The reasoning behind the madness!

The reasoning behind the madness!

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UPDATE! 25 Oct 2010

It is with great sadness that I write this update. On the 25th October 2010 my little sister sadly passed away at the age of 31. She had bravely battled MND for 11 years. She had never given up and had achieved to much even after developing MND, winning the Open University award for achievement to gaining a degree. She will be greatly missed and will for ever be in our thoughts. Love you sis :D

Well where to start, it was all originally done as I was carry to much weight and wanted to loose it. Which I am sure it most peoples story begins, however after loosing the weight I actually started to enjoy running outside. Joined some forums (BCTTT & Runners World), there inspiration and helpfullness has helped me a lot. Now I am also swimming and commuting a couple of times a week to work on my bike! Now since 2011 I accomplished more than I thought I ever would or could. From 5k runs to an Ironman in 2014 and The Outlaw in 2015. In 2016 I am going down a different route, I will be trying Ultra's as you can see from my events I have already entered 3 so far. Now I thought wait a minute I need to have one more motivation and that people is my sister Emma. Since the age of 20 she was very unfortunate and developed MND (Motor Neurone Disease), she is now 31 years of Age. Her health has deteriatated over the years and we nearly lost her last year. My mum had to give up her work and become a full time carer for my sister and my dad takes over the duties when he comes home from work. All the races I do will be in aid of my sister and all money raised will be donated to MND to help raise awareness and research in the disease. Thanks for all your help and enjoy my training blog,

Thursday 23 January 2014

Journey to Ironman 2014

Well my training is full steam ahead. 20th July is D-Day where all my training will pay off.

I started with my coach Jason Walkely in November and under his guidance I am improving in all aspects. I started with my CSS 100m @ 2:20. I do not want to even know what my 10 mile TT time would of been. Something around 30 mins I would of thought. My running has not been too bad, however though my pacing is what has been dreadful and not being able to keep to a certain pace has slowed me down in half marathons.


Here is a few of my training times

5th Dec 2013

Had a 20 min TT (run) which I managed 2.54 miles my average bpm was 163.  Of course the day had to be the worst of the week with tree's down and the pavements being icy. However though I did need to walk a couple of times as I was knackered.

8th Dec 2013

Then had to endure a 10 mile TT (Turbo) This took me 23 mins 47 secs, legs were done for after this. I should of recorded what gear and what my cadence etc was but that was all in hindsight.

15th Dec 2013

Time to do my first CSS test. I was to do a 1000m warm up of various drills/strokes etc. Then I was to do a

400m - 8 mins 38 secs
200m - 4 mins 16 secs
50m - 54 secs

So my CSS worked out to be 2:11/100m. So I set up my tempo pro for 32secs per 25m

19th Dec 2013

I had a run test to do, so I could work out what my pacing should be :D. My pacing was all over the place in the first mile I did it in 7:04 (fastest mile I have ever done) second mile was 7:51. So need to work on that. Plus never managed to get my HR. Eventually I worked out my pacing should be

Marathon Pace 8:46
Threshold :- 8:12
Interval:- 7:28 that was hilarious working out that one. Must remember only 60secs in a min not 100
Easy :- 10:11

21st Dec 2013

I had another 10 mile TT (Turbo) this took about 23 mins. Again I should of recorded more data which I was annoyed about since I forgot the first time I did it grrrrrr.

Then from the 5th Jan - 19th Jan I had training every day of various degree's of been knackered. Even managed to misinterpret some of the training myself. Yup I won the tit of the year award, as I tried to use a calculator for working out my interval time. So it gave me 6:24 I could not even get near it by 30 secs (yes I did try) then I realised what I did and rectified it for the next training session DUH!

This week I have done another 10mile TT (Turbo) and a CSS test. I wonder if l have improved well data is below

21st January 2014

10 mile TT (Turbo) I am pleased to say I did take more data and yes I did improve on my last time. 21mins 45secs. I had it @ 190 watts and my cadence average was 100. I was always in the BIG gear and sitting about middle of cassette (will update with exact one). Overall I was happy with this, I know it is not a true account of cycling outside. Weather, hills etc but at least I have something to work to :D.

22nd January 2014

CSS test day. This was going to be hard to gauge I was suffering with a bit of a back strain. Did my stretch's then again did my 1000m of swim drills/strokes etc then off to the races. I started the lane on my own which was great. However during the 200m TT I had 2 people doing the breast stroke. Had to slow down till the end of the lane and then go for it again. Results

400m - 8:04
200m - 4:02
50m - 52 secs

CSS @ 2:01/100m
So I managed to knock 10 secs off my CSS swim time.

So overall I am heading in the right direction. I will now try to keep you more updated as it seems there is a bit of interest on my training and how I am progressing. From my first Sprint Triathlon in 2010 @ Galashiels, where I was just starting out and could barely swim/bike or run I have improved to the stage that I am now training for an Ironman. Steve McLean I blame this all on you :D. However though without your help I would not be where I am today so for that I say thank you.

I know Yvonne, Erin and Rebecca are having to endure a lot with my training etc I am grateful for it and it is their encouragement that keeps me going when I am having bad/off days.

Till my next installment.

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