Thanks to Galeforce events for putting on a great event, it was my first real sprint triathlon - I did one back in 2003 but with no training I don't really count it.

The venue was easy to get to and had ample parking, I was slightly nervous using my new bike rack on the car, but it was great (thanks Halfords!).  I got there with plenty of time to spare, got my transition area sorted.  I noticed lots of people using plastic boxes to carry / store their transition kit in - much easier and tidier than a bag, so I'll do the same next time.  The swimming pool changing rooms were open, but don't really have many facilities - there was always a queue for the gents (pre race jitters I suppose).  I put myself down for a 5:30 swim based on my training the week before, so I had a long wait before starting - over an hour.  A feel laps of the diving pool, did little to calm the nerves.

Swim - 400m (07:00)

I was expecting better from myself in terms of time, but it didn't click, my breathing was laboured and it felt far more tiring than I expected and I was over taken twice, so not great in the end it took me 7 mins to complete.  Not great at all, so next sprint I'll use that time and should get in and started sooner.

Bike - 24k (56:14)

The transition went ok, I decided against putting socks on, so just dried myself quickly, hat on and off.  The swim shorts felt really tight on my legs to begin with and I was worried that the rear tire was low / going flat.  I worried too much, clipped the curb and flew off into the grass / nettles / thistles in the verge - ouch.  I was all in one piece - grazed and had a burning sensation of the nettles but I got back on and got on with the ride.  The ride itself seemed uphill to the A6 then dips and then a short sharp uphill before a downhill into Paversham.  Then a nice downhill and fast on-in.

Run - 5k (25:51)

To me it felt a little shorter than 5k, but I did better than I thought I would and after 26mins I'd finished and felt like a triathlete!

Total Time: 1:31:12

Post Tri

Unfortunately, the bike incident hurt more than I realised, my shoulder took the brunt of the fall and ached, but worst of all was the itching from the nettles - took me ages to fall asleep.  Note to self, look where your going when riding the bike!!

Wow February is marching on and I feel like I've rested up for a couple of weeks after Janathon!  But in truth I have been to the pool and to the Gym a couple of times, I've cycled on boris bikes and on static (*yawn*) bikes.  But somehow not having the obligation to do something daily has made it feel like I've been resting!  

What I have been focusing on recently is planning my training for the London Triathlon in just over 20 weeks.

The full schedule can be seen / downloaded here: Tri Plan.pdf - based on one seen on TriFuel but tweaked to include gym strenghting as well (more on that in a future post).

Today, to start my focused gym sessions I went to the gym to calculate my One Repetition Maximums.  This is slightly embarrising as you have to calculate the absolute maximum you can lift for any given exercise.  As that could be dangerous the safe way to calculate it involves stacking the weights on and when you can only do between 3 - 10 reps you have a weight that you can used to calculate your 1 Rep Max.

I must have looked a sight, throwing weights on, huffing and puffing and only doing a few sets before wondering off to the next bit of kit. Anyway for prosperity here are my 1 Rep Maximums rounded down to the nearest actual weights for my current gym routine:

• Squat: 45KG
• Vertical Traction: 80KG
• Leg Press: 95KG
• Hammer Curl: 15KG
• Leg Curl: 65KG
• Push Down: 27.5KG
• Cable Lateral Lift: 8KG

The squat figure looks a little low given the leg press value, but I can always recalculate it.  One thing I noticed is my legs (knees?) are relatively weak, so hopefully strength training will really benefit them for future runs / cycles.