Beat The Heat - advice for training in a very hot climate

Ha! In your face heat!


So, after suffering something of a setback during my morning run thanks to Dubai's thermostat being nudged from 'volcanic lava' to 'actual hell', last night I headed for Dubai Masters for a swim session. The nicely chilled water reminded me just why I was enjoying swimming so much at the moment!


In fact, the pool was so chilled that I managed to wear my wetsuit for the whole session - swimming in a triathlon wetsuit is quite different as the suit makes you very buoyant and changes your position in the water; it's important to get used to this, as well as where the wetsuit is a bit tight and limits your movement and discover anywhere it may rub a bit. As the sea here in Dubai is of the sort of temperatures at which chefs send lobsters to their untimely deaths, the pool in my only option. It's a lot of fun swimming the session in the wetsuit - I was the strongest swimmer at last night's session anyway but add the suit and I looked like pre-spliff Michael Phelps in there!


Anyway, did 3,500m total and am getting more and more used to swimming in the wetsuit which is good. I'm generally swimming really strongly overall which bodes well for Ironman but also thee season ahead.


This morning, my programme informed me, I was scheduled to do some shorter, quicker runs. Obviously, after yesterday, I was not looking forward to running again. Sure, the distance was much less but the intensity was supposed to be much higher, which means a faster heart beat and higher core temperatures. Fortunately, yesterday before swimming I did something very wise indeed! I did a spot of shopping...


To paraphrase those Mastercard adverts:


2xu lightweight running cap: 60 dirhams (10 quid)
Bag of ice: 3 dirhams (50p)
Having a freezer box full of ice flakes to shove in your hat and down your top every loop of the track: PRICELESS!


So, it wasn't pretty, but I got through the run session - 1.5k slow warm up and then 10 x 400m fast runs with a 200m easy jog between each. The temperature when I finished a 6.15am? A mere 44C!


Obviously, I only have another week till I'm back in the UK - keeping up training in this kind of heat would be plain stupid - but I think this does serve as some sort of example of what it takes to do triathlons, namely a good dollop of dedication and a soupcon of resourcefulness.


It's not always about training for an Ironman in melting hot conditions; it may be fitting in a lunchtime sprint session because you've had to work late all week, or adding some cross-training because of a running injury, or getting a flat on a training ride and using your skewer to wrestle your tyre off because you've broken your tyre lever... triathlon is a pretty good metaphor for life in that it will throw enough things at you to beat you. If you let it. 


Or, you can see a problem as a challenge and then it's time to start looking for a solution. Even if that means a hat full of ice cubes.


Anyway, hit the gym for an hour of intervals on the stationary bike (cranking up resistance but holding cadence at 90 rpm) which was pretty tough but tomorrow is a nice, easy day with a touch of stretching in the morning (i.e. bit of a lie-in!!!) and just a steady one hour masters swim in the evening. Before the last off the truly GIANT training days on Friday (165k ride, 12k run).

Run Stat Boy Run

There are many reasons why I love triathlon – the whole body workout, the pre-race atmosphere, the sense of accomplishment, the fact there’s always new gear to lust after…but one of the main ones for me is my interest in exercise, physiology, nutrition and general fitness. For that reason, as well as a few others (i.e. it’s pretty expensive here in Dubai!), I’ve shied away from joining a triathlon club so far and have instead remained self-coached.

I design my own programmes through a mixture of knowledge, reading, experience and feel. I enjoy that aspect just as much as training/racing; each week, I spend at least five hours reading or listening to podcasts about new sports science breakthroughs or discoveries, gadgets that could change how we train etc…I also try to stay open-minded to new protocols.

After all, until relatively recently, training for endurance events meant non-stop mile after mile after mile in the pool, on the bike and on the road…all at a steady, easy pace. Now we know that shorter high intensity work is just as important. Although the weekly long ride and long run are still the principal tenets of any IM programme.

Conditions here over summer have forced me to look at other ways to train. Frankly, a long 25-32km run once a week is simply not feasible in these conditions. Therefore, I started splitting that long run up and doing half in the morning and half in the evening. This is a tactic recommended by lots of ultrarunners, marathoners and coaches – your legs don’t have time to recover, so the effect is the same as a long run, but you don’t fatigue as easily, maintain better form (therefore stand less chance of getting injured) and, most importantly, have a few hours to rehydrate and eat between runs.

This protocol worked for a while but then the evening runs just got too hot to continue, so I needed another solution. And while I can grin and bear a 6km brick run or even a 10km training run on the treadmill, the thought of staring at a wall in the gym for two or three hours was always a no-go.

