Learn to love your magtrainer

This evening I did a strength session on the magtrainer. It was 90mins long and involved a lot of sprinting in short bursts with the tension and gears cranked to the max. It started to hurt by the end and it seemed to go on forever.

Now I know a lot of you will have done magtrainer sessions and a lot of you probably hate the magtrainer. Like me until recently you probably only used the magtrainer as a last resort, when the weather just wasn't playing ball.

I am learning to love my magtrainer.

My coach uses the magtrainer as a tool for taking environmental factors out of the equation, so that the only excuse I have for going slower is that I'm out of gas. I can't blame the head wind or the road surface or the hills for slowing me down. My pedals stopped turning because my legs stopping pushing.

The magtrainer needs to be elevated from the 'last resort' category, to the 'essential training' tool category. True, you don't learn the essential bike skills that you get from hitting the road and it lacks the satisfaction of actually going somewhere that you get on the road.

However, despite the fact that it allows you to train when the weather outside is not suitable, on the magtrainer you can focus on the task at hand and forget about avoiding traffic and glass and you can quit trying to look like your feeling fine. On the trainer you can groan and grunt and sweat on the floor and look like death warmed up, and it's fine. More importantly you can focus on one particular task, such as maintaining the exact cadence, or that perfect pedal technique. The magtrainer is the perfect tool to dial in your technique, or to smash yourself and not have to worry about getting home, or to build mental toughness. I think one of the keys to magtrainer survival is not to just get on and spin for long sessions every time, because that will become old real fast. You have to mix it up, one day do sprints, the next vary the sprints, another day do cadence work, the next some one leg work. Variety is the key to remaining sane on the magtrainer.

I foresee many happy hours on the magtrainer in my future, so I'm going to maintain this pro-magtrainer attitude as long as I can, and if I sound fanatical it may be because I'm losing the plot already...

Which reminds me of a joke I read somewhere a long time ago.

One Ironman says to the other Ironman “You will never believe it, but my wife left me this weekend”. “Thats sucks, what happened?” says the other Ironman. “She couldn't stand my peeing on the bike during my long rides” said the first Ironman (I bet you can see where this is going, but I'll carry on for the slow ones) “Really? Its all part of the sport and everyone has done it at some point” says the second Ironman. The recently separated Ironman replies ”Yeah, I guess it was more because it I was on the magtrainer in front of the TV in the lounge.”

Insomnia and early squad sessions

Man I'm tired. For some reason unknown to me I woke up this morning at 3:45am and couldn't get back to sleep. I had to be up by 4:45am to go to swim squad, so I lay there for an hour thinking how much it sucked that I had to get up so early. Squad training was tough, we've done a fair bit of speed work lately and today the coach wanted to see how/if our endurance had held up through it. We did sets of 25m sprints followed by 10 x 100m on the 1:30. This was no problem, but it didn't end there, we then did the same set twice more, but with the 100m on the 1:25 instead. It hurt and I blew up at some point and lost count and when you lose count in a big set like that it just adds to the misery. Because not only are you hurting like hell, you have no idea when it is going to end. You just look at the people around you silently pleading that they don't push off for the next repeat. It is a great feeling when it done though.

Back on track to Ironman and cycling in the rain, Smart, Safe and Stupid

Hey Hey! Well, I'm feeling back on top of things and will resume normal transmission of my road to Ironman training blog. I had a chat with my coach about how things were going and my concerns about my injury, he was positive about things, which helped. Often if you use someone else as a sounding board for your problems and take a step back it all comes into perspective and you can get back on track. As you are probably aware, training for Ironman or any athletic event for that matter can be fraught with high and lows. The nature of Ironman training and the time, energy and financial commitments it requires, make it easy to get into a slump if things don't go your way. Physical and mental fatigue can lower your coping resources. In this situation the supportive people around you are extremely important assets for getting you back up and charging on. I'm feeling energized and ready to go a few more rounds.

Yesterday was the first day in two weeks that I did pretty much what was on my training program. The morning held a 1:25:00 run with some 5min and 2min intervals. I had little to no pain in my quad which was promising. I iced it and relaxed with my feet up until midday when I had what was planned to be 2 sets of run throughs with 50mins of intervals in between. I ditched the run throughs on my coaches instructions to avoid any over-running and did the intervals only. Again there was no pain, just some fatigue which is the point isn't it? I finished off the second run with a hot/cold treatment in the shower, which involves a couple of repetitions of about 2min hot water and cold water. The idea being that it increases the circulation, flushing the waste products from your legs. It's exhilarating, and it helps to keep certain parts covered during the cold intervals....

