Saturday, July 26, 2008

No Training This Week

That's right, no training what's so ever this week!

Why?

Because a fairly typical thing has happened to me. You see a couple of weeks ago I ran a half marathon (in a new personal best time of 1hr 38min 25sec I might add, smashing last years effort by a good 7 minutes!), and then after a week of not really resting from it and staying really busy with life, I got sick.

I've spend a couple of days this week not even being able to talk let alone do any kind of training! And today, now that I'm finally feeling a bit better, we get hit by the biggest storm thats been seen for a decade! Suffice to say, I've stayed safely at home today, and probably will tomorrow as well.

Nevermind, next week's a whole new week!!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

New Goal, new blog (title anyway)

So the question which has been bugging me lately is "what does one do after completing and Ironman?" Obviously there are many many choices.

I could go ahead and do more Ironman races! Only problem is having to focus on three sports (swim, bike, and running) and doing A LOT of each was not going to do my marriage or family life any favours.

I could focus on the shorter half ironman stuff, less training, less commitment. That was a definite possibility. Only problem is I'd still have to put in 3 - 4 hour training rides on a regular basis - and therein lies the biggest problem. With a young family and a VERY busy life, cycling simply takes up to much time (at least if you intend on being on being competitive - and I just can't help myself).

I could always give up on the whole endurance sport thing ....pftttt, like that will really ever happen, I am who I am (a bit like someone else I know but on a much lesser scale).

So with a touch of reluctance I've sold my beautiful bike and have started concentrating on running. Its the one thing that gives the biggest bang for your buck (so to speak). While a long bike would be 4 - 6 hours, a long run (for me) is unlikely to be much more than 2 hours. That's quite a difference!

So having made that step, I needed a goal.

For a while now the idea of doing an ultra has appealed to me. I seem to be predisposed to going long (albeit slowly) and fairly minimal training - you just need to look at my Ironman results. I did a fraction of the training I probably "should" have done, and prepared in a fraction of the time I should have - yet got a very pleasing result.

Now I've discovered a 100k run which is part of a bigger relay run and have made the mental commitment to complete it next February (entries haven't opened yet).

This blog is now going to follow my progress to what is sure to be a very long day. More details will follow shortly!