Motivation

Since starting this blog I've started training more. That was one of the main reasons for starting it and it's worked, so I'm happy. I've been looking a loads of stuff online and that's motivated me too. Also I've started logging all my workouts and what I've eaten on map my run and it's been encouraging and also enlightening about the food I eat. If anyone else is on map my run and wants to add me it's ebrindley1 I've only got 1 friend so far :(. But one of the biggest motivations has been from that 1 friend, my girlfriend. Because it's summer which means it's hard for me to train consistently. This is because I've been spending my time between Derby (home), Chester (uni) and Southport (where my girlfriend, Alice, lives). All have their own benefits. My bikes in Derby so I can ride there, but not at the other two. The pool at uni in Chester is free and right by my house, in Derby or Southport I have to pay and travel. Until now in Southport I had no idea where to run or swim. Now that's changed. 

Alice's mum, Sheila, is trying to lose some weight before an operation so she's been swimming with a friend of hers every other day. While I'm in Southport me and my girlfriend have been tagging along. For me that means swim training every other day, so looking good thanks Sheila. Even better than that Alice has started running. Since we started going out she's come swimming with me but always said she'd never go running with me. Happily that's changed and now we're doing a gentle couple of miles every evening. This makes for a nice easy run for me and I love that we now have a hobby in common. One final great thing for me about training in a new place is that, being from Derby, normally the seaside is hours away. But now I can get up in the morning and go for a nice long run across the beach just staring out at the sea. That sight, along with the latest improvements generally, is all the motivation I need and now I'm determined to smash my time in my next triathlon and, somehow, complete my marathon!

The World Wide Web

My latest top tip is make the most of the internet. Much to the annoyance of my girlfriend I regulalry spend my free time scouring the internet for useful sites. Some sites offer useful tools to help with training. For example I often use mapmyrun.com or mapmyride.com to work out the distances of my training runs and rides so that I can make the distances specific to my event and the type of training I'm looking for. Even googlemaps can be helpful to plan out a new route when your bored of the same old training rides.

I also like to enter competitions online, cause there's nothing like winning free stuff! Sadly I haven't won any competitions yet but sites like 220triathlon.com regularly have giveaways that are free to enter and sometimes the prizes are more than half decent. The great thing about the web is that there's hundreds if not thousands more sites out there just as good as these if not better. Here's where you can help. I've just added a new page to my blog called links. I've put a few sites up already but would love to know what sites people out there use and why they're so helpful. Whether it's useful for training, has competitions, interesting tri reading or your own blog full of motivating stories and top tips I wanna see it. So leave me a comment with a link to the site and I'll add all the best ones to my page.

Entry Prices

There's one thing holding me back from entering triathlons left, right and centre, the amount it costs to enter. Well that and not having a car means local races only! The fee for my first sprint triathlon was £39, that might not seem a lot to some of you but for me that's 3 weeks food. This means that for me even entering 1 a month would be way too expensive and the bigger the race the more expensive it gets. While that seems obvious to me I nearly dropped my laptop the first time I saw the entry fee to some of the Iron distance races. Is it bad that I thought it'd take me longer to save up for than to train for?

But I think with entry fees the organisers are limiting themselves. Most people inviolved in triathlon seem to be a lot richer than me, middle aged with nice cars and even nicer bikes. But most people that participate in sport in this country are younger and often still in education. So why is there no student entry fees? Or cheaper entry fees for younger people? after all get them hooked now and when they're 30 and working full time they'll have the money to keep paying the high entry fees. I really think that offering reduced entry fees for certain populations could really increase participation in triathlon which, hopefully, would then reduce the fees for everyone. To find out if any of you agree I've added a poll to the sidebar of my blog, lets see how many of you think that entry is too expensive...

