Is Ironman training tough?

Is Ironman training tough?

There are two answers to this – Yes and No (Obvious I hear you say)

Why No?

The training is not tough, it’s managing family life, work, commuting, eating, sleeping, recovery etc around the training.

Why Yes

Because as an amateur athlete (yes I did call myself an athlete) the things I have mentioned above come first. Hence the need to fit training around these important things. The pros have it easy J

What the above has thought me recently is that a very very important aspect of successful IM training is a good support team around you. Thankfully I have that in the form of a very understanding wife (although she is getting a holiday to Austria out of this so she is not completely neutral J ) and kids (they have no idea what’s going on, but anytime I look at the front door they wave at me and say bye bye). There are a lot of others who have offered advise and encouragement recently too, so thanks for that. I’ll have dozens of more questions over the coming weeks for you to answer.

Training has been very consistent recently so happy with that. The bike rides and the runs are getting longer. I’m starting to feel stronger during them and I’m happy and content with the improvements made in these disciplines. Swimming is still consistent, but I haven’t felt as comfortable in the water over the last few weeks as I was. I’m not sure what the cause of this is, but I’m not losing faith in it yet.

The brick sessions are tough, and one thing they have thought me is the need for pacing. I really can’t pace properly and that could be a problem if I don’t correct it over the next few weeks. The longer bricks are due to start soon so pacing will be a key focus area during those sessions.

Ssshhhh, don’t tell too many people, but the wind, yes that damned wind, appears to have subsided over the last 2 weeks. Some spokesman for some wind farm was on the radio last week talking about how little wind we had in Ireland for the last six months. I felt like dragging him through the speakers, tying him to a bike and sending him out for 4 hours on it.

For the most part, the road surface in our beautiful countryside is utter rubbish, so I think the motorways should be shut down for one day a month to allow all us tax paying cyclist use them at our leisure. What ya reckon? Whatever politician brings this in gets my vote. I don’t see it happening, but one can always hope.

It’s been a while since I reported on the weight management situation. The current status is

Weight – 73.2kg

BF – 13.1%

Now this was before I was away for the weekend, so it could shoot up again. To be honest, I am finding it difficult to maintain because it appears that all I have to do is think about food or look at food to put on weight.

I’ll know I have successfully reached my goal race weight when my grandmother tells me I look miserable.

That’s all for the latest instalment, so here’s to another few successful training weeks.