Lazy day

Left at 8.45am to take my son to Kelvinhall as he was competing in 800m event.  Considering his lack of training with the bad weather he did well.  However I couldn't muster the energy to train myself and the roads and pavements were too icy to consider running.  So took a rest but need to get back on the bike.  In the pool at 7am tomorrow.  Hope you all faired better with your goals this weekend?

Had enough of the white stuff!

This is getting to be a pain.  4 inches of snow so restricted training to a turbo session.  Worked up a sweat but rather suspect getting the car out the drive may be a bigger effort, even with a "quattro" system - but the kids want fed!  Thank you for all the emails, and posts, telling me about your goals for 2011.  Remember if you make it public then it helps you achieve them!
Mr Baldy is checking with the doctors if he is allowed to go swimming due to the risk of infection.  If the answer is yes then game on, the training for his novice triathlon will be starting soon....what a man, watch this space.

Quality time

In 9 weeks time I am off to Lanzarote with some real cyclists for a hard week of training.  It will be nice to ride on some smooth roads but I need to get into shape for this intensive training or it will be hell.  Since Ironman I have hardly been on my bike and I am certainly not venturing out on the icy pot holed roads here so I have to make do with the turbo trainer.  I was scheduled to train tonight but with my wife at a yoga course, one son socialising and another at football I decided to have some father / daughter time and we went out for a chinese.  Excellent company, fantastic food and I promise I'll put in an extra hard session tomorrow to make up for it - honest!  It pays to give your body a rest sometimes and life is too short to miss such an opportunity.

One Life. Live it.

One life. Live it.  This was the sign I saw on the back of a jeep today - fantastic.  Busy day driving to Manchester and back so I will have a light training session in the pool tonight as I help my son prepare for his Lifeguard award.  Unfortunatley he takes his swimming style from me but he wants to achieve this award as it will be good on his CV plus it's handy to have as he wants to work in sports development when he leaves school / college. 
Remember those days when you had the freedom to choose the direction you wanted to go in? You still can.  My motto is "want it, plan it, work it, do it".  The "it" is personal to you.  For me other than the challange of bringing up a family, having quality time with my wife and running a successful business I have a few goals for 2011/12.  The main goal is in May 2012, Lanzarote Ironman - one of the toughest in the world due to the terrain (hilly), the temparature (35 degrees) and the wind (30 mph).  This will be a good guage for my 2013 - 2014 goals which culminate in Marathon Des Sables - a 6 day, 151 mile endurance race across across the Sahara Desert - that should raise a few £s for charity!  Is it possible?  Time will tell but anything is possible if you put your mind to it.  One life. Live it.

Back to work

We always start the new year off with the best of intentions but the hard bit is keeping them going.  As I drove to the swimming at 6.30am this morning the radio adverts were all about losing weight, giving up smoking etc etc followed by the sad news that Gerry Rafferty (Baker Street) died at 63 - I think I'll stop listening to the news.  A short innings but a reminder to make the most of it - well perhaps not as much as he did!  So I put an extra effort into my 500m warm up, 15 x 100m intervals, 200m kick drill and 100m warm down.  A pint of chocolate milk and two bananas and I'm ready to start 2011 - start off the way you mean to go on, enjoy.

Review of 2010

I wasn't my intention to continue my blog but then again I didn't intend going beyond Ironman!  Thank you for all the encouragement over the year and we managed to raise £9,000 for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.  However unbelievably someone was inspired by the mission ironman story and donated £9,000 to Maggie's at the end of the year.  I do not know who this generous donation came from but wanted to say a heart felt thank you.
Life after Ironman was strange, it was like falling off a cliff.  No focus, no daily tasks to complete, I felt "lost".  Sure I had plenty of other things to do like spend time with the family, which was great, and run the business but something was missing.  Getting back to training was hard as I "couldn't be bothered" and anyway, what was the purpose?
Many lessons were learned over this period which I will share in due course but I'M BACK!  I've trained over the Xmas break and had a 7am session in the pool this morning that left me feeling great, assuming that means knackered and realising I have a lot of work to do on my swimming.  I have some big challanges lined up to 2011, 2012, 2013, 2104 and will share these shortly.
The highlight of 2010 wasn't completing the Ironman, it was Mr Baldy getting the all clear from his cancer treatment having battled extremely hard.  Let's hope Mr & Mrs Baldy's life will return to normal and he will come through on his promise of training for a novice triathlon!  Now there's a story worth following.

Final post

Exactly a year ago I eased myself off my bike having just completed the Strathaven 50 bike ride in 3 hours 35 mins - I was walking like John Wayne and said to a friend "What have I done? I have entered an Ironman competition and in 12 months time I will have swam 2.4 miles, cycled 50 miles, then need complete another  50 plus another 12 and then run a marathon!"  It's fair to say I had my doubts but I had promised Maggie's I was going to do this for them so there was no going back.
It has been a privilege to take part in this journey.  It has been hell at times, there have been some real lows particularly in the swimming and some of the long,cold and wet bike rides but I find myself fitter than at any stage in my life, and mentally stronger.  It's fair to say I learned a lot about myself during the journey. Without the expertise of my coach Steve I would have failed.  No amount of will power would have paced me during my training and educated me on fuelling the body.  To my friends and training partners who have suffered with me thank you for getting me there.  To my sponsors you have been so generous and by the end of this week we will have raised approximately £9,000 which in today's climate is unbelievable but charities need all the help they can get. 
My final thanks goes to my long suffering family.  I don't think they realised what I was getting involved in and neither did I.  They have missed me at weekends, nights out and I've had to train while on holiday.  I have woken them while sneaking out the house at 5.30am to go training and on the day they were there for me screaming encouragement which got me there.  Crossing the line with my 3 kids was a dream come true.  Without this support it would have been impossible so a massive thank you and I promise, I won't take on any daft challenges in 2011......but there is always 2012!  That's me, signing off and thank you for the interest you have shown and the encouragement you have given.