Day 17 Cycle & Run

Managed to arrange my day so that I could get to the gym reasonably early to do my 'brick' session today, cycle & run.
Into the spinning room, the gym I go to (Nuffield Health Newbury) has converted a squash court into a spinning room, empty, just me and my iPod for 30 minutes in HR Zone 2, job done, sweaty due to the lack of a breeze or any air con actually, into running shoes & upstairs straight onto a treadmill up & running in under 3 minutes.
15 minutes later all done, 45 minutes total for the day, so an easy day relatively speaking.

Breakfast number 2 & into the car for a drive to Kingston on Thames.

3 hours later I'm still on the M3, Highways Agency have closed the motorway for repairs following an earlier accident, no warnings though, no gantry signs, nothing, 3 lanes of traffic all trying to get off at Sunbury & get back on their journeys, carnage.

Some fettling of the bike this evening, need to find a way to secure a pump to the bike without disturbing the lines or the aero flow of the bike, easier said than done.

Day 16 Swim & Run

After a lovely day off yesterday, up at 0430, in a car to LHR at 0500 & a day in The Hague it was back to normal today.  Actually I was home by 1830 and in bed by 2200 so not all bad.
I dropped the kids at school & headed straight to the pool for a swim, todays session was just a straight 2500 metre swim, no drills or rests, just 125 lengths one after the other at about 75% of max.  I took full advantage & used pretty much all of the hour, 58 minutes to be precise.
A quick change & back home for a second breakfast & into the days work.

After a couple of calls several emails out of the way it was out onto Greenham Common for a 45 minute run in HR Zone 2.  Job done, another day nearer.

This week is a tricky one toward the back end of the week, I have an offsite all day meeting I'm hosting on Thursday and need to be onsite overnight on the Thursday night, need to manage my time carefully this week & watch what I'm eating when I'm away from home.

Day 14 Run

Still cold, very cold, so after lunch it was off to the warm gym to do a 45 minute run in HR zone 2.  Except I carried on and ended up doing an hour because at this stage it cant do any harm & I have a 1/2 marathon next week in aid of Pancreatic Cancer.

You can donate & support me by following this link here Just Giving - team Jackie

Nest week is going to be challenging to juggle work, home life & training but tomorrow is a day off, well I say day off, I am up at 0430 for a car to the airport at 5am for a flight to Amsterdam, back again in the evening so I will try & relax & enjoy the day.

The new bike was finally ready yesterday so here it is.

Its a Specialized S-Works Venge with Ultegra Di2 electronic shifting, wheels are Soul CA5.0 carbon clinchers, stem is an S-Works SL 130mm, bars are S-Works carbon.  Needs a few finishing touches before it's completely ready, I hope I can do it justice as the test bike was epic and that wasn't an S-Works frame set.

Day 13 Cycle

Oh my, it was cold this morning, a stiff wind from the East with the air temperature around 0 then with wind chill bringing it down to -5 or 6 centigrade before we think about what happens when you ride at 15.-20 miles per hour.
Luckily these days technical clothing combats even the severest of temperatures, in particular my Specialized Wiretap gloves work incredibly well, 90 minutes in these conditions and not the slightest sensation of cold fingers.
So 90 minutes done in icy temperatures, snow and ice in places, loved every minute of it.

Added bonus this afternoon I picked up my brand new Specialized S-Works Venge, more tomorrow.

Day 12 Run

Nice easy day today, a 45 minute run in HR zone 2, well I say easy, it was hard just to leave a centrally heated house to go outside, it was so cold out there.
Hovering just above 0c there were flurries of snow as I ran around Greenham Common as quickly as my heart rate would allow just to get out of the cold.  Job done.

I popped to the LBS (local bike shop) new bike is almost ready, it was supposed to be ready yesterday, but it's still not ready today, it will definitely be ready tomorrow but they said that yesterday about today and it wasn't.  I won't hold my breath.  It looks damn good though.

Day 11 swim & spin

For some reason I slept really badly last night, wide awake at 4 am for what felt like an hour or so before the alarm jolted me awake at 6.  Quick breakfast and straight to the pool for today s swim which totalled 2600 metres.  I really enjoyed it today, I felt stronger even after just 10 days, the drills and main set seemed to fly by and I was overtaking other early morning swimmers into the bargain.

Back home and refuel with porridge, bagel and coffee.

As soon as work was finished a session on the turbo, high cadence 100 rpm for 30 minutes in HR zone 1.  Job done another day down.

