Hours++

Posted on December 30, 2008 by lord_lordy

HoursPlusPlusI’m sat in my very empty flat now. Less than a week till the grand departure and I’m without bed, sofa or much else. Sods law that it’s now I get hit by some sort of bug and there’s no TV to snuggle up in front off or bed or sofa to laze in. Feeling pretty down as it’s a gorgeous day and I’ve missed out on a club ride out in to Kent. Also – I’d rather banked on today for my long ride having not ridden at the weekend and I’ve missed it. Selling / packing up all my belongings is proving a massive distraction from training and I really feel ill prepared for New Zealand let alone Epic Camp. I’m trying to convince myself that I don’t need to rush things for Ironman New Zealand as the important race is Kona. My aim is to make the most of the good weather (hopefully) in New Zealand and establish a good base – this will probably mean just a weeks taper for IM NZ.

The picture above is from IM Florida – Jane and Jude prepared this sign but I never saw it on the course and it’s only now that Janes as found her camera that 2 years on I get to see it ! There’s a little copyright symbol “© Jo “ – this is because Jo chalked this up my first year at Kona on Ali’i drive.

Finally got round to looking at my total hours, gym work, weight and HR over the past few years. Here are some stats.

hoursplus

HOURS

This just again highlights what I knew about this year – I’ve just not put the training hours in that I have in previous years. The big days / weeks have been there but the consistency not. The biggest day stands out but that was the Mid Wales Ultra – with the West Highland Ultra next summer I’m likely to surpass that ! It’s the consistency tthat’s really been stuffed – only about half the weeks I’ve managed over 20 hours in the previous three years I’ve been closer to 40 weeks. This is reflected in the plan – where the aim is for 40 weeks over 20 hours. The number of big weeks (>40hrs) looks a little optimistic – I will review this.

hours-2

The graph left shows the distribution of weeks over certain hours for each of the last 5 years.

You can see that 2008 has a bigger ‘tail’

 – ie I put in more monster weeks but the middle of the graph it’s well below – I just didn’t maintain a good steady underlying volume.

I think I’ll be using Eddington numbers to motivate me here. My best annual

 Eddington number was 30 weeks of 30 or more hours in 2007. I’d like to top that next year !

Lets face it, there’s nothing to astonishing here.

GYM

HoursPlusPlus1

This one I found fascinating. Before I went part time and then not working I used to go and do weights sessions regularly. The gym was on the way to and from work so it was convenient. You can see in the past 2 years I’ve done virtually no gym work. In those two years my weight has been more erratic (see later) and I would argue my performances have been. This graph shows my week to date gym hours for

  • year to Oct 06 (red)
  • year to Oct 07 (green)
  • year to Oct 08 (blue)

This more or less coincides with going part time in 06. The previous year showed lots of gym work (didn’t include as it ruined the clarity). Both 2005 and 2006 were very consistent year – I raced well everytime I stepped to the line. I really feel gym work is key for next year. The concern is with all the moving around it will be difficult. One thing I know it that I’m good at going to the gym once I have a routine. The blue “blips” above were when Jo and I briefly went to the gym together every Monday morning.

WEIGHT

Here’s the interesting one. This is a place I definitely have issues. I really believe low weight is a key to performance in endurance events. In recent years I’ve found it awesomely difficult to keep my weight in check. In 04/05 I was rarely above 168lbs whereas in recent years I’m rarely below that. In 2005 when I raced so well all the time and did all my run PBs I spent most of the year under 160lbs. The past two years there have been a mere handful of days where I’ve been under that weight. Here’s my weekly average weight for the past few years

HoursPlusPlus2

•2004 – brown

•2005 – yellow

•2006 – red

•2007 – green

•2008 – blue

Throughout 05 I ran well and middle of 06 (just where the graph dips below 160) I ran 3:07 marathon at Longest Day. All this has done is reaffirmed my belief that the key to me improving is my weight. I think the past two years I’ve been super fit but thats not been fully demonstrated due to heading into races overweight. By way of example – for Ironman New Zealand this year I was about 165lbs and had a good race at IM Germany I was 179lbs and has a bad race ! I know whats required to keep my weight down but I’m still at a loss as to how I can stick to it. Back in 05 I don’t remember having any such problems ! But back then I used to keep a little calorie counting spreadsheet on my PC at work and when I left I knew precisely how many calories I had left to consume ! I stopped doing that because I thought it wasn’t healthy to be that obsessed…. but looking back I was in control !

SLEEP

Not much to say – each year I promise to try and get more sleep – the stats show that I’ve managed it. Still not managed the target of averaging 8 hours a night.

