The Road to Ironman Archives - Put the Kettle On

IM 70.3 ST POLTEN

Written by amanda on 4th June 2019. Posted in The Road to Ironman, Uncategorised. 3 Comments on IM 70.3 ST POLTEN

Let’s get the confessions out of the way first: it is going to be VERY difficult to stick to purely a ‘race’ report here, so if I go off track I apologise. It’s only because this was so much more than just about a race. The entire weekend was incredibly special – from the company, the environment, the people, supporters, food … to be honest I think all this together made the main event that much more memorable. I’ll try and stick to facts, though, I promise. First, however, it’s important to...

IM Sweden – A breeze? Nope. It was THE breeze …

Written by amanda on 26th August 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. No Comments on IM Sweden – A breeze? Nope. It was THE breeze …

Yes. The breeze. It beat me. Brought ‘weatherbeaten’ to a whole new level – and another DNF. That’s a record for me – 2 x DNF in a year. D’ye think someone’s sending me a message? It’s taken me a while to get around to writing this but I promise I haven’t been sulking all the time! Hindsight is a real b**** – packed chock full of thoughts of ‘should have’ and ‘if only’ and ‘what if’ – which are of little benefit when you’re already hiding in a corner with a comfort blanket and sobbing because...

This time next week … IM Sweden!

Written by amanda on 9th August 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. No Comments on This time next week … IM Sweden!

This time next week I will be somewhere in the environs of Kalmar, Sweden – on my bike. Cycling. I will have swum 2.4 miles (3.8 km) and will be visualising getting off my bike sometime in the near future (as near as possible) to start a wee marathon jaunt. I think my last blog was slightly negative – but more than that, on re-reading I fear it was rather dismissive of the people who got me to this ‘here’ and and this ‘now’. I just want to rectify that. I would never have got to the start line...

Seventeen days and counting … (Ironman Kalmar)

Written by amanda on 30th July 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. 1 Comment on Seventeen days and counting … (Ironman Kalmar)

Oh my oh my. Yes, blogs have been missing – since Cairns! About as ‘missing’ as my training. Seventeen days to Ironman Kalmar/Sweden and am I ready? Erm …. well, not really. Then again, how ready will I ever be? Especially after feeling so ‘ready’ for Cairns and then not getting much past the swim. Hey ho. It’s a different journey and I’m still trying to file Cairns away and open a new chapter. I thought it’d be quite easy. I thought entering Sweden – 9 weeks away from Cairns – that I’d simply...

IRONMAN – NOT THIS TIME!

Written by amanda on 23rd June 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. 4 Comments on IRONMAN – NOT THIS TIME!

Midst the tears of disappointment, frustration and devastating result I shall try very hard not to dwell on the brighter, brilliant and more positive aspects of my Ironman adventure … travelling over in FIRST CLASS (Oh My Goodness HOW WONDERFUL AND AMAZING WAS THAT!!!), landing in Australia for the first time (a dream since teenage years) (did I mention that I flew First Class?), the adorable company throughout of my wonderful and magical eldest daughter, corals, snorkelling ……… these things...

Let the Adventure begin …

Written by amanda on 8th June 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. No Comments on Let the Adventure begin …

8 p.m. on June 8th and I’m sitting in the First Class (yes – gift from my amazing husband!!) lounge at Heathrow with a couple of hours to go before the adventure really and truly begins. It’s a little hard to relax when realisation keeps invading my dreams and sending my stomach lurching in fleeting moments of absolute terror – but hey, I’m trying! My new friend Mimosa (1 part orange juice, 4 parts champagne) is helping! This is IT! If I squint I can just make out the start line. Over there …...

FOUR WEEKS TO IRONMAN …

Written by amanda on 17th May 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. No Comments on FOUR WEEKS TO IRONMAN …

Been an interesting three weeks since I last posted. Training building building building – with one or two hiccups, but what would training be without hiccups, right? Weeks 7-to-go and 6-to-go were interesting and devastating at the same time. Basically, … remember when I said that if everything went pear-shaped on race day, that my goal was to know that I could never say ‘It’s all because I missed that one workout’? Well, that little goal went to pot somewhat as I received the most devastating...

SEVEN WEEKS TO GO – EEEEK!

Written by amanda on 27th April 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. 2 Comments on SEVEN WEEKS TO GO – EEEEK!

In exactly seven weeks’ time I will be mid cycle, or mid run or even waiting to start the swim (I can’t work out the time difference but you get my drift)! So ….. now that I’m officially into single-figure countdown mode, what are my thoughts on the impending challenge? Training … Wow! I’ve never been so out of my depth. I can honestly say I have no idea what I’m doing. By that I mean that if I was putting together a training plan for a sprint tri, I could probably put it all together pretty well...

‘You can spread YOUR toes another day, then!’

Written by amanda on 16th February 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. No Comments on ‘You can spread YOUR toes another day, then!’

snipped the yoga teacher, failing to understand why I couldn’t take off my socks (infected toe). Jeez, that must have been the stressiest yoga class EVER! I’d already been accosted for choosing the wrong mat, for not having the correct number of blocks (how would YOU know – I could be a professional ballet dancer?) and I’m not even going to try and describe the ‘tone’ with which I was informed that this was an ‘intermediate class, you realise’??? Oh dear. Wrong person to take that attitude with....

Training starts here!

Written by amanda on 20th January 2015. Posted in The Road to Ironman. No Comments on Training starts here!

Uh oh! Here we go! The road to Ironman really and truly started on 1 January 2015! Not that I haven’t ‘kind of’ started. Since registering I’ve taken swimming lessons, been learning to swim in open water, bought a bike and had it fitted, completed a few sprint tris and a half-ironman … but all rather in preparation for the preparation, if that makes any sense? There was no real urgency. Training came under the umbrella ‘getting ready for 2015’! So I’ve done bits of this and bits of that and I...