I’m Worried! Can I survive Ironman Swansea?

In this video, I share some honest thoughts in the lead-up to Ironman Swansea 70.3. After a tough race in Austria and a challenging block of heat adaptation training, I’m feeling far from my best both physically and mentally. I break down the course, talk through how I’m planning to approach the race, and explain how it fits into my bigger goal of qualifying at Leeds for the Ironman World Champs.

Whether you’re racing yourself, navigating a tricky training patch, or just curious what race prep looks like when things aren’t going to plan, this one’s for you.

👇 Jump to a section:

00:00 – Why I’m Worried About Swansea 70.3
00:33 – Struggling with Heat Adaptation
01:02 – Toughest Block of Training Yet
01:57 – The Brutality of the Swim Course
03:32 – Bike Course: Punchy Climbs & Power Drop
05:04 – Run Prep? Or Lack Thereof…
06:33 – My Strategy for Racing & Recovery
07:37 – Why Racing Swansea Still Matters
08:20 – Training Volume Crashed by Heat Stress
09:35 – Mentally Checking In & What’s Next

Thanks for following along on the journey. More updates on the race, heat training insights, and new gear content coming soon.

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But I’m a little bit worried about this coming weekend in particular Iron Man Swansea 70.3. Mainly because I felt pretty awful for the past since Austria really trying to get my my [ __ ] together sort of thing. But it’s not looking good at this present moment in time. And the reason being is I’ve been trying to trying to do this heat prep stuff, heat adaptation. And well, when I say I’ve been trying to do it, I have been doing it. It’s just really hard. And I don’t know whether that’s because I’m not very good in the heat in general and therefore it’s taking its toll on me a little bit more than what it would usually or whether I’ve just done it a little bit wrong and had too much load alongside it. I don’t know. I have no idea. But this little block of training in between I guess in between Austria and Leadeds cuz Leadeds is my primary focus if I’m still going for the World Champs qualification which is what main aim of the season is. Might fall short if I don’t get in while I will fall short if I don’t get it in leads. But I think this block has been one of the toughest blocks I’ve done in a very long time. And it’s just because I’m out to sea. I don’t really know where I’m at with it. I’ve never done it before to this extent. So it feels awful and not very nice. And I don’t know where I sit week in week out. And it’s the first time in probably 3 to 5 years that I don’t know what to expect on a day-to-day basis. [Music] I don’t know whether it’s having a positive or negative effect in all honesty. I just don’t know. So coming into Swansea 70.3 where it’s another very difficult race. Not only because the field is pretty stacked again, because it’s a Pro Series race, but also because the course is absolutely savage. If I start with the swim, for example, you got maybe 150 m to the first boy, which for those who haven’t done a professional race before, is not very far for professionals because everyone can be there at 150 m, 100 m. And it just depends how much of a fight you’re willing to put up to be where you want to be and whether or not you can actually sustain that afterwards as well. And because everyone can be there, it becomes a little bit of a fight. Not intentionally, just everyone wants the same space. And you can’t all be there. You can’t all be in exactly the same space. So, yeah, it doesn’t always work out like that. But that’s why it’s savage in the swim because there’s like four corners within 300 m, four turn, boys in 300 m, which is not ideal for for anyone really, apart from the faster swimmer. See, that’s the swim. You get out the swim, you [ __ ] hook it for 800 meters into transition. Again, not really suiting me because I’d prefer to just jump straight on the bike and go. Not historically a runner. But yeah, that that sort of aside, I’m now running 800 meters, jumping on my bike in hopefully close to the front, but if not, in the middle of nowhere, and then having to settle into a 8K along the front, maybe. Yeah, probably is about 8K along the front of Swansea. Fine. Okay, head down, ass up, and go for it. And then you hit a lot of like punchy climbs. 