From late Janaury until race day when i was officially training:

• Total hours = 206 hours 30 minutes
• Average per week = 8 hours 36 minutes
• Break down per sport = Run 36%, Bike 43%, Swim 20%

I’m a bit surprised at the actual numbers per week – its lower than i thought, and way lower than my beloved wife would have the world believe. According to herself I’m training morning noon and night – however these facts would challenge that theory!

As to the individual breakdown, the swim is higher than a Coach would suggest … the ideal being to split them according to time in the actual race itself. However for me the swim was a problem (both physically and mentally) and so i needed to put in the extra efforts to bring my swimming and confidence up to an acceptable level. It would seem that my cycling did suffer, and instead of being strong on the bike i went backwards (particualrly with respect to my team-mates) in this sport. I didn’t put the work / time in on two wheels – simple ;-(

Next year will be different … how I’m not quite sure, that’ll come out in the coming weeks when i build my IML09 plans and strategies.

• Please click here to see a graphic showing weeky training –>  weekly-totals
• Click here to see how this is broken down by sport —>  weeklly-log-imde08

The data has been “retrieved” from my online logbook – I use www.triblogs.com. I doubt very much that I have logged all the training i’ve done in the half year leading up to the Race itself, however I’m sure I’ve captured most. Note – these numbers don’t include such activities as cycling to work.

What follows here in this entry is a general commentary on how the year progressed.

January Total = 36h:27m

Week 1: Total 9h:30m 51m (8%) 6h:59m (73%) 50m (8%) 50m (8%)

Week 2: Total 7h:43m 2h:43m (35%) 4h (51%) 1h (12%)

Week 3: Total 6h:01m 2h:16m (37%) 2h (33%) 1h:45m (29%)

Week 4: Total 10h:13m 2h:53m (28%) 4h:20m (42%) 3h (29%)

Officially from the 4th week of the year I was working towards an actual plan – with  Base|Build|Peak|Taper etc for 24 weeks .  Anything else prior to this was just “exercise”   and keeping the body in some sort of shape.

February Total = 31h:22m

Week 5: Total 7h:04m 3h:34m (50%) 40m (9%) 2h:50m (40%)

Week 6: Total 7h:16m 2h:01m (27%) 3h:15m (44%) 2h (27%)

Week 7: Total 4h:26m 2h:26m (54%) 2h (45%)

And so into the first month – the Base1 period- and i’m down to an average of 7 hours a week, with no bike to show for week 7 at all. Looking back that week was the fourth in the base period, and so would have been a ‘Rest/Recovery’ week, however as i referred to in the blog that this type of week ended up being a “wrecked-do” nothing type of week. So i was in trouble from the very first month!

Week 8: Total 9h:35m 2h:25m (25%) 5h:10m (53%) 2h (20%)

March-Total = 24h:56m

Now stepping up the volume and time, however after two quite good weeks with 10 hours or so, spread well across the three disciplines I hit both a virtual wall and a real car. Between a bad dose of a virus and a young lady not looking both ways at a junction my training really fell away – no swimming at all due to a weak wrist! This bad spell coincided with St Patricks & Easter holiday periods when i would have been hopeful of making up some longer sessions. Not to be … Lots of feeling sorry for myself at this time

Week 9: Total 11h:21m 3h:32m (31%) 5h:49m (51%) 2h (17%)

Week 10 :Total 5h:19m 3h:16m (61%) 1h:03m (19%) 1h (18%)

Week 11: Total 1h:14m 44m (59%) 30m (40%)     [Sick, very sick]

Week 12 : Total 2h:26m 2h:26m (100%)           [Still sick]

Week 13: Total 10h:52m 3h:08m (28%) 7h:09m (65%) 35m (5%)

April -Total = 38h:31m

Base was completed in early April, and BUILD where the intensities are meant to be increased as the body is somewhat accustomed and used to the strain of regular training. Also changed at this time from a 4-week cycle to a 3-week cycle as my fourth weeks were turning out to be too wrecked / lazy. Looking back no noticeable change in timing durations – on examination of the output of my logs, no large change in intensities noted either ;-(

Week 14: Total 9h:07m 3h:53m (42%) 4h:10m (45%) 1h:04m (11%)

Week 15: Total 6h:12m 1h:05m (17%) 3h:52m (62%) 1h:15m (20%) – this was the 3rd week of the cycle, nominally the time-trial week.

Week 16: Total 8h:41m 4h:41m (53%) 2h (23%) 2h (23%)

Week 17: Total 13h:42m 3h:57m (28%) 7h (51%) 2h:45m (20%) – best week of the year to date. 10 weeks remaiing to race-day. Starting to have more intense sessions and introdcued the brick sessions. Mojo was back on form at this stage.

May-Total = 59h:54m

Build1 completed. Bank Holidays allowed me more time on the week with the bike.

Week 18: Total 6h:12m 3h:14m (52%) 1h:13m (19%) 1h:45m (28%) – 3rd week of the cycle, time-trial week

Week 19: Total 12h:59m 2h:39m (20%) 10h:20m (79%)

Week 20: Total 8h:19m 6h:19m (75%) 2h (24%)

Week 21: Total 23h:21m 5h:20m (22%) 15h:41m (67%) 2h:20m (9%)    Lanzarote – a great week with lots of time logged on the bike. No real BLOGGING done that week due to a broken laptop. 4 good cycles – four runs (2 long) – three open water swims.

Week 22: Total 10h:27m 52m (8%) 7h:09m (68%) 2h:25m (23%) Lanza home + TriAthy. One full day of bike training then home and rest up until TriAthy.

June- Total = 23h:42m

Week 23: Total 9h:09m 2h:31m (27%) 6h:09m (67%) 29m (5%)       Away with work for 2.5 days blew some of this, but still some good training to show.

