Taperng...

It s about two weeks to Ironman  Busselton 2012.

Whilst there are  many factors that have not made this the deal preparation for an Ironman . t never s and the trick is to be able to adapt to circumstances as they arise and cope. getting to the start line is one battle , achieving your best on the day is quite another battle some 1500 plus triathletes will be waging on 9 December 2012. Many to perform at their best and deliver a PB .

The preparation has been less than ideal but in many respects ideal in that I do not have any illusions of where I am at and how I will perform and any pressure on myself to achieve unrealistic times. We are always our worst enemies . It is good to have goals and objectives but quite another to shoot for the stars and miss by a country mile. The training tells me where I am. I am not running or biking as fast as early last year and I am quite a few Kg's heavier than race weight at Lanzarote 2011. On the plus side I am feeling stronger and recovering from my fall .

The week has passed quickly. I had no swimming this week so far and mainly did my run session on Tuesday with interval work and clocking over 12km.On Wednesday I did a treadmill session of 55 mins and a run of 50 minutes clocking over 17kms with 30minutes at Marathon pace. On Thursday , I followed the Exceed group round the river but did not join them on the efforts. It was a comfortable 42kms round the river and 1.40minutes on the bike. I had a massage on Thursday and my right hip was quite sore over the week although there was no particular incident. Possibly the massage the week before was just a little hard and the runs had just inflamed the tissue around the right Hip. I soldiered on but it was pretty sore after the Thursday run even though it was an easy 10km run. On Friday , I skipped swimming and had an OT session with another massage to try and get the hip fixed.

Saturday , another early start , at 4.30am riding from South Perth through Welshpool , Roe and the cycle path down the Freeway to Safety bay road and then back to South Perth via the bike path. I had 3 x 30 minute efforts.Everyone took a turn on the efforts and felt very comfortable . My heart rate was at about 145 when I was at the front which was at about 72% of my Maximum Effort. It felt good and admittedly when I was at the back the heart rate dropped down so it wasn't quite at threshold pace for each full 30 minute effort .But on the day with the swim and the excitement , I suspect the heart rate will be higher. It will be a critical question as to the pace on the bike and being realistic about times .


Untitled by cookejohn at Garmin Connect - Details

The run off the bike was at easy pace.Again I started off faster than I should and slowed down to do 5.5km in 30 minutes , keeping the heart rate below 140 . The legs were feeling pretty good but we did spin back leisurely for the last 45 minutes .

Untitled by cookejohn at Garmin Connect - Details

Two weeks to go and tapering and preparation for the Ironman are on.

Ross ,  my Coach  , and the IM Triathletes from Exceed  had a little get together at Yelo Cafe  to discuss preparation and nutrition. I will put  up my checklist as well as a link to tapering which I have found helpful.  As I am reminded again , it isn't rocket science but it isn't easy.

The training is done and not a lot is going to improve the performance but a lot between now and race day can destroy a PB.