End of year report

Happy New Year to you all. I’m back at a computer and I have loads of things I want to rattle on about today.

Firstly I have a couple of end of week reports that need catching up on.

Week 13
Shocking week. I managed to go to the gym for my last best effort on the Sunday. And then I failed wholeheartedly to go again.
I believe that Nigel also made it to the gym once this week.

Week 14.
I went to the gym twice. Both were lack lustre efforts. And that was it for 11 days off from work, I managed barely two training days.

Owain SPW = 2.71
Gym 31 kayaking 4 other 3

Nigel SPW = 1.28
Gym 15 kayaking 2 other 1

Christmas break was disastrous for my training. I ate and drank to excess, I barely went to the gym, and when I did go I had no motivation because I wanted to be at home eating and drinking to excess.

So here I am in January with big plans to up the training rate with a visit to the gym every day. I will cycle through the muscle groups and CV work so that the different muscles will still get rest.

As a Christmas present, the wife got me the Devises to Westminster handbook. It’s filled with loads of really useful information on this race and is going to take some reading to digest, it is pretty daunting what we need to do to be in a position to take part in the race, let alone competing in the race itself.

Recommended training seems to comprise of spending hours in the boat, preferably on stretches of the course. Two problems with this, we don’t have a boat, and the course is 150 miles away. First mission of 2009 is to get a boat.

Plans to run a half marathon as part of the training continue. My dad has given this idea a kick firmly in the right direction by pointing out to me a half marathon that is nearby to be held in March. http://www.telfordharriers.co.uk/ironbridge.html. My dad has started training for this race and I think it will be pretty cool to race with him, so I am going to be sticking my name down for this one.

I am a real technophile and am in the process of surrounding myself with gadgets to aid my training. Another present from the missus was a new iPod (replacing the one that did a turn in the washing machine) and onto this I have downloaded an hour long training music track which is designed to regulate the heart rate and to give a perception of less effort using the bpm of the cleverly mixed tracks. I have also sourced a heart rate monitor so that I can effectively get my cardio vascular training into the “Zone”.

So that’s me at the end of 2008. Training is going to continue in earnest. 14 weeks completed 64 weeks to go.