This week Fran, coach, had me start speed sessions and interval training. The run was for 1.45hours and my legs felt strong thoughout. The swim involved 20x 100m fast repeats. This was a killer and the one thing I kept reminding myself was to maintian my technique. I did slow down towards the end of the 20 reps but it was good to practice technique when tired.
I was concerned I was not kicking enough when I was swimming in my wetsuit. I noticed swimming in the pool without a wetsuit I was kicking comfortably and appropriately. I am happy my kicking is unconcscious and correct so I can focus on my arms and body rotation in training and in the race.
If I reflect on the information given to me about swimming before I started training I can see everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. I know my own and it is rewarding to see my improvement and progress in swim speed and distance.
My wetsuit ripped last week and I was going to buy a new one. I went to see Ed in Sigma sports and he said he could no gurantee another wetsuit would not cause the same rubbing. Ed repaired the wetsuit with a glue that filled the ripped space and it took 2 hours to dry and harden. I will try babyoil, bodyglide and even glue with tape to protect my neck. I might even put on vaseline which can break down the wetsuit material but I will use this only be on race day.
The bike was a 3 hour bike with a 1 hour period in aero bar position. I was worried my back would get sore being in this position. I have been having treatment to correct the position of my rib cage and it has helped immensly with pain in my low back with riding and again with the aero position. I got through the hour of aero position riding with minimal discomfort. You can go do www.physical-edge.com to find out more if you get back pain on the bike. I was bike fitted but the problem was my body not being comfortable in a good bike position. If you get set up well on the bike then it can not be the bike set up that is causing the pain. The body needs to have freedom of movement in the rib cage to unload the low back. I managed to ride to Windsor and back in 3.15 hours so I did go a little further than instructed.
I am feeling good in my body and now I feel I need to plan my rest, get alkalised, get massaged, stretch and start mental focus as I wind down the distances in training.
I have checked the Swiss Ironman course and I can see there is about 40km’s of hill riding with a total of 1.2 km of hills in total. The run is flat and the swim is two laps. I want to chat to my coach about the hills and if I need to do some hill training before race day.
I have also bought the energy (Powrebar energise) drink they use on the course and I am now using powerbar gels as well as bars for nutrition as this is what is provided on the course. They also have pretzels, bananas and dried fruits. I think I will try bananas on my long rides to see how my body responds and copes with this solid food. I learnt from the Cornwall middle distance triathlon that my body does like variety to eat on race day.
I am getting my bike serviced next week and if my friends wheels are tubular and not clincher he will let me use his Zipp 404 and 808 wheels. This could shave of 6 minutes for every 40kms I ride. I am wondering if I try race tires as well, something I will talk to my bike mechanic Dave about on Thursday.
3 weeks to go now.
Physical Edge 