HEART RATE

This year I was chuffed that I measured my resting HR under 30 !! This was in the run up to NZ which is probably the hardest block of training I’ve ever done. I do notice a massive correlation between HR and Weight. Weight goes up when i eat carbs and my HR spikes the morning after eating alot of carbs – frighteningly so sometime. Here’s a graph that plots HR and weight:

HoursPlusPlus3

•2005 HR – green

•2005 wt – yellow

•2008 HR – blue

•2008 wt – red

Eyeballing that there’s quite a correlation between weight and HR ! I don’t think they cause each other. No, there’s a common underlying cause of each and thats high carb diet.

Conclusions from this;

  1. Steady weekly volume. Aim to get a weekly hours Eddington number of 30 or more
  2. Get into the gym on a regular basis
  3. Get back down to low 160s weight.
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Eddington Number

Posted on December 22, 2008 by lord_lordy

EddingtonNumber.jpgThis entry was not planned but Damian, a fella at our Tri club posted up on one of our forums that I’d stumbled across the Eddington number after I mentioned I’d done 100 miles on more than 100 days in 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington#Eddington_number_.28cycling.29

http://bubl.ac.uk/org/tacit/tac/tac64/tac64hilleddi.htm

Your Eddington Number is the highest number where you’ve exceeded that on at least that number of days. In the context of cycling an Eddington Number of 80 would mean you’ve done 80 or more miles on at least 80 days.

This just sparks (massively) that part of me that loves to chase my only little ‘bests’ – it’s whats always driven me to see how far I could run in the hills, how far I could ride in a day or week but this adds that whole level of consistency  to it as well.

So… it immediately prompted me to find out my Eddington numbers. Above I’ve provided the following Eddington like numbers:

Daily numbers – maximum X where I’ve done X or more in X days

Weekly numbers – maximum Y where I’ve done Y or more in Y weeks.

I’ve provided my best efforts in a year and my life to date values (well – values since i’ve kept a training diary – ie 5 years).

I can say I’m pretty pleased with my bike Eddington number – 101 for a year and 121 for life to date. To improve both of those next year would be a good target. Improving the 121 will be easier than improving the 101 though. I’ve managed 122 miles on 117 occasions so if next I manage 5 122+ mile rides I’ll push that figure on. You can see how this can be addictive or put more positively … motivational.

So in the context of my recent posts lets take a look at those figures:

Swim – best ever this year and thats reflected in this being my best weekly Ed number

Bike – I’ve never biked more strongly than in 2007 and just look at the consistency there – more than 50 miles for 50 weeks and a daily Ed number of 101.

Run – My last entry commented on how 2005 was far and away my best year of running. Look – 38 weeks exceeding 38 miles. This year I ran terribly but still managed my best daily Ed number. Does this mean the big days don’t really count as much as consistent underlying volume ? I think so.

Hours – my next blog entry will analyse this more. But 2007 clearly has the best Ed numbers – that year I had probably my best ever Ironman Performance – Lanzarote.

Food for thought. It also means I’ve not done the sorting out I need to do for my departure and now I’m going to end up amending my training diary to easily track this…. I really must get to my sorting out.

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Run

Posted on December 21, 2008 by lord_lordy

Run08Things are hotting up here with the big sell off. My flat is starting to look pretty sparse as I get rid of the vast majority of my furniture. The big news is I’ve accepted an offer my flat … so fingers crossed the sale will go through and Jo and I will be able to live the dream for the next couple of years or so ! It has proved so distracting of late but come the 5th Jan, when we’re on the plane to New Zealand I should be able to get some serious focus.

This entry is looking at my run training, performance and plans. This is probably the trickiest one for me to do. I’ve had really  great run performances and finally this year I’ve run really poorly on two occasions. Prior to that it seemed that running sub 3:30 in an Ironman was more or less a given, in fact, till Kona last year I’d never run over 3:30 but since then I’ve managed it 3 times in 5 races. This needs correcting.

Like last time lets start with some numbers:

Run08-3

To make sense of the numbers I need to decide when I was running well. 2005 I did PBs at Marathon (2:44), half marathon (1:15) and 10k (33:58). I was racing alot of Olympic distance races and consistently ran 36 minutes or under. At the Waikiki world champs I ran 35:39 off the bike in that heat and then ran a 3:23 marathon at Kona. I was running well without any effort. I’ve never since managed that. Just writing this hits something home – that year I focused on the London Marathon, sacrificing all other training to ensure doing the right sessions for that. Since then I’ve felt that tapering for London encroached on Ironman training, especially the speedwork. Judging by my running since then perhaps this is a mistake. I think a regular speedwork session is something to add in next year.

Looking at 2005 you can see it’s the most miles I’ve done in a year and the only time I’ve averaged more than 50 miles per week. This is despite not once going over 100 miles in a week. Compare it to this year which by a long way is the worst years running I’ve had. Having said that it’s important to note the lack of consistency – New Zealand and Wisconsin I ran so strongly yet at Germany and Kona I had the worst runs of my life. Anyway – this year I’ve had more than double the number of days over 25 miles than any previous years and have done more than 100 miles in a week on 6 occasions having only done that twice before (ever). Having done that and yet had my lowest mileage in 4 years indicates just how erratic my training must have been. The standard deviation of my weekly miles this year is 30 compared to 21 in 2005.

