Daz Does Tri

Sitting in waiting for a tiler this morning. The work that we need to do to our new house (it basically needs a new everything) is underway and I've a feeling mornings like this will becoming more & more frequent! Feeling a little tired, probably that welcome tired feeling you get in the middle of a heavy race load. I'm due to ride long(ish) today but I'm going to sack the ride off. I'll run easy later with the lads as planned then tomorrow short turbo & a swim. The plan this winter is to continue at around 12 hours per week and build a nice solid base. Working with those hours I need to make sure I don't start digging deep holes so when I feel like this it's time to back off and relax. I'm coming to the end of a nice 12 day block of training and I'm feeling like I've not gone backwards. Do some work, rest & check the results are going in the right direction. Do some more ect. etc. this shit isn't rocket science!

First time I've ever opened the live stream for Kona and I have to say WOW. What an event. Looking at T1 it just looks insane. Would love to go there one day to race but I think it's a long way down the line. As ever, it's a learning curve. My Iron PB is 11.48. Fair enough that's a million miles off where it needs to be in any Q race. I expected to go much quicker then but as long as I put the mistakes and lessons learned from Zurich into practice you have to believe I'll be a lot closer than I was!! So, this week I've again focused on swimming. 7.9 miles in 4 sessions including a straight 5km on Wednesday and I am really feeling confident. Targets are starting to feel comfortable and I'm feeling like I can push on. These last 2 years I have basically targeted 2.5 - 3 miles per week swimming but keeping that consistent around 10k and I think I will really start moving forward in the water. The target for Austria is 1.05 but realistically the dream target

After last weeks record TSS (1150) I've had a really easy cutback week this week. It's not been intentional but life has just conspired to it. I've actually been keen to crack out some big volume but sometime that just happens. Rather than get pissed and end up annoying everyone I've rolled with the punches, made the most of the family / work time and actually put in some decent sessions. Even for me the 450 TSS this week is low. However I'm really happy with what I've banked in that time. A total rest day Monday was needed after the epic bike on Sunday. Also being out the house for 14 hours at the weekend I needed to top up the emotional piggy bank at home!

I am an Ironman Been there, did that, got the tee shirt. And the towell, rucksack & all that branded toot that goes with it. Why on earth am I putting myself through this again? Last time I just wanted to curl up in a ball and stop moving forwards. All I could think about in those last few hours was to just keep moving, I didn't care about speed. It wasn't racing in any sense. It was surviving. The course had well and truly beaten me. And that's the rub. I can't take the fact that I didn't really compete. I got round, that much was never in doubt. What really got me was how unprepared I was, it was laughable that I could consider myself an Ironman when I was stumbling about like a piss head looking for a kebab.

Due to niggles & general CBAness to run, my first tri of the season was to be the Grafman. It's a great race for me because it's so local and I know the roads and terrain well. Last season I went pretty well finishing 5th in AG, this year I was really interested to see if concentration almost all my time on biking would make a big difference. Swimming has gone well considering I've only really been swimming twice a week and running was going to be the big mystery although I was hoping I could depend on my background a bit. Well, having done sod all running in the past 3 months I didn't really have much of a choice!

FINALLY, is all I can say in relation to the blog title. For anyone that knows me, the bike was such a massive disappointment last year and that rolled into the start of the year in the same fashion! My last blog post mentioned racing the Ely 25 at the start of Feb. Ouch the race was horrific. Hitting the first turn ay 8 miles or so in 21 mph avge was bad. My 5 min man passing me before 15 miles was very bad. Getting off my bike in 1.07:40 was the worst I've ever felt on what was effectively as much a float day you'll ever get in the start of Feb. However, I didn't tear up the wall planner like so many others have when results have gone bad. I knew the plan was good and it would take MORE dedication not doing something else to find the right result. What Ely really taught me was there really is no point trying to be competitive at Triathlon if I can't be in the top few on the bike. I can't swim quick enough and as much as I think I'm a handy runner even the B

I think the thing that I've taken most from January is - BLOODY HELL IT'S COLD !!! I have to be brutally honest and say that I have had enough of this. There have been rides and runs that I've been frozen to the bone and even walking from kitchen to the garage to do a turbo has left my hypothermic!

Happy new year to both my blog followers! Had a cracking 2 week break to Dubai with the fam Preston for my 40th and over crimbo. Stayed in Atlantis on the palm and it was an incredible place. Obviously ate and drank like a king and did a grand total of about an hours floating in the sea exercise wise. A break was definately needed but as usual my hard earned fitness had all but dissapeared by the time I got back.