So, after my disaster of a first week, training has improved slightly. Due to work, I have been living out of a hotel. This, coupled with the awful weather, has made some of the training a little difficult. Getting good, healthy meals has been challenging, and I have succumbed to the huge number of takeaways on the high street near the hotel more than once. The biggest impact, however, has been Covid.

As many of you will know, England went into a national lockdown on the 4^th January 2021. I understand this is necessary — people are dying, and the NHS is stretched due to this horrible virus. I have had first-hand experience of some of the impact it has had, so I know how important it is to stay at home and save lives.

A side effect for my training, because of the lockdown restrictions, has been the closure of the swimming pools. Swimming is a huge part of the Ironman, and because I am one of the lucky ones to be a fairly strong swimmer, this hinders me somewhat. I normally put a lot of emphasis on the swim and rely on it to give me a good time. I know it’s only an hour to an hour and a half of a twelve-hour race, but the shorter the time, the better.

The swim is my favourite session of the week. There is something about being in the pool that I really enjoy. It also helps with the run and the bike. First of all, it’s low impact and gives the muscles a rest from all the hard run, bike and strength and conditioning sessions. Secondly, it really helps with breathing and cardiovascular fitness. You have to truly control your breathing while swimming, and this massively improves blood oxygen levels, which in turn helps the rest of the training.

There is nothing I can do about the pools being shut, and it is far too cold to do open water swims. I have two swim sessions a week, one on a Monday and the other on a Thursday. So, I have decided to do an endurance run on the Monday and an endurance bike session on the Thursday. I have also found a dry-land swim training program that offers some helpful swim-specific strength and conditioning workouts.

Strength Band Workouts from GTN on YouTube

Bodyweight Workouts from GTN on YouTube

On the Thursday I will do a bike ride followed by some of the strength and conditioning exercises in the videos above. I already have the programmed strength and conditioning on Monday, so I just do that instead.

The run and the bike are unaffected by the pandemic, and I have been progressing fairly well with them. I have a long bike on a Saturday and a long run on the Sunday. I am fine with the runs; they are just over an hour at the moment. I really enjoy getting out, running slow and letting my mind wander — it seems to chill me out for the rest of the day. The bike rides are a little longer than I am used to at this stage of training. My previous plan for the other two Ironmans I trained for started off fairly short at about an hour to an hour and a half. I am currently hitting two and a half, pushing three hours. They are taking a bit of getting used to. In the long run, I know they will be a great help. The longer rides early on, I hope, will give me extra endurance later in the plan.

Food has been my other big issue over the last couple of weeks. I am in a hotel for 6 weeks in the middle of a town that is full of takeaways. The hotel does not offer meals due to the pandemic. I am able to get some meals at the place I work, which are fairly healthy, but I cannot get these all the time. There are no cooking facilities at the hotel. Therefore, when I have missed a meal, I am faced with two options: try and find something from the supermarket or go for a take-out.

The options from the supermarket are slim pickings. I can get a salad or a butty, or I can get a cold quiche. Other than that, there really isn’t much else because I don’t have any cooking equipment. While training, I’m hungry — a lot — and a butty or salad doesn’t make the grade. Therefore, I opt for the takeout. I have succumbed to pizza, kebabs, chippies, Subway and burgers. This is not ideal food for training. Where are all the nutrients my body needs…

I am at a very early stage of training at the moment; I still have 29 weeks to go until the big day. Things are going fairly well, all things considered.