Calne Aquathlon Series - 1/5

Woooo hooooo!!!

Happy AnnaB!

Today was my first of 5 aquathlons in a series, a 400m swim followed by 5k run.

My aim is to see how i improve (if i do) over the winter on my swimming as this is particularly shit for me. I've so far had 7 swimming coaching sessions, 5 of these with tri club. My first tri time over 400m was 9:53 back at the end of August, then two weeks later 9:51.

It's not something that comes easily and i make constant jokes about being in the shit lane, and wanting to swim as fast as a shark, in honesty this aint ever gona happen cos i just dont have the talent for it but i have really gotten to enjoy it, in spite of being so crud!

The series is one a month over the winter and there were only 25 entries for today!! I was in the first wave and had estimated my time in the pool as 9:45, got off to a good start, inhaled water through my nose on an occasion cos i screwed up my breathing, also punched the poor old man who i was sharing a lane with - entirely my fault cos i went all wigggle snaky up the lane!! (I later apologised to him - in the run and after!) Felt really good, didnt feel like i was thrashing *too* much and tried to concentrate on the technique i've been working on.

Official time in the pool - 9:12!!!! i know to any swimers out there that probably sounds tragic but i'm so over the moon i cant tell you!! Ok so i was 14th after the swim but whoooo cares! Ran out the pool, through the car park, round some obstacles, into transition threw on my number and trainers and ran off...

transition time was about 1:20 (still need to work on these but hopefully the series will help that too)

Onto the run, i couldnt see anyone in front of me, a really emaciated girl was just behind me, i left her to it. For ages i couldnt see anyone and i thought for a crazy minute i might have been fisrt out the water!!! (yeah whatever!) I finally saw 4 people ahead of me and started trying to close the gap, i didnt actually overtake any of them but caught up within about 100 yrds of one. On the last km i saw my daddy, he'd come to watch he's not seen any of my tri's so was lush to have him there, but then he started to run next to me, to which i told him off cos it was putting me off!

Ran back into the carpark, went the wrong way, came back and went through the finish. Run time was 20:51. and 3rd fastest (including the boys!)

Time overall was 31.03 Reeeeally happy!!

my aim is to get under 9 mins for the next one, and see if i can break 30 mins overall. There's a prize for the series 1st - 3rd so if i can hold on i could be in with a shot. I was officially 5th lady and 8th overall but there was a girl ahead who'd only done 14 lenghts in the pool so dunno what theyre gonna do with that.

Yay!! I love that i'm seeing improvement in the swimming, its so rewarding cos my running hasnt really been getting better xx

p.s. its gonna be fricking cold doing this in jan and feb!