Plans , Deadlines and Promises

Well hello people! I am back to blog and I am here to stay this time. I am having a shocker at present both training wise (I'm not doing much) and racing wise (I'm sloooow) combined with a hectic upcoming race schedule, I thought I would blog to put some much needed pressure on myself. So you have a weekly training summary blog to look forward to this Sunday and every Sunday until at least the 1st July 2012 when I shall hopefully have successfully completed the Iron Distance Triathlon the Outlaw, that is 18 weeks away!

So the races on my horizon are as follows:
Essex 20 -(20 Mile Run) - 6 Days away.
Two Oceans Ultra Marathon (34.8 Mile Run) - 6 Weeks away.
Edinburgh Marathon - (26.2 Mile Run) - 13 Weeks away.
Southend Half Marathon - (13.1 Mile Run) - 15 Weeks away.
Outlaw Triathlon - (2.4 Mile Swim, 112 Mile Cycle and 26.2 Mile Run) - 18 Weeks away.

The Essex 20 miler is an enforced training run for the Two Oceans, I really struggled on a 10 Mile training run 10 days ago and this weekend ran a 5K race at a similar pace to that of 2 years ago. So the indicators are this should be a painful 3 hours or so.

But on the basis I get round and survive it should be a good run to do pre Two Oceans, another training run of 20 miles plus and I should be able to drag myself around the race somewhere in the region of 5-6 hours.

With that Ultra and some good training post South Africa and Ross's stag do I want to be in PB Marathon shape for Edinburgh, which should then mean two weeks later when I run the Southend Half Marathon for the 4th successive time I want to be in good form if not in PB shape.

Running in the background to all that is the small matter of the Outlaw and the big swim, followed by the big bike, rounded off with a marathon. I am yet to really jump into a pool let alone a lake and this MUST start tommorow at the gym, plan is to get in swim for 1 hour regardless of distance, get out, job done. I do have a more detailed plan long-term for my training, but it's far too dull to detail here.

So there you have it, my hopes, my expectations, my plans and some pretty tight and intimidating deadlines. The promises well they are as follows:

1) I will blog weekly with a summary of the training I have done in the preceding 7 days every week from now to the Outlaw.
2) I will turn up to and finish all of the above 5 races.
3) I will jump into the pool at least once a week barring the two weeks I spend in South Africa over Easter.
4) I will run at least 3 times a week.
5) I will bike at least 3 times in excess of 80 miles prior to the Outlaw.

That is all the promises you are going to get out of me. Check back in Sunday 4th March 2012 for my Essex 20 Race Report and Training Summary.