Ironman - Hints and Tips on Pacing/Nutrition

The big Ironman in Hawaii has just taken place and following on from it a few interesting blog entries:

http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/2008/10/ask-the-experts-asker-jeukendrup-on-ironman-performance-and-nutrition.html - Using 16 gels in a bottle for nutrition. Certainly a simple solution. Will give it a try.

http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/10/most-common-ironman-mistake.html - Importance of keeping smooth power profile during a long ride (VI target should be less then 1.05. My rides are more like 1.18, however will be different for rides like sportives I guess)

http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/10/llanos-power-hawaii-2008.html Top performer stats: 4 hour power of 270W/3.75W/kg. For same weight my 4 hours is 230W. Not quite the same but not bad as Joe Friel's rule of thumb is 2.9-3.3 W/kg for young amateurs with half a percent knocked off for every year abover 35. So I should be around 221W, so actually a bit better.

BIG - Isnt the internet wonderful (again)

Same source as provided the excellent link to map of UK climbs, also directed me here:
http://www.challenge-big.eu/

Heaven sent site for climbers like me..just updating with list of my cols....

Hills I have yet to Climb

A while back I made a rather forlorn effort to start another blog that would feature the various hills I have climbed...however it has not made much progress (as Mrs M reminds me from time to time..)

Anyway even if I had done more, it would not be half as good as the info contained here http://www.hodology.com/

Once again..isn't the internet wonderful..

Winter Training Webinar

The wonders of technology. I got the chance to hear Hunter Allen present his views on winter training via a webinar. It cost $39 but I think it was money well spent. http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/store/store.php/categories/buy-previous-webinars-216

Key points were:

• Most people dont train hard enough in the winter
• Carry on doing threshold + workouts, but do less often (1x 2weeks for VO2/anaerobic)
• Aim to charge up to 100% of capacity, so max of 2 hard workouts per week and one at weekend.
• Keep FTP up (even suggested one goal might be to improve)
• Do weights if appropriate (e.g. if over 50, so I will keep doing)
• Cross train
• Stretch/yoga
• Think of plyometrics if sprinting is a limiter (which it is for me). Suggested looking here: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometric.html

An e.g. week was

Mon/Wed/Fri weights and a bit of x-train cardio.

Tue 3x15 mins Sweetspot (88-93% FTP) (5 mins rest) then 5x1 minute fast pedalling

Thu 30 mins 110rpm, 30 mins normal rpm with 8s sprint every 2 mins in + 2 gears

Sat 3-4 hour ride 10 power bursts in hour 2 and 45min sweetspot hour 3

Sun 1-2 hours cardio on trainer.

So not exactly easy...but overall in line with my feeling that last winter the "base" months were a little too easy and I would have benefitted from doing some more intense training earlier. So will give ideas above a try this time round.

Catching Cold

My first cold for as long as I can remember and first since using "First Defence" on a regular basis. But very minor as colds go and probably not a bad thing to get one round about now since not training hard. And pretty inevitable given commuting and fact I spent last week in room with people from all over Europe, most of whom seemed to have a bug of one sort or another.

2008 zones - a retrospective

I carried out a retropspective analysis of my 2008 training hours, as part of planning for 2009.

The specific reason for doing this was that my plan 2009 is to start training earlier (November rather than December) and to focus on the "sweetspot" zone (85%-95% of FTP) earlier.

I used WKO to put together the graphs above, basically showing total hours trained over the past year, then hours by training zone (all excluding "recovery" time which actually accounts for 60% of total hours..).

It seems I followed my plan pretty well. The Endurance graph shows pretty constant load through the year. The other zones show progressive increase in load through the first part of the year then a steady state in the main event portion, followed by a decrease as I started to take things easier.

I will be looking for similar 2009 with exception that I will plan to make the tempo/sweetspot graphs be flatter and more similar to endurance.

