And so, the plan for this next year is….
… the London Marathon! Next April I’ll be lining up for my second crack at the London Marathon. I’m going to write some more in another post about this particular race but for now I’ll just say that when I ran it in 2012 it was simultaneously one the of the very best and the very worst days of my life. The memories about stayed with me, somewhat haunted me, since then and I am very excited to set about putting them right.
I’d gradually been picking up my training for a while until a couple of weeks ago when I picked up an annoying foot injury. It’s a lot better now but I’ve pretty much had three weeks off. I start this set of training much like I did with my ironman training – not as fit as I should be and slightly injured. It worked out fine in July and I’m very much hoping the same will be true for this!
I’m a bit giddy at the moment, i’ve always struggled to find and follow a good marathon plan. I find them too complicated, not intuitive and basically I last about a week before dropping out. Having looked around for a bit I settled on one, but was not that convinced. Then one night last week I wondered if Don Fink (my hero, who’s Be Iron Fit book dictated my every waking thought for 7 months during IM training) did a marathon plan. 20 seconds on Amazon later and I have his book. It’s targeted at marathoners over 40 but his plans looked pretty sensible to me. They are time based (love) and heart rate based (love) and I know from past experience they work. The spreadsheet is all written out (LOVE) and I am pretty much ready to go.
The plan is based around three key running sessions and the other 2-3 sessions a week are made up of cross training – for me this will mostly be brick sessions where I cycle for a bit then run and finally a weekly swim session. What’s that you say? It sounds like triathlon training? Oh, what a co-incidence… Yeah it does. Definitely not as intense but the same building blocks are there which makes it feel pretty exciting and pretty achievable at the same time.
I just need to start the 4 week ‘pre-training-training’ to get used to fitting in several sessions a week. The 16 week plans starts officially on 23rd Dec (brilliant timing I’m sure you’ll agree), so weeks starts just about now. I’ve been doing a bit of swimming, I say a bit, I’m back at the Uswim masters session on Sundays where a light session like last night is a 4.5km swim.
So the last thing to do is set a target. Earlier in the year I wanted sub 3:30, but I feel that might be lacking ambition. So, I’m going for 3:19:59. Given my PB currently is 3:57:16 that is a pretty big increase. Gulp…..
Finally one of my favourite Twitter people put me in touch with a guy at Salford Uni doing a research study into the efficiency benefits of barefoot running, so this Thursday I’ll be donning an oxygen mask and set about being tested for science purposes. Exciting!
#ProjectPilla – The results are in!
12 weeks ago we started a project to get Pilla fit. She had pretty much stopped doing any exercise whilst I was training and so I made a promise to try and help her. Well, 12 weeks of yoga, running, circuits, boxercise, aerobics and all manner of activities and the final results are in…
… I must say at this point, that Pilla really started from nothing. And she has a history of getting injured whilst running (particularly shin splints and calf issues, which once ruled her out of the GNR). And she quite likes cake…
… I must also say at this point that you might think writing about some of these things is weird, but for me it is key to write down your goals and then share them out. It sure helps you get out and train when you know you’ve told people you’re going to do it. It really forces you to stay honest with it. I’ve really only done this twice, and it’s worked both times. Oh bugger I’ve ruined the surprise!
It’s worked!
Weight
The total loss is 12lbs. Over the last 12 weeks each week has been a loss. Some big, some little but down each and every week.
Running
The week 1 5km time was 36:40. The week 12 time was 26:08, an improvement of 10 minutes and 32 seconds! In that time we’ve not actually done that much running, I really have no idea how fast she could get if we actually trained for it. I told her after the first park run she should aim to finish in the top 10 and she laughed at me. This week she was the 19th women!
BMI
Dropped from 25.55 to 23.63
Other
Without ruining the mystery I’ll just say she’s lost 4″ from the places we measured!
The change in Pilla been pretty remarkable, exciting and has helped get me out of my post ironman blues. We’ve now signed up to a half marathon in March next year and a 24 hour race next September to keep it going. I’m really proud of what she has done. She’s fit, strong and awesome!
ps. Thank you to everyone on Twitter who cheered her PBs, her progress and generally helped along the way by saying how great she is. You’ve been great too, and it would not have worked as well without that feedback, so thank you 🙂
#ProjectPilla
A few weeks ago, before the ironman blues hit, I mentioned starting #ProjectPilla. In the extraordinarily selfish days of my training I promised Pilla when I was done I’d help her get fit. To be really honest, I probably wasn’t convinced how seriously she would take it. I mean everyone wants to get fit but without having a specific goal I know I find it incredibly difficult to do anything.