Yet again it would seem consistency is key.

Run08-4

This graph illustrates it. Firstly 2005 had only 1 week of less than 3 miles whilst 2008 had 8 weeks ! Thats 8 weeks without running in effect. Not good. 2008 clearly shows how there were alot more big weeks. If you’re a real believer in periodisation (I’m not particularly)  especially the idea of fairly short cycles of say 3 weeks getting bigger and then an easy week this should not sit comfortably with you. I’ve never really periodised when it came to swim and bike but felt that for running it may be sensible as that trashes your legs most. The evidence for me is that this is just not a good approach. My swim and bike have been pretty consistent across all races with a non periodised approach but my run hasn’t. When I had most consistency in my running is when I ran best. The plan for next year can be seen to be aiming at consistency without needing the monster weeks.

Run08-2This graph shows the daily week to date mileage for the 60 days preceding the following races:

  • BLUE – New Zealand 2008 (felt strong throughout run)
  • RED – Germany 2008 (terrible run)
  • YELLOW – The Longest Day 2006 (best run ever)

I raced alot of Olympic distance preceding the longest day hence the drops in mileage every so often but I quickly got back to an underlying 50-60 miles. Germany saw me up at 120 miles in a week before collapsing to next to nothing ahead of Epic camp and then collapsing again before the race. Ahead of New Zealand saw the most consistent high mileage running I’ve ever done. I had 4 weeks of over 100 miles per week. It showed in the race.

That said, it’s clear to me that consistency is the key. Consistent high mileage is great but it’s not worth getting the odd big week in at the sacrifice of underlying consistent steady mileage.

A final graph looking at wtd mileage for 2005 (yellow) and 2008 (blue):

Run08-1

This shows how this past year had some periods of monster running interspersed with low levels – incredibly low for me. There are huge chunks of time where I’m not even hitting 40 miles a week. Why has this happened ? I feel a huge part of this is that over the years of doing Ironman I’ve succumbed to this idea of needing vast recovery from sessions. There’s not a clear source of this influence but I feel it comes from almost everywhere. From most Triathlon press that bigs up Ironman so much and is so conservative about training approach / recovery. To triathlon friends that may react in a way that subconciously makes u feel it’s crazy to do what you are doing. There are very few sources that say – yeh 4 Ironmen in a year is a good idea. Yeh get back in to training nice and quick. Back in 2005 I was approaching Ironman like I did mountain marathons – u just did as many as you could. Perhaps have a day off after but then just get on with it.

In 2008 I took nice big recovery after races and then struggled to get back into training (especially running) – hence the extended periods of low mileage before I got close enough to the next race that I’d be shocked in to action and knock out a 100 mile week. At least looking towards the end of the year (ie now) you can see I’m managing to get some consistent steady mileage. Though I don’t feel I’m running well at the moment, hopefully it’s setting me up for next year.

So goals / targets on the run front for next year:

  1. Sub 3:10 in an Ironman Marathon
  2. Tick over at 50 miles a week (yes – 50 miles per week is something I think is easy but the evidence shows I’ve struggled. Even so I think this is a good target)
  3. Add some speedwork. (hopefully in NZ Jo and I will do a track session together each week)

Another big factor in my run performance has definitely been my weight. I’m considering covering this in my next entry which will look at total hours, gym and other factors.

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Bike

Posted on December 12, 2008 by lord_lordy

Bike08Time to take a look at bike training for next year. Firstly though a couple of other things.

  1. I’ve put my  training diary and training planner spreadsheet up for download. Take a look on my Resources page.
  2. Jo has offered to be support crew for the West Highland Ultra on June 20th next year. So I’ve entered and am really excited about it. Certainly aiming to win it but it’ll also be really awesome having Jo providing support.

Biking then. Here are some stats to get us rolling:

Bike08-1

This shows a steady progression year on year until this year. I’ve struggled this year the most in my Triathlon career with motivation and at best I would considered I’ve kept  my cycling ticking over but not much more. One positive spin on this is that in the summer I focused on quality sessions rather than volume and it certainly contributed to the low figures above and my good bike performance in Wisconsin. I’ve not had to rejig my plan any further following this analysis as it looks a pretty reasonably target.

