So, the last instalment seems like it was ages ago. Seems like I've just been busy with work and stuff to have not really considered the planning or scheduling of the next 9 months of training and events. Me and the Missus only really started to discuss it last night actually, and the small number of events that I think I'll do all seems to slot in quite nicely. More later!
So, my lethargy to get back in to training seems to emanate from work-life at the moment. I can't seem to get in to a routine that I can slot training around. Days away in Ireland here and there and other things meant a bout of attacking semi-functional Gym bikes with only limited success. What the bloody hell Hotels think they are doing in advertising a Gym when the bikes are nothing more then pitiful! Broken pedal straps, missing illuminations for the control panel ...... and 'sticky' .... bits!
Now I know the gym bikes are not a very good representation of the type of things we want to get up to so maybe I shouldn't worry too much, but they do keep me out of the Bar and to be honest, I quite enjoy the use of the display statistics and various interval sets that you can do. Think I'll invest in a programmable Turbo Trainer to help over the winter and mix it in with the Rollers for non-road bike training.
I have taken a step away from listening to Radio in the car and started listening to Tri related pod-casts. This in itself is a bit of a double-edged sword. At first it was quite a bit of fun as it was during the lead-up to Kona this year (late Oct), so there were loads of great interviews and opinions on who will do what in the race. However, along-side that, there are some podcasts that are extremely opinionated on certain aspects of nutrition and general health-related 'policies' to stick to during training. It seems that the more I podcasts I listen to, the larger the number of opinions that you are supposed to subscribe to. One of the main issues that I have with this is that all of them are mostly focussed around Elite or semi-elite athletes, a category of which I sadly don't fall in to. The notion of making suggestions for training based on the total number of hours you have to train in any given week (or to recover for that matter), or the food options / supplements, various grams of this or that that you should be monitoring, your fluid (type and intake) simply baffle and just can't be considered for the vast majority of hobby triathletes.
Probably the most interesting aspect that I'm keep to at least research more is to become 'fat-adapted', where you gradually change your eating habits away from Carbs to certain fatty foods, training your body to relay on fat stores before carbs. I'm really undecided on trying it, but I'll certainly look in to it. Something I'll also look in to will be to become a Gluten-free eater. I do think that the largest consideration would be what impact it will have on general family eating habits. I'm not going to impose anything on the Ladies of the house if it proves to be too awkward to do!
A couple of the Podcasts are: Friday Fat Black, Triathlon Research and IM Talk
So training hasn't kicked off with any purpose yet. I've bought a 2015 year planner that still remains blank. Must fill that in soon!
I'll plan it based on last year for the four or so months lead up to the race(because sessions were flexible around the time I had - I didn't feel compelled to stick rigidly to it), but I'll structure and focus a lot more during the winter period. Last year I feel I just went through the motions during the winter period. This time I'm gonna ensure that I have a specific aims of the workout.
I've slotted into the bike quite well with the weekend rides going well. I'll get the routine of complimenting them with evening interval sets. Hopefully the Turbo trainer I'll get will have a power meter on it, so I'll use the Interval Set plans I have made up to develop as much as possible, and use it all the way through to about May time when the real long rides will start.
I intend the road rides to be really slow - Zone 1 / 2 heart rate as much as possible...... Oh, and MOUNTAIN BIKE ALOT!
Swim stuff with stay pretty much the same as last year. Given the time that I have available, it worked OK. Just be sure to extend the Open Water Swimming as quickly as possible. Do loads of 100m reps in the pool mainly.
Run, now where DO I start here? I had no real long-term consistency last time so have nothing to compare to.
The final couple of months before the race went well and felt really good, so I'm inclined to just build up to repeat those as soon as I can. Maybe off-road stuff to work on strength and hills, then graduate to long slow stuff. The hotel gyms have at least got me hitting the tread-mill and a reasonable period of time. Again, I think these are worse than gym bikes as the tread-mill does a lot of the work for you, but to observe technique in the mirror and as a means to build back up to getting outdoors again, it is a means to an end!
Again, I head nothing but mixed messages about the distances to run in the training for a Long Course Tri. Some say don't do a marathon as it takes too long to recover. Others say do as many as possible as the run is the hardest part and you need to prepare yourself. Well, I wouldn't know about that yet would I!
I'm inclined to do some very long runs, but maybe not a race so that I can happily pace myself to cope with running for four+ hours.
Events that I'll try and do over the full training period:
Hole Park MTB Duathlon - Mid March
Paddock Wood Half Marathon - Late March
East Grinstead Tri - Early May (slim possibility)
Marshman Half - Mid May
Bedgebury Trail Half Marathon - Early June
If anyone has any feedback or questions, I'd be more than happy to make myself look a fool in responding!!
I'll try and take some images of training during the winter period to let you see how I'm getting on.
W.
