’t going to worry. Also I knew there was some good down hills to recover on a little while on. The wind on these faster downhill sections proved to be fairly substantial though! Honestly I prefer that though, t gives me something to work against!

My first lap went by reasonably uneventfully. I was a little bemused by a couple of competitors who during the first 30km went back and forth with me a bit. A lot of the time though they rode parallel chatting and blocking the road. I’m not sure if they thought it was a social ride! Every time I went past them they stuck with me and eventually went ahead. Towards the end of the first lap I finally moved off and left them behind to continue their conversations. Their choice to race like that, but blocking the road was pretty inconsiderate.

The second lap became quite lonely as other riders thinned out. I reassured myself it was a good sign I was well up the field! There were few targets to chase so focussing on my heart rate was a useful tool in managing pace. I was passed by a competitor on a decent TT set-up at some point in this lap. He proved to be useful in helping push me on as I paced myself off him. Somewhere in the third lap I started to really feel good and made a move. The last 30K I pushed hard for a better cycle time. Part of me wondered if I could have pushed sooner and another part worried this would take something from my run.

You’re spared details about heart rate for now as I’ve yet to download it. I think the bike was very slightly on the long side like the swim. Overall I’m happy with my performance there, though still feel I’m taking the bike too easy. I had no problem with my nutrition of Mule bars and High 5 at the intensity and the result is a very solid run so perhaps I’m getting it spot on. During the run I pondered how I need to work to improve my power output at the lower heart rates I race Ironman at. Rather than racing at a harder effort, improving the performance at my Ironman effort is the goal.

I arrived back into T2 with a 5:36 bike ride. Not spectacularly fast, but I suspected respectable for the course. I was glad to have ridden with socks on if only because it meant running through the mud was more comfortable when I left the shoes on the bike (though I was disappointed to see I’d rubbed a hole in the toe of my favourite socks!) Again I didn’t race transition too fast taking my time to get ready. I was relying on compression socks to keep the earlier cramp in check. It had been fine on the bike, but I still worried!

Nerves seem to have defined my race. I spent most of it concerned I was either going too easy or too hard, eating enough or too little… The list could go on. Whilst I hadn’t had those pre-race nerves to deal with it was almost like I was running scared. A simple mistake could ruin any chance of making the podium and having a chance at Kona. I focussed on sticking to my plan and trusting it would work. There was nothing else I could do, I was relying on having portioned my effort and nutrition to allow a strong run.

Getting out onto the run my calf was fine and I settled into my rhythm at a comfortable aerobic pace. It soon became apparent there wasn’t a marker for the first mile. It didn’t take that much longer to realise I wasn’t going to be able to track my pace this time. I didn’t panic I’d keep going by effort – ultimately that’s all I could do. I moved past a handful of runners in the first few miles and then it was pretty lonely until I started seeing the pros coming the other way. To keep things interesting I counted them hoping to work out my place. Unfortunately the convoluted route in Queen’s Park put a stop to that.

At this point I knew I was somewhere in the low 20s and also now that I was heading back knew how close my nearest competitors were. I consciously put a little bit more effort in wanting a bit more gap. All the time not wanting to blow myself up. Whilst my legs ached I reminded myself that I’d conserved a lot of energy, was well rested into this race and was keeping my nutrition up. I had nothing to fear and should keep working, no slacking off.

Back at the far turn around I caught another couple of runners. With no markings for those on the final lap I could no longer gauge my competition. A young athlete came past me quickly so I picked up pace a little, but clearly couldn’t match it. I hoped he was on his first lap so still fresh! A bit further along a woman came past at a good pace and I pushed myself to go a bit harder. Looking at my watch it was 2:30 and I figured I probably had 40 to 50 minutes to go. It was time to push to the end like in Roth.

I regained some ground on the woman who’d passed me. On the nasty climb out from the canal I overtook the young guy who’d been running so well earlier, clearly he’d been going far too hard. Then I passed the woman on the way into the park for the second time. She too had lost some of her pace. I was also pleased to have passed one of the pro men, that’s less common! Further into the park and I pass another pro woman and know I’m moving up the field. I kept pushing harder, even up the tough little climbs. With no idea how much further the finish line was from the park I was trusting I could hold out.

