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The 2014 Ironman Training thread
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RV.. these are the tough training weeks
you seem to be doing training weeks for months.but still far away from taper
RV - I'm following the same plan but 2 weeks ahead of you. Doesn't get any easier for a while!
I've been doing my long bike rides on Sundays rather than Saturdays - seems to work out better for me schedule wise but also makes that Monday rest day really nice...
Hello all,
My apologies for hijacking the thread but for i'd like some advice from those that booked hotels in Bolton this year.
Is it best to stay at the Leigh sports village or book in Bolton itself?
If anyone had any recommendations then that would be great.
Thanks in advance
Wish I hadn't gone now. 80 soaking wet miles in 5 hours. 3 punctures and to add injury to insult a low speed fall at the end of a sharp descent. Hip sore but mobile, skipped the run, will bike and run tomorrow don't want to push it today. Hopefully the puncture fairy will plague someone else from here on in.
RV.....one of those rides where it just isn't fun...
Symthe....I think a lot of the bolton guys have probably abandoned this thread now as their race is done.might be worth starting a new thread in the triathlon section asking
Been having a frustrating time over the last few weeks. The week before last I had a chesty cold so missed a few sessions including cutting short my long ride. Last week was good all the sessions hit but I missed the intervals on one of my rides (can live with that though). This week has been a different story, ear ache and neuralgia pain all up my arm that reminds me of having shingles.
Going to go out this afternoon and see how I feel on an easy run, just hoping I don't miss my long sessions again.
Smythe - will you be on your own, or will you have a sherpa?
If you have someone to support and drive you around, it doesn't matter where you stay. They can drive you to the swim, then drive you from the finish to collect your bike, then back to your hotel.
If you're on your own, you'll need to get the shuttle bus to the swim start from the stadium, then from the finish back to the stadium, then go and get your stuff. In that case, it might make more sense to stay nearer the stadium, but I would imagine accommodation is more expensive and limited there.
FWIW, I stayed out near HPP.
i am local so i would say book a hotel in bolton only because you can get on the free bus up to pennington on the day
Annoying bike ride today - started off quite well but getting back took much longer than expected and 5.5hrs turned into nearly 6.5! Also, around 15 mins from home (quite hot and bothered by then) I nearly fell off at a roundabout and managed to kick my chain off, then cut my finger open trying to get it back on! Eventually sorted it out but was COVERED in bike grease and not in the mood for an hour run, so just did a quick 30 mins. Just one of those days! Oh well.
Had a good day yesterday -though - a 3.4km swim followed by a lovely 25km run along the river and then an afternoon of eating at a friends birthday gathering!
Two 6am starts in 2 days and I'm ready for bed...
Oh, ElBeanpole - how did you get on? Did the knee hold up?
Well that hurt. The ride was fine, loosened up the swollen bruised hip, the run off the bike was purgatory for the first 20 minutes and then settled down again. Ached like hell for 2 or 3 hours after the long run and now absolutely fine again so hopefully ran it off a bit with a rest day tomorrow as well.
Doing a bit of cycling or a bit of running just about every day. The swimming I'll go back to once I'm back at home.
FRV don't push it to far if its giving you grief. YOU don't want an injury so close to race day.
I am back on it yesterday with a decent 5 hr bike and a hr run of the back. I went and hit a few hills in the Cotswolds that nearly killed me earlier in the season. Great way to measure gains as they were much easier. Feeling goo for Wales again now
Bit of pain never hurt anyone.
It's just soft tissue damage, ie my arse is bruised, much better again this morning.
Finished 3rd in 11:15, over the moon to do that only 10 months after first starting to train for triathlon. IGIT - Knee held up on the bike but definitely made me hold back and go slower - which in the grand scheme of things wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Was pretty ill at the end, had to take my place on the podium on a chair with a foil blanket on
Learnt a lot yesterday as most probably do in their first full distance, made some rookie mistakes and paid the price a bit on the run - 27 degrees in the town centre they told me at an aid station (not that I needed to know), not bad for England
Can't recommend the race enough, to be so well organised in the first time of running it was really impressive.
