It’s all been going on in the last few weeks. Been training well and also been doing quite a few different events – started with the Gower Bike Ride on the 5th July which was 29 miles of undulating roads starting and ending in Swansea and taking in a good section of the Gower – wasn’t easy but I did pretty well (Ian beat me though) considering it was the first time I’d even sat on my bike since doing the Duathlon in March. Weather was lovely for it too but I must admit there was a climb at the end where I had to get off for a 100 yards as my legs wouldn’t go round any more.
On the 11th July I took part in my first Parkrun – a free 5KM time trial around Blackweir Park (22:51) a very well organised event and I’m sure I’ll do more. 14th July was the next of the Rose Inn series and Chris pulled out due to his illness so I was doing it solo. I set the previous Rose Inn race as a virtual partner on my Garmin and effectively raced myself around the course, I was well up on the first lap and kept it going well giving myself a chance at sub 30 minutes. A big effort in the last 400 metres got me home in 29:49– a time I wouldn’t have thought possible a few months ago. Shame I’m not going to be able to get the 3rd one done to qualify for the series competition as we’re on holiday but I don’t think I’d have won anyway!
19th July was the Hereford Triathlon – 400M swim (freezing outdoor pool), 16K bike, 5K run. A nice early drive up there to Chris’ in-laws and a nice ride over to the venue we were due to go off just before 10am. I started off a minute behind Chris and this lead grew to about 3 minutes after the swim. I made up a minute on him on the bike and then caught him about half way round the run. We stayed together from there ending up a minute apart on the final times.
25th July was the Cardiff Triples event held at Maindy Pool/Velodrome. A crazy event which involves teams of four completing 3 short triathlons one after the other with only 5 minutes break in between each. Chris, Ian myself and Gareth McNamee (an old friend of Chris’) comprised team Fat Chance and considering that 2 of them had never done a Tri before I think we did pretty well. In our wave we were among the best on the bike stages (legal drafting) but let down on the Swim (mainly me) and the Run legs. Official results show us dead last but our final leg time was wrong and we did 11 laps on one of the cycles so we’re hoping the results get amended (moving us from last to second, but not, last).
That sums up July events but this coming weekend I’m debating doing another Parkrun and am entered in the Cardiff International Pool Aquathlon. Unique for a pool swim wetsuits are allowed (chance for me to debut mine) and rather than swimming lengths we will be swimming around a triangular shaped course – 5 laps of 100m. I must admit to being a bit worried but we’ll see how it goes. The run after is 6.5K around the bay back and forth over the flyover a couple of times and then up and down the river.
All good prep for the upcoming Tuska Triathlon where I’ll have to do a 750m sea swim in Porthcawl followed by a 22K hilly bike ride and then a 5K run. Going to be a tough one.
Last two event of the season (apart from maybe more free Parkruns) are the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest event, see the link and watch the video to do it justice, and then the Cardiff Half Marathon. These are both in October so September looks fairly quiet unless Kathryn decides we should do the Cardiff 10K too.
