2010 Goodbye! 2011 Hello!!

So it is that time for my final blog of the old year before the first of the new......so.....what has 2010 been like.....?

From a non triathlon perspective it has been a mixed bag.....

• Lizzie, Anja, Jules and I moved to the Cambridge area in the middle of they year and what a difference it has made...no negatives at all (well apart from the lack of hills ;-) )
• I changed jobs from a mad life of flying around the world to an equally mad life of driving around the UK....hmmm....
• Been to one wedding (my cousin) and one funeral (my PhD supervisor, RIP)

But what about triathlon....how has 2010 been?

• I am an IRONMAN, it was a hard journey but I completely agree with their tag line "Anything is possible" - if a short tubby bloke like me can do it from scratch in three years anyone can....never listen to criticism about whether you can do it - YES YOU CAN!
• I improved my Olympic/Standard PB to 2:41 and my Half IM to 6:54
• I still have big GI issues in anything longer than oly distances...I know I don't have coeliac's or gluten intolerance as I have been tested so it must just be down to ischaemia in the gut during the race....need to work on that I think - I can deal with race pace pain but GI bloating, vomiting, etc...hmmmmm
• My weight has not gone down enough....still holding steady at 89kgs however at this point last year I was 102kg :-O on the plus side I have dropped a fair amount of body fat however I am waiting for my skin to stop sagging :-(.....nice.....
• On the plus side my Cooper 12 min test has improved by >400m and my VO2max has gone up, my running has improved dramatically as has my swimming so 2011 looks promising!!

So what does 2011 and the future hold? I am focusing on half IM distance this year. I have still to confirm my final race selection, I will definitely race Wimbleball at the UK 70.3 in June but I am currently seriously considering Ireland's 70.3 race in September too, which only leaves an early season race...probably the Marshman (again a 70.3 distance race) and the future? 2012....Roth...we shall see :-)

Last test of the week - Critical Swim Speed

So this was what was planned:
2 x 200 WU/easy
2 x 200 Drills/choice
1 x 100 building: Length 1 @ 75%, 2 @ 80%, 3 @ 85%, 4 @ 90% ((Maintain your stroke count)
1 x 400, 2mins rest and 25-50 easy swim in b/t ,THEN 1 x 50 BOTH @ fastest sustainable pace.
1x 200 cool down
Followed by:
3 x 300m (100 easy, 100 strong, 100 olympic RP)
3 x 200m (50 easy, 50 strong, 100 olympic RP)
3 x 100m (25 easy, 25 strong, 50 olympic RP)
1 x 200 Easy - put stroke back together, finish with good form

I had good feel for the water this morning (despite shutting my finger in a door yesterday...nice black finger nail - v sore) nice easy warm up and drills were:

200m as 50 Catch/50 finger tips/50 thigh/50 paddles

Pace on 400 and 50 was max and really hurt towards the end - felt sick so must have gone hard....quads still fairly wasted from the bike and run efforts earlier this week but eveything else felt fine :-)
I missed 100m of the CD as i went straight to the next set, unfortunately I had to cut that short due to the swimming pool lane session finishing (I hate holiday programs....) so I only managed 2x300, 1x200 and 1x100 with a 100m C/D

All had work though and felt good....and the times....

400m CSS 5min 29sec (4sec slower than peak of my season 2 years ago)
50m CSS 33sec (when I was an U12 I could do it in 29....)

Later

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Bike Threshold data and a review of the past few days

Well I managed a bike threshold set today as the pool was closed...

Not sure if I was still tired from the run yesterday but the test felt really hard - especially the 5min max effort!


Used the IM70.3 Ireland course as it provided a pretty flat but fun route...top of the quads really ache now!!
I played with the settings on the turbo software and this test was done with the power settings downscaled by 20% (to 80%) and the calibration factor at 1.7 - whatever tht means! I think it makes it closer to the Computrainer....certainly from the HR output.....
 
So the test was run as (direct lift from TrainingPeaks description from Mike):
 
Start out with 20minutes warm up @ 65% of your max heart rate.

Then do 3 x 1min @ 110rpm efforts with 1 minute easy followed by 5minutes @ 65%

THEN: 5minutes all out
Make sure that you start at a high pace and hold it (The goal of this first part is twofold: first to open up the legs for the rest of the effort, and second, to capture your ability to produce watts in what is called VO2max power) RECORD ave/max HR and WATTS, ave cadence.

