Of Pre Training Schedule Work Outs

I've spent this week experimenting trying to give myself a rough idea of just how far off an Ironman I really am.

My exercise this week looked like this :

Monday : 100 lengths of the pool (25 metres)
Tuesday : 50 lengths and 6 mile run (80 minutes)
Wednesday : 50 lengths
Thursday : rest day and work on new bike that has arrived
Friday : 100 lengths (time 75 minutes)
Saturday : the plan is to do 28 miles on the bike
Sunday : the plan is to do 14 miles bike followed by 6 mile run.

Although all of the above are slow if I repeated the distances in the Ironman and added distance at the same pace I would beat the disqualification times. This is heartening.

The other piece of good news from all of this is that although I was tired after each bit of exercise I wasn't dead beat. As I approach the weekend I don't feel any more tired than if I had done nothing at all. In fact I think I feel a good bit better. I've noticed your day feels so much better if you began it on top of a decent aerobic work out.

My weight is under control now too. I now weigh 13.5 stones or 86 kilos. That's a full half stone lighter than I was 3 months ago.

The next project is to sort out the bike. I need to make sure the cleats on the pedals fit well and that I fit the bike.

Of 7 Months to Uberman

It's officially game on!

I entered the Mallorca 2015 Ironman last week. In so doing I applied to do an event that requires you to swim 2.4 miles, then cycle 112 miles then run 26.2 miles all in under 17 hours.
The race is in May of next year which gives me 7 months to train for it and I think I'll need everyone one of them. Last Friday I ran 6 miles in over 1 hour and I was exhausted after it.

I have been contemplating doing this event for a number of years and as I'm 50 next year it seemed a good time to finally stop contemplating and move through the gears to planning, training and then completing.

I have to confess to being quite nervous about it already but when I thought about it closely there was just too much to lose by not doing this. The benefits in giving this a rattle are huge and include :

# Achieving a level of fitness superior to anything I have ever experienced in my life at any age;
# Understanding how my body works and how to get the most out of it;
# Learning about food, diet and nutrition and how to "fuel up" properly;
# Achieving a greater level of mental strength and discipline than ever before
# Sharing a platform for at least a day with some really focused and driven people.

I'm lucky enough to live very close to a great swimming pool, in amongst some fabulous countryside which makes for ideal jogging territory.. I live opposite the "7 Mile Straight" a perfect cycling track . So I've no excuses to hand as to why I can't train for this.

The next 7 months promise to be hard. Very hard. Game on.