You may remember back in July last year, a Facebook post announced that as my 39th birthday present to myself, I signed up for the big one. Not a half but a FULL IRONMAN. To the uninitiated, that's:
3.8km swim (that's about 2h10 for me..cut off is 2h20)
180km bike (that's 7-7.5h) (cut off is 10.5 hrs from start)
42.4km (or 26 miles) full marathon on the end (prob 5-6hrs at least on the back of all that...cut-off is 17hrs from the start)
If you don't make the time limits you're out....DNF. Did Not Finish.
And now here we are, 5 weeks out from the start line and the gun going off. WHERE DID THAT TIME GO?!
Well I can tell you....it went in training!
In September, it was time to start upping the ante a bit and starting to get consistent and a bit serious.
In December, we upped it some more, including heading off to a tri camp in Phuket for the week over Christmas and New Year.
That ante remained up leading into the Husky Long Course event (aka a half ironman) mid-Feb.
And then we REALLY turned the corner from then into crazy amounts of training.
What does an average week look like?
Well it's now training twice a day Mon-Thurs doing bike, run, swim and strength training morning and again evening,
Friday is rest day (I LOVE Friday)
Saturday is long run (half marathon minimum) plus a long swim of 3-4km
Sunday is 5-7.5hrs on the bike and then a 10km ish run off of it.
And Monday morning....off we go again!
And as Sydneysiders especially know, it's been wet wet wet these last 6 weeks and alas rain does not stop play (or training).
Why am I doing this? For the challenge. To see if I can. Because Im not a super-athlete. I'm just a regular person like you, with a super-big goal to do something awesome.
And whilst I'm at it, I'd like to do something even more awesome by raising funds to support Can Too who directly fund researchers to find a cure for cancer.
Can Too is a health promotion organisation that trains individuals to achieve personal health, wellbeing and altruistic goals. Beginners and experienced athletes alike are given professional coaching as part of a team to run or swim in endurance events- including 10km, half-marathon and marathon runs; as well as ocean swims and triathlons.
Whilst I am not training with Can Too for this program (they don't have an Ironman program yet :)) I am nonetheless passionate in helping raise valuable funds to fund early career researchers through Cure Cancer Australia to find a cure for cancer.
In 2016 alone, 1426 participants were trained through Can Too, raising $1,832,798 which funded 14 researchers looking for a cure.
I'd love it if you could DONATE NOW and support me in supporting these awesome researchers, who I have no doubt will one day find a cure for the Big C which takes too many of the people we all love too soon.
Check out who was funded in 2016 and the work they did in Can Too's 2017 Annual Report:
http://www.cantoo.org.au/cancer-research/2017?utm_source=Marketing&utm_campaign=6703d4998d-Community+Talk+e3-17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1ea429be56-6703d4998d-31602165&goal=0_1ea429be56-6703d4998d-31602165&mc_cid=6703d4998d&mc_eid=49b7966314