April Update

The beginning of April brings me to the end of my Base 2 for this years Ironman. In short its probably the best block of training I have managed to put together to date and I'm seeing and feeling the benefits. For anyone familiar with Training peaks performance management chart (PMC) my Chronic Training load (CTL) is now at 110 which basically means I've been training consistently well over the past 6 months and fitness is good. Obviously I'm looking to peak in the middle of January and just how much higher I can realistically push (and maintain) this number is a bit of an unknown. I mentioned in my last post that I want to get my Bike CTL up to around the 100 mark by July. I'm currently hovering around 55-60 so there's plenty of room to add load here. I completed my 2nd CP30 test at the end of this block which is explained below but basically further improvements are needed to get me to where I think I need to be before July. Here's a bit more about s/b/r during the last four weeks/

PMC to date

Swim

I've increased the volume of swimming from my first block and averaged 10k per week over this block. All easy aerobic swims mostly including long intervals 400-1500m repeats. I intend to test where I am at some point during the next block* and start to add some more structure and threshold work as well as OW swims. The local lido is now fully open so I'm hoping this will bring my swimming (and tan) along nicely

*w/c 14/04/14- 3.8k TT (wetsuit) 56:30

Bike

Plenty of riding this block hitting over 12 hours in most weeks. Road rides pretty much all Z2 with a few very short force reps and turbo sessions focusing on progressing 2 x 20min sweet spot intervals now at 275w. I completed a CP30 test at the end of this block and averaged 307 watts for the 30mins so taking 95% of this puts FTP at 292. My goal for July is to have FTP at 320. So that's 28 watts to find in just over three months. Although it now seems that I'm not going to be able to race with a power meter I think I need to get IM power to ~240 watts to get me to T2 amongst the top guys in my AG. I'm planning on making a trip or two up to Bolton before race day which should give me a good idea of where I am and specific number required. Plan is to get just a little more specific over the next block adding more climbing. I'm on my TT bike now so it will take a little while to adjust to this I'll soon know if my back is going to be giving me any problems.

Run

Running is going very well. I've just returned from the Paris marathon which I written about a little below. I've not been doing huge amounts of running, averaging 60-70k per week, with my two key runs being a 90 minute ramp run and a 2hr easy aerobic run. I've decided to drop the Track work now as I don't think the 'super threshold' work really adds much value to IM training and also impacts on the quality of other sessions following due to the recovery required. I'm going to back off the running for a couple of weeks to give the body a chance to recover following Paris. I've no doubt that as with most IM races Bolton will be all about the run which, as things stand, is more than fine with me.

Paris Marathon

A marathon as part of preparation for an Ironman is not a good idea for a number of reasons. The only real reason I was racing was that it was an all expenses paid trip which I would have been a fool to turn down. My plan was to run a conservative marathon so that normal training could resume straight off the back of the race. I knew I was aerobically fit going into this but suspected I lacked run specific muscular endurance due to lack of running volume and specific marathon pace work.

It wasn't really until I was on the start line that I decided exactly how to run. I decided to go on feel up to half way and ignore my Garmin and reassess from there. I got to half way feeling relaxed and comfortable. Time was 1:23. Being in a small group of guys I decided to stay with the group rather than back off and run on my own. I'm not entirely sure at what point my mind set changed from a nice steady run around Paris to chasing a Championship qualifying time (<2:45) What I do remember is just feeling stronger and stronger the further I got into the race. I tried to do a little maths around the 30k mark and figured I was on for a low ~2:47. At 35k I recalculated this to sub 2:46. At this point I was very aware of my pace and was using the average lap pace display on my Garmin maintaining 3:45/k (Av last 3k). I remember dismissing a sub 2:45 shortly after the 40k marker figuring I'd need to run 3:30/k or quicker for the last 2k which is basically my 10k pace. Turning onto the finishing straight I could just about see the clock tick 2:44:11 I had no idea how far I was from the line, guessing 200m, so it was pretty much a sprint finish, crossing the line at 2:44:49. 

Sub 2:45 was supposed to be next years goal when I backed off the Ironman stuff. Now I have thoughts of a 2:3x next to my name which I find both exciting and more importantly realistically achievable. 

Work/family/training balance

One of the few books I have read is The Seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey (which I admit I am yet to master). In one particular chapter of this book there is a metaphor created by Stephen Covey called the Emotional Bank Account. Basically Covey explains that our actions at any time are either making deposits or withdrawals from this account. In the book Covey identifies six ways to make deposits (or reduce withdrawals) I wont go into all that but basically deposits are made by actions such as; listening intently, empathizing with how others may feel. showing care for and acting with kindness, keeping promises/commitments, attending to the little things. You get the idea. Behaviours opposite to these or even lack of, results in a withdrawal. 

It doesn't take much time for me to work out that my emotional account is pretty overdrawn with the family right now. It only works at the moment because all of the withdrawals that I'm making from week to week are agreed before hand with my account manger (Katie).

Ahead

Getting a little carried away in the Paris marathon means I drop a week of base training in order to recover, not ideal. I'm now into my last block of base and looking forward to switching to specific prep. I've got a sprint race pencilled in for the end of April just to keep things interesting. After that its UK70.3 which will give me a very good idea of where I am and how realistic my chances will be in Bolton. I'm book in for testing at the HPU for beginning of May where I'm also going to discuss my shocking dietary habbits. The only other thing that I want to fit in is a trip up to Bolton to recce the course.