Happy New Year

I have been on holiday.I have been sleeping lots , reading and just relaxing .It has been a drastic drop off of training but one I think I needed after Busso .

Whilst it is a good time to reflect on the year . my results and performance for 2011 is probably an accurate reflection of the World in 2011.Very turbulent and lacklustre with some near misses. The world seems to be lurching from disaster to disaster and 2012 , the Year of the Dragon which usually heralds a successful year .Iam not so sure.

What is certain from the many economic writers is that 2012 will be a tough year to predict. On top of the uncertainty of the economic future of the world , there are sufficient doomsayers predicting the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar at 21 December 2012 exactly at 11.11am . So much so the Mexican Ambassador to Singapore wrote in to the Singapore Straits Times stating the Mayan academics interpret the Mayan calender as a odometer ticking over into a new cycle not the end of the world.
(see Wikipedia for one interpretation of the Maya_calendar )

If anything the world of nature is one of cycles , we humans try to run and move against this natural order but we never succeed.Be it our body clock or seasons , the reality even our calender is just a reflection of the cycle of seasons .As such it is important to recharge and rest . Even though I do lose some strength and fitness ,it has been necessary for my mental endurance .

What is important is to reflect on the past to plan a successful path for the future. Whilst there is always uncertainty in the world , my view is that the economic and even natural disasters are partly reflected by the globalisation of the world. we are now a nanosecond from every news breaking story and every story is news breaking these days . There can be like overloading training probably overloading the senses . there is only so much the brain can process in a news day .It has become cursory and news bytes with the bare minimum of information .Sadly  we become immune to the content however tragic. The major events of the year , the Japanese Tsunami , the Greek economic crisis , the many famines in Sudan and Africa , the many elections around the world ,the Middle East people movement, all reflect a human face and the resilience of the human race.With the globalisation of the world and democracy true the Internet via you tube , facebook and tweeting comes the overload  of information lots not accurate and irrelevant. I am a recipient of the good and bad of this globalisation. I learn so much but i have to be more discerning .There is the immediate access to news and information personal to myself and friends.

But in the final day of 2011 , I do reflect on the year closing.from my training and races , I can at a glance , identify the highlights.These are

1. despite the slowest time ,IM Lanzarote was a great adventure and a culmination of a very strong training period
2. Getting my weight down in the lead up another indication of the need to focus on my weight a lot more
3. My Singapore 70.3 race despite the swim was a solid effort in the heat.
4. My city to surf marathon was a good solid effort and a new PB 

The not so great moments are many but I hope  I learn form them.Most important lesson as obvious as it may seem is that most of the training programs are quite similar but for some slight changes in emphasis but no program is really going to make a difference without the right mental approach and desire .Secondly , learning to adapt the program as external factors intrude is vital. 

The new Year is one I approach with more hope . My holiday reading helps, Have a Little Hope by Mitch Albom and Why the west rules for no by In Morris.New York Times Book review In addition the many news stories for 2012 The economist

I hope the many who stumble into this blog have a Happy New Year in 2012.Despite the cliche , the journey has so far been much more exciting than the destination.