Covid
As many of you will know, England went into a national lock down on the 4th 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 emphasis on the swim and rely upon it a lot to give me a good time. I know it’s only an hour to hour and a half of a twelve-hour race but the shorter the time the better.
The swim is my favourite sessions of the week. There is something about being in the pool for me that I really enjoy. It also helps with the run and the bike. First of all, its low impact and gives the muscles a rest from all the hard run, bike and strength and conditioning sessions. Secondly it really helps with breathing and cardiovascular fitness. You have to be able to really control your breathing while swimming and this massively helps blood oxygen levels which, in turn helps the rest of the training.
There is nothing I can do about the pools being shut and it is far too cold to do open water swims. I have two swim sessions a week, one on a Monday and the other on a Thursday. So, I have decided to do an endurance run on the Monday and an endurance bike on the Thursday. I have also found a dry land swim training program that gives some helpful dry land swim specific strength and conditioning workouts to do.
Strength Band Workouts from GTN on YouTube
Body weight workouts from GTN on YouTube
On the Thursday I will do a bike ride followed by some of the strength and conditioning exercises in the videos above. I already have the programmed strength and conditioning on Monday so, I just do that instead.
The run and the bike are unaffected by the pandemic and I have been progressing fairly well with them. I have a long bike on a Saturday and a long run on the Sunday. I am fine with the runs; they are just over an hour at the moment. I really enjoy getting out, running slow and letting my mind run free, they seem to chill me out for the rest of the day. The bike rides are a little longer than I am use to at this stage of training. My previous plan for the other two Ironman’s I trained for start off fairly short at about an hour to an hour and half. I am currently hitting two and half, pushing three hours. They are taking a bit of getting used to. In the long run I know they will be a great help. The longer rides early on, I hope, will give me extra endurance later on.
Food, has been my other big issue over the last couple of weeks. I am in a hotel for 6 weeks in the middle of a town that is full of takeaways. The hotel does not offer meals due to the pandemic. I am able to get some meals at the place I work, which are fairly healthy. But I cannot get these all the time. There are no cooking facilities at the hotel. Therefore, when I have missed a meal, I am forced with two options; try and find something from the supermarket or go for a take-out.
The options from the supermarket are slim pickings. I can get a salad or a butty, or I can get I cold quiche. Other than that, there really isn’t much else because I don’t have the cooking equipment. While training, I’m hungry, a lot and a butty or salad doesn’t make the grade. Therefore, I opt for the takeout. I have succumbed to, pizza, kebabs, chippy’s, subway and burgers. This is not ideal food for training. Where are all the nutrients my body needs….
I am at a very early stage of training at the moment, I still have 29 weeks to go to the big day. Things are going fairly well all things considered
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