Fatman to Ironman: Swimathon 2013 Weekend

Ironman UK training week 16 completed. 14 training weeks to go. Scary thought considering the aches and pains that seem to be escalating now

Not much training done this week due to recovering from the London Marathon last Sunday. I've never known my calf's & quads to be so stiff.

Monday morning i had to slide down the stairs as i couldn't walk down. I'd booked the day off work as i knew i would be struggling. Thankfully nothing was damaged, unlike the last time i ran this race.

Training

Calorie burn January = 29,160
Calorie burn February = 34,932
Calorie burn for March = 47,799
Calorie burn for April =
Calories burnt for the year =

Did a weigh in on Wednesday evening to see if I'd lost much off the back of the Marathon. My Garmin suggested I'd burnt 4800 calories running. May well be true as I'd had a 2 lb loss since my last weigh in taking me to a new PB of 13 stone 4 lbs

Monday

Nothing. Could hardly walk but did a gentle penguin style walk down to the end of my road & back

Tuesday

Walked to work, took an extra 15 minutes due to penguin walking

Wednesday

Swim 1 hour - 85 lengths in an hour

First 10 lengths wasn't great, felt like i had forgotten how to swim. Toe nail was also annoying as it felt like it was flapping about

Thursday

Bike 12 minutes - Legs were feeling loads better today although calf still hurt a bit. Thought I'd bike to work and back to see how that was.

Friday

Walked a couple of miles

Saturday

Bike - 1 hour 20 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/267010554

Planned a two hour ride today just to ease back in to full time IM training which will be back with a vengeance next week. However, legs felt really tired after 30 minutes so cut it shorter due to the 5k Swimathon i had to do the following day.

Sunday

Swim - Swimathon 2013 - 2 hr 20 min

Second event of the year. 5K swimathon at the UEA in Norwich. Like a crazy fool I'd picked a 9am start, on a Sunday. Went with a light breakfast, couple of slices of toast & a coffee. Took an energy drink with me just in case although i hoped to be able to complete the 200 lengths without stopping.

Got to UEA at 8.30am as an earlier email had asked us to. Non of the staff knew what was going on so a bunch of us Swimathoners were just milling about in the reception area. Eventually one of the Swimathon organisers rocked up about 8.45 & they let us through to get changed.

Not sure how they organised the lanes but there were around 4 people per lane, there were only 4 reserved lanes for us. Various groups there, I think there were 5k, 2.5k & teams doing the various challenges. I'd taken Arleya just in case I'd needed a counter. One of my friends at work had been asked to supply their own counter for her session the day before.

Started off at 9am, i was getting overtaken from the start. Same ol. One girl in my lane was really quick & flew past me every other lap. The other wasnt much quicker and seemed to take most of a length to get past me & then held me up when she turned round, which got a bit annoying after a couple of hours. but hey ho, no biggy. No doubt my plodding along was just as irritating for them.

I didn't finish too long behind them though, as despite their speed they were stopping for breathers & drinks whereas I just kept swimming away at my tortoise pace. Arleya overhead a man sat next to her saying. "That guy is trying to swim it all non stop, I think he's a tri-athlete" Arleya said she sat there with a smile thinking, yep, that's my dad & said she felt proud. ahhhh.

My calf's were fine throughout. Only niggle i had was my left shin/ankle, really got quite painful. Feels the same pain as shin splints but I'm sure it's not that. Hopefully whatever it is it will settle down over the next week. So couple of PB's there for me.

Furthest non stop swim
Furthest front crawl swim
Fastest Ironman distance swim split - 1hr 49mins

Latest bit of tin. I'm a sucker for a medal

Few more London Marathon Pictures

Making use of the extensive Battersea Travelodge lounge facilities. Pre marathon relaxation.

Shanksy & Sir Richard

My second London Marathon medal

Right lads, lets go eat!

Received a thank you letter from the Royal Anglian Regiment for the money raised so far which i thought was a nice touch. So, sharing that for everyone who has helped raise the money so far.

Back into the IM training from tomorrow then, bit concerned about the shin so will have to play it by ear as far as running is concerned.

Next event is The Slateman triathlon in Wales. Only 3 weeks away for that & I've not even been in open water yet this year. News is that Whitlingham Lane water temperature is up to about 13 degrees so we should be looking good for next weekend & the Tri Harder teams event down there. This is the event i bought my wet suit at last year. Come on down & try some open water swimming on Bank Holiday Monday.