31 October 2010
Target time: I would have been happy with doing it in just over an hour
Actual time: 00:53:58
I was surprised at the time! Yes the last couple of kms were tough but overall it was a good blow out and showed that whilst I still had a bit of work to do, the base was still there. The only downside to the event was the hideous yellow shirt that came as part of the entry...and when I say hideous I mean it!!
My plan to tackle Ironman involved using a training plan that I had sourced from Peter. It was a 24 week plan however because of the 6 week layoff for my wrist I had to trim 4 weeks off the plan to bring it down to 20 weeks. Anyone who knows me well wouldn't be surprised that I had this plan entered into Excel and had added in all sorts of pretty graphs and stats in order to keep track of my progress over the course of the 20 weeks. The plan involved at least 3 workouts (or 4 in some weeks) for each discipline per week so it was not uncommon for me to be out the door 2-3 times per week at 5.30am to be down at the pool, and to be on the bike late into the evening. The weekends were also pretty taxing as those days were when the long distance training could be done - that is on the bike for 3+ hours one day, then a long run of up to 2 hours on the other. There was also the long swim which had to be fitted in on one of the weekend days and that was usually done at Kohimarama Beach in the wetsuit - I chose Kohi as there are a series of buoys in the water which are great guides to track distance. So as you can imagine, given the amount of time I was training it meant that time with the family went down and at times that was very hard on both me but also them. Ironman is a very selfish sport and it was something that I didn't fully appreciate until I was immersed in training.
The other aspect of Ironman training to consider was the nutrition side of things. Lots of carbs & protein and cutting back on fatty foods. I had to go back to being very regimented in what I was eating and when - and it meant that alcohol was given the flick for a while. I also had to experiment with what I was going to eat/drink during Ironman itself as that is a key element of getting through the day - they call it the 4th discipline. So it was not uncommon for me to go out for my training rides/runs with banana's, energy gels, jet planes, and other assorted liquid refreshments - all with the aim of understanding what my body reacted well to. There is a saying that you shouldn't do anything on event day that you haven't tried in training and in terms of food & drink this is vitally important because if you get this aspect wrong, it turns out to be a very long and tough day!
I also needed to do some lead up events to Ironman so that I could put into use what I had tried in training. There is a school of thought that says you should do a Half Ironman about 8-10 weeks prior to Ironman, however there is only one event that comes in that time frame and it sold out months in advance. So instead I decided to do some smaller events - a standard distance triathlon, a longer distance cycle event, and a couple of ocean swim events. These were timed to be a gauge of how my training was progressing at that time and were very useful.
First up - a triathlon at Mission Bay:
Peoples Triathlon Mission Bay (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run)05 December 2010
Target time - 3:00:00
Actual time - 2:44:54
Perfect weather conditions and a good hit out after only being out of the plaster cast for 6 weeks.
It was from this point that the training workouts started getting progressively longer and harder. Probably a good example of this was New Years day which found me on a 100km bike ride early in the morning when most normal people would probably be still recovering from the events of the night before. This was very much the trend from January onwards with rides of 80-130km being the norm along with runs of up to 21km - and sometimes these workouts were back to back on the same day. Another aspect of Ironman is that your social life goes flying out the window...
Tour de Ranges cycling event (110km)
22 January 2011
Target time: 4:00:00
Actual time: depends who you believe - official results 4:05:34. My cycle computer 03:56:25
This was a nice ride - starting & finishing in Clevedon and going around the Hunua Ranges. A fairly hilly course but some great views. The reason for the difference between official time & my cycle computer time was that I had to stop twice to make running repairs to the bike.
Come February 5, my training plan had me down to do a ride of 150km but Isaac decided that he wanted to come into the world early so instead February 5 found me at Birthcare in Parnell welcoming the latest addition to the Fern family into the world. And I didn't mind one little bit!! And something amazing happened as a result of that...for a whole week, Ironman was not my main focus! That may sound like an odd thing to say but from where I stood, Ironman had been an all consuming part of my life for a long time so to have something else to focus on for a few days was very good for me mentally.
With Isaac's arrival, it signalled a change in my training approach with the really long workouts replaced with shorter more intense stuff. The last few weeks prior to a big event are known as the taper and this is where the training volume decreases so that come race day you're in top form. I entered an 11km run the week before Ironman as a final tune up (successfully completed) and before I knew it, it was March 3 and we were off to Taupo.
Ironman New Zealand was less than 48 hours away...
No comments:
Post a Comment