For the cycle we did the 100miler we did
last October, only this time without the tea stops. It was a beautiful day and
lovely to head off certain of good weather. All was well until the last 20 miles
when the Garmin battery died, it was fully charged so clearly an issue. Luckily
Carsten had his iphone on him and eventually (after a few stops and a bit of
cursing) we made our way back. It’s a flat course so not a real test for the
day but a really lovely route and a joy to ride.
For our long runs we tend to do laps so we
can pass the house and take on water and gels, a bit like feed stations on the
day. It was hot on my 3miler and I only managed 18 miles. I was hoping to do at
least one 21mile training run. I was tempted to extend this week’s run but as
I’m already suffering with injuries it’s probably best not to.
So now we start to taper, sadly that
doesn’t mean morphing into couch potatoes – our long cycle drops to 4hrs and
then 2 and in the last week nothing is longer than an hour…So we should be
fully rested and raring to go on the day!
The thought of it for me is still a mix of
fear and excitement, I just hope I can keep the nerves at bay on the day and
focus on what I need to remember. Judging by the smaller and less important events
I’ve done, my stomach will be churning, even if you’re head is happy your
stomach seems to do its own thing.
But we’re ready, we’ve had enough and we
just need to do it now. For comfort of getting round I would like few more
weeks of training, but our minds and bodies have had enough, motivation is
getting harder now and we’re rather tired and grumpy. We are as good as we’re
going to get.
I visited a physio with a few new leg
problems recently, apparently I have deformed feet and will always have issues
with my shins, nice. As if that wasn’t
enough my sciatic nerve has “adhered” itself somewhere and makes my heel hurt.
The only route is orthotics but obviously not this side of ironman. So I’ll
plod on (literally sometimes), everything’s going to hurt on the day, I think
old pains will subside and new ones will occur, but I’m getting used to
training with pains so hopefully none of them will be debilitating and I’ll
just deal with them on at the time and we’ll be packing the ibuprofen.
Come what may I’ve really enjoyed the
training and I’ve reached new levels of commitment, willpower etc and I’ve
broken my own records which admittedly wasn’t hard, but still good to do. We’re
looking forward to all the extra time we’ll have, though Carsten will be working
a lot more and I’m sure we’ll fill the time and wonder how on earth we ever
managed to train.
Dorney Olympic was a bit warm for me, I’d
rather run in drizzle than heat, so on the day we want overcast weather, with a
mild breeze to keep us cool, which will of course be behind us on the bike ride
and a touch of sunshine to make everything look pretty. If it has to rain, let
it be light and not till I’m off the bike; I get more nervous and slow down on
wet roads. Though given the weather lately it could be blooming awful weather
which will make it all rather unpleasant.
I stole this from someone else’s ironman blog
- Each month, as the training
distances increase, say good-bye to a clean house, folded laundry,
and home-cooked dinner every night.
We’ve decided to try and raise some money
for charity – you can sponsor us by emailing us your pledge or go on line here
- http://www.justgiving.com/Melanie-Pitches - if you’d like to guess my finish time I’m
offering a bottle of champagne for the closest guess. (rounded up to nearest
minute)
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