Coming to the end of the park section I was going full out. I kept the pace high through the back streets hoping I didn’t have far to go. Asking how much further of marshals and spectators did little to clear things up. I was committed now and had no choice, but to keep going. Then there it was, the finish line! I kept the pace up down the chute, relieved to be coming to the end and already happy with my performance. Credit has to be given for a spectacular finish line even if I can remember little of it!

That was it, race done! My final time was 10:04:47, not a PB, but on such a challenging course a decent result. I got my medal, hat and t-shirt. Then I realised I could check my position from how many t-shirts had been handed out. More importantly I could get an idea of my age group position! I was pleased that it looked like third. I’d made the podium. A check of my phone confirmed this along with a message to let me now that the Kona slot would roll one and I’d get it! To top it all off my run time was under 3:10 and well up in the field!

I spent the rest of that day satisfied with my performance and looking forward to the awards ceremony. After that it was just waiting till earlier today when I got my award, my first ever Ironman trophy! I was happy enough with that, but then got to top it off by accepting my Kona slot! It was never planned this way, but in the end it was my last chance that delivered me the spot. Now I can’t wait to get out there in October!

The top-line figures: Overall 10:04:47 for 24th overall and 3rd in my age group!

The Swim: Firstly it was long, very long. That’s the main reason I took 1:08. Given that time put me 112th in the field I hope that confirms the length! Only issue was a calf cramp at the turn around for the second lap. Never happened before and left me much concerned I’d suffer on the bike or run. I was tentative in T1 running slowly to the transition tent and carefully getting changed.

The Bike: Challenging is definitely the right word for it. This is not a fast course by any means. A combination of the constant undulations and climbs and strong winds. I worked to keep to my goal heart rate zone and whilst I’ve been too lazy to download the data (you’ll get charts another time) I think I did a better job at this. As I so often find the later laps felt better and I really pushed the final 30km to transition. My 5:36 did a good job of moving me further up the field.

The Run: I felt fine as I set off on the run. A little worried maybe I’d pushed to hard on the bike or spent too much time out of the saddle. Pushing that aside I settled into a comfortable pace. Biggest frustration was the complete lack of distance markers making it impossible to track pace. So I stuck to feel. The run course has a few nasty up hills to contend with, but also it’s share of faster down hill sections. Somewhere around 2:30 into the run I decided to push and see what happens. I had no idea how far in I was, but figured I had 40 to 50 minutes to go. It paid off and I did my first sub-3:10 Ironman marathon. Very pleased with that and once again I finished strong.

Hawaii? There are two slots allocated to my age group as far as I’m aware. I’ve been informed that Alex Brooks, who took second place in my age group already has a slot. If that’s the case as long as I’m at the roll down to take the place I’m going! Hopefully I’ll be posting the news tomorrow!

Bed time now.

Thursday was a very long day for me. Starting at 4:10am so I could get in a proper brekkie before driving to collect Toby. Sure it added a bit more time to my journey, but I was glad for the company. We made pretty good time up the motorway stopping for coffees on route. It was definitely a milky coffee day so skinny cappuccinos were my preference. Word of advice – do not buy coffee from Caffe Ritazza. I love coffee, but this was so bad I chucked most of it away. It was one of those cappuccinos where you were glad to have far too much frothy milk!

This isn’t about bad coffees though. We got to registration sometime around the middle of the day. The advantage of turning up early on Thursday is all was quiet so rego took no time at all. Unsurprisingly some kind of cycle training DVD was in the goodie bag! I think every UK Ironman event I’ve done has had one. The expo was small, expensive and uninteresting which is great – I don’t need the temptation. I still did the habitual Powerbar purchasing which was silly given I’m sticking to real foods at the moment.

Skipping past lunch (a lot of chicken, a theme so far this trip). We went for a drive round the course. Toby had been up the week before attempting to ride it with mixed success. Having two of us there made it easier for him to guide and me to drive. It was an interesting mix of cross referencing a map I’d loaded into my Garmin and the paper map. The race booklet maps leave a lot to be desired and don’t go far in making the course clear. Whilst we think we got it in the end we’ll be relying on marshals on the day.

