A look back at the training by Month, and Key Weekend Workouts

Seeing as I took the week off after IM to recover, I'm now feeling back to 100% almost despite a few aches and pains, I now have a load of free time on my hands. So I've been cleaning bikes, and generally doing odd jobs and stuff at home amongst eating to my hearts content :)

I decided to take the time to have a look back at the data I collected so far this year in training. In the hope I might be able to identify some areas to improve and focus on for next time.

Firstly we've got my total volumes below:

So you can see attempting to follow my plan, my cycling volume increased nice and linearly upwards towards the goal. (bearing in mind its organised by month, so some of the missed workouts aren't seen in the detail, with the exception of April appearing to be a fairly poor month. So cycling volume looks good with a nice progression.

Run training appears a little less successful, with volume staying level, even decreasing across the time period. This is despite my long runs increasing in distance, so it appears my smaller run workouts fell by the wayside during training and I was either concentrating on long runs or not at all. (I'll go into more granular detail below).

Swim volume, appears to have followed run in its decrease. There's no real excuse for this other than laziness. I swam too much prior to the plan, and I think the plan weights far too much in favour of swimming with in excess of 3 hours a week for most of the plan. For me, I appear to require little training to maintain my speed (I could comfortable swim IM distance early in the season, and didn't really appear to build speed throughout). Therefore I got bored with swimming early in the season and just maintained. If I enter an IM again I will start swimming less, and then ramp it up later in the plan to keep it fresh.

Cycling in detail:  

Looking at the above graphs we can see further detail in my workouts throughout the 30 week plan. (Bear in mind these are only Saturday long rides, not total volume). So there was a nice progression up to four good century rides prior to the main event. There were still quite a few weeks missed, but overall it doesn't appear to have had a major effect. I am hoping to maintain a better level of cycling throughout the winter, so I can introduce greater mileage earlier on in the season next year. You'll note I began this year with some pretty small rides in the region of 20 miles.

However, if we then look at pace of rides, you would hope this might stay level across the season, or even increase with the rides, however in actual fact my pace has decreased with the lengthening rides. From 19mph averages down to under 18mph for my longer rides. With the exception of the Outlaw half on week 22 which was a 2:45 bike leg at 20.7mph average speed. A cracking ride if I say so myself, but probably too hard to be able to run well off of, which was the result with a 2:12 half marathon!

Lessons to take forward, do less junk miles in the week. Speed or threshold sessions with hill climbs, and then long rides at the weekend. I spent a lot of the early season just riding Z2 in the week, which I now think was a little pointless to a degree. Sure miles are miles in the saddle, but I think they could have been more productive.

Running in detail:

And I wonder why I sucked at running during IMUK and my races earlier in the season! The volume there is pretty appalling in reality. A lot of missed sessions towards the end of the program, with my longest sessions being three half marathons this year. Looking at my average pace across the program that also increaed with distance to average over 9 min/miles on my longer runs. And never really improved from the beginning of the year at 8:30 min/miles. 

Similar thoughts from cycling training here too. I'll be going for less volume, but more targeted sessions. I'm currently thinking along the lines of a speed session, an easy session, and a long session with some hill and technique work included too. I think I spent too much time just going through the motions and racking up distance (albeit small) rather than understanding what I needed to get out of each session. 

So definetly some things to focus on, and ways I think I can improve. I'll also hopefully be training with power on the bike soon, which should help reduce junk miles and enable me to tailor training specifically. 

I set out with the aim of specifically targetting my running this year, but it appears to have failed, so this is something I really want to work on this winter in preparation for next year. 

You are an IRONMAN!!!!!!!

Safe to say I've been waiting to write this one up for in excess of a year, here goes! 

My work week ended on Thursday and I began by getting everything ready to load the car up ready to head off Friday morning. I've become a pro at this it seems as it took much less time than I remembered getting ready for Outlaw! Spent the rest of Thursday on a fairly easy ride to try out my new aero helmet, a Bell Javelin that I was hoping to wear. I got on well, despite being a lot sweatier than my usual kask road helmet. Comes with the territory I suppose, plus it was a seriously hot day! I slept pretty well Thursday night, and felt great from the bike ride too.

Woke up Friday excited and made my final preparations and last minute supplies run before heading up north to Bolton. The traffic was pretty dire most of the way up, and it ended up taking around 5 hours in total before I was at the Reebok stadium where my Ironman experience was to begin, at this point my feelings were a sandwich filling of nerves, surrounding by great big slices of excitement. I just wanted it to be Sunday morning, and to get cracking. 

