The Jigsaw is Coming Together

With less than 7 weeks to go now until Ironman New Zealand, reality is starting to hit.  I am actually going to do this and I am now starting to alternate between excitement, anticipation and downright fear.

The fear, of course, is perfectly natural, and to be expected.  Ironman challenges you and will ask you some pretty tough questions on the day.  Are you up to it?

Of course the rational part of me knows that I am.  I started out on this journey knowing that while I'm not a natural athlete, I have demonstrated an ability to go long.  I've done 100km plus bike events (Le Race, Rainbow Rage, Source to Sea).  I've run two marathons (Christchurch and Buller).  I've done the Oxfam Trailwalker, a 32 hour endurance walk covering 100km.  And of course I've done the South Island Half Ironman.

What's missing, though, is the swim. 

I haven't done any long distance swim events and, quite frankly, the swim leg is my achilles heel.  Yes the Half Ironman required a 1.9km swim but all that really did was confirm the swim as my weakest discipline.  I've talked about my swim demons in previous posts so there's nothing new there, but I've been acutely aware of the need to sort my head out if I'm going to get through the first part of the day.

Today's swim, though, really helped.  It was scheduled to be 4km and included a 2km set and a set of 10 x 100m with the pull buoy.  I haven't ever swum 2km non-stop before, so that was a mental challenge in itself, but when I got to the pool I realised I had also not read the programme properly.  Somehow I had missed the fact that I needed the pull buoy, so hadn't brought it with me.  It wasn't a huge problem, though, as many people simply do the pull sets with a kickboard or two between their legs. 

What I needed to knock off, though, was the 2km set.  So I did the 500m warm up and, before my brain had a chance to think about the distance required, got started on the big one.  It had been raining steadily most of the day but it was warm in the outdoor pool and I found myself in a really good rhythm early on.  I focused on slow, controlled breathing, a slow kick and a steady arm action, concentrating on a controlled pull under the water.  The slow breathing is a bit of a deviation from Coach Dave's advice ("don't be afraid to get your heartrate up", he said of the swim), but I'm finding that slow and steady seems to be working better for me, for now anyway.  If I start working hard, and breathing hard, I'm more likely to start hyperventilating and then I stop swimming and start freaking out about how far I've still got to go!

So, slower and steady goes it, feeling the water and staying calm.  Before you know it I've done 17 laps (1700m) and I'm still feeling really comfortable.  My mind started turning to the other 1000m set and I start thinking why don't I just do a 3000m set rather than a 2000m set? 

So I did.

And then I did the 500m warm down and suddenly 4000m is done, in 1 hour 53 minutes.  (The 3000m set took 1 hour 23min.)  Not hugely fast, but I did it! 

So I've been able to prove to myself that I can swim 3.8km and, with that, the Ironman jigsaw is coming together.  And the swim speedwork?   Well that can be revisited for Ironman 2012...!