PJH road to Ironman UK: Alleluia, here comes the sun

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Alleluia, here comes the sun

Bike today, 2.75 hours and the first time outside for ages and the sun actually came out (for about 10 minutes). Ever since I started on the rollers indoors I have been curious about how it will have affected my performance on the road. I was expecting a real lift to my speed. Silly me! On balance I guess it was ok to take a balanced view:

One the negative side:

The ride was slow (average 16mph) which gives me 7hrs for the 112 miles. In fact slower than I was riding 6 months ago,
I suffered towards the end with my neck and shoulders.
I had a little lower back ache in the first hour

On the positive side

When I had finished I felt that I could have carried on for another 30 minutes.
The course is pretty hilly and I coped ok (big climb near the end)
I felt that my handling of the bike was far improved
On the flat sections I was averaging 18 mph plus
I didn’t suffer from “saddle fatigue”

So on balance I guess it was a good ride and it feels good to have covered 45 miles which feels like touching distance of the 56 miles for the half iron in May. That at least now is feeling a little more doable. Next week the goal is 3 hrs and my hope is that I will get even closer to the magic halfway mark.

To be honest as I reflect on it..I feel quite proud.

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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

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Alleluia, here comes the sun

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About Me

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