Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

I’m sure many of you heard about the 10,000 hour rule at some point. In short, it states that in becoming a world-class in something requires 10,000 hours of practice. There are many articles disputing that claim, but for the sake of this entry, I will assume that the 10,000 hours rule is correct. Where does it put me then?

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

This was a long season. It started in London, went through Lanzarote and finished in Auckland in the middle of summer in January (or as the rest of the world call it - winter ;)). That’s why after finishing my 70.3 race I decided to take it little easier for couple of weeks. I let my nutrition go crazy, gained few kilograms (thankfully mostly due to weight lifting) and lost a lot of endurance.

I was too slow and too tired to have good photos taken :p. Instead - photo of Gomez and Brownlee fighing for 1st place!

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

3 weeks ago I started long weight lifting program. I’m not a weight lifter, nor I ever plan becoming one, but I figured that this would be the best approach right now. I don’t plan any big event anytime soon (except ITU Olympic distance Triathlon and some Ocean Swim), so working on my basics seems reasonable. This year is going to be running one, as I want to finish two marathons and couple of shorter runs. So I’ve increased my volume and injured myself at the end of second week of new program.

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I don’t think that I’ve ever been so focused in my life. When I ended working for my last company I had the most unproductive period of the last year (and yet it definitely was not the most unproductive period of my life… sad but true). Lack of need of getting up early, not knowing how is next week going to look like and general boredom - not the best combination.

After I moved to Auckland it took me few weeks to settle down and figure out everything. I’ve found quite good gym, near by swimming pool and good places for open water swimming. But most importantly I’ve found new motivation for training. I’ve set up general plan for the whole year again, but that will come to life after my next race. Race, on which I’ve focused all my strength in last few weeks.

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

That was a really good year! I’m not into detail month by month summaries, but I love data and numbers! So I took some time to bring all my training data into one spreadsheet. Thing is that I’m not using Training Peaks (yet!) and half of my data was in Polar Personal Trainer and another half - in Garmin Connect. That’s what Google docs are for.

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

I can say that 2013 was the year of changes. It started in London while I was working in big gaming company with even bigger plans ("we will be making 300 million $ per year" they said). I had plans with that company, long term plans. Well, the year ended up on the other part of the world in much smaller (yet still quite big for New Zealand) entertainment company that actually feels more like family sometimes. Life plots crazy scenarios. I started last year with publicly announced Goals and it worked well for me, so let’s make it a tradition.

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

My lifew has been kind of in hiatus for last few weeks. I've finished last race of the year and took few weeks of from the trainig regime (didn't gain any weight!). I've finished working for my last employer as well, which turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me. Not because last job was bad or something, but it just pushed me to take some risk and accept new role.

I've rebooted my life last week. Quite literally I've turned it upside down! New job, new flat, new city. Hell, even new hemisphere. I've moved to Auckland, New Zealand.

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

I'm sitting in a small restaurant at this small Spanish airport waiting for my plane to London. It has been by far the best week in last few years, and I'm still packed with endorphins. Few minutes ago I talked to another finisher, from 75 - 79 age group. He has done his first Ironman when I was 2 years old. I wonder if I'm going to be racing in 45 years. For now I've done my first half Ironman distance race.

I swum 1.9, cycled 90 and run 21 km on hot roads of Lanzarote. When I picked up this race few months ago I just chose the last European race in 2013. Only later I found out that this is not that common for a first 70.3. Perhaps ignorance is a bliss.

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They say that no one ever regret done workout. I think that I learned how to love my training in the last few months. Sure, I could've done better job keeping up with everything that I've planned, but overall I'm happy with what I do.

They also say that the hardest part is to start. And despite having the fittest time of my life, I still struggle to start almost every single training session I do.

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

It has been only a week since I've finished the London Triathlon, the race I've been preparing since January. Few months ago it was my ultimate goal for the year, but as it turned out you really can get addicted to racing, even as an age grouper. I was searching for another race in few months and decided to go all in. In 9 weeks I'm going to swim 1.9km, cycle 90km and run 21.1km in one of the most iconic races in Europe. I've signed up for Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote!

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

Back in January, this was my ultimate goal for this year - finish an olympic distance triathlon. It seemed so distant and difficult and now it's all done! Surprisingly I got a perfect weather, sunny but not too hot, which is not that often in London. It started to rain few hours after I finished, but at that point I didn't matter anymore. After Mumbles swim I was little scared, yet I've set up a goal to finish below 2:30. I crossed the finish line at 2:27 and it made me happy for the whole week!

Paweł ChalacisPaweł Chalacis

Back in January, when I received confirmation of my spot in 2013 London Triathlon it seemed like a really long time to prepare. Suddenly it's only one week till the race. While I am prepared better than I've been expecting few months ago, there is still high level of anxiety involved. After all, with 17000 participants, it is the biggest triathlon in Europe. And I am going to be a part of it.