Week 24: Total 3h:34m 1h:55m (53%) 39m (18%) 1h (28%)   Family holidays in Spain from Thursday of this week – so this would have been the last of the real weeks training, and after this was taper mode, but ended up a very poor week’s work.

Week 25: Total 5h:28m 1h:56m (35%) 1h:12m (21%) 2h:20m (42%)   Still in Salou

Week 26: Total 5h:01m 2h:01m (40%) 2h:30m (49%) 30m (9%) home on Thursday

July One week only – Total = 14:32m

Last minute spins, keep it nice & easy … rest up for the big day

Week 27: Total 14h:32m 5h:05m (35%) 7h:06m (48%) 2h:19m (16%)  [RACE - Sunday]

Its over a month since IMDE – i’ve had a week in the West of Ireland with my family (they had two), I’ve started in a new job (which is going fine so far) and generally taken it easy. Swam twice, ran twice (pulled a muscle) and cycled twice in a month !!! That was a week’s work not so long ago

Some things have gotten done around the house that have been put off for a long long time, Mrs Yendor is somewhat happy at this … however i think its time now to do some thinking and working out my next target, the next challenge otherwise i think i’ll go mad!

Since Germany i don’t think I’ve had a good night sleep – as far as i can tell it would seem that i’m simply not tired enough going to bed at night. I’m finding that its 2-3-even 4am in the morning before i’d get to sleep and consequently i’m in bits come the morning alarm call ;-( Something has to be done about this. Before the eyes go the whole way in to the back of my head from lack of sleep. [I'm not in to sleeping tablets].

1. Get this left calf muscle sorted out
2. Get training for the Dublin Marathon which is only some 11-12 weeks away. So whilst there’s still time, i need to get going soon once this leg is healed.

O yeah – i nearly forgot – i signed up for Ironman Lanzarote 2009 today. Yipeeeeee

May 23rd 2009 – the new date for the diary

This nearly took me as long to make as to do the race report.

I thought i’d play it clever and let them get over the line, and i’d be on my own for ‘official pictures’ however the geeks weren’t able to process them quick enough and so unfortunately there’s no picture of me going over the line with my name & time above me on the gantry. Such is life …

Music = Snow Patrol & Martha Wainwright “Set Fire to the 3rd Bar“.

I have absolutely no idea what they are singing about, but i love the voices .. this song was on my MP3 player and i used to visualize the finish line when this track would play, and invariably speed up … for all of 3 odd minutes. If you listen to the words I think I’ve got it to the punchline at the right time – maybe not!

I might do another one of these some day with some photos incorporated? Maybe not…

]]> http://yendor.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/finish-video-homemade/feed/ 2 yendor http://yendor.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/race-report-2-run-and-finish-line/ http://yendor.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/race-report-2-run-and-finish-line/#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:39:35 +0000 yendor http://yendor.wordpress.com/?p=133 ]]>

Sorry sorry sorry ! Away for a week – no access to Internet, but time to write this not-so-short recollection of how I spent some 4 hours and 33 minutes of my life on the streets of Frankfurt last month.

A bit of tin for all the work

A four lap circuit around the ‘Main’ river in downtown Frankfurt. Each lap resembling a ‘H’ as we started in the middle and proceeded to each of the four extremities … confused? See here! So each lap had us along the river side, and crossing over two bridges – the terrain varied from pathway to cursed cobblestones. They didn’t bother me too much on the bike, but man they helped turn the screw on the run.

Time per lap – Position in age group

58.46 - 310th

1:09.29 - 380

1:14.03 - 344

1:11.26 - 292 , aha an improvement

At time of writing this report I still don’t have any HR details for the run – as mentioned in earlier postings the day before the race itself I experienced some operational problems with the Garmin, and so ended up doing the run leg with a Polar HRM and strap, having done the bike leg with a Garmin HRM and strap. Having the Polar allowed me to keep an eye on my heart rate, and to be aware of the various kilometre splits along the way. (Each KM was marked). I had originally hoped to run according to a pre-determined ‘pace’ which was slower than what I was used to in training .. but god loves an optimist. And now I know better …the hard way ;-(

So off the bike, quick change and off I go … just outside the main start area – no more than 200 m down the road, I meet with the WAGS – Sandra, Leyla and Susan. All cheers and good luck. At this stage I am feeling much better than I thought I would to be honest – as mentioned earlier I hadn’t pushed the bike too much – fear? caution? prudence?

A quick hello, and a quick potty-stop and we’re off on the ironman shuffle for some 42 kilometres.

Ready to run 42k

At different stages in the run, I’d remember to try to focus on good technique – quick light feet, head up, body somewhat erect and all that jazz … however it must be said that a lot of things go through your head when running for over 4 hours. Perhaps the difference between me as a ‘back of pack’ athlete, and the really good guys are their ability to really focus on what they are doing .. at times I was thinking about the run, other times I was congratulating myself on getting this far, then I might switch to the guy/girl in front of me particularly if I was passing them a couple of times and they then re-passing me; even “work” came into my stream of consciousness from time to time; family of course came into focus … but never once did I feel I couldn’t do this – no, this was the one place in the world that I wanted to be at that particular time.

The first lap went well, just under the hour per lap which was my initial pre-race target and considering that this included WAG and ‘wee’ stop, I thought I was going great and was looking forward to cranking it up a wee bit in later laps.

[As far as I can remember…] I was taking on water at all food stations, but not Gels as per my pre-race plan. … even now I don’t really know why to be honest, other than the flavour of gels available at the first couple of stations weren’t what i had had before so skipped them. Instead i had sections of orange and one or two crackers. Again away from the heat of battle, on mature recollection, I’d have to question what was going through my head at the time – oranges and crackers? Why ? Now I don’t think they particularly negatively effected me, however all advice prior to the race was to stick to what you know and what your body is used to … why on earth would I start eating things which rarely eat at the best of times?

