Ironman wales course pre view

Prior to next weekend’s long course weekend in Wales I’d thought I should write up my experience of the Ironman Wales course. Before I started three words sum up the bike and run course – hilly and windy. We arrived in Tenby around midday on Friday a bit weary from the 6 hour journey from Eastbourne. If I’m honest Simon was more tired since he was driving and I have a remarkable ability to fall sleep almost instantly when a passenger. We’d left sunshine in Eastbourne, but almost immediately after crossing the Severn it was raining. It was also very windy. The rain did leave us, but the wind was in to stay for the entire weekend.

We immediately hit the bike course, setting out with the map and directions from the Ironman Wales website eager to stretch our chair shaped legs, work out the route and to see what would be in store for us on race day. The bike is advertised at present as a two lap bike, which one large loop and a second shorter loop (which repeats the second half on the first loop). The bike course rolls out from Tenby along the coast road (A4139) before heading in towards Pembroke. From there a relatively steep climb out of Pembroke (12 miles), then the climbs and descents become a bit steeper. There’s a short, shaded and twisty decent – my least favourite type just after St Petrox then the road carries on towards Castlemartin. Here we found a road closed sign. We’d had done a lot of map consulting so far, as although the description of the course was detailed with road names, none of these were signposted in reality, so weren’t 100% sure we were on the right road. The course passes through a military (artillery) training zone, which happened to be in use hence the road closed sign. We probably should have made the link sooner, as we had just passed the entrance to a military base, complete with two large tanks outside, just 100 meters down the road.




A short diversion found us back on the bike course, headed for Freshwater West. The beach here is stunning; the climb up from there is not enjoyable however. Be prepared to use your small chain ring and watch out for sand on the road, especially if windy, as the road is narrow here and passes through the sand dunes.

A short descent down and back up from Angle (24 miles) sees the course heading back to Pembroke. The road here is rolling and of good surface, so should be opportunity to make up for some of the slowness on the rest of the course. A short loop around Pembroke centre (there’s a very short but steep climb as you make the turn through town, which caught be a bit by surprise first time around, and saw me uncomfortably grinding my way up the 30m stretch). Heading back along the road you come into Pembroke on towards Lamphey, where there’s a left turn onto a road called the Ridgeway. It’ll come to no surprise that this is another uphill, and you seem to only just get to the ridge, with stunning coastal views, before turning off and descending to Sageston. The lane here is narrow and steep, but has just been resurfaced properly, so should be a fast descent. We were treated to the view of Carew Castle, before crossing the river and heading uphill towards Cresselly and Yerbeston. It’s basically uphill and downhill from there all the way to Narberth, where there’s a steep downhill, straight into a steep uphill, which flattens a bit, but seems to go on for what seems like forever. It was here I started contemplating using my road bike on race day, as I just wanted to keep shifting gears on the uphill and my legs were screaming at me for such low cadence climbing. The course then loops out east to Tavernspike, via Princes Gate (more rolling), a sharp right turn heading south west towards Ludchurch, then it’s mostly downhill to the coast. At this point I’d pretty much figured out that any downhill was going to be matched with an equally steep uphill, and I wasn’t disappointed. The climb out of Wiseman’s bridge has a 16% sign at the bottom. I was definitely heading towards the road bike option now. Then guess what the course heads downhill into Saundersfoot then straight up the other side, on another steep climb, back towards Tenby. Lap one done. The course then passes through and out of Tenby as on the first lap, then about 3 miles before Pembroke it turns right at Lamphey, onto the ridgeway and follows the route taken by lap one. It had taken us 5 hours to complete the long loop with a lot of stop, starting and a bit of getting lost along the way. Over the weekend we rode different sections of the bike course and I made up my mind to use my Cervelo S2 over my Quintana Roo Cd0.1. Not being able to shift so frequently on the up hills when on my base bar, meant I spent a lot of time riding in a lower cadence than I’d have like to be riding in and I don’t want my legs to be cream crackered for the run. Simon was fine, he has Di2 on his P4, with shifters on his base bar and tri bars. And since Santa will not be making an early visit and bringing me Di2 for my race bike, I’m going to be riding my Cervelo road bike, with USE tribars and my Hed wheel set.

