Me at race weight.

Sorting through email found this quote on race weight from a buddy:

“The trick is to keep losing weight until your friends and family ask you if you’ve been sick. then you know you’re within 5 kgs. if they start whispering to each other, wondering if you’ve got cancer or aids, you’re within 2.5 kgs . when they actually do an intervention, you’re at race weight”

Trying to get focussed on getting ready for Wisconsin now. Been really pretty down over the past few days. I normally get severe post Ironman blues but with such an awful performance it’s hit even worse. Been thinking alot about motivation – whether I can face the training required to get a performance I will be happy with. My conclusion so far is I’m not sure but best just crack on with the training and see how it goes.

Thanks to several of you that have sent me emails. Very sensible words and thanks so much for not congratulating me on a good race ! When someone that has any knowledge of me says something like ‘great race” when it clearly wasn’t it just makes me feel worse and think them pretty insensitive !

So been reviewing my performance and preparation a bit more. Big thing I did well in the run up to New Zealand were brick sessions. In the main 4 week build phase I managed 13 brick sessions , the similar period ahead of Germany saw me do 5. I’m certainly going to ensure I get them completed this time round.

Last night we had drinks after swimming to shoot the breeze about Ironman Germany. It was good to talk it through with fellow triathletes over a beer. I was quite open about the most frustrating thing for me which was my inability to pull it back together mentally once I’d realised I’d misread my watch on the run. It provided a nice excuse not to hurt and I took it. I’m just not pleased with myself about that. I like to think I’m tough but perhaps I’m not. For Wisconsin I am going to do alot of mental preparation for the run and think through how it must feel for me to be running fast. I re-read my Longest Day Report and realise with the right motivation I can really push hard on the run. The question is how to do this in an Ironman when the person you are chasing down is not really obvious. Something to ponder.

I managed to get out and swim last night. Felt good but kept it short. Similarly today I got out on the bike, felt good but kept it short. This is better than in the past following an Ironman. Tomorrow will swim and run with abit of luck. Hopefully feel ready to train more formally next week.