hills in the pyrenees

a 10 day camp based in Luchon the pyrenees & assisting ian and julie wright of pyrenees multisport on NRG tri camp & getting a few hills in on the bikes day 1

....old tricks

After several cautious and sometimes frustrating weeks returning to training, I was pleased to finally log a solid week in Lanzarote prior to the start of our camp gave me some confidence that i'd survive the week ahead. Despite picking up ( another) sore throat warning sign on the day of our departure, with the help of half the cold and flu shelf of Boots, Gatwick and a concerted effort to get plenty of sleep I logged 22hrs incl. 10km of sea swimming, 200miles on the bike and 30miles of running, with a bit of intensity in each too. Sunshine does do wonders for my energy levels - as does the simplicity of life away from home, a concerted effort and the exciting prospect of the week ahead.

The organisational aspect of our second camp was significantly easier than our first one, last year - this time around the challenge for me would be keeping up with the training. I knew that I'd have to take it steady, but that if I did then this week would be a great fitness boost and "proper training" could commence on our return. I also knew that it'd been a rough winter for a few of the athletes who were coming along, and they'd be following a similar approach to me. Well - talk about sand-bagging!! From day one those guys and girls were smashing it and, although I won't admit that they showed me up (at the end of the day all they needed to do was get a massage and relax over dinner whereas Steven and I generally worked until 8pm each evening) I was impressed, and pleased to see the effect of the environment that we had created on their motivation. Listening to IMTalk, they had a very apt discussion of the week topic recently: "what to do when you loose your training mojo?" - Well, top of my personal list is to get away on a training camp…and I was able to observe the mojo magic working on others here too.

Those interested in more detail of what we all got up to during camp week, can read the daily diary blog -posts that I put up on the EverydayTraining site, but in summary everyone, including our physio and massage crew, logged between 24 and 37hrs of training - the vast proportion of it being on the bike of course. We were helped enormously by the return of Emma as ride leader, Ali giving special physio treatments and TheTriTouch masseuse Helen Smith, an old Tri London training buddy of ours, the cooperation of our favourite hotel in Puerto de Carmen. We had been running an advert in Triathlete Europe, but still most of the places sold via personal recommendations and word of mouth so once again we managed to attract a really great group of athletes - many of whom were returning from last year and had passed on their recommendations to like-minded friends.

My experience was a week of enjoyable training in good company with no bail-out options! I had to be out on my bike each day and had decided to commit to doing the daily training minimum's and as much of the racing as logistics would allow. I generally got the job of leading the slower group and the shorter ride option each day ; given Steven's riding strength it made sense that he always rode with the "fast guys" and had a blast doing so. Emma is a very strong cyclist and is happy and able to ride with any sort of group - but we hoped to make the week enjoyable for her as well as an opportunity for her to get as many miles in her legs as possible. So, at times I felt like i would have liked a more challenging pace for the sake of my own enjoyment and ego, we were all mindful that I needed to keep prolonged periods of intensity to a minimum and just ensure that i got through the week! This also meant that I had the privilege of riding with some great characters, either new to Ironman and/or less experienced at this volume of serious training, and see them really train beyond their own perceptions of what they could achieve, and gain confidence for their season ahead. On the final ride of the camp - the Ironman course - I rode with the "moderate" pace group, and it was a hard day for me. I had the feeling that I was about at the end of my resources for the week, and unfortunately our group never really got working well together, so there was no hiding from the conditions (unusual south-westerly winds, and some rain) or the hills. At the end of the day I was genuinely looking forward to sneaking home after one social beer and hitting my pillow…..but somehow, thanks to a few enormous Jagermisters I think, I found the energy to stay out a wee bit longer ;o) I don't remember everything about the evening, but if a night includes getting turned upside down by the biggest bloke on the dance floor, I class it as a good one.

Inevitably, both Steven and i were exhausted after the camp, and travelling through the night on budget travel services including taxi, plane, train, taxi, train, taxi we arrived back in Taunton just after 9am on monday morning, with two cases of the blues. Steven is coaching his swim squad this week so he had something to focus his mind on. I've been trying to get caught up on my coaching work and my accounts, but without a lot of enthusiasm. I'd made sure that I did not have a lot that i needed to do this week, which is nice since it's allowed me to train "casual" (i.e. not having to rush to fit it in) and nap during the day.

