PJH road to Ironman UK: And its PJH into the Pit lane

Thursday, 18 February 2010

And its PJH into the Pit lane

After my triumphant brick session last night I was ready to attack the spin session (1hour) with gusto this morning. As it is half term and I have taken some time off this should have been a pretty easy task. However, halfway through the rims of the back wheel are grounding on the rollers Agggghhh. I dismount only to find a slow puncture and a totally shredded back tyre. So hot foot to the bike shop for a new one and with very mucky fingers I am back on the bike. When I start up again I am amazed with the cadence that I am achieving . I hit 100 fairly easily and with real focus managed to maintain it for the remaining half an hour. Very happy!

I am also scheduled to do a one hour swim session which would normally have been achieved at my swimming class this evening. However, as it is half term we have a family outing this evening (and as someone who is trying not to be obsessive with my training) I have decided to push swimming to tomorrow. This means a very packed final few sessions of the week, 5 sessions in the next 3 days!

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A maintenance challenge

After completing the Ironman the question of what next. I have a few half marathons for the Autumn and will probably enter a couple of duathlons. However, my main aim will be to keep building on the fitness that I have acheived. I appreciate that this next month will be about recovering. Although my legs are feeling pretty good, I have a pain in my right knee that will need some careful management. Tempting though it is I am not going to imediately enter another Ironman. I will give it a few weeks and give it some serious thought.

Why Ironman?

This is a big question and one that I am unlikely to be able to answer fully until maybe after the event. Maybe somehow it goes back to being useless at sports at school, picked last etc, being called “Porky” by my mates etc, but that can’t be all of it. Perhaps it is being surrounded by high achieving athletes at work who have and are still achieving amazing things, or a better understanding of the psychology of performance and setting and achieving goals. Perhaps it is a place to go to when life becomes difficult and the pain of training numbs that. The lyrics that come back to me time and time again are:
“This is my church, this is where I heal my hurts”
Or maybe it is all of these combined with entering the London Marathon in 1983.
When I was 22 I heard about the event and decide to enter, I had never been a runner, detesting cross country runs at school. However something appealed to me about the run.
Once I had completed it and done a couple of half marathons, I heard about the Ironman in Hawaii. In some ways I felt that my achievement had been eclipsed by the triathlon and somewhere deep inside me I knew that I had to do it. This was buried somewhere in my memory and only came out later in 2009 over 25 years later. In the spring a few friends from work convinced me to compete in the Henley sprint distance triathlon which I did. I then started open water swimming really enjoying the distances. My belief in my ability to swim began to grow and two friends from work who had completed the Ironman quite separately said that they believed that I could do it. It was then that my memory of hearing about Kona was awoken and the question “Can I do it?” came into my head. Since then other distances have emerged but for some reason they seem to be only preparation for the full distance. I if wonder once I have completed the event I August will that feel complete until I have made my way to Kona to do the original. Who knows?

PJH road to Ironman UK

Thursday, 18 February 2010

And its PJH into the Pit lane

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About Me

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