10minutes easy @ 65% of maximum heart rate
 
20minute time trial. Do not start too hard! The goal is to produce the highest average watts over the entire period. Ensure that you RECORD ave/max HR and WATTS, ave cadence.
10minutes cool down
 
Wow it was hard work...not sure if I put everything into the TT but it felt that way at the time.... so th outputs from it:
20min = AV - 256W/166bpm/89 CAD : Max - 303W/178bpm/100 CAD

5min = AV - 156W/159bpm/89CAD : Max 314W/187bpm/102CAD

Which confirms that at full power it is >25W out from the computrainer I have done VO2Max tests on in the past...hmmmm

Below is the trace from the effort:

So how has it been going for the past few weeks - in a word hard to juggle things...work has been mad - a few 80+hours at work (overtime ca-ching!) and a lot of travel....but I feel I have progressed with the swimming - at the end of a session I can still bang out 1:15-1:16 for 100m at about 90% effort; my bike has improved and despite feeling tired from it I think there is an improvement in power; and running well this has come on leaps and bounds I managed to maintain around 4:30-4:45/km for the 12 min cooper test :-)

The dieat has not gone so well, I have managed to keep the booze to a minimum and cut out cream, a lot of cheese, etc but I still cannot shift some of those extra pounds, I have lost quite a lot of weight but I guess I am going to have to hope for a miracle in the New Year.....yeah right.....

anyway below are the 28 day stats:

and the 90 day stats:

The rest of the week is another test, this time swimming and then a couple of rest days and a long slow run before doing at least one lap of the Wimbleball route...hopefully weather permitting, etc!


Later
I.

Cooper 12min run test

Well Mike had me do my first run test in ages - what a session to start the week with! Last time I ran this was in Nov 09 - I thought I did it in early 10 but I cannot find any reference in my blog - and I managed 2110m when I did it.....


Well today's session consisted of:


15min warm up - 10mins easy then 3x30sec build/30sec easy followed by 2min easy
12min MAX effort
5min cool down followed by stretching


This is the Cooper 12 minute assessment it is a surrogate way of identifying VO2max - it is meant to be conducted on a flat running track - The roads around here are fairly flat and I managed 2560m in the 12mins, makes me above average as an athlete for my age :-) not bad for a 15hr18min IRONMAN plus my max HR was 187 

The following table rates performance for athletes:

Age	Excellent	Above Average	Average	Below Average	Poor
Male 20-29	>2800m	2400-2800m	2200-2399m	1600-2199m	<1600m
Females 20-29	>2700m	2200-2700m	1800-2199m	1500-1799m	<1500m
Males 30-39	>2700m	2300-2700m	1900-2299m	1500-1999m	<1500m
Females 30-39	>2500m	2000-2500m	1700-1999m	1400-1699m	<1400m
Males 40-49	>2500m	2100-2500m	1700-2099m	1400-1699m	<1400m
Females 40-49	>2300m	1900-2300m	1500-1899m	1200-1499m	<1200m
Males >50	>2400m	2000-2400m	1600-1999m	1300-1599m	<1300m
Females >50	>2200m	1700-2200m	1400-1699m	1100-1399m	<1100m

VO2 max

An estimate of your VO2 max can be calculated as follows:

• (Distance covered in metres - 504.9) ÷ 44.73

My VO2max was 45.94ml/kg/min (which puts me in the excellent bracket)


From Wiki:


Maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂max) is widely accepted as the single best measure of cardiovascular fitness and maximal aerobic power. Absolute values of VO₂max are typically 40-60% higher in men than in women.”^[1] Clearly, then, VO₂max varies considerably in the population, with sex being a primary determining factor in this variability.

