steven lord’s training blog

Crewing Ultras

Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:42:07 +0000

Already this year I’ve crewed on two ultra events. This past weekend on the Thames Path 100 mile run and of course Jo’s first go at Double Enduroman. I found a huge deal of satisfaction in helping someone achieve their goals. It’s certainly something I’d offer to help out with in future.

Camp Week 4

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:36:42 +0000

Wow this has taken a while coming. Firstly the end of the final week in Lanzarote was pretty hectic. Then back in the UK I got completely engrossed in working on two things
1. An improved version of my own training database. This may lead to some work on http://www.eddingtonnumbers.me.uk
2. Database for our camps. The last camp I tracked all the training data for each camper. It was fun to be able to give alsort of stats. As we do more camps it will become more interesting. it will also make my life on camp easier. This tracks training, competions, points, handicaps and gives rankings for individuals (across all the camps they’ve attended), camps and across all camps. On top of this it tracks our camp Eddington Number !
These two completely engrossed me. It was lucky that I got ill and had six days solid where I couldn’t train and left the house twice (to get food). Jo and Alex were away - I spent the whole time working solidly and was completely engrossed. It reminded me of my days as a software developer.
Then finally I had some mess up with my website which meant it was down for a while. I’ve a temporary fix now and hopefully a permanent fix shortly but for now it means I probably won’t have comments on this blog (real shame ;O()
This brings us to now. I promised myself that once I felt better I would give myself another day before I trained. This worked well as I was buzzing to train on Thursday and got back in to it on Friday. Today I raced the Taunton Aquathon (1k / 10k). Despite the best part of 10 years racing Triathlon I did the classic of having a quick look at the details of “Auto multisport” on my new garmin the morning of the race. Of course I then didn’t operate it correctly so didn’t get any splits. I did have a great race. I was in the first wave and was at least 250m ahead of the next person on the swim and never saw anyone till the finish. Jo reckoned I ran a 38 minute 10k which I was chuffed to bits with. Really enjoyed it.
So... back to the final week in Lanza. The final week started with an easy day as we moved down to Playa Blanca. All I had to do was ride down there with the wind. We then chilled out and went to a tour of the Stratvs winery which was fascinating and tasty.
Jo had been subtly getting the idea in my head that I should be resting up for my supporting duties. I (finally) picked up on it after front loading the week a little with some big rides. The Wednesday ride was just awesome. I finally got back that feeling of old of just being able to continue riding and riding hard for as long as I wanted. I got it in my head initially that it should be an Eddington Number ride which meant 129 miles but then I felt so good I thought I should put one out there and out towards a likely lifetime Eddington number. 150 miles seemed about right but required TTing the last hour. Great fun. I was buzzing from how quickly my bike fitness had come back. I saw my estimated CP go from 285 watts (per Golden Cheetah) at the start of the camp through to 334 watts at the end - this compares with where it was at at the height of last season.
That signalled the end of the serious training for the camp. Now it was serious support duties. I will cover that in my next post.

Camp Week 3

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:39:36 +0000

This has been another great week. Back to a little more bike focus largely because next week with the approach of Jo’s Double Ironman I’ll have less time so will probably do a little more running.
I’ve kept on my swimming again by getting two solid swims in with Rachel and EK. We did the 40 100s again but this time went off 1:30 for two sets of 10 rather than 1:25. Despite this I was swimming about a second slow. Must be fatigue.
Biking has been solid this week with some long rides at lower powers. Again I think some general fatigue couple with riding on my own for much of it. Friday was a particularly notable day as I managed to push my bike Eddington Number up one to 129. Chuffed to bits though it’s not getting a toughie as it requires 5 rides of 130 or more to get to 130 and 16 rides of 131 or more to get to 131. I manage to run really well off this ride which was so pleasing. I started to believe I may be able to run again this season. I was so completely and utterly zonked that evening. I was asleep as my head started to fall towards the pillow.
On Sunday and Monday I met up with Russ and three of his athletes to ride. They are great company and Russell is clearly doing a great job with them. The Sunday ride was long with some very solid efforts on the hills. Monday was all about Tabeyesco. I’ve been using this as a test to see how I progress and to calibrate Raceday Apollo.
Here’s my progression
12th Jan - 32:30 @ 304 watts
22nd Jan - 32:34 @ 311 watts
Today - 29:38 @ 333 watts
It’s an understatement to say I’m chuffed to bits. Thats off the back of 640 miles (15,000m ascent) riding in the preceding 8 days, riding every day. It further comfirms my experience that my bike fitness returns well riding day after day after day.
I’ll finish with my Bike Training Stress Graph:

Camp Week 2

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:24:26 +0000

Another solid weeks training out here. The summary stats are very similar to the first week but it’s really been quite different. The first week I had two friends with me so I wanted to fit in with what they wanted to do. The big focus was on riding and that suited me as I find it’s the best way to get back to fitness. This week I wanted to get more of a focus on running which I felt may mean some none biking days. I also wanted to take the opportunity to train with Rachel and E-K as I knew this would give me some good solid swimming.
Tuesday I felt pretty wiped out after the previous week so I just rode over to Club La Santa for a pretty solid (lots of fly and IM) swim session. I then continued my search for new cycling shoes (the ones I brought have the cleat screws bonded in) - Pro Bike didn’t have any in my side, neither did the new shop in PdC.
This meant Wednesday saw me doing my long run to Arrecife where I managed to get the only pair of shoes in my size. Not exactly what I wanted but since I was paying EUR5 per day for my rental shows the EUR130 was worth it even if I need to get better shoes on my return. I felt pretty good on my run and decided to call it a day at lunchtime and have some proper recovery.
On Thursday, again I headed over to CLS for a swim. This was a very encouraging session:
40 x 100m as 10 on 1:25, 10 on 1:45 band only, 10 on 1:25, 10 on 1:50 with paddles
I was leading the lane and on the 1:25s managed to hit everyone in 1:15,16 or 17. Chuffed to bits. I was also impressed with the work ethic of Rachel and E-K - they were getting about 3 seconds rest but they stuck at it and made full set. That was some serious work which is no surprise given how successful they are.
I followed the swim with an extended ride back over Fire Mountain and the Vineyards before my, almost, daily descent of The Donkey Track (it’s an awesome descent).
I was hoping this week to get some big rides in and Friday was the day I had in mind. I’d thought of a route which I thought was more or less the ultimate route on the island. Here’s the profile:

If you’re interest you can see the route here. Interested that that site reckons it’s 3,915 metres yet my Garmin Edge 500 had 3,052m - wonder which is more correct.
I really pushed it on all the hills on the ride and ended up with these stats:
Elapsed time: 7:52, ride time: 7:24 - this was an efficient two stop ride.
202km / 3,052m ascent / 230 watts normalised power / TSS: 408
I even ran just over 5 miles in just over 40 minutes off the bike. Very pleased.
Jo was arriving on Saturday so I got up and did my first run before breakfast. Thats the first time I’ve set an alarm all my time here. It’s great to just wake up naturally and thats meant I’ve been getting between 9 and 10 hours sleep every night. I waited in for Jo and got to work on adding a few things in to my training diary (Ascent and watts Eddington Numbers wahaa !). Very pleased to get a second run done - 10 miler. Did first 5 miles in 43 minutes and the second in 38 minutes. Pretty good for me at the moment.
I’d been looking forward to Sunday as we were meeting with Brett, Rachel, Cat and E-K for a long ride. I’d done my work and thought a nice social ride would be fun. Of course, I wasn’t under any illusions that this would be a coffee stop ride. I knew they wanted about 4 hours but with getting to and from Jo and I would have at least 6.5 hours.
Before I go in to the detail let me just say that I could compare this ride to being mugged by a group though it was all my own fault.
Jo and I ride over to La Santa. She’s riding strong so it’s a decent pace. We then set off as a nice organised group taking it in turns on the front and all getting to have a good old natter. Then heading up Mirador Del Haria from Los Valles Brett tells Rachel he’s going to push on a bit. I get on his wheel and bust a gut to stay with him till the steep bit when I’m gone. Then I’m hauled in by Rachel and Cat. I decide that Brett is on fire and may not be the wheel to follow. I re-assure myself that with better pacing I could have stuck with Rachel and Cat.
I bomb back down the zig zags and get back on. Up to Del Rio is all AOK, Brett up first, then Rachel and Cat (shoulder to shoulder not giving each other an inch) followed by me. Down to Orzola and then along to Arrietta for a stop PHEW ! I needed it.
Now Tabeyesco - my chance to shine. I can’t help myself on this climb and always surge at the start. With this crowd though I don’t think it came across as a surge. In fact, I never lost Brett and minutes later he lost me. In fact, I don’t think I really lost Rachel and Cat for even a minute and soon they’re by and off up the road. To about 1/3 up I was clawing them back and when I got to them went by but Rachel was having nothing of it and went straight past. That was that - the rest of the ride watching them slowly pull away.
Lets get this in perspective. At the start of this camp I climbed Tabeyesco pretty fresh in 32:30 @ 304 watts. This time I went 32:34 @ 311 watts 4 hours in to a hard ride. At a guess that puts Rachel and Cat at about 31:30 and Rachel was riding it progressive (ie increasing wattage as she ascended). Brett I’m guessing was sub 30. Come on Brett - upload to Strava and lets see. I found it amusing that because Cat wasn’t wearing a HRM her SRM computer was picking up Rachels HR !
I had another hurtling descent to get back on. We regrouped at Teguise before Jo and I left them to tack on - we did a circuit over Fire Mountain to Yaiza and back over the Vineyards. My mugging wasn’t over as little Miss Joanna “Double Ironman” Carritt was just warming up. I knew there was trouble when we were rotating in to the wind I was struggling to hang on to her wheel. Before I knew it I was off the back and by Yaiza in desperate need of food - packet of crisps, bounty bar, lion bar and Fanta seemed to help (a little). We get back to PdC and I’m knackered, Jo decides another 5 mile loop to get 120 miles is in order. I was impressed. Thats my girl !
This ride ended up tougher than Fridays: 184k, 6:45, 241w normalised power, TSS: 435
And no I wasn’t able to run off the bike.
What a fun day it was though. It shows you how riding with others can really help push yourself it also shows how you can really get in trouble when the pace and the stops are dictated by others and not yourself. In future for a ride like that I may even carry something in my pocket as it was 4 hours before I had my first food on the ride. I don’t think it impacted me to that point but I reckon it meant I didn’t eat enough at that stop so when i tacked on with Jo I suffered big time.
The week was finished today with a solid ride over the La Santa and then across to go up Tabeyesco - I’d hoped to hammer the best I could muster was 34:30 @ 285 watts.