That said throughout 2007 I biked strongly and in fact Lanzarote that year is the strongest I’ve ever felt on the bike. I must admit though that on the whole I’ve felt pretty strong on the bike. The only times I really haven’t is at Germany and Kona this year. Here are some bike averages for the 5 months leading into races:

Bike08-2

(The eagle eyed amongst you may notice that the daily vs wkly don’t quite add up. It’s because the wkly is actually the daily average of the wtd values. My gut was this would give the same but it’s slightly different)

The daily averages include zeroes. Pretty clear why I felt so good at Lanzarote and manage to run well off it. Also interesting is Wisconsin – here I experimented with focussed sessions each week in the 8 weeks preceding the race which resulted in the lower volume. The intensity was significantly more. I also think I rode much more sensibly. What I’d like to recreate is how I felt riding at Lanzarote – it felt like there was no way my legs would pop ! Yes, it’s going back to my comfort zone but definitely whilst in New Zealand big miles is the order of the day. I think come the summer I’ll do the intense sessions again.

I didn’t include New Zealand this year in the above because the 5 month period included Christmas. I know that doesn’t really matter … but with the space I didn’t need it. However, thats the one race where I’ve felt really good running off the bike. So I took a look at the 8 weeks ahead of that race. I averaged 403 miles per week and 58 per day. It’s certainly not rocking my belief that miles in the legs is a massive factor in Bike / Ironman performance.

I feel that I’ve got the biking right over the years and it’s just patience required to reap the rewards. It’s disappointing that I’ve let it slip this year but there’s no point worrying about that.

Goal for next year is to manage a 250 mile ride. I’ve tried it the past three years and failed. 2006 the first year I tried I only managed 168. You may think poor effort but I remember the day – to do such a big ride the idea is to manage it before dark so it means riding pretty hard. On that day I headed out and 30 miles in a spoke broke (it was like 6am) so I rode home and got on my fixed deciding I wanted to get some sort of first that day so I did my first 100 miler on a fixed ! Perhaps in New Zealand I’ll manage a 250 miler ! I’ll be on my TT bike and I believe the days will be pretty long.

I also like the fact in 2007 I managed to one hundred 100 mile rides ! Perhaps thats another little training goal. It’s abit like the 40 runs of 40 mins in 40 days (or X of Y in X) but looking at something for the year. Hows about one hundred and twelve 112 mile rides pre Kona…. now there’s a thought.

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Swim

Posted on December 6, 2008 by lord_lordy

Swim08Slowly finalising my macro plan for next year. As part of this I’m going to an entry analysing each aspect. This entry is the easiest one – swimming. Getting ready for something like the above – the race start at Panama City Beach for the 2006 Ironman Florida.

This is definitely the easiest aspect of my training to plan. I know precisely what I need to do to improve. Since my background is in swimming I’m not chasing PBs. At the moment I’m way slower than when I was a teenager and at University. So I know my technique is up to going a fair bit faster than I am currently. My swim speed boils down to time put in and effort put in during the sessions. If I increase my volume for a week I see improvements almost immediately. Last summer as I came back to training after Germany I did my biggest weeks swimming since  I’ve done triathlon – over 33km all just steady sessions in the pool near my mums -no fancy smansy sessions just between 1.5 and 2 hrs each morning for 5 mornings on the trot. Each time swimming consistently slowly increasing the pace. Did me the world of good.

Swim08-1

This graph gives a comparison of how many weeks exceed a certain number of KMs. It covers 2004 – 2008 plus the 2009 plan. My swimming was going well back in 2005 – I can remember consistently doing 200s in the low 2:30s. It dropped back over the next two years and then this year I’ve targeted getting some consistency in my swimming and getting the speed back. It’s worked and I’ve swum excellently all year. I’ve continued to improve. This Friday morning I did 8 x 400m on 5:30 the first four with hand paddles and I hit all of them between 5:15 – 5:20. It brought back to me why I swam so much when I was a kid. I could easily throw myself back into it and see how fast I could get. The graph above shows how in 2008 I had more weeks where I didn’t even manage 5km but when I did swim the distance tended to be greater. This reflects taking rest weeks during the year but when I’m training hitting all the club sessions more consistently. The plan shows trying to limit the low level weeks more but not being too ambitious about big weeks.

Swim08-2The graph left confirms this. Red is 2009 plan, blue is 2008 actual and green is 2007 actual. It shows the WTD swim KMs.

My hope definitely is to get some big weeks in but I won’t plan them in. Much better for morale to exceed the plan than to fail to meet it.

Part of the new diary is to give “best ever”  stats. In particular best ever day and week distances. For a while part of me was thinking I would aim to beat every best ever next year but when I created it it rather surprised me. Again, I’d forgotten some of what I’ve done in the past. For swimming for instance my best ever week is 33.4km which was this year (as mentioned above) – I’m hoping to beat this. My best ever day is 16.4km  !!! This was in 2007 and seeing the figure brings the day back to me. I’d decided I wanted to see if I could swim 10km straight. I headed to the gym in the morning just as the pre work swimmers were finishing and set off. Something like two hours and forty five minutes later I’d managed it. As I left the lady on reception was clearly rather stunned … she’d seen on the CCTV that I’d been plodding up and down all morning. She was even more surprised when i turned up again after lunch. I’d found some sort of grove  and just fancied another 6.4km in the afternoon. Can’t imagine feeling like that again.

