Training in Lanzarote

Flying into Lanzarote

I have just returned from a 5 day training camp in Lanzarote with my training partner Ollie where the main goal was to recce and train on the ironman course, and what a course it is! I can see why it has the reputation for being the worlds toughest Ironman.

I thought I would share some details from our training and the insights Ollie and I gained.

Day 0: The day before travel was an eventful day for me that was not ideal. I had been suffering with some tooth ache in the week and on Friday, the day before travel, the tooth ache got worse and had been sapping my energy levels although at the time I was not aware it was related and thought perhaps my energy was low due to overreaching in training. Even though I was tired I still went for my morning swim and swam surprisingly well, however upon exiting the pool my whole lower jaw was really hurting and it was a face in the pillow type pain. Concerned this would effect the trip I immediately called my dentists who fortunately had an appointment in the afternoon that I could make. Diagnosis was a dying nerve in a tooth that had been previously filled. The nerves were removed and almost immediately after the anaesthetic wore off my energy levels climbed. My dentists explained to me that severe tooth ache can really sap your energy and what I experienced is quite common. I was obviously really pleased the tooth ache was solved, however dealing with it did put me on the back foot and I spent the evening rushing around getting organised packing the bike etc.

 

Day 1: After an early get up and an efficient journey to Lanzarote we arrived at our apartment around 12.00. We wasted no time and got straight to building our bikes. Once done we went for a walk to get a bite to eat and find the nearest supermarket so we could get stocked up on food and water, the first training session was carrying this back to the apartment! Once organised we got out on our bikes around 15.00, we planned a 2 hour ride to get familiar with the initial part of the bike course which leads you out of town. We weaved out of town and picked up the bike course on an ascent that had a strong headwind, less than 10 minutes out of the door I was glancing at Ollie to see if he was thinking what I was, which was something like Holy S**T! This is going to be tough and windy, more so than expected! Following this relatively short climb we experienced our first descent with serious cross winds an experience that meant I was going to need to wash my shorts! At this point my confidence levels were low and I must confess I have never been so intimidated by an ironman bike course and I had only really just got out the door. The following 30-40km were more of the same and then I had a shocker, my SRAM R2C shifter broke and would not allow me to change gears on the back cassette so I now essentially had 2 gears to get me back 20km to the apartment.

Busted R2C SRAM shitfer

I managed to get home with some struggles out the saddle on climbs and freewheeling down hills. I was in quite a bad mood as I was pretty sure the shifter would need replacing and would be an unexpected cost, more of an issue though were the burning questions; is there a bike shop on the island? Is it easy to get to and would they have this part? And would they have a mechanic to fix it promptly so I could ride again on this trip? With these questions unanswered Ollie and I decided to go out for our planned 5km jog on the ironman run course, as luck would have it at 2.5km we came across a bike shop, I went in and explained my situation and they said to bring the bike down but it would have to be in the next 30mins as they were closing soon and the mechanic would not be in the next day! This meant a fast 2.5km run home to get the bike! I made the bike shop on time but as expected the mechanic could not fix it, he was very helpful but the shop was clearly not used to dealing with high specs bikes and as such was not geared up to do so, the mechanic did however provide the name of a bike shop on the island that does do SRAM parts, he was unsure if they would be open on Sunday though. I went back to the apartment with my tail between my legs and sulked for an hour or two (sorry Ollie!) until I decided to text home to see if my wife Laura could jump on the internet and research bike shops on the island. Laura found the recommended shop and without my knowing emailed the shop my predicament (what a wife!).

After some food Ollie and I got to bed far later than intended with the situation unsolved and some lose ideas on what we would do for training the next day if we could not get the bike fixed. ….

The start of Fire mountain

Day 2: In the morning we got up early and had breakfast, upon checking my phone I saw I had a text from my wife saying that Maria from Probike had emailed her back and had said to call, I did immediately and Maria passed me onto her husband Steve who said he could fix the part or replace it as he had the shifters in stock! He was even prepared to come in on his day off to do it for me – what a guy!  One snag though, I had to get to his shop at 15.00 which was on the other side of the island. Not knowing how long it would take or what the terrain was like I decided I would cycle over in the one gear my bike had available. First though it was Swim time. Both Ollie and I went for our first open water swim session of the year, we swam 4 widths of Puerto del Carmen bay which was around 3.5km, we figured out it was current against on the way out and with on the way back, it was quite choppy but nothing of any real concern, it was easy to see the course and figure out where we would start and exit so we felt confident about the swim.

