Fear and Loafing in La Santa

The first week in the sunshine seems to have flown by – unsurprising really since we have been pretty busy catching up with friends who were out here for training with the TriLiving Volcano camp (loafing in La Santa), establishing gyms (very good ) and pool facilities (very poor) outside of the La Santa complex, re-familiarizing ourselves with the geography of the island, racing an Oly tri and now finally getting started with the final, last-ditch training before the Ironman, in 3 weeks.
I use the phrase ‘ last ditch’ because to be honest, that’s how it feels. I know that I’m not in great shape, having spent too much time since New Zealand either sick, occupied with other life commitments or racing and recovering from marathons. And despite this lack of solid training over the last 2 months, I feel tired. We are in the perfect training location, having great weather, good training company, totally catered for in the hotel which is right on the beach front in Peurto del Carmen, but despite all of this and the great riding available, I’m struggling with motivation, doubts about my fitness, weight (3kg heavier than I have ever raced before, as prescribed by Molina) and lack of access to pool swimming – and fearful of the hard race looming ahead. Truth is, that I have high hopes for this race – my early season A race, a return to the scene of my first ever Ironman and in the company of a number of club-mates, and feel certain amount of pressure to perform well.

Of course, the way that training works is that –you do work, get tired, work more, get more tired, recover and become less tired and able to work more than last time before getting tired again….the repetition of this process eventually leads to a state of being able to do infinite work without ever getting tired. So, one should expect to spend a lot of time being tired. Before Wisconsin I got very tired, to the point of enforced early taper, and raced well there. This is a little different in that I have not had a recent period off high load training, but rather a long spell of consistent training since the new year. Possibly the volume I was doing through Janurary and Feburary is taking it’s toll. Either way I just have 2 more weeks to get through – and these will be a hard 2 weeks of riding – then the light at the end of the tunnel.

Wow – it doesn’t sound like I’m having much fun, does it?? But to reassure you, today Steven and I swam 90 min in the sea around to the beach in the next bay from our nearest and back. I am getting some very focused stroke advice from him at the moment, and all that barrel holding is hard work! Later, I went out alone for the first of the ride sessions prescribed by Scott to get my butt movin’; felt sluggish at first but after the first climb up the back end of Femes, warmed into it and really got stuck in to a great ride in the sun. Check out the salty bike shirt fro evidence of the heat and how hard I worked ;o) I think it did me good to ride alone rather than chasing behind the boys, which I find frustrating and demoralizing.

Tomorrow I have a similar but longer bike session, and a run workout…Friday is a bit bigger still, long run on Saturday and ease back on Sunday, before repeating the sequence on Monday. It’s just a question of getting enough sleep, eating well and focusing on being a triathlete in preparation whilst Steven and the boys head out to drink beer and eat icecreams! Luckily I find that I quite enjoy Killer SuDuko puzzles…..