Life is an ultramarathon

Overtraining

I've started to run again seriously. And I'm already running faster than I've ever been for the last six months.

Although I realised whilst preparing for the Ironman that I was probably near the limit of my body, I didn't slow down much my training. Only just to keep it bearable. Because I thought I was just surfing on the limit, and not over it. And also because I thought I wasn't training enough anyway. This is just how the overtraining vicious circle starts. Because overtraining decreases your performance, you train more to compensate and make things even worse. I didn't check my rest heart rate, which would have been conclusive on that matter. But on the list of signs and symptoms that can indicate overtraining, I certainly got at least 3: persistent fatigue, irritability and loss of motivation.
I think I got to that stage because I generally don't recover very quickly. It's a fact that I've known for a while. It's not such a problem for running only, as long as I limit the number of ultramarathons per year. I can train every other day, and that leaves plenty of time for recovery. But the Ironman preparation, with daily training sessions, left me with little recovery time in between.

In the end, the "disastrous" last training period may have saved me. The lack of training due to various trips and work pressure have offered me a relative physical rest. And allowed me to arrive in Nice in decent conditions.

A better training plan was possible

My initial training plan was fairly basic. My biggest mistake was not to adapt it during the training. I just sticked to it. In particular I started to realise fairly early on that the bike-to-run transition may be an issue. But at that point I was just too afraid of not finishing the bike in time, and didn't care too much about the transition. I just thought that after the ride I would be OK, should I struggle on the run. I did.
I could have changed my training in something more efficient. For example the 10km runs in the morning were pretty useless. Running 10km at "fast" speed is nothing like running a marathon after cycling 180km. I could have easily scrapped this part of the training. It was not only useless, but contributed to my general tiredness - totally counterproductive. Brick training, ie. successions of bike and run, would have been highly beneficial at that stage.

Obviously it's easy to say retrospectively. But I think the signs were all there and I knew about them. I didn't change a thing. My bad.

Attempting another Ironman?

OK, I went through the finish line. And I said that was it. But the struggle on the run is still fairly disappointing. I wish I could complete the run in something a bit more decent, say between 4 and 5 hours. So should I try another one next year? Which one? Hereafter a list of the European Ironmans:

• Germany (Frankfurt)
• Switzerland (Zurich)
• Austria (Klagenfurt)
• Spain (Lanzarote, Canarias)
• France (Nice)
• UK (Sherborne, Dorset)

Ultra second thoughts

I eventually went for the Inov8 Flyroc 345 GTX. The Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra felt generally good, but their sole was a bit too cushioned for me. I'm also a bit skeptical with their fast lacing system: Rachel got them mud-jammed during Tough Guy and they became hardly usable. The Flyroc looks less "techie" but tougher. Just keep it simple! Ultra trail shoes.

The Ironman is now behind me and I'm turning my mind towards the Hardmoors 110. Whilst I'm resting physically, I'm already preparing for the race. I bought the Cleveland Way Footprint map, but the copyright dates back from 1991, so I'm not sure how accurate it is...

I've also traced the path on Memory Map, based on more recent Ordnance Survey information. That provides an insight on the ascent. Not that I didn't believe Jon when he told me it was about 6,000m in total, but I wanted to see its distribution along the path. The total ascent is about 5,700m... Not bad for a path that doesn't go much higher than 400m! This is because the path goes continuously up and down the hills. I'll have to focus my training on "quick" successions of up and downhill sections in order to be able to restart easily after each ascent.


Distances in miles as provided by the Hardmoors 110 roadbook (PDF).
Elevation in meters given by Memory Map, accuracy depends on hand-drawn trace.
Click to enlarge.

As for the shoes, the Asic Gel Orient that carried me on my first UTMB start to show some tiredness signs. I'm going to replace them soon. I'm thinking about the Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra. Any suggestions?

Ultra unexpected ascent.

I've just downloaded my pictures from marathon-photos. At least these guys don't charge extra fees for shipping by e-mail like others do. That said, they don't send an e-mail, you have to download them. The funny thing is that you don't get an archive with all your pictures. You get to see a load of thumbnails on a webpage that link to the original pictures. When I say a load, I mean it. I've got 21 pictures, and each of them is downloadable in 6 different formats (high resolution, web-ready, commemorative, ...) Obviously, I couldn't be bothered to click on each 126 of them individually and then save them one by one so I quickly wrote a python script to do the job for me. Still then, their server is so slow that it took 11 minutes to download the set.

Enjoy.

Swim


Bike


Run


Surprisingly, pain is not so visible during the run.

