Creating a training plan for the year isn't always as easy as it first appears. There's the logistics of race entries, travel plans, flight plans, visas, assembly & disassembly of the bike, hiring of cars, organising & maintaining your race gear. And this all before you’ve even arrived at race HQ. Racing ultra-races requires an ultra-lifestyle of dedication, organisation and daring. It takes a special breed of person to attempt 8 races in 10 weeks in 5 different countries and quite another to finish them.

The past 2 months or so have been pretty up and down for me, and after 9 weeks, I have managed to take part in 7 events, visited 5 countries, which included flights (and flight cancellations), Eurostar and ferry crossings. Yet, in contrast to what people may think, this is entirely possible if approached correctly.

In summary:

So you may ask yourself, how can you do all this without burning out. The secret?

Rest and recovery in between races. The key to this, is making sure you don't train hard during the week when doing back to back races. The training has/should've been done in first 4 months of the year. So a typical week whilst doing back to back races would be:

And I need to stress that the training is not more than 1 hour sessions, and not an all out thrash fest. Get this right, and you should keep the legs ticking over but still feeling fresh come race day.

Obviously for events like Ironman Germany the travel takes a bit more out of you, so you also need to be flexible enough to know when to put in an extra rest day.

Another important aspect of this, is nutrition. Remember the saying "Tomorrow's training is only as good as today's recovery". That is so true. Cut back calories or starve your body to try and lose that extra 2kgs before race day, will only hamper your recovery from previous race. For me, when doing these week on week races, I follow my own diet. If my body craves something during this time, I give it to the body. And let me tell you, that if you saw what I ate after some of these races, you would think I was lining up for World Sumo Champs !! So again it is a very personal thing, get it right and you will manage. Get it wrong, and the following race will be a long painful journey. I realised this on my 3rd leg of Lake Zurich swim, where I didn't eat enough, and literally died with 30mins to go.

Also, do not get dragged out into a drinking session by team management the night before an event (even more so, when you know you cannot paddle properly), and then race with your body full of tequila, Jim Beam, Peppermint Liquer and some other dodgy Czech stuff.

So now I am taking a week off, and then I will head into my bunker for 5 weeks of "hurtbox" training (which includes Vitruvian 1/2 IM) before World 70.3 Champs in Florida. Hopefully I will have done enough to try and not embarrass myself with all the speed freaks from around the world.

My theory: "if you want to swim with the sharks, you gotta stop p*ssing like a guppy"

Those who have finished the tri season, hope you achieved all your goals, learnt some lessons for next year and enjoy the much earned break.

See you all at the end of season bash.

Keeto