The Big Week, training for Celtman/Norseman double.

Apologies for the lack of blogging recently but that does usually mean I have been up to plenty, training has to take priority and keeping focussed is key, as I was reminded by a few friends recently. If man calls you a horse call him a fool, but if two do buy yourself a saddle..or at least get sat on the bike one. :)

We have had the Big Day blog, so here is the big week, a training camp of sorts but no travelling involved. The Lake District provides all I need for the races that inspire me so as always I do my best to use it, sometimes even the weather plays ball! If not no worries, at least come race day I can welcome whatever conditions are thrown at me, knowing I have trained in worse.

Bit of background, I had a tough couple of weeks, lots on as well as training and work, a few disappointing sessions, then I got a cold the day before a race I had entered. I took a few days rest and then booked 5 days off from work. The goal was to get back on track, mainly swimming. Blair Davies  scheduled 5 swims for me (love checking training peaks for these!), I planned a recce of an English Champs fell race (Duddon) ) and wanted to get plenty of time on the bike in too. I had a trip to Dublin for a christening at the end of the week so I would get a rest during this time.

So I might schedule 2/3 weeks like this in my build up to racing Celtman and Norseman, both really ultra distance triathlons and with only 5 weeks to recover between. A week like this is pretty hard on the body, so recovery and nutrition are super important. I find CurraNZ such a help to get through sessions/weeks like this and honestly see it as key to the gains I have made this winter so far. 2 caps a couple of hours before my main session for the day seems to work wonders, for recovery and during the training itself, particularly in my experience for threshold work. I have also added some Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA), Glutamine and Beta Alanine to my diet, before and after training. This has also been great for recovery as I have stepped up the training this year, thanks TrecNutrition!

First up was a 5hr day in the fells, 1800m of ascent and about 30km. Off trail on pretty rough ground, a tough start to the week but maybe best to get it out of the way :). It had everything that I love about training in the mountains, almost perfect weather and great company. The sort of session I would normally expect a bit of Doms from...

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55332968

Day 2 and the first of 6 swims in 7 days. The thing I love most about Blair's coaching is the variety. Every set has different paces/recovery/focusses but I swim hard, short, long, threshold, you name it. All carefully thought out and scheduled, most importantly specific to my goals. I would like to be racing in Norway, so getting completely left behind on the swim is not an option. My sessions reflect this, but also they also allow me to recover. Today was 6x100, Max effort, with 6mins active recovery between. My Max effort are now 10secs quicker than this time last year, most importantly I am feeling stronger all the time at holding pace. The gains are still coming!

I also did a steady 50min turbo, zone2 and a short bike to spin the legs out from yesterdays efforts. Guess what, no sign of the dreaded Doms, a little heavy to start but warmed up fine. 

Day 3, 1hr30 in the pool, more Max 100's but also an aerobic set to finish. The long warm up with drills etc made up for a tough set and I felt a little tired from yesterday.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55509711

Today was also long bike day. I don't really like to just go out and plod, so had one sub-threshold 20min interval on flat/rolling planned the a challenging section with lots of hills for more of the same. It was an awesome day for riding, 5hrs in the saddle, with plenty of quality. My biking is a lot stronger than last year, good to confirm this out on the long rides. This is a classic lake district training loop, well worth a look if your after a beautiful, challenging ride without a super steep pass.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55537283

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55537161

Day 4, 1hr pool, aerobic/endurance focus, 10x200, even splits, every second with pull buoy. Starting to get back into the swimming now.

The afternoon was 2.5hrs on the fells, with the focus being about 1hr, uphill at just below threshold. A weather front hit just as I reached the top, epic! It was hard to run down hill, straight into it. Lucky I had packed the extra kit, finished of with 30mins low level trail running then had a massive cup of tea and warmed back up!

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55619241

Day 5, today I feel like a swimmer, 4 days on, sessions challenging but manageable and recovery great. First goal of the week complete, swimming feels back on track!

Bike today was short but steady, on the TT bike. Another route I used a lot last year, 1 short steady climb with a 10mile flat section. I will be back here for some intervals through April and May, great for tuning into flat\rolling race specific paces. Steady effort level.

