So I had a ten miler planned for this weekend.  Nothing fast paced, just a gentle 10 miles.  I ran 10 miles on the South Downs last weekend and absolutely loved it, so this weekend it should have been easy to motivate myself to lace up my trainers (or strap on my sandals in my case) and head on out the door.

I just haven’t done it though.  No real reason why.  I couldn’t be bothered.  Even as I write this at 6pm on Sunday night I could still go out, but instead I have decided to drink a glass of port and write this blog post.

Some might think this is the fine art of procrastination at it’s finest.  And some would probably be right. Delaying what you need to do until the last minute and always finding other stuff to fill your time.  One of my favourite websites, waitbutwhy.com, wrote an excellent article about procrastination and it sums me up perfectly.  Check it out here.  Why Procrastinators Procrastinate.

Never the less I have done a bit of useful stuff with my time this weekend.  I have switched my blog over from being hosted on Blogger to being hosted by WordPress, and I absolutely love the new platform.  I am still finding my way around many of the features, but am pleased with the new layout.  Let me know with a comment if you like the change.

So all in all I don’t feel very good about dodging my training this weekend, but c’est la vie.  I can always catch it up tomorrow and generally speaking I feel fairly fit at the moment so am not that worried.  Spoken like a true procrastinator. 🙂

Have almost finished my glass of port now and am feeling increasingly confident that I will definitely get up early in the morning and go running.  This is fairly common after a drink, and will most likely pass soon.

Anyway that is really all I have to say for myself.  Thought I would do a quick update as I managed to get the blog moved over to see how it works, and with no training done and nothing of interest to report I will leave you all to your own devices.

TTFN

Snooky

procrastination

NOUN

The action of delaying or postponing something:



If procrastination was an art, I would be Picasso.  If procrastination was a sport, I would be 5 times World Champion.  If procrastination was a skill, I would be a Jedi Master. 

Unfortunately for me procrastination is none of these things.  It just tends to slow you down.  Some people are blessed with an ability to get on with things, make plans and stick to them.  They are the sort of annoying people who have clever little sayings like “a stitch in time saves nine” or “why put off till tomorrow what you can do today”.  They also come up with helpful suggestions.  Things like, “you might as well get on with it, it’s not going to get done otherwise”.

I have absolutely nothing against these people, in a way I actually admire them.  That being said their lives must be very boring.  Let me give you a demonstration below.

Task to be completed by one of these organised types.

1. Come up with task
2. Set time to do task
3. Do task
4. Move onto next task

Task to be completed by me (or one of my fellow procrastinators)

1. Come up with task
2. Move task into “planning phase” – this can last anywhere between 1 day to 2 or 3 years – depending on the size of the task
3. Exit planning phase – celebrate with a trip to the pub or perhaps some Xbox
4. Start second “planning phase” – very important to make sure the original plan will stand up
5. Set time to do task
6. Time to do task arrives.  Find something else to do – This could be anything really, as long as  it is not the task at hand.  Suggestions include reading a book, a nap, Xbox (you get the idea)
7. Start to consider a different task, one that suddenly becomes much more important.
8. Actually start original task (this is normally preceded by somebody else nagging you into it – in my case usually my lovely Wife)
9. Realisation that the task is quite complicated, long winded, too hard, time consuming, might eat into valuable Xbox time
10. Come up with excuse for not doing task – any excuse will do.  Some sort of injury / headache works well for me.
11. Restart task (normally after more nagging)
12. Finish task as quickly as possible. (when I say finish, a procrastinator will never fully finish anything.  All jobs are best left about 90% done in my opinion)
13. Make a very big deal to everybody around you how well you have done to complete your task.

Now as you can see, a procrastinator has a lot more fun.  We will also start multiple tasks at once, meaning that we could be at any of the 13 stages above with any number of tasks at the same time.  The advantage of this is that we can always be avoiding doing something.  Sometimes I will avoid one task by actually doing another, killing two birds with one stone.  Of course a procrastinator would never actually manage to kill two birds with one stone, as we would most likely have moved onto another task before even picking the stone up.

