Well here we are, we are now live, and as you can tell by the title I want to begin with a brief overview of of 2011 and how I came to where I am now.
Unfortunately, I wanted to dedicate this first blog to my wife and new born baby, however, as we are still waiting and the little blighter is being as stubborn as his/her father, that will have to wait until a later edition, because it is through my own self realisation and advent of fatherhood, that I began to change my life around from the slob that I was to where I am now. That's where my motivation and self control came from, and if it had not been for this impending challenge, I would have been walking a completely different track.
It is now only a couple of days until the opener of my 2012 season campaign, which I must add, is going to be a massive year for me. Not only for the very first time have I got the enormous task of bringing a little child into the world, but only a year after I took up the sport, I am so proud to get the enviable opportunity to wear the Blue, White and Red Tri Suit of Great Britain in the European Triathlon Championships in Eilat, Israel, on Saturday 21st April.
Unfortunately, I wanted to dedicate this first blog to my wife and new born baby, however, as we are still waiting and the little blighter is being as stubborn as his/her father, that will have to wait until a later edition, because it is through my own self realisation and advent of fatherhood, that I began to change my life around from the slob that I was to where I am now. That's where my motivation and self control came from, and if it had not been for this impending challenge, I would have been walking a completely different track.
It is now only a couple of days until the opener of my 2012 season campaign, which I must add, is going to be a massive year for me. Not only for the very first time have I got the enormous task of bringing a little child into the world, but only a year after I took up the sport, I am so proud to get the enviable opportunity to wear the Blue, White and Red Tri Suit of Great Britain in the European Triathlon Championships in Eilat, Israel, on Saturday 21st April.
Bloody Hell! when I put it that way, it's only 7 weeks away!!! Am I ready for that? you better believe I am, never before have I felt more ready for anything in my life.
I said at the beginning of 2011 on Facebook, that 2011 was going to be my year, and it was. However that was last year, that was a different story, in a different book and its closed now. I have had a massive learning curve on a great introduction into a sport that only started out as a little bit of fun and a way to get in shape. This is now not just a little bit of fun: if any of you out there reading this are triathletes yourselves, you will know exactly what I mean when I say I have been bitten by the bug completely. This is not a game anymore, it is an obsession.
Show me some water and I want to swim in it, give me a bike and I want to ride it, and throw me a pair of training shoes and I just want to run for miles.
On Sunday 11th September last year I came home to finish the Newbiggin Bay Sprint Triathlon in 6th place overall, and 1st in my age category (35-39) to qualify for the Euros. I was taking no chances this time. I missed out on the opportunity to go to the 2011 World Championships in Beijing by not registering my intent to qualify for the team at the QE2 Sprint Triathlon back in May - the reason being that I was naive and had absolutely no idea that I had to do that, but also because never did I realise that I would take to the sport and improve as I had done throughout the year.
With Newbiggin, as I said, I was taking no chances. I applied for my British Triathlon membership and paid my registration fee the night of the World Championship qualifying event. If I could qualify there, I could sure as hell qualify for Israel - and that's exactly what I trained for, and succeeded. My 2011 season had come to an end with a great sense of achievement and massive national pride in more ways than one (which I will ellaborate on at a later date).
When you have been completely bitten by the bug of a sport and its crawled right under your skin, has anyone tried to detatch completely for 2 - 3 weeks without doing anything at all? Taking that opportunity to do what 'Normal' people do? it's pretty hard isn't it? well thats what i did, taking the opportunity to jet Charlotte away to a nice private Villa in Sanlucar, in the South of Spain, as a gesture of my gratitude for being so supportive and being the most efficient 'Soigneur' anyone could ever ask for. I strongly believe that she enjoys coming to watch and support as much as I do competing, for which I am truely grateful. If not, then I certainly wouldn't want to play a game of poker against her.
A great break allowed me to think about what I wanted to achieve and what I was going to plan for. At work, I have always been told: "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" so my training needed to take shape and be more specific and planned around my early season hopes for Israel and my season long 'Goals' - to qualify for the 2013 European Championships in Alanya, Turkey, and 2013 Worlds on the Olympic course in Hyde Park in London. Both these events, I intend to qualify for the standard distance race.
