A bit of a rambling post.

I have learnt something new over the past week. I need to race more often. It's a simple fact that I spend a lot of time training without having a goal in mind and therefore the training that I do is often unfocussed and lacks direction and this week has been a case in point. While I have a vague idea that I will be probably be doing a late season half and an olympic event, because I haven't actually committed to it my training has suffered and while I have got out the door every day to do something (at least I am being consistent), the sessions have been made up at the last minute with no overall plan. This is something that I need to work on if I am to see the gains that I want to see.

The aim then, is to get me to a point in 12 months time where I can attempt a fast IM race and therefore I have been looking at which event I would like to do. The race I would love to do is Ironman Switzerland and when registration opened I went to have a look. The timing of it is perfect, falling in mid-July; the cost is not. Unfortunately, feeding and clothing my children has to take precedense over my hobby and even I balked at the cost of this event. IM Lanzarote and France are both events that have also caught my eye and they are considered much tougher events than IMCH but they just do not fall at the right time for me. The other race that I'd love to do is the Norseman. Even in the IM world it is completely unique but it is not sub 11 territory (at least, not for me) So, while a large European Ironman race is a dream, at the moment, it seems that it will have to remain just that. One day....

So, an IM next summer? I would think at the moment it will boil down to either The Outlaw or Challenge Henley. But they are both over a year away, so what am I going to do in the meantime? One word; race. In particular, half marathons and marathons in order to build up my run legs and do the Park runs a lot more regularly to gauge speed and fitness. I am going to try to get a VLM place through work again as my main goal over the winter and spring. My other main goal is to figure out a way to get my IM bike split down but I will initially do this by just continuing to be consistent and doing lots of Z1 /2 work over the winter. Core and conditioning work will consist of sitting in a K1, preparing to tackle the DW with Adam again. We had our first paddle last night with Jo; just a gentle pootle about to get the feel for a boat again but my main focus is going to be tri. I intend to be Ad's wingman and not the other way round. ;-)

My summer running campaign is going well. I have missed one day but other than that all is good and I am really excited about getting a road race or two under my belt in the near future.

Summer Running

Back in the saddle last week with a solid 13 hours of training and thankfully, I seem to be pretty much fully recovered from my Forestman exertions. It was finished off with a really enjoyable ride around the Surrey Hills with some of the peeps from Tritalk (thanks, again, for organising it Phil). 75 miles completed with some hard efforts up Coombe and Crocknorth but I was able to get towed most of the way round. ;-)

I had been chatting to Phil during the ride about getting my run legs sorted in preparation for a future IM race. I have almost become scared of running too often, feeling like my legs are made of glass and that I must constantly be vigilant in case I bring on an injury that curtails my training significantly. Once again, I think it's a state of mind that I have allowed myself to develop and I need to have a lot more confidence. The fact is, my 'run' legs have not been injured for well over 6 months, so what's holding me back? Simple answer; me!

Phil had 2 suggestions based on his experience. Firstly, go out and run every day and build up my run volume gradually. The second idea was to enter an ultra marathon!

Well, the first point is one that I am going to attempt and should be well within my grasp. I intend to run every day between now and August 31st which is a total of  53 days from when I started at the weekend. I will run primarily by feel; if I need to run short and slow then I Will do so; if I can do 3 hours, then I will. I also intend to ensure that it's not all one paced and get some speed work going on. Some of my runs will also be brick efforts off the bike, both long and short.

Being a keen listener of the Marathon Talk podcasts I was really interested in the Comrades Ultra marathon and the idea of having a go at one really appeals; I'm not entirely sure that I can get to a state where my legs are bomb proof enough to run for 56 miles from London to Brighton, but my self imposed summer running challenge will at least kick start the process and get me running properly again.

Three days in and all good do far.....

A week in Recovery and beyond

It was a strange week, last week. The preceeding two months had seen me completing more hours of training than ever before and I had seen real gains as a result, particularly in the swim and bike, so to spend a week doing very little in terms of training was hard to do. The Forestman went exactly as I had expected it to but that didn't stop me being a little bit dissapointed with the last 5 hours of it, though. However, what brought me back down to earth was the reaction from friends and family that knew about the race. Gradually, over the week people found out, the word spread and I got more and more attention. I have to say, it was nice. :-)  There would be the usual glazed look as I explained the distances in each event; yes, completed one after the other; no, I didn't stop for a rest; yes, it hurt.

It didn't stop me struggling though. I went into work on monday and I was soooo tired, although not particularly sore. I ate and I ate and I ate some more. And I drank, constantly. I enjoyed that too! I had read a lot about people having post-event blues but other than the 'could do better' feeling, I have not had them at all and I have been itching to get back into some structured training, which has now, thankfully, begun.

But, I do want to do a lot better. I have learnt an awful lot from doing the Forestman and I have been genuinely surprised at the gains I made in a modest amount of time and it's shown me that I believe I can get a pretty fast Ironman knocked out; but talk is cheap. I need to put in the consistent hard work over the next year to achieve that and the last 8 weeks has taught me that it is possible for me to fit that in around work and family life. Not easy, but possible. Simon seems keen to do the Big Woody at the end of the season. I have decided that this is not for me. I am going to keep training, do a couple of Olympics and target an end of season HIM with a view to nailing that sub 5 hour time and then work towards an IM next year. I'd love to go abroad (IM Switzerland would be ideal if finances allow) but if not I would think that next year's Outlaw would be the race of choice.

I have always thought about what would be a perfect IM race for me and in light of the Forestman I have revised what I believe I can achieve. So, here goes;

Swim - Sub 1 Hour (Have done that at the Forestman but would like to get down to 57-58 mins)

Bike - Sub 6 (ideally 5.45). A tough one and if I am honest, I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. The long Forestman rides have really helped my speed endurance but I think I am going to need to keep the volume consistently high and introduce some really high quality sessions. Maybe I need to get out and ride in a faster group to push myself more?

Run. Sub 4 (ideally 3.50) I know I can do this but I have to keep my run volume consistent (3-4 runs per week), stay injury free and have quality sessions in there. I am plodding too much and not running regularly enough. I am considering getting a gait analysis done. It's obvious that I am very weak in certain muscle groups and this is causing me to get injured too often so I need to develop better strength and flexibility.

So basically, that leaves me wanting to complete an Ironman that starts with a 10. Yikes.