Daves Random Ramblings

Months of training and following a marathon training plan I got from the McMillan running training plan led me to this past weekend in Brighton.   My training had really slipped in the last couple of weeks before the event so with a target time of 3 hours and 10 minutes, which is the "Good For Age" qualifying time for the London Marathon (being a 47 year old male). Alarm went off at 6am, straight downstairs for a bowl of porridge and some proper "leaded" coffee which I'd not had for the previous week (I switch to decaf everything the week before an event). Showered, contacts in, the bag was packed and we were on our way to Brighton. I'm glad my mum is as chatty as she is in the back of the car as it distracted me from the build up of nerves I was already experiencing.  Its like you've been studying for months for an exam and now you're on your way there.  In the intermittent lulls in conversation I was just zoning out and offering myself encouragemen...

As my friends well know, whenever I have a challenge that I need to prepare for, then the blinkers go on and its all about that.  Not to the detriment of work mind you. Obviously I'm STILL talking about my Guildford triathlon challenge.  Out of the three disciplines, in order of my strengths from worst to best its Swimming, Running, Cycling.  So the rationale I'm applying then is to concentrate on the weakest event. Step 1 was joining the Racestrong triathlon club which I wrote about in my previous blog primarily for some swimming coaching as it makes good sense to be taught by someone that knows what they're talking about instead of thrashing about in a pool, consuming boat loads of energy and potentially not even managing the challenge.  OK I know I can manage a 500 metre swim, I just want to do it as efficiently as possible which in my head means as fast as possible, or as I now like to say "Same results for half the effort" (thank you Rob Needham for that ...

Its strange when you think that you're making progress only to find that you've actually regressed.  Oh don't worry about me, I'm absolutely fine both physically and mentally (well the jury is still out on that one) I'd had an already interesting day by the time I got to the snow centre with Keegan on Friday evening (I'll get into that later) but by the time I got there I was quiet.  Claire picked up on that straight away and was asking me what was wrong, but I had no answer to give because, well, I didn't know.  I thought maybe it was the rushed day at trying to get things done in time? Maybe the traffic on the M25 for the Bank Holiday weekend?  Maybe the stupid disclaimer we had to sign to say that the snowcentre or Sixt wouldn't be liable for any intentional damage to the £50,000 brand new BMW X2 parked in the middle of the slope?  No, it wasn't those things although the last thing was and still is in my eyes "bloody stupid".  No, ...