After a couple of weeks of massive grumpiness and hardly any training I made her a plan. I used a couple of the things I learnt in my training, namely that consistency makes a huge difference and that mixing up training keeps it interesting. The basic plan was something like this:
Mon: rest
Tue: run 20 mins
Weds: yoga
Thurs: class (aerobics or similar)
Fri: stretches or class
Sat: run 5km
Sun: circuits
We did a weigh in at the start, took some measurements and committed to weighing in every week. It’s sort of fun to track progress this way, but as a lot of the things on the plan build strength and fitness it is not a perfect measure, it’s just an easy one. Much like with my training (are you spotting a theme?) we tweet how she is doing. It makes your goals public, which is a really powerful way of getting them done. The first time we did a parkrun Pilla got round in a bit over 36 minutes.
So 7 weeks later how are we getting on? Well yesterday Pilla absolutely sped round the same parkrun in 27:40. 27:40! Nearly 8 and a half minutes faster. I honestly could not be more proud of how she is doing, she is absolutely caning every session. When we started she couldn’t do a single full press up or plank for longer than 20 seconds. Last week she did 21 press ups and today 3.5 minutes of planking. In circuits today when she finished she could hardly stand up! I cannot believe the difference. Pilla has always been full of mysteries and surprises but the fact that she can train harder than me might just be one of the biggest. LOVE IT!
We spent a fair portion of our time off this week going to some classes, one of which was boxercise. Now I’ve never been to any sort of classes before so I didn’t really know what to expect, but deep down, well I’ve just done an ironman, seriously how difficult can a couple of classes be?
Well, three days later I’m still hurting. My arms are battered. It hurts when I laugh. Loved it!
One hugely unexpected thing for me is that it’s got me back into training. I’m back running, the yoga has been revolutionary for me, and the circuits is great fun. I’ve pb’d a couple of 5kms and am thorough back in love with running. I went to a Sale Harriers training session on Thursday night, my first EVER run around a track and really enjoyed, I’m pretty sure I’m going to join them. And it’s all because of my awesome wife. She’s ace 🙂 #proud #ProjectPilla
The thing about goals…
The thing about goals is they have to be far enough out that you might actually not get to them. They have to challenge you and push you and you have to think deep down unless you throw yourself into it you might not get them. What is the point of setting something you know you can reach?
Since the ironman I have basically been a mardy bugger. I was alright for a couple of weeks, whilst it was still fresh in my mind but then, quite suddenly, it all went wrong. I was grumpy at home, grumpy at work, just generally miserable. I tried setting some goals about running fast but they didn’t really inspire me to get out. Ive done a little hill running with friends, a little slow running here and there. Still felt miserable.
I started training with #projectpilla a little and that helped quite a bit, and suddenly one Sunday three weeks ago I just prepped my running bag and work stuff and spent a week running a little like I did during IM training.
It wasn’t fun.
In my head I’m an endurance monster, I can take the running, throw it at me. Well after 5 weeks off, the reality was somewhat different. The 30 minute run to work nearly killed me. Fast forward two weeks of running and I was still grumpy, it was still not exactly flowing. I stood outside work having had a bit of a crappy day, doing the Garmin lock on wrist dance, when I remembered having an interval session by Chrissie Wellington on my phone. What the hell, let’s try this.
Boom.
I loved it. For the first time in MONTHS it felt awesome to run. I went fast, it hurt. By the time the 22minute session was over it was like a frigging massive cloud had been lifted. Not just lifted, but gone. Almost like it was never there. I don’t really know what it was, but I knew when I finished something had changed. When I started that run I was miserable, by the time I finished I was on cloud 9. From darkness to light in the space of 22 minutes. Running huh? Not bad.
I went to bed actually excited to get up and go running, and when I got out and it was pouring with rain? So what, I loved it.
