Tomorrow Jo and I are flying to Verona to take part in Epic Camp. I am so excited about this. Been something I’ve wanted to do ever since getting serious about Ironman. I’m looking forward to an environment where I can really try for my biggest weeks training and be amongst people that just don’t find this unusual. At the moment I’m thinking I won’t get caught up in going for the yellow (or will it be pink) jersey but instead aim to get a big volume block of training done.  The reason I say this is to get points you need to do swim sessions that are multiplies of 3km … so you wouldn’t bother doing more than 3km unless you were gonna do 6km. Similarly for running it’s multiples of 50mins … so you wouldn’t run off the bike unless u will get 50 minutes done. I feel I want to get the best training for me … ie run off the bike every time even if just for 20 minutes. Anyway, all the best laid plans and all that. I’m fully imagining the bike intensity will be a notch or two (or 10) above what I’m used to and it may just rip me apart. Full report when I get back.

I’ve put a little something together that should keep some of you interested ! I’ve been planning out my training between Germany and Kona and have decided to publish it up on my site here. It’s been fun and interesting doing this as I’ve been trying to include more quality bike sessions and ensure enough recovery. Also, having now had a fair amount of time full time I know what sorts of days training I can easily manage and what’s quite tricky to motivate for. Despite focussing on quality rather than quantity I’ve still ended up with my 4 PUSH weeks of getting close to 50 hours but I’ve reviewed and reviewed them and believe this is achievable whilst getting plenty of rest during the weeks. In general I’ve tried to avoid committing to running to swim sessions (other than the minimum required to get there) as this puts a lot of pressure on getting decent sleep. Thursday morning bikes are now very much down to warming up, the main set of an hour (or so sometimes) and cooling down. To get my other sessions done on the bike I’ve decided to head to Regents Park some Wednesday mornings – again this is a less stressful way of getting it done and a great controlled environment. The alternative would be an earlier start and heading out of London which would just result in a much longer ride in order to get the session done. Longer session on Saturdays and then just steady 100 milers on Tuesdays and Sundays – both hopefully social rides. Anyway… take a look if you are interested.

Training since the last entry has been quite focussed on ensuring full recovery for Epic Camp. We’ve been told that we should try and start the camp without any ‘residual fatigue’ … this has kind of been ringing in my ears and erring me on the side of caution this week. So Tuesday I rode 100+ miles but then knocked the brick and swim on the head. Yesterday I knocked everything on the head other than the squad swim – which went well. Did 2 x (8 x 200m) … managed the first lot all in low 2.40s and second lot on about 2.50. Very pleased. This morning I just got up in time for a short warm up before doing just over an hour of chainganging – felt strong.

As usual though with this reduced volume I found myself falling off the wagon food wise and ended up eating a load of carbs and piling on quite a few pounds in a few days. Pretty gutted with myself and still trying to work out how to control this part of my preparations. Certainly in the period between Germany and Kona I know I need to focus on good nutrition especially during the recovery and taper weeks.