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!