Hating the man you´ve never met.

Hating the man you´ve never met may seem a strange title for this post so let me explain. This was the something that my wife said yesterday, about Don Fink, legendary triathlon coach. She is not one to normally boil up anger and hatred and she´s never even met the poor man. Or even heard of him until last week for that matter, so I think I must take the blame slightly. You see I´m a bit of an enthusiast and when I get a new toy, idea etc I see it as my aim in life to get everyone else to get into it as well. My latest enthuse has been about the my most recent triathlon purchase. Iron Fit by Don Fink.

In the short time of having his book, I have mentioned his name thousands of times and quoted his methodology to everyone I meet, most of whom have no interest in triathlons at all. I hear myself saying, "Don says this" or, "if Don was here now he would say..." Friends just nod their heads and think, there goes Oliver again on one of his little moments. I know I shouldn´t, but I just can´t help myself. I´m a ball of triathlon enthusiasm and want to tell everyone, even if they don´t want to hear. So you can see how the poor wife, after suffering all week, finally snapped and took the Don and his name in vain. 

The book though, is very good. I have felt with training in the past that I have been wandering around not really knowing what I am doing. Now I have a plan to follow. Thank you Don. I am following the 30 week full distance plan but only up to week 23 as Don says ( must stop doing that) I should do a half distance triathlon and as my aim this year is to do only a half distance,   I´ll stop there. Next year when I want to do the full distance I´ll carry on through. 

I´ve started the programme on week 4 (not enough time for the full 23 weeks, bought the book too late) and have completed my first week. Even went out in the pouring rain for my zone 2, hour and half cycle yesterday. That for me shows enormous dedication as I live in southern Spain and normally I don´t go out if there is a cloud in the sky. I hope this sounds impressive, but the ride only happened after I had stood with a friend for 20 minutes waiting for the rain to stop, deciding it was too wet, going back into my block, deciding that Don said (sorry) I had to do a zone 2, hour and half cycle, deciding that I couldn´t face that amount of time in zone two on my rollers and finally deciding to go out in the rain. This it turns out was a good move. Spent the whole ride with water falling down my face, with the biggest smile ever, for the entire route.

One last thing before I go. I said in my last post that I wanted to just get round the course. Don says (oops) that sort of thinking is not the way forward. So my new aim is to race hard and beat as many people as is humanly possible.

Chasing the sun on my bike ride