Self Belief

I didn't have time to write my weekly blog yesterday as I was completely engrossed in what was one of the most exciting finishes to a Grand Prix I have seen in sometime. Jenson Button had a dramatic race starting from 7th and at one point finding himself in last place to then go on and finally win the race. Watching him drive the final 10 laps was incredible and his passion and self belief that he could win the race was clearly evident.

With just 2 weeks to go until I'll be standing on the start line at the France Ironman I know that through a combination of all this training and my own self belief in my abilities that I can complete this race. Swimming 3.8km, cycling 180km and running 42km is something I have never done before and am not able to recreate in training. Over the past few months I have gradually build up my stamina and endurance to be able to cope with some really long training sessions but putting it all together requires a mental attitude that must also be trained. It is going to be a really really long day and I have decided not to put any time goals on myself other than to complete the course inside the 17hour cut off time. My training indicates that this is possible but my mind is what is going to push me to succeed. In my opinion self belief in your own abilities is a key aspect of a race like this and in the past has always pushed me past what I thought was possible.

So this week was my first taper week and meant that I eased off the longer stuff a little. If I compare this week to a normal training week then it was still pretty huge, but it is good not to be quite so exhausted. Moving forward next week reduces my training volume again and apart from keeping up with the large swim distances the running and cycling really cut back, the girls are definitely happy about this as it means I am around much more at the weekends.

I think I have everything I need for the race but the list for Ironman equipment is not small ! I plan on being almost self sufficient on the course, just using water from the aid stations and cola if they have it on the run, but more about that next week.

It seems that the rain has settled in here at home so I'm not going to be able to aclimatise my body with any midday running. I just have to hope I can keep it together in the heat, which is one of my biggest concerns with no shade on the run course. Anyway, for anyone else training for this event, hope its all gone well and you believe in your own abilities to get you round.