The Science of Stress

It's an ominous title that one isn't it?  Allow me to explain what I mean and how the effect is being felt ...

Since January of this year I have been in an interim role with my company, serving as the Quality Manager.  We manufacture contact lenses, which are classed as a medical device and are therefore subject to many regulations and laws regarding their manufacture.  This is all scary stuff!  It would also, were I fortunate enough to secure the job, represent a major promotion - so the incentive is definitely there.

As this is such a key role the recruitment net has been cast far and wide - not just within the company boundaries (global) but also externally.  Thankfully, I am now down to the last two candidates - statistically speaking I have a 50:50 chance.  The intention is for one final phone interview with the Global Head of Quality, which should take place this week - possibly with a decision being made by the end of the week ...

This all sounds very grand and very exciting ....

Do not be fooled dear readers.  This is playing bloody havoc with my training, both in terms of intensity and more disturbingly in terms of motivation.  I think the stress of not knowing is proving to be the worst thing.

Mind you, the inner mad scientist in me is finding the whole experiencing strangely fascinating.  How can a person go from being totally driven in their sport and their goal, especially with an impending Iron Man, one day and then go totally flat, energy less and unmotivated the next?  You could probably write paper after paper on the topic - in fact I'm sure plenty of sports-shrinks already have done?

I thought about going for a nice long run on Saturday to clear my head.  That's as far as I got ... thinking about it.  I felt so dead and unmotivated that all I could do was play on the damn Xbox and eat Mars Bars ... how crap is that!

Felt a bit better on Sunday though.  Got up and went swimming with James, who is now under the expert supervision of Dean. He swam his heart out and I was SO SO SOOO proud of him.  James has decided that triathlon may be the way forward.  Little steps ...

After swimming I went out with Jamie and Tamsin for a ride across the Downs and put in some real beastie hill work on a couple of killer hills ... lovely, especially as I rode home with the virtual polka dot jersey (see Tour De France for relevance of that last gibberish statement).  Not the longest of rides at 55km door to door, but at least I'd got off of my fat Mars Bar arse and done something.

And so, here I am, awaiting the important call details ....  So hopefully, the next time we speak, I will have found out one way or the other my fate.  Either way, a decision will have been made, and I will be able to get on with my IM training properly.

One quick note before I go.  I haven't mentioned my new toy yet have I?  My rollers no less ....

Ah - this picture doesn't really help does it?  I haven't been struck with some bizarre desire to alter my hair style to a curly top ... that would be bloody ridiculous and would make me look, along with all the Mars Bars, like some fat arse footballist from the North ....

No, I refer of course to the dark art of bike rollers - that genuinely terrifying prospect for all cyclists and triathletes to try to develop the art of, what the French call, souplesse.  Smooth, powerful and efficient riding.

Well, that's what the advertising blurb says anyway.  However, the terrible truth is that you sit on your bike atop 3 moving rollers and try your hardest not to throw yourself at the ground.  My first attempt - setup in the hallway at home - resulted in me not being able to let go of the picture rail, sweating heavily with absolute panic and a 200+ heart rate.  I think I may have left fingernail marks in the rails!  Attempt two - able to get up a reasonable amount of speed and ..., oh yes, think I've got it, bit wobbly but still upright.  Attempt three - getting confident now - can you see where this is going?  Up to full speed, feeling good, very confident, bit too confident ....., throwing in some deliberate wobbles and recovering it ...., massively over confident ...... CRASH !!!!!!!  Big heap in the hall, with me, the bike and rollers in a real tangle.  That HURRRRRRTT!!!!!  The author, Douglas Adams, wrote in The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy that the art of flying is very simple - all one must do is to throw themselves at the ground and miss ....  I can assure you that I threw myself at the ground at great speed and damn well hit it square on - no flight achieved.

Only one thing you can do in a situation like this .... get back on and ride .... and be VERY thankful that no one else was around to witness you getting 'baptised' by the rollers.

Will speak soon, hopefully with good news.  Until then, be good children.

Where did that month go?

Going to have to start with an apology, better make that a bloody great big one.  It has been a whole month (and probably a smidge more) since my last update, shame upon me!  Rest assured I shall have myself taken aside and thrashed enthusiastically with an old bike tyre.

 I shall make sure I keep on top of the updates from now on as the training steps up into the properly scary serious phase.  But first, let us play catch up while I tell you, my dear readers, a tale or two ...