I’ve seen discussions about the course, but until yesterday had no real idea what to think. Overall impression is that it is a reasonable challenge, but not exceptionally tough. I don’t think it’ll be a fast course mainly due to potential winds, the road surfaces and constant pace changes. The climbs are fine, nothing much of note, but the regular undulation will require regular changes of gear and pace. Make sure your gears are well tuned they’ll get a workout!

Overall I liked the route. There’d been an air of negativity on the journey up and during rego. A lot to do with the potential for cold and wet conditions. Sunshine whilst we drove round the bike lifted the mood and some positivity crept in.

This morning I did an hours ride just to keep the legs going. Whilst I wore gilet and arm warmers I was pleased that I felt pretty warm. In race conditions if the weather was like today then things should be fine. A set of light arm warmers in my bike bag will do me. I’ll shove an extra bike jersey in there in case things change though. The ride confirmed the influence of prevailing winds and road surfaces. Whilst my effort was easy, the pace was also low! I hope with a swim getting the heart going I’ll be comfortably putting out a few more watts.

Back to Thursday… During our travels by car Toby pointed out some of the run course. It’s all very vague, more so than the bike course. That’s definitely coming down to needing marshals to point me in the right direction. At least I’ll have pros ahead to work things out! There’s a few bits of hill in there from what I can see, but nothing to really worry about. I’m aiming to feel good on this part of the race and work to my strength.

Checking into my hotel about 5:30 in the afternoon brought an end to all my driving. Shamefully I opted out of a ride with Toby so he headed off back to where he was staying. I just wanted to chill out exhausted from sitting on my arse in a car for hours on end! I called this hotel soulless, but the staff are friendly and it looks great from the outside. All of that means the quality of the restaurant is extra disappointing!

Pleasingly I stuck to Paleo eating through Thursday and at least the start of today. I’ve been eating more, but mostly fruit. Oh, and a lot of chicken! Paleo ended at midday today when I consumed some bread. I’ll admit to feeling a bit guilty, but the stomach distress induced by a 20 minute run convinced me I needed to switch to more processed food and less raw veg! So in the last two days I’ll be eating carbs again, but not over-doing it. I’ll probably not opt for that whole Powerbar carb loading game this time!

As mentioned I got my bike ride in before breakfast today. I rode down to the race start and a little way up Sheep House Lane. It’s really pleasant riding round here, spectacular views and lots of little climbs to make you work. I realised it had been a while since I’d been out for a ride on a chilly morning like that! I actually enjoyed it. Once I was back at the hotel I was straight over for the breakfast.

Breakfast here is all you can eat. With self-service on the continental selection, but unusually you order your cooked food. I felt slightly awkward when asked the question of how many eggs I wanted. I nervously ased for three which was fine, tomorrow I’ll go for more! A paleo breakfast at an all you can eat buffet was managed. Tomorrow I will hit the breakfast hard and with no restrictions!

After brekkie it was over to the race venue for the practice swim. We had to be walked to the reservoir to stop us running amok in the private Anderton Centre. Then counted into the water! Toby was straight in and I followed after him and headed out for one lap. Whilst I couldn’t catch him I felt pretty good. The water was cool, but far from cold. The plan was a lap to get an idea of how race day might go. I kept a moderate pace throughout and was surprised only one person came past me. I wasn’t going that fast I think most people didn’t do a lap or messed about before starting.

So feeling like I’d had a good, solid swim I checked my watch as I left the water. 35 minutes for one lap! Terrible. I can’t have been going that slowly and my slightly wide course at the last turn couldn’t cost that much?! The southerly wind had created a bit of chop and some waves on the reservoir, but nothing that significant either. I was frustrated as I walked back to the tents. Fortunately catching up with Toby confirmed that he thought the course was long too and had found it slow. It looks like the buoys aren’t in the right places yet. So on Sunday swim times will either be slow or the buoys will be different.