This morning I went for a 3hour ride in the pouring rain. It was miserable, but I try to tell myself at these times that I'm training up my “mental toughness”, if its pouring with rain on race day, sleeping in is not an option. So if its pouring with rain, training is still on. My quad was playing up a little whenever we stopped at lights, it felt very tight, probably due to the cold temp and/or yesterdays running. I find its not too bad riding in the rain as long as you have the right equipment. I decided today I need some waterproof booties, as the only part of me that felt annoyingly uncomfortable was my squelchy feet. Basically, cycling in the rain is about trying to keep your core warm, this means a good water/windproof jacket. Though in a down pour you wont stay completely dry, if you can break the wind you should stay warm. After that, keeping hands, feet and head warm make the ride more bearable. Cycling in the rain requires that you ride smart, safe and stupid. Smart, in that you should be prepared with the right gear and ride a suitable route that is safe. Take care to ride in a safe fashion as road surfaces can be particularly slippery if the road is greasy. The stupid part is the being out riding when its raining in the first place, this is what people in cars or still in bed will think of you. Just remember if your in bed, the athlete you really want to beat next time will be out training, and about 5mins after you get home and you are standing in the shower it will all be a distant memory.

Usual transmission will continue shortly, non-Ironman related issues

Quick note to say I am still alive and posting guys.

Have some non-Ironman related stress going on at the moment and will try to post if, and when have the time/energy. A combo of stress and the injury getting me down. Lucky I'm a qualified Clinical Psychologist right... Training update and Ironman related posting coming soon.

Technical difficulties and recovery runnning

You'll have to believe me when I tell you I typed a good length post last night. Sadly it was lost to technical difficulties, and I didn't have it in me to retype it. Its kinda like telling a story to someone that was funny the first time, but you had to be there. So the skinny version goes something like... Physio asks how I go with pain, I say “great, give it to me”,he wails on my butt cheeks with his elbow and I squeal like a pig/baby/girl/man?....Physio tells me to go for a jog for 30min at 50%, thankfully very little pain in the “Old Rec Fem” and ice sorts it out. The End.

Today's program called for sleeping in this morning. Well... I definitely gave that my full effort. Tonight, however, I had 1:45:0 of intervals to do, but on the Physio's orders I went with another 30min cruise and felt good. So things are looking good at the moment (knocking on my head just in case) the road to Ironman is back on track, yehar!

Resting up the old 'Rec Fem'

So I've been taking the physio's advise and have been resting and icing me Rec Fem (thats physio lingo). I swam yesterday morning, again doing the whole session pull. It was a nice relaxed session and I felt strong. Luckily I was not scheduled to do any running till next week and I have an easy 3 hours on the bike tomorrow. My quad is feeling better by the day and I am confident that I will be back on the road next week. All plans for Ironman in December look to be on track for now. I did feel a small panic when I hurt my leg but realistically it's not going to be a biggie. It's all part of Ironman/triathlon training, if you listen to and take care of your body, it will do the same for you.

The Physio concurs with my diagnosis, but not my treatment

So I went to the Physio today...

He concurred with my expert diagnosis, I have strained/damaged my Rectus Femoris muscle. He recommended that I refrain from any exercise that causes pain (running, swimming and cycling...triathlon) for a week. He said this with that “I'm saying a week and I know you are going to give it like half that time, but what can i do?” look. I'm to continue icing it for a few days. He said that early on heat, exercise and rubbing are my quads enemy. Which means the massage I gave it last night and the swimming this morning followed by a hot shower probably weren't as therapeutic as I had imagined. I guess thats why he gets the big bucks. In a few days time, heat, exercise and rubbing will start to become my quads friend again. He recommended a light build back to the pre-injury training load, while staying below pain causing intensity, some therapeutic massage in a weeks time and hot-cold treatments. It is annoying taking time out from the Ironman training, but on a positive note I'm in a recovery week, so I am not missing too much. I will do my best to follow my orders and see how it progresses. Fingers crossed.

Ouch that hurts! Leg injury runnning and the 10% rule

This week is recovery week, and the goal is to be rested and recuperated for the next few weeks Ironman training, but I have managed to injure my leg.... damn!

I'm hoping its minor, I hurt it last week during the running technique group training. It has been giving me problems since, but it seemed to be on the mend.

I cruised through the warmup this morning and got through one of the 1min build to firm pace intervals when bang, during the second interval as I went up a rise onto a bridge, I felt a sharpish pain and my leg tried to dump me on the pavement. Needless to say, that was the end of intervals and I finished off the session with some easy jogging. It appears that my new running technique combined with the increased running and cycling volume is putting some strain on my legs.

