PJH road to Ironman UK: Gadget heaven.....

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Gadget heaven.....

I had a spin on the bike for 45 mins today at lunch time with a goal of hitting the 100 rpm. I still didn’t quite make it, averaging at about 93, so still not quite there, maybe next time. My swim this evening was a lesson focussing on arms which I find quite straight forward. The exciting part was that afterwards I had the chance to try out my new fins that arrived today. Anyone who knows me reasonably well knows that I am a total sucker for a gadget, and today was gadget heaven. I hadn’t appreciated how they would put increased pressure on my achilles tendon and legs, but I am sure they are doing me good, flexing my foot and hopefully loosening them up a bit.

Not only that but a couple of days ago the zip on my high viz jacket broke and so I took it back to the shop. I changed it for a different model and as I was paying the difference I spotted a small flat light behind the counter. Upon enquiry the very helpful assistant explained that it was actually designed for my new jacket. It sticks by Velcro to the back of the jacket and flashes red. Wow. I can’t wait till 6am tomorrow to try it out on my run. I hope it doesn’t get light too early…..

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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, 4 February 2010

Gadget heaven.....

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About Me

Books that have helped