Books that help me train harder

A few months ago, The Guardian had an article about which sports make for the best literature. There are lots of great suggestions by readers but many more if you extend the question out from not just literature but books in general – fiction and non-fiction. There’s that old adage that life is stranger than fiction; in sport, real life is often also way more exciting.

So, in football, I’d nominate Fever Pitch (a memoir and not a novel) and The Damned United (the story of Clough’s short and unhappy tenure at Leeds Utd). Both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. That said, until fairly recently, I was never really much of a biography or true story fan, but my discovery of endurance sports seem to have changed that.

The last two sporting books I read I honestly couldn’t put down. The first was It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life, by Lance Armstrong. I realise that Armstrong is a divisive and controversial figure but this is an awe-inspiring take of having it all, losing everything and then returning like a phoenix from the flame. Interestingly, Lance claims that cancer not only made him a better cyclist but better person, but it’s also a fascinating insight into the training that pro cyclists put themselves through. If you find it hard to think about Armstrong without the words ‘drug cheat’ appearing in your subconscious then fair enough – but, to be fair, as the Italians like to say ‘Tutti colpevoli, nessuni colpevole’ (If everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty!). Ultimately, I’m of the opinion that if the tens of millions of dollars he’s since raised for cancer awareness, treatment and recovery represent the ends, then they definitely justify the means.

The second book is called Born To Run. When I first started running a few years ago, I was unable to do more than 5k due to crippling pain in my feet and shins. I grinned and bared it and the distance increased slightly, but the pain remained. Some investigations on my part introduced me to the world of barefoot (or minimalist) running and, in that world, the book Born To Run is just about the holy bible, the Quran, the Talmud and the Veda all wrapped into one. But brilliant.

In effect, it’s the tale of one slightly overweight and shin splinted journalist’s mission to overcome the pain of long distance running. But it takes in ancient running tribes, physiology, the invent of jogging by Nike, the greatest race never seen on TV, a crazy recluse called Caballo Blanco and the birth of cognitive thinking in humans…it’s amazing.

More importantly (and nothing to do with that book but rather my search to find a copy), subscribing to the theories of minimalist running have seen me go from 5k to (hopefully) Ironman.

Appetite piqued and having just finished my latest read (a completely non sport related history of the Sicilian mafia), I’ve just been on Amazon to order my latest delves into the world of endurance sports. At the recommendation of several friends, I’ve ordered Murakami’s Things I Talk About When I Talk About Running (during which he apparently and brilliantly describes the transition from swim to cycle in a triathlon as making you feel like a salamander that has tuned into an ostrich overnight) and also ordered I’m Here To Win – a simple and to the point title from one of the world’s best ever (and definitely most cocksure) Ironman champs ever, Chris McCormack. Is describing an Aussie as cocksure maybe a bit like calling a Frenchman a bit stroppy?

And then I’ve decided to follow up on the cycling front with The Hour – Michael Hutchinson’s apparently very funny retelling of his doomed attempt to break the one hour World Record (the great Eddy Merckx once claimed that every attempt he made on the one hour record stripped a year from his life, such is its difficulty).

Finally, I’ve gone for the extremely well-reviewed Racing Through The Dark by current Garmin-Cervelo rider David Millar which details just how easy it was during the ‘dark days of cycling’ to become involved in doping.

Those books I mentioned up front made me fall even more in love with cycling and running as sports (have there been any great swimming books?) and, flawed as the individuals in them are, it’s gratifying to see others who love their sports just as much. They gave me determination and motivation to train harder, so I hope these new books do the same.

Am I missing any out? Are there some glaring marathon-based omissions? What are the sporting books you'd like to see? George Best's 101 lines for picking up women? How to make friends and destroy Ironman fields by Chrissie Wellington? Born to be mild by Tim Henman?

Progress and parties

As I mentioned earlier, this week was the first of a hard five-week block which forms the juicy 16oz fillet in the steak sandwich that is my Ironman training schedule. It’s the block that matters most – both physically and mentally – and I feel like I came through the first part relatively unscathed.

An overextended metaphor.

The most notable accomplishment this week was my long Friday bike ride – I managed a 160k ride in just under five hours all told, which is something of a landmark as it’s the longest ride in my programme. Unlike in a lot of other sports, in endurance sports you rarely if ever train the full distances you do in races – marathon runners, for example, only do the full marathon in races. Ironman is the same (unlike shorter triathlons where you do train to those distances and even longer for endurance purposes).

