ARIZONA

Well....1 week to go. I got here Tuesday night and have been finding my way around and training on the course every day. It is a FAST bike course. Wow. It takes about 1.50 to do a 60km loop and that was with stopping 4 times to make adjustments to my bike and stopping for traffic lights. It is very much within reason to do a sub 5.30 on the bike. As much as it is tempting to hammer it on the bike, The Dutchman has made me promise I will hold back. He showed me an article in a German cycling mag he gets that had plotted bike performance against run performance in Kona this year and how the race is won on the run. I suspect it was part of my problem in Austria. I can't afford to run anything slower than a 3:30 here. The article showed the bike splits of Normann Stadler who came off the bike 12 mins ahead of Craig Alexander (the 2008 champion) and how he lost 30 mins on the run. It is going to be hard to hold back but I have to do it. I get my Zipp wheels on Thursday so really looking forward to seeing how I fly on those!

I have not done a course like this before where you are constantly having to pedal. All the other IM's I have done have had downhills where you can rest a little bit. That will also affect my run time. That and the 30 degree heat! So pleased I have been out here for a few days already and have been spending as much time in the sun as possible trying to get a bit of a base tan and used to training in the heat of the day. I am pleased for those treadmill sessions where I was wearing 4 layers zipped up to my neck sweating it out, no matter how strange I must have looked.

The swim is in the Tempe Town Lake and is great for spectators as they can stand on the bridge and watch it start. We then swim out and back to another bridge. The bike goes out in 3 loops along a highway where they close on side of it which is great. It has been a bit scary riding alone out there even though the shoulder is wide. Had some guys in a massive pickup shouting stuff at me yesterday as they went past. Can really do without that. I also hope they sweep the road because there is a lot of crap on there. Came across a guy yesterday with a flat and have seen a few discarded tubes along the road side. I have been lucky which is great as I wasn't carrying a pump or CO2 cartridges. I figured I could hitchhike back in if necessary. (hope Mum isn't reading this).
The run is along the lake, over a bridge back along the other side back across again and away in the opposite direction to cross once more and loop back around. 3 laps. I have a 1.20 run scheduled today so will do the loop at race pace which is sub 1.10 to see how that feels.

I swam in this community centre pool earlier this week. Pool was stinking hot and the showers freezing and wasn't that nice. Complete stroke of luck yesterday when I turned up there to do my laps and they were not doing lap swimming on Fridays so they sent me to the YMCA. It is the same size pool, heated, outdoors and free!! The locker room is also really nice unlike the other place where I picked up some foot fungus thing I am now desperately trying to get rid of.

Really enjoying driving around now that I have some perception of how big this car I hired is. I got a large car because we need to fit 2 bikes, bike bag, suitcase and we will be doing some decent miles so wanted to be comfortable. This thing is massive but kind of fun to drive now. In fact I wouldn't want anything smaller given the size of some of the cars and pickups they drive here. Not a hatchback in sight!

I hit the Arizona Mills mall yesterday and was disappointed. The Nike outlet was OK but that was about it. Got a great base layer for $20 I saw recently for £50 so was pleased with that. Also got a cool run top, will be running in that today. I got a new race outfit too. I ran in black at Austria and this time I will be in blue and black for the bike and black and white for the run. I prefer to get completely changed in transition. The time it takes is well worth it for me to be comfortable, plus by wearing a cycling top I am more protected from the sun. I rode at midday yesterday and it was hot hot hot out there as there isn't any protection.

I was out riding a few days ago and came across another cyclist who was training for a race in Tucson in a few weeks. I was taking pictures of the bike course (included here) with my blackberry because I have finally learnt how to ride without hands and I don't have to stop. Corinna and Leanne used to joke that I would have a camera strapped to my helmet so I wouldn't have to stop, but this works better for me :) Anyway this dude rode with me for 10 mins and then said I was setting too much of a pace and he wanted to drop back. It was very good for my ego because I had slowed down to talk to him :) I don't get any sense of my cycling improving because of cycling with TFD all the time who slows down to adjust to my pace, but it must be!

