Wouldn’t you know it, just as everything was going to plan, a spoke in the wheel is thrust.

This week I am in the charming French Alpine village of Val d’Isere, to snowboard. The trip was planned months ago and is scheduled for 7 days. There are 12 of us on this trip and needless to say, I have been looking forward to it for quite some time. I’ve only ever been snowboarding once before, in Flims Switzerland, and I had a great time. I had similar hopes for this trip but an unfortunate turn of fate intervened and on the first day, even in the first hour, as I descended a slope, possibly too difficult for so early in the day, possibly too rapidly, but whatever the circumstances (these things always happen quite quickly) I found myself slammed into the slope, landing awkwardly on my right side. Winded and sore, I lay there for a few minutes to catch my breath which ached on each inhalation. Not to be deterred by a little fall, I carried on with the others and boarded the rest of the day, despite a deep and growing ache.

The next morning I rolled up at the local medical centre to have the source of the stubborn discomfort checked out and was diagnosed with a cracked rib. There will be no more snowboarding and no more training for at least 10 days. A minor setback.

This past Sunday I somehow dragged myself out of bed (After a Saturday speed run session and swim class) and cycled the 15km’s down to Richmond Park from my house to join up with the cyclists from my running/tri club, Serpentine. I’m glad I did. When I got down there, I met up with a lively crew who had all pitched up despite the very blustery and chilly conditions.

While most of the others had designs for the 3 Hills ride through Surrey, I thought it best to stay inside the park and get some mileage into my legs by doing 4 laps, which I did along with a couple of other riders working on getting their mileage and speed up. Each lap measures about 11km’s so in total I finished the day having completed 75km’s. While the session was really good training and I felt properly worked out afterwards, the break when I arrived, between laps and before going home made it all a little easier than I would have liked. There will be no pulling over for a slice of ginger cake on race day.

Next time out, I’ll be joining the 3 Hills group and experiencing properly what it’s like to take on some real hills and the relentless drive of the pack.

Phew, it’s been a hard week. Ordinarily I start the week with a Monday swim & gym, but sometimes you’re just not into it and I believe you have to listen to your body, it knows best. Not to be confused however with pure apathy and a general lack of motivation, bouts of which can strike, with surprising frequency, on a Monday!

So it was that at the start of this week I awoke with no energy and no interest in training that day, a sharp contrast to my usual vigour and excitement at putting in a good solid session and reaping all the feel-good rewards which come after. I spent the day on the bench, and the next day I really only managed a lame gym session but by Wednesday I was back on the horse, hitting a good pre-work speed swim. Yesterday morning (Saturday, I made it to the first of my Swim for Tri – Developing Front Crawl sessions to try improve my stroke. I swim ok, but it’s the area where big gains can be made purely through technique rather than long hard training. Already it’s proving to be worth it; the instructor pointed out 2 areas of improvement I can take away and work on in the drills. After going to afternoon tea (and eating as much cake as possible) I headed out around 5:30 for a long run, which ended up being a shade over a half marathon at 21.2km’s… I used to be a fun guy. This morning I cycled down to Richmond Park, just as I did last Sunday, did a lap and cycled back. Surprisingly I didn’t feel those miles from last night in my legs and it turned out to be a great cycle. Things are going suspiciously well.

Today marks the end of my first week of training for Ironman Mallorca. I’m loosely following a training program I used for my first 70.3 (Monaco) from markallenonline.com. I’ll write about the program in full in another post, but essentially Sunday is long cycle day, so this morning I cycled from my house in north London down to Richmond Park, did 1 lap and came back, a total of about 41km’s (my bike computer isn’t working for reasons unknown). The session went really well. In the past I’ve been quite weak on the hills, but I think the recent spin classes have really helped out with strength. Richmond Park is a great training ride, there are parts which really test your endurance and the are party you can really open the taps, put it on the big ring and crank it. I must have hit 50mph on certain stretches today, thoroughly exhilarating.