If you arent part of the solution you are part of the problem.

Triathlon Training Blog, Thursday, August 6th, 2015

Photo courtesy of Frank Whittle Photos

So . I did the half on Saturday . I pushed it. I didn’t have a complete rest Sunday but did cheeky km in the sea.

Monday in the pool 3k hard set trying to increase power. Work . then a 4 times 10 mins sweet spot interval session at 90 % Ftp. This turned out to be harder than it seemed. 270 watts for 10 mins on the turbo. Sounds easy. I mean I can hold 300watts for an hour. Sweat is pouring out of me and I’m working hard for this. 4 mins recovery between efforts . Where I just sit there . Drive up to prince Phillip 2 c Justine .No message received

Tuesday

2.6 k in the pool power set again. Work .Then an interval set on the treadmill. 10 mins warm up then 10 times 2mins @ 18.5 kmph( about as fast as I can go for 2 mins) looking for the end of the interval after 50 seconds. 1 minute recovery between 2 min efforts.AFter the 10 sets i’d done 9k so ran the last km at 17.5 kmph to finish the 10k in 42 mins 20 secs . Like all Hiits you wonder about a third of the way through how u are going to do the remaining 2 thirds. After set 4 all the other treadmills are empty ,set 6 I’ve almost cleared the room. Seems no one is comfortable. Bet I’m the most uncomfortable .I load it up to strava and see Dan Mumford has done the same set but not as many as ten reps. Dan knows his stuff and put quite simply is a better runner than me. I’m still not making a connection . No message received

Wednesday

Day off the pool . Was considering one of 2 things. Racing the velo 10m tt tonight or cycling to Llanelli to c Justine whose in hospital. Its pissing down , so the turbo wins. Rushing now . Endurance set 1 hr at 230 watts with 4 20 second sprints mixed in there. I’m working for this too. Drive to prince phillip. No message received

Thursday . 2.6 k in the pool with the tri lot. This went okish 800m time trials.work I n the morning. Bail and sleep all afternoon. Wake up feeling worse and still think about doing the NBCC 10 mile tt. I contact Fabulous . He says its ok to take the evening off, which is a comfort. I often go to Fab for advice and then ignore it. Usually . But on this occasion message received finally . You’re fucked son. time to rest

Just fucking sit there.

I would consider fabulous as the closest approximation to a friend I could have. I would still set him on fire just to see how he would deal with it. Be an interesting reaction I think. Anyway his closing snippet of coaching advice was and I quote ‘ the road is long before it bends’ there was a silence. I think the reaction you would normally expect was to nod sage like to hope the wisdom that you have just been adorned with will somehow rub off on you and u will become as wise.

‘What the fuck does that mean’was what I said . He said he didn’t know either he just liked the sound of it. Tool.

It does seem ridiculous in a lot of ways and if I survive this little chapter of my life I’m sure I will look back and think. ‘That was a bit ridiculous. I often have chest pain. Sometimes I think I can actually feel the upper valve in my heart ( tricuspid or bicuspid ?can never remember ) splutter and fawlter , complaining and rumbling away. What do I do ?Ignore it. Like an ailing diesel engine . Still not a bad way to go. I’m sure im not alone. Self analysis is sometimes a good thing but maybe not so much so if u are going to do nothing about it. So what drives us on. Why do we find it so difficult to stop? Fear of not doing enough. Fear of not being good enough . probably. I blame my parents .
I’m sitting here feeling guilty. Its not even a full day off after quite an intense week already and a tougher weekend planned.

Just fucking sit there!!

So now I am sitting in front of the tv , something I rarely do. I’ve been here an hour and have adopted a donkey and a snow leopard and am thinking about a stannah stair lift .it seems like a handy bit of kit except I live in a bungalow.

I have pulled my finger out a bit this week and brought some books. For reading like. Means I’ll go to bed earlier.

Still long run planned for the morning. Racing Saturday and Sunday. ‘I don’t want to die but I ‘m not keen on living either’ a quote from one of the greatest poets of our time. Robbie Williams.