Friday 26th June

Tough turbo session this morning - half an hour flat out. Just a little sweaty now :-)

Thursday 25th June

1400m sea swim tonight with the tri club followed by a McDonalds!

Wili's new pump arrived today - just need to work out how to use it...

Wednesday 24th June

Back at it again - feeling less fatigued today after Liverpool and my horrible cold. 1000m early morning swim in 18.45. Swim helped to clear stiffness from my legs and arms.

Great run tonight with the club - 5.7 miles of hills through Belvoir Forest and Lagan Meadows. 22c and perfect sunny running conditions. Feel fine after a good stretch.

Sunday 21st June

Liverpool Triathlon today - olympic distance. I only decided to actually start at the last minute due to the really bad cold I have had all week. Just took each discipline a stage at a time in case I had to pull out. Got through it - I felt the weakness in my body in the bike and found the four laps quite gruelling. Very cold too. But I managed to finish it in 2hrs 51 which is on a par with Athy as the run was definately not short!!

Really pleased that I gave it a go now - and finished 3rd in my age group. Very good event, well marshalled and organised. I found it less agressive than some of the Irish triathlons that I have done, especially in the swim.

I now need to get rid of this cold and get some serious training in for Antwerp.

Thursday 18th June

Got a rotten cold so training is non-existant this week. Very doubtful for Liverpool tri on Sunday now unless I feel a lot better. I think I am due some good luck for once - not a very good year so far....

Monday 15th June

800m early morning recovery swim - body still tired after Saturday

Saturday 13th June

Crooked Lake Triathlon today - fantastic! Beautiful scenery, 20c sunshine. Swim was slow which I don't understand - think I might have stayed too far out of trouble. T1 was also slow although it was a long way down to my transition point. Storming bike ride though (best one ever - 38minutes) despite some horrible hills. Very hilly run too. Finished in 1hr 25 and second in my age group. Very pleased in general with my performance. I just need to speed up transition and get more agressive in the swim - if I had done that I would have knocked about 3 minutes off my time. Winnings are going to be spent on chardonnay :-)

Thursday 11th June

1400m sea swim tonight

Wednesday 10th June

1000m early morning swim - 19 minutes

8 mile run in 1hr 6.5 minutes

Tuesday 9th June

26 mile cycle tonight - mostly undulating - reasonable conditions.

Monday 8th June

800m early morning swim - very sluggish after another night of no sleep. Head totally messed up and affecting my training.

Sunday 7th June

Feeling a bit tired and under par the last couple of days. Back at it today though with a 52 mile cycle in 3hr 22 minutes. Hilly in parts and windy again today. Very, very tired after it now. Need to get the long cycles built up again. Triathlons getting in the way of training for the 70.3....

Thursday 4th June

1600m sea swim tonight in Strangford Lough - very good apart from the jellyfish :-)

Wednesday 3rd June

7.25 mile run with the club in 1hr 2 mins tonight - bit too fast for the first four miles but ok after that. Legs feeling a bit stiff - need to get back to pilates to get my back stretched out again.

Tuesday 2nd June

21.2 mile in 1hr 18 cycle tonight in warm sunny conditions but a little bit windy. Good enough pace of 16.5 mph to include slow bits. Legs definately getting stronger.

Monday 1st June

1000m early morning recovery swim in 19.28 minutes (according to my new Timex Ironman watch!) Felt strange swimming in a pool again ( I actually prefer open water now) and I can feel the fatigue from Saturday more today than yesterday.

Saturday 30th May

Today I did my first ever Oly at TriAthy. Amazing experience and so well organised in a fantastic little village in Co Kildare. We (1000 competitors) were led in a procession with bag pipers and people carrying flags from the competing countries down to the swim start. Great swim in the river Barrow. 1100m down stream and 400m up stream. This went really well for me (only got clobbered on the head once by tractor woman) until the turning point when I went back up the wrong side of the pontoon into the oncoming swimmers from the next wave. My heart rate went through the roof as I cut across the swimmers on to the right side of the pontoon!

Bit wobbly getting out of the water with a swim time of 27 minutes but a smooth transition and onto the bike for my best ever cycle - 40k in 1hr 23mins. Another good transition and then onto the run. I drank a litre of water on the run itself. Very hot with temp of about 25c at the end. I was so pleased to finish in 2hrs 48mins - way faster than I ever thought I could go Think I am better over an Oly distance than sprint as I seem to have better endurance than speed.

The sprint tri was held in the afternoon, starting at 4pm with about 1500 competitors so it was great to sit in the sun on the banks of the river watching it with a celebratory bottle of prosecco.


The atmosphere in the village was fantastic as was the support. Immediate results at the finish with a little print out of your times. A brilliant day's craic and roll on Liverpool now.