Fresh Start (sort of)

Ahhhhh, I knew I'd got a blog hiding around here somewhere. Now where did I put that duster?

It's been a while, more than a while in fact and to be honest there's still not a lot to report. Training starts NOW!........... I hope.

So....... my Birthday came and went, Christmas came and went too. I've got a pretty new Garmin and other goodies to play with, so now I just need to get back in training.

I think I can finally say that after 6 months my bike crash injuries are pretty well sorted. I can still feel it pull occasionally when I'm walking the pup and she charges off trying to yank the lead out of my hands, but that's about all. I'm 6lbs heavier than I was at this time last year and that (along with my general fitness) is showing in my run times. My training is well down too, by the end of February last year I'd done 100hrs, I'm currently sat on 33.5hrs for 2013. Most of this deficit is down to my massive lack of cycling, just 4h10m this year compared to 57hrs in the first two months of 2012. In fact I've only sat in the saddle NINE times since Ironman Hawaii which was NINETEEN WEEKS AGO! I suspect that I might need to improve on that a little. Combine that with the lack of training since my crash and it's been a very barren 6 months

Sooo, on to racing!! We've now got a ParkRun here, it's great fun although my times have just been enforcing the 'fat and unfit' diagnosis. I ran Braunton 10 and was 3mins slower than last year, it seemed everybody was well off the pace though due to the mental headwinds on the return section. Then just last week I raced and won (other than a relay team) Taunton Aquathlon. Yes, that's right I won............. BUT........... the win really just disguised the fact that after running REALLY hard I was still a minute slower than last year when I ran really tired after training 5hrs the day before. Had any of the people who beat me last year turned up (and maybe some that I beat) then I'd have been well down the field. You can only beat the people that turn up though and I'm more than happy to claim a win in February :-D

Since Taunton I've taken a full week off training because of a three week old knee injury that happened when I was running off road and twisted it slipping in the mud. It's not a major issue but it is annoying and I've decided work annoys it more than running does so I'm back on it from tomorrow. In fact I'm considering tomorrow to be the start of my athletic year. I need to get myself moving again, I need to lose some weight and I really need to remember what my bike is. Thankfully my swimming hasn't suffered too much in my slack half year, my running has and I'm dreading finding out how much bike fitness I've lost. It'll be 'fun' finding out I guess.

Onto the future!! Well my next 'race' (outside of Parkrun) is Taunton Marathon in just 6 weeks time. I'd love to say I'm going to avenge the 3:00:00 Finish of last year by knocking out a 2:xx:xx this year, but I'm a realist and it's not going to happen. On previous form and IF I manage to get a few solid distance runs in then a solid 3:15 will be very nice thank you very much. Then I've got another 8 weeks where I really need to find those bike legs because Shelly's brother is getting married............ the problem is he's getting married far to close to the venue of the Outlaw Half for me not to enter it and have a play. Of course I won't be expecting miracles, a half Iron distance Triathlon will be enough on it's own after being at a wedding all of the previous day, it'd be nice if I was confident enough that I'd got the mileage in my legs to get round in one piece though. It'll no doubt be fun (torture) though and I'm actually quite looking forward to it........

Now where did I put that bowl of celery soup, fatty???