Malteser's journey to the finish line

[malteser]

6th of Feb was the start of my IM adventure ... prompted by a discussion with the WAT where I was told to stop being a wuss and just see which IM I could do this year (rather than wait until next), the concept of an IM in 2012 well and truly took hold - there was no European IM apart from Wales (a non-starter for someone who's absolutely shite on the bike like me) which was 30 weeks out or more, the closest one being Sweden, 28 weeks away. Florida and IMAZ were already sold out so Sweden was my only semi-realistic option. If I could start BIF at Week 2 or 3, and get some elements of the training in without breaking down completely, I may stand a chance. I'm targeting a finish time of 15:59:59 (i.e. just crossing the line within the cut-off) - my starting point is such that anything more than that is unrealistically ambitious (although I do harbour unrealistic ambitions, I can't help it). I have one shot at this over the next 24 months, and I have little time and little base fitness to start from - if it isn't August 18th 2012 it won't be a realistic option until well into 2014 or 2015, and God only knows where I'll be and what state I'll be in by then - so it's this year ... it's not ideal, it's risky and it'll be one hell of a challenge between work, family and my general propensity to break on a regular basis, but I'm going to give it a shot - I can either cross the finish line and be made up for life or I can break myself on the course and become a jibbering wreck walking around inanely in the Swedish countryside - either way, it's worth a shot ...

training since then has been sporadic .... a mixture of insane days at work, injury, illness (I've had 4 colds in 3 months - never been this ill in my life!!) and domestic issues have not made it easy thus far, but my fitness has come on in leaps and bounds since the 6th of Feb (and a weight of 104kg) ... and here is why ...

Running Feb 6, 2012 10.33 km 1h:15m:00s
Running Feb 7, 2012 6.03 km 45m:00s
Swimming Feb 7, 2012 0.75 km 27m:00s
Spinning Feb 8, 2012 15.90 km 40m:00s
Brick Session Part 1 Spinning Feb 9, 2012 - 30m:00s
Brick Session Part 2 Running Feb 9, 2012 2.20 km 15m:00s
Spinning Feb 11, 2012 35.00 km 1h:30m:00s
Running Feb 13, 2012 5.00 km 28m:00s (leading to a wonderful bout of shin splints which it took me about 3 weeks of barely any running to recover from)
Swimming Feb 14, 2012 1.20 km 42m:00s
Running Feb 14, 2012 4.22 km 30m:00s (in atrocious pain - was nearly crying by the end of this)
Brick part 1 Spinning Feb 15, 2012 - 30m:00s
Brick part 2 Running Feb 15, 2012 2.20 km 15m:00s
Swimming Feb 16, 2012 1.65 km 50m:00s
Spinning Feb 16, 2012 19.20 km 45m:00s
Running Feb 17, 2012 4.00 km 25m:00s (it dawned on me that if I didn't stop running I would do some serious damage - so sacked off the running portion for a while and iced the crap out of the shins every day)
Spinning Feb 18, 2012 36.00 km 1h:30m:00s
Brick part 1 Spinning Feb 22, 2012 - 40m:00s
Brick part 2 Running Feb 22, 2012 2.10 km 15m:00s (was crapping myself for this one - but I was in Greece on a work trip and the bike was just so crap I had no choice but to move to a brick session)
Swimming Feb 28, 2012 1.95 km 1h:00m:00s
Brick part 1 Spinning Feb 29, 2012 - 40m:00s
Brick part 2 Running Feb 29, 2012 2.70 km 20m:00s
Spinning Mar 2, 2012 - 1h:10m:00s (at MtB trying out new saddles and bike positions - it was an absolute pleasure to ride)
Spinning Mar 3, 2012 - 35m:00s (Vo2 Max test at TCR)
Spinning Mar 3, 2012 11.50 km 30m:00s (was absolutely shattered after TCR's test but felt guilty about having done so little - with hindsight, it wasn't the best of ideas)
Spinning Mar 5, 2012 37.30 km 1h:30m:00s (finally a ride where my bum wasn't in agony - I will be forever grateful to MtB for that)
Treadmill "comeback" run Running Mar 6, 2012 6.00 km 45m:00s (no pain!!!! - shin splints gone, apparently - or rather, lurking in the background)
Swimming Mar 6, 2012 2.10 km 58m:00s
Brick part 1 Spinning Mar 7, 2012 - 45m:00s
Brick part 2 Running Mar 7, 2012 2.00 km 15m:00s
Spinning Mar 8, 2012 24.20 km 1h:00m:00s
Swimming Mar 9, 2012 2.40 km 59m:00s
Running Mar 9, 2012 7.00 km 51m:00s
Running Mar 10, 2012 9.00 km 1h:02m:00s
Outdoor ride Cycling, Mar 11, 2012 42.50 km 2h:00m:00s (was vastly underdressed for the ride - was freezing by the end of it and caught an almighty cold - the third since the beginning of Feb - annoying doesn't even begin to describe things)
1-2-1 Pool Session then drills Swimming Mar 13, 2012 1.00 km 40m:00s (breathing was completely gone, felt my chest constricting in the pool - exercise felt like it was going to kill me - so a few days rest would be necessary)
Running Mar 17, 2012 11.20 km 1h:20m:00s
Running Mar 20, 2012 9.10 km 1h:00m:00s
Swimming Mar 21, 2012 2.20 km 1h:00m:00s
Brick part 1 Spinning Mar 21, 2012 - 45m:00s
Brick part 2 Running Mar 21, 2012 2.10 km 15m:00s
Swimming Mar 23, 2012 2.50 km 56m:00s
Running Mar 23, 2012 8.50 km 1h:00m:00s
Spinning Mar 25, 2012 54.00 km 2h:10m:00s

