Plans for 2016...

Me again. Sorry.

So, a quick around up of this year so far....its been windy and wet and not really the sort of time you want to spend out on your bike, but out I must go...but only three times this month totaling less than 30 miles! As the boss is away tomorrow and Friday, it is my intention to go out and do some miles...while the cat is away, the mouse will play!

I wonder, does 20 minutes on the turbo last Friday count? I hate the turbo but when its raining, its a way of getting some miles in I suppose.

Anyway, what other things have I been up to? Well, I went swimming.... and yes, I do swim...poorly! Looking back on my records, my last trip to the swimming pool was in Feb 2014 when I managed 1100m in around 50 mins. No, not fast I will agree. On my first trip back to the pool I managed only 400m but have been three times more doing 800m in 36 mins, the same distance in 34 and 750m in around 32mins: so overall I am getting faster. However, my times are still slow and risk me being overtaken by non swimmers!

To this end, I have signed up for some coaching on a Friday night down at Penkridge Leisure Centre. Well, it was interesting to hear the Coach Carols comments on my ability to swim..... actually it wasn't as she said that while I can make progress in the water, I can't actually swim! It seems my breast stroke arms are all wrong whilst for some strange reason, I seem to be doing a butterfly kick instead of a whip kick (and no, not wimp kick as I just wrote!). Well I went to Stafford pool this afternoon...they have an over 50's session I could attend being, er, over 50 (indeed, I was the youngest there!) and whilst my arm pull is better, I completely failed to understand how to do the kick! Youtube is your friend so I am going to try again tomorrow/Thursday morning in the new swimming shorts I brought earlier.... and no, I didn't buy a "g" string pair! Hopefully, with a bit of practice I will be able to get my 800m breast stroke time down to under 25mins.

What else....well as you may remember from my last post, I mentioned something about running. Well, come March I am planning to join Stafford Harriers in order to learn to run. Back in the day, I used to hate running but was pretty quick over 100 and 200m. Anything beyond that, or down to Tottenham locks (we used to get set to run there and back during the school gym period!) and back I tended to avoid like the plague.

So, why the sudden interesting in running? Could it be for all the nice new shiny kit I could buy like a Garmin Forerunner 920xt....only £250......nice, or as its better running in the cold and wet than it is cycling? Nope, I would like to get fitter and this is a way of doing so. It also opens up opportunities for me to take part in events such as the Gnosall 10k run, or the Ironbridge 4miles. Perhaps in 2017 I might be fit enough to do the Stafford half but then again, do I really fancy running for 13 miles around the mean streets of Stafford? No, not really.

Thinking about it...... I suppose I could add swimming, cycling and running together as one sport? Hummmm..... going back to cycling, I have a few plans for events to do. I think I will do the Katherine House 45 mile ride which comes up in early summer. I've done it once before and it's not a bad ride and it is for a good cause. I would also like to do the Great Manchester ride which is on closed roads: you don't get to use closed roads that often in the UK and perhaps the Manchester to Blackpool ride...well its one of the "big 3" along with London to Brighton and London to Sunny Southend!

As to swimming....don't laugh at the back but I have brought a wet suit in medium....... yes, I know its going to be a right struggle to lose enough weight to get into it (about another 20kg) but if you don't set yourself a target, what is the point? To make use of the wet suit I am planning to go to the lake near Whitchurch to do some open water swimming and then....if I get fast enough, I would like to do the half mile swim which forms part of the Great North swim held in June in Lake Windermere. I know I can do the distance in a pool but in a lake, in the early summer with several hundred others? Hummmmm......

Where is this all going I hear you ask? Well, if you add swimming, cycling and running together you get, er, Triathlon. Yes, that's right, I am considering signing up to do a tri! And No, not as CBH thought, an Ironman but a "simple" Sprint or Super Sprint event. That means, for the shorter super sprint, 400m swim, 10km cycle ride and 2.5km run. The sprint is twice as far.  Having looked at possible events (blimey they are expensive!) there is an open water event in Liverpool in August I quite fancy, or a month later a pool based event in Derby. I'll make my mind up closer to the event.

So, I have started training for them...well I have started reading books on doing triathlons....surely that counts as training? I suppose I will make it up as I go along whilst if I do enter one, if I finish last at least I finished and to me, that's all that's important, given that I would not even have thought I would have been able to do so six months ago.

Right, that's enough from me right now. More when I get around to it.