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!