As the title says, this is what I am aiming for at Switzerland! I honestly thought that I'd break this at Austria earlier in the year with all additions that I made to my training - 1. getting a coach (Andy Sexton from Planet-X). 2. getting a powermeter (x2) and 3. losing a fair bit of weight!!
My training hadn't gone that well for Austria to be honest, even though it was more regimented I was plagued by illnesses and stupid injuries like shoving the chain ring into my achilles whilst trying to get my bike out of the gym door!!! Even with all the setbacks, I was still pretty confident of breaking my target. My swimming wasn't great as I hadn't really trained that well for it and I knew that I wouldn't really make any time up on my previous attempt of 1:10. The bike I was hoping for greater things - last years time was 5:28 and I was pretty happy with that but I knew that I could be quicker as my bike training had gone pretty well and the addition of a powermeter would help tremendously. The run - always my downfall due to me being a fairly big guy and not having a great running background, plus all these bloody injuries that have plagued me for a few years! But I had trained fairly well from January onwards and I was sure that I could get very near to 4hrs - almost an hour quicker than 2006's time of 4:58!
Preparation and the race itself didn't go too well. I managed to rub a bit of skin of the top of my foot walking to the start from my hotel (that'll teach me to not wear socks again!!) but just chucked a load of vaseline on it before the swim and it didn't really bother me at all for the rest of the day. The swim was a bit rougher than 2006 and for the first 500m or so, it was very congested. At around 400m, I swam over a german/austrian fella and he took real umbridge at this and literally stopped and said something in his native tongue and then pushed me!!! I did reply in my finest anglo-saxon with a 'fuck off'!!! I didn't intentionally mean to swim over him, it just happens when you have 2,500 people swimming together in a small bit of water!!! For the next 5 minutes or so, we swam pretty much next to each other (well I think we did as I remember his orca wetsuit, the one with the red bits on the arms and chest but I'm sure he wasn't the only one out there with this model on?) and we'd try and get past each other but we never did but then I tried breathing on the other side for a while and once I turned back he'd gone - good!!! The swim was a bit tedious this year and I just wanted it to end. Managed to obtain a few more clouts to the head, plenty of arms and legs over me and I also managed to swim into a sandbar and the side of the canal - doh!! I finally got out in just over 1:12, so I was a bit peed off but it was to be expected due to lack of swim training and also that my sighting is crap and I swam way off course!! Looks like I need to improve this....
T1 was pretty quick for me, just under 4 minutes. Got to the bike which was situated right at the front on the rack right next to the pro's, so if I had a chance to get on telly then this was it!! Thinking about it, all the pro's would have probably been out on their bikes for about 25-30 minutes by now, so I don't think the cameras would've been hanging around for little old me!!
The bike - Now this is where I thought it would make the most difference from last years race, not so much timewise (even though I secretly wanted around 5:20), but in efficiency due to the pacing that my powermeter provides. It was very disparaging seeing everybody shoot off at the start, flying up the little hills and there I was just sat in my saddle conserving my energy and watching them all go by. I just kept saying to myself 'I'll see you a bit later mate - 112 miles is a long way!' My watts were to be an NP of 210 and not to go over 290 at all!! Ooops - think I buggered that one up a few times!! Things were going pretty well and got to the turnaround at 2:40, so I was thinking the possibility of a 5:20 bike split was on!! At around 80 miles though, the wheels fell off so to speak. I couldn't take anymore food or fluid onboard and I just felt pretty sick, I was slowing down and I was feeling tired. I battled the last 30 odd miles out and I was real glad to see the back of the bike - got off in 5:28 which is exactly the same time a the previous year (actually, it was a few seconds slower!!!). As soon as I got off the bike I had problems, my stomach felt as though someone had been punching me for the last 5 hours and my chest was really, really tight! So much for my powermeter I thought, I was supposed to be feeling great once I was off the bike!!!
T2 - Again, this was quicker than last year. Socks on, hat on, visor on, fuel belt on and nuun and gels in pockets in my hands. In retrospect and after seeing myself on the home video, I looked as though I was on a trek and not running a marathon, I was carrying far too much stuff!
The run - I knew that this was going to be hard as soon as I started running as I didn't feel right! I was told to run at around 9:30 - 10 minute mile pace by Andy but this would not break the 4hr mark, so I tried to stay under the 9 minute pace, BIG mistake!! I had to stop for a walk at around the 2km so this was not a good omen! Got through the first 10km in around 55 minutes so I was on target but 32 kms is a long way to go!! I saw Claire & Warren and also Mark's folks and Kathi (his new Austrian g'friend) and I told them that I was feeling bad and that my stomach was sore and that my chest was really tight. I gave Claire my fuel belt and HR strap to see if this would ease anything but it didn't really - asked if I could have my inhaler as I'd left it the hotel and I thought that they'd brought it with them but it was still at the hotel, my heart sank and I was a bit abrupt with them (sorry, I was in a bit of discomfort!!!). Warren then (I didn't know it at the time) ran barefooted back to the Weidenhoff to get my inhaler - should've seen the blisters he got for his efforts :- o What a star my bro-in-law is!!!!
I tried to run to every aid station and then walk and eat and drink whilst there. I was doing this but my run was hardly a run! I was going at over 10 minute pace for a lot of it - I even got overtaken by an amputee!! No disrespect meant to this guy at all - in fact, hats off to you my friend!!! I saw Mark a few times on the run and the last time I saw him, he was in a bad way. I gave him my last three gels as I wasn't going to use them and he said after that this almost certainly saved his race - what a hero I am.....
Got near to the finish but unlike last year, the enthusiasim wasn't there! I think I'd set myself up too much on finishing in near the 10:30 mark but as I was way off, I was pretty disappointed! I think that's just the perfectionist in me and it's something that I have to work on if I want to carry on with my Ironman's - I'm not going to always meet my targets and must be able to take the good times with the bad!
I finished in 11:38 as opposed to 11:48 from the year before. Hey, it's not a great improvement but it's something!!!
Now time to get serious for Switzerland....
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