End Of Week One And Still Alive
I am amazed at how quickly our bodies
recover from the absence of exercise. Over the last ten years I have, like
many, worked too hard, drifted from a good to a not so good diet and lost sight
of my goals. (As well as putting on a few pounds) The recent collapse of the world economy has meant that we have
needed to focus on the things that are important to us, our families and also us as
individuals. In short, I had lost my way.
As I have said before, last year I
discovered that I could exercise and have fun and more importantly, I
discovered a sport that I wanted to keep going with, Triathlon. The mistake I
made last year was not training enough. I thought that last years event was a
one off and that I would chalk that up on my Bucket List and move on. Turns out
that while I never liked running (even in the Army) I enjoy the fact that is
part of the whole, so suddenly running is fun because it is a means towards an
end. Swimming I have always loved ever since being a small child and swimming
at school and the Army level.
I always had a bike as a boy but beyond
cycling around Norfolk (England) in school holidays, I did not see it as
anything other than a form of entertainment or a way to go fishing.
So, the end of first
week:
The challenges I have had are with the Bike
Leg mostly. The issue is that where I ride right outside work, it has two sets of lights
on a 2 ½ K circle route. I can hit both lights up and back (4 Times) on each lap, so I have
never really been able to judge how well I am doing. I am moving the cycle part
to a route near home where I have a 5K outward-bound run and then also back the
same. There is a light but at worst `I would only hit it twice.
Swimming on the other hand has seen the
best results with my 100 metres coming in under 2 minutes now. My 400 metres
looks good at 9.5 minutes. The training has developed to a 400 metre warm up 16
X walks and sprint swims and 100 metres timed to get in under the 2 minutes. My next move
is to add two lengths completed in under 3 minutes then the following week
build up to 4 lengths and so on until I have the hundred metres down in 8
minutes.
My running is going well (I was never a
strong runner or fast, even in the Army) I sometimes wonder how I ever became a
PTI. But, I knocked 45 seconds off my previous time and I am going to work on
my running in a similar way to how I work on my swimming. Break down the
training into bite sized chunks and build up to the 2 ½ K which at the moment
sits at 17.40 My goal in training is to get it down to under 16.
I
rested yesterday and today and I am going to completed the Cycle leg and the
run leg back to back on Sunday using my new 5K route.
In all, a good week and I am happy with my
work and the results. Onward and upward.
Go For Your Dreams