Into the second lap, and I get the bright idea to try to tag behind a particular chap who was a lap ahead of me, but didn’t seem to be running way faster than me. I thought it would be a good idea to let him drag me along for a wee while – it worked in training as my training partners invariably would help push me that little bit faster & longer. To me the trick was to find the right chap – not too fast and not too slow. In hindsight this is NOT a good idea, stick to your own pace and either learn to concentrate properly or do something to keep you on track, but don’t worry about others runners and what they might or might not be doing. I stayed with this guy for some 2-3 water stations and then I was cooked …about half way around the second lap (so we’re some 14-15kms in to the run, some 125 miles into the day itself) is where I encountered my trouble – big trouble.

Both legs began to take turns to cramp, both above and below the knees. One attack of cramp can be an unpleasant experience, but when you’ve just got over an attack in the other leg, or a different muscle “spasming” (is there such a word?) in the same leg, then it’s tough physically and mentally when its breaking out all over your body – well its yours in name only – it seems to have a mind of its own completely.

So although my HR was fine (even quite low) I was unable to move any way quickly as I could feel the legs cramping at any opportunity. I could also feel a pain behind my right knee – not bad enough to stop me, but certainly would slow me down and i wouldn’t start a race with it the way it was. Every part, particularly from the waist down was beginning to complain. The small ups-and-downs as we went from river bank running to the bridges didn’t help in anyway at all, nor the small sections of cobblestone which made life a misery! I really struggled for I’d say the guts of a full lap – mid lap 2 through to mid lap 3!

On lap 2, when it was starting to hurt I was telling myself to (just) get to where Sandra and the girls were located; once I would get there I would allow myself a ‘rest’ … but in the meantime I would try to keep walking and shuffling along. People along the way are doing their best to lift my spirits – well not me alone of course; but all the athletes have their first name (and nationality printed prominently enough to read off their race number (bar Oran of course who didn’t quite know his family name from this first name!) So its great to hear shouts from strangers “come on Rodney”, and I’m sure its equivalent in German. The volunteers at the aid stations are saying … ‘hi Rodney, have some water’; ‘have some bananas,’ whatever …even the doctors got in on the act – as I’m descending the path down from the second bridge towards the end of the second lap so its downhill and cobblestones I’m not in good shape and I’m glad that there’s no wife or mother around to see me … “hey Rodney – how are you doing? Do you want some help?” comes from the medical tent as I pass by at a fierce rate of knots (probably 1 or 2 tops). No way José ! There’s no way I’m letting Doctor Goebbels or whoever he is get his mitts on me – the only person who is going to say I’ve had enough is me. So I actually speed up away from the medical tent for all of 25 metres, and around the bend I’m back into cramp mode. I get to the end of the second lap ready for some ‘TLC’, but ‘WTF’ – there’s no sign of my beloved??? O man – its getting better – I’m on my own – where could they be, and me in my hour of need. I must admit to a dose of feeling rather sorry for myself at this stage … even take the drastic step of stopping to do some actual stretching.

And then I feel I had my moment of inspiration – from somewhere somehow I get the idea to take on SALT. During the first lap I was wondering to myself “why are they offering salt”? Each and every aid station had a great range of ‘stuff’ to hand over – coke, red bull, water, ice, gels, bananas and salt. Good old sodium chloride if I remember my chemistry. Flash!!! In a moment of divine inspiration it strikes me as to why they have them available … for cramping stupid! I began to take in sachets of salt – initially ‘raw’ and washed down by water, and then after a bit of inspired McGyver-like thinking I mixed it in the water before drinking. Some coke usually then to take the salty taste away … and in 3-4 kms i felt much better. Not exactly fresh, but way way better than before. In previous adventures (Letape 07 and Letape06) I had encountered some training sessions where I had cramp attacks, thankfully nothing in the actual races themselves, but I had read somewhere that a lack of salt amongst other things caused cramp. On the bike I had taken on board 2 Nuun tablets, but in hindsight this was really only able to sufficient to get me to the end of the bike, and didn’t take into account the replenishment I would need to run a marathon.

Even now, I don’t know for sure whether this was the real solution to my problems or perhaps it was a placebo and that it was just a not-so-funny phase that I was going though. The well known ‘wall’ that marathon runners hit around 20 miles – no I’m taking my symptoms as something different – for me, the body (lungs, heart, arms, head ..) were all relatively okay, it was just the legs who were rebelling against the cause big time. I don’t think that I ran out of energy (read food), more a case of not having the right salt balances in my body. So as I’m progressing into the 3^rd lap I’m feeling better; the prospect of cramping is receding. Whilst I’m still only hitting 6:30 – 7 minutes kilometres, that’s way better than the 7-8-8:30 that I was doing some way back the road.

Half way around the third lap I can see L. (nominally of the 3dtri club, but for the week he had been an honorary Pulser) ahead of me. I’m up high on the path beside the main road running one way (slowly) and he’s down below at the river bank running the other way … I had passed him when he was really struggling on lap 1 … funny the first thing I thought was that somehow he’s cheated. He’s got the same number of ‘bands’ on as me – how could he be ahead of me? For the next 5-10 minutes I’m working this out in my head, and eventually come to the conclusion that he passed me be it an aid station or during my session of stretching. I’m not wearing any Pulse gear so he wouldn’t have necessarily recognised or greeted me. In lap one he was really struggling, now he’s going great –this acts as a spur as at this time I’m hoping that my troubles in the main are behind me.