On Saturday I did the parkrun at Heaton park. It was the first go I’ve had at going quick in one of these since last May when my best was 21:21. I was genuinely very very excited to try again. I ran my little legs off, the course is pretty undulating, it breaks up your rhythm, there is an especially long up hill at 4km that is not fun when you are trying to go quickly. I didn’t look at my watch the whole way round, I don’t know why and I wish I had because as I finished my time was… 20:10….
10 seconds.
I’ve hardly done any work on going fast, and I’m 10 seconds away from my first goal for the year. Rewind through the ramblings above and my first point is that your goals have to stretch you, so is it time to revise down my 5km time?
Yeah absolutely. Sub 19, I’m coming for you!
Oh and for what it’s worth, I’ve long said I’ve never felt like a runner. Well sod that. I bloody love running.
And so it begins (again)
For the past few weeks I’ve been going through some pretty big post ironman blues. I couldn’t be arsed training but at the same time I’ve been beating myself up for not training. Not enough beating up to actually get me doing anything, which just made it worse.
All of a sudden last Sunday I stumbled across what I needed to do; make a plan, get organised, remove my excuses and set some goals. None of this is revolutionary, in fact I blogged about it last week!
So on Sunday night I resolved to get organised and run to work on Tuesday and Friday. The run-commute takes a bit of planning but it really acts as a motivation to actually do it. I only ran 40 minutes or so and boy was it tough. The problem with doing the Ironman is that now when I have a bad run I think, bloody hell Neil you’ve done an ironman, this should be easy. I know it’s obvious that having 5 or 6 weeks off serious running it would be tough getting back into it. I know that, but still it’s hard to stop thinking you should be a lot faster/smoother/better than I am right now.
I’ve set some goals too. I want to get fast. Over the next year I want to:
Sub 20 for a 5km
Sub 40 for a 10km
Sub 1:30 for a half marathon
Sub 3:30 for a marathon
The first one I don’t think I’m that far from doing now, the others I’m miles off. It’s going to be a stretch getting there.
I was so pleased with stating running again I decided to run up to heaton park for the park run on Saturday. It’s only about 6 miles but it felt great to actually feel motivated enough to get up and go. I’ve also made a plan to get stronger and more flexible so I went to my first ever yoga class with Pilla on Wednesday which I loved. I’ve also been doing a couple of circuit routines as part of project Pilla, and that is seriously tough. It’s 10 different high intensity exercises each lasting a minute, which you have 15 seconds between. After doing all 10 you have a 2 minute break before repeating the whole thing two more times. I love this sort of stuff – bit like running you need very little kit, and it’s great value time wise. We did one tonight and I was on the floor by the end!
The next problem with ironman training is that despite the fact that I’ve done two circuits, 4 runs, yoga, a stretching dvd and cycled to the allotment I still feel like I’m not doing enough! I feel like I’m not training hard because I’m not falling asleep every time I sit down. I don’t know why I’m beating myself up about that because it’s unsustainable for me to be like that, but that’s just the way I am now.
Things I Learnt
Over the last 8 months I like to think I learnt a little bit about how to train for an Ironman. I’m writing this down for my benefit because very soon I’m going to stop believing I actually did this. A lot probably works for non-Ironman stuff too, so it’s as much to give me a prod for doing other things too. Lot’s of this I learned myself through Don Fink’s brilliant, Be Iron Fit book.
write down your goals.
It’s silly, it’s crazy but a pen and paper might absolutely be the key to this. If you have a goal in your head you have an excuse not to complete it. Writing it down makes it real. This is often really difficult to do, fear of failure, fear of what people will say, there are lots of reasons not to do it. However, as long as you keep it in your head you don’t have to think about it all the time. You might day dream about it sometimes but you don’t see it all the time. In my (limited) experience people were universally positive when they saw the goals. It engages other people in your targets, they ask about it. You sort of feel like you don’t want to let them down.
make your goals visible.
Absolutely tied to the goal above. You can’t write it down and hide it away. Write it out, print it out and pin it somewhere you see every day. The fridge, your desk at work (my favorite place, right next to my monitor at work, you can’t get away from it). Put it somewhere where you’ll gaze at it and be forced to think ‘what have I done to hit that today?’ It’s a great reminder of why you are doing it.
make your goals specific.