Since then I’ve had my stomach issue inducing run, dropped off the Paleo routine pre-race and gone and watched Harry Potter. I wouldn’t recommend it that much, it was a bit slow and way too focussed on teenage angst. I’m glad to have left all that behind me a long time ago and it wasn’t done well enough to make me want to be reminded of it! I am embarrassingly keen to go and see GI Joe in my recovery weeks though! I mean come on, all that action, guns, women in leather…

Weather will dictate what if any training gets done tomorrow. It’ll be short, easy sessions in the dry if at all. No swim as the hassle of going to the one hour window is too much. A lie in will do me much more good, they worked well in Roth I found. I’m feeling pretty good about the race now, the negativity is gone and I’m keen to give it a go. That’s it from me till after the race, hopefully with a good report.

What started out as a spur of the moment entry because it seemed fun to do your home Ironman has taken on a much bigger level of importance. This is my last opportunity to qualify for Kona this year! Be in no doubt this race is a big deal for me. I want to post another good result. More than that I want to put my best race performance out there.

Having raced three Ironman distance events so far this year, one of them just three weeks before Bolton, might raise questions about my preparation. It’s a fair point and I’ll be honest I think the race load has certainly taken a bit out of me. I stress a bit though. There’s still plenty in the tank to go hard this weekend. Had I known Ironman UK would be my last chance at Kona then I would have prepared a little differently for sure. I don’t regret the path I’ve taken one bit whether I get the slot or not.

Challenge Roth was an amazing experience and a great race. I went a little harder than my planned ‘training’ race. Most notably I pushed myself on the run more than intended and certainly paid the price in recovery. In return I gained a lot of confidence from my race and felt like things were back on track. I know I can race well and be in control doing it. I also felt there was room to do more!

There was a price, these last few weeks have been tough physically and mentally. The recovery process felt slow and I have been convinced this would fail at times. I have only been able to do the simplest of training to keep the body ticking over. There’s not been lots of quality because it’s not been an option. Just getting out there and moving was often the aim. Now in the third week and with days till the race I’m pleased to say I’m feeling a lot better. When I train I have to hold back a little perfect at this point in a taper. Running no longer hurts the legs like it did last week – it all feels normal again.

I’m ignoring the charts in WKO+ that I usually judge fitness from, this is uncharted territory. I think there’s great potential that this enforced rest period will do me a lot of good. Realistically it was something like a three week taper. Despite recovering from a previous race, maybe the end product is I’m going to race the freshest I have since Ironman Western Australia! I hope so at least.

Sorry enough preamble on with the plan

Swim

For those who’ve seen past plans this is the familiar one hour swim! I think I should be able to comfortably manage that now. The fact I don’t frustrates me no end! Placement and pacing issues along with my ability to draft seem to be the thorns in my side. So for Ironman UK I’ll stick myself near the front as usual, but a little to the side to avoid the worst of the scrum.

Go out hard initially, but keep that brief to avoid too much oxygen debt (a problem in my Ironman Australia swim). Settle into a solid pace feeling the effort in my arms. Then the important bit, look for feet and jump on them! Don’t be afraid to move if the pace seems to low, but don’t be surprised if being out the draft proves harder work.

Also remember that I tend to feel stronger and more comfortable as time goes on. Look to be able to push things a little more around the 2km mark and to keep on from there. As others slow keep picking up pace and catching feet. I think it’s a two lap course so I’ll aim to up the work on the second lap. Always tempering things by remembering there’s still a bike and run to come.

If I have one other thing to remember it’s getting in the water as early as I can and getting a good warm-up. It’ll make things so much easier to start and as I feel stronger with a couple of kilometres in the arms it’ll get me there sooner.

Bike

If you’ve waded through them you’ve seen all the analysis I’ve done of late. I’m going into this race well informed! The only missing piece is knowledge of the course itself and I’ll be driving that tomorrow. I won’t have power, but will have heart rate so it’ll come as no suprise to hear the plan is a heart rate range of 135 minimum through to about 145BPM. I believe there’s a couple of short-ish, sharp climbs in there so I’ll allow a small amount of spiking on those.

Bike set-up is the same as for Roth. It’s somewhat inspired by reading articles on the ‘Big Slam’ position. The seat is set-up pretty slack and the stem is short and not too low. I probably end up with the back in a similar position to having the hands on the drops. Using the aerobars means I’m narrower of course. What’s important is this is incredibly comfortable for me and I feel powerful in the position. Sure I can be much more aerodynamic, but would I be faster?