Anyway… I decided to plot a graph of daily KM for swimming for that year and compare to this year. Another surprise:

Swim08-3

Green is 2007. That 16.4km doesn’t exactly dwarf all other weeks. Back in that period I was trying out doing loads of additional aerobic work in the pool. The idea being I could get some great benefits since I’d increase my aerobic capacity without trashing my legs thus allowing to maintain running and cycling volume. I still believe in this – there are limits to how much cycling and running you can do as your legs need to recover. If / when you reach this you can add swim volume if you want to still work your aerobic system. Is this what I did during that period ? Here is the above graph with week to date hours added:

Swim08-4During the time I was doing those big swims my weekly hours were over 45 hours. It was certainly adding aerobic work to an already high load.

So… looking at the graph I had 5 days of over 12km swimming in April / May. What happened after that ? I was top 20 out of the swim at IM Lanzarote and followed that with probably my best ever Ironman performance finishing 17th overall !

The plan for next year is to try and continue what I’ve managed this year and where it’s convenient to do more. Since my location will change alot the swim facilities are difficult to predict. In Christchurch I’m hoping for more coached swimming than in London – it seems probably get 4 coached sessions a week plus open water once a week. In the run up to Lanzarote I’m hoping I will swim open water most days. The run up to Kona this year saw me swim everyday for 16 days … it worked a treat. With luck next year I’ll manage similar in the lead up to each of my Ironman races. The goal for Kona is to come out of the swim towards the front of the lead age group pack.

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Expectations

Posted on December 2, 2008 by lord_lordy

ExpectationsBuilding this funky new training diary has not only been engrossing but has proved quite an eye opener. It’s made data analysis (data mining as it would have been called in my old job) so easy across all the years I have kept a diary. It’s shown that my memory / perception of what I’ve managed is quite different from the actual facts. This has a big impact on your expectations when it comes to planning the next year.

The image above shows a table giving how many weeks I’ve managed to exceed a certain weekly yardage in each discipline. It surprised me when I saw these figures as the target mileage is something I just assumed I could achieve week in week out. This is clearly shown by the current state of the 2009 plan.

It’s interesting because I’ve consciously been trying to make the 2009 plan realistic having  recognized it’s much more encouraging to exceed your plan than not make it. I’ve managed to be conservative when it comes to the bike mileage. I’ve come close to that in all but 2004. This year I’ll almost certainly manage 22 weeks or above.

But look at swim and run. I’ve come no where near the targets I’ve set for myself. Like “everything comes in threes” – it seems to work but thats just because people only remember when something came in threes not the countless times it didn’t. When it comes to swim and run volume I clearly just remember the times when I ran big or swam far and not all the weeks I didn’t manage it. YES … I’m going to rejig my 2009 plan and make it more realistic.

Here’re some graphs

2004Expectations-1

2005Expectations-2

2006Expectations-3

2007Expectations-4

2008Expectations-5

So what are these ? They show what proportion of each days training  during a year was spent on swim (red), bike (green), run (blue), gym (yellow), pink (other) and nothing (grey).

I originally started looking at this graph to get an idea of how many consecutive days I was doing swim, bike or running. In particular I was originally interested in biking as I felt as a ‘non natural’ activity it was very important to engrain muscle memory. It gives a good visual for this. Swim and run are intentionally at bottom and top so it’s easy to see consecutive days of training. Bike is in the middle as green again allowing a good impression of consistency of getting out there. Note this gives no impression of absolute length of sessions.

So whats of interest? Firstly in 2004 the big block of green – Lands End To John O’Groats. Great fun and excellent low level cycle volume. Must not forget that this is meant to be fun. Long cycle tours like that are a great way of having fun, seeing great scenery and getting fit. Similarly, in those early years you can see a much higher density of blue – ie running. Back then I did so much fell running.

Looking more closely you’ll see that through 2004, 2005 and half of 2006 there is pretty consistent yellow. Ie gym work. Thats back in the days I worked full time and walked past the gym on the way two and from work. I regularly squeezed a gym session in. Not having to squeeze sessions in often means you don’t do them. I’ve certainly suffered from that as I’ve had more time to train.

Finally look at the first halves for 2006 and 2007. Is there a day without training ? I think there may be one in 2007.