So, the plan is that I’ll ride the 160k another two or three times, but I won’t go longer. Knowing that I’ve completed the maximum training distance necessary on the bike (will peak at 32k in a day on the run in a few weeks’ time) has given me a real confidence boost. Just as significantly after feeling utterly rubbish on last weekend’s ride was the manner of finishing it. Although there were a few times when I found it hard going, I didn’t get dropped and was actually riding with the quickest pack in the final push at the end. And did all this in temperatures that had reached 42C by the end of the ride. Happy days!

My sprint finish was positively Cav-ish...maybe!

There are a couple of things that people ask when they find out I’m doing Ironman: the first is where do I find all the time (which I think I’ve covered before) and the second is don’t I find it a huge sacrifice. I know triathletes who definitely do sacrifice almost everything and even before starting IM training, I was determined never to do that. After all, it’s not as if I’ll ever be a world champ or make a living from triathlon, so I need to enjoy other things too. So I’ve tried to make sure I have enjoyed a cinema trip or a few beers on the nights I do get off. This week, I pushed things around a little to go out on Tuesday to an awesome pub quiz (Arabian Ranches if anyone’s interested) where we came a most unfortunate second place (team name: Quiz Akabussi). Then, at the weekend, it was one of my best friend here in Dubai’s stag afternoon and leaving do. He’s having a proper stag back in the UK but as a lot of us won’t be able to make it, we did an afternoon of poker and scotch, before giving both Jamie and his lovely fiancée Catherine a good send off at an evening brunch.

I was obviously up early on Friday morning (4am) to get my ride in, I went straight to the gym for a 5k brick run, then spent most the rest of the day in a foggy scotch mist. It was lovely. But, by 11pm, the whole group was ready to push on to a pub or a club for some more drinking. I had the will but my body said no way – my eyes were beginning to close so I headed for home.

Tired.

In fact, I was home so early that I probably could have made it to my normal Saturday morning ride but I chose the rare lie-in instead! You definitely can keep some remnants of a social life while training for an Ironman or ultramarathon or whatever…but there’s one inescapable rule: whatever you skip now, must be made up for later. Therefore, after my lie-in and a bit of lunch, it was time to turn up the aircon and hit the turbo trainer for a two-hour easy spin. Two hours (or three episodes of The West Wing) later, I headed out for an easy 10k recovery run – the last action for my week. Loving it.

Some fun numbers…

Last week, I:

Swam/biked/ran a total of 341 kilometres, in a total training time of 17hrs, burning around 13,000 calories (or just over 50 Mars Bars).

I have 2 blisters on my hands from riding, 1 nail has fallen off with 1 more nail having died but staying attached to my foot.

I swam 25m underwater straight into a 25m sprint in 30 seconds flat.

On my bike, I reached a top speed of 54kph (downhill with a tailwind!).

I got an average of 5hrs sleep a night and spent approximately 85% of my waking hours daydreaming about eating, sleeping or drinking more coffee.

I spend approximately 85% of my sleeping hours thinking I was training or dreaming I’d missed Ironman.

Too much information...

Much like an old person going into detail about their sex life, a physics teacher explaining the intricacies of their latest research paper, or a doctor telling you the craziest injury they ever saw...in triathlon, it is definitely possible to get too much information (or TMI, as I believe the kids are calling it).

Triathlon is a sport obsessed by numbers. There are the obvious ones – time and distance. But then there's speed, transition times, pace... you can keep going. At the top end, athletes have power taps on their bikes which constantly tell them how many watts they're currently pushing (or average watts for the ride) – 'OMG, you pushed 370 watts in your training ride? That's like, totally cool.'

The pros are constantly being tested too – for their VO2 max, their lactate threshold... 'BTW, did you know that Lance had a VO2 max of 84.0?' 'Really? FFS – that's just insane!'

But even at our level, figures sometimes become all consuming. Almost all triathletes have fancy bike computers or GPS watches. I opted for the GPS watch as it can be used through swim, bike and run and means I don't need a watch and bike computer too. Not only can it tell me where and how far I've run, but it also feeds me real time info such as my current pace and my current heart rate. I can ask it to compare my current workout to a previous workout, or I can set a goal pace and it'll tell me how far ahead or behind I am. It cooks me dinner, irons my shirts and tells me bedtimes stories and is my BFF. OK, not quite...

It's great for races and useful for training. But is it always good to have so much data – IMHO, I don't think so. I noticed that I hadn't really been enjoying my last couple of long run days as I'd become obsessed by my pace: Is this IM pace? Could I hold this for the marathon? Is this too fast? Am I going too slow?