The position was good enough to go 5:04 in Roth. This time I’m taking off the training wheels and will be riding my Xentis TT tubulars. I’m hoping they’re as fast as claimed and I’l be saving quite a few minutes over my training wheels! I don’t worry too much about the equipment though, it has to be right, but the important factor is my performance.

With 3 laps I can break down the ride into thirds. Initially my aim is to keep at the low end of my heart rate and get comfortable. Whilst there is a climb out from transition to make this trickier it’s worth doing. Once I’m settled in I’ll start to build my effort. Whilst keeping in the heart rate zone I’ll try and build perceived effort each lap. With fatigue setting in this probably means I just end up maintaining pace!

I’m trusting in the fact that throughout my training and racing heart rate has been a perfectly good measure of my effort and matches well to my power. At some point I’ll discuss aerobic decoupling in my riding and how closely my heart rate and power trend. I also have a lot of faith that I tend to ride stronger in the latter half of long rides. I’ve seen it in both training and racing data. I know that the first could of hours can feel a slog and then suddenly I can ride!

Nutritionally it’s a combination of bars and gels once again. I’ll be using apple strudel Mule bars on the hour along with High 5 gels on the half hour. If I’m in a comfortable intensity range this will digest fine and keep my calories up. As usual it’ll be washed down with plain water and that’s all I’ll take on the course. Seemed to work in Roth though I’ll admit towards the end I fancied a change!

I can’t give a time goal as I’ve no idea for the course. All I can say is I’ll ride by heart rate and perceived effort and aim to put a bit more on the road than in Roth. However at the end of the ride I want to be ready to run.

Run

I’m not entirely sure of the run course, I’ve read about it online and admittedly been confused! I figure by race day I’ll have it worked out and they’ll be enough marshalling to guide me too!

I have a goal to break 3:10 in this run if I can. Perhaps I’ll find on the day the bike will take more out of me than I think, but following Roth it seems possible. This means a strict pacing strategy again. Checking off kilometres (or maybe miles, better work those out in case) to ensure I’m maintaining speed. I need to be looking at 4:20-4:30 kilometres for my goal.

In pure running terms this pace is no problem. I know at first it’ll feel easy if anything, but the important thing is to hold back. Keep things ticking over. At aid stations I’ll be using my own High gels as I prefer them and taking on water. Nothing else just enough to wash down gels. What I’ve learnt from Roth is to carry more of those gels, especially when not available on the course. Also start on one every twenty minutes from the start.

All of this is aimed at getting to around 30km feeling like I did in Roth. At that point I want to ask myself if I can speed up and know the answer is yes. Once I pick up pace I may try to take on one more gel, but from about 8km to go there’s little point. It’s all about pushing the pace till you cross the line. Get this right and rather than losing time in the latter part of the marathon you pick even more places up.

I know this strategy worked in Roth. I know that it requires me not to overdone the ride and to have kept on top of nutrition. I can do all of this fine now, it’s all well practised. I just need to go out there and take all I’ve learnt from past races, combined with all the recovery I’ve had. Put that lot together and I think I can pull it off.

Well that’s what I plan to put out there on the course in Bolton. I’m a little nervous, but a lot excited. I’m keen to race again and to have another good one. After a few wobbly moments I’m feeling positive and confident I can do well. I know what to do, I’ve done it often enough! It’s time to really see what I’m capable of!

After weeks of dedicated focus on diet and weight loss my birthday marked a day of excess. For once I’d say to hell with portion control and hello to cake and sugars! I have to admit I was looking forward to it quite a bit, particularly as I planned to make the above New York Baked Cheesecake. An entirely new venture for me. My favourite dessert, the last thing I wanted was for it to be a let down. I’m pleased to say it was a big success and despite its size vanished that day (in no small part thanks to me!)

Before all that I’ll pick up from the events on Saturday. As I mentioned on Twitter the big picture won out and I didn’t run. This gave me a total of 28 days of running at least 30 minutes per day. A pretty good effort and frustratingly close to my target. However I am pleased that I didn’t allow a personal challenge to get in the way of the smart thing to do.

