Jog On...

Ive been a while writing this one.. Nearly 2 years but its still fresh in memory, like it was yesterday, so grab a cuppa as your in for a long one. It's Thursday night and I have finished work I'm making my way back to beautiful Pembrokeshire after spending the week in Birmingham with work. I was getting over the cold I had caught from the kids over the weekend, but I didn't care... It's time to get the game face on get ready it's going to be the biggest race of your life to date. Friday Amazingly I slept like a log I woke up relatively fresh I've made a list of all the things I have to do Friday Saturday and Sunday so I didn't have to engage the brain I heap on more worrying about what race day might bring.I drop my daughter off in Lamphey I made my way to the Friday first race briefing I managed to park the car in the train station which was rammed. I typically forgot to bring change and I car park so I took a picture of the pay and display and pa...

I'm sat here on the train, writing my 1st blog post reviewing my first block of training for Staffs 70.3 and I'm in a funny place with it if I'm honest: 1) Do I think I should have done more.. YES 2) Am I happy with progress - YES & NO 3) Do I need to work harder for the next phase - YES 4) Do I feel guilty about missing the sessions - YES 5) Am I worried about it - NO 6) What do I need to change for the next phase? Its been a tough 4 weeks on the training committing front, which I knew it was going to be, with working away from my training base and Vicki opening her new sports clinic (www.vickisportsmassage.co.uk - check them out) I knew I was going to be needed elsewhere. I missed sessions due to both, but then... I didn't have any down time or was I just being lazy as there were times where I just sat on my arse, but i wasn't getting any time out from work or home so it was just good to sit on the sofa in the evenings. ...

Hasn't that come around quickly... The training for the "A" race of 2018.. The 16 weeks started yesterday (Monday 19th). It was a positive start as I hit the session, even though I ran Llanelli Half on Sunday in 01:42.. I was hoping for a PB of sub 01:40.. oh well next time... This year my A race has to be Ironman Staffordshire 70.3 Ive never raced a branded 70.3 so lets see how it compares to the big one in Wales. I've been structuring my training and creating multiple spreadsheets so its as easy as possible to track while away from home and stuck in hotel gyms for training. I'll try and report back in 4 week sections (These are the training block sizes) on how training is going and see if I'm making progress.

Happy New Year Readers... As I've got some inspiration I thought I'd get back to the blog for 2018, as life, training and everything else has had priority and if I'm honest I had lost all drive to progress with the blog. 2017 was another successful year for me, another Ironman Wales under my belt alongside some other great races, Cotswolds 113, Long Course Weekend and Southampton Half marathon. After looking at the numbers for the year 2017 was the furthest I’ve ever been, I nearly clocked in 2500 miles for the year across all 3 sports, 2012 was the last time I hit over the 2000 miles for the year, this makes me happy and I thought I could go harder / longer on the bike too. I also joined a new club and got some new training mates which helped me greatly on those days when you needed to get out of bed early in the rain to get the long bike rides in. Thanks lads! I took some well deserved time off in December to get the body, recovered from the hard year...

I've been really struggling with motivation recently, and its really effected my training. I've recently found some training partners which has really helped on the bike especially the long rides. But I haven't got much love for the pool or open water at the moment, and I'm starting to pick up little niggles on the run aspects of the training so that isn't much fun either.. I also really need to finish my Ironman Wales blog which I haven't finished, I keep looking at it but getting the time to finally get down to writing the whole day out is the thing I'm struggling with... I wont forget the day as those memories will be with me forever.. I just need to share them with everyone! I need a good kick up the arse and get on with it..

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Week 5 - 9 - Toughen Up Week 9 has arrived and gone when I write this review of my training, time is flying and I'm starting to get nervous about race day. The past 4 weeks have been all about building that lactate threshold and I must say there has been some killer sessions in the plan already. I'm still enjoying it so something must be going right... well when I say enjoying it, one thing I haven't enjoyed was the sea swimming. My wife raced ISOMAN so she has been in the sea plenty of times and seems to smash it every time she goes in, I find myself retching with the taste of the water which is really hard to get a good rhythm on my stroke. I really need to work on this as its given my confidence a real bashing! In this chunk of training we went on holiday to Centerparks for a week, which mean no pool swims, I did ask if I could swim in the lake and I was told no, so I packed extra run kit and bike kit do sneak an extra session in. On an early morning bike ride I...

Week 1 - 4 - Building A Routine  So the countdown to race day has started and day one has been and gone and I'm now at the end of my first block of 20 weeks training for Ironman Wales 2016. If I'm honest I've really enjoyed getting back into multi-sport, after concentrating on marathons last year its been great to get back in the pool and on the bike, and I'm full of enthusiasm currently so actually doing the sessions hasn't been a chore (I know I'm only 4 weeks in) but when marathon running some/most of the runs were done with the mentality of "Have I really got to do this, for this far". Back to the training, week 1 was a nice gentle reminder to triathlon training. I missed no sessions and clocked in a 7/7 that week, same for week 2, zero sessions missed, week 3 I missed my 1st session and it was a bike effort and I felt so guilty, but people tell me don't force the training to catch up on what you missed, just put it to bed and move on...

