Training Plan

*10 Ironwomen training plan provided by Celia Boothman, lovetheraincoaching

Fatigue and cycling

Writing this a bit late, ie halfway through week six so memory not great. However, I do recall I was far too tired by Friday to be able to get up and be at Regent’s Park by 6:45am. I made a last-minute change to my training intention and cycled indoors later in the day.

Shame to have missed that. I keep intending to go to Regent’s Park and cycle laps as it is a popular cycling spot. I have, however, been lulled into the security of my turbo and Zwift. With the days getting longer and spring imminent, this will have to change. I also aim to find time to go looking at new bikes. This has been on my mind for some time. My bike is old. Although I have only owned it for about 4 years, I bought it second hand so not sure just how old it is. It works so this doesn’t necessarily matter but I have been told that disk brakes feel safer, especially downhill. Given my fear of downhill, could be good.

I will get outside soon and start getting used to cycling downhill though.

Back to week 5!

Weekday training

Ran with 10IW on Tuesday morning and that felt a little easier than the first time. I ran a bit longer at the end and after coffee just to make it 5k. This was the first early morning of the week (ie a 7am meet). It was three early mornings in a row that contributed to my fatigue by the time Friday came along.

I was late on Wednesday for swimming so that was a little less distance than usual. Nothing more to say about that.

Really enjoyed Thursday’s run which was a tempo session with some threshold intervals. To be more precise, after a 10-minute easy warmup, was 5 minutes alternating between 30s threshold and 30s walk. This was followed by 20 minutes tempo, 10 minutes easy, twice and then 5 minutes of 30s threshold, 30s walk. The run should have ended with 10 minutes cool down. Yet again, I failed to leave home early enough so managed a little less than 2 minutes of the cool down.

Term is coming to an end so I have only three more weeks to try and make sure I leave the house early enough to finish my scheduled run.

End of week fatigue

I don’t finish work until 8pm on Thursday, after a pre 9am start. This means I am usually shattered by the end of the day. Not sure how I ever imagined I would wake up by 5:30am on Friday to cycle to Regent’s Park by 6:45am. I decided to sleep in (well until 7 anyway). Typically, I was awake at about 4am. It did cross my mind, very briefly, to stay awake and go to the park. That thought stayed with me for as long as it took me to fall straight back to sleep. I woke at 8am refreshed and ready to take on the day.

Friday was a fairly easy training day and a productive workday. I spent the allotted time on Zwift and that was my only training for the day. I like to go to a vinyasa flow yoga class on a Friday when I can but as I was going out with Anne on Friday evening there was no time to do that.

Long weekend sessions

The bike ride, housework and social life

I decided to spend some of Saturday morning cleaning some of the house. Then start my bike session late morning . This was partially so that Geraint (my son), wouldn’t be woken by the sound of the turbo and Netflix. I also knew Anne and I would have a few drinks so an early start would not be great.

My plan worked. At least I managed to clean the kitchen. I spend so many hours training that time to carry out domestic chores is very short. This is especially so during busier work time. This means I end up with a home that is not quite as clean as I would like. However, since I can’t justify the cost of a cleaner, this is the reality for the next few months as I prioritise sleep and some kind of social life over dusting surfaces!

Longest ever Zwift session

Five hours on the turbo, 125km is a crazy amount of time to bike indoors. Mentally it must be good for me and I do get to binge watch Netflix. I make sure to have some tasty snacks. As the rise was so long, I had a bread roll, one side with halloumi on and the other with an egg, a banana and pecan muffin (homemade), some dates, plenty of water, one bottle with training mix and half a gel. Unsurprisingly there was something in that food that didn’t quite agree as I felt a bit weird towards the end, not quite nauseous, maybe indigestion. I wouldn’t normally consider a sandwich, especially one with cheese and egg but I need to find out what works for me as I don’t want to cycle 180k on gels or even just sweet food.

Apart from the expected sore backside from so long on the bike with no respite and feeling my leg muscles, the ride was not that bad. At some points I’ll make calculations as to how far through I am for example, after an hour, already 20% of my way through, 40% and so on. I don’t mind so long cycling indoors but I really must get outside more soon. I may try to ride to Richmond Park and do circuits clockwise instead of anti-clockwise which is what I usually do. If I ride clockwise I will climb rather than scare myself cycling downhill!

Long run in Richmond Park

Richmond Park is in my mind because I joined some other 10IW for a long run around the park. Weather was a little drizzly and the district line had its usual weekend disruptions, so it was a long way to travel for a run (about 1.5 hours each way) and I did contemplate running locally. Glad I made the effort though. Adding a social element to the training is a must for me now. So much triathlon training is quite solitary, at least for me it is so some group rides or runs keep the motivation up. I also find I push myself a bit more when in a group.

Richmond Park is a great place to run and cycle. It was lovely to be amongst so much green. I love running in London. There are so many parks, rivers and canals that it’s quite possible to run for many miles without having to encounter traffic.