Since the Double and the illness, my running as been limited by enduring muscle soreness - part of the prolonged recovery process, i guess - and so the London Marathon training has not really happened. Certainly not sufficiently for me to contemplate running. I've run lots of marathons - after the first, and the fastest, they're not a lot of fun. So, in attempt to get myself back in the swing of it, running wise, I'm reverting to the good old "30 runs n 30 days" challenge. This is a simple way of ensuring a consistent spell of running without any emphasis on pace or duration - just frequency. It's an excellent motivator to get back into training after a winter break, an injury or for athletes intending on stepping up a distance and requiring some solid base-work. All that is required is 30 runs of 30minutes or more in the 30 -day period. The simplest way to achieve this is to run each day - but this is not requirement if you are prepared to include double run days. 30 minutes is the minimum run, and most of us will include several longer runs each week although runs that are multiples of 30 minutes still only count for a single run. It is actually harder than it sounds - it doesn't take much to become de-railed and find your self in a run-debt that you cannot get out of. There was a phase a few years ago when a group of us from Tri London first picked up this idea ( I think it was from GordoWorld site) and all embarked om the challenge. Remarkably few made it through 30 days, not due to physical limiters but more to do with time and logistics. I found that the key was to make your running very efficient -i.e make time to run by running places that i'd usually cycle or take the tube, and then run back = that's two down! I was lucky in that a) my job required frequent site visits around central london and b) the builder that I was meeting generally smelled worse that i did!
My record for the challenge was completing the advanced adaption of 50 runs in 50 days - with each run being 50+ minutes. That lead to what is still probably my best race performance at Ironman Germany (the challenge finished about 20 days before the race, if I remember correctly). Of course those were the days when a 3:20 marathon was considered pretty decent, especially for an age-grouper…and so no real speed training was required; it was just a case of having strong enough legs. I'm striving for more than that now……but first i need to get myself Back in The Game, and it's games like this which will get me there.

Oh, and the 100 press-up challenge ;o)

new tricks

A full month has passed since the Enduroman race and I'll be honest, it's been a difficult and drawn out recovery. After the race i was super-happy with the shape i was in and motivated and i suppose that this was part of the reason behind why i was tempted back into training too soon - that and my inexperience regarding the extent of the fatigue that the race, and the big block of training i'd put in during my 6-week intensive camp prior to the race. Usually after an ironman, i'll take 2-3 days off and then resume some light exercise during the following week This would be followed by a week or two of unstructured, social and fairly light training, amounting to about 30-50% usual load. During this post -race period I'm pretty lax about my diet, paticulary with regards to alcohol, and sleeping patterns so that after a few weeks i'm generally quite keen to get back on the "wagon" and behave like an athlete again and pick up what i have left of my pre -race fitness. Depending on what time of the year, or racing season this is, this is often when i feel like i'm in the best shape! Trained, rested and enthused.

After the Double, clearly I'd need much longer to recover and i'd set aside a good amount of time with no important races on the horizon to allow for that. Admittedly I had entered a local aquathlon race, and had hopes for a PB at this year's London marathon should everything be going to plan and follow on from the successful start to the year. So, I imposed on myself a whole week of doing nothing more active than receiving massage and then, following the usual pattern, did few light rides and swims the following week. All felt good, and so as the week went on I added in a few more workouts. No planned training, just getting from A to B, staying loose and catching up with old training buddies and a few of the athletes that i coach by joining their sessions. Of course what comes next is fairly predictable…with all the coughs and colds circulating the UK at this time of year, my shattered immune system was not going to let me get away with that and a slightly sore throat quickly developed into a a full-on and prolonged dose of lurgey and self-pity.

The saving grace for me during this period has been the distraction provided by my new training toy - a set of Cycleops Aluminium rollers supplied to me through Blair at Paligap. Blair was keen for me to try their top-end set, which offers variable resistance, but for the type of workouts that I had in mind for these I felt that the single low-resistance setting setting would be better. For my resistance work I have the use of a turbo trainer and plenty of local undulation. At this time i was not able to do any hard workouts, but had plenty of spare time to focus on some "skills" improvement.