We got set and then made our way over to Probike shop, it was ridiculous as I had one gear, I had managed to manipulate the lever to give me the easiest gear for the hills so I was able to get up all hills easy enough although down hills were a freewheel. After 50km and some directions from some other cyclists we found our way over Fire mountain, a long ascent into a head wind, and got to the shop where Steve did fix my bike promptly by replacing the shifter. I was super grateful and as such encourage anyone whoever cycles in Lanzarote to visit this Family run bike shop – great service, great mechanic. Back in the game! Due to time constraints Ollie and I then rode 30km home covering some more of the ironman bike course, we found some sections were pretty fast with smooth tarmac and tailwinds and a wicked descent leading back into town where we both scared ourselves by clocking speeds of around 75km/h without even trying, in fact I think I was feathering the back break as I was bricking it due to the turbulent wind!

When we got back we headed straight out for a 20km run at Ironman pace on the run course which is comprised of a long 20km loop and 2x shorter loops of 11km. We found the course had a few gentle inclines on it that would probably sting the legs a bit after an ironman swim and bike, on a fresh run day you probably wouldn’t notice them much, Ollie and I were warned about this by friends that have done the race and we are in agreement that the course is not as flat as claimed, however we felt the rollers provide an opportunity to spread the load over different muscle fibres in the legs which can provide some relief and recharge for when you get back into a rhythm on the flats. The course is pretty exposed on the sea front and if it is a hot day it will be scorchio for sure so plenty of sun screen, ice and sponges for cooling will be required. A headwind on the run out will help keep you cool but will make you work harder and it will push you home which is a motivating thought. If each out and back loop is run well at a consistent heart rate they should be a negative split which they were on our training runs. 

After our run much to Ollie’s amusement he noticed I had a rather blatant sunburn line on my arm, which I could not figure out how I got as I was meticulous with sunscreen!

Day 3: With a working bike todays focus was about riding the whole bike course. So after an early swim, 4 widths again, we headed out on the bike. We worked at a solid pace and started to get to grips a little bit with the wind although it didn’t make it any less challenging or daunting. The bike course truly has everything, long ascents into brutal wind, fast flat sections, technical descents with switch backs and crosswinds, beautiful views, parts where it is hot and parts where it is cool. Ollie and I made it round the 170km available of the course (10km is in town on roads that are only open on race day to cyclists) in a little over 6hrs. We then trotted 5km off the bike, legs felt surprisingly okay after the challenging ride that had over 2300m of climbing in it, most of which is into headwinds!

View from the top of Mirador del Haria

At this point in the trip I was not feeling confident about the bike, getting round, no problem, getting round in my target time, well I may have to re-evaluate that along with a few tweaks to my bike set up. 

Day 4: This day was a recovery day, my energy levels and legs were a touch flat after the previous 3 days exercise so a sleep in was taken and it was decided that we would just do an easy run around the short 11km loop of the run course and 'charge up' for day 5.

View from Maria del Rio 

Day 5: For day 5 we cycled another full loop of the bike course and followed it with a race pace 11km run. I was tired in the morning and was concerned I would not do well on the cycle, however after a very conservative start and some early consumption of calories I started to feel more spritely. On this loop I trialled riding light in the hills by ensuring my water bottles only had just what I need to get up the climbs, I found this made a big difference to how I climbed. I will certainly factor this into the race plan. We completed the bike course around 10 mins quicker than on day 3, I rode conservatively and was tired so was pleased with this. On the run I started with the usual discomforts associated with adjusting to running from biking, after 2km I found a rhythm and was able to hold race pace with a small amount of focus, I wouldn't say it was very comfortable but it did feel sustainable. I trialled my Cliff shot bloks, trickling them in on minutes 20 & 40. They seemed to work well and my energy levels were good. I finished the run feeling strong, a great end to a challenging 5 days that comprised of: 7km swimming, 470km cycling and 50km running. All that was left to do now was pack for home!

