Diary of an Ironman 16 weeks to go

For ten weeks we’ve looked forward to this moment. My first week of focussed training for Hawaii 2009.

The plan had been to spend the weekend at the Bunya Mountains about three hours west of Brisbane, running trails for Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings. The beautiful rainforest trails offer some of the best running terrain I have ever seen. We’ve spent many short breaks up there over the years.

The Bunyas are located between Kingaroy, Dalby and Toowoomba and reach a height of approximately 3500feet. This one of those special “high energy spots”, not unlike Kona Hawaii. There are some places around the world where there seems to be a special peaceful energy. The sort of place where you can visit, train solidly and come back fresh.

For me this year wasn’t to be the running weekend we’ve planned. Last Thursday when I trained, I produced good power figures, but it cost me more to do it. My heart rate didn’t go up to any excessive level, the power was good but my effort level was very high. I was smashed right after the workout. I decided it was best to call a rest day for Friday. I visited a special friend who is in hospital on Wednesday and again Friday. She has advanced ovarian cancer. The visits did leave me very aware of our mortality. Maybe I let my guard down, but Thursday afternoon I developed a sniffle which got worse on Friday.

We drove up into the mountains on Friday night and had a fire going within fifteen minutes of arriving. The clouds were sitting on the mountain, visibility was down to 100m, the air was so moist. Most of the trees have “old man’s beard” lichen hanging off all of their branches. It’s always moist up there. It’s almost always ten degrees cooler than Brisbane.

On Saturday morning I knew it would be a mistake to go trail running. The guys went out for a two hour run, I took our teenage daughter Phoebe and her friend Sydney for a four kilometer nature discovery walk. It’s amazing how much more you see when you walk the trails. The ferns, lichen, amazing trees, birds and animals.

Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday morning. Monday, same again. Only this time I discovered  I had picked up five “scrub ticks” on my neck and shoulder. (little insects that burrow into your skin, you don’t feel them until you get a bit itchy and feel a bump) I felt a little itchy when I showered on Sunday night but I thought I’d been bitten by an ant or something.

Anyway the others started their Hawaii prep with three beautiful trail runs, I started mine with a cold, and five scrub ticks. But Kona is still a long way off yet. I’m still the same athlete I was last week and the cold has just about gone. In fact my wife Sandy has caught the cold and is freaking out now because it’s only sixteen weeks to Kona and she can’t train. “You live with dog, you catch fleas”

I’ve been doing this long enough now to just relax when I am a bit sick. I’m in no hurry to get into training until I have totally gotten on top of my cold. There’s not much to be gained by training when you should be resting. I figured my body was telling me, I need a little rest before I get too serious.

You can’t get an unhealthy body fit.