Daves Random Ramblings

Months of training and following a marathon training plan I got from the McMillan running training plan led me to this past weekend in Brighton.   My training had really slipped in the last couple of weeks before the event so with a target time of 3 hours and 10 minutes, which is the "Good For Age" qualifying time for the London Marathon (being a 47 year old male). Alarm went off at 6am, straight downstairs for a bowl of porridge and some proper "leaded" coffee which I'd not had for the previous week (I switch to decaf everything the week before an event). Showered, contacts in, the bag was packed and we were on our way to Brighton. I'm glad my mum is as chatty as she is in the back of the car as it distracted me from the build up of nerves I was already experiencing.  Its like you've been studying for months for an exam and now you're on your way there.  In the intermittent lulls in conversation I was just zoning out and offering myself encouragemen...

As my friends well know, whenever I have a challenge that I need to prepare for, then the blinkers go on and its all about that.  Not to the detriment of work mind you. Obviously I'm STILL talking about my Guildford triathlon challenge.  Out of the three disciplines, in order of my strengths from worst to best its Swimming, Running, Cycling.  So the rationale I'm applying then is to concentrate on the weakest event. Step 1 was joining the Racestrong triathlon club which I wrote about in my previous blog primarily for some swimming coaching as it makes good sense to be taught by someone that knows what they're talking about instead of thrashing about in a pool, consuming boat loads of energy and potentially not even managing the challenge.  OK I know I can manage a 500 metre swim, I just want to do it as efficiently as possible which in my head means as fast as possible, or as I now like to say "Same results for half the effort" (thank you Rob Needham for that ...

Given I've signed up for the Guildford Triathlon this summer (what was I thinking) just for good measure I also signed up for my 2nd London event, the Swim the Serpentine 2 mile (SERIOUSLY DAVE! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!?), it was suggested to me to join the Racestrong Triathlon Club. They're Woking based and have been around for a few years now.  On the park runs I've done before, I had noticed a few people wearing t-shirts with the club name on them but never realised at that point it was a club. Now I'm not overly concerned about my cycling and running disciplines.  In both of those I'm faster than some and slower than others but the cycling fitness has slipped over the last year so I do want to get that back (and be a regular fast-inters rider at WCC) and it would be awesome to do a sub-20 minute 5k (current PB is 22:23).  What really needs a lot of work is my swimming. The last week has been a real eye opener for me with regards to me and "swimmin...