Hola from Spain!

A few years ago, before either of us even considered triathlon, we invested in a holiday home in Spain. The rationale back then was that with 6 kids between us it would cost just as much to pay a mortgage on a foreign property for a year as it would to give our offspring a continental holiday each summer.

The kids have grown up since then and are not too interested in going on holiday with their parents but rather fortunately for us our house is situated in just about perfect triathlon training terrain. We’re inland with loads of great roads, hills and mountains and scenic lakes. There are some challenging run routes, off-road and on-road and the village has just installed a lovely 25m outdoor pool. Perfecto!

We keep a couple of road bikes out here to train on and on this trip we invested in a mountain bike each. We didn’t intend to, but we ambling through a 2^nd hand market on Saturday laughing about the amount of useless tat that they had on sale when we spotted two bikes that looked in ok nick. In fact, the woman’s bike looked like it had hardly been used. The vendor was selling them for 60 Euro each (cheap for Spain!) but we managed to get them for 80 Euro for the pair. I spent a couple of hours getting the gears indexed, brakes working and a general lube and they were good to go.

It has been several years since I mountain biked and I forgot how much fun it was. The trails here are great but the ones I took Rach on for her first ever MTB ride may have been a little advanced.

We’ve been out on the bikes every day since we’ve been here so far and a couple of runs. The weather at this time of the year is perfect, low 20s Celcius. In the summer it gets a bit too hot and training is restricted to earlier or later in the day – especially running.

We try and get out here as much as we can these days. We came out just for a long weekend about 3 weeks before The Outlaw in the summer and it was perfect for getting the peak training sessions in without the distractions that come with being at home. When there’s nothing else to do other that train, rest, relax and eat & drink then it makes it easy and the scenery here makes it much more pleasurable. I know a lot of people who go on training camps for this sort of thing, but it’s nice to have it there available whenever you need it. I’m hoping it’s one of those little advantages I can use in my favour on the quest for a Kona spot next year!!

Anyway, must dash – got a mountain I need to climb. Adios!!

TTFN!

Winter Miles

I love training, always have and hopefully always will.

As a footballer, I rarely missed a session. My favourite time of the year for footy training was winter, under the lights. Everybody working so hard that they’re steaming like carthorses and it’s so cold that the only way to keep warm was to work even harder.

My football days are long behind me now but the love of the training is still there. Just as well I suppose as preparing for an Iron distance race would be a real grind elsewise! Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I have to force myself to train, but once I get going I’m in my element.

The main example of this is swimming. I’m guessing most triathletes are the same in this regard. I’m betting there are very few of us who leap out of bed at 6am on a dark, cold, wet morning full of enthusiasm to hit the lanes of the local pool! Once I’m there and I’ve pushed off for that first length then I’m fine but up until that point I’m the epitome of ‘grumpy’. However once the session is finished I feel great. There’s nothing like a decent swim to work out any residual muscle soreness from bike & run I find.

I just need to maintain the discipline to get up and go throughout the winter. This has beaten me in previous years but I can’t afford to let it slide this time. I’ve not had to scrape ice or snow off my windscreen yet – that’s when the real test of my resolve will come.

Long outdoor rides during the winter have suffered the last year or two also. In the first few years of IM I was good at putting the winter miles in so I’m not too sure why it slipped away. I think part of the reason was boredom as I tended to do the same routes over and over again. This year I’m going to make an effort to ride different roads, if I get lost – so what. Also changing the nature of the ride should keep things interesting. Hill reps, fixed gear rides, etc. The weekday rides will all be on the turbo, I’m not a big fan of riding the roads at night – I’ve had enough accidents as it is without the odds being stacked even more against me.

Running ... what can I say? I’ve always enjoyed running and I’m loving it more than ever at the moment. I don’t even mind running on a treadmill but much prefer to be outside. Sunday’s long run was one of the more enjoyable ones. The first 10km was at a comfortable HR around 80% of max HR then gradually picking it up for the second 10km up to 90% at the end. The route was half on-road and half off-road through rural Buckinghamshire – a lot of which I brought back home on my person.

