Outlaw Triathlon - Part 3 - My Race Performance

This is one of a three part set of posts about my first iron distance triathlon: Outlaw Triathlon 2017. This post contains the analysis of my race performance. You can also read about my training and my review of the event.

In this final post in my series on the Outlaw Triathlon I want to review my performance, look at what I learnt and how to improve if (when) I do another event of this distance in the future.

Context

Prior to this event I'd never done an iron distance triathlon before. In fact, apart from the middle distance event I did in the build up, the longest I'd gone before was an olympic distance tri. I'd also previously run two marathons, including a 2:59:34 at London in 2016.

I've already covered training in another post in this series and felt that I was going into the race in the best possible shape that I could be. No injuries or niggles. Calves felt a fraction tight, but I find that's quite common for me after a taper period.

The Swim

I've been working really hard on my swim in the build up. Made some huge improvements. Prior to starting the training plan the longest I had ever swum in one go was 2.4km. Target pace was 2:00/100m that I'd been practising in training.

The main thing I don't like in a mass start swim is the washing machine that occurs while everyone gets going and jostles for a good position. I hate having my legs pushed down from behind. However, over the last couple of races I've been made a real effort to start in the middle of the pack to help overcome this fear. It worked!

I positioned myself at the front of bay 3 (70-90 minute swim time), figuring that my target time of 75-80 minutes would let me swim at the same speed as those around me. As it turns out this was a great decision. I was able to get away cleanly and by the time we merged with bays 1 and 2 the fast swimmers were already away and I had got into a good rhythm.

I managed to get in with a good bunch who all seemed to be able to swim in a mostly straight line. Got my stroke nice and smooth and my breathing nice and even. Being in a group like this creates a great drafting effect, meaning it's possible to swim quite fast with far less effort. Also the nice straight Outlaw swim course meant I didn't have to spend much time sighting as I have the fortune of generally being able to swim in a straight line in open water.

The swim seemed to fly by and I came out of the water with a swim time of 1:13:52 at a pace of 1:54/100m, so significantly quicker than expected. Got my wetsuit off fine, but a slight touch of cramp in both calf muscles while doing so was a bit worrying. Fortunately it didn't turn into a full cramp and eased off as soon as I started moving into the change tent – but did leave me with calf muscles tighter that I would have liked.

T1

I swam with my tri-suit under my wetsuit, so no need to get changed in T1. Just a quick foot dry and put some socks on. Number belt, gloves, sungalsses and bike hat plus a few essentials into the rear pockets. Transition time of 5:37, which I would have liked to have been at least a minute quicker. Need more practice getting stuff in and out of kit bags!

Bike

I had a brilliant bike leg. During my long training rides I'd been averaging a speed of just over 29kph on a slightly hillier route than the Outlaw. I was therefore hoping that less hills and race day fitness would allow me to push that above 30kph and thus hit the sub-6-hour bike split. It worked!

The bike course is made up of three loops. Over the first two I was averaging around 32kph. By the third lap I was starting to tire a bit but also my calf muscles continued to tighten up. Knowing that I'm prone to tight calves at the end of a marathon I took the decision to back off just a fraction to preserve my legs for the run as much as possible. However, I was able keep the average speed high and come home with a bike time of 5:58:26, so job definitely done.

Given that prior to starting training for the Outlaw I'd only ever done one ride over 100 miles, to achieve such a good bike time was more than I had hoped for. I also feel that I got the bike nutrition pretty much spot on (but that's covered in its own section later).

T2

Nothing particularly special about T2. The marshals rack your bike for you, which is most welcome. Then it's into the change tent to switch to run gear. I decided to run in my Saucony Type A6 racing flats and go with tie up laces. I felt the few seconds spent tying laces was well worth it given the extra comfort and fit over using elastic ones. Time in T2 was 3:15, which was good considering the amount of kit bag faffing involved!

Run

The run was tough: far harder than I was expecting. Given that I did a sub-3-hour marathon in 2016 I was hoping to breeze round a 3:30 with the goal of pushing for a 3:20 if possible. Having never done this distance triathlon before I was slightly caught out at just how hard the run would be directly after such a long swim and bike.

(Note: actually a 3:46:58 as my watch died 8km from the end!)

