My program

It was a real challenge finding just the right balance for me. For those interested, I will be explaining my program, and how I decided on finalizing it as it is.

My point of reference was the dismal awakening at the first race. So I knew what I was doing was hardly enough. And what I was doing was a simple 10 hour/week program. Ride to work on the bike, get home, go for a swim and every other day, a run around the neighbourhood.  For the week that would be:

• 200 km cycle
• 12 km swim  
• 15 km run 

Really doesn't add too much in the bigger scheme of things, but I was feeling drained by the time Thursday came along. Only logical explanation was that I was training very well. NOT.  Something had to be done. It was time to get drastic. I did some research, and found a lot of 12 week training programs. And I mean a lot of them.  So what was I to do until 12 weeks before the race? I am assuming just sitting around waiting for the 12th week to come was probably a bad idea. Cue in, the insane gym obsession.

I joined the gym. After all, I needed to get fitness levels up, strength and stamina as well right?  Right. Well, in my defence, it is nothing that I was used to. As far as I knew, the gym was a bunch of sweaty guys picking up heavy things in some guy's dad's garage. To my surprise, they had everything I could possibly imagine (and some might I add, that I could never imagine the use... probably something out of some warped, twisted torture chamber.) Nevertheless I endured, went past the weights, and on to classes.

For those machismo Neanderthals who believe classes are for the less than adequate athletes (ashamedly, previously to my education, I would be classified as such), I have a surprise for you. They are actually quite the workout. I can even go so far as to say it is a fantastic workout. The different classes target different muscle groups.  Pilates is very good for core work, spinning is good for fitness and stamina. At least that is how it helped me.  Spinning is something I believe all cyclists should do. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it's a good replacement, far from it. They have totally different pros and cons which I won't go into. I am however saying that it is one hell of a substitute for when you can't get to the road for whatever reason.

I finally settled on the classes that did not leave me feeling like an uncoordinated oaf. If any of you have tried some of these classes, you'd know what I mean. You just about start understanding how to do the one routine properly, and the next one starts. It's a total nightmare if you actually trying to get a workout, and never get any momentum going. So I stuck with the very simple, easy to understand Pilates and Spinning. I also found that adding some weight training was helpful to get strength up, however, very time consuming. Thus, enter circuit. Fantastic full body workout, that is high impact and quick. In 20 minutes, I have done a full body workout of all the major muscle groups, and there is still time to get fitness and cardio levels up, just perfect.

Eventually, I started doing some sort of program:

• Every day I would cycle to work ( that's 40km a day for 5 days)
• Run to gym (about 7km round trip for 5 days). 
• At gym, it was swim Mon and Wed, 
• 2 to 3 Spin sessions a day and circuit every other day. 
• When I wasn't doing circuit, it was Pilates. 

This worked out very well for me, because when time came to try one of the 12 week programs, they were way too easy for me. At least so I thought, so I started adding a little bit of what I was already doing in the gym. Not changing the program, just tweaking and adding what I felt I needed. Lo and behold, I finally managed to work out something that worked for me. It left me feeling tired, but strong, confident and fit.  It's not as complicated as I had imagined:

• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were swim days
• Sundays rest, 
• Saturday was long cycle/brick day, 
• and Tuesdays and Thursdays running days. 
• Adding circuit, Pilates and spinning in the mix, and I had a really intense, challenging workout. 

Best of all is, I was doing more than the bare minimum required according to the program I had found.  It turns out this worked well for me, very well in fact. The logic behind it is, get myself race ready, and still have a year to improve from there. If I can by some miracle, actually do well, then I can get a bit more exposure for Kids Haven. And more exposure might actually lead to some much needed financial aid.

 Above is a copy of my program for anyone curious to try it out. It gives more detail of what I do and when. I still have a year before I tackle the full Iron Man South Africa, so I will be changing and tweaking the program as I need, as my fitness levels change. For now though, this works very well for me, for the time I have available to train and my own personal fitness. I started this program 12 weeks before the Midlands ultra, the same half Iron Man distance race that killed me before. In all fairness, it is a program for a full Iron Man, but I had the strangest notion that I should rather be over prepared than the last hilarious attempt where I was so hopelessly ill prepared.  I will not be talking much more about my races, except to mention how and why I change my program. I would really hate to bore you with small details.  This is after all, a blog about a journey. A story about an average guy trying to make a difference in a crazy world on his road to getting there.