Anyone seen my plot? I appear to have lost it....

I knew this week was going to be a little tough - with the pool closing and loosing my routine. However, on top of that, the weather really turned to crap this week as well. I am not sure if it was just me, but every time I got my running gear out, the heavens opened up and it absolutely poured down, and the temperature dropped 5-10 degrees. I don't mind running in the rain too much, or the cold (not both if it can be helped), but not starting in the pouring rain, especially when you are going to be soaked getting to the end of the driveway... I had not organized my swimming on Monday, and missed the swim. Tuesday and Liz (other half) went to the "alternate" pool about 30minutes before I was planning to, and rang to say the car park was full - not a good sign for a swim! So zero from two swim attempts, and the week was already slipping away from me. I got one short run in on Monday, but by Wednesday every other run was put off due to pouring rain and being damn cold. Thursday morning school cycle training was cancelled - more rain... So by Thursday lunch time I had done two spin classes and a 30 minute run. It was now official - I had lost the plot, and had no idea where I had put it...
OK - I have to do something to get out of this slump! So I set the bike up on the trainer, and decided I would try a session I had sort of been planning on doing. As well as the Ironman, the other key race is the Tauranga half IM. A key session I would like to build toward is 2hr30min bike and an hour run after. The bike is to include (building up to) 4x 25-30min efforts at planned race power output, and the run includes 20-30min at race pace (possibly 40minutes if things go well). So I thought I would have my first attempt at this, and did 2 hours on the trainer, including 3 efforts of around 27minutes at a steady effort, and then went off for a 30 minute easy run. The bike went OK, and actually felt quite good, although the HR did dip in the middle and climb a little toward the end - but did not feel harder, and the power was stable. Off on the run, and felt quite good to start with - probably because I was quite fresh from not much training I thought! However after about 10 minutes the quads gave a few "signals" all was not that good and cramps were going to pay a visit if I did not either slow down a lot, or stop! So I slowed down a bit, and walked down one steeper down hill (just in case). Got home OK, but the legs were a bit sore, and had to be a bit careful taking the shoes off (cramp twinges!)... Good baseline session I thought, but a fair bit of work to do... 
Friday morning for run intervals - and yes, absolutely pouring with rain - so sent out the "no-go" call, although apparently it was actually OK in the domain! Always the way. Had pretty much given up on getting much out of the week training wise, so moved in to training sulking mode. Probably only one thing was going to save the week, and the months goals/targets (although most are shot by now) - and that was a half decent long run, and/or possibly a long ride. Saturday disappeared with work, and a few interruptions, so Sunday was all that was left - and rain knocked out the road ride option early in the morning (of course clearing later on). Chucked the running shoes on and was determined to get a half reasonable long run in. Plodded my way through a few bush tracks and along the beach front, and apart from a few errant dogs it was actually a great place to be. Got over the 1 hour 50min mark, and was going to keep going past the drive to make 2 hours, but the heavy spits started becoming very heavy, and decided not to push my luck - I had done well to this point. Longest run so far, and it felt comfortable all the way, and could have kept going after as well. The world is a slightly better place.
While the week was a bit of a disaster from what I had planned for, in hind-sight it was not that bad. I did need an easy week, perhaps this week was a couple sooner than I would have plan if I was doing it for someone else, but probably good in the bigger scheme. So now I should be recovered and ready (physically at least) to step into a good block of training. I also got a good long run in - which had been my main concern. The brick bike-run session was also good, to determine a baseline, and realize that I probably need to put a little more attention into this area than I had thought.
The month of June is all but gone, and the swim goals went out the window, but the swimming is OK. I just need to be careful that I don't let it slip. Some easier endurance swims need to get done at some point soon. Cycling is OK, no long rides yet, but apart from this week, have been getting in 4 rides per week, which is good for me, for this time of year. I have not added up the running, training wise, for the month, but I am sure I will not have made the total goal. I did make the long run goal - which I am a little happier about. Also felt good at the end of the long run, so that is also a positive. The weights were a non-event this week, so they need to be back on track this week too. Maybe the world has not come to an end, and perhaps I left the plot under the couch - while eating pizza and watching TV...

what counts as training?

