Diary of an Ironman only two weeks to go

This week has been a lot easier than the previous one. We’ve started to drop the volume of training. For the first weekend in a long while Sandy and I have had a smaller Sunday workout than our squad. The bulk of the squad are training for the Western Australian Ironman in Busselton in ten weeks.

Yesterday we cycled three hours aerobically, it was a fun ride with about twenty five of our club mates around the Bay loop. Down along the waterfront at Wynum and around to Wellington Point and back to the Uni.

The squad did 16 x 1km repeats off the bike and Sandy and I only did ten. We felt strong and could have run another thirty if we had of wanted to. That’s what we told ourselves anyway. It is a good feeling to have a short day. A ten-thirty finish is like a holiday to the whole squad. We were all treated to a fine display of pacing by one of the class clowns, who last week started out running four minute kms, only to finish off with several seven minute kms.

The importance of a shorter day once a month can’t be over emphasised. Mental fatigue sneaks up on you. I’ve found when a group are training for an Ironman, they get so used to the big workout of the week being 5-6-7hrs, that when I give them a four hour Sunday. They almost feel like they’re being robbed.

But if they continue to stack those long days in every weekend, they develop mental fatigue. Not to mention the physical fatigue. The type of athlete attracted to Ironman racing can easily become so driven, they forget how to switch off. This is the start of a downward spiral. A bit like a world war two arial “dog fight” where the end result is a crash and burn.

 I do have some who are too ready to switch off, but even they can get caught up in the momentum of the pack. I think one of the most important roles of the coach in Ironman training is to recognise the first signs of mental fatigue and intervene before the downward spiral begins.

I use my coach Trent Patten to make me answerable. To help me keep records of times, workouts and power production figures. In an earlier post I mentioned our “Blue Card” system. This is where I get four “get out of jail cards” to use when I am too tired or sick to train. Those four cards have to last me the whole season.

I have got to the point where I am two weeks out from Hawaii and I have no cards left. That means over the last six months, I have only missed four scheduled workouts. This simple system has kept me more consistent than ever before. I don’t do big mileage, but I do like to keep very regular training patterns going.

This approach, along with my attention to flexibility and technique has allowed me to keep improving. This week I swam the fastest one tousand meter time trial I have ever swum. I swam 16.48 as a result of only swimming three – one hour sessions per week.

My total hours for this week are 12.5hrs. The body is feeling good, I’m getting excited about the race. Lots of people have wished us good luck. We can’t count on good luck, in fact the better the preparation, the less luck you need. But we’ll take any good luck which comes our way. Thank you all.