Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

After finishing 70.3 Auckland (and sucking at it!) I knew that it’s time to step up and tackle that 3 headed beast they call Ironman. In the begining I was thinking of doing one in the end of 2014, but in the end I decided to wait till March 2015 and go with Ironman New Zealand. This is how I’m going to prepare for it.

Leading Events

Postponing IM till next year doesn’t mean I’m not going to do anything in 2014. I’ve signed up already for two marathons: North Shore in September and Auckland in November. I plan to either find shorter races (half marathon more or less) or just plan long trail runs across various places in North Island.

In the end of November there is Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, a 160 km ride in a beautiful scenery. I was trying to get there in 2013, but arrived little too late in New Zealand. This year I will get there for sure!

I haven’t done any swim plans yet, as there is not much happening in winter. I will probably join some summer swim series (usually around 1.5 to 2.5 km swims). Too soon to tell.

I will definitely do Ironman 70.3 Auckland once again in January, hopefully with better results this time. There are few other triathlon races around, but I don’t know if I’d actually have strength for that. Time will tell.

Training

I’ve planned my whole buildup up to Lake Taupo Challenge and it looks crazy. I’m starting with 25km run and 45km cycle per week and it will peak with 60km run and 250km cycle in couple of months. That should add up to more than 15 hours of training per week and it starts to look a little intimidating. I will definitely need to up my discipline a lot.

It’s going to be challenging, but I will make it. Thankfully I will move outside the city in couple of weeks and that means cycling to work once again! That’s one of the few things that I miss from living in London - doing 150km weekly only by comuting to work was such a great thing. Can’t wait to get back to it!

I also need to up my swimming skills a lot. For now it’s going to be swimming twice a week (drills + long swim) and slowly building the distance and endurance. Later this year I will try to find some swim team to actually take my game to upper level.

Food

There is much to improve here, *cough* chocolate *cough*. I want my diet to gravitate towards Paleo more. I’m quite sure It’s not going to be easy, but some discipline in that matter will definitely be beneficial for me.

Next 10 months are going to be really busy! And really Awesome.