It will work great with my Canon 40D which is a digital SLR. I have always had an interest in photography and did a photography course in Italy last October. Plus I would like to get more into food photography, so I can make better photographs for my cooking site GetMeCooking.

The flash can be used on the body of the camera and can also be used as a remote flash, so I can use it as a slave flash, to get rid of harsh shadows when shooting food. I am thinking of getting some light diffusers to go over the flash and also maybe turn my dining area into a mini food studio. I plan to photograph the recipes I make ‘on the go’ with my camera, only making a really good photograph for the end result. Taking really good photographs while cooking is too time consuming so isn’t really practical.

Speedlite 580EX II Specifications

Canon ‘Flash Work’ document – as you can see from this document, there is a lot to learn!

Canon Speedlite 580EX II

Plus I got a Feedback Sports, Pro-Elite Bicycle Repair Stand, which will make it so much easier to work on both my road bike and my mountain bike! Just as well as I have already entered the 2010 Questars series of 4 races with Dave and I will also enter some Triathlons this year. Plus lots of training!

Feedback Sports Pro-Elite Bicycle Repair Stand

Plus I got a few other things such as mountain bike specific socks, CO2 based type pump and some travel books on Nice.

I wish I hadn’t been given so much chocolate and biscuits. After losing a few Kg’s recently, I think I’ve put it back on again – I’m afraid to jump onto the scales! Time to crash diet again…

Getting there:

I shot up the M1, then got stuck behind a police van on the M6, doing just under 80mph for ages. Some people overtook it slowly, but I wasn’t going to as I have been pulled over for speeding a few times and it is annoying – not the getting done for speeding bit, but the stupid talk they give you before they either give you the ticket or let you off. Eventually they slowed to 70mph, so I crawled past them until they were a speck in my rear view mirror, then I hit the accelerator.

Once in Birmingham I was expecting to see signs for the Half Marathon but there weren’t any. The website wasn’t very clear on where the start was and my sat-nav was having an off-day (thought it was in Spain – has never done that before!) so I drove around for 40 minutes before stopping to ask a race marshal I saw. He wasn’t sure where the start was, but said I should park my car where I was and then walk from there as it was just a short walk.

So I parked my car (in a slightly dodgy looking part of Birmingham), wrote down the name of the road, marked the location on my GPS watch and then walked into the centre of the city. On my way there I asked a few marshals I saw if they new exactly where the start was – and they didn’t know! The short walk ended up being a 25 minute walk+jog. I eventually found the start of the race but I was sweating by the time I got there!

Baggage:

I then looked around for the baggage area but couldn’t see any signs for it, so I asked some marshals but they didn’t know <sigh>. So I asked a competitor and she told me where it was – a 5 minute walk away! The was really bad… Once I got there, there was a long queue and I was a little apprehensive because it was due to close in 5 minutes time. Luckily though the queue went down really quickly and there was no queue for the actual baggage drop-off.

Comfort stop:

Before a race it is always a good idea to visit a toilet, so on the walk from the baggage area to the start line I looked for one. All of the toilets in the buildings had really long queues so I went outside and found a long row of portaloos with slightly shorter queues. After queuing for 7 minutes I got in and used one; luckily I didn’t need a number 2 as there was no paper!

Racing line:

The start line was really disorganised. As this was my 3rd Half Marathon I knew what to expect, but many people didn’t. The organisers had given every runner a bib with a number and a colour. The colour related to the runners expected race time. On the start area there were coloured balloons which related to runners bib colours and runners were supposed to stand behind the balloons, but many people didn’t know this, which meant that there were a lot of slow people at the front of the race, which slowed everyone else down.

Dame Kelly Holmes was on the starting line giving people high-fives, so I queued up and high-fived her before stepping over the start line

The start:

With a lot of slow runners around in front of me and narrow roads, the first few miles were very slow.

Despite that I was feeling surprisingly good given my lack of training and poor diet recently.

