I haven’t had much to say or update you all with in the last month. Mainly I have just been eating chocolate. That would make a very short post!
For those of you who like me to talk more about my actual training and less about chocolate you will also be disappointed.
This time after the New Zealand Ironman I forced myself to have a decent rest. Now normally “rest” to me simply means that I don’t have a programme and I’m not training for a specific event. I instead start to do all the things that I was missing out on while training and competing in Ironman – such as fitting in a couple of 5km Waterfront Races (hopefully in sub-20mins) before they ended and then launching straight into the Harriers winter running season.
This year I actually took a few weeks off running. Two weeks after Ironman I went for a run but I was still just so exhausted. As it turned out this year it was much easier to take about a month off of doing exercise. I must have actually put all I had into the race because even getting through a day at the office was leaving me drained. I didn’t have the energy to do anything else. One person likened it to draining a river completely dry and then waiting for it to full back up again – any time I did something it would drain the river before it was full.
I also had my commuting bike stolen on my first day back at work. I was planning on going for a cruise around the bays after work before fate intervened. So I then spent two weeks trying to sort out a new bike.
On top of that I was also trying to organise my trip to Kona and then a holiday in Hawaii afterwards. I found this quite overwhelming as there was so much to think about and organise – flights, flights times, how much time should I take off of work, insurance, RACING insurance, accommodation…then finding cheaper accommodation! Luckily there were plenty of people that I could ask for help.
Oh, and I did manage to fit some painting in. We freshened up both the inside and outside of our bach near Taupo. I tried to get some landscaping done at home, the gardens get a bit neglected when doing Ironman training, but manual labour is tiring! Chopping out tree stumps is a good cross training exercise though.
But time to now put down the chocolate and seriously thinking about training for the Kona Ironman.
This will be the first time that I have properly trained for an Ironman, or any triathlon, over winter. Since day light savings hit I have become all too well aware of the later sunrises and the shortening days. When I have gone out for a ride before work it has also been much colder now that I am leaving home before the sun is up. However, one positive is that on fine calm days I am greeted with a beautiful sunrise – as long as I am in a place to see it of course!
Doesn’t get any better than this!
I’m sure I will be doing plenty of indoor bike sessions soon enough, so for now I’m making the most of being able to still ride outside while I can. Particularly as this week my programme is wanting me to “get used to hills” again.
As for the other disciplines, my focus for the swim is to improve my technique and times as the swim in Kona will be without a wetsuit. I don’t think I will be able to have quicker biking and running times in the Kona heat but it would be great to improve on my swimming.
So there we go, I was able to find something to write about after all!
As an aside, it has been suggested that I should change #sierra4kona to something more like #sierraiskona or #sierraisgoingtokona. What do you think? The first sets some high expectations!