The Event - 2.4 Mile Swim in Lake Zurich, 112 Mile Bike Ride around the hills of Switzerland and a 26.2 Mile Run (A Marathon) along the shores of the lake all in one day on the 25th July 2010
As many of you will know I have done a bit of mountain biking in my time. A group of us were looking around for a challenge for 2010 and we settled on doing a triathlon. Having looked around at the types of event available we initially settled on doing a Half Ironman. Unfortunately testosterone (without the need for alcohol) then intervened and a half Ironman became a Full Ironman in the blink of any eye.
What many of you will not know is that when I signed up for this event I could not swim a length of front crawl, had never ridden a road bike and my only experience of distance running was the Durham Desitny Run (3 miles or so) aged 11.
Training began in November 2009 when I could just about manage a 3 mile flat run wihout keeling over. Some much needed swimming lessons were taken in January 2010 and a road bike was duly purchased in March 2010. I started off doing approximately 5 - 7 hours of training a week which has steadily increased to 20 - 25 hours a week now. To give you an idea of the amount of training that I have been putting in to conquer the challenge a typical weeks' training with 8 weeks to go until the event would be:
Monday - Swim (pool) 2 miles
Tuesday - Run 7 miles - Swim (open water) 2 miles
Wednesday - Bike 60 miles - Run 7 miles
Thursday - Bike 60 miles - Run 4 miles - Swim 2 miles (pool)
Friday - Run 15 - 18 miles
Saturday - Rest/Family Day
Sunday - Bike 80 - 100 miles - Run 7 miles
The biggest sacrifice starts now as I am giving up drinking in preperation for the day!
So I am doing the hard bit and I would like to ask you to do the important bit which is to dig deep and donate. Why not support my abstinence from alchohol and donate what you would have spent on a night out - or alternatively have the night out anyway and donate the equivalent of what you've spent on food, booze and taxi fares!
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I am raising money for a fantastic locally based charity that does amazing work with children both in our region and around the world. So please dig deep and donate now.