The average young untrained male will have a VO₂ max of approximately 3.5 litres/minute and 45 ml/kg/min.^[2] The average young untrained female will score a VO₂ max of approximately 2.0 litres/minute and 38 ml/kg/min.^{[citation needed]} These scores can improve with training and decrease with age, though the degree of trainability also varies very widely: conditioning may double VO₂max in some individuals, and will never improve it at all in others.^[3][4]

In sports where endurance is an important component in performance, such as cycling, rowing, cross-country skiing, swimming and running, world class athletes typically have high VO₂ maximums. World class male athletes, cyclists and cross-country skiers typically exceed 75 ml/kg/min and a rare few may exceed 85 ml/kg/min for men and 70 ml/kg/min for women.^{[citation needed]} Five time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain is reported to have had a VO₂ max of 88.0 at his peak [1], while cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie measured at an astounding 96 ml/kg/min.^[5] Dæhlie's result was achieved out of season, and physiologist Erlend Hem who was responsible for the testing stated that he would not discount the possibility of the skier passing 100 ml/kg/min at his absolute peak. By comparison a competitive club athlete might achieve a VO₂ max of around 70 ml/kg/min.^[2]World class rowers are physically very large endurance athletes and typically do not score as high on a per weight basis, but often score exceptionally high in absolute terms. Male rowers typically score VO₂ maximums over 6 litres/minute, and some exceptional individuals have exceeded 8 l/min.

To put this into perspective, thoroughbred horses have a VO₂ max of around 180 ml/kg/min. Siberian dogs running in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race sled race have VO₂ values as high as 240 ml/kg/min.^[6]

Where it all started....

I posted this on the BCTTT forum as a reply to a thread about how you got into triathlon....it is a great thread if you are thinking about starting out and are not sure if you can do it....

http://forum.bcttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2995

Have a read....

Anyway this is my entry..I just wrote it as I thought about it....it shows where you can come from and get to if you have the presence of mind to succeed :-)

Where did it begin....hmmm I swam from about 5 until I was 15 - five days a week usually two hours every morning and in the evening on Tuesdays and Thursdays...managed to win lots at Fly ....then everyone else shot up and I ended up being the kid with the big shoulders who was only 5' 7".....briefly dallied with competitive swimming again at Masters level but it didn't hold the same appeal....After I quit swimming I took up Karate in a major way making it to the week before my Black Belt grading before some muppet smashed my knee in training....end Karate career.....I had surgery (plus post op infection) and lost interest in sport for a while - did high adrenaline stuff for a while though....

In between I found smoking, drinking and a year at college which I simply do not remember....after that I gave up the illegal substances (not my greatest moment those says...sorry M&D) and joined the TA (as a gun bunny in the Artillery laterly as a Squadron Commander in the Signals) and continued the drinking/smoking/keep fit style of life the Army is so good at teaching....and took up rugby...I was rubbish at school but my significant weight increase...I was now 18 stone+ meant I was pretty good as a loose head prop.....spent a lot of time in the gym pushin weights and also an equal time in the bar (probably more actually) drinking.....played rubgy until I broke my neck (C4 fracture)...scary....and bummed around for a couple of years...weight hit somewhere over 18 stone...20+inch collar...discovered I had familial hypercholesterolaemia and a very poor 10 year MI risk.......the works...had enough and decided to get a bit fitter....

Started running agin...that really hurt...and kept getting a little faster and better at it until I developed anterior and lateral compartment syndrome (where the muscle develops quicker than the fascia sheath it is in.....v painful) in both legs....160mins of surgery to release the pressure and three months of relearning to walk/run later starting an hour after surgery (the muscles become very dysfunctional from this syndrome) I decided to really improve the fitness level....I decided to join a friend competing in a sprint triathlon in Westonbirt, Gloucs - having wisdom teeth out and major post op infoections three weeks before the race didn't help but I got through it and didn't come last and loved it! Hooked!

The following year in 2009 I decided that sprint was too easy and so decided to take it up a level - Wimbleball looked fun....after a lot of training and 8hrs 54mins of pain (cramp and huge GI probs) later I crossed the line, got my medal from Phil Graves (as I was the last across the line) and had to be held up as the legs failed.....it was slow and hard work but what a feeling....so obviousy 2010 meant I had to go one step further....IM Switzerland......a lot of training and pain later I crossed the line in 15hr 18mins.....an IRONMAN.....nuff said....

So why do I do it....not sure....it started to get fit...but triathlon is insiduous....it takes over your life, changing you subtly...I hope I am a role model of sorts for my kids...I hope I make it past 45 without having an MI ....I justify doing it to those who don't get the "I do it because it is there" aspect by raising money like many others...

Plus I suppose I am a bit of a nutter who likes to juggle a young(ish) family, three dogs, an 80+hour working week and long distance training....keeps me sane...but the Army had to go before IM - I just couldn't manage that job too...at least I am fitter now than I ever was serving Queen and country....

Later
I.