What are the conclusions? Firstly I need to decide when I raced well and how all this relates. My best races have been in the early part of my Ironman career. My first year I raced both UK and Kona very well. That was back in the days before I’d “heard” that Ironman was hard and you needed to recover from them. My best performances were Longest Day (mid 2006) and Lanzarote (end May 2007). Based on this my initial thoughts are:

1.Stop believing all that you ‘hear’ … it just limits you. I feel I’ve been influenced into believing that Ironman is such a big thing. You build it up like this and then end up letting it slip in the weeks following. After my first Ironman (UK, 2005) it never even crossed my mind that I should take weeks off. I’d done numerous mountain marathons often running 8+ hours two days on the trot and just continued training the next week. Why should Ironman be any different ? In the week following UK I did 391 miles on the bike ! The Fri, Sat, Sun following had rides of 104, 121 and 124 miles ! Did I suffer ? No, about 7 weeks later I did a PB at Kona and went under 10 hours. It’s still my best Kona performance !

2.Gym work. I need to do it. I think I’d already started to believe this and the more I analyze it the more I realise I must get into the habit again.

3.Consistency. This year I’ve really gone for some big weeks but the cost has been much more fluctuation in weekly volume. I’m not saying I’m going to cut back massively but I think I will try and hold back from the really massive weeks and instead aim for slightly less but week in week out. I kinda know I may have to eat those words. Keeping this in check is one way I think I would benefit from having a coach !

4.More running in the hills. Will make better use of the moors near my mum. Get out in the hills near Christchurch and hopefully take up a friends offer (are you a reader Fiona ?) to stay in her flat near the Lakes at some point in the summer !

That it for now. My plan is to do a entry looking at each of swim, bike, run. It helps me to write about this analyze. I will also soon publish my new training diary in case any of you want to use it or take ideas from it.

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Trying Some Old Tricks

Posted on November 27, 2008 by lord_lordy

OldTricksIn an attempt to get my motivation back to train I’m falling back on some things that have worked in the past. In particular building a new training diary. The net effect is usually a strong desire to fill it with some good figures ! I started my new diary back whilst in Kona but had not worked on it since but now I’ve spent a good few hours on it and am very happy with the result. After a little more testing I will post it here.

It’s now consistent with the training plan and it includes all the previous years data. I’ve managed to build a generic grapher and it’s given me the chance to do some good analysis year on year. The graph above is one of the results of it. It shows how many weeks in the year had training hours greater than a certain amount. It goes in 5 hour increments upto 60 hours – I’ve never had a week above 60 – I came close last year but no cigar. There’s a motivator right there.

The results weren’t as interesting as expected though I think thats because it doesn’t show how the hours were distributed in the year. For instance I know that in the first 5 months of 2006 I was very consistent – no completely bonkers weeks but without fail week in week out I was knocking out 30 hours or so. Need to try and do some analysis around that.

Anyway… getting sidetracked. Points of note from the above:

  1. In 2004/2005 my first two full seasons of triathlon I didn’t have a single week below 5 hours ! Thats two years on the trot training a minimum of 5 hours. It doesn’t sound that great but it surprised me. Not once did I just take a whole week off.
  2. Look at 2006/2007 – there are big humps in the middle. I had loads of weeks in the 30 – 40 hour range but very few above 50 hours. Both those years I had excellent performances in the middle of the year. Again a distribution would be interesting to do.
  3. 2008 – It’s not until you get to 50 hours or more did I manage more weeks training in that level. In the mid range I had a lot lot less. I think this is key to my sporadic performances last year. I had periods where I was nailing big training and others where motivation vanished. Alot of those big weeks were right at the start of the year.
  4. The question is what to take from this when planning. Part of me thinks well you just have to nail the big hours week in week out next year. “Toughen the F%%% up” so to speak. However, I don’t believe thats right. I think it’s more likely that those really big weeks contributed to motivation vanishing and I must aim to get back to consistency of training around the 30 to 40 hour mark.

…. think I may hold off posting this and try and get some analysis showing distribution through the year.

OK, a little later now.

Took a look at a graph of weekly hours comparing years but it didn’t make things too clear. So instead I looked at some straight stats. The table below looks at weekly total hours through the course of each of the last five years.

OldTricks1

It’s interesting to note that it’s only in the last two years that I’ve gone a whole week without any training. This is the period when I’ve been part time / not working ! Another bizarre fact is that my maximum training in 2006 and 2008 are the same … thats to the minute – I’ve double checked it, very weird. I then looked at what my maximum in any 7 day period was. In 2008 it was still 58.68 (Epic Camp) but in 2006 I managed 61.32 (My own personal Epic Camp in Scotland which included no swimming, most of the running in the hills and some very wet riding!). There’s another little target for 2009.

Looking at 2005 and 2008 you can see that the average hours are more or less the same but the variability is alot less in 2005. 2005 ended with a 9:50 race at Kona whilst working full time whereas 2008 ended with 10:30 having not worked at all ! Part of the diff is explained by the better conditions in 2005 but not all.

