Jog On...

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