Ironman Malaysia - Training began today!

Oh and how much did it hurt?!!!! I came down with a horrible chest infection after Phuket but was determined to beat it without antibiotics if possible. The dark green phlegm is now a less nuclear green and the usual bucket full in the mornings is only half a bucket now.

Coupled with that, building the boys "Castle", Christmas and all that goes with it, work and quite honestly a huge dose of Nomotivationitis I have done nothing since Phuket other than one run (Malakof 12k), one bike and one swim (and the swim might just be my imagination).

Last night we went to some good friends and drank and ate more than the average human would consume in a week - it was just too yummy. When we got home I didn't even bother setting the alarm for the usual Sunday morning 5a.m. wake up call - the group would have to manage their 21k stretch of the legs without us (AGAIN!).

Shilpa was shocked when she woke up although confessed that a herd of wild horses wouldn't have dragged her out of bed. So we agreed to run this evening - amazingly at about 6:30pm I found myself changed and pulling on my new Asics Nimbus runners that Shilpa bought me for Xmas - Shilpa took one look and said "Enjoy, I ain't coming dude, I'm in the groove with my studying (she's doing her MBA)". So that was that.

I started off at a reasonable pace as I want to start putting some decent distances but good times too - there's an adage that goes along the lines of "If you train slow then you race slow". Like all things there's a time and a place but I planned to do 21k (should be doable even with the layoff) at a reasonable speed.

The first thing I noticed was a rather unpleasant feeling of my somewhat expanded and bulbous gut bouncing over the front of my shorts on every stride - oh dear, where did that come from? Oh well ay, what's there is there but it won't be for long.

The first 17k were fine and the speed very good (it's amazing what a rest, even due to illness, can do for you sometimes). The next 2k weren't a lot of fun and the last 2k were some of the most painful I've experienced. When I finished I was struggling to even walk my standard cool down - oo ere, I'm going to pay for this tomorrow.

I'm in bed now writing this, I'm really hurting, but it's a good hurt, a happy hurt, I'm on the road to Langkawi - it's started and the journey will now be 7 weeks of misery, two weeks of taper and then anything from 11 to 17 hours of IRONMAN (this is a combination of BIG hurt, misery, total euphoria but most of all the feeling of being alive - REALLY ALIVE, there just nothing like it! (And if you finish you get a free T-shirt - how cool is that?)