This "NEW" plan is a far cry from what this all started out as. A laugh, something to help me get fit, a way to detatch, an opportunity to beat two close friends at a race that they did for the first time the year before, The Liverpool Triathlon. As opposed to going out unfocussed, running 6 miles, because thats how far I had to run in the race, Swimming 1500-2000m because thats how far I had to swim in a race, and wheeling the bike out of the garage and setting off "To Get The Miles In". This is not how my training was going to be anymore. I needed help. I needed guidence. I needed to ask someone who has been there themselves, someone who has done it and in one of the most aspired races in the triathlon calendar, and someone who has not only bought the T-Shirt but bought the bloody tags to clip onto the dogs collars :-).
October 2011 saw my training concepts change for good, everything I had ever read, everthing that I thought I had to do was to change, and was to change for the better.
I was about to embark on a journey of making massive shifts in performance through focussed training.
September 4th 2011 - Just prior to Qualifying at Newbiggin, 73.7kg, 3.2watts per Kg of body weight.
I said at the beginning of 2011 on Facebook, that 2011 was going to be my year, and it was. However that was last year, that was a different story, in a different book and its closed now. I have had a massive learning curve on a great introduction into a sport that only started out as a little bit of fun and a way to get in shape. This is now not just a little bit of fun: if any of you out there reading this are triathletes yourselves, you will know exactly what I mean when I say I have been bitten by the bug completely. This is not a game anymore, it is an obsession.
Show me some water and I want to swim in it, give me a bike and I want to ride it, and throw me a pair of training shoes and I just want to run for miles.
On Sunday 11th September last year I came home to finish the Newbiggin Bay Sprint Triathlon in 6th place overall, and 1st in my age category (35-39) to qualify for the Euros. I was taking no chances this time. I missed out on the opportunity to go to the 2011 World Championships in Beijing by not registering my intent to qualify for the team at the QE2 Sprint Triathlon back in May - the reason being that I was naive and had absolutely no idea that I had to do that, but also because never did I realise that I would take to the sport and improve as I had done throughout the year.
With Newbiggin, as I said, I was taking no chances. I applied for my British Triathlon membership and paid my registration fee the night of the World Championship qualifying event. If I could qualify there, I could sure as hell qualify for Israel - and that's exactly what I trained for, and succeeded. My 2011 season had come to an end with a great sense of achievement and massive national pride in more ways than one (which I will ellaborate on at a later date).
When you have been completely bitten by the bug of a sport and its crawled right under your skin, has anyone tried to detatch completely for 2 - 3 weeks without doing anything at all? Taking that opportunity to do what 'Normal' people do? it's pretty hard isn't it? well thats what i did, taking the opportunity to jet Charlotte away to a nice private Villa in Sanlucar, in the South of Spain, as a gesture of my gratitude for being so supportive and being the most efficient 'Soigneur' anyone could ever ask for. I strongly believe that she enjoys coming to watch and support as much as I do competing, for which I am truely grateful. If not, then I certainly wouldn't want to play a game of poker against her.
A great break allowed me to think about what I wanted to achieve and what I was going to plan for. At work, I have always been told: "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail" so my training needed to take shape and be more specific and planned around my early season hopes for Israel and my season long 'Goals' - to qualify for the 2013 European Championships in Alanya, Turkey, and 2013 Worlds on the Olympic course in Hyde Park in London. Both these events, I intend to qualify for the standard distance race.
This "NEW" plan is a far cry from what this all started out as. A laugh, something to help me get fit, a way to detatch, an opportunity to beat two close friends at a race that they did for the first time the year before, The Liverpool Triathlon. As opposed to going out unfocussed, running 6 miles, because thats how far I had to run in the race, Swimming 1500-2000m because thats how far I had to swim in a race, and wheeling the bike out of the garage and setting off "To Get The Miles In". This is not how my training was going to be anymore. I needed help. I needed guidence. I needed to ask someone who has been there themselves, someone who has done it and in one of the most aspired races in the triathlon calendar, and someone who has not only bought the T-Shirt but bought the bloody tags to clip onto the dogs collars :-).
October 2011 saw my training concepts change for good, everything I had ever read, everthing that I thought I had to do was to change, and was to change for the better.
I was about to embark on a journey of making massive shifts in performance through focussed training.
September 4th 2011 - Just prior to Qualifying at Newbiggin, 73.7kg, 3.2watts per Kg of body weight.