Ironman UK training restarts

Ironman UK Training week 26.

Four weeks today I will be attempting to complete my first Ironman distance triathlon. Few ups and downs along the way, biggest challenge so far has still been learning to swim front crawl.

Most recent issues as those who have followed this journey will know, has been my calf & ankle tendonites issues that have plagued me & severely hindered training since just before the London Marathon. I didn't do a blog update last week as i had taken a couple of weeks off to try cure the tendonites.

Looks like that has succeeded as i have been able to get back into the bike riding and swimming this week without any issues or pain. Pity it's only 4 weeks to go but hey ho. Plan is still now a just finish as the majority of the marathon is no doubt going to be a walk.

My Triathlon club TriAnglia has had a great couple of weeks with some amazing achievements that have helped motivate me again. Last weekend following fellow club members & their achievements gave the same feeling i had on that super Saturday during the Olympics.

Phillipa Rudd completing her first Ironman event in Austria was one, a whole bunch of successes at the superhero event & the creme de la creme, Will Halls epic adventure with the Endruoman Arch to Arc challenge.

Following Will from the Thursday afternoon through till Saturday afternoon on a live tracker took over most of those days. Including waking up at 3am and checking where he was on the run & staying up till gone midnight (late for me) to follow his swim start.

Will completed the 87 mile run in under 17 hours, way ahead of the World Record time. Following a days rest he took to the English channel at midnight. Unfortunately due to the rubbish temperatures we have had to date the water was a miserable 12.5 degrees.

Will still battled with this temperature & crazy tides for over 13 hours before having to be pulled out 2 miles from France due to breathing difficulties. He had actually swam around 39 miles! So, i wont be moaning about a sore ankle during my mere Ironman event.

Training

Calorie burn January = 29,160
Calorie burn February = 34,932
Calorie burn for March = 47,799
Calorie burn for April = 28,453
Calorie burn for May = 23,131
Calorie burn for June = 24,992
Calorie burn for July = 9188

Training time - 8 hours 54 minutes. Still a long way off what i should have been doing at this stage
but all things considered, I'm happy with this weeks progress.


Tuesday

Bike - 1 hour 7 minutes

Wednesday

Bike - 45 minutes

Open water swim - 1 hour 7 minutes - Furthest open water swim i have done this year. 2400 metres. Was really pleased that i no longer experienced the ankle pain that had ended my last swim at just 800metres. Will be looking to swim the full Ironman distance next week

Thursday

Bike - 1 hour 27 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/319245015

Saturday

Bike - 5 hours 25 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/320411931

Also put in my longest bike ride of the year as well this week. Felt great to do it with no pain although after 70 miles i was feeling pretty shady. Probably due to the heat. I've got one more long ride to do before Ironman so hoping to get my nutrition bang on with that ride

Sunday

Was supposed to do the Norwich 6 bridge river swim today but it got cancelled at the last minute due to reasons unbeknown. So, i headed down to the Norwich Triathlon to put the new found spare time to good use helping with the marshaling.

So, no running again this week, want to be really sure my ankle is better before doing this. I may do a little jog next week just to test the water.


Gas Hill Gasp came round again in Norwich on Friday. Had a great night down there watching some gutsy performances up the mentalist hill.

Ben from Tri harder

 

Roger & Ben battling it out.

Pete Hargreaves

Pete Hargreaves

Pete is the guy who posted a picture of his bike on facebook in 2011, that gave me the idea to buy a bike to get fit, which has then led to this Ironman ambition.

That's about it then. No news on my Aviva redundancy date yet, bit of a pain due to my plans to go self employed with a franchised business in catering. Wanted to launch it in October but looks like i may miss this window. Really excited about having my own business and being my own boss, although quite nervous about. Will have to start a blog about that journey.

Cheers
Andy

Follow me on Twitter @clearseaz

Donate to The Royal Anglian Benevolent fund

http://www.justgiving.com/Andy-Baxter1

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotter

http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog

http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/

Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP

The Norwich Junior Triathlon 2013

Ironman UK training week 24

Due to my worst week of training since I began the 30 week Ironman training plan, there isn't really much to write about this week regarding me.

In fact I won't even list the training days as it only involved cycling to work for the week & doing a 28 minute open water swim.

I had intended doing a 2400m open water swim on Wednesday, but after a couple of hundred metres my ankle was so painful & I struggled to get round one 800m loop let alone three.  Off the back of that & the slow progress of my injury improving I've decided to bin any training till my tendonites has fully cleared up. Still 6 weeks till the Ironman event.

Calorie burn January = 29,160
Calorie burn February = 34,932
Calorie burn for March = 47,799
Calorie burn for April = 28,453
Calorie burn for May = 23,131
Calorie burn for June = 23,339

Training time - 2 hrs 4 minutes

Open water swim 28 minutes
Bike 1 hr 37 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/309519287


Best thing that has happened in Baxter triathlon world this week was my daughter completing her first triathlon at the Norwich Junior Tri.

Weather wasn't great for her. Rain had made the ground really soft which would prove difficult for the bike section as half of this was on grass, plus we had strong winds.

Kids had to set up there own stuff in transition, no adult help was allowed for any part of the race.
We were surprised at some of the kids kit, half of them had better bikes than me, let alone Arleyas £30 ebay special.

Set up

The seriousness of some of the parents was also a surprise. One mother discussing with her son what tyre combination to put on his bike was quite funny. Shocked at the way some parents were yelling at their children to go harder etc, it was relentless in a couple of cases & all quite embarrassing. We all want our kids to do well & theres nothing wrong with shouting encouragement, but seriously, some need to have a word with themselves.

