In THE ROAD TO KONA – WEEK 3 I had a good week of running but messed up one run by eating dinner too close to the start of the run, the swimming kind of went ok and the bike was average. We were on holiday Friday – Sunday which cut some of the week short and meant front-loading the week.

We are still away on Monday this week but then I have a solid 6 days of training to get everything back on track and heading in the right direction.

The plan is to increase the run mileage once again and push the long run out to 18 miles and increase the pace to 7:45/mi for the easier blocks and 7:10/mi for the main block. I am planning on getting three swims done this week. I have to admit, the swim motivation has been low this past few weeks, I want to put this right this week by getting in some good quality swims.

I also want to get that longer endurance bike done this time around, I skipped it two weeks ago and didn’t do one last week with being away.

So I guess the big news this week was getting the e-mail on Thursday advising that Kona has been postponed / cancelled for October 2021 with a new date in February 2022.

This news was massively gutting having always dreamed of racing in Kona and never really believing I would actually qualify. On the flip side, now that Ironman has postponed the race we “should” get the option to defer to the new date or the usual Oct 2022 (maybe 2023) date(s). Given my worry for the past month has been whether we would be able to travel into the US and if not we would not have been able to race in October, most likely resulting in no deferral options from Ironman. The one positive is, I should still have a place in a future Ironman World Champs. We should find out more information on our options by the middle of next week so stay tuned.

I think, if I had the choice, I would like to defer my entry to October 2023 to allow more time for things to clear up and return to a more normal life. Plus, with having to make space for Kona in October 2021, I deferred Ironman Wales to September 2022 and Chicago Marathon to October 2022 meaning I would have that same clash next year if I have to move Kona to Oct 2022.

It does mean having to train for a full distance triathlon for a further 12 months into 2023 but I guess that’s a small price to pay to achieve your lifetime goal of racing Kona.

There is the option of racing in February which could work having already got a good training base and I can just continue this block through to Feb after racing New York in November, plus the weather may be a little cooler than October but that also means training for Kona heat through winter in the northern hemisphere. Also, will travel be opened up in February? it’s only 16 weeks longer than the original Kona date, will the current COVID surge in Hawaii be lower in February? Let’s see what options Ironman give us next week. One thing is for sure, we won’t be getting a refund, nor would I be requesting one if I had the choice. I want to race this race!

Week 4 – 16th – 22nd August

Monday:

Plan:

• 1 Hour Easy Paced Run @ 9:03/mi
• 10 Min Full Body Stretch (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• 1 Hour Easy Ride @187w (Zwift)

Today was our final day in Southampton so I got in the easy run in the morning before everyone woke up then did the stretching and core strength just after breakfast before the drive back home.

Having spent 5 hours driving I decided to add in an additional 1 hour easy ride on Zwift to spin out the legs after being cramped up in the car for so long.

Tuesday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Cadence & Heartrate Session (Zwift):
  • 10 Min Warm Up
  • 6 x (1 Min @ 297w @ 120rpm, 1 Min @ 246w @ 70rpm)
  • 15 Min @ 297w @ 105rpm
  • 5 Min @ 246w @ 65rpm
  • 15 Min @ 297w @ 90rpm
  • 5 Min @ 246w @ 65rpm
  • 15 Min @ 297w @ 75rpm
  • 5 Min @ 246w @ 65rpm
  • 5 Min Cool Down
• 10km Alternations:
  • 2 Mile Warm Up
  • 5 x (1km @ 6:30/mi, 1km @ 6:50/mi)
  • 2 Mile Cool Down
• Off The MAAP Stage 4 Longer Route (Zwift)
• 30 Min Upper Body Strength (Peloton)

Back to the usual routine of a run session on a Tuesday from this week onwards, although for this week, I have a bike session on the same day with not being able to do it yesterday due to driving back from our holiday.

That bike session turned out to be tougher than it looked on the plan. The legs felt laboured and tired from the get-go and I struggled with the 297w blocks at high cadence. In the end, I cut it short and got off the bike before the final 15 min 297w block. I made that decision to save the legs for the run, I could have pushed through and done this ride but it may well have impacted the run and for now, I want to prioritise the running.

The run session today was one of my favourite marathon season runs. 10km alternating between 1km at half marathon pace, 1km at marathon pace. I did slightly chicken out and lowered the half marathon pace to 6:30/mi instead of 6:20/mi. Some previous runs including 6:20/mi reps have been a struggle. This run, however, went really well. I hit the pace target on all 10 reps and felt strong, the legs did feel tired early on but seemed to come around.

