Wednesday 16 October 2013

I’m an Ironman!


Blog 11 – 15th October 2013

By blogger standards, being that my last post was back in June, means that I’m pretty bad this but like a cliff hanger in the TV drama ‘Homeland’ I’m sure this has been eagerly awaiting and for that I’m sorry.  Although in my defence, the definition of a blogger is to write, maintain or update a blog, well here it is. Or maybe I could use training as my excuse, saying that with every free moment I was either, splashing around in the lake, turning the tired legs on the bike, or pounding the streets. Whatever the excuse, all I can say is, I did it and I’m an Ironman!

Before I bore you with how the race went, talking about my ups and downs, my nutrition strategy and discussing the finer points of exercising all day. Please check out this awesome video that my friend put together, it shows both mine and Dan’s (my good mate’s) race. 


Looks cool huh? Love watching my swim start. I’ve never seen a beach swim start from the spectator side, just been in them. This one, I must say was fun! Well fun, in weird, you’re nuts sense. As soon as the horn went and I headed for the waves, my first hurdle was emptying the water from my right goggle, great start I thought. Then to pour ‘salt’ in the wounds, well in to the eyes, some fellow competitor knocked my goggles off, fortunately not completely but enough to cause a brief stop to sort them out. Ok, I thought, I’m here in the race, bring it... and bring it the sea did.

I don’t mean that the sea was really choppy and tough going, don’t get me wrong it was no lake, but I didn’t find it too bad, except of course for the distance. The swim course was arranged in such a way that meant we had a long straight for 2350m, which ‘luckily’ for us was ‘against’ the current (thumbs up). After what seemed an age of wind milling, having people swim over me, heading in the wrong direction and swallowing more salt than the average monthly order of Harry Ramsdens Chip shop, the beach was in sight. Oh the excitement, now please don’t take this out of context but it felt a bit like a soldier at the beaches of Normandy, not that I would know of course, but getting through the swim was just phase 1, I still had the 112 miles on the bike and then a marathon left. Oh well, before shaking my mermaid legs off, I remember people telling to kick a little more to prepare my legs for the bike. Huh, ironically this was almost the first time I used my legs, well that and for kicking other competitors that were trying to get a bit cosy with me during the swim.


I looked up and gratefully received a hand from one of the race volunteers that were helping people stand and turn back into a humans again as we emerged from the sea. It was then off and with a suit change like superman, I was racing out towards my bike and ready for phase 2 in my Ironman conquest – the bike. 

Flat and fast this course is, well that’s what the race organisers said and I’m sure for any ‘cyclist’ that’s true but for me I have always found the bike a bit tough going. A further level of difficulty which wasn’t really anticipated, were the gifts from Mother Nature, a bit of wind, torrential rain and lightening. Yes!! At one point I remember cycling through a huge puddle across the road and my pedals were under water. I just remember laughing and thinking, this was never going to be easy.

The bike course was a three loop circuit that took us off towards Barcelona twice and then a shorter loop on the third lap. My start and the first loop was going well but as usual by mile 50, my legs were starting to get twitchy and want to do something else. This was the first real test of wills, the little person in one ear telling me to stop and give up and the more helpful supporter in the other pushing you forward, needless to say I listened to the supporter.



Not to take you through a mile by mile account but the only other thing to say is that I’m really grateful to all my friends and relatives that made the trip to support us on the route, even if I didn’t seem all that appreciative at the time. You guys kept me going! Speaking of going and as a result of keeping a very regimented nutritional regime, I was forced to take two pits stops whilst on the bike, just for the old number 1, but despite reading the works of legends like Chrissie Wellington, urinating on the bike, just isn’t right. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Maybe it was the throbbing ear reminder that my Gran gave me when I had a little accident all those years ago – yes years.

Anyway I couldn’t have been happy to get off the bike. I was a little worried as my back, left hip flexor and right calf were giving me a bit of jip, however to my amazement, as soon as I started running all of those issues seemed to disappear. Perhaps it was just the overwhelming thought the only thing between me and success was the mere prospect of a marathon. Just a marathon!



The run was a four lap route along the beach front, which although a bit boring was awesome to have all the spectators there pushing us on. It was a flat course although unlike the bike there was nothing fast happening here. Everyone seemed to be doing the ironman shuffle. Just a case of putting one foot in front of the other for 42.2 Km, and that’s exactly what I did. To be honest, the run itself is a bit of a blur now, I can just remember the feeling I had when approaching the finish line. The sense of achievement, the constant thought of I’ve done it, I was so happy. It’s amazing how all that pain suffered in the last 13 hours 28 minutes and 59 seconds just disappeared and all that remained was 1 second of pure fulfilment. 