Day 10 Jelly legs

A relatively easy day today, 45 minute cycle in HR zone 2 with a quick change or transition to run for 15 minutes in HR zone 2.
Went to the gym for both activities, it's warmer than my garage on the Turbo plus there are other people to interact with or cop a cheeky glance at if they look good in tight Lycra.
Straightforward enough settled quickly into HR zones with little fuss.
Im not getting jelly legs at the moment, I'm not falling into the trap of it doesn't affect me, I just think maybe if I went harder for longer in the cycle I might feel it more, of course I shouldn't try that as I'm supposed to be staying 'in the zone'

Day 8 & 9

Day 8 was a rest day spent working from home after an aborted attempt to get into London to the office on Farce Great Western.  Nothing much to say really apart from rest days are important, make the most of them.

Day 9 Tuesday 19th Feb, todays session is swim & run.  I got the run out of the way around 11am as a break in calls and meetings allowed me to get out in the glorious sunshine on Greenham Common, ran for 45 minutes which is a little over the plan but it was so lovely out there today.  Back to work again, grabbed a protein bar & made a sandwich to eat at my desk.
Finished up with work and headed for the pool for tonights session which looks like this.

300 metre warm up

4 x100 metre drills

400m @ 60 secs

400m @ 60 secs

400m @60 secs

4 x 100 metre drills

200 metre cool down

2520 metres in all in 58 minutes.

Even after just a week I felt much better about swimming tonight, felt good at the end nowhere near as tired as last week.  

During the day the postman brought gifts, 2 tubs of Gatorade Lemon Pro Perform, it's the drink of the course on Ironman Wales, may as well get used to the stuff just in case it doesn't do it for me, also need to start trying Power Bar Gels as these again are the on course nutrition on Ironman Wales.  I've tried them before, not my favourite, I much prefer GU, especially the Peanut Butter flavour which is only sold in the US, boo!  Proper planning & preparation prevents piss poor performance.

Day 7 Run with a spring in the step

I resisted the urge to get the 45 minute run out of the way early this fine Sunday, but as the mist cleared away at around 11:30 I headed out onto Greenham Common for a loop of the common which is around 6 miles.  It was almost Spring-like, the sun was shining, the sky was blue but the wind out of the East still had a winters chill in it.
Run done, lunch with the family & off out again for a leisurely bike ride with my son in tow on his Specialized Hardrock MTB over the Common again then down onto the Kennett & Avon Canal towpath for a pleasant amble along the water back into Newbury.  No times, no heart rates to worry about just leisure but with a purpose still, bike handling skills at low speed in mud & mixed surfaces, tight turns onto bridges all good training still especially for a 12 year old.

Day of rest tomorrow, looking forward to that.

Day 6 Cycle

Well I didn't manage to get out for the longer ride in the sunshine in the end, just an hour on the Turbo in the garage, oh well, tomorrow looks set fair again so maybe a leisurely 30 miler in the early spring sunshine after all.

I did have a technology issue today, my heart rate monitor chest strap was playing up, heart rate all over the place when pedalling along at 25 mph steady, heart rate went from Z4 to Z1 in moments & then all over the place throughout the ride.

Invested in a Garmin chest strap, all paired up with Global Trainer & Garmin 800 in a few moments.

This is the Timex Global Trainer GPS watch

And this is the Garmin heart rate strap that connect wirelessly to the watch to transmit my heart rate to the watch.

Another relatively easy day tomorrow, a short run, will definitely be outdoors tomorrow, can't be doing with another treadmill session.

Day 5 Run

Nice easy day today, 30 minutes running in HR Zone 2.  Took a few minutes to settle the HR down but after that a steady 12 kmh for 30 minutes on the treadmill.

Luckily no swimming today as the pool was shut due to an 'accident'  I can only assume that as it's half term the 'accident' involved the proverbial turd in a swimming pool.

Weather looks set fair for the weekend, cycle tomorrow & I will be out for longer than the scheduled hour if the sun shines!

Day 4 Swim & Spin

Todays swim looked like this.

300m warm up
4 x 100m drills
4 x 120m @ 20 secs
4 x 200m @ 30 secs
4 x 120m @ 20 secs
4 x 100m drills
200m cool

3060 metres, that I can honestly say is the farthest I have ever swum in a swimming pool ever.  Felt tired at the end but picked up quickly after a peanut butter energy protein bar & energy drink.  Over 5 km swum already this week.

Next onto the turbo trainer for the cycle workout.

30 minutes at 100+ rpm in HR Zone 1.  Settled in quickly to this one then HR climbed a bit out of Zone 1 around the middle as I stopped concentrating on breathing effectively, ended up covering around 9 miles in the garage!  Gotta love a Garmin 800 + cadence sensor & a wheel magnet!

Day 3 Cycle & Run

Today was a brick day, in other words today I put 2 parts of the 3 together, cycling & running.
Started off on a spin bike at the gym, 30 minutes at a relatively high cadence (leg speed) in HR zone 2.  HR zones are different on a bike because the body and heart are stressed in different ways cycling compared to running.  Max heart rate on a bike is calculated at 95% of actual max, therefore Zone 2 heart rates when cycling are different to heart rate Zone 2 when running.

