This is a bit of a test blog so may get deleted at any point.

Some of you may know that i have signed up to take part in a triathlon. Well at the time of writing i have 2 weeks of training left before a taper week. TBH i havent been training that serious or religously but have put alot of road miles in, including a few sportives. Not a lot of swimming has been done but the worst discipline to me is running.

I suffer from cheese knees which surprisingly have been ok until the day after each run. Ouch. Anyway i have managed to clear the required 5.4 miles in training, it wasnt pretty but i have done the distance (admittingly not after a swim,bike) in just over 50mins.

So the event i am doing is the Clitheroe Triathlon run by Epic Events, looking forward to it and hopefully will give more info as i go.

4 August

A day off yesterday, well apart from riding to and from work (7miles each way). Nothing planned for tonight either. I did want to get out with the club but got to go to chinese banquet instead.

Maybe worth mentioning about my weight. At the start of this endeavour i was around 16 stone mark, maybe a bit more. Anyway im down to around 15.3 - 15.6 stone without really stopping much of my shocking diet. I have really noticed the weight loss on the bike especially on the climbs and keep having the intention of really going to get back down to around 14.6 stone that i was a few years ago (10 years maybe ) anyway more updates in the future.

Oh and Sharon has subscribed me to Triathletes world so i is proper afleet now

12 August

So this is were i am upto. Writing a blog seems a good idea but realistically i struggle to find the time to keep it updated. However i will endeavour to update as and when to fill in those who may be interested (or bored) as to were i am upto.

Over the last week or so work has been overtaking any training time. Done a couple of bike rides, nothing spectacular. Tried to concentrate more on the running but struggling with work and tiredness to fit in a long run and this week got back to the swimming baths, twice with the 6.30am crowd.
So swimming, currently doing the 400m required for my tri in 9 minutes which i thought was good going....till i read last years swim times. Those were showing times of 6, 7 and 8 minutes but that was including the time into T1 so back to shitting it.
Bike, 30Km - easy, big steep vertical clifface hill - oh dear. Should be reet though.
Run, this is what im fearing the most. I have done the distance in training but never after a swim or bike. I may also add i have never done the distance in training 'comfortably'.

Sharon has signed me up with a personal trainer for a month PBfit. All i can say is i have found alot of new muscles that i never knew i had before. The trainer does boot camps, MMA and PT sessions for anyone interested. Alot of what i am doing is just stretches, exercises etc. Sounds easy yet you look like a complete knob whilst doing them and basically have trouble walking for two days after but shows that its training alot of core and unused muscle groups which cant be bad.

Weight wise i am knocking just over 15 stone, would like to break that by Tri time which is just over a week away. Going to try a long run tomoz before a taper week. Also a big thanks to BobbyB off here for answering my stupid questions.

Pol

22nd August

http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/photo12252298.html
http://www.sportsunday.co.uk/photo12248482.html

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Hopefully do a write up later.

24th August

So Sunday 21st was my debut Triathlon and went superbly. The week running up to the event, Epic events website started adding finalised competitor notes and then swim start times. My start time was only 11.10 am so didnt need to be there before 10am really, more of a lie in.
Myself, wife, 2 kids and the dog made our way up there and the weather was good plus there were parks and fields to occupy the support crew. First off i registered, got my timing chip, race numbers and free T-shirt which turns out to be a proper wicking one - bonus. So off i went to stick race numbers to bike, racebelt and cycling helmet. Then into transition to set everything up.
Whilst i'm doing this the race from earlier waves is under way and competitors are flying past just going about their own race.

So i'm there in my tri suit, flipflops and woollybacks hoody waiting for my turn to go into the pool area. first things to hit me is everyone looks very fast. Second is that they all seem to know what their doing. Third i need the toilet. Fourth i'll be alright. Fifth six and seventh no i wont - thats what all that carb crap drink does for you. Anyway good facilities at the pool and once again i was relaxed watching everyone going about their business when i looked past the fast looking people to see normal people just out to have fun, their own challenge. Some even waiting in the transition for their mates,Sharon even said one women was even on her mobile phone!!!!

1050hrs i say my goodbyes, hand over my hoody and feel very vulnerable. i'm stood there in my one piece trisuit, i'm not the slimmest, my arse,belly and love handles have been shoe horned into this gimp suit. I am stood there in full view of anyone who wants to look wearing my gimpsuit..........and flipflops. Awesome, didnt give a monkies haha. Off i go into the pool changing rooms, speak to a couple of the lads seeing who is in my wave waiting for the previous wave to start. Off they go and my group walk poolside.

