The good, the bad, and the ...

It has been a bit of a mixed bag recently. Some things have been going well and some things not so well.

In my last entry I mentioned my hilly bike route, well my normal run route was not much better. So I have started to use a different route that does not have the steep hills of my old route. In addition I have started to make better use of my Garmin to ensure I am training at an appropriate level. My new route is a lap around my village and is quite flat which means I can get my heart rate in the right zone and keep it there without it going sky high as I head up steep hills.

My swimming is also going reasonably well. I enjoy having a structure to the training so that I know what I am aiming to do in each session and I think it is really helping. In a few weeks I will reach the end of the Swim Smooth training program and will repeat the time trial that I did at the start of the program (400m in 7:35). That will be the proof of whether my training is really working or not.

Some things are not going so well. It is coming up to Christmas so there are lots of things getting in the way of me training. There are lots of enjoyable things like meeting my family and friends, office parties, and such like to get in the way. Also this is a very busy time at work for my wife. She is working a lot at weekends which again means I can't train. There also seem to be loads of bugs and colds doing the rounds at the moment. I spent most of yesterday in bed feeling terrible and though I managed a swim today I still don't feel right.

My plan is to keep on going until after Christmas when things should settle down. Then I need to get into a proper routine and start training properly.