The middle:

Half way in I was still doing okay but my lack of training was starting to show. Plus the course seemed to be mostly flat or uphill with no long downhill sections to rest on. In the 3rd section of the race my pace dropped off quite a bit, I was conscious of jogging up and down but not much forward motion – I was getting tired due to lack of training.

The end:

The last 2-3 miles were all uphill and the last 2 miles especially were quite steep. However I managed to pass a couple of people at the end on a (very slow) ‘sprint’ finish.

Here is my GPS output from the race.

After the race:

After crossing the line I found it quite hard to walk (harder than other races), I think it was because the last 2 miles were uphill and hard going. Then there was quite a long walk along a fenced corridor where:

• One person gave me a medal
• Another person gave me a keyring
• Some runners had been given goody bags, but most had not. This was confusion. I actually walked back a bit (against the flow of runners walking towards me) to try to find someone handing out the bags, but I quickly gave up
  
• Then there were people at the side who were giving out various sized t-shirts (only a few of them were shouting out which sizes they were giving out, so that was confusing and caused runners to bunch up on those people)
• Then there was a queue of runners waiting to receive a ‘goody bag’ (I walked past the queue and found helpers giving out the same goody bags – but no queues)

Instead of all that, there should have been a stand of helpers giving out bags whcih contained various sized t-shirts. That would have sped things up, prevented any confusion and would have required fewer helpers

People walking to the baggage area

Once I had all my goodies, I walked (slowly and painfully) to the baggage area where I opted for a free massage. They had around 20 tables set up with 2 people table. The people giving the sports massages were from a local college which was a good idea. After a 10 minute queue I lay head-down on the table and got a leg massage which lasted about 5 minutes. After which my legs actually felt much better – far less stiff and sore.

Then I collected my bag, put on my shirt and trousers and made my way back to the start line to see what was going on.

Castle Fine Art Shop

On my way there I saw a fine art shop so I popped into there for a look around.

Drum Band

Then I looked around the main area where they just had a drum band – I took some videos: Video 1 and video 2.

Water Fountain

After that, I used my GPS watch to find my way back to my car – 30 minute walk As I was counting that all of the wheels and windows were still in place, a young girl cycled up to me and asked if I had won the race. I replied “Not this time…”.

Hometime:

I jumped into my car, turned my sat-nav on (which was now working fine – typical!) and headed home, only to be confronted with traffic.

Stuck in Traffic

I was on the same short stretch of road for half an hour, so I got bored and made this video.

Overall:

Although I was 9 minutes slower than last year, I am quite happy with the time I did (1:48) because most of the course was uphill, I hadn’t had a chance to do any training for it, I had recently been to Italy where I ate far too much and my knees had been hurting (and did hurt during the race).

The only downsides to the day were the very poor organisation – the event wasn’t signposted, poor information on the website, the marshals didn’t know anything and the baggage area was not signposted.

I got up at 0615, left my house at 0635 and got to the school at Roade at 0650. I thought I would be one of the first competitors there but actually the car park was already pretty full! The air was very cold and there were patches of fog, but it was dry and there was no wind, so conditions looked good.

Roade Sprint Triathlon - 0700 hrs

I registered, then walked back to my car to fetch my bike and kit, then set it all out in the transition area. Then I saw my parents who were there to see me compete for the first time. I also saw a couple of people from Team MK and Brian from work.

By 0800 the sun had come out, the fog had disappeared and it was feeling quite warm – very good racing conditions.

Swim:

At 0815 I entered the pool area and sat with 3 other competitors who would be starting at the same time as me. I think they have 3 people in each of the 4 swimming lanes at the same time. One of the marshals have us each a chip to wear around our ankles and some instructions for the swim. We were to do 18 laps.

