What a tough one!  This was the 30th anniversary of the Blaenafon Triathlon, and it now shares the title of longest running tri in the UK with a race in Ireland.  A huge milestone, but it’s not surprising, as it’s such a challenging race.  No one who finished this one yesterday doesn’t feel a real sense of achievement today. I entered partly because it was local, and partly because it fit in nicely with my Ironman...

Busy as hell here with a new novel deadline and training, so I’ve neglected this blog a little.  Suffice to say, last week was a fantastic training week, hitting over 13 hours of quality training.  Included in that was a 50 mile ride on Saturday followed by  3 mile brick run, and then an 8 mile run on Sunday. This week …. it’s the Blaenafon triathlon.  My knee has given a couple of twinges so I’m easy back on the...

Regular readers (both of you!) might have noticed that I didn’t bother posting a weekly round-up last week, mainly because the week’s training was so poor I didn’t think it worth it.  A weekend away and mid-week busyness meant I only managed about 5 hours.  Shite. This week was MUCH different.  Some great runs, swims and rides, including an hour averaging 18mph (my usual average on a long ride is about 15mph).  And the...

But not together. Had an OK training week this week, especially since I had a big social event mid-week … a semi-regular Beef Steak Night I have with two of my best buddies.  But I multi-tasked!  I cycled down to Newport via Caerleon before indulging on a day-long ale and meat-fest.  Naughty, but nice. NEWT swim on Tuesday was OK, but I suffered cramps for the first time in the pool.  I had a hard run Tuesday morning, think I...

Had an interesting training week this week!  First, I should say that, yet again, I failed to hit the scheduled training times.  That’s becoming a habit, but I’m not getting too hung up on it.  But despite that, I feel I had a really good week. First, I was moved up a lane by the coach in swimming, which gave me a massive confidence boost.  A boost that somehow survived me immediately swimming the wrong way in Lane 2 and...

Week 12 done.  Yet another week where I didn’t meet the scheduled training.  8 hours instead of 11, mainly because on Good Friday the pool wasn’t open, then I had to do a family visit so missed my run.  And because I’m a lazy bastard and find it hard to get up early to do a session.  That has to change.  Big time.  From now on the training load starts to steadily increase, and that’s going to mean early...