Seeing my friends and parents at the end just topped it off. I maybe an Ironman but the support from everyone has been nothing less than sterling silver. Thank you so much!

So what’s next, well I really don’t know as yet. I need to take stock and see what’s what and the put something in for 2014. Well, I have gone on long enough but in the next couple of weeks I will post something on my nutritional strategy, my ironman learnings and the next steps. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back soon, promise!



Wednesday 19 June 2013

I'm a Triathlete or is that Try-athlete...


Blog 10 – 19th June 2013

I can’t believe another month has nearly gone since my last post! Don’t worry, a month has gone by but training certainly has stopped, slowed down or been ignored. As I mentioned in my last post, I have now completed my first triathlon, two weeks ago. I entered and survived the Blenheim triathlon. The scenery may have been spectacular but my efforts may have been far from that. To be honest, I really enjoyed the event and my goal was merely one of experience. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it...

My first triathlon didn’t go completely to plan but let’s face it, we are always told that it’s our mistakes that we learn from and I made lots of those. Funny really, well I thought so. Comedy moment number one was my first glance up at the marker buoy in the swim. It was all going well, all, meaning the first 250 metres, I then looked up to see how I was getting on and all I could think of was “bloody hell, its miles away”. I then tried to drink my way through the rest of the swim. Not only did that obviously not work but my front crawl/breast stroke approach was far from ideal. Anyway I made it, then as anyone who has done Blenheim and any triathlon will know, getting out of the water is like having 6 beers, I was all over the palace, I mean place. That was then followed by an uphill run towards my bike, cheers Blenheim. The next bit I hope is a rookie mistake but one I had to make, I ran straight past my bike. Awesome, I thought, things are going completely to plan. Not to bore you with the whole race and leap forward but the bike went ok and the run, I thought was most enjoyable, that is of course until I met up with Lynn. Lynn not only being my boss but also an Ironman inspiration (I had to say that, don’t upset the boss) was far from happy me because I told her that I was chatting to some guy on the run rather than eyes bulging, gut wrenching, blood boiling sprint to the finish line. Haha sorry boss!

Anyway let’s talk training. So things have picked up as you can imagine. The long bike rides have now been spiced up with a 30-40 minute run off. Let me tell you, for those that have never tried to run after 4-5 hours on a bike, it’s like a being part of sgt peppers lonely heart club band whilst pretending to be Mr soft in the old spearmint soft mint ads. You legs feel like their attached to someone else, it seems to get better though after about 10 minutes. Oh slight side track but I’ve just heard that marine animals have a special protein that helps them store large amounts of oxygen, hmm how can I get some of this special protein? Sorry about that, right back to the training. The lab rats and I are up to block 7 and it’s the last block of fundamental building until our focus switches to performance.

As an example this is this week’s training schedule

Monday – Functional training – legs session followed by a swim 1km
Tuesday – Brick session – 60 min threshold pyramid followed by a 30 min run
Wednesday – Technical swim 1hr
Thursday – Steady interval run working on Ironman pace 1hr
Friday – Long Run 2hrs, evening functional training session
Saturday – Rest Day
Sunday – Long Bike 5hrs

Sounds pretty full on right? Yeah right, that is until I met up with Richard Parks. If you haven’t come across Richards life after rugby check this out http://www.richardparks.co.uk/home/ he makes me look like I’m planning on doing a charity walk in comparison to his feats of endurance. Well, I was started to think about what I should do after this, I now have a few ideas. Haha as if.... I’d also like to mention Gareth Evans, my old mates brother who recently completed his first Ironman in 12 hours, unbelievable. Gaz, thanks for the email and sorry I haven’t replied sooner but mate that is awesome, well done and thank you for the helpful words. I’ll definitely be bugging you when I get closer to Barcelona.

Right I’ve rambled on enough and need to get some sleep in. I’ll come back in a couple of weeks to update you on how the research project is going and what my next steps are. Thanks for reading...[GN]

Thursday 23 May 2013

Training Waits for no man...


Blog 9 – 23rd May 2013

It’s been nearly a month since my last post and how time flies!! Arrgghh, only 136 days until Challenge Barcelona Ironman. Lots have happened within the last month, mostly training but everything is still moving in the right direction. On the 13th of this month I had to return to Hertfordshire University for a testing update. No one ever enjoys being tested but I had mixed emotions as I wanted to see if all that hard work has been paying off. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the results, the changes were all positive but they weren’t as good as I would have liked them to be. Now we can all make excuses and mine is that I rode for 4 hours the day before testing, on my birthday I might add. Hence, training waits for no man. Anyway back to the results, in hindsight, I will definitely avoid doing a long ride the day before the next testing session.