“What the hell is the point of this blog post” I can hear you saying.  “What has it got to do with Ironman or training”.  Well the answer is absolutely nothing.  I should probably be getting on with something else!

In all honesty the point of this post is to make you, me and everybody else realise that when I actually do manage to get some training done it is against the odds.  I could easily be watching TV, washing the car, eating some cheese or a myriad of other nonsense activities rather than getting on with my training schedule.  

For those of you who are non-procrastinators, you will probably just be thinking to yourselves how lazy.  That I should just get on with it, get the training over with and get on with my day.  You are absolutely right.  For those of you who are procrastinators, you know exactly what I mean!

TTFN

James

Today is the 1st September. Yesterday Mike hosted our first annual Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team BBQ.  Neil was missing due to being a poof and getting a dodgy stomach from eating pizza, but the rest of us were there along with our WAG’s and kids.  It was great to see everybody sitting around together socialising, Mike cooked up a storm and the weather was hot hot hot.  

L-R Andy, Curry, me, Bushy and Mike (with the Noodle at the end)

Before the BBQ we went for a swim in the sea near Mike’s house and it was superb to see Curry scything through the water like a pro.  For somebody who (by his own admission) couldn’t really swim at all at the start of the year, he has done superbly well and is on target for a 35 minute 1500m swim at the Chichester Tri next weekend.  I would be happy with that myself and considering swimming is the only bit of a triathlon I am actually good at, it goes a long way to show how far Curry has come.

Whilst swimming along with the gang, and later whilst sitting around the table discussing our plans for the Half Ironman and then Full Ironman next year, it occurred to me just how far our little team has come in a year.

Mike has always been a superb athlete ever since I have know him, but this year he has come on hugely and is now talking about targeting a sub 10hr Ironman, which is truly amazing to simply be considering in the first place.  

As usual Bushy has continued to astound me with his athletic ability considering he does almost no training what so ever.  He has beaten me at both of the triathlons we have competed in together and I must have done treble the training he has.  Well done mate (you w*nker).

Both Neil and Andy have joined our team and proven that despite the fact they are very very old, they are two very fit fellas.  Both are monsters on the bike, Neil runs like the wind and I have a feeling that Andy will do rather well on Sunday in his first Tri.  Welcome additions to the gang, and proof that if you are fit you are fit, regardless.

And finally onto Curry, who is my co-founder of this little team.  His dedication to training and sticking to a training plan would be the envy of any triathlete.  He is also impervious to injury and seems to have an endless budget for buying the next bit of kit.  I have been hugely impressed with his performances in triathlons this year and cannot wait to spend the winter talking him into the Ironman 2015 (which he still hasn’t quite committed to yet).

So I guess that leaves me.  One year after embarking on this crazy plan to compete in an Ironman I am a bit fitter and have a lot more training gear (something which my wife Cat simply loves).  Having struggled massively with my running I can now see light at the end of the tunnel and am hoping to have these issues behind me by Xmas time.  I have learnt a hell of a lot about the wonderful world of Triathlon and am convinced that the enjoyment I get from training and competing will stay with me for life.  Most importantly I have realised just how hard I can push myself.  Having competed in horrible conditions, been out training in driving rain and freezing conditions, gotten cramp on about 100 occasions and had pretty much every run step I have taken cause me pain I am a better man at the other end of it.

One year from now I will be blogging just ahead of the Ironman (as we are going to do Challenge Weymouth in September 2015).  Just the thought of this makes me nervous already. Only 12 months to go. Between now and then I will Swim, Ride and Run 1000’s of miles and if I am honest I simply cannot wait.  This triathlon business certainly gets under your skin and I can say with all certainty that it is AMAZING.

TTFN

Snooky

It’s 4am on Sunday 25th May.  My alarm has just gone off.  It must be time for the Arundel Lido Triathlon.

