Fortunately to rescue me from this slothfulness I have committed to running the Horsetooth half marathon in Fort Collins with a friend in early April. This looks like it will be a fun race, the first couple of miles are uphill and then it’s all downhill/flat to the finish at the New Belgium brewery! Hello sweet pint of fat tyre waiting for me at the finish ? …i will need no further arm twisting to be talked into doing this race. We actually ran the hilly section of the course last weekend after a 2 mile warmup consisting of slipping and sliding through mud and ice around a lake (with me ending up horizontal on one occasion…no witnesses fortunately for my ego!). The climb itself ‘monster mountain’ was not too monster-like…just one foot in front of the other and looking at the scenery and we were at the top in under 20 minutes (no fat tyre waiting at the top unfortunately!).

This past month has actually been an emotional one for me on a personal level. I think that the constant level of high psychological stress led to me having a severe headache which hung around for almost a week before turning into a fever and general miserableness. Going through this episode, it has become very apparent to me how interrelated our physical/mental and spirit side really is…if one side of us is unwell the others cannot function optimally either. This led me to resolve that i need to pay more care and attention to my non-physical being if I expect my physical self to be powerful and fast. I am now feeling a lot calmer and as a result this week I am back to training with a newfound awareness and appreciation.

My main goal for the next few weeks is to be consistent with my training. This has always been an issue for me in the 14 years that i have been doing cycling and triathlons (yes it really has it really been 14 years!!!). My modus operandi to date has been to get super motivated and train gung-ho for about a week or two with a crazy number of sessions penciled into my diary…then predictably the wheels start to fall off…..i get tired and start to miss a session here and a session there and WHAM i am back to square one. Not this time (heard that one before..but REALLY THIS TIME!!). I am going to plan fewer sessions and make sure they are all ticked off with a smily face ? instead of being furtively erased from my diary pretending they were never planned…its on (really it is this time!!!)

Ciao for now people…In the next few weeks I will hopefully learn how to put pictures on my blog so then i can waffle less, after all doesn’t a picture tell a thousand words?

Stay safe out there

D

Ok so here we go here we go here we go…… I want to keep this blog to chronicle my journey to the 2010 Arizona Ironman both to keep me motivated and accountable to keep my ass on track and for any individuals who may be interested. This will be my second Ironman but the first (Australia 2007) was a royal disaster which saw me hobbling across the finish line with a fractured foot in just under 14 hours..I could write a book on how not to do an Ironman, I was in a bad place mentally and psychologically, physically undertrained and burnt out….so i am hereby reclaiming my Ironman virginity and giving it a second shot.

So when is this thing? the actual race is not until November, the weekend before Thanksgiving nonetheless (gotta luv the race director’s timing, I will eat a whole turkey by myself), so its gonna be a long slog of training, racing and adjustments here and there. My main races planned so far for this season include

June: Riding from Denver to Aspen 200miles (320km for you metric folks) which will be an awesome way to build a decent base, suffer some and get to know some of the lovely folks from OUTspokin’  (www.outspokin.org) a bit better

July: Triple bypass 120 miles in the Colorado mountains over 3 mountain passes….I did this ride last year and had an absolute blast!

August: Boulder half ironman, I will hope to find an olympic distance race before this one but the Boulder half will be my first hit out to see how my new way of crossfit training (more about that in a future post) translates into long distance triathlon with a chance to modify training if its an absolute disaster!

Dunno about Sept-Oct yet: might do some low key running races etc….will see how goes!

Phew, what a relief to get this first post down! I am so excited about this journey and will try and post at least once a week. I will be sharing this iron adventure with the ironmoose an Ironman virgin himself with enough contagious enthusiasm to power a whole team…anyways till next time

Ciao, train hard, play harder, enjoy every moment that life offers…..

D

Cheers!