A long time ago, on a race course far far away (well, Battle actually, so that shows that this is turning into a fishing tale already ...).  The Sussex Marathon - a new event from Team Lifestyle, that brings the challenge of a marathon to the local area and then, in true Team Lifestyle character, makes it much MUCH more challenging.  I have been training for a number of months with some team members, all of whom, ran the marathon.  One of our happy crew, Tamsin, had not run one before but was determined to rack up the 'big-one' and to do it in style - hills and all.

As we had trained together, and in order for me not to go at the race like some bloody loony and put myself out of IM training for months on end, I elected to run with her as her pacer.    Tamsin is a superb athlete but had a real mental block about the distance.  Those of us training with her could see that this block was only as solid as mist and all she needed was self-belief.  I know this sounds like a load of hippy-crap but it's true, and anybody who has stepped up to a much bigger event will have experienced this.

Marathons do funny things to the best of them, and this event was no different.  The miles pound away at your body and drain you of energy and muscle endurance - this is why you put in the miles to build up to it.  But a marathon also targets your mind - a result I suspect of rapidly diminishing blood sugar and can, as a result, do really weird things to you.  We started off well, with good pacing and good refuelling at each drinks station.  But the long long hills took their toll, and our minds gradually broke down resulting in my impression of the Morecambe and Wise dance (think back to 'Bring Me Sunshine').  The final clue as to our psychological collapse was the loud and graphic squabbling that must have looked something like Terry and June - The Early Years!  However, we battled on and went on to finish strong and triumphant -  a damn fine race ran well.

Bit of a rest for a couple of weeks after the marathon.  Conventional wisdom states that you should take a good four weeks to let your body rest and repair.  And there lies the problem, wisdom and my total lack of it ...

Then, along came the long Easter weekend and the first big Iron Man training day - the grand brick set.  Also starring for the day was a whole heap of nervous anticipation and self doubt (there we go, as previously mentioned).  Soon gave that lot the heave-ho though after four hours of high quality riding with John and Sarah, followed immediately by an hour run up and down the sea front and over both part of  Galley Hill.  We only dropped 1 minute between the two bike laps and covered somewhere around 70 miles of riding.  A good training session (especially so close to the marathon) and good company - cheers guys, you both restored my cycling faith.

First sea swim followed on later the same afternoon - the perfect chance to try out my new 2XU R1 wetsuit (the replacement to my old 2XU E2 - fantastic customer service).  The suit was fantastic but the sea was bloody freezing, and I do mean properly cold.  Despite all the clever technology in the suit nothing can cancel out the affect of cold water making your chest tight and your breathing going to pot.






Then we have had the Royal Wedding weekend - and another chance for copious amounts of training.  I marshalled the Royal 5k on Friday, but then went on to put in 40km of hill work on the bike and 45 minutes of running on Satuday, 1 hour swim / 65km of riding hard and hilly on Sunday and rounded off with another 40km of steady riding followed by an hour of running yesterday.
So, what next?  I think it needs to be lots of stretching, a bit of a rest for a day or two and then back onto the rollers and the turbo for some specific technique and strength work.

Look after yourselves dear folks, I'll be back soon ...
Al

Good weekend - happy again

It's been a good weekend - both with the weather (just) and with the training and I am starting to feel a lot happier and more positive again.

I gave swimming a miss on Friday due to feeling totally knackered.  It's not a particularly good excuse but it's the truth.  Went running with the club on Saturday and found that the Hastings Half was very much still present in the legs - but as I was running with Emma Faulkner, who was also suffering for the same reason, we both had to basically just get on with it.  After an hour  we both finished the set strong and out front - good set.

Sunday - swam 3k in 1 hour (and a smattering of seconds).  This is the furthest I've ever swam and am really pleased with the set, especially the time.  Dean kept a close watch and reckons that my technique remained really good throughout the whole set - result!  Quick bite to eat and then it was out on the bikes with SC, SK and JF.  Weather forecast was good - no rain, lots of sun.  The weather forecast was also (initially) total bollocks!  By the time we all met we were totally soaked to the skin - nice.  Thankfully it got better, although we then all had too much on, so started to overheat.  Honestly - it's just something else to moan about ...