Any regular reader of my blog will be more than aware that I do not enjoy getting up early in the morning, and today was no exception.  My normal annoyance of rising from my slumber early was compounded by the fact that I had slept poorly, and also gone to bed rather later than I probably should have.

The night before my lovely wife and I had gone out for a few drinks and dinner with our friend Bushy, and his girlfriend who is not really his girlfriend as they don’t want to admit they are boyfriend and girlfriend though they obviously are but are in denial about it for some reason.  Anyhow, we met them for a late lunch, stayed out in the pub till 10pm, then went for tapas at a local Spanish restaurant!  Eventually I managed to get into bed about midnight with a belly full of food and too much beer, to settle in for a good 4 hour sleep.  It took me almost 2 hours to fall asleep, and when I did I slept awfully as I was aware I had to get up at 4am.

All of this was OK (I told myself) as Bushy was competing the next day too so at least I wouldn’t be suffering alone.  Or at least so I thought, as I received a text from Bushy when I woke up to tell me that he wouldn’t be competing as he “wanted to spend time with Marie”.  Now bearing in mind that she isn’t even his girlfriend, even though she actually is, you would have thought that his loyalty would be with me rather than her.  How wrong can one man be?

So back to the plot.  It’s 4am and I am up, and waking my wife up.  Being the super supportive and lovely wife that she is Cat had agreed to come with me and be support crew.  I gathered up my gear (which I had obviously not prepared the night before as I was out eating dinner), loaded the bike into the car, woke up the dog (who was also coming to support), loaded him and the rest of the gear into the car and off we set.

Not pictured – Dog or Wife

I arrived at Arundel Lido and immediately went to register.  This was super quick, and soon I had the bike out of the car and was heading to the transition area.  Carefully racking my bike and arranging my gear underneath, I was ready to go.

I did expect that I would be nervous for my first ever Tri; however thankfully the only emotion I felt was excitement.  Of course, I also had the feeling that I imagine every single triathlete feels before an event, which is simply that I had not done enough training.  I imagine that everybody feels this way, or at least those that don’t have actually done way too much training (as opposed to the correct amount) but anyway I gave my lovely wife a quick kiss, and then went poolside to start my swim.

The Arundel Lido Triathlon standard distance was an 800m swim, then 40k on the bike and a 10k run.  The swim was in the Lido (though the more astute of you will probably have already worked that out) and consisted of 32 lengths of the pool.  They were running late on the pool start times, and the air was chilly waiting to start but all I could focus on was how much stronger and thinner everybody seemed to look compared to me.  Memo to self, lose weight before you have to put the tri suit on again!


Soon it was my time to start, so I pulled on the orange swimming cap that allowed me to be recognised from the other 3 swimmers in my lane, and off I set.  The swim went well, and before I knew it I was tapped on the head to indicate I had 2 lengths left.  I was very pleased that this service was offered, as I had totally forgotten how many laps I had swam after only counting to about 3.  Perhaps the tiredness was catching up with me.



I lept out of the pool like the athlete that I am, and jogged (yes jogged) to transition.  Every second counts after all!.  Bike helmet and shoes were on in no time and I was off on my ride.  It was my plan to take it easy on the bike as running is by far my weakest event, so I set off at a pace that would mean I should be able to complete the 40k ride in about 90 minutes.  The route immediately took on a 15 minute climb, where I was overtaken by all manner of skinny men on all manner of super aerodynamic TT bikes.  Who cares about all that though, I was competing in a triathlon.  I may be overweight, I may not have done enough training and my gear may well be mainly borrowed / extremely cheap but I was actually taking part in a triathlon, which is something that not a lot of people can say they have done.

  I rode almost entirely on my own for the two laps of the bike course, which suited me perfectly.  I wanted to average around 15mph, which would give me a time of approximately 1hr 30 mins on the bike.  This is far from quick for 40k, but I was desperate to pace myself for the 10k run (which I knew would be very hard for me).  Making sure to take on plenty of fluids during my ride, I eventually pulled into the Lido car park and jumped off my bike, jogging it to the transition area and popping my running shoes on.  

