Day 1 of Many

Last week I ditched my own triathlon training plan for this year in favour of someone else's because I trust someone else with some experience and not myself particularly much - having only done half ironman distance and not very successfully at that.  I didn't switch my plan for any old one but a published one on t'internet written by a bloke who does a magazine that I have read and who has lots of comments from people saying "thanks for this plan it really worked for me".

So now I have a plan.

As I wrote my plan in my diary last week I got to week 12 and really started to have the thought, "These days with two training sessions... that has to be an either / or session... really?  Doesn't it?"  No, it doesn't actually - it's both.  Deep down I knew it but I'm not sure I wanted to believe it.  I know now why Smithy only does these every other year.

It's a 20 week plan so that leaves me 6 weeks t'other side of new year to fill before I start the official plan.  "SO", thinks I, "I can spend the next 11 weeks getting myself up to speed so that when I actually start the 20 week plan, I can manage the volumes of training".

So this week is week -11 of my 20 week plan and as Monday is a rest day, it's day 1 today  (technically I started with a 8.5 mile run on Saturday just to make sure it was worth me resting on Monday).

This morning I got up nice and early to go swimming but as I pottered down the stairs in my fluffy dressing gown and slippers and heard the rain on the porch roof I concluded that I really didn't feel like swimming today.  Still, I took a lead from Ali C and decided to determine just when I am able to swim at Ponds Forge in a 50 m pool - so much more valid and enjoyable than the 25 m option.   Result - Tuesdays evenings - giving me the perfect excuse to swim in the evening, not in the morning.

I did my bike to work which I am starting off at 30 minutes (conveniently this is how long it takes me to get to work) with 4 x 25 s sprints in it.  Proper sprinting on a touring bike laden with swim kit but we did it and were suitably charged up for the day by the time I got to work.  First result, first tick in the box, first training session in the bag - what a feeling of being on the road to success.

The training course of today came and went and alarmingly I got to the end of the day feeling relatively full of energy and ready to go.  Even the ride to Ponds Forge left me feeling only mildly hungry which I washed down with a bottle of gooey sugar drink.

Few people were swimming - or it might've just been that they were spread out over a longer length but I only got passed once and had to pass twice.  The lengths scrolled by.

One downside of a 50 m length is when the watch misses a lap (odds suddenly become evens), I think to myself, "I'll just do 2 extra to make sure I've made up for it".  Two extra laps is 100m!  SO I've done a 1700m swim tonight and I will claim sitting on a fast man's feet for 4 lengths as my 4 x 25m sprints prize.  A second tick in the box.

I'm not saying that this Ironman training lark is going to be a piece of piss but I have managed day 1 and I have survived.  Not only that, I am looking forwards to day 2 which is shaped like a 3 mile run before work.

I don't exactly feel sprightly now but I know I'm going to sleep and I hope if I sleep I wake up happy and ready to go out.

It's going well and I don't think I can wish for better than that at this point.

First swim of the year

I rode to work this morning. I wanted to do an early swim but someone wanted an 8.30 meeting so I had a lie-in till 6.15 instead.

Andrew wanted to do Sheffield Friday night ride. TBH so did I but I wanted to swim more. A long strength session to work hauling a large gear and swim kit, laptop & lock then a full day of panic.

That feeling that when the day is over, doing one more thing will save you getting into trouble because you wont forget it Monday morning. Well, I had three things. All done I wobbled to the pool hungry and churned our nothing more than 30 lengths on a bottle of dubiously weak protein drink from a machine. Still, I felt like a fish, swam at a decent pace and really really enjoyed myself. 6.30pm on a Friday night would be THE TIME to go for a swim for me. With everyone else going down the pub. Perfect.

I was brave about the ride home. Went straight up through town and up to Walkey. No mincing about in the Hillbsborough valley. Even with the laptop and now soggy swimwear on the back.

This is one Friday night out I might be repeating.

A race

There’s a race.  I want to do it.

It’s a big race, it’s a long race, it’s a hard race.  It’s one of those “…est in the country” kind of races.  I want to do it.

It breaks all preconceptions of what I feel I am able to do and yet it has got under my skin and so I think am going to do it.*

There are rules to me writing about this race.  I'm not discussing it with anyone.  I've told only certain people that I am thinking about doing this race.  Those are the only people I want to talk about it with.  No one else knows about this race or if they do (because they've read about it here) they don’t need to talk about it with me.  They can ask how fit I am or what I'm doing on Friday, or Saturday, or Wednesday, but not how my preparations for the race are going.

I could start a new blog so that no one knows about the race but then it wouldn’t be Trepid Explorer and me and this blog are so intertwined now there’s no leaving this race out of this blog or leaving this blog out of the race.

I don’t want to fail.  I don’t want to have to tell anyone I’ve failed.  That said, I won’t fail just because I’ve told no one that I’m doing it.  I will fail through pure failure, if I fail.

If I don’t fail… I might just tell everyone that it was a success.

*  One of my friends at work who I respect a lot said that if you think about a race then you have to do it and that is the law.  I am tempted to believe her.