I view 2006 as my best year of performance so far with 2007 pretty close behind. Looking at it that I manage more average training with less variation. Significantly in both those years was that my first key race was later in the year. In 2006 is was Longest Day in July but with several Olympic in June. In 2007 it was Lanzarote at the end of  May.

Here’s the same stats but just looking at the first 22 weeks of the year:

OldTricks2

Here you really see the consistency in training in both those years compared to 2008. The average deviation from the mean in 2006 was less than half that in 2008 despite the means being very similar. Both Longest Day and Ironman Germany were at about the same time but at Longest Day (2006) I race awesomely whereas Ironman Germany was my worst ever Ironman performance. Consistency is the key. 2008 was made harder by having Ironman New Zealand in the middle of the winter and thats what I’ve got in store for next year.

My initial reaction to this analysis is that I should be careful about viewing Ironman New Zealand as an A race. Instead I think I may plan on a short taper and try and return to training promptly after with the overall goal being consistency thorough to Lanza.

Expect more stats in the next few entries.

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Struggling

Posted on November 23, 2008 by lord_lordy

I am really struggling to get going at the moment. Had numerous false starts at getting back in to training. Ditched the 60 in 60 and started 40 of 40 in 40 yesterday and am already 2 runs behind – yes I’ve not run at all this weekend. I think a huge part is that getting my flat sorted ready for moving out is proving incredibly unsettling and distracting. This combined with an unbelievable difficulty getting out of bed on a morning. I feel so drained when I wake I just can’t force myself out of bed. I can’t ever remember being like this, normally I find it so easy to get out of bed. The prospect of training being enough to get me up and running. It’s starting to get slightly  worrying. For a long while I could look on it as just recovering from a long season and that it was doing me good. But now it’s drifting on too much. The big worry is not running. Though it’s not worrying enough that it’s getting me out ! Anyway … the issue is that I’m doing so little now I feel I’ll run the risk of injury when I get back in to it. In my mind I start tomorrow. Thats not the first time I’ve said that to myself but it’s the first time I’ve publicly declared it here and I plan to report back on how I go this week.

Plans for next year are coming together. Flights have been booked for New Zealand and Lanza. Accommodation has been booked for both as well, we’ve even paid for Lanza. My oldest friend Andy has come up trumps again for Hawaii – he’s letting Jo and I book our flights using his airmiles ! So generous ! Even more so that it looks like we’re going to get first class flights ! It’s not so bad being an unemployed wannabe Ironman ;o)

Though the sorting out of my flat is distracting and unsettling, when I get down to it it’s incredibly therapeutic, it feels like the biggest release. I’ve taken so much to the charity shop, put stuff on Freecycle and the odd thing on eBay. Main things left are to get my car sold and either find a foster home for the remainder of my posh stereo or get it sold. I’ve taken two loads of stuff up to my mums and will take another car load in a couple of weeks. From there everything has to go to my sisters or be sold / given away. It’s quite fun ‘selling up’.

As for training … you’ve guessed there’s not much of it. Virtually nil for running and when I run I feel heavy and unfit. When I swim or bike though I feel good. Only been swimming once a week but the combination of being a little bit more buoyant and being fresh has meant I’m flying. Last wednesday the main set was:

3 x 100m on 1:25 30s 400 TT 30s 3 x 100m on 1:25
400 drill
2 x 100m on 1:25 30s 400 TT 30s 2 x 100m on 1:25
16 x 25 kick
1 x 100m on 1:25 30s 400 TT 30s 1 x 100m on 1:25

Made the 100s easily in 1:15 – 1:17 though the first was a shockingly quick 1:11 ! 400s in 5:09, 5:10, 5:15. Considering at the start of the year my 400 TT time was 5:19 I reckon thats decent progress.

On the bike I’m feeling good as well. Thursday morning rides are quick and feel fun to push. Yesterday I did a really enjoyable ride with Gabriel. It was ruthlessly efficient. Meet 6:30 ride non stop to Box Hill, coffee, cake, ride back. 72 miles and home at 11am ! Felt great. But rather indicative of the motivational issues I have at the moment that didn’t follow on for the weekend and I’ve done nothing since.

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Wheel Building

Posted on November 13, 2008 by lord_lordy

Just finished the Wheel Building part of my bike mechanics course. Above are the new wheels for my fixed that I built and what the bike looks like.

I really think Wheel Building could be my thing. I really enjoyed it and found it thoroughly engrossing. It reminded me of when I used to write code – you got so involved with what you were doing you lost track of time, got a real ‘flow’. So I’m now looking into buying the tool I need to build wheels at home and then offer to build up hand built wheels for people at a reasonable price. Certainly having built these I appreciate how good a pair of hand built wheels can be. This morning I was flying round Regents Park during our intervals session. I was on my fixed and Jo asked if it was the wheels cause if it was everyone would want a pair  ! I even went as far as tying the wheels – the guys in Mosquito reckoned it give a pretty hard ride but after this mornings outing I was very pleased with it.

