As I write this, I’m sat in the reception of the hospital that saved my life 13 years ago. I’m just in for a check-up, but back in 2009 I was rushed in here for heart surgery, culminating with a stent being put into my heart, opening up a 90% blockage. At the time it …
Category: health
Getting into the swing of things.
It’s now been a month since returning to Japan, and my 7 month sojourn in UK and Spain seems a distant memory. I’ve got back to some sort of routine, although things are far from normal, with many offices and shops being closed and a state of emergency in place, meaning restrictions on what you …
Cozumel Ironman : 17 weeks out
As mentioned in my previous blog, the past week was my first week back in Japan, and it’s really good to get home after unexpectedly being away for so long. When I first touched down I was required to spend 3 nights in a quarantine hotel, officially not allowed to leave my room until the …
Wow I can see!!!
I wasn’t planning on writing anything this week due to having NLR surgery (natural lens replacement, which is basic cataract surgery but using prescription replacement lenses), however as I am feeling pretty chipper and positive, thought I would get a brief update down.Firstly – wow, I can see!! I was first prescribed glasses in elementary …
Sleep deprivation, Normatec and Bionic Eyes
Another quiet week passes by, really nothing exciting or out of the ordinary to update anyone on. Living in such an isolated way as I am now, without any real interaction with the outside world, tends to be what one may loosely term as “boring as hell”, however it is conducive to great training. The …
Continue reading Sleep deprivation, Normatec and Bionic Eyes
A sad farewell, a jab and some progress
The big news for the UK this week was the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. I am a bit of a Royalist, although not at all nationalistic having spent so much of the last 40 years out for the country, so I do find it sad to witness the passing of an era. He …
Born again Noob
As a kid I never really enjoyed participating in sports, I was a bit of a klutz, not being particularly gifted with any physical skills other than some endurance. This endurance did favour me when it came to long distance running, and I was briefly in the school cross country team, however I was always …
The Toughest Footrace on Earth
I know once I make this challenge fully public, I will have more reason to make sure I succeed, so after weeks of prevaricating and rewriting, I dumped the previous blog attempt and I sat down to write and publish a totally new piece as quickly as I could. Apologies for the bad English, grammar …
Is the plan, going to plan?
The Japanese government announced last week the expansion of the lock down to cover the whole country, along with a promised payment of Y100,000 per adult to support the economy. My office has been in “Work From Home” (WFH) for basically a month, and two weeks ago my gym and pool closed too. Tokyo, much …
So where do we go from here?
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 …
A fool, some friends and a physio
In my previous post, written in early July, I was feeling confident about my upcoming races, having got some good bike work in and looking forward to some structured and intense run training, something I had not managed last year. I surmised that by having the opportunity to follow a full training plan that my …
Accidents, Anaemia and being back on track
Hello strangers, long time no see, or as they say in Japanese - “hisashiburi”. It’s been a while since I wrote, and I’m not going to promise regular updates from now, but I am sat in a bus on my way to one of my favourite places in the world, and I thought what better …
Fast after fifty
I have just come to the end of a wonderful 6 weeks in southern Spain, where I have enjoyed either running, biking or swimming in the glorious sunshine every single day (well there were a few grey and colder days, but those are quickly forgotten ). I will be continuing my training in the UK, …
A long overdue update
It has been over a month since I have updated my blog, and looking back at what I wrote it is interesting to see how much I was struggling to motivate myself at the time. That lack of motivation also kept me off-line.. well mostly it was lack of motivation, but there has been another …
Might not be much, but I’ll take it
I got into sport for all the wrong reasons.. well, you may say right reasons, but it could have been anything - sport, stamp collecting, snake charming. What I mean to say is that I didn’t get into sport because I enjoy sport, I got into sport because I had to do something, my life …
Back on track
Today is the first day of the first full week in Japan, and I am looking forward to getting down and dirty with my training. The weather si warming up, I am recovering well from both my accident and my travelling, and really feel the energy and desire coming back. I love this buzz I …
Starting again… again!
I am sat on a plane flying to Japan as I wrote this. It’s about 2.5 weeks since I had my sudden and painful meeting with the Spanish tarmac, and as you may expect, things have been up and down. It was in all truthfulness a minor crash, but it got to me a bit …
A painful reminder
Afternoon folks, lovely day here in sunny Spain, the type that makes you feel good to be alive… And I can say that with meaning, as last Friday at around 5pm, a car pulled out in front of me as I was coming down a hill, and sent both me and my bike flying… I …
How to become a better athlete – Part I
I’m really fascinated to find out how much better an athlete I can become if training is my main “focus” and I’m living in a place with such a wonderful training environment that Javea offers. I really am in a very lucky position that many would be envious of, and it’s time I start taking …