Ironbounce

Ironbounce

I am now 12 weeks into my Ironman training, I just discovered this post below that I had indeed not posted. So I will add to it and see what happens.


I am 12 weeks in to a 24 weeks approach to an Ironman. (http://mos.triradar.com/Training_Plans/Build_Ironman_Foundation.pdf)
I have lost 10 kg.
I have not drunk or smoked in 2012.
I have not eaten dairy, or processed grain for 6 weeks.
I have kept 100 % to my training program.
Dawn is an Ironman widow.

That's the highlights, and I can break it down further.
I am a terrible, terrible swimmer, need to stop swimming like this...

And start swimming like this.

When I am strapped for time, the first thing that I sacrifice is my swimming, which is my weakest sport, rather than cycling or running which are "stronger" (it's all relative!).
I have bought a LOT of books.
I have bought, or am in the process of buying a lot of tools:
Aerobars
Aerowheels
Aerobottle
Aerohelmet
Wetsuit
Swimwatch
Tyres
Pull buoy
Swim paddles
Goggles





I have spent a LOT of money at the online ironman store. Actually - that's a lie - I have bought a lot of things but they have all been absolutely excellent value. At first it was limited to essential kit, however, now it has become a little more frivolous and has become "leisure wear" as well as kit.

I have bought:
Technical top
Three tri-suits
Flip flops
2 caps
1 vizor
Transition bag
Pants
Arm warmers
Jumper
Shirt

Almost anything with an M-Dot. Hey - if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it hard.

So far training has been tough. The last week, I have felt very tired, I have a slightly swollen throat and need to be careful, prior to this I have been feeling triple tough. I have trained between 9 and 11 times a week. I added in the extra two sessions - weight sessions to make sure I had core strength.
I am loving it.
I am very tired, and need to sleep.
When I don't sleep I get grumpy.
I am eating A LOT, and I am on a paleo diet - so no dairy, alcohol, bread or pasta (great idea whilst living in Italy!).
My target weight is 80 kg.

I am absolutely loving it.
The sun has come out in the past few days, today I cycled in 20 C bright sunshine and loved it.
It is far far better than work.

However, now I am entering into the final twelve weeks. The training program ramps up extremely hard. It is time to Harden the Fck Up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y

Every weekend there are rides of more than 5 hours, up to 7 hours of riding. During the week the runs ramp up to 20 miles. 20 miles!! That means I need to bang out a 20 mile run before going to work!! This will be difficult to handle with my work schedule, but I will do it.

I will HTFU.

I am 6 weeks into my Ironman training.

This week I broke one of my little rules - I actually paid for an app for my iPhone. Maybe I am becoming weak as I actually bought two apps this week, that's two lots of GBP 0,69 which is a lotta cash. The novelty one was Yahtzee Adventures. This is the fault of Richard Herring, recently, as part of my regular survival packages, I spent over GBP 300 on DVDs and books, and one of them was Richard Herring's Christ on a Bike - a comedy show about the life of "Jesus" - wonderful stuff. I was vaguely aware of Richard Herring from the 90s - First of Fun, This Morning with Richard not Judy, plus "moon on a stick" and then I had forgotten all about him until I got my iPhone 3 and started to download podcasts. Podcasts are the most amazing thing - free little programs, up to 2 hours long, some weekly, some daily, some monthly - I loved them in the UK, and now I am in exile I double triple love them. Richard Herring teamed up with Andrew Collins to make Collings and Herrin which ran for about 3 years and was amazing, sadly they called an end to it about 6 months ago. So, they churned out an hour's worth of free entertainment every week for a couple of years, so I am paying them back by buying all their DVDs and books. Anyway, one of the extras on Christ on a Bike is a tongue in cheek guide on how to play Yahtzee. I relented, and after finding the stats options on the free Yahtzee downloads less than perfect, I downloaded Yahtzee Adventures which is the one he plays. And it is good. The other app I had downloaded was the Whats App - I think everyone has it. Another furious GBP 0,69 - but it's good to stay in touch with the P and Ratief. Although, for some reason, it doesn't seem to work when I am using wireless, strange.
Anyhooo, I have downloaded 220 TriLog which allows me to log all my triathlon sessions, and generate graphs and stats. Being a lover of science I am all over the graphs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9O84Ry6axY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3WcMMNPxRQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhL_Gp21oK0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fmZmKsL5eE

