Progress update.

Phew... tough couple of weeks! I’ve done 51 hours and 1274 kms of swimming biking and running in my last block. Looking back through my training diary I can't find a better or bigger period of training. Over all I'm really pleased with how things are going. At the beginning of the year I blogged about wanting to have a proper go at this Ironman stuff and I honestly don't think I could have asked much more of myself over the first 20 weeks of the year.

Swim

Have now started some open water swimming at Leybourne lakes and have been encouraged by my times. 3x laps of leybourne = 4050m and I’ve been swimming this in 61-62 minutes. So I know I can swim the distance (3.8k) in under the hour. However in past races I’ve found it difficult to execute a swim split that my training times would suggest I’m capable of. I’m certainly fitter and faster in the water this year and have more confidence, so my goal of a 63 min swim in Austria (3.8k) is more than achievable.

Bike

Lots of hours on the bike during the last block. Its seems to be paying off as well. Yesterday (24^th May) was my 3^rd CP30 test of the year and I managed to average 317watts for the 30min test which puts FTPw at 301watts (95% of the 30min test) Goal for this was >300watts pre Austria so with another block left before race day I’d hope FTPw to be around 315watts. Race weight should be 74kg or better so Power/Weight at FT should be around 4.25wts/kg for race day. On paper this should put me under the 5hour mark as planned. I’ve managed to get the use of a disk for race day as well so if nothing else I’m going to look fast!

Run

NB running down a steep hill, in a wooded area, on a dry uneven surface, wearing sunglasses is not recommended. My attempt at this ended in me turning my ankle over and tumbling some 20 meters down said hill into a bunch of stinging nettles. Of course I got straight up and attempted to finish off my 2hr run (I was halfway through at his point) eventually though a combination of the pain from my ankle (now twice its original size) and my skin feeling like it was on fire (from nettles) I hobbled home looking like something out of a horror movie; 90% of my exposed skin an angry inflamed bright red color, frown faced and cursing my self out load. More than one person crossed the road so as to avoid me. With the help of a dangerous amount NSAIDs and keeping my ankle in a frozen state for 4 days I was back up and running within a week. Lesson

learned, I was lucky.

Ahead...

Ironman Austria is now just 40 days away and I have to keep reminding myself that this is only the first hurdle. As soon as I cross the line in Austria I have to switch my focus to IM Wales on the 11^th September. If I want to be in with a sniff of Kona spot I will need to recover quickly and get in a couple of big training blocks before lining up in Tenby. To give myself the best possible chance in Wales I’m heading to the race venue for the long course weekend on the 6th of June and following it up with a week of training on the course. However for now I must remain focused on achieving my first goal of a sub 9:30 in Austria and put Wales to the back of my mind. What if I qualify in Austria? I’m 99% sure this won’t happen. The last qualifiers here are coming in much closer to 9 hours than I’m capable of. So unless there is the mother of all roll downs I don’t have to worry about finding $500 for the awards ceremony and funding a trip to Hawaii this year (besides this would be impossible along side my divorce fees!).