Further on in the third lap, I think I can see two of my club mates ahead of me. Again like with L, they are on the way back whilst I’m on the way out to the turn-around point. I’m guessing they are some 1-1.5 clicks (KM) ahead of me, but between seeing how well L had recovered and how well I seem to be recovering the prospect of catching or even trying to catch my buddies helps me big time. I now have renewed focus, I’m not just going to get around this course – I’m going to give it some “sox” for a wee while. Please don’t consider that what happened next was that there a great surge in acceleration a lá the likes of Sebastian Coe (who?) in his hey-day; or that there was a graceful spring-like step to me – no I doubt there was any noticeable difference to my stride or ‘gimp’. Instead it was more a mental thing – less water stations, less thinking about life, the universe and all that jazz. I’ve spent 6 odd months of my life in preparation for this day, so lets not leave it with regrets …

End of lap 3

Sandra and co are at their designated spot at the end of the third lap (hurray!); Sandra runs/walks with me for maybe a hundred metres and tells me how great I am – she says I’m doing brilliantly and all that, I don’t really remember. It was super to have her there at that time, a real tonic and further confirmation of my good spirits. It was really from this point on that I actually started to enjoy my run. I now knew for certain that I was going to finish my Ironman – I was getting stronger, whilst others around me were struggling, and I’m on my last lap. So I’m actually able to thank some of the marshals and supporters who had been there for me on the previous laps. Their support was great all day, so it was good to be able to give them something back other than the shrug or smile which is what they would have got in the good old bad times.

Anyhow back to the 4^th and final lap, and I’ve not seen my club mates again and so I’m assuming it wasn’t them at all or perhaps they have kicked on themselves – good for them. Still it didn’t matter I had my ‘mojo’ and I was going to finish my Ironman strongly – negative split how are you! Then with about 5-6 km to go, just over half a lap to go I can see D. He sees me too and shouts something like are you on your last lap too … thankfully I am! He’s perhaps 200m tops ahead of me, but seems to be struggling and so I soon catch up with him. We walk together for a wee while, run for a small bit but he wants me to go on and not have him hold me up.

As we’re shuffling along we come across two largish ladies who I hadn’t noticed so far in my laps … I’m reading the slogan they both have on their T-shirts, and it takes a couple of seconds for it to sink in my slightly out-of-focus brain. … “No finish – No sex”. Fair play to them, it brought the biggest smile to my face for the last 11 odd hours. Alas I wasn’t able to come up with any of my legendary witty repartee, and could only manage some basic response to acknowledge them and insist I was doing my best. Something along the lines that I will return but it would probably be quite a long time before I would be back was answered by yes they would wait. We gave them a noticeable burst of acceleration before once again resuming the ironman shuffle, albeit with spirits well lifted.

We’ve another 4-5 clicks to go, so there’s not a case to stay with D and come home together. I’m looking at my watch and thinking that maybe I can break 12 hours. I’m not sure if the watch is accurate, if its ahead of time or behind – or even did we actually start on time? But its another motivator to keep me going. I’m now only using every second Water station – the last 2 or 3 clicks are almost a pleasure, there’s no stopping me – I’m passing a lot of walkers now. Some with 4 laps done and are on their way to the finish line like me, but many others with 3, 2 and some with only 1 lap done – god help them they have a long evening/night ahead of them.

Anyhow I’m finishing – I’m going to be an IronMan. Those early mornings in the winter to get to the pool; those long Sundays with the Ironman chain gang – this is what I was doing it for … this is it ! Into the finish chute, great crowds cheering etc. The group of Wives & Girlfriends are somewhat surprised to see that I’m home next but I see them and big waves etc. I don’t remember much of the last 50 yards in the chute – don’t remember hearing my name called out – nothing/nada/zilch – perhaps a pity, but it was over the line -> job done!!

Finish chute

I wasn’t too tired at the end of it to be honest – I seemed to recover quickly once over the line. A number of the lads went for a Drip at the end of it. Some of them definitely needed it – others took it as a precaution. For me, I didn’t feel too bad at all – which probably means that actually I didn’t give it my complete all – but that’s easy to say now. In the run there was the problem of push too hard and go into cramp mode, or go too easy and take forever. It was tough particularly for the rough 45+ mins of cramping before the Salt.

Home for 11.53 and I have to be happy with that … with obvious grounds to improve on all three sections.

I get over the line and Sandra’s there beside me … she’s crying her eyes out, and I must admit I did share a little tear (or two) with her. Be it relief, be it happiness, be it perhaps just a release on the self imposed pressure that I had put myself under … I had taken on the challenge of an ironman and in my mind I had accomplished something that would not be considered normal behaviour. Some 99.9% of the population wouldn’t even consider such an event, and I had come through in a way better time than I had anticipated.

I didn’t see the others coming in as I was in the Athletes Village, but I was out in time to see Big Mark coming home. Man did he enjoy the last 20-30 metres coming up to the finish line, with a super-sized smile on his face and his arms out as if to say yes its mine all mine!

Marky Mark comes home

Seeing all the finishers coming in and getting their cheers from the crowd was a great experience. Chrissie Wellington the women’s race winner is back and she’s cheering people home, Mark gets his finisher’s medal from her. I would only guess that the crowds actually get better as the night draws on, and as far as I know the last person home gets the second biggest cheer of the day (after the winner), but I can’t hang around. The WAGS are anxious for road, they too have had a shocking long day and we need to get our bikes and gear home.

<< Have you noticed in Blogroll, the link to my pictures … good – i thought so>>

This took way longer than i though it would to get around to … some of this no doubt is due to the fact that i started with a new company this week, so there’s been lots of fussing around last week to clear my desk before leaving as well as a natural reluctance to do too much of anything – be it athletic or otherwise after an ironman. Thanks to all readers who stuck with me over the course of the last 7-8 months, and particular thanks to the ones who left comments and encouraged me over recent weeks. Much appreciated!

