Ironman Training - Month One

Week 27 - 23 out

So I began my training at the start of Jan, 6 months before Ironman Switzerland in July. It's been such a big learning curve so far, a huge change in lifestyle, trying to find inner strength I didn't know was there, and being pretty cut throat with my time and how, who I spend it with. I decided to not drink in January, something I wanted to do for myself and didn't publicise very much, and really enjoyed!  It is important to let your hair down and celebrate the successes and hard work so I probably won't be continuing a dry year but restricting alcohol before and after training, which is 6 days a week. 

Overall I've enjoyed the training, friends I've made and things I've learnt about myself, the sport and life in general. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• I love to train, but suffer from lack of motivation if I don't have a goal in place, so I've really enjoyed having a big focus. 
• Testing out the Liv Envie carbon bike. A very light and beautiful bike, more aggressive positioning on the bike so I'm still considering my options.
• Cycled my first Regents Park laps, not quite sure how it's taken me this long to actually ride there!
• Spending precious long hours on the bike with my husband.
• Entering into events as part of my training - Hell of Ashdown (100k cycle in my hometown North Downs), Tonbridge triathlon, olympic distance. And a Ironman 70.3.
• Taking inspiration and motivation from lots of reading of triathlon articles and blogs. 
• Adapting the training schedule every week to find a schedule that fits around a very busy and demanding job.
• Running across London - running through some of the most iconic parts of London; Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The Thames, Regents Canal. Running through London at the crack of dawn on a Saturday or Sunday is pretty amazing!

LOW'S

• Realising my weaknesses and not letting these get me down, but creating motivational strategies to tackle the negative thoughts. 
• Freezing my ass off on long rides in the countryside.
• Finding it hard to train and stay motivated on the Watt bike in the gym. I've now decided to change gyms to cycle for a specialist cycling studio which I'm hoping that can help get faster and more powerful. 
• Tackling tiredness constantly.
• Not having as much spare time to focus on my personal training business. 
• Mini freak outs wondering if I'll ever get to Ironman!

KEY STATS:

• Average hours of training per week: 6-8 hours
• Sessions per week: 9 sessions - Long run, long cycle, tempo run, tempo cycle, interval run, interval cycle, yoga, strength training, swim session
• Total Distance Swum: 15.20km
• Total Distance Run: 84km 
• Total Distance Cycled: 243km
• Max speed on bike: 66.6km/h