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55704022

One more swim to go before a rest day, but have to admit I am enjoying it now! It would be a Blair Davies special with the words hard before it though! Bring it on!

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move55795887

20x50 Max effort with 40secs rest, plus an aerobic set to finish. I ended up doing 25 due to a busy pool and miscount, have to admit the rest day was such an appealing thought after the session! Sorry arms!

A rest day the onto swim number seven. I had just under an hour in a 50m pool (love them!) So did 4x100  hard, 2x200 pull, 4x100 hard, 2x200 pull with a warm up and cool down. Swim was confirmed back on track!

In the evening I did 30mins tempo on the road, not far off managing a 10km pb in the 45min 12km session, must have been the CurraNZ and good Dublin air ;).

http://www.movescount.com/moves/move56124788

I won't bore you with a full run down of the stats but it was about 25hrs in 7 days, with plenty of swimming, quality and hills. A good solid week in the bank, best thing is I carried on into the current week feeling great, no recovery issues or niggles. A good test of the winters hard work. Thanks Curranz and TrecNutrition :) Looking forward to an easier week next week though, race season is getting closer and I cannot wait to get started! 

First up will be the awesome HighTerrain Events Winlatter Extreme Duathlon, hoping the weather allows the full 1st run course this year! Maybe see you there. :)

Snow, Ice, No problem!

Couple of short films from Steve at MovieIt, I love to keep my training outdoors as much as possible, after all its the reason I race! As long as the quality is going in as well I find it stands me in good stead, as being able to deal with whatever conditions are thrown at me on race day is a skill that needs practice too. Hope you enjoy them :)

http://www.talentbacker.com/talents/view/chris-stirling

Post by Chris Stirling.

Post by Chris Stirling.

Extracts from the training diary

Well it has been a busy few months since kicking off training in Dec after a relaxed Oct and Nov. The diary was not filled in during Nov but I did a little swimming, biking and running, taking it steady and just enjoying myself. I knew it would be a good idea to reset with the season goals I had in mind, I already knew my goals for the season in September and luckily it all came together! I took 1 complete week off but with no injuries/niggles I did not feel I needed any more, just a very reduced volume for about 6 weeks to make sure I came into winter training fresh, motivated and ready.  

The end of February will mark 3 months of proper training so far. Year on year I have increased total hours training a little over the months, the goal for February will be 70+hrs compared to last year’s 56. I have completed 45 already so right on target. The plan is to hold that or increase a little during March before the build begins in April and May. I prefer keeping a check on hours rather than being to big on miles, the terrain I tend to train in does not lend itself to mileage, as time and effort on feet vary so much in the differing conditions. A 10km run can take 3hrs in certain conditions, or 40mins on the road, gives you an idea what I mean! Most importantly it’s specific to my goals. 

I briefly mentioned in another post I have started working with Blair Davies Coaching for my swimming. It has been going unbelievably well and really showed me how little I knew about proper swim training. The gains have been huge, quick but hard won, I have found out to swim faster the path is not easy plodding focusing on technique! Looking forward to the CSS test next week but I can see the improvements already in my times during intervals. I have been swimming 4 times a week regularly since New Year, 2x45mins short sessions and 2 longer swims, up to 1hrs30.  

My most recent session was as follows- 4km total 

10min front crawl/Back crawl 

5min Drills 

4x200m with band and buoy, getting faster with each rep 

8x100 race pace with 10secs rest 

2x400 with band and buoy, 75% recovery 

8x100 max effort with 40secs rest 

200m back crawl 

My shoulder were lost somewhere on the last 3 100’s, if anyone finds them I would be grateful of their return. Most importantly, the rest of the pacing was very even, 1-3secs difference max. So the swim is on track to be faster and still lots of hard work to do. It’s been great having the experience of being coached, I have learnt a lot but also love just looking at each session, seeing the challenge and trying complete it. If I don’t, as long as I have given my all, no worries, it will come. If you are looking for a coach, I cannot recommend Blair enough, but be warned it will not be easy. Often nothing worth it is though! 

