Big fat blow-out and a spot of catch up

Another month has passed and another disappointing lack of blogging from a young Mr Warnock. But new year, new leaf. And I feel the creative juices, not to mention motivation, welling up inside me once again. But before I go about entertaining you like a monkey in a waistcoat playing the cymbals, making you laugh more than a fat woman falling of a swing, and educating you more enjoyably than a school with Stephen Fry as the headmaster (how cool would that be?), I figure we’ve some catching up to do, you and me.

Firstly the Creek Striders Half Marathon that I spoke about last time. In short, what an event. The course looped up and around the creekside roads of Dubai, up and over some of Dubai’s iconic bridges, and sections of the course actually went through the souks in Bur Dubai – best road race I’ve ever done (admittedly, that’s not many). It was also a great atmosphere with a huge fry-up breakfast afterwards. In terms of performance, I did 1:33 – a 3 minute PB ona  far harder course than the PB was set on. Given that I’d not done much long running at all, I was pretty happy with that. In February, I’ll be racing the RAK HalfMarathon – the flat and fast race in which I set my previous PB and, as my current programme does feature a weekly long run (26kms), I’m gunning to go sub 1:30 for the first time there.

Xmas and New Year were both perfectly pleasant but, to be honest, having returned to the UK for my nan’s funeral just a week before, I wasn’t feeling too festive. I missed my family a lot and couldn’t stop thinking how tough it must have been for my mum and dad. This translated into a lack of motivation on the training front too – I missed more sessions at the end of December than I think I’ve missed all year, but I wasn’t too fussed. Did manage an Xmas morning sea swim with some of the T2A gang, which was a highlight.

Just after Christmas, my friend Janey (actually an ex but we’ve stayed quite close) came to visit on her way back from Thailand, and we had a really nice time – with a few other friends joining for a couple of days too. I took a few days off work, took all four days off training, ate too much, drank every night and it was lovely. I was sad to see them go as it’d been such a welcome break and diversion, but I dropped them at the airport at 5am on Friday morning and went straight to join in with the Dubai Roadsters 120k-er – and absolutely loved every kilometre of it. The motivation came flooding back – it’s a ride I’ve not done for quite a while and I was amazed at how much easier I found the pace, how I could join in all the sprints, and how easily I could motor up the few little climbs that used to leave me trailing far behind. Progress is the greatest form of motivation, when you can see it that clearly. The highlight of that ride was joining the ‘fast group’ for the last 45kms and averaging in excess of 40kph (assisted by a large peloton and tailwind, but still...) and being led out by former Ironman World Champion Faris Al Sultan who is sponsored by Abu Dhabi and does quite a bit of his winter training here in the UAE. Mercifully, he actually wore full shorts and a long-sleeved bike jersey...

He'd have been cold wearing this...

Since then, I’ve not really looked back. Coach sent me my Jan schedule through and it’s by far the biggest I’ve ever done – way more kms than I was doing in peak Ironman training even (tho more favourable conditions than Dubai in August help with that) and it’s just what I needed. It’s basically a base training month with very little intensity, but I’m loving getting all these kilometres in my legs, especially on the bike which I have a bit of a like-hatehatehate relationship with at times. 

I think the other reason for the motivation racing back faster than a drunk to last orders is that a few big races are now in sight – before, they were very much on the horizon but I’m almost able to start counting the weeks down now. That helps a lot.

Other than all the training, life is generally consisting of a monumental SHITLOAD (sorry ma, but it really is a shitload!) of work as we race to get products out for the end of the financial year. In the office for 56 hours last week; in the pool, on the bike and on the road for another 20...doesn’t leave much time for much else, tho I don’t mind that so much right now.

So, there we go, you’re all up-to-date, au courant, al dia, with what’s going on here. Hasta pronto, amigos.

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.