Have you been in the Pain Locker?

First things first, last week I said I was 1st out of the water in the Maitland triathlon, which I seriously believed, until the results were released and showed some bloke was 30 odd seconds out of transition ahead of me and the other 3 blokes I ran out with, so no way was I that long in transition, so this guy must be a serious fish...good on him! Still, I came 16th overall in that race, and 4th in my age group...just 4mins behind the guy who was first in the category, and the good thing is the improvement will all come from my bike...I am about 30% behind these guys, so improvments in this discipline will really make me more competitive, so I am stoked!

This last week has also been about the blogs from the Hawaii IronMan. Its been absolutely amazing reading some of the stories coming out of that race, some frmo pro's, others from plebs like me who went there to race against themselves and the course....truly inspiring and really driving home again how hard this Iron Man race is....and thats any of them, because each one no doubt has its own set of tough challanges, and of course, you will always have to deal with the internal battle you have, getting through the negative thoughts, the pain, the highs and lows, the belief or lack there of at times, unplanned issues during the race etc.....finishing this race is no gurantee at all, and the sooner I can prep myself for all of the above and how I will cope with each scenario the better!! For those of you who have some time and want to know how tough the Hawaii Iron Man was very every athlete competing, here are a few blogs worth reading (get a cuppa first, they are long...but very worth it)


We will start with my favourite blog report from Kona, this is the one to read in my opinion, sums up the race and experience so well, sensational & inspiring!
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39636

2nd Favourite is from Macca (a Pro) and he writes this so well, and shows that the pro's do it tough out there to! This is another great read!
http://www.chrismccormack.com/blog/ironmanhawaii


This Blog is by a bloke who did not qualify but got in through the lottery system (maybe I could go this way ;-))
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39729

This one is a kiwi who is pretty strong looking at his times....he did pretty well
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39744

So it will take you a good 15mins to read through those blogs, but they are all very good and I enjoyed reading them. Gooneys certainly gave me a lot of inspiration and belief that I can become an Iron Man next year, with a lot of hard work (thanks Rollo), belief and commitment it shall be done! Oh, and a lot of time spent in the Pain Locker!!

Whats the pain locker I hear you ask! Great, glad you did!! Jason and I were discussing this last week on our run, and the funny thing is, Vlad and i had chatted about this as well..I think we called it something similar....and we were all in agreement, if you cant visit the pain locker often enough, you will not reap the rewards, and the stretch goals will always be slightly out of reach. You need to be prepared to commit to the training, not be scared about hammering yourself, and believe in the training and preparation you have done. I certainly know I visit that locker at every opportunity given and I think Rollo knows that, which is why the hard thing for me is holding back on the bike when all the other strong riders fly past. It happened last weekend, where for 8km of the ride I was pushing well beyond before realising I needed to back off, but luckily I was able to recover on that ride, but a longer ride might not be so forgiving, so I need to be careful....I cant wait to get some confidence on that bloody bike!!

So, Gooneys blog made me 'angry' for the training this week, it fired me up and I think I will use his blog to keep me really motivated over the coming months. It made me this week open the pain locker a few times (well - Rollos program called for it to be fair to), but I threw myself into each session with much vigor and love....because I love doing each one...I love the pushing, I love being out there, thinking about why I do this every day, picturing myself competing in the Half and Full Iron Man races, and really just appreciating that I am able to do this, and have the goals, motivation, time and support from those around me......I am going to be an Iron Man!

Let me put away the tissues and tell you about the past weeks training! I pulled up pretty well after the race last week. Let me put a pluggin in right now about the Compression pants from 2XU. I have worn them heaps this week, and I swear, they help you recover so quickly. My legs have been pummelled this week, and after each set I wore the long 2XU compression pants, and the next day, my legs were pretty much 100%. They really work, and if you want faster recovery timeframes, they are a must! I also use a lean protein to help me recover after each session, so between the pants and the protein, I am pretty much raring to go!

This week consisted of :

Swim - 11km (4hours)
Bike - 7 hours on the TT
Run - 67kms (5 hours)
Total - 15hours

I did 2 brick sessions this week as well, both of them 2 hours on the TT followed by a run. The one I did this morning was really good. I ran off the bike, and decided to mimic the club race I was missing by running hard for 5km and then backing off for the remainder of the run home (5.5km). The good thing is I ran the first 5km in 19min flat, and then the last 5.5km at just over 4min, so got through the 10km in 40mins....not bad for a training set! I was pretty tired at the end of 5km, but I back the pace off to a little over 4min per km and was able to sustain that pace very comfortably!

2 weeks to go to the Port Mac Half Iron man, I am very excited about it, and so is Jase, Eddie and Andrew. It will be awesome to race with these guys, because we do train a fair bit together so it will be good to share the time out there with them, knowing they are out there toughing it out just as I will be!

Safe training out there for all of ya...and if you read this Vlad...mate I am waiting for my week day training partner....c'mon my son!!!