Post 140 - Nearly there

Well, there isn’t much to say really. Ironman Weymouth isn’t far away. I’ve done my best to be as ready for it as I can be, and I hope that my knee will allow me to get through it. I’m pretty confident that I’ll get through the swim and the bike, and that I’ll manage at least the first quarter of the run without any problems, but I have no idea how things are going to go once I start getting deeper into the marathon. I’ll be on a wing and a prayer (and a dodgy knee that I don’t have full confidence in).

The swim is a sea swim. Weymouth is on a peninsula that sticks out into the English Channel and the town and beach face east. This means if the wind is from the east, the sea will be really rough. If the wind is from any other direction (or if there’s no wind), then the sea should be calm. I really hope it’s calm after 3 really rough sea swims in 2013, 2014 and 2015 at Ironman Wales. I’m due a calm swim. I also hope I don’t swim into any jellyfish. And there should be no rocks to smash myself off either.

The swim could be busy, because they are holding a full Ironman and a half Ironman concurrently. For the full Ironman they have around 1000 entrants, for the half they have around 2000 entrants, and they have a handful of people doing a relay as well. I hope to be in the water and away at the front, so the first lap of the swim should be fine, but the second lap could be busy.

I’ve heard that the roads are well-surfaced but I’ve also heard that for some reason people seem to pick up more than their fair share of punctures when cycling on the Jurassic Coast (on which Weymouth is located). It seems that small shards of flint are fairly common on the roads, perhaps due to the topography and geography of the area. There was a non-Ironman long course race at Weymouth last year, and I heard that there were nails and tacks dropped on a section of the bike course – not all the locals seem to approve of the event. So all I can do is hope for no punctures…

I think that the bike course is going to be very busy. It’s a two-lap course: the half-distance competitors will do one lap and the full distance people will do two laps. So my first lap will probably be spent overtaking the slower half-distance athletes and I think it could get quite congested, so I’ll have to be really on my guard and concentrate hard, as I don’t want to have a crash. I’ll make sure when I am passing people that I give them a wide berth.

Then the run is the big unknown. It’s four and a half laps up and down Weymouth promenade, so it should be very spectator-friendly and the atmosphere should be good. Again I reckon the run course could get quite congested, but it’s flat, which should suit me.

I reckon there will be three Kona qualifying slots in my age group, so that means I would need to be in the top 10 overall to have any sort of chance of qualifying. But more than anything, I just want to finish strongly. I’d like to swim under 60 minutes, but I’ll probably do 60-65. On the bike, I would be hoping for under 5:30, although this will depend on conditions, wind, and congestion on the course. And then a 3:20 run (assuming my knee holds) will see me under 10 hours, but I could run anything from 3:20 to 3:50. If my knee doesn’t hold then I don’t think I’ll have a choice but to pull out, because when it gets sore, it isn’t just something I can grit my teeth and get through, it is incapacitatingly and horribly sore, so it’ll be game over.

The weather forecast is for a bit of rain on Saturday, but Sunday looks reasonable, so that’s good. The plan is to get everything ready on Friday, and then drive down early on Saturday morning with my brother. I thought my cousin might be going, but she couldn’t get off work. We’ll meet up with the parentals, and get registered, and get everything set up. Then we might drive down to Portland Bill at the bottom of the peninsula to see the view, and then we’ll drive a lap of the bike course. We are staying in Poole, maybe 30 miles away due to availability and cost of accommodation. I hope it goes well, because I really do think that this will be my last attempt. I’m surely, surely due a good race.

I have gradually tapered and wound down my training, and hopefully my legs will be fresh. It has been difficult to sleep in the last couple of weeks because it has been very warm and muggy. I am hungry all the time, to the point where I was waking up hungry and then being unable to get back to sleep. So I started putting food beside my bed so that I could eat if I woke up, and then get back to sleep. My weight is at a minimum for the year now, at 66-67kg. I can’t maintain this knife-edge existence for too long, it would be very difficult not to crack up. My body needs a rest, that’s obvious. So it’s at the point now where I am just dying for it all to be over, so that I don’t have to live on this knife-edge.

I wonder how many miles I’ve done on the turbo trainer in the last few years. Thousands and thousands. Gawking at the laptop, watching YouTube and whatever else I could find online that I thought might be interesting. Here’s the view – inspiring? I can think of better views when on a bike - countryside, for example...!

I’m number 3415 for Ironman Weymouth. Come on knee. Come on body. Give me one day. Let’s get through this strongly.

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 29 Aug: Rest
Tue 30 Aug: Rest
Wed 31 Aug: 1:10 turbo, 20 minute run
Thu 1 Sept: Rest
Fri 2 Sept: Swim 2.1km
Sat 3 Sept: 2:10 turbo, 25 min run
Sun 4 Sept: Swim 2km, 30 min run

Totals: Swim 4.1km, Bike 75 miles, Run 11 miles