Mallorca trip and Ironman approaching

So, I'm now back from our training trip to Mallorca and the Ironman is getting alarmingly close. We had a great time in Mallorca - 7 of us cycling plus a few partners (and Kirsten, our team masseuse!). The things I will remember most from the trip are:

- the amazing roads for cycling, including some fantastic climbs (see pics below)
- the epic Saturday ride of 106M including climbs of Orient, Soller, Puig Major and Sa Calobra (http://app.strava.com/activities/53927106)
- the "interesting" swim we did at St Vincenc (Matt remembers it like this although it probably wasn't quite that bad)
- the amount of food demolished at the evening buffets
- the lasagne fiasco on the night we decided to eat away from the hotel
- John insisting on mounting his camera on some descents so he has evidence of what a great descender he is (I note he didn't record any climbing...): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdevU7k3l4s
- Bongo Bongo
- Andy's insistance that there really must be something wrong with his rear wheel, when there clearly wasn't
- just having a laugh with good mates.

Training-wise I did 25 hours in the 5 days, roughly 21 hours of cycling and 2 each of running and swimming, so a pretty decent training block.

Various pics of the trip below:

At the top of the 14km climb of Puig Major

Top of Randa - nice view in the background!

Resting at Randa - note copious amounts of water/Coke!

Better view of the Bongo Bongo top



Looking down Sa Calobra - the most amazing road I've ever seen (10km of tarmac sprawled over a steep hillside to a small cove)

Another part of Sa Calobra - hard to do it justice in a photo

The group at dinner - less John, who was probably trying (unsuccessfully) to obtain an edible lasagne

All in all, a great trip - thanks to Tom for organising!

Since then, I had a few easier days and then back into normal training. I think my swimming is coming back to an acceptable level, and I had a good 3000m at the latest Southern Athletics League fixture (9:14), so my running seems OK (although 3k does not really bear any relation to an IM!). My cycling certainly should be stronger now, so hopefully it's all coming together.

Tour of Wessex this weekend (days 2 and 3), then Chiltern 100 the following weekend, then taper!

April update

The end of the month seems to have come around really quickly, so I thought it was time to write down what I've been doing in April. Essentially, nothing particularly epic, just some solid training and trying to build for Nice. A summary of the month's training:

Swimming - 5 hours, 15km (not enough!)
Cycling - 33 hours, 609M (decent, but still need more work before Nice)
Running - 20 hours, 165M (seem to be running quite well, just need to maintain)

So 58 hours in total, which is a solid month's work, but I think May will need to be better if I want to get a good result at Nice.

Highlights of the month were:

1. Starting to ride my new bike - a Felt AR4 which I will be using at Nice. Really like it!
2. A great ride 97M over the Chilterns, effectively picking up the Chiltern 100 route and following that for 60M, so it included Whiteleaf, Wardrobes, Kingston Hill etc. It also included a very pleasant pub lunch en route - this was necessary for Paddy to be able to make it home!
3. The first Southern Athletics League fixture of the year. Not really useful Ironman training, but good fun! I was pretty pleased with a 15:46 5000m given I had done a 90 minute turbo in the morning and then cycled to Uxbridge for the fixture. I then somehow won the 1500m (my first ever 1500m win!) in 4:25 - not a great time but it was a little bit tactical. The cycle home into a stiff headwind was not pleasant!

Plan for May is at least 70 hours, but we're off to Majorca next week so should be able to cram in a lot of cycling in those 5 days. Then there's the Tour of Wessex at the end of May (I'm just doing days 2 and 3). Then it won't be long until Nice - scary!