Marc who runs Epic events gives us a briefing. There is 3 to a lane each wearing a different coloured hat red,pink,green. I got the red one phew he went onto give us some pointers about the bike course, bad junctions, slippy areas and some foot down and stop junctions which will be marshalled. Also 1Km had been knocked off the run course - brucy bonus.

As the wave before us was clearing the pool he shouted 90 secs, get your hats on and in the water. Now for me this was something new, as a kid i did alot of swimming for various clubs etc however i have never worn a swim hat. Now alot of people do call me a cock and on this occasion i felt a rather large cock putting a super small condom over my head. Tick followed tock followed tick, the pressure, do i ask if its on ok? then reality hit.....just swim. So i'm in the water with my gimpsuit on (i had removed the flipflops though) wearing a condom on my head and a pair of goggles which i had poured washing up liquid in to make them not steam up and hadnt really washed them out properly. GO and off i went swimming towards the deep end, first off in my lane, concentrating on my swim. Whats that? as i get closer to the deep end there is a body. Turns out they have a under water photographer in full diving getup. Excellent.

Was first out the water and into transition, put on my helmet, my brand new socks on which rip round the ankle, woolly top on, gel, drink of water, grab bike and run, onto bike and off we go. Had trouble with my brething on the first half of the course and couldnt really get above 14mph, hit Jeffrey Hill which i reckon is the steepest climb ive done to date, photographer at the top then down the other side. 45mph freewheeling and a good 8mile 20mph blast home.

Into T2 and rack bike, helmet off, water, run shoes on and run. get told off by marshal for not having my number round to the front and trot. i wasnt running or even jogging i was trotting. My body and legs belonged to someone else. As i trotted off i was uncomfortable, wasnt looking forward to this. The further i went the more i wondered where the turn around point was. The run was off road mainly and the steps and rocks mixed with mud was quite tricky in places. After reaching the half way point i started to feel a bit better thinking i could open my stride a bit but deciding to get around a mile from home otherwise suffer blowing up in spectacular fashion. I had been following a woman and 2 blokes for most the run and not far from home opened up my stride, overtook them only to hear one of the blokes fall in behind me. Coming onto the field we had to go round the perimeter, i could hear him there behind me, i was dying but keep going faster, legs wouldnt let me arrgghh into the finishing straight i sneaked a peak behind me.........yep noone bloody there. Finish. 400m swim (16 lengths), 30km bike inc big hill and approx 8Km run 1hr 55mins 58secs.

Event was well run, marshalls excellent, course well marked, competitor notes spot on, excellent T-shirt and days BTF licence for £33

2nd September

So i have recently purchased a full on gimpsuit and used it in anger for the first time last Wednesday. The Endurance Store TES hold open water swimming (only 1 week left though) so after taking a deep breath i registered online the day before and went down, Payed my £5 and swam.

Thats not really what happened as the event put on is a fully coached evening with facilities all for £5. I had been into the shop earlier in the day to buy some goggles (Aqua Sphere) and got some info of how it worked on the night. The second time ive been in the shop and really useful advice.
So i turned up at three sisters water park and saw Paul who i had been chatting to in the shop who pointed me in the right direction of where to pay, where the beginners are and where the briefing will take place. First thing to strike me is how many nutters are into this open water swimming and they arnt all triathletes, i would say the majority were swimmers only. Off i go and get into the water and our coach for the night was Nick. Now i was expecting a few drills and do this and do that but this turned out to be a full on coached session by a qualified coach, the sessions was about streaming lining and concentrating on arm placement, breathing and kick. Now again all this inc of facilities for £5 i pay £4 to go the local baths.

My next tri i fancied the buxton tri at the end of Sept which is 400m pool swim, 20Km hilly bike, 5Km run. However now i have a wetsuit i am looking at the Manley Mere triathlon which is a 750m lake swim, 20Km mtb and 5 Km run plus these are still doing swimming till the end of Sept.

Bike wise i ve not done much, did make a return to mtbing which was a bit of a let down. Since starting my tri training i have dropped near a stone in weight and would say got fitter yet a sunday out in the peaks with the club made me suffer. I thought i would be flying but found it tough as ever.

