I'm back!

A long time February and my last structured training. I've done a few things since then but not that much and its been gnawing at me ever since. One of the problems was the amount of time it took up and the disruption caused to family life. Senay and I have talked things through and with the ways that are lives have changed in the last six months and the way that we expect them to change it seems that another ironman is on the horizon.

So totally unfit as I am a race schedule is developing.

25th October 2009 - Kinabaloo Klimathon. 21km trail race. 32% average gradient out. -32% average gradient back.

April 2010 - Kapas Swimathon - 5km open water race

May/June 2010 - Everest marathon - trail race downhill from Everest Base Camp

December 2010 - Ironman Western Australia - usual stuff.

Looks pretty good. just got to get started now.

Life is pretty chaotic now after a week of holiday and 2 weeks in Europe with a lot of changes at home and in the office but at the same time it offers opportunities to set a new rhythm and get back training again.

One of the weaknesses of my performance last year was in my run. I think that in every race my run was significantly weaker than both the swim and the bike and I have a couple of very tough run races. To give you an indication the European front runners take 6 hours to do the Everest marathon so I can confidently look forward to a 8-9 hour + race at altitude and on unmarked trails.

So I need to do a lot of running and specifically a lot of off road and hill running. The swimming is less of an issue as having done IM distance I know that I can do the distance with the right training and broadly speaking I think that an IM 20 week swim program will pretty much put me in good shape for Kapas-Marang.

So the rough plan that seems to be forming in my mind is to do the normal 5 month IM program for Western Australia. This will give 1 month recovery from Everest and the altitude there.

To do Everest the initial thought is to follow a customised double marathon program as that will both build the long term run strength and also give me the endurance for Everest + a couple of weekend running trips to Kinabaloo for altitude and temperature training

Over the top of that will be an IM 20 week swim training for kapas-Marang from December.

For Kinabaloo - well guess its running every day for the next 4 weeks and doing lots of uphill and trail running. Treadmill here I come.

So today I did a sprint 8 on the treadmill at level 12. poor aeerobic strength at the beggining but a lot more comfortable at the end. 13 would probably have been too tough