This is brilliant...

"A conversation between someone training for an Ironman, and someone not training for an Ironman."

So true... Thanks to Elaine for this one!

I must be doing something right...

...I just beat my personal best in the Half Marathon by over three minutes!! That's the biggest single improvement I have ever made in that distance. I still can't believe it, the time 1:23:34 doesn't sound like it belongs to me yet, it's too new and shiny.

I ran according to Jonathan's formula for my heart rate but, I suppose because it was quite cold, it was very difficult for me to get my heart rate that high. It even started to drop in the second half of the race in spite of me having to make a more concerted effort to keep the speed up. It really feels as though my cardiovascular system is no longer the limiting factor, nor my technique, but instead that my legs start to get a bit heavy. I think I was probably the only person taking carbohydrate gels during the race - I did it partly to practice for the Ironman but also because I am convinced that they help, especially if the sugar levels of my legs are the bottleneck. I use High5 Isogels which are brilliant because you can take them without any additional water at the cost of being only slightly bulkier. At one point during the race, one of my little bottles in my Fuel Belt fell out and I turned back for it but then decided to leave it behind; someone in the crowd very kindly picked it up and looked out for me several kilometers later, handing it back to me as I made my final dash for the line. If you are reading this then "thank you very much". It will now be my lucky bottle.

I haven't noticed that I am improving so drastically in training but I suppose I have been complaining that it is getting harder and harder to hit the high heart rates. It always amazes me how different competitions are from training and how it is possible to run so much faster for what seems to be so much less effort. Is it the drafting effect of all the other runners, the freshness from having tapered off in training or simply the adrenaline? Its certainly true that for the last 200m I did one of my trademark war cries and the adrenaline injection was incredible, I surged forward as if someone had just pressed the turbo button.

During the race I told myself several things:
- Engage the hips and run tall. As you get tired it is easy to relax the hips and collapse into the classic "k-bend" shape whereby you lose all the spring from the ground.
- Punch it forward. This was a new image that came to me today while I was running. If your hips are engaged then you can use the kinetic chain from your feet to your hands, just as you would if you were punching someone. If you get it right, for the same leg turnover (cadence), you spend ever so slightly less time in contact with the ground and ever so slightly more time flying. You have to be careful not to overstride or for the running gait to become disjointed.
- Focus. Its very easy to find yourself thinking about the shopping and it does make the kilometers fly by, but I find that I tend to slow down without realising. I had to keep reminding myself to keep my mind on the job and to push every so often to keep my heart rate up.
- Central Governer. This is Tim Noakes' theory that our brain is responsible for fatigue by subconsciously making us feel more tired, our legs more heavy and providing us with tempting reasons to stop running altogether. Just because it is in your head doesn't mean it is easier to override: it has a very serious and critical function, to stop us literally killing ourselves by overexertion, Still, it is possible to argue with the Central Governor and, in this case, I reminded it that my heart rate was consistently lower than it had been last time I had run a Half Marathon and so there was nothing to worry about.

As usual, I noticed some people running with incredibly heavy strides - I shudder to think what they are doing to their knees. Those who run with music are often the worst offenders because they can't hear how heavily they are landing. Others are under the false impression that the longer their stride, the better.  I have to hold back from telling them something because I'm sure they wouldn't take it well. I've never been too receptive to people who have "found Jesus" who are keen to save me from eternal damnation for purely altruistic reasons (as far as they are aware). It is all to easy to get "religious" about minimal shoes and the "conspiracy" of the running shoe companies.

Personal note to self: next time bring some toilet paper - it doesn't seem to be included in the inscription fee. Thanks to an anonymous runner for "lending" me some.

POSTDATA:  I couldn't help noticing that there was only one pacemaker for the apparently random time of 1 hour and 23 minutes. I didn't pay him much attention as, at the start, I had no realistic intention of trying to run that fast. I've been wondering since then what was so special about the magic 1:23 which I got so close to beating. Now I know. It is the cut off Half Marathon time for automatically qualifying for the New York Marathon for the under 39s... Aaargh, had I known that maybe I could have squeezed that little bit extra... who knows. Next year I will definitely get in: not only will I be 39 so the qualifying time will jump to 1:30(!), but it would also be the 4th year in a row that I have been rejected by the lottery - here the rule is, 3 strikes and you are in. There is still a remote possibility I get selected to run this year - if not I'll just have to content myself with running the San Sebastian Marathon again.

