Let's get it started.....

Well I've finally decided to take the jump and do a race. The race I've chosen is the Try-a-tri Athlone:

http://www.triathlone.com/index.php?id=42

For a beginner this looks perfect, a 200m swim, a 20k bike ride and a 5k run which should ease my entry into the world of triathlon. The race takes place on July 18th 2009 which gives me approx 15 weeks of training. Considering that I could easily swim 200m, am regularly cycling 10K and would feel that a 5k run is well within my ability it looks like one I couldn't say no to!!

So now that I've chosen a race my training will have much more of a focus. My swim training will be much more about speed over 200m rather than distance, my cycling will be initially building up to 20k and then working on endurance while my running will all be focused towards dropping my 5k time. After the first couple of weeks I will introduce "brick" workouts e.g cycle followed by a run and towards the end of my training I will add a couple of transition practice runs.

Now that the date is set I feel excited and motivated for what is to come and the brighter evenings and better weather will only help to fuel my motivation for training.

Till next time.....

It's been a while......

Well it certainly has. Things just have a way of catching up with you and after a period of consistency it all fell apart again. Goal setting is all well and good but you need to be able to look out for the bumps and turns in the road as well.

After a period of extreme boredom in work it all kicked off and lead me to be as busy as I've ever been. This caused me to be unable to fulfil my goal of updating the blog once a week. A couple of bad training weeks have seen me unable to fulfil my goal of training in each discipline once a week. To be honest I've also been poor at drinking more water and taking the Omega 3 oils. Only the daily dose of B-Vitamins has been a constant in these turbulent times. These setbacks have only served to make me more determined than ever to get back to doing what needs to be done i.e. training.

I've been looking at my diet over the past couple of days and have come to the conclusion that it is not helping my progress. To that end I have decided to cut out the crap in my diet and implement a new eating regime based around whole foods, fruits, vegetables and lean meats. I will try to supplement with protein shakes where possible to ensure that I'm taking in enough protein (especially on training days). As a reward I will allow myself a cheat meal on Sunday. I once read an article in which the England Rugby squad were given a 90-10 regime in which 90% of what they ate (and drank) had to be healthy with the remaining 10% for treats. This seems perfectly reasonable to me and may be something I will look at in the coming weeks however to start with I will stick to one cheat meal a week.

With the warmer weather and brighter evenings moving in it will soon be time to bid the gym farewell and get outside for the running training. This should prove to be a nice distraction for me following my working day and commute and hopefully as I get fitter it will be something I will look forward to rather than dread!!

See you again real soon.

Same ol' same old....

Well a combination of (more) illness and ridiculously bad weather have combined to knock my training off kilter once again. It's frustrating as every time I think things are going well something knocks me back. Whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger though so I'm just going to get back on the horse (or the bike) and keep plugging away. At this stage in my training consistency is the watch-word however I will be looking to introduce a bit of quality in the not to distant future.


I am introducing a phased approach to my training leading up to this summer's race season. My initial goal was to complete one triathlon and get the six pack I've been longing for however I feel that this may not be enough. Although it's still early in the year I feel like I will have to commit to an event soon and once I have registered and paid for it it will become more real. I'm also thinking that I may manage to compete in more than one event.

Sports wise my training is coming along nicely in both cycling and swimming, I have been neglecting the strength training however this is something I will resolve today. My weakest area is the running. I was a sprinter in my youth and the idea of running long distances goes against my build however I think I just need to log the miles for now and try to get some consistency in my training and hopefully I'll soon be doing 10k runs for fun!!!

My new short-term goals are:

1. Train in each discipline (swim, bike, run, strength) at least once a week but add in an extra run to bring up my weakest event.
2. Drink 8 glasses of water a day
3. Take B-vitamins and Omega 3 daily
4. Decide on final list of events for this season
5. Attend at least one training session with Tri an Mhi
6. Update blog weekly

That's it for now. Until next time.....

New Year, new me........

Well a belated Happy New Year to all!!!


Unfortunately I have been ill with Bronchitis for a couple of weeks so it has taken a toll on my training however my bike arrived and I managed to test it out over the weekend on a couple of (very) short rides. I'm looking forward to a 10k ride on Saturday to fully test out the capabilities of both myself and the bike!! I'll also be back in the pool on Sunday to see how the couple of weeks off has affected my swimming.

I spent a bit of time revewing the race calendar on the Triathlon Ireland website and have picked out the following as a provisonal race listing for me for the next 4 months:

15 March; Duathlon, Naas
5th April; Bupa 10k, Dublin
6th May; Duathlon, Dublin
30th May; Sprint Triathlon (Tri-Athy), Kildare (http://www.triathy.com/)

A couple of short distance (3.2k run, 20k bike, 3.2k run) duathlons broken up by a 10k run leading up to my first triathlon and giving me 17 weeks in total to prepare. The May date also means that hopefully the swim (which takes place in a river) won't be too cold!!!

If all goes to plan 2009 is going to be a great year for me both personally and professionally. On a personal note I'm hoping to acheive my twin goals of completing a sprint triathlon and getting a 'six pack', I'm also looking forward to re-decorating my house and trying to win big in online poker after studying and absorbing the three volume Harrington on Hold 'em as well as David Sklansky's Theory of Poker.



On a professional note I am hoping to commence studying to become a Personal Trainer with ACE which can be completed by home-study. I am also in the process of setting up an online retail store, initially on E-Bay but eventually with a stand alone website. I hope that this will eventually become my full-time carreer and will enable me to do the majority of my work from home. This will enable me to spend more time with my Family. Speaking of which, my wife and I will be adding another member to our brood come August so more to look forward to!!

This also means that I'm going to have to try and complete any races that I plan on doing by then as once the baby arrives my available training (and racing) time will be reduced.

I will be updating the blog more regularly from now on as my training moves into high gear.

Bye bye for now.....