Spent after a 7hr session

As well as some quality training I gained some valuable insights from seeing the course so the trips objectives were achieved. On the plane home I took the time to jot down some thoughts on possible tweaks I may make to my race plan. These are as follows:

• Consider a change to my front wheel to shallower wheel. I found the crosswinds pulled the 404 around. It was manageable and plenty of triathletes will ride them i'm sure but I feel to be more confident and aggressive a shallow wheel such as a 202 on the front would benefit. If it is a high wind day this will also be a good choice!
• Consider switching my energy drink from Cytomax to Powerbar so I can use the course supplied nutrition meaning I do not have to carry as much. I will then be able to ride the hills light. I get on very well with Cytomax so I am in two minds on this, a couple of long test rides on the Powerbar will make my mind up on this one.
• In line with the above I may remove my rear bottle mount, If I do use Powerbar I will not need two energy bottle on the bike. I will only need my Torhans Aero bottle for water and one bottle for energy that I can keep replacing. 
• Wear my arm coolers (white sleeves) on the bike. I wore these after getting the sunburn and found them to do a great job keeping me cool. I have only used once before in a hot race and was  not convinced by them but after using them a couple of time in Lanzarote am convinced they will benefit me. 

In my last post I mentioned I would review my bike set up - which I will do in the coming weeks once I have finalised my decisions. Only 4 weeks left now until race time!!

Celebratory drink after 5 days training

Fuelling for training and racing

Hi Readers, I wanted to start this post with an update on my training then I am going to talk about part 2 of my nutrition - fuelling.

So training - Wow! The weather has been incredible, incredibly challenging that is! It has certainly been testing my mental strength. Getting out for the long cycles, runs and brick sessions has been tough and to be honest I have not achieved as many brick sessions as I would have liked and getting out on the Tri bike was delayed by a week due to the snow. That weeks long ride was refined to the turbo in the garage where a training partner Ollie and I rode the Lanzarote bike course! How we did this was by using the course profile to estimate the hill difficulty, length and consequently time it would take to climb and descend each hill. We rode low cadence heavy gears up the hills and spun out in the aero position on the downhills. We did half the course on the Saturday and half on the Sunday. I can't speak for Ollie but I found the session very effective and felt it built some strength. I certainly found my first outdoor cycle on the Tri bike which I did on the Easter weekend much easier than I have in previous years, I felt very comfortable and strong on the bike, perhaps this is due to the hours logged on the turbo, either way it was great to get some km's in on the Tri bike, I love my road bike but I enjoy my Tri bike more. In my next post I am going to go through my bike set up for Lanzarote which is pretty much dialled in unless I feel I need to make any tweaks after the long training weekend I have there shortly. Really looking forward to it, when in Lanzarote I plan to get some photos and videos to share.

My wife mentioned to me that my last post was long and on reflection I agreed. A humble thank you to those that take the time to read it. However on reading it back I realised there is SO much I did not share due to the vast amount of things there are to consider with nutrition. Truth be known I barely scratched the surface on many things. I suspect this post on fuelling will be similar. Perhaps in future posts I can elaborate more on different specifics. Okay so lets talk about fuelling for Ironman training and racing. What I share here will not be all of what I do and will certainly not cover every eventuality and as I mentioned in my last post it is specific to me and others may well do it different, I don't believe in one size fits all. That said I am happy to share the what, how and why's of many of my fuelling choices, if these insights help inspire you to make some choices and changes that lead to better results then great. I would also like to mention here that the main books I have drawn inspiration from for my nutrition strategies are:

1. Paleo diet for Athletes by Joe Friel and Loren Cordain. I have also found the information
2. I'm here to Win by Chis McCormack (2x Ironman World Champion) 
3. The 150 most effective ways to boost your energy by Jonny Bowden

Carbohydrate and protein

So Carbohydrate loading, do I do this? Well not in the sense that I gorge on pasta etc or feel the need to a week or so before a race. However I am conscious to ensure I do consume enough carbohydrate in the lead up to a race or big training session to ensure my body is 'well stocked'. A lot of the recent sports nutrition literature I have read suggests that it does not take nearly as much carbohydrate as people think to achieve this or as long. The body can only really store about 350g-500g (1500-2000kcal) carbohydrate in the liver and skeletal muscles and replenishment can often be achieved in 2-3 days, I have found this way works best for me. Loading a week from a race is something I have tried and on the two occasions I have tried it I have felt like I was putting weight on (and was) and started to feel lethargic/sluggish.

