Whats been, what is and what's to come.....

For so many reasons its been a long time since I've updated my blog... Or website for that matter. Many of them are technical (IT related) ones, but having spoken to various people recently, it seams that people DO actually read this so firstly "Hi" (Cathy, Dan & Cathy, Eddie, Ben) and secondly thanks... I'll try to be better with this in the next few months.

Well 2008 has been a pretty rough year all said. My first year full time has coincided with my first ever real injury and some pretty drastic health problems. I'll try to cover most of it in this post so it might be a long one - serves you all right for telling me you read this ha ha. I'll split it up into what's been, what is and what's to come....

What's Been...
Thus far my first year full time has been anything other than "Professional" - certainly in terms of finances & winnings. Starting the year with tendonitis in the hip meant that bike and run wise I was off to a bad start. Happily however Lanson Running (www.lansonrunning.co.uk) have come onboard to support me alongside Saucony Shoes and these problems are now in the past. My swimming was on the up though, but when I came to racing I was struggling...at the time I thought I was just missed fitness from the injury. In hindsight though, the deep exhaustion I was feeling everyday wasn't a result simply of the training. I was finding myself struggling to manage 17 hours of training a week. I simply put it down to the "reality of life as an athlete" and set about training MORE.

Come mid June and my two main focuses of the early season Austria 70.3 and Switzerland 70.3 came and...well went...BADLY. For some reason I was barely able to even FINISH one of these races now, let alone think about doing well or winning them (despite winning numerous shorter races). Training was getting harder too and general energy was on a downward trend. It took me 6 months of the year to see it and look for it, but something was clearly wrong.

I won't go into it here...as I've board most of you with it all in person anyway ha ha. Some blood tests, doctors appointments, injections and other advice all ended up with various changes to my lifestyle and nutrition. Within a few days I could feel the difference and by the end of July I was once again feeling back to normal. Though it can take time (months or even years in some cases) to get over stuff like Gluten intolerances, the general trend was an upward one. I no longer felt shattered all the time, training more than an hour at a time wasn't an uphill battle and more than 20 hours in a week didn't leave me bed ridden for a day! The goal for the year had always been the World Champs in November again and hopefully a top 10. By now all I wanted to do was qualify after the first 7 months so my coach and I picked a race in August and set about trying to get that slot....

What is....
I headed over to New Hampshire USA once more after my last, successful trip there in 2006. Timberman 70.3 is a great race and offered the chance to see some good friends again too. The race itself might have well have been a world champs with the amount of top class Pro's there but I was excited about racing and actually feeling remotely strong again. My good friend Chrissie Wellington (www.chrissiewellington.org) was also going to be there so it would be great to spend some time with her in a year where she is CRUSHING everyone in her wake! (including the men in most races.... More to come on this...)

I had a great few days in the Greystone Inn, Gilford. Seeing Dan and Cathy again was fantastic and bumping into other familiar faces made it a really nice few days. I felt pretty good leading into race day and had managed to avoid any gluten so I was optimistic about the race itself.

Race day dawned hot and sunny. Another disappointing swim (my pool times are still hit and miss as far as "showing up" in a race!) was followed by a solid bike as I anxiously waited to see how I felt coming off the bike...I came into transition less than 5mins off the leader and in 6th...this was more like it, but would my energy problems be there again. Thankfully I knew within about 3k they weren't and I held a nice steady pace over as I moved into 5th during the first hilly 5k, aiming to slowly build it up over the last 10k. Then.... BANG! On the way back at about 9k both my hamstrings went into rigid cramp! :-O I couldn't believe it. I had to stop and stretch. I had enough energy, but couldn't push the legs too hard or it came roaring back. Nursing the cramp for the remaining 12k of the run I came home in 8th. Pleasing in many ways as it was so much better than everything else so far this year, but disappointed as it wouldn't be enough to get the Worlds slot; and humbled as during the cramp attack Chrissie had pounded past me and I'd not been able to catch her back up... For the first time ever I'd been beaten by a girl (OK, so she's World Champ, a generational "freaky" talent and I'm not the first man to be beaten by her this year).

It was both satisfying and disappointing. The Worlds would have to be missed for a year as the remaining races to qualify at are all too far away (for my bank balance anyway ha ha!).

I'd have to console myself with trying to defend my National Title in September and re-focusing on next year being PERFECT - no injury, no sickness and achieving what I believe I'm capable of!

What's to come...
Fueled by the deep disappointment of the year I've looked to see what I can do to ensure next year and the years thereafter are all they can be. The offer to spend some time with Chrissie, her world leading (often wrongly maligned and criticized) coach and some of the members of their "team" TBB, was just what I was after. Some time in the peaceful, idyllic Swiss alps would offer me some space to think things through too. The year so far has left a lot of ...."clutter" in the gray matter that needed sorting.

