Wednesday, June 1, 2011

May Update......

Ironman Update…..3.5 weeks

Shhhhh….don’t tell anyone but I’ve only got 24 days, 13 hours, 36 minutes and 40 seconds till this all gets laid on the line…..what happens for 16 hours after that is…well…anyone’s guess! It seems odd that it’s taken well over a year to get to this point…could you do it in less? Yes you could…I couldn’t what with various things so that’s just the way it is!
Anyway unsurprisingly May has been my biggest month ever: -

Swim – 14.1 miles, 9.1 hours
Bike – 406 miles, 23.6 hours
Run – 70.8 miles, 10.7 hours
X – train – 2 miles, 0.7 hours

Total – 492.89 miles, 44.03 hours
For the year I have done: -
Swim – 58 miles, 38.7 hours
Bike – 1488 miles, 87.2 hours
Run – 355 miles, 55 hours
X – train – 34 miles, 12.3 hours

Total – 1935 miles, 193.14 hours
Swim: - I picked the swimming back up after a quiet (er) April and have had some really good sessions, on my own in the mornings I have had some really good swims concentrating on the longer stuff including a good 3k straight up swim which went easily – 1 hour 10 minutes would be easy for me but I would like to go a bit quicker so we’ll see how it goes! I’ve been back in the lake once so far which was cold to say the least! Thunder, lightning and rain also added to the experience I’ll get another OW swim beforehand but fitting it all in is easier said than done! Coached sessions in the evening concetrate more on drills and technique with some good timed efforts in as well so really enjoying swimming! Though the other day in the pool we were chatting about how we didn't want to go to work and would rather swim all day until a lady in there with us mentioned she once did a 12 hour swim in a 25 metre pool....and did 32k...1280 lengths.....she said work was much better! 

Bike: -
Lots and lots of cycling, I think I mentioned that a few big rides would make me feel more confident and so it has proved with 60, 70 and 95 mile rides interspersed with plenty of 20, 30 & 40 milers thrown in for a bit more speed work – my confidence is really high on the bike at the moment and I am finding strength and stamina even when very tired so all is good! I reckon I could do post a reasonable bike split if all went well on the day, averaging up around the late 18 or 19 mph average but I think for pacing I’ll stick with my planned 17.5 average and hope I am still fit to run afterwards! Big thanks to my cycling buddies for accompanying me on the long rides – 5+ hours in the saddle is just too much on my own when training!

Run: -
Errr….ummm I am actually running really well (for me) but I am not running very much, basically a couple of 8-10 mile runs each week, which are ticking by just fine. I did do 13.1 the other day after the lake swim on the forestman course with tired legs and it went okay even with purposefully slow running so I am confident I can beat the 16 hour cut-off though in what state I do not know! Most pleasing has been my run form off the bike, I have done two big bricks (back to back sessions), with a 95 mile bike ride in to a 4 mile run and then a 70 mile ride in to a 9 mile run – both very pleasing! The 4 miles after the 95 were a piece of cake and I had to slow myself down, the 9 after the 70 went mostly fine, I walked on one hill just to refresh the legs but otherwise plodded along okay – biggest problem was not drinking enough on the ride – I only used two bottles for the whole day – the combined effect was much more tiring than the 95+4 the weekend before!

So this weekend is my last monster session with a 95 mile ride and 4 mile run again, which will hopefully go just fine, I then move in to a taper period where I slowly reduce the time down before race day with a 10 hour week, 7.5 hour week and then just 2.5 hours in the final few days before the race on June 26th ! During this period I will try and lose some more weight to help with the final day!

Diet: -
This has been interesting, on a day to day basis I pretty much live for sugar…no joke if it has sugar I will eat it! I am still losing weight but not much, I tend to shed it pretty quickly when I stop training – hence the taper will have an effect! As for the big rides I haven’t been carb loading at all, just a usual diet, maybe with a slice of bread with evening meal and then a big bowl of porridge beforehand – during the rides I eat flapjack (tesco do the best and cheapest) and my GU gels (1 per hour) plus my infinit drink and water – I’ve not had any issues yet so fingers crossed this will work for the big day!

A really big thank you to some big big donations that have come in recently the totals are looking really good now

With SeeSaw at £1,175 (exc giftaid) and EduKaid at £660 exc giftaid we’re now only £425 away from breaking the total barrier! Thank you so much….(p.s. there is always room for more)



Thank you so much everyone…

24 days, 13 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds to go!

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