John O'Groats

Home at last after a long drive to and from Scotland to collect Andy after he and Alfie successfully completed their LeJog challenge - well done both! And to John of course and all the other finishers. It was good to see the final signpost and the queues of people waiting to have their photos taken. Lots of cyclists; some alone, some in groups. One man cycled it in 9 days (but didn't have vast amounts of luggage). All along the drive I was looking for routes, cycle paths, the state of the roads (very good) and hills (not that many that were extremely steep - apparently Devon is the steepest bit). The wildlife was amazing with seals playing in the bay by the campsite, all sorts of seabirds and of course, midges ... I must remember to take lots of midge repellent when I go. It was great to get up there and I can't wait to start now!

Brick

Last week I did my first Olympic-distance brick training session - a 25 mile bike ride followed by a six mile run, which I was very pleased with, especially as it was an extremely hot day. As the triathlon is so close now - just two weeks to go - I knew I'd better go out again today but to be honest, didn't really feel like it. I'd been over at Mum and Dad's to celebrate Mum's birthday, drove back in the morning and was trying to get motivated. As it happened, I'd left my purse behind by mistake, so that was the perfect reason to get on the bike - it's about 13 miles to Rushden from Kettering. So I plodded over and back again and still didn't feel very energetic or fit enough to go for a run afterwards and was all for talking myself out of it completely.

The best way to cope with this, I've found, is not to think about it but to just do it. I came home, changed my shoes and as it happened, turned in the best run time I've done in a long time. Perhaps it was the copious amounts of Lucozade I'd been drinking on the bike; perhaps I'm getting fitter at last. I picked my feet up and it felt good and fast - and it was; just over 55 mins for six miles. So that was encouraging.

I also had some encouragement when I last went swimming. I've been going as often as possible to work on my new (hopefully correct) front crawl and to be honest, I'm getting so puffed out I can barely do two lengths. I came away from the pool on Wednesday wondering what on earth I was thinking entering a race where I had to swim 1,500 metres when I could barely swim at all, but on Thursday it seemed to come together a bit more and a fellow-swimmer was kind enough to say she thought I looked a lot less splashy than usual, and smoother. Again, it's a case of keeping the pace up. The Swim Smooth website reckons on about six sessions to learn something new, so I'll be packing in as much swimming as possible over the next fortnight!

Swim Clinic

Yesterday I attended a Swim Clinic. A what? Well I knew my stroke was (still is) pretty awful and despite trying to teach myself to improve it's very difficult on your own. I'd like to join a club but KSC being what it is, that's out of the question. But that's a whinge for another time. So, I battled up the M6 to Birmingham for 8:30 and we were videoed swimming in the water. My issues were immediately apparent; a breast-stroke kick with a crawl action doesn't look elegant but worse, creates drag. No wonder I was going so slowly and struggling. My arms also weren't quite right and my breathing could be improved (these chaps are big into bilateral breathing, which is taking a breath on either side, every third stroke or so).

There were three swim and three classroom sessions, and I got to take away a swim plan, the dreaded footage of my original swim on DVD and loads of advice on what to do to improve. The best session was the last where we worked with a 'wetronome' a little bleeper that sits under your swim cap and sets your stroke. By increasing my stroke rate from my standard 45/min to about 54-56/min (and using a floatie to stop my legs trying to kick) I can improve my arm action and breathing and then (hopefully) the kick will follow. Working with fins also helped but of course you can't use them in the pool.

So gadgets do help. As I feared, it's almost like learning to swim from scratch again, probably worse with bad habits to undo, and that's going to take time. But I'm so fed up with struggling along that there is certainly the impetus to improve, and hopefully this will also be reflected in my times! (but wish me luck).

Furthest distance yet run

Yesterday I managed an 8 mile run, which in a few month's time will probably be laughably easy (well I can hope) but for now is a real milestone; the furthest distance I've run yet. It was a gorgeous morning but even at 6:30 am very hot. I suppose it's no bad thing practising running in the heat, given that a race event is likely to be later in the day anyway (especially thinking the MK half marathon).

