Here’s the bike all ready to go ! Pretty sure germany will be a disc course. I do hope so, I love the sound of a disc wheel during an Ironman

I’m all packed and ready to head off to Ironman Germany. Jo and I are driving there – we love a little road trip across Europe. It’s so much less stressful than flying. We can take spare wheels, don’t have to take our bikes apart and can pack as much kit as we like. There is a tendency to fill the space available in the car.

I’m looking forward to this race. Feeling pretty relaxed I think largely because I really don’t know how I’m going to go. I still feel unprepared for it. Don’t feel like there is zip in the legs. Stairs still make them ache. However, I look back at my preparations and they have been pretty good. Not as good as I’d planned but are they ever. I really just can’t complain. My biggest worry is that I’ve not done decent running since before Epic Camp. Even on the camp the running tended to be an afterthought. Means I’m going in to this race looking for strong swim and bike and then just see on the run. The aim is still a PB – ie sub 9.15 but I now feel I will be over the moon with that. If I’m over 9.30 I’ll be disappointed.

Had lunch with Jane, Mum and Isaiah today. Both Jane and mum separately (though I’m sure they are in cahoots) raised that they were worried I was doing too many Ironmen this year and that I shouldn’t jeopardize Kona. I assured them I wasn’t and that Germany was a race to enjoy and not one I’d completely focussed on. To back this up I gave a quick glimpse of my tummy – it’s far from lean at the moment and I’m certainly carrying between 10 and 15 pounds too much into this race ! Slightly later Jane asked about target times and after my comment she said something like “well you’re not going to go that fast on the run as you’re so fat at the moment” … thats what sisters are for, no pulling of punches just tell it how it is !

Yesterday Jo and I did a days course on “Neuro Linguistic Programming” Really was very interesting – the big thing for me was the stuff we did on ‘anchoring” – I feel this can help me in the Ironman run. I’ve started to practise some of the techniques and though it takes time I’m hoping it will help at least a little in Frankfurt. I know this is something that can get me going during the race so i plan to spend time over the summer working on the techniques and getting them in place and embedded by Kona.

I’ve spent some of today doing more analysis on my races and the tapers I’ve done. It seems pretty consistent that my best races so far have come off shorter tapers. Generally under 2 weeks. Also I tend to have raced best when I’ve maintained pretty high bike mileage up to the weekend before the race. I’ve reworked my Kona Push Training Plan to take account of this. Cut the Wisconsin taper to ultra short (remember Kona is the focus) – plan is to train hard till I get on the plane … no this doesn’t mean I’ll be pegging it through Heathrow to the plane but I will cycle long the weekend before. Similarly for Kona but since I’m flying out 15 days before the race it will result in a 2 week taper. Plan is to train reasonable volume in the first week especially as this will aid acclimatization but then in the final week really reduce the volume massively – far more than before. The only thing that would change this is an absolutely storming race this weekend. If I manage that I may end up repeating the build up I’ve done here ! If I was a betting man, though, I wouldn’t be betting on my definition of an absolutely storming  race this weekend.