The best laid plans...

Just a bit of a catch-up on what's been going down...

Those who have been taking notes, will know that I've been struggling with a knee injury of late.  I could use heaps of TLAs (and even some FLAs) to give a name to what's going on. Or I could just say that it appears my knee cap isn't tracking straight and there may be some crap under my knee which is getting aggravated   This has apparently been brought on by weak quad muscles, and exacerbated by tight calves and ITB issues.

The frustrating part is that I can still run - relatively pain free - but it hurts for a while afterwards...on the upside, the intensity and duration of the pain is getting less.

So...in the meantime, under the watchful eye of my Physio, I'm keeping my running to a minimum.  I'm allowed to run for an hour or so every second day.  

And as far as rehab goes, plenty of squats - both single and double legged - isolating my quads and concentrating on keeping my knees straight and not letting them move inward as I squat.  And, A LOT of time on the foam roller, with particular attention being paid to my ITB, calves, and quads.

So the upshot of all that, is that i don't think I'm going to have a marathon in me in 6 weeks time - particularly as I want to have a good crack at the Noosa OD Tri 3 weeks after that...

Oh well, them's the brakes...and it looks like my first marathon will be after a bit of a swim and bike ride :) 

So, now that i'm on the way to getting my training plan sorted...NUTRITION TIME!!

As the post title says...i'm well on the way to getting my training plan sorted, so i guess it's time i seriously started thinking about nutrition. Previously my longest training sessions have been 3hrs on the bike or a 2 hour run. To complete those sessions without going into melt down, putting a weak gatorade mix into the water and a gel or 2 has got me across the line. My longest races have been Olympic distance triathlons, and a 28k trail run... Let's recap how they went: First Oly Tri seriously under-prepared for no thought about nutrition 35 deg C at 6am - dehydrated before start had half a banana post swim, and probably drank half bottle of gatorade during the ride hit the wall 30k into bike slowest 10k run i've EVER done Noosa Oly Tri (last year) better prep, both training and nutrition gel out of swim, and a couple on the bike gatorade in water, probably drank 500ml on ride gel as started run, stomach cramps and vomited at 5k on run - took another gel ran home ok...considering humid day, became hot on run 2 Bays, 28k Trail Run (Jan this year) injured ankle after 3k so couldn't go as hard as i wanted - on course 3.5 hrs had camelbak with 50% gatorade mix (probably had 1/2 - so equivalent of 750ml energy drink) consumed 3 gels cooler day  stomach fine! Oh, and i also cramp in hot weather (possibly a "salty" sweater) What i *think* i've learnt... I'm getting better at getting to right i need to keep water and energy separate - so i can re-hydrate and replace energy at appropriate rates sweating out salts and putting water back isn't a good idea - i need electrolyte replacement  I need to start practising on my long training sessions.  And as it so happens, Hammer Nutrition just spammed my Facebook feed with their marketing, so here's a bit of a cut and paste hatchet job...  Loss vs. Assimilation What can your body really handle?
SUBSTANCE	RATE LOSS/hr	ASSIMILATION RATE
Fluids (ml)	1000-3000	500-830
Sodium (mg)	2000	500-700
Calories	700-900	240-280
So what i can take from this is that I've been under doing the fluids and electrolytes. And probably over did the calorie intake at Noosa - hence the stomach issues??  Below are the corresponding replenishment values that we have observed for the average size endurance athlete (160-165 lbs/72.5-75 kg) who is fit and acclimatized (+/-5%):
SUBSTANCE	IDEAL REPLENISHMENT
Fluids	20-33%
Sodium	20-35%
Fuels (Calories)	30-40%
Well, that weight range fits me pretty much perfectly, and I've been living on earth for a while, so i think i'm acclimatized to +/- 5% Our Fuelling Recommendations Based on what science has shown us, plus over two decades of working with athletes, we have determined the following ranges as ideal for most athletes, the majority of the time, for maintaining optimal exercise performance: SUBSTANCE IDEAL REPLENISHMENT Fluids 470-850 ml/hr Sodium 100-600 mg/hr Fuels (Calories) 150-280 cal/hr I suppose those numbers seem as good as any place to start. Now it's just down to trial and error to find out where in those ranges i lie, and what my stomach is going to tolerate! Better Get  My LONG Training On...!! Just got me some Hammer Perpetuem, so i'll shove this info sheet link here for future reference --->>   http://www.hammernutrition.com.au/shop/nutrition/perpetuem/

Putting "The Plan" together...