The bulk of the course was last week and it was really what I’d hoped for. Didn’t go into the basic stuff that I already knew but covered things like frame preparation, bottom bracket and headset installation and maintenance as well as looking at hubs, setting up of brakes and gears. Loads of good little tips gained along the way. Now I’m confident about completely stripping down a bike and giving it a good service as well as building up a new bike from scratch though I couldn’t do this at home as I don’t have the tools for frame prep.

It was pretty tiring doing the course so all I managed was a run to the station each morning. It’s meant that my 60 runs in 60 days is already behind schedule after 10 days ! I didn’t swim for over two weeks but last night in the pool felt pretty good. Was cruising 100s at between 1:15 and 1:20. Comfortably managed a set of 6 on 1:25 but couldn’t quite make 4 on 1:20. Even so this is a great starting point for the winters training.

Things are getting pretty on top of me at the moment. Our plans for next year are getting sorted. We’re booked on Epic Camp New Zealand, I’m about to book our flights out, we’re booked our flights for Lanza. Unfortunately my flat isn’t let or sold yet. I’m clearing everything out and now having to decide what to do if it’s not let or sold when I leave. I will feel alot happier and more able to focus on training once this is all sorted. Whatever happens by the time we get to New Zealand at the beginning of next year there shouldn’t be much to worry about whilst we’re out there.

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Done Recovering

Posted on October 31, 2008 by lord_lordy

My period of recovery is almost over. I feel I’m doing well at this because I’ve got to the point I don’t feel hungry a lot of the time. I’m waking up not wanting breakfast, finishing dinner not wanting dessert and walking past bakeries and not having to resist going in. My body is back to a weight thats right and discovering this feeling of not being constantly hungry is a relief. It shows that the constant hunger pangs I have to resist to get to race weight are merely because I am under weight. Like a tough training session you have to battle through to be in optimum shape to race. Now to remember that as I start training again.

I’ve not weighed myself or taken my resting HR for a couple of weeks now. It’s been quite a release to just not be worried about it. I’ve done the odd bit of training but not a lot. This morning I was awake to go swimming but didn’t go. The reason why ? I think it was purely because this was my last chance for a while not to go. So why did I not go ? Because I could (if you see what I mean).

Next year is getting mapped out now. Look pretty much 100% sure I’ll be doing Epic Camp New Zealand ! I can’t wait. Being in that environment again able to see just how long and hard I can go will be great. Will I be gunning for the Yellow Jersey ? Of course not ;o0 Entries have been paid for for IM New Zealand, IM Lanzarote and IM Hawaii. We’ve even booked flights for Lanza ! Only one other race I would really like to do next year but not entered yet. The West Highland Ultra. Not entered yet because it requires a support crew and the guys that supported us for the Mid Wales Ultra this year aren’t available. So… any readers fancy a great weekend in Scotland watching me hurt get in touch ! Funny, this is the race i most want to do of them all. I’ve been thinking about why and come to the conclusion that it’s because it’s not that competitive. With races that long anyone finishing has won. With Ironman it feels that completing isn’t really the challenge and thus there’s a pressure to perform. With these Ultras I’d be happy just getting round. In fact, it takes me back to the pleasure I used to get Fell Running. Alan and I used to just head off and try the longest runs we could manage. God knows how many times we ran all day, or did routes that walkers would take 3 or 4 days to complete. The pleasure was in completing it. It didn’t matter whether anyone else knew what we were doing, there was intrinsic satisfaction in doing it. The Ultras have that feeling as well. I’ve pondered whether I would still do Ironman and compete hard if the only people ever to know your time or result were the people in the race itself. I know this is not a realistic scenario but it’s interesting to ponder. What if no one knew your result other than yourself ? For me I think I would do one and then try something else. If there was only me knowing how I did I would push myself to go further rather than faster. I think this is reflected in my fell running days and in my training. I get immense satisfaction in proving to myself I can do more than I thought … I get intrinsic pleasure and contentment from that even if no one else knew at all. So … next year I must manage the 250 miler !

My plans for getting going with training are pretty relaxed. The first two weeks will rather be influenced by my being on a Bike Mechanic course. This will mean no biking during the week and my swimming will be pretty restricted. I’m kicking off from Sunday with an attempt at 60 runs in 60 days which will take me to the end of the year. Keeping it easy by having 40 minutes as a run. The aim is a long bike ride each weekend, with luck, two and whatever swimming I can get done. Once the course is over I will be doing my usual steady increase in volume aiming at at least one 100 mile run week before Christmas. The other aim is to get my swimming right up there ahead of Epic Camp. Gunning for the win at the 400IM !!

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