Evening all,
I hope you are well? Apologies for the long break between blog posts, life has unfortunately gotten in the way. When I started this blog I intended to make it a weekly thing, 18 months and 4 posts later I think monthly is more appropriate!
To update you on the life that has gotten in the way: In October 2015 I left my role in sports development to go into leisure management (slightly better money and slightly more secure), I spent 7 fun filled months as part of the management team at the largest leisure facility in the north west. Then, in April I left there to join a play centres company as Operations Manager (Fancy title eh)! As with my previous jobs I am loving what I do, no two days are the same and I am once again back out on the road as I look after three sites, I enjoy this aspect as I don’t like being in the same place every day. In terms of my personal life, I am still engaged to and madly in love with my fiancé. We still live in a small village in Cheshire with our dogs (Shitzu Rosie and Jack Russell Minnie). I am still loving fitness training however at the start if this year I made the decision to take a year off from competing as my body felt completely broken and in need of repair after 4+ years of nearly constant training. That said, I am going to be taking part in Rat Race Coast to Coast in September, I cant wait to get back to the land of my forbears and run swim and kayak across it! As with last year, the focus will be on getting across without too much emphasis on the time taken to do so (As long as I make the cut offs I will be happy). Time for a shameless plug here, I have also started an online coaching and PT business so if you want any help with that just give me a shout! I have started playing a bit of football again as a way to have the banter with my top mates (I find its also not a bad intervals session if you run around like a headless chicken as I do, due mainly to the fact that I wasn’t blessed with a decent right foot, or left foot, or heading prowess, or any footballing ability of any kind, this results in my having to chase players that ive just given the ball away to)!
As I mentioned earlier I am hoping to make this a monthly blog and it will focus on my training and how I attempt to shoehorn sessions into gaps between work, dog walks and terrible TV! We are now just over 9 weeks from race day so its time to get serious! Over the last month I have been managing my body a little bit, a year off competing doesn’t mean a year off training so I have still been running and cycling but I have now re-introduced some swimming to aid recovery. I’ve also recently taken a de load week where I dropped to 4 easy sessions and plenty of stretching and foam rollering so hopefully that will help in the highlands. I have started to stop in at Delamere forest for a run on the way home from work, its infinitely better than running in the streets and Ive really been enjoying it. Last year I struggled with the hills on the C2C so this year I have tried to bring more into my training, old pale has helped solve that little problem. Im experiencing some knee pain aswell at the moment so again, ive had to manage that, 20+ years of sport may be finally catching up with me. I have also been stepping up my distances on the bike as I try to get race fit, today I went for nearly 80km and it felt brilliant! I still need to up my distance on the runs but my pace is finally starting to come back down to somewhere near acceptable.
I made light of it earlier but one thing I have really struggled with is finding time to train, my new job has meant longer hours and more responsibility (don’t feel sorry for me, it was my choice to go for it), understandably my partner has, on occasion taken exception to the fact that I roll in at 8pm and then say I’m off for a run or bike session. I haven’t found a concrete solution yet but will keep you posted if I do, equally, if anybody has any tips on this please give me a shout! That being said, getting up early or stopping on the way home from work for a session has marginally improved things! Next month I will give a more in depth look at my training schedule and may also discuss my nutrition habits! If anybody wants me to look at anything in particular just get in touch.
Anyway, that’s enough from me for a Friday evening, if you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to give me a shout! See you next month!
TTFN
Alex
tritimealex 