A very different year.

My first blog for some time, due in the most part to never really having anything interesting to say.
Having some rather major events occur in my life of late has prompted a rather large reshuffle in the way that I apply my available time so I thought I’d share. Whether this does in fact make for an interesting read I’ll leave up to you.

I have, as most people who know me would agree been rather spoilt in previous years with an A) very understanding wife and B) Pretty much as much training time as I wanted(or cared to use.) In November last year this came to a shuddering holt with the birth of my son Ethan. whilst he is the single greatest thing to have ever happened in my life, he does rather hamper the time hungry racing cyclist.

My initial thoughts “sure I’ll have to juggle a few things around, maybe do some later turbo sessions, but it’ll be fine” .The list of missed races started to vastly outgrow the number entered. Training weeks were being missed rather than a session here and there…Strewth, how naive was I, this is impossible!

The impact was huge…schedules drawn up and binned quicker than the printer could pump them out. I went through every possible scenario including binning cycling altogether, well at least racing.

Finally when the dust settled from the whirlwind first few months after Ethan’s birth, I started to think a little clearer. All I really needed to do was become a little more organized and optimize the time I had available.

I needed an alternative to my normal diet of hours+hours+hours on the bike, something that would give me more bang for my buck!

Along came Hell runner….

A number of colleagues from Wiggle towers had signed up for what is essentially some swamp jumping, combined with LOTS of mud, sand and some icey water thrown in for good measure…oh and a spot of running. Being an ex servicemen I was sold on the mention of mud (I’m a kid at heart). Running too, could this be the answer to my training conundrum? Maximum cardiac effect in minimal time(comparatively speaking)

I was sold and quickly set to work on a new training programme, early morning Cross fit circuits followed by a run when I arrive home from work…training time per day 1.5 hours compared to the 2-3 spent on the bike. Winner!
This plan has, I’m pleased to say survived first contact and remained much longer than the countless number of previous incarnations, so I can say with some confidence it’s almost baby proof.

New horizons

Having represented my county as a youngster at middle distance and sprint events, running is not a new concept to me but physiologically i’m a rather different beast to that of a teenage me.

With a body shape which pretty much resembles a small rhino, my days of dancing along on my tiptoes to PB’s are sadly over. This leads me to my first point. When undertaking a new sport ensure you ease yourself in slowly with manageable workouts to avoid any injury. Point to note two, ensure that you are correctly kitted out with the right equipment for you and the conditions your training in.

Being a numbers obsessive and always striving for those “marginal gains” the next logical move for me was to find a training aid which would allow me to gauge my performance on this new optimized schedule.

Enter the Garmin forerunner 110. A truly awesome bit of kit, everything I need in an easy to read screen and absolute idiot proof usability. Good to go out of the box and you’ll be competing on Strava for KOM’s within two minutes of completing your first run.

New treads
……more on these once I’ve broken them in.

Five weeks to go…..then back on the beloved bike

I have now been off the bike for a little over 4 weeks in preparation for hell runner. Once completed the next task will be plotting and scheming on how I’m going to get myself fit enough in reduced training time to put My Ridley Excalibur to good use in the coming racing season.