Rollers are said to be great for tuning up the core to maintain stability on the bike, enabling you to keep locked on a line when riding in a group even whilst making large movements or gestures with the arms. the need for this was highlighted to me by my friend Emma as we fought over the stability of a tandem one long wet weekend back in November. Now of course, when i'm riding feel that I exhibit perfect poise over the combined centred of gravity of myself and bike - confidently capable of riding without hands, passing bottles, removing layers of clothing and pointing out interesting local features to my companions. However, according to her, the tandem was lurching wildly as my counter weight shifted each time I so much as changed my grip on the bars.

At the time I thought that this was a rather exaggerated and unfair criticism …..until I got on the rollers! For those that don't know "rollers" are a wonderfully simple bit of apparatus that enables you to ride your own bike in a stationary set-up indoors, in the garage or in the yard saving you the bother of carrying waterproofs or a map. The wheels of your bike rest on a set of 3 freely rotating cylandars (rollers!) the middle one is driven by the rear wheel of your bike as you pedal, this in turn drives the front roller by means of a rubber belt, and that drives your bicycle's front wheel which rests on top of it. So nothing's fixed in place but of course everything's perfectly stable so long as you keep it so. There's a little less contact that you get from a flat road surface and a lot less friction - i guess that's why it initially feels like riding over ice; a bit hairy but fine if you don't think about it, or try too hard to ride on ice…..
It's a fun skill to practice when you're too sick to do a "workout" - and 15-20 minutes is time usefully spent and after 2 or 3 of these short practices working someplace with a wall to lean on (initially i tried the fixie, don't think that was the easiest place to begin) I was confident enough to ride continuously. It's probably something that as a beginner i was more aware of …but whilst its very stable whilst you're centred and relaxed, the slightest movement of the front wheel or leaning the bike is very noticable, the tendency is then to over-compensate. With nothing solid to counter-balance against it's down to core strength (or a set of over filled shelves) and an ability to stay calm to set you right. So ,whilst you may think that you're riding a perfect line i'll bet that just like me, each time you look over your shoulder, lean down to reach your bottle, adjust your glasses or expel a bogie that bike is making quite a side-ways movement. Luckily, in a group EVERYone is constantly moving and, if they have any sense, also watching the rider that they're following, not just their wheel.

I've been riding my rollers twice a week for the last 3 weeks now and i'm still not ready for picking up a drink bottle during a workout BUT i have progressed to the point where I can move my hands about the grips, change gear ( even on my clunky old Campy!!!) look and hold my gaze left or right, singing and snot flinging. I'm still using a wall to lean on for mounting/dismounting but am keen to learn a more elegant method.

The second thing that these free rollers are great for, and from my perspective the main benefit of training on them is to work at high cadence. Referring once again to our tandem adventure, another of the issues that Emma and I had was that we have vastly different natural pedalling cadence. It's hardly surprising really since although we met through triathlon, Emma is a long time cycling enthusiast who occasionally swims and runs under sufferance. I don't really know why - because she just loves to ride ride ride and most of all she loves to ride hills (she is very good at it). Long rides, audaxing away for hundreds of km, frequently in the company of those slower than herself and rides accordingly. The high-cadence that she's developed (and observed) with this background enables her to do these gruelling long rides, ascend as fast up the very last hill as she did the first and still be feeling pretty jolly at the end of it. usually. Whereas myself - putting aside the cycling that I did as a kid/youth on heavy 3 geared steel bikes on the rolling roads around Somerset - cycling for me was a pastime that I came to via triathlon, and time trailing. My natural cadence has always been pretty low, I'm a grinder, and although I have often read and heard it suggested that 90rpm is "optimum" and that therefor a higher cadence would be "better" I have never been fully convinced that this is true for triathletes. I've read articles in the mainstream tri mags and "how to train for triathlon" books which have adopted this idealisation of "90rpm" - but they never really provided an explanation that made sense to me. It was quite a breathe of fresh air when Brett Sutton discussed this topic in the light of his athletes tending to riding pretty slow rpm ..scorching the bike course and then running pretty good after that. I did not get the impression that he encourages low rpm….he just doesn't see the value in changing it too much from what comes natural (for these triathletes). You can go fast by pushing a big gear slower or a small gear faster- whilst the former isn't ideal when there are 5 days of a stage race with frequent surges in pace to contend with, but the latter is more likely to get your HR higher for that 5 hour sustained hard effort preceding a marathon - that's not always what u want.