Bit of an average week in the office this past week. Probably the memorable moment of the week was while out running and realizing that I was enjoying my running at the moment. It has probably turned the corner from being a struggle each time I go out the door, to being a good activity to clear my mind and just enjoy being out. I try to incorporate tracks, trails, parks and any other off-the-beaten track areas while out running, and that can be a little more relaxing too. No really good solid longer runs this week - quite a few shorter runs with a couple of days having two short runs in the same day. Not perfect, but actually enjoying being out there more than normal is a huge plus. 
Now I must organize some new shoes this coming week. I have two pairs that I alternate, and can feel they are starting to get a little worn. Still OK, but have probably only got a couple of weeks left in them before they will become a bit of an injury risk. I find it good to make the first few runs in new shoes pretty easy, just incase there are any issues - not many things worse than finding out your new shoes cause you bad blisters when you have 10km to run to get home! So I will need a few weeks so gently get the new shoes into full commission as well. 
The local pool has now closed - which is going to be a pain in the butt for swimming in the next few weeks. Have not quite figured out the best course of action for that yet - guess I will have to try something tomorrow though! Or it might just be a very big run week!!! I do like my routines, and do get good results from my training when I have a routine sorted that I can just get on and do it. So no pool will be disrupting! 
Three swims for the week, ideally there would have been a 4th - but went for the short run option there instead. A couple of positives - Mondays session was 20x200 - which was always going to be solid, no matter how you do it. Unfortunately Andy (our lane leader), put his paddles on at the start, and I really did not feel like starting out with the pull kit. So thought I would gut out the first 5-6 as swim only and then go for the paddles, but he then said (in a quiet gruff voice - not a good sign) - "were going on 2:45". Now that is a little too solid a send off time for first thing on a Monday morning for me, so paddles it was. At least the first ten went by pretty fast! He got what ever he need to out of his system, and the rest were far more civilized. But good to make those - swiming is going OK. The other positive, the 1500 (again pull...) in around 19:15, or a smidge under, and only go lapped once this week! 
Five runs this week -although may have to count the 15min run at Saturday training to meet the months goals - so it may turn to 6 runs! Unfortunately, most were in the 35-45min bracket - so not a big mileage week. I did get just over an hour and a half on Saturday afternoon - and if I count the 15minutes in the morning, that makes almost an hour 50 minutes, which is almost good! The problem with the 15minute run is that I am not sure I want to count the under 20 minutes runs, unless they are in combination with another session. The reason being they are probably not that effective for me, and if I start adding in a 10minute run here, and 8 minutes there, I may skew the "effective" training data. While I have not formalized what counts as training and what does not, perhaps in the back of my mind, the minimums that count (and this is just for me!) are 800m swimming, 30minutes cycling and 20minutes running - there I have done it - formalized! I think for where I am at, if I include less, then I am not including what is effective training for me at the moment. 
This is slightly different than when I first "retired" from training (and racing). After my first stint of cold turkey (ie NO training), I could not stand it, and had to do something. So I did a few swims and started mountain biking to and from school (I was back at Uni at the time). The swims were about 2km each, and just joined in with a casual group that took over a lane at the local pool a couple of mornings a week (which was great). I then got asked to be a training hack, so I was doing one 5 hour ride per week (quite hard), which took me a week to recover from! The issue I had mentally was that I could not see the point in doing a 1 hour easy ride (or similar) - I had gone from pro-Ironman training to nothing, and a 1 hour ride was a waste of time. I could still hammer for 5 hours (even though it would kill me) - but had not got my mind around the fact my fitness was in decline and a 1 hour easy cruise would in fact be very good for me! Probably the second best thing I could do at that time (the swimming was the best - in hind sight!)! After a few months I realized that 30 minute runs and 1hour easy rides were in fact good things to do now! That was where I was at. Life was different and not every training session needed to have purpose or be epic - I was retired! 
So now things have changed again - at least a little...

steady as she goes, and the old times...

I think my training is at a steady "sustainable" level now, and if all goes to plan, it will remain reasonably stable and only vary a little for the next 4-6 weeks (maybe an easier week in there somewhere). Well that is the plan anyway. This week has not been that exciting on the training front. Missed one optional swim - but the work "to do" list is on its second page, and I really need to tick some things off! So that is a bit more of a priority. I had some serious DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) on Tuesday and Wednesday from weights on Monday morning - except it was not really that delayed (I could feel it about an hour after weights)!

So for this week been - 3 swims, two reasonably steady at 4km and one slow/easy/ struggle of 3km. Two bike classes and school TTT training, with a long ride on the trainer ( weather permitting rule resulted in a trainer ride). The power on the harder ride was a bit higher than usual, which I will take as a good thing, and the easy rides felt easy too. A couple of easy runs and a long-ish (1hr30min) run, which was better than last week. With a couple of weights sessions in there too. On Sunday for my long ride I did the "birthday special" ride (bit over 5 weeks ago, that was after a run and swim). The power output of the steadier simulated climbs (up alp d'Heuz) were about 10% higher - which is also good, but probably not that comparable. As on the birthday special I was tired, and a little "toasty" (ie mildly over-trained!), as well as having swum and run before hand...

