Countdown to Zurich

It has been a long while since I last blogged on our progress towards Ironman Switzerland. There were a number of events & performances at the weekend which have prompted me to let you know how we are getting on with 7 weeks to go to race day.

We were tracking a couple of Ironman events on Saturday with home interest in both. Whilst Scotlands Catriona Morrison paced herself to a perfect win in IM Texas we were following Gerry Seenan making his Ironman debut around one of the very toughest IM courses in Lanzarote. We helped Gerry throughout his training and his commitment to the training plan & his consistency paid off with a great result and we are very proud of him.

Out in Ohio Genevieves Big Sister Paolina 'The Machine' Allan was taking on an event that seems as hard to comprehend as it is to complete, though she may say otherwise. The American Triple T features an Open Water Sprint Tri on Friday pm, Olympic Distance Tri on Saturday am, another Olympic Distance Tri on Saturday pm & then a Half Ironman on Sunday Morning. A totally crazy event but in true Paolina style she trained hard, lapped it up & won. We are hoping for a Race Report out of her in the next couple of days.

Back on home territory and in very testing conditions thousands of runners were taking on the Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday. Our own Robbie Rooney was taking part in this, his first marathon & having trained hard & consistently took a bad case of cramp at mile 17 and had to dig deep to finish. In his true positive manner he looked on this as a positive thing and will no doubt be back for more.

At ATHelite our focus is always on getting novices into the great sport of triathlon. We had so many people in the shop during the week looking not only for running & tri gear, but also advice and maybe a confidence boost for the Novice & Sprint distance events at Strathclyde Park on Sunday. Too many great performances to mention from so many of our regulars but well done to all of you whether this was one of many events this year or if it was your first foray into the open (murky) water.

Lots of inspiring performances there and the one thing that dictated the success of all these is consistency in training. This is so key & especially so in Ironman training. It is all well & good knocking out the occasional great session but you have to keep these going over a long period of time to make them count.
Having already built up a solid endurance base over the last couple years of Ironman, our training looks a little different this year but in these final stages we are still focusing our training around a number of key sessions which we never miss. These sessions include weekly Swimming Speed Work, Distance Swims & Open Water Swims (very cold at present!). Running also includes Speed Work, Tempo Runs & the crucial Long Run of about 16 - 18 miles weekly. Biking includes Speed Work, longer Time Trials of 25 - 50 miles and the important weekly Long Ride. The last couple of weeks we have ridden over 100 miles solo on our long ride. They have gone very well & these are vital Ironman training sessions. It is all well & good knowing you can ride the distance but riding that distance alone trains the mind and Ironman is all mental (literally!).You must remain focused on your race plan, know what your race pace feels like & train in your nutrition strategy. These sessions all happen in a cycle and each cycle is sandwiched by a recovery week, which is almost as important as the training itself.

It is not just us taking part in Zurich this year - we have 6 others from the ATHelite team taking part & they are all training as hard as they can but all with different aims & objectives. We also have our comrades from Lanark Tri Club who are heading out on mass plus our entourage of friends & family. It's going to be a great trip!!

This weekend a crowd of us are heading down to Belvoir Castle near Leicester for our final event before Zurich. A Half Ironman (ish) in which the objective is to test our race day strategies. It shouldn't cause too many problems other than the fact I have strained a tendon in my arm swimming this morning & it now has 4 days to cure itself before Saturdays race!!

So 7 weeks till race day, but (without wanting to worry everyone!) with one recovery week & a couple of weeks tapering it is only really 4 hard weeks of training so the day is looming closer still. We are starting to think about what we need for race day and getting it ready now - nutrition, new bike tyres, racing shoes, sun cream, travel logistics etc. Lots to worry about nearer the race so best to deal with this things early.
One last focused push and we will be there. I can't wait - Bring it on!!