IM: You're only as good as your last week in training

A sit’rep’. It had all been going so well. Phase 1 (prep’) is over and now it’s about using those techniques in some base stamina work. This feels good, gradually increasing distances/durations at last and getting a proper sweat on. Last month was fantastic, everything went pretty much to plan and it included my longest ever sea swim – still not as long as race distance, not even close, but it felt like another step on the way. A minor hiccup followed as I got an unfixable flat at roughly the furthest point of my bike route. Arse. Couldn’t even patch it, as basically the valve had torn off the tube, I think it caught on something underwater in a puddle. And most of my spare tubes are, of course, in the expensively-shipped freight which, of course, is STILL not here. Long muddy walk home and try again tomorrow. Tomorrow went much better but included two minor crashes while avoiding fast moving trucks on sand roads. Then there was massive GI disturbance, followed by a beast of a cold (sinuses so bad as to cause a kind of sleep-apnoea). That lost me two weeks of training and in my first attempt to return to swimming I caught my hand on a boat’s anchor rope which was covered in shellfish, and cut my palm in about 6 places. The books say you don’t lose much fitness in a week off training, but you do acquire a lot of guilt and anxiety!

Other thoughts: I don’t make a point of telling many people that I’m training for an Ironman. The main reason is that I haven’t done one yet, so the more people who hear me talk about it the more people I will have to tell of my failure if I collapse within the first 10 miles of the marathon. But there’s one thing that I hear often when I own up to being a closet triathlete, which goes something like: “Why didn’t you say before? I’ll sponsor you.”
Now I believe in charity, or even in altruism if we want to get all philosophical about it. But why do people assume that the best or only reason to take on a physical challenge is to raise some cash for a worthy cause? And from that assumption it’s only a hop, skip and a 2-mile jog to the point where you’re entering races dressed up as a rhino/blue whale/bearded cacomistle, which no matter how endangered is still an irritation to other runners trying to get past, and an increase in your chance of taking up space and time in a St John’s ambulance. I read a fairly convincing piece of journalism arguing that the quality of British athletics, and distance running in particular, has been harmed by the fact that most places in the London marathon go to those who can raise the most cash for charity, rather than those who can run 26.2 miles the fastest. [I believe the abolition of student grants and introduction of tuition fees does the same to higher education.] If people want to give to charity then I wholeheartedly approve, and not just because they ultimately pay my wages. If people want my opinion (unlikely, I know) of which charity to support then I would suggest something in sustainability/conservation, or non-religious third world development. If anyone is thinking of taking up triathlon I would say “do it!” I have never felt so healthy and fit as I do now, and the day of a race itself is magical. But give money if you think it’s a good cause, and swim-bike-run if you want the exercise, not because a friend of a friend is hopping backwards up Ben Nevis dressed as a giraffe.