Regression

There are a few things that work well when i have less money.

I train more, i eat less bad food, and i tend to get focused a bit better on what matters. I sort of regress to the place i should never leave as an 'athletic person'. However at the same time for some reason i tend to always want a new frame/computer/whatever when this happens.

That time of the year is approaching when the last of the pay cheque from December that arrived early due to the festive eating period is running out. Happens every year, and i know i'm not the only person it happens too. However for once i've really blown my budget.

Motorbike needs servicing, the car needs insuring/NCT/service and to top it off i have to think about what i'm going to do with both my race frames that are screwed (MTB and tri-bike). Not to mention the credit card .

February i fear will be a very frugal month. Good time to loose a kilo off me with less cake and beer, and a good time to get my training on. In a way its fun to regress back into a near cocooned state of work,training, and healthy eating, but at the same time its always my social connections that fail first. This time i'm going to try to keep them alive, but i still don't like going out on Fridays. Its my time.

Race ready?

Well its done, ive sat down and made my list of races for the year.

Nice mixture of XC, Running and Tri events. With two 24hour MTB races in there too. Wallet may be thin this year so most are in Ireland, only trips abroad are either conference based, or supporting Pauline at the Worlds. Should be a good summer i hope! But not giving everything away just yet on what i want to do in races.

Power meter is coming out of hibernation tonight for the first test of the season, will post up details later. Feeling confidant, but we will see how it goes. TT bike will be coming down as well for a make over, hopefully getting a long ride in this weekend will get be back in the triathlon grove.

Then a nice hill run and MTB brick on Sunday :)

Planning and preparing

It was a hard month, compounding the fact that im not one for the festive period and the pressure of trying to run a national championships it lead to a break down in training, focus and decision making.

On the plus side it has put some things into perspective for me as well.

1. Goals are important, just training for cross has put me no where after the supercross cup ended for me
2. Injuries repeat, i should know this by now.
3. Consistency, i have not been , need to get it drilled back into me again both in work and training

So to resolve this I've sat down, wrote a list, checked it twice, and found out which races looked naughty and nice. A mixture of the two have left me looking at A races in August with DCT and Kenmare featuring as well as two 24hour MTB races seperated by 6 weeks.

Not sure if i can afford Xterra racing this year, so I'm just going to stay close to home, race the XC circuit and hill runs when i can. I'll fit in two off road tri's anyway and if Xterra Uk happens....well we can wait and see.

So the way to overcome these points:

1. Race plan developed, emailed to Rich, training system is go now
2. First day back in gym yesterday, S&C program is back, access to high performance gym is sorted again. Shoulder, your mine again.
3. Week plans, going to get printed out with what is happening, using gCal more now, updates with what i need to do. No more getting into office at 11am

Lets see how it goes, and as ever, adapt or die.

Christmas makes me think of family

It also makes me think of all that i dislike about it. However, this festive eating period was different to others. First off i felt better going into it. Normaly i'm tired, sick of life, and not wanting to train. This year i was none.

I wanted to work, sure ive been under pressure but ive actually had some targets that ive wanted to hit

Life for once is good, i have allot going on that i love and more that i want to do.

Training has been good, at race weight before christmas, vo2 over 70ml, bring it.

But as per normal i lost the plot over christmas and managed to pretty much go on a two week bender, although i think technically i drank every day for 3 weeks. So weight has crept up.

Back to the grind is normaly Jan. Do the CX nationals, then back to base. This year im running the natioinals, and its been snowy, very very snowy. unreal.

Ive had to postpone it for 3 weeks min. This hurts me, more than you can imagine. I pride myself on few things, but one is not breaking a promise. I feel like i have.

Saying that, if i can get back to race weight... maybe i might get that team slot.