Beyond Endurance - Rhys Harries

Ironman Wales - 12 weeks to go!

With 12 weeks ish to go until the big day it's time to start to pick things up and get the body in fine working order!

Up until now I've kept my self with a bit in the tank and leaving the bigger volume for the next 8 weeks.
The thinking is I'm not going to do more than two 100 mile rides, maybe three at most! Up until now I've done a couple 70m rides and an 80m but except for them just done 40-50mile long rides and there hasn't exactly been much consistency. The only consistency is the fact I've been on the bike most days which has cramped up the mileage to around 150mile weeks with one or two 200mile weeks. However I found I was pretty tired after 200miles of cycling in a week so cut it back to about 150m. Whats the point killing myself early and in all honesty whats the point killing myself before the Ironman full stop?

The majority of my training has been on the bike and even though my swimming was non existent before Christmas, I found that 2-3 swims in the week with the od 4 swim week and also the od one swim week, it's come on a lot and even though it will take me a while I pretty sure I can get around the swim. With regards to the running I've had an injury all year so have literally only strated running again in the last week! However I'm from a running background and honestly think even though I've not run all year I can get the running up to scratch, or at least 'good enough' with 12 weeks left. 3 runs a week I'll do probably, one long, and two faster ones. I'll do a hand full of brick type sessions but not going to stress about the 'running after cycling' difficulty too much.

At the moment I'm probably doing between 12-15 hr weeks but a lot of the sessions are shorter sessions. From know on I'm going to bulk up the volume and gradually build it up to hopefully peak with a 20hr week about 4 weeks out. Then the nightmare of a taper which I always struggle with after been training so long but if you get it correct can be a the difference between a good day and a bad one.

So 12 weeks of graft ahead and 12 weeks of commitment and I hopefully will make it around.

At the moment anything between 12-13 hrs on the day and I'll be happy but if it took 16 I wouldn't really mind so long as I get around!

I could kill myself as such with the training for maybe a 30min improvement but I don't see the point and have no intention of getting too stressed about times. I'm going to do 'enough' to get me around as comfortably as can be with such an event but that's about it.

I'm estimating maybe 1.30 ish for the swim, 6.30-6.45 for the bike and 3.30ish for the run with no panics in transition! However in all honesty, I'm not fussed if it takes longer so long as I get around and can call myself an Ironman! Something I heard about 5 years ago and didn't think people could do such a thin, now I'm 12 weeks away from the start line!

Good luck to all taking on the challenge :)