Wednesday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Distance Speed Swim:
  • 150m Warm Up
  • 4 x (200m Steady, 50m Max Effort)
  • 100m Kick with Float
  • 1000m Steady
  • 100m Cool Down
• VO2 Max Long Intervals 2 (Zwift):
  • 10 Min Warm Up
  • 5 x (30 Sec @ 334w, 30 Sec @ 187w)
  • 2 Min @ 187w
  • 6 x (1 Min @ 375w, 3 Min @ 351w, 3 Min @ 187w
  • 7 Min Cool Down
• 30 Min Upper Body Strength (Peloton)

Back at swimming for the first time in 8 days and the lane was absolutely packed! There is usually two or three of us in the lane but today there were ten and they were far from the “fast lane” pace. I spent every length going past at least two people and in the end gave up and left halfway through.

The bike session today, in its usual Wednesday slot, looked tougher than yesterday’s on paper and it felt tougher on the bike but the legs felt good and ready to rock. I blasted through each block and got it done. It felt great to get back on track and smash a bike session after a few disappointing rides of late.

I got off the bike to an e-mail advising that the start time for next weeks Dorney Lake had been moved back by a few hours. This would mean I won’t get back home until early evening. As mentioned last week, I had already been considering not running this race so this was the opportunity to take the refund and pull out. I have now planned in a 20 mile long run with a 14 mile block just under marathon pace instead of the race.

Thursday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• 45 Min Easy Paced Run @ 8:35/mi
• Blend Session 2:
  • 2 Mile Warm Up
  • 15 Min @ 6:30/mi
  • 6 x (3 Min @ 6:00/mi, 90 Sec Recovery)
  • 15 Min @ 6:20/mi
  • 2 Mile Cool Down

The second double run day of this training cycle. A short 45 min easy run in the morning followed by another classic marathon season run at lunch.

I love this blend session getting a mixture of short fast reps and longer more targetted reps. The aim is to build more time under marathon pace but gradually extending that time as the weeks go by. This is supplemented by the weekly long runs just under marathon pace. As we get closer to race day these two sessions will start to come together. The middle week longer intervals slowing to slightly under marathon pace and the weekly long runs increasing to around marathon pace. It is worth noting that I am pacing these sessions with a 2hr 55min marathon in mind rather than the Kona marathon run on the off chance that Kona does not happen.

Well, I wrote that paragraph above this afternoon and totally jinxed it. At 10pm tonight we got the mail to say Kona has now been postponed to February which now leaves me with the Manchester Marathon on October 10th and no Ironman until 2022. It was a good job I took the decision to train for a sub 3hr marathon early on as that is now going to be the goal for this training block.

Friday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• Speed Swim:
  • 150m Warm Up
  • 6 x 25m Max Effort
  • 50m Kick on Side
  • 8 x 50m Max Effort
  • 100m Kick with Float
  • 10 x 100m Max Effort
  • 400m with Paddles
  • 100m Cool Down
• Chase The Break (Zwift):
• 30 Min Upper Body Strength (Peloton)

With Kona being cancelled it is fair to say the already low motivation for swimming has taken a massive hit. I had planned on a speed swim today but after the busy lane on Wednesday and now not racing Kona anytime soon I just sat next to the swim kit and didn’t go to the pool.

The same kind of happened with today’s bike session too (I forgot to write down what the actual plan was, hence no info above). I did at least make it onto the bike and got 25 minutes into it but I just wasn’t feeling into it at all and gave up.

Not the best day I will ever have on the training front. I need to take a look at the rest of this block and replan what I want to get out of it. The focus was Kona but now that has switched to a road marathon, do I need to be doing so much swimming and biking. I do still have Weymouth 70.3 in 4 weeks but that was always just a big training day rather than a flat out race.

If the swimming and bike motivation is going to be like this for the next 6 weeks I need to make changes otherwise that attitude will filter through to the running, stretching and strength work which have all been going so well.