We went out to ride the Sussex Marathon course, ready for next Sunday.  Bloody hell it's gotta lotta hill. Which is a really good thing - yes, I love running hills ...., I know, I know, bloody weird.  We then tootled off round the lanes and ended up riding for 2:45.  Good training ride with great people.  The Iron Man club is a pretty good club to be part of, just need to get my biking up to scratch a bit.

So - easy week with no training, just riding to work. Then, the Sussex Marathon next Sunday ... bring on that bad boy.

Breaking news .. Lazy fat boy eeks out another PB

Well, it's been a little while hasn't it dear reader?  Hopefully you've all been out there scurrying around, fitting in training and racing into your hectic lives and generally being the good athletes I know you all are?

Meanwhile, your man here has been feeling very sorry himself in a not at all attractive way.  I've used work as an excuse far too many times, that it has slipped way beyond the bounds of the believable now.  I have applied myself almost exclusively to perfecting the art of giving reasons why I can't train today instead of just getting on with it.  Speaking to a number of other IM Wales entrants from within the club this seems to be a pretty common theme, so may well be a part of the whole IM journey that we just weren't prepared for?  I'm sure a sports psychiatrist would have a field day with us lot - perhaps Antonio has some connections  that would just love to use us all for a study paper?  You can see the headline now - "Mad Sports Shrink Let Loose on Mentally Unstable Athletes - Has Care In The Community Let Us Down Once Again?"  Gotta be one for The Guardian surely ....

So - how the hell does today's blog title fit into all this gibberish?

To cheer myself up, to give myself a little kick start and ...., to be brutally honest, ...., to prove to myself that I can still get out there and put the hammer down, I entered the Hastings Half pretty much last minute.  I tried to convince myself that I would run it nice and easy, especially as I have the Sussex (full) Marathon in two weeks time.  So ..., I turned up yesterday in near perfect conditions, and ran my arse off.  I managed a finish time of 1:40:58, which represents a course PB of 2 minutes and 19 seconds.  Not bad and it certainly cheered me right up.  One worrying point is that it felt decidedly like all gels and water I was taking on board was just slosshing around inside my stomach, and was not absorbing properly!  This may be why I got to Ore village and started to die on my feet.  I had flown up Queensway like Concorde, ran the Ridge in pretty good form and then all started to go down hill (and yes, I know the course does just that at that point ...).  I just ran out of steam.  Emma Faulkner caught me along the seafront and was running like the wind.  I tried to get on her heels but that thought only lasted for about 10 seconds - that girl was cruising!  Still - a PB is a PB.

And then I got up this morning with an absolute onset of the D.O.M.S. extrordinaire.  In short my bloody legs hurt like hell, and still do for that matter - which serves me right.  All my training has been long slow, base heart rate running.  So to suddenly crank up the tempo for well over 1 and half hours was only ever going to end one way.  Do I regret this rash decision?  Of course not, this is me after all ...

So - The Marathon next, which REALLY will be run sensibly.  I need to come off the back of that in a position to start training a lot more consistenly for IM Wales - especially on the bike.

These next two weeks will see me doing a bit of recovery running and a bit of swimming.

And before I leave you today - just keep a hold of this thought .... I am out there making all these stupid, dumb arse mistakes and then reporting back on them, so that you don't have to!

Take care goodly folks.

Weak Week Fizzle Blurgh

Despite all the signs being there, I haven't totally lost all sense of reason and sailed off into the sunset of insanity ... honest!

Last week felt like the toughest week of my training so far, yet I actually did next to bugger all so probably counts as my weakest.  The whole concept of mental conditioning has started to raise it's ugly head.  I have definitely under-estimated the mental trauma that this degree of continual training gives out.  No matter how much you do and how much you hurt a voice in the back of your head whispers to you that you are slacking and not doing anywhere near enough .... creepy!

I would like to point out at this point that I do not normally have a whole cast of character voices resident in my head, well ...., apart from the normal crew and they're only there to keep me company on the long training swims, rides and runs ..., wibble wibble boing.

Cycled to work but it felt like I was towing a truck.  No running and no 'proper' cycling, although I did give my road bike a clean up, a de-gunking of the drive train and a re-lube.  Altogether not very impressive.  In fact the hardest thing was having a sports massage to try and loosen off my lower back .... poor excuse I know!

However - a small redemption presented itself in the guise of a good solid swim session on Sunday morning.  A few warm up lengths and assorted drills, followed by a steady 2km set in 40 minutes.  No chance of getting any medals for that time, but not bad for me.

