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

Nutrition for health and vitality

Hi all, for those that have read some of my posts before welcome back, and for those that are new, welcome!

In this post I am going to share an overview to my approach on nutrition as a health conscious individual and ironman athlete. In my mind I have 2 parts to my nutrition, part one is what I call my foundation nutrition and part two is what I call fuelling. I will address my foundation nutrition in this post and then my fuelling in another. When I discuss my fuelling I will use my Ironman Lanzarote nutrition plan as an example of how I also time my fuelling in races.

So I am clear, here is what I mean by nutrition: "The process by which living organisms obtain food and use it for growth, metabolism (energy production), and repair. Stages of nutrition include ingestion, digestion, absorption, transport, assimilation, and excretion."

I understand nutrition is a huge and much debated topic and that there are many approaches, particularly if you consider the range of goals that are associated with nutrition. What follows is not necessarily what I believe is right for everyone, but rather what I have chosen to follow and have found works best for me. I am passionate about nutrition and have worked with many clients to help them improve their nutrition, in my opinion those that have an open mind and are prepared to thoroughly try new things out and honestly evaluate the impact of these new things will ultimately get improvement and success. This can take patience, perseverance and a belief that there is a solution to any health/nutrition problem. Those that believe in one way, a right way and treat their nutrition as a right or wrong problem that HAS to be backed up by conventional science or popular opinion often experience frustration, not all things that add up on paper add up in the human body. To put it another way, if you study how a frog behaves in a glass jar, where variables are controlled (scientific experiments), it may not behave the same as it does in its natural environment, where variables are not controlled (life). By this I simply mean things are not often as straight forward as 1+1=2 in the human body, therefore to know what works for us we must become our own experiment. This experiment essentially never ends as our physiology is subject to change as we age and are exposed to different situations. I use science to help guide me but not control all decisions I make.

One other note I would also like to mention with MY nutrition is that I eat for health, energy and recovery coupled with a desire to maintain a healthy training weight and achieve a race weight when necessary. What I am sharing here is not necessarily about eating for weight loss, getting toned, ripped or building muscle. I do not place an importance on having a 'mens health' type body, if I did I would eat and train differently, rather I want to maintain my health as best as I can, have energy and recover well so I can race as FAST as possible. Truth be known as a mesomorph body type the thing I struggle with the most is dropping muscle, which I develop easily, whilst maintaining power so my power to weight ratio improves. Really I would would like to be 4-5 inches taller and more skinny with less muscle! I should also add, not as a means to gloat or boast, but rather as a means of testimonial that I have not had a day off work sick in over 10 years, I rarely get ill (less than once per year) and rarely get mildly symptomatic with things like a runny nose or sore throat which all seem to disappear very quickly for me. If I sense a symptom, I jump straight on it and have strategies I implement to counter the symptoms immediately. Also I have never had an injury that has stopped me training, the worst thing I have had was a mild case of ITB in 2003 when I started triathlon. I am very proud of this as I do not know many ironman that have completed 12 and not suffered from serious overuse injuries. I firmly believe sound nutrition has given me a great foundation of health. I am by no means a saint, however I am a curious cat who knows how he wants to live his life and has accepted nutrition will count towards 70-80% of the way I feel. With this in mind I have always sought after information, researched things and made informed choices about what I do nutritionally, I consider the science and use my intuition to test things for enough time that I can be sure it is either making a difference or not making a difference. I believe I am honest in evaluating and do my best not to kid myself, ultimately I place faith in myself to solve any challenges I may have. I believe a person 'in tune' with their body will always know it better than anyone else.

Foundation nutrition

My foundation nutrition is what I eat to provide well rounded nourishment to my body so I have health and vitality, whilst I need extra macro-nutrients and micronutrients such as; extra protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals as an athlete my foundation nutrition takes into account a base, essentially what I need when I am not training. For me it is a focus on getting the minimum amount of goodness in my body to give myself a great chance of being healthy. How do I assess what a minimum amount is? Well I use some numbers based on science to guide certain consumptions, however I 'dial' these in by tweaking and assessing how I feel. I do measure my weight and body fat and I do believe this needs to be in check, however I place a greater emphasis on feeling energised.

The approach and rules I prioritise are as follows:

Paleo diet

For my foundation nutrition I follow the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet in other words means stone-age diet. It is based on foods that our ancestors would have had available to them and have eaten. The premise is that our genetics have changed very little in the last few thousand years, however the food we now eat has changed drastically in just the last 100 years, as such our bodies haven't evolved to deal with modern foods, they are simply doing the best they can, in many cases they battle for decades before they are unable to handle the poor nutrition going in. Examples of nutritional related problems are all around us: In recent decades we have seen increased obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis and cancers to name a few. By no means am I saying poor nutrition is the sole culprit but I think it would be naive to say it is not a high contributor.

Essentially there are 6 ground rules to the Paleo diet which yield 7 key benefits over the typical modern Western diet. I will touch on these but if you would like to know more about these rules and benefits then I would highly advise you read the Paleo diet book written by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. (link below) or listen to him talk about the Paleo diet on an IM talk podcast (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/imtalk/   Its no. 102, episode 264). What I mention is his work and he will obviously explain it far better than I could ever attempt to! Either way here is a VERY brief overview of the rules and benefits of the Paleo diet. and some of the things I do in relation to them.