Italian Graffiti 23rd marzo 2012

Italian Graffiti 23rd marzo 2012

I like to look at graffiti when I visit a place - it gives an indicator of what is going on in the hearts and minds of the locals. Well, it's no barometer for the artiste or the leading lights, maybe of the barriste or the barflys, I digress - the fact is that I like looking at Italian graffiti and trying to understand and interpret it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffitti

What does grafitti mean? Of course, it is an Italian word and comes from the verb graffiare - to scratch. There are some wonderful examples of ancient graffiti in Pompei - absolutely fascinating and much has been written about this - of course can we apply more resonance to the graffiti in ancient civilizations as we do to ours? A profound question - everyone can read and write and has access to materials to do graffiti now - but who would have graffitied in these times? Who knows - it is fascinating, and equally, I find the contemporay graffiti as equally as fascinating. Every so often, I stop to take a photo of something that interests of amuses me and I will put a few examples here, and discuss the themes that I see.

Of course, whenever I think of Italian Graffiti I start thinking of the film American Graffiti - I have not seen it for what seems like a hundred years, but I remember absolutely loving it as a kid. It is an american coming of age film, set in the early 1960s and filmed in the early 1970s. I don't know what it means, and it is my understanding that it doesn't really mean anything, really just about being individual and fighting and getting out of the controls of parenthood. Of course, WOlfman Jack was a legend, but I would not even know how to begin talking about him!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Graffiti

So the themes:

1) Genuine hilarity
"Il cesso piu bello di Sien" - the most beautiful Toilet/cesspit in Siena

2) Loaded religious overtones
"Celibato e il perversione piu dishumane" - being celibate is the most unhuman perversion

3) Regional fighting
"Romani a nanna" - Romans go to sleep. This was written towards the south of Siena and is reflective of the "rich" romans coming in to that area and buying houses around there, and the locals wanting them to bugger off.
"Terroni go home" - terroni is a word the northerners use to describe the southerners - it kind of means "earth-eaters" but very strange to see it mixed with english words - maybe it implies that they are typically less open to "modern" stuff like speaking english?

4) Football
"Siena merde" "Fiorentina merde" "Juve merde" "viola merde" - Siena is shit, Florence is shit, Juventus are shit, the purples (Fiorentina) are shit - typical football stuff

5) Amorous signs
"Ti amo" - I love you
"Principessa" - Princess

6) Graffiti painted on the roads
Of course, there is a strong cycling fraternity here, many roads races, and it is "traditional" to paint encouragement on the road, so you might see:
"Vai Name" "Dai Name" - go! that person
Strangely around here I keep seeing "Ti Pup" painted on the road with a love heart. I don't know what it means, but I think that means something like you are my little doll. But whenever it is painted, a few days later it will be crossed out - so I do not know what is going on there!! It sounds a little like a swear word but I forget which. Pompino is blow job, and I think pupa is slang for it around here - but I am not sure.

7) Symbols
Plenty of hearts for love signs, and lots of swastikas - I don't think they are using the hindu sign of peace but that it is the ultras coming through - the nasty rascists

8) Political
"Vai via Berlusconi" Get out Berlusconi. Whilst Berlusconi was still here, or still in state, there would be occasionally some graffiti on him. This one I saw whilst driving near Naples last summer, written on a bedsheet and flown out of a window - dangerous!!

9) Nasty stuff
Occasionally I have seen "Ultras" and rascist stuff - but not so much recently. Italy is the prime route for entry into Europe for Africa, it is a challenge to maintain the borders, especially when there is so much trouble in Africa, and you can understand the anger at times, but it really can boil over occasionally.

It's a lesson in an image.

Speaking of the talk of the people, this was in the local papers recently.
http://www.corrieredisiena.it/resources/ArchivioPrime/2012/03/20120318_CORR_SI_QUO_001.PDF
I do not want to talk about it more, as this is a public forum.