My run problems were three-fold: not getting my run plan right; not getting my run nutrition right; and the tight calf muscles carried over from the end of the swim and the bike leg. This resulted in a 1:43:53 first half of the marathon, followed by an abysmal 2:03:05 for the second half. I've certainly learnt some good stuff for the future! I think the main problem was that I approached the run as if it was a standalone marathon (something I was already familiar with) rather than the third element of a long distance tri.

A happy face at the start of the run

I'd done all my long brick sessions with a run at target race pace of 3:37/km, with runs up to 1 hours duration. Throughout the training I always felt comfortable at this pace so set my race plan accordingly to just come off the bike and hit and hold this as a steady pace. I also planned a run nutrition strategy around what I would normally do for a marathon (see the nutrition section below).

What I discovered about 18km into the marathon was that this strategy didn't work. I then had to slow down quite a lot and take more time in the feed stations getting my fuelling correct. However, the constant stopping and starting really aggravated my tight calves, meaning that for the second half of the run my form and efficiency were way below normal. The result being that the run became even harder and my pace slowed down to about 5:30/km, which is way slower than even my typical long run pace of 5:10/km.

Feeling the pain towards the end

The final half of the run just became a case of breaking the distance down into a series of short sections from the current feed station to the next, walk through the feed station taking on fluid and fuel, and then sum up the energy to start running to again towards the next feed station. On the plus side I did still manage to pick up the pace for the last lap of the lake and run faster down the finish funnel!

One further problem on the run was that my watch ran out of battery with 8km to go. Not a major issue as by that time I wasn't using it for pacing as I was just moving the best my legs would allow. However, it would have been a disaster if I was close to target pace and relying on the power data from my Stryd footpod.

Overall, happy to have finished the run in an acceptable time of 3:46:58. I learnt a lot and will definitely be planning a different strategy if (when) I ever do another long distance triathlon.

Nutrition

As already mentioned, my nutrition was a bit of a mixed bag. I think I got it pretty much right until I hit the run, as which point my plan was totally broken.

Pre-race was my standard approach of a huge bowl of porridge and a coffee for breakfast, followed by a banana and sipping a bottle of water about 30 minutes before racing.

On the bike I planned drinking four 750ml bottles of fluid: half water and half High-5 Zero electrolyte drink. Aiming to drink every 15 mins. Food wise I went with a mix of Chia Charge flapjack bars and small bags of pretzels. These were consumed as follows:

• 0:15:00 – Chia Charge bar
• 1:00:00 & 1:30:00 – half Chia Charge bar
• 2:00:00 – 30g pretzels
• 2:30:00 & 3:00:00 - half Chia Charge bar
• 3:30:00 – 30g pretzels
• 4:00:00 & 4:30:00 - half Chia Charge bar
• 5:00:00 – 30g pretzels
• 5:30:00 – Chia Charge bar

The first Chia Charge bar was to refuel after the swim. Then eating every 30 minutes was a great way to break down the ride into smaller segments (useful advice I got from a magazine article). This plan worked out at about 55g of carbs per hour, which I think was pretty much spot on for fuelling on the bike.

The only complaint I have about my bike fuel strategy was that I struggled with the very last Chia Charge bar being way too sweet. I don't normally each a huge amount of sweet carbs so I think five flapjack bars was a bit too much.

I came off the bike feeling well fuelled and hydrated ready for the run. (The fact I made it 18km into the run before problems hit shows I probably got it right). However, my run nutrition plan turned out to be rather lacking!

For a standalone marathon, my nutrition is usually to just take on a couple of mouthfuls of water every 5km and a 33Shake chia gel every 8km. This has always worked well for me, so that's what I went for. However, I didn't take account of the fact that my normal marathon nutrition is based on having reserves of fuel and hydration in my body at the start of the marathon, so my race intake is just top-up rather than replenishment.

On the first half of the run I ran through each feed station, taking a mouthful of water as I felt like it and hitting my chia gel intake at 8km and 16km as planned. However, the chia gels only have 11g of carbs each and I probably only drank about 100ml of fluid in the first part of the run. Therefore at about 18km I hit both energy and fluid deficit, which massively curtailed my pace.

Realising what was happening I backed off and make an effort over the next few aid stations to walk through them and take on plenty of electrolyte drink, some flat coke and a goodly number of Jaffa Cakes! It took about another 10km of this strategy before I felt my energy levels starting to restore.