When it was my turn (along with the other 3 people starting at the same time as me), I jumped into the pool (which was warm). Then I was given a 1 minute, then a 30 second notice – then we were off… The first 25m went okay, I was breathing on every 4th stroke (on my left side), but I quickly got tired so began to breathe on every 2nd stroke. Then I got really tired and tried not putting my head under the water, I had to stand up a few times, etc. Half of the lane was really shallow, which actually made it hard to do breast stroke because my legs kept hitting the floor.

Plus it was hard to keep track of the lengths. I think I got it right though (I was counting every 2 laps, i.e. up to 9). So on my 9th lap I looked over to another lane where I saw someone who had set off at the same time as me stop (I wasted about 10-15 seconds doing this). That was confirmation enough for me, so I got out and ran towards the transition area.

Bike:

My hands just weren’t working properly after the swim, so it was hard to put my race belt and helmet on; but once on I ran with the bike to the bike out area.

After crossing the bike lane, I got on my bike and tried to slip my feet into my shoes – which wasn’t easy. Nor was it quick or easy to put them on. I wasted at least 1 minute trying to put them on, while slowly cycling along the road. I really need to get some Triathlon cycle shoes.

The first few km’s were hard because I was recovering from the swimming (poor swimming technique meant that I had worn myself out too much) but after that I got into it okay. Once going I saw 1 rider about 100m in front of me – very distant, so I tried to catch him up slowly. I was catching him up slowly but then he stopped to talk to a marshal, I don’t know why because he looked like a good competitor and wasn’t in any trouble.

Then I proceeded onto Stoke Bruene where I went a little too fast over a small bridge which is followed by a sharp left. I couldn’t stop (left a skid mark with my rear tyre) and ended up in the other lane, which had a large Land Rover in it, heading towards me! So I went around the right of that and carried on. Going through Roade there was some traffic, but nothing that slowed me down too much.

I was feeling better on the 2nd lap, however I had to slow to a crawl on a few occasions because of traffic (cars) and horses.

During the bike stage I overtook quite a few people and was not overtaken at all.

At the end of the bike stage I dismounted, took off my shoes and ran to the transition point. The bike racks were not numbered on this end, so I went to the wrong rack which cost me some time. Once I had found my place, I racked my bike and put on my running shoes.

Run:

This started badly as I assumed that the run out section would be near the bike out section (as both exited the same school gate), so I ran towards that. However I then realised that the run out section was on the opposite corner of the field, so I lost some time there.

I had thought that the course was going to be at least half off-road, so I had bought my trail shoes, however it was mostly on-road. Another thing to put on my shopping list is a pair of Triathlon running shoes with a quick-lace system.

I found the first few km’s quite tough, I didn’t really get into a good long stride or breathing pattern for the whole running section (just lack of practice recently do to doing the 3 Peaks training and lack of running training), I even walked in some places which I didn’t in my previous Triathlon (or in the half marathons I have done!). However I still managed a good sprint finish which got a good response from the crowd who clapped for me

Also at the finish, the 2 commentators said my name and said that I was from Team MK. They also said some other things (like well done, good finish, etc.) but I wasn’t really listening.

During the run stage I overtook a few people and was only overtaken once.

Then I gave my chip to the marshalls and grabbed some water and banana.

Result:

I finished in around 1:20. I will post my official times here when I get them.

Overall:

I think that looking for confirmation of swum laps, traffic, poor transitions, getting lost in the transition area (looking for bike rack and looking for run out) and putting bike shoes on cost me around 5 minutes.

My swimming is rubbish, with some training I should be able to be at least 5 minutes faster.

My running should have been ~3 minutes faster, I have just been out of practice recently.

My cycling was okay. More practice will bring the times down. Being a Techie and into new gadgets and new kit, I’m sure I can get Nathan to persuade me to buy some new kit next year.

My transitions were not good. next time I will note where the biking and running out points are as well as keep a mental note of where my rack is.

I need to buy a pair of Triathlon cycling shoes and a pair of Triathlon running shoes – I will get these next year. I should also but a road cycling helmet (I am currently using my mountain bike helmet).