After googling it, as i do with anything and everything, I am of the opinion that it is my rectus femoris muscle that is giving me the problems. However, I think I will leave the final call up to the people who get paid to diagnose these things because they unlike me have studied muscles and such at university. I will talk to a physio tomorrow. Fingers crossed its not to much of a biggie.

I think an important point that this illustrates, is the risk of dramatic increases in training volume and intensity when training for Ironman, triathlon or any sport. I have read numerous articles discussing increases of no more than 10% per week. It makes good sense particularly to athletes early in their triathlon career. Any more than this can put stresses on your body that increase the risk of injury significantly. I think it is probably common for more experienced triathletes to make quite sharp increases in training volume after their off season rest period. If you are going to ignore the 10% rule, as I did, then it is important to listen to your body, use caution when you feel a twinge and stretch regularly. Start getting regular massage early, beginning as you mean to precede. Hopefully I won't lose too much training time because of this. It is a definite possibility to make more loss than gain if you increase your training to dramatically and end up badly injured and not training at all.

Here is a site with info about my suspected Rectus Femoris injury in case you are experiencing a similar problem. I'm not an advocate for self diagnosis, I'm just a know-it-all.

Here is a site that mentions the 10% rule with regards to marathon rather than Ironman training, though still relevant to triathletes.

Ishigaki Triathlon World Cup race live, sunday long ride and the benefits of group riding

I'm relaxing watching the ITU triathlon world cup race in Ishigaki, live. After the Arizona Ironman time zone dilemma last night, I was pleased to see that the world cup race was on at triathlon.org. The women's race just finished with the win going to Fernandez from Portugal, followed by Snowsill(Aus) and Tanner(NZ). All three are running machines, but Fernandez ran away from the other two like they were standing still about 3km from the end. Now for the mens' race.

I rode for just under 4hours this morning. 2hours of it was with a triathlon riding group that I often ride with on the weekends lately. I was feeling fatigued from yesterday. As long as I just kept turning it over I felt good, as soon as I hit a small rise or got up to crank it, there was no gas left, which was illustrated in the sprint we had over a small bridge, which I held my own on but hurt it like hell. Luckily it was right before the cafe we decided to stop at for a few minutes and some caffeine. I sure am going to enjoy next weeks recovery.

Riding with a group, triathlon/Ironman specific or not, is a great way to get those long miles under your belt. There are a number of benefits, you get to meet like minded people who are often keen to meet up at other times during the week to train. The more experienced riders are usually happy to give you some pointers if you ask politely (many even if you don't ask, heh). Often you can find new rides you haven't discovered on your solo riding expeditions, while still being able to get home afterwards. The time seems to pass much faster to as you chat with your cycling companions. The main benefit I experience is the motivation I soak up from other athletes. I like to talk about how their training is going and what their plans are for the coming season. The excitement for racing is contagious. If you can find a weekend cycling group that fits with your experience level I strongly recommend giving it a crack to see if its your cup of tea.

Doh! damn you time zone differences! Ironman Arizona

Due to time zone differences, Ironman Arizona coverage will be on around 11am tomorrow morning here in Australia. Guess where I will be...... at work! Noooooo. Hmmm.... wonder if the work computer will let me watch.... interesting. Anywho, I will definitely keep an eye on the updates. Its is great for your motivation to watch others charging along. Hope everyone gets to have a look. If any of you are from Arizona leave me a comment about how it was.

Ironman Arizona, Tempe, tomorrow! Watch it!

Ohh almost forgot!

Ironman Arizona, Tempe, is on tomorrow. I'm not sure of the time of the coverage, I'm just going to jump onto the Ironmanlive website after my morning ride and put my feet up while I watch. There is an article about the big names in it on the Triathletemag site, check it out.
Don't miss it guys and gals.

What is the correct ankle angle for cycling? How does this apply in Ironman?

I was sent a link to an interesting article about ankle angle during the pedal stroke on the bike. It came from a free online cycling newsletter called roadbikerider.com In my experience a lot of triathletes try to pedal with some sort of perceived correct ankle angle that they have seen on a professional cyclist or triathlete, or that they have been told about by their triathlon coach. This article argues against this and gives the example of three well known Tour de France winners, who all have very different ankle angles. The author discusses finding the angle that suits you.

The only flaw I see in the argument is that he has described a very small sample of cyclists, who may well be exceptions to the rule. Also, they are not triathletes or Ironpersons, and there may be benefits to be had in certain ankle angle when transitioning to the run in an Ironman. I would be really interested in any research that looks at the ankle angle of a large group of professional cyclists and/or triathletes, before throwing away the idea that there might be a (more) right way to pedal. If any of you have seen any other good articles on this subject please email me them or leave a link in a comment. Cheers.

