Inertia

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“This tendency for motion (or for rest) to maintain itself steadily unless made to do otherwise by some interfering force can be viewed as a kind of ‘laziness’, a kind of unwillingness to make a change.”Isaac Asimov

It’s a beautiful day outside. Clear blue skies, the sun is shining and the winds aren’t that strong. Yet I’m indoors writing up a blog post. If only I could claim it was out of a sense of loyalty to those who read this. It’s not even guilt over failing to post for a few days.

Instead I’ve come to the end of an odd week. A week that’s hard to analyse on the one hand I’ve had one or two great training sessions. On the other I’ve fallen far short of my training goals, struggling to get back into a routine. What was supposed to be week one of my Ironman Western Australia build felt more like a transition week. With less than four weeks to race day I’m starting to get nervous about fitness.

Take today as an example. Like I said it’s beautiful out there, just the kind of day I came all the way to Oz for. Perfect for training. So with half of it already gone I’ve done nothing.

In fact I had a lie in, got up and ate a bowl of berries, nuts and yoghurt. A light breakfast before I headed out on my run. Then just felt tired and went back to bed for an hour. I got up again and cooked myself an omelette, my main breakfast planned for after the run. I still felt tired and after a while went back to bed for an hour! Now I’m up again and thinking I’ll have some lunch shortly and do that run this afternoon.

Had I stuck to my plan I would have gone on that run. Then after brekkie I’d have headed to the gym for a weights session. The day would have finished off with an easy ride out on the race course. All in perfect weather and none of it too hard either.

What makes this particularly frustrating is it’s a pattern that seems to have repeated all week. I’ve dropped more workouts than in the final week of a taper! I can’t even give a good reason why. The motivation hasn’t been entirely there. Perhaps it’s settling in to a new location and routine. Or maybe residual fatigue, certainly I’ve felt more tired than usual at this point. Or maybe there’s been too much intensity in my first week back?

Either way I’ve twenty-eight days to my race and that gives me roughly eighteen good training days to go. It’s time to get on top of this and start things properly moving. No more excuse, no more fatigue. Attitude and behaviour need adjusting to get myself ready to race. I’m not looking to build fitness, just get myself back into race shape and ready to go. I should be able to get back to that Kona shape.

Two big weeks of training to follow. All set in a fantastic venue with some good people to train with. It’s not exactly a tough life is it? I shouldn’t be sitting here wondering what to do. I should be out there training to my plan!

Apologies for the brief, whiney post. I wanted something up on the site even if it was this! Next week I’ll report back with some positives and progress I promise. I still have that 9:00 mark in my sights. In fact I chatted to a guy at Bunbury Pool who did a 9:47 in Kona followed by a 8:59 in Busselton a couple of years back. Certainly can be done.

Latest statistics for Ironman Western Australia

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