A lot of marathoners nowadays may only do a straight long run once every two or three weeks. As well as doing a double day run, as I was, another tactic they use is to do two mid-distance runs on back-to-back days (you’d usually not run at all the day after your long run). This seemed like it might work and, so, yesterday morning I put it to the test.

Yesterday I headed to Safa Park and managed 17.5km. Doing this mid distance run and knowing that I wasn’t running again till the next day meant I was able to put a bit more effort in.  The first and last laps I did as steady 6min/km warm up/cool down, but the three laps in between I did at steadily increasing paces...it was a great workout.

Last night, I hit the gym for one hour on the stationary bike. The main set was a pyramid of 3, 4, 5, 4 and 3 minute simulated hill climbs pushing against a really big gear in an attempt to ready the legs for the hilly IM Wales course. My legs were a little fatigued from the run but fine on the whole.

Waking up at 5am this morning, I was starting to feel a bit sore but not awful and was looking forward to the second of my back-to-back run mornings. Again, I headed for Safa Park but I knew something was wrong on the first lap – sure, it’s hot here, it’s hot all the time and running is a sweaty, unpleasant mess…but today it was HOT! I just couldn’t cool down – it was as though someone had lit a fire in my head. I managed a warm/up lap and two faster laps on about 5.30/km pace but I had to cut it short and did a cool down lap with plenty of walking just to stop myself from throwing up – I felt light-headed, my heart beat was out of control and I could never imagine being cold again. It was horrible.

Getting back to the car, I downed a litre of water and poured another litre over me. The news on the radio driving home revealed that it’d been 40°C overnight and was currently 42°C but, due to the low clouds and humidity, felt like 46°C. Yep, 46!!! No wonder I’d struggled – running 14km in almost 50°C is lunacy! That’s a temperature for slowly cooking something, not running. Anyway, 31km over the two days isn’t too bad all told.

I’ve tried not to moan about the conditions here too much and find solutions – after all, no one’s making me do Ironman, right – but I have to confess now that I can’t wait to get back to the UK in just a week or so’s time. I’ve one long ride and another back-to-back run day between now and then, so will have to find a way to cope. I keep telling myself that doing all this in these conditions is going to pay off when I return back to the UK (which will be a massive 20 degrees cooler!) so I just hope that is the case and I’m not deluding myself. Planning on putting myself through a 2hr steady run the day I get back, so that should provide some answers.

Anyway, back in the pool for a master’s swim session tonight. Actually, back in the nice, chilled, temperature-controlled pool for a master’s swim tonight...!

Are all Ironmen equal?

Oh dear, it seems I’ve made a terrible mistake...

A couple of weeks ago, there was quite a bit of discussion and even controversy throughout the triathlon and Ironman community - the catalysts were Ironman Austria and Challenge Roth. At IM Austria, the awesome Marino Vanhoenacker (now try saying that after a few pints) went out on his favourite course in great conditions and absolutely destroyed the previous world record for an Iron distance race (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km run) which had stood for 14 years.

One week later at Challenge Roth in Germany (also an Iron distance race but not run by the WTC and, therefore, not an official ‘Ironman’ brand race), Andreas Raelert tore down the pants on Marino’s world record and spanked it like a ginger stepchild to the tune of four and a half minutes.

The controversy stemmed from reports that Challenge Roth could have been a short course - inexcusable in days of Google Earth, GPS measurements etc. The discussion, on several triathlon sites, podcasts and magazine websites, was along the lines of ‘when is an Ironman not an Ironman?’

Look back at previous Iron distance world records and you’ll see that they’ve all been set in Austria or Germany. Throw some of the other central European races that pop up around the same time of year and that’s where the fastest times are inevitably recorded each year. They’re fast courses - the swims are in lakes or canals that are as still and clear as ponds, while the bike and run legs are mainly flat with some nice rolling hills. Conditions at that time of year are perfect too - warm, still but not too hot. But, the question is, does that make them less ‘worthy’ or ‘easier’?

My interest in this has been piqued by recent reports from both pros and top age group racers who’ve been recce-ing the Ironman Wales course of late. In a test swim, half the competitors were washed up kilometres down the beach, so strong were the currents. The sea is rough and very cold - an Olympic swimmer expected to record a time of 44 minutes for the course came in on 56 minutes - a HUGE difference for an athlete of that calibre.