Eddington Review

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:46:25 +0000

I’m a little late with 2011s Eddington Review largely due to my first family christmas in three years and then deciding that bike total ascent is a good thing to have an Eddington Number for. This resulted in all this morning having great fun updating my database and back populating the data I have. I’ve only had a garmin since 2010 so thats all I’ve used. I may go back and put in data that I know but that will be limited to races and routes that I’ve subsequently done with a garmin. For now the results are from 2010 so there may some revision to these figures in future.
Still not found anyone else that tracks Eddington Numbers. I find it of interest that I found them so fascinating but apparently no one else does other than Arthur Eddington though I do notice my definition is a little stricter since I use individual rides rather than total distance in a day.
Previous reviews: 2010, 2009, 2008
SWIMMING
A solid year with swimming but still many of my figures are close to terminal values. Virtually all daily and weekly life to date figures are other than minutes which should not be terminal until 300 is reached when it will start getting harder. Without access to a decent pool I don’t see the daily increasing though a single spell in somewhere like Club La Santa would almost certainly spur me to a couple of double swim days to tick it over to 10. The most likely area for me to better on the annual front is the daily minutes. I have access to four 90 minute sessions per week in Taunton so even 22 weeks of hitting all of them would get me over the previous best of 84 minutes. Similarly weekly KM should see 17 beaten as it’s reasonable for me to be getting 18-20km done weekly. Upping the LTD 22km for week may be tricky as I’m not heading to a public session just to push a weeks volume over 22km.
BIKING
Progress here has been really hit last year with my 100 hour cap. Improving the headline Eddington Number of daily bike miles is a little deceiving as it was done on 2nd January. Most of the year didn’t see any progress other than slow progress on the weekly and minutes. The big target is to get a lot closer to 200 for daily bike KMs.
As you can see I’ve added ascent. This is going to be easy pickings for a year or two I would expect but after that the figure should be over 500m which means it won’t be a given. It will take a long time (possibly a lifetime) for the monthly ascent figure to get in anyway hard. Perhaps when I’m 80 and it’s over 500m in a month it may be a tough one. I’ll start tracking it now to provide something to aim for in my final years.
The annual figures provide some insight in to my 100 hour cap and my lack of motivation for much of the year
Daily Bike Hours - 6 this means I didn’t manage even 7 rides of 7 hours or more.
Weekly Bike Miles - 40 this means there were 12 weeks of less than 52 miles
Weekly Bike Hours - 13 which show I didn’t even have 14 weeks of 14 hours.
Weekly Bike Mins - 42 this shows 10 weeks of less than 52 minutes cycling. In practise this almost certainly shows 10 weeks of absolutely no cycling.
RUNNING
Finally daily KM hits 42 so now like daily Miles it’s stuck on Marathon distance. it will be a big day when either of them ticks up a notch.
Still weekly miles and km are stuck on 64 and 90 respectively. I’m finally feeling willing to try pushing my running a bit harder and fully expect those two to be improved this year.
Again it’s the daily figures that really give insight in to why my running is only very slowly improving.
Daily Run Miles - 14 which means I didn’t manage 15 runs of over 15 miles. When you think that races are in this and I did five Ironman races last year it shows that I managed less than 10 runs over 15 miles. For a long course Triathlete that is just no where near enough
Weekly Run Miles - 23 - pre foot surgery this figure was never below 31 and post it’s always been below. This is a sign of consistency. I feel a figure in the mid 30s is a given if I run consistently. This is a goal this year and overrides feelings of gunning for upping the life to date figure. The latter requires weeks of 65 miles or more whereas the former requires 35 miles week in week out.
TIME
Boy would I like to notch up life to date daily hours to 12, only need six of those suckers but at the moment the one 8 hour day I did yesterday felt like enough. Similarly the 43 hours for a week. I think perhaps I now ride consistently harder which means the long back to back days of riding required to notch up 40+ hour weeks is really tough. Or perhaps I’m just getting old and can’t hack it
[brain wave ... what about a watts EdNum ?? Would have to say rides over a certain length...]
That 206 daily hours is looking attractive. Give the 90 minute early morning swims I now have available just attaching a 2hr second session those days would have that in target. Similarly I’m hoping weekly hours will be back in the high twenties rather than the very poor 19 last year. Of course with a 100 hour cap really the maximum I was doing in a week was 25 hours.
GYM
This is just for completeness. Since leaving Christchurch I’ve done absolutely zero gym work. Whether any of these move on will depend on whether I get back in the habit of gym work. Historically with me it’s been all or nothing with the gym. If I start going I’ll go three times a week and spend hours in there. If it’s not that then I do absolutely none. The reason is I’ve never noticed any improvement in performance or injury prevention which are the oft given reasons for strength work. The one thing I have noticed though is that my weight tends to be lower and easier to manage when I’m doing a lot of weights.