I left the car in the Reebok carpark and wandered up to the Stadium to be greeted by the huge inflatable Ironman banner, and Ironman signs everywhere. Having come from pretty smallscale triathlons this year, this was clearly a different setup all together! I wandered inside, and again the place was covered from head to toe in Ironman branding. I registered, and signed my life away before receiving my bag full of more bags and stickers to brand myself with.

Then made my way downstairs for the briefing. This did nothing whatsoever to calm my nerves or excitement. But what was clear was how they were really hammering the whole Ironman thing home, the brand, the experience, the dream. I'm not usually one for americanized branding and the like, but I was lapping it up. This was what I had sacrificed 9-months worth of training for, and I was loving it so far. In my mind, I'd earned the right to enjoy so far! 

I then headed back to my hotel, after stopping at pizza hut for dinner (ideal pre Ironman meal, not) and chilled out for the evening. 

I was up excitably early Saturday morning as I had to rack my bike and run kit in the two separate transitions. After checking and double checking my bag contents I set off for Pennington Flash to sort the bike first. 

Bike and bags ready to go!

Racked and stickered up

Tucked in for the night

T1 filling up

T1 Bike bag racked and ready

I'd been checking the weather all week up until this point, and it was a pretty nice day with hot sunshine with a few cloudy spells and no rain as yet. I hoped this would continue as I racked my bike, and used the supplied cover to tuck my bike in for the night. I nervously waved goodbye to my bike, and racked my bike bag. I then went for a wander round the flash to get my bearings.

Further nerve unsettling moments were gained looking at the swim, it was reasonably windy on the Saturday and the flash was looking pretty choppy, with the turn buoys a long way off. :eek:

I then headed off to rack my run bag at the transition based in the school just off the bike loop. Nothing out of the ordinary here, just a sports hall and changing facilities with the playground used for storing the bikes. 

After I'd sorted my bags, and as I was close I decided to go for one last course recce up the now infamous Sheephouse lane.

Couple of cyclists tackling the infamous IM gradient

Much as I remembered it, save for quite a lot of gravel in parts due to the rain, I hoped to god this would be gone come race day. I wasn't feeling to bad about the climb in truth. Mostly as all my training rides have equal or more climbing, with more severe gradients. I guess they just don't have the total climb from bottom to top in one go like sheephouse. I then bumped into a friend I met at a training day and we chatted for a good while about all things triathlon, like only triathletes, and nervous Ironman virgins can! We were also racked virtually next to each other, which was good to have someone I knew in transition. Back to the hotel, and I met up with my parents who had come up for the two nights to spectate, which was great boost. Dinner at the pub next to the hotel, and then I retired to my room for my last nights sleep before the big day. I sat in my room for a couple of hours just running everything through in my head to make sure I had everything sorted. Then had a cup of sleepy tea, and tried to get some shut eye. 

The tea strategy seemed to work as I had an unusually good sleep for a night before the race, however I was still wide awake an hour before my alarm at 3:00am! I eventually raised my self from the bed at 4:00am and began to put my nutrition strategy into play with a double helping of porridge. Once dressed and ready I got sorted and headed off to the flash, with my bike bottles and gear. The roads were dead until I got near, and suddenly there were people and cars everywhere getting into the flash. The nerves were really building now, as it was getting very real. By this point my worse weather fears were being realised and it was raining quite heavily and with seeming conviction. Hood up and I put myself my own little zone and concentrated on everything I wanted to get done in transition. Bike tyres pumped up, nutrition loaded up, and garmin on. I then had to take a toilet break, and head back to the car with my excess gear. Back into transition and time was quickly ebbing away towards the 6am start. Wetsuit on, swim cap and goggles at the ready and we began the shuffle towards the water. I'd also caught up with my friend in transition so we were nervously chatting while edging towards the water. By the this time the weather had cleared though, and although it was a bit cold it was looking clear :) Now usually I prefer to get in the water at least ten minutes before, to settle down and warm up a little and find a position I'm happy with in the water. Having grown up being a fairly strong swimmer, I've never struggled with the discipline, but I always want an escape plan, so like to position myself toward the edges if possible. It wasn't possible. We were still queuing to get in the water at almost 5 minutes to the start. I jumped in, and got near the start line just before 90 seconds to go was sounded, and the national anthem was being played out! Nice touch, but I wasn't in the mood for listening and or being patriotic! 

