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.
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