PJH road to Ironman UK: The highs and the lows

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

The highs and the lows

Part one. early evening.

I am not sure if there is a link to the training but I am find myself experiencing some real lows. I am guessing this is in part to the time commitment especially during the weekends, the early starts etc. It almost seems too obvious to say that preparation for the event taxes not only the physical but the mental. I sometimes wonder if it would be more resilient to call it a day and face the disappointment rather than to continue. I expected at this stage to feel proud and elated at the ability to run for a couple hours without too much trouble, to be able to swim 3k and to be able to cycle for over 5 hours. To wander round feeling fitter and healthier than ever before. At the moment I don't. Maybe because the transition has been so gradual I haven't noticed improvement in the way I am feeling. Or maybe I don't actually feel any better than I did 2 years ago before I started running etc. Who knows maybe after training this evening I will feel a whole lot better.
Part two late evening.
This evening I decided to change things a bit a spend an hour on the rollers watching a dvd. It was the 2005 Hawaii Ironman and focussed on the athletes who had a special story as well as the winners . Seeing all of those people struggling across the line, those with physical challenges, the happy the not so happy I found very moving. I was sitting there on the bike, covered in sweat with tears streaming down my face.

I was quite relieved to step outside for the run which altogether felt like a brighter sunnier place, eventhough it was getting dark. 30 minute run, nothing to report.

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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

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

The highs and the lows

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