We are nearly half way, in fact the lab rats and I have been on this journey for 122 days and the training has certainly started to ramp up. As my friend and fellow lab rat Dan mentioned the other day, yes we are nearly half way in terms of days but we are nowhere near with regard to the training volume. Cheers Dan, glass half full, cake half gone!

So how am I doing? Well, as mentioned the physiological assessment despite my excuse was still positive:
- My resting heart rate is lower than the previous testing session
- My VO2max (oxygen uptake) has improved
- My exercise economy has improve
- The all important lactic acid production against intensity has improved but still lots more work is required

From an actual event perspective, training weeks are ranging from 10-14 hours. My swimming is getting better, I’m up to approximately 2-3km. Although I still need to work on maximising my catch and pull, and ideally I’ve come to the conclusion of chopping my feet off as they are like a pair of anchors, slowing my down on every lap. Just in case that isn’t a request as I’m going to need my feet for the rest of the race. For the bike, I’m regularly doing 4 hour rides which are getting easier each time both from speed perspective and the way I feel afterwards. Months back I would have been fit for nothing after 4 hours in the saddle but now I’m feeling like I could probably go on if I needed to. That’s lucky hey, as I’ve got just the small matter of a marathon after the bike. Which brings me on to the run; this is also going well. Up to now most of my running has been trying to get used to running off the bike. There’s been a few long runs in the programme and strange as it sounds but I’m pretty confident that I could go out tomorrow and run a half marathon fairly easily. Please note that this doesn’t mean that I’m going to. It’s another swim session for me tomorrow.

Training for a long distance event is funny, especially when I talk to my friends about their weekends, mine of course are training orientated but it’s funny when someone asks, so what have you got on tomorrow? I reply, oh just a short bike tomorrow, it’s just a 3 hour ride. My friend’s response is then one of laughter followed by, 3 hours!! Just a short ride! Are you mad! Do you know what, I think I might be.
One last thing to say before I sign off, I went for my first Open Water swim in Hyde Park’s Lido the other day. I was down there with work and fortunate enough to get some hints and tips from GB Olympian and all round nice guy, Stuart Hayes. He was very nice to disguise rapturous laughter after watching me either drowning or swimming diagonally across the Lido. Glad to get my first open water session out of the way but I’m definitely going to be getting back in there as much as possible.

To help with getting the confidence and giving myself some mini goals I have signed up to both the Blenheim and London Triathlons, I’ll keep you posted on how I get on. Thanks for reading and wish me luck...[GN]

Friday 26 April 2013

It's time to get serious...


Blog 8 – 26th April 2013

Just over five months until the Ironman and training has definitely moved up a chain set! This week has been a toughie, enjoyable yes but hard going. My fellow lab rats and I have moved into block 4 of the training plan and the blocks have changed to a three week rotation. I think that Justin is just trying to keep us guessing and not get too excited about the increase in training volume and intensity.

At this point, I just want to apologise to my friends and work colleagues for going on and on about this week’s training. I think it’s just to share the surprise that I have actually managed to get through it. Now hold the chorus of violins but if I wasn’t an absolute bore before, well I’m sure I will be after this. My days and weeks have changed to a simplistic way of living that consists of: training, working, eating, maybe more training, definitely more eating, and then thankfully sleeping, then repeat. Ok, so if I haven’t bored already, here’s this week’s training:

Saturday: long ride – 50 miles
Sunday: long run – 1hr 40mins
Monday: tech swim (am), weights (legs focused, pm)
Tuesday: brick session – 40 min bike (intervals and hill climb), 30 min run
Wednesday: long swim – 2km (am), weights (upper body focused, pm)
Thursday: steady run – 60mins (am), bike (spin steady) – 40mins (pm)
Friday: REST DAY

Oh thank god for today (Friday), having said that, I’m on the eve of going for another long bike tomorrow and then a long run on Sunday. Huh, how my weekends have changed!? But, do you know what? I’m actually really enjoying it! Yes its hard work and yes it has started to take over my life but it’s a challenge and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Just over 5 months to go.... It didn’t seem that long when this all started back in January. How time flies (when you’re having fun) and I’m sure it won’t seem that long until I’m standing on the beach in Calella, waiting for that gun to go. Along with the step up in training, the level of seriousness, thanks to Justin, also went up a notch last week. On Monday the ‘labs rats’ had a cohort meeting, a catch up you might say. Scaremongering some would call it but whatever it was, it certainly did the trick on me. It’s nice to catch up with the other crazy fools that have decided this should be the way we spend the next 10 months of our lives. I did say ‘next’ and not ‘last’! One thing that really brought it home for me, was a very inspiring video that Justin showed us of a guy called Matt Hoover, if you haven’t seen it take a look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTPpXpoF54s Inspiring stuff, right?! Now, I’m pretty sure that I’m somewhat slimmer and better trained that Matt. So if he can do it, then we all can I guess (hope)?

