Wednesday 20 April 2016

Its been around three years since the last blog posting and man, a lot has happened!

I found the Flying Monks Tri Club (Malmesbury, Wiltshire) as an outlet to channel any spare energy that might be left over after the kids have worn me out; nothing too serious but it has been a great find which has allowed me to revert back to my roots and pick up my swimming. To date, and quickly nearing the ripe old age of 40 (!) I am swimming faster than I was 'in my prime' in my late teens living back home in Cornwall.

The 'Monks' are a great bunch and it enables me to keep my base fitness to a level I am content with until the kids are old enough such that I will be able to focus more time to training.

Ellen has been my heart and soul as always, forever at my side through the ups and downs that life has thrown at us. The biggest hurdle to date has been the loss of our baby boy Joshua back in 2013, which was also compounded by the calamitous liquidation of our contractor whilst building our own house; money we will never get back!

However, this little pocket rocket arrived last June and changed our hearts and lives forever....

Seren Hope - Born 9th June 2015 x
 
Running has ticked over gently with lots of half marathons par for the course, and a sub-20 minute 5km PB well earned. The main event came at the end of 2015 with a return to Cornwall on the Atlantic Coast Challenge, and challenge it certainly ended up being! Not enough training by far (kids and life), coupled with a bad tear of the adductor muscle a week before the start made the journey slow and extremely painful; much slower than the previous years by far. In a strange way though, I really enjoyed it. I ran it solo for the first time which was great, although company at times would have been welcome, as it made it quite a lonely journey at times. Just proof that 82 miles in a weekend is not something to head into on a whim, which is effectively what I did. Recovery took a while, but I'm now at full(ish) fitness ready to go again in October this year!!
 
Next up, Royal Wooton Bassett Sprint Tri mid May.
 
Good luck for 2016!
 
Laters
 
Gaz