Today, I did it the 'old fashioned' way – I scoped out a morning run near home using the path tool on Google Earth to make sure it hit the 12k required. Then I ran it. This evening, I did four laps of a circuit I know to be 3.5k, giving me the 14k required. I just put my old watch on to keep rough tabs on the overall time. And guess what? I really enjoyed both runs and actually ran better than I had for a while.

So, does this mean everyone should ditch their fancy training aids? Of course not – WTYF. Just don't be a slave to the stats and keep fun high on the list of priorities.

In the spirit of TMI – training for endurance events is not always too kind on the body, with the feet taking the brunt of it. I tend to lose a nail or a good slice of skin every couple of weeks and here's a pic of the next nail that appears to be on its way out. 

On its way out...

American ultra marathon runner had all his toe nails removed...after all, they're strange things that we don't use when you think about it. LMAO!

Marshall Ulrich: hard as no nails!

For anyone not 'down with the kids':
TMI – too much information
OMG – Oh my God!
BTW – by the way
FFS – for f#*k sake

BFF – best friend forever
IMHO – in my honest opinion
WTYF – whatever tickles your fancy
LMAO – laugh my arse off

Some testing resting

Last week, as I explained in a previous blog, was my ‘easy’ recovery week. It still involved around 10 hours of training (compared to around 20 during hard weeks), but the intensity and distances were all dialled down a little. I usually find easy weeks frustrating but I really enjoyed last week – I got stuff done, and was feeling really fit and strong.

I also focused on the stretches and exercises that Dr Charles the chiropractor gave me – my back pain has definitely lessened, my posture is much better and I feel much more ‘balanced’ if that makes sense. Both a cause and result of my back issues has been massively reduced strength in the glutes (the muscles in my butt!) and a couple of my exercises are aimed at the glutes in particular. As these muscles play a key role in both riding and running, it also makes sense that working on them will lead to improvements in those disciplines, as well as helping to sure up my back problems. Therefore, last week I added some extra glute exercises to my programme and was feeling good and strong come the end of the week.

Bearing in mind that I was feeling good, I was rested and that the weekend’s rides were a mere 105k and 60k (compared to back-to-back 150k, 90k, 60k the week before) I expected to find the weekend’s rides a breeze. How wrong could I be? On Friday’s long ride with Dubai Roadsters, I struggled from start to finish. With 20k to go, I got dropped from the group and had to struggle in solo – and the road back is a long, hot, unforgiving one to ride alone.

I think there are a few reasons why I found it so tough. Firstly, those damn glute exercises! I’ve never noticed the battering that the glutes take on a ride before – it’s usually my quads and hamstrings that are screaming by the end of a long ride – but having overdone some of the exercises, I was really conscious of every pedal stroke.

Secondly, it was very, very, very hot and extremely windy from the get-go, which was both energy-sapping and exhausting. I think, with it being a shorter ride than I’ve done as my ‘long ride’ in a while, I prepared less well in terms of nutrition and hydration, expecting it to be easy.

To add distance to a ride (and therefore get up to the distances required by my Ironman programme), I usually ride to the meet-up point and take that first part nice and easy as a warm-up – not doing that this time, it was 36kph from the off and that put me on the back foot straight away.  Finally, it seems to be par for the course to feel a bit sluggish during a recovery week – the body is recovering and building, and it takes a bit of kickstarting to get it back into endurance mode.

I didn’t particularly enjoy Friday’s ride at all, but, in spite of that, I was really happy with it. The main reason for that was one word: attitude. I refused to let it get me down and tried to draw positives from it. Yes, I overdid the glute exercises but they obviously work and hit the right muscles – I just need to build up more slowly and do them before a rest day or easier session. Yes, the conditions were utterly unpleasant (40+C and 80%+ humidity) but this surely means that riding in the UK will be far easier. When I got dropped by the group, I found my own pace, put my head down and carried on. One by one, I started picking off others who’d been dropped further up – several of those had to load their bikes and aching bodies into the support cars that came out with us but I gritted my teeth and carried on…I’m certain that mental strength will serve me well at times during the long Ironman day.

I know I ride better after a warm up which, in IM terms, tells me my race plan (as advised by top coaches) to go out and take the first hour of the bike at a pretty leisurely pace (‘just ride – don’t think about pace, speed or time’) is in all likelihood the right one for me. And, finally, you only feel sluggish during a recovery week if your body and fitness levels are making gains. I’m on the right track, I feel, and ready to ramp up the mileage again this week.

