Day 4 of 233 - BIKE

Once again I woke up before my alarm today but this time I had planned to complete an extra swim session this morning. After deciding that this wasn't going to happen and that I actually wanted a couple more hours in bed I turned it off and didn't wake up until 8:30am, I love the school holidays sometimes.

Anyway, after getting the train tickets for Rosy's birthday surprise (we're heading to Paris on the EuroStar to visit DisneyLand, the Eiffel Tower and lots of good food) there was just enough time for my planned bike ride. I decided that it would be better to use my Claud Butler hybrid, which I decided to call Kate, as it is still wet outside and I'm sure somebody once told me it's good to train on on that while race on the roadie. Unfortunately though, I left the ride a little too late and had to cut it slightly shorter due to lack of sunlight. It was still worth going out and it was nice to get the legs spinning again while trying to keep the heartrate within zone 2 (131-149BPM).

End results
Distance - 8.05 miles
Time - 43:33.87
Avg HR - 149
Avg pace - 5:25

It's not totally bad but it's also not where I really want to be at the moment. 

1 week completed, only 33 more to go!

Only a few days ago I decided in my wisdom to enter myself into the Ely "Monster Middle" half Iron distance triathlon. It's a 1.9km swim  followed by an 83km bike ride and then a half marathon to top it all off. Strangely, it's something that I've been wanting to do for some time. Actually scratch that, what I really want to do is a full Ironman but considering my current fitness levels it's probably wise to leave that until 2015.

Anyway, I've taken this as my first week of training and I have 33 left until MM-Day on the 17th August 2014. I haven't been for a proper run in almost 3 months, my last semi decent ride was probably much further than that away and I haven't completed a decent swim since I was taking swimming lessons as a lad so as you can see I have my work cut out for me.

To help me in this feat I have dusted off Don Fink's "Be Iron Fit" and am formulating a 30 week training plan. I now have just 3 weeks to get to a semi-reasonable level of fitness and get used to some early morning training sessions. I may have gone out a little hard this week and am aching just a little but it's that kind of ache that'll get me stronger in order to beat this Monster Middle of a triathlon.

This week's training
Run - 4 miles - 11min/miles
Bike - 10 miles - 4:45min/miles
Swim - 0.5 miles - 30 mins

BIKE - Time to talk training, tactics and targets

Training
During my first pre-base phase bike ride I had plenty of time to think about how I'm going to go about succeeding in the Monster Medium and consistency appears to be the key.

As my mind wandered, while the wheels on my bike turned around the lanes of Halstead, I kept coming back to the same conclusion. That I will succeed if I just consistently train in a sensible way. The last time I was thinking about completing a half ironman I bought a book by Don Fink (an internationally known triathlon and running coach who many have sworn by his training plans) and read it religiously. Even now, while I look through the book for hints and tips, I smile at the number of different bookmarks and turned down corners indicating various pages that I feel are worth noting but scared I'll forget are there.

The main idea that kept going through my mind while cycling though was Don's idea of training to time rather than to distance and to train with effort in mind. Many of my cycling friends, also on Strava, all want to go fast and achieve KOM for the different sections on offer but Don talks about training with a heart rate monitor, working out your maximum heart rate and then training within a certain percentage of it. He explains that in long distance events, like my Monster Medium, it's all about training to effective heart rate control and that anything outside of this could be considered "junk miles". There is no way that you'd be able to keep up a 10 mile  race pace for my 50 mile bike section, especially after completing a 1.9km swim and then having to do a half marathon afterwards. For this reason my heart rate for the majority of the Monster Medium will be quite low (between 131 & 149 bpm) and therefore during my training I have to keep it within the same sort of range. This can be quite tricky especially as it feels quite slow at times.

The other part of consistency is the frequency of rides. My job has it's moments of utter bedlam and then during other times it's just busy. If I can complete a long ride at the weekend with the Born2Tri club and two other short evening sessions then I will do just fine. I've penciled these in and will see later on if I can fit it any more.