Over n out,
JJ

 

Via Francigena 24th March 2012

Via Francigena 24th March 2012

The Via Francigena is an ancient pilgrims route - which essentially covers the path trodden by the those faithfull fools centuries ago from Canterbury Cathedral to Rome. It is known by several names, but when in Tuscany it is the Via Francigena.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Via_Francigena

It is not formally established, but certainly a thousand years ago it became a serious route and worthy of note. Through Tuscany it resulted in the enlargement or at least the agrandisement of several towns and cities, not least Siena. In fact, the famous bank of Siena - Monte die Paschi di Siena - essentially came about because Siena was a key stopping point on the way to Rome. Not only a resting point, but also a strategic point to refuel, in more ways than one. Travelling thousands of miles across remote countryside in these times was dangerous, especially if you were a pilgrim, with little beefcake but some money, and robberies were extremely frequent. Monte dei Paschi became the first bank to have "travellers cheques" which could not be spent by highwaymen after a little light robbing.

For many years the Via Francigena has lain dormant. Actually, it really isn't a single road, but rather it is a network of smaller routes, all leading more or less in the same direction. It had disappeared of the maps, but recently, and more so during the past two years that I have been here, Tuscany is elevating the significance of the Via Francigena and making it more of a tourist route again. Certainly, it is not an uncommon site to see walkers strolling along, or even hiking along parts of it. Some of them are taking it seriously, with packs and some look self-supported but some are clearly day trippers. Now it is possible to trace most of it, and there are lots of access ways to it. In Siena, it runs straight through the middle of the town, but away from the city you can walk across the old roads and paths, and now there is a way to recognise when you are on it.

Each part of the track is marked with a red and white signal - this can be a stone, a wooden signpost, painted on a wall, a rock on the ground, on a metal telegraph pole, on a tree - anywhere - it can be quite fun looking out for them and the sign VF. Where I run there are lots of routes and some fantastic information - and some of it is even in English. This is very forward thinking of the Italian tourist board, or whoever, and quite nice to see tourists abroad and getting out and about.

There are some fascinating parts. The pictures here are where I run occasionally (when the military are performing manoeuvres where I want to run!) and talk about the draining of the lake of Pian del Lago. This was done for two reasons - one to stop the terrible mosquitos that inhabited the hot and damp lands and secondly to provide hunting grounds. I am always seeing deer, foxes, and signs and whispers of cinghiale (wild boar). This has left several tunnels and an underground river that can still be followed along the excavations that were built several centuries ago to perform this draining - impressive Italian engineering indeed.

Indeed, I feel that the land holds a memory of the water. Compared to other areas in Siena, it is cold around there - very cold - when I was running there earlier in the year it was always about 5 C colder than the rest of Siena - hence my face/beard freezing several times! I feel the land has this memory and mourns for it's missing water and still hungers for it. At the minute there is a slightly wooded corridor through which I run, where there has been a fire recently - it is the sort of time of year when the farmers burn excess olive and other trees, so I am sure it was done in a controlled way, however, I strongly believe that the earth and the trees there still feel very warm as I run through and feel that they are reaching out to me and telling me that something is wrong. I want to comfort them. I must have lost it! Either that or my taoist tai chi is making more receptive to these things.

A weighty issue 24th March 2012

A weighty issue 24th March 2012

My training for the ironman (http://ironbadgers.wordpress.com and ironman.com) is continuing apace. I am fit, and getting lean. Since the new year I have lost 10 kg, so that's 10 kg in about 12 weeks. Now that sounds impressive, but really it is a reflection of me having 10 kg to lose. I have been fighting, well fighting is a very strong word, but I have been fighting my weight for a long time. When I went to uni I weighed in at a cheeky 10.5 stone, I can't be bothered to do the real conversion, but I guess that it's about 67.5 kg. Some time during this last internment in the prison in which I am located now, I peaked at 95.7 kg. Impressive. When I was rowing, my racing weight was around 82kg, and my best was around 78 kg. One time I leaned down for a lightweight indoor rowing competition and hit 73.9 kg on race day. That was a strange one and took a lot of stupid effort. I was bet maybe 8 months previous by a rowing chum that I could not make it to Henley regatta without drinking - this was about 3 months away. Of course, that challenge made me push it and I made it through. After this I carried on, leaning down, and had a good system - Sunday to Thursday I was tight - breakfast was fruit and meat, lunch was meat and vegetables, and evening meal typically was tuna, onion and peppers. Friday and Saturday I could do what I liked. It worked well. After the 3 months was up I carried on a little, and entered a veteran lightweight indoor rowing event, but with maybe 3 weeks to go I was well over weight. However, one serendipitous night showed me that I could do it. It was the annual rowing club dinner, I won rower of the year, and sat on the head table with Bill Mason as special guest. Of course, the award of a bottle of port lasted no time at all and I was as sick as a dog the next day. Then I weighed myself and found that I was almost at weight. So this gave me the impetus to carry on. Actually I had been performing extremely well that year, no doubt helped by my low weight and won my single sculling novice pot, and several other sculling pots too. So, I decided to carry on to the race, but it was tight. The night before I was at my parents, and I hadn't eaten for nearly two days. The morning of the race, I took a really really hot bath to get the last liquid out of me. I drove from Nottingham to Birmingham with a cup that I collected spit and threw out of the window. In the end I overdid it - I was 73.9 kg at weigh-in rather than the required 75.0 kg. The race went ok, and I came 5 th in the national championships, but I was weak, and could have done better. Of course, I was sick as a dog after, but then I always am after a good hard training session.

