The beginning of my triathlon journey and April updates
A question I often get asked as an athlete is "What got you into triathlon?" so to start my blog this month I'm going to go back through the years to properly answer this question.
Before I had school swimming lessons my parents wanted me to be able to swim properly so decided to book me in for some one to one swimming lessons at our local pool where I managed to swim 50m in my first swimming lesson and then 100m in my second lesson. The problem now was getting me out of the water! A few months later I was trialling for my local swimming club (Louth Dolphins Swimming Club), being awkward as per usual it took me a while to get in the pool for my trials, after spending a while walking around the pool with Jutta Meiwald I eventually got in the water. After successfully getting into the club I started my first few years as a breastroke swimmer. During my time in the club I was coached by many great coaches (Sarah Richardson, Rose Stanhope, Jutta Meiwald...) who taught me much more than just technique. I spend over 10 years in the club progressing from a chilled, take your time breastroker to a competitive long distance freestyle swimmer.
My 10 years of swimming got me into triathlon, I never would have got into the sport if it wasn't for my swimming background.
2. My mums spur of the moment 40s birthday present
For my mums 40th birthday she decided to do something different so entered a local triathlon, she's never done one since but it inspired me to enter the same event the year after (Woodall Spa sprint triathlon). Without my mum I would never have converted form swimming to triathlon.
So, now you know why I got into triathlon in the first place, here's a bit about what I've been up to over the past few weeks..
London 220 tri-show
1. My swimming background
From an early age my parents had always taken me swimming but being the fussy child I always was, I hated water! I hated getting water in my eyes and would never go into the deep end of the pool. For many years my parents had to bath and shower me with great difficulty as I wore goggles as they tried to wash my hair.
From an early age my parents had always taken me swimming but being the fussy child I always was, I hated water! I hated getting water in my eyes and would never go into the deep end of the pool. For many years my parents had to bath and shower me with great difficulty as I wore goggles as they tried to wash my hair.
Before I had school swimming lessons my parents wanted me to be able to swim properly so decided to book me in for some one to one swimming lessons at our local pool where I managed to swim 50m in my first swimming lesson and then 100m in my second lesson. The problem now was getting me out of the water! A few months later I was trialling for my local swimming club (Louth Dolphins Swimming Club), being awkward as per usual it took me a while to get in the pool for my trials, after spending a while walking around the pool with Jutta Meiwald I eventually got in the water. After successfully getting into the club I started my first few years as a breastroke swimmer. During my time in the club I was coached by many great coaches (Sarah Richardson, Rose Stanhope, Jutta Meiwald...) who taught me much more than just technique. I spend over 10 years in the club progressing from a chilled, take your time breastroker to a competitive long distance freestyle swimmer.
My 10 years of swimming got me into triathlon, I never would have got into the sport if it wasn't for my swimming background.
2. My mums spur of the moment 40s birthday present
For my mums 40th birthday she decided to do something different so entered a local triathlon, she's never done one since but it inspired me to enter the same event the year after (Woodall Spa sprint triathlon). Without my mum I would never have converted form swimming to triathlon.
So, now you know why I got into triathlon in the first place, here's a bit about what I've been up to over the past few weeks..
Racing
On Easter Sunday Angus and I competed in our first triathlon of the season, East Leake's sprint distance triathlon, it was a chilly and extremely windy day but a great event and we will both be back in September to compete in their end of season triathlon.
The event started with a 400m pool swim, unfortunately the heats didn't fall as we hoped and I ended up in the heat after Angus so we couldn't race each other in the swim :( I had a good swim, just put my head down and went for it. Getting out the pool and going outside was a shock, being a bit of a chopper I stopped to put on a jacket and some gloves before running to transition. I arrived in transition being the last one of the event to go out on my bike but knew there was a girl in the same age group as me just left on her bike so I gritted my teeth and pushed through the wind, making my legs burn to catch her. I was pleased with an average of 19.1mph on the bike in the very windy conditions. My legs had very little left when it came to the run leg but I gave all that I had left and was very pleased when I crossed the finish line.
Angus came 3rd overall and 2nd in his age group and I finished 1st in my age group and 13th overall so we definitely deserved to go back and have a nice warm bath and start on the Easter eggs mmmm!
On the 2nd of April, Angus and I headed down the Windsor and had a quick spin on the busy roads before the heavy rain started.
We had a relaxing evening in a hotel and a lovely meal out at Pizza Express before getting an early-ish night before a very early start.
