As mentioned in my previous post I booked the weeks leading up to IRONMAN Wales off from work, this was to ensure all my prep was done, I was well rested and my dissertation was handed in.
If you read my last post 'The CRASH' as you will have expected I spent most of the 2 weeks building up to the event resting and recovering from the accident.
In general the last 2 weeks are meant for rest and recovery from a hard training block...
On the last weekend of August I was able to get out on a bike. I joined a group of friends on a very hilly 80km ride out in Kent on the 26th (picture above) and on the 27th I went out again for another 80km in Surrey with a work colleague.
Although I was still showing the wounds from the crash I actually felt pretty good on both rides. Neither were particularly taxing, which was ideal.
The ride out in Surrey was actually my first ride on my new Felt (pictured below). this was my first experience of riding what I would class as a 'great' bike. I have never owned a brand new bike so this was a treat!! On the few climbs we did I really did notice both the 8-9kgs in weight I had lost and the fact that the bike only weighed 8kgs.
For the next week I slept, drank a lot of coffee and finished my dissertation.
From memory on Friday the 1st of September in the evening I got a message from my DTP Mike, he confirmed he had just run 15km...... Now since the crash I had barely run at all, mainly as the swelling on my lower leg hadn't yet totally disappeared and I didn't want to cause any sustain damage.
However, I decided that I needed to demonstrate to myself that I could run 15km.... I set my alarm nice and early on the 2nd of September and set off on my usually route around Tooting Common. The competitive side to me had 15km in my head to reach as a goal, the sensible side of me had 10km as a goal.
So confidence on a high, I had managed hilly bike rides, I completed a 15 km run.... now time to rest up and get myself to Wales.
Getting to Wales - Thursday 7th September
Step one of the adventure was getting myself a hire car and making my way to Birmingham to pick Mike up. We then travelled to Tenby in Wales on the 7th September, arriving sometime mid afternoon. The entire car journey 3-4 hours was ofc about race strategies etc. I won't bore you with that detail.
Before even checking into our AirBnB we headed into Tenby it's self to register and familiarise ourselves with the town. Once we registered we went to browse the IRONMAN shop..... 1st mistake of the weekend, we both came away with matching jackets and other accessories.....
Note Mike still has the tag on!!!
We then decided to get some fish and chips, chill out over looking the sea and headed to see the setup of the finish line.
2 days to go - 8th September
Mike and I had invited friends and family down to Tenby to support for the weekend, all of which were arriving in the evening on the 8th or during the day on the 9th.
So we had all day to prep and continue chatting solely about triathlon related topics.
We got up early and went out for about a 35km ride which took us up the two big hills on the course. This was a great little ride, neither of us exerted ourselves and we had a real insight into what was coming our way. All I distinctly remember is thinking I have not been able to ride this bike in a TT position long enough and any strong winds and i'm going to struggle to stay on the bike!!
Once back to the house we packed our wetsuits and headed into Tenby, around 1100 the swim course was available for athletes to head out and test. To my delight it didn't look any where near as daunting as I expected and we agreed we would only do 1 lap (the race was 2).
So we headed off into the water and completed a lap, obviously Mike went off at a steady pace that I couldn't keep up with even if I pushed hard. As I exited the water and saw Mike on the beach I was filled with confidence. I then looked down at my watch and saw I had swam 600m....
It was at this point we realised that the buoys weren't out anywhere near as far as they would be on race day....
Mike dragged me back in for another lap to take the total up to around 1200m for the day.... on race day it would be 3800m.....
Once back on the beach we changed, jumped in the car and we decided to head straight out to Angle to check out the bulk of the bike course we hadn't cycled earlier that morning.
We knew most of this would be flatish and that it would only prove difficult if the weather was against us as large parts were exposed.
Once we got back to the house, our friends started to arrive and things started to get real.
1 day to go - 9th September
So the day before the race was upon us. We only had one job to do, rack our bikes and hand in our transition bags.
Again Mike and I got up early, compared the contents of each bag with one another and after some messing around we set off for Tenby. Richard kindly drove all the kit down and we cycled. It was a short 6km.
On arriving at transition we were some of the first athletes to drop off bags and bikes. Once we were satisfied we had our everything in the right bag/place we headed back to the house.
The plan for the day was a walk on the beach in Saundersfoot and then a BBQ back at the house.
Now until this point I only thought my Mother was coming to watch and although I had my hopes up I didn’t think my sister and niece were coming.
While prepping the BBQ I was proved wrong and had a massive shock!! My sister and niece had managed to find somewhere to stay last minute and made the journey up from Cornwall!!!
So after having all the surprises and excitement of seeing everyone. It was time to turn away from hosting duties and at about 1900/2000 I disappeared off to listen to some music and ideally drop off to sleep.
I remember sleeping relatively well. This maybe due to the fact that Mike and I had had a pretty busy few days and therefore were craving sleep.
I remember sleeping relatively well. This maybe due to the fact that Mike and I had had a pretty busy few days and therefore were craving sleep.
Race Day - 10th September
I won’t go into a huge amount of detail as the next post will cover the details of the race.
However, we both awoke at 0400ish to have a breakfast. Nether of us had done an event like this before so were basing our actions off purely what we had read or advice we had picked up.
Our plan was simple, drink constantly all morning (approx 750ml) and eat early so your body can digest what you eat.
At about 0545 we set off for Tenby. Now the race started at 0700, neither of us needed to do anything to our bikes pre race in transition. All we had to do was get in our wetsuits and drop off our post race clothes.
We ended up rushing this slightly as Mike had to use the toilet.... we may never have done a race of this size but one thing you should never rely on is race day toilets!! The queues are massive!!!
We managed to get ourselves to the front of the pack to walk down to the beach. Mike was certainly capable of a sub 1 hour swim and I figured as i'm not a million miles away being out the front may help me avoid the congestion in the middle of the field.
So there we were lined up next to Philip Graves and Cameron Wurf....
We managed to get ourselves to the front of the pack to walk down to the beach. Mike was certainly capable of a sub 1 hour swim and I figured as i'm not a million miles away being out the front may help me avoid the congestion in the middle of the field.
So there we were lined up next to Philip Graves and Cameron Wurf....
Anyways, that’s where I will leave it for this post, please read my IRONMAN - Race report which will be up shortly if you want to know how it went in more detail.