For the first 3 months of this training journey initially towards Challenge Roth but now Ironman UK, the focus had been on bike strength and endurance. I knew from the offset that swimming wasn’t going to happen for a good few months and running was massively hampered by the knee tendonitis recovery.

In the second half of my IRONMAN – SEASON 4 PART 5 update, I finally returned to the pool and got the long run-up to 14 miles, although no speed work at that stage.

My plan has been to front-load the bike training whilst I was spending less time on the swim and run. Now the swim and run are starting to increase, I will scale the bike training back to normal levels and focus on endurance. In May I have two more Velo29 sportives, an 85 mile and a 120 mile sportive. Both will give a great opportunity to further lock in the nutrition whilst pushing the legs and body over a long distance and some big hills.

The main focus for May is going to be the run. I am aiming to push the long run out to 18 miles, run a half marathon time trial and bring in speed work by rejoining the City of Stoke AC sessions on Tuesday’s, it has been 8 months since I was last able to run a session with the club so I have really been looking forward to getting back.

Swimming, I aim to just keep hitting the pool at least three times a week with an open water swim at the weekends.

I feel the training is now finally starting to come together. So far I have gone from training for Challenge Roth for that event to be postponed, then deciding I wouldn’t be able to make Ironman UK due to the knee injury not recovering fast enough, to now feeling that I could possibly swim a PB and run a PB at Ironman UK and probably push the bike leg close even considering the bike leg was reduced to 95 miles when I last did Ironman UK. May will be a key month, if I can hold the bike fitness and continue with the return to swimming, I feel those two legs will be sorted. It is just the run that is a little less certain but if my knee holds up to the long runs and speed sessions, I think June and July could see a return to racing and the good times.

Week Twenty One – 3 – 9 May

This was a big breakthrough week for me. This felt like the first proper week of training in this entire block, it has only taken 21 weeks to pull together one decent week.

Four pool swims which saw 100m, 400m, 750m and 1,000m PB’s and my second fastest 1,900m (1.2 mile) swim. Swimming has been going really well since the return to the pool. I did make it to the open water swim this week after chickening out of last weeks when I saw it was 12.7’c in the water. I brought some swim gloves to help with the cold. Ironically, the water temp this week was 12.1’c, should have just gone last week. I swam one 400m lap but couldn’t feel my feet, the Raynauds kicking in again. I have ordered some swim socks now to help with that for next week.

I returned to the bike this Wednesday after having to take 11 days off following the doctor’s advice. I struggled with my first setback and had to cut it short halfway through. Looking back at it now, I am not sure where this session came from, it was brutal, in those 33 mins I clocked my 2nd highest 20min power average so it was never going to be easy.

• 5 min warm up
• 5 min @ 295w
• 5 min @ 260w
• Repeat 4 times:
  • 4 min @ 385w
  • 2 min @ 290w
• 10 min cool down

Friday’s bike was an easier task, 65 minutes with 50 minutes at 70.3 pace. Saturday should have been 2hr 45min endurance but I cut that an hour short. I am still not feeling 100% and just didn’t have the endurance to finish that set off.

Still none the wiser as to what is making me feel ill, hopefully, the blood test on Tuesday will shed some light on this as it is bugging me now.

Running was the big win of this week for two reasons. My first speed session with my City of Stoke AC run club mates since mid-September, 5 x 5 mins averaging 5:53/mi, 75sec recovery. I also ran a base interval session back home on Thursday.

It felt so good to be running with some pace at long long last! The knee felt really good doing both sessions, I didn’t notice any pain at all!

Sunday was 16 miles, the longest run since 18th Oct, averaging 7:31/mi. 2 miles further than last week, similar pace and a much lower heart rate.

• Swim – 11,100 yrds, 2hr 57min
• Bike – 73.4 Miles, 3hr 25min
• Run – 30.5 Miles, 3hr 48min
• Strength & Stretching – 6hr 0min

All in all, this has felt like a proper training week focusing on all three disciplines, the bike was down on recent months but swimming and running are now starting to progress in the right direction. 6 weeks until Cholmondeley Castle Triathlon and 8 weeks until Ironman UK. A return to racing is starting to feel closer now.

Week Twenty two – 10 – 16 May

So, second proper week of training and another good week on the whole.

