It's all about volume
In recent weeks we have moved in to a more volume based training ethic. Our Tuesday night swims are around 4km now, with variations thrown in. The other week we were simulating race conditions which was great fun, swimming over each other and generally tussling, although I think leaving the pool with a split nose was a bit much, lol. I did learn a few tricks for swimming around buoys and saving a few precious seconds.
Last week we started our open water training and to say it was cold would be an understatement. I think even the fish had coats on. It's a great location, we're using Eccleston Delph dive centre and it's a bit surreal seeing streams of bubbles coming up from below, from the scuba divers that are 30 - 60 ft down. There are some huge fish in that lake as well, although I've not seen the sturgeon yet. Hopefully I'll get to spot it sooner or later, the water is lovely and crystal clear, a total contrast from the 5ft of visibility that there is in Pennington Flash.
I think my swimming is going ok at the moment, although I need to try and memorise sticking to about 61 spm for my swim and not letting myself try to do a higher stroke rate and end up blowing up. My Tempo Trainer is a massive help in this and I'm looking forward to trying it out in proper open water, instead of a 25m pool.
The running is going ok and I still maintain that I'm much better at shorter faster stuff. The Monday night intervals proving this. I can get round in a relatively respectable time, for the 800m sets, but the long Thursday night runs are still a real struggle. Just running for 3 hours is a killer, so one of the coaches suggested that I run for the first hour, but then run / walk the next couple of hours. After all, there's not going to be all that many people that will run the entire marathon in the Ironman. Apparently, if I can dictate to my body when I run and walk, instead of the other way round, I can still do the Ironman "run" leg in a respectable time. I tried this the other week and it was surprising how much faster I was compared with trying to run for the whole 3 hours.
I'm going along nicely on the bike and it's running like an absolute dream at the moment, after having it serviced by Mark Humphrys last week. The wheels just roll forever. Therefore, it was a massive blow when I realised there was some damage to my rear carbon rim. I hit a pot hole with it and it seems to have damaged the carbon and nicked the tyre, hopefully I can get it repaired. It still feels rideable and if I wasn't doing the Ironman I probably wouldn't be anywhere near as bothered about it as I am. Hopefully I can either get it repaired or borrow another one for the Ironman race. That said, I still haven't ridden anything like a distance approaching 100 miles, which still feels like a bit of a mental barrier at the moment. We were meant to be doing a century ride last weekend, but torrential, horizontal rain drastically shortened that to about 55 miles instead.
The only other problem I seem to be having at the moment is with the saddle. Well, to be more specific, the pain that the saddle is causing for my nether regions. Anything over about 35 - 40 miles and I'm in a lot of pain. I just don't seem to be getting used to it, which is a bit surprising considering how much time I'm spending on it. I'm going to a bike shop this week, to look at some of their offerings and see if there's something that will at least make it a bit more bareable.
It's the Slateman Tri this coming Sunday (18th May) and I'm really looking forward to giving my Team True Spirit tri suit its first outing. I'll certainly be wearing it with a lot of pride in what it represents. There's a bit of competition between myself and a couple of mates and the banter has certainly been picking up this week. I think we all want to beat each other, but it's just going to come down to how each of us goes on the day. I was speaking to the TTS team manager last week and asking how he thinks I should change my training this week, in preparation for the race. He told me to just carry on as I am doing, even though it may be to the detriment of my Slateman performance (getting my excuses in early :-)). I have to maintain focus that the Ironman is my only goal for this year and to treat Slateman as just another training session. Not totally ideal, but I completely understand and he's only thinking about my long term aspirations of completing Ironman UK. Competing in the Slateman will also give me an idea on how I'm able to race without taking in loads of gels and carbs, instead putting in to practice a lot of what we've done in our training sessions, where we are relying on our own fat reserves for fuel. Obviously some of us have a lot more reserves than others :-)
That's about it for now, I'll post my Slateman race report next week. In the meantime I'll just keep gooin wit yed darn!
Last week we started our open water training and to say it was cold would be an understatement. I think even the fish had coats on. It's a great location, we're using Eccleston Delph dive centre and it's a bit surreal seeing streams of bubbles coming up from below, from the scuba divers that are 30 - 60 ft down. There are some huge fish in that lake as well, although I've not seen the sturgeon yet. Hopefully I'll get to spot it sooner or later, the water is lovely and crystal clear, a total contrast from the 5ft of visibility that there is in Pennington Flash.
I think my swimming is going ok at the moment, although I need to try and memorise sticking to about 61 spm for my swim and not letting myself try to do a higher stroke rate and end up blowing up. My Tempo Trainer is a massive help in this and I'm looking forward to trying it out in proper open water, instead of a 25m pool.
The running is going ok and I still maintain that I'm much better at shorter faster stuff. The Monday night intervals proving this. I can get round in a relatively respectable time, for the 800m sets, but the long Thursday night runs are still a real struggle. Just running for 3 hours is a killer, so one of the coaches suggested that I run for the first hour, but then run / walk the next couple of hours. After all, there's not going to be all that many people that will run the entire marathon in the Ironman. Apparently, if I can dictate to my body when I run and walk, instead of the other way round, I can still do the Ironman "run" leg in a respectable time. I tried this the other week and it was surprising how much faster I was compared with trying to run for the whole 3 hours.
I'm going along nicely on the bike and it's running like an absolute dream at the moment, after having it serviced by Mark Humphrys last week. The wheels just roll forever. Therefore, it was a massive blow when I realised there was some damage to my rear carbon rim. I hit a pot hole with it and it seems to have damaged the carbon and nicked the tyre, hopefully I can get it repaired. It still feels rideable and if I wasn't doing the Ironman I probably wouldn't be anywhere near as bothered about it as I am. Hopefully I can either get it repaired or borrow another one for the Ironman race. That said, I still haven't ridden anything like a distance approaching 100 miles, which still feels like a bit of a mental barrier at the moment. We were meant to be doing a century ride last weekend, but torrential, horizontal rain drastically shortened that to about 55 miles instead.
The only other problem I seem to be having at the moment is with the saddle. Well, to be more specific, the pain that the saddle is causing for my nether regions. Anything over about 35 - 40 miles and I'm in a lot of pain. I just don't seem to be getting used to it, which is a bit surprising considering how much time I'm spending on it. I'm going to a bike shop this week, to look at some of their offerings and see if there's something that will at least make it a bit more bareable.
It's the Slateman Tri this coming Sunday (18th May) and I'm really looking forward to giving my Team True Spirit tri suit its first outing. I'll certainly be wearing it with a lot of pride in what it represents. There's a bit of competition between myself and a couple of mates and the banter has certainly been picking up this week. I think we all want to beat each other, but it's just going to come down to how each of us goes on the day. I was speaking to the TTS team manager last week and asking how he thinks I should change my training this week, in preparation for the race. He told me to just carry on as I am doing, even though it may be to the detriment of my Slateman performance (getting my excuses in early :-)). I have to maintain focus that the Ironman is my only goal for this year and to treat Slateman as just another training session. Not totally ideal, but I completely understand and he's only thinking about my long term aspirations of completing Ironman UK. Competing in the Slateman will also give me an idea on how I'm able to race without taking in loads of gels and carbs, instead putting in to practice a lot of what we've done in our training sessions, where we are relying on our own fat reserves for fuel. Obviously some of us have a lot more reserves than others :-)
That's about it for now, I'll post my Slateman race report next week. In the meantime I'll just keep gooin wit yed darn!
Comments
Post a Comment