Sickness, More OW swimming and potential bike theft!
Past 2 weeks I have been suffering with stomach pains, wind and...well the sh*ts every now and again so training had come to a halt while I regained my strength back and my appetite to start eating again, the main culprit I think was my little lad, kids are germ factories and once they get a sickness bug....you know your definitely going to get it! So yeah took my hit and got back into my training, still not done any brick training so to speak off so best do a few sessions before Dambuster.
As the weather has been lovely for the past 2 weeks it would of been a shame not to enjoy it in the lakes, so I got my wet suit on and headed down to time how long it would take me to do 1500m....I managed to do it in 42-45mins, which in most peoples eyes is quite crap, but for love nor money I cant do open water sighting! there is no fancy line down the middle to guide you, just the bottom of the lake....until it goes misty. Every time I tried to sight my breathing would go to pot, I loose my rhythm and resort to breast stroke for 3 strokes and then back into freestyle. Not the ideal way to do it, but i guess it will get me through the swim and then I can play catch up on the bike and run. After getting out the lake I noticed I had nicked my wet suit on some branches which I wasn't to happy about, so gotta get some black witch to sort it out ready for the big day!
After work I decided to swing by my parents to pick up a few bits and bobs they had bought for me, so with it being a fly by visit, I rode up the path, put my bike to the side, opened the door and greeted my parents I started to load up my bag...while with the door slightly closed my mum noticed a figure coming up the garden path, I opened the door to see some low life making off with my bike!!! I sprinted after them and managed to to jump and get the guy into a headlock and pull him down, but with the bike falling on top of me, this enabled to guy to get off and make a run for it. Im glad I cycle in the top gear all the time as it didn't give him enough time to build up some speed....Also im glad it was my Mountain bike and not my Tri-Bike! My parents was quite impressed how quick I shot off after him and managed to pull some 6ft-er off my bike, must be all the training I guess ;-).
One more thing, I managed to get a hold of an Aero Profile drinks system for my bike so ill be giving that a trial over the weekend and see how I get on with using Gels on the bike, this is prob going to get messy!
As the weather has been lovely for the past 2 weeks it would of been a shame not to enjoy it in the lakes, so I got my wet suit on and headed down to time how long it would take me to do 1500m....I managed to do it in 42-45mins, which in most peoples eyes is quite crap, but for love nor money I cant do open water sighting! there is no fancy line down the middle to guide you, just the bottom of the lake....until it goes misty. Every time I tried to sight my breathing would go to pot, I loose my rhythm and resort to breast stroke for 3 strokes and then back into freestyle. Not the ideal way to do it, but i guess it will get me through the swim and then I can play catch up on the bike and run. After getting out the lake I noticed I had nicked my wet suit on some branches which I wasn't to happy about, so gotta get some black witch to sort it out ready for the big day!
After work I decided to swing by my parents to pick up a few bits and bobs they had bought for me, so with it being a fly by visit, I rode up the path, put my bike to the side, opened the door and greeted my parents I started to load up my bag...while with the door slightly closed my mum noticed a figure coming up the garden path, I opened the door to see some low life making off with my bike!!! I sprinted after them and managed to to jump and get the guy into a headlock and pull him down, but with the bike falling on top of me, this enabled to guy to get off and make a run for it. Im glad I cycle in the top gear all the time as it didn't give him enough time to build up some speed....Also im glad it was my Mountain bike and not my Tri-Bike! My parents was quite impressed how quick I shot off after him and managed to pull some 6ft-er off my bike, must be all the training I guess ;-).
One more thing, I managed to get a hold of an Aero Profile drinks system for my bike so ill be giving that a trial over the weekend and see how I get on with using Gels on the bike, this is prob going to get messy!
Sounds like your open water swimming is heading in the right direction Andy (not literally with the sighting issue ; ) ) At least you are getting time in the water, i can't even find a venue which fits in with my shifts which is very frustrating!! At this rate Dambuster will be my first full on OW swim : (
ReplyDeleteDam, sorry to hear that dude, hope you do get some time in the water with your wet suit, it makes alot of difference with its buoyancy...anyhow im sure you will beat me out the water no probs lol, im aiming for less than 40mins haha.
ReplyDeleteRe sighting; try to navigate by big objects if possible. Have a look and rather than trying to sight on a bouy (even the big ones are hard to spot when a few hundred metres away) try to sight on something like a pylon, distinctive tree, anything that is in the same vicinity as the buoy you're aiming for but larger. HTH.
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