Road to Ironman 2014, or confusing ambition with ability

Well, as Tony Stark says "I AM IRONMAN" I must admit, it feels great saying that. Even more so when I look at the medal and photographs, with all the great memories from the day. It hasn't come without a price though. This has been one of the most arduous, painful and ultimately selfish things that I've ever done. Admittedly, the sense of achievement is great and I don't think I'll ever get tired of saying that I have completed one of the toughest Ironman courses. I have pushed myself to limits that I never thought possible, I've felt pain, from exercising, like nothing I've ever experienced before and I've had to make many sacrifices along the road towards my ultimate goal. Even from the very beginning, just over 18 months ago, when I first started having those little niggling thoughts "What would it be like to do an Ironman? Could I actually complete an Ironman?" I've always said that a full distance Ironman would only eve...

This might get a bit long winded, but I don't care! I hope you enjoy reading it. Well, after months of pain, punishing training sessions and sacrifices, the biggest race of my life was finally here. After a massive 2 hours sleep, I got up at around 02:30, so that I could drive up to the Macron and get the shuttle bus to Penny Flash. I tried to nibble on some breakfast, but my stomach was just in knots. I ended up giving up and just drank my SiS drink instead. Getting to Pennington Flash at around 04:00, on a still and dry Sunday morning, my nerves were in bits. I haven't been nervous at all for the last few races that I've done, but this one was a whole new kettle of fish. After a day of torrential rain on the Saturday, Sunday was forecast as sunshine with a bit of cloud, little breeze and low 20's. I think Clare was the first familiar face that I saw, she was incredibly giddy and seemed to find it amusing that I looked terrified :-) I just tried to sor...

Well, we're finally getting close to the end of all the pain and hard graft in our training sessions, not to mention the sacrifices and selfishness of neglecting my family for so long. It's only 3 weeks this Sunday until Ironman!!! Last week we got our race numbers (my bib No is 1068) and the race notes, for race week and the day itself. I'll be posting a link on Facebook for the live tracker, on the day. The past month or so has seen a big increase in the amount of work that we're doing in our sessions. It seemed to start with the Team True Spirit training day, which was held at Eccleston Delph. We did a long swim and then went out on the bikes to do a loop of the Ironman course, finished off with a shortish run off the bike. It was heavy rain for the majority of the day, so there were a few sense of humour failures and lots of splits in the bike groups. I ended up riding most of the loop alone, after being dropped on a climb, until I caught up with Chris from Tea...

Well, after setting my alarm for sparrow fart this morning, I was just glad to get to Llanberis in one piece, I was really tired on the drive down. After going through registration in the visitors centre, I really enjoyed setting up in transition, there was only a few of us there at that time (about 07:20), so I was happy in my little bubble, getting myself ready. I spotted Wayne, one of the Team Pie contingent and had a quick chat with him and then Scott, a fellow member of Team True Spirit. My mate Phil and the others arrived a bit later so we spent the next hour or so just chilling, before our wave started. This was the first time that I was trying out the stuff that we'd done in training, whereby we just use our own body fat for fueling during the race instead of taking carbs on board, so I was a bit nervous (yes, I know there was no chance of me running out of fuel, in that case), but within an hour of taking the travel sickness tablet I was fine and relaxed. The travel ...

In recent weeks we have moved in to a more volume based training ethic. Our Tuesday night swims are around 4km now, with variations thrown in. The other week we were simulating race conditions which was great fun, swimming over each other and generally tussling, although I think leaving the pool with a split nose was a bit much, lol. I did learn a few tricks for swimming around buoys and saving a few precious seconds. Last week we started our open water training and to say it was cold would be an understatement. I think even the fish had coats on. It's a great location, we're using Eccleston Delph dive centre and it's a bit surreal seeing streams of bubbles coming up from below, from the scuba divers that are 30 - 60 ft down. There are some huge fish in that lake as well, although I've not seen the sturgeon yet. Hopefully I'll get to spot it sooner or later, the water is lovely and crystal clear, a total contrast from the 5ft of visibility that there is in Penningt...

Well, where to start? Things are definitely looking up and I'm thoroughly enjoying all my training at the moment. Although I'm still losing training sessions due to work, which is a bit frustrating, but there's nothing I can do about that, just make the most of the sessions that I do attend. I've had / still got a fair bit of pain in my calves and my knee is giving me loads of jip when I'm running, but I'm managing it with painkillers etc. So it's not so bad, I just need the knee to last another few months and then I can rest it and let it settle down. Coach Atkinson is really starting to crank it up now, although a few of the other lads have said we've barely started yet! I'm absolutely loving it at the moment though, I get a real buzz from pushing myself hard and love the cameraderie between all the team members. Encouraging each other, praising each other, making fun of each other etc. It's all brilliant stuff. Training up to 6 days a week a...

Hello again, Thought it was about time for an update, I hope this doesn't get too boring for you. I've been struggling with a calf injury recently. Nothing new there then, some might say. I thought it had cleared up. I managed to get some physio through the company health care scheme and that seemed to do the trick. I was running well and I was doing nice longer distance runs at a pace I was happy with. Then, how absolutely typical, I was at one of the Team True Spirit Monday night interval sessions and it went again. On the bloody warm up, of all places. I haven't run for almost 3 weeks now, but I'm hoping it'll be ok for me to start again next week. It's incredibly frustrating. This whole week seems to have been a struggle. I've only managed a couple of my 05:15 early morning sessions. I'm hoping that if I can sort my head out, it'll all slot back in to place. I feel like it's one step forward and two steps back. But then another part of me...

Hello all, it's been a while since my last post so there's a lot for me to talk about. I hope you can get through it all without nodding off.  I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas and new year. I know we certainly did. It was a quiet one but it was really nice to spend some time with my family. I tried to keep my training ticking over, during the Christmas break, to try and limit the amount of plumage that I gained. Santa was very good to me and got me a pair of Hoka trainers, a Finis Tempo Trainer and some other goodies. December 29th saw me run my first ever half marathon. I was just hoping to get round and finish it for purely psychological reasons. I figured that if I could run a half marathon at this time of year, I could manage the marathon distance at the end of the Ironman. I managed to get round in 2hrs 3mins, which I was reasonably happy with. I was holding a 9:32 pace, up until the last 3 miles, when it dropped to nearly 11min/mile. I started to get...