Here is how I typically load: Approximately 3 days prior to races I start to reduce my fibre intake and will tend to eat less vegetables and high fibre fruit. Rather I opt for lower fibre carbohydrate options such as strawberries, raspberries, melon, banana's, sweet potato, parsnips and carrots and perhaps a touch more gluten free granola, essentially I remove the high fibre greens. I increase my portion sizes by 10-20% also. I lower my fibre intake as this can cause stomach distress if too high. This is probably not as much of an issue for short races but for events such as Ironman too much fibre in the lead up can be problematic, certainly for me anyhow!

Before training or races I aim to consume my pre workout/race meal 2-3hrs before. If I eat 2hrs before I will have around 400kcal and if 3hrs around 600kcal, this allows for adequate digestion and goes a long way in topping up the carbohydrate stores. Around 15mins before a training session I may have a banana to top up the blood with glucose making it immediately accessible. Having the banana 15mins before does not give the body time to convert the blood glucose into glycogen. If the body has low blood glucose you can feel sluggish at the beginning of a workout. In triathlon there is a syndrome called heavy arms, often this is attributed to getting the meal timing wrong leaving the blood glucose levels low or food inadequately digested.

In races or long training sessions, 90mins +, I aim to consume approximately 0.8-1g carbohydrate/kg body weight/per hour. At race weight for me that works out to be 54g - 68g carbohydrate per hour.

Following races truth be know I don't eat well and have quite a few cheat meals! This is celebration time and the body is toasted anyhow and as such I have time off to start the recovery process. After long training sessions though my goals are as follows:

1. Restock carbohydrate
2. Provide amino acids for resynthesis of muscle
3. Rehydrate - including electrolytes
4. Lower the bodies acidity

I achieve goals 1&2 from a simple recovery shake that contains around 30g protein, the protein will have a good amount of branch chain amino acids in. The amount of carbohydrate is dependant on the length of the session but as an example I will have around 50g for a 3hr session and 100g for a 6hr session. I'll have this recovery shake within 20mins of completing the session. I then clean up and will have a meal an hour later.

The meal will be a normal Paleo meal, lean protein with lots of vegetables both dark greens and some higher glycemic load foods that provide more carbohydrate such as sweet potato, parsnips and carrots.

Hydration is simply achieved through water intake, after long sessions I tend to consume 500ml an hour until I feel hydrated.

I also try to lower the bodies acidity levels from the intake of fruits that influence a net alkaline effect. I will have these for dessert after my meal. Excessive acidity can slow down tissue recover and can lead to wastage of muscle and bone as the body breaks it down to release calcium into the system in an attempt to lower the acidity if nothing else is doing that job!

Caffeine

I wanted to mention caffeine in this blog post as it is something I use as an ergogenic aid. I did not touch caffeine until I was 30, I did not drink tea or coffee, in fact I recall taking a sip of 'Dad's' coffee when around 8 and having a 'gag' reflex, I suppose that stuck with me because I never tried it again until I was 30! The reason I did try it was because of its supposed performance benefits. I was reading lots on it so thought I would try it. Here is what I found many say on caffeine intake and some of my experiences and findings in relation to Ironman.

• 3-6mg/kg body weight is what is required for a performance benefit. You can of course get a mental kick of less and personally I find if I have this amount I am so jittery it undermines the benefits. I seem to do best on around 2mg/kg body weight, perhaps this is due to my low tolerance to it!
• Plasma concentrations peak 1hr post ingestion.
• Too much can give bad guts - it does me!
• I will get a BIG crash on it!
• If I drink consistently it masks tiredness and fatigue and I lose a true sense of how tired I am. Therefore I only tend to have 4 coffees per week before big training sessions and I tend to take regular breaks from it to get back in touch with my fatigue levels.
• I drink prior to 12.00 in the day as caffeine can linger in the system for around 12hrs, this undoubtedly impacts my ability to get to sleep and the quality of my sleep, my wife will testify to this, she can spot a mile away if I have had a coffee close to 12.00 in the day because I turn into a chatterbox at bedtime! Because of this I will preferably have caffeine as early as possible in the day, the exception is race day where I careful consume caffeine throughout the race.