I have also been working hard to improve my biking again and build on last year’s success but have changed a lot from last year. The biggest change has been to introduction of some VO2Max training! Brutal, highly effective and very time efficient. Massive thanks to my friend Andrew who introduced to me the delights, through Jesper Bondi Medhaus’s training manual, http://www.training4cyclists.com/about/.Worth seeking out for sure!  It’s about making every second count in your training, very useful for us triathlete’s trying to be good at 3 different sports at the same time! 

The session is very simple, which I like :)-

20min incremental warm up, building to just below threshold, finishing with 5 mins easy pedalling before starting the intervals. 

3x3mins with 3mins recovery between each, effort level for VO2max is extremely hard, the hardest effort you could sustain for 5mins max. Think if I go any harder I will pass out and fall off the bike effort.  

10min cool down 

I use a mixture of cadence, HR and perceived effort level to control the intervals. They are hard to pace, it’s a fine line between going anaerobic and hitting the correct intensity. Not for the faint of heart but defiantly a high suffrage score if you like that sort of thing. I am currently using it in a 3 week block, once a week. I am focusing a little more on some quality and intensity early on this year then will be switching to more race specific intervals on longer rides during the next month and the build. My thinking is if I can shift that threshold up a notch my race pace effort will be a little faster or leave some spare in the tank for the run. So far its working, the longer rides I have done I am feeling much better than this time last year, the endurance is there already. 

On the cards for March will be a trip up to Torridon for some training on the Celtman course, cannot wait!

Will leave it there for now, hope everyone’s training is going well, train hard and train smart!

Lakes Skiing and Talent Backer Campaign for NXTRI 2015

Short update on progress towards NXTRI 2015, Training is so far going fantasicaly, steady progress in all areas with a solid base is developing on which I can start to build in April and May. Training hours have been 15-20hrs with some good months up to 70hrs. A little higher than last year which is perfect without being over the top. Working full time on top its about as much as I can manage for now but plenty of time for the body to adapt and I will be able to up that for the build period.

Managed a fun day out on the skis, not so often we get to do that here in the Lakes so it was cool to make the most of it.

On another note I have started a Talent Backer Campaign in order to help me cover the expenses for the race in Norway. I would really appreciate it if you could take a look and maybe share the link, any help would be much appreciated.

http://www.talentbacker.com/talents/view/chris-stirling

If anyone has any other ideas or thinks that I could help you out in anyway feel free to get in touch, it would be great to hear from you.

http://www.talentbacker.com/talents/view/chris-stirling

Loch Gu Loch, Breaking the ice!

Sometimes a race comes along and captures the imagination,  you know you will have to do as it has all the elements that you look for in an adventure, combined with a racing environment. Loch Gu Loch is one of those races!

Does it catch your attention?? Inspired by the famous OtillO Swim Run in Sweden, we will swim 8.5km and run 63km in a continous point to point journey from Urquhart Castle on the shores of Lochness to Fort Augustus in the south. The running is at least 95% on a variety of trails and the swim begins with a 2km crossing of Lochness and finishes on the banks of Fort Augustus Abbey. The word EPIC is not enough, this is going to be some day out!

Brought to us by the team behind The Celtman!, it has all the makings of a classic with the same international family feel and adventurous spirit.

The guys asked if I would like a trip up the Inverness to check out the course and gather some images for the website. They employed the expert services of adventure photographer Colin Henderson to capture some images of the amazing course. These photos the results of his work, in tricky conditions as you can see! Obviously a pro. :)


I had a great weekend with Colin and Katia and can defiantly say I cannot wait for the race in September. Its going to be a long but awesome season!

Thanks to Colin for allowing me the use of his great photos, you can see more of his work on his website.

NOOO Katia!

Thinking light thoughts!

Lets both stand on the ice...

Nearly there, the descent to Loch Tarf

                                                                                                                                                                          

The Big Day

Striding Edge

Every now and then I find it good to test myself and stretch the limits a little in training. This is where occasional 'Big Days' can be combined with a bit of adventure to give the perfect test of current endurance and most importantly to train the mind. Most important for the races I am training for where I know from experience that you will quit in your head long before the body is finished. It also gives a good chance to practice fueling and nutrition.