So far, I’ve managed to get out for just about all my scheduled swims, bikes and runs. Having a specific, ambitious goal (Kona!) really is helping. On those mornings when the alarm has gone off and I’m contemplating blowing the session out (which is just about every morning if I’m being honest), I ask myself “Will your rivals be skipping training this morning?” This is usually enough to get me out there.

The exception is if I’m just plain knackered. I’ve been doing this long enough now to recognise the difference between physical exhaustion and mental tiredness. Last week I had to bin a fartlek run halfway through as I had nothing to give. I’d done a few hard sessions earlier in the week which may have affected things but it was my heart rate that persuaded me to stop. It was about 10bpm higher than it normally was for the pace I was running and I felt generally dreadful. I decided to listen to my body and called it a day. A few years ago I would have beaten myself up over this but I knew it was a blip which was proven a couple of days later during the long run.

So, what is the secret of training through the winter? Make your training enjoyable. Do new things to keep it interesting. Make your training relevant – every session should have a purpose. Have a goal and keep it in mind at all times. Listen to your body!

TTFN!

Roade Sprint Race Report

Terry Wooton Roade Triathlon – 30-Sep-2012

The Roade Sprint is a funny little event. The venue and course suggests a small, local race but every year it seems to attract between 400-600 participants.

It is a pool-based triathlon based at a school. The pool is an unusual 23m long and you do 18 lengths for a total distance of 414m. T1 is in the school field just outside the pool, with a 150m run to the cycle mount/dismount line. The run is a 2 lap out-and-back through a suburb and back around the school field with the finishing chute at the end of lap 2 on the field.

Being only a small 4 lane pool, waves were set of in groups of 4 every 2 minutes seeded by your normal 400m time that you submitted upon entry. Slowest went first around 7am with the quickest swimmers not starting until around 1pm. Rach’s start time was around 10:15 and I went about an hour later. Normally that meant there were 4 people in each lane at any one time. If everyone was honest about the swim time they submitted, this would have worked well. Unfortunately there were those who knew the system and wanted to get their race done early so logged a time much slower than they were capable of. This caused loads of issues with dodgy overtaking, head-on collisions, etc. I remember commenting that I’d been in more civilised Ironman swims!

The later starts for us meant for once we could wake up at a reasonable hour. Roade is only 20 minutes drive from MK so we had a bit of breakfast and bimbled our way over. Registration was quick and easy and we racked and watched the earlier waves go until it was Rach’s turn to make her way to the pool. It was by far the most relaxed I’ve seen her before a race, so I knew she’d go well.

I watched her first few lengths then went into transition to yell encouragement to her there as she set off on the bike. I got myself sorted and waited for my turn.

The Race

Swim – 414m

Fortunately the lane I was assigned looked orderly with everyone around the same speed. When we were told to go I had the best part of a length clear in front of me. Unbelievably I got a clear swim the entire time and never had feet in front of me nor anyone tapping on mine. The water was extremely choppy though! I swam ok and felt relaxed throughout but probably could have pushed more as I was barely breathing heavily when I exited the pool. The swim split was recorded at a mat outside the pool so the split for 414m, getting out of the pool and out of the building wasn’t too bad for me.

Swim – 7:59

T1 

I thought I was pretty slick through T1 but the split suggests otherwise!

T1 – 1:41

Bike – 18km

Getting out of the suburb was about the only issue I had. Within a minute of starting the bike I had to bunny-hop onto the kerb to avoid a head-on with a Tesco delivery van on my side of the road going around parked cars. That got my HR up!!

