Carmen's Triathalon Experience 通过 SuperCaz

130 lengths done in about 1 hr 25 min. It was masters class, but I got there early and did 25 min before class started.

We concentrated on legs only for much of the session, which I find hard as I don't really use my legs much when I swim.  It's particularly hard at the moment as my legs seem to be constantly tired from the marathon training.

I got a newsletter from tri club yesterday, which says that they are doing novice bike sessions starting next month.  I think I will have to go along to a few of them as it's exactly what I need to build confidence.  Hopefully they will also do a bit of bike maintenance stuff too, as I am very conscious that at the moment if anything goes wrong on a bike ride, then I don't have the skills to sort it out.

To quote Skye 'Why, oh why, oh why on earth would you want to spend 5hrs swimming in Lake Windermere??! LOL...'.

A: Probably because it is more scenic than spending 5 hours in a pool, lol.

Mind you, todays swim was interesting.  I thought I had picked a quiet time between the lunchtime rush and the childrens classes, but I forgot to check out the aqua aerobics timetable.  So there I was, attempting to concentrate on my technique while 40 unfit and / or older ladies bounced along to Sex Bomb in the lane next to me.

I have never seen anything like it!  It was so funny.  Their coordination was... well... non-existant and I spent more time dodging flaying arms and legs that came over or under the lane rope than I did swimming.  Although it isn't something I would chose to see every swim, it did make my swim much more interesting as a one off.

But at least they all looked like they were having fun and getting a bit of exericse in.  And the rest of the pool was very quiet.  I guess nobody else likes Tom Jones.

Oh, nearly forgot to say - 170 lengths (4.25k) done in about 90 min.  A combination of freestyle and backstoke using paddles, buckets and kick buoy.

Just ordered my first wetsuit.  Hopefully it will arrive in time for my first sea swim of the season on May Day.

To be honest, I don't really want a wetsuit.  I swim quite happily without one and it seems like another thing to maintain and look after, not to mention the chafing that most people get with them.

But most events insist that you wear one and even I am willing to admit that I might get a tad cold in Lake Windermere after 5 hours of swimming.

Friday I did a speed session in the pool.  The hardest part was:

100m on 1 min 45 sec
75m on 1 min 30 sec
50m on 1 min

Repeat x 4

The times were very tight for me but I did just about manage to do each one within the time.

I did a total of 3k (120 lengths) in about 1 hr 10 min.

Today I had my long run with the club.  I naturally woke up early so I decided to get the bike out and cycle down to the club.  The journey down was lovely.  Sun shining, not much traffic, and I have not lost any of my (very limited) confidence through ignoring the bike for 6 months.  Even my speed was similar to last year, despite delibratly taking it easy as I didn't want to turn up tired to the run.

But I hadn't thought it through properly.  Coming back I was already tired, hungry and dehydrated and I found cycling hard going.  In fact, I can't remember much of the journey as it was all a blur.