Definitely! We can do this! Yes, it’s going to take some training but it’s definitely doable. The only other thing that has stuck in my mind from our meeting is the cut-off times. Basically, I’ve got 15 and half hours to get this done, which is split by a few conditions. We’ve got just over 2 hours to complete the swim and then the cycle has to be done by 1800, which means a worst case scenario of approximately 7 hours to complete the bike, then finally the run has to be finished before midnight; otherwise we’ll all turn into pumpkin juice. With that all in mind, I have decided to make my goal of a finish time just over 14 hours, this is to ensure that I’m back before last orders are called. Haha, as if, this is Spain, last orders are never called or more to the point, like many mine might be a pint of the delicious saline squash in an IV drip please. Sorry Mum... Only joking.. It’ll all be fine.

Right, I must dash it’s nearly bed time and I need to be firing on four cylinders tomorrow on the bike. I’ll write again in a couple of weeks. Thanks for reading. Oh and before I go, Dan this one’s for you, cake is an anagram of bike, honestly... [GN]

Monday 1 April 2013

Ironman! Huh, April Fools...


Blog 7 – 1st April 2013

April fools, I wish! Well, I’m into the 3rd block of my training, en route to the Challenge Barcelona Ironman event in October (6 months and 5 days to go). It’s all starting to sink in, I’m really doing this. Backing out is not an option, so if that makes me a fool then I’ll see you on the start line wearing a jesters outfit (by that I mean a tri-suit of course).

Since my last post, I have been trying to train within my heart rate training zones, as prescribed by Dr Justin Roberts. He advised me that to progress further I need to work on improving my fitness levels that will closely replicate the intensity of the event itself. Justin explained that my body has become used to producing lactic acid and up to a point clearing it, but I need to become more efficient at lactate clearance or ideally reduce the early onset production. For this Justin has advised that on my longer runs and cycle sessions, I should try and keep my heart rate below 152 and 136 beats per minute, respectively.

So far, so good! Training for heart rate is another great way to take your mind of the training itself. A great monitoring aid and shows me what’s actually happening. I do have to make one admission of guilt though. At work we decided in support of CSjt Danny Splender’s Canoe Marathon http://www.justgiving.com/Daniel-Spender that we would complete a 125 mile relay race, thanks to my ‘so called friends’, I had been signed up to complete a 10 mile run and then later that day a 5 mile run. Fine I thought, the 10 miler can be done nice a steady, integrated into my weekly training plan. The 5 miler though, different story, obviously after the 10 miler my legs were saying, “come on now, you’ve done your bit. Oi, why are you getting back into shorts?” Needless to say that I had to get this 5 miler done as quick as possible, therefore my heart rate, didn’t just go above the 152 bpm threshold but I’m pretty sure the heart rate monitor was flashing ‘DEATH IMMINENT’ at some point. 

It didn’t stop there! This bit I definitely need to work on. After all that running it was straight to the sports therapist and a plunge into the ice bath... Yeah right, instead it was straight into London and head first into the Ice bar (well Zebrano’s). Now, in case you weren’t aware drinking alcohol after a hard days training leads to 3 things: 1. Massive dehydration, 2. Memory loss and 3. A much need rest day. Justin, I promise this wont (is unlikely) to happen again!

Ok let’s talk about training. So block 3 has been a step up and the introduction of brick sessions. Brick sessions, joy, they sound fun. I know that a brick session was the combination of a bike session followed immediately by a run but where does the ‘ick’ bit come in? Having a quick scout on the internet, someone suggested that it stands for ‘Bike Run It Can Kill’, well sign me up!!! Another suggests that they’re called brick sessions because that’s how your legs feel when you start running. Oh well whatever the definition, Brick session are on the cards and I’m ready, cement and all.  

Oh before I go and build a triathlete, just need to thank Sean Lerwill (@SeanLerwill) for his swimming tips. I’m slowly moving from a depth charge, to more of a bouncing bomb and on my way towards being a torpedo. Really finding a benefit from using fins and paddles, yes I know that I can’t use these on the day but I’m finding that they are helping me get the right body and arm positions. Hopefully this will translate when I’m not using them.