Trial Rolling

I got some clip on tri bars with a view to doing some "proper" time trialling next year. I fitted them onto my winter bike a la Cyclefit measurments and had a go trying to use them on the rollers.

Proved interesting to say the least. It was like learning to use the rollers all over again and I managed to come off quite a few times, though fortunately the adaptations I made to the rollers stopped the accidents being too bad.

But after 20 mins or so I started to get the hang of things. So will give it another go tonight.

Balmy Burley

Amazing weather for the first weekend of August sorry October...sunny blue skies and temperatures over 20C. Both days better than any in the "summer" months..

So lucky that this was the weekend chosen for the NRC YHA weekend. 8 of us rode down to the New Forest and stayed overnight at Burley Youth Hostel (see pic above). I rode on my single speed which coped admirably with the task.

I had not visited the New Forest since childhood, probably being put off by the fact that on that occasion my attempt to feed a pony had resulted in bitten fingers...

Anyway happily I have got over that trauma and won't wait as long to visit again. In fact the run we did was perfect for a long steady training ride. Also be perfect for taking Mrs M triking as the roads in the forest are flat as a pancake, with great visibility and we stopped off at the perfect watering hole for her...

Carmichael Field Test

I got some training DVDs to watch while on the rollers. Trouble is they are really for build/peak stage as they consist mainly of VO2/threshold workouts. Still will be interesting to try them when time comes around.

One of them features Chris Carmichael (of Lance Armstrong fame) and he suggests a field test to set exercise zones. Quite simple, 2x8 mins with 10 mins rest and take power from best interval.

As weather was nice thought I would give it a try on H10/3. Managed first at 330W but second was weedy at only 290. Put that down to fact I have been taking things easy and still on post Munich diet.

Nonetheless a useful benchmark for the future.

Wet Climes

Did my first hill climb Sunday, incorporated into our club run. Weather was foul and just 7 of us made it. I came 4th in 5:51. Power wasn't too bad at 350W but should have gone better.

Still a useful benchmark for 2009. Did not know about the hill but its good for training with 110m of climbing in 1.8km so an average of 6% with bits around 10.

Good news/bad news

Good news I have ordered Meivici AE.
Bad news it won't be shipped until March 2009.

But actually not so bad as I won't really want to be riding it over winter and it should come nicely timed with me being put out to pasture...

A Thing of Beauty

The email from Cyclefit also had a picture of the bike above. A case of love at first sight as far as I am concerned. The bike is the new Meivici AE from Serotta, which is custom built, is utterly, utterly beautiful and I hope to be riding one soon.

Fitted Up/Bottom Powered Bike

As I have mentioned before I am a great believer in serendipity. So when (as a result of signing up to an newsletter I had long forgotten about) an email from http://www.cyclefit.co.uk/ popped into my in-tray it spurred me into deciding to get myself properly measured up for a bike.

I thought this would be handy for a variety of reasons, my having tinkered around with my position over the year, wanting to get a racing bike and also with a view to time trialling. So I phoned up and booked a session, which took place in central London a couple of days ago.

It turned out to be quite an experience and certainly value for money. I had a fitting a year and a half ago but that just took some basic measurements and put them into a spreadsheet. It was useful (primarily in getting me to heighten my seat) but this was in a different league.

All in all it took around 3 hours to get measured up for a road bike and a TT bike. The major differences from my earlier fitting were that a lot more time was spent measuring/sizing up my body, the fitting took place on a special bike mounted on a turbo (the "bike" had clamps all over it so pretty much every aspect of the frame could be varied in length/angle) and I got videoed.

Each of these had a bit of a revelation..

When I got measured up I found that my right leg is shorter than my left and that I carried my right shoulder lower than my right. Both were news to me, despite living with my body for nigh on 50 years. I also have a tendency to slouch (which isnt news)..

