Charity Chosen and Last Weeks Progress

Charity Choice

From the start of this journey i decided i was going to raise money for a Charity, as it's the first time i am doing this distance.

I have done similar previously raising money when i did Wolverhampton Marathon in 2009 and also raising money when i did London Triathlon (my first Olympic distance) back in 2010.

Previously i have raised money for the Cardiomyopathy association. this is a small charity that does work with people with Cadiomyopathy, a heart problem that sadly killed a close friend a few years ago. So it was a Charity close to me.

This year for the Ironman I have decided to change the charity i raise for, mainly to spread the generous money I receive off people to other needy causes.

I thought about depression charities, after recently a school friend committed suicide and I have also known a lot of people go through depression, which is still a very much misunderstood condition.

But in the end I have decided, i will raise the most money for a local charity. In fact i have chosen a charity that is very local to me (about half a mile down the road). I have chosen to raise sponsorship for Compton Hospice.

Compton Hospice is a local hospice that covers a lot of the local area, including Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, South Staffordshire and East Shropshire. There purpose is to make a difference to people’s lives when their illness is no longer curable. They do this by treating people, not conditions, whether their needs are physical, psychological, social or spiritual.

(Information taken directly from the Compton Hospice website http://www.compton-hospice.org.uk/)

There will be a link to a Justgiving.com web page soon when I have created it, that I will be posting in each blog. I am hoping to raise as close to £1000 as possible. previously for other charities I have raised £800ish and with this being a much bigger undertaking I hope to raise more this time.


Weekly progress

I am trying to make convince myself to write this weekly progress more regularly, as at the end of the day this is what the blog is about. Hopefully i will find some stuff that's interesting to write about! ha ha.

Last week went well again! Long Bike and Long Run are the main focus for most my training up to the Ironman and they went well this weekend. 3 hours 5 minutes on the turbo trainer got me to 90km on Saturday morning (the half way mark for the bike) and i felt pretty good after to.

Then Sunday morning I ran for 1 hours 50mins, exactly 15 miles which according to the McMillan run calculator, that would give me a 3:23 marathon time!! Which is a great surprise and taken with a pinch of salt at the moment. Obviously I will not be aiming for that time after the Bike and Run... but it might be useful later on in the year (watch this space)

So overall I did 16 hours this week, easily my biggest week so far... hoping to keep up the consistency of the last 3 weeks and keep getting stronger, fitter and further.

Progress Report!

Current Progress

I have realised after all the posts I have sent, I haven't actually done a progress report on how the training is going! So I suppose I should...

Well before Christmas and over the Christmas break I was averaging about 10-11 hours a week. This included a long bike and a long run at the weekend.

All my winter training is in heart rate zone 2. So I am staying aerobic and building the best base possible for the longer slower endurance sessions ahead later in the year. Finding I already have a decent base, and can keep quite a good pace in zone 2.

The long bike has been mainly on the turbo trainer (as I can't cope with the cold!) progressing over the last couple of weeks to 2 hours 30 minutes at  pretty good speed. planning to continue to take this longer and longer, adding 10-15 minutes a week.

The long runs have definitely been easier than the long bikes... I am running 20km once a week and taking about 1 hour 35 minutes to complete it. All in Heart rate zone 2, so still aerobic. Again the plan is to add 5-10 minutes a week to this time to keep the runs getting longer.

The swims are progressing nicely too, I am now swimming three times a week (total 3 hours ish), which is an increase from last seasons 2 hours a week. A lot of my swimming work is technique and drills at the moment trying to get a better technique to make swimming faster and longer a little bit easier.

Goals for January and February

For the rest of January and February the goals are basically to continue to train consistently and continue to increase the long run and long bike times and distances.

I hope to take the long run over 2 hours, so that i am running around 24-25km. For this I think i will need to start taking gels or food. As currently I am starting to tire a lot at 1 hour 30 mins.

For the long bike, I hope to take it up to 4 hours. This would be hopefully up and around 110-120km. I think this will take longer to reach than the long run goal, as I find adding miles on the bike to be difficult. i may need to slow my pace down so that i can reach this goal, and then add speed later.

And my final goal for the next month or so is to get out on my new Time-trial bike (or put it on the turbo trainer if the weather is bad). I really need to get used to riding in the more extreme position and get used to steering more confidently, and once I can do that I can put the power down on it properly.


So overall, I think i am progressing well. I think i am ahead of schedule so as long as i keep improving steadily I will be more than OK.

Onwards and upwards!

New Year: Party Time Over

So into 2012 we go. Spent the last couple of weeks burning the candle at both ends, doing about 9 hours training a week but also doing the seasonal excesses, (eating and drinking and sleeping in mainly!)

So you could say my main resolution is to get back on the wagon and get back into the training properly.

Just got over the standard post Christmas cold and now its time to hit the new year with eating properly again and no hangovers for at least this month!

I think every person who trains like this has the same new year wishes, faster, stronger, more hours in the day. Hopefully these will come with all the training, and also a few more early nights.

So I'm entering the year with new energy... lets see how long it lasts!

Happy New Year Everyone.