30 Days, 2,109 miles swum, cycled and ran, 1 World Record…

Since our last update, Mathew Pritchard (Pritch) has completed his challenge to complete a half ironman distance triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile cycle, 13.1 mile run) every day for 30 days, with no signs of slowing down towards the end. David, Tom, and Brendon can attest to this having gone out for run’s and a cycle, the man’s a machine with only one gear…go faster.

The main drive behind this challenge was to raise money for some fantastic charities, and he will continue to raise money until his goal of £100, 000 is met so please donate and throw this man a few quid for his amazing accomplishment! You can find out more about the charities and donate herehttp://www.pritchards100kchallenge.com/donate/ 

Training

In a previous blog, we spoke about the energy Pritch expended throughout his challenge as well as the foods and fuel that you would want to take in to replenish those lost stores during a challenge like that. Today, we wanted to speak a little bit about what kind of training that was involved in the lead up to his challenge and demonstrate just how exceptional it is what he’s doing here.

As you train for any event, whether it be running, cycling, power lifting, etc… your body will adapt and change to meet the challenge that you’re preparing it for. Your success with this relies on many factors however such as: the rate you’re progressing your training, recovery times, diet, and specificity to name a few. Some people dedicate large blocks of their year training for a single half ironman event, and depending on your base level of fitness, schedule, and discipline this is expected. In Pritch’s case, to help ensure his success in training for an event like this, he has developed a great base to work from, having done prior endurance specific evens as well as the proper training prior. He also works closely with triathlon coach Mark Whittle of Whittle Fit, who we spoke with to get an idea of the training he did in the lead up to this challenge.

On average, since Christmas, Pritch had trained 10.5 hours/ week with 50% of his focus being on the bike, 35% on the run, and 15% on his swimming. That’s on average more than an hour a day of dedicated meaningful training to fit around his already busy life. These numbers however, are slightly skewed and haven’t been made easy to achieve as life gets in the way and he had to take almost a week out of training with illness, and also suffered a broken coccyx after getting knocked off his bike in the month leading up the challenge.

As you can see, along with all the training, Pritch had his share of challenges before even getting to the start line (not to mention the ones he had during!) which makes it an even more remarkable accomplishment! Again, make sure to give his website a browse, and stay tuned for his next challenge!

If you’re aspiring to be active, to get involved with triathlons, or maybe you’re a seasoned vet looking for more guidance, give www.whittlefit.com a look and see the different services they can offer you. If you’re unsure where to start, or maybe are plagued by those continual injuries when you do try and push yourself, come by the clinic and we’d be happy to get your started and on the way to your own personal challenge.