Next stop: Getafe Half Marathon

On Sunday I'm running in the Getafe Half Marathon. The race numbers sell out very quickly because - in spite of being at 600m above sea level - it is the fastest Half Marathon in Madrid as it is a very flat course. I'm a bit nervous about it because this is the first time in months I will be trying to beat a fairly tough Personal Best (1:26:44 in the Madrid Half Marathon last year). To beat 4 hours in the Marathon was just a question of it coming together on the day (or, in other words, nothing screwing up). The San Silvestre race was in "plan coña" as my coach observed when he saw the results. Other than the Madrid Half Marathon and a 10K race I did back in February last year, all the other races I did were either duathlons or triathlons and they are all so dependent on the course and the weather that there is no way to compare between them. As I have said before, this is one of the main reasons I prefer competing in triathlons. But on Sunday, I know I would be looking at my watch and cursing every second that I am over budget. I think I will do what I did in both the 10K and the Half Marathon I did last year, in both of which cases I got a PB: I will turn off all the displays on my watch to do with speed, pace or even elapsed time and just run to my heart rate. It takes quite a lot of discipline not to even look at the big red digital clock that looms over the arch that you pass half way - sometimes you overhear someone saying that we are on such and such a pace. I'm going to focus on running as well as I can, keeping sheltered from the wind and meting out my efforts so that my glycogen stores get me just over the line.

Maximum strength

The question is, can he get up from there?

I did the maximum strength test last night which consists of "squatting" ever increasing weights until you fall over backwards. Its perfectly safe because the dumbbell is constrained to move in a vertical plane and there are safety stops so you don't get completely squashed. Diego measured the power I was able to generate with each successive weight increase using a small device which measures the velocity at which I could lift the bar. Just like a car has a different power response at different loads - typically a petrol engine has a "humped" power-torque curve with a maximum power at a sub-maximum torque (force) - it is interesting to know for what load (weight) we can generate the most power (force x velocity). I must have a diesel engine because I reached my maximum power just at the point where I reached my maximum force and literally could not lift the weight. Its quite a disconcerting sensation of impotence and bewilderment when you are literally unable to stand back up. Once you get to these kind of weights, I think it becomes important to have a reasonably good squatting technique: if you let the weight fall too quickly it is impossible to overcome the momentum needed to change direction; if you go too slowly then you become tired. For some reason, my arms started to hurt much more than any other part of my body, presumably because I was straining against the bar, and today they are sore as hell - not sure how well I will swim today. My legs don't feel at all tired but then the dreaded DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) as their name suggests, often set in after 48 hours.

One of the interesting things that Jonathan has been experimenting with is the relationship between the velocity at which someone can squat and the weight. He has established a very convincing relationship between the two which means that you can estimate your maximum strength without having to lift maximal weights (which has its risks, of course, as well as being unpleasant). Unfortunately, the machine used for that test was at the menders so there was no option but to go until "failure".

Now that I have the results of the test, I can follow Jonathan's weight program more correctly. When he sets me a weights session he specifies the number of sets, the exercises I should do, the number of repetitions in each set, the time I should take in lowering the weight in a controlled fashion, whether the lift should be explosive or not and, finally, at what percentage of my maximum strength (RM = Rendimiento Máximo) the lifts should be executed. Up until now, I have been setting the weight to be that which I can lift the number of times I have to lift it. Nevertheless, just as it is important to find that Maximum Effective Dose, it can be more effective to exercise sub-maximally. I find that for almost all the other exercises I do (lats, calves, quadriceps, isquiotibiales or hamstrings as they are more commonly known, glutes or bum) I need to use about half the weight I would squat in order to achieve the same intensity.

