6 sleeps to go!!!!

The last few weeks of rest were mentally hard as I was constantly tired but I know from previous years, once I got going again everything would be okay.  The Vet’s time trial on Wednesday was cancelled due to bad weather so I had to wait until Thursday to start training.  With the wind blowing a gale I could have easily stayed home Thursday night but thought I’d test my theory that I’d feel better after having done some exercise.  I had a fantastic ride through the valley and back again, almost clocking P.Bs both ways. 

The rest of the week was spent thinking about my race plan or strategies to deal with the day.

In 'Going Long' (Friel & Byrn, 2003) they say

"Ironman is a test of how much patience you are prepared to exercise" and quote Cameron Brown, the Ironman marathon is "Twenty miles of hope and six mile of reality" and say the race doesn't start until the 30km marker on the run.

Some of the analogies I know:

It’s better to be 10% undertrained than 1% over trained.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time and that’s the key to Ironman, one stroke / one revolution / one step at a time.

Don’t burn all your matches at once.  Matches = efforts and you can only put in so many efforts.  The smart athlete will save most of their matches for the later part of the day.

The trick to having a good race is to think of your energy as a full tank of gas, you want to get as far as possible as economically as possible.

Today, Andy and I biked down to Lower Hutt to get our bikes and helmets checked.  It's great to be this organised, hope the rest of the week goes to plan.

Two Weeks Out And Feeling Like SH#*

Four Weeks Out was a new high for me. I was able to get in 8 1/2 hours of running.

Monday - I ran up the Akas for 18km, 2km passed Staglands and back. It's a beautiful run and one I hope to do more often. While training for an ultra marathon, Andy ran to the top of the Akas so the challenge has been set for me to give it a go.

Tuesday - Rest

Wednesday - Vets 24km TT, good to have a blow out, interestingly my time was slower than last week when I was on my training bike. I wonder if my setup has something to do with it?

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Andy and I did two laps of Lake Wairarapa in race gear, thankfully the wind stayed to a head and tail wind. I'm struggling to nail my nutrition, on paper Perpeptum should work for me but it doesn't or I need to figure how to get a few more calories in. 

Sunday - My favourite run is up the dam and down Cannon Point Zig Zag. Today was all about building confidence so I did it 4 times!!!!

Interestingly, last year I didn't run the month before Ironman, the thought was it would allow my calves to decompress. Anyway, my last big run in January 2011 was 3 laps of the dam in 3hrs and during 2011's race I was able to run for 3 hrs.

Three Weeks Out was all about rest.

I thought having a week off would be good, turns out, completely stopping isn't a great idea. Thursday morning as I was rolling out of bed my back locked up. I suspect it was due to tight hamstrings. In hindsight, I should have been stretching all week.

Two Weeks Out and I'm still resting, will give the Vets TT another go and play the rest of the week by ear.

Too FUNNY!!!!!

The Cycling one



The Triathlete one