As i write this, the countdown ticker on my blog tells me I've got a little over 7 months until my first Ironman. Over the past few months I've been doing a lot of reading around training plans and I'm starting to hack together My Plan.

As much as i want to train with the tri-club, i think i have to be careful and train toward my needs and goals, not a program that suits the average Ironman - because I'm not the Average Ironman... ;)

As a start, I've kind of worked out which disciplines will fit into the week where.  Now it's about the details.

So, here's a brain dump of what I've learnt to date:

5 Training Intensities / Levels...

1. Rest : i.e. NOTHING!
2. Active Recovery : Light Training, HR < 130 bpm, no goals or expectations from session...
3. Foundation : Long Slow Distance, 130 bpm < HR < 150 bpm, main IM training zone.
4. Speed : High HR, low duration, tough, hard - the if you don't hate it you're not going hard enough sort of session!!
5. Strength : High load, high resistance training, the stuff that gets your muscles screaming!!

The key is apparently blending these sessions into your plan. Leaving enough time to recover between one Strength and/or Speed session and the next, and also recovery from the Foundation sessions.

Look at one key session per day, and if you want a second one make it compliment the first.

Other Random Things...

Go LONG on the bike - the bike uses similar muscles to the run, yet is far less impact. Cycling makes up about 50% of the day and you want to get of the bike feeling good!..GET BIKE STRONG!!

Short run, often - Ironman is about the ENTIRE race, trust your weekly (monthly...etc) cumulation of training.

OR

Run long, but not a lot - within reason, do your long run long as long as you want - but don't over do it (3 independent runs max)

Transition runs - every time you ride, get off the bike and immediately...RUN. Not long, just until your legs feel comfortable. 

So i think i'll be doing a hard (speed or strength) run each week, a 10-15k recovery run, and my long run - but also a short (up to 5k off the bike each ride).  This will probably change later a little as we get closer and i start to do a few long brick sessions...

Don't overdo Speed / Strength - you need to recover and go long..... 1 "hard" bike & run per week...

Swim - Technique = Speed... THAT IS ALL. Once you have technique, then worry about the rest. And that's OPEN WATER technique!! (Particularly in Melbourne - you want to learn, watch the surf ironmen swim!!)

Putting it together...

Training Blocks - 2 or 3 weeks hard, followed by 1 week easy, building slightly in the next block and repeat!

here's where the fun begins...looks like it's time to get stuck into an excel spreadsheet...

Your Thoughts...???

If anybody out there in reader-land has anything to add - feel free to let me know.

Cheers 

Progress, Injury and a DNS waiting to be...

Let's recap the last line of my previous post...

And most of all - fingers crossed i can remain injury free.

...when will i ever learn!!!

Those who follow my Facebook page... gratuitous click here for link to my Facebook page ;) ... will be well aware that recent weeks have been injury riddled... Nothing serious, just recurring injuries that i can't seem to shake.

Apart from my dodgy knee (which i'm hoping tomorrow's physio visit will fix) things have been progressing well.

I've been spending a bit of time in the pool and my swim is feeling better than i can remember.

I haven't been spending long hours on the bike, opting at this stage to work on some short sharp high intensity trainer sessions. The few times i have been on the TT bike, it's felt good - love the Trinity, it feels so fast and smooth. I'm looking forward to getting some long rides happening pretty soon.

And the run...well apart from the injury...i'm really pleased.  I'm starting to get some nice distance without pulling up too sore.  20k runs through the trails and hills are becoming the norm, and the progress toward the Melbourne Marathon is on track... 

I really believe the splitting my running between the Vibrams and the pseudo-minimal Brooks is paying dividends.  I'm comfortably running 8-10k in the Vibrams and really notice the change in style to a more natural fore to mid-foot strike.

Unfortunately, due to the knee injury i'm not confident that i'll be racing at Hazelwood this weekend.

Fingers crossed i'm running at full tilt again soon and can continue to build toward the Melbourne Marathon and Noosa.  I might even try to convince a few other people who are competing at Noosa to do a practice Olympic distance race in late September / early October... It's not that cold in bay, surely i'm not the only crazy one ;)

Until next time, happy training!!