Once out onto the open roads I started to put the foot down and have a good time. Being a slow swimmer and an ok cyclist meant I tend to do a lot of overtaking.  The bike course had a couple of drags up slight inclines but nothing that could really be classed as a hill. There was one left hander that was > 90 degrees that required a bit of concentration but other than that I found it all pretty straightforward and surprisingly unaffected by traffic. I managed an average speed of around 36kph which I was a little disappointed with given I’d maintained the same speed over 45km a couple of weeks prior, but I suppose when you predominantly train for endurance you become a little one-paced.

Bike (+ runs to & from mount/dismount line) 30:24

T2 

Uncomplicated and quick (for once!)

T2 - 00:48

Run – 4.3km

As usual in sprints, the start of the run felt hideous and I felt like I was running very slowly out of T2. Rach (who had already finished) reckoned I went off like a rocket which shows how different your perception is when you’re out there! The wind was really picking up and the run out to the turnaround point was into it. Saying that, the run out was very short and before I knew it I was on my way back to HQ for the first time.

I expected a shout from Rach at the turnaround point but she was getting herself a cup of tea – she reckoned she wasn’t expecting me back so quickly! I pinned my ears back and gave it everything on the 2^nd loop knowing that the course was short and I’d only have to endure the pain less than 10 minutes and that I had of chance of breaking an hour in a sprint. (I know, the bike & run were short but you grab these chances when they occur!)

Rach had her cuppa and was there to cheer me over the line. I was knackered but the nice thing about sprints is that you’re just about fully recovered within a minute!

Run – 17:42

Total – 58:36   28/478 overall finishers   4/67 in M45-49

Rach had a great race and finished 3^rd in her AG – result!!

We hung around a little while and watched the real quickies finish. These included a couple of our mates, Rob & Kat who each finished 2^nd overall male and female. Impressive!

All in all a good little event, albeit a bit hectic in places. 

TTFN!

Kona Race Report

The preparation leading up to the event went well. We went into Bletchley town centre and got batteries put into 3 dead sports watches (marginally cheaper than buying new ones), had a Costa Coffee and some cake to start the carb-load for the endurance feat that lay ahead, then nipped into Sainsburys for nutrition to see us through the event – Hawaiian Pizzas, Beer, Barcardi and Pineapple & Coconut juice for the Pina Coladas.

We got to HQ in plenty of time to set up the equipment, getting the ironman.com live feed going and hooked up to the TV in the lounge and Facebook/Twitter on my mobile. We were ready!

Before we knew it, the pros were off. I marvelled at how effortless they made the swim look. It was all quite civilised for the pros with so few of them going off at the same time. The Age Grouper’s start just looked plain scary! I’ve been in quite a few mass starts now, including IM Austria which resembled what Kona looked like. I used to handle them ok, but in the last couple of years I’ve developed the annoying tendency to suffer anxiety attacks when swimming in packs at the start of swims. I’m ok once my breathing settles, but sometimes it takes a while to get there. This is something I really need to get over as I can’t afford to lose 5 minutes on my rivals before the race has even begun!!

Anyway, onto the bike and watching the route with interest. The surface looked lovely and smooth, not like the potholed, metal surfaces we have to put up with locally. The hills didn’t look too bad, although it was hard to tell from the camera angles. It was the things you can’t see on TV that seemed to be the main challenges on the bike, the wind and the heat.

Entering the last hour on the bike, I changed my nutrition strategy from beer to Pina Colada and thought it would be wise to get some solids on board, so we stuck the pizza in the oven.

The run looked quite brutal. I’ve never seen people take so much from each aid station. It looked like a supermarket grab at times with athletes taking anything they could lay their hands on. I’ve biked and run in severe heat quite a bit and am not too bad at it, but this did look extreme.

Pete Jacobs was dominant on the run, it was so impressive. Just his ability and presence pushed Marino over the brink, but hats off to him to going for it. He could easily of took his foot off the gas and settled for a podium, but took the “death or glory” approach instead. I like that sort of attitude.