It just so happened that the end of a week 3 coincided with some amazing snowy and icy conditions in the hills of the Lake District, week 4 is recovery so what better time to throw in a big day. Steve from MovieIt, always up for an adventure came along and it also gave us time to test kit for a little project up in Torridon planned for this winter.


The day started at 6.30 am in the swimming pool. I have recently started working with Blair Davies coaching (highly recommended) and am slowly learning the meaning of swim training! I am getting faster and enjoying the challenging workouts and this mornings session was no different. A main set of 5x150 with 20 secs rest, 8/10 effort level, repeated twice followed by a few long aerobic intervals. I left the pool after 1hr 15 with that slight wobble that an early morning lactic acid bath induces. Quick change and onto the bike to cycle 15 miles home and get ready for the main part of the day.

Kit!

I was late, Steve was ready waiting for me and we were soon standing outside the fire station hitching a lift the Threlkeld were the days running would start. A very kind fireman gave us a lift and we were soon jogging up to Sharp Edge on Blencathra, a grade 1/2 scramble that leads onto the summit of the mountain, that was covered in snow and ice. My Petzl Vasak crampons worked superbly on my La Sportiva Bushido running shoes and we were soon descending Halls Fell ridge, another classic scrambly alpine feeling ridge that sprouts from the summit of Blencathra. It was actually easier and faster to descend than in wet/summer conditions. Little runnels of soft snow filled in the awkward gullys and steps that usually make it hard going. Back in Threlkeld in a fairly swift 2 hrs it was time to get the thumb out again for a hitch to the next objective, Helvelyn, the crucible of after work run alpinism ;).

Steve is a seasoned hitcher with a big thumb but it still took 30mins to get a lift down to Stanah where we decided to take the steep, long ascent to Sticks pass. Skis would have been great for this ascent, soft snow all the way to the col, it felt a long slog but the views made it worth the effort. The Dodds ridge line that leads to Helvelyn, over Raise, Whiteside and the Low Man was a mixture of soft snow, rock hard neve and a thick glaze of ice in places. Again the Vasak Crampons and Bushido combo worked well.

Hitching Pro!

Low Man Summit

By the time we reached Helvelyn the sun was beginning to set but it was one of those evening when the light just did not seem to want to leave. The descent of Swirral edge was great, similar to Halls Fell, powdery snow filling in the gaps making progress easier than usual. I love it when the ridges are like this, it feels a little like the Alps, it could almost be the Grand Montets ridge. Striding edge was in fantastic condition too, but the legs were staring to feel it now. We both knew once we were at the top it was downhill to Dunmail Raise so no probs, just plod on and get to the top.

Steve on Striding Edge head wall

On the way to Dolly Wagon along the ridge the sunset really kicked off, with no else around it felt pretty special to be finishing such a great day out at this time. We took the off piste descent down the ridge to Dunmail rather than heading for Grizedale tarn and the main path down the gill. We reached Dunmail as it got dark and were quickly picked up by the first passing car for a lift back to Ambleside. Cup of tea and feet up time! An 8hr training day in the bank for the Celtman/Norseman cause and a class adventure with a mate. Training does not get much better than this!

Sunset from Dolly Wagon

A link to the days training can be found here at my MovesCount page.

So 7hrs58, 52.9km and 2379m of swimming, biking and running. Its not the type of thing I do very often, once every 6-8 weeks but its one of my favorite sessions, a true challenge workout with that adventure in mind. Not exactly specific but a great way to test the body and mind. Torridon awaits for the next planned adventure.

Descending Swirral edge

I am well ahead of last years fitness level, building a solid base and most importantly looking forward to almost every training session ;). Its a good feeling.

Thanks to Steve for a great day out and the awesome as always photos.

Kit used- Petzl Summit Ice Axe, Vasak Crampons, La Sportiva Bushido trail shoes and Julbo Ultra Race Sunnies. Thanks to Lyon Equipment for the amazing support.

TrecNutrition long gels for fuel. Without doubt the best Gels and nutrition products I have ever used.

Also happy to report no DOMS and great recovery thanks to CurraNZ Health.