OK First things first....

Why....

Well as some of you will know last year I was part of a team and did the swim portion of the Olympic length London Triathlon. This consisted of a 1,500 metre swim in the London docklands. The other members of the team were my cousin Andrew who did the 40 km bike portion and his friend Steve who then did the 10km run.

We finished mid table which was pretty good for a first attempt and considering we were pretty unfit, so in a bout of (foolish) bravado I decided that this year I would do all 3 parts of the Sprint distance London Triathlon on August 1st 2009.

The Sprint distance is a 750 m swim followed by a 20 km ride and finishing with a 5 km run. Luckily I am not doing it alone this time either, training and participating alongside me is my cousin Andrew again who has taken the task on as well and my good friend Sam who will be doing it for the first time.

Now my history of sporting activity is patchy to say the least, I was always of the impression that exercise was bad for you, I mean we have all seen the stories of the fit and healthy young people who drop dead playing football... never filled me with confidence. Also people are always injuring themselves, spraining ankles, straining muscles, I mean really, can this be good for you?

BUT, I have been blessed with a good metabolism, quite lean, don't tend to put on weight and feel I am "relatively" healthy.

AND after all.... how hard can it be.....

Well, flamin hard that's for sure. Luckily I put in quite a lot of effort last year for the swim so I am ahead of the game there. I currently have a best time of 15 mins 5 seconds for the 30 lengths of a 25 metre pool that is required for a 750 metre swim. I know that open water swimming is completely different so if I can be out of the water in 20 mins I will be happy.

For the ride we are currently doing a 20km route in about 42 minutes, now this has a number of hills and is on the dodgy Berkshire country roads which are awful to ride on so I would be hoping for a sub 40 minute time on the day.

And finally the run. I always knew this would be the hardest one of the three and so it is proving. Best time so far is a 25 min 15 seconds for the 5 km.

So overall I am hoping to be finished in about 1hr 30 minutes.

And further foolishness has meant that I am also seriously considering doing another one on the evening of Wednesday 24th June.

Various websites are listed below including and most importantly my fundraising page which includes all details of my chosen charity (I'm not doing it for free for goodness sake, somebody should get some benefit from it) unfortunately I can't get sponsorship so the money goes to me, so a charity is the next best thing.

(read less)

OK First things first....

Why....

Well as some of you will know last year I was part of a team and did the swim portion of the Olympic length London Triathlon. This consisted of a 1,500 metre swim in the London docklands. The other members of the team were my cousin Andrew who did the 40 km bike portion and his friend Steve who then did the 10km run.

We finished mid table which was pretty good for a first attempt and considering we were pretty unfit, so in a bout of (foolish) bravado I... (read more)