I think a time of close to 1 hour would be achievable for me next year – after I have had some swimming lessons and get serious(ish) on the training. If I could give up cakes and chocolate that would be a real boost (or I might just buy a lighter bike instead – same diff right?).

I am looking forward to going on holiday in Italy next week. It will be the first time I have gone away to do something relaxing (for the body at least, maybe not the mind) in years!

The upside is that due to puncture issues on the biking stages, we weren’t going to win any trophies, so it doesn’t really matter.

I had forgotten to take my Camelbak with me (I’d left it at home) and it was all prepared with 3 litres of water (with Go powder mix), bike tools, pump, inner-tube, first aid kit, whistle, energy gels, etc. Luckily they always sell bags with bladders at events, so £80 later I had a new bag and 3 litre bladder, I was confident(ish) that as I had tubeless tyres, I wouldn’t need an inner-tube, pump or the bike tools.

The race didn’t quite go as planned as Steve left something in the car so he had to rush back and get it, so we wasted a few minutes at the start. Then we had to queue for a few minutes at the kayak stage (our first stage) while a few teams in front of us slowly put their kayaks into the canal. As we paddled our way along the canal, we were looking out for the checkpoints. We couldn’t see the first one, so we kept paddling as fast as our paddles would take us and took the next few. With 1 more to get along this route Steve wanted to go for it, but I objected thinking that it was a bad idea – maybe my experience of Dave and I going stretching ourselves in a kayaking stage in a previous race had taught me a lesson; so we turned around and headed back to the start of the kayaing section. This turned out to be the correct decision because we didn’t have too much time left once we had reached the end of the kayaking stage.

On the way back we kept a look out for the first checkpoint which we had missed on the way out but again we couldn’t see it so Steve wanted to turn around and look for it again. I objected to this too and thought that it would be better for us to just carry on and use the time later on in the race – this proved to be the correct decision because as we reached the end of the kayaking course, the marshal told us that the first checkpoint was missing!

Apart from being held up at the beginning, we were quite happy with the kayaking stage, we progressed onto the running stage (we decided to do the running stage before the mountain biking stage). My new rucksack wasn’t as comfortable at the Camelback as it jiggled around quite a bit and an hour into the running section it was really rubbing against my right shoulder, but I wasn’t going to let that bother me too much, I tried to put it out of my mind. Overall the running sections went okay – despite us getting a bit lost a  couple of times and having to roll under electric fences (something that happened in our last race too!).

Then we jumped onto our bikes and tackled the mountain bike course. The ground was mostly dry and it was a nice day so the weather conditions were not a factor this time (unlike in the New Forest race where we had virtually every type of weather Blighty could throw at us!). The only issue we had was the issue that had plagued us in this whole series (races 1 and 2) – punctures! In race 1 I got 2 punctures (which then prompted me to get Specialized tubeless wheels and tyres) and in race 2 Steve got 3 punctures. In this race, Steve got… well he got at least 1 puncture, 1 split valve and lots of valve issues which meant that his rear tyre was never really inflated and was always losing air. So the cycling section didn’t go too well and we ended up at the finish about 2 minutes over out 6 hour time (which cost us a few penalty points).

If it wasn’t for the puncture problems I think we would have done okay, but as it was we ended up near the bottom of the score-board. Oh well…

As stated in my previous posts, by way of winning a prize in a competition, I got free entry into the For Goodness Shakes! Sponsored Sprint Triathlon (750m swimming, 20km cycling, 5km running) at Dorney Lake, Eton with less than 2 weeks notice!

I read the letter carefully which stated that registration would open at 07:30, the races will start at 10:30 and competitors should get there 2 hours before the race (i.e. 08:30). So I got up at 06:30 (after going to bed at 12:30 that morning), had some porridge, loaded all of my gear into my car (and the bike on the back) and set off at 07:30.