6 Ground rules

1. Eat plenty of lean meat, fish and seafood 
2. Eat plenty of non-starchy vegetables and fruit
3. No cereals
4. No legume
5. No dairy
6. No processed food

7 key benefits vs a typical western diet assuming the ground rules above are followed!

1. The diet provides a greater amount of protein, particularly animal protein which provides a considerable amount of Branch Chain Amino Acids for growth and repair. 
2. Fewer 'poor' carbohydrates will be consumed such as bread, pasta, starchy tubers and refined sugar. These types of carbohydrate are typically low in nutrients, low on hydration and are dense sources of carbohydrate with a high glycemic load. Over consumption of these can cause blood sugar issues and lead to insulin sensitivity issues for many. This can lead to fat gain and or disease. The Paleo diet encourages consumption of 'good' carbohydrates from non starchy vegetables and fruit that are high in nutrients, high in hydration and low in carbohydrates that cause blood sugar issues. 
3. One other benefit of high consumption of 'good' carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables is that it dramatically increases fibre intake. Contrary to popular belief vegetables and fruit provide far more fibre than whole grains. High amounts of dietary fibre is great for digestive health and blood sugar stabilisation amongst other benefits. 
4. If good quality lean meats, fish and nuts are consumed the diet can provide much healthier sources of fat. One key point here is that the diet can help balance Omega 6 to Omega 3 levels which should ideally be around a 1:1 ratio. Many people on a Western diet are found to have ratios of 20:1. This is an issue as Omega 6 is pro-inflammatory and Omega 3 is anti-inflammatory. You need both, however if Omega 6 is high it can increase and prolong inflammation which can slow down healing and all other inflammatory reactions. Whilst I couldn't conclusively prove it I am of firm belief that from increasing my Omega 3 intake via this diet I heal faster from training. 
5. The diet reduces sodium content and increases potassium content restoring the balance of two important minerals that are typically out of balance weighting towards excesses sodium. Excessive can contribute to various health issues such as high blood pressure.
6. The diet provides a net alkaline load due to fruit and vegetables that are net alkaline yielding. Most diets that are high in dairy and grains are net acid yielding. High acidity levels in the body over prolonged periods can cause all sorts of issues such as bone and muscles loss. High acidity has also been associated with asthma and exercise induced asthma. 
7. It provides a high amount of vitamins and minerals from natural foods that mean they are more readily absorbed. Remember many food sources such as whole grains, appear on paper to be good sources of certain minerals such as; iron, zinc, copper and calcium. However because whole grains contain anti-nutrients such as phytates which can bind to iron and block absorption they are not actually good sources!

Gluten free

Another rule I follow which is really part of the Paleo diet but does not get expressed as a separate rule is going gluten free. A few years back a former client and friend of mine who is also someone who follows the Paleo diet shared with me the impact going gluten free had on them. It was close to new years so I made it my new years resolution. Initially I didn't feel much different but after 3 weeks I had more energy and was digesting meals better, by this I mean I was not suffering any bloating or inflammation in the intestines which I sometimes experienced. In April of that year after being gluten free for 4 months I had my first beer of the year which someone bought me at an annual convention, after drinking it I immediately had stomach cramps and had to excuse myself for the rest of the evening as I was in quite a bit of discomfort, I have not drunk a beer since except on my stag do which was masked by the fact I was wasted on spirits anyhow! My drink of choice is now red wine or a white spirit if I want to get drunk! Anyhow going gluten free has really helped my digestion, I simply did not realise I was gluten sensitive until I removed it but I am very glad I did as it has no doubt helped my health. If you are wondering what gluten does, in very simple terms it can punch holes in the lining of the gut causing leaky gut meaning poorly digested food particles can cross into the blood. Here they have the potential to be treated as 'foreign' and attacked by white blood cells causing an immune response. Gluten is closely associated with many food allergies and autoimmune illnesses. Whilst I have never knowingly suffered from any I feel better for not having gluten and am also confident I am taking a positive step towards my health. So the major changes I have made are to try and ensure even my naughty treats are gluten free, I keep sending the gluten free easter egg picture to my wife hoping she will get the hint!!

85/15 principle

So for those of you that have read the above ground rules and thought, NO WAY! The 85/15 principles is something I use in conjunction with the Paleo diet. The 85/15 rule is about following a nutrition plan 85% of the time with 15% 'off' plan. This could mean having a drink or some junk food such as a pizza. The thought process of the 85/15 principle is that if your body receives good nutrition 85% of the time it will be able to handle the 15% poor nutrition without it severely impacting blood lipid profiles, blood sugar balance, acid/alkaline balance etc

As an example if I am in a week where I am not training I follow a pattern of eating 5 small meals per day (i'll talk more on this below) this will be 35 meals per week. If I eat 30 meals following the Paleo principles I will have achieved 85% therefore giving me flexibility to have 5 meals that may not be based on the Paleo principles. I monitor this and do pretty well in achieving this.

