Early Bird...

After reading a few books on Ironman plans and schedules etc, it has become apparent that in order to succeed with my future training loads I will have to incorporate early morning training. Now for me this is a big deal, usually struggling to get out of bed with an hour to go before work, thats me! So just over a week ago I made the difficult decision to set my alarm clock to 6.30am (yes I know middle of the night) Now every day for the past 8 days I have got up at this time and have been hitting the gym in the morning, the plan being that soon my body will be used to the early starts and when my plan starts in December ill be more than ready!.

I have been concentrating heavily on my cycling over the past few weeks and after my spoke was repaired on my bike I have already done over 60miles on it in just 2days, not bad for someone who 4 months ago found 10miles a struggle. I have joined a website called strava.com which allows users to ride certain routes and hills and depending on your time it logs you on a leaderboard, looking through I appear to be miles off 1st place in any of them but am keen to get a 1st place somewhere! I have also treated myself to a garmin edge 800 gps which should encourage me to push harder and provides turn by turn mapping much like a car satnav for your bike.

I have just got in from a 38mile cycle with Trevor, a hard ride through some very hilly backroads which we averaged a very impressive 18.3mph.

My running still has not really started as my knee still pains me after a few hundred meters, I did manage around 5 minutes fast on the treadmill in the week without any pain which is a positive sign, I think it will be a long slow road to getting back to my sub 48.30 10k times.

My current Ironman targets are

Swim - Around 1 hour / 1.10 (I managed 33mins at the 70.3 distance without too much trouble so Im sure with abit of endurance work I can bring that time down on average.

Bike - 6 Hours - maybe a little ambitious but the course is quite fast from what over read and for 6 hours I would need to average 18.7mph so the 18.3mph this morning is a good gauge.

Run - This is where im not really sure, I would like to say something like 5 hours if my knee was good but its not so If I hit my other targets I should have around 7 /7.30hrs to run / walk a marathon at the end to reach the 15hr cut off time.

I am going to really concentrate on the key simple things eg diet / light on the booze and training early and regularly.

Germany Sells Out

In just a few weeks of being open the general entry closes for Ironman Germany, this year over 2,800 people took part in the race!

So why did I choose this race?

After reading Can`t Swim, Can`t Bike, Can`t Run in about a week I realized it was a race that I would want to do.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cant-Swim-Ride-Run-Triathlon/dp/1848187432

I looked at Austria / Switzerland / Lanzarote / UK / Wales and for many different reasons I think this race is for me.

2800 people, amazing town and scenery plus the shortened 15 hour cutoff too add to the excitement.

A great Medal

And what a finish line

Currently my knee is still sore and still haven't run since IM 70.3 UK 17th June but im still hammering the bike and swimming regularly.

Flights and Accommodation are all booked also so thats it...

I have 12 months to bring my swim time down to around 1 hour and my bike down to 6 hours, If I can do this my running will take care of itself.

Will post updates as often as I can