Ironman Journey – TaaaaaaaaaaaPeeeeeeeeer

Finally, today marks the start of my 3-week taper. The 14/15 hours this week seems positively easy in comparison to what I should have been doing in the last 3 weeks.

I am left with this quandary:

• 3.8km Swim – OK I’ve done more than that in very many club sessions. But never continuously. I’ve managed 3.8k downriver (River Arun at the weekend) but my time there was pretty much what I had hoped to achieve on the big day. But it was flow-assisted. Oh well It will be what it will be. I CERTAINLY CAN swim 3.8k in a lake (even 4.3k in a lake if I follow my normal route 😉 )
• 180k cycle with 2km vertical – OK I’ve done that a few times but never without coffee/cake stops. On the occasions I have done it with cake/coffee, I have been with some idiot cycling friends who DEFINATELY didn’t spend much time in zone 2. So what I’ve done there is probably harder than what I will have to do at Bolton. #NotWorried. I just have to chose the right bike (TT) get the right crank/gearing and stick to the power plan.
• 26 miles hilly running – I think I’ve managed about 20 miles in training. This is all still a #bitofaworry as I’m not going as fast as I thought I would be (30 secs/km off…gulp). I’m also worried that I’ve talked to some other AG athletes (generally quite good AGers) who all seem to talk about a walk-run strategy. My number one goal is DEFINATELY to finish without walking (unless injured). eeesh. I had hoped for MUCH better but even after 2/3 hours of fatigued cycling my even-more fatigued runs that have followed have been super slow…but still able to run.

My general swim training has been a metaphorical long and slow plod to the bottom-end of my performance range. When I’m tired I can’t swim fast. Simple. I’ve been tired and I’m not THAT fast anyway.

My cycling imbalances remain implacably imbalanced. But my cycling injuries seem to be fading into miles of distant obscurity .My CP curves are curvy in the right places. So that’s good. I’ve felt tired when cycling but have actually turned in some pretty good performances, albeit at faster than planned efforts. I’ve been running after most of them without cramping. So this all seems to be good. Last night Mr Garmin 935 even popped up to tell me my VO2max had gone up a notch (about bloomin’ time, if you believe in these things).

I’ve only had the one serious running injury. I have a current one that I can run through which has been caused by the physio’s exercises given to sort out the aforesaid serious problem. Sigh. The latest injuryette has made me only run alternate days, on the whole, which has probably been a sensible thing. Over the next week I’m going to up the running mileage slightly to match marathon training and get a few more miles in there.

That might be my mistake. Time will tell.

I had a swim session the other night and ended up running home the long way. This was after a planned rest the previous day. It was about a 12k run I guess. Something like that. For once I added in the specified Zone 4 for 15 minutes part and it felt good. I then added in some minute reps (because I could, not because I should) and I was FLYING. REALLY FAST. I couldn’t believe it. So although that’s almost totally useless for me for Bolton it, at least, made me feel better and also gave me the confidence to save those final 2.5 seconds when I outsprint some awesome 60 year old Ironman to the line. We shall see 😉

Ironman Secret?: I’m freakin’ tired. No big secret I guess.