Along the way...

I called this blog "The Journey to Ironman" and a journey it is... if I look beyond this sidetrip, life is a journey and my friend Bob reminded me of this the other day:

You can win or lose a race, or do better or worse than you wanted or expected; the real value lies in the things you learn along the way, the people you meet and friends you make. They will be the ones remembering you, not your time in a triathlon.

How true.

If you are reading this, you are part of my journey, and very likely a part of my life somehow. Some of you know me, others may not, but let me say this... welcome to the journey, and thank you for being a part of it!!

On training - yesterday was a bittersweet day.

First things first - rode my crap bike to the pool, and the rear tire (or tyre as they call it here) blew out yet again. I had tried to repair the tire the day before, but it seems that while I did an OK job on the tube, the tire just couldn't be salvaged. So this meant a long walk to the bike shop, then a bunch of messing around to fix things up (no quick release on this baby). The guys at the bike store were somewhat amazed that I could actually change my own tire. Little do they know that I blow a tube every other week on average on my road bike ;) With that out of the way... I rode on to the pool.

I got into the pool yesterday morning, and my shoulder has been bugging me again. Thursday's workout is 15 by 200m of pull, with hand paddles on 20s rest. After the first two 200's I figured it wasn't going to happen, was ready to "throw in the towel" for the workout, but instead I dropped the paddles and carried on. It was a good workout, made it through all 3900m of the workout then got out to do my long run for the day.

So... my left ankle has been bothering me for about a week now, and yesterday was no exception. The Thursday long run is two hours easy these days, should be no problem... but between the ankle, the heat, and my lack of water after one hour, I bailed on the run at 1:25. I do not know what the temperature was, but we were running at about 2:00 and I figure it was pushing 40 degrees in the heat, so it wasn't easy (but no-one said it would be easy ;) It certainly was a two-bottle kindof day out there though, and I only had one... and nowhere to fill it up partway. Ah well. At least one more long run to go before we start to taper.

Yes, this old man might just be starting to fall apart, with just FOUR weeks to go ;)

And speaking of tapering, we have a plan!!

Our taper starts on March 16 - two days off. On the 16th we will be picking up a campervan and will begin our journey northward to Sydney, then onto Port Macquarie, where the Ironman will be held. We will be carrying out the balance of our training as we move northward, and then come to rest in Port Macquarie... well, come to rest is an exageration, as we will be tapering things off right up to raceday.

Suffice it to say - the day following Ironman will be our "day of rest".

Following Ironman, we will squeeze a month's worth of touring into one week, then pack our belongings, and head for the airport. Departure date is April 10.

Anyone with bets on spring conditions for when we return? We really want to hit the road running when we get back :)

Ok, that's my update for today... more to come!