Itchy backside

I've just signed up for Ironman 70.3 Muskoka! I've been eyeing it for a while now. It's less than 4 hours drive from us. No need to dismantle and box up my bike. No need for airport check-ins. No need to worry about what can or cannot fit into our luggage allowance. Just pack everything you need and leave the house at our own time, on our own terms. Only thing that was stopping me was the race is two week's after Ironman Whistler.

Not sure how quickly I would recover post the Ironman or what sort of shape I'll be in. So I gave myself a little test. I had quite a big load of training this week post the Musselman half iron triathlon last weekend. I was going to see how I fared before I sign up. But I was also conscious that because of the additional 70.3 World Championships spots - increased to 100 this year, the event might sell out. I may not be fit enough to contend for a spot and I generally do better at the full iron distance than a half iron distance, but then again, you never know!

So my first session during the week was a 2 hour easy paced ride on Tuesday. I probably took it up a notch to a moderate steady pace and completed 60km in that 2 hours. Wednesday was the weekly Splash N Dash but I did a 50 minute warm up run before as it was in the program. The weather was warm enough so most of us swam without wetsuits. My swim time was 3 minutes slower for the 1.6km distance but my run time was close enough to the previous weeks. Thursday I had a 3 hour ride - I went out really went with the wind on my back but struggled a bit coming back in the headwind. Still I clocked 93km with an average pace of 31kph, pretty happy with that. Friday was 3.7km swim set, didn't have much issues there.

It's the mega weekend training that gets me anxious. I had an 180km ride in the program on Saturday, my first ride of this distance this year. Thankfully, I had some company with me - Greg, Clare and Peter. So the long ride went by pretty quickly and we finished in just a little bit over 6 hours. Sunday was the litmus test - long run of 2 hour 45 minutes. Although I generally do well in the run part of the triathlon, it's my least favourite training session. Maybe because I put too much pressure on myself. It is a very different scenario, running on my own and running in the race atmosphere with lots of cheers and support.

Anyway, the long run turned out really well. The cool weather helped. I did 33.5km, averaging well below 5 minute per kms. Pleased with my training scorecard this week, I jumped straight onto the computer and signed up for Muskoka.

I think I have an addiction... hehehehe.