So its nearly Brighton marathon time, I've been really committed to my new plan for the past 24 weeks, all in the aim to hit a sub 4 hour marathon. Its been a mix of 3 runs (tempo, intervals and long run) and strength and conditioning with weights. This is the 1st time I've followed this plan and I feel in completely different shape to the previous 3 marathons. Is this good news.. We will soon find out... I've also starting making the transition to triathlon training by getting  out on the bike and on the Ironman Wales bike course too. After the Brighton Marathon I get 2 weeks off from structured training, but I'm sure I'll end up doing something and then its back to committed 20 week plan for Ironman Wales. I have struggled to get 1 session in a day for the marathon plan so I haven't a clue how I'm going to plan doublers. I MUST... I WILL! Ive also starting changing supplies for race day from ZipVit to Powerbar so its less for me to pack on rac...

Distance S IV Tech Specs COLOUR - White / Orange/ Yellow / Red WEIGHT - 204 g HEEL-TO-TOE DROP - 2.0mm INTENDED TESTING - Free run, sprint session, long runs SURFACE TESTED - Treadmill, Track & Road Thank you to the team at Newton for sending me a pair of Newton Distance S to test out and report back on how I got on. I moved to Newton stability running trainers back in 2012 and haven't looked back, I used to have big problems with my calf muscles but Newtons have really helped with sorting this problem. I said this in my last review but these trainers are great and they keep getting better, a better fit, better stability feel and they look great, Newton are always bringing out bright coloured trainers so you always get noticed. They are also reflective so its the little things that help you get seen at night when running in the late evenings. They are very quick to dry to so even if you wear them in the rain they will be dry for your next session, which helps a...

The past 13 weeks have been leading up to this race, I had learnt a lot from Brighton and I wanted to put in practise what I had changed from April. I was really looking forward to this this race.. Until 3 days previous I got hit with a stomach virus (and to save on details) I was sat on the white porcelain phone for most of the 72 hours pre race. Not a great start to my race day weekend, I drank lots of water to keep hydrated and went through my pre-race meals, along with some imodium to help me out, I woke up 05:00 Sunday morning as my wife was running the half marathon so it was an early start for me as my race didn't start till 10:00. I lied in bed, and nearly said I'm staying here, but I thought people run marathons with serious illnesses and I'm complaining about a stomach bug, man up and get out of bed and get into your running clothes.   We jumped in the car, an hours drive and we were soon parked up and walking to the start line, I waiting with my...

Well that's it I've done my training train, the past 12 weeks has finished... Was it hard, was it easy, was it long enough, was it focused in the right areas...? I ran Brighton Marathon in April, it was my 1st marathon "only" race, (I did Long Course weekend which was the Wales Marathon)  and I learned a lot from the day. The biggest lesson I learned is that it hurt, I wasn't conditioned enough for the race after 14 miles so the last 12 miles hurt... a lot! I could go out an run 8/10/12/14 miles with no issues and often my shortest runs would be in the 8-12 mile space. I needed to plan my time better, as this was the main reason I didn't get over the 14 mile marker as I had other commitments to the family, work etc, so when I entered my next marathon I knew I had to get the planning sorted. I did enter the Wales marathon but due to a family emergency 4 weeks out I knew I wouldn't get to the start line, so I took my foot off the gas and eased up on ...

I've gone an done it... I've entered ironman Wales 2016. It's something I've wanted to do since the 1st year in 2011, and with now the full support of my family I've gone and entered it at 15:04 (entries opened at 15:00 on Monday 14th September).. I was very keen... Fingers crossed I hit that red carpet next September before mid night. Roll on the 1st week of May as that's day 1 of the training plan (20 weeks) and it gives me 2 weeks off to rest after racing Brighton Marathon in April. YAY! I cant wait to start planning my 2016 season and it will all lead to my A race, Ironman Wales... I'll get printing out the year planner and attack it with some highlighters to plot the year. At least I'll have post September 2016 off which I'm sure I'll need! Now lets get planning!

Well where has 2015 gone, the year has gone lightening quick! I know most of my focus has been on training for marathons this year but I think I'll be happy for the break after Bournemouth marathon. I have pencilled in a off road race but I'll see how it works out in November. I'm currently in week 7 of 12 for my Bournemouth marathon training plan and I'm feeling fast im progressively putting out 6.30 / 7/ 8 minute mile pace on 8 mile runs which is great. Not sure this will help me on the 26.2 distance but the weekend long runs seem to be getting easier. I've had to reschedule how I train during the week now as I've changed jobs so a lot of the mid week session are on on new routes or the treadmill which could be worse, but I'm also tried to track my cals in/out which is hard when your eating in restaurants 3/4 nights a week. I've entered Brighton half again to get a new PB it was a great race, so I wanted to go back and my wife wanted to run...

The day arrived after 18 weeks of "sort of" committed training since Christmas week I was race ready, I could have been in better shape but its been a long 18 weeks, and by the end of the race I could tell I could have done that little bit more. We (me and my wife) arrived in Brighton on the Saturday, collected our race packs, did a little bit of shopping in the expo and ended getting my name printed on my shirt, if I ever needed support it was going to be at mile 16+... so I got this done.. I didn't want to hang around to long on my feet on Saturday so did the social "hellos and hows sales going" with my mates at Runbreeze & 2XU and then off to check in at the Premier Inn in Crawley. (which was about 25 minutes away) I decided to get out of the hussle and bussle of 16000 athletes and not have to worry about parking fees and queueing all night for a restaurant table. It also was far cheaper than staying in Brighton too. I slept great for...

2014 is now well and truly over and 2015 is here.. What does this mean for me.. well not Ironman Wales.. which is gutting for me but there is always next year. I've decided on running marathons this year and so far I've entered Brighton, Edinburgh, The Wales Marathon and there is room for 1 more at the moment and its still to be decided. I'll report back one the plans have been firmed up..