My running is coming along, and over the weekend I managed a few runs on the course. From T2 in Tenby town centre, the 4 lap run course heads straight out of town along the coast road, which is mainly a rolling downhill, except for a short hill near the Haven Caravan Park and petrol station. The route turns into Penally village, along a road which runs almost parallel to the coast road, heading back to Tenby, so is a rolling uphill! Back in Tenby it’s up St John Hill, downhill to the castle, around the castle, past the life boat station, up Castle Hill - a 10meter stretch almost vertical, only a slight exaggeration. Then a loop through the town centre, which if the organisers can get the right atmosphere going should be great fun, before heading back out of town. The run should be a good course for spectators.

Can’t really say too much about the swim, we did don our wetsuits on Sunday night and head down to the sea. It was bloody cold (good luck to those doing the long swim on Friday, remember your neoprene hat and booties!) and choppy. Both of us managed about 100 meters before getting out, much to the amusement of the car park attendant, he pointed out to stay clear of ‘The Whiteback’, a sandbank mid-beach which messes with the tides and catches the unwary, but also took great relish is calling us soft southerners, but kindly pointed us in the direction of a really good fish and chip shop, for a treat on our last night.

ups and downs!

Yet again it seems that I wrote an update a couple of weeks ago, only to realise it’s actually been a couple of months. After a good winter of training, everything has gone a bit pear shaped. I’d had a winter injury free, which was obviously tempting fate. I’d been completely long runs holding very respectable pace and was hoping for a sub 1:30 at the Fleet half marathon at the very least. Obviously that didn’t go to plan otherwise I would not be sharing this woeful tale. I was looking on target until 6 miles, when I started have stomach issues. I can only blame my step mum’s cooking and eating late the night before, for the loo stops. From then on, my legs and brain were not on the same wave length. Despite wanting to run fast, my legs were having none of it. About 10 miles in I started getting ITB and knee pain, so eased back the pace completely, so be able to recover quickly and put in a quality week of training afterwards. I finished only just in front of an Army captain, running in full kit with 20lb pack. From then onwards I seem to have niggle after niggle. Maybe I headed back into running too quickly, maybe not enough stretching or massage, new shoes or maybe even the fact I was taking almost an illegal amount of painkillers as I’d just had my braces tightened, but a couple of weeks later I then developed shin pain. So I’ve now had a couple of week of training, free from running as that seems to have done the trick. Yesterday I managed my first run in 3 weeks, 20 minutes, so slow I was almost walking! But with no repercussions.

So unfortunately I had to pull out of today’s Marshman Triathlon. I raced and won the Marshman Plus event last year – as it’s only an hour away, it seemed like an ideal season opener back in January and a good way to gauge my fitness, ready for the build to Ironman Wales. Plus for a local event it was well organised. My Quintana Roo CD 0.1 did get a punishing today though with my first open 25 Mile TT for two years. Last year I didn’t do any time trialling and felt I lacked the bike speed, I considered my strength. So at least a drop in run volume is allowing me to concentrate on my biking for a bit. Today wasn’t pretty. I left my power tap unit in the kitchen, so rode blind and spectacularly blew up in the last couple of miles. Despite this and a change of course due to road works, rubbish road surface and lots slippery wet roundabouts from early morning down pours, I came ridiculously close to setting a new PB for the distance. My coach also thinks it is now warm enough for sea swimming – I’ll beg to differ. First sea swim is set for tomorrow night. Personally I’m hoping that the wind picks up and we have 10 feet of chop. I’m never really a fan of sea swimming in the murky waters in the UK, especially not when it’s frigging cold.

Other things that have been happening – I’m well into my first master’s degree module. After a slow start with essay writing I seemed to have been able to dig out some study skills that were hidden after completing my undergraduate degree 7 years ago. Sometime I wonder why I even though doing a part time master’s alongside full time working (including 1 hour each way commute) and Ironman training was sensible. But it’s working out, I just have to be strict with myself after weekend training and knuckle down to work. Probably more importantly, more exciting and I’ll get in trouble for not putting this at the top. I got engaged!! Simon asked me out of the blue on his Birthday – no excuses to forget the date! So mostly despite the lows and stresses over the past couple of months I’ve been walking around with a big smile on my face and a glittery ring on my finger. No date set yet, likely to be next summer, but I’ve already been banned by my family from getting married in Hawaii though. And it’ll come to no surprise to those that know my fiancé Simon, from The Tri Store in Eastbourne that he’s hoping to be able to wear shorts!