It was a great year, a year that I literraly battled with time in order to find training time for my first IM race...
Starting from May of 2018 till October I was chasing everyday time in order to train for my big race. Ocean Lava Rhodes 226 last October. Training volume was greater every month and as it was a terrifying goal, I realised I needed coaching services. And so I did, I found a young educated coach, long distance athlete himself, Yiannis Loukas that took care of me advicing, writing my training schedule and also coaching me on swimming pool and interval training in the track.
I raced Ocean Lava Rhodes 226, a real battle of endurance (race report on the writing) but I managed to finish it without any problems. It seems that "Anything is Possible" when you are ready to make needed sacrifices and that was devotion and all the time needed.
The price for experiencing an Ironman race was the moral satisfaction firstly. Knowing your time in training was not wasted was great. And then a finishers medal with my name on it and a super cool t-shirt. What else shall I ask in order to remember that great day?
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| Ocean Lava Rhodes Finishers T-shirt |
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| Ocean Lava Rhodes Polar V800 log |
Strava summed all my training logged with my Polar V800 and made this clip :
Plans for 2019
Slow applause.
Those who know me have found changes in my behavior. Am I going cuckoo? One important thing is that I left behine my "smartphone" and went back a decade ago using a simple cell phone that can only call and send short messages. Even fewer people, friend that we do sports together have found that ... I have begun and abolish some of the comforts of modern training watches.
Having seen how important time is, I decided that this year I will just put "time" in my training and I will only record this. No pulses, no cadence, no average speed, no km or nothing. Last year with all that training havoc, I have felt that magic and the enjoyment of sports have been lost somewhere when you are a slave to the smart training wristwatch, your performance, the average pace, and whether you have achieved better performance on the Strava Segments. So where is the joy of being Data Junkie and looking your electronics before, during and after completing your outdoor workout? Why do not we just enjoy our landscapes and friends when we train? I know they will disagree with YOU with me, but that will not of course prevent me from expressing my concern.
So in new year I will use a simple stop watch to measure the time I spend on sports. My old G-shock DW9000 surf edition for time-based trainings. For interval trainings and lap counting in the pool I will be using a Timex Ironman that next days is arriving to my mail.
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| 2ώρες προπονητήριο. Αυτό μου αρκεί ως πληροφορία. |
And all sports history and time spent on this will be logged in this hubble NOTEPAD --->
It 's time to use a pencil, again. No more anxiety about GPS signal being inaccurate in cloudy weather, no more starting trainings with a discharged battery on the watch (oh bummer not again), no more time lost syncing the watch through the mobile smartphone and all sync problems that are time consuming. No more frustration on why my pace was not as expected or why I am not constantly improving. (progress comes with time but not every time of course)
And no more complaints from acquaintances "I saw you on Strava riding through my neighbour, why didn't you said anything to come along?"
Let's do it.
Let's go simple this year!
It 's time to use a pencil, again. No more anxiety about GPS signal being inaccurate in cloudy weather, no more starting trainings with a discharged battery on the watch (oh bummer not again), no more time lost syncing the watch through the mobile smartphone and all sync problems that are time consuming. No more frustration on why my pace was not as expected or why I am not constantly improving. (progress comes with time but not every time of course)
And no more complaints from acquaintances "I saw you on Strava riding through my neighbour, why didn't you said anything to come along?"
Let's do it.
Let's go simple this year!
🇬🇷Father of three 👫🙆 Marathoner 🏃🏼 Triathlete🏊🚴🏼🏃🏼 AlmiraMan💪🏻 Trumpeteer🎺 Novel Writer 📝 Life is too short to wait. Live today! ✨✨✨ www.justbeforetakeoff.com.
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