At this point I saw my wife, who gave me a huge smile and a cheer which really lifted my spirits ahead of the run.  It really makes all the difference having a support team at these events.  If you are reading this Doc – thank you so much for coming to support me.

So I had my shoes on, swigged down a final mouthful of water and headed out of transition and into the run stage.  Again I saw my wife, who had made her way to near the transition exit and gave me a high five and a quick shout of encouragement.  I felt good.  Perhaps this run was going to be OK after all.  Or perhaps not!

My back went into spasm only 500m into the run.  And it was hurting me…….a lot.  I had back surgery a few years ago, and occasionally it will play up.  Looks like the swap from 40k ride to 10k run is one of those occasions.  

I ran when I could, and walked when I had to.  My back was agony, and the course was extremely hilly.  Well it was mainly just up-hilly for the first 4k which practically killed me.  There was no chance of me quitting, I had to get to the finish line.  We ran up and up and up, then down a bit, then up a bit, then down a bit, then up a bit.  The run was taking forever.  Every step was painful, and 100’s of faster runners were streaming past me.  I was absolutely convinced that the 10k run stage would be taking me at least 90minutes, perhaps more.  I had never moved so slowly.

Eventually we stopped with the up and down hilly part of the run and it was downhill to the finish.  This was probably about 2k, but felt like 200.  I staggered along, disappointed with myself for my horrific performance in the run, but happy that I was going to finish.  Soon I rounded the corner into the Lido, and across the line.

I looked around for my wife.  We had discussed before the race that as soon as I started the run I would be back in around 60 minutes (my approximate 10k time) and she was nowhere to be seen.  This was not a surprise, as I was convinced I had taken forever in the run.  Then I caught a glimpse of Cat walking over from the carpark direction, and the first thing she said to me was “that was quick”.  Surely not.  Surely I hadn’t run 10k faster than 60 minutes.  I walked for quite a bit of the uphill sections after all.  After quickly working my timings out it appeared that I had actually run10k in just over 60 minutes, and that Cat had gotten her timings a little bit wrong for meeting me at the finish.  I couldn’t believe it!!!!!

My overall time was 2hrs 54 minutes, which was below my 3 hour target.  My other target was not to finish last, and later when I received the finishing results there were 8 people slower than me, meaning I managed that too.  

So all in all a total and complete success.  I am officially a Triathlete.  Only 14 more months of training and then I will be competing in an Ironman.  A slightly bigger challenge, but one I cannot wait for.

TTFN

James

It’s 5.30am on Sunday 13th April, and my alarm has just gone off.  Time for the Wiggle New Forest Spring Sportive.

I had followed what all top quality athletes do to get prepared for this event.  On Friday night I decided to drink my own weight in Jagermeister and Real Ale with fellow Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team  member Bushy, my gorgeous wife Cat and one of my best and oldest friends in the world, Mr Neil Machin.  Now Machin lives back home in Haywards Heath, and I haven’t seen him in a long time so it was only right that we got totally and utterly smashed.  So smashed in fact, that I fell asleep in my favourite curry house, then woke up and argued about the bill (which was a very reasonable £30 for 3 people).  Anyway I was hanging for all of Saturday, ate a Pizza Hut and struggled through a restless sleep to awaken at 5.30am Sunday morning.  Preparation Complete!

So the alarm has gone off and naturally I have prepared nothing.  So I smash and bash around the house, wake up my wife, the baby and the dog and then once I think I have everything I head down the road to meet fellow Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team  member Neil Perry (the Duracell Bunny).  Neil and I grunted at each other, then we got in his van, went round to pick up Bushy and Curry from Bushy’s house, and then set off.  Earlier that morning Mike had messaged to say that he couldn’t attend as he had a rather nasty stomach problem, so we were feeling his loss in the van as we trundled down the M27 towards the New Forest.  

Ladies – yes he is single!

