Analysis of a Training Programme

This is me at the finish of Ironman 70.3 World Championships at Clearwater, Florida 

Name: Daphne Belt

Female

AG 75-79  

Well, quite a lot of the weekend went in putting in some useful training time for my big event for this year which is Ironman 70.3 in Gdynia, Poland. This is a distance that I have not taken on for, shall we say a number of years. I don’t want to scare myself by looking up exactly the figure that is the real number. Add to that the horrid truth that I have no where near done an acceptable amount of training for it either.  

My husband/coach/best friend has put in the hours. He has been out on the road on his bike at 5am to catch the first light and get a hard but short bike ride in before coming back home to go out again with me for a another bike ride. Then for us to go swimming first and then a bike ride, or to go swimming and then a run. He has just been reminding me regularly if I show any sign of fretting, that it was my idea to enter a half and that is true, I did fancy taking a shot at that distance again. It was always my favourite kind of race and I suppose it’s me asking a question really; can I still get through it? We will see won’t we? 

For more years than is sensible we have both been convinced that what ever distance you can add together in a week, you can still get through that distance when it is needed all in one go. So then, I have been swimming at least 1900 metres in all four of my weekly swim sessions so that is done and dusted. The race venue of Gdynia is on the Baltic Sea that if you look at a big map, or Google maps backed off so that you can run your finger between two points you will see that it is about level with Yorkshire. Shouldn’t be too hot then which would suit me, I am not good in very hot places. I am not at all worried by a sea swim, I love the sea. 

I have not been biking 56 miles. I have not biked anything like 56 miles in one go but have easily put that in during the space of a week. In fact I don’t think I have done any longer distance than 30 miles or so. I have not ridden much in the way of hills but I am sure I can knock out that bike ride when push comes to shove and so is Steve. 

On to the half marathon run then, let’s look at that. My regular weekend run is 10 km, it is a hard10 km, quite a lot of it is off road and quite hilly. I have done a couple of other shorter runs per week that takes the total to more or less the 13 miles+ I will face in the event in Poland. 

I have had a tweeky knee. It started after, not during, the Olympic distance event at Windsor in mid June. I did a good time there, for me, better than several of the previous years for that event. What is happening is that the right knee is clicking. The day after the Windsor race is was swollen slightly but that has now gone down almost completely. I did back off the running for a week or so and it has not been so troublesome, it does still click but only with a sideways movement. It has not troubled me on the bike for instance, as when locked into cleats there is no sideways movement.  

Steve has been testing a new theory into my run training for a while now. On my longest run…. Only 10km…. he has set his watch for 30 seconds run and 30 seconds walk over the gradual uphill route that amounts to well over half the run and once having hit the high point of the South Downs, where there is a trig point, its all downhill back to the car. It keeps the heart rate down and does not play the knee up. I have always loved running downhill, whereas Steve finds that harder. The only problem with that system, that both knew about, was that I am a bit of a deaf old bat and I have never heard his watch at all! He had started and stopped me verbally. 

A few weeks ago, he tried having me count how many strides of my right foot fitted in with his watch beeps and then tested me counting myself in and out. That worked well on the run sections but not so well on the walk bits because one of us starts looking at birds and trees and flowers. So this last weekend he tried desperation measures and took the strap off the watch and pinned it on to a cap just behind my best ear. His cunning plan worked brilliantly and not only that but it ended up being my fastest time over that run in three years. Result. I will sew the watch on the hat for my 70.3 and hope for the best. 

The race is now much closer that the horizon and far too late to start worrying, so I will look forward to the trip, calling it a holiday which is what it is after all. We will be driving, or at least Steve will be driving. Two audio books should get us there and back. Stop over en route; Dresden.