Triathlon 43 - 52x52 Challenge

Friday 07/10/22

Number 43

Swim – 44.36

Bike – 1.22.14

Run – 46.02

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43/52 now done and at last into SINGLE DIGITS – just 9 to go.

I should definitely consider doing these based on weather conditions rather than being so fixed on an early Friday morning 🙄. It seems every Friday morning the weather goes bad. I mean this week to be honest has been pretty poor every morning, but by the afternoons it’s been like summer. So once again it was incredibly windy at 6am. Yesterday it was more swimmable than today, but it was still so rough that my right arm was twisted over a couple of times and I’ve now got a pulled muscle. So this morning’s swim was proper hard for me. I ended up doing the slowest swim since I started this challenge. I mean I finished it of course, but it was too hard to be honest and it took a third longer than I wanted. Of course next week I’ll ignore my own advice of choosing a good weather day and will do it on Friday! 

The other thing I never thought about with this challenge is the tiredness. Why do I not think these things through! The thing is that I have never been one to ever get over tired. I just carry on doing everything I do and I never sleep more than 4-5 hours a night; in fact often it’s less than that, but never more. Up until the last couple of weeks I have been physically aching of course, but not overly tired, but suddenly I’m literally exhausted all the time. I even had to ask my coach this week if I can maybe take something to help, but he replied;

“The body isn't built to be doing a triathlon every week for a year... So fatigue is the nature of the beast. Only food, water and more sleep are the options, other than that, we kinda have to accept that it's a response from your body to try and stop you from going again. S**t answer isn't it... Unfortunately, caffeine can only take you so far.”

A fair and honest answer, which I always get from Ross (he’s the best). Problem is that food and water have never been high on my list and sleep isn’t something I can force. Also I can’t dial back on the daily training (sea swim and gym Monday-Thursday) as each time I have tried that I find my body literally starts to relax too much and then I am in danger of injury on my triathlon day. And I can’t miss my Friday morning Triathlon as I can’t get behind on my challenge. And I can’t do my triathlons much later than I do (I tend to start 5.30am or 6am) as I still work afterwards. So it’s a case of just cracking on and getting the final 9 done and then slowly dialling back on the training so I don’t go cold turkey and injure myself.

As Ross said to me, the body isn’t built to be doing a Triathlon every week for a year, especially a 53 year old body with Crohn’s disease. Perhaps I should have considered that before I took it on? Nah I still would have done it of course. But I really can’t wait for it to be over!

If you are able to sponsor me this one last time I promise afterwards I’ll get some rest, I’ll never do these daft challenges again and will leave you alone!