It seems I needed some recovery from the daily blogging of Epic Camp as well as the training! Apologies for the recent silence. The day to day events of returning to a training routine just weren’t that interesting. It hasn’t stopped me before, but after blogging across a country it seemed too mundane!
I’ll briefly delve into events of the past week. It’s been good training. Quality time spent in Freyberg Pool. Fantastic runs down to Pencarrow Lighthouse and the surrounding trails. Great rides, particularly getting hammered by fellow Epic Camper David Craig over in the Wairarapas. It’s all in my Twitter feed.
Only four weeks till the next Ironman. I’ve written a plan and I’m executing it as best I can. Plenty of hours spent working on my swim, bike and run. More discipline with my diet. More discipline in general! There’s lots to do and to fit it all in I can’t slack. Just like I did for Kona I need to commit to my race and the preparation it deserves.
I’d been warned that when you get your Kona slot so early it can be hard to motivate yourself in the lead in. I think I’m beginning to experience that now. When asked about my plans for Taupo I don’t have a definitive answer.
I think I’m going to use the race to test things out. See how hard I can go and what comes of it. Ultimately if I blow up it’s not a problem and in the process I’ll learn a few things. At the same time I can feel my cautious nature holding me back! I could put together another carefully paced race and perform well. If I want to be on the podium though it’s going to take a bit more this time.
As it stands the plan is to train hard for the next three weeks. I’m going to take a one week taper similar to Western Australia. Hopefully this will give me a good idea if short tapers work for me. I’m not one hundred percent sure if I raced well in Busselton because of the taper or despite it!
Once it comes to race day I will go in with the attitude and objective of pushing hard all day. Right from the swim start to the finish line. I’m focussing a lot of time on working on swim and run fitness over the next few weeks and I hope to see some benefits from it. I need to go under 9:25 for a realistic chance of a podium spot.
A simple plan and a simple aim. Race hard, see what comes of it. Come away with another age group podium or perhaps just an average result. Either way take away data and experience to help plan the next races. Even now I’m thinking about that sub-10 in Lanzarote and how to improve on last year’s Kona result.
Ironman Training Library
From nutrition to pacing - a collection of CoachCox blog posts focused specifically on Ironman training and racing.
