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Reduced the bike distance slightly today and introduced a running session to give me a 1hr/1hr brick session. I haven’t done a whole lot of running recently so this was a refreshing (and tiring) change.

I’d also switched my Specialized MTB shoes and SPD cleets for more rode oriented Wiggle dhb R1 road shoes and Look system pedals. They’re much harder to get on with as the lack of grip of the shoes and the smoothness of the pedals means there’s no option to pedal whilst unclipped (something I’d gotten used to approach junctions with my SPD setup).

Anyway the bike went well, I thought initially I was quite slow but then realised I’d been in the top cog for the first few miles anyway so pace was good (17mph average, even with some slow traffic through Newport). The run was also good, with no knee issues at all – although I should have taken a drink with me as a few sips during “transition” weren’t really sufficient after an hour in the saddle and then nearly an hour on the paths, given it’s only mid-April it was quite a hot and sunny day.

A good session anyway, I’ll hopefully get a long ride in next week but still try to put some sort of run on the end of it.

So far this year my work load seems to be a stumbling block to any significant training. To tackle something serious like 70.3 or full IM and need to be able to fully commit to training for it and that isn’t happening right now. Given that I’ve been re-assessing what’s realistic – especially given that I’ve only recently had a proper road bike and I’ve yet to even begin open water swimming.

The likelihood of any open water swim being possible until May is low given the cold water temps right now. I’ve decided to start off with a Duathlon at Silverstone race circuit. A 2.5mi Run, 10mi Ride then 2.5mi Run. Silverstone is relatively close to where I live and offers a chance to compete on the famous motor racing circuit.

Following on from there of I’ve got a list of a few more ‘possibles’,

June 6 – Big Cow Sprint 750/20/5
June 29 – Silverstone Duathlon 2.5/10/2.5 (2nd race in the series)
July 4 – Cowman 1.9/92/21 or Cowman Sprint 750/20/5
July 25 – MK Tri 1.5/40/10
August 12 – Silverstone Duathlon 2.5/10/2.5 (3rd race in series)
August 15 – Beverley Tri 400/20/5 (my old school town, close to my parents)

Some of these are open water. I’d like to do at least one this year.