Winter Miles

I love training, always have and hopefully always will.

As a footballer, I rarely missed a session. My favourite time of the year for footy training was winter, under the lights. Everybody working so hard that they’re steaming like carthorses and it’s so cold that the only way to keep warm was to work even harder.

My football days are long behind me now but the love of the training is still there. Just as well I suppose as preparing for an Iron distance race would be a real grind elsewise! Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I have to force myself to train, but once I get going I’m in my element.

The main example of this is swimming. I’m guessing most triathletes are the same in this regard. I’m betting there are very few of us who leap out of bed at 6am on a dark, cold, wet morning full of enthusiasm to hit the lanes of the local pool! Once I’m there and I’ve pushed off for that first length then I’m fine but up until that point I’m the epitome of ‘grumpy’. However once the session is finished I feel great. There’s nothing like a decent swim to work out any residual muscle soreness from bike & run I find.

I just need to maintain the discipline to get up and go throughout the winter. This has beaten me in previous years but I can’t afford to let it slide this time. I’ve not had to scrape ice or snow off my windscreen yet – that’s when the real test of my resolve will come.

Long outdoor rides during the winter have suffered the last year or two also. In the first few years of IM I was good at putting the winter miles in so I’m not too sure why it slipped away. I think part of the reason was boredom as I tended to do the same routes over and over again. This year I’m going to make an effort to ride different roads, if I get lost – so what. Also changing the nature of the ride should keep things interesting. Hill reps, fixed gear rides, etc. The weekday rides will all be on the turbo, I’m not a big fan of riding the roads at night – I’ve had enough accidents as it is without the odds being stacked even more against me.

Running ... what can I say? I’ve always enjoyed running and I’m loving it more than ever at the moment. I don’t even mind running on a treadmill but much prefer to be outside. Sunday’s long run was one of the more enjoyable ones. The first 10km was at a comfortable HR around 80% of max HR then gradually picking it up for the second 10km up to 90% at the end. The route was half on-road and half off-road through rural Buckinghamshire – a lot of which I brought back home on my person.

So far, I’ve managed to get out for just about all my scheduled swims, bikes and runs. Having a specific, ambitious goal (Kona!) really is helping. On those mornings when the alarm has gone off and I’m contemplating blowing the session out (which is just about every morning if I’m being honest), I ask myself “Will your rivals be skipping training this morning?” This is usually enough to get me out there.

The exception is if I’m just plain knackered. I’ve been doing this long enough now to recognise the difference between physical exhaustion and mental tiredness. Last week I had to bin a fartlek run halfway through as I had nothing to give. I’d done a few hard sessions earlier in the week which may have affected things but it was my heart rate that persuaded me to stop. It was about 10bpm higher than it normally was for the pace I was running and I felt generally dreadful. I decided to listen to my body and called it a day. A few years ago I would have beaten myself up over this but I knew it was a blip which was proven a couple of days later during the long run.

So, what is the secret of training through the winter? Make your training enjoyable. Do new things to keep it interesting. Make your training relevant – every session should have a purpose. Have a goal and keep it in mind at all times. Listen to your body!

TTFN!