Leanda Cave was equally impressive. A very well judged run, she knew what she had to do and paced it to perfection.  Unlike Rach, who crashed on the sofa an hour into the run. She took on too much of the Barcardi-based nutrition and DNF’d. Hopefully she will learn from this experience when she’s in Hawaii supporting next year!

I made it until the first Age Grouper came over the line. It was past 3am and I was whacked. I loved watching it though and learned/reinforced a few lessons, not just about Kona but racing in general.  

This time next year ... !

TTFN!

Kona baby!

Two blog posts in a day?? Ah, but it's a special day ... it's Kona day!!

I'm at home wearing my Hawaiian shirt, Hawaiian pizzas ready for the oven, Pina Coladas and beers in the fridge and the laptop hooked up to the big screen ready to stream the coverage off the ironman.com website!

I'll be paying extra special attention this year as I really want to be at the other end of the webcast stream this time next year!

Not that we haven't got a personal interest in this year's event. Our mate Savaloy (or Matt Malloy as some people call him for some reason) is there competing for the 2nd year running. Sav's a bit of a beast and I reckon he'll be gunning for sub-9 in a few hours time. 

Kona is the pinnacle of most of us triathletes' sporting career. I know and can appreciate the cynical view that here is a World Championship run by WTC that you can only qualify for by spending a large amount of cash to do one of WTC's regional events. If you are good and/or lucky enough to qualify, you still need to spend another large amount of cash to enter the Kona event, then pay for flights, accommodation, etc, etc, etc. It's a huge money spinner for WTC, but people sign up and pay for it nonetheless - me included. When I do make it, it'll probably be a one-off I think but I will enjoy every second of the experience!

After I've been and done Kona, I'll probably only return there when Rach qualifies! :)

Looking forward to the Facebook and Twitter banter later, it's going to be a long night - better crack open a beer and get warmed up!!

TTFN & Aloha!

Ringwood Triathlon Race Report

Ringwood Tri - 16.09.2012

Rach found this event online about 10 days prior to it happening, so it was definitely a spur of the moment decision to race it.

When she asked me if I fancied it, I had a quick look at the bike course and was sold. Rach & I are both regular racers where it comes to New Forest events. Personally, it's my favourite part of the UK to ride a bike. Cycling there is almost a privilege as well as a pleasure. If you’ve never visited the New Forest (let alone raced there) then you’ve missed out!

In the past all our New Forest racing has been in events organised by the very excellent Race New Forest team.  In fact, my one and only AG win in an Iron Distance race came in the Forestman so the place has a special place in my heart!

The Ringwood Triathlon however was the first race we've done that was organised by Results Triathlon. The organisers may have been different, but the friendliness and feel of the event was no more welcoming. New Forest events tend to be smaller events raced by mainly locals which surprises me as this area is well worth the trip!

We travelled up on Saturday morning, arrived and registered then went and bought a picnic lunch and found a lovely spot in the Forest to eat it. Never one to miss an opportunity to ride in the Forest, I went an recce’d the course and was pleased to see I maintained an average speed of over 30kph at easy recce pace. The course went up the famous Bolderwood Ornamental Drive which is about 2-3km of stead climbing with a sting in the tail through some stunning scenery. A lot of NF races use this road and it was good to be riding it again. I got held up a couple of times on the recce by the wildlife that roams free there and hoped for a clearer ride on the day, but that’s one of the things about racing there that you need to accept.

Race Day

Alarm went a 6am, a bit of toast and jam then off to the leisure centre. The race was fairly unusual distance-wise with a 600m pool swim, a 45km bike and a 9km run. Being a short swim but standard-ish bike and run suited my strengths and weaknesses somewhat.

Rach’s wave went off about 25 minutes before mine. I watched her finish her swim from the viewing area before heading down for my wave. There were 4 in my lane and after a quick chat it was established that I was probably marginally the quickest (THAT doesn’t happen often!!). But the way the start was seeded, I had to go off last – 10 seconds after the person in front of me.

