Just like old times...

Lordy it's busy around here. Now the girls are off school there's stuff happening left right and centre. Every day is a challenge in time management.

Which has never been a strong suit of mine. :-(

Apart from this year's Ironman. :-)

But I DO thrive on chaos. Not chaos as in anarchy, but I'm undoubtedly at my best when there's stuff going on and I have to keep as many plates spinning as possible like one of those guys running around on Roy Castle's Record Breakers all those years ago.

At the moment I'm rushing around pre-producing two TV commercials that I'm shooting back to back at the end of August - both these require location sourcing, casting, storyboarding, creative meetings, post production planning and the like. I'm also still writing my movie script, finding a piece of time each day to inch forward the storyline, trying to give it the depth and resonance that will lift it above the norm. I'm taking the girls camping on Thursday for a few days so we've been practicing tent erection - no gags please - over the weekend, and I'm furiously making lists of things I've never had to list before... water carrier, torch, batteries, tea towel, washing up liquid... I mean... what the...???!!! I've never needed any of these things in the Intercontinental before now.

Fiona and I are also planning our trip to New York, though it looks like I'll need to find a bit of time each day to orchestrate preparations for the shoots of the commercials which are just a couple of days after we return.

Added to all this, of course, is my triathlon. Thank God, I hear you say... I wondered when we were going to get to that. Enough of the dude's life story. But folks, this is a life blog, not just triathlon. I'm at the stage now where one influences the other. And that's kind of my point this week... tri has become a part of my life, not simply something to fit into my 'down time'. So, within the framework of all of the above, I need to work in my training and competing time.

Having set my targets for my 'A' race next year of Ironman Germany, I'd asked my coach to keep supplying a training plan for the rest of the year. Now this isn't something he likes doing. He made it very clear to me that he felt I should be easing off the gas until training for Germany 09 recommences in January. I felt different and - sure enough - a plan came through. But as early as the middle of the week, although feeling strong, I was beginning to feel tired.

Very tired.

And I realised that if I kept going at the same rate then, come January, I'd be in serious trouble of burnout and, more importantly, I'd have nowhere to go in terms of improvement. To use this week's analogy; the spinning plate that is Ironman training would be well and truly smashed upon the floor.

So I've changed my plans. I'm going to see out the rest of the season with training how and when I feel like it. I'll be training most days, but not to a rigid plan. The Vitruvian half Ironman on September 7th will be my last serious event of the season and I'll give that a lash, hoping to enjoy and compete well. After that I'll do a couple of sprints to wind down and that will be my season done. I'll then keep fit through the autumn by mountain biking (Graham Mackie - my good mate from Team MK is keen to get me started) and other, non tri specific work. General running, cross training etc. Hopefully by January I'll be ready to go get 'em and attack the 10 hours 15 minutes target.

All that said, I've been at the sprints again this week. Team MK entered five teams at the National Team Relay Championships in Nottingham and what a great event it was. Fiona, Erin and Alice came up with me to watch and we had a sunny day competing in a sequential race (each team member does a 400m swim, handing a rubber wristband 'baton' in between their efforts, followed by a 15km bike ride, followed by a 5km run). We lost a bit of time on the swim as Mark K cut his toe in the first leg and disappeared off with the baton leaving Slacko - our number two - perplexed as to this new switch of tactics. However, we picked up and ended up finishing eleventh vets team overall and in the top third of all teams.

A great day, full of triathlon and socialising. Great also to hook up again with Poet from Tri Talk and Tom and Helen too.

I'm beginning to get the taste for sprints and am thinking of making it a goal of the second half of my season next year. I find the switch from endurance to power quite easy to make and figure if I work on the power side of things a bit more it will complement my training for Ironman and give me a focus post July 5th 2009.

Once again a great day with my club mates. Photo here of our team: from left, Mark K, myself, Graham M and Steve Slack (Slacko).

To more mundane things now:

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."

was uttered by Gert Frobe, playing AURIC GOLDFINGER, in the movie GOLDFINGER. Use the quote as a totem in your life... you'll be amazed at how accurate it proves to be.

Let's stay Bond this week:

"Don't worry darling, its just a small hat, belonging to a man of limited means, who lost a fight with a chicken."

Which actor said this as James Bond and in which film? Use your memories... think...

So... I would love to chat more, my friends, but I glance around me and see my plates wobbling dangerously. Must get spinning...