How Hard Can it Be?: May 2012

Thursday, 31 May 2012

May Training Update & The Olympic Torch Relay!

The last day of May and the Olympic Torch relay passes through Crewe near where we live. It was worth the early start to see this once in a lifetime experience! Can't wait for the Olympics to start now!

My events are coming up thick and fast now. The Great Manchester Run is done for this year and I really enjoyed it (see the post below).

The Findel Team triathlon challenge at Capesthorne is a little over a week away and I'm optamistic of doing circa 23mins for the 5km run although whether we'll beat the girls or not is a different question! £50 raised for the RNLI so far for that but I'm sure more will follow ~ http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/FindelTri

The Liverpool Triathlon is also only a few weeks away and so I'll be uping the training in June in the hope of getting under that elusive 3 hours! I'm raising funds for the Isaiah Trust on that ~ http://www.justgiving.com/Daves-IsaiahTrust-Triathlon

The training in May has been ok, here's the summary...

01/05/12 ~ 1500m swim training session with Crewe Tigers Tri club at Total Fitness

03/05/12 ~ 1600m open water swim with Uswim at Boundary water park

08/05/12 ~ 8 mile run through Sandbach, Hassall Green, Wheelock and back in 1hour 9 mins

10/05/12 ~ 2000m open water swim with Uswim at Boundary water park

12/05/12 ~ 7 mile run from Sandbach, through Moston and Ettiley Heath and back along the Wheelock rail

trail in 60mins and 42 secs.

15/05/12 ~ 4 mile run with my eldest daughter training for her first 10km this weekend. 48 mins 45secs for

her first none stop run! :o)

16/05/12 ~ 7.8 mile cycle around Bradwall and Brereton Green in 27mins 56secs averaging 16.9mph

17/05/12 ~ 1600m open water swim with Uswim at Boundary water park in 35mins 51secs

20/05/12 ~ Great Manchester Run. 6 miles in 47mins 11secs with the 10km done in 49mins 25secs :-)

21/05/12 ~ 9 mile cool down cycle run as a leg stretcher after yesterday's 10km... 13.6mph average plus a

                  few more tweaks to the bike position to try and get more streamligned.
24/05/12 ~ 1500m swim on the long course at Uswim's Boundary Water park session in 33mins 55secs
31/05.12 ~ 40 mins Weight Training at Total Fitness (am)
                   25 mile bike ride around Cheshire in 1 hour 37mins averaging 15.3mph

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Great Manchester 10km Run ~ Done! (Time ~ 49mins 25Secs)

Another excellent Great Manchester Run event and once again managed to get under my 50minute target but having done so was a little disappointed with the 49mins 25secs time as for the first half of the race I was well ahead of my splits last year when I did a PB of 46.36 and so thought I was going to finish considerably better. Time for the 6 mile mark was 47mins 11secs (a best for the year so far)... The difference this time was that without last years late stages of Marathon training I wasn't able to sustain the quick pace I started out at.

My overall position was 5167th out of circa 40,000 runners (445 in my age group) so not bad at all even if I do say so myself :-)

My eldest daughter did her first 10km to raise funds for her charity expedition to Madagascar next year and I was immensely proud of her grit and determination in finishing (after a few tears at circa 7km) in 1 hour 11mins. She also raised around £480 which is brilliant!

Karen did a very respectable 51mins flat which at only 20 secs slower than last year after her marathon training was excellent!

And the beers in town afterwards? Oh they never tasted so good!

Why am I doing this?!

I got drawn in to running in 2007 to raise funds for charity and discovered it's a great way to keep in shape! I expanded the fundraising to open water swimming in 2010 and loved that too which lead to taking up cycling and Triathlon's in 2011!

I've kept a training blog for the past three years and found it a huge motivator to get out and do something to report on so here I am again! I'll be keeping a record here of all my training and event ups and downs as well as a few deviations on my hobbies. I'm planning a few events this year for my own benefit and a couple of major events to raise funds again for two charities that mean a lot to me:

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution ~ http://www.rnli.org/

In September 2007 I had an accident whilst sailing my Laser Pico dinghy out at sea off Abersoch, North Wales. The Abersoch crew came to my aid and I'll be eternally grateful ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk6edftmHtg

I spend a lot of time out at sea with family and friends and it made me realise just how dependent we are on this life saving volunteer emergency service funded entirely by charity.

I ran the Great North Run Half Marathon to raise funds for the Abersoch RNLI station in 2008 & 2009. In 2010 I taught myself front crawl and swam a mile in open water at The Great Salford Swim and in 2011 rolled it all up taking on the Tatton Triathlon Olympic Distance.

This year I'm going to extend the cycling by riding Coast to Coast from Morcambe to Bridlington along the 'Way of the Roses' route ~ http://www.wayoftheroses.co.uk/. It's a 170mile ride over 3 days from 24th to the 26th August...

How hard can it be ;-)

The Isaiah Trust ~ http://www.isaiahtrust.org/

A registered charity started in 2001 by two good friends with big hearts, Nicky and Tim. The charity helps kids in Kenya orphaned by aids and surviving on their own on the streets in some of the most apalling conditions imaginable. The lives that these kids endured prior to the charity beggars’ belief and as a parent myself brings tears to my eyes... But the Trust has and continues to do some amazing things for these kids... Providing outreach and rehabilitation centres to give safe havens and remedial education, setting up orphanages and foster parent programmes. Helping children get back in to the state educaion system and providing 'resource centres' for older child who have missed too much schooling to teach them a skill or trade to earn a living. The Trust is now working hard setting up farms to establish sustainable food programs as well as teaching children farming skills. The trust has helped change the lives of so many kids but there are so many more yet to help...

After a four years of running the Great Manchester 10km Run, to raise awareness and funds for the trust last year I ran the Edinburgh Marathon which was awesome! This year I've signed up for the Liverpool Triathlon Olympic Disatance event (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run) where I'll be looking to get under that elusive 3 hour target! Watch this space!...