1/3 Done…

Well done us…..we’ve finished the first 10 week base phase, it’s been good, we love the new levels of fitness and I’m impressed by my commitment. We’ve pretty much stuck to the plan, though we lost the odd session as we battled through man flu and colds.

Our long run is up to 1.5hrs and our long cycle up to 3hrs. The mild winter has been a fantastic help, still, 2hrs+ on the bike has often been a bit chilly, so we hope it’ll be even warmer by the time the rides get longer.  This week has been the coldest so far and I had to cut tonight’s run short due to icy pavements.

So next is the 10 week build phase which focuses on power and speed. The durations will keep increasing and we do more brick sessions (running off the bike).  Fitting it all is going to be tough but that’s part of the challenge. 

There are three plan options varying in time and effort and  now we have to decide which to follow…Just Get Round (not a consideration), Intermediate or Competitive. We’ve opted for Competitive, if it gets too much we can always drop down a bit. But I feel we need all the practice we can get so we’ll aim high.

Neither of us have lost any weight, we must have tripled our previous training levels but the scales keep going up! We’re either building muscle or eating too many flapjacks… we’re not sure yet.  I keep buying bananas as they are meant to be good for energy, but I don’t eat them, they go a bit soggy and I end up making a cake!

We’ll need to consume an energy bar every 45mins on the bike and we won’t have time on race day to stop and eat. So we’re currently learning to eat on the go, which is not that easy.  We’ve followed advice; bought small kit bags for the top bar and put pre-cut bite size pieces of energy bars in them. I read that you should treat the bike leg as a rolling buffet and just keep eating…but it’s quite hard to chew when you’re heart rate is up,  not to mention fiddling with zips and gloves whilst still steering, changing gear and braking…. I’m sure it’ll all come together soon but I lost my last few nibbles on our cycle last week! Luckily I was nearly home…

We’ve booked a trip to Regensburg at Easter to check out the bike course, we’ll be taking our bikes with us and cycling a few laps. We’ll feel a lot more comfortable once we know how hard those hills are!  It’ll also give us practice with the bike boxes etc, as they look enormous.

Our June trip is all arranged too, we’ve gone through an agency who’ll handle the transfers, hotel etc. It’ll remove some stresses and leave us to focus on race preparation.  

So all we are missing for June are some supporters!  Come on, who wouldn’t want a weekend in Regensburg? It looks beautiful….

We’ve also booked a half ironman in the New Forest in May, ideally it would be earlier but that’s the first one we can find.  It has very strict cut off times too so a perfect trial run. My concern is the lack of time afterwards for improving weak areas before race day.

My biggest stress is trying to sort my saddle and bike set up problems, and my biggest worry is that I’m just too slow; I know I can train and do it, but can I do it in time to become an Ironman? My mum says don’t worry but I don’t want to go through this to be a DNF! (did not finish).  So let’s hope the up and coming speed work does the trick.

In-between organising Ironman events we have been researching weddings and honeymoons, alas we’re not getting very far.  Dominican Republic in March 2013 is looking good for now but we’ll keep searching and confirm as soon as we can. 

(Carsten) My turn ….

I do wonder if anyone reads our blog, and if they do whether or not they find it interesting … if nothing else it will be a useful tool to help us remember the event in our old age!

So, we are now onto to the competitive section of the training plan; it felt hard before fitting in 8 training sessions into 6 days (plus work, home life and a little social life!) now we have to fit 9 sessions in of a longer and harder duration; I can see it taking its toll on the muscles.  I guess part of being an Ironman is not just doing the event but spending 6 months training for it and having the mental strength to keep going during the training as well as the actual event itself.

My worst and best bits …

Well I like the feeling of getting stronger; of being able to run for longer, and the pride of being able to say I’m in training for an Ironman.  But I don’t like cycling in the cold, saddle sores and the feeling of frozen toes and fingers … and considering the forecast tomorrow is snow I reckon I’ll be feeling all those again very shortly!

Roll on April and May, hopefully it will be a bit warmer but it will also be a bit more interesting.  We have planned a couple of Olympic triathlons, a couple of sportives (cycling events) and of course the Half Ironman.  By then the training should be coming together a bit more and we can test ourselves a bit, judge how we are doing and hopefully feel more confident with such long distances.

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A picture of Carsten setting off for his 2.30hr cycle. It feels really cold out there, he's a bit tired from a busy week and really not looking forward to it. I gave him an Ironman, Ironman rah rah rah chant as he left to cheer him on.....hmmm might do my cycle today on the turbo, i dont have to go that far! You can see our training plans in the background.