Saturday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 2 Hour Endurance (Zwift):
  • 5 Min Warm Up
  • 65 Min @ 222w
  • 5 Min @ 187w
  • 40 Min @ 280w
  • 5 Min Cool Down
• 7 Mile Run off the Bike @ 8:00/mi
• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)

So I didn’t make any changes to the bike plan today, I figured it is only a 2 hour ride, mostly at a steady pace with a 70.3 block at the end which would benefit Weymouth. Well, the motivation still wasn’t there and I ended up getting off the bike again after 75 minutes. I also didn’t do the run off the bike but I did do the run later in the day so I at least ran 7 miles.

Sunday:

Plan:

• 10 Min Upper Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 10 Min Lower Body Stretching (Peloton)
• 20 Min Core Strength (Peloton)
• 18 Mile Long Run:
  • 4 Miles @ 7:45/mi
  • 10 Miles @ 7:10/mi
  • 4 Miles @ 7:45/mi

Another day where things just didn’t go as planned but as with anything in life, you have to adapt and find a way of making things fit around the shit you get in life.

I woke up at 5:45am like every Sunday with the plan of getting out for the 18 mile long run before 7am. I do this to practise the race day experience. The night before I will lay out my running gear, I will prepare my pre-long run breakfast so all I have to focus on in the morning is heating it, eating it and getting the run done. Just like race day.

Today I woke to a text and e-mail from the NHS test and trace app advising that we had been a close contact of someone who has since tested positive for COVID last Sunday. Being fully vaccinated I no longer need to self-isolate for 10 days but had to go to get a PCR test to make sure I am not positive despite showing no symptoms. Not the ideal start to the day but something I totally support and believe in. It is better to be safe than sorry.

This meant that I ended up heading out for my long run at 1pm rather than 6:45am and I didn’t have my usual pre long run breakfast. I was out of my usual routine and whilst running is running and you can do it any time of the day I do like to ensure that these long runs best replicate race day as possible.

The net result was a struggle from start to finish. I had a stitch during the first 4 miles which cleared and I ran the next 5 miles fine, then the sun came out and I felt really hot despite it only being 18’c. From mile 9 to mile 18 my stomach felt off, most runners will know that feeling. Thankfully I was able to keep on running and hit the pace goals for all three blocks and got the mileage done but it didn’t feel good at all, but hey, does that matter as long as you hit the target pace and distance?

Only taking one 500ml bottle of fluids with me which ran out by mile 15 and feeling really hot for some reason resulted in my heart being a lot higher than usual for this one. I hit my highest 60min and 90min heart rates for 2021, which is not something I want to be doing during a long steady run.

I am not sure what caused this, I did have a bagel before the run which is not my usual pre long run food but I have had bagels before faster interval sessions in the past with no impact. I felt really rough all evening after this run.

Something I need to keep an eye on next week when I do this session again but with an extra 2 miles at 7:10/mi making it up to 20 miles in total. I will hopefully run this at the usual morning time with the usual breakfast and compare the heart rate between the two. I will make sure to stash a second bottle on the route so I don’t end up running the final 5 miles with nothing.

My COVID PCR test came back negative this evening. The way today’s run went, did make me wonder whether I might have had COVID but no symptoms but it turns out I can’t blame the bad feeling run on that.

End of Week 4:

It is fair to say this has been a bit of a shit week with Kona being cancelled and also pulling out of next weeks half marathon.

Swimming was really bad this week, only managing to do half of one session, the bike hasn’t been great but once again stretching and strength training has gone really well. These two have been the only consistent training I have done all year. Since Jan 1st I have stretched for at least 10 minutes every day and done 6 core strength sessions each week with 2 or 3 upper body strength sessions each week. I have seen big improvements in these areas which can only have a positive impact on my swimming, biking and running form and technique.

Running has gone really well again, this was my biggest volume week since last September. I ran both sessions well and I guess the long run got done too. I have increased my pace on all of these sessions during this training cycle so I am running faster than ever before and now starting to feel more and more comfortable at these new paces. As the distance continues to increase as the weeks go by this is a really promising sign ahead of my new A+ race at the Manchester Marathon where my new goal is to try to run my first sub 3 hour marathon and get my Boston Marathon place back after missing out on that lifetime goal race in 2020.

I am sure you can guess but I think this will be the last Road to Kona update for a while but I will make a post about the options Ironman give us and what my decision is in the coming weeks.

• Swim – 1,531 yrds, 23min
• Bike – 129 Miles, 6hr 11min
• Run – 58.5 Miles, 7hr 29min
• Strength – 3hr 30min
• Stretching – 1hr 50min