Here’s a picture of Rachel and I on “Dig Me Beach” at 7am this morning just before swimming the full course. We swam it pretty easy. Rachel is swimming well as she pulled away from me pretty easily. It was another lovely swim though there were lots of little stingy things at one point. Once past halfway it felt like we had the ocean to ourselves.
The rest of my day is for rest so we headed to meet Russell and Roger at Lava Java for a slow relaxed breakfast. What a great spot – chat, enjoy the sun, great food, nice coffee watch people swimming by and triathletes strutting their stuff up and down Ali’i drive.
We discussed a little about “Run Walk” for the run and I’m getting pretty convinced this is probably going to be my best approach. My original thought had been to walk through each aid station but perhaps that will be too often. Every second one may be a better approach. No need to decide yet but really must have a plan of action before race day because without a definite decision in my mind that walking isn’t quitting I probably won’t do it.
My legs seem to have recovered from yesterdays run and I feel slightly more positive. Will try that run again since there seem to be no ill effects today and it feels that each of this runs I manage now may help me multiple times over come race day.
I’ve had my eyes opened to just what the run could be like come race day. Above is me on Ali’i Drive in 2005 when I was running pretty well. I’d like to be running like that this year and in my heart I’ve been dreaming of that but todays run has rather brought me back to earth. I ran the Ali’i drive section of the run this afternoon. The good news is that it was pain free and I ran about 10 miles continuously. It took 90 minutes and I slowed significantly in the final couple of miles. Russell changed his plans to tag along but I think with hindsight I should have stuck to my guns and done it alone … I think recovery from injuries like this is often best done alone. I suffered and the thought of having to continue along the Queen K for 16 miles following this is rather scary. I will definitely need some mental preparation for whats in store as my legs were in a right state by the end of this.
We’ve managed to just drop straight into the swing of things here and get a good routine going. Been swimming both mornings out to a little beyond the halfway point. The water is gorgeous – warmer than I remember. This morning we saw a turtle. The numbers of people swimming are already high, it seems more people are getting out early. We’ve managed breakfast in Lava Java yesterday and then in Splashers this morning. Russell and I happy both days when a “meat lovers” omelette was on offer.
It’s great to be back in Kona. Ran to the 3 mile post on Alii Drive this evening and it was great seeing all the familiar sights again, watching the sun set and running pain free.
Met with Russell today for a long ride. Boy oh boy was I tired. Spent the whole ride happily letting Russ set the pace. Ended up with 116 miles in 7 hours and pleased I got out in the lovely weather.
nice structure. Being in Lanzarote ahead of the IM was a good start and doing the swim coaching course straight after proved a blessing giving me a proper rest. Then I got 3 blocks of increasing volume whilst house sitting in London (thanks to my sister), in Rutland (thanks to Roger) and finally in La Santa (thanks to Rachel). This final 2 week block in La Santa produced the numbers to the right. I must admit on the last day I was aqua jogging knowing I needed to do a certain amount of time to get 120 hours for the two weeks. I’m a sucker for stupid little goals like that.
I record my “weeks” from Monday to Sunday and though on the odd occasion I’ve exceeded 60 hours in a 7 day period I’ve never managed it for a “week”. Never till now ! Some may think it bonkers to do this sort of volume but boy oh boy was it great fun. How often do you get so much time to just indulge yourself doing what you enjoy. I feel very lucky and am making sure I enjoy it. I think it’s the first time I’ve had my biggest volume immediately before my taper. This is bigger than Epic camp. Look at the graph above the peak early in the year is Epic Camp and the one at the end is this week. So not only is the volume higher but the load is more (a measure of volume and intensity) and the strain is way more which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Whether this is / was the right thing to do is a topic for another post for now I just want to enjoy the moment. The fantastic feeling of tiredness which comes from this sort of volume. Laying down on my bed each night is such a pleasure. Getting back to the roots of this blog I’m going to detail how the week panned out.
Fast Lands End To John O’Groats
The photo above is looking towards Fire Mountain yesterday as we rode the Ironman Route in reverse. We’re very lucky that Rachel Joyce invited Jo and I over to Club La Santa for 2 weeks at the perfect time for final preparations for Kona. This is an awesome environment for training and I now understand why people rave about it. If money was no object I’d come and stay here for several weeks in the run up to IM Lanzarote only moving to Puerto Del Carmen (PdC) for race week. The food on the buffet in the evening allows me to be completely Paleo and despite absolutely stuffing myself each evening I’ve lost 2lbs already this trip. I now see why Jaime and Oli were a little disappointed last May when they moved from here to our hotel in PdC and had to eat the buffet there. I’d expected not to particularly like having loads of athletes around when I’m focussing on training but I’m quite enjoying it. Going to the gym is more interesting when there’s a german weight lifting squad training.
Not the best photo in the world but it suffices and nicely continues my foot theme. Quite a contrast to how the foot looked 6 months ago. Now we have a little bit of felt under my foot which fingers crossed will sort out my foot pain. First signs are encouraging. Of course if it does that I’ll be rather gutted about spending £220 getting orthotics that should arrive just before I leave for Kona.
You can read my race report 
Steven Lords Website 