Wellsie plans “A Day in the Lakes”
For those who don’t know me I am a bit of a fair weather runner,
putting on anything up to a stone in winter and just about burning it off in
spring. I usually set myself a goal to run a half marathon or two every year.
In 2010 I ran very little and I
decided that 2011 will be different.
I would set a goal that would be impossible to do without training my butt off!
I looked into various events and I half heartedly Googled Iron man
competitions, but at about £235
a go. I quickly backed away. I found the website www.trihard.co.uk which had a selection of different
triathlons. One of which was called… ‘A Day In The
Lakes’!!! Well this sounded relaxing I thought and at only £48 it was to be
a bargain.
The race is a 70.3, (half Iron
Man length), at
The swim is 1.2 miles and will be in refreshing
crystal clear Ullswater.
You then bike 56 miles,
which will be one loop taking in the
The run is 13 miles and a mix of road, track and
fell along the base of Barton Fell
taking in Howtown, Fusedale and Martindale.
If you have seen me run you will know that I am far from fit! I am
not planning to finish quickly. I need to put in some serious time if I am to
finish this thing at all!!!
My training started in January.
I borrowed an old hybrid bike and began cycling the 15mile round trip to work
and the occasional trip to Garstang
when I felt brave. This made running very hard as my legs seamed to be in
constant pain all through January
and part way though February. I
joined Palatine swimming baths, (as
I could cycle there before work), and I began swimming three times a week.
Swimming was a lot harder to get to grips with than I thought it would be. I
swallowed more water than air trying to breathe every three strokes and found
that I needed a rest every four lengths. This was very worrying as I needed to
do 77 lengths nonstop in order to survive the first leg of the race! It is now
late February and I am back at WRR trying to up my running game. My
swimming technique is much better now but stamina is still a big hurdle.
The Bike!
I needed a bike as the one I was training on was both slow and
painful. I was lucky to be introduced to the ‘Bike2Work’ 
scheme. This meant that, (through your work),
you could buy a bike and save money on the VAT.
The net value would be deducted from your GROSS
wage over 12 months. This meant a saving on PAYE, NIC and an interest fee loan. I saved 42% of the bike cost this
way and on the 19th February
I got my brand new road Bianchi C2C road
bike. Sweeeeeet!!
I have 4 months to go. I am clearly way out of my depth with this
one but what the hell. You only die once as I think the old saying goes….wish me luck!
Written by: David Wells
Submitte4d: 22nd
February 2011
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw
WRR Editor