In fact I was smart enough not to bike or run on Sunday and to completely rest on my birthday. Sure it didn’t make my training graphs look as impressive, but it was the right thing to do.

Sunday wasn’t easy by any means. I started the day with a trip to the lake. I had a big plan in mind. Ten laps of the lake for an 8km open water swim. Pretty epic and excessive, certainly further than I’d ever gone in a single session. A little bit of messing about before hand delayed my start in the lake and as things went I had to get out at 7km. That’s still excessive! So I allowed myself the treat of some chocolate brownies shared with my mates at the lake (thanks to mum for making them!)

With 2 hours of swimming in my arms I headed home for the next bout of excessive behaviour. Something I think far more people will appreciate. Excessive eating. The weather was beautiful and it was perfect for the planned barbecue. During the course of lunch I would estimate I consumed roughly 1.5kg of meat. Yep, that is a hell of a lot of meat. Technically I was still being pretty Paleo at this point. The consumption of cake that followed throughout the rest of the day was definitely off the charts. I would guess I consumed a whole fifth of that cheesecake, a good portion of fruit cake, some more brownies and a bit of a ridiculously sweet birthday cake!

You should have seen the scales the next day! Let’s just say I put one heavily anomalous data point into my weight chart! Still two days later and we’re back to normal and back to losing weight. I’ll be blogging about my success with Paleo and lower carb eating in the future though.

Excess consumption has its place, but once done it’s best to get things back on track quickly. So come Monday and my actual birthday it’s back to being a modern day Paleo man. I ate pretty lightly that day, especially with zero training taking place. I relaxed in the sun and tended to the sore knee which was showing good signs of being much recovered. All in all a very pleasant and relaxing time. The first total rest day in a month and much needed as I realised the last four weeks had seen almost 120 hours of training! My body was and to an extent still is excessively tired. It’s a good job my aim is to be at a peak for Ironman UK and not Roth.

There is one final bout of excess before things return to more normal parameters. My failure to hit 8km in the water frustrated me so Tuesday I went to the lake earlier. I got in and set off feeling a little warmer than I’d like with the fantastic weather we’re having. I stuck at it for the 10 laps to hit 8km! Probably more when you allow for course deviations that creep in. I was pretty satisfied with that!

Once I got home it was straight out on the bike to meet Steven for an easy ride. It was relatively easy thanks to a couple of coffee stops, but he’s riding pretty solidly right now so it wasn’t a cruise. It was good to catch up as always and chew over a few issues. Discuss the benefits of massive over-distance training like my swim. Pleasingly my knee was holding up well. I was aware that something had been wrong with it as I rode, but it wasn’t getting any worse.

The final test of the day was the SAAB Salomon Forest Trail 10K I’d entered as race number 4 in my mini-series. Any thoughts of racing were gone instead I planned a 10km training run with a goody bag at the end! So lining up at the start I placed myself well back mostly concerned with my knee. The horn sounded and off we went at a leisurely pace.

The first 4km I was barely working. I kept to 5 minute kilometres so a real jog! The knee was feeling fine though. Somewhere around that 4K mark I picked things up. I was loving every minute of the trail run just like the week before. This was far too much fun for a race! My run form felt great, really stable above the waist my legs moving effortlessly below me (it wasn’t that hard a pace). I just kept on building towards the end crossing the line in 45 minutes. No kind of record and a little disappointed that if 100% confident of my knee I could have raced well.

Even so it was a fantastic evening. Thoroughly enjoyable and once again I found running trails an addictive experience. I want more of it! Enough that I’ve entered the Rivington Trail Half Marathon race in September! I just wish I had easy access to trails right here on my doorstep. Running the roads gets repetitive and boring, but the forests never seem to.

Here we are. The knee seems to be fine and I’m back into training. I’ve a rough idea of the next few days plans and what my focus will be. I want to try and get some good sessions in on the bike if I can, I certainly feel I need them. Swim and run feel great. I’m enjoying open water swimming so much lately and have plans to go longer still! Running is comfortable and I’m starting to gain confidence for my races. Cycling seems to come and go though, I want some consistent work in there for the next few days.

And then it will be Roth.