So, Ironman Wales - my first foray into full iron distance racing - has now been and gone, and what a truly amazing, brutal, memorable, nightmarish, beautiful thing it was.
It took place on 11 September, 2011, and I came in with a respectable enough time of 12:50 - respectable in light of a one mile run to T1, 2800m of climbing and hurricane headwinds on the bike course, followed by 800m of altitude on the marathon.
It hurt like hell and left me in no doubt that my cycling strength needs to be ratcheted up a few notches before I do my next...but I wouldn't change the experience for the world.
Currently weighing up the options for the next big race.
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In fact, the next big one was Ironman Austria, which took place in lovely Klagenfurt on 1 July, 2012, and saw a huge improvement with a 10.59 in horrifically hot (and non-wetsuit) conditions.
Still plenty of climbing in Klagenfurt, not flat and fast as some would have you believe, but I was in much more control than in Wales and enjoyed the whole experience a great deal more.
Although I rode 1.30 quicker than in Wales, I still feel like there's plenty to come in my bike riding while the 40C+ conditions meant that not overheating and blowing up took priority on the run. I did a 4.12 marathon (well-paced 6min/km throughout) but feel like a sub-4 is very achievable on a slightly kinder day.
Really eager to get the next Ironman booked in, but think that'll take place in 2014, to be honest, and the goal would be to get down below the 10.30 time - which is really good, solid Ironman racing.
It took place on 11 September, 2011, and I came in with a respectable enough time of 12:50 - respectable in light of a one mile run to T1, 2800m of climbing and hurricane headwinds on the bike course, followed by 800m of altitude on the marathon.
It hurt like hell and left me in no doubt that my cycling strength needs to be ratcheted up a few notches before I do my next...but I wouldn't change the experience for the world.
Currently weighing up the options for the next big race.
--------------------
In fact, the next big one was Ironman Austria, which took place in lovely Klagenfurt on 1 July, 2012, and saw a huge improvement with a 10.59 in horrifically hot (and non-wetsuit) conditions.
Still plenty of climbing in Klagenfurt, not flat and fast as some would have you believe, but I was in much more control than in Wales and enjoyed the whole experience a great deal more.
Although I rode 1.30 quicker than in Wales, I still feel like there's plenty to come in my bike riding while the 40C+ conditions meant that not overheating and blowing up took priority on the run. I did a 4.12 marathon (well-paced 6min/km throughout) but feel like a sub-4 is very achievable on a slightly kinder day.
Really eager to get the next Ironman booked in, but think that'll take place in 2014, to be honest, and the goal would be to get down below the 10.30 time - which is really good, solid Ironman racing.