At 08:08 I arrived on-site to see a couple of traffic attendants and an empty field. There was 1 other car in front of me but he clearly wasn’t a competitor as he didn’t have a bike. We parked up alongside each other and I asked the parking attendant if I was the first competitor and he confirmed that I was. The person in the other car was just a spectator. The parking attendant then told me that the race start was 800m away. So I had to put my relatively large plastic crate 9containing all my gear) on top of my handlebars and awkwardly walk with the bike to the main area.

There I was presented with a registration tent that was closed until 09:00, some marshals complaining about how disorganised the set-up was (e.g. transition area barriers) and an empty transition area.

Empty transition area

Trade tent being set up

At 09:00 I registered (I think I was the first person to register) then I walked over to my bike which I had leant on the railings by the transition area. I then got talking to some friendly marshals. I told them it was my first time and they all gave me lots of really helpful advice – most of them competed too. Then another competitor came over and it was his first time too – it was good to meet someone else who didn’t know what to expect either!

Dorney Lake boat house and viewing balcony

After watching some competitors set their bikes up in the transition area, I decided to set mine up too. How does this look?:

Paul's bike in the transition area

Note – next time I will put the bike facing the other way to the other bikes around me (although it made no difference in this instance as I wasn’t elbowing for space in the transition area).

I was still nervous about the 750m swim which was going to be out to a yellow buoy, then right to a yellow buoy, then right again and onto land.

View of Dorney Lake from the transition area

There were going to be 4 waves (groups) of competitors, starting from 10:30. I was in wave 3 which started at 11:30.

Before the start I got kitted out. I put on my Tri-suit (which I had bought the day before)

Tri-suit

and waited until the last minute to put on the wetsuit (as it was a really hot day).

Then the time came. At 11:20 I got into the water with about 60 other people in my wave (age 30-34). Then the bit I hadn’t counted on – we had to stay afloat in the water (treading water) for 10 minutes while listening to a safety briefing! I managed to doggy-paddle to the side and hold onto the pier, but even that wasn’t easy because due to the buoyancy of the wetsuit, my legs wanted to go under the pier instead of stay beneath me! Plus I was right at the front of the pack which is not a great place to be – although I did keep out of the way at the start so didn’t get kicked and slapped too much.

Once the starting horn went we were all off and it was immediately obvious that I was in trouble with the swimming. For some reason I was finding it hard to breathe, plus I wasn’t used to swimming in a reed infested lake! So I gave up on the front crawl after about 30m and did the rest using backstroke, a little breaststroke and some other made up swimming methods. The problem with swimming backstroke is that you can’t see where you are swimming, so I was zig-zagging a lot. At one point I was even swimming back towards the start Plus I swam into the 2nd buoy which wasn’t good. I need lessons!

Once I eventually got out of the water (I wasn’t the last, but one of the last) I went into the transition area, took off my wetsuit, swimming hat, goggles and grabbed my bike. That part of the transition went okay. Then I crossed the white line leading out of the transition area and tried to put my feet into my shoes (which were clipped into my bike). I hadn’t practiced this before and it didn’t go so well, so I was forced to stop, remove the shoes from the bike, put on my shoes and then get on the bike. Once on the bike I was happy and I went for it, passing lots of people (and also getting passed by people on nice looking bikes!).

The biking circuit was 4 laps around the lake (each lap was 5km). It was fairly flat and quite an easy ride although one side of it was very exposed to wind which made it a little tough. I was in 16th/17th gear most of the time. At one point a girl rode past me and then stayed not too far in front, so that motivated me to overtake her. As I tried to overtake, she sped up and we were neck-a-neck for about 2km until she eventually backed off and I powered on and left her for dust

After the 4 laps, I parked my bike in the transition area and put on my running shoes – which I should have loosened more as they were a bit hard to put on. I also need to get some clever shoe laces that you just pull instead of manually tie. Then I proceeded to do the 5km run at what I thought wasn’t too fast a pace, although I was overtaking a lot of people and only a few overtook me. It was really hot so I slowed down for the 2 water points to get a gulp of water and pour some over my head (I didn’t see anybody else pour water on themselves so maybe I looked a bit silly doing it, but it helped with the heat!).