The remaining 14km of the run I switched to a strategy of walking each feed station making sure that I kept fluid and fuel levels topped up. No more energy dips, but by this time my tight calf muscles were the main hindrance to me being able to get back to any measure of a decent running pace.

Learnings

Having never put all three event distances together in one go before there were always going to be lots of things to learn from the experience. This post details my analysis of my race and here are my list of learnings that I will take forward for the future:

• Pre-race massages for tight calves - I know that I generally suffer from tight calves, especially towards the end of a marathon. However at shorter distances it doesn't normally impact on my performance. For long distance events like this I need to spend more time ensuring that there's no tightness carried over from training into race day. A few visits to my sports massage guy in the weeks before race day will definitely be built into my training plan next time!
• More savoury items on the bike - fuelling on the bike was sound but too much sweet stuff, swap at least one flapkjack for something more savoury.
• Different race plan for the run - need to adapt the plan for the fact that it's not a standalone marathon. In particular adjust the target pace to allow for a few seconds of walking through the feed stations to ensure time to fully take on fluid and fuel.
• Better nutrition strategy for the start of the run - plan run nutrition to continue intake of around 55g of carbs per hour plus aiming to consume 1,500ml fluid over the marathon distance. This requires fully utilising the feed stations in the early stages of the run so that fuel reserves never drop too low.
• Different watch configuration - I had my bike watch config set to 'Good' GPS quality (rather than 'Best') but this still consumed too much battery. Reduce the GPS quality to 'Okay' for future long distance events .

Conclusions

It was a tough day with both high and low points. However, I finished my first long distance triathlon and smashed my 11:30:00 target by almost 22 minutes!

Will I do an iron distance triathlon again? Yes, probably

Next year? Definitely not!

I'm planning an easier year next year with some shorter distance triathlons, a few more running events and a bit more focus on athletics. Watch this space for a 2019 event though...

My First Century Ride

A couple of weekends ago I was blessed with a perfect set of riding conditions:

• The kids were away on holiday with my Mother-in-law
• My wife was off to the races for the afternoon and evening
• The weather was forecast as dry and warm but with a bit of cloud cover

I therefore decided to attempt my first ever 100 mile ride. Up until this point my previous longest rides had all been in the 50 to 55 mile range. This was therefore a big step up from anything I've done before.

Here's how it went...

Route Planning

I'd spent a good few hours playing around with some different routes. I wanted to start out with some familiar territory and then go on to explore some places I've never been before. However, to avoid getting lost too much, I decided that each new part of the route would link up with places I was familiar with. The result was a nice mix of alternating new and familiar roads and places.

I planned the route on Strava and then replicated it onto Movescount so that I could sync it to my Ambit3. The route following option on the Ambit3 is great as you can display a nice map on the watch that follows along based on your GPS location. This ensured that I didn't take any wrong turns throughout the ride. The planned route was 173km.

Next I looked at the elevation profile for the route and noticed that it looked quite hilly, mainly because I was taking in quite a lot of the North Wessex Downs. However, as I really wanted to enjoy the countryside and the views, and I wasn't under any particular time constraints, I decided to stick with my plan rather than alter it to something flatter but less interesting.

Preparation

My preparation was fairly thorough. I gave my bike a good service and prepared all my kit well in advance. Strava was predicting an estimated moving time of a bit under six and a half hours for my chosen route, so I used this as a basis for planning nutrition along the way (see later).

I also prepared myself a little route cue sheet listing the road numbers and towns as a backup to the Ambit3. I later found out that Strava route planner actually provides a cue sheet that you can use!

In my saddle bag I had the usual set of tools and spares: inner tube, puncture kit, tyre levers, multi-tool, chain tool (which was a ride saver - see later) and some tissues. In my jersey pockets I had: mobile phone, credit card, cash, another inner tube and my food.

Pre-ride

The morning before the ride I went to Parkrun as usual and, given I had no kids to run round with, decided to smash out a full effort and try for a new PB. It was pretty hot and I managed an 18:25 for the 5k - 8 seconds off my current PB. With hindsight this was perhaps not the best pre-milestone ride warm-up strategy!

