The Challenge
2017 sees me taking on my biggest challenge to date (even surpassing trying to cook one of Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals in 30 minutes which I have found is impossible, false advertising if ever I saw it.)
On 16th July I will be partaking, and ideally finishing Ironman UK, for those not familiar with triathlon and in particular Ironman, the premise is as follows, swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles then run a marathon which as most people know is 26 miles.
To make it a little more challenging I have under 17 hours to finish this with various cut offs along the way so the fear of being tapped on the shoulder and told you’re not going to make it and have to prematurely end your race is a real one. I have decided to write a monthly blog so if anyone is interested in what goes on in the build up to this type of event can have a gander. Also to annoy people with the continued pestering of sponsorship which leads me on nicely to this…
Sporting Footprints
My nephews have a illness called PVNH and what comes with that is lots of health issues, my brother and sister-in-law decided to set up a charity which helps the children and their families including my nephews that use a respite house in Basingstoke called Bluebells House.
I have decided to try and raise as much money as I can for Sporting Footprints and here is what this awesome charity run by my brother and sister -in-law do:
Sporting Footprints works alongside Sebastian’s Action Trust and the families they support to assist with funding for specialist equipment or opportunities that would otherwise not be easily available or prove to be an added expense to the family budget.
At Sporting Footprints they believe that being able to enhance the quality of life for an ill or disabled child should be a priority so, along with their fantastic supporters, they host annual challenges and events to raise funds that enable them to continue to provide this worthwhile service.
Every single grant Sporting Footprints is able to give would not be possible without supporters and fundraisers continuing to selflessly raise money and awareness for their cause.
Please have a look at their website to find out more https://www.sportingfootprints.org.uk/
Training
My training started in November 2016 but is only now starting to ramp up a little this January, mainly because Mr Injury over here has been errrrr…injured. Yup up until 2 weeks ago I hadn’t ran in about 4 months due to Posterior Tibialis Tendinopathy (just in case you wanted the meat and bones of it). I also had another visit to the Cardiologist due to ongoing palpitations which I’ve had for years. An echo-cardiogram confirming the structure of the heart is ok and its once again something I have to live with. Still unnerving but I am determined to not let it get the better of me, which it does on occasions.
I’m pretty sure this blog will have a very strong injury theme to it so I’ll try not to bore you with it too much. In fact don’t be surprised if I get finger tendinitis from typing this up. (Is that even a thing?!).
I have the expertise of an experienced online triathlon coach setting my training every week on a training platform called Training Peaks, I now find myself answering to someone, I now know how my clients feel! If I don’t complete a swim set or my bike ride is not in a certain heart rate zone then I hear about it from the boss, unless of course I have a valid excuse. When it comes to this type of training and the volume needed I find being accountable to someone really helps, there really is nowhere to hide. Everything I do on my Garmin gets automatically uploaded to him as soon as the session is over.
At the moment, I am training 6 days a week sometimes twice a day so it’s a juggling act to fit work in around my training (If my coach is reading this he will see that I prioritised training over work there, brownie points) luckily by nature of my job I am surrounded by fitness equipment all day long so barring injury (there I go again) or illness I don’t have an excuse not to train.
A Snapshot of a weeks training would be as follows:
This is a recent week, green means I have done the exact session my coach has set me, yellow means I have either done a bit too little or too much and red means I have been a very naughty boy.
I seem to be getting better at swimming, I am still slow but at least I don’t feel like im drowning anymore, I still think a dolphin can walk better than I can swim but persistence is the key.So swimming 3 times a week, cycling 3-4 times a week and im gradually building up my runs have recently ran 4 miles. Lots of foam rolling, stretching, strengthening, mobility and icing is the key for me at the moment. Also that snapshot doesn’t take into consideration 2 days a week of strength training which I need to fit in somewhere.
So in all it will be about 8 months of solid training with a few races in the build up, I have a Half Marathon planned in March as long as my rehab and running goes well, then a Half Ironman early June followed by an Olympic distance end of June and the big one Ironman UK in July. Depending on recovery etc I may have to scrap the Olympic triathlon as Ironman is my A Race.
Luckily I have a very understanding wife (more brownie points) who is training for her very first triathlon so logistically it can be quite a challenge for us both to train and not impact on the kids activities and the like but we manage and plan ahead.
Coming Up
Blog number 2 will be about my visit to Nick at NK Sports Podiatry who hooked me up to a 3D machine just like Andy Serkis (you know the Gollom fella from Lord of The Rings) in order to look at my running gait and try to see why I had the injury and how to improve my running from that.
It’s a bit geeky but Im a bit of a geek when it comes to that sort of stuff. Turns out screeching ‘My Precious’ whilst looking for a ring in an ape like manor on a Treadmill was not the way to go about improving your technique. Who’d have thought.
Oh and most importantly here is the link to my Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Matt-Hart4 . If you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit, even just a few quid will make a difference.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for Blog Post 002
Matt