I quickly caught the person in front and stayed on their feet. By the end of length 2 we were all in a line of 4. I stayed put conserving energy until length 6 when I started tapping feet. By the 8^th length I was in front and stayed there until the end. I never really pushed too hard (one of my problems with swimming) and got out with a split of 11:09 – about where I expected to be.

T1 was pretty straightforward then onto the bike. Unlike the glorious sunshine I had for my recce, race day was pretty grey and cool but quite still which made for a pretty quick bike. I found my rhythm nice and quickly and was passing people regularly. It wasn’t long before I was past everyone in my wave and making in-roads into people from earlier waves. The ride flew by and I was loving every second of it. My split for the 45km + T1 + T2 was 1:19:27, average speed on the bike was about 35kph.

Quickly onto the run and I was maxing from the start. I went through the first km in 4:07 and didn’t think I could sustain that so I slowed a little to 4:15/km pace until I felt settled. Some young lad that I passed towards the end of the bike leg flew by me at this stage – the only time I was overtaken on the whole bike & run.

Shortly after I went passed Rach who was running well. Soon my breathing settled and I steadied on a pace between 4:10-4:15/km. I held this until 7km and managed a bit of a kick (but not much!) to record a run split of 39:30. I would have liked to have gone a bit quicker and probably could have as I certainly didn’t feel like I’d left it all out on the course after I finished.

My total time was 2:10:06, which put me 9^th/117 overall and 2^nd in my age group. Happy with that!!

Not too long afterwards Rach came in looking strong and happy.

All in all a cracking little event. They run a race over the same course in the spring which we’ll probably go do next year just for the fun of it!

TTFN!

Bloody Swimming!

Swimming. The bane of my triathlon life. The thing that makes duathlon look inviting.

Some years I try very hard, some years I ignore it. It doesn’t seem to make much difference, I’m still crap at it. When I was training for the Double Ironman I was swimming 3-4 times a week with a very long swim on Saturday morning. That was when my swimming was at its most comfortable and quickest. I had my 500m down to about 8:50, so nothing really to scare the real swimmers out there. These days my 500m times around up around 9:30. In a word, shit.

I know what the problem is though, which I suppose is the first step to improvement. It’s my legs. Not only do they not propel me, they slow me down.

Yesterday morning I did a little experiment to prove this. I did 5 x 500m timed sets at around 85% effort:

Set 1: Pull Buoy :  9:38

Set 2: Fins : 9:45

Set 3: Pull Buoy and hand paddles: 9:30

Sets 4&5: Free swim 9:50, 9:55

My fastest sets were ones where my legs were raised using a pull buoy. Most swimmers’ fastest set by far would have been the one using the fins. At least I know the problem but fixing it is another matter.

When I use a kickboard, I don’t go anywhere. It’s like running on a treadmill, I can kick like hell and stay still. Mind you, this is progress ... I used to go backwards!

“Get a coach! “ I hear you cry. I’ve had Total Immersion coaching, triathlon club coaching, tips from mates, a coaching course from a member of the GB Olympic Swim team, coached sessions at the local pool most Wednesday mornings. I’m just not getting it and it’s really starting to vex me!

I still remember broaching the subject with the Olympian. He didn’t believe it was possible to go backwards when kicking with a kickboard. The look on his face was priceless when I showed him how annoyingly possible it was. So I had someone who has spent a very large proportion of his life in and around swimming pools telling me I was doing something he’d never seen done in a pool before ... niiiice!

Back to the drawing board then! I’m going to allocate a session per week to working on my kick as until I do this then it’s obvious I’ll be limited in my improvement and I need a LOT of improvement! My last IM swim split was 79 minutes, I need to get that down to 65 minute. So, all kick drill tips gratefully received!!

On a positive note, enthusiasm for training is very high considering the Tri season finished on Sunday. I re-introduced leg weights at the gym on Monday and still have the DOMS to prove it today! I also picked up the core work again, something I was religious about during pre-season but let slip a bit during the season. I still managed to plank for 5:16, so the slippage wasn’t disastrous. Add in a couple of 2.5k swims and a steady turbo trainer session and all is good. Planning on an easy run tonight to sort these DOMS out.

