2009

so to 2009.

I've got through a fantastic period of downtime and Christmas with only a few extra kilo's and hopefully not too much lack of fitness. I picked things up again in mid December with some easy running and swimming. Christmas week I'd hoped to ramp things up a bit in the work downtime but I got a decent dose of Man-Flu, so I've spent the last 5 days housebound.

After a good chat with coach Dave in December the plan is to take the fitness from Arizona, add a bit of strength and then build on it as mush as possible to really race Switzerland. Looking at previous qualifying times (and I have good experience of how dangerous that can be), it's looking like I will going to need to go sub 9:20 and realistically under 9:15 at Switzerland to stand a good chance of getting a Hawaii slot this year. The bike at Switzerland is undoubtedly tougher than Arizona, so I'm looking at having to gain 33 mins over a tougher course.

6 hard months ahead then...

The next 3 months are really going to be about strength, working on my core, running and swimming. To motivate me on the running I've entered Barcelona Marathon on the 1st March, which I intend to run as a confidence booster and a motivator to keep consistent 80k+ weeks going through this tough time of year. If I can run under 2:50 at Barcelona then going under 3:15 off the bike in Switzerland shouldn't seem impossible?!

That just leaves 5 mins to find on the swim and T1 and another 15mins on the bike!

Happy New Year...