So, my plan for this years Ironman races was to go down the ‘Wiggins’ route and lose weight as three out of my four M-dot races this year are proper hilly! It turns out that’s not really working for me as I’ve also lost some strength. Sunday turned into a difficult day for another reason too of course - it was very hot - and that was something we’re just not used to!



Race day and up at 3:15, force down a bit of breakfast, then it’s a cab to Pennington Flash to check on my bike,…

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The first Ironman Wales!

 

Arrived Thursday afternoon, went straight to registration above the South Beach where the swim was to start from and noticed the wind immediately! The marquees they had up were flapping around quite a bit and were held down with huge tanks of water on each corner - a sign of things to come!



Went for a practice swim on Friday morning - 1k took me 34 minutes (ouch!) in a choppy sea with bit of a current, still at least the rain had stopped for…

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... or 'How not to do an Ironman'!

 

Firstly, big congrats to Ted with a fantastic finish time of 11 hours 21 mins - and fame as he was interviewed during the run and is on the official DVD!

 

My day didn't end quite so well ...

 

Swim was OK at 1:13. The bike leg wasn't too bad at 7:25, especially as the wind was a lot stronger than last year. So far so good - I'm a bit faster everywhere despite the increased wind and heat. First run loop (half…

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It's always good to try something new (isn't it?!) so when I got an email about the London Ultra Marathon 50K run a couple of weeks ago I just couldn't resist.

 

The route is point-to-point from Streatham Common (handy) to Wembley (not so handy!) and follows the Capital Ring through as many parks and river/canal banks as possible in between.

 

It kicked off with compulsory registration the day before in Wembley but it was combined with a small expo so you get to…

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Hi Paul, Matt & anyone else doing IMUK next week.



Here's the schedule I went through in Lanzarote in May - it really helped set me up for the day so it may be of use to you. The one change is that I was in La Santa with nothing else to do other than train eat and sleep (and had professional coaching!), not so this time around. I'm going to struggle to repeat this but I'll have a good try - and it starts TOMORROW!



DAY 1 Saturday (8 days to race day):



Swim… Continue

No training at all yesterday (Friday) – went down to Puerto del Carmen to rack our bikes and dump our bike and run bags (you get 3 big plastic bags at registration – warm up / bike / run) on your numbered hooks. Let half the air out of your tyres so they don’t explode in the afternoon sun (!) and then head back to La Santa.



Dinner was a late one (10:30) to make sure I still had some of the energy from it to use in the morning and then it was try to sleep as best you can before getting… Continue

(Yet another) early start with a bus ride down to Puerto del Carmen to do one lap of the sea swim course - the marker buoys aren't out yet so I missed the main turn but still managed a slow & steady 40 mins. That time may well change on Saturday with 1,499 other racers in fighting for the same bit of sea! It's easy to get distracted from your stroke too as you see loads of fish on the way around.



Then is was back on the bikes for a 40k climb up to Timanfya again. And once more I… Continue

Monday 17th



The training intensity is dropping - we drove the bike course this morning, it took THREE hours! The climbs are long and steep - the pro's say the only way you will get round is to get your feeding plan right - specially on the bike.



Luckily the husband of one of the trainers here owns SiS and we had a pre-race nutrition talk last night, followed by race tactics this evening - special guest was Ain Alar Juhanson who confirmed that getting it wrong means a DNF.… Continue

Mind over matter, and all that stuff ...

Anyone who watched 'Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man' can't fail to have been inspired. Here's a man, a year older than me, not in the best shape it must be said (!) but with less

than two months training, ran 43 Marathons in 51 days, covering over 1,100

miles. He also ran through much of Wales, Scotland and the…

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Hi all



It has been suggested that I document my training in the lead up to Ironman Lanzarote (May 22nd), so here goes!



Training is different for everyone, and what I do works for me but may not be everyone's idea of fun, but hopefully people will identify with some of it and even find it of use.



This morning was a gentle 10k run around Tooting Common - I must confess to not being a morning person and not doing anywhere near enough mileage as a result. I personally… Continue