How Hard Can it Be!?: March 2013

Sunday 31 March 2013

March Training Update and a plan for the year...

A bit of a struggle with motivation to get out early in the month prompted me to get my ass in to gear and get some events organised, so...

http://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/ is entered for Sunday 4th August. It's a 100mile cycling 'sportif' ride following much of the London 2012 Olympic road race route out from the Olympic park, through Surrey and back to finish on Pall Mall in London. I'm riding to raise much needed funds for the work of the Isaiah Trust and am sure it's going to be a blast... Can't wait!!!

I've decided on a change of tack on the fundraising front for the RNLI this year. Instead of a challenge all my own I've asked for help from friends and colleagues at work to join me. We're putting together a few relay teams across the Group to compete in the Capesthorne sprint distance Triathlon on Sunday 9th June in a team challenge... Huge thanks to everyone who's helping out by giving this a go!!

I've also got my sights set on a couple of events for myself towards the end of the season. The Salford Triathlon returns after a couple of years out on Sun 18th August and as the swim circuit is at Salford Quays where I regularly swim with Uswim probably counts as 'home ground'. At two weeks after the Ride London 100 cycling event I'm hoping my legs are in best shape for a good bike time!

Later in the year on Saturday 5th October is the inaugural Abersoch Half Marathon. Having done the Abersoch 10km a few times I thought I might give this stunning route a go!

The training has been embarrassingly sparse this month. Took a week off after Mexico to catch up with jet lag and then missed over a week at the end of the month with the worst Flu I've had in years! Here's March's very brief training summary... Must try harder!

10/03/13 ~ 3mile run around the Wheelock rail trail in 26mins 52secs
15/03/13 ~ 40mins weight training
~ 400m pool swim with pull buoy in 9mins 8secs (SWOLF 53)
16/03/13 ~ 1 hour spin class at Total Fitness
18/03/13 ~ 4 mile figure of 8 run around Sandbach in 38mins 45secs

On a lighter note, our new puppy Ollie is getting me out for plenty of walks! A mile and a half each night and 2 to 3 miles Sat and Sunday... We've covered about 45miles of walking this month!

Why am I doing this?!

I got drawn in to running in 2007 to raise funds for charity and discovered it's a great way to keep in shape! I expanded the fundraising to open water swimming in 2010 and loved that too which lead to taking up cycling and Triathlon's in 2011! I've kept a training blog for the past few years and found it a huge motivator to get out and do something to report on so here I am again! I'll be keeping a record here of all my training and event ups and downs as well as a few deviations on my hobbies. I'm planning a few events this year for my own benefit and a couple of major events to raise funds again for two charities that mean a lot to me:

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution ~ http://www.rnli.org/

In September 2007 I had an accident whilst sailing my Laser Pico dinghy out at sea off Abersoch, North Wales. The Abersoch crew came to my aid and I'll be eternally grateful ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk6edftmHtg

I spend a lot of time out at sea with family and friends and it made me realise just how dependent we are on this life saving volunteer emergency service funded entirely by charity. I ran the Great North Run Half Marathon to raise funds for the Abersoch RNLI station in 2008 & 2009. In 2010 I taught myself front crawl and swam a mile in open water at The Great Salford Swim and in 2011 rolled it all up taking on the Tatton Triathlon Olympic Distance. 2012 saw me raising funds by competing in a Triathlon team challenge at Capesthorne early in the year and then cycling 180miles Coast to Coast from Morcambe to Bridlington over the August Bank Holiday along the 'Way of the Roses' route ~ http://www.wayoftheroses.co.uk/.
This year I've decided to rope in a few helpers and build on the team Triathlon fund raising of last year which was really good fun... Capesthorne Triathlon on Sun 9th June has been targeted... Watch this space!

The Isaiah Trust ~ http://www.isaiahtrust.org/

A registered charity started in 2001 by two good friends with big hearts, Nicky and Tim. The charity helps kids in Kenya orphaned by aids and surviving on their own on the streets in some of the most apalling conditions imaginable. The lives that these kids endured prior to the charity beggars’ belief. The Trust has and continues to do some amazing things for these kids... Providing outreach and rehabilitation centres to give safe havens and remedial education, setting up orphanages and foster parent programmes. Helping children get back in to the state educaion system and providing 'resource centres' for older child who have missed too much schooling to teach them a skill or trade to earn a living. The Trust is now working hard setting up farms to establish sustainable food programs as well as teaching children farming skills. The trust has helped change the lives of so many kids but there are so many more yet to help...

After a four years of running the Great Manchester 10km Run from 2007 through to 2010, to raise awareness and funds for the trust I ran the Edinburgh Marathon in 2011 which was awesome! 2012 saw me completing the Liverpool Triathlon Olympic Disatance event (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) and finally breaking the previously elusive 3 hour mark whilst raising further funds.

This year I've entered the Prudential 'Ride London 100' cycling sportif to raise much needed funds. It's a 100mile bike ride covering much of the 2012 Olympic Road race circuit heading out from the Olympic Park, around the Surrey hills and back in to London to finish on Pall Mall... How hard can it be?! :-)