The photo this time is me following winning The Wensleydale Triathlon in 2006. Jo and I recced the course last Saturday and boy oh boy is it tough. The organisers seemed quite pleased I was doing it as it meant the two winners would come head to head. Not sure I’m in the shape (yet) to reproduce those winning ways but we will see.

See the cut up knee … thats as a result of running scared on the way down. I was in the lead and had seen a pretty serious fell runner coming up so I was sure I was getting caught. Probably one of the quickest descents I’ve done !

I’m continuing to lack motivation but when I do get out I’m feeling strong across all disciplines. I’ve managed a 5.23 400m free in the middle of a main set. This year I’ve done two 400m time trials both were 5.19. I feel my swimming is coming on in leaps and bounds and this proves it. Getting 33.5km of swimming done whilst up in North Yorkshire certainly helped. On the bike I’ve been flying along – in North Yorkshire I’ve managed some of the fastest rides I’ve done in a long time. My main session last week was 3 x 20 mins at IM pace with 5 mins rest (I reduced this from the planned 10 minutes) followed by 6 x 10 mins IM pace with 5 mins rest. I decided to ride a straight line route out along Swaledale – this was with a tail wind and slightly uphill. I was surprised to get to the end of the Dale with 2 reps left. This gave the great chance to do them up hill – one up the hill to Keld and the final up Buttertubs. Must have been funny to any observer as I powered up the hill, going strong and then about 100m from the top, as my 10 mins were up, I just stopped turned round and headed down! I felt so good I turned around and after something to eat pushed the pace all the way home into the headwind. Ended up completing the 100 miles in just over 5h20 which included a warm up and all the 5 mins easy ! Well pleased.

As for running – I started last week at my mums feeling pretty heavy but forced myself into the hills early in the week. This did me good and I’ve been piling on the mileage since and feeling good for it.

This week was meant to build on the week in North Yorkshire and has gone pretty well other than Wednesday where I just couldn’t get myself up and about – a hard day on Tuesday and the weather being so hot just made me so lethargic. I had thought of making up for it today but (I hope wisely) decided that I should just not worry about it and get rested up. The missed session was just steady riding and it’s more important for me to get a good bike session in on Sunday. I worry about the numbers though and it means that this week is unlikely to be bigger than last. Just writing that makes it sounds stupid to worry about !! There… this blog is worth something.