Eat small but regular

My base nutrition approach is to eat 5 times per day (this of course does not include pre, during and post workout snacks), each meal is typically spaced 3 hours apart, certainly no more than 4 hours, if I go 4 hours without eating I am in the words of my wife a grumpy old man! Which is true enough! I tend to have my biggest meal at breakfast so it provides the bulk of my energy for the day. Meals typically decrease in size as the day goes on.

A very simple formula to guide calorie intake which I do not live or die by but rather use as a 'flag in the sand' is 25kcal x kg/body weight = BMR. BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, which simply put is the total number of calories your body would burn if you stayed in bed for 24hrs. Sedentary individuals are said to need approximately 25% more than this number, active individuals defined as those exercising 3-5 times per week need 50% more and really active individuals such as Ironman can need considerably more such as 200%. These figures are of course guides at best but can give a place to start if you are confused as to how much you should be eating to meet your energy demands. So as an example my training weight is around 68kg. Therefore 68 x 25 = 1700kcal. Now lets assume I am in a taper and estimate my activity to be 'active' requiring 50% extra calories, this would give me 1700kcal + 850kcal (50% of 1700kcal) = 2550kcal. If I spaced this out equally over 5 meals I should be eating approximately 510kcal at each meal. As mentioned I typically prefer to front load my calories in the morning and have a 600kcal breakfast and smaller lunches and dinners. It is worth mentioning the bigger the meal the more time I leave to digest prior to training sessions, particularly if the training session is going to be high intensity and demand most of my blood goes to working muscles. I do not want my digestive system arguing with my muscles for blood! As a guide if I have a 600kcal breakfast I like to leave it around 3hrs for digestion, 400kcal around 2hrs for digestion. No doubt you may already be asking what happens if you train really early morning? Well you have to make a call here and do the best you can. On race simulation sessions where I test nutrition strategies I get up at 04.00, eat snooze, wake, warm up and start training at 07.00, the same timings as race day, except on race day you normally don't get the snooze as you are travelling to the start line! However on normal training days I may get up at 05.00 eat a 400kcal breakfast, do a few hours work while I digest then go training at 07.00, that is the commitment!

Carbohydrate intake

An obvious question that athletes have on the Paleo diet is won't I need more carbohydrate? Can I get enough from fruit and vegetables? Well these are BIG questions and are worthy of a post or a book in themselves, I will certainly discuss pre, during and post session carbohydrate consumption in my next post, however for now I will keep in more general! If you are super keen on finding out more comprehensive information on this topic I highly recommend the Paleo diet for athletes by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel (link below). In short for me I eat tons of vegetables and mountain them up I also eat considerable amounts of fruit. I tend to eat most of my vegetables in the evening as I find I could not train hard with that much fibre in my guts. If I feel I really need to load or replenish my carbohydrate stores my preferred vegetables that are starchy are sweet potato (yes thats right - sweet potato is actually a vegetable!), parsnips and carrots lightly baked in avocado oil (tolerates high heat very well). In the mornings I tend to eat lots of low fibre fruits for carbohydrates such as melon, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. This is also where I adapt the Paleo diet a touch and use the 15% to modify it. So some non Paleo foods I may include to bump carbohydrate stores are gluten free granola, natural yoghurt, dark chocolate and energy bars and drinks when training - gluten free of course! These are my non Paleo treats.

Hydration (fluid and electrolytes)

My daily hydration strategy is simple I drink 0.033ml water per kg body weight which equates to 2.2litres for me. I tend to reduce this by 25% in the winter as I don't perspire as much and find my thirst naturally declines. This is a non training amount. When training I add 500ml for every hour of training I do that day. I drink little and often and choose Evian, Vittel or Highland Spring water wherever possible as it is cleaner water with less flouride in it, plus it contains good levels of minerals such as potassium and magnesium which can support absorption and health. I pretty much only drink water. I do not touch squashes or coke unless in the last 20km of an Ironman! Why? Well it raises blood sugar levels so fast it gives an instant kick, great when fatigued in an Ironman a disaster for those who want consistently good energy levels and weight loss!

How the training is going 

At present the training is going very well, I am really pleased with progress. Last week I did an endurance swim session that was 10x500m. I planned to swim the 500m's at a pace of 1.35/100m (approx 7mins 55secs per 500m) which is around a 1hr Ironman swim time, this is close to race pace for me. I was going to have 1 minute rest between each set. However the minute I pushed of the wall and started swimming I could tell I was swimming well for me. With less perceived exertion than normal the first 500m came in at 7mins 33secs (1.30/100m pace). I felt great after 30 seconds so decided to challenge myself to keep the pace and have 45 seconds rest. I completed all 500m around 7mins 30secs +/- 2 seconds with 45 seconds rest. The most pleasing thing was my RPE (rate of perceived exertion) was lower then normal at around a 6 out of 10. A session like that would normally register a 7 or 8 out of 10. A pleasing break through session which no doubt is the result of some solid base work mixed with some early speed work which I have injected in at the start of the build phase, which is now in full swing. Sessions like this are really satisfying and great for confidence, the key for me now is not to get carried away and over training by chasing times to hard in every session.  The next step with my swimming is to maintain the endurance and speed work and introduce the wetsuit. Swimming is a different beast in a wetsuit and in open water so I will start to sharpen my wetsuit skills and am planning my first swim in it next week, even though it will be in a pool as I am not going to brave the open water yet!

