Commitment?

Commitment – either you do or you don’t. There is no in-between!

A holiday is supposed to recharge the batteries right? Give the body a break? Allow it to repair and prepare for the final 12 week pre Outlaw onslaught? I loved my holiday in Cornwall. Lots of walking and climbing, nice food and quality family time. I had allowed for it in my training schedule. Unfortunately I didn’t feel recharged when the holiday ended….just gutted to be back to reality! I did sneak in a 9 miler midweek  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/295103539 which was a great test of strength and stubbornness due to some fantastic hills and a miscalculation resulting in the run being 3 miles further than I had planned.

This week was supposed to be bike based. Take advantage of the Easter school break (meaning I can commute at 6am or 7am) and rack up 48 miles a day. I wanted to do this on three days during this week and run the other two. Sadly due to my own laziness and lack of will power I haven’t got on the bike yet this week and only managed a 4.5 mile run on Monday. I have seriously pissed myself off – as I often do.

The situation I find myself in now is that I have only got in the pool on a handful of occasions, I haven’t been on the bike enough and certainly not logged enough ‘big’ rides and I’ve not really run more than 10 milers for 6 months. This induces swim panic, ride panic and run panic! I can try and make myself feel better by pointing out that my run pace has improved dramatically (but not tested over distance!), my ave speed on the bike has improved (but not tested over distance) and weirdly I seem to think I will be ok on the swim anyway! Ultimately of course I don’t feel any better and with a little less than 12 weeks to go I can’t afford to be arsing about.

I think I’ve slipped into a ‘comfort’ zone of doing something without the ‘push’ required! This will put me at risk of clocking another whimpering Outlaw effort. Don’t get me wrong I was very pleased with my 2012 16:45 Outlaw time but that was set against an injury hit prep and it being my first triathlon. This time I have to be better, fitter and faster. There are no excuses not to be.

I want to go away from posting this all fired up to get out there and nail some training sessions. To push harder, further, faster. To sort the Morphsuit bike testing (still not done) and to sort the Morphsuit tinkering for the swim (still not done) but, at the moment, I wonder if I have convinced myself? I probably won’t have until I actually get the sessions under my belt!

In the ‘ups and downs’ of Outlaw preparation this is a ‘down’ (without real reason), but waffling on to myself about it may just help me focus. It will at least log where I am right now which is in a better place than some. Sometimes a bit of perspective is required to remind me not to be such a whinger. Just this week @Ironholgs has announced his withdrawal from Outlaw due to injury and some barely got started before injury did for them @cpt_jacksparra

There can be no 'in-between' and i can't allow myself to drift into such an abyss! I need to up my game considerably.  

Quick reminder that @mjgreenfield1 is on stage 4 of the Marathon Des Sables. Today’s stage is 47 miles of Sahara Desert! Look him up he is running it for CLIC Sargent and updates are posted on his twitter feed! Now that’s commitment!