As a result of the leg length difference I got some "wedges" fitted. These fit under my cleats and have a couple of effects. Firstly I have got more on the right foot than the left (which sorts out the difference in leg length) and secondly the angle my feet a bit differently so that they are more in line. The difference these made was amazing. I always thought my right leg was stronger than my left because it felt like it was doing more work. I realise now it was because it was over extending on every stroke. With the wedges fitted both legs feel like they are in balance.

Videos of me cycling were a bit of a downer. I had fondly imagined I had a lovely straight back a la TDF riders. In fact as the picture below shows I look more like Quasimodo then a bike pro. (Reminds me of similar experience I had when I got videoed for some golf lessons. The person on the screen looked like a different person.)

It also shows how far back my knee is compared to the centre of the pedal. After quite a bit of adjustment I ended up looking like this:
Back is a bit straighter (but this is something I have to work on). The effect is to feel much more connected through the pedal stroke. Apparently this is as a result of my glutes working and helping my power. (IOW I need to get my backside working).

Phot also shows how my knee is over the pedal when its horizontal, which certainly feels a lot better.

Once road bike sorted, we looked at TT. This was my first experience riding on aero bars and it was a surprise. I thought they would be uncomfortable but in fact they were really easy to ride on. I managed to find a comfortable position quite quickly and found the bars actually to be a lot easier than riding on my drops.

Anyway here is how I ended up looking:

Not perfect but then looking at some pics of the pros below then there is quite a bit of variety and I don't seem to look like a creature from another planet compared to them.

I left the fitting in a pretty good mood and headed home (aside: stopped for a pint with Phil at Paddington, talked of Munich and beer festivals nearer home, one at Oxford couple of weeks away..)

I set up my Giant winter bike with the new settings and had a roller session. Turned out pretty good, certainly felt a lot more connected. When going hard nothing in my legs seemed to be out of balance or especially stood out in pain terms and limiter was my aerobic capacity, which is I guess how it should be.

Looking forward to trying it on the road..so set up my fixed with new settings (looks a lot different now) and will try it out later today..

Turbo powered

Article from the most recent edition of http://www.roadbikerider.com/currentissue.htm

Maybe the government should give everyone in the UK one of these. That way we could be sure of golds in 2012, save the planet and solve our obesity problem in one (many pedal) stroke...

"Kinetic Energy Trainer

If you need good grounds for ignoring your significant other to spend time on the trainer this winter, how about: "Hey honey, I'm going downstairs to charge your cell phone for you." Then with permission and gratitude you can hop on a Kinetic Energy Trainer and create electricity while turning yourself into butter. It's done with a generator that retrofits to any Kurt Kinetic trainer and charges a portable power storage unit. (A Black & Decker Electromatic 400, available at stores such as Home Depot for about $100, was used at Interbike.)

According to Kinetic's Paul Carlsen, about 2.5 hours of riding will generate 0.5 kwh of electricity, which, he said, "will charge 50 cell phones or run a television for a couple of hours." Imagine the benefits if kids had to pedal to watch their favorite TV programs. Better yet, imagine the benefits of this technology in third-world countries where power lines don't reach. Let there be light bulbs and refrigeration.

Carlsen said 25 Energy Trainers were made for Interbike, 20 were sold to dealers, 4 were provided to publications for review, and 1 was saved for display. The price is $499 for a Kinetic trainer with the generator installed, or $300 for a generator retrofit kit. Then all that's needed is a bike, a power storage unit and a green attitude. Look for December availability. Not yet shown on the website as this newsletter was published. http://www.kurtkinetic.com

Heavy beer - heavy no more

The heavy beer wierdness continues...in the 3 days since coming back from the Oktoberfest I have lost 12 pounds....

This hasn't been done by crash dieting..or even keeping off the beer. I've been eating around 2500kcal per day and had a couple of pints yesterday while waiting for train/chatting with Phil.
And apart from beer I've been drinking a lot of water as well.

And workouts don't really explain it, I've averaged around 1000kcal per day riding.

Strange...