The rumour is true that the elite field suffered a  loss, as possibly the oldest and slowest triathlete in the field decided to pull out……..

Mike Trees had been planning to race for his chosen Charity ( Emily Ash Trust), but reality has now hit him.

Mike’s wife, Rieko gave birth to their baby daughter “Amy” on 30th March, and the lack of sleep since, combined with running a  distribution company, and a coaching business, has taken its toll on training. In fact, in Mike’s words it has “knocked it for Six !…..I have not swam or biked since little Amy was born…….I have managed to sneak in an odd run a couple of times a week to keep my sanity, but that’s about it. In the big scheme of things,  Rieko and Amy are more important to me than racing right now, but I will get back into it just as soon as I get my regular sleep back and can find the time to get back on the bike”.

Rieko is also desperate to get back to triathlon training, and so Mike has enlisted the help of specialists to  get her the information needed.  For anyone  who is thinking about starting a family, is pregnant, or just had a baby,  Angela Lockwood, an expert in pre and post natal physical training (http://www.physically-fit.co.uk/)   will be writing some valuable tips on how to come back safely after giving birth.  Rather than keep this secret we are  planning to publish it  on Tri247 and on Miketrees.com shortly, as we think it could be a very popular subject.

This the first entry of my struggle to get fit again.

Having  trained for nearly 40 years,  since I was 9 year of age, and coached for over 25 years, I know what I should be doing.

However, where  as I used to motivate that lucky group of full time athletes to train, I now understand what the rest of the world age group triathletes are going through. I don’t have all day to train anymore. I don’t have access to the best medical facilities any more, and I don’t get given my gear for free any more. However I love this sport and still want to maximise my fitness and enjoyment.

But through this blog I will  offer some of the library of knowledge and experience that I have picked up over the years.

This  website will develop over the weeks, with training articles being added, coaching and rehabilitation and fitness testing also being offered.

My aim is to help motive and educate athletes to train more efficiently and more effectively, to learn from my mistakes and from my findings and my years of research and coaching.

My blog will document my training and any tips I may be able to pass on along the way. Other pages of this site will offer coaching, sports testing and even injury rehabilitation.

Hopefully over time this site  will grow into a good little reference website, you can  turn for motivation and guidance with your swim bike and run training.

This has been a very busy week for me and running has been knocked down the pecking order. However it was all accounted for in my training plan and so was nothing to get stressed over. And it will be followed by my biggest week of training before I do the London Marathon.

On top of the usual demands of being a taxi service to the kids, and regular demands of work. I had to help prepare for and be at The Triathlon Cycle and Run Show at Sandown Park. On Saturday and Sunday 7th and 8th Feb. From a business point of view the show was a huge success. Our Newton Running Trainers were possibly the biggest success story of the event, selling more than any other brand. The 2XU compression was flying off the shelves on all booths as were the Ceepo bikes which are now the official bike of Ironman.

At the 220 Triathlon awards The Newton Running shoes picked up the “Most Innovative product of the Year” But all this hard work and success comes at a price…no time to train. I missed Friday’s run due to setting up the stands for the expo. On Saturday, I was on my feet selling all day, however I managed to get a stake in the ground and sneaked in 30min run on Sunday morning. For anyone that doesn’t know, and is stressed out over not having time to train…a 30min run 3 times a week has been proven to maintain fitness for weeks. With this confidence I know that I can run hard for a few weeks and raise my level of fitness. I can also be confident knowing that so long as I keep slotting in a 30 min run when extremely busy, I will not lose fitness in my preparation for the London Marathon.

On Monday and Tuesday I was too busy to train again. I had to get out on Wednesday to keep my fitness. I managed one hour of hill reps at threshold to stop muscle wastage. I needed a longer tougher run on Wednesday, because I would be flying to Japan Thursday and Friday.

If you have a busy life, plan everything. I work out as far in advance as possible when I will be busy and when I will have a little more free time and build up my training plan around this for the London Marathon. You will need to be flexible and adjust your plans as needed, but this is much better than making it up on an ad hock basis.

I am now in Japan after a two day journey. After a long flight it is important not to train on the day you arrive as you are jet lagged, the muscles dehydrated and fatigued from the flight. I am used to these long flights and upon arrival move straight onto to new time zone, drink lots of water, stretch and sleep to recover.

Tomorrow, is Valentine’s Day and I will get up and do a long slow run. For the record I will only have run 16 miles in a 7 day period but I am confident that I have not lost fitness. Conversely, forcing myself to run when over worked and stressed, would only have made me ill. Like all runners I learnt this lesson the hard way.

Next week is my first big test of the year. I plan to run over 100 miles in my week in Japan and top it off with the Okinawa marathon. This will be the last big mileage week in my build up to the London marathon. My plan is to run the Okinawa marathon a little slower than race pace, but to get used to my Newton Distance S race shoes and my carbo gels and the nutrition I am planning for London. To me it is imperative that you practice with and use everything before race day. Doing a marathon as training is very unconventional, and as an athlete you have to be disciplined so as not to run too fast, but for me it is the best way to see how my stamina is over the full 26.1 miles.

After the Okinawa marathon I will get a lot of feedback and have a better understanding of whether or not my target time of Sub 2hrs 30min is still a realistic goal for The London Marathon.