About Me

I began 2010 the same way I'd been for the entire amount of my life so far. Naturally being quite a selfish and greedy person I pretty much ate as I pleased, and the most exercise I got was a bit of mild weight lifting at the gym. I gave no consideration whatsoever to diet, and ate and drank exactly as I pleased. Aged 22 I was in pretty bad shape, I was always concerned about body image, but didn't have the motivation or reason really do anything about it. When I did go to the gym I only really did weights, which made me looking even bigger than I was! I always palmed off cardio work, and chalked it up to having had an ACL reconstruction a few years earlier. At my heaviest I remember seeing 107kg on the scales (I'm 5'10", so a BMI of 33.8).

In early 2010 something changed and I realised I was really in denial with myself, and I was badly out of shape, and pretty much obese. I've seen a lot of people attempt lifestyle change and losing weight, and have realised when people talk about it before they do it, it generally never happens (Happy to be proved wrong!) Rather than making a fuss to my friends about how I was going to diet and get slim, I decided to just get on with it. I realised the only way to attack this was to get my diet into a manageable but sustainable level, and then really go to town on the exercise to create a hell of a calorie deficit (More on this later!). This was helped by largely cutting out any alcoholic drink too. My exercise of choice would be running, I'd seen my sister run, and complete a few 10k races, and had always wanted to do something similar. So I ran most days, at the beginning I couldn't even manage a mile without stopping. Over the months I slowly built up my fitness and the weight was falling off, I was getting compliments everywhere and I felt amazing, and weighed only around 85kg by christmas 2010. Luckily during this time I had a couple of friends that were also running which was so helpful in motivation.

Up to this point, I'd gotten so much into my running that I was now entering events. Cardiff 10k, in 2010 with a 55 minute time, then my local 10k in 49 minutes which was a personal highlight as my first sub 50 time. My next big goal was Plymouth half marathon in May 2011, and my longest run to date. This came and went, and I ran it in a 1:46.00 which I was pretty happy with. Training for this was very unstructured, pretty much just running 10k's a couple times a week, with the odd sprint 2-3km thrown in for good measure. It seemed to work though as the time is my fastest over the distance to date!

Running in Plymouth

At this point I was fairly happy with my body and fitness. So much so that I became a bit lazy throughout 2011, and I ended up going from being around 78kg and my leanest, at the time of the half marathon back up to 85kg by Christmas time. Probably due to a summer on holiday, on the booze punctuated with not a great deal of exercise. I'd grown complacent, and arrogant about exercise. This made me pretty unhappy as I soon realised what was happening.

Beginning 2012 I decided on another step change (I'd done it once before, why not again), partly spurred on by being told my lifestyle of exercise was unsustainable during 2010 by a friend. During the end of 2011 and into 2012 I was cycling to work, which I was enjoying a lot. I then decided to invest in a road bike and got a lot more into my cycling when it turned 2012. I'd cycled a lot as a child and in my teenage years, so had an entrenched love for the activity already. It was then that the idea of a triathlon popped into my mind, as a friend had completed the London triathlon in 2011. I'd swam for a club in my early teenage years, and cycled and ran already so I had the raw ingredients. I entered in January 2012, and had the successful results of the entry ballot by February. By May 2012 I was embarking on my own training plan, this was taken straight from the web. Halfway through this process, and having gotten thoroughly into triathlon (without having done one yet!), I was absolutely loving the training. Triathlon gives me the freedom of running which I love, the speed and distance of cycling, and the swimming, which I find strangely relaxing. This variety helps keep my short attention span motivated. With sole running training I could quickly lose motivation.

It was during my time running up to the London Triathlon I decided I was going to go for an Ironman in 2013. Having vaguely heard of the event, I did some investigation about what exactly it was. My first thoughts about it were just pure disbelief. I couldn't believe that people could actually cover that distance, let alone mere mortals. The initial idea of myself doing it just seemed barmy! However the more I thought about it, the more I couldn't shake the idea of entry. My training for London, was progressing well, and I'd just cycled 170 miles in one day, so had a good idea I may be able to cover the distance. I began to believe in myself more and more, and eventually entered Ironman UK for August 4th 2013.