Turbo
Warm up 15mins
Set (250w x 20min at 90rpm) x 2 on 5min rest
then (250w x 5min at 90rpm) x 4 on 5min rest
1.5km run off bike at IMP
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36204719
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36204722
A hard session, plan was to do 3x main set but backed off on the third and broke it up into 4. Amazing how you change mentally from thinking this is going to be hard at the beginning to increasing in confidence and then negative thoughts creeping in towards the end.
Starting to think my time may be best spent on sessions like these rather than the big sessions. The endurance is there so there is a good argument that a couple of focused hard hours on the turbo may be better than 6 on the road?
There seems to be a lot of agreement that running is hard on the body - better to put time in on the bike and get used to running fast off it for a short distance and hope you can hang on when it come to the race.
More playing with bike position - seems left leg likes to be closer to pedal (saddle lower) and right leg likes the saddle higher. Sorry to mention all this here but it's to provide a record for me so I know what changes i've made.
A lot of cycling trainers will talk about level of exertion called TEMPO or FUNCTIONAL THRESHOLD POWER (FTP). This is basically the level you could sustain if you went all out for an hour - some call it "the hour of power" . You can base a lot of the Zones etc around this. There's a great book about all this - link below
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Training-Racing-Power-Meter-Hunter/dp/1934030554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276038046&sr=8-1
So well rested and psyched up I think I must be around 250W for my FTP. It's humbling to know that this is the wattage the winners keep up for 4 hours 30min.
Looking at hotels in Bolton today for the race weekend - not much left only ones with scary reviews.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
3km Swim no breaks
Most people would agree you don't need to do the ironman distance straight in training. There are a lot of people who finish in the top 10 who would never swim more than 400m in one go in training - you loose form and can't keep the intensity up. I find it helps confidence though.
Read a couple of interesting articles -
British journal of sports medicine 2008; 42: 796-801
It was about drinking strategies in sport and that you should use thirst as your primary cue and forget about blanket recommendations from sports drink companies.
Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise; Jan 2001, Vol 33 (1) pp 127-141
About squats - basically they are a lot safer than we have been led to believe - especially if your not doing mega weights and just trying to improve your cycling/running. May be time to go to the gym.
Most people would agree you don't need to do the ironman distance straight in training. There are a lot of people who finish in the top 10 who would never swim more than 400m in one go in training - you loose form and can't keep the intensity up. I find it helps confidence though.
Read a couple of interesting articles -
British journal of sports medicine 2008; 42: 796-801
It was about drinking strategies in sport and that you should use thirst as your primary cue and forget about blanket recommendations from sports drink companies.
Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise; Jan 2001, Vol 33 (1) pp 127-141
About squats - basically they are a lot safer than we have been led to believe - especially if your not doing mega weights and just trying to improve your cycling/running. May be time to go to the gym.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
BRICK (bike-run) day 170km Bike 10km Run
Set off around 6am (pressed snooze - hour late). Cycled down to Brighton - put what turned out to be a great route into the garmin so country lanes all the way. The amount of times I have done it using the main roads, getting covered in car grime and having to stop to read the map every 15mins.
Can't recommend the garmin enough - the model I have is 310xt which lets you upload maps that you can follow. It has been a godsend.
Bike set up still troubling me. Dropped the saddle a few times which eased the left leg which now feels perfect, but then right knee had a few niggles. Think I probably need to see if I need to set it up for a slight leg length discrepancy - but not 100% sure which leg is behaving as if its longer!. Major plus point is I think i'm starting to know what to do to the position to alleviate the various niggles!
So 85km to Brighton - fairly easy pace; 3hr 30 and 3hr 20 back.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897664
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897679
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897700
(hadn't changed watch from run mode till the way back hence the three pages)
Then took george for a run in the buggy 10km. Ideally would have gone alone as would have been good to go at race pace, but had to get him out of the house.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897708
Good to get all that done. It's in the bank as they say.
It's two weeks till the half ironman and a few people reading this are training for that.
Doing well on the day has a lot to do with how you taper.
I have always been told that tapering from running takes 3 weeks, cycling 2 weeks and swimming 1 week. This is based on the load your body has to absorb. So most triathlon tapers will start 3 weeks out.