We arrived at Windsor Great Park on Sunday 3rd April to chaos in the car park as tractors were pulling people into the car park and this caused a 30 minute delay to the race start times, not a great start to British Duathlon Champs. Trailing our bikes through a muddy field to get to registration and transition caused our wheels and bikes to get jammed up with mud. When we arrived to transition it looked like a mud bath before the race had event begun. Can easily say this is the worst organised event I had ever been to!
Despite the crazy start Angus raced well, giving all he had and I was proud to see him go up on the podium to get a British medal, having finished 3rd in his age group.
After a very long morning my race didn't start until 3pm, knowing I'm not back to full fitness in my running yet I wasn't sure I was going to make the 20 minute cut off time for the first 5km run. Elite starts are always very violent so after a few elbow barges we started running at a fast pace, I pushed myself to stay on the back of the group with a few other girls as we struggled to hang on, I ran the first mile in 6.27 but I just couldn't hold on to the pace as I started to fatigue. The two other girls I was running alongside stopped as they knew they couldn't make it as we dropped off the pack. I carried on as I still aimed to try and finish the race but as soon as I arrived in transition I could see the red flag and knew it wasn't enough. Even with the comfort of your friends and family telling you that you did your best and to hold your head high, its still hard to not feel disappointed with a DNF next to your name. Not every race goes as planned but the most important thing is to learn from it and move on.
On Easter Sunday Angus and I competed in our first triathlon of the season, East Leake's sprint distance triathlon, it was a chilly and extremely windy day but a great event and we will both be back in September to compete in their end of season triathlon.
The event started with a 400m pool swim, unfortunately the heats didn't fall as we hoped and I ended up in the heat after Angus so we couldn't race each other in the swim :( I had a good swim, just put my head down and went for it. Getting out the pool and going outside was a shock, being a bit of a chopper I stopped to put on a jacket and some gloves before running to transition. I arrived in transition being the last one of the event to go out on my bike but knew there was a girl in the same age group as me just left on her bike so I gritted my teeth and pushed through the wind, making my legs burn to catch her. I was pleased with an average of 19.1mph on the bike in the very windy conditions. My legs had very little left when it came to the run leg but I gave all that I had left and was very pleased when I crossed the finish line.
Angus came 3rd overall and 2nd in his age group and I finished 1st in my age group and 13th overall so we definitely deserved to go back and have a nice warm bath and start on the Easter eggs mmmm!
On the 2nd of April, Angus and I headed down the Windsor and had a quick spin on the busy roads before the heavy rain started.
We had a relaxing evening in a hotel and a lovely meal out at Pizza Express before getting an early-ish night before a very early start.
We arrived at Windsor Great Park on Sunday 3rd April to chaos in the car park as tractors were pulling people into the car park and this caused a 30 minute delay to the race start times, not a great start to British Duathlon Champs. Trailing our bikes through a muddy field to get to registration and transition caused our wheels and bikes to get jammed up with mud. When we arrived to transition it looked like a mud bath before the race had event begun. Can easily say this is the worst organised event I had ever been to!
Despite the crazy start Angus raced well, giving all he had and I was proud to see him go up on the podium to get a British medal, having finished 3rd in his age group.
After a very long morning my race didn't start until 3pm, knowing I'm not back to full fitness in my running yet I wasn't sure I was going to make the 20 minute cut off time for the first 5km run. Elite starts are always very violent so after a few elbow barges we started running at a fast pace, I pushed myself to stay on the back of the group with a few other girls as we struggled to hang on, I ran the first mile in 6.27 but I just couldn't hold on to the pace as I started to fatigue. The two other girls I was running alongside stopped as they knew they couldn't make it as we dropped off the pack. I carried on as I still aimed to try and finish the race but as soon as I arrived in transition I could see the red flag and knew it wasn't enough. Even with the comfort of your friends and family telling you that you did your best and to hold your head high, its still hard to not feel disappointed with a DNF next to your name. Not every race goes as planned but the most important thing is to learn from it and move on.
London 220 tri-show
Last weekend, Angus and I went to the 220 National triathlon show at Lee Valley Velodrome in London. It was a much smaller show than others we have been to but still enjoyed it. We spent the morning helping out on the Zone3 stand until 2.30pm then we went out for lunch before looking round the stands in the velodrome. It was great to meet the Threo team and hear all about their new launch. They make gorgeous kit that is extremely comfy, check out their website http://threo.co.uk to see for yourself! My next blog will include a section about Threo so keep a look out for that!
It was lovely to walk round the olympic park and take many selfies, haha!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and a massive thank you to everyone who has helped me along my triathlon journey!
Emily
It was lovely to walk round the olympic park and take many selfies, haha!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and a massive thank you to everyone who has helped me along my triathlon journey!
Emily
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