I’m fat (88-89kgs) and lazy (see above logs). I have a job that requires a long commute each way and have 4 kids from age 7 down to 7 months. I detest early morning sessions of any type and don’t like cycling in the cold, so it doesn’t help that I also hate the turbo....yep I’m lazy. My sole reason for starting tri in 2008 was to shift some weight (at the beginning I was 105kgs) and I continue to ‘exercise’ as my wife puts it so that I can eat and drink what I like without getting too fat......as I like to say I train to eat. On the plus side I didn’t put any weight on over Christmas despite eating my own body weight in trifle and quality street on a daily basis for about a week......but then again I didn’t lose any weight at a time when my running mileage was hitting 40 mpw (high for me).
So I come to 2012 as a multiple IM finisher (yes I’ve done 2 IM’s so that makes me more experienced if not more knowledgeable than most IM loggers here

I’m planning on doing the Connemara Marathon. I’ve a place from last year I never used so this was a no brainer – although I’m dropping back from the Ultra to the standard distance. I’ve never trained properly for a marathon. I’ve done two IM marathons and 2 stand alone marathons off the back of IM training. I did the 2010 DCM in 3.52ish which is my PB. In 2011 I blew up after about 2 miles (yes 2 miles) and took 4.25 to finish. I had fallen down the stairs at home the day before so I’m blaming that for my slow time – I looked at my Garmin data for this race for the first time this week and I was hitting 180bpm at 10 min / mile pace so something wasn’t right with my body. So this time I am going to try and train properly for a marathon. I started the 18 week P&D 55mpw plan and surprisingly have stuck pretty much exactly to it for the first 6 weeks. Before the DCM I did a 5km TT in 21.31 and based on that McMillan says I should be able for a 3.30hrs marathon so that’s what I’ve been training for. All my pacing has been with this time in mind. As I train more my HR is starting to come down on the faster runs to match what P&D say it should be, but for the speed work and the marathon pace runs I’m still seeing a HR about 7-10bpm over what P&D say it should be – hopefully that will change as I put more miles in. Do I think a 3.30 is on the cards in Conn? No way with all those hills, but I’ll keep training for a 3.30 and see what happens closer to the day. The longest run to date on this program was 16 miles last weekend with 10 of these at marathon pace – 8min/mile. Did this without too much difficulty but this week have a bad chest cold so missing sessions for a few days – good thing it’s a recovery week. I’ll be using McMillans predicted time for 10km and HM to test myself before Conn. Based on a 3.30 marathon I should be hitting sub 45min 10km and sub 1.40hrs HM – the 10km target I think I have in me now, the HM one...hhhmm.....could be tough. After Conn I’ll see how I feel and I may do another marathon in early summer. So the running goals for 2012 are:
• Sub 45min 10km
• Sub 1.40hr half marathon
• New marathon PB (as close to 3.30hr as possible)
The second half of the year is back to IM – looks like I’ll do the Hardman Tri again. I’ll probably do the Tri and Mhi HIM and a couple of sprints also. I’ve some time targets in mind for the IM but I won’t divulge them just yet apart from one, which is to get close to a sub 4hr marathon off the bike (which would require me to be running a 3.30 stand alone marathon....see above). I’ll probably not get near a bike again until next Spring and as for my swimming....let’s just say you could count the number of swims I’ve had since last August on one hand. I need to try and get back into the habit of swimming at least twice a week. I could do early sessions with the Glenalbyn swimmers in the morning before work but that would mean getting up earlier.........The new 50m pool in UCD is due to be opened next spring so that might help with the swimming. I’ve signed up to the SBR 2012 challenge so maybe that’ll spur me on. Maybe I'll get myself a nemesis for the year to compete against......we'll see