That said, how can I refute that being able to exert power efficiently through a wider range of rpm would be better than confinement to a narrow preferred range? Just like riding on slippery roads or through a ford, on the rollers you're more stable at higher rpm. I'm not sure why but i'd guess that its due to less force per stroke and therefor whatever pedal stroke imperfections and left-right imbalances you have are less effective in both magnitude and also duration. In other words, you "correct" the rocking each pedal stroke, so the quicker your stroke, the faster the correction occurs and lesser the consequences. So these are a great tool for training higher cadence habits and testing out some pedalling technique focused sessions that i have had some of my athletes doing during their off-season. With a heart rate monitor speed and cadence sensors fitted to my bike (i'm lucky, i have a Timex unit that measures all 3 plus power) I first did a testing session which enabled me to determine my current preferred gearing/cadence and have been regularly conducting a workout designed to practice riding in a slightly lower gearing for the same power and test the effectiveness of this. It appeals to me because it's a very measured approach - there's data to review after the workout, it's novel, fun and challenging. It generates a good amount of sweat and some higher HR but is easy on my quads and knees. After a 5 minute warm up, I ride 5 minutes in my "middle" gear - that's 50/17 - at 33.5kph. This requires me to pedal at about 90rpm which now feels quite comfortable and the resultant heart rate is 150-153 bpm which is around AeT. Then follows 5 minutes intervals with 1 minute recovery, riding each interval in different gears at the same speed. After the workout I look at the Hr and cadence as well as whether I successfully maintained the target speed for each interval. It's still true that the most "efficient" - if i look at HR for speed - gears are the higher ones with rpm below 80, but I have found that i am becoming much more comfortable at 90+ rpm and improving my efficiency close to 100rpm. Initially i was unable to maintain my balance at 110rpm due to 'bouncing' effect that the rollers will not tolerate….but now, although it's still difficult and sends my HR right up there, i have smoothed the stroke out and can stay on board for the full interval.

In addition to these short workouts I have been doing a couple of grown up rides - nothing long, just 3-4hrs each weekend - in preparation for a week of solid riding out in Lanzarote whist hosting our second EverydayTraining camp .
Steven is in great shape - his spell in Lanzarote prior to the Enduro kick started his return to fitness after a fairly long winter break and he has maintained his momentum fantastically since then. I'm hoping that, this camp will do the same for me!

Double Enduroman - Race Report

Full report on my website...

post- double enduroman, lanzarote.

Massive thanks to everyone who has sent their congratulations...and opinions about my mental stability ;o)
well, i survived it. so i guess the training was adequate - it certainly enabled me to worry less about my body, which all held together pretty good, and keep focused on what was going on inside my head - which was mostly pretty positive.
But my success/survival was at least 80% down to the support of my crew -and 20% down to the support of others out there on the day. All i had to do was keep movin'.
My Mum and my Steven are true superstars.

this was one amazing experience and ....yes...i may have got a taste for it.

the cancellation of the swim was very dissapointing - not that i love swimming, but i do love triathlon, and swimming comes with that (besides i spent HOURS in that damn pool at Club la Santa!) - and i feel that there's unfinished business.

I reckon I could shave several hours off my bike just by virtue of better conditions, and ditto the run. I cannot imagine how Gregorio and Guy got through it so quick -no stops - ore even pausing on the bike, and their run times are amazing ( they do suggest that the course was somewhat under measured, but even so it's not far off)

my race report will follow soon ...it's taking almost as long to write it as the race took!

run week

(please excuse the odd use of tense in the following post - it was written as a daily journal)

Day 1 – Monday 9th was a day off .Just a 30 min “ab attack” workout in the sun and a very gentle spin up to town for a massage, so I guess that doesn’t really count as day1 …does it?

