5 days to go! Where did all the time go? I can’t believe it was 12 months ago that I signed up for this race! At the time I thought it was a massive undertaking and now, 12 months on, it doesn’t seem so big a deal. Yes, it’s going to be tough, but my training has been pretty consistent (apart from a month or so off with an appendectomy), so overall I’m pleased where I’m at fitness-wise. And mentally I’m content too; I can hear my coach’s voice saying “it’s just a long training day” and that’s the way I’m going to tackle it.

The training is in the bank, all the hard stuff is done, it’s just some easy stuff now just to keep ticking over (maintenance as my coach puts it) until race day. In a nutshell, my movements over the next few days are: today is my last day in work, tomorrow is preparing my bike and kit for travel and on Thursday I’ll be flying out early from Stansted to Klagenfurt with my friend Chris.

I’ll hopefully be able to get a quick swim in on Friday or Saturday morning, just to recce the swim course, especially the canal entrance and the exit in T1. On Friday or Saturday we’ll also fit in a shake down ride after rebuilding the bikes, perhaps an easy spin of one of the laps of the run course.

So that’s it. Race day approaches and I’m really looking forward to getting out there now and savouring the Ironman atmosphere. You can track my progress on www.ironman.com via the athlete tracker function (race number 907). Wish me luck, here we go!