I’ve always been a keen swimmer. From a young age I was taken to the local swimming pool, given some armbands and left to bob about on my own. Screamed the place down and then realised that I was fine and had to be dragged out of the water at the end.

I joined a club when I was 10 and did some real training and nowadays although the pace has gone, I still enjoy it and find it much easier than a lot of people.

Monday was a pool day and I warmed up with a 1km swim, followed that with a 400m mixed stroke swim, 10x100m freestyle on 2 minutes and a 350m warm down to finish.

Not a bad work out. I then spoiled that by drinking wine and having a ‘phat’ dinner!

Food:
Breakfast: 3 weetbix and two slices of toast
Lunch: Boiled duck on rice with soup
Dinner: Cajun Pork with smashed yams and a Thai five-bean salad.

It’s hard keeping fit at weekends, isn’t it? Aftera hard week at work sometimes the last thing you want to do is exercise but in my bid to look more like David Haye and not like David Tua (google them both) I know have to keep up the hard graft especially after a night out which ended up with a trip to McDonalds a’la Friday….

So after another excellent Saturday Show with Al and a simple lunch it was out on the bike for a 40km+ ride in the blazing sunshine. At least I was generating a good breeze – friends of mine we running at the same time around Bang Wad Dam – idiots!!

The evening consisted of some beers – but beer is 95% water so that’s ok right?

Food:
Breakfast: toasted sandwiches x2
Lunch: pad thai with pork
Dinner: Chicken nuggets, chips and beans

Sunday:
Up reasonably early and decided to head to Surin Beach for a swim in the sea – beautiful; reminded me why it’s good to live here.

Went to the Irish Times for the Sunday Carvery and then went to the duck race.

A few beers st sunset was followed by an amazing dinner of toast with marmite…..

Food:
Breakfast: toast
Lunch: Sunday carvery – too much
Dinner: toast

Of the three triathlon disciplines, running’s the one I have done the least of since returning from my hols – just one small jog in about 2 weeks – not great.

Tuesday night remedied that as I stuck my iPod on and headed out for a 10km run. I wasn’t expecting a great deal given the lack of running in my legs of late but I surprised myself by completing it in under an hour! 59mins and nine secs to be precise!

Happy with that – so happy in fact, I treated myself to a pizza…..oops!
Breakfast: 3 weetabix with milk and sugar; two slices of toast
Lunch: boiled chicken with rice; two spring rolls.
Dinner: Pizza

Playing badminton on Sunday was very enjoyable but it wasn’t without consequences…My buttocks have been very sore ever since making moving around more difficult than normal….

Despite reduced mobility I knew it was important to keep trudging along the route to full fitness and so I headed to the pool to put in some serious laps – mission accomplished.

The speed isn’t there at the moment, however, and of all the three disciplines – running, swimming and biking – it is the swimming that seems to have suffered the most from my holiday. Strange when that’s my strongest event but it’ll come back.

3km was covered in all and I felt pretty good for it albeit very hungry…

Food:
Breakfast: 5 slices of toast
Lunch: pork with chilli and basil leaf, fried egg, rice and corn on the cob
Snack: pineapple
Dinner: Green curry with chicken, rice, omelette and a cornetto.

Need to up my veg intake – not great at the moment.

The weekends are usuall consider times to rest and relax but I get restless fairly easily and like to get out and do stuff. Fortunately I have a bike which allows me to go and enjoy the beautiful island that is Phuket.

That’s what I did on Saturday afternoon after the Sports Show with Al – he’s going to do the triathlon relay and good on him.

Took the bike out and did a good 45km in around 1:30 – no hills mind (not ready for that yet). I felt pretty good afterwards but kinda spoilt it by drinking a fair bit at 360 bar at their Come around Sundown event….

Food:
Breakfast: n/a – bad man
Lunch: BBQ’d chicken and pad thai pork
Dinner: Fried rice with chicken, chips
Snack: (late night) cheese and ham toastie…

Sunday: Had a nice lie in and then had lunch with friends. Played badminton in the early evening for an hour which was good and made a nice change from running, swimming or biking even though I lost every game – I’m not very good…

Food:
Lunch: fried rice with pork
Snack: Rice crackers
Dinner: Chicken and pasta – tons of garlic and I mean tons of the stuff….

So it’s the start of a new year and time to continue the excellent fitness and health groundwork laid down in 2010.

This year I’ve decide to blog differently and post on a daily basis if possible about what I got up to the day before in terms of exercise, diet and more.

Yesterday perhaps isn’t the best day to start with as I did, ahem, nothing fitness-wise but on the back of three consecutive days, that’s ok.

Food:
Breakfast: Bowl of weetbix fruity with whole milk and two slices of toast with marmite.
Lunch: Bowl of curry noodles, miso soup and gyozu.
Snack: BBQ chicken
Dinner: Indian curry (no creamy sauce) and Indian-style vegetables.

It was a great curry, by the way…..

So we’re off and running and 2011 is the year to make a determined move to accomplish ‘Operation Hayemaker’…He’s planning on retiring this year so I can step in and fill the void