Good omens!!

After all the thought and discussions that have gone into preparing for a very windy Ironman event on Sunday, the weather forecast has u-turned, and it's now looking like it could be a fast day, but cold. And cold I can dress for! As much as I think I could handle a windy day, I'm somewhat relieved the wind is dropping. 

A very positive thing that's come out of the past week's pondering is that it's got me away from focusing so hard on time goals. I chatted yesterday with another old training buddy from the UK, Chris Beedie (who was once an exceptional cyclist and accomplished Ironman triathlete). He pointed out something key in my preparation, which is that sometimes goals become barriers, because the goals are set high, and reaching them is hence perceived to be almost unaccomplishable. I'd recognized this myself in the past week, and have been focusing more on how I can draw the best performance out, regardless of time, and let the time follow. Good to have these thoughts validated!!
Now I'm sat I the living room at home, sorting through all my gear for the race. As I learned many years ago, perfect preparation prevents poor performance, and making sure all the gear is where it should be, the bike works well, socks fit the shoes, the helmet's adjusted right, etc etc, is all part of this process. It's also a good way to facilitate the process of visualizing the transitions, thinking through the order in which the kit goes on in T1 and T2: for example, the helmet needs to go on before the glasses for the bike section, and the race number belt needs to go under the Fuel belt for the run, and so on and so forth.

Time to pack everything away and eat lunch!! 

Fueling up

The colorful world of energy gels/bars/blocks. I'd be lying if I said they taste good, but they do the job and are a must in an Ironman!

Gulp!!!

Thursday... T-minus-3... 72 hrs to go!!! 

Having hit the pool at 6am this morning for a quick 1200:m swim, I'm now on my way to the office for a morning of meetings. Then at lunchtime, I'll hop on the train and head across the bridge to Copenhagen to register for the race on Sunday. All athletes have to register in the days prior to the event, where they pick-up various paraphernalia for race day, ranging from kits bags that hold bike gear (helmet, shoes, glasses etc), which you grab as you exit the swim and transition to the bike stage - this is called T1 and the time taken from swim exit to jumping on your bike counts towards your overall race time. So too does T2, which is the transition from bike to run (and there's another bag for that!). So making sure you have all the right gear in the right bags and making sure they're hung on the hooks assigned to you in the transition areas is very important. So too are the race numbers and timing chips. Race numbers stick on your bike and helmet, and another one is worn clipped to an elastic waist belt during the run. I'll also run with a Fuel belt, which holds a couple of 12oz bottles of carbohydrate-rich fluids. The other important bit of kit is a watch, to keep track of pace during the run. The biggest danger is running too fast in the first half of the marathon and then hitting the wall and walking. Having a watch will help ensure I stick close to my 4m50s/km target pace for the first 21:km. The second half will be slower, but hopefully not massively so!     

Plenty of indoor biking this week, with the weather outside so inhospitable!

Aside from pondering how the weather will impact my bike split (and checking multiple weather forecasts ad nauseam), I've felt fairly cool about the race all week. Almost too much so. No discernible sign of nerves... until this morning. All of a sudden I'm feeling the vibe, full on. 

It's funny how these big challenges worm their way into your psyche, sometimes in bad ways that start eating away at your confidence (if I'm honest, I had a bit of that last week), but other times the nerves feel more like water in a pan that's coming to the boil, bubbling away, heating up, jumping around, getting ready to blow steam. Now that's the kind of nervousness you need to perform well, just hard to orchestrate. But here I am, totally feeling it! As Adam Stenman, another diabetologist/Ironman, would say... BOOM!!!

Last night I had a couple of long calls with a friend in Boulder, Colorado - Bryan Bergman. Bryan, like me, is a diabetologist; he also happens to be an extremely accomplished triathlon coach and an awesome Ironman triathlete. Bryan's set me on the right path with training these past couple of months, and yesterday's discussion was mostly about race day nutrition - how to fuel the body optimally throughout the race. Although my first Ironman was exactly two decades ago, I probably learned more about Ironman nutrition during our call last night than I have in those intervening 20 years! We also talked run tactics. Bryan's strength in the Ironman is the run, clocking sub 3hr20min marathons in the past couple of Ironman events he's done. Not bad for a 43 yr old!! 