Ok, right I must go B and Q closes early today... Thanks for reading [GN].

Sunday 17 March 2013

The third Brownlee brother...


Blog 6 – 17th March 2013

Happy St Patricks Day!! Hold the Guinness, Irish Stew and all things potato, for today is testing day....cheers! The funny thing is that I only have myself to blame, as I picked the date; it’s not my first mistake. Ok let’s pause the celebrations and get on with this. It’s the end of training block 2, 8 weeks down and time to see whether all this training is working. With the pub on speed dial and the green silk suit on standby, off to the University of Hertfordshire I go (didn’t mean for that to sound like a song by the seven dwarfs).

To replicate the battery of tests conducted back in January, I will be getting my basic body compositions measured, functional analysis, power measurements, biomechanical assessment, running economy analysis, lactate sub-maximal cycle test and then the unavoidable pièce de résistance, the VO2max test. Sounds a lot, right? It is! Well I’m not going to sugar coat it any longer, how did I do? Well, Alistair and Jonathon can breathe a sigh of relief; first, third and hundreds of other places are safe for now. I did however see some improvements in:

 

ü  Body weight and fat reduction

ü  Jump height improvement

ü  Running economy improvement

ü  Heart rate reductions for relative work

ü  VO2 max increased

 

Great news!! So it’s all going in the right direction but as discussed with the head of the study Dr Justin Roberts, to keep things on track I need to work on improving my endurance economy and capacity, working at a lower intensity with minimal changes in my blood lactate accumulation. In the words of Dr Roberts, I’m an acid producer. Rub litmus paper on my forehead and it’ll turn orange – not quite but you get the idea. It’s great that I can keep exercising during high levels of lactate production but ultimately fatigue and the will to stop will take over. This fitness component, although important, is more akin to high intensity exercisers but far removed from the world of an Ironman.

 

To help, Justin has given us all homework - heart rate training zones to follow, stick to and live by (see chart below). For me, I need to become more accustomed to working in those lower ranges, trying to make a rightward shift of the lactate curve... Brrr that reminds me of my physiology lectures back at Brunel. Basically, I need to train my body to lower the acclimation of lactate – work more in zone 1-3, a closer representation to the intensity that I will be following during the Ironman, slow and snail like.

 

Training Zone

Heart Rate (bpm)

Cycling

Running

1 – Recovery

97-110

108-123

2 – Steady State

110-123

123-137

3 – Lactate Threshold

123-136

137-152

4 – Tempo

136-143

152-159

5 – Intervals

143+

159+

 

Ok well, I better get back to my post testing recovery, sat drinking tea contemplating the training week ahead and putting the heart rate training zones into practise. Anyway have a good week and thanks for reading... [GN]

The strange world of triathlon training...


Blog 5 – 15th March 2013

Almost 8 weeks complete and I’m starting to be consumed by training. Not in a bad way, quite the opposite but it is funny how you can become addicted to training. Of course I’m being mindful of overtraining and following the structured training programme that I’ve been given but I think it’s a little funny how I can become strangely fond of getting out in the wind and rain for a run or cycle.

That brings me on to my second disturbing worry about the psychological ‘damage’ that triathlon has on a person. So last night I found myself dressing up in all things lycra and heading out in the dark. Now, if that’s not a bit weird then I don’t know what is. Seriously though, I went out for what I thought would be an hour or so, little did I know the ‘so’ part was an extra 45 mins. After a short sit down and the obligatory cuppa, I logged on to the internet and to my excitement I’d clocked up 11.5 miles. Ha good news, that’s the long run ticked off for this week. ‘Glass half full kinda guy’.

Although I’m still relatively new to the sport of triathlon I will definitely be recommending to all and sundry. I really enjoy the training variety, yes the duration of some sessions can get a bit boring but by breaking  the week up with weight training, running, cycling and swimming, getting bored of doing the same old routine just isn’t possible. It’s great sport for people that struggle with the monotony of the gym or need a new challenge. Anyway I’m getting off the soap box, I’m only 8 weeks in, let’s just see if I’m this enthused with triathlon in a few months time. ‘Glass half empty kinda guy’.

Right, that’s it from me for now. I’ll report back after the testing day at the weekend. Oh and sorry I got my weeks a little muddled. On my last post I wrote that my testing session was on the 10th but I was wrong and it’s actually on the 17th. Anyway, I’m off out in the dark ;-)... [GN]