Off on a bit of a tangent (low excitement week) - here are a few memories I have training for my first ironman in 1989:

Back in 1989 Triathlon was a pretty new sport, and Ironman was a pretty new sporting event. The first "official short distance world championships" were in 1989! There was not much information on training, or coaching to be had, and it was pretty much just get out there and do it. In some respects it was good, as you were not intimidated by anything as you did not know what you were in for. In other ways it was bad - as you did not know what you were in for!!

I did not really have a burning desire to do Ironman, as I really enjoyed the shorter distance races at that time, and it was really just a great adventure. I think in the 1988 season in did something like 16 races over the summer - mostly sprint and standard (now Olympic) distance events. But the people I hung around with were inspired by the event, and it was just assumed you would do it. So I pretty much did it to get the T-shirt and say "yeah I have done that". I did not have any intention at that time to do a heap of Ironman events - just get it out of the way so I could do the other races!

I joined up to a masters/triathlon swim squad - and for the first of many times had a swim coach scratching his head when looking at me swimming. Now I pretty much taught myself to swim when I decided to do a triathlon - and I was 21 at this stage. Anyway, we were doing some 25m sprints, alternating kick and swim. As it turns out, I am not like many triathletes, as my 25m kick only was faster than my 25m freestyle sprint swim! I guess there was plenty of room for improvement from that point on...

The first time I really "bonked" or "hit the wall" in training was when I was out on a long bike ride. It was a 136km loop, with a few solid climbs in it, it had been going very well, it was a nice day (sun shining and all), and I had 20km to go. I started to feel a bit light headed, so stopped and got some food - more because I was hungry than because of any nutritional knowledge I had. Was not really sure what was going on. Sort of felt a bit better after a moro bar and an ice cream. Got another 7km down the road, and same thing again - so into a dairy, bit more sugar and a coke, a few deep breaths and off again. Got another 4-5km down the road, and made it to the city limits, and was not feeling that great again. Grandma's place was just up the road - I will call in to see her! Clean out her biscuit tins (nice ginger crunch) - and off for home - just make the 3km to home and crawled in the front door, found a corner, went in to the fetal position with a low quiet groan...

The long run was a bit of a mystery for me. I got up to 2 hours sort of OK in training, but man, did I get sore legs. I convinced myself it was probably over 25km, maybe close to 30km, I was getting through in my 2 hours. In reality is was probably 19-20km! I thought that I should just make sure I can run close to the distance for IM, so I had this loop that I rode, that was around 36km. Convinced my sister it was a great idea to ride next to me carrying food and water for a "few hours". The first 20km were OK, and felt pretty good. Legs got a bit rubbery at about 30km, and had to do a bit of a run/walk, and then progressed to a walk for the last couple of km's. Thanked my sister for her company, found a quiet corner, crawled in to the fetal position with a low quiet groan...

Gotta love Ironman...

June looking ahead, and committed...

I have had a bit of a think about the June goals and targets. The long run was my main sticking point. I sort of came to the conclusion that I just needed to HTFU (harden the f### up). Get my A into G, and do my long run on Thursday. So with that in mind I headed out on Thursday for the long run (post taking school cycling earlier in the morning, and after 3 reasonably steady days training). After an hour the calf starting giving a few twinges, then the hami started to tighten up quite a bit, and thought I better start making a B-line for home while I still could! Ended up a little under an hour and a half, when I was gunning for 1:40 (and then it was probably a 1:20 run that took closer to 1:30!). So back to the drawing board a bit on that part of the plan. Obviously not quite where I was hoping to be - yet anyway... Maybe I will do a long run Saturday every second week, and a shorter one on Thursday alternate weeks. It may end up that things get better as training progresses anyway. So the goals for this month are:

• Swimming: I was going to gun for 55km for the month, just steady maintenance, but I think I will cut that back to 50km, which will in effect be a little more, as the pool is closed for the last week of the month and this week is a bit of a hiccup with a public holiday on Monday. Keeping a steady volume is the main focus...
• Cycling: This month will be a kick in the pants on the cycling as were the last couple of weeks. Long rides are sort of under way - weather permitting, a couple of spin classes, and taking the school cycling for one morning. So that will be a couple of easier rides (long one especially), one hard ride (Tuesday spin class), and the school cycling will involve some efforts no doubt!
• Running: Minimum of 4 runs per week, I need at least one run over 1hr 50min, and would like two in this month. I think as an overall goal I will aim for 20 hours running in the month - that gives me 4 weeks and 2 days, and I will try for something like two 4-4.5 hour weeks and two 5.5 hours running/week (longer long runs those weeks). I might try to get a cross country in too - but no promises there! Hopefully that works for getting the running ticking along.
• Gym/stretching etc: I am reasonably happy where I have got to with the gym, as far as getting up to speed (or strength), now I just want to maintain, add a bit of variety and keep the progress a little more gradual. I think 3 weeks of twice/week, and one week with once will be fine. I had been catching up on a bit of reading, and came across a review of stretching research - and it had a list of studies supporting and refuting the effectiveness of stretching. So with that in the back on my mind I cut back on the relatively small amount I was doing to see what would happen. Don't think things got worse, but I don't think think it is the way to continue either. I am pretty sure I hear a ticking in the background, probably an explosive device in my calf... The thing to take out of reading research papers is that reading can be bad for you, and you can probably prove anything you want if you put your mind to it! I will stretch more, otherwise I know it will bite me!

