Too little too late?

Not surprisingly the couple of weeks after the DW saw me doing very little as regards training. I had that typical post event blues which was compounded by not finishing the race. The massive upside was that we managed to raise almost £900 for 'Born too Soon', a charity particularly close to Adam's heart, so that made it all very much worthwhile. Immediately afterwards I really didn't fancy doing the DW ever again but within a couple of days I had changed my mind and this race is still unfinished business, so over the next year the focus will be with us losing as much weight as possible, both off of us and the boat and really nailing our technique. It's those two factors I feel that really killed our race this year. Adam took a few days, but again he really wants to nail it, so he's going to focus on some running at the moment and he's aiming to run a half marathon in the autumn, which is just great.

But, I now have the not inconsiderable hurdle of a long course triathlon to get through. It's fairly obvious to anyone that knows me or has read this blog that I have constantly been putting this race on the backburner, but with less than 7 weeks to go I obviously have had to start thinking about doing some effective training. My expectations for the race are low; VERY low. All I want to do is to get around safely and enjoy the day. I really am just trying to treat it as a long training day and if it goes relatively well and I don't hurt myself (a constant worry) then I will probably enter another Ironman towards the end of the season.

So last week I headed off to the pool and in an effort to keep things simple I just wanted to cover an IM distance swim over the course of the evening, so it was 8 x 400m reps with 90 seconds recovery. It was truly horrific, not surprising after the best part of a 6 month layoff from any structured swim training. My form and aerobic fitness where non-existent and after the first 3 reps I found myself propped up against the side of the pool with the other swimmers looking on in bemused fascination as I took large, heaving breaths. I plugged on, my 'stroke' slowy deteriorating and then the second half of the swim was effectively ruined as cramp in my calves began to get more frequent and more painful. I went back on tuesday night and it was better, it really could not have been much worse. I was not able to complete the 3.2km swim I had planned due to cramp coming on again but the 2.5km that I did do felt easier and I was able to maintain my form a little.

On wednesday I did the Kingston Phoenix evening 10 and managed a long 26 which is a fair way down on my best ime from last year and the conditions were perfect. As I freewheeled to the Holmwood roundabout I had the usual metallic taste in my mouth and some dry heaving, all signs that I had at least given it a good go. The next one's in two weeks and I must remember to take my HRM along and collect a bit of data. Simon and I drove over to Dorking pool afterwards and attended a masters' swim session. Very tough with lots of fly and breastroke, funnily enough, not my best disciplines. :-/  I came out feeling like I had had a good workout though.

This morning I had a 25 minute warm up by cycling over to Richmond Park and then did 3 flying laps. Well, 'flying' about as well as a penguin, but I laid down a time with even splits and was within myself so again, it'll give me a session that I can do to give me a marker. Tomorrow is a long bike session, hopefully up around 100 miles and then a longish run in the evening.

I'm really trying to spend as much time on the bike as possible and even though it's been a while coming the mojo is returning. I'd forgotten how much I like riding my bike. My main worry is not the distances as such or the aerobic requirements, but my lack of body conditioning. Earlier on this week everything ached even though I was only completing a relatively modest training volume and some of my muscle groups are extremely weak. Tight hamstrings seem particularly bad and are having some serious stretching sessions to alleviate the tightness. Strong heart, weak legs. It'll all be fine.....