Author: Buck

Just some stats for future reference. I did the Warrington half marathon today. I didn’t think I was going to be able to, but managed to get a shift swap at work. It was a good run for me. I managed to batter my previous personal best (from 2012 when I was a young and vigorous slip of a 46 year old lad) by 3 minutes 24 seconds.  I was a bit disappointed with the overall time of 1.36:17, I wanted to be a lot closer to 1.30, but hills. And wind. And other excuses. I’ve got the Manc half next month, so hopefully get within spitting distance of 1.30 then. Still, PB. The stats, subject to change when the final results and proper breakdown get posted are: I was 1.36:17 5,295 people entered the half (I don’t know how many were no-shows/ DNF’s yet.) I finished: 277 overall, 246th in the men’s race, (only 31 women beat me! That’s quite impressive for me.) 25th in my age group. The age group stat is meaningless until I know how many were in that category, but 277th out of 5,295 puts me in the the top 5.23% for the overall race. Just looked at my last Warrington half stats in 2016. 1.47:42 558 overall 496 gender 65th in age group. Wow. That’s way more encouraging. Right, I’ll confirm when the official results are up, but just on the stats I’ve got that’s not bad. Then Lettie, a niece-in-law, said her chap did it in 1.15. I thought it was a wind-up. He’s a noob, only been running for about a year, after knee surgery. No way. She seemed serious. As was Wendy. I looked it up, that would be a 5.45 m/m pace. Nah, not even. They looked it up on the results, there he was 1.15. I was stunned, full of admiration, but mainly gutted. In the end Lettie got to doubting herself so texted Mark, her chap. He’d ran the 10K. Bloody hell. But, for some actual perspective, today somebody ran a 2.01 in the Berlin marathon. A full marathon at 4.38 m/m pace. I hear competitive knitting is the future. Buck. 

The title is a reference from a not very good war film. A cowardly German officer is jealous of his sergeant’s Iron Cross. At the end of the film the sergeant runs into the fight saying to the officer “Come with me and I’ll show you where the Iron Crosses grow.” Or words to that effect.  It’s a phrase I use for my training. I finish work and I’m tired and hungry and want to sit down, eat and sleep. But I’ve set myself a massive challenge. I grit my teeth and do an hour on the bike or a run. The bike is set up in the shed on the turbo trainer. I shut the door to keep gnats out (and in an attempt to heat condition myself) and go like stink. I couldn’t believe how hot I got so I bought a cheap wall thermometer to quantify. An hour of pure graft, sweat pouring off me, and I raise the shed temperature by 6°C! And the humidity goes stupid, I’ve had water running down the steamed up windows. It’s awful. But, that is where the Iron Crosses grow. I set myself this sub 10 challenge, then looked into where it would place me. In 3 out of the 4 Barcelona Ironmans that would have given me a podium finish for my age group. Which is an impressive ambition, but then I took the reasoning a step further. That would place me in the top 1% or 2% for my age group. When you think of it like that… get sweating fatlad! I’m thinking of how I can make it happen. I want to lose another stone, not through dieting as such, just keep on exercising.   I’ve missed out on 3 weeks of swimming. We had a bank holiday so it was shut, then I was on holiday, then yesterday my feet were still bad so I thought I’d best wait. Next week I start my swim training in earnest. That is my biggest challenge. I can build leg muscles for the ride, I can get faster for the run, but swimming is technique. And upper body strength. Of which I have neither. I was thinking that it’s all going to succeed or fail on the ability of this swim coach. Then I changed my attitude. If he can’t help me I’ll find someone who can. I’ve got nearly 3 years.   My running took a bit of a hit after my stupid attempt to run without socks. It turns out I was thinking of the bike section, that can be done comfortably bare foot. I could barely walk, never mind train. After 10 days I did a test 6 mile jog while we were on holiday. It hurt but it was manageable and it didn’t exacerbate the problem. I tried to catch up with my sub 3 training when we got back. I was 2 weeks behind so I had to go from 2½ miles at 6.45 […]

After all my big talk about managing the pain of running with no socks and the getting bad blisters, it turns out recovering from them is vastly worse. They went from scratched-looking to red raw open wounds. It’s been 6 days and they are still raw. I’ve been washing them in salt water, pouring raw salt on them, and dabbing them with rubbing alcohol. The pain is enough to make me sweat. At least the rubbing alcohol only lasts a few minutes, pouring salt on is intense for twice as long.  And they still won’t heal. Stubborn. I was feeling a bit better this morning, I thought with the padding of the plasters and socks I could probably manage a run. I put my trainers on upstairs and made it as far as the bottom of the stairs before I changed my mind. No chance.   I’ve been training on my bike on the turbo instead. I’ve managed 4 out of 5 days. My training plan (1 minute in each gear going up the gears, -starting in 3rd- , 5 minutes in top gear, 2 minutes in each gear going down) works out as two complete repetitions in an hour. Which is handy.  I’ve managed to set up the data logging app on my ‘phone from the turbo, so now I can quantify my workouts. I’ve managed two session with it working. On the first one it said I did 28 miles in the hour. I don’t believe that’s the case.  On the road I usually do about 18 mph maximum. But that’s always pacing myself for a long ride, and there’s the stopping and starting, hills, wind, traffic, etc. I will have to go out for an hour’s sprint. See what I’m really good for. That’s besides the point. The point is, that is the reading I got for an hour’s workout. Using the same settings, doing the same workout, I can see if I’m doing better than X (which happens to be 28 miles in this instance). The other readings were the power I was putting out, on the first run it was 185 watts average and 262 maximum. Apparently decent riders run at 350 watts, I heard on a video the other day. The guy who was testing some kit patronisingly said he was doing it again at 250 watts to give a reading at the level of club riders. I’ve got a long, long, way to go. Once I’d laid down a benchmark figure I had to beat it, obviously. Today’s workout I did 28.9 miles (it clicked over to 30 miles a few seconds over the hour. Damn.) with 194 watts average, 330 watts max. Tomorrow I’ll do 30 miles. I can’t run or swim because of my feet. Showers hurt enough. I don’t expect they’d want me in the baths with open wounds even if I could take the pain.   The other training news is on my aero bike. Obviously I want this: […]