It's been a week since my last post, so I'm back again...

...i've just checked Strava, and realised my last week wasn't as productive as I'd hoped:

Monday: rest (a little sore after Saturday's long run).

Tuesday: rode on the trainer for half an hour in the morning.

Wednesday: again 30 minutes on the trainer.

Thursday: Alarm went of at 5 am, felt like complete crap...re-set alarm...

Friday am: Again, alarm at 5 am, still felt crap...rest is good when you feel like crap...right???
Anyway, I'd had enough of this, so i gave myself a severe talking to.

Friday pm: Swam...felt good.

Saturday: alarm went off at 5:50...ffs, it's Saturday!
Jumped out of bed and headed down to the Tri Club rooms for my first training session with MPTC.  Well, baptism of fire! 20 km hilly run.  First 10k...UP...calves shattered! Second 10k...DOWN...quads shattered!! And just as i thought it was over... STAIRS!!
I finished a broken man...but enjoyed every second of it...

Sunday: alarm went of at 5:30...wtf, it's Sunday! 

Nice, relaxing 2 1/2 hour bike ride.  It was a bit windy, but pfft, it's winter in Melbourne - that happens!  

Also tried out 2 new things on this ride.
First was my new 'king bright light from FYXO - brilliant!!

Second was the aero drink bottle between the bars. Worked well, just need to adjust the position of the straw a little.

So although i haven't been setting the world on fire with my training, i'm definitely heading in the right direction. Looking back, my training time per month has been increasing every month, for the last 8 months.

I'm figuring if i keep that trend going, I should be pretty well positioned for the Melbourne Marathon in mid-October, the Noosa Tri in early December, and have built a great platform for the final 20 week build into Ironman.

I just need to remember, that i don't need to try to keep up with my mates who do single discipline sports (be it running, or cycling), and train 5 or 6 days a week. I'm training in three disciplines and therefore are only doing 3 to 4 sessions of each per week!

And most of all - fingers crossed i can remain injury free.

Cheers!

Starting to tick the running boxes...

After the last nine days, i'm finally starting to feel like my run is getting under control, and feeling almost natural...

To summarise, last weekend was made up of 19.2 km around the hilly trails at Lysterfield, followed by 3 km off the bike on Sunday.

And this week, i managed 59.5 km, comprising:

• Monday - 6.2 km off the bike (in the Vibrams);
• Tuesday - 15.1 km (low/endurance HR)
• Thursday - 8 km (just got out and ran in the storms)
• Saturday - 3km with Jamesy at Kid's Run Melbourne (did the run ahead, take photo, repeat thing - which is getting harder now that he's running 5:05 min/km) followed by 22.2 km around the local, soft, flooded, local trails in the pouring rain... (low/endurance HR)
• Today (Sunday) - 5km Run Melbourne with Claire (easy run in Vibrams)

 The long slow runs are feeling good. Although i was pretty much shot after 22 km, i was feeling like that with a bit more time and a few more km's under my belt i could have kept on going for another hour or two - which is kind of lucky considering what i've got planned.

As i sit here and type this, my legs are feeling a little tired and sore - but nothing a day's rest and a few sessions with the foam roller won't fix!

Also, since i finished reading Christopher McDougall's Born To Run, i've wanted to find out all i could about barefoot / natural running.  I found, and have recently started reading Danny Abshire's Natural Running: The Simple Path to Stronger, Healthier Running and have also got Scott Douglas' The Runner's World Complete Guide to Minimalism and Barefoot Running: How to Make the Healthy Transition to Lightweight Shoes and Injury-Free Running...

No doubt, i'll talk about these two books once i've finished reading them!

It was great to do the Run Melbourne 5 km with Claire. She put in a hard fought run and ended up beating her goal time - i'm so proud of the effort she put in! And to finish off here's a Selfie of Claire and me after Run Melbourne...

Christopher McDougall: Are we Born to Run??

I've been preaching a bit lately about the book Born to Run, barefoot running, and the Tarahumara.  For those who don't read, here's a 15 minute talk by Christopher McDougall, the broken down, injured runner, who set out to track them down and find their secret to distance running...