Back On Track

After an enforced break from training – 5 days of complete rest – due to my unexpected night in hospital and subsequent cold and flu symptoms, I am glad to say I am back on track with my training.

I started out with some light cycling on my wind trainer and jogging on the treadmill for the first couple of days. I tried a light session in the pool the next day and felt surprisingly good so the following day (Saturday) I did a 3 hour ride at a very leisurely pace and followed up on Sunday with a 20km run with a bit of intensity. Things were feeling good and back to normal.

This meant I would be pushing to complete my scheduled training as I had set in my program for the week ahead. That week began 7 days ago (Monday) with a strength swim session where I performed 4 x 400 metres and 2 x 200 metres with paddles as my main set. That same day I rode my bike to and from work as a little extra bike mileage for the week.

That was the perfect start to the week and things continued on Tuesday with my 2 hour strength bike session on my wind trainer followed by a 15 minute run on the treadmill building to race pace.

Wednesday started with my hard interval treadmill run with 8 x 1km performed at 3:00min/km pace with 2 minutes slow recovery in between. Later on, it was a more race specific session in the pool that included 20 x 100 metre efforts at race pace.

Thursday was another 2 hour bike session on the wind trainer with high cadence efforts and single leg work. Friday looked similar to Wednesday with a morning run but this time a comfortable pace for half an hour before a few sharp efforts and then a big feed. My swim, that day, was a genuine speed session with 20 x 50 metre efforts off a deep water start (no push off the wall). This showed me how ineffective my kick is currently. My legs felt like they were barely assisting and I couldn’t get them in a good rhythm when trying to kick faster. I will be working on this during that same session each week.

Eventually, Saturday came and my long ride awaited. I had been waiting to do my first ride over 4 hours for the first time since beginning this whole process in building towards the Shepparton 70.3 and the weather decided to give me a real test. 50km/h winds, coming from the west, absolutely smashed me! I had decided to head to Mount Macedon as this will be where I climb hard to build my strength significantly. This meant dealing with either a headwind or vicious cross wind all of the way there.

It’s about 60km to get to the start of the Mount Macedon climb and then about 7km of uphill with some 12 and 13% gradient sections. However, by the time I reached the climb my legs were really struggling after battling those winds but I reached the top and then took a break before heading back down. I was extremely cautious on the way down as it is very steep but the winds made it more difficult as I mixed it up in the cross winds.

Back on the flat roads, I enjoyed the tail winds but couldn’t get as much joy from it as I hoped because my legs were spent. Then, I had the cross winds to fight with some more which continued to zap my strength. My anticipated 4 and ½ hour session turned into 5 and ¼. Overall, I was really happy with how I held up under the conditions. I got myself up the climb and kept on top of my nutrition really well. It gave me a lot of confidence for tackling that same ride on another day with better conditions.

Finally, it was Sunday and long run time. I was on location in Port Arlington with family and, as we were going to Point Lonsdale that afternoon to visit some other family, it was the perfect way to run about 21km in order to meet the others there. Well, it couldn’t have gone much better. I warmed up over the first couple of kilometres and then quickly found a solid pace of, I estimate, about 4:10min/km pace on an undulating road. Conditions were excellent with about 20 degrees temperature, a slight tail breeze coming off the bay and sunshine. It was so exciting to feel that good in my strongest discipline.

I am going to be doing almost exactly that same sequence of training over the next week and a half before having 6 days of rest including, 3 days of no exercise at all and 3 days of very light training. After the rest period, I will hopefully feel quite physically refreshed and then it will be 3 more weeks of intense training before I taper into the race.

Good times!

Hospitalisation

A spanner has been thrown in the works. Last Friday (Sept 14) I ended up in hospital for a night. From the morning of that day I felt a bit off and gradually, over the course of the day, developed some abdominal pain and nausea. By 4:30pm, I was throwing up regularly and the abdominal pain grew significantly. My partner took me to emergency and I was admitted with a high fever, also.

I was placed on a drip, they gave me morphine for the pain, some medicine for the nausea, tested my blood and urine, took x-rays of my torso and monitored me all night. None of which seemed to provide any indication of what had caused this combination of symptoms.