Day 2 (which will now be called day 1) – Tuesday 10th and my big run week started with a half marathon. One of the nice things about being at Club La Santa is that there are organized events throughout the week, and I figured this might be my only opportunity of running at decent pace all this week! The half marathon is renowned as a “sporting” course with a generous amount of ascent. It was a beautiful, still, morning and 8 of us had gathered for the race. 5 of us ran as a group 3 laps around the run track, around the lagoon before starting the long drag up through the town of La Santa. About 4km in one fella started to pull a little ahead, and I found myself instinctively push to follow…then reminded myself that, with such a small field there was little way of knowing how one should be ‘seeded’ in the pack; for all I knew, he’d run around in 70minutes or something! So I remained at the side of my new acquaintance from Rivington, Bolton a little way back. The pace was respectable and comfortable as we chatted about fell racing, his local area, my triathlon-ing and other things, until the gradient kicked up a north and the conversation became a lot more difficult for me! The front of the field had remained quite compact and I had company to pace off for most of the race…until the terrain made a downwards turn onto some rough roads and my tummy started calling for a relief stop. Par for the course, to be honest – part of my ‘training’ this week includes nutritional experimentation, and it was no surprise to me that at that intensity my very recent breakfast wanted out. I was disappointed to be left chasing by about half a kilometer all the way down to the finish, and a little disappointed with my finish time of 92 minutes. However, I was pleased with how fresh my legs felt after Sunday’s 3hr run and that that time was achieved at a pretty comfortable effort.
I just did a yoga class and a short bike in the late afternoon, enjoying the very still and clear evening air.

Day 3 (or day 2 – you get the idea) Wednesday 11th– swim, bike, run day. It was a short swim, 3km focused on Critical Pace. The stillness of yesterday was clearly the calm before the storm as the wind was howling by 8am! By 9am 3 of us were out on the bikes, Rachel and EK taking it very easy as both are just recovering from illnesses. We rode gentle and took some pictures over Fire Mountain, going our separate ways at El Golfo. I wanted to check out the Enduro course and had planned to ride repeats for an hour or so before hooking up with Steven and his friends who had arrived on the island last night. By 11am the wind had really picked up, making the ride down the old road to Playa Blanca pretty grueling …and providing many really scary moments throughout the day as we rode on around the island and the force of the gales seemed to increase. I returned from a 5.5hr ride absolutely shattered –far more so than my Powertap readings indicated I should be, from being tense on the bike all day, and possibly under hydrate/fed due to the distraction of the winds. It’s entirely possible that conditions will be such on race day, which is a potential worry, but something that I know I need to be prepared for. Today’s run was another of CLS organized events – a group off road 12km run. Last week I’d really enjoyed this, and been in the nice position of being able to set the pace at the front felling relaxed and having a chat with the group leader. Not so today! I’m sure it was a faster group this time and I was just about hanging on at the back (although admittedly chatting with my Rivington fell runner mate) – again until the terrain started heading downwards – my legs did not feel strong enough to ensure I’d stay upright…..so I allowed a gap to from and took my own route in for 10km in 50min. Another beautiful evening -this time due to the “dust haze’ created by the Sahara Winds, and the eerie light and rings it created around the setting sun.

Day 4 - Thurs 12th the first of my two big mile, double run days. I’m hoping to cover 56miles over today and tomorrow, broken down as 20, 8, 6, 22 mile runs. Scott has encouraged me to run for distance rather than time (he knows that given the chance I’ll head off –road, get lost and find myself on tracks that are barely run-able and hiking across lava fields…) and so I had a road based route in mind for this morning’s run. Hell it was windy. And I’m not sure what happened but I found myself tempted by the track to La Famara…it’s a pretty run-able track and goes direct from CLS to the surfers town which is about 8 miles along the coast. It was infinitely more appealing that the roads though it did force a slower pace. I committed to running the road route back, so the run was half –half. It took me long, and it was quite a struggle, I have to admit. I approached it a little like I do my long rides when I’m just trying to get back to fitness and build endurance – it’s about getting the miles done, not speed, and stops are allowed. So I had a coupe of brief nutrition, stretch and emptying sand out of my shoes stops . I was pretty close to a shuffle by the end of the run but got it done in just over 3hrs. It’s going to be a hard couple of days! This evening’s run will be around the track, with a bit of shelter from the winds and a bit more attention to my pace.

