Ready to race!

I started training again on June 1st, a little under 3 months ago. I started from zero, with an accelerated version of C25k (the famous "couch to 5km" plan). I had a few events planned (London Triathlon, Ride London) and they came and went and I was happy - but I wasn't racing them. My plan was to not care about the time, enjoy the experience, take away the pressure and get fitter and faster without injuring myself again.

I'm trying hard to take that relaxed attitude into the Thames Turbo Sprint Series Race 4 tomorrow, but it's really tough - I really really (really!) want to smash it and race hard. It's one of my favourite races, I've entered all the ones I can over the last 3 or 4 years. It's excellent to have a benchmark race to judge your current performance against.

Race history highlighting best and worst performances

So what's happened in the 90 days since I started again? I've made an effort to record every session in the excellent Training Peaks portal, and they provide powerful analysis tools.

It's particularly important to make sure that you don't ramp up on overall duration and run distance too quickly. I seem to have built up evenly with a good continual improvement over the first couple of months (before the races started getting in the way).

Ramp up of overall duration and run distance over the last 3 months

All good so far - but what about the cumulative training effect, including cycling, swimming, and strength training? By analysing all the data from my Garmin 910XT, Training Peaks can work out how fit I am, and how ready I am to race.

This is what 3 months of improving fitness looks like

The blue line is Chronic Training Load which has ramped up nicely over the period. As training gets harder and more intense I would expect to see that climb, then level off/drop a bit, then climb further, and repeat that pattern in line with periodisation of training (e.g. three harder building weeks, followed by an adaptation week, repeat). At this stage, a gradual measured climb is fine - it means I'm getting steadily fitter.

The pink line is Acute Training Load and represents how hard specific sessions or events have been. You can see the two big spikes signifying the London Triathlon and Ride London. It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow - it'll only be a short session (I hope!) but should be as high an output as I can sustain for the whole time, and therefore be a significant acute load.

The Orange line is Training Stress Balance and can be considered as a my freshness level. See the dip after the spikes in acute load - when you work hard, afterwards you're less fresh. The aim is to go into a race with a strong overall fitness balanced by a good level of freshness. Note that despite increasing chronic training load freshness does not drop - able to handle more work without losing freshness means fitness improving.

I am still much less fit (and much more heavy) than last year - but I'm certainly not going to let that hold me back. I think I'm ready to smash out a sprint without fear of injury now. My prediction is that I should be able to get a really good swim and bike done (maybe a PB swim, and possibly close on the bike), but I'll drift back on the run as I'm really not at all run-fit right now - estimated finish time 01:11:00.

Now it's rest for the rest of today and we'll see what tomorrow brings!

Best. Mood. Ever.

I've started training again. Best. Mood. Ever.

As I rolled into June I turned 38. I hadn't run a parkrun since December last year, hadn't ridden my bike properly since Lanzarote (where my ITBS came back again in full force and I was so pissed off I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it), and hadn't got in the pool for ages. I'd followed my re-hab exercises relatively well for a few months, and then dropped off most things for a month or two. This is pretty standard behaviour, I suspect there's a "5 stages of rehab" pattern that most people follow.

Well, enough is enough! I hadn't had a twinge for ages - gotta be fixed by now, right? You know what they say, shit or get off the pot. So the day after my birthday Mrs and I went for a run...

Running

I decided to follow C25k (couch to 5k) plan, but accelerate it a bit. I'm doing the first two runs of every week, skipping the third, and running every other day - it sounds a lot but there's really not much running in the beginning, just a few minutes followed by a few minutes walk - but I don't care, it's running, and I love it. It's strange that running was always my weakest discipline and took the most work to improve - yet it turns out it's the one I have missed the most.

Running in Moscow on a beautiful sunny day

Since then I'm now up to repeats of 5 minutes running and 3 minutes walking - still no knee/ITBS pain, and I reckoned good enough to get me round parkrun. I bimbled off to Wimbledon Common yesterday with Mrs, met up with Abradypus, and ticked off my 69th parkrun. I've never ever been so elated to have run 5km in a leisurely 34:08.

Me & Mrs - she ran/walked with me, so pleased to share my come-back parkrun with her

Wimbledon Common parkrun - two laps, trail, no hills (plus a walking cool-down at the end)

It's been a while since I've received a parkrun results text - 34:08, my "come-back PB"!

