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Not to go on about this too much but today would have been the Barcelona Ironman (is Barcelona Ironman)

At the start of July I was 12 stone 14 heading down towards my target weight of 12 stone 7 and right on target for smashing the life out of my second Ironman race but it was not to be. Those who read regularly will know that I broke won't do that again.

Not to dwell on that but had I been doing that, right at this minute I would have been in the peak. I would have trained the life out of myself until about 10 days ago and I would have tapered down carefully, not too massively (I have a real handle on how to do that now) and I would have hit Sunday morning at 8am on the beach at Calella raring and ready to go. I would have smashed it with a fair wind (and the weather looks fair) and I would have gone really close to, if not under, 10 hours.

But I didn't and that's not the point, I guess the point is that you can't peak all the time.

I would have come out of Barcelona Ironman high as a kite, planning for next year delighted. I would be telling myself how I will have a massive winter of training which would have catapulted me into world championship qualifier status within a year or two. I would have had 4 weeks and by the middle of December I would have been broken. Because that's the schedule and that's the cycle and that's what happens. If you want the high then you have to take the low. You're not in fact a sum of what you achieve when you're at your best, you are a sum of your average; the s&*t and the great in one pot stirred together.

It doesn't matter that i'm not in Barcelona. I'll go to other places and do other things. My life has been much more stable over the last 6 weeks than it would have been if I was trying to hit 10 hours at an Ironman but of course there is a little part of me that finds that a little bit dull.

The great times are great but you have to take the lows otherwise it's level all the time and that's boring.

Blog Post Number: 1085