So grab a cup of coffee – turn off your phone – get a comfy chair – let the kids go play in traffic … it was a long day, so you know this is going to be a long long report. I leave it to you as to the merits and quality of the report of course. For this post i’ll just focus on the race day itself – there’s other stories to relate about the journey over, the race village, the couple of days in Frankfurt and all that.

Pre-race

Didn’t sleep too well of course, no more than a couple of hours tops. The Saturday evening spent flying around down-town Frankfurt looking for a Garmin watch/battery as my watch decided to show ‘Low Battery’ that day, and somehow when i replaced the battery it decided that it wouldn’t pick up the HR strap or the foot pod. Now i know the hard way that Garmin have little or no commercial presence in Germany! <Grr> Eventually got sorted by getting a loan of a Polar watch for the run (bought a Polar strap) and used my Garmin Edge on the bike. Great fun!

Morning

Up early of course. Had breakfast in the hotel – complete rip-off of course @ 27 euros, but i doubt I’d find anywhere open at that time, and didn’t really consider making my own up in the room –probably would have been fine to do it. Next time!!! Met up with all the others from Pulse (including all the wives & girlfriends)at 5:15am or so and took the shuttle bus out to the lake & T1. No problems – it was hinting at a bit of rain which was welcomed and ironic given the worry about whether it would be too hot and therefore wetsuits wouldn’t be allowed. We’re there in plenty of time to get organised and ready.

Quick chat with the chap racking up beside me – my namesake from Milton Keynes in England, and another ex-soccer player wondering what the hell he’s doing in a German forest at 6am on a Sunday morning. Turns out we know one player at least in common … Ricky McEvoy where are you now ?

Met up with Big Mark and Derek from 3DTRI (no sign of the others) and we walk down to the start together. The wonderful WAGs are duly heard before seen, and its great to see them for one last hug and encouragement. Onwards the gallant 2000 walked, handshakes and some hugs (I know a bit gay, but it was apt for the moment! You had to be there) … Great to be with Big Mark at this last minute. He started out in triathlon at the same time as me, and together we’ve progressed through the distances – trained and raced in two Half Ironmen together (UK and Kerry) and now we’re here ready for our biggest challenge. Then the two lads feck off and leave me with the Back of the Swimming Packers … they are ready for the real washer-dryer experience.

SWIM

The professionals and the really quick swimmers were allowed off first, which left some 2000 odd swimmers to go off at the same time.

Also with the pros as it turned out were a couple of guys with physical disabilities – i was lucky enough to be at the finish line to see a visually impaired guy (with his “race partner” I suppose you’d call him) cross the line. Wow what a cheer they got ! I thought I had problems to deal with, but to do an ironman with limited sight, particularly the swim – unbelievable. At the time strangely enough i got some dust in both eyes as he crossed the line as the crowd went bananas! At that time I could really appreciate that for him no doubt all the hard work he (and his buddy) had put in over the last X months had been worthwhile.

At the start of the swim, all the swimmers were spread out as standard, and i positioned myself well to the right; however at the start they made all swimmers go to the left between a Pontoon and the left-most buoy so there was certainly lots of time and plenty of collisions incurred as all the weaker swimmers (including me) had to funnel through this section and then spread out once again to the right. Thanks-a-bunch lads!

On the day before the race they had decided it would be a wetsuit swim – cue lots of sighs of relief. I was ready to do the swim if needed in the raw – both mentally and physically I hoped, but as it turned out anyway the weather was kind. It certainly wasn’t too hot.

No real problems encountered around the swim, couple of bumps and a couple of times i went to breast stroke as we went round buoys when there were loads of bodies. Received one good kick in the head about 2/3 way through the first lap which woke me up a little and reminded me to concentrate … it was going pretty well at that stage and my mind was wandering perhaps.

Anyhow – the second lap of the swim went really well and to me almost effortless, counting off the buoys as we got closer to the shore, and got out of the water with no distress or obvious fatigue. Looked up at the clock and really delighted to see 1.16 up there. A big shout from the WAGs, I suppose a shout of relief as much as anything else as they know knew that all the Paddy Pulsers were out of the water.

Ended up with a time of 1hour 16 for the complete swim, which was broken into two sections – 2.3 km (for me 43.43 mins) and 1.5 km ( 32.56 mins) with a brief part where you got out of the water and back in again. Going by the details provided on the website i was 391st for my age group for the 1^st section and 347^th for the second section => 373^rd overall for the swim section. Certainly the second lap felt really good and i feel i could have gone on for way longer if i had too.

Out on my own steam!

Transition 1 = 8 mins 01, 405^th in my age group ;-(

Certainly not the quickest of transitions – not the worst, but room for improvement. Couple of minor hitches probably caused this … the (unexpected) need to find & put on sun-cream – as it turned out the volunteers didn’t do this for the athletes (in Lanzarote they did this for the athlete) and so had to get out my own and do myself. Other friends had done it themselves before the swim!! Minor delay caused by putting on the bike shorts back to front (ooops) but my plan had been to make sure that i didn’t do anything silly in T1 such as forget sun glasses, gloves, food or whatever.

First part of the bike is a 12km or so journey to the T2/Downtown area, so the plan was to take it easy on this section – like everyone else i suppose. So as planned I drank some water and got ready to cycle. At 30 mins i began the process of eating … initial intention being to rotate it through the hour as … half a roll -> half a powerbar -> half a banana … and so on – effectively eating something every 20 minutes or so.