Swimming in the pool went well again, beating last weeks 400m, 750m and 1,000m PB’s. I hate to say it but I think I might be enjoying swimming! Since I switched to the Foam goggles 4 weeks ago I have found my pace has increased. That might not be totally down to the goggles but having a display in front of my eyes showing my last lap pace is pushing me to either go faster or hold that pace on the current lap.

I made it to open water swimming and did 1,500m! finally getting into the water and swimming. The water temperature had increased to 14’c this week. The new swim socks arrived mid-week, they did stop my feet from getting too cold. I put them over the wetsuit and they somehow trapped water in my legs. When I was swimming around I kept thinking why does this feel so slow, I just put it down to it not feeling as fast as the pool due to the longer distances between the buoys.

When I got out I noticed the legs of the wetsuit were full of water, literally looked like a water balloon. Dragging all that extra leg weight around must have been pulling the legs down into the water, throwing out my position. We live and learn, right? next time I wear the socks I will tuck them inside the wetsuit so the legs can drain.

I had another great week of running. Still just the 3 sessions but clocking 34 miles in three runs is something I haven’t done for a long time.

Tuesday’s City of Stoke AC session was a tough one, 4 x 8 minute with 90 sec recovery, totalling 5.60 miles at an average pace of 5:48/mi. I went out too fast on the first rep and struggled on the fourth but I really enjoyed that one, probably looking at 5 more of these sessions before Ironman UK.

Thursday was building on last weeks base interval session, this time adding in two 12 minute blocks at goal marathon pace, sandwiching 6 x 2 min @ 6:20/mi. A good blend of speed and endurance.

I used the weekly long run as my virtual NYRR Brooklyn Half “race”. 1.5 mile warm up and cool down with 13.1 miles made up of 2 x 6 miles @7:00/mi, 1 mile jog recovery. A total of 16.1 miles with 12 miles of effort, like last week but bringing the pace down from 7:30/mi to 7:00/mi.

The bike was where I struggled this week. My quads just felt tight and achy on all 3 of the Zwift rides, I cut two short and only actually completed the easy 40 minute ride.

Saturday was my third Velo29 sportive, riding the 85 miles Daffodils Sportive. After a good quad and calf massaging on Friday, the legs felt great for this. I had no trouble getting around, even the 1.8km Blakey Bank climb I had been worrying about, turned out to be manageable even with a more challenging gear set on the bike.

• Swim – 9,284 yrds, 2hr 34min
• Bike – 126 Miles, 6hr 51min
• Run – 34.6 Miles, 4hr 09min
• Strength & Stretching – 4hr 50min

Week Twenty Three – 17 – 23 May

So this week began with the news that Ironman Ireland has been cancelled and will return in 2022. I contacted Ironman and requested a full refund, I am fed up with Ironman holding on to my money. To be honest, the cancellation of this one suits me well, it would have been 4 weeks after Ironman UK and 3 weeks before Ironman Wales so now I have a better gap between Ironman UK and Wales and the plan just fits a lot better now.

This week I started to feel fatigued, I had put it down to long run and ride at the weekend but after speaking to the Stoke AC run coach he said a lot of athletes have reported feeling fatigued in the week(s) following their COVID vaccination. I hit all the main sessions for the week but did swap one ride and one run out for an easy ride/run.

Swimming was a solid pool week, three swims. Technique Swim, Speed Session and Distance Speed Swim. No open water swimming this week as I was out on the bike all day Sunday.

Running went really well, at just shy of 33 miles this was my 3rd consecutive week in the 30’s, we are slowly building up the weekly mileage along with intensity.

Tuesday was with the Stoke AC group, this week we were down for 8×4 Min, off 60 seconds, I didn’t feel too good on this session but averaged 5:49/mi for the 32 minutes of effort so it went well in the end.

Thursday was due to be 3 x 10 mins @ 6:50/mi, 6:40/mi, 6:30/mi, a good solid marathon build session but with feeling fatigued I swapped this out for a 1 hour easy run, I think this paid off as my long run and ride went ok.

I moved the long run forward from Saturday to Friday to give me a rest day before Sunday’s long ride. The weather on Friday was terrible, it poured down all afternoon but the long run of 17 miles got down at an average 7:32/mi and a fairly low heart rate of 147bpm.

After a few dodgy weeks on the bike, well more like a dodgy month really, this week was much better. I finished all of the workouts during the week. That being said, there was only one interval set and one easy ride so it wasn’t that taxing but I pleased to do them all after cutting a lot short recently.

