A bit tipsy...

Yes, that is my current state. I am currently in probably the most enjoyable part of the Ironman year, and that is the week after your big A race where you are too exhausted to train, and are living off a diet of take away and guiness. Well, guiness in my case, but you could well insert your tipple of choice.

For 10 months I have watched what I eat, sticking to a strict takeaway on Sunday night and be good the rest of the week routine. This has worked pretty well, but its like one extreme to the other now. Sunday night may well be the first night this week I haven't had cholesterol loaded food! You know what though, it feels great. Give it another week, and I will get back to the calorie counting, but just for now, let it be.

For those who are interested, my account of the season to date and IMDE can be found here. What I would like to go into here though is exactly why we do this sport. I may well be presenting a rather unprofessional image for a coach being however many cans of guiness to the worse. However, often myself and those I coach get too caught up in the worry that training for something like an Ironman can bring. We get so caught up in having had a bad swim, or get in a panic about whether we can do this race that we forget about why it was we signed up in the first place. Afterall, nobody put a gun to our head and told us to enter the race or else! My housemate commented the other day that fun Mike will be back again for a fortnight. Post race is a great time to catch up with friends and loved ones who have put up with your obsessing over the months. Go out, let your hair down, forget about training. If you are currently building towards a big race, don't go and get drunk and eat takeaway for a week, but don't at the same time lose sight of why you did this in the first place. FUN!!

We all have our reasons as to why we do the races we do. Whatever distance it is you are training for, don't lose sight of the fact that there is a world outside of tri, and fail or succeed, life will go on and there is always next year. After IMDE this year, I met Chrissie Wellington in a hotel bar and had a drunken chat. She was feeling the effects of a few too many drinks the night before, so even the best have their downtime. Don't lose sight of the fun element of our sport, and don't be too hard on yoruself. As an aside, if anyone has any ideas as to what I can go as to an olympic games themed fancy dress party then please let me know.

Happy training/boozing.