Oops! This should have been posted over a month ago in early July, but I got distracted as was traveling across countries, continents and the space time continuum. Anyway, found it sat in my pending file, so will post now. It’s somewhat out of date, but still relevant !!

Summer has now definitely arrived, and training is in full swing, thought it maybe time for an update

My last race was almost two months ago, my next (local fun 70.3-ish)in early September and then my A race (Gurye full IM) 3 weeks later. I was pretty happy with the results from Japan Half IM and that had given my confidence a boost going into this training block. 

I have been spending the last 8 weeks in various locations across Europe, where I have been able to enjoy lovely long days with the sun rising shortly after 5am and not going down fully until around 9pm. Of course summer brings with it the added stress of hot weather to those long training days and due to unprecedented heat waves, the afternoons have become too hot to comfortably train. Various races across the continent have been cancelled or shortened due to weather, although it was the cold and wet that caused mayhem in Cork  – which in turn immediately raised the race to almost legendary status and has been added to many a bucket list for next year.

I have rather enjoyed reading the discussions online about whether someone can call themselves an Ironman if they haven’t completed the full 140miles, even if the race was shortened by officials due to safety concerns. The debate mimics the discussion of whether only those completing a full IRONMAN can get an Ironman tattoo or is a half acceptable too. My opinion – who the hell cares, we all do it for our own private reasons, stick with your motivation and leave others to theirs! Meh!

Talking of motivation, mine has hit the “standard mid season” lows. I get this every year once the daily stress of full on IRONMAN training takes the sheen off the excitement. It becomes a struggle to keep pushing my body when I feel so tired and I don’t seem to be making the progress I want. My way to keep focused is to look back and see what training I did in previous years and see how it effected my race results. For example last year my “late summer IM” result gave me a PB in the swim and bike but worst ever marathon. By looking at this same period 12 months ago I can see my swim training is around the same as last year whereas my bike has definitely progressed. The biggest difference though is the running as my training was decimated in 2018 due to illness and injury, so all being well I can get myself much more run fit. Therefore it would be reasonable to assume I can get similar results in swim, better results in the  bike but potentially a good 1+ hour improvement on the run. So all that means IF I keep focused I can legitimately hope for a sub 13 or even a sub 12, and that thought will get me excited enough to move my arse and train!