Iliyra

100 days.

I figured this is as good an arbitrary point as any - in my build up to Ironman France 2010 - at which to start writing about my preparation for this event. Okay, so the content may be a little dry, but this, and all subsequent posts on this topic are intended to serve as a reminder to myself of the commitment involved in training for an event like this. If it happens to be useful to anyone else, that's great.

So what does the 100-days-to-go mark mean on the run up to an Ironman event? Well, for all but the fittest (or daftest) it means you should probably be well into some sort of structured training program.

As for myself, after deciding to commit to this event, like all good triathletes I was itching to throw some money at the problem, and where better to start than by augmenting my already bulging training-related library, with yet more training-related literature (on the off-chance I'd missed some revolutionary discoveries in athletic training techniques, since I last read-up on the subject, some three years ago).

To cut to the chase - one of the books I enthusiastically shelled out for was the cringingly-titled 'Be IRON Fit: Time-efficient Training Secrets for Ultimate Fitness' by Don Fink, on the basis of some positive reviews. Don has one key message: 'it's all about effective time management' amen to that Don. Aside from that crucial wisdom, he also provides three training programs - the 'Just finish', the 'Intermediate' and the 'Competitive'. Being desk-bound most of the day, prone to injury and having a past consisting of little athletic prowess, I immediately chose the Competitive program, supposedly commiting to up to 20hrs per week. Aim high right?

Regardless of which program you choose, generally you'll aim for a 30-week training program, which is broken down into three, ten-week phases:

Base Phase: Weeks 1-10 (30/11/09 - 07/02/10).

Basically, this is the 'acclimatisation' phase for the entire training program. As some wise person once blathered on: 'He who builds on a strong foundation' etc, etc. You get the point. Get the training right here and you'll be sky-scraping in the following two phases. Get it wrong and you'll suffer subsidence and unsightly cracks. Training here is done at a an aerobic level, or low-intensity, with a focus on technique (it really helps to establish your heart-rate zones before you start all of this). During this phase, you can sit back on your bike rides and chat, go out for a run and check out your surroundings a little more than usual. It's all quite pleasant (or at least it would be if the UK wasn't in the grips of one of the harshest winters in the past 30 years).

So how did my Base Phase go? Well, up and down really. If we're talking solid foundations, I wouldn't plan to build anything larger than a common garden shed on it. I pretty much kicked off the Base phase with some over-enthusiastic circuit training - which quickly taught me that, at 33 years old I'm far from indestructible, with my left knee being particularly keen to reinforce this sentiment. Consequently I ended up paying out for some 'vague' physiotherapy and unable to do any running for most of this phase. Thankfully, I did manage to get the biking in.

I'm fishing for excuses now, but having a seemingly harsh winter hasn't really helped with the getting outside on the bike much. The majority of my bike training as been indoors on stationary trainer (which has its pros and cons). Trying to bash out 2.5 hr sessions on these things has taken some discipline to beat the boredom (largely assisted by BBC iplayer and a number of mindless action / comedy films). Admittedly, being a bit of a techie, I have all the gear for this indoor training lark, which can help beat the boredom. My Tacx iMagic indoor trainer, produces an impressive array of stats such as power output, calorie consumption, heart-rate and every-other-conceivable-fitness-related-metric:



Build Phase: Weeks 11-20 (08/02/10 - 11/04/10)

During this phase, the aim is to ramp it up a little - starting with the introduction of some higher intensity sessions (some gritting of teeth - but not too much) and building up the duration of some of the sessions - possibly with an eye to entering some events, just to get yourself in the mindset. If you're like me, during this phase the event still seems far enough away to allow the odd bout of slackness.

Peak Phase: Weeks 21-30 (12/04/10 - 27/06/10)

Also known as the 'Panic' phase, this is where you hit it hard(er). Some big sessions, some high intensity and some decent size practice events (Half-ironman distance and some long-distance sportives are the order of the day). During this phase you can bask in the resulting fatigue which causes you to fall asleep at work, dribble on your keyboard until at least 50% of the keys no longer work, and be incredibly irritable. On the bright side, while you're awake you can voraciously consume 4000+ calories per day and still be, as McCormick would say, 'Cut like a steak'.

Week 16 Target: 13 hrs

So, at the 100-days-to go mark, I'm (unbelievably) nearing the end of the Build phase, being in week 16. I'm happy to report it's been a successful week. The knee pain (Bursitis, apparently) has all but disappeared (I’ve clocked at least 20 miles of running this week) and I've pretty much stuck to the training plan. All that remains is to get my ass down to the pool tonight, followed by a decent (at least 3.5 hr) ride on Sunday morning, probably based on last Sunday's loop, hopefully without a repeat of the lying-sprawled-on-the-tarmac-after-hitting-a-pothole-whilst-trying-to-answer-my-iPhone incident.