For the past six months, I have been supporting David whilst
fundraising for Basik, but have not been involved myself. However, it is time
for that to change. On 24th April, I will be taking part in the City
of York Triathlon, and have decided to use this as an opportunity to contribute
to the fundraising myself. David is competing in extreme distances in order to
fundraise for this charity but I know my limits and, although I will be pushing
my boundaries, they are not as extreme as his. On 24th April, I will
be swimming 400m, cycling 18km and running 5km.
I decided to do this for a number for reasons. Firstly, I
have supported David through many of these events but have never really
understood the emotions that he goes through. The only way to do this is to
take part in a triathlon myself. Secondly, when I turned 30, I wrote a list of
all the things I wanted to do in this year. I thought one of them should be a
physical challenge, as I have now been training for over 3 years, and decided
on a triathlon. Finally, seeing all the good work that Basik does, I wanted to
make a contribution.
I set out on this journey assuming that the run would be my
biggest challenge. I have bad hips, with my hip bones being too big for my
sockets, and therefore high impact sports, such as running, are a no go. I
tried running a couple of years ago, and ended up having months of limping and
pain in my joints, culminating in me having to pull out of Leeds Half Marathon.
However, I have decided that this run will be a one off, and am hoping that
having swum and cycled, I will have warmed up enough to get through the run in
a reasonable time without leading to too much injury. Due to my hips, I have
also decided to not train for this element of the triathlon, and instead to
focus on improving my general fitness. This means that I can avoid injury in
the run up to the triathlon whilst still getting fitter.
Although I assumed the run would be my biggest challenge, I
am actually now more daunted by the swim. As a child, I was always a competent
swimming, often competing at school events. It seems that this has not followed
me to adulthood. I got in the pool recently, and dragged my body through the 16
lengths that are 400m, feeling like I couldn’t breathe at many points. Having
repeated this twice more, it did not get any easier. I think it would become
easier if I could swim with my head under the water, but this leads to me
having water up my nose, which is not a nice feeling. I am going to persevere with
the training, but I have a feeling the swim will be the hardest aspect and the
section that slows me down the most.
Cycling training, however, is going well. I commute to work
on my bike, so am inadvertently training every day. I have also recently been
on two longer rides. The first was with my triathlon partner, Sara, and we
cycled 50km to Ilkley and back, and surprisingly did not find this too
challenging. The second was at the weekend in the Lake District with David. I
had been a little nervous about this one, knowing how fast he cycles, but he
went at my pace, and we did 55km. The route was cycle friendly, and only had a
couple of really horrible hills. Somehow, through determination, I managed to
get up them both, showing that this is one aspect of the triathlon that I might
succeed at.
Although the distances above might not seem challenging,
having read David’s blog posts, they really are a challenge for me, and I will
be pushing myself to my limits. As well as having to compete in the three
elements, I also have to get my head around transitions, and how to do these
most effectively, saving time when possible. Therefore, please make my efforts worthwhile
and sponsor me at the following link:
