After QUALIFYING FOR KONA at IRONMAN UK 2021 three weeks ago, I best get my ass in gear and start training. Following on from my Ironman Training series 1 – 4 I thought I would post a weekly update on my training, progress and general thoughts heading into race week.

There are 10 weeks until I am due to fly out to Hawaii on 4th October, which gives me 9 weeks of training with a 2-week taper, the final taper week being race week on the Big Island. There is still a lot of uncertainty around whether athletes from the UK and Europe will be able to make it to Kona due to the current travel restrictions on entering the US. For now, all I can concentrate on is training and ticking off each session.

I have had to re-organise my race plans for autumn, I never expected to be racing Kona this year and was due to be in Chicago for the marathon on that same weekend. I have now deferred my Chicago Marathon place to 2022. I was also due to have been racing Ironman Wales on the 12th September but that has now been cancelled which did me a favour.

I have a few races/sportives on the plan in the lead up to Kona, these gradually build up and will be great training sessions and a tune-up race 3 weeks out from the big day.

• 29th August – Dorney Lake Half Marathon (target beat my PB of 1:24.35)
• 5th September – Selby 3 Swans Sportive (102 Miles)
• 12th September – Cheshire Cat Sportive (106 Miles)
• 29th September – Ironman 70.3 Weymouth (target sub 5hr)

After racing Ironman UK 3 weeks ago, I took 4 days off before resuming some light training leading into Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire 14 days after Ironman UK. I used that week to get the 2nd COVID jab out of the way so that would not affect this training block. Then took the week after Staffs 70.3 (last week) complete off.

That leads us to this week, week 1 of 10 on the Road to Kona.

Week 1 – 26th July – 1st August

Monday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 30 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Distance Speed Swim (2,600m) 100m Warm Up, 5 x 200m Steady, 50m Hard, 100m Kick on side, 1,000m & 150m Cool Down
• Zwift Ramp FTP Test (Zwift)
• 30 Min Upper Body Strength (Peloton)

First day back in proper training after taking it easy for the last 5 weeks. I spent yesterday digging the garden out, moving 4 tonnes of rubble and soil. Needless to say, today I was feeling it! my back was in bits, arms, shoulders and chest aching.

I was feeling excited about the prospect of this training block. It’s only a short 10-week block so it’s not going to be zapping the body for months and months and the end result could be racing the number 1 goal race.

The swim went ok, pace slightly down on previous weeks doing this set but my arms and upper body were feeling the effect of yesterday’s digging.

The Ramp FTP test was put on day 1 to give a current measure of where my FTP is after a few weeks of racing and 3 months focusing more on the endurance aspect rather than building power.

Unsurprisingly, my FTP is now down 23w to 341w in comparison to the last ramp test in March but a good start point and good to reset the training levels to reflect the current FTP.

Tuesday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 30 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• 1 Hour Easy Ride @ 187w (Zwift)
• 20 Min Lower Body Strength (Peloton)
• City of Stoke AC Speed Session (6x6Min) 2 Mile Warm Up, 6x6Min, 0ff 90sec, 2 Mile Cool Down

The back felt a little better today but the new soil arrived at 7:30am so I then had to shovel 2 tonnes of soil onto the front garden which meant the back pain returned again but it’s done now.

The 20 min lower-body strength session I did today was the first time I have been allowed to do a lower body strength class since July 2019 due to the knee injury. All being well, I will be able to build more of these into the weekly plan.

Today was the first session back with the City of Stoke AC group since June and I felt it, having spent the majority of the last 5 weeks doing easy-paced / recovery running, going back to fast-paced intervals was tough and slower than a month ago but again, this is the starting point to build on. My pace for the six 6 minute reps was 5:48/mi, 5:43/mi, 5:45/mi, 5:48/mi, 5:40/mi & 5:45/mi

Wednesday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Speed Swim (2,500m) 150m Warm Up, 6x25m Hard, 50m Kick on Side, 8x50m Hard, 100m Kick on Side, 10x100m, 400m with Paddles, 200m Cool Down
• 45 Min Easy Run
• 30 Min Upper Body Strength (Peloton)

The DOMS from yesterday’s lower body strength session starting kicking in today, the quads, glutes and calves felt stiff. The back was also still aching and I just felt tired and fatigued and we are only just getting into day 3/70! Not the best start to this training block.

The speed swim felt tougher than hoped due to the legs and back being in bits but if I step back and look at this session compared to pre-pandemic swimming, the average pace for the full set was 13sec/100yrd faster so whilst it wasn’t my best, this “bad” swim was a lot faster than my 2019/20 swims which is a good sign of progress.

The easy run on heavy tired legs didn’t feel as easy as the 8:56/mi pace suggested. The average heart rate of 129bpm is a good indicator that the body wasn’t feeling so tired just the legs weren’t good.

Thursday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Aerobic Threshold Development 1 (Zwift) 10min Warm Up, 4x(2Min @ 280w, 2Min @256w), 3min recovery @ 187w, 3x(3Min @280w, 2Min @256w), 5Min recovery @187w, 2x(4Min @280w, 4Min @256w), 5Min Cool Down
• 2×10 Min Run

The legs are feeling even worse today, the DOMS has proper kicked in and making me wonder whether it is going to be worthwhile continuing with the lower-body strength classes during this block. I have gone 12 months without and managed to recover from the knee injury and PB in my races since. I know the benefits of the strength classes outweigh the negatives of the DOMS during the first few weeks but as this training block is just 10 weeks long I don’t need to be missing or reducing sessions early and playing catch up. I will see how things go.