As it was mother’s day, my son cooked me a delicious meal. This gave me chance to go to a vinyasa flow yoga session late afternoon, while he was preparing the meal. A luxury and as I didn’t manage my strength session on Tuesday, an opportunity to get in some strength work.

All in all, despite getting tired mid-week and only fitting in one swim, this was a very good training week.

Training plan

*10 Ironwomen training plan provided by Celia Boothman, lovetheraincoaching

Crazy work weeks and training

Quite a contrast to last week. My craziest work week for a long time. I volunteered for overtime to was in centre every day this week. This meant a bit more commuter cycling and a busier schedule.

The beginning of the week was fine as I had two rest days, as far as that was possible. I’m never sure how to class the commutes to work but since they are rather stop start and not very far, I guess it counts as rest. The yoga on Tuesday actually did feel restorative.

Wednesday’s swim was fine. A good workout and not as hard as the previous week.

I actually managed to get out of the house a bit earlier on Thursday and complete 1 hour 10 minutes of a scheduled 1 hour 15-minute run. I am determined to get up earlier next week so that I complete the full scheduled run. This week’s session was a mixed tempo and threshold session with 15 minutes of warm up and then 5 times 4 minutes tempo, 4 minutes threshold, 2 minutes recovery with a 10-minute cool down. Owing to time my cool down was shortened to 5 minutes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the run. The weather was ideal, cool and no rain. A good session to Westminster along the North side of the river and then to Waterloo on the South side. I am very lucky to have some great run routes on my doorstep. It is also easier now that the morning’s are getting lighter and I know it will be light when I get the canal by Wapping Woods.

Thursday is my long workday and I teach from 9am until 8pm. However, as I usually work from home on a Friday I tend to sleep until about 7am. This Friday I was teaching in Holborn at 9am and going out after work so I had to fit in a swim before this. I certainly felt the training by Friday morning.

I went to Oasis, near Covent Garden so that I could go by tube and be close to work. I didn’t have as early a start as Wednesdays and the decision to swim central rather than the usual Wednesdays at Mile End was the right one. However, the pool at Oasis is an outdoor pool and the weather was cold, rainy and windy. I was supposed to do various intervals and drills with short rests. It was far too cold to stop, even for 10s between intervals. I felt like I was swimming through treacle, reflected in it taking me 46 minutes to swim only 1,700 metres. Slow even by my standards.

It could have been because it was a ‘normal’ training week and an abnormally busy work week or the weather may have contributed, either way, I was glad to get out of the pool and drink the coffee I had brought with me from home.

I have been trying to spend less money this week on snacks and coffee related to my training. I generally buy coffee and breakfast after my run on a Thursday and would have done the same after today’s swim. However, I managed to take breakfast in on both days and take coffee on Friday.

Triathlon is such an expensive sport, any savings are welcome!

Weekend training, Netflix and the long run

I hadn’t completed a long bike for a few weeks, so Saturday was a bit of a shock to the system. It didn’t help that I had a few glasses of wine on Friday night. I will at some point have to make a decision to more or less stop drinking until the Ironman is over but I’m not quite ready to do this yet.

I cycled just over 4 hours while binge watching Netflix. It was not my fastest 4 hours and my average watts was lower than it has been – apparently only 89 watts. My legs felt tired quite early on and after half hour I did wonder why on earth I was training for an Ironman instead of having a relaxing breakfast after a lie in. But I got through it, managed 104km and felt pretty good about it in the end.

My Sunday run was great. It was cold but dry and there was even some sun to be seen at times! The session was another tempo and threshold one with 10 minutes warm up, 3 times 20 minutes tempo, 5 minutes recovery run (walk/run) 2 minutes threshold and 3 minutes recovery run with a 7-minute cool down. I ran the scheduled 1 hour 47 minutes from home to the canal, up to Victoria Park, through the park and then along the canal beyond Hackney Wick before making my way back to the park, the canal and home. Another great but busy route on a Sunday morning.

I finished off my week of exercise with some yoga, a restorative flow for 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes Yin and relaxation.

I end each week feeling physically tired and pleased to have completed my training. This week I am especially content with the training given how busy my workload was.

Next week’s training is a little more intense but also more social.

Training plan

*10 Ironwomen training plan provided by Celia Boothman, lovetheraincoaching

Social runs and race category

A week with a day working from home and the rest of the week off. This made training easier to fit in and gave me the opportunity to fit in more yoga than usual. It also gave me chance to join 10IW for a social 5k.

I hadn’t intended to run on Tuesday morning, at least not with certainty but as I irritatingly woke at 5.30am. I had, since December, been meaning to join the group on a Tuesday morning, it was a good week for a first. Also, the days are getting longer so it wasn’t dark when I arrived at Victoria Park. The run was shorter than 5k but certainly faster than my social pace.

I have been fearful of joining group runs in the past, due to my ‘slower’ pace. However, I am slowly getting over that and was glad to have joined them. Besides, one of my favourite ways to start the day is exercise followed by coffee.

