Plan

I have had some time now to think about my Ironman Switzerland race:

Positives

Progress on the bike over the last year.
First half-marathon, lack of jelly legs.
Mentally tougher.

Negatives

Little progress in improvement on swim (but courses can be inaccurate).
Massive explosion on the third 10K of the Marathon.
Ironman running is still hugely slower than standalone run PB.

My goal for 2010 is a huge improvement in my Ironman PB, now 11 hrs 21 seconds. I want to go low 10 hours and I'm aiming for the following improvements:

Swim 1:05 (10 minute improvement on current Ironman split PB)
Bike 5:20 (10 minute improvement on current Ironman split PB)
Run 3:30 (32 minute improvement on current Ironman split PB)

plus 10 mins for transitions (1&2)

Total time 10:05

These are pretty significant improvements in all three disciplines and it's probably fairly ambitious to consider them linked in the same race, but I reckon that with more effective training, and particular attention paid to (a) my swim technique (with more short distance/speed training) and (b) my distance running off the bike (3rd 10K of the marathon), this may be achievable.

I'm pleased with the long bike sessions that I did in April to July this year, but I definitely neglected my running due to my knee injury. I just hope that this clears up soon so that I can put in a big winter of run training.

My swim is poor and seemingly however fast/slow I go, I don't feel anymore whacked when I get out of the water, so it'd be great to get some improvement here. I put a little bit of speed-work into my swim sessions over the last few months but not enough to see real gains.

I'm taking a few weeks off proper training and will only do 'fun' and 'when I feel like it' sessions. It has been cool to watch the Tour de France and I'm inspired to do some riding. I'm riding to Paris with VB on the tandem in September which will be really fun too. In terms of racing, my next event is October's Beachy Head marathon but I may enter some low-key stuff in the meantime just for fun.