Bea: Swim, then run, then bike, then collapse (Life List: an update)

As some of you may be aware, number 8 on my life list is to complete an Olympic length triathlon. OLYMPIC length. Meaning, Olympians do this. And before we go any further please let me clarify that I am NOT AN OLYMPIAN.

The full race involves a 1500 meter swim, 40km bike, and 10 km ride. In the USA, this means a 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. Ridiculousness, I know.

The training schedule is a 12 week programme which ramps up the distance and time for each of the 3 activities each week. This means that we do not get a break, we do not get a rest, and we never feel like we are getter fitter as each week gets harder and harder.

I say 'we' because I have a girlfriend who has agreed to do the triathlon with me. Or rather, she forced me to agree to do a sprint triathlon with her and I said, in what must have been some drunken stupor, SPRINT SHMINT WE ARE WOMEN WE ARE STRONG LET'S DO AN OLYMPIC LENGTH! I have been off the vodka since.

Can I tell you how much my legs are begging not to do the final run of the training week on a Wednesday afternoon? And how, when I return, my legs are all WE TOLD YOU WE ARE TIRED and give way before I can step in the shower. Oh, the bliss of rest on a Thursday. And then, like some perverse swedish hot-spa-to-ice-bath, the difficulty of jumping in the pool at 6am on a Friday.

To be fair, despite all of my whining, I'm pretty impressed with myself so far. I have missed just one training day, largely due to an irrational and emotional reaction to an event in my professional life and resulted in my skipping the required 60 minute cycle and instead sitting in a hot bath with a glass of wine. The two are so similar, it's hard to tell them apart.

We are half-way through the training schedule and therefore half-way to the race. I am still dubious as to my ability to complete the run after the cycle, but am doing my best to trust the anonymous expert who wrote the programme. They wouldn't lie would they?

Today is a quick 35 minute cycle. The cycle isn't the hard part, going out in the rain is.