In my brief triathlon experience I have successfully negotiated two open water starts, one with 500 others in London docklands, and one with 1500 others at Outlaw half (albeit split in half). This was different, even after a good 500 meters after in my previous experience it settles down and you can find plenty of space, here it was still every man for himself. I settled into some sort of a rhythm after a while, but it was fraught with being climbed over, and or having to go over or around people. Not enjoyable in the least. I was dreading the turnaround which was now looming, and despite feeling like I was swimming OK, I began to feel as if I was getting seriously short of breath and as if my wet suit was horrible constricting me. It was a seriously panic-inducing feeling and I was ever so close to putting my hand up and trying to get out. I'm guessing it must have been the beginnings of a panic attack. I wanted out. This had never happened to me before and it was horrible. This was not the race plan I had in mind. After several minutes of this I managed to maintain control, and talked myself down and calm down. I then began to breathe in a controlled way and even settled into a much better swim. Before I knew it I was at the Australian exit, and the end of the first lap. I checked the watch, despite all the goings on I had managed a 32 minute lap! I jumped back in and re did my goggles before setting off again. Much more spacious this time with the exit separating people much more. I tired to settle into a rhythm again and just plodded away. Eventually it was done, and I was jumping out of the water at the other side, although slightly disappointingly in 1:11. Especially after my first lap pace, and having done a 1:06 in practice a few weeks prior. Hey-ho, onwards! 

Jogged into the transition feeling decent, and proceeded to change into my bike gear. I had decided to just use my trisuit and whack a bike jersey on over the top for the pockets for food, and for warmth. All sorted I jogged to get my bike and headed out onto the road drama free.

After 6 miles of easy spinning I remembered to start it, and began checking heart rate. I began to fuel up with some gel and water, and just kept thinking of cycling really easy. It was pretty cold with a wet trisuit to begin with, but after around 20 miles, the warming day, and drying suit began to get me up to temperature. During that time I was having a bit of trouble getting my garmin to read my cadence and heartrate monitor. I eventually got it sorted, before realising I'd left the thing not started for about 6 miles. So unfortunatley didn't quite capture the whole bike on gps, but it worked nicely as an extra boost, to look down and see I'd covered x miles, and then to know I could add another 6 to that!

Bike Data:  http://app.strava.com/activities/72373556

Despite all that had gone on in the swim I was feeling good for the day. I tried not to think about what was coming up, and just on the exact task at hand. First time up sheephouse felt great, tried to keep my heartrate low and was going at a good rate even overtaking people, but being mindful not to push too much.

Started refuelling at this point with some solid food too. I'd emptied 15 gels into one of my water bottles, mixed with water so rationed that out every half hour which worked really well, and a lot better than getting sticky and making a mess trying to open gels and then store the useless wrapper. Rest of the loop I felt good and just settled into a nice flow. I was enjoying the cycling as its my favourite discipline, so I just let the miles come. Back onto the loop for the second time, and going up Babylon lane was an incredible experience. The support was mind blowing, it was honestly like what I imagine the tour de france to be. You can't help but respond with a massive grin and extra effort. I was absolutely loving it, second time up sheephouse felt nearly as good as the first, and I settled into a great rhythm again, and just span away to the top. By this point in the ride everything was still going well, I was well fuelled and feeling good. The time was taking care of itself, despite having had to stop twice to pee. Decided it was the time nor the place to learn to do this on the fly like I saw a couple of riders doing. Onto the third lap, and up sheephouse again, still felt as good as the first, although I was mindful I was probably going a little slower at this point. I carried on just riding to heartrate and just riding easy. The last twenty miles everything began to slow down a little more and I was conscious of letting my nutrition slip a bit, and having run out of solid food, I couldn't handle any more gel. I still felt ok though, and it got better after some banana. At this point it also began to spit with rain very slightly. I wasn't too affected by this, and was just looking forward to getting running, and I was thankful it had held off until then! Eventually past the beginning of sheephouse and a right turn instead of carrying on up the hill felt great, as did the largely downhill flowing section to the school, and transition 2. 

