Right, that’s today’s main task accomplished, check! Fifty or more of the GB team went out together on a recce of the Sprint Distance bike lap. It’s got one short sharp (8%) hill, a couple of corners to negotiate and a good out and back drag on a dual carriageway, 10km in total, so we see it all twice. It reminds me of the Bristol Harbourside triathlon course.
On the way back, I had to grab a photo with the week’s slogan: THIS IS GOING TO BE EPIC. It certainly is.
We’ve arrived safely to clear blue skies and sunshine. We’ve checked in to the Sutton Place, and of course bike had to be unpacked before anything else. 🙂
Then we went to City Hall to get registered. Looks like a good venue for open-air swim practice…
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Or at least, they should be shortly!
Next stop, Edmonton! 🙂
Early start today, but Kitty and Isaac were up to see me off. 🙂
And now I’m in the taxi and on my way to Canada, or Gatwick at least!
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Several hundred pounds raised for The Brain Tumour Charity thanks to my generous colleagues in the office today, and all I did was look foolish on my bike and in my wetsuit! Two and a half hours of spinning, followed by a timed T1+T2. Oh, and bake brownies. 🙂
Racing at Concorde tri today was out of the question, but I am feeling a bit more positive about my chances of doing so in Edmonton. While walking is still uncomfortable, I have swum a good few km this week, and started to add a bit of resistance to the spin bike. I’ve been following the MCL rehab exercises that Ian gave me (similar to these ones) and had a follow-up with his colleague, Joe Allnutt. Joe has added some more dynamic, functional, exercises to the repertoire, to speed up my knee regaining the stability for running. A second round of acupuncture seemed to free things up and reduce the pain for a time. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to ride gently next week, and then it’ll just be a question of how much work I can put down, and how well I can run, for the end of the month.
Fundraising for The Brain Tumour Charity is going quite well, at justgiving.com/garethsb, thank you, everybody!
Well, this is a little bump in the road… The unpleasant pinging in my left knee on Thursday evening turned into increasing soreness and stiffness so that I was limping quite a bit on Friday. Ian Harrison at Physical Balance was kind enough to fit me at the end of his sports injury clinic that afternoon, and he confirmed damage to the medial collateral ligament. He has encouraged me to move as normally as possible, but told me that I won’t be running for a while. Over the weekend I’ve tried gentle swimming and spinning but both are uncomfortable, though not as much as simply walking. I’m doing regular mobility and strengthening exercises; I’m not sure what else I can do, but try to be positive that I’ll still be ready for the trip to Edmonton.
It’s summer! Lots of training! Flights to Canada booked!
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The Basingstoke Gazette is my local paper and has a great sports section, highlighting our local athletes and teams (Go, Bison!) as well as covering national sports news. In fact, in the last few weeks, they’ve been able to cover the fantastic results of Aaron Harris, who grew up in Overton, and the Gazette website reported live his 6th place at the Commonwealth Games, third Englishman behind Alistair and Jonny Brownlee!
They ran a nice interview and photo on my build-up to Canada in the paper a few weeks ago (don’t say it must have been a slow news week!) and have followed that up with a news-in-brief in yesterday’s paper about my recent win at Eastleigh tri. Fame at last! 🙂
As they mention in the paper, I’m fundraising for charity – see Tri for The Brain Tumour Charity.
Brain tumours are the most common cause of cancer deaths in children and adults under 40. The Brain Tumour Charity make a bold statement of intent: We will change this. They provide support services to those affected; fund cutting edge research to find a cure; and raise awareness of this devastating disease.
I want to support this worthwhile cause and am using my journey to Canada as a member of the Great Britain age-group team for the 2014 Triathlon World Championships to fundraise for The Brain Tumour Charity. I have done something like an hour of training for every 5 seconds that I’ll be racing on 29 August, and knowing that I’m racing for this cause too will be an added boost.
For more information about the research and patient support that our donations will enable, see www.thebraintumourcharity.org.
To make a donation, please visit justgiving.com/garethsb or givey.com/garethsb. (JustGiving is probably more familiar. Givey is based on the PayPal Giving Fund platform, and 100% of both your donation and your Gift Aid go to the charity, making it worth slightly more than JustGiving, but it does have a quirky donation process that requires you to create a login/account on their website in order to make the Gift Aid declaration.)
Thank you.
