This weekend was my last weekend of truly epic training and I'm happy to report that I passed with flying colours. I wouldn't say I'm finding training easy - far from it - but I'm not doubled up in pain, and walking doesn't feel like walking directly on nerve endings, as I thought it might. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but it's far too late to change anything now.
The weekend began at 4am on Friday morning when I set out to rack up some kilometres before meeting the Dubai Roadsters for the 120km ride. My legs were a little tired throughout but it was a good ride and I stayed with the group the whole way (something I struggled with when this IM journey started...so, tangible progress!), then cycled the 20km home and a small extra loop afterwards to end up with a 165km ride - 5km more than my schedule asked from me. The first time I'll have ridden the full 180km will be in Ironman itself, although that's far from abnormal in endurance events. I've now done 5hour+ rides of 160-165km on three occasions and have ridden between 145 and 155 on another four occasions, so I'm hoping that consistency is what will see me through rather than doing a few 100km rides and then once managing 180km.
Again, I had to forego a brick run straight off the bike due to heat and a gym closed for Ramadan, so I got in a nap and had a productive day (packing for home mainly) before heading out as soon as dusk fell (and thus fasting was over and I could hit the streets armed with H2O!) for a nice steady 10k run - in spite of the heat, managed to maintain a good pace, which bodes well.
This morning, a veritable lie-in with a 5am wake-up to do the coffee run - a group ride out 30km to Bal Al Shams, a lovely resort hotel in the desert, where we're treated to coffee, pastries, juice and fruit, before we make the 30km journey back. This is a nice social ride, and 60km is, nowadays, a very sociable distance. The ride is split into two groups and, although the faster one is more my kind of speed, I rode with the slower group which is great for keeping me slow and steady - the aim of today's ride is simply a bit extra mileage while spinning easy and flushing out the legs after yesterday's hard ride.
This afternoon, it was to the gym to hit the treadmill for some shorter, faster stuff - I did sets of 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m to the tune of about 8k in total...didn't feel too bad at all given the miles in the legs and sprint work is normally tough for me. Throw in some tidying and excellent packing progress (packing for a month-long holiday that's to include a lot of training, an Ironman and two weddings is pretty stressful!) so, all told, blinding weekend.
The other development is that entries are now open for the first Golden Tulip sprint triathlon here in Dubai - it's a regular series that, until this year at least, has formed the bread and butter of all local triathletes' race calendars. The first race is on 30th September so I wasn't sure whether I'd enter as that's only three weeks after Ironman. I may just about be training again by then but I'll only have endurance and no speed in my legs by then (a sprint is 750m swim, 20km ride, 5km run) so I'm not likely to put in a stellar performance. I entered in the end though because, as I've said before, I just really love racing. If I'm still finding my legs by that point then c'est la vie...it'll give me an easy target time for the next race, won't it.
The Golden Tulip series is responsible, as much as anything, for the tri-addict you read before you today. It wasn't my first triathlon but it was my first taste of regular racing. I was reflecting on that while doing my sprints today - part of me misses those times when I had no idea what I was doing and the learning curve was massive. Every race, I'd knock 5 or 10 minutes off my PB! That's now very different - eventually, you get to a point that requires an awful lot of training to go a tiny bit quicker. In some ways, that's frustrating...the first time I didn't beat my PB I was annoyed with myself, even though I'd just come back from a week-long press trip and hadn't slept in 48 hours. But I felt cheated somehow.
Strangely, Ironman has changed all that from me. You'd expect, after all these hours of training, I'd be even more competitive and put more pressure on myself to do well, but I've remembered, through IM training, why I love this sport so much. Sure, some of the enjoyment does come with putting your balls on the block and leaving it all out there on the course to find you've knocked a few seconds off your PB. But just as much comes from the people, the atmosphere and knowing I've raced hard. That's all that counts.
29 days and counting...Ironman Wales four weeks tomorrow!
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| heading out for a very hot run with fuel belt loaded up with agua |
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| supplements and carbohydrate energy gel...the diet of a triathlete! |
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| new 'missile' style hydration system which i'll be using for Ironman |
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| rear hydration system wwill carry one bottle and some spares/tools |
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| the only fail-safe solution I've found for avoiding bloodied nips...plasters! |
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| probably makes me odd but I always find there's something incredibly peaceful and contemplative about a pool pre-swimmers |
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| 165km ride + 44C temperatures + tight lycra = award-worthy bout of prickly heat |
Strangely, Ironman has changed all that from me. You'd expect, after all these hours of training, I'd be even more competitive and put more pressure on myself to do well, but I've remembered, through IM training, why I love this sport so much. Sure, some of the enjoyment does come with putting your balls on the block and leaving it all out there on the course to find you've knocked a few seconds off your PB. But just as much comes from the people, the atmosphere and knowing I've raced hard. That's all that counts.
29 days and counting...Ironman Wales four weeks tomorrow!
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