400 plus watts probably. Me maybe not going anywhere cuz I’m a bit heavier. But even so, you do that for the next 8k again until you get to the top and then it just doesn’t stop. It’s just relentless. It’s like rolling/solid grippy roads that are slow and atricitious. And ordinarily, I’d say this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for me because I can be one of the stronger riders in fields, but with the context of how bad I’ve been feeling. I reckon I’m about 20 watts down at the moment. That could all change in the next few days. It could, but it doesn’t feel good at the moment. And I’m kind of really hoping that things come around before the weekend, few days out. So, taking that all into consideration, how tough the swim and bike is, and how I’m feeling, you then roll down the hill and across the front again. into T2 and your legs are potentially spangled from the punchiness of the the race and the quality of field. This is if you want to stay near the front, of course. Like you could just ride easy the whole day, but I I want to like ride it as hard as I can really, but how hard that is depends on the legs on the day. At the moment, there’s not many legs or not much of them to to give. But again, really hoping that they come around now that I’m about to stop this heat adaptation stuff. So runwise, I haven’t done many run sessions since Austria, if any. Actually, I haven’t done any. Thinking about it now. And yeah, it just leaves me as like I don’t really know where I am with it. I’m hoping again that the fitness drop that I’m seeing across the board will then rise again, especially coming into leads because that’s the main focus at the moment to make sure that I’m okay for leads. But it only gives me two weeks to recover off the back of this race. Which, you know, if it’s anything like fish guard, because I went into fish guard pretty solid and not tapered, it meant that I was able to go to the best of my ability, but not dig myself a hole. And that’s kind of the the way that I’m approaching this one as well. Coming in with a fair bit of load, still being able to try quite hard in the race. but not dig myself too much of a hole. And hopefully that will deliver me quite nicely into leads. But that’s the plan anyway. Go race hard, get some good race experience. It’s on my doorstep, about an hour’s drive. So, you know, can’t really say no to some good race experience, high level race experience. Support what Iron Man are doing there, what Swansea are doing there. Wouldn’t want it not to be that, especially if I was using it as one of my A- races. Want the opportunity, as many opportunities as I can for high level races in the UK. I think it’s great. Loads of good quality British athletes there, which is always nice. Catch up with people, which I love doing. Racing people, which I love doing, and using it for a big training effect, racing effect, whatever you want to call it. It’s good good experience. It’s always good experience. So yeah, we’ll see. I’m looking forward to it no matter what regardless of what I’m saying in terms of how I’m feeling and whatnot. And I’m hoping that when it comes to race day, I have some facilities to put down a good effort in front of like a home crowd, if you will. And uh yeah, do everyone proud? Like do you guys proud? I guess you’re following along with the journey and I’m coping with the heat and trying to do my best to deal with the heat in the future, which may or may not come as a sacrifice to other races, especially as a sacrifice to training at the moment. Like I’ve done the least training and training intensity that I’ve done full stop in years. just because this heat is such a high load and stressor on my body that I’ve just had to take each day as it comes. If I can do some load and intensity, I will. But more often than not, I’m having to stop or just like swim, ride, run aerobic just to get through with some conditioning. So yeah, that’s where I’m at. It’s a new learning kind of know what I’m doing but not what I’m doing with this heat stuff in terms of I don’t know how my body should be feeling and responding to it. So it’s quite hard to kind of mentally check yourself, do a body mot to be like, am I being a bit of a wet blanket and just coping out of this session, which is very rare for me. So I tend to air on the side of it’s not that or is my system just in a bit of a mess and it’s crying out for a bit of rest, which it I’m pretty sure it is that. So yeah, we’ll see how Swansea goes. a lead into leads as well. I’ll do a report on this race however it goes as per usual. Do hit that subscribe button and the like button if you want to follow along. Hopefully give you some good content. I’ll update you on all the heat stuff in coming videos. Been down to precision. Got some good data. Um had a good talk through all of the stuff which I’ll put up. got a load of footage of that and then yeah, some more training footage and I’ve got some content on some tech gear which I’ve reviewed in the works. There’s lots of stuff in the works and just having the time to do it with puppy with uh the house living life all sorts of stuff. I’ll keep you posted. See you next time.