Happy New year

and a warm welcome back to my old friends 'Pain', 'Fatigue' and an early appearance from DOMS.
wow, its incredible how quickly you lose fitness.
I must admit that december was just about a complete washout...with no running, 2 turbo sessions (to test it after i bought it from a mate) and loads of beer and food. surprisingly i didnt put on any weight....i know this cause at the beginning of december i joined weight watchers on-line...not because i want to lose a load of weight...but so i can properly manage my calorie intake..rather than thinking just cause i've been running for an hour means i can eat all the pies!
Its incredibly easy and in the 4 weeks of december i actually lost 3lbs...lol...not what i expected in december. so thats good.

anyway training has officially started now...the snow has gone...the turbo is set up in the spare room with a big tv/computer monitor and i've had the go-ahead from my physio to start swimming.

On the subject of swimming i probably wont do much until about april...when the open water season starts...this is because i have two local pools and both are rubbish....one is full of the erm....lesser privileged people (best way i can put it) and is a nightmare with loads of kids...the other is 'the pool that time forgot' built in 1923 or something and hardly ever open....not to mention its boring going up and down in a pool. so i'll just go a few times...get some help with technique and test out the old shoulder...i'm not worried about the swim though, its the easy bit.

I had a lot of doubt over Christmas about how much i wanted to do this (in fact i still have them every day) but when people ask me about it i start chatting..and i go on and on...and i realise that i have to finish this...i have to have that ironman medal and put this thing to bed.....also...a mate has signed up after i convinced him...so i cant pull out now.....He'll be fine...barring any mechanical problems he'll finish easy (though he doesnt think so) so i have to deal with the doubts and work hard on it....and you know what?...DOMS is with me right now and it feels kind of good......i'm happy to be back!!!

my plan this time is to concentrate on getting very strong on the bike...and strengthening my core...so i dont have the same problems i had last year.
At the moment 'the fear' isnt with me....mainly i guess cause i know what to expect...but i still dont know if i can finish or not....so only one way to find out.

Here we go again then..........