TTFN!

*      Thanks again to Sue Jarman for the photo!

End of Season Flurry

One of the things I don’t really like about endurance sport is that the training hours: racing hours ratio is pretty poor. To put it simply, you do a lot of training for very few races.

There are people out there with better rates of recovery who can race endurance events week in, week out – but I’m not one of them. I need a complete week off after a marathon or an iron distance race, then an easy “recovery week” before I can resume training properly again. I wouldn’t even contemplate racing again for a month after one of these events.  The MK Marathon in April knocked me on my back for a whole month, I caught every bug going and my legs felt like lead for ages.

Up until a few weeks ago, the sum of my 2012 racing was:

1 x Half marathon

1 x Marathon

1 x Standard Triathlon

1 x Middle Distance Triathlon

1 x Iron Distance Triathlon

A grand total of five races! Weigh that up against the hundreds of hours of training I’d put in, it’s a bit disproportional. I enjoy training, but I love racing. Racing is the reason we train, it’s what gets our juices flowing. They are also nice and social too. Rach & I have been on the tri scene for about 6 years now and have met loads of great people from across the country. Races are where we get to catch up with them face to face and talk about training, the race to come and afterwards exchange the war stories about the race just completed. Facebook and the forums are good to keep touch in between races, but you can’t beat seeing people in the flesh (ooh err!).

So, our end-of-season flurry of races has been great fun: Rach & I have raced 3 times in the past 4 weeks. One standard triathlon and two local sprints – all pool based. All have been quite low-key and had nothing really riding on them. We did them for the pure fun of it and I thoroughly enjoyed each one. I haven’t got round to writing race reports yet (most unlike me) but I will over the next few days.  I’m no sprinter and am a bit one-paced (my average running speed was the same for the standard as it was for the sprints!) but I finished in pretty respectable times and placed quite highly.

We’re in the process of planning our race schedule for next season. I’d like to race a little more but I need to keep focussed on what I’m trying to achieve. Every race must be significant and have a direct purpose on the goal at the end. I will repeat the run focus with the aim of running a fast marathon at London and carrying that run speed into the season. Prior to that, I want to run a fast half marathon. My PB is 1:31, that needs to be dropped well under 1:30. I’d like to race some hard duathlons in the spring to sharpen up for tri season. Maybe a tough sportif or two, then I’m thinking of a Sprint, a Standard and one or two Middles leading up to IMUK. The timing of these races is important and allowing the right amount of recovery time without disrupting training too much is crucial.

Rach is putting together her race schedule for next season also. For the first time since we took up triathlon we have vastly different agendas. She’s concentrating on short course and speed next year whilst I’m ... errrm ... not. We’ve historically raced the same races but I’m looking forward to cheering her on from the sidelines. We’ll get a few races in together earlier in the season which will be enjoyable. :)

TTFN!

Thanks to Sue Jarmin for the photo!

Mind Games

My gorgeous wife, Rachael, posted this picture on Facebook this morning and linked it to me. I think it sums me up rather well.

Rach is a Hypnotherapist and is studying Psychology at the excellent Open University. She is the founder of the Hypnolife Centre and is very successful in identifying how different people tick upstairs. Her current OU course is all about Psychology in sport, which I think will be helpful to both of us in the years to come. I haven’t talked to her yet about it, but I suspect she was planting another little message for my brain to absorb. She’s good at this. I suspect her shopping for bikinis to wear in Hawaii was another “message” ;-D

The mind is a powerful weapon and is as important to athletic success as a decent pair of legs.

I used to think I had to place pressure on myself in order to perform to my own expectations. I usually publically predicted a podium if I thought it was possible, or an ambitious time target. Not wanting to look like a prat was an obvious driving factor during the races – there was no way I wanted to report a failure once I went on record predicting I was going to achieve something.