I was pleased with how this went considering my perceived state of physical wellbeing this afternoon! 32 times around the track, alternating between a steady 2min lap and a “tempo” 1:45 lap. The track was less sheltered than I’d hoped, but at least it was only 150m into the wind which was offset by an equally strong push from behind every lap. The air was pretty thick with dust again and again it created a strange light as the sun dropped. We treated ourselves to the barbeque buffet in the Club restaurant this evening for a big fat steak and plenty of carbos in dessert form.

Day 5 – Friday the 13th !! Knowing that unless I got in and did it first thing, I’d be able to come up with plenty of justification to omit this ‘optional’ swim session, so I hit the water shortly after 7am. Or rather, that chilly water hit me! It was one of those sessions where even with the 4seconds per 100m allowance for long course, I was struggling to make target times, and just got very cold. It did however get me pretty keen for my first run of the day, which was a straight forward 10km run, 2 laps between the sports resort and the village with the ever present side-wind.

Aggh . Run two of the day, the longest and most testing run in the plan was certainly the later though unfortunately the way that it turned out, it was not the longest in the end. The challenge was always going to be tough for me, and I knew that final run would be a matter of just getting through it, an exercise in mental toughness and determination that would prepare me for race-day. But with around 5 miles to go the discomfort in my ankles and itb had surpassed what I consider a reasonable level for even the most grueling of training days and, adopting a run walk strategy (well that’s gotta be practiced too!) I cut off the final loop of my planned route. Needless to say I am currently not in the best spirits, having ‘failed’ on my mission of 56miles over two days, and I cannot find a position to sit or lie in that gives my legs any feeling of relief from cramps. But on more rational reflection; I am just shy of a combined total of 52 miles (race distance) in two days and reviewing my diary to include last weekend, have run 98 miles in the last seven days –which is probably my biggest run block ever.

Day 6 - saturday.
slept very poorly due to leg-ache, mysterious banging in our wardrobe, the Joyc-a-tron's snoring and an all-nigt party next door. won't do much today - catch up on coaching work, a swim in my wetsuit, a yoga class and get a massage...ready for next week :o)

Double Training continues...

Since posting the my previous post which outlined my training plans , I can report that thanks to a very mild December at home I have been able to get those long rides done, which I feel has given me a ‘toe-up’ on the road to endurance. Participating in the Rapha Festive 500km via Strava helped over the Christmas period, although it did rather derail my very sensible planning to limit hours and have a rest day each week. But I did only train 2.5 hours on Christmas day and Boxing day ;o) My weekly schedule has topped at 29hrs so far, although I have struggled to accomplish the long swims that I had planned in our local pool due to festive closures, and yes, ok – bottom line is lack of motivation. Ditto long runs. This is the area that makes me most nervous – I’m not a fan and typically run under 40 miles /week with my longest run not more than 15mile outside of marathon training ..which is pretty much always. My longest runs are in Ironman races! Well ,that’s gotta change and yes…the wheels are in motion. By doing mid-length (1.5-2hr) runs off the bike at the end of a big weekend, I feel that I’m accomplishing part of the preparation: running when dog-tired, but there’s no hiding from the need to spend more time on my feet.

So, we arrived in Lanzarote and settled into our apartment in Club La Santa on Tuesday. I’m writing this on Sunday evening – just back from a 3hr run which took 3.5hrs (due to 2 water stops, a bit of navigation and some barely run-able terrain along the way enforcing micro- walking breaks . Yes, I DO stop my watch) I’m pleased to report a run mileage north of 50, and that I have accomplished 2 swims over over 7km in the 5 days we’ve been here.

It’s been a little odd getting back on the QR having spend so much time recently on my Litespeed road bike (which I duly rode the cranks off on new year’s eve, forcing me to ride 2/3rd of my planned 120mile on the fixie – no route adjustments) and I’m finding myself sitting up when the road starts pointing up, which u don’t wanna be doing in Lanzarote!!

Tomorrow is a rest day…and then follows a “run week” where I will be aiming to cover 56miles in two days, chock in a couple of 6hr rides and another 8km swim set.

EK arrives this evening and I’m hopeful that sickly room-mate Rachel is recovered from the most severe tonsilitus that I’ve seen which has kept her confined to her bed for most of the “camp” so far. I look forward to seeing the last bowl of garlic soup (food of champions, when they’re ill, apparently!) and having some ride company next week.