Back in 2008 overweight, smoker, drinker, having completed no exercise in 20 years and at the ripe old age of 34 – looking for something to do to assist in stopping smoking and not gaining any weight …..
First thoughts were how can I get a little bit fitter without spending any money – Get the old mountain bike out of the shed, (This had not been used since my teenage years), search for hours for the key to the lock – pump the tyres up and off we go the road to health and fitness. 400 yards down the road and I was a wheezing wreck, sweating profusely and beginning to think this was a bad idea – about turn and light a cigarette.
Those first few months at the back end of 2008 were tough to say the least, gradually building my endurance with a few short rides around the block, probably my longest ride of about 5 miles. A little bit of investment was needed so I purchased a Halfords special, parts missing mountain bike for the princely sum of £40, and with a bit of scouting on Ebay accumulated the rest of the bits required for an additional £35 –
I spent hours scouring the internet looking for cheap bike parts and clothing, yes I was as soon at the point of thinking about Lycra and cycle clothing, I think the addiction had already started at this point, but I was still in denial – all my purchases were black clothing and I managed to stay away from lycra for the first few months at least. I didn’t want to be seen, let alone seen in lycra.
I stumbled across a forum called 220triathlon, and secretly read through posts on here, this had lit a flame inside me and I decided to take up running too. In preparation for my first run I rolled two cigarettes and put them in a plastic bag with a lighter and tucked them in my pocket – I had a pair of trainers, note not running shoes, stuck on an old pair of shorts and a t shirt and headed out – Ohh my god I was in a world of pain I had managed about a mile of running, I was like an 80 year old, sweating buckets and panting like a rabid dog … I took a breather and lit a cigarette. A few minutes later I headed back at a much slower pace.
Having signed up to the 220 forum I started posting and received much encouragement from fellow members, though some were more snobby than others – every ride and run was logged on my excel spreadsheet along with time of day how far and how fast, what the weather was like and any other comments – looking back now it is great reading some of my comments.
December 2008 I joined the local tri club, attended my first swim session in over 20 years and it was at this point it had dawned on me that triathlon was were it was at, I booked my first triathlon which was to be London Sprint distance in 2009. Swim sessions were hard, but I soon picked up some endurance and managed to move up a lane with a couple of months.
I was soon to realise that triathletes are a great bunch of people in general, our club has only around 100 members but most were in it for the social element and social exercise. A few were serious triathletes with competitive agendas, some just wanted to swim, bike or run.
By the end of Jan 2009, only 5 months after my first bike ride, I realised in order to go on a group ride with the club a proper road bike was in order, I headed down to Halfords and purchased a Carerra Virtuosa for about £150 – great bit of kit for the money. Having only ever covered about 10 miles in a single ride on my old mountain bike I took the plunge and, with the new road bike, met up for the Saturday morning ride with the club. I had read on the website that they had two groups, a fast group and a steady group who only rode at the slowest persons pace, usually the covered around 25 miles on a Saturday.
I turned up on my shiny new bike outside the local bikeshop, next to the pub, 9am prompt for a 9-15 start – introduced myself, some of the group I already new from swimming. The ride leader announced that as this was the last weekend in the month the ride would be 40 miles ……. I gulped … ermm I have only ever ridden 10 miles – I kept quiet and just hoped that I could manage it – note that I had only ridden this new bike once before.
As it turned out I did just fine covering about 40 miles in about 3 hours, my arse was numb and my legs were dead, but I did it with a great sense of achievement and joy – I would return the following week.
My running hadn’t improved much, I was still only managing about 2 miles before collapsing in a heap puffing and panting like an old dog – I decided to put this quandry to the guys at 220forum – some great advise was given … SLOW DOWN – your are running too fast – now this sounded daft to me as I thought I was already running slow – but I took the hint and slowed it down, low and behold within a few weeks I was up to 5 miles of running and not that much slower than I was struggling with 2 before.
By March 2009 I had booked another Tri – it was Mallory Park Triathlon – I chose this due to the race circuit, my previous “hobby / addiction” was drag racing and track days in my own car.
Yes! I think the addiction had already started before I had even completed my first triathlon.
It was notable that most of my spare time was spent either swim, bike, running or looking at my training results or looking for information, kit, races, guides on triathlon etc on the internet.
April 2009 - More money invested … new pedals, cleats and cycle shoes – in addition I purchased some black cycling shorts and a cycle top – note I had spent hours researching these items only to buy the cheapest I could – at the time money was scarce. I practised with the cleated shoes in the garden to make sure I could clip in and out before I went for a ride – this proved useful as for the first few months at least I never had a mishap with the shoes.
The rides were getting longer as were the run and my swim was getting better, in fact to the point that I had moved up from the beginner’s lane to lane 5 – almost with the speedy ones.
SO 8 months since my decision to do some exercise and I was still smoking, drinking and eating as I was before, however the weight was coming off and I was feeling fitter – I would never have believed that I would be swim bike and running in my 30’s and in Lycra too. It was at this point were I began to buy brighter coloured clothing for training purposes, no longer was I afraid to be seen, in fact I needed to be – the local traffic had a habit of getting too close from time to time.
The first Triathlon …… or was it? to be continued.......