HOTEL CONFIDENTIAL: 6,534 miles for the only medal of 2020

2020 is obviously a year which none of us will ever forget. I am very thankful however, that much of the ongoing fitness has been possible, and I have remained free-of-injury for the entire year. And the year has ended with a single medal, which took me 6,534 miles to achieve.

Here is the medal, against the mirrored shine of Balbirnie's Long Gallery 2020 Christmas tree.

As part of the scope of entering for this medal, everyone had to provide their own 20 character medal wording:

Nicola Philp is a fellow member of the amazing, local, friendly and inclusive (£20 per year for membership) Glenrothes Triathlon Club, and was Race Director for the 2019 Balbirnie Duathlon.

Reflecting back on my 7 year fitness journey, it's certainly fair to say, that nearly all of it has been target-driven. Sign in for an event, you know it's going to take place, fail to prepare, prepare to fail, and vice versa to the contrary!

At this time last year I needed a really good motivational tool, by which to train for July 2020 IronMan Austria. We only found out that the event was cancelled, a few weeks before it was due to take place. By which time I was certainly fairly well prepared and ready to go. Weight continues to drop for 3 weeks through the apex of preparing for an IronMan. My summer 2020 weight dropped to near 12 and a half stones, and that was with supplementing the evening meal every night!

So, what was the VR 3000? Virtual Reality 3000 miles. Here's how it works, 1 mile running or fast walking = 1 mile. 1 mile swimming = 4 miles running. 4 miles cycling = 1 mile walking. Annual target 3000 miles combined. All aspects must be recorded on Strava, either in the real or Virtual world. Nicola collates all accumulating records for all involved, and sends out a weekly Sunday 5pm email, so everyone involved can see where they are, and where they are meant to be! The entire challenge was split into options of either 1,000 or 2000 or 3000 miles.

Hence, my total journey for 2020 was 6,534 miles. This equates as Markinch to Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur, host city for the 2019 global hotel awards!

With swimming very constrained indeed during 2020, I was mostly focussed on cycling and running. Fast walking was only officially introduced as an option during Lockdown, and I had one (September onwards) 500 mile section of fast and turbo walking combined. As an average weekly basis, my commitment to achieve the VR 3000 took a weekly input averaging 11.5 to 12 hours, sometimes more than that.

Focussed on not injuring myself, in all honesty I can certainly say that I would be able to retrospectively state that many 2020 miles could be classified by coaches in training terms, as 'age and capability junk miles', for example, 'rolling down the road' on Wattbike, at an easy pace with the singular purpose of racking the mileage. Many other hours however, were not, it's a matter of putting the body through what it can withstand, without getting an injury. The VR 3000 overview gave me a great understanding that fitness per se, can perhaps be better termed as 'conditioning', as you are 'simply conditioning' the body to cope with what will be asked of it in the future.

Within the weekly 11.5 to 12 hours of training, there were however so many times that ever so gradually, I put myself through levels of endurance, which I hadn't done before. The results were the breaking of every single running Personal Best record, for all distances, and a steady increase in cycling capability, to reach Functional Threshold Power (the most power you can deliver over a measured sustained 20 minutes), of 267 Watts. If you want a full technical breakdown of 6 months of 2020 IronMan preparation and training, here's the 2020 fitness blog.

I finished the VR 3000 at the end of November, and during December I pretty much had the month off. First time per se, with a rest like this, since 2014. Time for body recovery, and a physical and mental rest as well. And I have to say, oh my goodness me I cannot wait to get started with training again. New Year's Day 2021, a 10k slow run beckons.

So, goodbye to 2020, and wonderful news to start 2021. Because Nicola has offered to repeat another VR challenge for 2021! This time around, I've entered the VR 2000 section, my reasoning being that I've now nailed a 3000, and will be better placed for IronMan training focussed on 8 to 9 total hours training per week, focussed absolutely on 100% quality training, with continual provision for really punchy sessions, with many more repeating bursts of sustained speed, as I think these combine to deliver much better overall conditioning.

Having embraced the 2020 VR in the knowledge that fast walking wasn't originally included, in many ways I've found that I absolutely Love fast walking, maybe even more so I think, than slow pace running. I'll flag this up now in case you see me heading down Markinch High St, a confession!

Here's a link to that Nordic Walking clip. So, I'm ordering my poles! 😎 Nordic Walking, google the tutorials, this subject matter has global coaching. Simply put, the entire upper body gets a workout comparable to legs fast walking/ running. Now that has to work! There's even such a thing as a Nordic Walking World Cup!

Nicola Philp has made two very significant VR challenge changes for 2021. Firstly, the opening challenge distance has very significantly reduced from 1000 to 500 miles. This means that someone could achieve it with two or so+ hours of fast walking per week. Maybe that someone is You! Secondly, 4 miles cycling = 1 mile walking/ running, has now changed to 3 miles cycling = 1 mile walking/ running. That's fairer and more relevant.

Whilst writing this Blog, I've just received the final 2020 VR email.

For those us who were of a mind to try 2020's 3000 category:

A massive congratulations to all fellow finishers. NB Andrea Gillan, and what a final weekly push from Alexandra Kotowicz to cross the line, both are also GTC members.

In the 1000 category, well that's quite a story for my very lovely wife Gaynor, who enjoyed the challenge so much, ended up more than doubling the achievement, and finishing top of the leaderboard.