In IRONMAN – SEASON 4 PART 1 I was getting over COVID and building up the bike training to build an aerobic base to build from. I found in the first few weeks that my heart rate was high, most likely after-effects of COVID and that early season lack of fitness. By week 5 it has been 13 weeks since my last run which has not helped the fitness. In fact! according to the ever so accurate Strava Fitness & Freshness Score, my run fitness is now at its lowest ever level (since starting running in 2016).

The aim for these next four weeks is to continue to build the bike fitness. I am targetting 250 miles a week, mostly low impact / low intensity work to protect the knee but now include a mid-week 70.3 session which will start off at 65 min and increase over the coming months as well as the longer 140.6 paced Saturday rides.

The knee injury is continuing to show signs of improvement, it is almost pain free at the start of week 5. The hope is this continues to improve over the next 2 weeks and maybe!!! be ready to head out for a 1 mile run toward the end of Jan / early Feb

Week Five – 11 – 17 January

Another week with no running or swimming, however, the knee is kind of starting to feel better. If I had to give it a percentage, I would say it is around 75% – 80% now, certainly improving. My current hope is to be able to start back running on the 31st January but will make a call on whether the knee is pain free or not by that point, I won’t just go for a run to test it if it is not 100% pain free.

On the bike, I banked another 250 miles taking me to 1,022 miles over the past 28 days. My heart rate is gradually returning to pre-COVID levels across the board.

This week I brought in the mid-week 70.3 interval session, starting off at 65 minutes with the aim to increase the duration as we progress towards Ironman 70.3 Mallorca and Staffordshire in May & June.

The Mid-week 70.3 session was:

• 10 Min Warm Up
• 20 Min @ 77% FTP (255w)
• 5 Min @ 90% FTP (300w)
• 20 Min @ 77% FTP (255w)
• 5 Min @ 90% FTP (300w)
• 5 Min Cool Down

Saturday was the same longer endurance based ride as last week. This week felt a lot more comfortable and in control, as I fuelled correctly, taking a SiS Electrolyte Gel at 45min and 90min as well as taking a bite of a flapjack every 20min to keep the carbs topped up.

The longer ride was:

• 10 Min Warm Up
• 50 Min @ 70% FTP (230w)
• 5 Min Recovery @ 55% FTP (180w)
• 50 Min @ 70% FTP (230w)
• 5 Min Cool Down

I managed to fit in more strength and stretching this week, which was 7 x 20 min core strength sessions, 3 upper body strength sessions and a whole bunch of lower body and upper body stretching.

• Swim – 0 yrds, 0hr 0min
• Bike – 253.04 Miles, 12hr 06min
• Run – 0 Miles, 0hr 0min
• Strength & Stretching – 5hr 51min

Week Six – 18 – 24 January

Not to sound like a stuck record but no running and no swimming this week.

The week started off with some good news. My next two road running races have been cancelled. I was due to run the Tatton Park 10k early Feb and Newport Marathon at the end of April. Obviously, having not run for 14 weeks, I would not be fit enough to race a marathon in 12 weeks time so I was not planning on running either of these races anyway, these cancellations have at least saved me the money. I have deferred the Tatton Park 10k to June and will request a credit note for the Newport Marathon. The rescheduled date of 24th October would potentially leave me with 1 Ironman, 1 70.3 and 3 marathons over a 6 week period. I will try to book onto the 2022 or 2023 race instead.

I started the week off with the Ramp Test on Zwift. I had planned to do this back in November but my knee wasn’t up to it then. The last Ramp Test was on 9th Jan 2020 where I set a new FTP of 327w, I improved this to 341w in May 2020. All I wanted from this test was to get that baseline to set the training to and measure progress (hopefully) over the coming months. Doing it 5 weeks into my COVID recovery risked setting a lower FTP but I think the last 4 weeks of bike work have got me back to a decent level again.

The test went well, I did a 10 min warm up ride before starting the official Ramp Test. The test starts with a 5 min warm up then ramps up by 20w every 60secs, beginning at 100w until you can no longer peddle. Zwift then calculates 75% of your best minute (the last minute) as your FTP. It isn’t as accurate as a 20min FTP test but I felt it would be a good measure against the Ramp Test 12 months ago and it’s only to set a baseline.

This time I got up to 480w before my legs gave out on me. This gave me an “FTP” of 348w, an increase of 21w compared to 12 months ago and an increase of 7w compared to 8 months ago. Whether it is accurate or not, I am pleased to have improved on the Ramp Test from 12 months ago despite the various illnesses and injuries in that time. Starting the training at 348w is a good confidence boost and it will be interesting to see how I progress from here. The plan is to retake this test in 8 – 10 weeks and hopefully show some more improvement.