Here's a photo of around that time - I had just won my novice sculling pot - happy days!

And a photo not long before I went to uni!

That was about 8 years ago.
There was a time about 4 years ago when I got down to 79 kg and was thinking of going for the nats again, but I was a little too late, so did not, so soon ballooned again.
When I was dieting about 8 years ago I bought a set of scales with fat measurement. I still have the same set of scales and have a lot of data of my weight from that time, plus other data from before. I have a little religiion of taking my accurate weight as being taken first thing on Tuesday morning, naked, post-evacuation. This is to get it far from the weekend and seems to work.
About 2 years ago I was doing a marathon and again got to a good weight of about 81 kg.
This year, well this week's weigh in I am at 82.6 kg, and still losing more or less. I have not drunk a single drop of alcohol this year - which is shocking. After I got ill in August last year I think I went for about 3 months when I was drunk every night - happy days! So, no booze, and for the past 6 weeks or so I have been on a quasi-paleo diet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleo_diet) - essentially this means for me no booze, no dairy, no bread and no pasta (great idea whilst living in Italy JJ!!). It's fine and I like my diet. I eat a lot of fruit and veggies, and I am actually thinking of going the next step and maybe going vegetarian - we shall see.
I am listening to lots of podcasts that help me through this. Here are a couple.

Livin' la vida lo carb
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/

Garden variety tri
http://www.gardenvarietytri.com/

Zen and the art of triathlon
http://www.zentriathlon.com/

These are but a few, and they all help. People seem to pity me but I am absolutely loving it. There has only been one difficult part so far - a couple of weeks ago I attending an audit with work south of Rome. Breakfast there was very little but I ate some fruit and meat, and for lunch we only had sweet things with cream and local pizza. Of course the locals are very proud of their local pizza, and I avoided eating any and drove home starving marvin. The next day I was heavy. I think I had pushed my body into starvation - sub-optimal. One of coaches whilst rowing who helped the GB women used to say that you can run at minus 1400 calories per day, but anything less than put the body into starvation mode where it stopped burning fat and started burning muscle. This time I crept in.

Of course, there are worse things about this - when you burn heavy amounts of fat, and doubly so with protein, you release lots of organic acids, essentially you breathe them out, as well as sweat them out - and they stink! Anorexics are known to stink - the burning of the protein produces lots of ketoic acids which causes it.

Otherwise, people seem to think it must be the toughest thing in the world to be on this "diet" - but really it isn't. Sometimes it is a little difficult, but I am eating TONNES of food, and am making sure I snack healthy - so fruit or nuts or dried fruit and nuts, and it's ok. I am a bit of an outcast at times, but I am generally very happy with it. It can be difficult in public, but thankfully we don't spend much time with other people so it is not a problem!

I never planned to stop drinking. My plan was to limit my boozing to just one night per week, but it has just so happened that I haven't drunk and now it is easier to maintain it there. Schweeet.

My fear is that I know full well that my exercise is a pendulum - as sure as it swings one way, I am very safe in the knowledge that it will swing the other way soon. And it is a double-edged pendulum too - when I am exercising I eat very well, and get into good shape, when I am not exercising I eat absolute rubbish so the weight comes on double. Classic addictive personality - and a lot of triathletes seem to be the same personality type - if I do something - I do it right, and I do it hard. And then I turn it off again.

