Part of new regime is to get strong. I think the paleo diet has its advantages for sure, but if you aren't careful it is just too easy to lose weight and when you're 6'4" this isn't always a positive. I raced South Africa at 73kg and thought skinny = fast. Well at Kona I was about 79kg and I out split myself in the bike and the run, my swim was only 90s slower and without a wetsuit. The last few weeks have seen me hitting the gym and for the most part I've enjoyed it but one thing really annoys me, the people!

I am fortunate enough to have been coached for two years by people who know what they are talking about. An ex-olympic rower and the coaches at the English Institute of Sport taught me how to lift weights. No mean task given I'm not famed for my above par coordination. The contrasts between a "proper" gym and a commercial gym are many. Proper gyms have lifting platforms, free weights, people who have leg muscles, people who have a core and therefore DO NOT require a weight belt for bicep curls. They have athletes who spend as much time lifting as they do resting and no one, repeat no one, would even consider bringing a bleeding mobile phone into the gym to use between sets. No one wears baggy jogging bottoms or casual trainers and the main goal is performance, not the holy trinity of biceps, shoulders and chest!

Anyhow, imagine my delight when looking for the changing rooms at my nearest track I walked into a room I hadn't seen before and was greeting by the site of lifting platforms, bar bells with proper free weights and a proper squat rack. I've just finished my first session there and it was blissfully painful. Know waiting for the bloke on his mobile, in fact, not a mobile in site as I was the only one in the room, free to punish my errant quads as much as I wanted... heaven.

On another note I "raced" the Thirsk 10 miler on Sunday. It was a great day and although I was given strict instructions not to race I thought I'd put the hammer down in the last 2 miles as a birthday present. The photo below was taken just before the aforementioned hammer was dropped. As with all pictures of me at running races I seem to look like a giant.