Ultra pictures

In short, I went around my first Ironman in 14:35:06. Swim and bike went as good as my best expectations. But the marathon was a calvary: with about 30°C on the Prom', I was dehyadrated, in hypoglycemia and unable to eat/drink properly.

Leg	Time	Pos.	Pos. cat.
Swim	1:17:46	1554	151
T1	9:05
Bike	7:04:30	1704	154
T2	10:28
Run	5:53:17	1693	160
Final	14:35:06	1700*	159*

Before the race

Triathlon is a bit of a hassle logistics-wise. Indeed, you have to carry your bike along with loads of equipment with you, hoping it doesn't get crushed in the plane. That's when my box-moving skills acquired during para-academic activities get handy My local bike shop kindly gave me a bike cardboard box that I reinforced a bit with sheets of plastic at strategic places. I removed both wheels and put them on the sides, I also put the rear derailleur where the wheel normally sits. I padded the fork, the back of the frame, the chain rings and derailleurs with pipe foam.
Then I was off for a 10-minute walk carrying the bike and one hour and an half in the tube/DLR. Great fun! The extra fee to fly the bike with Air France was only £32 one-way (not so much compared to the standard extra weight fees), but they didn't know exactly how to do check the bike in. All this stuff stressed me quite a bit before the race. Anyway, I eventually arrived in Nice with my bike in working order.
On Friday we went to Nice to register, collect my bib number and the transition bags. On Saturday we went to Nice again to leave the bike in the rack, drop the transition bags and get marked on the arm and legs. From that point, not much could be done anymore.
On Sunday, I had to get up at 4am to get there at about 5:30am. Needless to say I didn't sleep well. Once in Nice, I quickly checked my tyres, got changed, dropped my street wear bag and off I was to the pebble beach.

Swim

I positioned myself on the side, along with the weakest swimmers. At 6:30, 2500 swimmers ran into the sea. It was a bit messy, but not quite as much as I expected. Of course I got kicked and smashed in the legs, the arms and the face, but that wasn't too bad. And at least that wasn't meant.



On the other hand, some guys pushed me strangely on the side and one even grabbed me to pull himself forward. How stupid is that? I was so angry I thought about kicking that idiot.
Anyway, the water was pretty warm and there weren't any waves, so it was a real pleasure to swim at sunrise.

Swim
loop 1	2.4km	46:52	1:57/100m
loop 2	1.4km	30:54	2:08/100m
overall	3.8km	1:17:46	2:02/100m

After the first loop (2.4km) I realised I was going faster than expected, although I wasn't pushing it. This is due to the high floatability in salty water combined with the good buoyancy of the wetsuit.

Bike

After a relatively quick transition (less than 10 minutes), I took the bike easily. 50km of warm-up to start with. Then started the 21km ascent (a 1000m climb). It wasn't too steep (5 to 7%). I took it easy at about 10 to 15km/h, got overtaken quite a bit. The scenery in the back-country was awesome, the roads were good, not many cars, no navigation involved, reasonable temperature above 1000m, it was all good.



During the descents, I tried to follow some guys in order to improve my cornering technique, but honestly it was often way to fast and scary for me.
The only annoying point was people dropping stuff everywhere, bottles, discarded tubes, pressured C0₂ cartridges, and other litter on the side or even in the middle of the road.

Bike
split 1	23.3km	49:51	28.04km/h
split 2	46.7km	2:25:24	19.27km/h
split 3	48.7km	4:15:51	11.42km/h
split 4	25.3km	1:05:04	23.33km/h
split 5	36km	53:44	40.20km/h
overall	180km	7:04:30	25.44km/h

My bike was clearly in the top 10 worse in the park. I guess the profiled frame and wheels have little impact at a slow speed like mine. But a lighter carbon frame would have helped in the ascents. On top of that the handle bars weren't tied up enough after the plane trip, and ended up a bit low. That could have cost me a fall during the descents.



When I realised I would finish the bike in between 7h and 7h30, I became (too) optimistic. That would leave me at least 7h for the marathon.

Run

With no wetsuit to remove, the second transition took surprisingly longer than the first one. I didn't cover properly the back of my shoulders with sunscreen. With about 30°C on the Prom', that was a big mistake I'm still paying for now. The run consists on going four times to the airport by the "Promenade des Anglais" along the the seafront (without any shade at all) and back to central Nice by the same way. My shoulders got badly sunburned, covered in blisters and the skin got ripped off easily before being properly dry.



After only 10 minutes running and despite the overwhelming heat, I started to shiver. Hypoglycemia was already on its way, just as it happened so often during training. I took it easily, as ultrarunners would do: walk, drink, eat and be patient until it gets better. I alternated running and walking. At the end of the first-of-four loop, I got my first, white, wristband. But I didn't feel any better. While everyone looked very hot and willing to be showered, I was still shivering. A real calvary.

