Well I haven't updated this since my Abu Dhabi race report even though I have actually done a half marathon event since. This was probably because I have only just got myself out of holiday mode. I shall start with the lead up to the Marlow half marathon and include my race report that I competed in on the 23rd March, 6 days after I arrived home.
So I arrived home from my triathlon adventure on the 17th March. I of course was very excited to see the two boys I left at home; my lovely Larry Boy, the pug, and Dan, the boyfriend (yes in that order haha). I spent a few days solely with them but was not blending back into my normal routine easily. I wanted to be back in Lanzarote and felt like everything had been cut short. It was unlike any holiday I had been on - I was not ready to come home. I was living an amateur triathletes dream, why would I? After Tuesday and most of Wednesday it really was back to reality - I was doing a night shift. Thankfully though I only had 2 to get myself through, which I only just about managed. It was particularly hard to get myself back into the swing of things as we didn't have a flat anymore and are currently living Dan's nan's spare room. This is because we gave the notice in on our flat ready for the 'imminent' move to our new house which fell through last minute. Getting the motivation to sort kit out with little space wasn't what my brain craved. I craved calm and cleanliness (and La Santa). As I mentioned in my previous post I had booked the Marlow half marathon just before flying abroad and was doing it with my best friend Ele who did Silverstone and got the running bug. My thoughts arrogantly were 'It's only a half marathon' and would would be a good time to have a catch up. This bad attitude to racing remained the same even on the lead upto it.
As you may have been able to tell from my previous blog I was still feeling somewhat deflated about my performance and feeling quite low. The idea was to try and use the half marathon and competing again as a confidence boost. However, I woke up on the Sunday with a bad attitude towards the race and actually dreaded it. Ele was also going through a tough time in her personal life so she wasn't in the best mood either. There was one moment where we both considered moving down to the 10k but knew that lack of places we couldn't and although low I don't think I was that bad. I'm not going to give a huge race report into this one as it isn't one I want to remember. It was the most unenjoyable half marathon, possibly even event, I have ever taken part in. I discovered that the bad stomach I had struggled with in Lanzarote and Abu Dhabi was still there which made me constantly lacking energy and the weather and terrain just made it worse. Now I'm not one to complain about the weather and sometimes actually like a bit of rain when running, but this was hailstones. They were hitting my bare skin (I seemed to be the only one with exposed flesh) leaving me red raw. The rain that accompanied this made the off road route horribly muddy and as I wasn't wearing trail trainers felt like I was putting all my energy into running and getting nowhere. This was at it's worst at mile 9 - I knew I wasn't going to get another sub 2 hour time, my stomach was at it worst and I felt like I was going backwards and the thought of a gel for some much needed energy made me feel ill. When I looked down at my Garmin at this point I was practically going backwards in comparison to the achievable 6min/km I had decided to accept was my best that day. I had somehow within minutes dropped to 6m19 but felt like I was putting the same effort in as before. I have never felt as deflated as I did in that moment ever, why was I not moving? I kept pushing on through the increasing pain and managed to get past my despair, which had turned to anger. Before I knew it I had started an early sprint finish in the final 2 miles and was hitting 5min/km. I had no idea whether I could maintain this but I just wanted to finish and would seemingly die trying. I began overtaking many of the people who had done me throughout the race which felt good but for once I wasn't really that concerned. I used a final victim as my target to overtake in the final 200m and felt the sick rise from my stomach in the process. I crossed the line in 2h03, no PB but not bad, nevertheless I was not happy. Moral of the story I will never underestimate a half marathon again and will never enter an event on a whim, I have my events lined up for the year - NO MORE! After hobbling our cold and seized up bodies for some lunch in Marlow we chatted for hours (Ele had a lot to sort out to which I happily helped with). I was sad to see Ele go and this got me even more down. She was going through a tough time and needed me but I could do nothing as I had no bed to offer her and had work in the morning. I'm not sure if this event helped anything although Mark did comfort me somewhat by saying, "You are progressing nicely and have a lot of endurance within you that you will be able to use in Lanzarote".
This all said I have had some motivating factors that will hopefully boost my mood and increase my motivation. Firstly I got promoted and secondly discovered a new challenge I am going to do. Whilst talking at work I discussed Twitter friend Sophie Radcliffe (@challengesophie) who recently wrote a blog outlining how she rode from London to Paris (and got back) in 24 hours. I read it and it seemed a mad, cheap and achievable challenge for me. My colleague, Andy and occasional running buddy (although much faster than me) has got into cycling and recently bought his first road bike much to my persuasion. He was keen on this challenge when discussing it and so was I - that was the perfect recipe. The next day was had a date and the ferries were booked. So I am cycling to Paris (190 miles) on the 28th April with Andy, Dan, myself and possibly my cycling buddy, Jane. The date we have chosen is the day after Rosie's birthday and what a fitting tribute it will be to my lovely girl. Moreover, hopefully this will give me a proper motivation boost I crave. (And before you say that I'm contradicting myself as I just wrote about not doing things on a whim I can justify this one as it is not an event we are just doing it solo).
So I arrived home from my triathlon adventure on the 17th March. I of course was very excited to see the two boys I left at home; my lovely Larry Boy, the pug, and Dan, the boyfriend (yes in that order haha). I spent a few days solely with them but was not blending back into my normal routine easily. I wanted to be back in Lanzarote and felt like everything had been cut short. It was unlike any holiday I had been on - I was not ready to come home. I was living an amateur triathletes dream, why would I? After Tuesday and most of Wednesday it really was back to reality - I was doing a night shift. Thankfully though I only had 2 to get myself through, which I only just about managed. It was particularly hard to get myself back into the swing of things as we didn't have a flat anymore and are currently living Dan's nan's spare room. This is because we gave the notice in on our flat ready for the 'imminent' move to our new house which fell through last minute. Getting the motivation to sort kit out with little space wasn't what my brain craved. I craved calm and cleanliness (and La Santa). As I mentioned in my previous post I had booked the Marlow half marathon just before flying abroad and was doing it with my best friend Ele who did Silverstone and got the running bug. My thoughts arrogantly were 'It's only a half marathon' and would would be a good time to have a catch up. This bad attitude to racing remained the same even on the lead upto it.
