Hawaii Ironman - Preparing to Hurt, Hawaii Style

Howdy, been a while since the last blog, good signs I have been doing more training and less talking!

With 12weeks to race day, I have ramped up the duration and intensity over the last few weeks. Memories of the work put into Hawaii campaigns past, and the imminent month of October closing fast has me training consistently harder and longer.

The best Ironmen and women who qualified top of the class at Ironman’s worldwide will be there. The age group ranks run very deep, and most have come to RACE the Hawaii Ironman, not just complete it, as is the case in most other events!

My age group (40-44) is always one of the strongest, filled by lads with loads of strength endurance, and also a number of ex pros coming back after a hiatus from family commitments etc. I expect that the winner in my category will go sub 9:00hrs.

Looking back on my 2experiences of racing Hawaii, they couldn’t be more different.

I’ve seen the best and worst that Hawaii can throw our way, which helps me prepare for all eventualities.

I had a solid race in my first on a pretty temperate day, no big moments, it was relatively calm, and it clouded over for the run, a dream day really, swam well, rode well, and ran well.

The second time though was a different matter, with the trade winds howling, it was a massive battle all day. I remember resorting to laughing when I wasn’t hanging on for grim death in the gusty side winds on the return to Kona. With 20k to go on the bike and I felt like I was going at 20km/h, the winds were so strong and gusty. I jumped off the bike, but my back was toast, as I had chosen to hold on in the aero position against the wind, vs. sitting up like a lot of the other pro’s did. I hung on for a very slow run. When I finished, I think I swore never to put myself through that again, it wasn’t fun, it just hurt.

Let’s just say that a cushy qualifier in New Zealand and a Hawaii Ironman when it’s kicking are worlds apart. I actually do worry sometimes for the guys that qualify at a race like Busso when they have never done Hawaii before, dead pan flat, then going to Hawaii with the rollers and the weather.

My body over the past 6weeks has been procrastinating quite a bit, with niggling strains slowing my progress as I tried to ramp up the training. But I am not 29yrs anymore, so it’s something I just have to factor in, and be better with my prehab. Finally though, it looks like its back in the groove I’ve and hopefully sorted it all out and am ready to train like I should with no further issues.

Right now it’s all about readying the body to hurt for 9:00hrs. Being not blessed with lots of speed or power, I have to rely on my aerobic fitness and leg strength. In other words I have to bullet proof the body to handle the course and the wild weather that the Big Island can throw at us.

I am going into the hardest phase of my training, with 2 to 3 key sessions a week of aerobic threshold training for bike and run, the sustained chewing nails style intensity sessions. These are not fun, and before the set I can get quite antsy as I know how much I will push myself and how much it will hurt. I couple this with some aerobic power fartlek training, to get the zip in the legs to handle the rollers on course on the Queen K. The Tan Track and Kew Boulevard are the perfect training grounds for the rollers of Hawaii, so getting to know them quite well....AGAIN!   

Our team also had a pleasant surprise too a few weeks ago. Another one of my athletes qualifying for Hawaii, with Jo Coombe ripping her race at Ironman France, with a 1:18hr pb. I am not often surprised by an athlete’s performance, but Jo had one out of the box, but it was no fluke. Jo trained the house down; her commitment to the task over a long prep was what made her fly on race day.

This was a real fillip for me as a coach and athlete 4months out from Hawaii.

It reminded me that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

Kristy and I have Yeppoon in 4weeks, it will be a good hit out for us.

Then will come some acclimatization in Northern Australia to get used to the heat that we will see in Kona.

Anyway back to training

Foz and (Kristy and Joey)

Cuttin the mustard?: After the excitement dies down

Cuttin the mustard?: After the excitement dies down: "Its been some time since the initial excitement of taking my spot for Kona and its 17weeks and change before the big day in Hawaii. Winter h..."

After the excitement dies down

Its been some time since the initial excitement of taking my spot for Kona and its 17weeks and change before the big day in Hawaii. Winter has hit Melbourne Australia with the month of May just gone being the coldest May for many years. Sub 5degree mornings, and the days getting darker earlier, and its still 9weeks before my first real hit out at Yeppoon 70.3.

This is the time of year when motivation needs to come from within, and nothing motivates more than the World Championships of Ironman in Kona. The distant memories of Hawaii preps past training in the wet of Winter, when most others have taken the foot off the pedal and are doing easier base work is now a reality again 8years later. 

The last time i was in this position was in 2003 when I had qualified for the Big Show for a third time, this time as a Professional at Forster-Tuncurry, Ironman OZ.  I had a great marathon run of 2:55hrs off the bike and a top ten finish overall, but i never made it to the start line at Hawaii that year.