HR Zone 2 running 134-151 bpm
HR Zone 2 cycling 130-147 bpm

A quick change is important and in my case today I slipped quickly into trainers and hit the treadmill 90 seconds after stopping cycling.  I need to train my body to get used to the change from cycling to running and to get used to running with 'jelly legs'.

Now I needed to up my heart rate quickly, so speed increased to 14kph for a few minutes then settled down to 12 kph for the remainder of the session, only 15 minutes on the treadmill and 45 minutes overall.

Tomorrow is a swim and bike day, it's going to be hard to get both sessions in, they don't have to be back to back which is good.

Day 2 - Swim & Run

 

Too much kit? This is what I ended up lugging to the gym/health club today to do my first 2 sessions of the Fink programme.

First session of the 2 today was a swim session that looks like this............
300m warm up
8x50m drills
12 x 100m @ 20 sec
8x50m drills
200m cool down

Simples eh?  So for the uninitiated what does this mean?  Well first off there's a 300 metre warm up swim, so in my 20 metre pool thats 15 laps front crawl.  Then here's the problem, doing a 50 metre drill in a 20 metre pool is kind of hard so I changed this to 10 x 40 metre drills.  A drill being where you focus on technique or isolate a part of your body with a float or a pull buoy or hand paddles.  Next the main set, 12 x 100m @20 sec is swim 100 metres (5 lengths) at race pace front crawl when complete rest for 20 seconds then repeat 11 more times.  Great you even get a rest in the workout.  Back to drills again, I adapted this again and did 4 x 100 metres sets, arms only with a pull buoy, some paddle work & some stroke work to increase stroke length.  Finish off with 200 metres of easy swimming.  Total distance an easy 2500 metres in just under an hour all front crawl.
You'll see I have 2 watches in the picture above, one is a Timex Global Trainer, a GPS based HRM & multi sport timer, the other is a PoolMate Pro which rather cleverly without the aid of GPS just accelerometers calculates lengths swum, distances, stroke count & efficiency.  So no more lap counting, just press start at the beginning of a set & pause at the end & it does the rest.  The Timex watch I use for running & gym work to monitor heart rate via an ANT+ HRM strap.

Quick shower & into running kit & hit the treadmill.  This session is 30 minutes in HR Zone 2 for me that's 134 - 151 bpm.  After setting off at around 12 kph pace I settled back after 3 or 4 minutes to around 11 kph & ran in HR zone 2 for 30 minutes, covering just over 6 km, not that I'm interested in distances.

I ate an energy gel poolside after about 45 minutes & then ate a protein bar after finishing the run.

Tomorrow is a bike & run day, focussing on the transition from cycle to run & training the body to cope with these changes & getting used to running with 'jelly legs'.

Day 1 - 30 weeks to go

Monday 11th February, a date that has crept up on me all of a sudden.
Today is the first day of the Fink 30 week Iron Fit, competitive plan I will be following.  Now most exercise plans start off with a gentle introduction, get the body used to exercise & prepare you mentally for the road ahead, some start matbe with an all out assault & maybe you're thinking that an Ironman distance race would require the latter?

Well no, the Fink 30 week competitive iron fit plan starts with of all things a rest day.  No exercise. Nada.

So today is for quiet contemplation about what lies ahead, stocking up on carbs, checking the plan so as I am sure I understand it, checking HRMs and making sure my max heart rate is correctly entered so that I am able to train in the correct zones.  In the first 10 weeks of the program c93% of all activity will be in my HR Zone 2, nothing in Zone 3 & a few short bursts into Z4 or anaerobic.

As I've said before this plan is not about getting miles in, it's about sustained effort in a target HR zone, miles I'm not really that interested in but I'll keep an eye on them for morbid curiosity, incidentally in weeks 1 thru 10 I'll be swimming over 50km or around 30 miles.  Swimming is the only activity where HR is irrelevant, swimming is all about technique & distances to build stamina.  Swim sessions in weeks 1-10 average 2500 metres per session & I do 2 sessions a week.

Fink for Ironman Wales 2013

Monday 11th February sees the start of my 30 week plan to get me to Ironman Wales on 8 September.
I will be following the Don Fink Competitive Plan, having read the book, done the research & chatted to a few Ironman finishers I opted for the competitive plan.  The way I see it, if I need to wind back the intensity or the time I can drop back to an intermediate plan at say week 10 without losing anything, if I started at a 'Just Finish' programme there's nowhere to go if it all gets too much.

Weeks 1-10 are a base phase, it assumes you've done some physical exercise in the previous 6 weeks so no problem there.  The first few weeks are pretty straightfoward & I'm looking forward to getting into the programme.

More on Monday as I start the journey to Ironman Wales.