Usually this went well. I predicted podium age-group finishes in a couple of smaller events and duly came 2^nd in a middle distance (half Ironman distance) and a 1^st in an Iron Distance event. I took it further in 2011 and predicted I would go sub-11 in The Outlaw and achieved that – albeit by only a few seconds! Earlier this year I went on record as saying I wanted to go sub 3:15 at The Milton Keynes Marathon in order to get a “Good For Age” slot in the 2013 Virgin London Marathon. Despite the horrendous conditions that day and the subsequent extra 400m added to the course to get around flooding, I came in at 3:14:00. I still don’t know how I pulled that one off as my previous best was 3:29!

Strangely enough, the race that convinced me to have a go at qualification was the exception to this trend. A complete lack of swim/bike training had me playing down my chances instead of talking them up. I honestly thought I would struggle to break 11 hours and went on record with a prediction of 11:30. Going into the race with no expectations was actually quite strange and I was the most blasé I’ve ever been standing on the start line of an Iron Distance race.

Did this result in a better performance? I don’t think so. I think having a great base after 5 years of going long definitely helped. A winter/spring of marathon training definitely helped also. But having someone who knows how your mind works and can manipulate it definitely helped most.

Although I predicted 11:30, Rach told me I’d do it in 10:45. I ended up finishing in 10:42. I think I’ll leave the predictions up to her in future. She tells me I’m going to qualify, it’s a done deal.

Who am I to argue?

TTFN!

New Blog

New Blog

Welcome to my new blog. As the title of my blog suggests, the content will be mainly about triathlon and everything that goes into preparing for triathlon.

The title of my blog also suggests that I have fairly ambitious aims for the next season or two, these being qualifying and competing at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

For those who don't know, qualifying for this event is extremely difficult, even for the naturally talented triathlete. You can only qualify by competing in an Ironman event and by finishing in the top 4 or 5 in your age group. Age groups are banded in 5 year segments, mine being the 45-49 year olds (aka 'Old Farts').

I've chosen Ironman UK (IMUK) on August 4th, 2013 as my qualifying event.

Up until this year I've never considered Kona as a realistic target, it was purely an event I followed to cheer on the likes of Chrissy Wellington and the friends I have who were "good". I originally planned to take a year off "going long" as I struggled with motivation this season, especially where long bike rides were concerned. And swimming. I've always struggled with swimming though, I'm not good at it and I don't particularly enjoy it. I definitely need to overcome this to stand any chance of qualifying.

So, what changed my mind from taking a year off to hitting it hard instead? It was my result in The Outlaw triathlon in July. The Outlaw is a non-Ironman brand race, but runs over the identical distances. Given the lack of swimming and cycle training over the winter/spring, my expectations were quite low going into the race. Instead, after a predictably rotten swim, I rattled off a 5:30 bike without really trying too hard, then I managed a 3:41 run to post a near 20 minute personal best of 10:42. This time would have been good enough to qualify for Kona at some Ironman races (not many though!). But it got me to thinking, what if I learned to swim properly? What if I hit the bike hard and got some more power? What if I lost that last bit of weight?

These were questions I didn't want to leave unanswered for years to come, so urged on by Rachael (my wife and fellow triathlete) I entered IMUK. Actually, Rach did more than urge me - she entered me into the race when I wasn't looking to stop my dithering!

The next thing I did was engage a coach. Darryl Carter of target-fitness.co.uk coached me a couple of years ago and brought me on leaps and bounds. Finances dictated I needed to go solo for a while, but now I'm in a position to get back on board with him. 

The latest thing I did was start this blog. I'm a big fan of nailing my colours to the mast where it comes to my goals. If find it motivates me to train harder if I've gone on record making bold predictions of my intentions.

So, here we go!! Kona 2012 is next weekend, I know people over there competing and others (like me) who want to be there this time next year! It will certainly be an interesting year ahead.

TTFN!