For many years I have dreamed of completing an Ironman, way before ever taking part in any sprint tri’s or sportive. It has always seemed like an enigma, an impossible challenge. Well I am turning it into a possible challenge as along with 3 good friends of mine and my sister we have entered Iron Man Wales. By all accounts not the exactly the easiest Ironman, but being Welsh we are a proud lot and feel that this is the one to do.
So how am I going to transform from being a sometime sprint Triathlon participant to being able to complete an Ironman, you may be asking yourself. Well I am asking the same question too. Having read up about many different training plans on the web, as you do, there is a vast array of advice. Some of which quite contradictory, as is what seems to be the case with pretty much any subject on the web especially when related to health and fitness.
There are plans which say you need to train 20 hours a week and there are some which say you can get away with 10 hours. At this point I am still undecided as to what plan I am going to follow. I am currently trying to figure out how to start fitting more training hours into my day, considering we have two young boys aged 6 and 3 who take up lots of my time, and rightly so. I also look after my Dad, coach rugby for my sons Under 7’s team and try and fit in a bit of work too, so time to train is in short supply. I am sure many many others training for Ironman have exactly the same quandary.
For now I am just trying to increase the amount of days that I run or cycle. I still haven’t managed to get myself in the pool yet, this is starting to worry me a little.
Motivation
As I have already mentioned it has always been a long term dream / goal of mine to complete an Ironman which is motivation enough, but I would also like to raise some money and awareness for Alzheimers disease. Back in 2007 my Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers at age the of 72.It has been some journey since that point with Mum. It is such a cruel disease, seeing the most beautiful kind and caring woman being slowly taken away from you little by little. The one saving grace is her gentle demeanour has never left her and even now you can still see in her eyes and by her touch what a lovely gentle lady she is. This is especially evident when she is in contact with my two young boys. You just wish that the boys could have know my Mum as she was in her prime, they would have loved each others company so much.
So I am aiming to add some sort of fundraising element to this website to accept sponsorship / donations for the Alzheimers society, and as I progress along my journey to Ironman I will keep you all update with my training progress and the fundraising.
See you on the road/trail/ (maybe the pool)
In the meantime go and donate! Please 🙂
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Great site Dave! I am chuffed that we are taking this journey together for our lovely mum- who is continuing to be so incredibly brave and an inspiration to us! She would be so proud I am sure -although I can hear the words she would probably say – ‘oooh thats such a long way!’ But she would have had all the best advice for eating well and the importance of yoga!!! We will train hard and endeavor to raise awareness and as much money as we can!
xx Kitty Kat
PS I shall bring my homemade ‘powerballs’ for our run tomorrow!
Ah dear sis, yes our lovely Mum would certainly be a great source of nutritional wisdom on this little journey of ours. There would also be lots of being told to ‘be careful’ as well.
Unless your ‘powerballs’ are now devoid of peanut butter I shall be declining your generous offer. However if you would like to share you powerball recipe on this site then please let me know. I am sure it would make for a great guest blog post.
Thanks for sending me the link to your blog David – I’ll read every part of you journey. Your reasons for doing it are good ones and after running with you last week I have every faith in you and your sister completing the journey.
If you need someone to run with in the week leading up to the Summer holidays then do let me know and I’ll be there. If you need someone to cycle with on the weekends – give me a shout and I’ll do my best.
Good luck both and keep up with the blogging (you’ve inspired me to get back in touch with my blog).
Hi Gareth, thanks for taking the time to read. I will definitely be in touch to hook up for some runs in the coming months. I’ll be sure to check out your blog too.
Go fella, if you need a ride partner during your training to drag you up horrible hills, just shout. I’m doing the Tour of Pembrokeshire soon, I’ll let you know how horrible those hills are 😉