Something like that yeah. Not a “fast” Ironman time but Ironman times are always caveated (unless you’re in Barcelona which I hear is flat and always has good weather…!), my caveat here was an extremely hilly bike and a hilly run. I did the old Bolton bike course in 5:30 but I think that just illustrates how much I was overbiking (in relation to my own abilities and limits) back in those days…
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I realise I am pretty lucky that I just seemed to take to swimming. I had a few lessons as a kid but was never any good, and I pretty much “taught myself” over a period of about 7-8 months in South Korea. I read a lot on the internet, took what I thought I needed to apply, and applied one change at a time. I was swimming 4-5 times a week and made one change per week for a few months and it seemed to work quite well. Bilateral breathing, body rolling, reaching, tipping the hand, reaching over the barrel, grabbing the water, chest down and backside up, gentle kicks, kick from the hip, clench backside together, point toes, finger and thumb together, head position, various drills, using various toys - pull buoy, rubber band, paddles, single arm drills, probably lots more. I implemented one change at a time to really focus on it and get it good. That led into my first Ironman, 4-5 swims per week. Then it dropped to 2-3 swims per week a couple of years later, then twice a week, and then I had the confidence to be able to say that I could swim 60 or better off once a week. I could swim 4-5 times per week and find an extra few minutes in the swim but then time to train on the bike and run would suffer. It’s all a balancing act and it took me a while to accept that in doing Ironman I was never going to be as good as I could be in each of the individual disciplines. I accepted my swim would be “good enough” and spent the extra time where I could find more significant gains on the bike and run and also in recovery.
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@Matthew_Spooner - After watching the Geraint Thomas documentary and seeing them getting daily massages etc, I’m wondering if you’re getting them over in Lanza?
I did 2km swim, 132km ride, 5km brick and I’m wrecked this morning 
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There was a professional massage on the site, however, I didn’t feel the need for it, although other people on the camp did use it.
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Training camps
I think I was really lucky with the Coach Cox training camp. I chose it because the timing was perfect, and agenda included the full IM route ride, and I had heard of Russ Cox, through his Ironman analysis. The other reason that I was lucky was that 2 of the 14 athletes on the course had already qualified for Kona, and one other was potential future KQ athlete. However, it was a great dynamic with all of the athletes there.
Sands resort may lack the 50m pools of Club La Santa, however, having ridden the island and passed La Santa a few time, I think that Costa Tequise is a much nicer place to stay.
If I was short of long rides and time on TT bike before the camp, I can certainly tick that box now, 560km riding, 9000m climbing, 18h 20m in the saddle
I’ve now had time to analyse my ride, using Best Bike Split, to estimate what time I would have achieved last year. The wind on the day was similar, in 2019 it started windy and winds dropped a little, while last week the winds started lighter and increased all day, overall the avg wind speed and direction was similar. Overall BBS predicted a finish time of 6h01m on the 2019 route, based on my ride last week… that would have given me the 6th fastest ride in my AG.
However, I have good reason to be confident that I could go faster. Most significantly, I had ridden 115km with 2400m climbing the day before, and secondly, I had no taper before the training camp, meaning that my TSB was already at -75 even before I had started
My run continues to go from strength to strength… in fact I made sure that I did a Brick after each ride, and had no issues at all running around 3h20 Marathon pace off the bike (Feet are blistered AF)
With swimming 3km every day, I feel that my progress in the water is continuing, I’m never going to set the world alight, however, confident in a sub 1h10 swim, and hopeful of a sub 1h5m swim
If I execute to a plan, that I know I can achieve, I can finish in 10h20m… this would be good enough for 4th place in 2019
It’s by no means in the bag, however, it’s all going in the right direction
For the last 3 years, the top 3 have been pretty much in a league of their own, around 15mins ahead of the next group. I just need to aim for that 15 minute window
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Very much so!
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Yep for me also it really was about conserving energy on the bike. When accelerating out of corners, it’s so easy to hit 400 watts. Same when you hit the base of a hill. You could easily do this 10-20 times in the first half of the bike and then you’re goosed, game over for me. You’ve got to ride so easily and not spike anything. It’s so difficult to do this for the first 60-70 miles when you’re tapered and fresh and buzzing. But doing it and being disciplined enough and brave enough to do it and watch people disappear up the road pays dividends on the marathon, assuming you run the first half of the marathon in the same way as the bike, conserving energy and getting the right nutrition and hydration on board…
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Sounds great. Just got to keep the consistency going in training, fingers crossed…!
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Haha, I wouldn’t say I blagged it but my approach was probably a bit less textbook and conventional than normal, and it was only hard experience that led me to try a bit of a different approach.