In the morning, the doctor came by and said that there was no sign of infection or other abnormalities showing from the tests or x-rays. He didn’t think it was food poisoning either but a possible explanation was inflammation of the glands through the stomach region.

The main thing is, within a few hours after being admitted, I was getting better. My fever was coming down, I eventually had some cordial to drink and I didn’t feel like bringing it back up and I got a few hours sleep. I even stomached some breakfast in the morning.

The whole episode was a little scary. It seemed to come on quite suddenly but it has left me with symptoms of a cold – runny nose, congested sinuses, sneezing, tickle in the throat, phlegm  – which have slowly subsided in the past 6 days to the point where I will now start minimal training again today.

In hindsight, I feel there is a good chance I can put the whole saga down to overtraining and running myself down into a state of vulnerability and stress. Not so much a sign of the amount of training I was doing, instead, the lack of rest I was taking. Not staying in bed that extra hour or two occasionally when it was really hard to get up. Essentially, not listening to my body as closely as what I have stressed to do in my previous Blog posts and masking the fatigue with coffee.

However, there are some other possibilities to what may be causing these symptoms, in-particular, the continued unsettled feeling in my stomach. I believe, in the couple of weeks leading up to my night in hospital, I had become more relaxed with parts of my diet. Notably, eating cakes, crumpets, extra bread, white pasta, etc. in an effort to satisfy my caloric needs but this may be causing me undue stress on my digestive system. I had been consuming a more wheat/gluten free diet prior to those slack couple of weeks. It had resulted in me dropping about 2kg, mainly through lost bodyfat, which has been a goal of mine in the lead up to this season. I had been feeling very strong during training and happy with my gut function. I had, previously, made minor changes to my diet over the past 12 months to help my gut with bloating, gas and constipation but I had lost sight of this improvement and how I reached that point, initially.

I will focus heavily on my diet over the next couple of weeks to see if I can get my gut back on track. It will mainly contain the basics of lean meats, vegetables, salad, fruit and nuts. I will continue with my oats as my main source of carbohydrate and use rice occasionally as a gluten-free, carbo-loading food for long weekend sessions and races, provided it is a successful method for my stomach. I have 2 months to get it right.

This has happened at an interesting time in my build up to the Shepparton 70.3. It is at the beginning of my big build up to race fitness but I will be almost 2 weeks behind with this enforced lay off. It will mean an adjustment in my training, altering build weeks and rest weeks. I will explain all of this in my next post and hopefully I will be well and truly over this illness by then.

I must regain focus across the board to ensure I reach my race goals!

Bike training.

My bike training, out of the 3 disciplines, is the one thing I am not sure about right now. I haven’t tested myself significantly in my build up so far and, as I am looking to take up to 20 minutes off last year’s bike split in Shepparton (2 hours 39 minutes), it is essential that I see considerable gains in this area.

I have a plan to achieve this over the next 2 months. During the next 4-week training cycle, I will do 3 key bike sessions per week, each with a different focus. Here they are:-

Ø  Tuesday – 2 hour session done on my wind trainer. I will warm up for 20 minutes then, in a medium gear, alternate 5 minute intervals. 5 minutes done at a high cadence up to 100+rpm and 5 minutes at a more comfortable 85-90rpm. This is to simulate a burst when needing to pass someone and get a gap ahead of them before settling back into my race pace. I will do the 5 minute intervals for 60 minutes, followed by some single-leg work. I will do one minute intervals as 1 minute left leg, 1 minute right leg and 1 minute both legs recovery and do a total of 30 minutes. Single-leg work is essential for me in order to work on symmetry, as well as developing the ‘dead spots’ of the pedal stroke.  A 10 minute cool down and I’m done.

Ø  Thursday is an over gear session. 90 minutes the first 2 weeks and 2 hours during the third week. I will warm-up and then do a series of 10 minute efforts in a large gear above what I would use in a race, with a 5 minute spin in between. This is to build strength and push my lactate threshold.

Ø  My third session is a long Saturday ride of 4 and ½ hours. This will include a long steep climb up Mount Macedon after about 60km. This climb is approximately 7km long with an average gradient of 9% with parts up to 13%. This ride covers the essential over-distance session, with the added bonus of a hard 20minute+ effort up hill.