Race report will follow at some point
Hurrah and Ballyhoo El.... Well done!
well done beanpole
Brilliant - well done you!
Owler iron-distance race report
Background:
This time last November I had just run my first 5k and 10k races, but running wasn't too much of a problem coming from a football background. I also couldn't swim a length of my gym pool front crawl and had never sat on a race bike of any form, never mind owned one. I was lucky enough to get a mentor in the form of LMH off this forum who couldn't have been more helpful, answering my ridiculous newbie questions, giving constant advice, providing me with bits of kit and even sorting me out a deal for my road bike.
After some one-to-one swimming lessons and plenty of hours stuck in a university halls room on the turbo with a window that only opened 4 inches (good acclimatisation if they launch an ironman on the sun) I decided to sign up to an iron-distance tri as it was that distance that first drew me to the sport.
I won't bore you with the next however many months of training, but having been injury-free all the way from November and completing 2 Olys, I somehow picked up a knee injury during a bike ride in my taper. The weirdest thing was that it only really affected my cycling, but either way I only really swam in the last 10 days and got some treatment on my knee and tight muscles. After a couple of turbo tests I was really quite down about the fact I didn't even think I'd be able to bike 112 seconds, never mind miles. If I pushed a strong gear every pedal stroke was agony.
On the day before the race I went out for a short spin on the bike and concluded that if I avoided pushing a bigger gear and kept the cadence high, my knee didn't feel too bad, it had also improved a fair bit too. I was still quite uncertain though and made sure I did everything possible to help it and got it strapped up for the big day.
Swim - 1:11
Forecast for the day was very sunny, but the morning was eerily foggy, so much so that the swim was delayed for 15 mins as we couldn't see the first buoy in the lake. Final well wishes from the family who had travelled 5/6 hours to be here and I strolled off in to the fog. It began to lift though and without having time to think we were off, not much of the washing machine action as there was only about 30 or so of us.
I couldn't see tit for tat after the first buoy, so relied on following the white swim caps in front of me to get to the second buoy. Having looked back now, on both laps most of us swam a bit further than necessary between the first and second buoys by going around buoys that were there for later in the loop, make sense? Good.
My Dad later told me that the two leaders went completely the wrong way on the first loop, with one of them being the other competitor in my AG of 20-24 and also being the only person to not wear a wet suit. Don't get too excited yet though, he was still first athlete out of the water in 63 mins. By my second loop of the swim we could see fine, but I was starting to feel really ill. I wondered if it was overdoing the electrolytes, nerves or dodgy lake water but as I soon felt a strong pain in my head I realised my goggles were on far too tight. That could wait and I followed 2 swimmers for the rest of my fairly uneventful swim and exited in 1:10, followed by a run up the hill and over the athletics track to transition, entering there in 1:11.
T1 - 2:38
Having only done 2 Olys before this tri, I was taken aback by the relaxed nature of people in the change tent, we had a quick chat about our swims and a good laugh at the goggle marks on my face. I felt immediately better as soon as I removed the goggles from inside my skull.
Bike - 6:07
The big test, I was really crapping it now. I span easily for a while and all seemed OK, but I got some sharp reminders up some of the hills that my knee wasn't in great shape, so just had to keep the caden
cadence high and predominantly use my right leg. About 40 mins in to the bike I took the lead in this chaotic, mind-blowing battle in my AG between, er, just the 2 of us. 70 mins in and my right quad and hamstring were starting to feel the fact that they were doing a lot of work which worried me as we hadn't hit the hills on the first loop yet.
By the time I hit the aid station I wasn't quite ready for a new water bottle, but knew I would be in 12km when the course looped back around to the same station. So on the second visit I picked up a bottle of water but it wasn't quite the usual size of the 700ml bottles. Probably about 400ml at a guess? Anyway, the fact my 2nd bottle was full of gels and wouldn't be replaced meant my front bottle was my main source of hydration - and it would come back to haunt me that I wasn't able to take on enough water.