My cycling is going well, I have got plenty of endurance and strength sessions done, there are good signs of improvement on the turbo but outdoor sessions are hard to measure as the conditions are so variable as each ride feels widely different due to weather conditions, could be time for a power meter so I can more accurately measure my efforts! I did a 150km cycle with my training partner Ollie Williams (@Quichie123) last weekend and we got battered by the rain and wind throughout, it felt harder and taxed me more than a 200km cycle I done 2 weeks earlier, the data also showed I was 4km/hr slower, the good news was my average heart rate was similar! Hopefully spring will break through soon so I can get some less painful riding done. The tri bike is now set up and ready to go and as soon as I get a dry day will be taking it for its first ride in 2013! Always an interesting ride adjusting to the different dimension and balance requirements!

Running is also going good and I have 3 half marathons and a few solid 30km runs now under my belt.  I am running around 60km per week now and on my long endurance runs am comfortably holding my target race pace in heart rate zone 2. Like cycling though this has somewhat been dependant on  weather. This Sunday I went out for 34km and for the first hour when it was drizzling I was averaging 12.7km at zone 2 heart rate, then it started hammering it down with rain, it was also only 5 or 6 degrees. I was soaked and cold and the remaining 2 hours were tough, heart rates were all over the show. I weighed my kit when back and it was an extra 3kg when soaked with water - might as well of had a weight vest on! Needless to say that run taxed me more than I would have liked it to so the last few days have all been about recovery swims and turbo's. I will be back running easy tomorrow and if all is good will start to inject some intense sessions Thursday to Sunday.

Right time for a foam roll and turbo session now.....train hard, train smart and race fast.

To follow me on twitter: @ironman_jw

Planning a training session

Hello and welcome to blog post number 5 where I will be discussing planning a training session plus my usual update on where I am at with my own training in the lead up to Ironman Lanzarote on the 18th May and then on to Ironman Frankfurt in July (European Championships).


In previous posts I have discussed how I periodise a training plan and planning a typical training week.  In summary here are the key points in relation to those posts.

1. When periodising I select an 'A' race  and work backwards to give myself an 'official' training start date that will give me a sufficient number of weeks (or other training cycle such as 10 days) to prepare for the event. The number of weeks I give myself to prepare can change and has changed based on experience, current fitness and how demanding the event is. 
2. I Split my training into phases: Base, Build, Speed and Taper as examples.
3. I Develop a 'skeleton' training plan for each week that incorporates the 'must do' key sessions that I will fit in even if life gets really busy. I Plan other sessions around this skeleton.

With this in mind the next step is to consider each session specifically to ensure I am prepared for it physically and mentally so I get the most out of it, personally I like to plan specific sessions for the week ahead in what I call my 'Sunday sort out session' which unsurprisingly is on a Sunday afternoon when typically all training is done for the week and I am relaxing and getting organised for the week ahead.


Remarkably many athletes and especially gym goers do not think about their sessions in advance, certainly not in detail anyhow. I often ask gym goers, triathletes and even trainers the casual question, "what have you got planned for today?" The response, a sigh, and a "not sure really, probably......" The response of a professional or well planned athlete is much more specific, they will identify details such as: "Today I am doing an interval test set of 10x 400m with the goal of swimming each sub 6mins, going on 7mins". Knowing this detail is very important as it will tell you how much time, effort and energy the session will require and what kit you will need, all of which can give you guidance on how best to prepare. The session details themselves should ideally be logged so you can review them along with any regressions or progress you make in future weeks, months and even years. It can be very useful and sometimes interesting if you are a geek like me to look back on training logs. Sometimes it is not possible to execute a session plan due to something unpredictable, in such a situation having a back up session planned is always a good idea, either way a planned session is one you will almost always get more from.


Components and sub components of a session plan

When I plan my own sessions I consider the following components and sub components

Session Type
- What type of session will this be? Endurance, Interval, Recovery etc
Session Objectives
- How will this session improve fitness/performance? Essentially this is the rational for doing the session. Nailing session objectives so you have a clear focus for the session is critical!
Pre session nutrition
- What will I need and will I need to prepare anything? When will I eat it, 1hr, 2 or 3hrs before?
Equipment/kit
- What will I need and will I need to organise anything such as prepare bike?
General Warm Up
- Self Myo-fascial Release (SMR). What are my sore/'sticky'/tight muscles and fascia that I want to foam roll/trigger point?
- Dynamic movement. What joints and movement patterns will I be working? What will be good mobilisers/dynamic stretches and movement for warm up?
Specific Warm Up
- What will I do for warm up? What heart rate zones do I want to get in to?
Main Set
- Details of specific session. How long? No. Intervals? Intensity? Work rest ratio's?
Cool down
 - What will I do for cool down?
Post session nutrition
 - What will I eat/drink after the session? When will I eat it?
Post session adaptation facilitation
 - What will I do post session to promote recovery and adaptation? Foam roll, massage, stretch, compression, ice, nap, sleep 1hr extra?