The bike course in Shepparton is flat. It is like one large square so there is a few 90 degree turns but most of the time I will need to be down in the aero position. Therefore, most of my training will be done that way.

I will, also, do a 30 minute ride prior to my long Sunday run as a slight simulation to running off the bike and ride to work once or twice a week as active recovery.

The following 4-week training cycle will be slightly different:-

Ø  Tuesday – Big brick session with 3 – 4 x 30 minutes on the wind trainer at race pace followed by 10-12 minutes on the treadmill at above race pace.

Ø  I will have a steady ride of 60 minutes after my Monday and Friday swim and 90 minutes after my Wednesday swim. I will continue my pre-long run 30 minute ride.

Ø  I won’t ride on Thursday but my long ride on Saturday will be 4 hours with four 15km efforts above race pace.

This 4-week training cycle will be more race specific in order to train my body to ride after the swim and run off the bike with some ease and comfort.

Through both training cycles I will be doing a weekly weights session. It will be a power based workout using deadlifts, power cleans, single-leg squat jumps, stiff-leg deadlifts, swiss-ball leg curls, calf raises and skipping.

I am very excited about the next couple of months and the possibility of seeing big gains in my cycling ability. I am confident that, barring injury or illness, I will reach my goal in Shepparton.

My swimming is on the improve.

My swimming has really surprised me in the past few weeks. Previously, I have laboured through the water with sagging hips and a poor kick. My arm turn-over slow and inefficient, and the endurance in my shoulders seemingly well below par.

In the four seasons I have been racing triathlon, I have failed to make an impact in the swim and found myself well behind the leaders in my age-group out of the water. This must change! I have big aspirations to qualify for the age-group 70.3 World Championships this season and I have just 10 weeks left to prepare for the Shepparton Ironman 70.3. In 2 attempts at this race during 2011 and 2012, I have lost about 9mins to the leaders after the swim. This is a result of lazy training and not enough focus given to this part of the race.

In the past, I have done far too much swim training with pool aids like, a pull-buoy, fins and paddles. I hardly spent any time just swimming unassisted and working on the technique which I will need specifically during a race. Then, when I tried to swim without pool aids I found it highly fatiguing and I didn’t push myself, taking too much rest between efforts. I, also, never swam more than twice a week. All in all, I didn’t try hard enough to improve that area of my race.

Well, how things have changed. I will now be swimming 3 times, racking up about 11km, during 3 and a half hours in the water per week. A large portion of this time will be spent swimming without aid and working hard over varying length intervals.

I am very confident in my ability to push myself far more than I used to from now on. This confidence comes from simply pushing harder in my last few sessions and seeing what I am capable of. From those sessions I already feel I have improved my swimming ability. I feel stronger in my technique and I’m sitting higher in the water. I am sure I will be making significant improvements in my swim time this year.

My next 4-week training program cycle will be focussed on building power. For my swimming, this will mean repeats. My 3 weekly sessions will look like this:-

Ø  Monday, long strength session (5km) – 1km warm up with a mixture of freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. Then 4 sets of 1km consisting of: 400m freestyle with pull-buoy at 90%, 400m freestyle with paddles at 90%, 100m backstroke at 90% and 100m breaststroke recovery. The only alteration I will make to this is in the 3^rd week of the cycle when I will do a 1km time trial, which I am hoping to complete in approximately 15 minutes, before doing just 3 sets of the above 1km set.

Ø  Wednesday, fast session (3km) – 600m warm up. 400m working on Butterfly. Then, 16 x 100m at 100% effort. First 4 starting every 2:00mins, then 4 starting every 1:50mins, 4 starting every 1:45mins and finally, 4 starting every 1:40mins. Cool-down with a mixture of light kicking and freestyle with the pull-buoy for 400m.

Ø  Friday, continuous efforts (3km) – 500m warm up. Then, 10 x 200m freestyle at 80% with 50m backstroke recovery.

Other training which contributes highly to progressing my swimming is my strength training. Doing a simple 30 minute upper body strength session once a week consisting of push-ups, chin-ups, shoulder exercises with dumbbells and a range of stretch cord movements, along with my 2 – 3 core sessions each week, makes a significant difference to my swimming muscles. These little, extra sessions are very important for the health of my joints, tendons and ligaments that support my muscles.