Brett Sutton has an undisputable track record of training champions. Over the last 30 years he's done so on the track, in the pool, in the ring, on the race course and now in triathlon. Right now there is no one better in my opinion than him to seek for advice. Coupled with the "space" I wanted I was optimistic that my time there would have a HUGE impact on me for next year on onwards. I wasn't disappointed....

Without going into too much detail (maybe another day), I've got a new perspective on me as an athlete, training generally, life in "this sport" and my future in this sport. My self belief is still strong, though he makes no time for "blowing up your backside" for the sake of it i.e. He won't tell you you're great to make you feel good... And he didn't with me either. He simply told me what I'd need to do, that it would be INCREDIBLY hard, require a HUGE amount of work and that really I was starting 5 years too late.... Nothing new there then ;-) oh and one other thing.... That I need to start doing Ironmans....:-O :-D

Aside from Bretts insight, thoughts and advice that I've been fortunate to have and will I believe, go towards making next year an exciting one, I also got some really good time to think about things and coupled with fresh words from the "Doc" (Brett) I've got a really good desire for everything again. My belief had never really gone, but I think I'd lost sight of how to make it a reality. I'm chomping at the bit to get started on building towards next year now... I almost just want to get the Nationals out the way so I can get cracking :-) exciting times....

So there it is. I do want to add a HUGE HUGE thank you to those of you who have help me, especially recently in some generous ways that serve to keep me humble and grateful to you all! I hope to be able to "repay" all the support and help in the near future in more ways than one.

So it’s back to reality now. I'm going to look to do some work again to get the financial side of things ticking over. If possible get something going that will help maintain me next year too. God continues to bless my church (www.eternitychurch.co.uk) too and we're moving to a new BIGGER venue so there’s work to be done there. God willing, everything will fall into place in the right way to allow forward movement in all aspects of life. With my girlfriend moving down to Surbiton, at least I won't spend half my life on the M4 now too! Ha ha

Spring 2008 Update / Making Changes

Well, after a very disappointing race over in California compounded by getting food poisoning the next day just before flying home, I’m back into the swing of things again; And at last this year I feel like I'm properly training. The hip flexor injury I suffered from December last year to mid march has completely gone now; largely due to changing my trainers. Having bought another "make" which should have been very similar to my Asics, but £20 cheaper, it took me till the end of February to realise they were the culprits and had created the problem. My frustration at this is obvious, but putting a positive spin on it all, without the injury I would never have realised the difference in my swimming brought about by the enforced increase in pool time due to the injury.

Having reflected on a lot of things after California I’ve made a few changes to my training plan. You can see exactly what my typical 14 day training cycle looks like in the training section of my website. In short though, I’ve done a lot of thinking about what hasn’t been working recently, and what has. Or rather, I’ve looked back at when things HAVE been working and tried to re-order things to re-introduce that “stuff” that “worked”. Its funny, but over time you slowly begin to drift away from thought processes and sessions or structures that had been getting results. Trying a new thing, tweaking here and there and before you know it, 6 months have passed and suddenly things aren’t what they once were and you’re not where you thought you’d be.

For example, my running has always been my strongest discipline of the 3, but over the last 12months this has dropped off somewhat. There are a number of factors to this such as my old job, letting other commitments get in the way of training sometimes. But I’ve realized that actually my training structure had changed from when things were going well and I was very much improving on my two feet. This is where the beauty of logging things over time comes into play. Being able to go back and look at what I was doing then, the things me and my coach were working on is truly invaluable and has served to jog my memory and redirect me hopefully back on track.

I’ve used the time off (due to the food poisoning) to do this for every part of my training. Asking myself, what’s worked, when, why and what’s changed? When was I at my best in each discipline? Out of this and working through it all with my coach we’ve hopefully hit on a few real nuggets that will see tangible improvements across the board in terms of performance and results.

I’m now really excited about the next 6 weeks leading up to Austria 70.3 and Switzerland 70.3. if I can get my previous PB levels of performance in each discipline, to all come together at the same time I KNOW I can see a breakthrough performance and this excites me!!! Already after only 2 weeks of returning to “the things that worked” I’m feeling stronger, faster and generally fitter.

This is after all my first true year as a “Pro” and so I need to very much think, live and train like one. Hopefully these tweaks will bring me back in line with how this should be for me in order to get the results I believe are possible.

Stepping Out

Well its now only 4 days until I officially start what I plan to be the next step up the ladder in triathlon and leave full time employment. I've been very blessed with the job I've had for the last few years, having generally flexible hours and days and a boss who's understood it if I’ve come in 15 minutes late because I'd been training before work. But in order to make the progress that I want to and believe is within my grasp, I need to make this move and start training full time.

