Our first sportive was a very hard and hilly 40 miler. We were overtaken quite a few times but consoled ourselves it was because they were “proper” cyclists, until two lardy lads came passed in triathlon t-shirts! Well that blew all the excuses away and rather disgruntled we put our heads down and carried on.
We’re keeping a log of all the events we do so next year we can just do the ones we enjoyed….this one is going down as “good for training but not much fun” and it won’t be on my list next year. Still we survived and felt relatively pleased with ourselves. We were supposed to run 30 mins afterwards but only did 10. It was the worst run off the bike ever and the closest experience of how bad it’s going to feel on the day so far, so for that reason alone we should have pushed on, but I think we were shell shocked from the ride! Soo many hills….
Next up was our home made Olympic triathlon. We drove to the local pool swam 1500meters, quick drive back home, cycled 40k and ran an undulating 10k…it all went well. If I was just racing an Olympic I would have pushed harder but I was thinking more of race pace and this is the furthest I’ve swum since end of last year.
Pacing is key in all sports but I still struggle with how far I can push myself without running out of steam. But that’s part of the challenge. I need to practice over the remaining few weeks; I don’t think I push enough.
Next up was a 77 mile sportive, most of the hills were in the first 40miles so a good mix but for me it was a disaster. I had very sore shoulders and sit bones after about 20 miles and the rest was a painful and miserable experience. Poor Carsten had to wait for me and put up with my miserable face. I have now invested in a rather expensive but very comfortable pair of cycle shorts, just need to sort out the shoulders, clearly the turtles and lemons aren’t working! (you need to have read earlier blogs to understand that). We agreed our next sportive would be cycled at our own pace, so we both learn pace/speed etc that suits us.
So then it was off to Germany – a wet, windy and cold Easter weekend. Carsten had the joy of getting the hang of the bike box packing, I’m glad I wasn’t around; I think there was a fair bit of cursing going on! Thankfully he had it all sussed by the time I got home to do mine. Everything at the airports went well and we arrived without incident in our Regensburg hotel; they didn’t bat an eyelid at the site of our huge bike boxes and we unpacked and kept them in the room. Caused a few stares throughout the trip though, curiosity mostly. Everyone else seemed to be carrying skis!
So we set off with a bit of drizzle to find the bike course, the Garmin was at its worse and it took us an hour to find the right road. In fairness to the Garmin the initial loop was a bit confusing, one way and all that.
The drizzle turned into a downpour and the rain really hurts when it hits your face at speed, it was like someone throwing stones at you. I was looking down more than ahead to try and shelter a bit. Being Easter and bad weather the roads were pretty traffic free. All bike friendly too, gave us room when over taking, no horn honking or obscene hand gestures. The roads were good, only one with a few pots holes and lovely scenery. It would have been a great cycle if the weather had been better, so we hope next time it will be. The hills weren’t too hideous either, nothing we don’t find in Kent, mostly long, slow ones. Though I know on the day they will feel much harder, and more like Everest by the second lap!
We’re into the Peak phase now, this is it, the final push, we start at 16hours a week and build to 20, then in the last two weeks we taper down a bit until race day. I do feel stronger and maybe a little bit faster but still miles from how I’d like to feel or how I think I should feel to make it round in time.
Fantasising about race day keeps me going through training and often spurs me on, its such a mixture of excitement and fear. I joked the ironman is my substitute baby…it will take 9 months to prepare, it’ll hurt like hell, cost a fortune, be filled with fear and delight and I’ll be proud of it for the rest of my life…(not sure mum will see it as a good substitute and no knitting needed)
One of the first things we did after applying was to buy a wall calendar, it’s been invaluable and good fun. It’s all colour coded (you’d expect no less) and gives an easy view of what we’ve done and what’s coming up and is always a good topic of conversation with glass of wine in hand. We’ll miss it when it’s all over, might have to get it framed!
We’ve penciled in 21st July to go up town and have a few celebratory drinks, for all the events and birthdays we’ve missed (including our own), for our belated engagement, for our ironman victories (still thinking positively), so put it in your diaries and come and have a drink with us.
