I give myself two marks out of ten for each Ironman I do. The first one I receive before stepping foot on the start line. It’s the mark I give myself for my preparation, and no bad race can take it away. The next one is for what I do on race day; it’s about what I did during the race, if I stay tough, if I give it a good go, if I’m proud of what I do. I’m an engineer, so I deal with lots of numbers but funnily enough I keep the numbers to a minimum in my sport. Last year I got to the finish line of Port Macquarie and I said
, “I don’t care what the numbers say, I never expected to make it through that thing, and I’m just so proud of myself for doing so.”I’m happy I said that, as I can remember saying in conversation one day, “if I finish an Ironman and I’m not happy with myself, then it’s time to find a different sport.” Too much goes into an Ironman, to not feel a sense of accomplishment, no matter what the outcome. So anyway, that was last year. This is now and this is a reflection on the last few months which has been my preparation.
It’s been an unusual lead up to Ironman. I’ve done a 12 hour all night mountain bike race, my first off road triathlon, a choose your own adventure triathlon course (I got lost), and I’ve been back to Goondiwindi - Hell of the West Triathlon to question why I do endurance sport.
Things have gone to plan and things haven’t gone to plan. I’ve raced and pulled up great, I’ve trained and pulled up not so great. One day I didn’t make it out of the garage after my long ride and had to commence recovery with a bowl of muesli from there. Another day my long run turned extra long with bonus adventures as I got lost in a forest, found in someone’s back yard and soggy in a Queensland bog that was a sports oval before the rain started back in December.
I became an inaugural member of the 9km an hour club, which Al and I formed on a steep 5km climb on a memorable mountain bike ride. AlI I could think was “I have to go faster than 9km an hour, I can’t do this for 35 minutes.” Jeff didn’t hang around for the invite to our club.
I’ve enjoyed mixing long road rides, with mountain biking adventures. When I first went off road it was like running on a bicycle. I’m still scared of the rocks I’ve made improvements and it feels great. It also seems to make all the other sports seem easier.
I’ve experimented with less than optimal bike positions (my cleats were too far back on my time trial bike), and out of alignment on my mountain bike. I’ve done long runs with my camel back, to finish runs hydrated and fresher. All these things seem to tell me a little bit more about my body and how it works in perfect and less than perfect situations.
Twelve hours on a mountain bike at night became a great experiment in managing nutrition. Lapses quickly showed up in the dirt as the first thing to was co-ordination and cadence. I drank blueberry juice, coffee, coke, water and sports drink. I ate easter eggs, tuna sandwiches and home made biscuits. I tried to swallow some kind of baby food but thought better of it.
The Sunshine Coast and the active people here are continuing to surprise and inspire. We have over 20 people from this area competing in Ironman this year, we all have different stories. We'll all be out there again together on race day.
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