Karen writes: Ideal leadup to a half ironman

Number 4 Rotorua half Ironman finished.  Tick. The event this year, I have to say, is right up there among the hardest physical (mental?) challenges I have ever completed, and it showed up in the result of 8 hours 19. I really wanted to give up on more than one occasion, I was on that hot road for nearly a whole hour longer than last year and was a full 70 minutes slower than my best time a couple of years ago. What happened? After a good swim I bombed out on the ride, I felt unwell and most importantly gave up on eating properly fairly early on which probably contributed to the thigh and hamstring cramps threatening whenever my legs had to work harder. I tried to take my electrolyte capsules early in the ride but in wrenching the cap off the container with my teeth I spread the precious little things all over the road...oops. Sometimes cramps hit you with force and you don't have time to do anything, these were more insidious, they showed up as a deep groove across my thigh and would subside to a twingey ache if I took the pressure off, a tough ask on a hilly course. At one point I was thinking about how I could get home if I stopped, then I rode past a bright red poppy growing by itself in the dust on the side of the road, I figured if it could survive, so could I. An equipment failure in the form of a stone in the front brake apparatus on the way up one of the big hills didn't help. Fortunately I had enough tools to fix it but then I had to walk uphill a way to find a driveway where I could get a bit of a run-up so I could get back on the bike.  Walking up a hill is murder on the legs when wearing cycle shoes, I would normally say do anything at all rather than walk, unfortunately you cant pedal far with a stone jamming the brakes on.

Off the bike and onto the run I did a a funny sort of hobble. I was in a state of anxiety as I watched everyone heading off on their second lap when I was just starting my first, I was thinking that I might get pulled off the course if the aid stations shut down before I got to them, so I grabbed a bottle of water to carry just in case. Just as well I did, way out on an isolated bush track a man on a bike came along and said there was a km to go to turnaround and the station had shut so I should go back now.  I said I wanted to do the whole distance, he was quite insistent that I should turn back because there was no water there but I was sure I was ok as I had at least 500mls. He took my name and rode off and I thought now I've done it, blacklisted. So I ran on and saw Kate and another runner, they had been to the aid station and were on their way back. I got to the now deserted aid station thinking that even if I was too late for my time to be recorded (no medal!) I could at least say I had really finished the whole distance. Then the long hobble back. I guess the advantage of being forced to take it easy is you can really appreciate your environment, and that bush run by the lakes surely has to be one of the most beautiful around.  In total it took me nearly 3 hours for the 21km, but on the final 5km I even managed to pass a few people so I wasn't completely last. The whanau was waiting when I came out of the bush, oldest daughter ran over the line with me and Kate was standing under the finish banner with a beer and my medal. I even got my t'shirt too, thank goodness for that.

I was worried about this event beforehand, I knew that I had had the worst possible preparation.  The seeds of the problem were sown not just in the days leading up to it though, but in the two months before. So here is how you have the ideal leadup to a half Ironman...not...

In the two months before a half Ironman

• put on 3kg in weight
• radically change your diet a month out
• have a late finish to marathon training leaving barely any time for cycle training 
• put another couple of kg of weight on
• pay no attention to muscles, ie, massage/rolling/stretching
• stop even pretending to do any strength training or injury prevention exercises

In the two weeks before the half Ironman

• do a hard 160km hill cycle event in the wind
• only get professional help for a sore back when you are unable to move 
• develop a gastro prob and do NO training at all for the whole two weeks, in fact, stay in bed and not eat for the weekend before
• ignore the fact that your running shoes have done 6 months training and two marathons

In the few days before

• still have residual gastro effects...
• sleep poorly
• the bike still doesn't have a computer that works
• ignore fact that the last bike service was for Ironman which was in March
• decide to go into caffeine withdrawal
• notice that one of the children has a sniffle

The T'shirt says it all!

The biggest danger of having a bad showing in an event is what it does to your head. There is that nasty little wormy thought in my brain that because I did so poorly this time, I cant possibly be good enough for Ironman in 10 weeks. But the more I think about it, this event didn't turn out to actually be about fitness, it was about keeping going when things went to custard.  I am a work in progress telling myself that I should chalk this one up as a success, starting with tomorrow, when I shall wear the new t'shirt to work with pride. Then I need to sit down and do some serious planning because while I might deserve to be a little proud of the fact that I finished at all, I most definitely don't want to go through that experience again (the pain not the race!), and absolutely not for double the distance.