The Quest for M dot

Tonight I am more tired than I possibly have ever been. And it's a strange tiredness. It's not muscle soreness tiredness. It's just full run down can barely stay awake will fall over when standing up relaxed tiredness. But it feels great. It feels like success. Like I'm getting somewhere. That or I'm just delusional and really tired. Swimming was good tonight. Breathing is easier and less paniced as is my stroke. I spend less time thinking about breathing as if that's normal and more on perfecting my glide and reach. High elbow. Always high elbows. It just goes to show that we don't always need to do something new. You don't always need to see improvements or push yourself so far that you end up hating whatever it is you are doing. Tonight was just that. Hard work, consistency and going the same thing over and over made the difference over the last few weeks. Like riding a bike when you're five. You just keep going and going and going. Rar...

While out running this afternoon I listened to a podcast that inspired me. Ironically it was about the difference, or shift change from being inspired to putting that inspiration into an action and therefore more than just an idea. This is me. This is totally me. I get inspired all the time. Its great. You'd love it. I get excited. I read the entire internet on the chosen subject (currently, obviously Triathlon). I question friends who know more than me. I buy lots of books and read bits of them. I research gear and equipment. I check prices. I check bank balance. I search for better prices. And then I get inspired by something else and I start all over again. Its great fun but the main problem is never getting anything done. Don't get me wrong I have done stuff but today really struck a cord that the research, the gear, others peoples opinions are not pretty much unimportant if they do not mean anything to you. I mean me. To me. So really this needs to be about me doin...

I need to be consistent yet not obsessive. Not at the start anyway.  My usual habit is start strong, do too much, get injured or busy with life and not train enough. Then "Get through" an event. Not exactly giving your all. So consistency. Slow steady not overdoing it training. Focus on the swimming. Get that right. The technique. The economy. The speed. The water fitness.  And swim as many days as possible. I suppose what I find hard is what I learn in swim lessons is hard to practise when I can't see what I'm doing wrong. But I'm thinking it. And trying to be slower. More controlled. Also like a strange person I am watching everyone else swim and picking out the good ones. The ones with a good reach stroke. The ones who's arms move slow yet they are flying. The ones with the perfectly bent elbows only out of the water a short time. And then on the days life won't let me swim. I'll run. Short steady distances and only increase gradually. Wo...

I've only gone and entered an Ironman 70.3 That's a half Ironman. Basically too much swimming too much cycling and a half marathon. I can't exactly explain why I've entered. And now I'm very much wondering why. It wasn't a childhood dream. It's not something I've only just realised existed. I've known about them for years now. But there was never an interest. It was always something other people did and I thought wow, swimming. I hate swimming. Always have. Probably because I'm crap at it. And it seems so hard but so does everything when your crap at it. A late start to swimming and I'm not even sure I ever learnt properly. Also some bad memories of being held under water as a teenager. Poor me. So with a general hate for swimming yet a jealous "I wish I could" vibe I entered a Dun Laoghaire Ironman 70.3 with little regard for the course details. Main reason was its nearness, as in not abroad. I'm not ready to go abroad an...

So here I am again with something to say. But in reverse, kinda. I'll explain later. Ive decided to venture further again into the world of the unknown, unkind and very scary. Plenty of fear will drive me forward. This is all simple to previous stories although in the end brief from the previous ventures into the w200 as told here. While just rediscovering those adventures I have realised that I never finished the story. As previously stated wheres the time to blog when things are good. Again the mindspeak always attacks when times are tougher. You can take from that that w200 went really well completing in just over 8 hours and generally enjoyed the climbs in a strange sadistic way while dropping both my riding partners and enjoying long breaks at the tops in the rain in the morning and the blistering sun in the afternoon. It really was a day of two halves. and when I finished I thought that wasn't too bad I could have gone faster. But then again I waited for my riding c...