I carved into the school entrance and immediately spotted a red line on the floor so began to stop, only to realise this was just to warn of the speed-bump, and not the dismount line! Back on the pedals and off the bike before the mount line. Wasn't quite with it at this point as I wanted to go and rack my bike myself. Didn't quite realise I was supposed to hand it over to the volunteers. After realising what was going on I let my bike go and grabbed my garmin from the bars so I could reset for the run. Jogged into the hall to get my bag and immediately noticed some quite nasty pain coming from my right foot, something I'd never had before. One of the first things I noticed on entering the transition hall as well was a chap on a stretcher being attended by paramedics! Hope he's ok and it was nothing too serious!  I sat down and got ready, new socks were a godsend, as was a quick foot rub to see that the pain was just superficial from my cycling shoes and nothing too bad. After another loo break, I was on my way out of the hall and onto the run. 

The right foot still felt a bit sore but soon cleared up after a mile or two. I was feeling good at this point and into a nice steady rhythm, steady being the operative word! The first aid station came and went, and I just grabbed water and another loo stop. A much needed number 2 at this point! I set off again feeling good and before I knew it I was at the loop.

Greeted at the loop by a large bagpipe band which was really cool, and really got me going. It was at this point I was struck by the volume of people already on the loop, and all the people with the lap bands already. Lap band envy was beginning! After the first lap and walking the aid stations and hills I still felt reasonably good. No stomach issues or cramping to report either, but I was struggling to keep any pace. I suspect not having the run volume in my legs was coming back to haunt me at this point. I managed to keep running for the most part, and continuously set myself goals to run to the next lamp post etc. On the second of the laps I began to take on coke, and the energy drink they had "power horse", which seemed to me pretty potent, as it began to get me going again. As well as taking some extra gels. 

I kept checking the time and realised I wasn't going to make my target time of sub-13 hours but at this point I wasn't bothered, and just wanted to finish. Last time round the town centre before heading out to the far turnaround point was seriously tough, by this point there had been several seriously heavy showers, and I was drenched through, as were my socks and shoes. I walked a lot of the last lap, but was spurred on by all the spectators shouting my name. I also spent a lot of the time high fiving any spectators with their hands out as this was not only good fun, but took my mind nicely off the pain. As soon as I got within sight of the downhill section into the town centre I began to run once again, and now knew I was going to finish. 

Finally I was through the town centre and on my way to the finishing shoot, I was finally able to take the left turn into the finishing area and it felt amazing. I was grinning from ear to ear and had broken into what felt like a sprint for the line. Through the last little maze section of the run and onto the red carpet. One of the best feelings in the known world! I sprinted down the chute, and across the line to finish in 13:20, while hearing those immortal words, "Mr Whatley, you    are    an   IRONMAN!!!!". I had done it and it felt absolutley epic. 

All my worries and pain was forgotten for some brief moments while I first received my medal, T-shirt, and then the food. Dominoes pizza never felt so good. I managed to summon the energy to get back up and talk to my parents about the day had gone, before getting my transition bags and getting into a fresh change of clothes. My head was still buzzing at this point, and I was still grinning like a cheshire cat. I couldn't beleive it. I was an Ironman, I had actually done it. After the months of training and sacrifice, it was all so worth it. 

I eventually got back to the hotel after collecting my car from the flash, and attempted a night sleep content in the knowledge that I had completed the race. Not much sleep to be had though, as my head was still buzzing from all the caffeine and energy from the day. Still, I was now an Ironman. 

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Closing thoughts

When I was first considering this race way back in the summer of 2012, I knew I wanted my first to be a proper Ironman run race, and I'm so incredibly glad it was. The added polish and touches just topped it off for me, something I've just not had with other races I've done. I was also a little concerned that the Bolton course isn't often held in as high regard as some of the other courses but my closing thoughts were that it was incredible. As an experience it was one of the best I've had in my life, and the support, competitors, and course were what made it what it was. Swim was as expected I guess, I loved the bike, and as my favourite discipline really enjoyed the course. Ever so glad I recce'd it before the race as that was worth its weight in gold. The run was tough, and psychologically I really dislike repeating loops.

Overall I was ever so slightly dissapointed  (if you can call it that, as my absolute overriding emotion is happiness really) to not come in under my 13 hour goal, but it really didn't dampen my happiness of just finishing what was a seriously tough race. Plenty learned and plenty to take on board for next time. 

Will there be a next time? 

Hell yeah! I'm sold on this Iron business, you just can get that feeling anywhere else, and boy do I want it again. Probably not next year, as I want to pursue other things and build my technique and speed, but I will be back to do another Ironman event for sure, and hopefully with a goal of sub 11 or the like.