On Sunday I did the Velo29 Tour of the Peak sportive which was 116 miles with just over 14,000ft of climbing. It was a long day on the bike in pretty windy conditions but a fantastic day at the same time. That was the last of the four sportives I had signed up for in April/May as part of my endurance bike build ready for Ironman UK.

• Swim – 7,628 yrds, 2hr 1min
• Bike – 169 Miles, 10hr 44min
• Run – 32.8 Miles, 4hr 14min
• Strength & Stretching – 5hr 30min

Week Twenty Four – 24 – 30 May

Last week started with some rocky news about the cancellation of Ironman Ireland, this week it was new travel restrictions for Bolton. As of this week, the UK government is advising against all but essential travel into and out of Bolton. With just 5 weeks until Ironman UK, where T2, the run and the finish are all in Bolton town centre, it feels likely that this one may get postponed or cancelled now. Until we get that mail we just have to keep pushing on with the training and only worry about what we can control.

Let’s face it, everyone who signed up for any race in 2021, signed up knowing we are in the midst of a global pandemic so we knew things would most likely change.

The fatigue felt last week began to clear around Wednesday and no major tiredness or aches from Sunday’s 116 mile bike. My daughter has come back from school with a cold and kindly passed that on to me but I am hoping I caught it early enough to prevent it properly setting in.

Pool swimming went well once again, another three swim week finishing up with a 400m PB on Friday, clocking 6:34, one second closer to breaking 6:30. Sunday I was back in the lake for an open water swim and this time the lake was 17’c!! like a hot tub in comparison to previous weeks. No swim socks or gloves required so no inflating legs. I did 4 x 750m laps at 1:55/100 yrd pace, which is a lot slower than I have been swimming in the pool, I am putting that down to a lack of confidence in the open water, I had a little meltdown in the first 200m but recovered myself and went on for a further 50 minutes after that, also I breathe bilaterally in the pool but not got the confidence to do that in open water yet so that may well be affecting my body positioning.

Another bigger week of running, logging four runs for the first time in a few months and pushing closer to 40 miles for the week. A good mix of speed and endurance training. Tuesday was, you guessed it, back with Stoke AC, this time running 5 x 6 mins, off 90 seconds at an average 5:50/mi for the 30 minutes, slightly slower than previous weeks, I put that down to the long bike ride 2 days prior and wasn’t too concerned.

Thursday I ran 2 x 15 minutes with 3 min jog recovery. The first 15 mins was @ 6:37/mi the second @ 6:23/mi.

The long run returned to Sunday with an early 18 miles @ 7:22/mi. Combining these long endurance runs at or slightly over marathon pace with the Thursday sessions of longer blocks under marathon pace will start to build that endurance speed and get the body and mind used to running faster for longer. Further down the line (Aug/Sept) these two sessions will start to come together around goal marathon pace of 6:50/mi.

Bike sessions got done again this week, I feel I have turned the corner with these and regained my motivation to be sat in the garage on Zwift. It will be interesting to see what a possible cancellation does to that motivation (if it comes). Monday was a short easy ride to shake off any cobwebs from the Sunday long ride. Wed and Thur were strength building sessions with Friday being a 70.3 power development ride, with Cholmondeley Castle Tri and Ironman 70.3 Staffs in mind.

Saturday I had planned to head to Bolton to ride two laps of the Ironman UK bike loop but with the new restrictions in place, I had to pivot and decided to go to Stafford and did the full Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire bike course with an extra 15 miles back to the car at Chasewater. After that 70 mile ride, I swapped into the running shoes and went for a 3 mile run off the bike around the lake where the 70.3 swim will be. That was my first run off the bike in 12 months, it felt as good as any run off the bike can feel, more than anything it gives that mental confidence of knowing I can still run after a bike and a refresher on how the legs feel in that first mile.

• Swim – 10,334 yrds, 2hr 55min
• Bike – 151 Miles, 7hr 40min
• Run – 36.2 Miles, 4hr 23min
• Strength & Stretching – 5hr 50min

Four really good weeks of swim, bike and run training. Things are starting to come together after missing so much swimming and running in the early parts of this season of Ironman training.

I now have two proper big weeks of training left before I race the Cholmondeley Castle Triathlon then a recovery/taper week before going into Ironman UK, a recovery week and on into Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire.

I think I will split the next update out into a 2 week update as there is a lot more going on now and these 4 week ones are getting a little lengthy.

The journey continues on my IRONMAN – SEASON 4 PART 7 post.