New Horizons

A lot has happened since April. I've now moved to Huntingdon! Yes no more commuting 20 miles. I can start to run in the morning again. I'm close enough to St Neots to join in a lot more of the training exercises with the tri club AND I've got my own personal space to control my diet better. Of course there are some down sides. Most notably I now can't get to the gym in Peterborough without a lengthy trip and the membership rules say I have to give 3 months notice. This means I'm out of pocket unless I head back there on the weekend. Grrr. Also removing the commute has removed my main cycle training. I'm going to have to get out and do "pleasure rides" rather than just getting to work and back. Should be more interesting though.
 I've also completed my first Triathlon in the "St Neots Nicetri Sprint 1" event finishing 8th in a time of 1:15:36 out of 141 competitors.  It was a real leaning experience. I thought I had the transition thing down from the wadenhoe. Nope. I got into the water with my new wetsuit on which is a triathlon specific 2XU T:2 and did a few warm up lengths in the river to get used to the water.When the start blast came I'd gone deliberately to the back of the pack so I didn't get in the way of the faster more experienced guys. I got bumped a few times but mostly because I was catching up with line in front. I got pushed wide on the way back which slowed me down a bit. When it came to getting out of the water I hit a problem. I was really dizzy. I could barely stand. Fortunately Keith had placed two guys on the bank to throw people out. They really had to help me as I was all over the place. I then had trouble in the transition. I could n't get the wetsuit off. I'd practised but the damned left foot wouldn't come out. I cleared transition in a super slow time of 2:56 when everyone else was less then 1:30. If I could have made that same time I would have been challenging for 3rd or 4th place.
 I did well on the bike once I finally got to it. I had competition in the first half with number 126 a chap named Stuart Dickenson. We were having a ding ding battle all the way to the big hill at the halfway point. He had the advantage on me on the flat but he couldn't stick with me on the hills. The big hill knocked him off and I was able to hold him off until the next transition line. Fortunately here I'd got the transition right and had the boots on nice and quick.
 The run wasn't my best. I was feeling the change from bike to run. I managed to lock onto a guy from Stamford Tri and pushed to get past him which got rid of the leg lag. There was a guy in front I was starting to close in on but he had the legs on me and I couldn't get him before the end.