Four weeks today I will be attempting to complete my first Ironman distance triathlon. Few ups and downs along the way, biggest challenge so far has still been learning to swim front crawl.
Most recent issues as those who have followed this journey will know, has been my calf & ankle tendonites issues that have plagued me & severely hindered training since just before the London Marathon. I didn't do a blog update last week as i had taken a couple of weeks off to try cure the tendonites.
Looks like that has succeeded as i have been able to get back into the bike riding and swimming this week without any issues or pain. Pity it's only 4 weeks to go but hey ho. Plan is still now a just finish as the majority of the marathon is no doubt going to be a walk.
My Triathlon club TriAnglia has had a great couple of weeks with some amazing achievements that have helped motivate me again. Last weekend following fellow club members & their achievements gave the same feeling i had on that super Saturday during the Olympics.
Phillipa Rudd completing her first Ironman event in Austria was one, a whole bunch of successes at the superhero event & the creme de la creme, Will Halls epic adventure with the Endruoman Arch to Arc challenge.
Following Will from the Thursday afternoon through till Saturday afternoon on a live tracker took over most of those days. Including waking up at 3am and checking where he was on the run & staying up till gone midnight (late for me) to follow his swim start.
Will completed the 87 mile run in under 17 hours, way ahead of the World Record time. Following a days rest he took to the English channel at midnight. Unfortunately due to the rubbish temperatures we have had to date the water was a miserable 12.5 degrees.
Will still battled with this temperature & crazy tides for over 13 hours before having to be pulled out 2 miles from France due to breathing difficulties. He had actually swam around 39 miles! So, i wont be moaning about a sore ankle during my mere Ironman event.
Training
Calorie burn January = 29,160
Calorie burn February = 34,932
Calorie burn for March = 47,799
Calorie burn for April = 28,453
Calorie burn for May = 23,131
Calorie burn for June = 24,992
Calorie burn for July = 9188
Training time - 8 hours 54 minutes. Still a long way off what i should have been doing at this stage
but all things considered, I'm happy with this weeks progress.
Tuesday
Bike - 1 hour 7 minutes
Wednesday
Bike - 45 minutes
Open water swim - 1 hour 7 minutes - Furthest open water swim i have done this year. 2400 metres. Was really pleased that i no longer experienced the ankle pain that had ended my last swim at just 800metres. Will be looking to swim the full Ironman distance next week
Thursday
Bike - 1 hour 27 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/319245015
Saturday
Bike - 5 hours 25 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/320411931
Also put in my longest bike ride of the year as well this week. Felt great to do it with no pain although after 70 miles i was feeling pretty shady. Probably due to the heat. I've got one more long ride to do before Ironman so hoping to get my nutrition bang on with that ride
Sunday
Was supposed to do the Norwich 6 bridge river swim today but it got cancelled at the last minute due to reasons unbeknown. So, i headed down to the Norwich Triathlon to put the new found spare time to good use helping with the marshaling.
So, no running again this week, want to be really sure my ankle is better before doing this. I may do a little jog next week just to test the water.
Gas Hill Gasp came round again in Norwich on Friday. Had a great night down there watching some gutsy performances up the mentalist hill.
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| Ben from Tri harder |
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| Roger & Ben battling it out. |
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| Pete Hargreaves |
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| Pete Hargreaves |
Pete is the guy who posted a picture of his bike on facebook in 2011, that gave me the idea to buy a bike to get fit, which has then led to this Ironman ambition.
That's about it then. No news on my Aviva redundancy date yet, bit of a pain due to my plans to go self employed with a franchised business in catering. Wanted to launch it in October but looks like i may miss this window. Really excited about having my own business and being my own boss, although quite nervous about. Will have to start a blog about that journey.
Cheers
Andy
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