Daves Random Ramblings

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...

So two weekends ago I went and tried something new. I stepped up a group on the WCC main club ride and went from intermediates to intermediate / fast.  Yes they are similar in the names with "/ fast" added onto the end of the title of the new group but this group were really not messing about when it came to the speed.  A really nice, friendly bunch of guys that made this look far too easy but I suppose if that's what they normally go at then it is par for the course for them. Being the newbie in the group I was happy enough riding at the back and drafting behind them.  Moving up the pack sometimes and only once at the front which I found a tad hard because I was trying to replicate the same effort / speed as well as having to deal with the wind resistance that you dont get as much when drafting / slip streaming / hiding behind another cyclist. I did feel a little bit unsociable as they were chatting away to one another and there was the "getting to know the ...