This hip flexor 'thing' is settling down ( it isn't an injury!). I get the odd twinge but it is OK. I am stretching every few hours. I have been so busy the last few days, I really don't know how I manage to go to work and train. I have also been getting up at 3:30 so have all day to do all of this stuff. Today I slept in till 6 which was good. Ideally I want to be waking up at 5am so I am used to eating and getting up at that time so it isn't a shock to the system on race day. Thank goodness TFD is OK with that. I pick him up tonight from the airport. I can't wait to see him!! We have been on skype every day. He makes me laugh so much, he really is the BBE. (Best Boyfriend Ever).

We had dinner with Corinna and Antoinette last weekend and they were giving him Ironman support tips as they really are the pros at it. They were also fishing for investment into Iron Dreamz. Made me appreciate again how great they both are and how much crap they put up with when it comes to Ironman. Corinna gave me such a beautiful card. If I had functioning tear ducts I am sure I would have cried it was so touching.

So, I am feeling amazing. I am in a great frame of mind. I know the course. I am going to win. I have so many people behind me. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea but I love the tough love approach. Before I left work on Monday my boss told me to 'just win ok'. Mum said 'we are proud of you no matter where you place, but we know you can win it'. Corinna and Antoinette 'you better not ruin our holiday to Hawaii next year' and finally TFD 'I'm not going all the way to Arizona to watch a loser'. Some of my own personal favourites '2nd place is 1st loser', 'don't look back, someone might be gaining on you' and finally 'pain is temporary, giving up is forever'. Can you tell I have been doing my mental preparation? ;)

Tomorrow we head up to Sedona and then onto the Grand Canyon. It is going to be amazing. We get back to Phoenix next Thursday for registration, pick up the Zipps and start the serious race prep. Right, time to go train.
Cx

The Calm Before The Storm

Well, I had a very interesting week last week. I fell victim to something I thought was just being a bit more tired than normal but turns out is a whole lot nastier... Over Training.

For those of you who have experienced this, I am sure are not keen to let it happen again. To those who have not...well be warned. It can strike, chew you up and spit you out before you even have a chance to work out what is going on.

Last week was my last hard week of training before I start my 3 week taper for Ironman Arizona. Everything over the last few weeks had been going well, excellent volume and intensity of training up around 17 - 20 hours and I was feeling like I was in the best shape of my life. I started out last week after doing a 5 hour ride and then run on Saturday to a 2.5 hour hilly run on Sunday. Felt tired as you would expect. Hit Monday with a 2 hour 15 min brick before work and a track session in the evening. I was feeling pretty shattered and noticed I wasn't as quick as I should be. Monday night was the first of the sleepless nights. Into Tuesday morning with a 2hr 10 session before work and a swim in the evening. The swim wasn't easy and I was a good 10 secs down and slipping on my normal 300m times. Very little sleep again Tuesday night.

Anyway, the week progressed with me continuing to push as hard as I could on all of my sessions, sleepless nights and the worst thing I started to doubt my ability to even get to the start line let alone actually complete the race. If you know me or have been reading this you will know that I am very confident (probably over confident ;) in my ability to perform and complete an Ironman race, after all this is IM number 4 for me.

I had to get the cranks and bottom bracket replaced on Matilda (my bike) and couldn't quite work out what the problem was with her when I picked her up from the bike shop Wednesday night other than the cranks were a different colour. The guy in the shop was saying how great these cranks were and I wouldn't have any problems with them and that he had them too. Anyway, I took her home and put her in her bag ready to go out to Nice for the weekend.

Thursday I ran an OK-ish flat 11km at lunch in 45min which is a little slower than normal but legs were very tired and I had this niggle above my left knee. I of course ignored it. As the afternoon wore on, the pain got worse but I figured it was just because I had been training loads during the week and it was just one of those aches and pains you sometimes get. I swam Thursday night and my arms were aching doing the warmup ... it went seriously down hill from there. I was barely hanging onto the back of the group I normally lead.

