7 Days to Go!

Well there are seven days to go before the LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE.

 

I haven’t been good lately at posting but to be honest I have struggled with my motivation since coming home from Lanza.  I have had some good weeks, and some bad.  I have done my long run and my long cycle and feel that I have it in me to finish next week.

 

Today I did a 75k cycle with the guys in 2 and half hours.  I was feeling nervous heading out, because I haven’t done anything other than work for the last two weeks.  But I felt great on the bike.  Once we finished our cycle though Boycey told us that he was heading for Wicklow gap before heading home!!  Good luck to him.

 

At this stage I still don’t feel nervous I am looking forward to it.  Maybe things will change over the next seven days.  But I have done the work and I want to do the race now.

 

Best of luck to the guys doing the race especially, John the Three Dereks! Rodney Eoin and Oran.  I hope that on Sunday night we will all be sitting as Ironmen in the finishing tent drinking beers.

Lanzarote

Monday Rest

 

Tuesday

Flew to Lanzarote, I was really excited about spending a week basically being a professional athlete.  Oh yeah, but without being paid!! We all met in the airport in plenty of time before the flight.  Bikes were checked in.  John decided that it was time to have lunch at 11 o’clock. 

Week 9

12 May to 18 May

Monday

I haven’t done much swimming lately, so I was determined to get to the pool.  After work, I headed up to Westpark.  My plan was to do 2 x 2k swims.  Finished the first 2ks easily.  Felt strong.  Then Darren and Mark Dowling came into the pool.

Week 8

Bank holiday Monday used the time to get my long run done.  I did a 20k run in 2:17.  These long runs are getting easier.  Finished the 20k, but I could have easily kept going for a few more!  On the day will only have to do 22k more!!

Week 6 & 7

Week 6

 

This week was down on my plan as a recovery week, but I didn’t realise how much of a recovery week it would be.  Due to work commitments, I only did two training sessions on top of my normal cycle commute

 

Friday:  Met Flipper for a swim.  We did 4.7k before work.  The swimming is becoming easier at that time.  I got into my rhythm quickly this week.

Week 5

Monday:  My legs are still quite tired and heavy after the weekend’s training, and I felt sluggish most of the day.  I planned on doing a 16k run on tired legs and I did it, in 1:47.  No world record, but I felt good throughout though my legs were heavy.

Week 4

7 to 13 April

 

Monday ended up being a rest day.  I drank a few too many glasses of wine on Sunday, so decided that I would take it easy. Only exercise was my commute to work.  Tuesday after cycling home I did a 22k run, in 2:33.  Felt well throughout, last 5k was tough, but with three months to go, I am well on target. 

 

Wednesday, 22k commute to work.  Other than that, no training.  Had intended swimming, but decided to rest after yesterday’s long run.

Week 3

Well after a forced week of no training due to work commitments, I finally got things back on track this week.  Tuesday I did an 11k run in an hour and a quarter.  Just felt really good to be back training. Wednesday was a little disappointing in training.  I got to the pool at 7 and had intended on doing a 4k set.  My shoulders have been sore for the last few days, so ended up only doing 1.2k.

Week 1 & 2

Monday 17  I was in Galway for Paddy’s weekend, and had a great time.  Last week was  a recovery week, so I took the opportunity to do some socialising over the weekend.  Going to stay with Mel one of my closest friends and another friend Grainne.

 

Tuesday 18 my usual daily commute on the bike and in the evening a run  I decided to get my long run in as early in the week as possible, so did 15k in 1:40 hr.  On Wednesday I didn’t do any training apart from my commute, as my calves were a bit tight after the run.   I had arranged to meet Derek (Flipper) McCabe for a swim at ten past 6 in the am on Thursday morning!  This was new to both of us, and I think we both felt weird swimming at that time and found it difficult to get moving through the water.  Though having said that we swam 4,200m and felt great for the rest of the day.

Training up to now

My training for the ironman started back last October.  Initally the first month was just to get back to regular training following a month of doing nothing.  I started well during the week, but was not training regularly at the weekend.  In November the training got more planned.  Working on swim technique, slow bikes and some slow runs.  December the typical Christmas month, It was very hard to string some good training together.  I did as much as I could around the usual drinks and Christmas parties.  Christmas week’s bad weather made training even harder.  But the new year brought new commitment.