I woke up around 2 o’clock on Sunday morning drenched in sweat. This is never a good sign.
Saturday afternoon was spent in the gym. I cycled for 3 1/4 hours and totally emptied the tank. The weather was not fantastic and I didn’t fancy the whole ride spending energy trying to keep warm rather than putting the effort in to a quality ride.
The added bonus of riding inside is, of course, fluid loss through sweating. The weather in Bolton in July can range from boiling hot to freezing cold, and I want to ensure that I am as acclimatised as I can be to the possibility that it will be a hot day. So the gym it was.
I wanted to make sure after my ride that I was rehydrated, but I didn’t want to overdo it on the carbs. I think that it is good to try and do some running in a depleted state as this is quite often what happens in the latter stages of an Ironman. I think that the lack of carbs and the sheer effort of holding a decent effort for 195 minutes had spiked my metabolism. It didn’t make for a restful night’s sleep.
Consequently, on Sunday morning, I felt quite flat as we made the walk from the carpark to collect my number for the ever-brilliant Heaton Park Half Marathon. In my mind, I had planned to run eight minute miles to get me round the half in 1:45. This would be a decent run given just how hard the previous week’s training had been.
After collecting my number and making our way back to the car, I ate a small banana and was slightly frustrated to find that I’d left my GoPro memory card at home. This was a shame because I wanted to film some of the run as I want to build a visual record of training towards July’s Ironman. Never mind. My loss was Matthew‘s again, and I asked him if he could try and capture a couple of film clips on a phone as I made my way around the four lap course.
The race went exactly to plan, despite taking a couple of miles for my legs to warm up, I never did feel that I was going to run out of fuel despite only having minimal carbohydrates between the long ride and the run. I took on a little bit of water on one of the laps and that was it. The thing I had to work most hard about was dealing with a few negative thoughts surrounding my energy levels. I honestly thought that I might run out of steam given just how much I put into the Saturday afternoon ride. Thankfully this never happened. On each lap I felt stronger and stronger and was pleased to run sub 1:45 fairly comfortably.
I think that this is a good sign early sign that my training is going in the right direction. You can never read too much into these things, but it’s a good sign nonetheless.
14 weeks, 6 days to go…
Marcus Chester | Coaching 