Now in all honest I was feeling absolutely rubbish.  Ate nothing for breakfast (as felt sick and was too damn early), and when we stopped for a coffee I decided to have nothing again.  I was not in a good way.  We arrived at the start in plenty of time, and after registering and eating one of Neil’s girlfriends homemade flapjacks I was feeling a lot better.  Soon we had all of our gear ready and we were at the start line.  

Starting off at around 8.30am, we rode in formation with me leading, overtaking lesser mortals with ease.  It was at that point that I realised that I had set an intial pace of around 23mph, and some cries from the back (Neil) meant that I quickly slowed down to settle in at around 19-20mph.  The course was relatively flat, we were riding well as a group, and it felt superb to be out with my fellow Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team members.

Weaving through the New Forest countryside we were riding extremely well, averaging 17.5 mph and things were looking great.  Then I hit a minor snag, I started getting mega cramp in both of my quads (very close to the knee).  Now this was painful.  I dropped way back from the group.  Was struggling to keep the pedals turning.  A quick energy gel and some water and I felt better.  The lads kindly waited for me, I caught up and we were back together, but all was not well.

The pain in my quads just didn’t go away.  When I free-wheeled it felt as if they were both going to instanly spasm, so I had to just keep pedaling.  We eventually reached the first feed station, and Neil advised my saddle was too low which might be the problem.  I raised it up 5mm and we were off again.  It felt better but still not perfect.  Relatively quickly we reached the cut off point (at around 46 miles) where you have to decide if you want to do the Standard race (62 miles) or the Epic (86 miles).  Now this is quite a difference, and to put no finer point on it I was absolutely done in.  My quads had been agonising for miles now, and I was not sure I had a lot more in the the tank.  

Now Democracy is king in the Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team, so it was put to a vote and the Epic was decided on unanimously.  Admittedly I voted last, and was praying that somebody else would vote for the Standard, but peer pressure got the best of me and when Curry agreed to the Epic as the 3rd voter my fate was sealed.

The next bit of this story is not my finest moment but I must be honest.  For the next 10 miles I was praying for some sort of catastrophic mechanical failure that would cause me to have to stop the race.  I was in absolute agony in both quads, my back was screaming and the thought of another 40 miles on the bike was simply unbearable.  As the miles wore on God did not smile on me, I had no catastrophic mechanical failure, and I knew that I would have to see this thing through to the end.  Quitting was, and is not an option.

So we got to the second feed station, I raised my saddle a bit more, jumped back on and we ploughed onwards, all be it with a bit less banter than the first half of the race but still together as a team.  I was counting down the miles 1 by 1 from 70 miles inwards, and the feeling when we saw the “5k to go – Finish Strong” sign was great.  As we got to the final few hundred metres I felt an overwhelming sense of achievement.  We had done it.  I knew I was not the only one who had battled through considerable pain.  This is the furthest any of us had ever ridden, and we were all suffering, but we had completed 86 miles together as a team, the Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team.

As I write this the lads have already signed up for a 100 mile event on the Isle of Wight, and as soon as I get paid I will be joining them.  Plus we have added another member to our team, and the future of the Grazing Saddles Triathlon Team is looking better than ever.

Just hoping that my quads recover in time.

As I have mentioned on numerous occasions before, I enjoy my cycling.  The speed, the tempo, pushing hard up climbs and the sense of freedom that I feel whilst out on the bike are just a few of the things I like about cycling.  There is however one major part of cycling that I do not enjoy

ARSE PAIN.

After about an hour in the saddle, my bum starts to hurt.  Now I am sure that I’m not alone in this, and that a certain amount of discomfort is to be expected, especially as road bikes have no suspension, run tyres with very high tyre pressure and the roads that I ride on are often far from smooth.  My main problem is that this affects my cycling.  The pain stops me from being able to concentrate on the cycling, and causes me to concentrate on how my enjoyable bike ride has turned into a pain in the bum (quite literally).