First loop finished in quite a lonely manner in 2:57, which was a lot quicker than I expected given the injury situation and the unnatural way I'd been overcompensating on to my right side. Weirdly, as the ride went on my left knee started to feel a bit better. As soon as I got on to the 2nd loop I was hit by all the sprint competitors heading out on to their bike leg as their event had just started. Luckily after a few miles their route went in a different direction so I could settle back in to a constant rhythm.
I worked out that my water of 400ml-ish that I had picked up at the start of loop 2 now had to last me to the aid station at the top of the hills, so about 1 hour and 45 mins away based on my first lap and rationed it as best as I could - which proved difficult in the heat.
I overtook a 79 year old man on the 2nd loop doing his first half-ironman! I was later told his wife had banned him from doing anything longer than a sprint and she thought he was doing the sprint that day!! His son cycled with him on the run route to ensure he was OK, he looked superb and finished in 8:15ish I think - hero!!
Only issues on the 2nd loop were the wind picking up meaning a headwind up the hills and then back up a long stretch of A-road and also some strange pains developing due to my newly refined 'save-the-knee' pedal technique. Rolled back in to transition in 6:07 which isn't as quick as I would have liked initially, but all things considered I'm over the moon that I even managed to complete the bike.
T2 - 2:29
Bloody gels wouldn't go in my tri-suit pockets, so I lobbed them at my family running through transition as I knew on the course they had plenty of gels at the aid stations.
Run - 3:51
Time for Billy Big Bollocks to turn up. First lap I set off like a house on fire. First mile? 7:20. I was breezing past some of the half-ironman athletes. Wooooahhh, slow down, it's bloody hot here (I was later told by a marshal it was 80 Fahrenheit, I don't speak Fahrenheit but apparently it's 27 degrees C). I was a complete idiot first lap, I knew I was dehydrated (hadn't had a wee since the swim) but still jogged the aid stations and polished the lap off in 49 mins. Running through the Ashford Designer Outlet with hundreds of shoppers clapping you past the shops and through the Food Court was an experience I'll never forget, but also made you unconsciously pick up the pace. As I finished my first lap I passed the 2 athletes who had done the Anglian ironman the day before and they were on their way out, I presumed they were ahead of me as they both looked incredible! One even gave me a wrist-breaking high-five - those guys have some level of endurance!!!
Lap 2, executive decision between me and my mind to walk the aid stations and get fluid on board. It seemed to work, I felt OK but still couldn't believe I had a half marathon to go after this lap, the furthest I'd ever run before this race was 19 miles.
Lap 3, BANG!! W
Lap 3, BANG!! Welcome to crampsville. Inner right groin and calves were the first to tap out bringing me to a standstill probably two times. It was at the end of my 2nd lap that I'd seen one of the double-iron athletes walking the inclines up the bridges etc, so it was something I began to do as it ensured my calves could hold on for the ride. I treated myself to my only other wee of the day here, short and sharp, my body really was in a mess. Getting to the Outlet was always so rewarding and to see all the family and other supporters there going crazy was a huge lift when you needed it most.
Lap 4 - I was told on the way out on my last lap by a marshal that I wasn't far behind the next competitor and that he was walking. I came up to him about half a mile later and took another position although I had no idea where I was. I was in pieces now, my form was terrible and I was paying a massive price for a lack of hydration. I broke the lap down mentally to get to the next aid station/hill so I could have a short walk and pushed on through. The last 3 miles were really bad, I passed a woman I had chatted to the day before though and she was doing her first ironman too, she was on her 2nd lap and I was 1 mile from the end, I wished her luck and she screamed at me that I'd done it. Let's not speak too soon. As I walked up the final uphill bridge and over the edge I knew I could run the final half a mile or so and shuffled to cross the road and could see my Mum and girlfriend jumping up and down before running in to the stadium for the finish. The marshals were superb all day, the guy at the entrance to the stadium who had told me about gaining a place at the start of the lap was cheering me on. I was so fatigued towards the end I couldn't muster up anything but a tired 'thank you', but their support internally gives you such a lift. Externally I must have looked horrendous. Round the outside of the stadium and round the athletics track and in to the final 100m where I then heard the announcer saying I was rounding off the men's podium - I couldn't believe it!! Hands in the air I crossed the line in 11:15 and collapsed.