1st mistake was that the rolls were awful! I had left it until Saturday evening to get some rolls from the deli, and unfortunately i didn’t pay too much attention and the lady put in some creams/whatever which i had never had before, and certainly didn’t enjoy. In the course of the bike, i ended up eating half of the 3 rolls that i had in my back-pockets. Instead i made it up by eating more bananas. Probably didn’t eat all that i had meant to according to the plan, as i didn’t exhaust my supply of Powerbar either. I did take in what i thought was lots of liquids, but perhaps not as much as i could/should have done – as I had one stop for a toilet at about 120km.

HR vs Speed vs Altitude

Possibly not so easy to read from the graphic, but from going through the statistics made available through the Garmin ( full details available here ) it would be quite obvious that I didn’t stick to the plan for the bike leg in that i took it too easy. (Try viewing it using Internet Explorer and check out the Analyser and Map Player – cool!) Instead of being in the high 130s (beats per minute) and even into the low 140s, I stayed in the low 130s all the time. This wasn’t a conscious decision (not that i recall anyway), but instead i think it was that i saw i was hitting over the 30 kph and so was well on track for a 6-hour split, and so i felt that was sufficient. I was happy to hit the time target instead of perhaps readjusting my target and pushing on. However i don’t believe i done the wrong thing – I’ve seen a quote from someone somewhere which said that good overall results are usually characterized by the athlete thinking they could have gone faster on the bike. I was naturally cautious i think as i was moving into unknown territory and i’ve talked to too many guys who had great bike splits but had horrendous run splits and lots & lots of suffering.

Thinking back, the only time where I consciously pushed on was towards the end of the 2nd lap when there was 3-4 of us relatively close (slight incline) and myself and another guy was passing two slower (but not much slower) cyclists. One Marshall spoke to the other guy, and in time another Marshall spoke to me … god only knows what he was saying – I certainly didn’t – but i decided then to get the hell out of Dodge, and leave this crew behind.

The bike leg was meant to be fast, it certainly was faster than i’d be use to in terms of road surface, but it wasn’t as flat and as straight as i might have expected. There were plenty of turns, plenty of ups-and-downs, the Beast and the Hell weren’t particularly a problem either; we even had a section over Cobblestones which was a brand new experience for me (of course do it twice). Neither me nor Black Peggy knew what hit us as we traveled over this … holding on for dear life. Poor old Cap’n Woods was lucky to get through the race without needing his tools ‘n’ spares as all his fell out on the cobblestones. If he had had a mechanical issue of any sort in the race, he was probably looking at a DNF and one unhappy dude. Thankfully he (and all the Pulsers) stayed clear of any significant problems and all proceeded to get round the course.

None of the climbs gain more than 100m, so they are nothing to give cause for concen – even our non climbers, certainly nothing for the likes of me to get excited about. Supposedly what makes the course fast is the descents – gentle rather than steep means the speed lost climbing is regained. The course, especially the climbs, was really well supported. Particularly on the first loop, the crowds were great – the cobblestone section had loads of people on both sides, and Heartbreak Hill was a place where you just had to go faster somehow with the cheering, noise and general encouragement. I really enjoyed those brief moments of feeling like a real professional on Alpe D’Huez (don’t get me started on that one) or other scenes of triumph from my sporting past. Masses of cheering people. Most of the villages we went through had music of some sort, I remember one young fellow on his own beating his drum – brilliant! On the second loop understandably some had gone home – lots of wine & beer had been consumed by that stage, and they would have been on the side of the road for 3+ hours at that stage. Fair play to those that stayed to cheer us on!

The wind got going on the second lap in particular, even the Professionals had slower splits the second time around. Again like the swim section, I felt fine and really thought i could have gone on for way way longer.The legs weren’t cramping up on me – which had been a concern ; the shoulders and neck weren’t particularly giving me grief … i was within myself. Perhaps more than i should have, but hindsight is a wondrous thing, and i still had the matter of a marathon to contend with.

Bike section : time :position within age group

Lake to down town : 23.19 : 359th

Loop 1 : 2.39.04 352nd

Loop 2 : 2.49.29 : 328th

TOTAL : 5.51.52 : 331st

Transition 2 = 3mins 36 – 353^rd for age group.

Again no sun-cream service being provided here, but the day was not so hot as it turned out so i didn’t bother putting anyone – just a handful of vaseline on the nips and in the “privates” so as to avoid any chaffing that might occur. I’d be fine with my new white running hat and sunglasses. You could get used to the service provided in these transition zones. Someone to help you lay out your gear, pack away your gear and generally help you get sorted. The lucky Frau volunteer didn’t speak any English, and my charades experiences/skills aren’t so hot; and anyhow its allowed in these tents … so it all came off so to speak and on with the fresh singlet and shorts. She probably saw more of my body than she perhaps would have liked, but I’m sure she saw plenty of all shapes and sizes that day.

More to this post to come tomorrow/soon – its late, this is taking longer than the swim leg, and perhaps will take as long as the run !

<< Short short post – full report to follow sometime>>

Well reader, thanks for staying with me on this journey … i’m delighted to say that on Sunday 6th of July i did become an official Ironman @ Frankfurt.

11 hours and 53 minutes of my life spent on the roads and waters around Frankfurt am Main – plus of course the many hours of my last year spent on the roads and waters around Dublin preparing for the big day.

Full details about all the Irish contingent @ IMDE08 available here
More details to follow in a couple of days I hope about the race build up, and of course race day itself.

Well reader, if you really really want to keep up to date with how i’m progressing on Sunday as this journey comes to a (satisfactory) end, then you need to point your browser to:

http://ironman.com/ironmanlive

and from there follow their instructions. The actual web page isn’t up yet. Once the IMDE specific page is live on Sunday, then you should be able to monitor me as i go through the various stages by using my race number of 1564.