"This too shall pass"

Training continues apace 5 marzo 2012

Training continues apace 5 marzo 2012

I am now seriously into my Ironman training. That is, I am into a very heavy training schedule, I have been going for 2 months, and since I have taken the fools option of entering straight into an Ironman without spending a few years building up to it, then I have to fly and die. I will be a classic "one and done" - do the race and then never go near one again (hopefully - if I finish it). Anyway, I am playing serious catch up after not having done much being injured/sick/lazy for most of the last year. Thankfully, I have a good pedigree and although my chassis is rusty, I do have the remnants of an old V6 in there somewhere and things are coming naturally to me.

However, Dawn is now an Ironman widow, as I need a lot more rest and sleep - poor thing. Also, I am nailing the diet, and have recently embraced something akin to a semi-paleo diet - basically no bread, pasta, pizza, dairy, booze etc. I am eating a lot of fruit and veg. Although my evening meals tend to be one-dimensional (read: chickpeas, sweetcorn, tuna) I am eating A LOT, so I think things balance out. I hope so, but I am supplementing with some needed veg and vitamin pills when needed.

Currently I have lost 8 kg in 2 months, my resting heart rate has dropped to 39 bpm and I am smashing up all the training - in fact, I have even thrown in some additional weight training on top to correct some deficiencies I was seeing in holding my form, especially at the end of a long run.

My swimming remains AIDS, super aids. This how to use guide that came with my pull buoy (a kind of float thing you use whilst swimming) sums up the situation very well - "training AIDS".

Actually I love the pull buoy - it is absolutely amazing. Being a rubbish swimmer my balance is terrible. When you put the float between your legs it is like having training wheels/stabilisers on your bike - it is absolutely great and for people who are terrible swimmers it is just a dream, however, when it is taken off it is like your legs are sinking in the water. This is not good form and you completely lose any streamlining that you had. And my swimming unfortunately seems to get slower and slower every week so it is spot on.

The weather is starting to get better - it has been freaking cold. Tuscany doesn't really get cold, but this year it has been as low as - 11C whilst I have been running in the morning. This has been crazy and kills the roads and transport in the hills around Siena. I seem to have been pretty lazy and using the snow and ice to run very slowly. I don't want to run on the treadmill except for when it is the only option. I was running a lot a couple of years ago and suddenly my knee went - I still blame it on the treadmill, and my knee still hurts. I did read in a triathlon mag that running on a treadmill on 0% inclination ends up by pulling the knees forward so you should always run with a small incline, so now I am doing so when I have to do the run.

Getting up early to do the runs means that I get to see the sun rise which sometime can be absolutely amazing.

Snow and ice and my rubbish cycling have meant that I have done a lot of my cycling training in the gym. Thankfully there is a static bike - a real bike! on a trainer so it hasn't been too bad - although 2.5 hours on a static bike before work can be extremely extremely dull - however - this is excellent mental training.

When the weather was slightly nicer I have been using the "velodrome" in Siena to do some bike training. Again it's ok but not great. On Sunday morning there are usually a few old bifters there slogging round for an hour or two - crazy huh!? They are ok to talk to or grunt at and one or two of them are reasonably quick, but most are pretty slow and old!

Now the weather is nicer, although this is causing other weather fun. Siena is notoriously foggy and sometimes it is almost too foggy to get a proper run done. I run in a small park across fields, woods with stones and it is unsteady underfoot and I don't want to go on an ankle - so sometimes I use it as an excuse to go slow!

Where I run it is also a military zone - and sometimes I will be plodding along and the military will turn up. Last week they had an event - some sort of competition. I navigated past the tanks and tents and parked in my usual space and was going to run, and was even quite stroppy so was going to tell them to pss off when they eventually told me to hop it, but the young chap who came over was very polite and spoke in very clear Italian about what was going on so I toddled off somewhere else in the car to go run.

Where we live is super hilly. This weekend we took a ride with our bikes down to the sea so that we could do some riding on the flat. This instantly led to a huge increase in average speed, but however, I can no longer hide from my excuse of going slow due to hills!

So, I'm on top of it for now, but there is still another three and a half months to go, and it starts to ramp up now. So all that I've been doing is base work ready for the real training. I have a got a tough few months ahead and no mistake. Thankfully it gives me something to focus on as work is being triple gash at the mo.

Need to HTFU!