I notched up just over 27 miles in 7 runs and over 6miles in 7 swims during January.

January 2012 Running

Browns Bay Beast is on 5 May and is two lap of the bay, followed by 20Km round the hills of Islandmagee and the a 5Km run round some other hills. They haven’t put a course up yet but I’d imagine the bike ride goes left and then up round the Gobbins then back and the run will be to the right. Well that’s the course I would make anyway.

Bad:

• My eating has been poor.
• I haven’t been on a bike.
• I haven’t lost any weight.

Good:

• I’ve started swimming again
• I’ve been running more
• I’m not majorly injured
• I started doing some strength training (sit ups)

Here’s an overview for the month.

Jan 2012

I’m going to use the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan along with Don Carson’s For The Love of God to read through the whole Bible in 2012. With the help of an Android App called You Version Bible.

36.5 Lb

I want to lose at least 36.5lb. Any time I’ve set a target like this before I’ve set out to lose all the weight I need in a year but this time I’m setting it at 36.5lb because it ties in with 365 Bible.

3.5 Firsts

1. Sub 1:20 Sprint Tri
2. Olympic Tri
3. 100 mile cycle
4. Run a Half Marathon

My races for 2012 can be viewed on my races 2012 page.

NB it should be noted that I did a similar thing last year only broke down in to much smaller goals and I failed in all but 1.

Dyslexia displays itself in many ways, in relation to dancing I guess the two major areas would poor spatial awareness and an inability to remember sequences. I thankfully after a lifetime of playing sports have good spatial awareness but I am more than useless at remembering sequences. Giving me directions is pretty much pointless I wont remember it. Hence why I’m always asking people to email a reminder and when I travel somewhere new I print out the Google directions even it’s it’s only a few streets over.

The Google maps example there is one of the tools I use to combat this area of my dyslexia. Most dyslexic people develop coping mechanisms some advanced and some not so advanced. one of my favorites at school was writing both versions of how I thought a word was spelled on top of each other and hope the teacher would give me the benefit of the doubt (I’ve just discovered spelt isn’t a real word!).

The slightly more advanced mechanism I use is known as the gift of mastery. I read about it in a book a friend bought me called The Gift of Dyslexia. Each new challenge/interest I try that I don’t at first get I go into a mode where I focus on it and don’t rest until I am happy I have sufficiently mastered it. I did this in university with CSS, 3D Studio Max and Flash. Sadly I’ve not kept up with these and am not quite the “master” I once was.

When it came to dancing I had to adopt the same approach to learning the dances. I spent hours and hours going over and over the dances until I could do them without thinking. It was very hard and I have even more respect now for our pupils who manage to remember so many dances, especially if any of them are dyslexic.

This amount of practicing made me look like I was being overly competitive but in reality it was just my need to work harder than others just to keep pace. However it was easier to let people believe I was being over-competitive because I am very over-competitive at time.

Unfortunately by Friday I was physically and emotional drained; both of which increase the level of effect my dyslexia has on me and even with 3 hours of drilling myself after work on Friday I still didn’t manage to learn that night’s dance. I was quite annoyed at myself; 1 for letting my dance partner (who had made up a good wee dance) down and 2 from the feeling of failure I get when I set out to learn anything that I don’t get (it doesn’t happen often because I am very persistent but it takes time). I can be quite hard on myself and have some perfectionist tendencies, I’m sure Sarah Kerr would have a field day working out where they came from.

The ugly over-competitive side did come out a bit in work last week during a staff netball/basketball on Friday, however that was still me holding back and thankfully I didn’t actually hurt or shout at anyone, so it could have been worse! It was actually quite good fun, even though netball is officially the worst game ever!

Sorry for the ramble I just felt I needed to share this wee thought with the world and as no one reads my blog in the age of Facebook and Twitter anyway it’s really just good to write it down to help me process it all. Maybe someday a dyslexic will stumble on it and fell good that they have the same problem with learning routines.

I’m sure there are many dyslexic dancers about, after all I once thought it would be impossible for me to be a teacher and here I am. It just took a little bit of extra time and harder work than most. So if you are a dyslexic dancer all the best with that and as they say “Keeeeeeeep Dancing”.

As for the shows, I signed up to do it not to learn to dance but to help and encourage the pupils. There are some exceptionally talented dancers and as Friday night showed, choreographers at the Girls’ Model. The winning pupil was excellent, her partner was a former pupil now working as a classroom assistant who is also an excellent dancer also. The crowds entered into the nights really well and all in all it was great fun for all. On the Friday night I really couldn’t believe how good some of the dances were as they had all been made up by the pupils. Well done Girls’ Model.

What I did learn from the whole event was how many of the staff really do put themselves out for the good of the pupils. I work in a great school, with some wonderful staff and great pupils who have yet to discover just how talented they are and what heights they can reach.