Week 2 / 20

 Last week was relatively easy, "only" 10 hours of training plus two weights sessions. I have a half Marathon next Sunday so I guess this is a kind of mini taper, with extra focus on running (which is just as well, because the temperatures fell through the floor this week and I was getting a brain freeze from going along at anything more than 15kph). My right hamstring is giving me a bit of gip, so I have to keep an eye on that. I would try doing some Nordic hamstring lowers which are a very effective way of encouraging the muscle to fix itself but my knee is a bit sore from the somersault I did over the handlebars the other day. As you can see from the pie chart, it is harder to do most of the training in Zone I than it looks. This is because a proportion of the Zone I time on the bike bleeds into the Zone II because of hills, traffic or simply that I find it difficult to not get carried away. Its also hard not to let the Zone III training bleed into Zone I. Its certainly the case that I am having more and more trouble getting my heart rate up while running. I think that this is a good sign, that it means I am getting more efficient because the speeds at which I am running are not suffering. I think that it will take a while for my legs to catch up with my cardiovascular system. Still, 11% in Zone III is not bad after all.

Results of bike test

Please allow me to gloat just this once. I may never win anything again worth winning or beat any records worth beating but I think I have a right to feel chuffed about the results of my bike test. You get a mark out of 10 for each of the various categories, your VO2max, how close to your VO2max your anaerobic threshold is, your effeciency in terms of oxygen use, how many watts you can crank out etc. The mark "10" usually corresponds to an elite athlete (for example, Paula Radcliffe, unsurprisingly, gets 10 out of 10 for running efficiency and VO2max, a combination of which makes her a World Record Marathon runner). Ordinary mortals may get very high marks for some aspects but not for others, resulting in a good performance but not a World beating one. Well, I didn't get 10 in some of the criteria, I got #N/A! which means literally "off the scale" (more than 10, not less than zero - very funny!). My VO2max came out lower than in the running test I did at the end of last year (53 versus 61) which I suppose reflects the comments I made here on the day of the test.

I shall enjoy my little victory but now the trick is to convert it into something meaningful, or at least, something that is recognized (by me, if not by others).

Haha, I managed to crash the spreadsheet with pure leg power

Pixie dust

I'm really quite skeptical about these magic powders that I'm "supposed" to take, especially after what I have been reading lately. It is so difficult to isolate the effects of a particular nutrient and it seems to me more important to get your overall diet right and then, and only then, think about taking supplements if you are feeling low on energy or a blood test shows up a particular imbalance. It is true that the training I am doing is not exactly "natural" and so it may well be the case that I am lacking in some nutrients, vitamins or minerals and it may also be the case that it is impracticable to get those nutrients, vitamins or minerals through eating whole foods - perhaps you would have to eat inordinate amounts of oysters for example, and this would provoke other imbalances. The bottom line is that my coach said that it would be a great shame if I got ill during my training, or especially near the event itself, and that I should consider taking supplements to help prevent this from happening. I know everyone else he trains is taking a similar cocktail, so now superstition or the fear of hearing "I told you so" is twisting my arm to do the same.

I have been taking omega 3 capsules and, in particular, cod liver oil (tasty burps, yeurghh!!) which is also high in vitamin D. Vitamin D is a peculiar vitamin in that we actually produce it in our bodies as a reaction to exposure to sunlight. There seems to be some controversy over the RDA (Recommended Daily Amount) with some researchers suggesting that we should be getting considerably more. Of course, you have to be careful not to burn but the irony is that it seems to be the very same people who spend an unusual amount of time in the sun who have vitamin D deficit; this is because they wear sun block. Now I'm not advocating that we should throw away the sun creams and welcome skin cancer into our bodies but  perhaps judicious and measured sun exposure is what is called for. Vitamin D apparently helps boost athletic performance and particularly fat burning activities.

Every so often I have a protein shake, typically made from whey protein and taken with milk. Its actually quite a nice drink but I'm not yet taking this every day.

