After my disastrous
swimming experience in late April, the 1st of May came around…
I mentioned I bought
some simple kit i.e. some goggles and swim shorts. However, I also purchased
one other product: a Garmin 735XT. It’s such a cliché across Triathlon, but recording my swims/cycles/runs did revolutionise my training.
I’m
someone who works with numbers on a daily basis, so having a device that
recorded basic metrics gave me the motivation to train more and see my progress.
At this point my
Garmin watch and my Strava account was all I had.
Ok so training plan….
I started training on 8th May, exactly 12 weeks before the London
Triathlon on the 23rd July. The slight delay was so I could finish off my last exam for an MSc I
had been studying part time.
To start with I didn’t
put together a training plan. All I knew was I needed to swim lots and get
running.
May 2017
- Swim – 9 times
- Cycle – 14 times (7 commutes to work)
- Run – 2 times
Total time 14 hours
Total Distance 220km
At this point I hadn’t
thought much about a finishing time, I was swimming almost entirely in breast
stroke and as you can see I hadn’t really committed to training…..
I did however sign up
for two events in June, a ‘splash and dash’ event in north London, this was a
750m open water swim and 5km run, and a 10km runthroughuk event in the Olympic
Park.
This prompted the
purchase of a wetsuit which then led to purchasing a 3 month membership at the Tooting Lido…
June 2017
- Swim – 13 times
- Cycle – 13 times
- Run – 10 times
Total time 23 hours
Total Distance 276km
I started to feel a
little bit like a triathlete in June, I introduced some ‘Brick’ session to my
weekends and by the end of the month I had completed 2 events.
The main change this
month was I could swim in front crawl for approx. 400m without stopping and was breathing
every 3 strokes…. I will talk about how I progressed with this in a separate
post.
Splash and Dash – Swim
17mins and Run 23mins (approx.)
10km Olympic park run
– 42:34
Although these times
aren’t particularly fast, I started to get the feeling I was on to something: I
was comfortable in the water, swimming with people all over the place, and in
the 10km run I emptied the tank and getting a cheap piece of metal at the end really
gave me a huge kick.
Change of Objective
In early June I went to see Mike in Birmingham. This was the first time we had seen each other since entering the London Tri. We both came away from weekend with the idea to do an IRONMAN in the future and loosely spoke about one in November 2017 (Mexico).
In early June I went to see Mike in Birmingham. This was the first time we had seen each other since entering the London Tri. We both came away from weekend with the idea to do an IRONMAN in the future and loosely spoke about one in November 2017 (Mexico).
By the following weekend, and the evening after I had completed my first 10km event, I found myself on the phone to Mike with the registration form for IRONMAN Wales 140.6 on September 10th 2017.
We both played chicken for 15 mins until eventually clicking and paying our entry fee . I then quickly googled an IRONMAN training programme…
We both played chicken for 15 mins until eventually clicking and paying our entry fee . I then quickly googled an IRONMAN training programme…
At this point we had 10 weeks to prepare ourselves for what we only discovered after entering was billed as ‘one of the toughest’ IRONMAN’s in the world.
July 2017
- Swim – 11 times
- Cycle – 11 times (3 commutes to work)
- Run – 12 times
Total time 32 hours
Total Distance 547km
As you can see in July I completed roughly the same number of activities but I had increased the overall distance covered by quite some way.
July also included the AJ Bell Triathlon, which had now become a 'training session'. Full details of the race and how I performed will be in a separate post.
Instagram - @Triathlon_Ross
July also included the AJ Bell Triathlon, which had now become a 'training session'. Full details of the race and how I performed will be in a separate post.
Instagram - @Triathlon_Ross