Rookie goes for 5 in a row @ Ironman UK week 25/26
Areet?
Before we start, Just a quick shout out to the wonderful supporters who plan to line the race circuit next weekend, particularly on the bike course….
You make Ironman UK the magical experience that it is……
Please keep doing what you do…..
Cheers….
Turning to matters in hand, I’m sure you have seen in the athlete guide that in addition to the overall cut offs, there are 2 further ‘intermediate’ (?) cut off points on the bike course, but annoyingly, it doesn’t tell you what time of day they will be…..
Well I found out this week…..
Here they are…..
End of lap 2 at Queens Park (75 miles) = 2:40pm
End of Green Arms Road (entwistle resevoir/forrest of doom) where it meets the aptly named a666 on lap 3 (95 miles) = 3:50 pm (Bang out of order putting a checkpoint here – it’s at the end of the most brutal stretch of the course!)
How does this fit into the ‘just get round’ race plan?
It goes like this….
6:15am enter water (If 200 of you try to get in at this time and start thrashing around in circles like a one legged duck that has just seen a shark i will be very pissed off – leave it till 6:20am please – thanks)
1:30 swim (pray to the iron gods for this) = 7:45am
15 mins t1 = 8am
14 mile ‘pre loop’ flash to horwich – 1 hour = 9am
15 mins horwich to queens park = 9:15 am
lap 1 : 2:15 = 11:30am
Lap 2 : 2:30 = 2pm versus a cut at checkpoint 1 of 2:40pm
It’s then been taking me around 1:30 to get from queens park to the end of Green Arms Road on my 3rd lap which makes 3:30pm versus a cut at checkpoint 2 of 3:50pm
If you make the Green Arms Road cut you will easily make t2 by 10h:30 total and the sacred medal will be yours…… (Please note if you arrive in T2 bang on 10h 30 you might want to check with the ref how long you have got in T2 as it won’t be long!!)….
As for the mara…..
Don’t worry about it……
6h 30 for 4 x 10km plus a bit???
Piece of cake!!!!
All the magic lies is in getting to T2 within the cut if you catch me drift…..
If you ‘just’ want to get round, then the best advice I can give you is to quote, if I may, the words of a local legend who, regarding the bike element, cryptically said something along the lines of “cool your jets and feed well”
Keep those words ringing in your ears on race day, take it steady and keep fuelling….
It would be very easy to get giddy early doors on this bike circuit but you run the risk of blowing up later and it’s a very, very long day…..
I did 3 laps Thursday in 2:20, 2:25 & 2:30 in somewhat blustery conditions and was broadly in line with the above strategy, more importantly, I felt relatively strong on lap 3 which means i’ve got my pacing and nutrition pretty much bang on….
So we have a chance…..
It’s gonna be tight once again on yet another tough course, but we are in with a shout of making the red carpet all the same…..
Join me as we pray to the iron gods for a 1:30 swim, a nice still, dry day with hardly any wind, thousands of tremendous supporters and not a single tech issue between the lot of us…..
Hope you found this article helpful to your quest…..
I’ll see you on the start line my friend!
www.strava.com/activities/5530890406
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