For most of us now the race season is well and truly behind us and thoughts guys move onto next years events and goals. For me I have had a bit of break and done some easier unstructured training, reflected a little on the year and started to think what I want to achieve next year.
2017 was Overall a season I was pleased with, it certainly had its ups and downs and lessons to learn but I feel I have finished it a better athlete than I started. The end of the year though was a bit hit and miss and with some similarities to 2016 I struggled to regroup and finish well. I was very pleased with my race at 70.3 Weymouth which showed promise and progression in swim and bike but Ironman Barcelona certainly was a let down and left me a little deflated with Ironman racing and vowing not to go back into one again until I am much more prepared.
Looking ahead to 2018 there is one overriding goal…….RUN FASTER. No matter the race distance I need to be a better runner, my swim and bike are getting there but the run lags behind. My best Ironman run is 30 minutes behind the best in the world and my half around 10. Ultimately not good enough! So the plan, from now onwards I will be coached by Mark Pearce of Intelligent Triathlon Training. A guy with incredible knowledge and experience and someone I trust fully to take me to the next level of performance. As for racing the goals are 70.3 based, my long term goal is to qualify and race at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nice, France 2019. This is almost 2 years away but gives me time to do the work I need to put in a competitive performance.
So that leads me to this blog, from now on I will be writing every couple of weeks with updates on what I am doing. I will keep the “living the dream” title going and want to give a bit of an insight into what I do. Recently I have read a great couple of articles and listened to a couple of podcasts with pro triathlete Lesley Paterson and her husband Simon Marshall who have just released a great new book called “the brave athlete, calm the f*@k down and ride to the occasion”. It’s a sports psychology book with some great concepts and explanations of common scenarios endurance athletes face and techniques to overcome them.
One that stood out to me and I am as guilty as many others is the fact that social media and what we put on it is 99% of the time things we are proud of, show off with and generally show our best side on. I know for me the pictures I post on Instagram show a great workout or a great race result. Never do they show me when I fail, am sat on the sofa eating too much ice cream or can’t motivate to train well. I want these blog updates to be a bit more “warts and all”. Yes I am very fortunate that I get to do what I do a lot of the time and travel and race but there is a lot that goes into it and contrary to popular belief I go through the same struggles as everyone else! There are days when I fail, can’t be assed, feel to tired etc so all of that will be included!
Happy Training and here’s to a great winter and P.B’s all round in 2018
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