During his childhood and early adulthood John had not been interested in sport and all of his energy went into making money through criminal activities. Sitting for hours on end in a cell however, he started to see it in a different light, as going to the gym meant a break from the boredom and isolation. One day while in the prison gym he saw another prisoner attempting to row one million metres and being given additional gym time to complete it. Seeing that as something he believed he could achieve, he talked to the prison officers and started his attempt. Once he got going, he found out that he wasn’t just ‘okay’ on the indoor rowing machine, but naturally gifted. One of the prison officers noticed and suggested he have a look at the ‘Concept2’ rowing records. His times were already not far off the indoor rowing records and soon started ticking them off.

 

As he worked through gaining the records, he was also gaining the trust of the prison officers and was soon given the opportunity to work in the gym as an instructor. On leaving prison in 2012 he walked straight to a high performance rowing club in London and began further developing his rowing skills on water. Although only in his early 30s, he quickly realised that to achieve the highest level in rowing, he would have needed to begin the technical skills for rowing much earlier. He decided to switch his attention to another sport – triathlon.

 

Whilst still in prison he had run an ultra-marathon off almost no run specific training, and with rowing transferring to cycling quite well, he already had the basis to work from. He entered Ironman UK for 2014 and started training 18-25 hours per week, working as a free lance personal trainer to pay the bills along the way. 2014 was a huge learning year though. He wanted to achieve so much that he over-trained and found himself quite unwell in the lead up to Ironman UK. During the year though he was given the permission to take his first trip abroad to attend a training camp in France, which was a big achievement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 2015 he decided to take a different approach and found a triathlon coach - Keith Sanders from Perform Fitness. Keith has been supporting John this year to ensure his training is helping him towards his goals and John's boundless enthusiasm is focused in the right ways.

 

All of his energies are now being directed into improving himself through the sport. Any time he’s able to go for a long cycle through the Surrey hills he’s grateful to be outside and enjoying the fresh air. Compared to the prison cells he was locked up in for eight years, no training session is that hard. The freedom and opportunity he is now granted are not going to go to waste. He’s truly turned his life around and wants to show to the world that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible.

 

This weekend John McAvoy is competing in Ironman UK for the second time and plans to put all of his energy into getting the best out of himself and making the most of the opportunities he is given.