Filling the gap left by Ironman was difficult. Post-race blues kicked in pretty quickly after the race. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to get back to normal, rediscover sleep and give my body a rest. But once you’ve completed something like that, and the seemingly impossible goal is gone, it leaves a pretty big void.
There was no option, I had to look for my next challenge. I kicked a few ideas around with some of my Lichfield Tri mates and I kept coming back to one race. The Alpe D’Huez Triathlon. It’s not an Ironman distance race, so I could keep my promise to V of not doing another full distance event. This was something completely different. Firstly, it would be my first international race. I always fancied racing abroad, and I knew the location would be appealing. Secondly, it’s a very demanding course, involving riding three categorized climbs with 3,500 metres of ascent. The final climb being the iconic Alpe D’Huez, which is a legendary Tour de France stage. Once at the summit you then had to run at altitude.
A few of us at the Tri club kept batting the idea around and it was clear that there was an appetite to do it. I cleared it with the boss and it was soon cemented on the list of events for 2018. My mate Palmer took the plunge first, entering the Long Distance race. I followed suit soon after. We then managed to rope in Ian and Walshy, who also succumbed to the temptation of the ridiculous challenge. Boom, we were officially entered in to it. That was the easy part.
After pressing the button on the entry form, Cyrille Neveu, the race organizer sent us all a confirmation email that we had been accepted in to the race. Time to start planning. The first thing that happened was that we created a WhatsApp group called ‘Mountain Madness’ so we could start panicking collectively. It was clear that I would be well and truly out of my comfort zone. The Ironman UK race was the biggest race I’d completed by far, and with 2200 metres of climbing on the bike it had given me some kind of appreciation of appropriate leg torture. But the French Alps were a different ball game completely. There is nothing like them in the UK. It was clear we needed a plan to prepare properly.
I decided to carry on using Kirsty as my coach. It had worked brilliantly for Ironman, and I liked the structured approach to training that was laid out for me. It was a no brainer as far as I was concerned. Plus I enjoyed it. I’m clearly a sucker for punishment.
I also decided that I needed to book in to some events in preparation. Some of the Tri lads were entering IM Staffs 70.3 again, so I thought that would be a good one to go for too. I’d enjoyed it the last couple of times I’d done it, so it made sense. I also thought I should do another cycling Sportive as I’d done last year. This time though I needed something even more challenging than Rutland. It was hilly, but the Alps were on a different level. Without the luxury of going abroad I opted to enter the Peaks Sportive in Derbyshire. This was going to be my first big test of coping with some ridiculous inclines. I convinced some of the other Lichfield Tri lads to enter it too. Always good to have other loons signed up.
Game on.