I won’t be able to send everyone a text message or other once i get over the line … i reckon a Saline Drip is probably on the menu for me at that stage. I won’t be carrying my mobile phone on the day, and i doubt that i’ll have access to it until well into the evening. So by all means if you’re checking in that website from time to time, please do put a comment on this page so that others might see how I’m going (or not).

Others from my club in the race are

931 BOYCE Derek
1896 MCDONALD Eoin
2059 ORAN Murphy
1894 MCCABE Derek
2738 WOODS John
1608 KELLY Mark

I’ve been meaning to write this down for the last wee while, so finally as the pre-race nerves are kicking in somewhat now, i’m finally getting to put this down. Reader – please do let me know any other ideas/ considerations i should include.

• Race is Sunday morning, start @ 7am local time.
• We fly out to Frankfurt on Friday morning, leaving Dublin Airport at 7am
• If interested to follow IRONMAN live coverage on the web, i’m athlete number 1564

Whether i actually follow this plan will be interesting to see, how closely i manage to stick to my particular decisions made from X thousands of miles away, and far from the battle-field.

I need to keep my discipline, stick to the plan and …

• not get stressed in the swim;
• not get mister competitive on the bike;
• and not get to be mister “dead on his feet” too early in the run.

Yes it will be hard, way way harder than L’etapes from the last two years which were dam hard in spots with what seemed to be endless climbing in the heat, with serious gradients to be overcome – but i must remember that i did overcome them, and actually thrived to an extent as others fell away. My training whilst nothing special in terms of hours clocked etc has been consistent and hopefully covers me to get around; but i’m not exactly under-trained .. being careful on the day should see me through.. I hope you believe me ‘cos i’m not so convinced by these positive words!

Friday:
Arrive to Frankfurt, check in to the hotel – first thing i suppose to do is to build the bike and ensure its all road worthy and ready for use.
The English race briefing is at 4:30pm, and i have until 6pm to collect my race bags.
The pasta party is in the same place as the race briefing so i will probably go to that. Seems that its an experience to go to at least one of these ?

• To ensure the bike is okay and to get some nervous energy out of the way, I will aim to do about 1 hour of a cycle (somewhere in the city??) to include 7* 40 sec efforts of fast cycling. It would be great to have a small spin on the race route itself, but for now i don’t know how practical that would be.

Saturday:
Bike check in until 7pm – i don’t intend to leave it to the last minute to give it in … and once I’ve confirmed that the bike is okay from the day before there’s not much to be gained by hanging onto it.

• 15 min run (somewhere) to include 6*40m acceleration.
• 15 min swim – unlikely to be in the actual lake, as this is in a separate spot from the hotels and check-in. Though its possible that i’ll head over to see the lake either the Friday or Saturday, in which case i might take the opportunity to have a quick swim in the lake (probably without the wet suit)

I know i won’t sleep to well this particular night – I’m a bad enough sleeper in the normal times, never mind the night before an IronMan !! Still i will try to get to bed for about 9pm and at least try to rest.

Try to get plenty of water into me, and put extra SALT on my food.

Sunday:
There are free buses that morning to take us from Hotel/Central Points to the Lake. Race starts at 7am, so realistically i need to be there for at the very very latest 6am – double check the bike, double check the bags… other than a quick dip in the water to get the wetsuit sorted, there’s no real need for a warm-up as such. Potential visits to toilet at lake side so remember to bring loo paper.

I should expect to be sitting to the table for about 4:15-4:30 AM – so as to have it eaten about two hours (by 5am) before race starts, and allow me to get to site on buses etc. Breakfast for me is likely to be cereal and some toast (with jam) as that is my normal breakfast. Will hopefully be able to have some additional aspects as Scrambled Eggs, Baked Beans (I don’t like porridge), rolls, coffee, orange juice, water. No doubt a visit to the toilet (or two) before leaving the hotel!!

At the start before the race itself will continue to sip water. I’ve not taken gels before swimming ever so i won’t take on board any such specials at this late stage – similarly won’t take on any gels during the swim leg itself when we get out of the water for the X metres before starting the second section of the swim. Probably eat one PowerBar bar some 20 mins before start.

———————–RACE ITSELF ——————–

And so it came to pass … there are some 4 days to go until IMDE08-day, the day that I’ve been waiting for nearly a year to arrive. Now I’m in the very final stages – more a case of waiting and trying to suppress the nerves and anxious anticipation, avoid any stupid rows with the wife ‘n’ kids….

Thanks to  those of you posting comments, good luck text messages etc . Much much appreciated!

Officially according to the text books, and general best practices as laid out by coaches and those in the know I’m in TAPER mode. Essentially i’m allowing the body to rest up, recuperate and generally ready itself for the long day that is fast approaching. However its not a case of doing nothing, instead its a case of reducing the volume of training from some 2-3 weeks out, and in the last wee while reduce the intentisty of the training.

My taper has been a wee bit longer perhaps than I would have liked as my two week holidays in Sunny Sunny Spain (note – i didn’t see rain for the entire time @ Salou on the Costa Durado), however i didn’t pedal a road bike in that time either.  Thats what happens when you’re only an amateur athlete with family and other commitments. On the holidays i got some runs in – again in keeping with the taper philosophy these weren’t anything over 2 hours, and some swims .. .the good news being that i swam in the sea without the wetsuit. Come the big day, my head is now prepared if needs be to swim 3.8km without the protection of a wetsuit. Sure it won’t be easy, however mentally i’m ready to do it … there’s nothing more boring to me at this minute as swimming in the sea on your own for 45-50 minutes. I’d hope that swimming in the lake on Sunday morning with some 2000-odd (very odd) swimmers around me / under me / over me will help pass the time and the journey somewhat.