After Friday’s tough ride, Saturday’s coffee run was meant to be a breeze – especially as I went out with the slightly easier recovery group. But the easy spin didn’t materialise as it was straight into a fierce headwind for half the way out, and a side wind that threatened to swipe us all from our bikes for the second half. No worries, I thought, it’ll be in our favour on the way back. And it was.

For the bike section of IM especially, six hours at the mercy of the elements and the geography of the hilly course, being strong mentally will be just as important as being physically capable. Hopefully last weekend will stand me in good stead.

Play to your strengths

The first bit of advice you get when you start doing triathlon is to train hardest on your weaknesses. It makes sense. Most people come to triathlon with a bit of a background in one of the sports. If you’re a decent runner, you’ll probably enjoy running most and want to spend most time on it, but there are bigger gains to be made from more time swimming and riding.

My background is in swimming and, despite 10 years during which I only ever dived into a pool to make my way to the swim-up bar, when I started swimming regularly again, the technique was already there and the stamina came back quickly.

I’m now swimming strongly and in the vast majority of triathlons I’ll be one of the first people out of the water. If I spent an extra three hours a week swimming, I’m sure I could improve a few seconds here and there, but is that the best use of that time? Running is arguably my weakest of the three, and three hours extra a week of running could yield minutes of improvement – maybe even half an hour on an Ironman marathon.

NO!

So, that’s why you train your weaknesses. But that’s a simplistic view. I currently do two solid swims with the masters squad each week, as well as an easy ‘recovery’ swim on my own in the gym pool after a hard weekend.  That keeps me feeling strong and as though I’m slowly improving. But if I cut that down to one swim a week and used that extra hour to run, chances are there’d not be too much difference in my swim times. But I’d feel different.

HELL NO!

For me, the swimming, as my strongest event, is my metronome. If I’m swimming well going into an event, I feel good. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that, when I was feeling a bit ropey and doubting myself last week, it was during a week when my swim schedule was messy.

I don’t think this is just because the swim comes first in a triathlon either. If you’re a good runner, it must give you confidence during the swim and ride to know that, once you step off the bike, whip the helmet off and pull the trainers on, you’re hitting the run in a rich vein of form.

Yes!

While it’s obviously important to train your weaknesses as they’re where the biggest benefits and time gains can be found, there’s real certainty and clarity in knowing that your strongest discipline is firing on all cylinders; conversely, mentally, if I’m not even swimming well, then what chance do I have in the rest of the race?

On another note, my recovery week is coming to an end. It’s funny to call a week during which you train 10 hours an ‘easy recovery week’ but that’s exactly how it’s felt and I feel really tight and strong because of it. Couple of mid distance rides (105k tomorrow AM and 60k Sat AM) then time to get stuck into the five biggest and most significant weeks of this programme. Looking forward to it.

Beat The Heat

Last night, I went up to Arabian Ranches (a nice residential development out of town which has a circular route ideal for running) and I ran 18kms in 1:45. Now, usually, even for me (running isn’t my strength) this would be neither a particularly long run (for my weekly long run) nor a particularly fast time. But by the time I finished at 10PM, it was still 36°C with 75% humidity outside.

The heat is easily my biggest adversary in the Ironman training. There are two things I’m already regretting: 1. Doing Wales as my first Ironman – early reports from those who have tested the course suggest that it’s going to be one of the most difficult Iron distance races out there; 2. Doing a race at the end of a Dubai summer.

Most people would consider training through such conditions to be impossible – it’s not, but it takes a lot of planning.  You can’t just put your shoes on and go for a run.

Swimming is easy, as long as you stick to a pool. They’re all chilled here, so no problem. Open water swimming however (which would be the ideal way tom practise) is out of the question – the Gulf is literally like warm bath water right now.

Cycling means an early start, lots of fluids, salt pills and, if I’m adding extra distance on to a group ride in order to hit my training goals, doing the majority of that before meeting the ride. Early morning (pre 6am), it’s actually quite pleasant. The breeze created by being on a bike keeps it OK till about 8. Then it’s horrible. So, if I want to do a brick session (a small run straight off the bike to get used to the odd sensation in your legs), I have to park my car at the gym, end my ride at the gym, throw the bike in the car and go straight up on to the treadmill.

Running is most problematic. A 15-30 minute brick run is one thing but I simply can’t abide the treadmill…30 minutes is my absolute max. So that means running slowly, running before 6am and after 8pm and staying hydrated. I wear a fuel belt which has little bottles attached so I can carry water and sports drinks out with me – or I make sure I take a route that passes plenty of water fountains…ideally both. The reason I like running at Arabian Ranches is that it’s a loop – I do one circuit and then stop back at my car, in which I have a cooler box with extra water and Gatorade to top up on and cold flannels to bring my temperature down. While I refill my fuel belt bottles, I put the ice blocks down my top. It’s bliss. But not for the fainthearted.