As you may have been able to tell from my previous blog I was still feeling somewhat deflated about my performance and feeling quite low. The idea was to try and use the half marathon and competing again as a confidence boost. However, I woke up on the Sunday with a bad attitude towards the race and actually dreaded it. Ele was also going through a tough time in her personal life so she wasn't in the best mood either. There was one moment where we both considered moving down to the 10k but knew that lack of places we couldn't and although low I don't think I was that bad. I'm not going to give a huge race report into this one as it isn't one I want to remember. It was the most unenjoyable half marathon, possibly even event, I have ever taken part in. I discovered that the bad stomach I had struggled with in Lanzarote and Abu Dhabi was still there which made me constantly lacking energy and the weather and terrain just made it worse. Now I'm not one to complain about the weather and sometimes actually like a bit of rain when running, but this was hailstones. They were hitting my bare skin (I seemed to be the only one with exposed flesh) leaving me red raw. The rain that accompanied this made the off road route horribly muddy and as I wasn't wearing trail trainers felt like I was putting all my energy into running and getting nowhere. This was at it's worst at mile 9 - I knew I wasn't going to get another sub 2 hour time, my stomach was at it worst and I felt like I was going backwards and the thought of a gel for some much needed energy made me feel ill. When I looked down at my Garmin at this point I was practically going backwards in comparison to the achievable 6min/km I had decided to accept was my best that day. I had somehow within minutes dropped to 6m19 but felt like I was putting the same effort in as before. I have never felt as deflated as I did in that moment ever, why was I not moving? I kept pushing on through the increasing pain and managed to get past my despair, which had turned to anger. Before I knew it I had started an early sprint finish in the final 2 miles and was hitting 5min/km. I had no idea whether I could maintain this but I just wanted to finish and would seemingly die trying. I began overtaking many of the people who had done me throughout the race which felt good but for once I wasn't really that concerned. I used a final victim as my target to overtake in the final 200m and felt the sick rise from my stomach in the process. I crossed the line in 2h03, no PB but not bad, nevertheless I was not happy. Moral of the story I will never underestimate a half marathon again and will never enter an event on a whim, I have my events lined up for the year - NO MORE! After hobbling our cold and seized up bodies for some lunch in Marlow we chatted for hours (Ele had a lot to sort out to which I happily helped with). I was sad to see Ele go and this got me even more down. She was going through a tough time and needed me but I could do nothing as I had no bed to offer her and had work in the morning. I'm not sure if this event helped anything although Mark did comfort me somewhat by saying, "You are progressing nicely and have a lot of endurance within you that you will be able to use in Lanzarote".
This all said I have had some motivating factors that will hopefully boost my mood and increase my motivation. Firstly I got promoted and secondly discovered a new challenge I am going to do. Whilst talking at work I discussed Twitter friend Sophie Radcliffe (@challengesophie) who recently wrote a blog outlining how she rode from London to Paris (and got back) in 24 hours. I read it and it seemed a mad, cheap and achievable challenge for me. My colleague, Andy and occasional running buddy (although much faster than me) has got into cycling and recently bought his first road bike much to my persuasion. He was keen on this challenge when discussing it and so was I - that was the perfect recipe. The next day was had a date and the ferries were booked. So I am cycling to Paris (190 miles) on the 28th April with Andy, Dan, myself and possibly my cycling buddy, Jane. The date we have chosen is the day after Rosie's birthday and what a fitting tribute it will be to my lovely girl. Moreover, hopefully this will give me a proper motivation boost I crave. (And before you say that I'm contradicting myself as I just wrote about not doing things on a whim I can justify this one as it is not an event we are just doing it solo).
Another thing happened this week that made me acknowledge, finally, what I achieved in Abu Dhabi was when I went for a bike ride with Jane on Monday. As Jane has been tempted by the London to Paris challenge she wanted to test out how she would fair on a longer ride. So we went on a 100km ride around the unforgiving Chiltern's. Halfway into the ride Jane admitted, as the route maker, she couldn't have picked a hillier course had she tried. Some of these climbs even challenged Lanzarote I'm sure. Although admittedly we weren't pushing it we finished the ride in 4h19 - a full hour slower than my effort in Abu Dhabi! Obviously the terrain, climbs and non-race conditions would have been major contributors to this slower time, it did give me a nudge to not be so hard on myself.
A further thing that got my blood going and mind racing with excitement was that the Ironman Wales start list has been released. I know from what people have told me that analysing this is going to help as I can only ever focus on what I can achieve as that is the only thing in my control but I just couldn't resist. I printed out the list and googled the names of my other 10 competitors. This number has almost doubled from last year showing the increasing popularity of Ironman. Thankfully, from what I could research only one had done an Ironman before (Wales last year) and the others had some good sprint times but nothing I cannot rival with hard training. Maybe I missed some details but seeing that no-one was an age group champion was a huge relief and weight off my shoulders which means I really can just focus on myself.
So this weekend is my second triathlon of the year and my first in the UK. This is local to my parents in Andover and I did it last year so although only a sprint will be a good way to assess my improvements in a year (of which I hope there are considering I became an Ironman in it!). It's official the triathlon season has started. Here's to no weekends and constant chat about events! Here is to the next season, hope it's a good one especially with my restored faith (just about) in myself!
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