After Parkrun it was a case of having a good sized meal, getting kitted up, applying body glide to the required places, dropping my wife to the station and then setting off. This all took a little longer than I'd expected, so I didn't set off until about 40 minutes later than I'd planned.

Dealing with a Broken Chain

The initial part of the ride was going nicely. I completed the first 40km with no problem, sustaining an estimated average power of 174W with an average speed of 28.1km/h. Very happy with this as most of the first part of the route was a gradual climb up onto the downs.

Then from about 40km I started noticing a small bump while peddling. Felt like something was loose somewhere or that there was a stiff chain link. I stopped a couple of times and gave the bike a quick once over but didn't immediately spot anything. I was planning a slightly longer stop at around 65km so decided to press on and do a more thorough investigation at that point. This proved to be a bad decision as at 63km, on the steepest hill of the ride, my chain fell off!

Recovering the broken chain I moved off the side of the road, whipped out my trusty chain link tool and started repairs. Fortunately it was just a link popped open and using the tool it was easy enough to force it back into shape and re-insert the pin. A good lesson here is to make sure you know how to use the tools you are carrying: they are just dead weight otherwise.

Fortunately I've fixed a few chains over the years, so it wasn't a huge problem. Although I did rush a bit and didn't thread the chain through the rear mech correctly the first time and then had to do it all over again. Doh! In all I lost about 25 minutes fixing the chain. Also I learnt that grass is a pretty good way of removing grease from hands.

Mental Toughness

Once the chain was fixed I got back on the bike and started off again. Mid-way up a steep hill, struggling to get moving again and annoyed at the wasted time the last thing I really needed was the 'trying to be helpful' cyclist coming down the hill shouting across "you need to pedal faster". Thanks!

The next 30kms were really tough - behind schedule and realising that the later start and unexpected delay would mean needing to complete the remaining 100km of the ride without a major break in order to finish in daylight. Then there was 15kms of almost continual up hill. At this point I seriously considered cutting the ride short at Hungerford (100km) and heading home.

Fortunately I then reached a long 20km stretch of downhill and flat road where I was able to get back to averaging 30.8km/h on an estimated average power output of just 131w. This gave my legs a chance to recover and my mojo to return. By the time I reached Hungerford I was both mentally and physically ready to carry on for the remaining 70km of the ride.

The remainder of the ride remained both physically and mentally tough, but I’d got myself through the down period and was now fully focussed on realising my 100 mile goal.

Hydration and Nutrition

I'd set out on the ride with two 750ml bottles, one with water and one with electrolytes. I don't tend to drink much on the bike, so was pretty confident this would be sufficient. However, the warm weather and hilly nature of the route meant I was getting through fluids far quicker than expected. A quick stop at a Hungerford newsagent and I refilled with water and Lucozade Sport. These drinks lasted for the reminder of the ride, with plenty of water still left.

Food-wise I decided to go with a mix of Eat Natural bars and trail mix. I picked these because they are both carb rich and I know I can eat them in reasonable quantities without any gastro-intestinal problems. Much better than energy gels or bars. Based on my typical energy burn rate on the bike I estimated needing about 1 bar every 60-75 minutes, topped up with some trail mix every 30-45 minutes in between.

 

I therefore packed 5 bars and half a bag of trail mix. I also purchased a bag of crisps on route to top up sodium levels. I came back with one bar remaining. I think I got the nutrition just about right as I felt my energy levels remained good right to the end of the ride and I didn't suffer any post-ride energy dip.

The Final Stages

The last 30kms of the ride were hard work. While I still had good energy levels, it was starting to get dark and my legs were feeling very tired. The steep hill up from Overton up to Kingsclere was an absolute killer. I had to dig very deep to make it to the top without stopping. Just after the top I hit the 100 miles (160km) distance with a very happy cheer and a big air punch!

From Kingsclere I’d planned to go out towards Ashford Hill and Brimpton before heading back home to Thatcham. However, with the light fading fast and the 100 mile mark already passed I opted to the slightly shorter and more direct route home. This only chopped 3km off the planned route, but by this time my legs had had enough and I was just pleased to be home.