Very simply it's advised to cut the volume of training by about 2/3rds and the 1/3rd you do do should be high intensity/high leg turnover.
I think your trying to get your body accustomed to moving faster whilst allowing it to store glycogen for the muscles.
Certainly there is a phenomenon called neuromuscular adaptation where your body gets used to nerve impulses firing at a the frequency you train at. Many people try to up this - for instance pedalling for 30 second intervals on the turbo at much higher cadences 115etc (not too important about the load)
I'm not going to taper for the half ironman as that would take too many weeks out but thought i'd mention the above.
The extra time is apparently for making sure you have everything ready!
Set off around 6am (pressed snooze - hour late). Cycled down to Brighton - put what turned out to be a great route into the garmin so country lanes all the way. The amount of times I have done it using the main roads, getting covered in car grime and having to stop to read the map every 15mins.
Can't recommend the garmin enough - the model I have is 310xt which lets you upload maps that you can follow. It has been a godsend.
Bike set up still troubling me. Dropped the saddle a few times which eased the left leg which now feels perfect, but then right knee had a few niggles. Think I probably need to see if I need to set it up for a slight leg length discrepancy - but not 100% sure which leg is behaving as if its longer!. Major plus point is I think i'm starting to know what to do to the position to alleviate the various niggles!
So 85km to Brighton - fairly easy pace; 3hr 30 and 3hr 20 back.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897664
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897679
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897700
(hadn't changed watch from run mode till the way back hence the three pages)
Then took george for a run in the buggy 10km. Ideally would have gone alone as would have been good to go at race pace, but had to get him out of the house.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35897708
Good to get all that done. It's in the bank as they say.
It's two weeks till the half ironman and a few people reading this are training for that.
Doing well on the day has a lot to do with how you taper.
I have always been told that tapering from running takes 3 weeks, cycling 2 weeks and swimming 1 week. This is based on the load your body has to absorb. So most triathlon tapers will start 3 weeks out.
Very simply it's advised to cut the volume of training by about 2/3rds and the 1/3rd you do do should be high intensity/high leg turnover.
I think your trying to get your body accustomed to moving faster whilst allowing it to store glycogen for the muscles.
Certainly there is a phenomenon called neuromuscular adaptation where your body gets used to nerve impulses firing at a the frequency you train at. Many people try to up this - for instance pedalling for 30 second intervals on the turbo at much higher cadences 115etc (not too important about the load)
I'm not going to taper for the half ironman as that would take too many weeks out but thought i'd mention the above.
The extra time is apparently for making sure you have everything ready!
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Quasi rest day today
Stretching
A few weights
Balance board
Power breathe
Some single leg spinning on the bike for a few minutes
Tinkering with bike position
Took son for a bit of a cycle and kick around with the football
It was difficult to resist doing a proper session - but i'm planning to cycle to Brighton and back tomorrow and then do a 10-12km run. Need to be back to do the family thing and think the weather may get worse in the afternoon, so early start. There's no real point going into this with a lot of fatigue in the legs hence the rest day. Will be leaving London 6am if anyone wants to come (assuming I wake up)
Should really do this on the time trial bike but can't face six hours on the aerobars on main roads tomorrow, want to enjoy it!
I mentioned the powerbreathe - I'm a sucker for new gadgets and bought this a couple of years ago. Used it for a while and then it lay in a draw. I actually read the formal research about it recently and have started using it again. It works by delaying respiratory muscle fatigue - a newly found neural circuit exists that serves to reduce blood flow to working muscles (legs) when the respiratory muscles fatigue. So by training your respiratory muscles you delay the onset of fatigue in your legs. Anyway, the study group at Brunel took 30 breaths twice a day which isn't much of an investment.
http://www.powerbreathe.com/
Stretching
A few weights
Balance board
Power breathe
Some single leg spinning on the bike for a few minutes
Tinkering with bike position
Took son for a bit of a cycle and kick around with the football
It was difficult to resist doing a proper session - but i'm planning to cycle to Brighton and back tomorrow and then do a 10-12km run. Need to be back to do the family thing and think the weather may get worse in the afternoon, so early start. There's no real point going into this with a lot of fatigue in the legs hence the rest day. Will be leaving London 6am if anyone wants to come (assuming I wake up)
Should really do this on the time trial bike but can't face six hours on the aerobars on main roads tomorrow, want to enjoy it!
