I must admit when I woke up that there was not a chance in hell that I was going to go for a run but I have come to the realization that in only 4 months time, I am competing in a Half Ironman. With the elements broken down it seems like a relatively easy exercise. I regularly do 2.5-3.0 km when I swim. I am doing 80-90 km in the hills on the bike and I am regularly running 13km in the hills. The flat course around Tauranga should be no issue...yeah right!!
You have to remember that you have to put all of these elements together on the day. How quickly your day can turn to crap when you have been swum over the top of in the mad rush to get to the first buoy in the swim and you lose your goggles because they have been ripped from your head. You get a couple of flats on the bike or you don't eat enough food and use all your energy with nothing left for the run. At the end of the day, you have to put around 2-3 days of solid training together for one race. Whilst these individual elements are being achieved currently, there are not too many days I complete a 90km bike ride and look forward to a 20km run...but soon that will have to be the case. I think the biggest issue on the day is going to be the heat. If there is wind then bring it on as I am used to it living in Wellington. Cold conditions, I don't even know what hot conditions are any more! But heat could be the killer.
Needless to say the focus for me at the moment is going to be on working the hills for the next couple of months and then once this base hill fitness is there, I will work on the speed. To do this I need to also focus on the other elements of the race including getting into the open water again (which I hate) and remembering how to transition from swim to bike and bike to run. The main aim for me though over the next 4 months is to lose another 3 kilo's. I would like my ideal weight going into the race to be around 77 kilos and some of my nutritional decisions as well as the occasional drink is not helping this. So the aim is this, to give up the drink for 4 months to see what happens. I once gave up beer for a couple of months, changed nothing else in my diet and lost around 3 kilos so giving up all alcohol is the next step. Good bye Pinot Gris and hello Lemon Lime and Bitters. Yes, you heard it here first, I am giving up alcohol for 4 months!!! It is going to be ridiculously hard but I am taking this race seriously. One good race here and then it is potential ironman in a couple of years time.
So the training has officially begun and all else has just been a warm up to this day. In the words of Bridget Jones Diary:
0 Kilos down
132 Days to race day
0 day no alcohol
So the start of the serious training has begun and the run to Mt Kaukau all 13km was completed in record time. The pace is nice and even if when running up the hills. But the best thing about the run was I felt good during it and I felt a crap load better after it.
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