Run
loop 1 out	5.25km	35:35	8.85km/h
loop 1 rtn	5.25km	42:23	7.43km/h
loop 2 out	5.25km	43:05	7.31km/h
loop 2 rtn	5.25km	51:23	6.25km/h
loop 3 out	5.25km	41:29	7.59km/h
loop 3 rtn	5.25km	48:17	6.52km/h
loop 4 out	5.25km	46:46	6.74km/h
loop 4 rtn	5.25km	44:19	7.11km/h
overall	42.2km	5:53:17	7.17km/h

At the end of the second loop, I got the red wristband and started to feel slightly better. Unfortunately it didn't last long. After a couple of kilometers I realised I couldn't eat or drink properly. Everything got stuck in my stomach. At the end of my third loop, although I was happy to get my last wristband (the black one), I was feeling quite bad. I think that was quite obvious on my face, given the way people were looking at me. On the last loop, there were suddenly not many people around anymore, as the finishers' peak stand at around 12 to 13 hours. Supporters became sparse and volunteers started dismantling food points (they were still manned, but had less choice). It was really hard, and I'm not sure where I sourced the energy to walk. At 5km from the end, I decided to take a 5 minutes nap. It didn't really help, but as I stood up I threw up all the blocked water. I was a sudden relief. The last 5km were at least enjoyable!



Many runners (and even volunteers) went back home in ambulances. And some even fell after the race. It was a bit scary, and I'm glad I didn't push it harder.
I lost loads of salt and water by perspiration (I was covered in salt dust at the end), and I think a salt unbalance blocked my digestion. I'm just a bit disappointed I didn't realised that whilst running. I could have tried to eat savoury stuff. Anyway, during the next 24 hours, I was craving for cheese, as if my body was asking for salt. Before going to bed I drank a glass of water with a bit of Roquefort and Comté. Not the easiest stuff to digest, but that's what I wanted. In the middle of the night I ate a "Crottin the Chavignol" with 2 slices of brioche. At breakfast I felt more like a four-cheeses pizza than a pain au chocolat (I eventually got one for diner, though ).

Conclusion

My only surprise is that there weren't actually any The swim went well and so did the bike. And although I knew the transition with the run might be hard, I haven't trained enough for that.

I've proven that it is possible to finish an Ironman with little preparation. Whilst my plan included 6 to 7 sessions per week, I've done 5 in average. My weekly training time was between 8 and 10 hours. There is no real need to go progressively through sprint, Olympic and 70.3 distances before attempting an Ironman! And the thrill is much bigger that way. The stress as well... Obviously, performance-wise, it may not be the best approach!

I've already been asked whether I would do a double, triple or deca-Ironman. I don't think so. Note that this is not a definite answer. Firstly, the logistics is a bit too much, I prefer simpler things. Just take my shoes and go running. And secondly, I'm not impressed by the behaviour of some triathletes to say the least. The swimmers that meaningly pushed and pulled me. The cyclists dropping their bottle in front of my wheel (or everywhere else). The runner that angrily pushed a child away as he was crossing in front of him, and who would have fallen badly on the ground if not holding his dad's hand. All these things disturbed me. Of course there were also loads of amazing people among the volunteers and athletes. In particular the Pirates Ship of Fools, a British group of triathletes, were very supportive and friendly. But well, it's not quite the same atmosphere as in ultrarunning. Not a surprise, though.

So now I can follow the last part of the motto coined by the Ironman creators "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life"

Last but not least, I'd like to thank everyone for their support in my periods of doubts, and more particularly Bastien for hosting me. I don't think I would have made it through without a bit of help, my currently weak mental would have lost me.

More pictures here, and even more here.

Ultra triathlon.

* These are final results. I'm not sure why they differ from the live tracking. Maybe because of disqualified athletes?

My last training session ended yesterday. Let's face it, it was a bit of a disaster.

Because of the very bad weather followed by a trip to Hong-Kong, I didn't manage to take a single long ride. I haven't swum much either. And I feel fairly slow when running - whilst Börkur is getting sub-40 on 10km, I feel like I'm going towards an over-50 How much have I lost in a month, I don't know... Maybe I'm tired, maybe I'm overtraining. The only positive point is that I'm not injured and I'll hopefully be well-rested for the race day.

I've eventually tried my wetsuit in the sea yesterday, a Foor Quantum 2 that I managed to pay 1/3 off. It's pretty easy to wear and remove, warm but not too constrictive whilst swimming. At least something I'm happy about


I guess the only thing I've got left is my mental. I'll try to keep on building up mental energy this week and try my best on Sunday. With a bit of luck I'll get through.

