1 Day to go

1 day to go and I'm still full of cold, the throat is a lot better, it's all in my nose now. Great for breathing. Checked out the weather for the weekend and it aint great. Rain and wind for the swim, not that the rain is an issue for the swim, it's not like I'm going to get wet is it? Saturday for the ride doesn't look to bad, dry until about 4pm and a bit gusty. Should be finished by 4 o,clock, fingers crossed. Sunday looks like I might be better off in a canoe, rain all day, at least it will be nice and cool. The wind suggests that it may be against us on the way to Pembroke and behind on the way back to Tenby, which is good as that's when I'm going to need it behind me. I'll check the weather again today in the hope that there is some change. Made my potato soup and it tastes.......ok. It's all about the carbohydrates at the end of the day. I put some extra sea salt in it to compensate for loss over the weekend. I've now got some home made energy bars in the oven for Saturday. I have to remember that on the ride Saturday I have to be fueling for Sunday. Well this it it friends, Although I walk through the valley of the shadow.....etc Hopefully I'll be intouch after the weekend with a full race report, and some very stiff legs. Over and out.

2 Days to go

Only 2 days to go and the nerves still haven't kicked in. I have no doubt that they will, probably about 6pm on Friday while I'm standing on the beach in a wetsuit. Managed to pick up some sort of bug from Monday's sea swim and now have a slight cold and sore throat. Slepped better last night than the night before though. Eating really well this week with lots of veg and fruit to increase the carb load, I'm making some potato and Leek soup this afternoon for that extra carbohydrate boost towards the end of the week. Along with more fruit, chicken and pasta I'll be just about as ready as I can be. I have Yoga later on this morning, so I'm looking forward to nice big streatch out.

Taper week. Day 2

Tuesday morning, and only three days to go untill the start of the long weekend. Yesterday evening I went along to a group sea swim session with the Pembrokeshire Triathlon club. 30 of us took part in the 1500 mt sea swim. I stood near the back as I had no idea of anyone elses abilities against my own. We set off and before even a few metres I was passing one, then two, then three, four swimmers. I tried to slipstream the guy in front of me but found myself slowing down. I moved out and passed him. On looking up I realised that the next person was one of the safty guys out front pace making. This felt great, I was actually in front, I'd passed everyone without any kind of a struggle. I settled into a steady rhythm and maintained my distance from the safty man. We got to the second bouy and we waited for a few others to catch up. It all felt really comfortable and it was obvious that the pool and sea training had paid off big time. I came out of the water in 29 minutes. which I'm really pleased about. Only 3800 mts to do Friday!!! That course will be two laps of 1900 mts and there is a time limit of 1 hour for each lap, so I should be able to take it steady and still come in in good time. This morning I was out on the bike at 7 am for a short 1.30 hr ride. pretty misserable morning. Forgot to mention in my last blog, but I achieved something on my ride last Monday. Now I'm not saying it's big or clever and I'm not even claiming to be proud of it, but, I hit 50.8 mph on the bike last Monday, down hill obviously. Quite a feet I thought, although I'm not proud. well......

Week 47 training Log

Really busy week this week with work, so it'll have to be a quick blog this week. Big ride Monday. Two 10K runs on Tuesday, one in the morning and one in the evening. Another big ride on Wednesday. This led to over training and I couldn't sleep on Wednesday night. Not the first time this has happened but at least I'm able to recognise the symptons. A wise rest day on Thursday and a masters swim session on Friday evening. A half marathon on Saturday afternoon in 1.40. Then work all day Sunday. Next week is a taper week in preparation for the long weekend starting Friday. Next weeks blog will also include a 3 day countdown to Friday's 2.5 mile swim.

Week 46 Training Log

The May sunshines continued into week 46. A slow start to the week with regards to volume training but I wanted to concentrate on my sea swimming while the weather was good, and I didn't get my bike back until Thursday. Both Monday and Tuesday were dedicated to sea swims with 45 min and 1 hr sessions. It is certainly becoming easier to cope with the sea. The actual physicalities of swimming are just the same as in a pool, I think the biggest issue to deal with, in calm still water anyway, is confidence, it's that which I feel the most improvement has been made. It is far more interesting than swimming in a pool as you aim for a target, perhaps a bouy or a rock and your mind set is not to stop until you get there. There are no more dizzy spell on exiting the water either. Wednesday morning out for 6 am for 45 minutes of run drills then later in the morning, Yoga. No swim before Yoga this week and I found myself less drowsy during the class. Thursday morning and an 8 mile run was on the agenda, a good chance to take Paddy out for a run, he does about 10 miles to my 8. Then it was to the pool for 1 hr of strength and skills work with pull bouy and hand paddles. Fridays weather was even more lovely than the rest of the week and I had the bike back so it made sence to use both. Took myself on a 67 mile route and as it got hotter it became harder and harder, even had to stop at a cafe to refill my water bottles A real hilly route on the way out and fairly flat on the way back so I was able to work on both strength and muscular endurance. Saturday, with only 30 hrs recovery I was off for my longest run of the week 16 miles in 2.15 hrs. I wasn't due to do this run untill Sunday but cercumstances allowed me to get it over and done with. With the long course weekend now just 2 weeks away it was good preperation. I feel this kind of training can be a double edged sword. Like the brick session I did in week 43 and the back to back ride and run session of this Saturday, They are great indicaters of just how far I've come. It is clear that all the training I have done has lead me to the level that I am now. This is the positive way of looking at things, and indeed the correct way of looking at it, and I might add, the way I see it most of the time. The other side of the sword is this, Ironman and for that matter the Long Course weekend are massive events. The further and longer you push yourself the more apparent it becomes that there is still a very long way to go. Here's an example. Week 43, I pushed myself further than I had ever before with my 2 hour ride to 1.5 hour run. A big brick session by many peoples standards. While completing the session I feel good that I'm able to achieve such a thing, yet after, I realise that on Ironman I will be doing about a 7 hour ride and a 4 to 5 hour run. The truth is that I don't believe you can train for this kind of thing. You can only train for as long and as hard as you can, biting into as much of the required Ironman times as you can. Anything beyond what you physicaly train for comes down to mental strength, and that is a lot harder to train for.

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.

Week 44 Training log.

A bit of a taper week this week, a chance to recooperate and prepare myself, firstly for my longest run since December on Friday and Build period 2, which begins next week. Monday I swam 4000 mts in the pool in 1hr.30 min. Not a blistering pace I know but an economical pace. The only way I can keep track of my metreage is to follow distance programs. eg. Swim 50m - 5 sec rest, 100 m - 10 sec rest, 150 m - 15 sec rest, increasing 50 mts each time up to 400, giving me a total of 1800mts. I did this as a full stroke swim warm up, then stuck the pull bouy between my legs and did it again just pulling. finally another 400 mts full stroke to swim down. Sounds a bit dull I know but the longer you swim for the more your mind wonders onto other things. Lined myself up for a 1500 mtr sea swim with Pembrokeshire Trathlon club on June 4th as a warm up for both the long course weekend on June 8th and the Coastal Triathlon in July. A High tempo / intesity ride on Tuesday evening taking myself to some anarobic thresholds, pulling back just as the lactic acid creeps into the legs. Wednesday it was back to the old routine of 1 hr swim then yoga. Nearly fell asleep in yoga, I'm sure I heard myself snore. This can't be training. Rest day Thursday before the big run on Friday. The run was steady and comfortable 13 miles in 1hr 56 min. the same course I did in November in 1hr 46 min but I'm not worried about that. I now have to step up to Build period 2. Similar format to Build 1 but more. More volume and more intensity. I'll see you on the other side of the first week of that, week 45.