Ironman Fallout

It has been a week since the Ironman. It's funny, in the weeks and months building up to events you devote so much time to training. Up at 6am to train before work. A full day at work. Train after work and then it's family time. It's relentless. Don't get me wrong, I love it. My life would not be my life without the training and racing. Very often though in those final few weeks before a race you are tired. You look forward to the taper as it means you can ease back on the training, get some more rest, spend more time with your family and basically just chill out. The race comes and you either have a good or bad day. For me, Austria was a good day. I raced well. My strategy was perfect and to top all this off i had my folks there to watch. Many of you will be aware that my dad has recently had a very serious operation for stomach cancer. The last few months have been a rocky road. To have him in Austria to see me cross the line means so much. He has been my biggest fan and without him, my achievements mean nothing, so, thanks Dad!! Don't get me wrong, thank you all my family. At the moment though, dad gets a special mention.

So for the last 7 days I have been twiddling my thumbs. No training and boy do I miss it... I have decided to start training again today, Monday. Nothing hard just a nice easy jog to get things moving. I plan to do that all this week and gradually start to build again from next week. I have loads of races planned for the remainder of 2008. All of them running. I have also entered two 'Ultras' for January and February 2009. I need focus and I need targets.

I have also entered a new Ironman Distance race for October 2009. It is organized by the 'Challenge Roth' team and it will take place on the coast, north of Barcelona. Yes, a race in Oct 2009.... now that is forward planning.

Finally, I hope you like the new 'blog' format. The trainingtrips blog was adequate, however, I hope this new format will be better to view, more informative and also it allows you all to interact and post comments. Be great to hear from you all. Keep training. Ian