Saying ‘I want to do an Ironman’ isn’t enough. It’s a big goal sure, but finishing isn’t the only objective. Doing it the best you can is. Write down some stretching goals at the start. Think that’s too much? Unless you have those tough specific time based targets you may well find you skipping sessions, ‘it doesn’t matter if i miss this, I just need to get round’. It gives you a little excuse not to push yourself as hard as you can. Even if the cut off time is you ultimate goal, set yourself targets for each event. Give yourself that extra reason to get down to the pool tonight even though you’re tired, you want to hit that 1:29:59 target you set.
plan.
You absolutely need to plan. You are going to be doing an absolute crap load of training. It’s pretty overwhelming to start with. Planning is essential on fitting your new mad regime in with your regular life. Previously I’d fit my training around my regular life, this time I fitted my regular life around the training. The plan is essential in this, it lets you spot clashes, it lets you sort them out.
break your plan into achievable segments.
My spreadsheet plan was 330 rows long. Seeing a plan that details exactly how you are going to spend the next 7 months is a little overwhelming. The answer? Chunk it up into 3 or 4 week segments. Print that out (see next step). Four weeks is not scarey at all and every four weeks you get to feel like you are making a lot of progress by printing out a new copy.
keep that plan close by.
You need to know what your doing, your friends, family and partner needs to know too. Training is a bit of a ball-ache for everyone else around you so don’t let the element of surprise piss them off too (oh did I not tell you it was a 4hr bike ride today?). They are supporting you, make it easy for them! I kept mine in googledocs to kept track of it everywhere. Invited to a birthday party? Check that plan before you say yes… I also printed it off and kept a copy at work and at home.
check things off.
Get a highlighter, when you do a session, mark it off. If you use it, flag it as done on your spreadsheet. Checking that horrible brick session off is a great feeling!
the first step is the hardest.
Getting out of the door or on the bike at first is by far the hardest thing you will do in the training session. Once you are going you might as well carry on, but wow it can be tough to actually start. I broke this down eventually to a theory that once I put my kit on (and then eventually just my shoes) I would go do the session. It becomes much easier when the only battle you are facing is if you can put your running shoes on. Once they are on the session is basically done!
do the hard things early.
Be a morning person and plan your sessions in before the day happens. Leaving it to later in the day makes it be in your head all day. Things happen, life happens, stuff will pop up to make you miss your sessions. If you do it first thing, that just doesn’t happen. So set that alarm early and get out of bed. You will feel great (and very smug) when you get to eat two lunches safely in the knowledge you’ve already kicked ass in the training sessions that morning.
be organised
Similar to the planing one, but this is be organised about your training kit. Don’t miss sessions because you have stuff in the wash, dont miss sessions because your shoes are still wet. If you are doing your sessions first thing in the morning, get your kit ready the night before. If you are running into work, take your work clothes the day before and leave them so you don’t need a bag. Your plan might be pretty similar week after the week, so you will know what you have to do on each day. For me, that meant packing on Sunday night to run into work on Tuesday, and the same on Wednesday for a Friday run. If you have to get into work to get into your work stuff, you might as well run there.
give yourself many reasons to do it/reduce the number of excuses
A lot of these things come down to this. Give yourself as many reasons as you can to complete the session. Maybe it checking off your run, maybe its tracking your progress in graphs, maybe it’s because you want to eat two lunches. The more reasons you have to do it the easier it becomes. Try and do the opposite with excuses, forget the weather, make sure your kit is ready, give yourself as few chances as possible to skip your sessions.
be efficient.
Is it quicker to go to the pool first? Or run home from work? Should you eat breakfast at work? I got a little studious about this, I would set off at the same time from home and figure out how long it took me to do each session. Using this I quickly figured out running into work was a massive time saver, and it wasn’t worth the time saved not putting on socks before going swimming. I made it a challenge fitting in all the sessions I had to do.
record your progress and share your progress.
Get a blog and tell everyone what you are doing. It’s not showing off, it lets you see exactly how far you’ve come. Even now I still read my first entries (I only got my first ever road bike 2 weeks before starting training. Madness!) it’s a truly excellent way of tracking what you are doing. In those really tough weeks it’s really good to take stock and read back on what you used to be like.
anyone can do an ironman.
I strongly believe that given the motivation, determination and consistent training pretty much anyone can train for an ironman. The intensity of the training is fairly low but the time demands are pretty high. You can do this if you stick to it. It might be the best decision you ever make.