Even though the title is 4 weeks and 4 days to go - at the moment I'm not even thinking or talking about that. (oops the title was that but changed along the way).
The last month has been one BIG challenge.........
The last month has been one BIG challenge.........
Everything was going great and ticking along nicely, a few Personal Bests at my last 3 events and Christmas and a holiday coming up....
And that is when everything turned to custard -
The week leading up to Christmas, I had an open water swim and I did get in the water, along with Steff and Katrina and swam to the 5th buoy where we decided its Christmas and time for a chat. Filled in some or rather most of my 45 min swim chatting, then a swim back to shore and out - think we covered 800m!
Christmas Day was a 45 min walk - figured walking around the house on Xmas Day would have covered the 45 mins:) Steff had 3x Mountain Road Hill Reps on her bike, and managed to get Katrina, Coach Zippy and his Dad to join her. So to be a supportive Ironman buddy I texted Santa and we popped up to say well done!
Originally Boxing Day I had a planned 160km ride, but that was not going to happen with a family cooked breakfast planned, along with tidying up and packing for camping. So a rest day of sorts it was.
On the 27th Dec we headed up North to Uretiti Beach (30k south of Whangarei) for 5 nights camping before heading up to Tapotaputu Beach, and then back to Uretiti. After a long slow day of travelling and setting up the tent, I had time to do an hours easy riding to spin the legs then to get organised for a 160km ride the next day. The ride was not the best, and having no idea of the area I headed out to Waipu and towards Wellsford along the coast and with some good hills. 53km later I popped out on SH1 and for some reason I thought it woule be flatter to ride home. Little did I know I would have to ride over the Brynderwyn Hills with all the holiday traffic and no room for a bike and a hill it was. By the time I was safely down the other side, along with some drizzle I decided to call it a day, way short of my 160km ride.
And that set the theme for my training up North, every ride was cut short:( My next planned ride was from Kaitaia to Cape Reinga (didn't quiet make it) and for some reason I remember the road been undulating - obviously my memory isn't to good! The first 60k was good, the next 40k was mostly uphill. A never to be repeated ride - (maybe from the Cape to Kaitaia next time if there is one). My third was ride back at Uretiti and I managed another 100k ride in a relatively flat section. Onto my runs or lack of them... a 35km run was planned but it was way to steep for me in whichever direction I looked. I managed a 22km run in one day but it consisted of 4 separate walk/runs. I did get a few of my 45 min runs done. Swimming is another story or excuse - Hugh said to go out past the breakers and swim - Yea Rite - there are sharks and rips out there - my theory anyway, so that left 2 trips into Whangarei (60km round trip in each time) to do a 2km swim in a 25m pool. And so to sum up my camping trip versus Ironman Training -
* Not a good time to go away while training for Ironman
* And not a good location for Ironman Training unless you love hills and would rather train than play in the waves.
We arrived home on the Sunday night, was back to work on Monday and not in the right head space for training. On the Friday I headed to Taupo for an Ironmaori to Ironman Camp - and that is another blog....
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