Week 60 Training log. Almost there.

Week 60. Finally 7 swims in 7 days is over, it seemed to take more than a week though. It was great to do it as I’m really quite confident about my swim on the day now. A bit of a mammoth week really but with lots of rest for the legs. Sunday I did the biggest ride that I will do before the day and I won’t be stressing the legs again much before Thursday next week. Fridays run was tough. A 1 hour run, set at above race tempo. Just a little, but enough for me to know that I wont be running that fast during any part of the marathon. Or maybe I will, who knows? A huge realisation hit the other day. We flipped over the calendar to mark the start of September and flashing like a beacon from the middle of the month was IRONMAN with stars all around it. S#*t it’s finally here. For months I’ve been aware of it and training towards it and I’ve never for a second forgot it, or when it was, but seeing it on this months calendar page sent a funny feeling to my stomach. It’s real, it’s really happening and it’s in two weeks. Deep breaths, deep breaths, fetch a paper bag. I’ve got over that now, but three days into the month I think I’ve stood there staring at the 16th on the calendar at least three times a day. With only two weeks to go I’m very conscious about injuring myself or picking up any bugs. You can only be so careful though and while I was at work on Saturday I twisted my right ankle, IDIOT. It’s really quite painful on the inside but there is no pain when I just move it up and down. It didn’t effect or hurt on the bike ride on Sunday until I twisted my feet to get them out of the pedals. I haven’t tried running, probably better to rest it and hope. I get the feeling that it would be fine in the normal running position, but for how long and what if I lost my footing for a second. Yes best to rest. On top of this my wife woke up yesterday morning and announced that she thinks she’s getting a cold. Great. I did the long course weekend full of cold, I don’t want to do the Ironman like that as well. Well, I’m sure that over the last two weeks I won’t be knocking up any 16 hour weeks, it is now time to unwind and get lots of rest, eat plenty of fruit and veg, not to mention protein and stay well. Yes there will be some training. A fairly big bike session on Thursday with a brick run, if the ankle is fine, and another the following Monday but a little shorter. In between will be some active recovery sessions and lots of stretching. I am worried about the ankle, so I will stay on the side of caution with it and not run at all if necessary. I did find a little on Youtube about Ironman transitions but not as much as I would have liked, so a lot is still unknown. I received the race instruction by email yesterday so a good read of those is called for I think.