current weight - 97.5kg (as of this morning) - start of week 10 of BIF this week - have only managed 1 full week of BIF intermediate plan in its entirety but generally I'm at the 70-80% mark of that training load, and always exceeding the BIF just finish workouts - will need to work hard to keep up, but I'm hoping to manage.

Must admit, it's not easy - the WAT is regretting her words somewhat and sometimes resents the time I spend training. It's not ideal, and it's not easy to juggle, but hoepfully we'll get over it ... I've had to miss a few workouts to "ease the tensions" and deal with domestic issues that arise but I guess that's just part of what makes IM such an arduous journey.

There are days when i'm positive and convinced that I'll cross the finish line, on others, particularly after a workout that hasn't gone that well, I just wonder what I'm doing. PPl at work look at my podgy frame and you can see their thought process ... only 1 has had the guts (or "bad manners", call it what you will) to come out and say that he thinks I don't stand a chance in hell. To each his own. I've entered, I've booked my hotel ... I've already spent in excess of £1,000 on this "journey" - there's no turning back now, glory or failure, it'll all be decided on August 18th - feel free to enjoy the ride with me, it'll be a lumpy one.

[andyb99]

Good luck Mate, its all about belief and consistent training....its ok to miss training but try to always get your long rides in.....Ride ride and ride some more....thats where it will count!

i'll look forward to whats going to be a great story!!!

[malteser]

27th March - lunchtime swim

due to my need to build up endurance and back strength without breaking I have not been following the BIF swim workouts as yet, but rather concentrated on trying to get some laps in and endurance - I will get bollocked by the swimmers here but I am conscious that my main limiter is swim fitness and the ability to do the distance non-stop (speed and technique are also limiters but we'll get into that later) ... soooo, I headed down to my gym's pool and bashed out an hour's swim ... was aiming for at least 100 lengths (it's a 25m pool) in 1 hour which would (sort of) give me a target of just over 1.5hours for the full IM distance ... swim felt good and I was motoring quite well (lanes were a touch crowded but not excessively so) - result? 120 lengths in 1hr 2 mins (once I was so close I decided to swim the whole 3k)

longest I have swum (ever I think) and my fastest swim by far in this training block (a full 300m odd over the hour further than previous hour long swims) - I'm very pleased. Tha sort of speed, if I am able to maintain it would give me an IM swim time of well under 1h30 (I could even dip under 1h20 conceivably) giving me a lot of spare time for the bike (if I need it) - pleased as punch this afternoon

[Jack Hughes]

Good work. Probably be quicker in a wet suit too.

