Year Three, Race Four
Last years build up to Ironman Austria went pretty well, had no injuries to speak
of and I felt good in the race, but due to the weather I didn't really test it out
fully (the heat making running very difficult). I wasn't sure this year if it was
a good idea to do the same sort of training again or do something different. It
had become apparent that I wasn't doing enough running so I spent the winter months
working on that weakness but from mid-December until early March I had endless coughs
and colds which put a stop to any sort of structured programme. In the end I decided
I would do a similar build for IMUK as I did in 2006 for IMA.
Basically that means splitting the run and bike build up into two and doing them
at different times. This means I escape injury problems and can focus on one discipline
at a time and not hammer cycling and running together. Then once a dedicated running
and cycling phase is complete, spend the final 10 weeks before the race putting
them together with a phase of intensive training that should build peak fitness
for the race. I decided that the final phase would see me doing century rides on
alternate weekends with a 20 mile, or at least a long run, on the other weekend.
Again, this is to keep away from injury problems when doing 20 mile runs and century
rides in the same week. Lots more intervals and hill work is also planned, IMUK
is that sort of race.
The Basic Plan
From the start of March until April 22nd work on distance running and finish it
off with the London Marathon. This phase will see me finally putting in 20 mile
runs and working on my run feed strategy for running, something I've not done in
previous years. Cycling during this phase will be short and sharp, mostly made of
up turbo sessions of around an hour focussing on power output and Zone 3 work. From
late April I will be working on cycling and easing back on running. Cycling will
hopefully ramp up pretty quickly and long 5 hour rides should make an appearance.
This will correspond with the start of the Time Trial season so I will race on alternative
weekends to build on speed and on the other weekend build on endurance. Running
will continue as before but without the long run, probably capping it to a couple
of hours. I haven't set any targets for the race other than to put in a good effort
for the whole race, ie not hammer the bike and walk the run. When I did the race
in 2005 I finished in 13:45 getting a PB is obviously a basic target.
Phase 1 - Running
The long run increased in distance from the start of February, going up in stages:
12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and then 20. This was my first ever 20 mile run so I gave it
my usual "breakthrough session" rules of just getting it done and allowing
myself stops to eat or rest. It went well enough until mid week the following week
when my lower back became very sore resulting in a visit to the physio. He quickly
diagnosed a hip problem where my Sac joint had seized on the right side making the
whole of the right hip section tilt forwards. He suspected it's been like it for
a long time and gave me exercises to do. Two weeks later was the second 20 mile
run, this time run without stops but still without a target time, and there were
no problems. As alarming as this injury was, very painful at times, it's a good
thing to get it out the way good and early in the season. The plan to split the
training has paid off. These long runs have been backed up with one hard interval
session aimed at getting my 5km run time down a bit and one tempo run which is about
an hour of high effort running. I've also set up my run courses to take in as many
hills as possible, to get used to them for the IMUK run.
Phase 2 - Cycling
I didn't do the London Marathon due to illness and have carried my entry over to
2008. At the start of May I managed to injure a disk in my back (L3/4) which was
very painful and bought all training to a stop for a couple of weeks. But the physio
fixed that and I got back to it. However, illness was still a major problem and
it seemed I was going around in circles of a couple of decent sessions followed
by a spell of illness. Nothing specific, a bit of a cough, feeling off, that sort
of things but enough for me to take notice and back things off until it went away.
The whole of the bike phase went like this and I didn't put in any long rides, nothing
over 3 hours. But I didn't panic, still plenty of time until race day.
The Final Push
As I entered the final 12 weeks I needed to have a think about where I was. I'd
had hip problems, discs in my back getting bulged, endless sickness and I was clearly
doing something very wrong. But as much as I thought about it I couldn't put my
finger on it and decided I needed help. I email Paul Newsome at Swimsmooth and he
took me on as one of his coached athletes. With only 12 weeks to go there wasn't
much time to strike up a deep relationship but I figured with a correctly structured
plan I might get the right mix of hard and long sessions and avoid sickness. Other
than a mile calf strain things were going well and I began to get some decent training
in. The distances were kept sensible but I don't think my endurance was a problem,
I just needed to get to the start line in good shape to start the race.
But with about 5 weeks to go I had 'an episode'. I was out on a long ride and
at about half way I suddenly didn't want to be doing triathlon anymore. I couldn't
think of any reason why I wanted to ride that day and my motivation for the race
had gone. I wasn't enjoying the training or the thought of racing. Three days later
I set off for a 20 mile run and got 5 minutes in and just stopped, I couldn't be
bothered with it and walked around the woods for a bit then went home. Fortunately
Paul spotted the problem very quickly - over training. I was displaying many of
the classic symptoms but I couldn't see it. Paul scrapped the schedule and my taper
was three weeks solid rest. As that phase went on my enthusiasm for training and
racing came back and with a few days to go I did a couple of sessions just to shake
the legs out. Everything felt OK and I got to the start line.
Race Report:
Ironman UK 2007
Article on over training:
http://www.frot.co.nz/dietnet/sports/overtraining.htm
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