"Is it my imagination...

... or have I finally found something worth living for?"

It has been a tough week, which has slightly interrupted the flow of my training and put a few things into perspective. With Becs going to Hong Kong to work for three months I am a very lucky man to be part of two smashing families and to have cemented some great friendships over the years. I have been inundated with supportive texts, e-mails and phone calls over the week. Its going to be a long three months but their support will keep me positive and remind me that it will aid Becs' career as well as helping us hit our targets as a couple.

There are some positives with Becs going to HK. It will mean that I can spend more time on training without feeling guilty at not being home and it will mean I will not be subjected to too much gloating after Wales' hotly contested victory yesterday in the Six Nations. Also, it will mean that our dinning room table will not be full of half completed jigsaw puzzles and all our bowls will be available for food rather than their current use of storing sorted puzzle pieces...

This week has been full of leaving parties for Becs and meals out as a couple which has meant that some of my early morning training sessions have been cancelled; especially on Friday morning after downing my first yard of ale since University the previous night. The weeks total (20th - 26th February) was 5 hours 17 minutes made up of 26.5 miles of running and 45 minutes of cycling. This looks lower than it would have been as I had already decided to have a week break from the swimming pool.

Ironically the the second thing categorised as worth living for has been this blog. Apart from being cathartic it has facilitated me zoning on my athletic vision and goals, helping me track my progress against these specific objectives. This week has seen approval from Google to put advertisements on my blog to earn some extra revenue for Mencap. I get revenue every time someone accesses the blog and additional money if someone clicks on the advertisement. I have been trying to guess which one of my friends asked the anonymous 'childish' question as to whether I have used 'Fitness Singles' but there are more suspects than fellow guests when Poirot goes away on holiday. So, like the Belgium sleuth I am going to bide my time and hope the 'guilty' party slips up and reveals themselves. The answer is no by the way.

The aims with regard to the blog over the next few weeks is: to polish the design to make it look more professional and enable me to upload pictures, work out how I can add products to the side bar so I can generate extra revenue if someone buys these products from Amazon and try and get the blog included within a couple of the running magazines to gain extra exposure. Not sure how realistic the last aim is but its worth a go. If you don't buy a ticket you won't win the raffle as the old saying goes.

The third thing from this week that has been categorised as worth living for is my new Garmin 910XT Forerunner watch. This gadget has been the highest entry in the top 5 list of things that have changed my life for years (the other top 5 were my Sega Megadrive in the 90s, iPod, first bike because of the freedom it allowed me and Sky+ box, in case you wanted to know).

As a Mathematics and Statistics graduate I almost climax every time I use the watch and then upload the data to my laptop. In the short time I have had it I have already learnt more than over the last few years in totality. I now know that my running pace drops off more alarmingly in the later sections of my long runs than I appreciated and my running pace fluctuates. After concentrating on improving my cycling and swimming techniques I need to work on smoothing out my running style so this fluctuation is reduced meaning I run at a higher average pace.

Additionally, it has confirmed what my doctor said at my last MOT that my engine is very good. Basically, my legs are the limiting factor as my heart rate under duress remains quite low. I now need to do shorter fast runs or farteks to improve my leg speed and put my heart under greater strain. Besides, I haven't even used it in the pool yet so I have not benefited from its swimming mode tracking number of lengths, number of swimming strokes per length or the swimming efficiency parameters.

The watch even provided the impetus this morning as, like an excited boy on Boxing Day, I got up at 7 am to play with my new toy despite having a 'few' drinks last night to soften the blow of a poor days sport and Becs' imminent departure to HK. If only the multi-sport watch had a hangover mode where it jumps out of my bedside cabinet, pulls back the duvet and sprays water to wake me up it would be the complete training aid.

The previous weeks training (13th - 19th February) totalled 10 hours 13 minutes consisting of 7,000 metres of swimming, 45 minutes of cycling at a spin class, 1 hour of football and 35 miles of running.

And finally, as the song goes on explain, there are a few other things that are worth living for. But, I am going to have to live a cleaner life if I am going to realise the demanding goals that I have set myself. Besides, I want to "Live Forever", but that's a story for another day...

TTFN