The UK 70.3 bike course (Half Ironman) is said to be the world’s most difficult 70.3. One seasoned racer recently rode the IM Wales course and likened it to doing UK 70.3 twice! Many potential Kona qualifiers are opting for road bikes over tri bikes, such is the difficulty of the climbs and technical nature of the descents. Even the run has huge inclines which stretch on for kilometres at a time. Most are claiming Wales will become a classic due to being the toughest Ironman in Europe. When I read the reports, it scares the hell out of me and, I confess, makes me question why I didn’t try a flatter race.

But there’s an old saying in triathlon: it doesn’t get any easier, you just get faster. Those central European courses may be faster, but that just means you’re expected to post quicker times. They’re no easier. 100% effort is 100% effort, no matter where you lay it down. The beauty of triathlon, and this probably applies even more to Ironman triathlon, is that you race the course on any given day. Full stop. Yes, I’d probably finish quicker doing a different course, but so would everyone else.

Last winter, I raced two Olympic distance triathlons maybe a month apart. The first was OK, tho I found the run a struggle, but I posted a PR of 2:13. The next one I nailed and felt much faster throughout - I did 2:15. But when I looked at everyone else who raced, including the winners, almost to a man they were 4-5 minutes down on their times in the previous race for some reason - dodgy distances, conditions, a harder course...who knows. So my 2.15 was my better performance. Weather conditions on race day can even affect what constitutes a good performance on the same course you’ve raced on several times before.

So, I’m expecting a long, hard slog - but I’d expect that anywhere. Any hopes and dreams in terms of finishing times have been scrapped - this one is about finishing and nothing else. And if I do, and get that IM finisher medal around my neck, I’ll know I well and truly earned it (and other IM courses will hold no fear!).

So did I make a terrible mistake, after all? Absolutely, I should never have read those damn route reports.

Finger-tapping time off

Confession: remember that morning coffee ride I was planning on Saturday? Well, I jacked it in. Officially, according to my programme, yesterday was a day of complete rest – my first in more than a month – to round off my recovery week ready for two weeks of the tough stuff. Feeling energetic and committed and all, I decided that I’d ignore that and add an extra 60-80k of riding but, fortunately, common sense prevailed.

I’m conscious of how tough the bike leg of Ironman is going to be – not only because, at 180km, it’s the longest part of the day but also because bike fitness determines how well you run off the bike – so that was the justification for the extra off-programme ride.

The reason for not doing it? That mantra, that I said I’d keep repeating but seem to keep forgetting…TRUST THE PROGRAMME! In the end, I turned the alarm off and had my first proper lie-in (not my usual 6.30 counts as a lie-in as it’s not 5.30, but an actual get up when you wake up lie-in) and it was great. I was up and about with plenty of energy at around 9.30, had a nice big breakfast and then went about my day, getting lots of chores done. Given that I’m still pretty busy in work, it’s less than two weeks till I head back to the UK – and need to pack for hols, training, IM (so a bike and lots of bike gear) and two weddings! – and I’ve lots of training to fit in between now and then, I think it’s a good job that common sense won out. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that more mileage doesn’t always mean fitter or better prepared.

So, with a little of a handle on the chaos that is my life, I had a great night’s sleep last night; also, thanks to having no workouts yesterday, it gave me the chance to eat some good food and get plenty of fluids in. I’m pretty careful about hydrating but, when you’re doing 15-20 hours in 40C, no matter how careful you are, hydrating is likely to be an uphill battle. I’m feeling in fine fettle all old – good news.

It’s tough getting used to these rest days or weeks; triathletes, by our very nature, are usually workaholics – whether we’re in the office or on the bike, we like to dig deep. Therefore, stepping back a little feels like wasted time – I just end up thinking about all the swim/bike/run that I’m not doing. I’m getting better at dealing with this tho – and know it’s essential for making sure I can keep training hard and don’t arrive at the start of Ironman Wales injured or burnt out.

Anyway, it was just a one hour easy swim on the programme today and I decided to head to Dubai Masters’ early session at 6.30am to get that done before work. A very steady 2,400m in total, with lots of work on stroke and technique – the perfect session to warm up into the week. Showered, dressed, swallowed down a chocolate milk and straight to work, safe in the knowledge that my training is done for the day so I’ve another night to myself to relax. Is 11 days too early to start packing? I decided it was this weekend, so instead started an exhaustive list of everything I’ll need to pack to take back with me, which has helped to put my mind at rest a little.

Hmmm, maybe I could fit in some extra run sprints tonight then…just kidding!

Runs, bikes and obsessive compulsive disorder

So, when I said I was going to post everyday, I clearly didn't mean EVERY day! Actually, I did you a favour not posting yesterday as not a great deal went on.

