The most important bits are organised:
- I've booked a flight and got my travel to the airport sorted
- I've found a bed
- I've got my kit sorted (BIG THANKS to ZipVit - it looks flash, pictorial evidence to follow)
- I've organised a swish pre-paid travel money card, not that I've got huge pockets, but find the idea of travellers cheques a bit clumsy
- I've got my bike rental reserved - eerrrhhh... no, that needs to be done, TOMORROW - not got a fax at home...
Now that those worries are off my mind, I've embarked on an information gathering frenzy to learn about the race. The info e-mails from the organisers on the various parts of the race are all very useful. They point out what to expect, highlight places and spots to take on drink and food and just give you a general overview, which in some ways is reassuring. However, I've got a very vivid imagination and reading some of those info e-mails have set my heart racing and left me sitting at my desk with my mouth open, mumbling: Oh, God, oh god... for about 5 min continuously, affirming my colleagues' suspicions that I have, finally, gone completely nuts.
To quieten down the images of humongous hills and drifty sand and sharks chasing me through the bay, I've consulted the 'source of endless visual proof of all things on the planet' that is You Tube to see what the actual course is like. First thing I came across, is this little film by none other than Chris "Macca" McCormick. Who better to consult than a triathlon legend and multiple winner of the Escape?
So, has this helped to alleviate my fears? Yes, slightly. It has put things in perspective. But the main question remains:
Just how do you train for this?!
This is where I'm encountering a little dilemma. After changing my goal of the season away from duathlon and focussing on sprint triathlons, my goal race is now the ETU qualifier and National Sprint Triathlon Championships at the Speedy Beaver - Exactly a week before Alcatraz! Now we all know that you can't serve two masters, but what's a girl to do?
To be honest - nothing! I've put in a whole load of training to get myself ready for the Speedy Beaver and have a stab at qualifying for the Europeans in Israel 2012. At the same time, I'm training about 10 hours per week and put in some good mileage in the swim, bike, run - so the distance shouldn't be an issue, right? Ok, maybe on the swim, but I've reached new heights with my swim training: yesterday, my session was a total of 3.1 km and I actually ripped through 2.1 km per hour. Knowing that little fact has given me a good boost in confidence that I can actually handle this swim and not be collected by the boat.
However, I have made some adjustments and got one very special event lined up to get me ready. So here's a peek at my normal training regime:
Monday - Squad swim with the Wimbledon Windmilers which focuses on technique and strength (about 1.5 km)
Tuesday - long reps on the track (been doing mile and 1k reps)
Wednesday - bike session, hard efforts to build some strength (hills and sprints) - 2 hours-ish total (incl warm-up and warm-down)
Thursday - track session with an insane number of reps and short breaks at faster than 5k pace (i.e. 30 x 200 m in 42 sec off 30 sec rest)
Friday - REST DAY (and boy do I love my rest day)
Saturday - Squad ride with ONE Triathlon RDS which now takes the form of time trial reps, with bricks and transitions thrown in (e.g last week it was 2x10k time trial + 15 min brick run at race pace) - 2-3 hours-ish total
Sunday - pool swim, this is the one with the lllooooonnng reps, well for me anyways (now amounts to about 3k of swimming)
That's my normal schedule, but there are also a few additional things:
- I have banned all elevators and escalators from my life. It's stairs only to get myself ready for the sand ladder. And trust me, the London Underground has a lot of stairs and working on the 6th floor makes for some nice climbing.
- Specially, to get me ready for the hills, ZipVit were very kind and offered me entry to the Etape Caledonia (that's a link to the elevation profile, it shows best what it's like - check 80 km) on 15th May. This is either going to wipe me out or give me that little extra boost - I hope it's the latter.
- From Wednesday, I'll have 3 open water swim sessions at Ham Lake with RG Active to at least dip my toe in some water that isn't a pool. The sea swim before the big race is, for now, out the window (unless I can track down this Pedro guy on my arrival in San Francisco).
The schedule from now on is tight, since it is only about one month to the race. And from the Etape, I will embark on 4 weeks of racing back to back. The week after the Etape, I'm doing Crystal Palace (a London League race and voted British Triathlon Event 2010), then the Speedy Beaver and the Tuesday I'm off...
So, will this be enough to prepare me? I don't know. But it is as much as I can do - and well, I suppose I will find out.
If you like hills - you could tri the Kinabalu Climathon in Borneo. Effectively a 1/2 marathon it has an average gradient up of 33% for the first 9km and then an average gradient down of 33% for the remaining 12. :)
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say you legs are jelly by the end. Oh and there's a 2 1/2 cutoff for the first 9km, most don't make it and you suffer altitude sickness. hehehehe