Challenge 1, Midlands Ultra Triathlon "sprint"

Hello everyone, hope you are all having a happy friday.

As I said in my previous post this blog is all about challenges and goals, so what better way to kick start things than with a Triathlon, and even better the Midlands Ultra Triathlon "sprint" distance, Yip as of last week I am officially entered into the race, It will be my first ever Triathlon and from what I have heard Its a great beginner Tri.

I am doing the "Sprint" distance which is made up of a 600m swim, 22.5km cycle and 5km run, now that doesn't seem too hectic but as a heavy bloke and as my first Tri, it is definitely a challenge, and will require a great amount of physical training and even some mental training.

There are tons of free training programs online, you can literally spend hours reading through all of them. Alot of them aren't great because they are not specific enough, also remember that the online training programs are not tailor made for you, everyone is unique not everyone should train exactly the same.
So obviously the best training program you can get will be one specifically formulated for you, but those cost money and if it is your first one then you aren't trying to win, the online ones will work, guys like Fitrack have some great ones that you pay a minimal amount for and you can track your progress which is really neat, I found a really great free one from Triahlonplussa very similar to this Begginer Training Plan.

Because I'm sure you didn't click the link :) I will tell you a little bit about it.
Its really great because not only does it give you a training schedule with specific training days and really specific breakdowns, it gives you a whole beginners guide as to what to expect on the day and even how to stretch for the Triathlon, If you are interested in this sort of thing there is tons to read at beginnertriathlete.

My training was supposed to start on Monday this week, but on Sunday I came down with horrible flu that has taken the whole week to clear up, it has got to be one of the most frustrating thing when you cannot train because you are sick you feel so helpless, hopefully I will be able to do a run or a cycle tomorrow morning but my official training will now start on Monday next week.

If any of you are interested in doing this Tri, check out there website and let me know it would be great to do it with more people, currently Rory Bouffe, Ryan Habib, Ronnie Seiler and I are In and I challenge Carey Bouffe, Tanha Bouffe and Shane Rielly to join us. I will keep you guys posted on my progress and on some of the hardcore days in my training. below are some pics of the race route.

I dont like Blogs.

Hey guys,

As some of you may know I have been on a "Journey" over the last 4 months to change my life around, I have always been the "heavy" guy and have never been happy with my body and the way I look, so in March this year after a rather worrying visit to my doctor I decided that it was time for me to stop messing around, to stop being OK with being unhealthy and fat and to start getting fit and hot :).

I now needed a plan of action, I decided that if I was going to do this and if I really wanted to achieve something I would need the correct assistance and the correct Lifestyle, So I headed off to my Dietitian Diedre Lideque, who gave me an eating plan that would probably be the hardest part of this little Journey, you see eating is 70% of the problem, the way we eat in modern society is actually really scary and we make way to many excuses for it, I had to stop doing this and start being real with myself.

Then came the physical side of things, I needed a Gym plan I needed some routine to follow, naturally I had a look on the web, I looked through all of the Men's Health mags I had lying around, none of it was really inspiring nothing really made me want to get fit, I wanted something more I needed motivation, then while paging through my brother in-laws Triathlon mag I found what I wanted, I wanted functional training, I wanted a complete lifestyle change, I wanted the good body and the muscles and to have a goal. I knew that I needed a challenge to get there.

I decided to take up the Men's Health Belly Of Challenge I had to take a before Picture and then a picture every Wednesday for 12 weeks, Its rather embarrassing but it keeps you on track and you get really motivated when people can physically see your progress, I really thought I had a chance at making the top ten after losing 19kgs in 12 weeks, putting on substantial muscle mass and dropping 3 pants sizes, but sadly I didn't, this was actually a bigger motivator I think, than if I had won. I started doing trail Running, something I never thought I would be able to do, I always had all of the same excuses, but I just decided to do it, I have done over 5 Trail running events and I still hate running :). I have a very well rounded gym plan and am still consistently losing Fat.

While doing the Belly Off Challenge I enjoyed exercise and the Human Body so much that I decided to study Personal Training, I wanted to learn for myself in detail what we are capable of doing and how to encourage others and to educate others to change their lives.

I am currently studying at the Institute of Fitness Professionals at The Design Quarter, It has been such an amazing 4 months and has taught me many things, Most Importantly that it all starts in your head, if you learn to push yourself with your brain then you will learn to push your body to crazy lengths, and most of the time you will be amazed at what you can do. You need small manageable goals and a couple that scare you.

That Is the point of this blog, I am going to post my challenges and my progress and keep posting a picture every Friday until I get to my goal, its a great way to motivate myself and hopefully a way to motivate others.

Men's Health Belly Off Challenge 12 week Pics