I've reached the point where I just won't be able to challenge right at the very top unless I'm doing what they (the top athletes) are, so this triathlon malarkey has to become my full time job! I'm definitely NOT doing it for the money... I'd stay in IT for that... Or the fame... Lets face it awesome athlete that he is Tim Don doesn’t have the recognition that Lampard, Wilkinson or Hamilton can claim. The very fact that I only need use either their first or last name and most people would know who I'm talking about is indication enough of this. No, I'm doing this because it’s been my dream for A LONG TIME, it’s something I truly believe I can do and I guess most importantly it’s something I feel I SHOULD do.

Whilst it might sound likes it’s going to be a nice life and easy going I can assure it will anything but. Yes being my own "boss" will mean I run to my own schedule, but ask anyone who's set up the own successful business and they'll testify to the hard, HARD graft that they've put in to make it happen. And that's what I’ll need to do too. There will be little if any room for ill-discipline from now on. Missing sessions won't just mean not doing so well at my next race, it will mean not getting PAID at my next race! There will be no room for looking out the window on a cold, wet windy day and deciding not to do my 100 mile ride....because I just don't feel like it.

So how will I be filling all this time then? Well my training plane will be expanding a little resulting in my training up to 33 hours a week. Yes I KNOW it’s not a 42hr week most people work, but trust me, that will be more than enough. Look at it another way, that's nearly 5 hours of train a day, every day, day after day. On top of that training will come probably the most important use of this extra time....recovery i.e. sleep! This might sound like laziness, but it’s vital if I'm to be able to ask my body to do this amount work. Getting off my bike after 85 miles and needing to do a 15mile run just won't be possible day after day (my training won't be this repetitive) without making sure I'm sleeping a total of about 12 hours a day.

So with all this in mind the first goal is Clearwater, Florida and the World Half-Ironman (70.3) Championships. This is in mid November. Hopefully some of the benefits of full time training will have taken effect by then. If I can perform well there, then not only prize money, but extra sponsorship and race funding support will all make my life as a professional much easier (in other words I’ll be able to feed myself ha ha)

My next blog will be as a full time athlete :-) no doubt I’ll be moaning about the rubbish British weather, but deep down I’ll be loving it!

Perseverance and faith DOES pay off......

Anyone who knows me (and/or reads this blog at all) will know that my Achilles heel in racing has long been my swimming. Ever since I started in this sport, I've lagged behind most people in the first part of any race. The higher the level I've competed at, the more this has impacted my races and results. It doesn't matter how well u ride and run at elite level, if your swim isn’t any good u don't stand a chance. It’s even more important in the shorter Olympic distance races where drafting is allowed.

I have many targets for my training and race performance; some short, some medium and some long term goals. One of the big ones that I've put down at the start of each year since 2004 has been "swim an open water sub 20 min 1500m". In elite races the best in the world do it in about 18 ish mins... I've been used to coming out in about 22-23mins, effectively making my race over before it’s begun. So my short to medium term, realistic (I felt) goal was to get this down to 20 mins. Many people felt it was a waste of time and that quite frankly, with swimming being such a "feel" and "skill" based sport, out of my "late starting" reach. I however have always believed that I could. If I'm ever going to be truly competitive with the best in the world, it HAD to happen simple as that.

Now I've been working very hard to achieve this over the last 3 years. I've seen some improvement for sure, with my time dropping to the high 21min region but it’s been slow progress. Its taken days and days, hours and hours of work....10's of THOUSANDS of lengths in pools. Still though it wasn't happening as quickly as I wanted or needed if I was going to get to the level I believed was possible, any time soon. However despite all the evidence suggesting it really wasn't possible and that I should settle for mediocrity I've persisted and truly believed that I COULD do it and more importantly WOULD do it. Most importantly, I've spent hours praying about. I know that god hears these prayers and I believe that he answers ALL our prayers though maybe not in quite the way we expect, or quite when we'd like it either. But I trust that he knows only the best and isn’t limited by my small thinking. If I'd not done the training then I don't for one second believe it would have "magically" happened, but God doesn't always work like that. Often the answers to prayer come slowly and require us to do stuff (which undoubtedly God helps us to do as well).

In this case I've been hugely blessed in the last 3 months to hook up with Alex, my new swim coach. He is doing a masters under my coach (Bridgette Swales) at Roehampton Uni. and it turns out that Alex is a Greek Olympic swim coach :-)) Completely for free he's worked with me on my swimming every week for this time. Despite the mountain he no doubt felt we had to climb when we first started working together he's helped me move from "drowning rat" impersonator to "looking like a proper swimmer" and actually feeling like I was too. However u choose to look at it, he's had to help me and I've had to do the hard graft to make the improvements but I truly believe that this has been an answer to prayer.... Heck how many people have you heard of who just happened to get an Olympic level coach devote their time and energy to them, for free! If I was a rower, it would be like getting Sir Stephen Redgrave’s coach to help me out!