Yesterday was the last day proper of my easy week. As there weren't any morning sessions during my easy week, I had a lovely lie-in until 7:30 and then got up to do 45 minutes of my chiropractor exercises. Although my back is still problematic and can certainly be painful, it seems to be less painful more often since I've been doing these exercises two or three times a week. Also, as a direct result of the chiro exercises, I've started to work regularly on flexibility through my hamstrings and the strength of my glutes – it's hard to tell if this is making a difference to either my bike or run, but I'll hopefully see the gains when the regular tri season starts here again at the end of September.

Yesterday evening was a 1 hour run set as 20 minutes easy, 20 minutes tempo, 20 minutes easy. I decided to see whether my long sleeve 2XU compression top actually achieves the amazing sweat-wicking, cooling effect it claims. The answer, in a word, was no. To be fair, 40°C and 65% humidity is quite a tough test to put it through and it performed no worse than any of my other gear – I guess once it reaches a certain burning heat, you just have to face up to the fact it's going to be uncomfortable. My pace reflected that, as I held 6mins per km for the first 20 mins, 5:15 for the next 20, then dropped to around 5:55 for the final 20. About the best I can hope for in this heat and I also had to consider my long ride the next morning.

Which was this morning. Up at 4am, some porridge and a waffle, and on the road by 4:30. I rode the first 25k or so solo until meeting up with the weekly Roadsters ride at Lime Tree Cafe. The early stuff was great – it was pre-dawn so we could drink openly (remember it's Ramadan) and relatively speaking, it was a bit breezy and overcast, so tolerable. By the time we hit the halfway point though, the sun had come out and temperatures soared. The second half was very hot – the last 10k almost unbearable as we were back on fairly busy roads and couldn't be seen drinking. My programme asked for 150k today and I did 152, which is great. I dumped my bike at home and, as my gym is closed mornings for Ramadan (yes, Ramadan is a bit of a pain as far as IM training goes – maybe more so than the summer temperatures, tho both combined..!) and that's where I usually do my brick run after a ride, I instead just found a shaded spot in a car park to do three quick sets of shuttle runs.

I mentioned recently how much my attitude to training has changed over the years; much the same has happened to my organisational skills. In the past, I was lucky if I turned up to swimming with a pair of trunks, goggles and a towel, whereas now I feel that attention to detail is one of my strengths as a triathlete – from making lists to ensure I don't forget anything on race day, to scoping out a bike course on Google Earth before the race to know what to expect. To be fair, I think most triathletes have a spot of OCD about them, it goes with the territory. This morning, for example, I rode my bike exactly how I'll ride it for Ironman. I don't mean with pedals – I used the wheels I'll use on the day, I placed on all the same hydration aids and bottle holders I plan to use on the day etc too. This is important to make sure it all works – triathlon is the finest example of the 'best laid plans' rule. You can have great intentions to go fast and buy new gear that's  sure to cut seconds off your PB and then, on the day, you'll find that some tiny thing you didn't think of has destroyed your plans. That new gel flask you've velcro'd to your seat post looks great and is really aero, but you can't reach it while you're cycling...

I'm happy to report that everything went to plan and it's now locked in. As, I think, is my nutrition and hydration plan, but I'll take you through all that another time.

The only good thing about training through Ramadan (and a Ramadan that falls in the middle of summer, for that matter) is that everything stops. Nothing's going on at all. A lot of people try to get away. Those that don't just shut themselves away with several boxsets of DVD. Therefore, I've nothing to feel guilty about missing; when I got back from my ride/run this morning, I had a lovely little nap. I watched a couple of films lying on the sofa and then had a read in the bath. I spent most the rest of the time eating – in my defence, my total burn for the day will be around 10,000 calories (to put that into context, what the average healthy, active man would burn in four days), so I think I'm allowed a lot of eating!

A little later, I'm heading out for a slow and steady 10k run, then it'll hopefully be a relatively early night as I'm planning on heading out for the Bab Al Shams coffee ride tomorrow morning. The last couple of tough weeks of Ironman training have definitely now begun – 37 days and counting! 

39 days and counting

So, we're just under 40 days from Ironman now and I've decided to change up the way I do these blogs. Instead of the random musings which have been common until now, I'll attempt to blog on a daily basis from now on in and tell you exactly what I've done in terms of training (and general preparation) that day and why...and mix that in with a healthy dollop of random musings! The hope is that, if you're about to bite the bullet and take on your first Ironman, or any triathlon, then this may help, and for those of you (the majority) who'll never tackle anything like this, then you'll get a privileged and detailed portrait of how you prepare for something like this.