They say that 60% of your tri training should be on the bike as that’s where you are going to be spending the majority of your race. I’ve been putting it off as it’s horrible and boring. I finally bit the bullet, cleaned out the shed and set up the bike on the torture device/ turbo trainer. I did one session after my epic run the other day. It was good training but I was sweating and panting, kept pausing to take drinks and generally make excuses to rest for a second. I had it in a low, mostly manageable gear, apart from the 5 minutes in top gear. I kept trying to shift up, to build muscles and stamina, but quickly dropped down again. On that session I ended up opening the shed door to try and let some cool air in as I was dying. I’ve had time to think about it though, and now I’m keeping the door closed. It should keep the gnats out, which is a bonus, but my main goal is heat conditioning. I’m thinking if I start now, plan in regular training sessions, and work through autumn and winter, as it starts getting warmer I should adapt. In theory. If I’m looking to an end goal of the Barcelona or Hamburg Ironman (even two out of three of my Outlaws have been in blistering heat) I need to heat condition. More for the run, to be honest, but surely that will carry over? Anyway, I did another session today, with the door shut. I’ve got a big fan there, but as part of my new masterplan I’m not using it. And I’ve stumbled across a successful training plan. I remembered at the gym on on their kit you can do stepped training plans, say for 2½ minutes at one level, then up a level, down a level, etc. Instead of just pedalling in a do-able gear and keep stopping I timed myself. I settled on 1 minute per gear up, 5 minutes in top gear, then 2 minutes down the gears. The only difference is mental, but struggling in, say, 5th gear, knowing you’ve got another 6 to go, all harder, is too much at the minute. So, 1 minute up, 5 in top, 2 minutes down. Again it’s just mental, but because I wasn’t just churning away for an hour, I kept going. Instead of thinking “45 minutes to go, I can’t do it”, I was thinking “only 2 minutes, then it gets easier” Once I’d stumbled on the stepped plan (a few minutes in) I didn’t stop. The sweat was running down the back of my legs. Everywhere else as well, but literally running down my legs.That’s not normal for me. Pure gross. By the end of the hour the condensation on the shed windows was running. I’ve just ordered a cheap thermometer, I want to know just how hot it’s getting in there. I’m a mite concerned about rusting my […]

I am really getting focused on my training. I’ve cleaned out my shed and set my bike up on the turbo trainer. I did a session yesterday and today. I did this week’s task of 2½ miles at race pace the day before those. So today, before the hour on the bike, I decided to go for a fast test run. I thought that the professional triathletes didn’t use socks, thus saving a minute in transition. Transition is the easiest place to save time, you don’t have to use any muscles to not put a pair of socks on, so I gave it a go. The good news is I battered my times. I did a 10K (seems that’s a popular reference, I still work in imperial) in 45:13 and 10 miles in 1.12:20, knocking 2 minutes 11 seconds off my previous PB from June ‘15. Well pleased with that. I was aiming for a 7.15 m/m pace, didn’t go above 7.21, mostly below 7.15, with a 6.59. To be fair to myself, that wasn’t the course on which I set my previous PB, I think it’s a bit harder. I’ll try again on that course for a like for like comparison. Hopefully shave a bit more off. The downside: The pain was OK for 10 miles, but I think it would have at least slowed me down over a full marathon. I asked on twitter, what I was doing wrong. The tri guy who’s done a 9 hours 50 Ironman, said “Wear socks, the pros all do.” Oh. So I destroyed my feet for nothing. Super. Live and learn. That little faux pas aside, I’m buzzing off today. That was a good run, I maintained a fast pace for the full ten miles, then did an hour on the bike. Which seems to have set itself harder. I have done an hour grinding it out in top gear before on the turbo before now. Today I did a 5 minute section in top gear and I was standing on the pedals having to use my lardarse to move the damn thing. Which is good. Not that I was struggling, but that it offers such resistance. Great training. This could happen, people. I could go sub 3. Maybe, just maybe, sub 10. *excited face* Right, to bed to reset. Later, Buck.