I had done a very hard block of training under the guidance of my old coach, but unfortunately succumbed to a stress fracture in a small bone in my foot 10weeks from raceday. A subsequent 8weeks rehab in a Cam Boot and my dream of a 3rd Hawaii finish was over, having raced there in 99 and 01.

I was shattered as it was a classic case of overtraining and pushing too hard. Just prior to the injury, i was flying, but my body just broke from the strain. Unfortunately the plan i was following was going to either make me or break me, and it ended in the latter. So its been a long time between drinks to get this opportunity again nearly a decade later, after declining Hawaii spots due to a lack of time and will to prepare.

Back to the current prep, over the last few weeks i have set myself some long sustained efforts at ever increasing uncomfortable intensities, and being a coach means most of these sessions are done solo.

I'm having to do them at unusual times of the day when no one else is training, with some of my easier runs done with my faithful training buddy, Bill the Dog.

This i don't really mind as race day motivation has to come from within, so its good mental conditioning to harden me up, and my strength is my strength so these sessions play to that.

I do tend to be able to push myself harder when hurting solo anyway, and not having to be concerned with what anyone else is doing.

Looking forward, it will be some time before my Hawaii buddy Kristy and i can hit the sun of Yeppoon in August. Following this we will have some acclimatisation time closer to race day in September, but that is something to work and look forward to.

In the meantime, its about slowly turning up the wick, completing the sessions and chipping away. I may do some duathlons and runs around Melbourne, but mainly am looking forward to smashing myself in the sun of Yeppoon, far north Queensland during acclimatisation, and then in Hawaii.

Chat soon

Foz

Cuttin the mustard?: Hill training, no where to hide

Cuttin the mustard?: Hill training, no where to hide: "Just back from a great weekends training in Bright with my Hawaii , France and Cairns training buddies. I suspected I would be given some..."

Hill training, no where to hide

Just back from a great weekends training in Bright with my Hawaii, France and Cairns training buddies.

I suspected I would be given some strong indications of where my form is at 21weeks out from Hawaii over this weekend, and I wasn’t disappointed. That and taking myself out of my normal environment to get some training done was a great move.                 

Its like breaking a cycle and starting with a clean slate. I had new courses and awesome scenery and some very motivated athletes on camp with me.                                        

With a long 160km ride including 2800m of vertical ascent scheduled for Saturday, I revisited a DVD favourite, the Lance’s Road to Paris video, where he rides as a lonely silhouette up a snow blanketed climb in preparation for the 2001 TDF. That’s what it takes to win the tour, says Johan Brunyneel (US Postal team manager) as Lance rides back down to do another 10km repeat. That stuff is Gold, the night before you do a big solid ride. 

Saturday morning arrived with favorable partly cloudy weather, and bitter cold. The early climb over Tawonga Gap caused no problems on fresh legs, and felt pretty confident as I headed to Mt Beauty.

Once there, I proceeded to climb 13k towards Falls Creek and was feeling great. There were the high peaks of Falls Creek looming up above, it was majestic climbing scenery. Back through Mt Beauty and back over Tawonga Gap, the climb is actually steeper coming from this side, but I felt better as I was nice and warmed up.

This day will be a piece of cake I thought, I’m back!

Hit Bright on the way back, fuelled up in town, confident to tackle the 22k Mt Buffalo climb to the chalet. I knew in the back of my mind that the test really hadn’t started, the sustained nature of this climb would be tougher up Buffalo.

As we started this ascent, I rode away from my mates but I was in my lowest gear very early in the climb. I admit I was slightly under geared with my equipment, but should have been feeling better at this early point of the 22k climb.

As I progressed it got inordinately harder, and I started as always to do a self check to see work out why I was struggling, was it I was under hydrated, or underdone with carbs.

With that in mind, I stopped and refilled up my bidon at a natural stream, and kept on going. I don’t often have these moments at struggle town like this, so when I have moment, I can have a moment!

I restarted with a full bidon, but from this point I was really started to struggle with some distant thoughts of not making it to the top. The nose was running like a tap, and my cadence was quite slow as I lurched from pedal stroke to pedal stroke. Funnily enough I was thinking about all those sprinters in the tour who suffer over the mountains in the group known as the AutoBus. They aren’t climbers, they suffer but they get over the high peaks and DO IT!

I stopped and took on a gel just to be topped up with fuel, and as I did my training buddy Kristy came past, smiling, she always smiles you know.

My negative thoughts suddenly vanish. If Kristy can smile as she rides past, then I have to keep going.

