Recovery week – Reflect & Looking Forward!

The count down is well and truly on!  10 weeks to Port Macquarrie Ironman.  Quick reflection on the past 3 months reveals some interesting data:

February, March & April need to be sold months, to ensure I can complete Ironman Port Macquarrie to a respectable level and meet my lofty expectations.  Obviously I have resigned myself to being under prepared for the run.  Achilles tendinitis have made sure of that, so I have been focused on the other two legs.  Injury management has been the focus and will continue to be a focus probably until race day!  I have increased my running from 5km/week upto 20-15km/week and hope to continue this trend over the coming weeks to be banking a solid 30/40km/week for the last month before the race!  Less than ideal but all I can manage this time around.

So I am now at the end of a recovery week and it has been a longish block to get me here, 6 weeks of consistent 10 hours per week.  Feeling good some sessions, days, weeks & not so good other sessions, days, weeks.

Since New Years I have been pretty consistent.  Now that I am back running semi consistently I am hopeful of getting through Ironman Port Mac!

With my kids returning to school and extra curricular activities, life is getting very busy!  This is where the support of my family really comes to the fore and is critical to my ability to train and race over this year.  I am also supporting my amazing wife, Mel, in her journey to complete her first half marathon.  Our house is running at 100 miles an hour and showing no signs of slowing down.  Picking my training opportunities and trying to remain positive and upbeat are going to be even bigger challenges than completing the ironman.

So what’s in store over the next 10 weeks?  Essentially I have two 4 week blocks and then enter a pre-race taper period.  Lots of long slow stuff on the bike, continuing my injury management in the run and banking k’s following the black line in the pool!  The first 4 week block will be all about zone 2 endurance low heart rate stuff! The second block will be more of the same, with a focus on race nutrition and practice.

I have a couple of events coming up, all trying to help prepare me for the next ironman:

28/2/16 – Sri Chinmoy 15km at New Farm – Sri Chinmoy Races / New Farm

6/3/16 – International Women’s Day fun 5km at Southbank – Womens day fun run

13/3/16 – Mooloolaba Triathlon 51.50 – Mooloolaba Triathlon 2016

20/3/16 – Twlight Running Festival Half Marathon, St Lucia – Twilight Run St Lucia

27/3/16 – Sri Chinmoy 15km at Shaw Park – Sri Chinmoy Races Shaw Park

10/4/16 – Luke Harrop Memorial Sprint Triathlon, Gold Coast – Gold Coast Triathlon, Luke Harrop Memorial

1/5/16 – Ironman Australia, Port Macquarie – Ironman Australia, Port Macquarie

So that’s a busy couple of weeks!  With the support of my family & wife hopefully I should be able to complete all these and complete my 2nd ironman.  Stay tuned for reports on each of these events & my progress.

Till next time build consistency, keep smiling and live to Tri!