Feb 18: A Look Back

The first two months of the year gone already and the time before my A Race (Ironman Vichy) grows ever shorter. February marked my training's transition from PREP phase into BASE phase. Training proper. 

The weather may be foul, but I cannot let that get in the way of progress. I have continued with a TrainerRoad / Wattbike combination to keep my cycling on the up. I am actually following(ish) one of the TrainerRoad-Base cycling programmes to get me through to the more clement months. 

On the running front, February marked the highest running mileage, for me, in three and a half year. 93 miles. Not a huge mileage for some ... but good for me. This was not the intention but I have been asked to coach a Couch-to-5k lunchtime group where I work. Who am I to say no.

So now, the numbers: -

NUMBER OF SESSION: FEBRUARY(PLANNED V ACTUAL)

MILEAGE TARGET: FEBRUARY(PLANNED V ACTUAL)

One final point to note, is that February also marked an improvement in my 1hr, 1.5hr, and 2hr watt averages on the bike :-)

Now, through the blizzards and into March

Train Strong

Will

A look back on April

A bit late with this post, but I have been a bit busy sorting the move to a new contract position which I start next week. 

April turned out not to be as good as I planned, the aim was to up my cycling, do at least on cycling hill rep session per week and to stay consistent … that all went to the wall half way through the month when something in the right side of my back when twang during a hill rep session.

I was just finishing an 8 x 5min seated hill set and a felt a sharp pain, but it seem to ease so I finished off with a few sprints and then an hours run. The next morning I swam an it felt sore but OK and I went for e recovery MTB ride, but the first time I stood to apply pressure to the peddles for a sharp clime .. back came the pain but a lot more intense.

I ended up having to visit the physio for 2 x deep tissue massage session, 2 lots of acupuncture and 1 lot of manipulation ... plus my training was restricted to slow easy run/walks and swims …although a couple of dips in the icy North sea seamed to help a lot.

The month came in at Just under 44hr, way off target

The splits for my training

Training month on month

My aim for May is to get back into it, and finally get in some proper cycling!

A look back on March

March for me was always intended to be a breakthrough month, it was to have a focus on pushing myself and moving my training on to the level I believe is needed for me to better my Ironman PB time.

To do this I set myself the challenge of training every day of the month, I know that there is a need for rest and recovery, I know that this is not something that can be maintained due to the risk of overtraining an injury, BUT it can be done for a month, after all I have a desk job and spend most of the time sat down and I aimed to utilise active recovery instead of rest, such as sub 2k swims etc.

In total I managed to train almost 55hours in March

I thought training every day would see the weight fall off me but I actually put on 2lbs … I get hungry when I train a lot .. but I did see my body fat drop significantly to 17.5% the lowest since Ironman Germany 2006

March also saw a number of other personal barriers pushed through for me …

• I manage to break 300pts in the training point league for the first time ever beating my form PB by about 60pts
• I also did my longest swim since 2006 … 7000m

So all-in-all a good month onward and upward

The following pie chat shows how my training was split for the month

This graph shows my monthly training my time (hours) with a significant jump in March

WW

A look back on January

Well, that's the first month of the year out of the way already, and I've come out of this side of it feeling quite good, which I am pleased at, considering the man flu and chest infection I started the month at which meant no training at the front end of the month.

January also marked the start of my 10 week base plan (see post) but due to being ill, I decided to adapt week 1 and do the main over 2 weeks, to ease back into things, after all ... a plan is just a guide.

What this means is that I have now have completed the first 3 weeks of my plan which have slowly grown from 5hrs in the first week to just short of 9hrs in the 3rd week, next week will be a slightly down / recovery week as, for me, every 4th week is a recovery week.

I happy with my long bike, which is up to 2hrs and my swim which is at a nice 3.6k level, but i am a little bit behind on my long run which is still only at 6.6 mile and i wanted to be up to 9miles by now, but on the plus side i have been getting in more runs than I thought and introduced strides into my run program once per week (post on strides to follow)

Also i am continuing with a weekly non sports specific strength / power training to help try an repare / improve my damaged back

The following graph shows my stats from week 1 (twice) through to 3 ..

WW

Base Training, Training Programme

It's getting close to the new year and close to time to start structured training, later next year i will be following a specific 17 week Ironman training plan , but to get me to that I have drafted a plan that gets me to the point.

The plan is in draft at the moment and I will probably refine it a bit further but you will get an idea of what I am looking to do.  I have also categorised the training as key training and other represented by RED and BLACK.

I am the sort of person that needs a plan to help with motivation, I am more likely to do the required training if I know in advance what I need to do in advance.

This training plan only builds up to session of a maximum length of 3:30 but longer will come in the specific Ironman plan as i don't want to overtrain or burn out and it can be seen from the plan that every 4th week is a recovery week.

Some may find the program a little light on the swimming front, but in truth swim is possibly my best sport so there you have it...

For those that are interested here is my 10 week Ironman Base Training Plan

WW