I have consulted quite a few people on what I can do to solve this problem, and have received various answers, such as:

• Get some padded shorts (I already have these)
• Eventually you will get used to it (I doubt this somehow)
• Buy a new more comfortable saddle (I have just ordered one from Wiggle)
• Man up! (can’t really argue with that one)

On Sunday I competed in first event of the Portsmouth Duathlon series.  This duathlon consists of a 5k run, a 15k bike ride and then a final 5k run.  On paper extremely doable (not sure if doable is a word but I am sticking with it) and with my fellow Grazing Saddles team-mate Mr Andy Bawden taking part with me I was excited for the race.

Now as I have blogged before, these races all seem to require you to get up very early in the morning.  Luckily for me, my baby has decided that getting up between 5:30am and 6:00am seems to be the way forward.  Combining this with the brand new puppy that we have just gotten whimpering downstairs as soon as he hears the baby cry meant that I found myself awake at a very civilised 6:30am.

Now organisaton is not my strong point, so upon waking I charged (well sauntered really) around the house looking for things such as shoes and socks.  Andy arrived bang on time at 7:15am (no great surprise) and after I messed about for another 15 minutes we rode our bikes down to the race.

Following racking the bikes (this is a technical duathlon/ triathlon term, meaning to hang it by the saddle from a piece of suspended scaffolding pole made into a “rack”)  we then stood around discussing how cool the race was, and how there seemed to be quite a lot of nice bikes around.  Now I have never coveted another man’s bike before; however I must admit that with Andy’s beautiful new Trek Domane, and many other lovely looking bits of carbon fibre and aluminium suspended from their racks, I did find myself thinking how perhaps investing in a new bike would be a worthwhile use of a couple of grand.  Memo to self: Discuss this with my wife.

Following a race briefing, and spotting Dame Kelly Holmes about 4 metres away on the start line we were off.  Now my shins were already hurting from our 50 metre warmup (pathetic I know) and Andy graciously ran with me for a couple of kilometres before putting his foot down and pulling away.  When I crossed the 3k mark I was in agony in my left shin and genuinely thought I would be better off just stopping.  I was hugely upset that I had rested solidly for the week before to try and help me heal a bit but this had clearly not worked, and the excitement I felt at the start of the race was all but gone.  As more and more people overtook me I reminded myself that I only had 2k to go before I could get on the bike, and this spurred me on to running the first 5k in 28min 16sec (which actually isn’t bad for me at all).

Into transition and onto the bike.  I like bike riding, have always been naturally good on a bike and quickly settled into a steady 18mph, which into a stiff sea breeze was not a bad effort.  Carrying on at this pace we wound our way east and I overtook people.  In fact I overtook a lot of people.  When I eventually got downwind I cruized up to about 24mph and knowing that Andy would be at least 2 or 3 minutes ahead of me, and was determined to catch him.     Eventually I caught sight of him on my second loop of the common, said a quick hello and then pushed on, knowing that I would be close to useless in the second 5k run so I must make time up on the bike.

Finishing the ride in 32mins 39 seconds, I jumped off the bike and was into the second 5k.  Once again this was agony and each time my feet hit the floor it felt like lightening shooting up my shins.  It felt like all of the people I had overtaken on the bike breezed past me as I staggered my way along.  I barely managed an almost run for the final 100 metres to finish the second 5k in 31mins 38 seconds, giving me a total race time of 1hr 32mins and 35 seconds,  3 minutes behind Andy (who was one of the many people that overtook me on the second 5k.

It was great to see his smiling face, and I was very proud of myself for finishing when I was so close to giving up at the start.  Also Andy told me he ran a PB on his first 5k, which is an outstanding achievement and something that really made me smile after a very painful final 5k beforehand.  I have learned many things from this race.  Firstly I must improve my running, secondly I MUST sort out these blasted shin splints, and finally that the buzz you get from these events is simply superb.

As I sit on my sofa typing this I literally cannot wait to get back to training tomorrow.  Perhaps a swim or a ride though rather than a run!