• I’ve had the bike serviced – new tubes, new tyres, check this – check that, clean the chain – all the good stuff. Just need to take it for a spin this evening between showers and then it goes in the box for the airport.
• One swim tomorrow morning bright and early with the Glenalbyn crew.
• Went for a 30 min run last night, with some fastish 200s thrown in to juice it up.
• Had a body massage this morning with the guy who works for the International Soccer team who is now a huge Trappatoni fan. He reckons a huge difference from previous regimes …

We fly out to Frankfurt early – o very early – on Friday morning and get ready for the off on Sunday morning.

At this stage, I’m alternating between ready to go rioght now and please give another 3-4 weeks to be ready. I think myself a week / 10 days after Lanzarote would have seen me at my peak, but as i’m told just go with it, trust my training – don’t go out too fast.

Next post is race day plan!!!

Time to reflect, recharge, refocus perhaps, re-engerise, basically do lots of things beginning with ‘re___’, and before you even think of it – I’m not going to retreat, resign or even recant … this time next month to the very hour I will be an Ironman, I will have crossed that line, I will go down the finishing chute all smiles to the crowds be it fast or slow.

At times i feel i’m ready to do it right here right now, other times it puts the fear of god in me, but i need to do this now, and get the last 6 months, nay 12 months of thinking about this one event over and done with. Heck the birth of my kids were all only nine months in the making, and other than a couple of minutes at the start i wasn’t involved too much along the way. With IMDE08, I’ve had a constant presence on my shoulder -

• when I’m not training, I’m thinking about training,
• when I’m not thinking about training, I’m recovering from training
• when I’m not recovering from training, I’m wishing i was training
• when I’m not wishing i was training, I’m training ….

I want to finish now this chapter in my life – hopefully successfully, and then see what i want to do next!

Swim - has come on a good bit this year. The early morning swims – up at 6:30am – have worked and i’m swimming stronger and hopefully with better technique. Plenty of room still for improvement of course, and at this stage in proceedings the furthest I’ve actually swam in one go is about 2.25 – 2.5 km whilst in Lanzarote last week. 1500m in the Barrow last week wasn’t a problem, in fact i went way better than i expected (current a big factor). More work required and I plan to get a number of sea sessions in next week whilst on holidays again(!) in Spain. The only nagging fly in the ointment here at this time is if the race day itself is warm and the Organizers decree that its a non-wet suit swim. Man that will be a bummer to me and the other poor swimmers in the race. Swimming with the wet suit on at least ensures you won’t drown and conceivably you can roll on your back any time you want for a wee rest … no wet suit enforces some of that fear that water still holds for me.

=> so for the remaining 3 weeks of diminishing training, its long swims in the sea – mainly without a wet suit. Ultimately to be able to swim for some 80 mins as that will be my target time.

Bike - whilst for some the main factor in the race, this part for me has not come on as much primarily because i suppose i would have considered it my relative strength. Coming into the year I have had two successful Letapes, two stages in which I’ve got stronger as the day went on and the other entrants seemed to struggle and fall. So yes I’ve put in some hours, but i haven’t really killed myself or really focussed on improving the way i have with the swim and run legs. All things being equal, i.e. no mechanical issues from hell, I know i will be able to cycle 180 kms no matter how long it takes me. Famous last words! Recent training in Lanza was primarily focussed on the bike. Between now and IMDE-day i need to get in one or two really long (5.30+) cycles (beginning tomorrow i plan) and a couple of 3-4 hour spins, nothing special in terms of pacing. The main consideration being to get used to eating, drinking and more eating and more drinking on the bike. I’ll be on the bike for over half my day (if all goes to plan) and it’s the place to get the calories in … i need to get used to eating PowerBar bars, Powerbar gels and have some solid food as well. There’ll be plenty of food & drink available on the route – i need to make sure that

1. remember to drink and eat as often as possible
2. that all the drink and food don’t have any negative effect on me

And of course practice some puncture drills – changing tubes and the like. And say some prayers that that would be the limit of my troubles on the bike!

RUN - this was all going lovely for me … the run sessions were getting longer and longer (3hours 12 max so far) with no obvious problems, the intense sessions were getting faster and faster (new pBs for my usual training route) … but then came TriAthy and the attack of the killer stitches. I’ve not has the pleasure of the side stitch for many a year at this stage, and certainly none in my limited career as a triathlete. So where did this come out of last week on the 10km run leg?? I never got beyond second gear the whole way around. I actually had to stop 4 or 5 times as the stitch was that bad. After a couple of seconds it would fade, but invariably return some minutes later if/when i stepped on the gas. The legs were fine – the lungs were fine, but this little fecker announced himself big time.

So of course this now has me worried … what’s the cause ? The web doesn’t tell me mich, and thinking back i reckon some of the problem may be coming from lack of liquids – in particular I took two Gels on the bike leg, and only some 500 ml of water. I should have had 500 for each of the two gels, never mind any ongoing drink that i would take in the course of the cycle. I had the water on the bike, but simply didn’t drink it. That’s certainly one thing to ensure … but after that ?

Since the stitch day in Athy, I’ve ran twice without any similar symptoms … time will tell. So for the coming 4 weeks I’ve a couple of long runs, but nothing too long planned – the main mileage has been done at this stage. Luckily enough I’m on holidays for two weeks with the family soon, and so should be able to get some extra runs in rather than a normal working week. The sessions with the lads at work in particular – Colin, Declan, Damian, Dave none of which work with me any more !!! – has brought me on and helped me shave minutes off my time for our particular route HERE . I’m confident i can do a good marathon leg, but who knows until i get into it what state the mind and body will be after 7-8 hours of work already …

CONCLUSION: I’m nearly there, 4 weeks more to go … two good weeks of training gradually ramping down the volume and then the intensity and then its rest up, travel to site and bingo. I think I’m good to go – no injuries to speak off, the right wrist seems okay … what the hell, what else would I do!