Absolutely loving it, but I must make sure I build up really slowly - running is really hard again, HR goes through the roof on a medium-paced jog. I've decided when I get to 5km non-stop (a couple more weeks) I'm going to sit there for a couple of weeks before trying to go longer/faster, just to let everything adapt (muscles adapt quickly, ligaments and tendons take longer - don't overdo it, kids). Best. Mood. Ever.

Swimming

I got off my arse and got in the pool while we were away for my birthday too. Shattered after just a few lengths, I think I managed a total of 20 in the 20m pool with frequent breaks. Worth sticking with as I remember just how fast endurance comes on in swimming - and so on Friday I went to Virgin Active Merton Abbey on the way home from work, warmed up a bit, and then smashed out 16x 100m off 2:30, starting at 1:52 or so, drifting down to 1:58, then putting in a massive effort at the end and finishing on 1:53 followed by a monster effort to make 1:46 (the only sub-1:50 in the whole set). OK so I couldn't move my arms (or anything else) afterwards - but what an achievement, my hardest effort swim since, well, probably November 2012! Best. Mood. Ever.

Check that last 100m split!

Cycling

I've had a few cycle-commutes, taking it easy so about 5-10 minutes slower than "normal" each way, but I haven't gone out on my proper bike yet. Today was the day. I popped out for a 55km easy spin to see how it goes. Only one hill (Box Hill) but that holds no fear.

Can you spot Box Hill?

The short version - no pain, big smile, chewed up the 55km no problem and felt relatively strong when I got back home. Cadence was nice and high throughout, and although I wasn't particularly fast I was consistent on speed and didn't drop off at the end. Next week I'm going to take on our "Three hills" route - covers a lot of the same roads but with a longer route to Box Hill - total of about 90km. Can't wait. Best. Mood. Ever.

Even had time for a selfie at the café - loving the Freespeed London top

Gyming

Not sure "gyming" is a word, but never mind. If I'm going to build up again it has to be supported with a real effort at also building strength and core. A lack of glute strength is what led to my injury in the first place, so I have to take it seriously. Ben and Tarsh recommended The Athletic Edge - so I popped in. Ben and Josh have a small outfit in Hampton Wick. They are focused on functional strength for athletes, and triathletes in particular. I'm going for a coached session every Wednesday, and a self-managed secondary session in the gym at the weekend. Follow @EdgeAthletic on Twitter and check them out on Facebook.

My new Mecca (I'm already mayor of it on foursquare :)

It's a long time since I've seen a PT and it felt great to be put through my paces again, even though it was only the first session. Focus is on pre-hab, strength, and triathlon-specific performance - perfect. They've already shared a structured training plan with me in Dropbox, and that's exactly what motivates me - working through a structured plan and seeing the incremental improvements, I'm so pleased to see this approach. They plan season-long cycles with a sub-structure based on when you need to peak for races. Looking forward to getting strong and not getting injured again! Best. Mood. Ever.

...and Racing

I have a few events coming up. Virgin Active London Triathlon is 4 weeks from today. I'm signed up for the Olympic Plus (1,500m swim, 90km bike, 10km run), basically an Olympic distance but with a double-length bike (it's not my fault, I entered last year when I was on an Ironman high and felt invincible). The task for this one - get through it without hurting too much and enjoy some race experience. No need to smash it hard before I'm ready. 

After that, Ironman 70.3 Zell am See in Austria in 10 weeks - a fast flat course but again I'm not going for a PB, I just want to end the year in one piece and strong for next year (plan TBC for next year, no rush to make plans).

I'd also really like to do the Thames Turbo Marathon this year - but I'm not prepared to do that if I'm not ready by then. It's the first race I missed last year after being injured so I would take great psychological satisfaction in being fit enough to complete it this year (plus, I *still* haven't ever run a stand-alone marathon).

Oh, and shhh don't tell anyone, but I entered Ironman 70.3 UK for 2014 - I also made a stupid challenge on twitter that I was going to break 5:30:00 for it - 45 minutes quicker than last year. Oh well, I like a challenge!

So all is good. Take it easy, don't go too far too soon, stick to the gym, and all will be well.

Best. Mood. Ever.