Long time no post

And after I promised too..! Last time I left my meandering, ill-considered keyboard taps on this here blog, I apologised for not having posted more regularly of late and gave my word that, from that point on, readers would be able to tuck into my thought pies more often. And I failed. At the first attempt. But, with a New Year a-comin, it seems like maybe I can get a bit of a headstart and turn over a new digital leaf. From now on, dear blog readers, from now on...

There’s really only two explanations for my woeful and wilful dereliction of blogging duties, isn’t there: that I’ve been busier than an Essex girl on a Saturday night and haven’t had the chance to whack out a blog; or that life’s been so remarkably uneventful that writing about it would have been as pointless as a Tiger Woods marriage vow. So which has it been? Well, both actually.

On one hand, work has been off the charts mental, and I’m currently managing five guide books as well as an editorial team and overseeing all of their projects. Meanwhile, there’s been the small matter of moving house and all the sheer, unadulterated pain in the arse-ness that involves. Oh, plus 12-14 hours a week of training. But that’s the other hand...training has been going well but it’s really just been a case of keeping on keeping on. I’m still loving being part of the Tri2Aspire team and am still convinced of its benefits, in terms of motivation, enjoyment and improvement.

After a month of ‘longer miles’ in November, my attention has turned to quite a lot of shorter, higher intensity efforts for December which I’m hoping will build speed and strength ready for next year. Next May, I’m going to be racing the British Sprint Championship in Emberton in an attempt to make the UK age group team for the World Championships in New Zealand. Then it’s Ironman Austria in July. They may both be some distance away but I’m already feeling pretty focused and determined and am trying to keep these in mind during each training session. I definitely feel like I’m making progress at the moment, which is great. 

You’d naturally assume that training for a sprint and an Ironman – the two ends of the triathlon spectrum – would be completely different but I’m not finding that to be the case. Of course, I know that I’ll need to focus on building the endurance more and more as IM approaches but, for the moment, I just feel like I’m getting stronger and stronger in all three events which can only help, no matter what the distance. For short course racing, that power is explosive and used for hard, fast racing; over the longer distances, it’s used for endurance and keeping steady throughout – something I definitely struggled with on the bike in Wales.

However, I think these jam-packed busy/eerily quiet days are coming to an end, which is good news as far as the creative juices go as it means lots more material for writing about. For starters, I’ve the Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon this weekend. The following week is the final Aerofit sprint tri of 2011. Then it’s my birthday (which I’m hoping to celebrate with a team session of 100 x 100m off 1:40 in the swimming pool...a 10k swim in around 3 hours!), Christmas and a whole New Year to look forward to. I’m also hoping to upgrade my bike in the next few months. So, busy-busy, but in the good way.

That’ll do for now then. Laters.