The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

This year is an important one for us as a family. Below is a brief explanation as to why.

Daniel, the kids and I are planning to use 2012 to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in memory of Daniel's Dad.

Daniel is taking on a big challenge. He intends to complete his first ever triathlon, the Derby Triathlon, on the 16th of September. A race which Barry has competed in before. It will be a very emotional day for all concerned. However, first he needs to learn to swim!

The last two years have been big years for me and proved to me that I'm capable of more than I thought. In 2010 I did my first ever marathon, managed to stick to the training and actually to enjoy the race. However, where this fell down was when I tried to switch back to triathlon later on in the year, I'd only really been training to run and I didn't cope well with adding the rest of it back in. I got worn out and demotivated and it didn't really happen. It was a non-season triathlon-wise.

I have really been getting into my training, sticking to my schedule and mostly enjoying getting on with things. Certainly the fact that the Vitruvian is out there waiting for me is enough incentive for me to keep at it. I definitely wouldn't be attempting anything like that without an adequate level of training. So, what is the Vitruvian? It's a half-ironman distance triathlon, the longest race I will ever have attempted by some considerable margin.

I've not being doing a very good job with this recently. Well, no, I've been silent. That's doing no job whatsoever. However, last year I found it useful to witter on about my training for the marathon, the biggest thing I'd ever undertaken. This year is looking to be even bigger. I have been promising myself for a while that I would try my hand at the half-ironman distance. Managing the marathon okay was my personal test as to whether I'd be capable of the training and the amount of time during a race required. The marathon went well, leaving me thinking that I could probably do it.

I'm writing about what April's been up to again. She has just taken part in her first ever swimming gala. She has been swimming with the E group of the swim training scheme since January and only hasn't done a gala before because we were away when the last one took place. She was chosen to swim backstroke and front crawl, her breaststroke still has a few issues, although it is getting better.

Today was a day for standing by and watching, cheering very loudly and willing them on. The kids were out there competing again. They both really enjoyed these events last year and were very keen to take part in them again - even when faced with another dip in the lake! Once again we took a good sized cheering committee down to the Rother Valley to support them in their efforts, not quite as big a one as last year, but still. Daniel and I were there (of course), but also my Mum and Dad, so they were suitably yelled for as they raced.

Today saw both kids again making their way in the world of multi-sport events.  April took part in her first ever duathlon, while Ryan faced his second scootathon.  We were quite a long from home at Stanford Hall, but very near to where Daniel's Mum lives, so the kids had the added bonus of having Grandma and Derek there to support them on their big day.  It was a full morning of racing with adult races going off before the children.  We arrived rather too early in the end and that put the only blot on an otherwise good morning out - they were hanging around waiting

Scootathon

Second Run

First Run

Today saw April take on her second triathlon.  She was somewhat nervous going into it, so was I on her behalf - it's almost worse than doing it yourself!  She hasn't had much time for training as we seem to have been very busy and then her bike spent most of the last week at the repair shop after she fell off it on Monday and managed to snap the brake lever off it - not good (she didn't half cry!).  Anyway, this was a good race for us in many ways as it was local and organised by people that April knows, a lot of the kids that she knows from the tri club were taking part alth

The Bike

Back to Transition

Run out with the Bike

Today marked an important event in the lives of both of our children, they completed their very first multisport events!  April has been saying that she wanted to do a triathlon since she was five years old, something about being like her mad mummy and Ryan was adamant that he wanted to take part too when he heard about the scootathon.  The children's races were the start of the weekend of racing organised by pacesetter events at the Rother Valley Country Park - The Rother Valley Triathlon Festival.  We all travelled down there nice and early to make sure we had time to get o

Getting out

Getting out

The Bike

Fun2Tri organise two excellent races each year starting from the Stratford upon Avon Leisure Centre. Both the Stratford 220 Trathlon and the Warwickshire Triathlon start in the pool there and follow the same course through the Warwickshire Countryside and along the River Avon.  The Straford 220 is the largest pool swim triathlon in Britain and is accompanied by a Triathlon Show where you can see and buy all manner of triathlon related kit.