We have a trainee-in-waiting

I have some great news from the 500 miles charity. We have a trainee who is willing to go to Tanzania for training as a prosthetist. His name is Patrick Mwila and currently works in the workshop in Zambia.

It is really great to have a real person to be raising money for rather than just the theory of supporting someone. It has got me even more motivated than I have been.

The other good news is that I have got my posters made and will be really pushing the money raising side of things in the next few weeks. Many of my colleagues have already given me great support both financially and with help on my training which is going really well, despite a slight problem with my knee. I am making sure I don't push it too hard and am icing it regularly. I am getting loads of encouragement from work, several cyclists pals are giving me loads of tips and advice (thanks Phil and Jamie especially), and Andrea keeps going with making sure I will be okay in the swim. I am actually thinking I will finish it and not be last, which in addition to my goal of raising the £6,500 needed for Patrick to get his first year's training guaranteed.

Training progress

It's been a mixed week or so for training. A business trip to Prague last week broke into my training and I only managed to get a few swims and one weights session in while I was away. I then threw myself into training over the weekend and did a short fast run on Friday, a long cycle and weights on Saturday and a run and swim on Sunday. The run on Sunday was supposed to be 10 miles but I was not really on it, and only managed to do 6.5, and had to walk some of that. Probably over did after a slow week. However, on Monday (I was off work) I did put in two hours gardening (counted it as weights work, especially as I dug the veg patch over) and did a good swim session. I then did a good 5 mile run tonight with the jogscotland group, and followed this with one of my best swim sessions ever. I have found a new training program for beginner triathletes and intend to follow this and it includes several work sessions in the pool so I tried this for the first time tonight and it went really well. I managed to only work on my crawl and between float work (on my legs) and flipper work (focuses on the hand technique) as well as several straight forward swim lengths I managed to do 40 lengths. The first time I have ever managed this and it really felt good. My breathing and arm movements seem to be coming together, so while I am still not sure I will be good enough to use this in the race I certainly feel like I have made a lot of progress in this area. I can certainly manage a pool length without drowning now.

Next post I should have the promo stuff in place and I'll post more info about the charity.