The bike session on Zwift went well, doing over/unders working at 70.3 power and full distance power. This type of power is where I have spent the past few months so it was very much riding in my comfort zone. As the block progresses I will revisit this session but extend the reps out and increase the time at effort.

I had planned to run 4 x 10 minutes @ 6:15/mi. This is the pace I want to run next months Dorney Lake Half Marathon at, these longer reps are designed to get the body used to that pace and increase the time and pace as we draw closer to race day.

Today it didn’t go well, I had to cut it short to just 2 x 10 min (6:14/mi & 6:12/mi). I managed to hit the pace goal but it was such a struggle to get onto that pace. My heart rate was up at 172bpm during the 10min reps. The legs just felt battered.

After that mini-failure on the run, I felt spent for the rest of the day. The body had no energy and I felt so tired.

Friday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• VO2 Max Short Intervals (Zwift) 10Min Warm Up, 5x(15sec @402w, 45sec @187w), 2min recovery @187w, 4x(2x(50sec @402w, 10sec @187w, 40sec @402w, 20sec @187w, 30sec @402w, 30sec @187w)4 min recovery @187w), 7min Cool Down
• Technique Swim (2,600m) 150m Warm Up, 150m Doggy, 100m Skul 1, 200m Catch, 100m Skul 2, 200m Catch, 100m Kick w/Float, 400m Max Effort, 100m Skul 3, 1,000m Pull Buoy, 100m Cool Down
• 30 Min Upper Body Strength (Peloton)

Last night I made the decision to move my Friday morning Technique swim to the evening. This allowed me to get 8hr 40min sleep to give my body the chance to recover from yesterday’s run and fatigue.

I woke to feel fairly fresh with no back pain and the legs feel like they are now past the worst of the DOMS. My original plan did have another lower body strength session down for today but I removed that.

I was on the bike at lunch and felt decent, the legs were able to deal with the 402w intervals and my heart rate didn’t spike too high. A small sign of progress and maybe on the road to recovering from that one 20 minutes lower body session.

Fitting in the technique swim in the evening isn’t ideal as it means I miss bathtime with my daughter but I believe that extra 2 hours sleep has really helped today. The swim session isn’t much to write home about, lots of drills and splashing around but a key session to get back on the plan.

Saturday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Endurance Ride (Zwift) 10min Warm Up, 50min @222w, 5min recovery @187w, 50min @222w, 5min Cool Down
• 4 Mile Run off the Bike @ 8:00/mi

So the legs feel more normal finally and in good time as today was the first longer endurance ride but only 2 hours made up of two 50min blocks at full distance power. All went well, power was comfortable and heart rate was well inside zone 1 at 126bpm for the session.

The 4 mile run off the bike felt comfortable, legs felt strong and not the jelly legs experienced at Ironman UK and Ironman 70.3 Staffs as expected but nice to get that mental blocker out of the way early on.

A few hours after the brick session I got that really tired and fatigued feeling again, given the low intensity of this session I wasn’t expecting to feel so tired from it and as this is the first and easiest week of this training block, it is a little concerning how tired I have been feeling this week. I will keep pushing on and see if the body can recover as we go and get used to the intensity of training once again.

Sunday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 14 Mile Long Run @ 8:00/mi
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• Endurance Strength Development (Zwift) 5min Warm Up, 2x(40sec @273w, 20sec @187w), 9x(4min @283w, 2min @187w), 3min Cool Down

Back on the 6am Sunday alarms to get the long run (or middle distance in this instance) done early to leave more family time. I was a little concerned that waking earlier today after feeling tired and fatigued last night would just compound the issue, however, I woke at 5:48am without the alarm and felt fresh and awake.

The plan for the first few weekly longer runs is to do them at a nice steady 8:00/mi pace, just bank the miles and time on my feet. Today’s 14 miles went well, the legs felt ok, the calves did feel a bit tight but I wore the longer compression socks to try to help with that which seemed to do the trick.

I like to use these Sunday long runs as full race day simulations, meaning I eat the same breakfast as race day, lay the kit out the night before like race day, same hydration strategy as race day and same nutrition plan as race day.

My long run/race day nutrition plan is to take a Maurten Gel 100 every 30 minutes and I carry a 500ml bottle containing SiS Go Electrolyte powder mix to sip on every mile starting from mile 2.

Pleasingly, I didn’t feel as tired or fatigued today, despite the higher intensity of a longer run compared to yesterday’s longer ride. It still baffles me what might be causing this.

End of Week 1:

All in all, I am pleased to have got this week done, it wasn’t the best of weeks. The legs really struggled after that first lower body strength set in 12 months, I have decided to drop lower body strength work for the rest of this block to avoid impacting any more running.

Once this block is done, I will bring the lower body work back during the offseason and get the legs used to it before starting to focus on 2022.

The swimming has been solid this week, the bike has gone well. The FTP is down slightly but that is something I knew would happen after focusing on endurance work prior to Ironman UK. Running has been mixed. The speed session was tough but went as well as expected, the long run was to plan but the longer speed session on Thursday was a partial failure, in that I only did half of the session.

Let’s roll into week 2 and try to pick things up and build from here.

• Swim – 8,448 yrds, 2hr 15min
• Bike – 136 Miles, 5hr 52min
• Run – 41 Miles, 5hr 16min
• Strength – 4hr 0min
• Stretching – 2hr 5min