The first week is done! I have a swim session later today, which will be my third of the week and is technically one more than the plan says, so i’m calling it done now. It feels pretty good – I find it so much easier to training for something – to have an event scheduled in and a plan for how to get there. Strange as it sounds i’m one of life’s lazier people, unless I have a good reason to go out running, cycling or swimming I generally don’t. However, knowing I have something I need to be trained for is like switching on a light, the sessions don’t feel so long, the effort feels less, and I can just enjoy doing it knowing that it’s part of a bigger thing.

I’m glad I did the pre-training stuff. I was a little apprehensive starting as I could not get out much last week due to a cold I picked up – it would have been tough to dive it with no prep work. So far, i’ve actually enjoyed the challenge of fitting it in around my life, and have managed to fit in two Christmas work parties, one Mumford and sons gig and a 30th birthday party, as well as a Sunday brunch (full english, why not, I’ve earned it).

The actual details of what i’ve done are here (I don’t want this blog to be about just the boring details of my training, so i’m trying to separate text from logging).l

In terms of how i’m doing with the actual training, my running is fine, but way slower than i’m used to running due to the heart rate zones. My swimming needs tons more work (I got cramp in last Sunday’s session and couldn’t finish, not ideal), and whilst I love my bike, the seat is a little less than comfy! I’ve also discovered that indoor training, whilst really useful for time efficient is not that exciting, and very, well, sauna like. I was pretty pleased with doing the bike session yesterday on the back of a pretty large hangover (tip: 3am finishes on nights out and morning training do not go hand in hand).

So this is it, this is how it starts, and for the next 9 weeks i’ll be building up my base levels of fitness to take on the tougher challenges to follow. Which reminds me, I need to change my plan over Xmas – two sessions on Christmas Day is not going to happen!