Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Back to Reality and thoughts of Klagenfurt



Okay. England lost. What are you going to do. But what a ride it's been. So - enough of that already and back to the reality that is IronMan training. Specifically I've been thinking long and hard about my goals for Austria 2008 and have come up with what, for me, is be a pretty tough target.

At IronMan Austria in 2008 I want to complete the course in sub 11 hours. Yep, that's right. Sub 11. Starting with a 10. Now, quite whether a 15 stone 45 year old (46 at the time of the race) ex rugby player with no cartilage in his right knee has what it takes for this... I'll leave you to judge and post accordingly.

I think I have.

I think you can do anything in life if you will it to be.

So I'll be starting training in earnest from tomorrow. I've been ticking over so far and, unfortunately, still have this damned calf injury which pinged again on Sunday. So I can't run for at least another month. But I'm going to swim and I'm going to cycle.

Which explains today's picture.

The bike is, I figure, what it's all about. I swam 63 minutes in my IronMan this year so know I can do that. I ran 3 hours 22 mins in the Amsterdam Marathon a year ago. So I know I can do that. If I can get my bike legs into some kind of working order and build on my first year of cycling I'm convinced I can hit my target. I'll be working hard on the bike this winter. Mucho turbo as they might say in Spain. I'm also going to work hard on bike nutrition. Ensuring I can get off the bike fit enough to run a decent marathon.

So - I've set myself some goals for the component parts of IMA. Here they are, along with the approximate percentage improvement required to improve on them from last IMA's times.

Swim - 60 minutes (5% improvement on this year)
T1 - 5 minutes (100% improvement on this year)
Bike - 5 hours 30 mins (10% improvement on this year)
T2 - 5 minutes (100% improvement on this year)
Run - 4 hours 15 mins (10% improvement on this year)

Total time - 10 hours 55 mins

Finally a BIG UP to my friend Tom Williams (see link to the right to Tom and Helen's IronMan blog) who ran the Dublin Marathon in 2 hours 58 minutes. A fantastic achievement and a great end to a wonderful season. We're going to see big things from him (and H) next year. Keep it up Tom but enjoy a rest, eh... make the rest of us feel human for at least a few weeks.

4 comments:

Tom said...

Jevon you legend! I love it when someone puts their balls on the block and states their target. I have absolutely no doubt what so ever that you will go sub-11 in Austria, our shouts from the sideline will give you 15 minutes for a start ;)

Remember, Ironmen are made in the winter ;)

T.

p.s. thanks for the mention ;)

Jevon said...

Cheers mate. I'll hold you to that 15 minutes worth of support. Can tell you exactly where I'll need 'em too. First part of the run !!
J.

Anonymous said...

Jevon
Good luck with your target - no need to hold back for IMUK now they've put it back a few more weeks
Shaun

Anonymous said...

Thats the beauty of triathlon, if you can't do one leg there are still two others to keep you fit and interested. The bike is a key leg so get those miles into your legs!
I have found turbo training with the use of a heart rate monitor great and really build up the fitness.It can be a bit tedious but if you put your mind to it, it does produce results

Key session for me was a 40 min session at 80% of max at 96-100 cadance. Warm up first for 10 to 15min.As you go adjust gears to keep heart rate in the zone.A warm down and its all over in an hour