Tactics
Going out training regularly and consistently is one thing, but before these sessions I need to be prepared in order to get the full benefits. At the moment this is mainly equipment. Whilst riding today I decided I need to buy a good pair of bib shorts (basically lycra dungarees) so that my top does ride up slightly showing off my more than ample arse cleavage. Next up will be overshoes in order to keep my feet nice and toasty, by the end of my 10 mile session today I was beginning to lose the feeling in my toes! Finally there is the cycle computer, something just nice and cheap to give me a nice and quick idea of how far I've gone and at what speed.

Targets
Inbetween trying to keep an eye on my heart rate and thinking about the extra items of equipment I'd be needing over the next six months I was also thinking about my end game. That being the time I'd want to finish in and what speed/pace I would need to keep throughout the 50 miles. The cut off time for the bike section is 4 hours and 20 minutes which means the absolute slowest I can go is 12mph at a pace of 5 minute/mile. Ideally I would like to be comfortable at an average speed of 15mph at a pace of 4 minute/mile. There is no way I'm at this speed at the moment but with regular riding and a good training program I know I will be there come August 17th.

Just another challenge?

Here we are again, coming towards the end of another year with thoughts racing towards what I could do in the future. Sometimes it always seems that I'm looking to the future to what might be, to what could be, but this time I'm booked up and ready to go. I'm all signed up and paid up for the Monster Middle in Ely on the 17th August next year. Training needs to start straight away for me as this 1.9km swim, 83km swim and 21km run is going to be a tall order.

Now, I've completed marathons before (the majority way back when I was in my early 20s) and have cycled London to Paris but all of those have seemed like I just got round with very little training. Each event never had a cut off point / a time that I had to complete it in otherwise resulting in failure. I have always felt that those moments of crossing the finishing line of the London Marathon or arriving at the Eiffel Tower could be completed by anyone with very little training. After all, it's what I did and I am no Superman, far from it in fact. I have the medals and photos to prove I have completed these events but I have never felt that I have achieved anything special. While running the marathon there were always hundreds and thousands of other people around me doing the same and I have always heard of others cycling from London to Paris. In the past I have tried to convince myself that these are events that not anyone can just do, but on facing facts I honestly believe that any average Joe off the streets can do it. Just by taking things steady and having the right mental attitude I think anyone can complete a marathon. All you need to to is keep going and believe in yourself! Upon working with Jona Davies at a primary school in Chelmsford I then found the next challenge, triathlons. Jona was, and is, a very motivating person who allowed me to see the person I wanted to be. He came up with challenges and introduced me properly to the sport of triathlon. I completed my first sprint tri after he suggested a race and I completed it with the same attitude and training I had done with the marathon, i.e. not a lot of proper training and an attitude where I told myself that I would finish it no matter what. At the end I mistakenly felt proud of my accomplishment but in my heart I knew that I could do much better. When two other people I knew started completing local tri's as well I knew I had to step things up a notch. I wanted to feel special, I wanted to feel like I had achieved something that others had not, I wanted to feel proud of myself.  Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of spare money and entering these races can cost a bit but I knew that I wanted to go longer in terms of a triathlon. I told myself that I wouldn't use this money to enter a small sprint tri but I would instead go for a proper long distance one that others would not even contemplate. This longer tri didn't materialise as I hadn't booked myself a place and I hadn't completed anywhere near enough training. From the moment I knew I wasn't going to compete I felt depressed and lost any motivation I did have to carry out any training. 2013 passed me by in terms of training and exercise. I was not a happy fella.

Everything has changed though. My wife has realised that I really want to do this half ironman challenge, even if at times I don't show the enthusiasm that is coursing through my veins. Thanks to some very generous parents at work and understanding family at birthdays and Christmas', I now have the majority of the equipment.

With the cut off times of this half ironman triathlon I now feel that it is a real challenge that I absolutely MUST train for in order to complete it. I feel that you can't just 'turn up' and complete this challenge and that many people out there will not even contemplate being able to do it. I must swim 1.9km within 70 minutes, I've got a maximum of 4hrs20 to then cycle 83km and finally I then have to complete a sub 3hr half marathon (21km).

I have paid my entry fee of £104, I have joined a triathlon club, I have books to read about training and I have a time limit. Is this just another challenge? I don't think so. Time to get on the bike!