When I lived in London, I used to catch the number 65 bus to get into town. Most times, I would wait for ages with no bus arriving, then all of a sudden 4 busses would arrive at once! In the end I mainly would just walk the 1.5 miles into town because it was just quicker than waiting forever for 4 busses to come at once.

My fitness this year has felt similar… I’ve been diligent in getting the work done, but I’ve had no real indication of fitness improvements at all. And then suddenly in one week, I had breakthrough workouts in both running and biking!

Last Friday (June 24th) I went out for a long 18 mile run. The idea was to start out by feel at an “easy effort”, then finish with some faster efforts. Up until this week, I’ve been stuck in “ultra mode”, unable to really get comfortable at paces faster than 8:00/mile. But on this run, it was different. I started off by feel, and was hitting 8:00/mile feeling very easy for the first 9 miles. Then I picked it up, and was comfortable running low 7’s for the remainder of the run. Overall 18 miles with an average of 7:40/mile – slower than my fast days, but a huge improvement over any runs I’ve done this year.

Then on Sunday, I went for a long ride. In the beginning I didn’t feel great, but I just kept the effort easy for the first couple of hours. Then after 3 hours I picked up the pace to a higher effort, just under “Ironman race pace”. At 4:45 into the ride I stopped for a quick coffee, then I started heading back home. I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to do a quick loop north of Boulder (Nelson, 36, 66) which is a hilly part of the Ironman Boulder course. As I started the loop, I felt very good, so I spontaneously decided to do an FTP test (usually performed as a standalone workout of 20 minutes all-out). Ever since moving to Boulder last August, I’ve struggled to sustain any efforts over 300 watts, but today I found myself easily riding over 330. So I pushed it a bit harder, and ended the 20  min TT with a normalized power of 344 watts, which was a huge step from all my previous efforts here at altitude, and it’s pretty close to my best sea level efforts.

Both of these workouts have been huge confidence boosters. They took a while to happen, and unlike the #65 bus, they have actually come just in time to give me a nice boost before Ironman Boulder, taking place on August 7th.

If, like me, you signed up for an early 2013 Ironman, you’ll probably find yourself faced with the choice of braving the cold outdoor winter, or stuck indoors on a trainer for hours on end.

Last year I was hit by a car a month before Ironman Coeur d’Alene, breaking my ribs. Unable to run or swim, riding on an indoor trainer was the only option available to me. The silver lining in all this, is that I learned a few tricks that help to make long indoor sessions more bearable. Here are two of my most-used workouts:

Descending from 60
This first one has really helped me to get a lot of volume during the lead up to IMCdA despite having broken ribs. I did this workout about 3 times a week, sometimes back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a much easier way to pass 4 hours on a bike: This long ride is usually done as a steady or lower steady (zone 2) effort. Break the ride up into descending intervals of 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5 minutes. After each interval you are allowed to get off the bike for a few mins, stretch, eat something, go to the toilet etc. Since each interval is shorter than the one before, mentally it feels like it’s getting easier. Before you know it, you’re at the end and hey presto! 4 hours done!

Guilt food incentive intervals
This is another one from my spell of broken ribs. Since my total volume was less (no running or swimming), I had to really watch my diet to avoid weight gain. That meant less justification for the naughty foods, but I used that to incentivize myself to complete my workouts. Let’s use one of my favourite foods as the example – I love pizza! So I’d take a delicious pizza and cut it into 6 slices. I’d then get on my bike and ride for an hour. Then the intervals starts. Ride for 30 mins, then you are allowed to stop and eat a slice. Get back on the bike, ride another 30. Another slice. and so on, so forth. A 6 slice pizza + the first hours gets you 4 hours on the bike! You can also add bonus foods for hitting predetermined wattage targets, like 2 scoops of ice cream if I include 2  x 15 mins @ tempo effort.

The other benefit to me personally, is that I now do these often, instead of riding out on the road. That’s a reduced chance of being involved in a crash or hit by a car. I probably only ride outside once a week these days, making the odds of an accident a lot less.

For those that try these out – good luck and happy training!