As part of our preparation, we all decided to enter this year’s London triathlon (Olympic distance) which was on the 10th August. Charlie had done the Olympic distance race in the past 2 years but it was all a new experience for Cynan & David. The Olympic distance comprises a pleasuable 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and a 10km run which made for a change in our training - we haven’t been out dragging tyres round for a little while but instead, swam up and down the Serpentine Lido occassionally and did a lot more cycling that normal.

David was the first off with a 6.30am start, the first race of the day (surely getting out of bed that early is the hardest bit?). The rain held off but it was quite windy (about 15mph) - this isn’t so much fun as it makes the water choppy and half the ride/run is bound to be into a headwind. The one advantage of an early race though is that you get to do Westminster route - this is the same route that the pro athletes do and it follows the Embankment by the Thames, all the way up to Parliament. Much better than the boring laps everyone else gets to do. David’s swim was about 40 minutes which was pretty good as he’s still learning front crawl, his bike was not bad at 1.16 and then he had a horrendous time on the run. He had a bad cramp and had to stop for a while but after massaging his leg for 10 mins or so, he pushed through.

Charlie began the race weekend well by heading to a Stag weekend in Devon. He looked..ah..second hand on Sunday as he arrived with 30 mins to spare and was the very last person to register (out of 10,000 odd people) as they were packing up. Well done mate. But at least he made it. Charlie and Cynan were in the same heat, the very last of the whole event which was at 3.40pm. Neither are morning people so this worked well! The wind turned into heavy rain for most of the run just to add a bit of spice but other than that, it was actually quite an enjoyable race. Even the water in the docks (you don’t actually swim in the Thames) was relatively warm and surprisingly clean (a lot got swallowed!).

Having done a few other triathlons, we’ve found it so much easier to do one when you are reasonably fit. They have always been quite painful before whereas this was genuinely good fun!

Thanks to Be Well too…we used B.Fuel before and during the race and B.Gain afterwards - it makes a huge difference.

We’ve been meaning to update for ages. Time just seems to be running away at a supersonic pace and there are only about 15 weeks left now until we leave. Arghhh…

So what have been up to?

Well, firstly we’re working even more ‘normal’ work hours than usual. We all need to get some money in the bank but more importantly, we need to push hard now so we can take so much time off later in the year. We all work for ourselves but that really just seems to add more pressure at the moment.

Also, we’ve begun to train quite hard - longer, more endurance focussed sessions. Lots and lots of dragging tyres around Hyde Park in London (hello to everyone we have met recently!). And all three of us have entered the London triathon which is in about 4 weeks so we’ve also been doing some swimming as well as our normal running/cycling.

Sponsorship of course is one of the biggest and most time consuming areas. Things are going quite well in this area though and we’ll let you know more soon.

And finally organising. Occasionally we need to do some of this and occasionally it happens.

Up until last week, it was all really hard work, but now, with deadlines looming, we’re getting really motivated and beginning to see through the work load and get excited about the trip. There’s nothing like some new kit or booking flights to make it all real!

A few little changes to the site - hope you like them. We’ll write a lot more updates, a lot more regularly now…only 108 days to go.