Post 159 - The build up to South Africa (half-Ironman world championships)

Since the European sprint triathlon championships, I have been continued to try to get my Achilles better. I’ve got pain in my right Achilles, and on the top of my right foot, when I run. It just is not getting better quickly. I’ve done everything for it. It just needs time. Time has run out. So I’m off to South Africa tomorrow for the half ironman world championships, something I should be really excited for, and really well-trained for, and I’m neither unfortunately. I’ve managed about a mile of running per week for the last 6 weeks. I’ve no idea how my Achilles will react to running a half-marathon in the half-ironman. I’ve been sorely tempted to just pack this race in. But it’s a world championships…

So I’ve continued with cycling training, it has been going OK, and I’ve continued with swimming training – it has actually been pretty good – a possible best-ever swim session last week was 6 x 200m repeats, averaging 2:57, with recovery up to 4 minutes. That’s not bad pace – and still without tumble turning – I can tumble turn, but not confidently enough to do it super-fast and also not in shallow water. I’ll get there, hopefully.

One good thing this week - took the hybrid for an easy spin, saw a nice sunset

But I am tired, it has been a long season, and to be honest I am looking forward to it being over – I’m going to bail on all my September and October events (excepting one duathlon which I will do for fun) in an attempt to have a mental and physical break, and allow my Achilles to recover before a winter of cross-country running.

I managed to borrow a bike box for South Africa. It’s falling apart. Most of the clips are broken. I thought I’d do it up with parcel tape. I bought a pile of stuff – masking tape, parcel tape, parcel wrap, race nutrition, pipe lagging, bubble wrap, bottle cages, travel adaptor, South African money, cable ties, fork spacers, everything I could think of to protect the bike.

Official advice - "how to react when attacked/hijacked" - "when", not "if"...

It was a complete nightmare to dismantle the bike. I hate working on bikes at the best of times. I thought it would be a case of taking the pedals off (fairly easy), taking the handlebars off (fairly easy) and taking the wheels off (fairly easy) and putting everything in the box, and closing the box, and taping it up with parcel wrap and tape.

Nothing would fit. I had protected the bike and components with pipe lagging and bubble wrap, but this added a couple of inches to the height. The box would not close. It’s not as if I could sit on it – the contents are delicate. I could see I would have to dismantle the entire handlebar set-up. A monumental pain in the ass. Particularly when the bike was already in pieces in a box on the floor. I had to call in a friend to help holding nuts with a spanner while I unscrewed bolts with an Allen key.

The whole front end of my bike was so precisely set up and tailored for me – with various different spacers, cable ties, bottle cages, computer mounts, pads, measurements etc etc. It’s complex. And it was all butchered to fit it in the box. And it’ll all have to be put back together in South Africa, and then dismantled all over again to travel back, and then built again. I questioned very hard if this was more trouble than it was worth – particularly as I’m not up for the race at all.

Oh well, I was committed. Everything got taken apart. It was still a horribly tight fit. I was wincing and grimacing as we pushed the lid down over the wheels. Please don’t let the wheels get bent. Please let this box hold. We lifted it up. It was obvious if someone lifted it by the handle that the whole thing would fall apart, leaving the bike scattered everywhere – possibly in the hold of an aeroplane. We sealed it up as best we could with cellophane parcel wrap and parcel tape, and I stuck my big “fragile” posters on the side of the box. Please, customs, do not make me open this box for inspection. This will be a disaster.

I couldn’t even fit the saddle into the box, so I hope they will let me carry it as hand luggage – more stress – I’ve checked the airline policy for what is allowed, and “blunt objects” or “crowbars” aren’t – I hope they don’t interpret the saddle (or more specifically the foot-long seat-post) as either of those. And now I’ve got 6.5kg of luggage allowance left to fit everything else in – all my tri gear, personal gear, clothes, documents, gadgets, accessories, you name it. I will never do this again. I’d sooner drive to South Africa with the bike in the back of a car.

I had a terrible sleep that night – the box got closed at midnight, and I already had a sore neck – I tweaked it in the pool dodging an inconsiderate swimmer who was swimming continuously, slowly, in the middle of the fast lane. Then bending and contorting over a bike in a bike box on the ground for hours has ruined my back. I could barely lie down.

I’m not looking forward to having to re-assemble it – due to the intricacies, it will have to go to a bike shop. Hundreds if not thousands of people will be trying to get their bikes serviced in the bike shops before the race. We have been given official advice that we shouldn’t train alone and that if we want to go for a bike ride we should join the police safety convoy at 9am each morning before the race. The swim is at Shark Point Pier. The sharks are waiting. The weather forecast is for high winds. I’ve heard that the wind is blowing thorns from the African scrub onto the road and people are getting flat tyres.

I’m not in a great frame of mind for this. It shouldn’t be like this. One day, one, day, I dream of going into a big race, saying “training has gone brilliantly”, and then following that up at the finish line by me saying “that was as good as it gets”. I’m getting very sick of triathlon summers being ruined.

Oh well. It’ll all be over in a week. And then I’ll have to dismantle the damn bike, pack it up again, get home, and re-assemble it. And then wait weeks if not months for my Achilles to heal. I do sometimes question myself.

South Africa here I come. Living the dream. Pah.

Training done was as follows:

Mon 13 Aug: Rest
Tue 14 Aug: Bike 6 AS full reps: 5:54, 5:46, 5:34, 5:42, 5:41, 5:47
Wed 15 Aug: Swim 1.7k (6 x 200m: 2:56, 2:57, 2:58, 2:57, 2:57, 2:57, rec to 4mins)
Thu 16 Aug: 1:30 turbo
Fri 17 Aug: Swim 2.1k, 20 min turbo (single leg drills)
Sat 18 Aug: 3 hour turbo (2:40 at 215/212W, 140bpm)
Sun 19 Aug: 2:50 turbo (4 x 4 x 10mins build), 15 min run

Totals: Swim 3.8k, Bike 180 miles, Run 2 miles

Mon 20 Aug: Rest
Tue 21 Aug: Bike 4 x AS hills (4:08, 3:59, 3:47, 3:51)
Wed 22 Aug: Swim 1.6k
Thu 23 Aug: 1:15 bike
Fri 24 Aug: Rest
Sat 25 Aug: 3:05 bike (54.3 miles, 201/190W, 134bpm, 2732ft)
Sun 26 Aug: Swim 1.1k, 15 min run

Totals: Swim 2.7km, Bike 95 miles, Run 2 miles