Once I have planned my session I obviously then have a crack at it, afterwards I will review it, not necessarily a sit down formal review, but rather an informal one where I will take 5-10mins to reflect on the session. I may write some thoughts down on how I felt and performed there and then, but if not I will jot them down in the evening or in the Sunday sort out session. I call the Plan, Execute and Review steps the 'success cycle' as I believe it is doing this consistently and mindfully, challenging a sessions effectiveness that brings about continual improvement and success. The more educated you get yourself through reading, talking to coaches, getting coaching etc the more informed choices you can make and the better you can plan and review sessions, personally I love the whole process!

To help me plan, record and review my sessions I personally use Polar Precision software that came with a previous Polar watch that I owned back in 2006.  The Software is still available now with watches like the RS800CX.  I rate it and think it is simple and very easy to use, that said I am biased as I have been using it a number of years. I have data going back to 2006 and can see how many hours, km's, metres climbed etc I have swam, biked and run each day, week and year since then. Additionally I have heart rate data logged as well as body fat measurements, hours I have slept along more subjective information such as how I was feeling on any given day, all is useful to reflect on and build on year after year. I appreciate if doing a triathlon or other endurance event is a one time gig that puts a tick in a box then keeping logs may not seem worth while, however if you can see yourself doing the sport for a number of years I would highly recommend keeping accurate logs.

In my next post I will be start to discuss my nutritional approach which in my mind I split into two parts: Foundation nutrition and fuelling.

Report on training to date.

I have just finished week 7 of 18, leaving me 1 week of the base phase left to go! Man I am starting to see some gains now! My quads are starting to develop that 'road map of veins around the VMO area which I have been getting more pronounced each year as I develop as a cyclist. This no doubt has been a result of some quality work on the bike. This week I got my first 200km ride completed, I felt remarkably good and was strong the whole ride. I fuelled and hydrated well and held a solid pace. The ride had just shy of 1700m of climbing which I was pleased with - not quite Lanzarote though that comes in around 2500m! I have also completed some excellent strength sets on the turbo where I grind big gears at low cadences for blocks of up to 15mins, on the days I am performing well and the legs are well recovered the gears are getting harder by a cog, small incremental progress which is nice to see. The swimming has been improving steadily, particularly my endurance and mindset in the pool. Some 4/5km blocks are flying by now, I am enjoying them and can honestly say I am completing with 'gas left in the tank'. My focus now will be to maintain this whilst improving top end speed. In the past I have made the mistake of focusing too much on speed and have lost some endurance, not this time! I have also completed a good number of 20-30km runs although this week I went out on Sunday aiming for a steady 34km but by 20km I was gone and took a short cut home! I guess the 200km cycle which followed a 100km day took a lot out of me! Either way the endurance base is pretty much there although I may need to tag on an extra week of base to get in my second 200km ride and long run of 35km as it won't happen this week due to work commitments and a half marathon on the Sunday. Oh yeah I have also purchased some new run trainers which out of about 10 pairs I tested had the best feel and video feedback from gait analysis. As I log some miles in them and race in them time will tell if I have found a combination that prevents the blisters!

In the build phase which fast approaches I will keep the endurance work up albeit less frequent. I will put in a long ride and run every second or third week at the weekends. On the weekend session in between I will now inject some more high intensity efforts over mid distances. Some example sessions are: 120km cycle with 6-8x 10km race pace efforts and 22km run with 4x 5km race pace efforts. These will sting a bit! I will also introduce frequent brick sessions where I run off the bike. The above two sessions will no doubt be done back to back at some point! For now it is bed time for me!

Follow me @ironman_jw

A typical training week

I intended to do more posts over the last couple of weeks but I have been busy! As mentioned in my last post I will go through some further details on planning a typical training week (micro-cycle) which builds on the previous posts details of structuring macro and meso-cycles in relation to a periodised training plan. First though a quick update on what has been keeping me busy!

Training over the last couple of weeks

Well truthfully the last couple of weeks have been challenging! The beginning of week 4 was all about adaptation and recovery after a high volume week followed by a weekend where I completed a 150km ride followed by a half marathon the next day. My legs were very sore after this weekend so Monday's workout was a 45min recovery spin on the turbo, light gears, 90rpm in heart rate zone 1. Tuesday was a technique swim with lots of drills. I self massaged and stretched a lot and got a few good 10 minute stints on the Power Plate massaging my legs, which I find to be very effective. When recovering I tend to have a couple of smaller extra meals/snacks to maintain a calorie requirement about 20% higher to assist with muscle repair. I also consume anti-inflammatory foods as well as those high in anti-oxidants. I will talk much more on recovery methods and nutrition in future post as these are HUGE topics. Anyhow by Wednesday my legs were coming good and I was able to put in a good interval run session and normal training resumed. A couple of note worthy sessions were my Saturday ride where I completed a session I call five, fives. This is where I do 5 repeats up 5 separate hills of varying gradient and length with each hill being around 10-20km apart. This session builds strength and will start to prepare me for the hills of Lanzarote. On the Sunday I completed my first 30km run which I enjoyed despite cold wet weather. The photo is me on the kitchen floor after this session - the wife won't let me any further in the house until I have stripped off and put the kit in the washing machine!

