Paul Arden | Tuesday, 3 October 2023
I’m off to Langkawi tomorrow in preparation for the Malaysian Ironman on Saturday. It’s been a while since I’ve completed a full IM event and never in the tropics. I’ve certainly put in the training hours for this one, and smart IM specific training hours since January too. I’ve also learned a huge amount about my body, how it stores glycogen and the rate at which it burns it at various running and biking intensities. I’ve had tri specific swim coaching and have a very good idea about how to both pace myself in each of the three disciplines and how to fuel myself throughout.
In the past I had absolutely no idea about any of this stuff — and suffered accordingly. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be any easier or less painful this time! We shall see. The thing about these things, is that you can prepare yourself as much as you can, but you only really know if you’ve done it properly when you reach the finish line.
Looking ahead, the lake is low and the Wet Season has arrived. So there will be a lot more fishing again next week and I’ll drop my training back to around 10hrs/week, which is about 5-7hrs less than it has been recently. It’s much easier to fit 10hrs of training into a normal fly fishing week. But I do want to keep the fitness level on the burner and for many years to come. I’ve put in too much hard work to simply let it slide. And besides, I’ve come to really enjoy long training hours on the indoor bike and the long sweaty runs around the airfield — and have made friends doing each. Last week in particular, I also made some quite monumental gains in my swimming and feel really good about that — possibly for the first time in my life!!
So that’s me totally focussed! :)))
As a coach (albeit as an obscure flycasting and fishing one) it’s been very interesting to meet coaches in other sports. I think I’ve gained from this experience.
One thing I have learned from past Ironman events, is that following a race I must immediately go straight into a heavy upper body weight lifting program. Otherwise I lose all of my upper body strength; and that’s not good for flycasting, or for that matter carrying petrol and beer supplies up and down the staircase to and from the boat!
Next year I’m planning to compete in the flycasting World Championships in Sweden and I need to start thinking about that too. I’ve been playing around with some of John Waters’ suggestions and have been getting some interesting results.
Of course relative to the rest of the field, I’m a much higher level of flycaster than I am triathlete! A podium position at Ironman will only happen if there is a position for the athlete with the longest beard! In flycasting however, I can be a threat at the top level. And while there are undoubtedly many different reasons for doing each, some reasons for me are actually the same and the personal challenge does exist for me in both.
However, more importantly, competing in Ironman and the flycasting world championships both require dedicated training. And indeed a similar weekly amount of training hours is involved. The benefits that result from this are my main reasons for doing each in the first place. The Ironman makes me extremely fit. The Flycasting WCs makes me a far better flycaster. And both of these things make life more interesting.
Talked it up! Let’s hope now that my body is ready for this :)))
Have a great week!
Cheers, Paul