Week IM-10: Preparing for the heat

Switzerland is going to be hot. Much hotter than I’m used to training in – especially considering the last six months, I’ve spent adapting to training in really cold conditions.

I had hoped to get to France or Italy for a week of training all day in hot weather but this now looks very unlikely, especially with Half Ironman UK in the middle of June. I’m going to have to try and find some other way.

What I’ve arrived at is the sauna. I can’t really train inside a sauna, but I can use it just before and after training. On Sunday, I swam 2.8km before getting straight into the sauna. It’s not pleasant but the feeling of being too hot is something I’d be wise to to get as used to as I can, I feel. It’ll likely be high 20’s or low 30’s (C) in Zurich on race day.

I’ve also been practicing with isotonic / electrolyte drinks. These basically are a mix of carbohydrates and salt to replace the energy you’re burning and the salt you’re sweating out. I’ve tried Zym and High 5 Isotonic so far. They both dilute into 1litre of water. Zym tastes a lot nicer but it’s caffeinated and I want to avoid caffeine at least until part of the way through the marathon. High 5 tastes so-so. I’ll use it for earlier in the race if I don’t find something better.

 

Injury reared it’s unwelcome head this week. In the days following the Kildare Half Marathon, it was sore while running on the outside of my right leg (not the knee). I wasn’t sure what it was so I rested it until Sunday. Even so, it started almost immediately when I started running on Sunday and so I had to abandon the run after 2km, which was very frustrating. I’ll go to the physio on Tuesday to try and figure out what’s wrong. I’ve had a few other niggly things this week also– a sore throat and a cough- and combined with the running problem above, it resulted in a weekly total falling far short of what I had planned. It will be something of an unplanned taper for the first triathlon of the year next Saturday – the Velentia Island (sprint) Triathlon in Kerry.

I did one 2.8km swim on Sunday, which went well. On Saturday, I cycled down to Greystones with the two lads who became the first Irish people to cycle around the world. They left 18 months ago and finished the last part of the circumnavigation, from Dublin to Greystones on Saturday afternoon. It was good fun and a good spin back.