Completed IMUK 2012&13 and preparing for IMUK 2014

Hi all

Just a quick intro on myself. My name is Andrew and I live in-between Manchester and Liverpool in the UK. I was a Rugby player who decided to get into edurance sport after I ballooned from about 210lbs to 230lb in no time at all after stopping playing.

I completed the Blackpool Marathon in 2010 in a time of 4:23:52 after completing the first 22 miles at 9:00 min/mile pace before completely hitting the wall and bonking for the last 4.2 miles. Also, during 2010 a friend temporarily moved up North for 12 months from London on business who had recently taken up triathlon in which I taged along to most of the session during 2011.

After my friend stating that he was going to sign up for the Ironman UK I entered the IMUK 2012 on the 4th November 2011. At this point I did not own a bike, a wetsuit or hadn’t realised that my friend was in training for the IMUK 2013!! I embarked on a steep learning curve during 2012 to get myself ready for the IMUK on 22nd July 2012. My secret personal goal was for sub-15 hours but I came in under 14 hours to my amazement and joy.

During my preparation for the IMUK 2013 I put a lot more effort into planning my training. However, my execution of this was poor at best. I quickly became frustrated by not maintaining the training that I aimed to complete due to work commitments and was increasingly de-motivated by not keeping up with my plan. My aim for the day was to beat my previous time but I failed and came in at 13:59:28.

This time around, preparing for my 3rd Ironman, I am keen to see much improvement so much so that I am aiming to knock an hour off my previous best finish time. I have started a webpage (www.ironcrab.com) as my vehicle to document my strategy, progress, struggles and hopefully ultimate success and am joining forums (such as this) to gain as much information as I can from others.

Best Regards
Andrew