I can't say I feel terribly fit, but I have stepped up the training and so should be ticking along in all three disciplines. I have done very little speed work, but there is plenty of time for that. A key strategy for me has been not to worry about being a contender and thus not worry whether I have carried out the right type of training - it's all about the long haul. I'm doing these early events just to get experience and have fun.
Swimming - getting better, due to going for a swim at least twice a week aong with attending classes with a coach who does proper drills and offers loads of guidance. I haven't got the nerve up to ask her to coach me on a 1:1 basis yet, but I will. At least I know the importance of the turns, have mastered bilateral breathing and have bought a proper lycra swimming costume (apparently called jammers...).
On top of this I have bought a wet suit! Field testing in the sea will take place next week, so I can get used to being battered around a choppy swell, hyperventilating due to the cold.
Running - I have dropped the knee brace for a while - short flat distances seem ok so long as I keep my stance efficient.
Cycling - well, no real training, but I have done some rides, including some fairly hard ones with the tri club.
Bricks - despite Linkedin repeatedly sending me details of vacancies for construction lecturers I am not changing career direction. Bricks are a way of taking a perfectly pleasant morning and completely ruining it - push two training sessions together like twin single beds and watch in mock horror as I come back soaked from a 60 mile bike ride, immediately jump into cycling shorts, scoff half a banana and then waddle out for an hour's run. Oh, and the third discipline - sleep all afternoon.
Transitions - I found out at the Burnham aquathlon that putting a shirt on is a stupid idea when you are wet - at the Tewkesbury aquathlon I wore a tri suit and sped up considerably, right from the lower third of the field to the upper third. Likewise the very distinctive pleasures of elastic laces. I have ordered some for this Sunday but they haven't arrived yet - I'll be hovering at my letterbox tomorrow morning to see if they come.
The St Peter's Hospice sportive a couple of weekends ago - 75km, very nice, but tempered somewhat by a recent bout of norovirus. I hadn't eaten all week but made a point of keeping well stocked up throughout the ride. £1,000 raised for the hospice, plus two radio interviews.
Next? Another sprint tri followed the next week by a much longer one. Oh, goodness the months are just shooting along!
Next next? Next next next? Yep, the big thing, raising more money for the hospice. I am pushing at work and hoping the college will support me. I am also going to start contacting corporate sponsors.
In the meantime, please consider making a donation yourself by clicking here; St Peter's Hospice
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