I mentioned the powerbreathe - I'm a sucker for new gadgets and bought this a couple of years ago. Used it for a while and then it lay in a draw. I actually read the formal research about it recently and have started using it again. It works by delaying respiratory muscle fatigue - a newly found neural circuit exists that serves to reduce blood flow to working muscles (legs) when the respiratory muscles fatigue. So by training your respiratory muscles you delay the onset of fatigue in your legs. Anyway, the study group at Brunel took 30 breaths twice a day which isn't much of an investment.
http://www.powerbreathe.com/
Friday, 4 June 2010
Haven't had time to get to the computer for a week - Missed a couple of sessions due to illness and a couple due to work etc,
Will start with today and try and fill in the rest.
One hour yoga at local gym - had been developing loads of tight areas and had a lot of negative thoughts creeping in. Miraculous as afterwards seemed like I had been totally cured! I can't seem to explain why I am unable to do stretching at home and get the same result.
2km swim with main session 8 x 200m at critical swim speed on 25-50 second rests.
Felt good and managed to keep the pace up - probably time to increase the number of sets. Would be good to get to double this by ironman time.
75km cycle to Richmond park - the road was melting - really weird. Was hoping to do a little more but stopped a few times to change set up. Still can't get my left leg feeling as anatomically sound as the right - will continue to play.
Run off bike only 3km - in vibram barefoots
Will start with today and try and fill in the rest.
One hour yoga at local gym - had been developing loads of tight areas and had a lot of negative thoughts creeping in. Miraculous as afterwards seemed like I had been totally cured! I can't seem to explain why I am unable to do stretching at home and get the same result.
2km swim with main session 8 x 200m at critical swim speed on 25-50 second rests.
Felt good and managed to keep the pace up - probably time to increase the number of sets. Would be good to get to double this by ironman time.
75km cycle to Richmond park - the road was melting - really weird. Was hoping to do a little more but stopped a few times to change set up. Still can't get my left leg feeling as anatomically sound as the right - will continue to play.
Run off bike only 3km - in vibram barefoots
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Slow paced afternoon run in London 21km - fantastic weather. Taking it easy due to the calf strain 2 weeks ago now. Held up well.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35661978
Wearing running flats. This is the first year I have used these and have gradually been increasing the distance I run in these - slowly however.
For the 10 years prior to this I have worn Asics gel kyano then after a bit of achilles soreness I added orthotics. These have been fine accept they are £100+ a pair and heavy.
The change to running flats started after I read the book "born to run"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Run-Hidden-Ultra-Runners-Greatest/dp/1861978774/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275678283&sr=8-1
I had also gone to the launch of this book. The science behind running, and what to wear, planted a bit of a seed. I went to the marathon medical conference the day before the London marathon and heard a Professor from Harvard give a talk about barefoot running and that sealed it. If you'd like to know get in contact.
I wont have become good enough to run a fast marathon in the running flats this year but hopefully one day. The weight saving in lighter shoes saves you 5 minutes on a marathon.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35661978
Wearing running flats. This is the first year I have used these and have gradually been increasing the distance I run in these - slowly however.
For the 10 years prior to this I have worn Asics gel kyano then after a bit of achilles soreness I added orthotics. These have been fine accept they are £100+ a pair and heavy.
The change to running flats started after I read the book "born to run"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Run-Hidden-Ultra-Runners-Greatest/dp/1861978774/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275678283&sr=8-1
I had also gone to the launch of this book. The science behind running, and what to wear, planted a bit of a seed. I went to the marathon medical conference the day before the London marathon and heard a Professor from Harvard give a talk about barefoot running and that sealed it. If you'd like to know get in contact.
I wont have become good enough to run a fast marathon in the running flats this year but hopefully one day. The weight saving in lighter shoes saves you 5 minutes on a marathon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
