SportsShoes Blog

As I mentioned in a previous post I’ve thought for a few years that one day I’d like to have a go at an ironman - I think it’s a supreme test of the human body and completing one, in whatever time, is in my opinion a fantastic achievement.

Well this week I’ve taken one (very) small step closer to my dream by signing up for the Ilkley Triathlon. Where an Ironman is a 2.4 mile open water swim followed by a 112 mile bike and then a full marathon, the Ilkley race is a 500 meter pool swim, a 10 mile bike and a 3 mile run - so, whilst it is a triathlon, it’s not really in the same league - but, as they say - from small acorns grow mighty oaks……we must all start somewhere.

I did think about the Ironman last week when I did the Fred and towards the end I was asking myself if I could jump off the bike and knock out a quick marathon - I’m afraid the answer I got back was a resounding “No way don’t be so stupid!!”

Anyway I think the Ilkley Tri might prove a tad easier but having said that it must be more than 10 years ago that I actually swam 500 meters in one go so I better dig out my speedos and learn how to swim.

This week following the Fred last Sunday I’ve been really tired. Having thought about my performance last week I think I went into the race with insufficient rest and the race itself finished me off. In the week prior to the race I trained every day (twice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and although it was all low intensity stuff I think it was a mistake.

This week, I had a bit of tendonitis in my achilles so I had Monday off then dog jogged each day, plus a cycle to work on Wednesday and a steady hour’s run on Wednesday night.

This morning I did a 25 min run with the dog then a 1hr 20 mins bike at reasonable effort. My plan is to train quite hard next week and then take a week off to let everything get back into shape.

There’s loads of great races between now and my trip to the Alps in July, some of which I may try and do, but I really need to get as many bike miles in my legs as possible before I attack the Alpe d’Huez.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 16th, 2009 at 7:36 pm and is filed under Andy Nicoll, Diaries & training blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.