“He once travelled time, for the future of mankind.” Black Sabbath
Time sounded much too far for me to travel, so I’m planning on travelling 3.8km in the water, 180km on a bike and then 42.2km on foot, as a participant in Ironman France 2009.
http://www.ironmanfrance.com/
I don’t expect many people to be interested, except perhaps other triathletes-in-training, but partly by way of a simple motivator to myself, I thought I would put up some irregular updates regarding my training. In particular I’ll be focussing on the peculiarities of training for one of the world’s toughest endurance events in Southern Tanzania. In other words, and just to crow-bar in a weak reference to Clash lyrics, training as a White Man in Mtwara Valley.
Part 1: “You don’t want to be starting from here”
So in order to remind myself of the challenge, a quick SWOT analysis of the task ahead. Not that I place much faith in management tools, especially those with acronyms, but here goes:
Strengths:
I own a bike and know how to maintain it.
I can run reasonably well.
Weaknesses:
I only learnt to swim in my 30’s and have never completed the required distance.
I have never run a marathon.
I have never cycled over 150km in a day.
It will be consistently 26-30C and humid in Tanzania.
I habitually eat too much curry and drink beer.
Opportunities:
Erm, I may be a very unusual sight in rural Tanzania, so perhaps someone will sponsor me.
Nice in June could be almost as hot as Tanzania.
Threats:
Lion.
Crocodile.
Malaria and other parasitic diseases.
Heavy rain.
There are no surfaced roads on which to ride a racing bike.
I will be unable to buy any spares of the appropriate quality, e.g. new bike tyres or running shoes.
So, what could possibly go wrong? We shall see.