Three run Saturday is over, off to bed before long ride Sunday

Oooweee! my legs are shattered. Three run Saturday is a long day.

With a combined total of three hours of running over the course of the day I'm feeling beat. It might not sound like much to you, but coming to the end of a tough three weeks, I'm hurting. Its great!

This morning was a 80min run, mainly intervals. I felt surprisingly good and in the middle was surprised to feel great even. The midday run was just over an hour with some more intervals and some 50m run throughs. They hurt like a sore thing. My quad is still giving me grief and the stretching out during the run throughs seems to bring it on. To finish the day off was a half hour run with a couple of intervals and some easy jogging.

This was another of those days that I was happy to see the end of but patted myself on the back for getting through.

The reasoning behind "three run Saturday" as I have named it, is that I can build up my running volume without going out for insane long runs. These three shorter runs will be combined later in the season to become one huge long beast of a run. Can't wait.... I'm off too bed, Starting my four hour long ride at 5:45am tomorrow.

Day off work after yesterdays Mag Trainer day of hell

Just got in from this mornings swim squad. I was feeling pretty flat when I got up at 4:40am but once I got in the pool I felt pretty strong and despite the aches in my legs, I had a solid session. I'm glad its the last day of the school holidays, because the pint sized pool demons that invaded our squad two weeks ago will go back to burning up the pool wherever they came from and let me rebuild my self esteem. I admire their swimming skills but being carved up by kids that look about 12-13 is killing my ego. Be gone little critters!

Yesterday morning was a strength session on the Mag Trainer which was reasonably painful, but was short and sweet. It was an hour including 10min warm up and down with a bunch of 20sec max efforts with the tension and gears cranked to the max, on a two minute cycle. Coach says that they will stretch out to five minute plus intervals as we get closer to Ironman, eek!

Last night I went along to the Mag Trainer group session. Usually its held in a gym in the city but we didn't have keys this time for some reason. when I arrived everyone was debating flagging the session, I said “Nah, we can do it outside over here.” So we did our session on the footpath outside the gym under the light. It was actually pretty sweet, I normally cook in the gym, outside last night was nice and cool. We did a 15min warmup then 4 x (3 x 5 min @ 90, 110, 120 rpm), it was a full on cadence session. The goal of the workout was to develop the ability to pedal efficiently at high cadences. The optimum cadence to cycle Ironman at is around 90-100 rpm, which is around the same cadence you should run at. The theory is that if you cycle at the same cadence you run at, you will adapt to running faster when transitioning from the cycle to the run.

I had a day off owing to me from Easter, so I thought that since I was struggling so much the last few days, that this would be a perfect opportunity to rest up and prepare for this weekends training. It feels good to do a training session then head home to relax and recover. I guess this is how a professional athlete feels, heh.

Recovery swim for my weary body

I was prescribed a sleep in this morning , I didn't have to get up till 7:15am, Yes!

My body was particularly weary from yesterdays run technique session, in which I developed some concerning quad pain and last nights long run interval set of hell.

I tried to stretch as much as possible today which seemed to help. I think I will look into a sports massage in the next week or so. I was having them regularly before relocating to Australia two month ago from New Zealand, and when funds permit I will continue that. There was an article on the Inside Triathlon website recently, that discussed the benefits of massage for triathletes.

Tonight I swam an easy 2km with some drills included, it was nice and relaxing and I feel like most of the aches have resolved themselves. Swimming is a great recovery activity, if you can slot in easy swim I think it is often better than straight rest. I recommend using an easy couple of kms swimming as an active recovery.

Run technique group am, long horrible run pm.

I struggled to get up this morning but felt positive after the warmup at this mornings run technique group. We did some run throughs, followed by a main set of three five minute aerobic efforts + one minute max effort. They were pretty tough, all the time focusing on the three important aspects of running form. Making contact with the ground beneath the hip, pushing out the back and high stride recovery. This is almost a polar opposite to how I used to run and it is tough trying to develop a new style. I get a fair share of shouts from the coach and seem to have a million aspects to try and think about while I'm sure my brain isn't getting enough oxygen to do the job. I have too admit I feel more like a runner the longer I work at this, rather than one step above a power walker my old style was. The downer about this mornings run training was that from the start I had some tightness in my right quad that progressively got worse as the session went on. By the end it was pretty sore and I was concerned, but was making some good progress with my technique and didn't want to quit (enter the dumb athlete who knows all about “listen to your body” but ignores it all).

