https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ayearfortiegan
2 weeks ago I was taking my tired legs for a little walk around Lake Windemere, enjoying the scenery and sunshine of the Lake District. Today I am in a mountain of packing and planning. On Wednesday I fly out to Zurich and in 1 weeks time I shall be asleep cuddling my Ironman medal (hopefully).
Since the Ultra I have struggled with a couple of niggles, mainly my hip flexors. The week after the run I went for a couple of small bike rides, keeping my legs spinning whilst not putting too much strain on them. It wasn’t until Saturday that I started feeling it – the first time I ran since the Ultra was during cricket. Having watched our batsman (mainly Luke – 161) smash runs about, we headed out to field. A few turn and sprints after the ball and the hip flexor twinged. It settled down, but waking up Sunday morning not able to walk properly is not ideal with a plan to get a final long cycle in. Last big training lost!
Earlier that Saturday, having seen the water temperature in Zurich (27 degrees!), I went in the lake for a non wetsuit swim. Slow. That’s the only way to describe it. I was 20 seconds slower every 100m than with a wetsuit. That’s almost 13 minutes slower over the Ironman swim. The good news is that it rained last week and the temperature dropped to 21 degrees. I am praying for rain on Friday in Zurich! Since then I have done minimal – a couple of runs, couple of short bikes and a swim class. Today I went out on my final proper training session – Brick training session. Brick is short for Bike-Run-ick. Bike session, followed straight after by a run. The ick, is the feeling you have in your legs when you start running after a bike ride. It’s more important for shorter triathlons, like Olympic distance, but as a final training session it was handy to remember how to get my legs working properly again. The session today included a 55km cycle followed by a 12km run. The cycle at just under my race pace (more undulating roads, wort rod surfaces, not fueled fully, etc.) and the run was at my targetted race pace, despite taking myself up some horrible hills during the run.
This week I shan’t be doing much, small swims, bikes and runs but nothing at all straining leading up to Sunday. The race starts at 7am Zurich time, so in an ideal world I shall be finished and drinking a Guinness by 7pm. My targets: 1hr 20 swim (1.35 if non wetsuit), 6hr 20 bike followed by a 3hr 40 run – plus time for transitions and any slip ups to keep me under 12 hours.
I have hit £1000 raised for Tiegan’s Star. Let’s see how high I can get that. Please donate if you haven’t, and thanks to all who have donated so far.
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ayearfortiegan