So, whats been happening?

Right, I haven't quite fallen off the face of the planet but have been taking some time out from blogging etc for a number of reasons. Partly cos I couldn't be bothered, it seemed almost like it was a bit of a chore and it has been nice to tell people what I have been up to without them saying, 'yeah I read that on your blog' also partly I have been in a bit of a funk. Yes, me, really! It was bad but not bad at the same time, I did some learning while I was funking, did a bit of analysing about all sorts of stuff. Realised that I quite like myself so that's good and knew it was all turning round for the better when I actually googled to see whether or not extroverts get depressed! I'd never really been in a funk before so didn't know what that was about eh! I am just very pleased that it was relatively short lived, well compared to some other stories I have heard anyway. One of the guys told me it took him till August to get excited about IM again after doing his first one, yikes!! We had this conversation in May so it scared me some! Turns out having another big goal lined up doesn't make things easier, just so you know if you have similar plans/thoughts when entering that big race! I took a few days annual leave in late June and basically bunked nearly all of my training that week cos I was enjoying sleeping in and not going out in the cold cos I didn't have too for any other reason, then I realised how quickly that next race was sneaking up and realised that I needed to get off my chuff and basically harden the f__k up and just do my training! I have less time this time around as I am racing in January so it does mean I have to train a bit more on wintry days but I guess unlike some others who are over this winter thing I have generally been finding it ok, I seem to find enough parts of the week that aren't too cold and wet to get my training done in, this was probably helped by the fact that I haven't done a lot of cycling over winter as it has been all about the run! Now it is 6 months exactly till race day and I am into it, my training plan is challenging yet do-able which is good and I keep tweaking it with Richard in order to try and get the very best out of each session and that is good, its keeping me interested and excited and I seem to have a new idea every week or so which is keeping me fresh and alert.

So where to from here? I am off to do the Palmerston North Half Marathon again in mid-August, I really enjoyed this race last year so will be fun to test myself over the same course as it was where I set my PB half marathon time. Then South Island Half IM in November followed up by Challenge Wanaka in January.

There won't be so much blogging this time round, mainly cos the journey will be quite different I think. I know that I can physically and mentally complete an IM so that takes away a lot of the uncertainty that I had last time around. And I want it to be more about me than just about my training but a lot of that 'me stuff' I don't necessarily want or need to express in blog form. What I am doing is a lot of reading about goal setting, commitment to your goals and achieving your dreams. So all in all its looking to be quite a philosophical journey this time round, some of it I will share on here, some of it I won't, but I'll be around and I'll be training hard now that I have remembered where I hid those hard pills!!

See you out there training, at the pool, on the road or doing a bit of Bikram!