Post 182 - Ironman training week 11

With two weeks to go, it is time to taper. I like the taper, and I hate the taper. I like it because I have more time, more breathing space, less intensity. I hate it because you get very antsy and the body goes a bit haywire. With the reduced training load, it’s more difficult to sleep. It’s difficult to maintain discipline, and not to overeat. Everything feels weird and you ask yourself over and over again, why do I feel like I am getting sick? Why do I feel like I am injured? Why am I so lethargic? What is the weather forecast for race day looking like? It’s also Tour de France time, and so as in previous years, I can say “when the Tour is over, the Ironman will be over…”

I’ve been through it all before many times. I did feel like I had a bit of a sore throat coming on, but regular gargling with obscenely salty water seems to have helped. Despite what I might think, or what my body might be trying to fool me into believing, I don’t think I have any injuries. The weather actually looks like it might be acceptable on race day. I’ve done everything I could in training with the time available. Being very critical, I would have liked one or two more higher-intensity/constant-intensity longer bike rides, but I have done the work. I haven’t missed a single session. I’m not in bad shape. I’ve been as dedicated as possible. I’ve done what I think I need to do. Most of the preparation is done.

Tesco has done well out of me recently. I go about once a week. The most recent couple of visits set me back over £100 each time. Ridiculous. I remember (probably 25 years ago) helping my mum out with the weekly shop, for a family of 6, and it costing £60-odd quid... times change...

If you'd told me 4 months ago I’d be in this position at this time, I’d probably have taken it. I just need to survive the next two weeks and keep it all together. It seems a short build-up, writing "week 11", with only one week to go. It was intentionally a shorter build-up this year to try to keep me fresher, but it has been longer than 11-12 weeks. I'd been training before that with one eye on the Ironman, but with other events in the mix (10K race in 32:17 and Scottish duathlon - 5th overall), so it has maybe been around a 4-month build up.

I did an easy two-hour turbo on Tuesday. An easy spin over to Arthur’s Seat on Wednesday. There was unusually heavy traffic. I asked a policeman what was going on – the Queen’s Garden Party. Great. It was dangerous to cycle in such traffic but the policeman said I could go up the wrong way round Arthur’s Seat on the closed road, which was good. An easy 35 minute run on Thursday. Toned down the core work, stretching, squatting and weights. Nothing more to gain now. I was a bit disappointed that I was bleeding under my toenail after the run, so maybe I will wear socks that have more padding on the toes. I will visit the podiatrist again to get my feet, toes and nails tidied up and hopefully that will help.

I did an easy swim on Friday, trying out different pairs of goggles. Finally I made a decision – I will use my trusty, well-used pair (they seem to leak the least) and hope that the strap doesn’t break – the older they are, the more likely it is that the strap will snap. I hope it’ll give me one more hour…

I visited the physio one last time. He gave me a Tour de France magazine to read during the massage. I thought I was tolerating the massage a bit better, without too much squirming or grunting. But he said he had planned to give me the magazine to distract me, and was going easy. Oh well. Hopefully these regular massage sessions will have helped. The flexibility at work has been really useful, with the ability to work at home from time to time, to fit in the swims when the pool is quiet, to fit in the podiatrist and physio appointments.

Wall art at the physio. Quirky and quite cool

I did some short single-leg turbo drills on Friday evening, and decided I still wasn’t happy with the gears, they are clunking a bit in the low gears. I need all the gears, including the low gears on the hilly course, to be perfect. So I decided the following morning I’d take the bike to an out-of-town bike shop and get someone to have a look at it, and then take it for an easy two hour spin.

The gears were duly looked at and tweaked and unfortunately still clunking a bit (not badly, but I want them to be perfect), so it was recommended that the mechanic would try to adjust the existing derailleur to fix it, and failing that, put a new derailleur on. At a cost of £100. Great. Plus a few days to wait for it to arrive. It’ll be ready on Tuesday. Putting a new derailleur on will mean breaking the (new, costly) chain, which will weaken it, so it may need another new chain.

I had hoped everything would be sorted by now and I would be able to “relax” a bit more. But at least it’s all under control and getting sorted, with time still available. With only an easy 2-hour Saturday bike ride done as part of my taper (as opposed to 6-9 hours followed by a run on previous Saturdays), I wasn’t tired and barely slept. The bagel-and-peanut-butter breakfast before the long sessions is working better than porridge and makes me feel less pukey, so that’ll be the race morning feed sorted.

I did an easy 10km run on Sunday, and then forced myself to make a decision on which pair of shorts to use. Ideally I wanted a long pair to cover as much skin as possible. I’ve decided I can’t risk shaving my legs for aerodynamic purposes so close to race day in case I have skin trouble, so the next best thing is to cover as much skin as possible. So I will wear my green calf compression tubes on the bike, and a long pair of shorts, leaving only my knee exposed.

The trouble was, the longest pair of shorts were too tight and uncomfortable. I almost had decision-paralysis, as I had ordered quite a few pairs of shorts from the internet, in different sizes and styles, all but one of which will be returned. In the end, comfort won out and I went for the most comfortable pair. They were slightly shorter than I’d like, but a decent pair. It seems no-one likes the colour “jolly green”, because they were also the most heavily discounted, reduced from £70 to £25… Decision made, I packed up all the other pairs for return, and I won’t think about it again.

Really cool running shoes, really wanted to keep them, but they were too small.

Gutted to have had to return these...

I played around with a few other things too. I want to wear arm sleeves on the bike as it’ll be cool at 7am when I start the bike, and also to protect my arms from any sun. But it’s difficult to put the wetsuit on over them, they bunch up and make it painful to bend my arm (essential for swimming), so I will have to whip them on in transition (easier said than done on wet arms). I ordered some suncream-infused BodyGlide to stop the wetsuit chafing the back of my neck, and to hopefully prevent any sunburn (I am optimistic that the weather may actually be reasonable). I played around with where to store different things on the bike (bottles, gels, spares, CO2 cartridges for punctures, bars). I tried to work out a feeding and drinking strategy.

There’s a 3-and-a-half-hour video on YouTube of one lap of the bike course – someone put a camera on their bike and filmed it. I’ve watched it several times, and have noted the dangerous points of the course, and have been watching them repeatedly.

Video times for dangerous points on the lap Judge for yourself.

Saying that, the video doesn't do justice to how poor the road surfaces 

are, and how steep the descents are, and how much braking is needed...

Having repeatedly watched the video, hopefully I am well prepared. I know where I can go downhill fast, and where I need to be cautious. I can’t do anything about other riders so I will need to be careful of them, especially when lapping slower riders on the second lap. Quite a bit of the course is residential, and there are quite a few houses out on the countryside sections of the course as well. I can’t do anything about people/animals walking into the road or cars pulling out. I hope it’ll be OK.

Given my previous record, I'm almost expecting something to go catastrophically wrong. Sitting waiting for it to happen. Hopefully it won't. It's just another day. I keep telling myself I have it all under control. In previous years, there’s finally a feeling of relative calm and a relative absence of stress when I’m wetsuited up and standing in the queue to begin the swim. At that stage, nothing more can be done other than deliver the race as well as possible. I look forward to that moment again. That moment has potential. I was going to say I look forward to finishing, but there’s no potential in that moment, I may not get what I want, and may well just feel awful and like it was all a massive waste of time, effort and money all over again. But it might not be. And that’s why I am doing it again…

Training done was as follows:

Swim 1.55km, Bike 105 miles, Run 12 miles

Race day is only a few lines away...