However, there’s more and more evidence that it could be beneficial. It’s long been known that, in order to race in hot or humid conditions, a few weeks of training in hot and humid conditions first helps you to acclimatise. Now, however, sports scientists think that training in hot and humid conditions may help when you compete in cooler temperatures. The performance loss at 36°C is estimated at around 30% - dehydration kicks in quickly, blood thickens, the heart has to work harder… so in cooler conditions, you’re more adapt at keeping the core cool, you retain fluids and salts better, the thinner blood is pushed around the body more easily.

That’s the theory at least. One that I’ll put to the test at Ironman Wales. And then never again. Next summer, I’m taking a few well-deserved months off!

And breathe...

Another week of training done and, after my down-on-my-luck rant in my last post, the plan to throw myself into some training really paid off in the end. The scores on the doors for last week? 7.3km of swimming, 333km on the bike and 45.5k of running. There were a couple of hours of conditioning and flexibility in there too, but who’s counting (well, actually, I am…).

As I’ve said before, I know that the ride is the key to success at Ironman Wales and that’s the reason I really got behind that this week. It was a long weekend here in Dubai thanks to a public holiday on Thursday; while I was way too busy to stay away from the office all day, I did get the chance to tackle a long holiday ride with the Cycle safe group on Thursday morning. The ride was scheduled to be a 120k out to the Abu Dhabi border – I decided to park up 15k away (taking the ride to 150k). The final 30k or so were very hot and windy but, other than that, the ride went well – the longest distance I’ve ever ridden in one go and I felt generally quite strong..

On the road again...

The following morning, I rode out to meet the Roadsters. Given the previous day’s exertions, I decided to do the shorter 80k ride rather than the usual 120. I didn't realise that while the 120 was a long steady ride at around 34kph average, the 80k ride wasn't an easy, shorter spin but an all-out sprintathon! From the halfway point, we were averaging 44kph on the way back…inevitably, my legs gave out and I slowed down and rode in with another group who’d fallen off the back, before riding back to the car (making the ride a 90k-er in total). The pace was tough but I'm glad I tried that distance – once Ironman is over and we return to the regular triathlon season here, I’ll alternate between the longer steadier ride and the shorter faster one; long rides build endurance in the legs but, as the old saying goes, if you want to go fast, you’ve got to practise going fast… 

Wait for me...

On Saturday, it was a nice and easy 2 hour spin on the Bab Al Shams coffee ride – one hour out to the hotel in the desert, coffee and a Danish there, then an hour back. It’s amazing how having built up my endurance over the past few months, a 60k ride now feels like a walk in the park – even this time last year, 60k was still a good ride for me. Now it’s a warm-down!

Outside Bab Al Shams after a coffee stop.

There was some running thrown in over the weekend too (just 16k or so total), but the real success wasn't the mileage put down but the fact I loved every minute of it. The enthusiasm and joy I was lacking at the beginning of the week have come flooding back. I can’t wait to get to IM but, just as much, I can’t wait to get back from IM and for the regular triathlon season to begin. It may take me a while to get my speed back (IM is about long, steady aerobic performance; sprints and Oly distance races need speed and power that need to be trained for in a different way) but I know I’ll feel the difference from all these miles I’m clocking up. The 20k bike section of a sprint tri must feel pretty short and easy when you’ve spent months doing regular 120k+ rides…

Typically, with all this positive energy and motivation firmly entrenched in the noggin, this week is my easy recovery week. Recovery weeks can be frustrating. I’ll still be doing around 8hrs of training, but it’ll all be done at very low intensity, and it’s a far cry from the 20hrs I did last week. These weeks are important – heavy training breaks down muscles so that they repair bigger and stronger; without time to repair, you never see the benefits of all that training and put yourself at risk of injury. But these weeks are frustrating! I’m taking the opportunity to get on top of work, have a tiny bit of a social life and do some tri admin – cleaning my bike and chain, inventorising what I have and what I’ll need for Ironman…the week will soon be over.

And when it is over…phew, I looked at the next four weeks of my programme this morning and these are the make or breakers. They’re vicious and make the last few weeks look easy but I 110% trust and believe that if I follow the programme and don’t miss a session, the next four weeks will make sure I get around IM Wales in decent shape. Four weeks that will decide how my day goes on 11 September 2011. Bring ‘em on!