I had hoped to get all the amino acids from eating more fruit and veg. The amino acids are very important because they act as anti oxidants, that is to say, they bind with the free radical oxygen atoms that are produced by literally burning foods and limit the damage they could otherwise cause to healthy cells. I think of the anti oxidants as a kind of sprinkler system. As there are many different types of amino acids, each with their own functions in the body, it is important to have a varied diet. The Essential Amino Acids (EAA) are the ones that our body cannot manufacture or synthesize but this does not mean that the other amino acids are not "essential" to life. A good guideline is to try to eat fruits and vegetables of many different colours because it is the amino acids that are responsible for the colour so this helps ensure we get all the amino acids we need. Now the superstition has kicked in, I've decided to take some supplements for amino acids (essential and BCAA, Branched Chain Amino Acids) just in case. Its probably going to bugger up some kind of delicate natural balance but while I am following a particular school of training I think I should also follow that same school of nutrition. Maffetone would doubtless frown upon my decision but then he would also insist that I did absolutely all my training below the aerobic threshold which is not completely consistent with the training program I am actually following. I'm thinking of going "holistic" next year - perhaps taking a sabbatical from competition - and trying out just doing lots of low intensity long runs and eating whole foods, a la Forest Gump. I'll see how I feel after the Ironman - its something that cannot leave you indifferent: you either feel you have done so disasterously that, after 6 months, you have got the bit between your teeth again or it is such an amazing experience that you are ready to think of doing another one a couple of weeks later. I can't imagine I will cross the line and think "OK, that's done, now what?".

I'm also starting to take L-Glutamine which is a special amino acid which is supposed to help in recovery from workouts and to help prop up your immune system. Add to that, L-Carnatine which, as its name suggests ("carne") is found in red meat and supposedly helps fat burning. I may also start taking Creatine which, to be honest is the only magic powder I have taken for which I have definitely noticed an effect (notice I didn't choose the word "benefit"). I tend to put on several kilos of what looks to be muscle mass but is apparently mainly water retention and I notice that my strength improves but at the cost of having to lug those extra kilos 42km. I think I will give it another try, now that I am eating more conscientiously,  and if I find myself getting too heavy I should have enough time to slim down. In any case, as there is thought to be an increase in water retention, perhaps this added weight is not as bad as it sounds. The guys at the triathlon club swear by Man Clout - just the thought of that disgusting flavour brings back bad memories - but I have to remember not to try ordering it from work because the websites that offer it look like dodgy porn sites. Lastly, there is L-Glucosamine which reportedly helps strengthen cartilage which is what tendons, ligaments and bits of the knee are made from (and ears too, but I've never heard of anyone injuring their ears running). I will start to take this too.

This is what I am taking every day - check out the size of that amino acid tab!

The weirdest thing I tried taking in an attempt to "hyper-hydrate" before a race was Glycerol. (I had thought that it was necessary for bomb making but maybe I am getting confused with Gycerine.) The only way to get my hands on it was in the guise of a treatment for glaucoma, which is the painful pressure in the eye due to the collection of ocular fluid. Apparently the glycerol binds with water molecules in such a way that they don't pass through the kidneys and out as piss. I've become much less paranoid about being hydrated in races and also better at drinking on the run, so I won't be taking this stuff again.

All these supplements were recommended to me when I went for a dietary analysis about three years ago. I remember it being quite a challenge to remember how much of what to take and when. I don't think there is any reason to believe that I will be told anything different by repeating the analysis now - and the diet I was prescribed was frankly impractical - so I've decided that I am going to take Protein, Omega 3, Cod Liver Oil, L-Glutamine, L-Carnatine, L-Glucosamine, Creatine and BCAA and EAA in addition to eating as "heathfully" as possible. Any adverse effects and I'll try to work out which of the supplements is the offender.

At some point I would like to do a detailed blood test, one that is specifically aimed at endurance athletes, as well as electrocardiagram and echocardiogram tests on my heart. As you know, I am doing this Ironman in honour of my dear friend, Neil, who died suddenly from a heart attack last year. Another friend of mine who was preparing an Ironman last year did an electro- and an echocardiogram and only in the latter test did they spot a defect in his heart. His doctor allowed him to compete (which he did with great success) but on the condition that he kept his heart rate below a certain threshold.