Diary of an Ironman 18 weeks to Kona

On Friday night my wife and I flew down to Sydney, to present an Ironman specific training seminar with Pete Jacobs. The plan was to present it from two angles. From the viewpoint of a young pro athlete at close to the top of his game. And from an age grouper with many years experience at Ironman coaching and competing.

Between us we have completed over forty Ironman races, about fourteen of them in Hawaii. Together we have a lot of experience to share with other athletes. We’ve made our fair share of mistakes along the way, and can possibly save some of our athletes making the same mistakes.

It was an amazing co-incidence that we walked out of our hotel, wandered aimlessly about looking around at the sights for ten minutes then ran into Pete and Jaime, who had just been out for dinner. There must have been two thousand people wandering the streets at that time. After a nice dinner at the Manly Grill, opposite the ocean, on Friday night with a couple of glasses of nice wine (it is a working, holiday break) we retired quite a bit later than usual.

Next morning Pete, Jaime, Carmello, Macca and Will, a few of our friends were all running a ten km fun run at 7am. About 3-4km from our hotel. Sandy and I got up early to run up to the start line in time to watch the race. I looked in the mirror and Keith Richards was looking back. My eyes felt like they’d been rolled in the beach sand. Sometimes a run can make you feel better? Along with a couple of glasses of water.

We arrived at the start line with five minutes to spare, after running up a three km long hill. We were amazed how strong we felt. All of the base building, running we’ve been doing was “in the bank”. Our legs were strong and our breathing was comfortable. The views from Sydneys Heads are breathtaking. The sun was rising over the ocean, the breeze was cool and from the west. The morning was clear and chilly if you stopped running for long.

The runners were lined up for the start, Pete was in the front row with the other contenders. There would have been over one hundred runners there. The leaders got a fast start, with the rest filing off behind them. It’s an amazing study in running technique differences. The following day as part of our seminar we were planning on a segment specifically aimed at running technique. It’s amazing how many runners give no thought to technique.

It was a multi lap run, after one lap, Pete was in the top five, who had broken away from the rest of the field.   As the race unfolded, it was down to Pete and one other runner. When they came back with one km to go, they were shoulder to shoulder. Pete looked “on”, the other guy had the slightest look of “self doubt” in his face. Pete couldn’t see that. They went around the bend side by side, when they came back to the line, Pete had a 100m lead.

It was a clear victory, no photo finish needed. Pete ran 31.35, not bad for an Ironman athlete in training. It was good to be there to witness it. Excellent technique, total control on a measured Sydney Striders course.

Saturday was my birthday, what a great way to start my birthday. A run over one of the most beautiful courses in the world, breakfast by the beach. A drive over the toughest Ironman course I’ve ever done. The old 1992 triple M course. I took Sandy to see Ben Larsen at Pedals Plus, Mona Vale to look at Time Trial bikes. She qualified for Hawaii in NZ on a borrowed bike. Ben worked out a deal for Sandy on a Felt TT bike which she could not refuse.

I had planned to go through my power point presentation and change a few things after talking to Pete, and have a bit of a rest before going out to celebrate my birthday with our Sydney mates. I think I’m getting a bit old for these late nights one after the other, I do like my sleep. Maybe I’m getting soft???

We all had a great night at a Thai restuarant which Rogerio, who also booked our hotel, had found. Great food, great location, great bunch of people = great night. There was talk of going on somewhere else, but I dodged that, I had to be fresh for the seminar in the morning.

We had a hire car with a GPS (not knowing Sydney all that well) I punched in the street name and followed the directions, to another street of the same name, so then I punched in the name of the street which “our street” ran off, after a tour of Sydney we arrived at the venue 30min late. Fortunately Pete had things under control, and had started on his own.

The seminar was a great success. The theme which we presented  was, “You cannot get an unhealthy body fit, true fitness starts with good health and good technique”. I’m sure we’ve steered all of our athletes down a more efficient path. We managed to fill the eight hour seminar with as much info and fun as we possibly could. I look forward to the next one Pete and I present. We may have to wait until he has his next major race in Roth, Germany in July, out of the way.