Week 45 Training log

Greetings readers. May is finaly producing the weather that it's meant to so there shouldn't be any reason to hold back on the training. That is unless you've had a particularly busy week in other areas. Unfortunatly life for me can't all be about training for Ironman. This week there were pressing home matters to attend to, work matters to brush up on and family needs to be scheduled in as well. Saying that I still managed to put in a good 12 hours this week. Starting Monday with a trip to the mountains for some running hill work. I would certainly recomend this course in the mountains for anyone looking to improve their leg strength and aerobic capacity, it really is a tough one. This was after a 40 min session in the pool working on upper body strength and skills using a pull bouy. Tuesday It was on the bike for my longest ride of the year so far, 4 hrs, covering about 64 miles. The wind was horrendous in places and worse in others. At home it didn't seem that windy but as you get towards the coast it really pickes up. The ride felt good despite the wind and i felt fairly fresh at the end. That evening I went to a local off road track with Paddy ( the dog ) to do some running drills, butt kicks, strides and of course, skipping. Wednesday, 6am start up the field, more run drills, home for some breakfast, take the kids to school then to the pool for a 1 hr endurance/skills session. This of course as it's Wednesday was followed by Yoga, which I managed to stay awake through, this time. Woke up Thursday not feeling brill so I opted for a rest day rather than make my condition worse. Friday, with the May sun beating down, I thought I would go off plan a little. What a beautiful morning for a sea swim. I packed up my wetsuit, goggle, hats and ear plugs. I also loaded the bike into the car. My plan was to swim for as long as I felt I comfortably could then take to the bike for some hill work. The sea at Broad Haven was lovely, not flat calm but pretty close to it. i went out about 10 feet and could still clearly see the bottom. I then swam for 45 minutes across the beach and back. I later mapped where I had gone on google maps and found that I had swum about 1.5 miles in total, not bad, my longest sea swim to date. Felt a little dizzy when I got out but was basicly able to walk in a straight line, ish. I took about 15 minutes to get dry and ready to go off on the bike,( I'll be hoping for a faster transition 1 on the big day). I got on the bike and set off down the road towards the first clime. Almost straight away my stomach started to react, a strange feeling, not like I felt sick, more like I felt completely empty, starving even. All the advice in books warn you of this feeling and tell you, after the swim just sip gently from an energy drink don't eat anything for the first 20 min to half an hour. To be honest even though I felt as if I were starving, I didn't want to eat anything, I didn't even want to drink anything. I guess you have to force yourself to drink something. I didn't have to put up with this feeling for long because the next thing I new my back wheel was shaking quite violently. I stopped ti inspect, it had almost a cm of play between the break blocks. I carfully headed back to the car after just half an hour and made my way home, still happy with the succsess of the swim, quite a mile stone. Took the back wheel to the bike shop where they diagnosed bearings, A busy weekend with work for me but I was able to fit in a long run on sunday morning of 2.10 hours around 14.5 miles. I set out to do this run at my intended marathon pace of 10 km per hr or approximatly 1 mile every 9 minutes. I returned home to find i was 3 minutes fast, Doh!! The reality is I probably wont even make that pace on Ironman day. It's now only two and a half weeks to the long course weekend, ( Friday 2.4 mile swim - Saturday 112 mile ride - Sunday Marathon). I'll have to taper for the last week so it really only leaves one and a half weeks to make any improvements. I'm quite excited about about the weekend and I'm hoping to enjoy all of it.