The rest of the bike week was Stage 4 of Tour De Zwift on Tuesday, this ended up being a tough session. 27.5 miles in 58 mins @ an ave of 306w, Wednesday was the now weekly 70.3 interval session. As a result of the increase in the FTP all Zwift sessions have now got a little tougher, today felt harder but manageable which was a good confidence boost. Saturday was the same longer 2 hour ride and went fine, another sign the leg strength is returning and heart rate was the same as last week but with higher watts.

• Swim – 0 yrds, 0hr 0min
• Bike – 251.3 Miles, 11hr 31min
• Run – 0 Miles, 0hr 0min
• Strength & Stretching – 4hr 40min

Week Seven – 25 – 31 January

Slightly easier week this week. The weekly bike mileage drops from 250 down to 200, the Zwift sessions remain and I cut out all Peloton spin sessions. So same plan as previous weeks with the 70.3 intervals on Wednesday but increase the longer Saturday endurance bike from 2 hours to 2 hours 15 min giving a total of 1hr 55min at 70% FTP (245w) which all being well, will be the goal power for Challenge Roth.

The knee is continuing to improve, still not at 100% but I decided that this week was the time to start bringing back the running. Just 1 mile on Sunday but it was nice to get out and run after 104 days. I will monitor the knee closely over the next couple of days to see if the run has added any more pain. If the knee doesn’t get any worse then the plan will be to try a 2 mile run middle of next week and again, if no further pain, try a second 2 mile run next weekend.

Again, another good week with 7 x 20min core strength sessions and 4 x 20 min upper body strength sessions. I am really starting to see some progress on the core strength, things are tightening and firming up down there.

• Swim – 0 yrds, 0hr 0min
• Bike – 203.42 Miles, 8hr 33min
• Run – 1 Miles, 9min
• Strength & Stretching – 5hr 40min

Week Eight – 1 – 7 February

We will get the swimming out of the way first…. no swimming this week, pool still closed.

The plan for running was to leave it until Wednesday and see how the knee felt after that first 1 mile run last Sunday. Thankfully, no new pain and no increase in the pain. It still isn’t 100% but I think these short low intensity runs will be fine to do whilst it is still getting back to as close to 100%. So this week I increased the mileage to 2 mile run and ran Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoon. Both very easy pace but both felt good, no pain or discomfort.

Last week I finished off January on the bike with an easy week. My plan for February is to build on that 1,063 mile base built in Jan. I feel confident in the knee and that my heart rate is now getting close to normal 7 weeks on from having COVID.

As February is 28 days and beginning on a Monday giving the perfect 4 week plan I am going to give the Zwift Hunters Challenge a go. This is basically 28 workouts in 28 days and they look pretty challenging. I will put a separate post up around the details of this workout plan and the separate sessions. I still want to include the weekly longer endurance rides and finish off the Tour De Zwift so I will have to double up on a few days.

I started off attempting day 1 and day 2 on Monday. I tried to do the first session on my lunch break but I had not eaten for 7 hours before going into it and already felt a bit shakey. Needless to say, it did not go well. The main set was 3 blocks of 20 x 15 sec @ 527w, 15 sec recovery. Those short high watt blasts just zapped my legs and what energy I had. I gave up at 30 reps.

The other sessions went ok, to be honest, I have underestimated this 4 week block of work, all bar one of the 7 sessions this week have been tough going but they all got done. No pain no gain right? I am certain by the end of the month my bike strength and stamina will have improved.

The longer ride was a repeat of last weeks 2:15 effort with 1hr 55 @ 245w. I did the ride after lunch as I was on childcare duties in the morning. The difference in my ave heart rate compared to 7 days ago was huge! down from 140bpm to 126bpm. Same power, same cadence and same time. I know I am expecting some benefit from the increased training load but not that much in just 6 days. I am putting that down to riding later in the day when the body has had more time to warm up.

• Swim – 0 yrds, 0hr 0min
• Bike – 256.9 Miles, 10hr 51min
• Run – 4 Miles, 36min
• Strength & Stretching – 5hr 15min

That rounds up the second update on the Ironman training plan. I have made some good solid progress on the bike and with the strength and stretching. I feel like the increased heart rate felt post COVID has now cleared and my fitness levels are increasing.

It has been really REALLY pleasing to get back out running after 16 weeks out, even just the 1 and 2 mile runs have felt so good. Hopefully, the running can continue to increase over the next 4 weeks and I can survive this hunters challenge on Zwift.

The journey continues on my IRONMAN – SEASON 4 PART 3 post.