Another different thing about this week’s training was that I amended the category of my 10k race on Sunday from C to B. This completely changed the plan from a ‘normal’ training week with a 5 hour bike ride the day before the race, to a plan with a two rest days and short runs with some intensity on Friday and Saturday.

The taper worked and I finally got my 10k race time below an hour. I last managed that in my early thirties. Admittedly, at that time, I managed sub hour with little training. Not so now but a 59-minute 10k in my fifties is relatively faster than the same 20 years earlier!

Another great thing about being on leave this week was that I could swim with group until 8am time and then go for coffee. I usually have to get out 15 minutes early, cycle home, change bags, cycle to work, eat something and then teach trusts for a couple of hours.

Not much else to say about this week of training. I had a light week and was on leave. Finished the week feeling rested and happy with my race result.

W/b 12 February 2024

I decided to spend my rest day catching up with some writing and sorting out the training plan for the week. This week’s training is as follows:

Half marathon goals

I am using Humango and 10IW together to plan my week. London Landmarks half-marathon is on 7 April and I’m hoping for a PB (personal best) again – having got a PB in my last half marathon in October. I am going to qualify this by stressing, I am a slow runner and so my October PB was at the 2-hour 24-minute mark. That may be slow for some, but I was very happy with that time, over 7 minutes faster than my previous PB. I am hoping to get my time down by a few minutes at London Landmarks in April.

Feeling tired

That aside, this week’s training did not go as planned. By Tuesday evening I felt so tired I wasn’t sure I would have the energy to make it to the track and run for nearly an hour. I went anyway but stopped after a little over 35 minutes as I felt shattered. It is rare for me to stop a run without finishing so knew something wasn’t right. I have been training for triathlons long enough that I mostly know when to listen to my body and back off. Tuesday evening was one of those days.

This extended into Wednesday as I overslept, waking at 6:08am. Had I felt more dynamic, I could have rushed and made it to the swim session a few minutes late. Instead, I decided to take my time and attend a morning flow yoga session on the way to work. I don’t like to miss my Wednesday swim sessions, but it felt like the right thing to do. The yoga was gentle enough to be a little restorative and to wake me up a little.

I take note of my resting heartrate and it was up a few beats a minute from its norm so  I am pretty sure I did the right thing.

Thursday’s run was good. I wish I had got up half an hour earlier. I got to about 50 minutes in to the run and really wanted to be able to finish the whole session. However, had left it to late and had to get to work. My goal for the next Thursday run to work is to leave home in time to finish the session.

I went to a Vinyasa flow class on Friday, different teacher to usual. The session was very dynamic. I believe this was an effective strength session, as evidenced by some aches the next day!

On Saturday morning while part way through my Zwift session, I decided to change the priority of next week’s 10k race from C to B. I want to try for a PB, or at least best since my mid-thirties. This meant the AI changed my training from Saturday until the Tuesday after the race. The result was that it removed my Saturday training session. Suddenly my AI prescribed bike session went from 5:20 to zero. I was over an hour in at this point. I didn’t want to reduce my session to the 60 to 75 minutes prescribed by 10IW so completed 50k.

This freed up my Saturday a bit. I managed some chores (food shopping(, pretty important as I am trying to ensure I fuel properly.

Social run with 10IW

I went on a social run with 10IW group on Sunday. It was a 21k run from Dalston around North London to finish at a coffee shop near Clissold Park. Most of the women were in the 5:40 to 6:00 min per km. If only I could run that speed for 21k while chatting and running mostly in zone 2.

Fortunately, four of us ran at the slower pace of 6:30 to 6:50 min per km. I have always been quite reluctant to join group runs as I run on the slower end of the scale. Towards the end of last year, I decided to stop myself from avoiding group runs and joined 10IW on a social run. The main group was faster but there were 3 of us in the more chilled pace group. I enjoyed that session so decided to give it a go more often. Very glad I did. My running seems to have improved and it always feels easier when talking to others.

The run was quite tough as there were a number of hills in Highgate and Alexander Palace. However, some of it involved trail running in Highgate woods and other places which I really enjoyed. Have fancied doing some trail running for a while and would like to do some more in the future.

At least one takeaway from the route was, I really need to do more hill training. I was very slow on the hills, either jogging or walking.

Finished with coffee and pastry and then headed home with sore legs but a great morning of running and company.

Work/life balance – gone wrong!

My son and I spent a lot of the afternoon cleaning the flat. Has to be done and with a full-time job and a lot of training I find cleaning slips down the list of priorities.

There is a lot to think about when training for endurance races, especially for an Ironman. I tend to prioritise the training and my food (after work). With all this, a number of things have slipped my mind recently as we realised on Sunday afternoon that we had missed seeing Ralph Fiennes’ Macbeth in Canary Wharf the previous night.

A big shame as my son’s best friend from Uni was in the cast and we were looking forward to seeing him in his first role after drama school. I have never forgot a planned evening so will need to rethink and be more particular about documenting these things. I did the same about book club which is supposed to be on Friday – I booked tickets to a women in triathlon event and then realised.

A mixed training week on the whole.