Camp Week 1 - Return To Fitness

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:00:25 +0000

It was great to have two excellent companions for the first week of my four weeks in Lanzarote. I find I get more out of my training where there’s not a feeling of outright competition. Don’t get me wrong, competition helps but it needs to be light and in context. Having training partners that are keen to get the work done and willing to play a little whilst realising it really doesn’t matter what any results are as long as we all get the motivation we need. Roger (@hawc) and Marc (@marcoatkinson) fit the bill perfectly.
I entered the camp with three rides since Kona - back to back 100 milers in mid november and then a 60 miler on New Years Eve. I was a little concerned as I knew Roger was looking for some solid riding and I was really worried I just wouldn’t be able to keep up.
We were fortunate to arrive at lunch time on the first day and got out for a solid ride on the bike. I know I suffered from first day enthusiasm (it always happens on camps in my experience) and hammered every hill. Not sure if the others felt the same or were just swept along. We went about 45 minutes before our coffee stop but from there we somehow ended up tacking on down to Playa Blanca and up Femes into a very stiff headwind. I could only just turn the pedals on my compact which explains the near death appearance of Roger at the top, he was on standard gearing. Normalised power of 248 watts tells the story as does my near complete falling apart about 10 minutes from home (I think I managed to hide it). Did run off the bike setting the right precedent for the week.
Next morning we got up before breakfast for a swim which we planned to do every day. It was very rough and we encountered lots of jellyfish. They’re pretty much a permanent fixture at the moment as is the swell. It makes it fun but it’s more like a fight than swimming and each of our swims was really just a minimum to get wet and occasionally, get stung.
Day 2 was much easier on the biking which was wise before Day 3 where we headed to Tabeyesco to get some benchmark times up the climb. I always start very hard on this climb to set me up at the right tempo. It was pretty favourable conditions with a monster tailwind for much of it. I was chuffed to bits with 32:30 with power of 304 watts. To give an idea, at last years camp I averaged 340 watts for just a minute quicker. Coffee at the top before looping round of Mirador Del Rio and then the boys showed they were made of the right stuff when they agreed to another ascent up Tabeyesco. The run off the bike saw me fall apart at halfway. It took me 5 minutes to collect myself and then I ran fast home... weird.
On Saturday we rode out to Orzola and up Mirador Del Rio from there. That must rank as the toughest climb on the island with each switch back kicking up in gradient whilst the whole thing is a continuous climb. It’s got me thinking about how to include it in the EverydayTraining Camp. It’s a nice way to go as the views back after Del Rio are excellent. Marc agreed to descend from Haria to give Tabeyesco another good go. I was very pleased to only drop off a minute on my time the previous time but Marc was a legend - it would have been enough to see the state he was in at the top (he gave it his all) but he knocked about 30s off his time from earlier in the camp. Back to back riding can get you fit !