The Aftermath

Surprisingly I didn't suffer any major ill effects from the ride. No chaffing shows I got the body glide and Vaseline application right. The next day I didn't really have any leg stiffness and wasn't really saddle sore either. In fact I was able to go out for a gentle 30km ride with a friend - a great active recovery. Probably the only parts of my body suffering any aches were my arms and my neck. The neck was the most sore just from being in a riding position with my head lifted up for such a long period of time. Felt generally tired for a couple of days and then returned to full on training.

Stats for the ride were: 170.6km covered in 7:11:49, with 6:19:16 of that spent moving. Fifty minutes lost to chain repairs, refuel stop and a couple of comfort breaks. Average speed was 24.7km/h with a top speed of 64.8km/h. Average heartrate was 148bpm, which was pretty good considering how hilly the route was. Estimated average power was 145w, with estimated normalised power being 197w (wish I could afford a power meter!).

Learnings

The main conclusion is that I now know I can complete a 100 mile ride and that I want to do it again in the future. I've also gained a new respect for Ironman athletes, being able to do that ride distance and then run a marathon straight after. However, it's also given me confidence that with the right training plan I could complete the iron distance (3.8km swim, 180km ride, 42.2km run) event and probably with a fairly decent age grouper time of between 12 and 13 hours.

The ride also re-enforced the requirement that I not only carry repair tools but that I need to make sure I can use them properly and efficiently. I also learnt that I know my bike really well and that as soon as I notice any change in sound or feeling from the bike then I need to stop and find out what's up rather than ploughing on and hoping to sort it out later.

I'll certainly be looking out for another free day in my schedule and filling it up with another long ride.

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 3

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In the previous post I looked at how I followed my training plan and managed my nutrition during the training period.

In this third post I'm going to cover my race preparation and race day strategy.

Race Preparation

After booking in to Brighton Marathon I'd also entered both Bath and Reading half marathons as race preparation events. Bath was six weeks before Brighton and Reading just three. The aim was to run Bath as a flat out effort to assess progress and then run Reading as marathon paced training run.

Bath Half

My plan going in to Bath Half was to aim to run in the 4:05/km to 4:10/km pace range (6:35 to 6:40 per mile) and then, if feeling strong, pick up the pace towards the end of the race. The day dawned pleasant but with a fairly strong breeze that would present itself as a headwind for a significant part of the course.

Even with the wind, I had a cracking run at Bath and reduced my PB from 1:30:01 down to 1:26:09. I also managed to run each of the last 5 kilometres at sub-4:00/km pace and still felt that I had a bit left in the tank as well. This gave me a lot of confidence that my training plan was going well. I was really glad I made the effort to include this additional race into my calendar.

Reading Half

My great result at Bath left me with a small dilemma for Reading. I'd always planned to run this race as a marathon pace training effort, but I still felt I could run a faster half marathon, especially if the conditions were more favourable.

I weighed up the options as decided that as I was feeling strong and healthy I would therefore race Reading rather than treat it as a training run. My reasoning being that another really strong half marathon would give me a greater confidence boost than just completing another training run.

My feeling was correct and I was able to maintain an average 3:58/km (6:24/mile) pace for an improved PB of 1:24:33. This was the exact confidence boost that I has hoped for. The only downside was that a second full effort half marathon in just three weeks made for a slower recovery. But, with the taper for Brighton started and a sports massage in the middle of the taper I was able to get the legs back in good shape in plenty of time.

I'd strongly recommend that if you are approaching a marathon you include a couple of races in the couple of months before. Having more race experience and a way to measure the result of your training makes planning for the marathon a much easier task. If you can also hit a PB in a shorted event along the way then you are setting yourself up with a great mindset going into the big day.

Race Strategy

I'd been thinking long and hard about race strategy for months, but this became a major consideration in the three weeks leading up to the race.

Pacing

When I signed up for Brighton, my target time was 3:10:00. This seemed appropriate given my then half marathon PB of 1:30:01 and my goal of a good-for-age entry to London in 2016 (which requires a sub-3:15 marathon for the 41-50 age group). My initial race plan was therefore to target a steady pace of 4:24/km (7:05/mile) which would result in a time of 3:07:00 - giving some buffer time for a slow start, congestion on the course, slowing at drink stations and similar.

