The Triathlon Times part 1.....

Jan 12th 2009

As most of you probably know as I’ve already bored many of you to death with the fact, I have registered and paid a princely sum(always a good motivator) to take part in the Rapperswill, Switzerland Triathlon on 7th June 2009.

It’s a 2 km swim followed by a 90km bike ride and then a 22km run. Which is actually difficult to even say in a single breath.

This was originally the idea of one of the guys in the office as his brother did it last year in 6 and a half hours. At first I dismissed it, as any sensible person would. I started a fitness campaign in May 2008, this culminated with me completing the Glasgow Half marathon in September last year(1hr 49min). This was in reality the first real physical activity outside of the odd game of footballand annual ski holidays for me in 20 years. However once the race was over and due to a mix of weather, injury and general lazyness I was having real motivational issues with any fitness activity other than watching TV. So after some thought and reading a few books on the subjectI just thought I’d give Triathlon a go….

I therefore thought I’d start sending out a regular update on my progress, positive or negative. This will ensure that there is limited opportunity for me to quietly shelve the idea of completing the triathlon as failure in full public view of my nearest and dearest I’ve always found to be strangely motivational.

On the training side I’ve been running pretty regularly(weekly) since Sept and have done a few swimming sessions since December to get me up to the 2km mark(118 lengths of the pool) in one go.

The running was already OK and easy to get into and the swimming has if I’m being honest and if you exclude my continuous chlorine odour actually been easier than I thought it would be. The 2km I can now do in 45 minutes. I tried a spinning session at the gym 3 weeks back but found it extremely hard work and more worryingly there were pensioners in the class who were coping better than me. I sneaked out 1 hour into the 1.5 hour session on the excuse I had to pick up Wallis…..

In an effort to get used to transitioning between the elements I did 2 gym based mini triathlons on Wed and Friday evenings last week with 2km swim then 10km bike ride then 5km run. Both sessions were very hard and the first was especially uncomfortable. The transition from bike to running is a painful experience on the lower legs for the first 2-3km. I can now imagine based on that snippet that you all will be trying to sign up for this as well.

The swim section is in Lake Zurich and I’ve been warned its not like swimming in the local pool as there is a mass start/underwater fight with 300+ swimmers and obviously its in open water in a deep lake in the alps, so it will be ‘refreshing’. Luckily I managed to get some open water swimming simulation on the Wednesday last week as its school half day and the wee lads in the pool were bombing me while I did my laps , right up until I complained to their mother. I could not actually complain in French to the mother concerned as my French is rubbish but I just gave the lads a Paddington hard stare which seemed to have the right effect on their mother. It was either that or she was warning them to get away from the creepy man with the goggles on. Just wait till they see me once I have bought a wet suit and a swimming cap. I’ll have the pool to myself in no time.

As a little diversion and as it’s the second highest aerobic exercise after cycling I tried cross country ski-ing in the Ardennes on Sunday 11th Jan but only managed 6km as it was a lot harder technique wise than it looks and definitely a lot less fun than it looks on TV, if that is actually possible. That fitness avenue has now been closed and I won’t be doing that again.

I’m in Sunderland this week for work and will get some running in but will keep it to just 10km runs as my left ankle is still sore from last year although I do now have the contact details of a good foot doctor, I just need to get round to making an appointment. On the positive side my big toe nail has now nearly grown fully back from the Glasgow half marathon. I do however seem to be getting a lot of lower back and hip pain as a hangover from ski-ing at New Year. Who said keeping fit was good for you……..

Time wise I’ve now got just under 5 months of training now till the start ….in reality and in blissful ignorance I think I have the swimming and the running sorted as I know I can do the distances individually. I just need to get my head and legs round a 90km bike ride then once I have resolved that part I then have the pleasant task of trying to do it all consecutively(its probably much easier to type that than actually do it).

I’m targeting finishing around 6 hours and am basing my training on that time with targets of 1 hour swim(2km)/transition, 3 hour cycle(90km)/transition and 2 hour run(22km)/Oxygen Tent recovery. I completed the Half marathon in September in 1hr 49 and so I may be being a little ambitious on that leg. However I’m hoping overall I’ll be fitter so I will be able to keep it to just an additional 11 minutes.

The furthest I’ve ever been on a bike in my life in one go is 12km and that was in December last year on my way to work on my mountain bike as a trial run. I’ve been reading books on cycling to try and get my head round it but to be honest I might just go for the amphetamines and EPO route as is popular with the cycling pros. The other worrying aspect is that of the 3 books I’ve read all 3 had chapters on testicular injuries and infections/ulcers/boils where the sun doesn’t shine. Incidently but not unconnected the most successful Scottish(and British) road cyclist of all time is Robert Millar, who is now in retirement in Dorset living his life as a woman having had the big operation. So there is obviously some element of danger in the whole cycling scene. I have in a totally unconnected transaction purchased a fetching set of bib and braces cycling trousers with rather bulky undercarriage padding. Regardless of this brave talk on the cycling front I need to wait until the weather improves and we get lighter nights. So till then I’ll be stuck at the gym on the bike to nowhere, watching French TV. In the meantime I’m undertaking the serious task of searching the racing bikes for sale sections and especially worryingly am having to continuously up my original €250 budget every time I see something nice I like. It would appear that in cycling circles when you own something for a year or two and use it you just need to shave 10% off the price when you want to sell it….have these guys not heard of the credit crunch

For the technically minded(blokes only I suspect). The first choice bike currently is this http://www.carrarocicli.it/index.htm?id_prod=6 an absolute bargain at €685… L

And second is this one which I really love the look of (I mean it actually looks fast when its sitting still) http://www.carrarocicli.it/index.htm?id_prod=4 but is double the price at €1400 and at only 1.5kg lighter, its hardly a bargain. Did I already say it looks fast.

They also have a titanium one which I could talk about all day long and unbelievably looks even better but at nearly €5k it is the price of a new Toyota Prius………. http://www.carrarocicli.it/index.htm?id_prod=2…its also incidentally literally as much as I paid for my first flat when I was 18. This alone shows relative inflation in terms of house prices and my age.

Cheers

Cammy