I headed out to Nice with TFD (The Flying Dutchman) Friday night and managed to get some sleep but it was more through being absolutly exhausted than anything else. Saturday we got up and I put Matilda together and I hear a shout from TFD wanting to know what the hell had happened to Matilda. Blank look from me which is the look he normally gets when he starts talking bike techie stuff, I tell him that is what they told me I needed in the shop. Turns out they fitted MOUNTAIN BIKE cranks and bracket to my beautiful baby. Not only do I now have less gears, the cranks are for people with much longer legs than me and they sit at an angle. Now all of that may sound minor but after 18 months of training with 1 set up, changing that 3 weeks before a major race is not a good idea. So this added to the already sinking feeling I was already experiencing.

Nothing we could do about Matilda so we headed out for a ride but by now I had managed to work myself into a complete state of self doubt and my legs were killing me. It was like trying to cycle through treacle and having to head straight up the side of a mountain 10 mins into the ride really didn't help. That is the only drawback of cycling in Nice, you have to go up to get out. TFD was trying to chat to me and I was being a complete pain and giving him one word answers and snapping at him. He was really noticing the drop in speed and was being very supportive and trying to push me along a little bit. It got so bad at one stage I almost started crying with sheer frustration that I couldn't get my legs to work without being in pain. Everything from the week was starting to take it's toll. I actually convinced myself that I wasn't good enough to race and that I should pull out rather than go out to Arizona.

I managed to struggle to the top of the 2nd climb and from there is was 40km down or flat to get home. Even flying along going down the mountain wasn't making me happy and thats one of my favourite things in the world! TFD could tell I was in trouble so took us on a short cut to get home. We got in and I went for a run for 30 min but kept it flat on the promenade rather than doing my 12km up and then back down run I normally do. I pulled the pin on any further training for the day and TFD started making noises that I was completely over trained and needed to take it easy.

Sunday we did a short but spectacular 90 min ride to Eze. I was feeling slightly better mentally after a lovely evening in and a fantastic nights sleep. The issue today was the incredible wind. So many times we would come around a corner and almost be blown off our bikes the wind was so strong. I really got the speed wobbles at one point doing around 55km hr went round a corner and got hit by a cross wind that pushed me across the road into the oncoming traffic. That slowed me down.

We got back and I went out for a 2 hour run which I cut back to 90 mins because this leg thing was flaring up again. TFD met me at the beach and I pulled on my wetsuit and stood looking at the MASSIVE swell. As I said to TFD, you can't drown in a wetsuit and off I went. Interesting getting out past the breaking waves not made any easier by the fact they were coming in to the beach on a 45 degree angle. I swam against them for 12 mins or so and had to turn back because there was a pier making them break much earlier. I was being tossed around out there like a rag doll. I would swim 3 strokes and then be slammed from the side which was making me dizzy and feel a little sick.

I turned back and swam with the waves which should have been easier but I was now starting to get flipped over more often just by the sheer size of the swell and because it was really choppy. I swam further out which didn't make me happy because I was now feeling rather ill and it had started to rain. I wasn't far from where I went into the water and stopped and was treading water and noticed a crowd of people looking out into the water. After looking around me I realised they were all looking at me probably asking why some crazy person was out there :)

By this stage I was trying not to throw up I was feeling so sick so decided to go in. I had been fighting out there for 30 mins and couldn't do it any longer. I started to swim in and I could see TFD on the promenade and he started to come down. You so know where this is going. The big waves were coming in sets of 4 then 4 smaller ones so I tried to ride in the last big one of the set but lost my footing trying to get out of the water and got completely slammed from behind by the first in the big set. Now I'm sprawled on the beach trying to get up and bang! Slammed again. Very elegant. TFD had to come and held me get out of the water. If I knew how to speak French, I would have told the spectators 'I meant to do that!'.

So, we got back and I got in touch with Terry (my coach) http://www.triforfitness.co.uk/ and he diagnosed over training and pulled me from doing anything for 2 days. So I'm back on my feet with this lingering pain which I am seeing a physio about on Saturday. Bike is fixed with the correct cranks and a massive apology from the bike shop and life is once again great!

I leave on Tuesday to head out to Arizona and can't wait to just get going out there and see what I can do. I have never been in better shape, I feel strong and I feel even stronger mentally after last week. It gave me a brief insight into what it must be like to suffer from depression, that sinking feeling, closing everything off and not being able to ask for help. Lucky for me I am surrounded by people who recognise the symptoms and pulled me out of it quick smart.

So, bring on Arizona!
Cxx