However, my great results at Bath and Reading half marathons got me really starting to question whether my target time and strategy were aggressive enough, especially given how well my training had gone. A half marathon time of 1:24:33 put me tantalisingly close to being able to break the magic three hour marathon mark. My feeling was that it would be really great to hit this milestone in my debut marathon, but at the same time I didn't want to risk going too hard, detonating and missing my good-for-age target time.

After much deliberation I decided on a strategy that would give me an opportunity to target a sub-three hour time if things were going well but that wouldn't take too much out of me early in the race, saving energy for if things got tough. The final strategy that I went into the race with was:

• Start to 14km (9 miles): 4:20/km (7:00/mile)
• 14km to 28km (miles 9 to 18): 4:15/km (6:50/mile)
• 28km to end (18 miles+): If feeling strong then 4:10/km (6:40/mile) otherwise remain at 4:15/km

If all went well then this would average out at around 4:15/km, which would be pretty much spot on the 3 hour mark. I was also quietly confident of being able to maintain the slower 4:15/km pace for the final third of the race if things weren't working out. As it turns out, I wasn't able to fully follow this plan, but that's a subject for the final post in this series.

Nutrition

Given my fairly low carb, high fat and protein paleo diet, I opted to avoid the typical massive carb fest in the few days before the race. Instead I just ate my normal diet but substituted porridge into my breakfast and rice into my evening meals. I was pretty confident with my body's ability to efficiently burn fuel based on the vast number of mostly fasted miles I'd put in over the months of training.

Race day breakfast was my usual large bowl of porridge with a 33Shake All In One Shake mixed in. I usually eat this three hours before the start of the race.

About an hour before the race I then have a couple of low fat and fibre ginger cookies that I make following a recipe on Runners World. I find these nicely settle my tummy without causing any digestion problems during the race.

In-race nutrition was to be provided by four 33Shake Chia Gels, which I would consume at kilometres 8, 16, 24 and 32 (miles 5, 10, 15 and 20). I've been training with these natural energy gels for months and have found them very digestable with a good slow release of energy, rather than the massive sugar hit and crash that you get with normal energy gels.

Hydration

My pre-race hydration plan is to drink plenty of water with breakfast. This ensures good starting hydration levels for the day but gives you an opportunity to flush everything through before lining up to race. Definitely don't want to be starting out with a partly-full bladder and needing to take a pee stop mid-race. I then sip some water on the start line just as a final top up before the off. I didn't see any reason to change this strategy that has always worked for me in the past.

For this year, Brighton Marathon opted to use paper cups, instead of the more common pouches or bottles, for both water and gatorade. Their stated reasons for this choice being that it's more environmentally friendly and also that it allows them to have drink stations every mile throughout the race.

My plan was to consume only water, as I haven't ever used any energy drinks and don't really see the need to do so. With drink stations every mile, I intended to take on water every other mile and therefore have the option for additional water if needed in the intermediate period.

I didn't bother practising with cups as I've used them in previous (10k) races with no trouble. I also didn't even consider the prospect of having additional fluid handed to me along the course. As we will see in the final part of this series, these omissions may have been a less than ideal strategy.

Ready to Race

With a successful preparation and a clear race strategy it was time to get down to the running. My performance in the race and what I learnt as a result will be the subject of the final post in this series.

Journey to My First Marathon – Part 2

On 12th April 2015 I took part in Brighton Marathon, my first ever marathon event. In this series of four posts I will be talking about my marathon build-up, training, performance and what I learnt along the way.

In the first post I looked at how I selected Brighton Marathon and other build-up races and how I selected and customised my training plan.

In this post I'm going to cover my build-up to training, the execution of my training plan and the nutrition strategy that I adopted to take me through training.

Build Up

Unfortunately I picked up a tendonitis injury in my foot that put me out of action for much of September (too much running on the beach!). I knew that my training plan was starting in the second week of December and that it suggested I should be running 70km (45 miles) per week before I started it.

October and November were thus spent slowly increasing the number and length of runs starting at around 30km (20 miles) per week. I did all these runs very slowly at a pace of around 5:30/km (8:50/mile) so that heart rate was always kept well in the aerobic zone (130-141 bpm). It was tough to stick to, what for me, is a fairly slow pace, but I think building a strong aerobic base and allowing the foot to heal properly set me in really good stead for the training that came after.

