Finger-tapping time off

Confession: remember that morning coffee ride I was planning on Saturday? Well, I jacked it in. Officially, according to my programme, yesterday was a day of complete rest – my first in more than a month – to round off my recovery week ready for two weeks of the tough stuff. Feeling energetic and committed and all, I decided that I’d ignore that and add an extra 60-80k of riding but, fortunately, common sense prevailed.

I’m conscious of how tough the bike leg of Ironman is going to be – not only because, at 180km, it’s the longest part of the day but also because bike fitness determines how well you run off the bike – so that was the justification for the extra off-programme ride.

The reason for not doing it? That mantra, that I said I’d keep repeating but seem to keep forgetting…TRUST THE PROGRAMME! In the end, I turned the alarm off and had my first proper lie-in (not my usual 6.30 counts as a lie-in as it’s not 5.30, but an actual get up when you wake up lie-in) and it was great. I was up and about with plenty of energy at around 9.30, had a nice big breakfast and then went about my day, getting lots of chores done. Given that I’m still pretty busy in work, it’s less than two weeks till I head back to the UK – and need to pack for hols, training, IM (so a bike and lots of bike gear) and two weddings! – and I’ve lots of training to fit in between now and then, I think it’s a good job that common sense won out. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that more mileage doesn’t always mean fitter or better prepared.

So, with a little of a handle on the chaos that is my life, I had a great night’s sleep last night; also, thanks to having no workouts yesterday, it gave me the chance to eat some good food and get plenty of fluids in. I’m pretty careful about hydrating but, when you’re doing 15-20 hours in 40C, no matter how careful you are, hydrating is likely to be an uphill battle. I’m feeling in fine fettle all old – good news.

It’s tough getting used to these rest days or weeks; triathletes, by our very nature, are usually workaholics – whether we’re in the office or on the bike, we like to dig deep. Therefore, stepping back a little feels like wasted time – I just end up thinking about all the swim/bike/run that I’m not doing. I’m getting better at dealing with this tho – and know it’s essential for making sure I can keep training hard and don’t arrive at the start of Ironman Wales injured or burnt out.

Anyway, it was just a one hour easy swim on the programme today and I decided to head to Dubai Masters’ early session at 6.30am to get that done before work. A very steady 2,400m in total, with lots of work on stroke and technique – the perfect session to warm up into the week. Showered, dressed, swallowed down a chocolate milk and straight to work, safe in the knowledge that my training is done for the day so I’ve another night to myself to relax. Is 11 days too early to start packing? I decided it was this weekend, so instead started an exhaustive list of everything I’ll need to pack to take back with me, which has helped to put my mind at rest a little.

Hmmm, maybe I could fit in some extra run sprints tonight then…just kidding!