Blog 8 – 26th April 2013
Just over five months until the Ironman and training has
definitely moved up a chain set! This week has been a toughie, enjoyable yes
but hard going. My fellow lab rats and I have moved into block 4 of the
training plan and the blocks have changed to a three week rotation. I think
that Justin is just trying to keep us guessing and not get too excited about
the increase in training volume and intensity.
At this point, I just want to apologise to my friends and
work colleagues for going on and on about this week’s training. I think it’s
just to share the surprise that I have actually managed to get through it. Now
hold the chorus of violins but if I wasn’t an absolute bore before, well I’m
sure I will be after this. My days and weeks have changed to a simplistic way
of living that consists of: training, working, eating, maybe more training,
definitely more eating, and then thankfully sleeping, then repeat. Ok, so if I haven’t
bored already, here’s this week’s training:
Saturday: long ride – 50 miles
Sunday: long run – 1hr 40mins
Monday: tech swim (am), weights (legs focused, pm)
Tuesday: brick session – 40 min bike (intervals and hill
climb), 30 min run
Wednesday: long swim – 2km (am), weights (upper body
focused, pm)
Thursday: steady run – 60mins (am), bike (spin steady) –
40mins (pm)
Friday: REST DAY
Oh thank god for today (Friday), having said that, I’m on
the eve of going for another long bike tomorrow and then a long run on Sunday. Huh,
how my weekends have changed!? But, do you know what? I’m actually really
enjoying it! Yes its hard work and yes it has started to take over my life but
it’s a challenge and I’m glad to be a part of it.
Just over 5 months to
go.... It didn’t seem that long when this all started back in January. How
time flies (when you’re having fun) and I’m sure it won’t seem that long until
I’m standing on the beach in Calella, waiting for that gun to go. Along with
the step up in training, the level of seriousness, thanks to Justin, also went
up a notch last week. On Monday the ‘labs rats’ had a cohort meeting, a catch
up you might say. Scaremongering some would call it but whatever it was, it
certainly did the trick on me. It’s nice to catch up with the other crazy fools
that have decided this should be the way we spend the next 10 months of our
lives. I did say ‘next’ and not ‘last’! One thing that really brought it home
for me, was a very inspiring video that Justin showed us of a guy called Matt
Hoover, if you haven’t seen it take a look http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTPpXpoF54s
Inspiring stuff, right?! Now, I’m pretty sure that I’m somewhat slimmer and
better trained that Matt. So if he can do it, then we all can I guess (hope)?
Definitely! We can do this! Yes, it’s going to take some
training but it’s definitely doable. The only other thing that has stuck in my
mind from our meeting is the cut-off times. Basically, I’ve got 15 and half
hours to get this done, which is split by a few conditions. We’ve got just over
2 hours to complete the swim and then the cycle has to be done by 1800, which
means a worst case scenario of approximately 7 hours to complete the bike, then
finally the run has to be finished before midnight; otherwise we’ll all turn
into pumpkin juice. With that all in mind, I have decided to make my goal of a
finish time just over 14 hours, this is to ensure that I’m back before last
orders are called. Haha, as if, this is Spain, last orders are never called or
more to the point, like many mine might be a pint of the delicious saline
squash in an IV drip please. Sorry Mum... Only joking.. It’ll all be fine.
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