I'm currently on a rest/recovery week; as I've said before, it's essential that athletes have an easier week once a month as it helps to avoid injury/illness/blowout, while giving the body a chance to recover and catch up with those fitness gains and, just as importantly, keeping you eager to train. I'm at that point now...can't wait to get back to the hard stuff! The weekend promises to be a tough one, which is fine by me.

Today was just a swim day (normally I do two sessions a day but during an easy week that's down to one a day most days). My programme required 75 minutes of swimming; as the masters sessions I attend are an hour long, I got there early and did a few hundred metres on my own. It was a quiet session and far shorter than usual, concentrating more on technique. Tho we did a main set of 6 x 200m (that's 6 x 8 lengths in your local pool), getting less rest and faster with each one.

It's funny how we change. As a kid, I was a very good swimmer but, I'll now confess, a dreadful trainer. I hated training, tended to just go through the motions, avoided sessions where possible and was lucky enough to pull off decent race times in spite of that. I specialised in shorter sprints, mainly butterfly and backstroke.

Now, I'm a triathlete, so it's all about long distance freestyle...like a 100m runner becoming a marathoner, the theory is similar but they're almost different sports. I also love training hard now. Train hard fight easy, as the army like to say. For that reason, I love long swim sets that get progressively tougher – making those who want to keep up with you hurt from the beginning and then turning the screw to get tougher and tougher. Worlds away from how I used to be!

So, 39 days and counting...and, without wishing to tempt fate, I feel physically great (fingers crossed and touching wood). I've not really suffered from any of the most common injuries, aches and pains that most first-time Ironman racers get in training. This means I'm either killing it or am not doing enough and in for one hell of a shock... it's always tempting to think the former and pile mile on top of mile but I need to trust in the programme. That's my motto for recovery week, trust in the programme!

Hasta manana.

Ironman and me

I was one of those kids in school – maybe you were one too; if not, you definitely knew the type. In a junior school where sporting ability seemed to be valued above academic prowess, I won the much coveted 'sportsman of the year' award in my final year. In high school, I represented (and often captained) the school in football, rugby, tennis, cricket, athletics, basketball and, of course, swimming. In short, I tended to be pretty good at anything I tried.

But swimming was the one I took seriously and trained hard for. By the time I reached around 17 and it was clear I was never going to become an Olympic champion swimmer, I started to lose interest and 'sized down' from the excellent regional club, City of Chester, that I trained with and swam for to the local Mold swim club. On the noticeboard at the sports centre in Mold is the first time I remember seeing a triathlon – it's easy to forget just how young this sport is sometimes. My interest was piqued and I decided I'd be pretty good (how much do I wish I'd started back then, but I guess things happen when they happen for a reason) but I never got around to it.

Around the same I first became aware of Ironman due to the legendary race of 1997 when the coverage of Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham racing for the line on hands and knees (neither could stand without their legs buckling) was shown around the world. When I learned what they'd just done – 3.8km swim, 180km bike and a full 42km marathon – I was amazed that any human could push themselves like that. Then, to want it so bad you'd actually crawl...and all this was for FOURTH PLACE!

Skip forward a few years and I spent the Easter before my uni finals working in Portugal. Each morning, I'd get up and do a small swim in the hotel pool and one of the guys working there asked me to do the swim leg for a team triathlon against other hotels. Unfortunately, I had to leave the weekend before.

Finally, as I've explained before, the perfectly timed combination of a get fit kick and an invitation to be part of a media team to cover the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge did see me enter my first tri and, as I've said before, I was immediately hooked. But, even then, it was always going to be a sprint here, maybe an Oly distance there...Ironman was never on the cards.

As the months passed and I enjoyed tri racing and training more and more, I guess I started devoting a little more time to it here and there. I remember turning up to swimming one night and one of the girls there who is into multisports herself asked how my training was going. Ok, I replied, telling her the run and ride volume I'd done that week. 'You're training for Ironman,' she said. I was; I just didn't know it yet.

As I've said, I love everything about triathlon and read anything I can about races, athletes, training protocol, supplements etc. I can name the last 20 Ironman World Champs in order off the top of my head and so I spent a whole day last October following the World Champ race in Kona online. I was nervous, excited...it was like cup final day. That was when I knew I was going to race IM this year.

It's funny how things change incrementally, so you never really notice how far you've come. I think it's important to look back and appreciate that journey and your achievements. I bought my first old, secondhand bike from a friend I'd met doing the Adventure Challenge who was training to do his first Ironman. The night I went to see the bike, he was heading out for a 26k long run. “There's a word for that, mate – madness,” I said at the time. Now I just call it Tuesday.