It’s amazing what difference some extra focus, endeavour and effort makes to any area of your training. You just never know what you’re capable of until you really give it a red hot go.

My Run Training

I am starting to see some very positive progression in my running ability. I found it quite difficult to find my running form again, after a 10-week layoff post Ironman Melbourne and being on an overseas holiday. My body was really out of whack with my hips, knees and ankles really feeling the effects of starting my base training. It took the months of June and July before finding some comfort in my running but throughout August, up to the present, I have been able to run consistently and specifically with 3 sessions a week incorporating several different focusses.

In order to get my running fitness back, during June and July, I did the following sessions each week:-

Ø  My first session involved a 10 minute jog warm-up followed by some brief stretches and 10mins of drills – high knees, butt-kicks, side-to-side (karaoke), etc. I then did a series of fast run throughs over the length of a football oval from one end to the other with a jog back to the start. I would do 10 – 15 reps which would take between 15 and 25 minutes. A 5 minute jog cool-down to finish and this session would take approximately 45 minutes or so.

Ø  My second session would be a simple run at a steady pace for 30 – 45 minutes. Nothing too specific in this session. Just turn the legs over below race pace to accumulate some time on the legs.

Ø  Finally, my third run of the week was my long run, below race pace. Lasting between 60 and 90 minutes with 3 to 5 1km above race pace efforts thrown in.

This gave me 2 to 3 hours of running per week and I saw great changes in the feeling and stability around my hips, knees and ankles. Another factor which contributed to this was my weight training. Deadlifts, Single-leg Squats, Stiff-legged deadlifts, Calf Raises and Core work provided the extra strength and power to my running muscles.

When August came around, I was feeling confident about increasing my intensity in similar type sessions and incorporating longer race pace, or above, efforts. I can gladly say this has been achieved. What really helped this to happen was the purchase of a treadmill. It wasn’t a planned purchase which meant I hadn’t intended it to be a part of my training. However, it has been a wonderful addition and proved very effective.

The benefits of doing sessions on a treadmill are:-

Ø  It’s softer to run on – Treadmills have added absorption of the running surface, so it gives a more comfortable ride when doing high intensity work. Your joints will thank you for this.

Ø  Speed control – you can set it to a specific speed which will help you train your legs to run at the speed you desire exactly. Also, training your legs to turn-over at a higher cadence by using above race pace speeds.

Ø  Gradient control – You can now train your legs to maintain a speed when going uphill.

Ø  You can set it to change speed and/or gradient at exact times for a very particular type of interval workout.

Ø  Hello, brick sessions! – Stationary trainer for the bike and treadmill for the run. Perfect brick session scenario and the benefit of being able to set the precise run speed will train your legs perfectly for hitting race pace immediately off the bike.

The most recent run I completed, before beginning my recovery week, was 17km with 7 x 1km efforts at 3:50min/km. I maintained a 4:30min/km pace in between efforts and was running for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes in total. Although, slightly below what I had scheduled for this session in terms of pace, it was what I felt capable of that day and it came off the back of a few nights poor sleep. I was more than happy with this session and shows me that I am well on track for my Shepparton 70.3 preparation.

In my Blog post from August 7^th, I included a copy of my training schedule for the four weeks I am just about to complete. In that post I stated that future 4-week training cycles wouldn’t have increased volume from what that program was showing. However, based on my comments relating to flexibility and constant monitoring of my body’s condition, made in other posts, I have made some changes to future training. In the next two 4-week cycles I have increased my swim, bike and run volume by approximately 10-15%. I feel my body will handle this without trouble and considering I will be very focussed on my diet and supplement intake, I believe I will be doing what is necessary to continue my progression and prevent overtraining.

Specifically, I will now be running about 4 hours a week across 5 sessions. This will include a 15 minute run off the bike twice a week and my long run will increase to about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

I am in a really good place right now. My body feels good and I feel confident in the direction I am going with just 10 weeks before the race.

My diet explained

Last time, I explained some reasons for triathletes needing to focus on their diet, just as much as their training, and being prepared as much as possible. So, what works for me?

I am going to explain my diet up to this point in my training for the Shepparton 70.3 Ironman and then explain what my plan is for the remaining 11 weeks until the race. I will also tell you about the little things I do to try and save myself time when it comes to meal preparation.