The next training week was the really challenging one. I was away with work all week staying in a hotel. I had access to a pool and gym so all was good there but I had to forfeit my biking which is frustrating as I don't like riding gym bikes.  Additionally I had evening work which left little time for anything other than eating, sleeping and training, however these are the real challenges of an amateur. I focused on what I could and did some extra gym & run sessions. The weekend was another 150km ride which was my favourite ride of the year. Ten or so degrees, light wind and the sun was out! It felt tropical compared to the weather we have had recently. I rode well at a good solid average around 31km/h. Afterwards I drove down to Brighton for the half marathon. Unfortunately I got food poisoning after a pub meal, at 04.00 it was coming out of both ends and I thought that was that! Around 07.00 I started to feel better and had a small amount of yoghurt with some gluten free granola which stayed down so I made a last minute call to run the half. This mean't a mad dash to get to the start line on time. I did manage to make it but I could only squeeze in to the 2hr -1hr 45min section before the gun went off. Nightmare! I had a really hard time the first few miles a) not throwing up b) battling the tired legs and c) weaving around other runners to try and find a space where I could get into a rhythm. I managed to get round but needed the help of a Lucozade at about mile 8 or 9 which I clutched for dear life and sipped all the way to the line. I crossed the line shot to bits in around 1hr 37mins which I was pleased with considering. I can say that was the closest I have ever come in training to feeling like I do at the back end of an Ironman marathon. Low blood sugar, dehydrated, with incredibly tired legs! I considered it to be good training! Please take note though I would not advise doing what I did and running if you feel poorly. I do know my body well and was confident I would not make matters worse. If I had felt I was doing more harm than good I would have walked off. Post half marathon I got some good calories in via fluid and I must confess some nice cookies from Ben's Cookies in the lanes! A sound sleep and I felt great on Monday. Legs were only slightly sore, much better than 2 weeks before where I did the same session sequencing; a 150km cycle followed by half marathon the next day. The low fatigue/soreness levels are a very encouraging sign that the body is adapting and that the base training is working. I am looking forward to the build phase in a few weeks now where I will inject some more strength and pace work! Lastly I have stepped up my endurance swim to a main set of 3x 1500m with a 90 second rest. I am completing this comfortably now at a steady average of pretty much 24min per 1500m. So although time has been tight due to travelling and work I have made the steps forward as planned and am feeling confident. The next 3 weeks of base will be about progressing the long endurance cycles up to 200km and the runs up to 35km. Ideally I will have a couple of each under my belt by the end of the base period. With regards to the bike, the weather and my mental capacity to suffer out in the wet, wind and cold will determine if this is achieved!

A typical training week

A tip I picked up a few years back from the book 'I'm here to win' by Chris McCormack 2x Ironman World Champion is to have a skeleton weekly plan based on key sessions that are must do's, the bare minimum you would need to make some form of progress (link for book below).

These are my key skeleton sessions.

• 2x swim - 1x endurance session, 1x interval session
• 2x cycle - 1x endurance session, 1x interval session
• 2x run - 1x endurance session, 1x interval session

You will see from this I factor in 6 key skeleton sessions. Basically an endurance and interval session from each discipline. Here are a few reasons I see them as key for me. Endurance sessions stimulate adaptations in many systems of the body; the myo-fascial system (muscles and connective tissue), nervous system, cardiovascular system (heart, blood vessels and blood) and the respiratory system (lungs). Many of these adaptations take years to build and gains can obviously reverse in off season. The endurance sessions allow me to build mental stamina, develop connective tissue strength, build movement efficiency along with increasing the ability of the muscular, cardiovascular and respiratory systems capacity to deliver and extract oxygen for energy burning! My view is the more years you have had in the sport the less of this you may be able to get away with. This does of course depend on your physiology. I consider myself to have relatively few years of endurance training under my belt and even less at Ironman. I have raced triathlon for 9 years and Ironman for 6 years. This may sound like a lot to some but I have no background in endurance sport. I played basketball as a kid but I was no swimmer, cyclist or runner so do not have the years and in many cases multiple decades of base some might have. If you consider a guy like Chris McCormack he has a background in endurance sports that stems right back into his early teens.  A training partner of mine was a national swimmer and as such has years of base as a swimmer. Because of this I consider my endurance sessions vital, particularly to progress year on year. Each year I have noticed improvements in my endurance which have allowed me to tolerate more volume and intensity. This has been reflected in my race schedules. When I started racing Ironman I only raced one a year, then I stepped up to two a year and now I do three a year. 

Interval sessions will build tolerance to the by products of hard work, increase capacity of muscle fibres to produce more power and increase 'engine size' i.e. the capacity of the heart and lungs. To get faster interval sessions are a must. 

In short. Endurance sessions are about being able to go the distance efficiently and with a high propensity to avoid injury and intervals are about developing speed capacity. The achievement of both equals a faster athlete. Many achieve this but they increase too quickly and get either injured or burnout due to either not enough endurance at easy intensities or too many hard sessions. 

So these are the reasons that these are my key sessions. I fit other important sessions in around this skeleton plan. Here is what an ideal & realistic week looks like for me as an amateur. 

