On Saturday it became official, the Desaru 70.3, scheduled for 21 April in Malaysia, joined a constantly growing list of M-dot sanctioned races that have been cancelled or postponed. This was supposed to have been my first race of this year, and would have been my first race since June of last year (my planned full Ironman in Gurye last September was also cancelled). Meaning my last two races have not gone ahead, one due to the weather, one due to the Corona virus shitstorm that is hitting the world right now

To be honest, training has been somewhat subdued since I last wrote. My Achilles has refused to take the final step to recovery so has been hampering my running, even though I have kept everything at a slow gentle MAF pace. It is close, so very close to getting better, but hasn’t crossed the line, leaving me wondering sometimes if it ever will. Of course if I had followed the detailed stretching and strengthening routine my physio gave me, maybe things would have been different, but that’s another story.

So back to the weekend, there I was pumping away on the Kickr when a friend wrote me to say that Desaru Half Ironman was officially postponed. I was in the middle of the endorphin high that’s produced during 2hrs of cycling while watching EMD/Reggaeton videos (yes, I am way too old to be watching them but the tempo and energy work so well for indoor bike), all I could think was how this gave me the perfect chance to reset and upgrade.  I immediately decided to turn the negative in to a positive and see this as a chance to really focus on getting in some high quality training, to ensure that when the world eventually returns to normal, I will be ready to take advantage of whatever races are still scheduled to go ahead.

Of course I have no idea when the world will return to normal, so everything is still up in the air (both literally and figuratively), but being the “one step from disaster” guy that I am, I need some structure if I am to keep myself from falling back into bad habits. I am registered for one further race in June in Korea, but it feels unlikely that will go ahead, so have rejigged things a bit.

This is my rough plan:

I will target the races that have been rescheduled for later in the year, and use them to try to qualify for the 70.3 world championships held late November in Taupo. I believe the majority of the rescheduled races will be between Aug – Oct, meaning I have at least 4 months of extra training, and I have put down a few commitments to help me make the most of this additional time

1. Start getting up earlier and doing my runs in the morning, thereby getting them out the way and freeing up my evenings for bike and/or relaxation
2. After morning run spend 10 minutes following the Stretch and strengthen routine set by my coach
3. Longer swims at least 3 days a week. I don’t like swimming so I avoid it, maybe doing 1-2hrs a week. I believe that just getting stronger would help me as my early lengths are always much faster than my later ones, so it makes sense to increase my time in the water. Of course this only holds true as long as the pools stay open…
4. Bike – by running in the morning I can get my evening intervals done without conflict. Again sticking to the schedule of 4 bikes a week will help increase my FTP (which has always been pathetic)
5. Be sociable, if social distancing allows! There are at least 2 runs, one bike and one open water swim group sessions every week, but I avoid them. As with much of my training, once I am out, I always enjoy group sessions and generally I get much better quality workout, but I am always reticent to go. That has to change, and I commit to at least one group session per week.
6. Getting to bed before 11pm, to ensure proper sleep, proper recovery and able to get up to run
7. Lose weight – plan meals, stick to healthy options. The constant battle. However one issue I have is late night snacking so if I am going to bed earlier, hopefully this will be less of an issue.

I also like the advice a team mate of mine gave “to think about doing things you don’t normally have the time to”. Such things as online yoga, core-work etc. Will write more on that later but could be a very interesting and worthwhile pursuit

Finally, I think one really good way to keep myself honest, is to commit to more regular blog updates. A member of my running groups is writing a daily mini blog, and I really can see how that works to stay focused, so while I might not be as proactive as he is, I will potentially be putting more regular but shorter updates on here over the coming months!