THe Final Countdown

You know like that terrible song by Europe from the 1980's.  

Well there is now just over a week to go. Last weekend we had a couple of nights ar Palazzo Versace palazzoversace.com.au.  This was a great way to start the taper into the race.  It really is an amazing place.

It gave me an opportunity for a lazy 2k swim on the Saturday and then a ride back to Brisbane on the Sunday.  I was tossing up how to approach the Sunday ride, schmooze off for an easy 130-140k and just enjoy it, do some hills or what?

On the day it was very hot, and of course one has to take full advantage of the buffet breakfast and late checkout.  By the time I wheeled out of the hotel it was 11:45 and close to 32 degrees.  I had 3 full water bottles but that would barely be sufficient, so it only took about ten minutes to decide that this would be an effort ride for as long as I could hold it in the heat.

Now I did have problems with my right hamstring which has been playing up of late.  It is a dull and deep ache rather than a sharp pain and takes some power away when it is affecting me.  But even so I maintained something like a 35kph average for the first hour, and 33-34 kph through 2 hours.  This is better than it sounds, firstly it was really getting hot, but also because in the first hour there are a lot of stops required, traffic lights, roundabouts etc.  Every time that happens, particularly early on, it takes the average down about 0.2 kph.

All in all it ended up a 90k ish ride at about a 32kph average.  Was happy with that.

I am now in serious wind down mode, trying to do just enough to keep the muscles in synch while recovering through to race day.  I fly out to Auckland on Sunday 26th and into Taupo the following day.  So about 4 days to get into the groove and soak up the atmosphere.  I guess the big question is how is it going to go?

If only I knew.

The whole point of the day is first and foremost to finish.  I will be focussing all day on rationing out the energy reserves so there is still gas in the tank later in the day.  The race will consume about 12,000 calories or about 3-4 days fuel.  A major factor of races this long is keeping up a steady and non disruptive intake of food and fluids.

So to put something out there as a guess?  Maybe a soft target.

For the swim I will be taking it very easy, I would hope to be out in 1:10 or slightly less.  

So from a 7:00am start this will point to be being out around 8:10 am.

Onto the bike after around 7 minutes changeover.  Again pacing will be key, and I would look to try and hold back for the first lap and maybe pick up just a little on the second lap.  The hamstring will play a part here but I am confident it can be controlled.  At the Taupo half I managed 2:48 for one lap, for the full I will target 2:55 on the first lap and maybe push for 2:45 on the second lap.  That would get me through the ride in 5:40 and I would be happy enough with that.

So that is just under seven hours elapsed back to the run.  The run is a 3 lapper and certainly the last lap will be interesting.  I really would like to get close to 4 hours which would also bring me in close to an 11 hour total.  Again pacing will be key, and if my body gives me a choice I will be trying to hold back to 1:20 a lap.  Now in the context of running this is slow.  But it is the end of a long day.

For anyone interested the race cab be followed on ironman.com.  You can search by name or by my race number 1379.

I may get a final pre race post in but certainly will be posting as soon as possible after race end.

Whew.