So today I bit the bullet and signed myself up for Challenge Roth. For those of you not into triathlon (or who I've yet to chew the ear off of) its a long distance triathlon (Ironman distance), which means a 3.8k open water swim, then jumping on my bike for a 180k cycle through the German countryside, topped off with a cheeky wee marathon at the end. And I'm massively excited. And I'm going to drive people at work insane the more I go on about it. Tough. 8th of July 2012 is the day I find out what I'm really made of. Its going to be one hell of a journey. Stop in & join me on bits of the way if you want.
The purpose of this blog? Hopefully to write a semi regular blog on training progression so that I can see how I'm doing, but also to record how I'm thinking and feeling, to track the change throughout the next year. I cannot underestimate the challenge I've set myself - just over a year ago, I dragged myself round the GE Strathclyde Park Sprint Triathlon (.75k/20k/5k) in over two hours, after 5 weeks of unfocused training. And I loved it. Follow that up with another slow but enjoyable effort in Kelso, and then my big brother threw down the guantlet and got me to sign up for Lisboa Middle Distance (1.9k/90k/21.1k). After going out and buying the loveliest piece of carbon fibre I could afford for a bike, I knew that there was no way I could self train for Lisboa, I had nowhere near the discipline or knowledge to come close, so with a couple of nerves (as I didn't know if I was going to find myself surrounded by superfit athletes who would scorn my puny skills, plus the enormity of the task considering my puny skills at the time) I sought out Glasgow Triathlon Club and found myself a great bunch of coaches and triathletes who encouraged & helped me from that puny start to where I brought myself round the course in Lisboa with a smile on my face (for the most part)! I couldn't've done it without them, but then I couldn't've done it without the internal drive to improve, push and challenge myself. This same drive, that once I'd finished a middle distance race (a distance that I once thought you'd have to be insane to tackle) pushed me to consider where to go next, to continue the improvement and become an triathlete. This years race diary filled up with sprints, a chance to feel the buzz of the race day, and they are great days, but no other race has brought the satisfaction & sense of achievement that Lisboa brought. And as I heard people talking about Ironman, I knew I wanted to try it. Planning to go out to a race with club mates just makes it less daunting and sound more fun!
Once I've completed Challenge Roth, I can review the different distances and look where I want to try to change things to bring new personal bests, but the next year is target Roth. I know that if I put in the graft I can complete this, and that still surprises me, considering how far I've come (and it probably surprises a lot of the guys that have known me longer!!!)
Seriously, anyone reading this should know that big changes can be made to your life to improve yourself. Its not always easy, but in the right environment, the sky is your limit. I look back to my first club session, where I nervously edged in, comfortable with breaststroke (if someewhat inefficient), but a freestyle that left me gasping at the side of the pool after 25m. Today we did a fairly intense interval session, lots of fast 100 and 50m reps. There were a couple of times where I had to coax myself to do 'just one more rep', and indeed at one point, as I finished a 100m, I was all for sitting one out, but as I reached the lane wall & surfaced and heard the coach's encouragement, I manned up and went again, shedding some of the fatigue from my mind so I could focus on holding my stroke better. And without putting in any less effort, it felt easier, and I nailed each rep, and in reasonably consistent time I think. And you see, I was the slowest in the lane, but thats utterly irrelevant, as we all have to work at our pace, and improve at our pace, so if you look at someone training hard & well, don't think "I wish I was as good as them", rather think "I must work as hard as them".
Ha! This wasn't suppost to turn into a preach, but hey, when the words flow, the words flow, and I never want to stem it.
This is my challenge:
http://www.challenge-roth.com/en/
Whats yours?
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