Budget Buys - Can't Swim Ride Run

With my extremely limited funds I've not purchased any expensive tri equipment except my bike. I have bought a few things I've found for quite cheap though. One of those things was Andy Holgate's book, Can't Swim Ride Run. I found it in a sale for a few quid and thought why not? It turned out to be a brilliant purchase. It's an autobiographical story of how an overweight, middle-aged man finds triathlon and becomes an ironman. I really enjoyed the book and it helped motivate me to train. All the way through I found myself thinking well if he can do it, I can! I'd definitley recommend it and here's a link to amazon for anyone that's interested...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cant-Swim-Ride-Run-Triathlon/dp/1848187432/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345654485&sr=8-1

Rating: 4/5

Cost: £9

ETS: N/A

Value: N/A





I'm sure I got it for less but that's the current amazon price and, whilst it might not have directly saved me time in a race, it motivated me to get out there and start training.

My first taste of triathlon

I thought I'd right a report on my experience of my first triathlon to let you know about more about me...

Foremark Hall Triathlon 8/7/12

400m swim, 20km bike and 5km run

Arrival

I had no idea what to expect in my first taste of triathlon or what sort of time I'd finish in. On my way there I felt very nervous not only because I had no idea what to expect but also because of the obscene amount I'd eaten at Pizza Hut the night before and the subsequent pain in my stomach. I was worried about being late as my mum was driving me down and she has literally never been on time for anything in her life. As expected, we were late. This meant that I missed the race briefing before my start time which made me worry even more. Luckily registration was easy to find, registering was simple and so was racking my bike and finding the pool. I got ready and listened to the pool briefing which was nice and simple and they repeated it to make sure we knew what was going on. All good so far.

The Race

My wave consisted of me and four middle-aged women. Instead of feeling confident I'd beat them I was worried as I thought the swim would be my worst leg. Happily, I absolutley smashed the swim and got out almost confused about how I'd gone so quickly, I even started to doubt my ability to count to 16 but everything about the swim felt faster than normal. Transition wasn't quite as fast. I'd done nothing towards training for the so called 4th discipline of triathlon and both transitions took me ages! The bike leg started off badly as after about 2 minutes last nights Pizza Hut popped back up to say hello. This also resulted in everyone that I' beaten out of the pool passing me. I rolled round the bike leg slowly and got in for the run. This meant my legs still felt fine going into the run and I ran pretty consistantly all the way round going passed many people I'd noticed passing me on the bike. Sadly my stomach wouldn't let me push myself anymore on the last lap of the race and I crossed the line in 1:25:16.

My thoughts

I was really unhappy with my time as I knew I could of done a lot better. I was really pleased with the swim but the bike was awful and the run could of been improved. Also sitting down in transition was probably an indication I wasn't gonna get through T1 and 2 quickly. I might not have much to compare it to but I thought the race was really well organised. It was easy to find everything I needed and all corners of the bike and even some of the run leg had officials to help you find your way and everyone was encouraging. It was a great day, just a shame I came 146th! I've always wanted to be the winner when it comes to sport so next time I'm going to come back much quicker and have a crack at the age group winning time. It was also nice to make the most of the free post-race massage. It was at that point I found out that half the crowd seemed to be focusing on our new puppy rather than the race but o well.

For anyone that cares here's my splits so you can see just how bad my bike leg and transitions were.

Pos	#	Name		Cat	Club	Gun Time
146	116	Ed Brindley	M	20-24		01:25:16

Splits

	Athlete			RACE MIN	RACE AVG	RACE MAX
Swim	00:07:09			00:05:02	00:09:33	00:28:17
T1	00:02:47			00:00:33	00:01:47	00:05:09
Cycle	00:49:27			00:32:29	00:46:22	01:20:25
T2	00:01:21			00:00:54	00:01:37	00:03:29
Run	00:24:30			00:16:30	00:27:42	10:10:42

First ever post

This is my first post of my first blog so forgive me if its crap! I thought I'd start a blog to share my experiences of triathlon with anyone that'd listen and, more selfishly, to try and help keep myself motivated to train regularly. Currently it's 1pm and I'm still sat in bed, I've cycled a lot lately but haven't ran or swam for nearly a month and I'm doing a sprint triathlon in 25 days. O and I've got a marathon in 46 days... not a lot of time to train so why am I still in bed? 

The aim of this blog is to let you all know how I'm getting on and how a student with less than no money survives in the world of triathlon with all it's expensive "time saving" gizmos. Can a moderatley fit but pretty lazy student improve and post respectable times on the tightest budget possible?