Ideal training week

You will see from this the additional sessions are:

• 2x conditioning workouts. Typically these are gym based where I focus on 'core' or TRX at home. Again I will expand on this in future posts. 
• A technique and drills session for swimming.  Given that swimming is the most skill based sport, I work at continuing to improve my stroke. 
• An aerobic interval session for biking and running. These sessions tend to be moderate in duration/distance where I juggle between heart rate zones 2 & 3. Work rest ratio's tend to be around 1:1 as not much rest is needed if you are predominantly aerobic. These sessions add additional base. 

You may also notice that Monday is a very low intensity day. This is to allow me an opportunity to recover from the volume at the weekend. If fatigue is really high I may drop some sessions on the Monday and Tuesday and or switch the run interval sessions over. I call this 'rear loading'. By this I mean I rear load the week with the tougher sessions, this gives my body a chance to adapt in the early part of the week. 

I had a really good question on Facebook regarding my periodisation which asked: Do you factor in rest weeks? My answer was, I used to. Typically I factored in a rest week every 4 weeks and when I started to handle the volume and recover quicker I put a rest week in every 5 weeks.  Then I moved to no rest weeks and adopted the 'rear loading' technique. I would recommend that anyone starting Ironman Triathlon who is increasing their training load does factor in rest weeks, particularly if they have a demanding job and don't get much sleep due to life demands such as children. It is worth mentioning that when I say rest week this does not mean no training, simply less, around 50% less to be precise, and less intensity. This gives the body an excellent opportunity to adapt and you more time to get some sleep in and perhaps catch up on things you have had to sacrifice for your training. Based on this I personally prefer to call them adaptation weeks. Now I put in adaptation weeks by 'feel' if I am feeling excess fatigue, this takes confidence to alter the 'paper' training plan which I know many struggle with and feel guilty about thinking they are being 'weak' and that it will harm their results. Ironically it is often the opposite, for a committed athlete sometimes that hardest call is skipping a session and or taking a few days to rest when you need to. 

Training Log

To monitor my daily sessions I use Polar watches and bike computers and the accompanying Polar precision software. Below is a screen shot from a cycle workout from a while back. I am a bit of a geek so I love reviewing the data from my sessions and seeing my average heart rate, average cadence/stride rate, average speed, calories burned and altitude etc. Over time reviewing this has allowed me to Plan, execute and evaluate sessions very successfully so I get the most out of each. At present I am closely looking at cycling altitude data, meaning metres climbed. My focus with my rides is starting to turn to getting in as much altitude as I can. Lanzarote has 2551m of climbing so I am trying to use my base miles to scope out and produce rides that will get close to achieving this so I can hammer them in the build phase. It's not easy to get a good amount of altitude in a ride if the terrain you readily have access to does not have much, sometimes it means doing smaller loops of hilly sections which is what I will need to do. 

In the next post I will start to talk on designing specific sessions and the elements I factor in. Right time for a foam roll and bed!

To follow me on twitter: @ironman_JW

A periodised training plan

Wow - 3 weeks of the 18 week training plan have blown by! 15 weeks to go until Ironman Lanzarote. In this post I thought I would share some details about how I design my training plans along with an update of how the last few weeks have gone.

Designing a training plan

The first step for me in designing a training plan is deciding on 'A' races I would like to do.'A' races are races I want to peak for, where I intend to 'give everything' aiming to break personal records.  In essence they are the reason I train - the ideal is nothing is left to chance at these races, everything has been tested, practiced, and I go into the races rested and highly charged! I take into consideration the date of the race and will not enter unless there is 16-24 weeks for me to get in shape. Given my 6 years experience racing Ironman I have found that I can prepare in 16 weeks, I would not typically recommend this duration to someone new to the sport or someone stepping up to this distance unless they have a solid foundation in endurance racing.

Once 'A' races have been selected, I enter them as soon as I can so I am committed. With Ironman branded races most sell out the moment spaces are released so typically I am entering 1 year in advance.  Once races are entered I then select a date that is my 'official' start date for a regimented training regime. When selecting this date I consider life! So for example this year I started my 'official' training on the 14th January after a ski holiday and the festive period. For me it would be too difficult to stay committed to my training, nutrition and sleeping over this period and whilst skiing. I consider the festive period and ski trip opportunities to spend time with friends and family and have a break from the relentless focus of training for an Ironman.

Once I have my 'A' race date, in this case 18th May for Ironman Lanzarote, and start date -14th January (giving me a period of 18 weeks to train which is referred to as the Macro-cycle) the next step for me is to split this training into a number of phases (Meso-cycles). This process is often called periodisation and although there is lots of terminology around this, I keep it simple. For anyone wanting to know more on periodisation for triathlon, one book I would like to mention/recommend that has a good section on periodisation, is Joe Friel's triathlon training bible (link at the bottom of the post). The key sections I split my training into are base, build, peak and taper (there are others I use such as recovery post race if I am going to build back up to another A race). For Ironman Lanzarote I am doing an 8 week base, 6 week build, 3 week peak and 1 week taper.

