So, this week I have had my final test week of the training plan. This means the Ironman is now only eight weeks away. A little nervous tension is building. The last time I attempted an Ironman in Hamburg, the weather got the better of me and I ended up in hospital. I just hope this doesn’t happen again. The test week didn’t help, with mixed results…

First up was the bike fitness test. As with the other tests, this involved a warm-up, a 20-minute best effort, and then a cool-down. Last week’s training had been hard and had taken its toll on me. Although I had a day to recover, my legs still felt weak. I did the test and improved, but only by 5 watts, from 271 watts to 276 watts functional threshold power. Cardiovascularly, I felt fine, but my legs were heavy. Not disappointed, but not over the moon.

After the bike test, I moved on to the run test. Again, this followed the same format. I had a 30-minute best effort section to make it count. I struggled with this, actually going backwards instead of forwards. I went from 6:41 min/mile to 6:48 min/mile. As you can imagine, I was disappointed. There were multiple reasons that could have caused the result: fatigue from the previous week, taking the test too early in the morning, or having no food beforehand… Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. I took it on the chin, but it made me think—this is how it could go on race day. If I have a bad day or don’t get things quite right—lack of sleep, the wrong food, poor race nutrition, or the weather being too hot—I could have a bad race. I need to be on top of my game and control everything I can.

The last test was the swim: a 400-meter best effort followed by a 200-meter best effort. I completed the 400 meters in 6 minutes 22 seconds, an improvement of 21 seconds. For the 200 meters, I got 3 minutes 2 seconds, an improvement of 11 seconds. This was the best result of the three tests and left me on a high for the end of the week. I am so happy my swimming is progressing, especially considering the rough start to training with pools being shut due to COVID.

With test week done, I have my final race next week—a half Ironman distance race in Cheshire, England. I am really looking forward to it.