Swim waves began at 4 minute intervals, Arleya kicked off at 12.20pm. I've always considered Arleya to be a good swimmer, she has always done well in school events etc. This was a different league though. Her group set off & within a couple of lengths Arleya was already being lapped.

She had a quick T1 even with slipping on some shorts over her swim costume. She even went with no socks, something i haven't done yet.

T1

Bike was 6 x 1km laps. Half of each lap was on tarmac, other half was on grass. Arleya couldn't
change gear so was stuck in the same one for the whole ride.

Coming into T2

T2

 Run course was 4 x 600m loops on grass

First lap

Finish in sight



First Triathlon medal

Overall Arleya really enjoyed the event and now wants to get some proper triathlon training so
she can keep improving. Guess that's the end of me using her volunteer vouchers she gets after helping out with Trianglia events.
We'll also look for a more suitable race bike once i get my redundancy money.

Attending this event has also sparked a new business idea that i will be looking into, so I may well be  heading down the self employed route once my Aviva job comes to an end.

That's it for this week. I may not do an update next week as I'm unlikely to do any training again.

cheers

Andy

Follow me on Twitter @clearseaz

Donate to The Royal Anglian Benevolent fund

http://www.justgiving.com/Andy-Baxter1

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotter

http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog

http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/

Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP

Pearl Izumi Tour Series 2013

Ironman UK training Week 23

Couldn't think of a great deal of positiveness this week & struggled for a post title.
Decided to go with the recent Tour series as this was probably the highlight of the week due to it coming to one of our market towns for the first time. Aylsham in Norfolk. http://www.tourseries.co.uk/home.php

The reality of the my redundancy came with the announcement on Thursday that my department in Norwich, that i had been a part of for the past 12 years, would cease to exist between now & Q1 2014. Sad times, the end of a special & important era in my life. Trying to stay focussed on training whilst wondering what the future has in stall for my family & me is certainly trying. But life goes on as they say.

Training

Calorie burn January = 29,160
Calorie burn February = 34,932
Calorie burn for March = 47,799
Calorie burn for April = 28,453
Calorie burn for May = 23,131
Calorie burn for June = 22,221

Training time - 8 hours 49 minutes

 

 

Monday

 

Bike 25 minutes

 

Tuesday

 

Bike 42 minutes

 

Wednesday

 

Run 34 minutes.

 

Longest run i had done since the marathon. Felt a bit awkward but i was pleased

to think i was now able to begin run training again.

 

Bike 31 minutes

 

Saturday

 

Open water Swim - 47 minutes

 

Swam 1600 metres, was a bit choppy due to windy conditions. Good for training though.

 

Run - 55 minutes.

 

This was a club run, 10k at 10am, just after our open water swim. It was on the new 10k route

that will be used in the upcoming Norwich Triathlon.

Obviously i was a bit cautious of this. It would be my longest non stop run since my calf & tendonites

issues after the London Marathon.

Just before we started the heavens opened & we were bombarded with big lumps of hail.

Cover was sought in the flint barn. Five minutes later the sun was shining & it was time to go??

English summers.

 

Was a bit weird running down wintry looking tracks in the middle of summer. The run went better

than expected & i even managed a PB for my 10k distance. Calf's were a bit stiff & my right ankle had

started hurting again. Felt like the tendonites I'd had in the left ankle.

 

 

 

I had to go pick up a greenhouse from Diss this same afternoon which included dismantling it. This

also turned into a nightmare due to ceased up bolts, a good drenching &  my ankle swelling up like

a balloon & giving me a great deal of pain.

 

Sunday

 

Bike 4 hours 55 minutes.

 

Although i was struggling to walk I'm pleased that my cycling is still ok.

Managed a 72 mile ride. Was nice weather, a bit windy at times. I did end up on a 3 mile stretch

of off road cycling round Stanton training area which I'm sure hasn't done my bike a great deal of good.

 

Although i took the same amount of gels & food with me, stuck to one a nhour I had a turn around the

60 mile mark. Felt really faint & got the sweats big time. Luckily i still had a pack of breakfast biscuits

and a couple of ISO gels which i quickly consumed. Two miles later i was fine. Not sure what happened

but i guess i will need to be eating something every 45 minutes now.

 

 

 

I also binned the tri bars due to the issues i had had with my lower back at The Grafman. Seemed to

do the trick as i had no lower back issues at all on this ride. Tri bars are toast!

 

 

Change of plan

 

My training plan has now dramatically changed. I would pull out fof IMUK or this year if it wasn't

for the fact I'd lose around £700 for the event & the accommodation I've paid for.

Running is totally out of my training for the foreseeable future. Plan for the Ironman now is just finish.

Even this is likely to be a challenge based on my difficulty at even walking today. It will now be a case

of swimming & cycling as hard as i can & walking most of the marathon.

Who knows though, maybe if i give my leg enough recovery time I will be able to run a good portion

of it. Time will tell.

 

Photos from The Grafman

 

 

 

yeah yeah, pink hat

Photos from Tour Series

 

 

 Other

 

Fatman to Ironman Tour de France fantasy cycling league set up for anyone wanting to join. Heres the link & league details

http://www.velogames.com/tour-de-france/2013/index.php 

 

League Name: Fatman to Ironman

League Code: 15203047

 

Cheers

Andy

Follow me on Twitter @clearseaz

Donate to The Royal Anglian Benevolent fund

http://www.justgiving.com/Andy-Baxter1

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotter

http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog

http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/

Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP