A new year and a new start

Suddenly middle-age is no longer round the corner; it's put on some running shoes and is standing outside banging on my front door. How did this happen? Just the other day I was a sprightly, thirty-something guy who had did time to do as many triathlons as he liked and now look at me. I guess that's what being ill over Christmas does to you, or me anyway; a bitter reminder of mortality and, even worse, decrepitude. It's not the dying that bothers me, that I can handle, but the thought of slowly falling apart and spending my twilight years rusting-up like the Tin Man.
 

Boy he could do with a spray from the oil can

Nope I'm going to pull myself together and get serious about training. Well more serious than I have been in the past; I admit that doing a lot of running, cycling and swimming does get results but it's all been so haphazard and that's got to stop. Instead I'm going to hand myself over to the experts and who better than those kind folk at Runner's World:

Ultimate marathon schedule - sub-3:00

Okay it's a bit ambitious but how else am I going to turn myself into this?

(I reserve the right not to dress up even if I do make it to the marathon!)