Long Walk

Just walked part of the Olde Peculiar Cricket Walk. Armiatge CC to Kings Bromley CC to Alrewas CC to Barton CC to Dunstall CC. 12 miles in total. Half of it in the pouring rain with sodden boots. Good fun.

Castle Ring

Started at top of Upper Longdon. Managed to jog to the top in 5 intervals and then jogged all the way back none stop. Round trip is around 5200m. Walk tomorrow.

Open Water Swim - Interesting

Well, turned up at Blithfield reservoir on Saturday morning, slipped on wet suit (Orca S3 - Very Good) and proceeded to enter the water for a 1 mile swim around the reservoir. Started off OK expecting to do breast stroke and very quickly started to panic a little as the breathing in a wet suit is totally different to swimming in a pool. Soon relaxed and thought of why I was doing this and at the same time switched to side-stroke which was far more relaxing and still quite quick. Was quite please when finished in a time of 19 minutes, however it wasn't a mile, more like 1100 meters.
All in all very enjoyable and managed to raise £120 for British Heart Foundation.
Good experience prior to the Triathlon, will try and get a few more sessions in before the big day, 31st July 2011.

Trying to Improve

Swam this morning 900m before work. Jogged up to Castle Ring (nearly) doing a bit of interval training. First time got headache. 1 mile swim on Saturday at Blithfield resivior (can't spell).

A Few Days Off Due to the Ukraine

Just spent Tuesday travelling to the Ukraine, consisting of getting up at 2:30am, 2hour drive to Heathrow for a flight to Warsaw at 6:35. Arriving at Warsaw changed to flight to Odessa in the Ukraine arriving at 14:00. Then was driven fro 2.5 hours by taxi to Mykolaiv where we checked into the Metalurg Hotel. Had a meal in the hotel followed by 7 pints of Stella, 2 packets of Pistachio nuts and packet of salted dried squid.
Spent Wednesday at the AB Inbev brewery until about 2pm. Then nothing to do in the afternoon until tea time. Next to no one speaks English and Russian is completely baffleing. Ordered Pizza by pointing. So again after a few beers had to do the return trip back to the UK arriving home at 10pm. Therefore no exercise.

Friday
Went for run, felt good 5.36km in 28minutes 11 seconds.

Just got to keep going!

Sunday - brick training, 20km bike to Hoar Cross and back 45min dead followed by 10 minute jog
Monday 5km jog, 30min 52 sec.
Looking forward to a break in the Ukraine. Here's to getting up at 2:30am.

First Triathlon Looming

Five weeks into training, five weeks to go. Couldn't run half a mile without stopping when started. Can now jog a  full 5 km at 9.2minute / mile rate. Just shows what persistence can achieve. Looking forward to Blithfield, triathlon, 750m open water swim, 20km bike followed by 5km jog. 31st July 2011.