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Who Knew Food was Important

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Training has been going steady over the last couple of weeks. The weather has improved ever so slightly, which has meant more outdoor rides and less time on the turbo trainer. Swimming pools are unfortunately still closed but I’m hopeful they will be open soon. On the plus side, I have recently gained access to gym equipment and a rowing machine. This means my strength and conditioning sessions have become more productive. My Saturday long rides are now at three and half hours long and I’m really enjoying most of them. I have done one or two with sore legs, making them a bit of a slog, but on the whole I’m really enjoying the rides. With the weather being a bit kinder, I able to take in the scenery and just enjoy myself. I am training in the same place as when I trained for Hamburg Ironman in 2019 and I am currently covering a lot of the same routes. My aim in the next month or so, is to find some new routes and do a bit of exploring. I have the Mourne Mountains about an hour drive fro...
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Fitness Test 2

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I’m now near the end of February and I have just completed my second test week. The training program I am on goes through a cycle of hard training, a rest week, hard training then a rest combined with a fitness test week. I have currently just done the fitness test combined with the rest week. The amount of time actually training has dropped from 11 hours last week to 7 hours this week. I just have to complete the three fitness tests again. The constant fitness tests this program makes you do is a real benefit. The threshold, heart rates, pace and power are put back into training peaks and it automatically updates the relative zones for each training session. This means I am training at my optimum capability. So, when the session wants me to do some easy zone 2 work, I’m actually in zone 2 as opposed to a zone that the fitness test in week one gave me. It basically means the training changes with my fitness levels. You’re most likely wondering how I did. After the first week disaster, ...
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Location: Belfast, UK
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The Longest Turbo Session

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Training has been going steady. I am now back home in Northern Ireland and things seem to be looking up. I am able to eat well again and I have my setup at home back. There is more space in the garage or the front room for the strength and conditioning sessions and I have the turbo constantly set up which, stops a lot of faffing about. When I got back to NI, I had to isolate due to the Covid travel restrictions. I had planned it so I would get out of isolation on the Saturday ready for the long ride. I had a 3 hour 20-minute ride followed by a 20-minute run. I am not a lover of the turbo trainer and use it for ease and convenience. I am good up to about an hour and a half on the turbo but anything over that, really starts to become uncomfortable. The turbo has no give, its rigid and doesn’t move. When you’re out on the road, the bike moves your constantly making micro adjustments to keep balance and you can come out of the seat whenever you want. I know you can do this on the turbo as ...
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Location: Swindon, UK
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A Very Cold Ride

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This morning I set out on my weekend long bike ride. I had to do 3hrs 10mins followed by a 20min run straight off the bike. I've done this now a few times, so I thought it wouldn't be too much of a drama. How wrong I was. I neglected to have a proper check of the weather, which turned out to be a big mistake. It was one of the coldest rides I've ever done. Unbeknown to me, a cold snap from Scandinavia had hit the U.K, making this particular Saturday a chilly one. Add to that the wind chill and I was having a really bad time. I had my gloves on and luckily, I had taken a spare pair of thin running gloves, just 'in case'. I started the ride and within an hour I knew it was going to be a bad one. My toes had gone numb and I my figures were starting to go numb. I pulled over for my usual toilet break and popped on the spare pair. I now had two pairs of gloves on and double the air insulation. I should have been sorted right...? Wrong. It helped for about half an hour bu...
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Location: Swindon, UK
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Covid

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So, after my disaster of a first week, training has improved, slightly. Due to work, I have been living out of a hotel. This coupled with the awful weather has made some of the training a little difficult. Getting good healthy meals has been difficult and I have succumbed to the huge number of takeaways on the high street near the hotel more than once. The biggest impact has been Covid. As many of you will know, England went into a national lock down on the 4 th  January 2021. I understand this is necessary, people are drying and the NHS is stretched due this this horrible virus. I have had a first-hand experience of some of the impact it has had. So, I know how it important it is to say at home and save lives. A side effect for my training, because of the lock down restrictions has been the closure of the swimming pools. Swimming is a huge part of the Ironman and because I am one of the lucky ones to be a fairly strong swimmer, it hinders me somewhat. I normally put a lot of empha...
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Location: Belfast, UK
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First Week Disaster

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So, I am at the end of my fist week. It did not at all go to plan as I had expected. I’ve only completed 3 out of 9 sessions from my training plan… I stupidly thought starting the training plan on the 28th of December, a couple of days before New Year’s Eve would be ok. It was not. My race is on the 7th August next year and I chose a 32-week training plan which starts me on the 28th of December. I was lucky enough to spend the new year celebrations with close family. We had a small party; a lot of alcohol was drunk and I had a sore head for the next couple of days. With age the hangovers get considerably worse. One of the reasons I don’t really drink as much as I used to. This is my excuse for missing so much of the first week's training. The first week of the plan is a fitness test week. You are supposed to complete a fitness test for the swim, bike and run. The threshold values from the tests are then used to set training zones for the next 6 weeks until you complete another fitn...
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Location: Belfast, UK
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Time for a New Training Plan

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For my fist two attempts at the Ironman, I had used a training plan from a book by Don Fink called 'Be Iron fit: Time-efficient Training Secrets for Ultimate Fitness 3rd Edition’. It’s a really good book. For me as a beginner, it gave me all the information, tips and tricks I needed to successfully train for an Ironman. The book gives you information on time management (very important), the training cycle, techniques for the three disciplines and a little on strength and conditioning and nutrition. The biggest part about the book however, was the training programs it gave you. There were 3 to choose from, a just finish program, an intermediate program and a competitive program. For my training, I chose the competitive plan from the book. The plan suited me and I was able to manage the training around work and social life. The big problem with the training plan from the book for me, was the lack of strength and conditioning. I would go on a 2-hour run or a 4-hour ride let’s say and ...
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Location: Belfast, UK
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