Not sure I would attempt that though. Just from the boredom aspect. 60 is enough for me.

[malteser]

27 march - evening jog

I've set myself a target of 8.5kmph for the IM marathon ... It'd give me a 5 hour marathon ... That's z2 pace for me so I've been training at it to make sure I can keep it up ... Today, on the treadmill, it felt like I was taking it too easy, so after the first km I upped the speed to 9. Even then, I felt I could do more, but conscious of the ever lurking shin splints I wanted to do very gradual increases. So I settled for 9.3 kph after the 2nd kilometre and kept it there. Mentally I was getting bored on the treadmill so I struggled a bit the last 10 minutes. And I probably wasn't in z2 throughout, but neither was it a z4 effort

Total run - 9.2k ... Another one in the bag

[sonofsammo]

So all good then! Awesome swimming- shitloads faster than me.
As to the lovely person at work- bet him 500 squid that you'll cross the finish line in good time - then watch the f*cker squirm

[malteser]

28 March - nada - client came to the office and literally squatted there from 11am until 6pm (save for a 30 minute lunch that I had to pay for) - queue having to make up for the work I missed out on doing later - result? 13 hour work day and home after 10 - shattered

29 March - lunchtime swim

drills was the name of the game today, so after a short 150m warm-up I immediately launched into some catch-up drills, some finger drag drills and some TYB drills (dunno the technical term for them) -then some Pull Buoy and some Paddles - after around 800m i decided to do 2 timed 400m swims, 1 normal, 1 with Pull buoy to try and simulate wetsuit (I read somewhere that Pull Buoy with minimal kick is more of a simulation of an open water IM swim than anything else) - result? 8:45 for the 400m no PB - 8:05 for the 400m with PB - I obviously can't kick for shizzle

not a good wim overall, was feeling so raw after that I just got out of the pool .... went in with a big headache, left with an even bigger one ... pahhh

[scibby]

Pull is easier. Because your legs are out the equation your CV system needs to do less work. Plus it improves your position in the water, reducing drag. Plus if allows you to focus on the pulling action, making you swim stronger... Though it's quite a big difference you've got there. For me it's about 15 seconds over 400m

[malteser]

Hmmm, interesting points there - I don't kick too much during the swim in any event (something I need to work on) - in OW - I hardly kick at all, relying on wetsuit buoyancy to bring my legs up a bit more - have flexibility issues with pointing my feet (tales of a broken past with tendon, ankle tears and sprains galore) also which doesn't help and leads to cramping, and that means i kick with L-shaped feet rather than the full foot - just need to get a lot more practice done, and learn to kick properly ...

[malteser]

29 March pm - the schedule said a 1 hr turbo ride. Unfortunately I had to sack off. There are days when things go swimmingly at work, when your bosses are happy and so are the clients. My boss just got a big pat on the back for a deal that we've been working on for 6 months. It's worth in excess of a billion dollars and we're bringing it home ... Clients are very happy with my work and the boss came out of the meeting with more work guaranteed. I couldn't turn down the celebration beers. I've only been in the job 8 months and I was brought in to do specific things. This is the first big deal I was given to run at the new firm and I've delivered big time. Opportunities to toot my own horn with the partners come rarely in my business. The partners usually take the glory, this time, I got the lion's share and my career prospects just took one big step forward. So I reckon I deserved the break.


Back to reality with a bang 30 March am - wife woke up feeling very sick and I had to stay home to mind the kid. Work are understanding but still demanding ... And lawyer and babysitter don't mix very well. It's been a rough day, and any thought of making up for the missed workout was well and truly gone. But come 7pm I was done and dusted (early but it's Friday ) and climbed onto the turbo ... 1hr 25 mins and 36km later I'm ready to enjoy my weekend. Just the small matter of my first sportive to come on Sunday ... I'm absolutely bricking it