This year somehow stepping it up. After 3 Ironman races completed, especially after posting 9h50m on home turf in Copenhagen, I felt that taste of blood - Make it to the Mecca of Triathlon, to Kona, to Ironman Hawaii, to the World Championships in October 2011!
For sure a daunting, bone-crushing task, but impossible is nothing. To get on the road to Kona, you need to qualify for one of the 1800 slots offered to non-professionals every year. All Ironman-branded races have a designated number of slots. For my age group (35-39) this probably means staying within the best 8 or 9, which again can be transposed into a required improvement of 25-30 minutes on my time in Copenhagen - that is A LOT !!!
So, teaming up with my buddy and Ironman veteran Guillermo Lladó, who is also our local and trusted Argon 18 bike pusher. Guillermo has more than 20 IM races under the belt and qualified twice for Kona - most definitely an adequate soul to follow and train with, trying to accomplish above objective!
Looking for a qualifying race, we quickly narrowed in on Ironman St. George in Utah, May 7th 2011. A new race with an aggressive profile, both on the bike (1600m of climbing) and on the Marathon that climbs 700m. This year only 3 Pros went under the 3 hours on the marathon and Kona qualification was secured around 10h30m - which proves that we need to focus a lot on climbing both on the bike and run. On the other hand, St. George looks like a beautiful landscape, surrounded by mountains and stunning views. And being accompanied by one the the best chaps in the world, my mate Anders Gramkow and Guillermo´s wife Monica, I am sure we´re gonna have the time of our life. Andy and I head out from San Francisco, make a classical road trip down to Las Vegas to pick up Monica & Guillermo - then all head to St. George a few days before the race! As a (hopefully not-needed) back-up race, I have chosen Ironman Zürich in July where I am joining Pablo, Janne and a bunch of Catalan training mates!
So what does it take? Well - I think I can safely say that I have gear right, so that leaves only hard training to be accomplished! So for the next 5 months leading up to IM St. George, training efforts will be fierce, clocking some 20-25 hours a week in the pool, on the bike and running.
January and February will be focused on volume and running (as its still a bit cold for long bike rides, even around Barcelona) and then March & April will be more quality will be virtue, hitting the bike hard with race specific long and fast training sessions, pushing the boundaries above VO2Max.
Motivation is on full and I honestly cannot wait to get going. My legs are itchinga and I have a hard time (some would say I do...) to stay relaxed and rest these weeks. I have a burning desire to give all that I have to reach this goal - without a doubt the hardest physical and mental test I have ever put myself onto.
Quoting the great Lance Armstrong: “If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell.”
Above all, looking forward to the great company of my training mates and enjoying that taste of blood in the mouth, while the old engine is hauling hard.
We take no prisoners. Hugs T
We take no prisoners. Hugs T
I wept - a bit. But it's okay, I'm a girl.
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