Check out my driving hips and great pull.

Almost two weeks in to the 32 week Ironman training programme and it’s going swimmingly.  Well, I say swimmingly because that is the only part of the plan that is staying anywhere near to the schedule sadly.

Like all good plans it needs to be flexible but I hadn’t really reckoned on having to “flex” this early.

A combination of work and a recurring foot niggle have put paid to a few of the sessions I had planned in, mainly running sessions unfortunately.

I’m nowhere near getting worried about things but it is disappointing to have missed some sessions so early on.

I’m pleased with the way my swimming has been coming along and I even got a mention from Coach Oliver for doing something right at the session last Monday.  It was for driving the stroke from the hip and reaching well in to the stroke for the catch and pull.  (something sexy for the ladies there!!)

My cycling is going well still although I did have a painful experience. No, not falling off the bike, something much worse.  I had to fork out for a new set of winter wheels as my last ones have literally given up the ghost. After two very good mechanics taking a look at them, it’s clear that the freehub is completely shot to hell and to replace it is nearly as expensive as new wheels, and given that they aren’t very good to start with it seems like a bad idea to spend good money on bad wheels.  So courtesy of Dave Kane Cycles I’m the owner of a nice set on Mavic Aksium wheels.  They aren’t exactly the best wheels in the world but are a good reliable set of winter donkeys.

Running has been non-existent really apart from a very short Brick run last week which went well, but then the arthritic toe crept in and stopped any further progress.  I’m still resting it and seriously considering dropping my schedule down to two runs per week for the next six weeks or so as I think the extended period of non-running between May and October has left me with weakened muscles and tendons in my foot which I need to build back up again to prevent further injury, and knocking out four runs per week is probably not the answer.

Part of my build up plan to Frankfurt has always included fitting in a Half Iron distance race about 5-6 weeks out from the main event.  Two of my favourite races which I was hoping to schedule in are not possible any more as the Tri an Mhi CX111 has ceased altogether and the Tri Limits 71.3 will be too late for me to use as a warm up event.  I stumbled across a fantastic event called The Gauntlet which is part of The Castle Triathlon series of events and is held at Cutra Castle in Co Galway. 

It looks like a fantastic event and course and the great news is we can combine it with a bank holiday weekend trip to see our friends in Galway.  Result.  The even better news is that I managed to rope in a few of the other Guys doing Frankfurt to race as well.  I smell as Smack talk showdown coming on….

Anyway – I’ll leave the running for a few more days and keep focussed on time on the bike for a while.

Here's what I've been up to.

Activity Name	Start	Time	Distance
Swimming - Club Session	Mon, 30 Nov 2015 6:58 PM	44:57:00	1,750 m
Cycling - Commute Out	Thu, 26 Nov 2015 5:08 PM	54:54:00	12.78
Lisburn Cycling	Thu, 26 Nov 2015 7:31 AM	26:24:00	7.88
Swimming - Club 6 AM Session	Wed, 25 Nov 2015 6:10 AM	40:20:00	1,500 m
Brick - Running Z2	Tue, 24 Nov 2015 7:13 PM	15:01	1.75
Brick - Cycling - Turbo	Tue, 24 Nov 2015 6:27 PM	40:01:00	13.39
Swimming - Club Monday Session	Mon, 23 Nov 2015 6:58 PM	44:48:00	1,300 m
Cycling - Commute Out	Mon, 23 Nov 2015 5:14 PM	34:49:00	7.86
Cycling - Commute In	Mon, 23 Nov 2015 7:25 AM	29:41:00	7.95