My race number will be 415. If you've got nothing else to do that week-end, you should be able to follow live on ironman.com.

Ultra unprepared.

This is already the end of my third training period, out of four...

• Swimming
  Swimming went fairly OK, I can cope with the distance without slowing down much. I missed 2 sessions though, and only pushed up to 3km (3.5km planned).
• Cycling
  I'm eventually progressing I've ridden up to 140km with 1400m ascent. Speed is also getting there with a 60km session at over 30km/h average speed. I've not been to spinning classes, though...
• Running
  Running has not been great lately. I've been slightly injured at the beginning of the session, then never really picked up after that. I'm not pushing it very hard anyway, following the "train your weaknesses, race your strength" moto. Maybe I took that a bit too far... I need to pick up a bit of distance during next period.

Issues to be addressed:

• Hypoglycemia struck me twice during this period. Once in the middle of a bike ascent, and once on a cycle+run back-to-back session, 15 minutes after the transition. It's not clear to me why the former happened. For the latter, I think the sudden pace change got me. I'll need to be careful at the beginning of the run and practice more on transitions.
  Rough energy expenditure estimations on an Ironman are the following: swim 1000Kcal, bike 5000Kcal, run 3000Kcal, total 9000Kcal (on top of the regular requirements). Even if you eat a 100Kcal gel every 30min, that's only 3200Kcal after 16 hours...
• PowerGel will be available on the race. I gave up with those 2 years ago because they're sweet and sticky. I've started to eat them again recently as part of my tummy training.
• I need to train in open water as well as practice the swim to bike transition.
• Overall, I don't think I recover quickly, especially from the long rides.

There will be only 127 triathletes under 26 years old (out of 2700), so I'll be in the 5% youngest. Youngest: 19, average: 38, oldest: 70.

It's pretty tricky to guess your first Ironman finish time. If I manage to finish, it'll probably be in this range:
fastest: 12h45: 1h30 + 7h00 + 4h00 (+15min)
slowest: 16h00: 1h45 + 9h00 + 5h00 (+15min)

Ultra triathlon core training.

Yesterday showed good improvement, psychologically and physically.

In the morning I installed MemoryMap (*) to evaluate the ascent on my last 120km ride. Whilst I was expecting around 600m, I was delighted when it came to a total of 1300m. This is because my calculations only accounted for the main ascents and not the numerous small slopes. This is about 3/4 of the Ironman ascent for 2/3 of the distance. So I feel a bit less scared about the ascent on the ride, although this is still my main concern.

Yesterday I managed to run again after several weeks off, twice around the park without pain. Surprisingly, speed was not too bad with 55min for 12.6km. As always in ultra, when things aren't great, just slow down a bit and be patient...

Ultra ?

(*) Yes, I reluctantly bought a piece of software. Last time such an event happened, it was a version of MS Windows (forced with a laptop) that I barely used. The maps on Google are not very precise (and contain loads of errors), and for that purpose I needed proper Ordnance Survey data. Somehow, I bought a map, not a piece of software...

Most people strongly recommend the use of profile bars. A minority, however, say they're useless unless you're an elite cyclist (aerodynamic considerations indeed become more important with higher speed) and argue people only mount them on their bike as a statement - "I'm a triathlete".

In the quest to tune my bike into a more efficient, triathlon-like machine, I've therefore tried to adapt profile bars. I finally gave up with the Oval A710 previously installed, as they were too uncomfortable for my arms. I recently replaced them with the Profile Jammer GT, apparently more suitable for long rides. They're higher and feel better in the arms. But I don't really have a good feeling with them: it feels like my lower back is supporting most of my upper body weight (when my forearms should help) and I can't drive as much power from my legs. I have a feeling it's because I have relatively long legs and the bike frame is fitted for that. Thus, the handle bars are a relatively a long reach, and the profile bars worsen that effect. The good point if this hypothesis holds is: I'm low enough on the bike and don't really need profile bars. That would make my bike lighter. So profile bars or not? I may try to take pictures of my riding posture to take a decision.

Ultra aerodynamic decision to make.

Just as I was running an easy 10km on Tuesday, the outside of my right feet started to ache. It looks like a tendinitis of the Inferior Peroneal Retinaculum... Quite annoying as I'm starting the most important period of my Ironman training. I'm not sure what caused that, probably a conjunction of factors such as:

• treadmill running last week
• rock climbing last week-end
• general tiredness
• not drinking enough

I should be able to swim anyway, and I have to check whether I can cycle or not. Things wouldn't be too bad if I could at least cycle. I hope it's going to heal soon ...

Ultra annoying.