And yep, in full Ironman training I actually saw 60kg on the scales after a long bike ride. It balanced out at about 62-63kg. I “ballooned” to 71kg after Kona. Currently I’m about 66-67kg. I didn’t diet to achieve 62-63kg, it was what it was. I ate and ate and ate. My diet was good. Plenty of ginger and garlic (natural anti-inflammatories). I’m just naturally lean. I wear a ski hat and thermals in bed in the winter…! Hence I chose IMUK for the hills…!
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Bolton was…
My first full …
My story was not as successful as yours…
I ended up with a default Kona Q due to massive roll down 50-55, but was disappointed in every aspect of the race except my swim.
I knew I’d be an effortless 1:15 ish swim and went 70 mins with virtually zero effort, I’ve tried swimming harder but I don’t go much faster and it’s a long day.
I’m a bad descender and lost huge time on the downhills, I really am crap, ironically we did the firefighters yesterday and came down sheephouse, the opposite way to IMUK in the wet at some speed… so I’m getting better.
I’ve sent your post to my mate as we are racing again this year… you made some great points… I’ll be copying a few.
The route is three laps now and is 25 mins ish faster… or so they say !
It was a great day but hope for faster this year .
Thanks again for the post !
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Knowing the course really helped. Coming down off Sheephouse, particularly past the tea-house, you feel you should be on the brakes, but you can go without brakes until far further than you feel you should at that point. If you know your braking point then you also have to make sure you’ve no-one ahead of you to mess it up on you. Pickup bank was another section like that, knowing where to brake and how much speed you could carry. I was so relieved on each occasion to get through it. Won’t apply this year though…! I really do think the long hilly training runs helped - the speed just came back after each climb of Queen’s Park because the body and mind were ready for it.
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Worked hard this winter… that pick up bank was shocking …
Yep the bit by the cafe / reservoir can be fast on race day
Making a few changes … see how we go .
Good luck. Did you go to Kona? How was it?
I wrote a blog post about IMUK2019 - a few more details and thoughts are there if you’re interested. I always wanted to write, so I wrote! Not necessarily for an audience or anything, more just as a record of the Ironman journey and maybe something I’ll look back on if I make it to 70-80 years old. I wonder what I’ll think about it all then…! The blog became kind of cathartic over the years, I’m glad it had a good ending… (hope I’m allowed to post the link here)
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I’ll have a look over your blog a bit more later, but as I also did IMW in '14 I skipped to that first.
I hope you don’t mind, but that picture of you running up to T1 is a cracker 
.
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Dude - are you not with partner/children/pets?
Those bikes in that dining room on the carpet would lead to my untimely demise 
Nice blog…I’m reading it now.
The training is pretty simple - huh? Or do you just record the basics on the blog?
Loving your single leg drills - the amount of people I see who can’t clip in from the lights/junctions is unreal.
I recommend they do single leg drills on the turbo and practice clipping in (as well as thinking about relieving that “dead” stroke at the top of the motion)
Also, I need to remember this:
“With the new chain and cassette, it was so quiet – proof that the new parts are making a difference. You don’t notice the deterioration in the old parts until you put new parts on.”
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Haha! Not looking happy!
Excellent Blog… you’ll be competing with @stenard for the most comprehensive blog.
Sounds like you are pretty much in the same place as me, on the fringe of a Kona spot. your swim is certainly better, Similar on the bike, I can easily hold 200W for 6 hours with no fade, and run time is pretty much the same, I am in 45-49, so a slightly slower field, but not by much. I would love a massive role down.
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@jaylen84 was 63kg on race day, so for 210W is ~3.3W/kg 
His 10km time in the IMUK2019 build up was 32:17, with a 5km of 15:22
HM PB of 71:40, too…so the 3:22 IMUK run looks proper hard now 
Reading this post is sobering - IMUK/Wales seems to repeat a lot:
The sepsis, vomiting, squits - all sorts of poor luck in around a decade of racing IM.
IMUK 2016 swim sounds horrendous!
Gave up in 2017, sold all of the kit, moved to a different city (sounds familiar to me!), then WTC brought a 70.3 to his new city…starts the cycle all over again.
The blog really does bring the race results to life (https://www.endurance-data.com/)
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You do like to write!
Your quite good at it too!
I didn’t go to Kona, financially I could these days … at the risk of being banned and slated , I still live racing but the big trip to the big island doesn’t set my pulses like it should…
We knew 5 of the first 8 didn’t need or were nt taking there slots, I never went to the townhall but received a million messages stating they were going to call me out.
I may live to regret it as there’s a few on here who are a level above me talent wise who have just missed out several times…
I’ll be going hard in July … somethings are beyond our control, most of all I’m racing mungo 2019… he will still be hard to beat!
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Oh, but @jaylen84 - tut tut tut 
Red gloves, green calf guards and blue shoes?
After all of those shopping lists and trying kit out, could you at least not buy matching kit?
(But the run kit looks super matching, so plus points for that!)
After me doing a single loop of it, I’m also going to put tape on my TT bars and wear gloves for the first time ever 
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