I also chatted briefly with an old friend Spencer Smith about biking well in the wind. When I was in my late teens and early twenties Spencer and I trained a lot together as part of a small group of about 15 triathletes in southwest London. The group included the British Ironman record holder (Mike Lockwood), the Ironman masters world champion (Harry Webb), Olympic and National team members, and a bunch of other athletic inspirations. Spencer turned out to accomplish more than all, going on to be crowned triathlon world champion on successive occasions, winning Ironman Florida, and placing top 10 in Hawaii at the Ironman World Championships. Hearing from Spencer was a real boost!!

Tomorrow will be an absolute zero training day, my first in months. Just rest. Then down to Copenhagen on Saturday morning to rack my bike and check-in to my hotel. A short swim-bike-run, and then feet up until Sunday morning. More to follow...

5 days to go!!!

I'm staring to get ground rush!!! After months of training, race-day is nearly upon me (or me on it). The weather this week is appalling, with high winds, torrential rain, and the decisive drop in the air and water temperature. I live about 100 km from Copenhagen, and unfortunately the weather is essentially the same there. But, if I'm going to find the conditions challenging, I'm damn sure others are going to find it crushing, and that difference gives me an edge over some of the field at least!!!

This week has involved light and easy sessions of biking on the indoor trainer and then heading out for short, fast runs, followed by a 1 or 2 km swim later in the day. Nothing too strenuous, but enough to keep me on my toes.

One week to go

In exactly one week from now I'll be out on the bike section of Ironman Copenhagen. I did my final hard session yesterday, a 90km bike in ferociously windy conditions followed by an 8 km run. All felt good, with the bike pace close to race day target, and the run much faster (although obviously a much shorter distance!). This morning I swam 4.4 km in a local lake, going through the Ironman swim distance (3.8 km) in a little over an hour. So from a fitness perspective, I'm feeling good. 

The bad news is that Hunter, my 6 year old son, woke-up this morning with a hacking cough, so the pre-Ironman challenge for me is to try to dodge his bugs!!! Bring in the 'juicer', which Camilla bought yesterday. I'm sat here blogging in the kitchen, as Camilla and my daughter Grace blend vegetables, citrus fruits and berries, to make a variety of nutritious drinks, which hopefully will help cut short any unwelcome sore throats or coughs I might pick-up this week.

The weather has also turned autumnal, with an air temperature of 14oC, rain and high winds forecast for the rest of this week. Let's see if things improve by next Sunday for race day! If not, then the race strategy will change. The objective of going under 10 hours, whilst still possible, will take a back seat, with my primary focus being on performing well in the conditions and not letting myself (or those who've supported me in the past few months) down. This will mean finding my physical and mental limits, and making sure that when I cross the line I have nothing left to give. Whatever time I end up finishing in will just have to be good enough! Let's see!

    

11 days to go

Back from my first session of the day, a 3.2 km (rather choppy) sea swim. The wind was blowing quite hard this morning down in the bay, but I had a pretty good swim nonetheless. Back at my desk now working on a grant application, but will find time for a bike-run session later today!!

In the bank

Two weekends have elapsed since my last blog, during which I've covered about 1200 kms in the water, on wheels, and by foot!! I ratcheted the training volume up again to a final big weekend, two days ago. 

The weekend before last (Aug 2nd) I headed out early Saturday morning and biked the full Ironman distance (180 km) on a hilly (1200 m elevation) course. It was dry but windy, so the conditions were far from great, but I came home in about 5hrs30mins, which is about 15 or 20 minutes slower than my target for race day. As soon as the bike was over, I changed shoes and went out on a 15 km run, averaging around 3hrs15min marathon pace (my race day target is just over 3hrs30, so the pace was all good!!!). The next morning, I woke early and ran 30 kms at around 3hrs20 marathon pace, followed by another 7 km:s at a similar pace later in the day. So the grand total was 180 km biking and 52 kms of running (not to mention the one hour trek I did with my boys on Saturday afternoon!!). That was a big weekend, after a fairly hard week's training, so even I was starting to think I'd gone crazy... until this past weekend that is :-)

Last week I cranked out a bunch of big bike-run sessions with a few swims here and there. I felt strong and light on my feet, running  faster directly after a hard bike than I have done for a couple of decades! As Saturday approached, I knew this would be my last hard weekend's training before race day. I've had a busy summer with many major work deadlines, as well as keeping some time reserved to spend with my family during the kids' summer break. So seeing the end of the training process was something of a relief, as juggling these three big commitments has been a major challenge for me and my wife! 

