Ironman blog: 18,000m of swimming – really?

• Tweet
• Pin It

The final week of my second last big block of training before the race, exciting times! I looked back through my training diary and it is amazing to see how you do just start to improve. I know that may be an odd comment, as I am a coach myself, but the Ironman training has surprised me in many ways.  Before January I had not cycled over 20km for the last six months, and only ever cycled 100km once in a challenge. In the last month I have cycled over 400 miles!

Sunrise whilst out on one of my many runs

So it’s all about perspective, being flexible and listening to your body. It’s about doing consistent training yet having the awareness to change things if necessary. And this is what I did this week.

The volume I have been doing has been way out of my comfort zone, and I have to admit, whilst feeling good I was a little tired last week. So when I finished work late on Friday with one of my Team GB Mental Strength Athletes and was then supposed to drive to Tenby to do the Welsh IM Bike, I decided it would be better to spend an hour stretching, foam rolling and building up core strength, having a delicious meal and getting a big night’s sleep!

I woke up feeling energised and ready to cycle from Bristol to Chippenham, Swindon, Cirencester, Stroud, Tetbury and home! Around a 190km round trip, which I followed with a 30 minute steady run. It definitely was tough, especially on the way home into a head wind.

I had a welcome interlude by a couple of my lovely clients, Tim and Debbie spotting me on the bike, on their way home from the Cotswold Triathlon (well done Tim!). Aside from this, I peddled solidly for 7.5hours…

Afterwards I had lots of food and sleep and woke up on Sunday to run 90 mins, followed by taking a great group of my clients to the Bristol Race for Life, followed by another 90mins run!  Boom…. the weekend done and my big training block completed J

Adding up to approximately: 500 miles cycled, 12 hours run, 8 hours strength, 8 hours stretch and core work & 18,000 m swimming! Crazy….

So if I take it back to perspective, I would like to mention a client called Tina, who completed her first ever 5km for Race for Life. I walked around the route with her, and I am so proud of her. She has many medical complications and is aiming to become much lighter over the next couple of years. For Tina to complete the 5km, she had to get out of her comfort zone, get uncomfortable, overcome limitations in order to achieve something amazing and rewarding for herself.

The Ironman is similar for me, but it doesn’t really matter what your goal is as long as it stretches you and you have a positive motivation towards achieving it.

• Tweet
• Pin It

You must be logged in to post a comment Login