One other thing that has been a little bit of an issue is dehydration! Generally not that much of an issue in winter - but I have really gone off drinking - water in particular. Get through to later in the day, and realize that I have been doing a camel impersonation. Normally I am quite good at getting through a good amount of water through the day, but I am not that much of a fan of cold water, and have really just gone off it in general! So I do have to be a little more diligent with the water and fluid intake in general life - not so much in training.

One other big thing this week - I actually entered Ironman!!! I think it maybe the second time I have entered before January (usually leaving it as late as possible) - and the other time was probably the 20th December! Back in the early days when I was asked early in the season (November/December) if I was doing Ironman, I would usually say - "I don't know yet". And it was true. I would generally do my "base" training over winter, or later on, an overseas season, then prepare for the Tauranga half Ironman or shorter distance national series races, then decide on Ironman, and do a preparation for that. Even if I had decided on doing Ironman earlier, I don't think I would have changed my training at all (with what I knew then - hindsight is a wonderful thing though!).

So I am now semi-committed!

May gone already??

Time is marching on already!! I was hoping to get away with only getting sick twice through winter, but as of the end of May, I had my second bug. So lost most of this week to a solid head cold. It was not too bad really, and spent two days in bed, and hopefully I am back in action tomorrow for a fresh start to next week.

The Month that was May has now come and gone, I think I may have blinked and missed it! So training wise - what happened? Well here is the brief summary:

• Swimming - steady as she goes. Maintained where I had got to really. 54700m swimming for the month. Slightly above target. Managed one of two planned non-squad swims in the month. Wednesday's standard 1500m pull swim has been between 20 minutes and 19:20, and I managed a set of 30x100 on 1:30 so it is going OK performance wise.
• Cycling - Set my baseline time trial (just under 30:30 for 25km on the cateye), started taking the school cycling, and Sunday long-ish rides were started again (mostly). So the cycling volume has pretty much doubled, and there has not been a great drop off in performance as I had expected after summer cycling either. However a peak cycling mileage of 238km in one week is not exactly something to brag about - for me anyway (I have done that in one ride!). The structure is not quite ideal, but the main thing for me to improve from my current level is mainly to ride my bike - with not too much harder stuff. It would actually be easy to switch the focus a bit more to cycling - but the running is in far more need!
• Running - This is not going to plan!! The increased cycling has tightened the schedule up a little, and fitting the long run in is a bit of a struggle (to say the least). Everything else is sort of OK. The overall volume is perhaps a little lower than I had (perhaps optimistically) hoped to achieve. The baseline TT (22:30 for just under 6km) is a reasonable drop off from where I have been - but that is where I am at! I perhaps need to readjust the plan to get more bang out of my running. I will contemplate that over the next few days. Perhaps two long-ish runs per week rather than one proper long run... Or alternate.. hmmm...
• Weights etc - I have missed two weights sessions this month, and being sick definitely knocked the strength gains back a bit. I have started introducing a few other exercises to the basic core ones I do. So sort of happy with where this is. The basic strength has improved and now will start a little more variation and change the muscle group focus a little (probably even some upper body stuff!).

Being a little more diligent with the easy sessions is paying off and I am definitely feeling more able to do the training now. I just need to fit it all in! The other thing with the easy sessions, is that I am actually recovering during these sessions - the HR is dropping at the same effort/pace, or the pace is improving at the same effort.

Probably the other big thing I need to adjust is the sleep patterns. Most mornings have an early start (5:09 is standard alarm time), and with bike classes 3 nights a week, (9pm home time) can make for a long day. I try to get in a short nana nap most days, but have got a little out of synch and the Nana naps are a bit long and affecting the night sleeps. So will have to set an alarm for those to get back into routine... Probably need to get to bed a bit earlier... So the plan for June (already??!!) will have to wait until tomorrow...