Running i have got a couple of 6 milers in but need to start building on that as next year i want to aim at 10Km tri's and dont feel that after a swim and bike i would be anywhere near able to do a 10Km after.

6th September 2011

Went open water swimming at Manley Mere. £5 for the swim which consisted of signing on getting in the water and swimming round bouys. There is a map of the route on a whiteboard at the swim start which gives distances. From the start bouy to 1st bouy and back is 250m, from start round the first bouy to the second and diagonally back to the start is 400m and round all the bouys is a 600m loop.

The lake once again is shallow enough for me to stand upto all over i was assured but was advised there may be a few pockets which maybe slightly deeper. Swim times were from 5.30 - 7.30 till the end of september. I did 4 or 5 laps in total with a bit of a breather between each. It got quite choppy out there in parts which was interesting but good, tired now though. Whilst i was there people would just turn up, do there thing and bugger off again, once again i was surprised at how many people are into the open water swimming.

Just goto look for an event through Sept now as the Manley Mere has been cancelled this year, maybe this one instead if i can find some balls (and entrance fee), damn you BobbyB. Although team Pol would be in tow i wandering about swimming with those jelly fish eugh, and the matter of a 10k.

19th September

Well yesterday while everyone was doing the MTL, myself and team Pol went to Anglesey and took part in the Anglesey Sandman triathlon. The day started off with driving down there in torrential rain in parts but as we got there the clouds started to peel away.

After being guided into the car park by marshalls i made my way to registration. There was a junior event going on at the time which was good to see, ages 8 and up taking part. Once registered and got my goody bag (bit poor and no stickers) it was time to rack my bike a sort out transition. Two things happened here, the heavens opened and the commentator says its quarter of an hour till race brief. I wasnt even in my gear. So got piss wet through while panicking if i had everything ready while then trying to get back to the car and into wetsuit.

Anyway i made it, neednt of panicked. We all set off (inc Team Pol) for the 1K walk down the beach for the swim start. As we got there we had a few minutes so in the water to get used to it. Wow it was cold but funnily seemed to get used to it quite quickly.

The start was a beach start, run into water were everyone seemed to just climb and crawl all over each other to the first bouy, once round that it seemed to settle down, until the last third of the swim were we had comedy waves. The swim was 50m off the beach and ran parallel to the beach so the beach was on our left. Now i swim breathing to my right, so imagine my surprised when i turn to take a breath and there is a wave just breaking over me. From then on before taking a breath i had to look to see if there was a wave coming also was the weird feeling of trying to swim while the waves were picking you up and dropping you. Good fun actually.

IMG_0102.jpgIMG_0092.jpgIMG_0069.jpg(pics in wrong order)

After the swim, a run across pebbles etc into transition. Wetsuit off, gilet, helmet, glasses on then went to put some socks on - no chance, so rather than struggle i just put my cycling shoes on of ran with bike to mount/dismount line. The road out of the carpark was quite a long drag up. After swimming and that leg muscles send strange messages back. Anyway the course was quite good, no serious hills but lots of long straight roads were the wind seemed to be swirling round sapping power. Also one stretch of road i think they used sticky tarmac cause it was gruesome. Coming up to the hour mark i was goosed, been pushing and chasing too hard, legs were feeling it, lower back pain and other niggles ive never had before.

Long story short - 37miles in just under 2hrs back into transition.

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Bike racked helmet off, bike shoes off, run shoes on, gel, water and go - wait......who's do these jelly legs belong to? Mr Wobbly is running a 10K.

To start with it was that bad, first 2K felt ok tbh and the course was marked out every km so you knew how far you had left. 4k down some runners came flying past, i felt ok so thought i would pick up the pace - BIG mistake. I dont actually go any faster but instead get tired very quickly so the last 5k were harsh. The run route was good actually, again no steep hills and on forest roads or good trails with the last .5k taking us over a sand dune, across the beach to the finish.

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1k sea swim, 37 mile road ride (from my computer), 10K run
Race Number First Name Surname Gender Gender Position Category Category Position Club Swim Stage Position T1 Stage Position Bike Stage Position T2 Stage Position Run Stage Position Chip Time Chip Position
125 Ian Pollitt Male 41 MOPEN 21 00:19:35 48 00:02:40 80 01:52:44 40 00:02:01 121 00:50:49 44 03:07:48 42