Daz Does Tri

This is the third installment of this race for me, last two were a mixed bag. 2013 I had a decent ride before going the wrong bloody way at the Pymore turn. First ever TT I rode in and was a baptism of fire. 2015 was a horror story on the re-arranged course, less said the better about that day #toosoon !! The best part of this race is there is nowhere to hide. It's a sporting course and it exposes your weaknesses. Last year was a shocker but it set me up for an honest appraisal and change of training to focus on what I needed to work on. So today, eased up for the race from Wednesday and went in feeling pretty decent. Decided against turbo warm up as it was far too cold, 3/4 miles on the road was plenty and I aimed to roll up to the start just before kick off.

OK OK so it drives me mad when people post all sorts of data and numbers about how great their training is going #choppers but I am going to post my stats here. In all honesty I don't believe anyone is actually reading this drivel apart from me so I'm pretty safe from getting busted! January scores on the doors are as follows - Swim 13.5 hours Bike 28 hours Run 12 hours

We're well into January and the thought that I am going long again at Ironman Austria this year is in my mind constantly. It's been nearly 3 years since my last Iron and I've learned a lot in that time. I'm hoping that some of this is going to help on the day !! I'm fairly set on a 10 week plan for the race with 2/3 weeks tapering down. I recently read an article that split out the average Kona qualifiers training for their qualifying races. 7 miles swimming, 235 miles biking & 48 miles running.

Sitting in waiting for a tiler this morning. The work that we need to do to our new house (it basically needs a new everything) is underway and I've a feeling mornings like this will becoming more & more frequent! Feeling a little tired, probably that welcome tired feeling you get in the middle of a heavy race load. I'm due to ride long(ish) today but I'm going to sack the ride off. I'll run easy later with the lads as planned then tomorrow short turbo & a swim. The plan this winter is to continue at around 12 hours per week and build a nice solid base. Working with those hours I need to make sure I don't start digging deep holes so when I feel like this it's time to back off and relax. I'm coming to the end of a nice 12 day block of training and I'm feeling like I've not gone backwards. Do some work, rest & check the results are going in the right direction. Do some more ect. etc. this shit isn't rocket science!

First time I've ever opened the live stream for Kona and I have to say WOW. What an event. Looking at T1 it just looks insane. Would love to go there one day to race but I think it's a long way down the line. As ever, it's a learning curve. My Iron PB is 11.48. Fair enough that's a million miles off where it needs to be in any Q race. I expected to go much quicker then but as long as I put the mistakes and lessons learned from Zurich into practice you have to believe I'll be a lot closer than I was!! So, this week I've again focused on swimming. 7.9 miles in 4 sessions including a straight 5km on Wednesday and I am really feeling confident. Targets are starting to feel comfortable and I'm feeling like I can push on. These last 2 years I have basically targeted 2.5 - 3 miles per week swimming but keeping that consistent around 10k and I think I will really start moving forward in the water. The target for Austria is 1.05 but realistically the dream target ...

After last weeks record TSS (1150) I've had a really easy cutback week this week. It's not been intentional but life has just conspired to it. I've actually been keen to crack out some big volume but sometime that just happens. Rather than get pissed and end up annoying everyone I've rolled with the punches, made the most of the family / work time and actually put in some decent sessions. Even for me the 450 TSS this week is low. However I'm really happy with what I've banked in that time. A total rest day Monday was needed after the epic bike on Sunday. Also being out the house for 14 hours at the weekend I needed to top up the emotional piggy bank at home!

I am an Ironman Been there, did that, got the tee shirt. And the towell, rucksack & all that branded toot that goes with it. Why on earth am I putting myself through this again? Last time I just wanted to curl up in a ball and stop moving forwards. All I could think about in those last few hours was to just keep moving, I didn't care about speed. It wasn't racing in any sense. It was surviving. The course had well and truly beaten me. And that's the rub. I can't take the fact that I didn't really compete. I got round, that much was never in doubt. What really got me was how unprepared I was, it was laughable that I could consider myself an Ironman when I was stumbling about like a piss head looking for a kebab.