Supplements

I don't take many supplements but here are the ones I do

• Fish oil capsules - I follow the guidelines Rob Wolfe suggest in the Paleo Solution and have .25g per 10lb body weight which means I have 4x 1g capsules par day, typically 2x with breakfast and 2x with my evening meal. Why do I take these? Simply because the Omega 3 is anti-inflammatory which helps healing. There are also many other benefits to Fish oil but perhaps this is a specific I may go into in a future post. 
• Vitamin C - I take more than is recommended by most. I take 2x 1g tablets per day. 1x with breakfast and 1x with my evening meal. Why do I take these? I have been doing this years and believe it has significantly helped keep my immune system in good health. It is well reported that following tough training sessions the immune system gets compromised, a common occurrence in endurance athletes because of this is upper respiratory tract infections. It is believed Vitamin C can help combat this and it seems to in me! Additionally vitamin C can combat free radicals from oxidative stress that is obviously high in endurance athletes. 

Lanzarote Nutrition Plan

What follows is my current nutrition plan, I will test some of this when there next week and tweak anything I feel necessary.

Breakfast - 04.30 (approx 2.5hrs prior to start to allow for digestion)

• 2x Starbuck mocha drinks each contains 70mg caffeine. 
• 2x bananas with peanut butter (smooth & organic of course)
• 2x 1g Fish oil capsules and 1x 1g Vitamin C
• 1x Cliff protein bar

This equates to approx 100g carb, 30g protein and 500 kcal. I will eat this slowly in the order listed with 5-10min gaps between each food as generally I have butterflies in the morning and don't seem to take food in the stomach as I normally would, typically I can eat food pretty quick without any challenges. After I have eaten I will sip on water with a small amount of sea salt added for extra electrolyte.

15mins before the start - 06.45

1x Cliff or GU energy gel - Espresso flavour with caffeine, washed down with a small amount of water. I do not like electrolyte or energy drinks at this point as I have found they make my mouth stick/syruppy (not sure that is a word).

Swim

Take nothing until on the bike except perhaps a small gulp water at T1 aid station if I get an open take.

Bike nutrition.

Main Goal - consume 1g carbohydrate per kg body weight each hour. (68kg x 5.5hrs = 374g). 200g of this will be from cytomax. 225g possible from gels. (1x 600ml extra bottle in special needs bag incase I am getting through it quick, this will provide a back up 100g carb, also this is insurance incase I drop a bottle)

• Only small sips of water for first 15-20mins as body adjusts to cycling, then I start the feeding routine. 
• 2x 600ml bottles of cytomax. 100g powder in each giving approx 200g carbohydrate 
• 200-300ml each hour
• Water - will drink at least 500ml each hour.
• Salt capsules (contains a range of electrolytes). 1 every 45mins.
• 9x Energy gels (1 more than normal due to tough bike course, also allows for dropping one or not managing to squeeze down full amount) 25g carb in each. 225g Carb total. 
  
• Gel 1 at 20mins
• Gel 2 at 1hr
• Gel 3 at 1hr 40mins
• Gel 4 at 2hrs 20mins
• Gel 5 at 3 hrs
• Gel 6 at 3hrs 40mins
• Gel 7 at 4hrs 20mins
• Gel 8 at 5hrs
• Gel 9 - 10mins from the end of the bike anticipated for around 5hrs 30mins  

Run nutrition

Main Goal - consume 1g carbohydrate per kg body weight each hour. (68kg x 3.5hrs = 238g). 200g will come from Cliff shot bloks, the rest will be coke in the back end of the marathon.

• 8x 3 Cliff shot bloks. 3 shot blok provides the same energy as a gel which is approximately 25g carbohydrate. Will feed every 20-30mins by having 3 shot bloks, will space out eating each blok by a minute or so to minimise gastric stress.
• Salt capsules. (contains a range of electrolytes) 1 every 45mins. 
• Water at each aid station 
• Will start coke at 25km if fatigue is kicking in deep. 

Hopefully this has given some insights into my nutrition. I think the last thing worth saying is that with regards to nutrition you should keep an open mind and test, test and test, record your performance, feelings and learnings and you will no doubt find things that work well for you that you can be confident in.

To follow me on twitter: @ironman_jw