During the day my quad was tender but not too bad. I started this evenings run with a very slow jog, the quad pain was there but didn't get worse, nor did it get any better. I decided to keep going till it got noticeably worse. It stayed pretty constant. Tonights run session was a warmup jog, followed by 70 minutes of intervals – 2min easy, 2min moderate, 2min firm and 1min walk x 10. The firm was quite painful, and the walk seemed to make things worse. To add to my misery, I forgot to apply the long run prerequisite, of bodyglide between the thighs and plasters on the nipples. I paid the price, chafe city! But it didn't end there, there seemed to be some sort of bug convention along the road so I ate and breathed bugs for most of the run (I actually washed 5 out of my hair in the shower afterwards).

Today was one of those days that you want to forget, but the positive side is that despite the struggles I got through everything that was planned and can tick that off. Its the tough days that you get through and tick off that make the race seem that much more doable. Its a psychological boost to pat yourself on the back at the end of a day like this. Sometimes you have to pat yourself on the the back, Ironman is a sport where if you don't its unlikely anyone else is going to.

Easter Monday: morning swim, evening magtrainer session

Started the morning off with an easy 2km swim at a pool that I haven't been to before. It's a 50m pool, which is a novelty for me and it was a great pool to swim in. Though there were a few people in the fast lane that overestimated their abilities. I gave a couple of them the sly elbow and kick when they wouldn't pull over a bit after I tapped their feet a few times. Had a lot of pain in my neck when trying to breath to the left (which I don't do often) due to a combo of yesterdays ride and sleeping on it funny, I guess. A massage and anti flame seem to have helped a bit.
This evening I did a strength session on the Mag trainer. A warmup followed by a bunch of 20sec bursts with the tension and the gears cranked to the hardest they would go. It hurt like a b***h (b***h isn't one of those words that converts into asterisks well is it). Then a 20min spin in the TT (time trial) position, that hurt more. It was like a deep dull pain that I can imagine would last for the whole Ironman ride if you went at the right tempo, ouch!
All in all a good days training.

Free online training diary

I have found a great online tool that I think will benefit my Ironman training and may help yours, an impressive online training diary at just the right price.... free!

I have been searching for an online training diary for some time; this was part of the reason Ironman Cafe was born. Well, I just stumbled across a cool little site that I had to share, Buckeye Outdoors Training Site allows you to log your workouts for free! You can include run/walk, bike, swim, strength sessions, stretching sessions, rest days, races, heartrates and weather conditions among other things. You can create and save different training routes, save equipment profiles (keeping track of how far your equipment has gone as well as how far you have). You can also create reports of different aspects of your training. My favorite feature, which I am sure all you other blogging triathletes/ironpersons will love is the ability to display your training totals in a side bar on your blog. As you can see to the right hand side below my archived posts. Go check it out, whether you blog or not it is a cool little tool. Keeping a diary of your training can be both a great learning tool and a strong source of motivation. You can look for patterns in your training as well as getting the great feeling of writing down or inputting the latest “thrash” session into your diary for all (or just yourself) to admire.

Easter Sunday morning long ride

This morning was the usual Sunday long ride. I think it is a common part of most triathletes training. This mornings was a 5:50am start to ride for 40 minutes to meet with a riding group of about ten. We did two hours with the group then headed home again. It was cold to start off with but warmed up later. I felt good the whole way, and was happy with a solid 3:40 ride and done with training for the day. Now I can indulge in a few Easter treats and have no guilty feelings. Ironman WA is still a long way off, but I am feeling motivated at the moment. Hopefully over the net few days I can develop a few ideas for pieces to write to get this site rolling. I have lots of fleeting ideas which I must start writing down.

A place to relax in the scramble that is life training for Ironman

Technorati Profile
Greetings to you weary triathletes. You have stumbled upon the first post of my quiet spot to sit and rest your weary body, take a break from triathlon training and to feed your need for knowledge to improve your “personal best” or to just go that little bit faster. I will use this space as an outlet for my own obsessive hunger for knowledge that I hope will make me a faster swimmer, cyclist and runner. I will discuss the articles that tickle my fancy or that sound good or in some cases too good to be true. I will endeavor to review any wizz-bang go fast gadgets that I come across and to hopefully get interviews with other like minded (mad) Ironpersons. Also for the whats in it for me side of this, I will use this as an online training diary to chronicle my frantic progression towards Ironman glory. Hope to see you whenever you can spare a minute or two from your Ironman training. Think of it as training your mind while your body recovers.