I hope I can help them see their potential and have a good impact in the lives of the pupils I teach. Just like Mrs Harbinson, Mr Alderdice and of course Mrs Magee (the discoverer of my dyslexia and subsequent dyslexia tutor) had on mine. I’m sure none of you will never read this but thanks.

Weight lose went well with me shifting 9lb, I’ll weigh in tomorrow to see the final for the months.

9lb off

I’ve no compressed air or any good cleaning brushes so it’s a little dusty but it’s been loving looked after.

UPDATE: Was a bargain at only £40 for some lucky ebayer.

So far so good.

2010
Cycling 1254 miles
Running 168 miles

2011
Cycling 1082 miles
Running 125 miles

Not exactly huge mileage but more than most people do. I’m going to try to see if I can top last years stats anyway.

One very bad aspect to this year has been my poor diet and instead of losing weight I put on 10lb. I’m now trying to get this back on track.

Organisation / Route

The registration only had two lanes poorly marked out as to which one to use, transition wasn’t grouped or numbered and  briefing was was a little late. However. on the course there were plenty of marshals and a few police officers. The corners were coned off which was great as we got to go through a few red lights, however there was one set of lights that we went straight through and we had to stop if red.

Competitors

There were 126 competitors on the day and many were newbie as with most sprints. The most important ones were my friends, Dave, Niall and Rob. Niall raced in Wave 2, Dave & Rob wave 3 and I was in wave 4.

Supporters

Plenty of room at pool side and there was a good number although very quiet. On the bike leg it’s hard for supporters to get to see any racing and as a result my Jim and Lesley didn’t get any shots of my on the bike. The run was good for supporters as it was 6 laps of football pitches.

Freebies

We got a cotton t-shirt, it’s quite nice but I prefer to get one I can use for training in.

My Race

My neck affected my swim a bit, I found it a bit stiff when trying to breath and ended up lifting my head to far out as a result. I also felt a little short of breath at times but in the cycle I was feeling really good and had I kept my focus more I could have been quicker.

Poor Swim Technique

Swim - 14:58 (39th)

Like I said I struggled a bit with my neck but it wasn’t that bad, I probably dropped about 45seconds. Apart from one guy (with an Ironman tattoo) everyone in my lane was much quicker so I was lapped a few times and being the nice guy I am I went out of my way to make it easy for them, at times messing up my stroke as I went to close into the ropes. I didn’t manage to get in anyone’s slipstream for more than a few seconds so it was pretty much just me working as hard as I could.

T1 – 1:20 (17th)

I had taken my t-shirt to pool side and therefore putting it on as I ran to T1 cut my time down. I did take a few seconds to have a swig of water before I went, not sure why but hey. My mount was a cautious one after the past few failed attempts to do a flying mount on race day.

Cycle – 38:57 (58th)

I settled into the bike quickly and felt strong throughout. I passed about 6 people and got passed by 3 (one of whom I caught again). There was a longish hill that was into a headwind but I was able to get into the tri-bars and didn’t really feel the effect of the wind that much. However, at one stage I nearly went down as my front wheel got stuck in a grove on the road  while in the tr-bars and I only just manage to keep it upright. I think I could have given a bit more as I lost focus a few times and slowed up. Area’s of lost time: I got stopped at the red lights both times round, when I passed a guy with a puncture I slowed down and gave him a tube and at the end I went into the wrong carpark.

T2 – 1:06 (52nd)

With a good dismount I kept going through T2 and despite a slip when I overshot my place in the rack I was happy with T2

Run Fat Boy Run

Run – 28:00 (94th)

I was really struggling with the run, I’ve hardly ran in months and being the in the last few to finish (since I was in the last and fastest wave) was a bit of a physiology battle but the other guys had finished and Jim and Dave in particular were cheering me on. I averaged 9min/mi which is 30sec/mi quicker than last tri. My laps times were 04:53, 04:37, 04:38, 04:34, 04:40 & 04:39. Thoughts: I need to run more.

On the run I was really feeling the extra 4stone I’m carrying round with me. Thoughts: hurry up and just lose the weight fat boy!

Overall – 1:24:20 (58th / 126)

On the whole I’m happy enough. I took two minutes off my best time for a sprint triathlon and did it with very little training in the build up and with a sore neck and chesty cough, so I’m very happy. It was nice to beat Niall but it was all in the swim and he has really only started swimming in the past year, so come next year I think he’ll be much faster, he took about 8 minutes of his time from last year. The hero of the day was Dave who came 16th with a time of 1:15:14, well done Dave!

The next Triathlon is the Tri the Lough Sprint Triathlon on Saturday week. It’s an open water swim in Lough Macrory, with the cycle being two laps of a course and the run being two laps of the lough.