It's not 3 individual discilines

I was reminded at the weekend that triathlon is not 3 individual disciplines. As you know I find swimming a challenge but now know that with hard work I can get myself through the required 2.4 miles.  My flexibility holds me back in one way but helps in another.  You see I have inflexible ankles (as well as ham strings and shoulders!) which doesn't allow me to point my toes away when I swim therefore my feet act like anchors!
However one of the swimmers in the group was explaining that she finds the running difficult as she has stability issues when she runs due to having flexible ankles!  So you may win in some aspects and lose in others.
But the key is being able to pace yourself throughout the race getting the balance between trying to get a good time yet not "blowing up" in the race.  This is where your training comes in and shortly I will be starting my ironman programme which will continually be measured against my heart rate.  In business you may be good at one discipline but "one trick pony's" rarely succeed.  You need to combine different disciplines and continually put in the hard work to improve you skills while measuring against relevant benchmarks.  Funny how triathlon and business are so closely linked!

Monsoon season continues

I had planned a longer run this morning with Gareth who is doing Ironman Lanzarote  with me.  Unlike the rest of the UK which was bathing in sunshine, it was chucking it down.  Within 50 yards of the start our feet were soaked as the water flowed off the fields and across the roads.  We ended up running 11.3 miles but I didn't know how far we were going as I wasn't familiar with the route.  It's hard keeping a pace going when you don't know where the finish line is and in future I will run with nutrition to keep fueling my body which is essential.
It was a good work out and I need more of these as I have a 16 mile race at the end of the month.  Now to refuel and start the recover process before getting on with some household chores - normal life returns.

Flexible mindset

They say there are two types of people; those with a fixed mind set and those with a flexible mindset.  I see myself in the later group and will explain how it works.  Today I went out with the ATHelite group of cyclists.  Here are the challenges we faced and what I thought.
Started in fog - I'll fit my lights when I get home to make sure I'm safer in future
We had heavy rain which wasn't forecast - a chance to improve my bike handling skills
One of the group had 3 punctures - this was not only a good refresher in how to change a tyre but a serious reminder about attention to detail.  Had we paid more attention it would only have been one puncture, not three, as a shard of glass was hiding in the tyre!
Long stretch of road covered in farmers muck - another chance to practice bike handling skills.
Slower pace than normal - more time to concentrate on technique.
You get the drift of the benefit of having a flexible mindset.  Those with a fixed mindset my not have got so much from the day.  When something happens to you, you have a choice as to how you react.  Today when we stopped for the third puncture and the heavens opened it would have been easy to feel sorry for yourself, but we still had 15 miles to go so we made the most of it.  We also supported each other which is important in a team.

Technique, technique, technique

Very early morning start to drop my son off at school for 6am as he was flying out to Spain this morning for football training.  As the other parents were returning to their beds I headed off to the pool.  None of my tri pals were there so I spent the first 15 minutes warming up in the pool but I could feel my right shoulder with every stroke.  Then one of the ATHelite coaches turned up and he made a few observations and suggested a change in my technique.  It felt odd at first and then I realised I had no more shoulder pain.
Simple body mechanics but not so simple to put into practice.  The ideal thing about this session was I was under no pressure to go fast against the clock or chasing other swimmers to avoid being lapped.  I could swim in slow motion and concentrate on the new technique and feel what was happening.  It will take a long time to make this the norm but now I have the picture in my head I will strive towards it.  Perhaps the message today is that in order to improve you need to get some outside help and then take time out to work on the improvements.  Certainly helped me today - thanks Colin.

London calling

I'm just back from 2 days in London on business.  While there I wasn't able to train but I took the opportunity to rest my sore shoulder from the swimming and spread the word about the new Mission Ironman website - www.missionironman.co.uk .  The feedback has been very positive and the encouragement from everyone I talked to was fantastic.
So many people are following my journey on the blog and have started their own journey which is one of the objectives of Mission Ironman.
Tomorrow I'll be back in the pool and am hoping that with some TLC my shoulder will get over the shock of getting back to swimming.  If over the weekend it is still sore then it will be back to the physio as I don't want to make it any worse.  The good thing about triathlon training is that if you have an injury that prevents you doing one sport, then you can concentrate on the others.  So spread the word re the new website and lets see if we can get the message out to a wider audience.  Thanks for your continued support, it drives me on.

If it doesn't kill you......

Back in the pool tonight, it was hell but it had to be done - man flu or no man flu.  It is always tough getting back in the pool after a lay off and it hurt.  Just before UK 70.3 Ironman I was swimming well and completing 3,000 m was relatively easy.  Tonight I'd be lucky if I completed 1,000 m and had to switch lanes otherwise I'd have held the real swimmers up.
I've a lot of work to do before I will be comfortable back in the pool but there are no short cuts.  I need to continually push myself because in 7 months time I have 2.4 miles to swim followed by 112 miles then a marathon.  So if it doesn't kill you it must make you stronger.

Preparing for Ironman

While suffering from "man flu", and everyone understands how serious that can be,  I was reflecting on my journey over the last 3 years and how this has impacted on how I think and my expectations.
I didn't start out to complete an Ironman, it just seemed to be a natural progression for me.  Fortunately I met people who knew what they were doing and they guided me along the right path.  It's like putting your body (and mind) through a scientific experiment - you are constantly monitoring the effects of your training and nutrition.
Having completed one I am now preparing for the toughest Ironman "where normal limits don't apply" - Lanzarote in May 2012.  I have more knowledge and experience so the next 235 days leading up to the event are going to be interesting as I prepare mind and body.  You see I am not ready for the event now.  If it was tomorrow I wouldn't finish it within the cut off time and would probably end up getting medical attention if not hospitalised.  This type of endurance event requires you to build up your body and continually convincing your mind that you can do it. I understand this process now so when people ask me how can you complete such a long event the answer is simple - you built up to it.  But most importantly it's about believing you can do it even if at this moment in time you couldn't. Now for some more lemsip!