Last Sunday I did a 1500m (just under a mile, or 60 lengths in your local pool) open water swim race. For those who don't know, open water means outside but not in a pool. In this case it was Eaton colleges rowing lake. There are no lines at the bottom of the lake to follow (like in a pool). The water isn’t crystal clear, yes there are fish and probably duck pooh in there somewhere but what you gona do ;-) I've got a big race coming up this weekend where many of the best guys in the world will be racing and it’s been pointless for me to do it for the last 2 years simply because my swim was too bad to make it worth my while. Last Sunday I swam a time of 20.15 mins! Not only was this a HUGE new PB for me, it was also well within my limits (i.e. I feel I could have definitely gone faster). I can't begin to tell you how satisfying this is and also what I means potentially. For the first time I can look at the best in the world and believe that one day soon I’ll be able to compete properly with them. It also gives me great encouragement that all this time working towards the goals I have hasn't been wasted and delusional dream chasing.... I can now see, not just believe, the reality of my goals.

Whilst I'm not some religious nut who wants to bash a bible round people’s head (I’ll leave that to those dodgy satellite channels ha) I know that none of this has happened or will continue to happen without my faith, dependence and trust in God. It will continue to take more work, more time, more focus to reach my next target (19 mins) but I know that through God all things are possible and that someday soon I’ll be writing another entry into this blog describing achieving that goals too. When this happens, the Olympic dreams suddenly start to become VERY VERY realistic!

Balance

Training stuff first.... Woke up this morning and my pulse was down under 30 beats a minute.... That's VERY LOW and a good indication that I'm pretty tired (from training) right now. This is a good thing though and it feels good to be back in this place again. It’s very satisfying to know that you’re doing the training, your bodies working hard but you can keep going. I knew this would happen about now as I’m on week 5 of a 6 week training block. This would normally be the easy week in my 5 week cycle, but with London Tri just over a week away, not being a massive priority I decided to stretch myself a bit. Partly to see how I race carrying fatigue and partly because I'm targeting the national champs in September as my next goal, so London is more about testing stuff out.

Not least of which will my swimming. It continues to feel better and better by the week. The work I’m doing with Alex is really helping & for the first time ever I’m optimistic about my performance in an Elite race swim. There will be some of the fastest swimmers in the world at this race for sure, but if I can see the magic 20.xx on the clock when I come out the water I’ll be overjoyed. That's been a massive target of mine for a long time.

Apart from that, training continues to go well. My nasty run session with my coach on Tuesday had to be altered slightly in order to finish it and keep the quality. with the tiredness in my body, it was no real surprise, but I backed it up with my favourite long hilly ride of about 90 miles in a time I was pleased with. This is the kind of stuff that tells me the "zip" I said was missing, is now coming back. I actually feel strong again. With 7 weeks until the nationals, this fills me with great excitement.

So to the main subject....

The other day I wrote (but didn't post) a blog about balance. Not physical, but life(style) and the choices we make that effect it. On the way to work this morning I read something that reminded me of so many things, its impossible to put them down in one post... Probably in less than 10 ;-) I’ve been mulling over the ins and outs of my training and racing, recent failures and general unbalance that I’d allowed in my life & its impacts. But the letter in a Tri magazine I read this morning brought home to me what is ACTUALLY important....

"I have lost so much in the last year. However within our memories are also all the reasons we have for not doing things: I am too old, too fat, too out of shape. I don't have the time. What if I suck? What if I'm too slow?

One thing I do know is I have the time I have today. It is all I will remember and I'm going to remember it by doing something I cannot ever forget, whether it is getting married, running a marathon, doing my first triathlon or going to school. I have forgotten all the reasons not to do it"

Made me realise what balance truly is. It’s not making sure you plan everything better, accommodate everyone & their needs more, or satisfy you own needs more. Though undeniably those things can help make up "balance".... But I think true balance comes from knowing down inside that what you are doing, today, right now matters.... It counts; it will make a positive difference to you, your world or someone else in it.

Carl Lewis (great American sprinter) once said that "it’s not quite true to say 'you CAN be anything you want to be' but rather 'you WILL be what you want to be." By this he meant that the decisions we make reflect what it is that we truly want and therefore define if we are balanced or not. We might say we want to do something, but if we don't make the choices to move us towards that then actually, deep down its not what we REALLY want.

This simple concept has really challenged me in the last week or so. What do I want and do my choices result in actions that move me towards that. There have been some pretty tough questions to answer and maybe some answers I didn't like..... But then I have the power... To make new choices that can change this.... It’s ALWAYS my choice!

Some of these choices might not make sense to others right now, or even for years or more but if they move me toward the goals that I believe are important then they have to be made. I'm pretty sure that the more I try to ensure that my choices fall in line with this, the more balance will come back into the equation.

My final thought on it all and my new tag line when making choices "it’s not about being efficient, it’s about being effective"