By the end of November I was comfortably running 7 or 8 times (mainly to and from work) and covering around 70km each week. I was also maintaining one swim session per week. I was ready to start training in earnest...

Following the plan

The plan worked out really well. I managed to stay healthy and free of any major injury. This allowed me to train consistently for the whole 18 weeks. In fact, I didn't miss a single session which I think really helped with being in top form. I also managed to keep a 100% score on Jantastic as well!

Luckily the only small niggle that I picked up was a tight achilles on my left leg. This was primarily linked to very tight calf muscles in my left leg. As long as I kept these well stretched and mobile then the achilles didn't really hamper my training.

There's no doubt that the plan was tough. In particular the presence of a medium-long run (16-19km / 10-12 miles) each week in addition to a long run meant that most sessions were done on fairly tired legs. Also, most beginner marathon plans I've seen tend to build up to just one or two very long runs (27km/17 mile+) at the end, while the P&D plan had me doing 9 very long runs over the 18 weeks of the plan.

I did find that about half way through the 18 weeks I had to change the plan slightly. On four days each week I was running to work as a session and then doing a short (3.5km) recovery run home again. As the main runs got longer and harder I decided that this was resulting in too much running. So, I dropped the second runs on Monday and Friday and cycled to work instead on those days. This certainly aided recovery and freshness and I don't think I could have completed the plan as successfully without making this change.

Focus of the plan

The P&D plans don't focus very much on speed work, assuming that the speed is already there and that you just want to increase endurance and the ability to maintain that speed over a longer period of time. This was just fine for me, although I did find that as my fitness improved my threshold pace was also getting faster as well.

The other thing that the plan is quite light on is actual marathon pace work. I think there were only about three or four sessions that had any marathon pace elements scheduled and even these were only partial sections of a longer run. The core plan was primarily about long and medium slow runs, general aerobic conditioning, lactate threshold runs and then, towards the end, some VO2 max work as well. I'll touch on this further in the final post where I review what I've learnt.

Pacing and heart rate

The P&D plan structures all of its sessions based on heart rate zones: starting with a heart rate reserve (max HR – resting HR) and then defining training zones based on that reserve. These work out as follows (with my max HR as 186 and resting HR at 56):

• Recovery: less than 70% of reserve + resting HR = below 147 bpm
• General Aerobic: 62% to 75% of reserve + resting HR = 136 to 153 bpm
• Medium/Long Run: 65% to 78% of reserve + resting HR = 140 to 157 bpm
• Marathon Pace: 73% to 84% of reserve + resting HR = 150 to 165 bpm
• Lactate Threshold: 77% to 88% of reserve + resting HR = 156 to 170 bpm
• VO2 Max: 91% to 94% of reserve + resting HR = 174 to 178 bpm

I pretty much stuck to these zones for all my training on the plan. On a typical day these heart rates translated to roughly the following paces:

• Recovery: 5:30/km (8:35/mile)
• General Aerobic: about 5:15/km (8:17/mile)
• Medium/Long Run: about 5:08/km (8:00/mile)
• Marathon Pace: about 4:24/km (7:05/mile)
• Lactate Threshold: about 4:05/km (6:35/mile)
• VO2 Max: about 3:50/km (6:10/mile)

Lactate Threshold pace in particular improved from about 4:10/km at the start of the training to 3:58/km that I maintained at Reading Half Marathon.

Mental Discipline

It was however surprisingly difficult to maintain the required heart rate zones and paces. On a good day it was really tempting to go a bit faster. On a bad day it was a real challenge summing up enough pace to get into the required heart rate zone. On a really bad day, trying to keep in the heart rate zone and a good pace at the same time was almost impossible. Still, the end results seem to have been good so it was certainly worth the hard work that this involved.

I also think that the mental concentration required to maintain both pace and heart rate was excellent preparation for race conditions. As it's impossible to run and continually look at a watch, I developed a very good feel for both how fast I was travelling and my current level of exertion. Add to that being able to concentrate on these aspects of running this for long periods of time and you have most of the mental skills in place for a longer duration race like a marathon.

Equipment

With all of my training taking place within defined heart rate zones, having the right equipment was essential. First off, every single run involved use of a heart rate monitor chest strap. I'm quite lucky that I don't suffer any discomfort from these, but getting one that is really comfortable makes a big difference. Secondly a really decent GPS running watch that supports heart rate zone training is also a very worthwhile investment.

