Winter blues..

Steve Denniss
Dec 21, 2017
5 min read

It has been a while since my last post, unfortunately my three year old has yet to learn that throwing a laptop on the floor is not its primary function....

The first weekend in October saw my last race of the year at Oulton Park Duathlon. I had a decent enough race but a long season and not enough rest after the World Champs in Canada meant I didn't feel I had raced to my potential, throw a bit of a sickness bug in and you have the full bag of excuses....but as I said, I went well enough under the circumstances. Lessons learnt for next year.

This is the face of a man who is SPENT. (L- Michael Hemsworth. R - Rob O'Brien)

After Oulton Park I had a few easy weeks, I eased off the diet, put on a few lbs and generally chilled out a little bit, something I should have done after Canada ideally, again lesson learnt.

At the beginning of November feeling suitably refreshed and motivated I sat down with Mark and we looked forward to 2018, picking key races and creating a plan to get there. As 2017 had been very Duathlon centric, swimming had taken a bit of a back seat. First thing in the winter plan? MORE SWIMMING.

Of the three disciplines swimming is my weakest, however it is actually my favourite so more time in the pool is absolutely fine with me. We agreed that rather than the one session a week (if that) I had been attending this needed to be at least three. Again, absolutely fine with me.

As for running and cycling I don't want to delve too much into the nitty gritty of the plan but it essentially comes down to maintaining similar levels I had been doing but with more focus on endurance/base miles rather than some of the more intense sessions through the summer.

Back to swimming...

It was time to start going to masters sessions. This started at the 6:45am sessions at John Charles in leeds. These sessions were hard but good. The first session I walked into bleary eyed, grunted my greeting to Mark as I arrived. Dived in and an hour and a bit later had swum close to 3500m. Hell of a way to wake up! I remember trying to pull myself out of the pool afterwards and struggling as my arms were so tired!

These sessions went on for a few weeks but the early start on a Wednesday became a bit of a issue for several reasons, so the plan adapted. Rob O'Brien had mentioned the masters sessions at Rothwell on a Monday and Friday. With a slightly later 7am start time and being about 5 miles closer to home this could work... Along I went on the first Monday, was made to feel instantly welcome by the small and dedicated group of swimmers there and away I went!

Its been 6/7 weeks at Rothwell now and there has been no issues with timing, the sessions are great and my swimming has been consistent and on the up! Throw in a Wednesday evening swim session with James Frankland and Katie Purcell and thats the weeks sessions polished off with ease. Great stuff.

My house is full of handwritten swimsets like these, usually found drying out on radiators!

Now December see's a dip in business as I guess people are saving money for Christmas and the usual long pay month of January, this is fine its part of the job and I can take measures to relieve any financial stress. This year the measure I took was to take some temporary work at Royal Mail, this is 6am - 1pm Tuesday - Saturday. Perfect, that gives me time in the afternoon to do any necessary work and also train. I have also been working a few nights in the months with my friend Antony, assisting him in some photography.

However...

What I hadn't taken into account is that in this job I would be walking a minimum of 9 miles a day (most days its closer to 12 and has been as high as 15!) The issue with this is that once you have been up since 5:30am and walked 10+ miles the motivation to then go out and do a 90 minutes long run is pretty low, thats if your legs are even working. Coupled with late nights and early mornings this very quickly turns into a bit of a nightmare.

So the plan changed...

Most of my running would now be done on Sundays and Mondays, my days off. Not ideal but at least I was getting the runs in. Then came the weather, icy paths and ground meant it was hazardous on a lot of my routes, not a problem, once again we adapt!

Monday mornings now becomes, masters swim followed by a run. When its not icy this is on the road, when it is, on the treadmill.

Have you ever run for 90 minutes on a treadmill? I have, its not ideal but if its all you have....

So my running training has not been to plan lately? Thats fine, its only for a few weeks and my swimming is really solid and consistent and my cycling is there or there abouts (one or two long rides missed but decent really good quality turbo sessions through the week.)

Winter means frosty cyclocross rides with Gareth, my favourite.

The other aspect of my plan was to maintain good Strength and conditioning sessions through winter, I've managed consistently to be at the gym at least once a week, I won't bore you with the details but progress has been good and the consistency again in paying off.

Do you even lift bro?

The last five weeks have been weird, after working so strictly to a plan all year, both physically and nutritionally to suddenly be in a position where I am failing to meet some aspects of my plan (consistency with running) but also easing off on others (I don't need to be 10% body fat in winter I can eat that pie if I want to) I have found myself frustrated, mainly with the consistency. It's been constantly on my mind and I keep having to tell myself its ok, it's only temporary. I've still been running once or twice a week and the quality has been good just there hasn't been enough of it.

However I (and Mark) have kept telling myself its December, I don't need to be at peak. My temporary job finishes tomorrow so my running will become consistent again and lets face it walking 10+ miles a day is good conditioning surely!? I've managed to do some solid training despite whats been going on and I am really happy with the consistency in my swimming.

I've rambled on for a while now but essentially what I'm trying to say is, I've come to terms with Winter. Its ok to put a bit of weight on, it's ok that the training isn't 100% consistent but most of all I've learnt (after Oulton) that its ok to adapt and change your plans and its definitely ok to take some time off, you need to train hard, but you need to rest hard too.

That being said, I can't wait to get running again.

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this, I hope you enjoy any time off you may have and spend some time with friends and family (putting some extra lbs on).

Finally, mainly because I love this photo. Heres a picture of me getting a Christmas kiss from Tyson Fury.