The final day we skipped the swim and I’d told myself that I didn’t need to run if I completely pummelled myself. The plan was a version of the Ironman course. Since between us we don’t like the start of the course or El Golfo we decided to head up the Donkey Track, through the vineyards and over Fire Mountain following the Ironman route with a detour down to Orzola. I hammered every climb and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those days where I just seemed to be able to keep pushing. We stopped for food in Orzola before having fun belting along the LZ1 with a tailwind. Marc gave some great pulls along the first section before I pulled a fast one on a small rise and dropped him. All in good humour ! I finished along the Ironman route with the road from Nazaret confirmed as terrible. I finished with nearly 6 hours at 247 watts normalised power. Very pleased.
It got me thinking about the speed of my return to fitness on the bike. Some observations
1. It’s not quite there. Last summer I could sustain 350 watts for long periods and recover whereas at the moment that’s clearly not the case. It’s more like 300 watts is the equivalent now.
2. Though i didn’t ride much I was doing a lot of very hard work in the pool. I was also ticking over my running. I would guess that my aerobic fitness is no where near as bad as I thought.
3. I always come back to miles in the legs. Over the past 8 years I’ve done about 115,000 miles of riding. I’m guessing my muscles etc... have a lot of experience of adapting to biking stress.
4. I have confidence in riding day after day and getting fitter. I’ve seen it on my own camps and on Epic Camp. The feelings I had in my legs in the first few days would have prompted a lot of people to take a rest whereas I pushed on knowing that historically I have got stronger by doing this.
5. Jo wondered whether there’s also my history before Triathlon of doing lots of very long fell running - holiday of running 5+ hours daily. There’s no way of knowing but I am certain it’s crazy to just look at someones training in the year leading up to a performance to decide what created the performance. The whole athletic history has some contribution.
At the end of the week I had a Training Stress of over 2,000. Roger topped me with a score over 2,100. Marc managed his most every weekly mileage just beating last years EverydayTraining Camp which gives him a target for this years.
I’ve been thinking today about the key features of a DIY training camp. I’ve been doing them ever since starting Triathlon. Initially on my own based from a pub in Scotland but luckily I’ve found like minded people over the years which has meant I’ve had company. Here are some points
CONVENIENCE - for me this is absolutely KEY. Make it easy. Make it so you only have to think about training. This means a few things
-> Don’t do any cooking. Hotels with buffet breakfast / dinner work great. I’ve also used pubs where I can eat in
-> Good running and riding straight from the door. Having to hop in car somewhere just wastes time
-> If you want to include swimming make sure it’s close by. In Lanzarote we place ourselves minutes from the sea - we can walk down in our wetsuits and be swimming within 5 minutes of leaving our room.
HAVE A GOAL - nothing complicated. I’ve used the following two either
-> swim, bike, run everyday; OR
-> run, bike, run everyday
The latter being used where there’s no swimming.
FRIENDS - bring along some like minded friends always helps. Be sure that you all know this is a training camp and be aware of each others goals. It’s nice to do stuff together but there should be no hard feelings if people want to do there own thing sometimes
REMOVE YOURSELF - I find camps work better when you’re not able to be online all the time. So far this has just happened but I think in future I’d look for it. Having access to the internet is useful but it seems to work better if it’s not in your room so you just decide when to download emails. Similarly I’ve found a lack of TV helps enormously in getting to bed early and getting proper sleep.
SLEEP - key. As touched on above. I have had 78 hours sleep in 8 days since being here. When you’re training this hard you need sleep. By not having TV or internet I find that getting to bed early is not a chore.