As I rode on, the realization hit me that I was simply are out of condition, no 2buts about it. Ah, the big hill dishes out another bitter truthful lesson, but its something that I needed to learn.

Getting moving again and snow started to appear on the side of the road! I became fixated in watching it as it became more and more the higher i climbed, anything to take the focus away from the climb. Vapour was also punctuating my shallow breathes,  strangely keeping me entertained as I pushed onward. I was as much trying to pass a mental vs. a physical test, and that seemed to steel my resolve, that and knowing Kristy was ahead. What doesn’t break you can only make you stronger!.

Finally after what felt like an eternity of climbing, the road up ahead seemed to crest and I started to go slightly downhill, thank God. After a long climb, finally some respite, and we rode on a couple more kms to the chalet and pitted for a rest, and to wait for Jo.

What a great lesson in so many ways, climbing Mt Buffalo for the first time, a real reality check. The 30k of so back to Bright was a lot easier, and went flying by.

We had a great rest of the weekend, with a run off the bike upon getting back which I felt awesome in, and then a great long run on the Sunday morning.

The Bright camp was a well worthwhile experience.

It’s hard to get a truthful gauge on your progress when you train on smaller climbs, or sucking a wheel on

Beach Rd.

Climbs and riding like that tell you no lies, but only simply truths about yourself. If you can pass the test when it gets tough mentally, I feel it steels your resolve, it did for me.

I have come back to Melbourne with a lot more motivation and drive to hit this campaign for Hawaii Ironman 2011 hard with some great experiences on the weekend whilst taking in some beautiful scenery.

I cannot wait to do it again sometime.

Foz

Cuttin the mustard?: Time to muzzle ‘the BLACK DOG’

Cuttin the mustard?: Time to muzzle ‘the BLACK DOG’: "‘The only tragedy when you fall down is if you don’t get straight back up.’ I find for myself that it’s positive to recognize the mental sid..."

Time to muzzle ‘the BLACK DOG’

‘The only tragedy when you fall down is if you don’t get straight back up.’

I find for myself that it’s positive to recognize the mental side of this sport from time to time. What’s not fine though for me is to let it be consuming and give into it for any extended period. I am always going to have low points and high points. The art from this point on is to have consistently more highs than lows.

Baking the cake

Alright, so I was described as an onion recently. Not the first time, not the last I’m sure, but aren’t we all onions, just some recognise this more than others?

The layers of my onion are like ingredients that go into a cake. Shit we all have so called less desirable ingredients like sugar in our own human recipe, just don’t need too much of it!

I’m sitting here and looking at all my ingredients, training, work, rest, social etc. I have my weeks, now how much of each goes into a typical week for the final 23weeks.

I know what I have to do training wise to get my desired result. Refer back to Keep it Simple blog…. This swim set, this bike and this run set will get me fast and strong in each phase of the program. So add them, and factor in the desired recovery timeframe, DONE. I know my body well enough to plan that easily enough.

Next, need to fit in all the rest of the ingredients of life, in sensible doses, so my training isn’t compromised, whatever the level I decided on. That is a work in progress, but not over committing to one seems the most sensible approach. As I always bang on to the team athletes, better to under commit, and over deliver

Righteo, I standing on my 4 balanced pillars being sport, work, rest and social, seems steady enough… Will re check in a third of the way through the cooking process, hate for the cake to flop again!!!    

Reinforcing the all good factor

Oh the wildcard, confidence in my ability. OK, don’t get me wrong, I can be a cocky shit at times, and generally with training I’m referring to here…

Not being in my sensible routine has meant that I haven’t had a hard set to hang the hat on recently. Nice to be able to remind oneself that you still got the old form!

But last Thursdays ride with my Kona training buddy Kristy, and the solid run on the weekend has got the confidence back, just needed the reminder that my legs hadn’t succumbed to old age just yet! I am feeling much better now.

Looking forward

Now some intermediate goals to help with the motivation.

There is no use looking to 23weeks away and Hawaii, that won’t help me or push me to start in earnest. Some short term goals with my training and racing I reckon is the way to go.

So might enter a few solid cross country runs for strength training over the next couple of months, plus the odd multisport duathlon to feel the burn off the bike.

The Yeppoon 70.3 is also only 15weeks away.

Racing like many things for me is a habit, and I work best when I’m being habitual, as I tend to need my fix in regular succession. Nothing preps me for a race, like another race.

Ok, that’s a better outlook, I would have hated to give you the impression that my world was falling in. The black dog will always be there, I’m cool with that, but now he’s the size of a small puppy instead of giant Rottweiler

Foz