IRONMAN – SEASON 2 PART 5 – The Cheshire Runner.

Here we go for another thrilling installment of the triathlon training diaries. Maybe not so thrilling but it is another installment at least.

I finished IRONMAN – SEASON 2 PART 4 off with an Easy week following on from my biggest week of training to date. The natural partner is Easy, Medium and Hard weeks, however, as I am running the Manchester Marathon on the 7th April, week 17 is going to be a medium week dropping into a small taper towards the end and week 18 will be an easy recovery week, then pick things up again after that. Hopefully, I can come through Manchester without any issues, the plan is to take it easy to reduce the fatigue impact on Ironman 70.3 Mallorca.

Week 17 – 1st – 7th April

This is race week, marathon number 11 is on Sunday…. or is it?

On Friday I decided that it was best not running Manchester, I didn’t want to risk impacting Mallorca which is now 5 weeks away. As a result, I ramped my training back up on Fri – Sun and next week will change from a recovery week to a hard week. I have written down my reasons for pulling out of Manchester in my WHY I DIDN’T RUN THE MANCHESTER MARATHON blog.

Training wise, it was a week of two halves. The first five days, so not half but you get what I mean, were medium to low intensity. Three bikes, one swim and one run all at an easy pace and short distances. This was to allow the body time to recover for the marathon but still get some aerobic work in for Ironman.

Saturday and Sunday I stepped it back up with a 9.3 mile run with 10k alternations of 1k @ 10k pace and 1k recovery and half marathon pace. I love this session and it felt great to be back running with some pace again.

Sunday I was back on Zwift for just short of 59-miles, this had three 30 min blocks at 215w and a set of Tabata intervals of 4 x 6mins @ 260w, 3min recovery @ 160w. I followed this bike up with an evening 30 min spin session on the Peloton bike.

I feel that this week was partly lost with having Manchester Marathon planned in, I am glad I made the call to not run. It had been playing on my mind and partly felt that I had to run it because I said I would, but I am accountable to myself and nobody else so I am happy with that decision. I do wish I had made my mind up sooner, then I could have had a proper week of training.

Nevertheless, I got in some good work on Sat & Sun and can go into next weeks hard week feeling pumped and ready to give my all.

Swim – 2,570 yrds, 44mins
Bike – 131.6 miles, 6hr 0mins
Run – 16.1 miles, 2hr 11mins

Week 18 – 8th – 14th April

This week I had to deliver a big week of training in order to justify my decision not to run the Manchester marathon last weekend.

This wasn’t helped in the slightest by my coach being on holiday and not planning anything in for this week. I had to plan my own big training week, no biggie, I know what sessions and intensity I need to do, in fact, I probably put in slightly more high-end workouts than my coach would have. Again, making the most of that decision last week.

Monday, I started the week off with a 70 minute easy paced run, averaging out at 8:40 per mile.

Tuesday, in the pool for an early morning 2.3km, swim made up of four 500m blocks plus warm up and cool down, averaging 1:46 per 100/yrds. Later on that day I was on Zwift for a 71min hard bike session, as with each of the last few weeks, the aim is to build up the leg strength to push harder for longer on the bike. This session had one 10min block at 275w and 8 sets of 1:30 at 305w & 3 min at 160w.

Wednesday, I was in the office all day today which meant no early morning training and the planned bike had to be pushed back until my daughter had gone to sleep. Fitting training in around family and work is a tricky task and finding that balance is next to impossible. The bike was another 55min strength set, similar to Tuesday.

Thursday, back in the pool again today for a 2.9km version of Tuesday’s distance swim, a little slower at 2:02 per 100/yrds. Later on, I had a 95min medium tempo ride on Zwift, this was made up of two 30min blocks at 7 RPE sandwiching a 10min block at 9 RPE.

Friday was an easier day with just a 55min run interval session. two sets of 5 x 1min flat out with 2 min recovery at 8:30 per mile with a 5 min recovery jog between the two sets. A month ago I was running these flat out intervals around the high 5 min pace, today I was low to mid 5 min pace, some signs of progress. I did, however, have some pain in my right piriformis in the evening. I will see how that feels tomorrow.

Saturday, I was out for my longest run since Tokyo by 7am, the piriformis still ached a little but I decided to run on it and see what effect it has. It felt ok during the run but still niggling in the afternoon. I ran 14-miles today, 1 min warm up and cool down with 12 miles at a steady 7:30 per mile pace. This 7:30 pace is kind of my comfort zone, up until Tokyo I was planning that pace as an easy marathon pace, then ran 7:01 pace, I guess I should now start at increasing the pace of my long runs to fall in line with my Tokyo pace and continue to push on. In the afternoon, I was in the pool for a 2.5km distance swim again, third of the week. Again, four 500m blocks plus warm up and cool down, quite pleased to swim 1:49 per 100/yrds.

