My IRONMAN 2: de facto instead of de jure

When you are preparing for your first IRONMAN (half or full - it does not matter), you still do not know that the title of "iron man" is of two types - de facto and de jure. De jure Iron Man is everyone who, like me, reached the finish line by hook or by crook. You can skip workouts, skip workouts, eat all sorts of sh * t, score on the pool or bike, but you will still make it to the finish line. The secret is that time limits (cut-off times) are made for lame cripples and grandparents, and you, being a healthy and more or less young person, can go through the same half. Full distance is more difficult. But I do not have the moral right to write about it yet, since I have not overcome it and do not plan to do so yet. The concept has changed, and this will be my story for the next almost six months.

The thing is that I decided to go through IRONMAN 70.3 now, not de jure, but de facto. Go so that the time is not 6+ hours, as before, but much faster. The time should be such that the goal is difficult, so that one can be proud of it not only among goners (no offense, but this is how we call unsportsmanlike people:), but also among more or less experienced amateurs. The goal I set myself for my next start on May 9 is to swim 1.8 km, cycle 90 km and run 21 km in 5 hours or less. For this, a distance was chosen on the island of Mallorca in Spain on the recommendation of more experienced comrades.

Post by Slava Baranskyi.

Goal setting

Why exactly this time? Well, for example, because Sasha Shchedrovs (read his articles at the link, very driving) made such a distance in 4:47! And we were almost equal with him. I lost a year due to a periosteal injury, and now I have to catch up. And a professional girl overcomes this route in about 04:20, a pro boy - in 3:55. So why not try it in 5 hours? In my understanding, this will be IRONMAN 70.3 de facto. Not just pass, but strain yourself with the real goal.

Trainer

After the goal appeared, it became obvious that it was impossible to achieve it without injury and stupidity. When choosing a coach, I took into account not only personal merits, but also some kind of psychological compatibility (I am an introvert, and funny dudes who fill the whole space are harmful to me, like the hydrogen sulfide air of Moscow), the ability to work remotely, the willingness to help with injuries, and also the cost. The main selection parameter nevertheless, there was a sports education with knowledge of medicine. Coaches from the West are not suitable, because they have no idea what kind of infrastructure we live in, and their prices in dollars or euros today can undermine the family budget.

As for the merits of the coach, here are some of them:

participant and prize-winner of the Elbrus race (the highest point of Europe, 5 642 m) in 2008 and 2009;
record holder ascent and descent to Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest point in Africa, 5,895 m);
finisher (winner of individual stages) of the annual ultramarathon Transalpine-Run 2012;
two-time finisher of the unique Sahara Desert Race Marathon des Sables 2011 and 2012;
participant and winner (AG) of Tristar Estonia, Abu-Dhabi Triathlon, Slavic Wave Triathlon, Tristar Monaco and many triathlons in Ukraine.

Not bad, right?:)

If we talk about how planning is going, then everything is simple. The coach sends you a general program for the week, supplemented with details of the training. For example, this is how the plan for November looked like:

And this is how, for example, the detailing of two workouts on the machine looks like. The roller coaster workout is described below. There are also power trainings if you have a wattmeter.

The result of the month shown is the following report, with which we are working (the hole at the end is associated with ARI):

In the picture: red - completed workouts; filled squares - hellishness of training (four squares is hell, what is five - I have not been able to figure out yet); blue bars and percentages - the level of physical activity from the norm for an ordinary person. Polar V800 not only measures your activity during exercise, but also your daily steps. All this is added up, and you get a picture of the day.

The picture of tension this month looks like this:

If we speak in calories that are understandable to everyone, then in a month I burned 100,000 kcal from activities and passive living. The coach promises more. From such expenses, sometimes you just have to eat honey with a spoon after training:

And for recovery and carboloading in the morning, a man-made granola with milk from a loving wife helps:

In addition to the triathlon coach, a swimming coach came in handy for me. Yes, swimming is usually a special kind, and you need a swimmer to study paddle-glide and in general the theory and practice of economical swimming. I train in a 25-meter pool, and after just 10 workouts I can reach 100 meters in less than 2 minutes. True, I found some kind of phobia in my pool, which makes the heartbeat speed up and makes breathing difficult. Working on it. I had never worked in the pool before and did not know about such a garbage at home.

Optional equipment

Anyone who has dug the topic of triathlon knows that this is not a very budgetary activity. It is somewhere commensurate with the cost of skiing. I myself am not a skier and I hate snow, but when checking expenses with friends, I came to this conclusion. Recent acquisitions …

Bike

If you already have a road bike, then it's better to train at home right on it - your ass should get used to the saddle, and your body should get used to the landing and aerobars. They also had to be bought. The machine was chosen by Tacx Flow (allows you to play with slides and measures power). It was a waste of money to buy Look power pedals compatible with Polar watches for € 1,200. The machine itself costs about $ 300.:) It also measures power!

The Tacx Flow machine and my Kayotic in it

Aerobars were bought at Wiggle.ru. Carbon fiber, inexpensive. I haven’t put them on yet, because I don’t know how to keep aeroposition and I’m just delaying this sacrament.:)

Naturally, the entire bike was hung with sensors, namely: the cadence and the speed developed throughout the workout are transmitted to the watch. The sensors are also from Polar (they bought me in New York), they work via Bluetooth. Therefore, they can work with a phone, and with the Polar Beat app, with which you can ride, run with your iPhone, but not swim, of course. This is if you want yourself the same data as mine above. With Polar Flow, the cloud-based exercise appraisal thing, I am incredibly pleased. It is almost as useful as TrainingPeaks, but without a subscription fee. At TP, she's just hellish.

Throw in another Polar Flow app for syncing your watch over Bluetooth and you’ll see how lucky I am!

Swimming

For swimming, I bought several glasses, since there is no ideal in this business, and I just rotate them. By the way, Arena's Antifog really works, and you don't need to skimp on it. Only use it correctly (instructions are attached there).

Arena has dropped hellish discounts and now I'm all in the arena:)

Readers of the previous series "My IRONMAN" may remember that at the start in Pescara I first put on a wetsuit borrowed from a friend, and therefore had a lot of adventures with him. This time I decided to rule out this accident as well. And at the tip of the trainer on Wiggle (always look first what you need there, because for me it was a revelation), an Orca S5 wetsuit was purchased. There are many others out there, so watch carefully. I chose it myself according to the size chart and got 100%. Very satisfied.

Run

A long time ago, I ran in warm weather in the first series of adidas energy boost. I have run in them for more than 1,000 km and I don’t want to change them. With the onset of winter and the icing of the familiar trails, I bought myself a pair of trail crosses - Salomon Speedcross 3 and adidas Terrex Swift Climaheat (review here next week).

Trail Salomon and adidas were once siblings

I use adidas climaheat tights to warm my legs, and my body is warmed up with a five-year-old Nike jacket, donated by the same friend who gave me the wetsuit.

This concludes the hoarder's bulletin.

What's next?

If in the comments you somehow show that you are interested in all this, then publications will be published more often than once a month. So far, I have such a plan. In the following issues: medications for strengthening the immune system, my news, monitoring progress and a story about the construction stage, how not to go nuts from two hours of the machine, and much more.