Enduroman Deca Iron UK. A 24 mile swim, followed by 1120 mile bike ride
along the rugged coastal roads from Fowey to Lands End in Cornwall, then
a 262 mile run along the extremely demanding and undulating South West
Coast path. Follow Steve's training blog along his journey to be the first person in history complete
the 'Toughest Deca on the Planet!
Last week was run week. I wanted to get at least one 52 mile run in before the Deca. 52 mile seems a long way. But when you put it into perspective, it's not that far considering I have to do this on 5 consecutive days. When Bobby Brown ran across Australia, he ran 52 miles a day for 65 days, so I am pretty sure I can do 5 days after a wee swim and a bit of biking
. The only time I had to do this was on a working day in the week, so I got up at 5am, worked from 7am til 3pm, started running just after 3pm and finished about 12.30am (then got up again 5am for work). The run took just over 9hrs so I was pretty pleased with the pace averaging just over 4:30 per marathon. The course was quite flat so it was the time on the feet running that was the training benefit and not the terrain. I managed to get a couple of fast 5K interval swim sessions in and then on Saturday, was the day of gloom!
I hate pool swimming. I mean REALLY hate it. After all the sea swimming i have done, swimming up and down without getting anywhere doesn't make much sense. I was going to do the Deca non wetsuit but as well as being time challenged by the 15 hours that my pool is opening for on May 15th, I had a good think about why I was actually doing this event. I am doing it so that I can have credibility to provide my athletes with as much knowledge and experice as possible and as I have already told people, I wouldn't organise an event that I have not done myself first. After seeing quite a few swimmers wearing wetsuits at the 2008 Enduroman Double Iron UK dropping like flies due to dehydration I thought that by me wearing rubber, at least I would know what the athletes had to go through.
I swam at Esporta Dorset for 18 miles in a time of 9hrs 45mins. The overwhelming difference is that it was a piece of cake compared to the 12 mile swim I did a couple of weeks ago when I didn't wear rubber. This was however, invaluable training and added to my 'System 4' method of training by adding stress to the body above and beyond what the actual race demands. I stuck to my rigid routine of 9 x 2 mile reps, all swam in around 60mins with between 2 and 8 mins rest between reps. My nutrition routine was this:
1. At the 1 mile point of every 2 mile rep I stopped for a few seconds for salt replacement (NUUN)
2. Every 2 miles I had a banana (potassium), 500ml of sports drink (carbs), then ate whatever I else I fancied (jelly babies, jafa cakes, mars bars, yogurt biscuits, Jammy Dodger Bars).
3. Last year a nutrition expert from Red Bull informed me of the process and advantages of caffeine during competition. He explained that caffeine had a 4-hour cycle. That is to say that to get the most of a 'caffeine hit', it should be administered once every 4hrs. So 10mins before the swim and at the 4 and 8 hour points I downed a can of red bull.
4. I believe that as well as fueling for competition during the Deca, it is very important to have at least 4 square meals a day, so I got out after 4hrs, and had a hot bowl of chicken and veg soup with 4 slices of bread. It worked a treat!
Although I suffered from extreme 'goggle eyes' and caffeine head until the next day, my arms and shoulders are pain/fatigue free and I am confident that I will make the swim at the Deca in around 13 hours.
I am going to have a shorter bike week next week (40 miles per day), a couple of runs and couple of swims then apart from the odd length I will have a 2 week rest period before the Deca.