A summary of January’s training:

One month down:

Now it is the end of January, I can look back on the first month of training for the half ironman. When I first got my training plan from Brian my first tought was – I haven’t run ten miles for ages!! The plan consisted of 2 x 10 mile runs (1 fartlek), 2 x 20 mile bikes (1 fartlek), 2 x 2km swims and 2 strength and conditioning (S&C) session, each week. So I saw it as a challenge and knuckled down. The runs started at a very steady pace as I really wanted to be sure that I could do the ten miles. Most of the bike sets have been done either in the gym or in the garage on the turbo trainer due to weather / darkness.


The swim sets were within my capability for distance, and included some good race speed sets, and the S&C work was good to do as it had been a bit neglected over the winter.



So how has it gone? Well, with a lot of travelling requirements from work this has made the time pressures interesting. I do as much training as I can in the week, but still need to get in a run, a bike and an S&C at the weekends. But to date I have done almost everything on the program. I missed a swim set when there was no available pool anywhere close to the hotel I was in one week. I also cut a run short last week when the ‘gym area’ in the hotel (otherwise known as a store room in the basement) was hotter than the sauna area, and I only managed a third of the distance I should have done. Having the ton up sessions to do for my S&C is great as this can be done anywhere, even if the hotel has no gym.

Also the land training sessions on a Sunday morning at the gym are great to keep the S&C interesting and fun. I have managed to get outside on my bike for one ride this week and am really hoping I can do this more often in the next few weeks. It is so much better that the turbo trainer. Overall, I have seen completing the sessions each week as a challenge and have managed it most of the time. By the end of the month though I am starting to feel a bit tired – not sure if it is the travelling or the training, or both!!

So, bring on the February program – let’s see how I go with that