July Training Update

What a month of sport!

First a fantastic achievement by team SKY at the Tour de France. An inspirational win by Bradley Wiggins with fellow Brit Chris Froome in second! The first time the tour has been won by a Brit in it's 108 year history! Brilliant!

Followed up quickly by the start of the 2012 London Olypics and further inspiring performances every day since it's start and another couple of weeks yet to come! :o)

A good month for me too. I started the month achieving my target of getting under that previously elusive target of 3 hours taking over 14.5 minutes off my previous best to finish in 2hours 53mins! Still elated with that performance :o)

Training and fundraising for my next RNLI challenge is also going well.

My Coast to Coast Cycle challenge along the Way of the Roses will take place from the 24th to 26th August 2012. 170miles from Morecambe to Bridlington.

Pledges of £589 received so far with a few weeks to go and corporate dress down days, cake bakes and raffles still to come. Thanks so much everyone for your support to date! Tried a new tack that seems to be working well this year too in shirt sponsors of my tour cycling shirt. Three definite and one 'maybe' corporate sponsors so far and a mock up of how it will look to the left. Two spaces left if any corporate sponsors would like to add their support?

Training summary for July was as follows...

01/07/12 ~ Liverpool Olympic Distance Triathlon ~ A new PB of 2hours 53minutes flat :-)
03/07/12 ~ 1200m swim training session with Crewe Tigers Tri club
04/07/12 ~ 6 mile bike sprint around Sandbach in 19mins 49secs averaging 18.2mph
05/07/12 ~ 1500m Open Water Swim session with Uswim at Boundary water park in 35mins 21secs
10/07/12 ~ 7.5mile bike sprint around Sandbach in 25mins 17 secs avge 17.4mph
14/07/12 ~ 1500m Open Water Swim @ Uswim Salford in 37mins 58secs
               ~ 5mile bike sprint in 17mins 8secs avge 17.7mph
17/07/12 ~ 14mile bike ride in 49mins 18secs avge 17.6mph
19/07/12 ~ 1500m Open Water Swim @ Uswim Salford in 34mins 46secs
22/07/12 ~ 9mile MTB bike slog from Pwllheli to Abersoch in 49mins
25/07/12 ~ 11.7mile bike ride around Sandbach in 41mins 54secs avge 17.6mph
26/07/12 ~ 1500m Open Water Swim @ Uswim Boundary water park in 35mins 51secs
28/07/12 ~ 6.6mile steady run around Pwllheli marina in1 hour 8mins

Liverpool Triathlon ~ Swam it, biked it, ran it, smashed it! ~ 2:53:00

Had a great day at Liverpool Triathlon beating my previous best time for the Olympic distance by 14minutes and 34seconds, achieving my goal for this year of getting under 3 hours... Elated!

Had a trip down to Liverpool on the Saturday to register and a look around the course. The swim course at a 1500m single loop of the Kings Dock looked huge and quite an intimidating distance (even though I swim the distance regularly it's always in 750m loops).

Didn't get a great night sleep the night before feeling slightly wired but the adrenalin buzz paid off by keeping me going, along with the three SiS energy gels along the way! The Aero drinks bottle on the bike also helped!

The swim started in driving drizzle and quite a strong wind. It was cold before getting in but the water at 18'c was good.  

Over 200 people in the swim made for a very frantic, close to brutal swim. I had folk on both shoulders, in front and behind for the first 500m at least. Despite this I felt quite calm on the swim and knew the pace was good. Born out on the exit time of 32mins 34 secs for the 1500m... A new personal best!

Swim to bike transition (covering over 400m) was 4mins 6 secs.

Bike too felt great and another personal best! Four 10km loops along the waterfront managing to keep tucked in the Aero position the majority of the way (except for the slight hill climbs at either end of the loop), averaging 17.7mph over the 40km to finish in 1 hour 22mins :-)

Bike to run transition was 2mins 25sec and total time out of the transition was just over 2 hours leaving me just under an hour to complete the 10km run in order to get under the target 3 hours! I regularly run 10km well within that time but couldn't take anything for granted!

With legs like jelly I stumbled into the 10km run. The first mile felt awful but only took me 8mins 15seconds so I knew if I could just keep up that pace I'd be ok!

Battled shin splints (which I never get) and cramp in my right achilles to finish the 10km in a very satisfying time of 51mins 42sec!

Total time for the Tri was 2hours 53minutes exactly... Never felt so good!

Just as satisfying was raising another £120 for the much needed work of the Isaiah Trust! The donation page remains open for another couple of months so hopefully might be able to add to that total before it closes ~ http://www.justgiving.com/Daves-IsaiahTrust-Triathlon ...

Thanks to everyone for all the support and well wishes... Hugely appreciated!!! :-)