In Sickness and in Health

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At the start of the week I scribbled out a rough training plan, totted up the hours then put a couple of exclamation marks after them when it came to 45!! One week later (and yes late with a post again) and my Sunday has become a Beach Day sans beach of course. I missed that 45 hour week by about twelve hours. Not to worry it was an absurd target really! Not least when a few things seem to be conspiring against me or at least the smoothness of my training…

Run race number 2 (in a series of four) – my second bit of run intensity was quite an event for entirely the wrong reasons. I prepared by swimming first thing, then riding 200km during the day with Steven and friends. Obviously the perfect warm-up for a fast 10Km at Queen Mother Reservoir. Actually I did come in third overall, but with a horrible time of 39:08 which shows how soft it was!

Just plain unpleasant – shortly before the race starts I’m feeling a little tired from the day’s exertions. Still it’s a training race the aim is to go as hard as I can. The course is two perfectly flat laps with only a little wind exposure to worry about. That’s until you get to the start line and find your stomach churning. No toilets nearby and no time there’s nothing I can do, but hope to hold on.

We’re off and it soon becomes clear there’s not masses of competition. It also becomes clear my stomach is far from happy. Still I stick in fourth place for all of the first lap and the lead guy pulls out. If I was smart so would I. This was a training race after all. I keep going onto the second lap and then it hits me at 6K in. Diarrhoea! There is nowhere to go, we’ve even had explicit warnings not to pee on the site. I keep pushing on and hope for the best.

For those that follow my blog you’ll know I’ve peed myself on every stage of a triathlon without problem. Tuesday was a new experience I thoroughly recommend avoiding. My guts were in full on rebellion and nothing was going to stop them. Given there was nothing I could do I pushed to the finish letting nature take its course as I ran. Like I said plain disgusting and thank God for showers and changing rooms afterwards.

I should also mention the other symptom that evening of Runner’s Haematuria. I was too dehydrated and the result was a little blood in my urine. It cleared up almost immediately, but it’s always a shock to see.

One final note – always take a towel, shower gel and a change of clothing to any race, you may well need it!

Mostly in sickness – I put the unpleasantness down as a one off. Just one of those things. Wednesday became heavily curtailed cutting into those long training hours, but I just felt so lethargic. Since Tuesday evening my stomach has not been right. Somehow I’ve got some training out, but if 45 hours was ever in reach it wasn’t this week. Stomach cramps have disturbed my sleep twice now, though I think things are improving at last.

Enough quality? Probably the most frustrating aspect of this week is the feeling it hasn’t been good enough. Compared to my build up in Lanza this just seems a little weak. Sure the run races are some intensity and I have had moments on the bike. Is it enough? I would love to be hear typing about how strong I feel and how ready for my races. Instead I find myself uncertain and with a sense that my fitness is all over the place.

This morning I struggled over to the lake on the bike. Struggled round 4 laps of the course and then struggled home. By the time I was in the door there was no doubt today was a Beach Day. Later I’ll do my 30 minute run and that’s it. So there we go. A real sense of lethargy has dominated this week. Brief moments of quality have cropped up, but not as much as I want to be seeing now.

The next run race is this coming Wednesday. I hope to complete it in full health this time. I’ll be aiming to duplicate this weeks volume of training, but with a little more intensity. I’ll be scribbling out an overly ambitious weekly plan in a while! For Roth I’m not truely tapering so I still have one more build week to get in after that.

Do I feel ready for Ironman UK? Nope. I’ve looked at the results and I’ll need to podium in my age group for sure. I don’t feel I’m there yet, but let’s give it a week or two yet. I’ve certainly been in that shape for the UK Ironman 70.3 before (and incidentally had on and off sickness in the build up there). Rigth now, more than Hawaii I just want to post some strong Ironman times and prove things are on track.

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