Day 1 - 30 weeks to go

Monday 11th February, a date that has crept up on me all of a sudden.
Today is the first day of the Fink 30 week Iron Fit, competitive plan I will be following.  Now most exercise plans start off with a gentle introduction, get the body used to exercise & prepare you mentally for the road ahead, some start matbe with an all out assault & maybe you're thinking that an Ironman distance race would require the latter?

Well no, the Fink 30 week competitive iron fit plan starts with of all things a rest day.  No exercise. Nada.

So today is for quiet contemplation about what lies ahead, stocking up on carbs, checking the plan so as I am sure I understand it, checking HRMs and making sure my max heart rate is correctly entered so that I am able to train in the correct zones.  In the first 10 weeks of the program c93% of all activity will be in my HR Zone 2, nothing in Zone 3 & a few short bursts into Z4 or anaerobic.

As I've said before this plan is not about getting miles in, it's about sustained effort in a target HR zone, miles I'm not really that interested in but I'll keep an eye on them for morbid curiosity, incidentally in weeks 1 thru 10 I'll be swimming over 50km or around 30 miles.  Swimming is the only activity where HR is irrelevant, swimming is all about technique & distances to build stamina.  Swim sessions in weeks 1-10 average 2500 metres per session & I do 2 sessions a week.