Happy New Year

So 2009 is well and truely underway and I'm really looking forward to what it will offer up. Last year saw me get back into shape and as a result I completed a couple of targets that I set for myself. This first one sort of snuck up on me halfway through the year and was really a result of working with a number of triathletes.

In June 2008 I completed my first triathlon. It was a fantastic day and I have to say it gave me a taste for what is possibly one of the most ridiculous sports i've ever taken part in! Whilst I was happy to complete the course I didn't manage to swim the whole of the open water course freestyle so this is something I'm now working on. During the Christmas break I headed over to take a dip in an endless pool to have my technique broken down! Needless to say I was an open book and the swim coach compeltely changed how I was swimming (like a brick)and I've now got a host of drills that will help me achieve my goal in May at my first Tri of the season in Alnwick (complete the full 500m swim freestyle!).

The second target was to complete the Great North Run...you can't live in Newcastle and no complete the run at least once. So in October I joined 52,000 other runners to take part in the Great North Run, and whilst I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of running anything more than about 6 miles I was pleased to finish the legendary course and raise some money for the Rainbow Childrens Trust.

So what my the fitness and training goals for 2009. Well at the moment the first thing I'm working on is shifting some of my Christmas bulge - this is a pretty simple task as I'm using my friend and colleagues proven training programme - Alwyn Cosgroves Real World Fat Loss programme is one of the best on the market........my task to shed some excess baggage is simple....simple as in it really works, tough in that you have to work hard to get the results but then nothing that is worth having comes easy!

As I mentioned before I'm going to nail this swimming thing and make sure I can complete at least 500m freestyle and that will set me up for completing at least 3 sprint tri's this year.

In August I'm going to take part in the Newcastle Rat Race with an old college friend. I've always wanted to take part in an Urban Adventure race but had real problems running but now that I've sorted those out there will be nothing stopping me...other than the obsticles they put in our way!

Professionally I'm really excited about a number of projects that we have coming up. The first is a UK seminar with Coach Robert Dos Remedios in April. The other project is a new triathlon training manual that I'm developing and it should be available early 2009. I'm looking forward to keeping you all up to date with developments and if you have any questions about anything featured in this blog just let me know.

All the best.

Nick