The time was good given that I wasn't aiming for speed, but I wasn't far off my ten minute mile pace at one hour 20 mins 48 seconds. The main problem with long-distance running is, I think, going to be boredom - it takes such a long time. And I could scoot round so much more quickly on a bike!

I was interviewed by the Chronicle & Echo the other day and was asked the 'why do it' question which I have to say, rather stumped me. How to explain in a few words? Having had time to think I guess the best answer is to see how far I can push myself. What am I capable of, really? It's so easy to watch the London Marathon and say 'I could never do that' (which I have) - but perhaps a half? And then what? Plus the side effects of vast amounts of exercise are great, not least that I can (within reason) eat what I like, and what I like is often not the low-fat/calorie choice.

Having said that, I don't feel fit, which might sound odd. Compared to some people I am but I know that in any given race I'll be bringing up the rear and just be glad to get round. It's all comparative.

Well I'm having a rest day today. The sun is shining and I may just go into the garden with a good book. Back to the training regime next week; there's not long to go now until the Northampton Tri at Grendon!

Grendon Tri - Results!

The results are out. I had an overall time of 1:53:35 broken down as follows:

Swim - 21:45 (not a bad time, considering - I'd expect this kind of time in the pool)
T1 - 3:28 (I was faffing for what felt like ages and this is reflected in the poor time here)
Cycle - 58:29 (could be better)
T2 - 1:30 (how long does it take to change a pair of shoes???)
Run - 28:20 (very pleased)

Which all confirms what I already knew - I need to work on *everything* including and perhaps especially transition times. But I am pleased with it; open water isn't easy and what's more, I still managed to enjoy it. So it's all good.

The sobering thought is that if one has to train to Olympic distance to be good at sprint, does this mean that I need to be training (in effect) for a 70.3 (half-Ironman)to be any good at Olympic?

Probably.

Grendon Tri

Just got back from completing the Grendon Triathlon (open water sprint distance) and feel it went quite well. It was a bitterly cold morning and the water temperature (at 13.6 degrees) was said to be warmer than the air temperature. It didn't feel it. Even with a wetsuit, I was freezing and very soon lost feeling in my feet. However, 20 mins or so later I was out, the worst bit over and soon on the bike. It was a nice bike ride and the sun came out which made it so much more pleasant.

I have to admit to feeling hopelessly outclassed by all the other bikes in transition though - a real wish-list of gorgeous road and tri bikes; Cannondale, Specialised, C Boardman, Trek, Planet X, Cervelo and so on. And there was mine; a very used and still rather oily (from the bracket change and chain clean) old-fashioned racer with no name to recommend it, but the point is that it goes, and I, being the standard I'm at, would not find my time greatly enhanced by carbon-fibre, or even titanium (though it would be nice to try :-)). And given that some of these bikes cost as much as a small car, I'm not sure I'd ever want to venture out on one!

When I came in to start the run, the sun was getting nice and warm and I was pleasantly surprised to find I had enough energy left to put in a really good time - by my watch at least - of about 28 mins. So I was pleased with that.

So that is the preparation for the Olympic tri in June. Two thoughts; one that I need to do a lot more training (and really should have made more effort to get an open-water session in before now) and the second is that I absolutely have to replace my wetsuit, which is so tight it's difficult to swim properly. It was snug before and although I've lost weight, I must have put on some muscle which doesn't help. It's all a big learning banana, as my sister would say.

Countdown to Grendon

So the bank holiday soon passed quickly (visited Andy on his LeJog walk and realised just how hilly most of the UK outside Northamptonshire is!) Now it's only days until my first triathlon of the year - Grendon, with the swim in Grendon lake. It's been very cold these past few days so wetsuit notwithstanding, I rather hope it warms up a bit next weekend. We shall see.

The bike maintenance is going well with the bottom bracket on the racer removed and time to get it all back together (fingers crossed!) If not, I'll be doing the triathlon on the touring bike - I might take the panniers off first :-)

Other than that, some necessary housekeeping on the blog, including improving the links and adding a Just Giving page - that could be by way of a hint, if you choose! I guess now the blog is now truly ready to meet the world.