Party Time & Bfitday Tri.

Saturday night was the NDTC Christmas Party and presentation night. In my role as club geek I've written a blog post for them here.

Monday 15th was my 39th birthday, hard to believe I know ;-) so on Sunday I made it my aim to complete a bfitbday triathlon. The tale of torture is below, sorry there are no pretty pics.

The day started at 6:30am with a restless dog throwing her toys around the house to wake me up after just 3.5hrs sleep. After a cuppa and some breakfast I made my way down to the pool for 9am when those club members who hadn’t consumed too much alcohol at the previous nights party (not many) were there for a squad swim session. My original plan was to park myself in a lane by the side of them and bang out 5k but I wasn’t really feeling ‘with it’ so thought I’d swim their session with them and tack whatever was needed onto the end. I’d already missed some of the warm up so I just slipped into the water and joined in. 1500m later the group started their warm down so I swopped lanes and continued the swim alone. I only managed another 1000m and I’d had enough, this was a real bad sign because I love my swimming and if I’m getting fed up in the water then the bike and run stand little hope. I decided that enough was enough, got out of the pool and headed to the changing rooms then just as I was about to hit the shower the club coach appeared in his swim gear. He said he was going to join me for a quick 40 lengths. My arm had been twisted and I decided to give it another go. I hit the pool again and literally swam drafting the coach while he swam 1000m in 16mins. With that out of the way the majority of the swim was covered and I decided to push on completing the next 1500m in 22:30. The 5k swim was finally over 1h45m after first getting in the water.

I drove home and thought about the rest of the day. Feeling a little better I dragged my bike out of the shed for the 2nd time in 2 days and the 2nd time since IM Florida on 1st November. I’d got a route lined up which I’ve done hundreds of times before without any problem. I knew I didn’t need fuel as I never do, but I mixed a bottle of Nuun because I was probably de-hydrated after partying and swimming. Out on the bike there was no rush, 5miles, 10miles, 20miles went by without any problem but then disaster struck. At 30miles my body felt as though it was draining of all energy, this couldn’t be right. I could stop off at a shop for supplies but being only 10miles from home it wasn’t really worth it. That 10miles was a long long way, damn I was struggling. Finally I made it home after 2h10m at 18mph. I walked through the door grabbed an energy bar made myself a jacket spud and crashed out on the bed for an hour totally spent.

The afternoon ticked on, darkness came and I started having real doubts about my ability to run 9miles on this day. Finally I got my act together and changed into my running gear. I’d got to pop something to a friends house in the village so I decided that I could run there and then zigzag around the local streets building my way towards my 9mile target, so off I went. It wasn’t pretty and there were plenty of times when I just wanted to stop and walk, but finally....... after 1h07m...... I staggered back into the house Florida it seemed impossible to think I’d struggle so much and mentally it was every bit as tough to complete as the Ironman.

Now I’m happy though. At least it means I haven’t got to go out and do it this coming weekend because I’d failed................ phew.