I got my head down early on Friday night, skipped setting the alarm and resolved that whatever time I woke-up would be the start of my last long weekend. Early the next morning, my eyes creaked open and I squinted at the digital clock next to the bed, just making out the digits 03:30... damn, it was early, but a deal's a deal, so I crawled out of bed, threw my bike gear on and some food down my throat, and set out on the bike just after 04:00 hrs. I'd arranged to ride the last section with my wife Camilla (who's also training for another Ironman in October), so I wanted to get as far through the 180 km ride as possible before she set out to meet me at 07:00. 

As it transpired, first light wasn't until 05:30 and it was pitch black out, which hadn't crossed my mind the night before, so I rode in the darkness for the first 40 or 50 km. The wind was picking up again and the hills seemed steeper than the previous week, perhaps because of too little sleep! At around 110 km I spotted Camilla biking towards me. As she u-turned to join me, a surge of motivation kicked in driven by the sense of relief that I'd have company for the next couple of hours at least. 

The final climb on the circuit is about 20 km:s from home, dragging up over Hallansåsen (a ridge-back in northern Skåne county) for a few km:s. Camilla had sat in behind me since joining the ride some 60 km:s earlier, but as she occasionally pulled-up alongside me and then sat back in, I could tell she was growing impatient with the pace. As we hit the final climb, she edge-up to my front wheel and flouted a slightly mischievous grin that said "GAME ON"!!! The next few km:s hurt like hell, as she pummeled my legs, lungs, and ego by keeping one or two wheel-lengths ahead of me for almost the entire climb!! Together we raced up and over the summit, and eventually down the other side and across the flat land for 15 km:s until we were home. Finish time a few minutes slower than the previous week (5hrs37)... but much more fatigued - mentally and physically!!! And then the run...

In days before, I'd determined  I should up the distance for the 'brick' (bike-to-run) to 20 km:s, which seemed like a good idea at the time. As I biked the last few km:s into a headwind home, all I could think was that 20 km was a dumb idea, but that I should at least put on my running shoes and go round the block, or I'd be truly irritated with myself the rest of the weekend. So off I went... 1 km past by, then 2 and then 3... "seriously", I thought, "you can't turn round now"... ..."run at least 10k!". But then 15km seemed like a better idea, to equal the previous week's distance, and by the time I'd got to the turn at 7.5 km, another 2.5 km seemed doable. So by the time I arrived home, I'd run the 20 km I'd initially planned, and at 3hrs20 marathon pace. Not too bad considering how tired I'd felt earlier in the day, and I was back home by noon, in time to spend the afternoon with Camilla and kids, followed by a dinner party with friends (although I wasn't exactly the life and soul of the party!).

Sunday morning came 'round quickly, and before I was properly awake I was out running again; this time a 30 km run (15 km alone, and the second 15 km with a friend - Viktor). As I approached the half-way point, I was knocking along at just below 3hrs20 marathon pace, but with Viktor feeling in high spirits, this soon picked up considerably, and the final 5 kms were close to the 3hr marathon mark. A quick shower, breakfast, and I headed out with the family on an excursion to some old ruins on the coastline where the kids love to climb, and back home by 5pm for the second run of the day. 

This final session of the 'last big weekend' would be a fast 12km run. The wind was blowing pretty hard as I stepped out, and during the first km I felt sluggish, with the 50 km:s of running and 180 km:s of biking of the past 36 hrs lingering in my legs. But as I warmed up, so did the pace, and soon I was close to 3hr marathon pace, with the final 2 km:s around 2hrs40 pace, as planned. And then that was it, 62 km:s of running and 180 km:s of biking were over and so too was most of a six week Ironman training odyssey, all in the bank! 

These last 2 weeks will involve less mileage and more rest, which is called a "taper". Still quite some sessions to go, but I'm now essentially ready for the big day on August 24th! More to follow...