Well Hey, the title says it all really. Seven weeks ago we decided to start training for the New Zealand Ironman next march and by training, I really mean losing enough weight so that I could actually fit some of the clothes that I might train in. As we know, the Huntly half was a struggle so the next four weeks would need a change of plans or else I would damm near kill myself.
The first step, buy a book written by John Ackland on running half marathons. To be fair, it was the only book I found on the subject however I walked out of the local book store with all the giddy excitement of a teenage boy whose just got the keys to dads car for the first time. This book would guide me, lead me to the promised land. I would read it from cover to cover and faithfully execute all that was set for me without question. Well that was the plan, until I realised that this book was a 12 week program for running your first half marathon. I had just done one in 3 weeks, all be it, not very well, and was going to do my second in 4 weeks. So rather arrogantly, I preceeded to turn Mr Acklands 12 week program into a 4 week effort.
I also noticed that it was quite alright to not run every day, in fact allowing the body to recover would be essential to improve my performance.
"That'll do me" I thought. I had run every day since starting and the thought of a night off certainly rocked my world. And hey, I figured that if I had a night off, I could 'rock' Wendys world, so to speak. All this running made for me to be a very tired lad so rather than tell her, I would surprise her when it came time to turn the lights out. Meanwhile, throughout all this time, Wendz had been running the home, pretty much on her own. Dealing with Cams good days and bad days and during this time, trying to give him a haircut made for some bad days. One of the problems Autistic kids can have is they might not like change, change in daily routines, change in social settings and certainly, change in appearance. You cant explain to Cam that cutting your hair is natural, he's not yet capable of reasoning these things so in times like these, Mum needs to get creative and tonight, creative was going to be the Kryptonite to my plans of rocking worlds.
Dearest Wendz, not knowing my plans, takes Cam to bed with her to get him to sleep in a room where she can get good access to light once hes out with the fairies.
She patiently waits for him to nod off and then sets about giving him a haircut where he sleeps, on my side of the bed....picks him up and delivers him to to his own room, turns the lights out and retires for the night. Meanwhile, I have a shave, slap on some aftershave and ease my way under the sheets, ready to cash in like the night I first got the keys to Dads car. My pillowcase feels a bit funny but what the hey, it's 'business time'. In an effort to wake Wendz up I roll over, right into a pile of curly red hair. Of course, I would have my mouth open enough to inhale a fair chunk of said hair. Wendz wakes up, not to me cuddling up to her but to me choking half to death. Lights come on, words said, I spend half an hour trying to rinse the hair from between my teeth and out of my throat and I'm left thinking I need to be more attentitive when Wendz is telling me about daily issues with the little man. She'd been tired and has forgotten to clean up the hair clippings. I would have known this had I listened better...
Since then I worked on using John Acklands abbreviated program. Running greater distances less often. I'm learning to love hills, now I'm going out of my way to find some hills to run up. I also learnt to better plan 'days off'. I took on board his advice on how to tackle the run and so I approached the Te Awamutu Half as just another training run with some small goals. The run was yesterday and given the amount of rain we had, I was sure that I'd see Noah drifting past on a bloody long wooden boat. Of Course, in spite of the torrential rain, Bradley Scott arived, full of energy and positive intent. We did the run, just over 2 hours, achieved all the goals in terms of wanting to try different things and easily came within the top 50 of the event and I swear, there was at least 51 people entered.
So thats it, seven weeks in and a few lessons learnt. I've gone from an XL tracksuit to a Medium. I've learnt that I need to pace myself better with my workload and I've certainly realised that as much as I'm a father of fantastic boy with Autism, there is a lot about living with him day to day that I dont fully comprehend.
Stu Gudsell from Te Awamutu, father to professional cyclist Tim Gudsell, heard about what we are trying to do and has offered his services to try and help us get a bike to ride. We are hoping that a major bike retailer will jump on board. Jase Wheadon, trainer of the all conquering Knights has offered to help me with a proper training program for IMNZ so its all starting to come together. Now that we have a few things in order, I will update progress every 2 to 3 days as now I have people who are providing support that are deserving of greater recognition.
Thanks for reading, thanks for showing an interest and if anyone wants to know anything more or would like me to mention something either email me on wendyandjason@farmside.co.nz or try 0276620050
Cheers