At the end of the 5km a marshal hosed me down with cool water – which was nice, then I collected a For Goodness Shakes! milkshake and t-shirt, chatted with a few competitors, then packed up and left. After driving 5 miles I realised that I had left my phone behind, so I went back to get it – luckily it was where I had left it Then as I made my way back to the car park a girl (another competitor) asked me how to cycle to the train station. Although I had TomTom on my phone, as I was in a big field it couldn’t precisely show me where I was, so being a gentleman I gave her (and her bike) a lift to the train station which was 6 miles away. That was nice as I got to see a glimpse of Windsor Castle and the nearby villages.

My timings were:

• Swim: 28:11 (most people did it in 20 or less). I did backstroke the whole way. I tried doing front crawl but I couldn’t breathe properly. Because I was on my back I couldn’t see where I was going, so I kept zig-zagging – and was even swimming back to the start at one point which wasn’t good lol
• T1: 1:01 (plus an additional 45 secs or so I took when I was out of the transition area, trying to put my shoes on!)
• Cycle: 41:25 (not too bad)
• T2: 2:04 (I must make my shoes easier to get into next time!)
• Run: 23:16 (faster than most other other people! It felt slow to me. I’m really surprised! I even slowed to a walk twice at the 2 water stations!)

Transitions are easy to improve upon – and I hope the swimming will be too…

My positions were 313/360 overall and 58/62 in my class (age 30-34). So not very good really. If my swimming was 8 mins faster I would have been about 230th.

Full results here.

Although my swimming was rubbish, I had a really good day, met some nice people and am keen to do more!

So I have been swimming in the Stantonbury 25m swimming pool on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and discovered that I’m not a great swimmer. In fact I only managed to achieve 47m without stopping. With the race being 750m that means that I need to do an additional 703m on race day… Eeeeeeeeeeeek!!! Am I a bit nervous about it? You bet. Do I think this is a silly idea? Absolutely. But I don’t like to back down to a challenge, so I’m going for it.

I was going to hold out and get a Team MK Tri-suit. there might be new ones out in a few weeks (possibly new sponsors), so I didn’t want to buy one now, but instead I thought that I’d look a bit silly in cycling shorts and t-shirt if everyone else was wearing a Tri-suit, so today I bought an Orca 226 Triathlon Race Suit for £80.10.

So far this ‘free’ Triathlon has cost me over £450 in new equipment!

Despite a healthy diet of steak and vegetables for the past few weeks, I haven’t lost any weight, although I have gained a bit of muscle. Maybe it will help me.

I haven’t worn my wetsuit in the water yet, haven’t swum in over 2 years (excluding 3 sessions this week), only got a road bike 4 weeks ago and haven’t run a 5km race before, so I am really under-prepared. Oh well, it will be an experience

I’ll leave home at 0700. As it’s 0003 now, I’d better go to bed!

Me: Fantastic!

Reading on: The prize is free entry into a Triathlon

Me: That’s good I want to enter a Triathlon

Reading on: It’s a Sprint Triathlon – 750m swimming (in a  lake), 20km cycling, 5km running)

Me: Eek 750m sounds like a long swim and I haven’t swum in 2 years

Reading on: It’s a week next Sunday (28th) at Dorney Lake, Eton

Me: Whaaaaaaaaat!!!

So I asked Nathan if he thought it would be a good idea for me to enter and he said I should give it a try (note to self, ask someone else next time).

My thoughts are:

• I haven’t swum in over 2 years and I have never swum  a long distance before
• I only got a road bike 3 weeks ago so although i can do 20km, I’m probably not going to be very competitive
• I can run 5km before, but I have never raced that distance (I have done 2 half marathons) so i don’t know how to pace myself
• I haven’t had any time to train for it – Monday (tomorrow) needs to be my last training day else I’ll be weak on race day
• I don’t like to back away from a challenge, so I’m going to do it!!!