During all phases Training load is subjectively considered: Training load = volume x intensity. Training load is key to understand as it gives a good indicator of the amount of stress you are placing on yourself. It is well documented that it is not smart to significantly increase volume and intensity at the same time, I have found this to be true with myself.

Base is where I focus on the volume side of the equation. High mileage at low intensities, coupled with plenty of technique work - long swims, bikes and runs along with conditioning exercises, typically high reps to build local muscular endurance. By the end of the base period I aim to be swimming 4km with relatively less effort. Biking up to 200km feeling controlled and measured and running 35km steady controlled and measured - of course there will be some fatigue after these sessions but it should only be mild and last only a day or two, if it is longer more adaptation is required which suggests volume has been increased too quickly or I am not recovering well which is most likely to be down to not eating and/or sleeping well. It is worth mentioning during this phase the mind adapts also and my goal is to get into that place that only really Ironman recognise when you say in response to the question; what training are you doing today? "I'm ONLY going out for 150km!" I understand this sounds insane to those that do not do this type of training but honestly when you are doing rides of 6hrs+ regularly a 5hr, 150km ride does feel short to the mind, a 1hr, 40km ride hardly seems worth doing! It's quite funny because my Wife Laura has clearly adjusted her mindset to this also and often responds "Oh, only 150km, I thought you were doing a long session today!" When I hear it back it makes me giggle at how ridiculous it sounds. I should say here that I do include some speed/interval work during a base phase but it is typically 1 session a week or fortnight from each discipline. Often I include some single discipline races such as a half marathon which serves as a good intense session, these I call 'C' races, I do not taper for these, I am not that bothered about my times, they are training as opposed to races really. For example I ran Watford half marathon this weekend after riding 150km on Saturday in high winds. My legs were tired on Saturday, at present 150km is still quite a long ride as I have not been tough enough to brave longer in the recent weather. Anyhow I posted a 1hr 34min half marathon time on a lumpy course with tired legs.  This is a long way from my PB half marathon - it was pleasing though to post this time at this stage in my training and this actually gives me more confidence than a fast 'fresh' time.  You never get to run 'fresh' in an Ironman, to me running fresh feels nothing like running in an Ironman and I have found little correlation between my fresh time improvement and my Ironman running.

After base comes build. The focus here is to maintain a high volume but build in more intensity work -this may include some race pace time trial efforts, another interval session for each discipline. Higher heart rates are achieved and sessions start to 'sting' a bit!

No doubt you can guess that peak is about intensity.  Volume is reduced slightly to give more recovery time from more intense sessions. If I have to skip a session or adjust it to be a recovery, in this phase I am okay with that as the sessions need to be of good intensity.  Sometimes in this phase I may put a 'B' race in the schedule, such as a local half iron distance or olympic distance race. This depends if there is one that is on a suitable date and if I need to test something like a new nutrition strategy or bike set up under race conditions. Leading up to Ironman Lanzarote I do not have a B race planned but I do have a 4 day training camp in Lanzarote with a training partner - this is ideal as we will smash up some solid sessions whilst getting a good feel for the actual course and conditions, ideal really.

Lastly then is taper.  This is all about letting the body recover.  You can't just do nothing here though as the body can de-condition very quickly and start to 'glue' up.  Weight can also go on quickly as the big appetite from burning 15,000 extra calories or so per week does not subside once the training load goes down so you have to be careful here! This phase is very subjective and I typically go by how I feel. Short, quality and non fatiguing swims, bikes and runs to maintain fitness and confidence are done.

To give you a visual representation here is how it looks in diagram form.

Of course there is more to it than this but this is the blueprint, in my next post I will talk about micro-cycles which for me are a week. I will look at the number and types of sessions as well as how I structure a week.

Hows the training been going up to week 3 of 18?

The first 3 weeks have been challenging but I have seen lots of progress. The biggest challenge has been the snowy, wet, cold and windy weather. This has made it hard for me to get out for good quality long rides. That said I did manage to get my maiden ride in on my new Cervelo S2 road bike, I covered 150km and loved every pedal stroke, the bike is awesome. Most of my riding has been on the Tri bike which is set up on the turbo. I have done quite a few 3hr sessions and feel really good on these, I have increased a few gears for particular sets and can feel my legs strengthening.

I have been increasing my run volume each week and have a couple of 25km runs under my belt now plus a half marathon. By the end of Feb I aim to have a couple of 30km runs done plus the Brighton half marathon which I am confident I will go quicker on as the course is flatter plus I am getting stronger each week.

Swimming is going very well, I am putting in some big endurance sessions around 5km. One session I do is 4x 1km with a 90second rest, this is becoming much easier now and I am finishing it feeling good, I plan to progress this to 3x 1.5km soon.

I have managed to steadily lose weight whilst getting enough energy in to perform and recover well - this is a tricky balance. My start weight was 158lbs and I am now down to a good weight of 152lbs. I aim to get to 146-148lbs, which is my racing weight, I can achieve this without compromising power.

Right for now it is time for me to start to prepare dinner and get ready for bed as I have a 5km swim session in the morning and a 3hr turbo with some strength sets in the afternoon! As mentioned in my next post I will look at how I plan a week of training - what is called the micro-cycle in periodisation terms.

You can also follow me on twitter: @ironman_JW