A regular daily diet, for me, would consist of the following:-

Ø  2 x wholemeal toast with jam OR 3 x poached eggs with avocado, tomato and Promite on 2 x toast. Plus 1 cup of tea, herbal tea OR coffee.

Ø  Post workout shake – 300mls low fat milk, Soy milk OR Rice milk. I add 20g protein, vitamin C powder, 1 banana and handful of mixed frozen berries.

Ø  Homemade Muesli (rolled oats, almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts) with mixed frozen berries and 3 – 4 tablespoons of natural yoghurt. 1 x tea OR coffee.

Ø  3 x rice cakes, 1 small tin of tuna and cottage cheese.

Ø  Steamed vegetables with 1 tin of sardines OR 1 x medium chicken breast.

Ø  1 x orange, 1 x apple.

Once a week, I will have a Bolognese dish with wholemeal pasta for lunch to have higher glycogen storage for long weekend training sessions. This will be in place of the rice cakes. Also, I will try to have 1 – 2 other serves of red meat throughout the week. This would usually be at night time with my steamed vegetables. I, also, currently take a Zinc supplement but I will be increasing the variety of supplements I take from now on as my training will become more demanding. I will include Magnesium, Glutamine and Creatine. However, I’ll take Creatine in cycles with periods where I won’t use it at all and load up on it for races and some of my biggest weekends of training.

The majority of my training is done in the morning which is why my carbohydrates are consumed in the first half of the day. I have toast, etc. prior to working out, a shake afterwards and then another high carbohydrate meal (muesli) shortly after that. The rest of the day is then focussed on good protein and good sources of vitamins and minerals through fruit and veg.

I take this approach as I am trying to become leaner, and hopefully a little lighter, before the season starts. I am 179cm tall and currently weigh approximately 76kg. I would like to be around 73kg. This would assist in all parts of my racing, provided I can, also, maintain and improve my strength and power. I know by completing all or at least 85% of my scheduled training, I will be burning enough calories to warrant some weight loss through bodyfat reduction. Of course, this will only happen with the correct diet which allows this to happen while supplying me with sufficient energy and nutrition to ensure proper recovery. Essentially, it will come down to me being vigilant in assessing my body constantly. Not letting myself get run down through overtraining and insufficient nutrition. First and foremost is getting to race day fit and healthy. Some weight loss will be a bonus.

During training, when required for sessions over one hour, I have been using energy gels, fruit, water and occasionally electrolyte drink. This will change significantly from now until the race. I will start using more electrolyte drinks and practice my calorie intake, with gels and energy bars, during my long weekend sessions. I will also consume an electrolyte drink prior to, and during, several mid-week sessions as the weather is starting to warm up.

Over the past 3 months, I have figured out a few simple processes which make a big difference in my ability to eat well at work without needing to go and purchase something to eat on a daily basis. Maybe, the following tips will work for you too:-

Ø  Get an approximately one litre sized plastic container suitable for steaming vegetables. Fill with desired raw vegetables, cut to appropriate size and take to work to store in the fridge until you are ready to microwave them for a few minutes at meal time. Add sardines or tuna as an easy source of protein or meat you have brought from home already cooked.

Ø  Fill a very large container (5 litres or more) with dry, muesli ingredients and store at work. Keep some yoghurt in the fridge and mixed berries in the freezer. Combine desired amounts in a large bowl for a convenient late breakfast after a pre-work training session or as a mid-morning feed.

Ø  Next time you’re on the bike wind-trainer for an hour or so (or during any home-based workout) put something in the oven or on the stove. Prepare some meat and vegies and pop them in the oven or put on a pot of soup and train while it’s cooking. When it’s cooked, stop your session, place the food out to cool down, complete your session and then you can put the cooked, cooled-down food in containers ready to go to work with you over the next few days.

Ø  I keep tins of tuna and sardines at work. A packet of rice cakes. Some cottage cheese in the work fridge. Anything that I may be able to keep at work for at least a week without it going off and is easy to turn into a nutritious meal.

Get creative with the time you use to prepare meals and try some new things. You’ll be amazed at the time you could save while still consuming the food you need to be healthy.