Cycling to work considerably more enthusiastically this week and have endured one of Steph's infamous spin classes on Monday.  Tonight I'm going to 'enjoy' one of Tom's torture sessions (stretch and core) and will follow tomorrow night with another spin class.

I'm hoping that I am finally shaking off the demons that have been haunting me about this training?

I think the lighter nights will help and a bit of warm weather never goes amiss.

Do all roads lead to Rome?

In short .... NO, they bloody well don't, they only lead directly into the wind.  Head out on the bike for a long training ride in a route that goes East, North, South and then West and the wind has the uncanny ability to blow directly into your face no matter what direction you are riding in.  I'm pretty certain that some laws of physics are being compromised here ...?

I headed out yesterday with Sarah, Paul, JP and Simon for a long training ride after swimming.  I knew that the guys were all in for the very long haul but I had decided to opt for a shorter session.  Since my last long ride bonk I have suffered a bit of a crisis of confidence and therefore needed to push myself hard but not to the point where I wrecked myself mentally.

When we reached Rye, Sarah and I decided to break off to do our own thing and headed off along the lanes into some very quaint, not to mention occassionally hilly, Kent countryside.  This made for a really enjoyable ride with good company - tainted slightly by the ever present omni-directional wind.  At least it upped the training load!  I am very happy to say that we covered 97.5km (almost as long as my last ride) and I felt fine, albeit somewhat weary.  This was the confidence boost that I needed and I now feel a lot happier again, so a real BIG thanks to Sarah for all her encouragement on the ride.

Also managed to work in a couple of good swim sessions over the weekend.  The Sunday morning session (before riding) I did a 1500m continual swim in 29:30 using a pull buoy.  Last year, the best time I could manage for the same was 37:30, so an eight minute improvement made me a very happy boy - especially as I was able to chat to Dean straight away afterwards - nice one Tex.

Also worked in a good 90 minute steady run with JP on Saturday - nice bit of conditioning work.

Congrats to Lorna and JP on the announcement of their baby on the way - due September.  Well done guys and good luck - it's guaranteed to be a lot of fun ....

Taking it easy for the next couple of days as the weekend represented a fair bit of training - now it's time to allow the body to adapt.  Blimey, that sounded a bit grown up and sensible :-)
Take care y'all.

Common sense will prevail .... eventually.

Quick update on the weekend's training.

Swam on Friday night with Jez - quick warm up followed by 2 * 1k, using pull-buoys and focussing on stroke technique.  Went well, technique remained good the whole set and I felt like I could have carried on - so a BIG smiley face for that bit.

Saturday morning - right calf muscle painful to the touch .... oh bugger!  Should have been feeling better but most definitely was not.  Gave running training a miss and certainly no long marathon training run - so a grumpy old man face for that bit.  Opted instead for a hill climb turbo session on the bike.  Worked hard with a steadily increasing intensity and felt on top of the world. On the face of things this sounds like a good idea, but ..., the better option would have been to have done nothing instead and rested ..., uh oh - I spy a problem here.

Sunday morning - another good swim session.  Dean very happy that I am now able to spot my technique when it goes a bit wishy washy and make corrections mid-swim.  Another good hour with both training drills and a 1k steady swim.  Back to another big smiley face again.

Talked to Paul after swimming and he was concerned about my calf muscle, but seemed even more concerned at my lack of judgement!  Should just ice and rest and let my body repair itself, not go home and jump on the turbo - decidedly unhappy face.

Suitably admonished, I went home, gentle stretches, ice and lots of rest.  Going to ensure I get loads of protein in my diet this week and will rest the legs until the pain has gone for a clear two days.  Then will get short easy runs in as a test.

Only 6 weeks until the Sussex Marathon, so need to get the body nailed back together again using a mixture of sensible training advice, chocolate milkshakes, good protein and any old rubbish I find lying around ... including the suspiciouly handy oxy-acetelene torch that always seems to be at the back of the barn, some old metal pipes, an old engine from a tractor, some bullets and a good selection of automatic assault rifles. 

Sorry about that, drifted off into the '80s there for a moment!

Busy week at work ahead, so the rest away from training will be quite difficult to deal with ... I know that might sound odd but the busier and more stressed I get at work, the more I need to train to deal with it.  However, common sense must prevail .... one day I'll get it right - one day!

Onwards goodly folks.