The first few weeks of training were carried out with my trusty iPhone running the iSmoothRun App and my Pebble smartwatch for display purposes. Fortunately I was the recipient of a Suunto Ambit3 watch for Christmas and this made the rest of the training programme a much more enjoyable experience. Just running without a slab of glass strapped round your arm was a huge win. I tend to run without any music, so needing nothing other than a watch and the HRM strap was great.

Shoes

I used a number of different shoes during training. Most of my general and longer runs were done in Saucony Echelon 3. These are a great neutral shoe with a reasonable amount of cushioning. I also did plenty of other runs in my Saucony Peregrine 4 trail shoes, especially when my off-road routes started to get a bit wet and muddy. All of my faster sessions were carried out in Saucony Kinvara 4, swapping to a pair of Kinvara 5 towards the end as these are a very lightweight shoe that are great for going fast in! I used the Kinvara 5 for all my races as well, including the marathon.

Nutrition

Back at the beginning of 2014 I swapped from a typical UK diet to more of a paleo style diet. This involved reducing carbohydrate intake, increasing protein intake and swapping to less processed and sugary foods that are high in natural fats. In particular my meals changed to:

• Breakfast: cereal and fruit juice became half a grapefruit, salad, poached eggs, avocado and water.
• Morning snack: remained as cheese and a cracker
• Lunch: sandwiches and a low-fat yoghurt became roasted veg, sweet potato, smoked mackerel and a full-fat yoghurt.
• Afternoon snack: fruit, dates, peanut/almond butter and oat cakes replaced biscuits or cake.
• Dinner: normal meals but mostly eliminating high-carb items like pasta, pizza, bread and potatoes.
• Evening snack: milk and dark chocolate.
• Drinks: black tea, coffee and significantly more water (I was already teetotal).

Supplements

The only supplement that I take is Zinc Matrix, which I have found really helps with keeping hormone levels in balance and aids recovery while sleeping. Since taking these tablets before bed I've certainly noticed better quality sleep and waking up much fresher in the morning. Other than the Zinc Matrix, all my other nutrition needs are taken care of by a healthy diet.

Impact on health and performance

I credit a change in diet to significant improvements in my running ability. I've found it much easier to keep my weight under control and maintain a very lean physique. I certainly didn't find myself lacking for energy during any part of the training.

The fact that I didn't have any illness throughout the training period is probably also down to eating very healthily. There also appears to be a strong link between eating sufficient protein and quality fats and the body's ability to recover and repair injury. Again, I think my diet definitely helped keep me injury free and able to put the maximum into my training.

Fuelling for training runs

The vast majority of my training runs all took place first thing in the morning, even the long runs. For a General Aerobic, Lactate Threshold or VO2 Max session I would generally get up, have a glass of water and then head straight out. For my long and medium-long runs I'd typically get up and have half a grapefruit and perhaps a banana with my water. Breakfast would be consumed after returning from the run.

I firmly believe that doing most of my training in a largely fasted state combined with changing my diet has significantly improved my fat burning ability and allows me to run quite efficiently without needing to injest large amounts of carbohydrates. I'll revisit this assumption in the next parts of this series when I look at my race preparation and performance.

As most of my runs were done very early and on cold, dark mornings I found very little need to drink much during training. It was only really on the long 28km (16 mile) plus runs that I bothered with any water. Even for those all I did was place a couple of small bottles of water on my route at the 1/3 and 2/3 distances. A few sips was generally enough in most cases.

On my long runs I also consumed energy gels following the same pattern that I intended to adopt during the marathon. I've never really been a big fan of the maltodextrin based gels and they certainly don't work well with my paleo style diet. Instead I've switched over to 33Shake chia seed based gels. These are much more natural and provide a much slower release of energy as opposed to the massive sugar hit of normal gels.

During long runs I would generally consume gels at 8k, 16k and 24k and this was sufficient to see me to the end of the run. Included in the post-long-run breakfast I also had a 33Shake All In One Shake as part of my refuel and recovery routine. I found their nutrition worked really well and was very compatible with my dietary needs.

Getting Ready to Race

With the training plan going well and a healthy diet in place it was time to start preparing for the big race. This will be the subject of the next post in this series.