Post-Ironman thoughts
By Julien on Tuesday, July 22 2008, 14:27 - Ironman - Permalink
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:
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)
Comments
Interesting debriefing! Now, with that experience, the next one should be much better. Why don't you try the Switzerland one? Hopefully, you would not suffer that much from the heat, and the scenery and swimming in the lake should be nice. Less floatability, though.