On Friday lunchtime I went to John Lewis and tried on some swimming goggles. I don’t know if I still had impression marks around my eyes when I went to pay for them, but it’s likely that I did…

Then yesterday, after working from 6am – 9am, cycling with Team MK from 9.30am – 1pm) and working from 1pm – 3pm I bought myself a wetsuit (my first one). I tried 2 sized of 2XU Elite on at Phil Corley Cycles. Then I tried 2 versions of the Orca at Twenty 3c (nice shop and very good customer service). In the end I bought the Orca 3.8. The first time I get to try it will be on the race itself!

Orca 3.8 Wetsuit

I went for a swim at Stantonbury Campus today – they have a decent 25m swimming pool (£3.50 to get in though which I think is a little expensive). Anyway, I got in, did a length and immediately realised that to do the equivalent of another 29 lengths wasn’t going to be a) quick or b) easy. I swam for over an hour (I probably rested more than I swam) in a fairly busy pool – I hope on the race day there aren’t people wading and swimming in front of me. The hardest thing about the swimming was getting the breathing right – I kept ending up with mouthfuls of water instead of oxygen.

I’ll go for a swim again on Monday after work – and then maybe Tuesday, but certainly no more after that.

Pasta, chicken and all other manner of carbs are on the menu for this week

So I was a little bix anxious about the 35 – 40 mile ride with Team Milton Keynes that I was going to do the following day. However I turned up (at 0930 <yawn>), met some great people and had a really good time – despite it raining pretty much the whole time! We rode around 37 mile, stopping once at a cafe in Wilmslow (hot chocolate and toasted teacake – yum!). I can see this being a weekly thing.

I should point out Team MK runs 3 groups on the Saturday road cycles – ‘steady’, medium and fast. I went with the steady group as it was my first time and found myself struggling a little (in particular after we had sat in the cafe for 45 mins and had to tackle a couple of big hills) so I will stick with the steady group for at least a few more times! Here is the route we did.

I think I need to loosen my cleats a bit and raise my seat 2cm, but other than that all is good. I noticed that the other people in my group all rode with their hands on top of the handle-bar the whole time – I didn’t even know I could ride like that – i.e. there are 3 hand positions on the bike! So it was good riding with other people just to learn that. I also learned that straight front forks can feel twitchy, but they seem okay to me (very direct, but not too bad). I also got a lot of good comments about my bike

Also, next week Nathan has invited me to cycle around Emberton next Sunday, which will be good fun.

Over the past 18 months I have competed in several Adventure Races which are great fun, but there is always an element of luck in them because competitors can choose multiple routes. So I would like to try a sport that would allow me to better measure my performance against other people. I did amazingly well in the Birmingham Half Marathon last October (2008) with a time of 1:39:30, 643rd place out of ~9,000 and I consider myself to be better than average on a mountain bike, so I am thinking that I would be okay at Triathlons…

A couple of months ago I joined Team Milton Keynes which is a club that encourages its members people to do various types of events such as Triathlons, Marathons, Mountain Bike races, etc.

So after joining the club I investigated getting the equipment that I would need for a Triathlon. I was thinking of getting a Triathlon starter kit, but in the end I have opted to get the things seperately (costs more but it means I can get better items).

So I have started with:

• Trek Madone 4.7, 58cm (carbon frame)
• 2 water bottles
• 2 Trek water bottle carriers
• Saddle bag
• Keo Look Classics pedals
• Specialized Pro Road shoes
• Specialized cycling shirt

Trek Madone 4.7 2009

I took it out for a ride today and it was tiring – using different muscles to the ones I use when I go mountain biking. Plus I really miss the suspension on rough roads and pathways.

Plus been used to a mountain bike, I’m used to the brakes and gears being in a different place!

I’m going out for a 35 mile ride with Team MK tomorrow morning (at 09:30 – I should be in bed!) so I’m just hoping I can keep up and complete the distance…