Sunday, the main challenge was scheduling today. I was up at 4:30am and on the bike shortly after 5am for a 100min Zwift, two 20min blocks at 230w, one 25min block at 230w and 10 mins at 260w. A pretty easy ride really nice to be done in time to watch the F1 Grand Prix at 7am. We then had a family trip out to Legoland Discovery in Manchester as a nice way to relax after a tough week.

wim – 8,503 yrds, 2hr 43mins
Bike – 135.6 miles, 6hr 12mins
Run – 29.6 miles, 3hr 52mins

Week 19 – 15th – 21st April

The plan this week was to continue to where we left off last week, another big week and lots of long race pace sessions in the pool, on the bike and out running.

That was the plan….

The reality was, I got sick Tuesday evening which wiped out the rest of the week. I think it was just a sickness bug, possibly from something I ate on Tuesday. I stopped being sick Wednesday morning but just felt off until Friday afternoon.

I lost over 15lbs in weight as well as all my energy and strength. Not ideal 3 weeks before race day, but these things happen. I can repeat this weeks plan next week and then go into taper and just do the best I can on race day.

Swim – 2,734 yrds, 54mins
Bike – 27.6 miles, 1hr 17mins
Run – 0 miles, 0 mins

Week 20 – 22nd – 28th April

Another week where no training plan was uploaded!

I have copied over what I was due to do last week and will see how the body holds up early on, I still feel quite weak but will try to get as much of these sessions done as possible and then next week go into taper for Ironman 70.3 Mallorca.

This was one of my biggest weeks of swimming ever, in fact, at 11,456 yards that is only 7,000 short on my total swim distance by the end of the first four months of 2018. I had one technical set to start the week, this was good as the energy levels were still not at my usual levels. Then followed two race pace distance swims, the first at 2km and the second 1.5km both followed by a block of 5x200m max effort. The fourth swim of the week was a speed set.

I struggled with the first race pace swim. The 2km block was around 5 minutes off what I wanted. The next day I felt a lot stronger and swam 750m, 1000m and 1500m PB’s during that race pace block. That set would bring me in around 34 – 35 minutes over the 1,900m 70.3 swim. That would be 7 – 8 minutes faster than my swim time in Staffordshire 70.3 last year.

Bike was a steady week after being ill. I started off with a high cadence turbo session on Tuesday followed by two race pace efforts on Wednesday and Sunday. Both of these were 95mins with 80mins at 215w. The wattage felt easily manageable so I am thinking of pushing this higher post the Mallorca 70.3 and see what we can do.

Running has been pretty hit and miss since Tokyo, the races have been going well, so far this year I have run my 3 fastest 10k times, fastest half and full marathon at Tokyo and this Friday I ran a new 5k PB at MID-CHESHIRE 5k so it is hard to pick fault with the running based off results, but on the flip side Jan – Apr has been my lowest four months mileage since I started running in 2016, I have been getting tight calves again and had the piriformis niggle crop up again two weeks ago. The enforced week off with illness seems to have sorted that niggle but the tight calves seem to be back again, I had this problem leading into Chicago and New York last year.

I did manage to run four times this week, two easy runs, one interval session, and the race. Not the best week of mileage but it was nice to run four times and start to get the legs used to running once again. This is something I intend to ramp up again after Ironman 70.3 Mallorca.

I have now figured out why I have been getting the tight calves again too. I have been using some older shoes for my running since New York. I have a couple of sets (2 pairs) where I felt I still had a good bit of mileage left in them, so to save money I used my two pairs of Adidas Ultraboost ST for the Tokyo training, these shoes both went well over 600 miles and still felt good. After Tokyo, I decided to retire those and began to use the two pairs of Brooks Raveena 9 that I used for the Chicago & New York training.

So if you think that the tight calves started 4 – 6 weeks ago and last occurred during training for Chicago & New York and I swapped back to the Brooks after Tokyo, which was 7 weeks ago and last ran in them at New York. I think it is the Brooks shoes which are causing the tightness. I have been racing in the Nike VaporFly 4% shoes which offer far greater cushioning and as such, haven’t caused any issues during the races. It’s just training where I haven’t been feeling right.