I felt OK for a few minutes, had a chat to the family, had a chat to the event organiser and the medics were making sure I was in check. Then bam I felt awful, had to sit down and every time I was helped up to my feet my BP dropped and I felt like I was going to fall over/throw up. They were organising the podium as I was getting medical attention and I was desperate to be able to stand there and get some Erdinger down me! Unfortunately I just physically couldn't, I had a good chat with 2nd place who did offer me some of his Erdinger whilst I was in the medical tent - 'it'll sort you out!' - but I just couldn't think of anything worse. I was lifted in a chair over to the podium in a space blanket and covered in fleeces to take my place on the 3rd spot, sat there like a lemon - not what I hoped!! They gave the winner a huge glass of Erdinger and the spectators told him to pour it on me - I couldn't move!! Thankfully he didn't, he drank some, gave some to 2nd place and then turned and offered some to me, it still wasn't happening, he said it was probably best anyway as I was too young to drink alcohol!
In short after the podium, I plummeted again, was on a drip by which time the other competitor in my AG had finished and also had to be treated by medics as he was shaking. Was taken home, managed to eat a small bit of food and entertained the family with my inability to walk.
Overall, a superb day and superb event, I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a full/half iron event next year - and for half the price of a branded/challenge event.
Also over the moon to do my first ironman, something I didn't even know existed this time last year. Big thanks to LMH for going beyond simpl
Also over the moon to do my first ironman, something I didn't even know existed this time last year. Big thanks to LMH for going beyond simply mentoring me and all the inspiration I've got from other people's journeys on RW.
Brilliant race report and an epic effort - massive congratulations! So pleased the knee held up for you! Now rest and recover well.
Great report Elbeanpole. Great time too.
Thanks both. You're both in for Wales aren't you? Must be getting towards the biggest weeks now?
Will do IGIT, eating what I want and doing very little for most of this week, hopefully easing back in to some light training through next week before deciding how to end my season/thinking about next.
I'm doing Challenge Vichy (31st August) - this Sunday is my last big brick and then TAPER TIME!
Could be a warm one too! What's the course like?
Swim in a lake, bike fairly flat (750m ish elevation I think over the whole course) and then flat run loops round the town. Long range forecast currently around 22-24 degrees and sunny - hopefully should be ok as most of my longer training sessions have been during this lovely heatwave we've had.
Only minor concern I have is getting round the bike in time, but everyone keeps telling me not to worry! It's a 10 hour cut off for the swim and bike, and I reckon I'll do the swim in 1hr 35ish, but my long bike rides have been pretty slow as there's nowhere flat to train!
Nowhere flat? Where do you live?
If you're out in 1:35 that leaves 8 hours 15 mins to do the bike if you have a very lengthy 10 minute transition. That's a 13.5mph average. Obviously I don't know your training, but if you've been doing long rides in the hills then going at 13.5mph with only 750m of elevation should be a breeze for you, I wouldn't worry one bit. The only thing that will feel weird is the fact that you are continuously turning the legs over at a similar resistance almost like a turbo session.
In fact I've just looked up the elevation map and you should worry even less. The first 20km of each loop is a bit of uphill work, which should put you in your comfort zone, then from thereon in it's a steady downhill for a long time, so you'll carry speed without even realising it.
Have faith, you'll smash it
After months of me nagging him, finally the gym manager at work installed not 1 but 2 Watt Bikes in the gym. Gave it a 60 minute all out TT effort at lunchtime, lovely bit of kit.