Steve's bit!!

Thoughts and reflections of my 7 in 7 week (or more accurately 9 in 9!!)

I’ll explain the 9 in 9 bit first.

In a nutshell, I found out about a week before we were due to kick off that I couldn’t get the Monday or Tuesday off work to do the Boskman and the New Forest Middle and on top of that I had to go back to work on Thursday and Friday after doing the OLT and the New Forest Standard Tri. In fact Wednesday was the only mid-week day I could get off. That was not a nice experience for me after an awful amount of preparation for this challenge. So a quick rethink was in order. After speaking with Richard we agreed that I would do the first 2 Tri’s on Sat and Sunday, and then pick up the rest of the week with the rest of the team from Wednesday onwards.

That was OK, but I didn’t feel comfortable ‘having 2 days off’ when the challenge was supposed to be 7 Triathlons in 7 days. So Monday evening after work I did the Salisbury Tri course, and Tuesday I did a 3-mile/10-mile/3-mile duathlon.

That made me feel a whole lot better!!!!!!!!!!!


It wasn’t until Wednesday that I really felt like I was a member of the group when all 4 of us met up together to start the Swashbuckler, and after a good solid bike I ran the whole distance since it was flat.

Thursday and Friday were again good solid days spoilt only by having to shoot off to work as soon as I had finished each one.

On Saturday I decided to push the pace more on the course, having had enough of the measured approach and just wanting to stretch my legs a bit. That did feel good. Then after meeting up with everyone to talk though the Forestman day it was home to get everything ready and rest.

After a long week I felt unnervingly good on the morning of the Forestman, champing at the bit to get going as it's such a long day, and with no expectations for any ‘time’ but just wanting to finish.
‘That’ swim with Richard was good, despite having a major coughing fit for almost the entire second lap with what felt like a bit of weed stuck across and in my mouth (causing me to nearly puke up all over Richard!!!!)  57 mins was not bad. I did muck about with the pace a bit, but no sooner had I gained half a meter, Richard was back up next to me (and his hand is mashed up from a bad fall a few weeks ago, amazing)

Then it was on to the bike after a fairly slick transition. Nothing much to report on the bike really, felt strong all the way round. I had two ‘minders’ to keep my pace steady (averaged 19.7 mph for the 112 mile).

And finally, on to the run. Normally my nemesis in any Triathlon, but after this week, and the weeks leading up to the 7 in 7, something had changed, having felt on every day like I was using someone else’s legs for the run.
The first 10 miles or so I felt pretty good but things did decline from there onwards. I still managed a 4:35 ish run. My overall time for the Forestman was 11:19. A time I will always feel incredibly proud of, especially after a week of Triathlons leading up to it.

A few statistics by my calculations and timings
Swim total 8.25 miles @ average pace of 25 mins/mile
Bike total 362 miles @ average pace of 18.8 mph
Run total 86.4 miles @ average pace of 10 min/mile
All include the transitions, quite a few of which were a tad leisurely
Total time 37 hours 39 mins

Finally a few thankyou’s.

• Tony Derbyshire – Top Nutritionist expert
• Paul Earley – Boskman bike domestique
• Sam Pociecha – New Forest Half swim buddy and bike domestique
• Chris Newton and Anthony Edwards - My two training buddies on bike rides, who have bullied me round countless rides to bring my bike riding up to where it is now.
• Chris and Anthony also for accompanying me on the Forestman ride.

Thanks guys.

Richard Iles for letting me take part. Thanks mate!!!

And last but by no means least – my wife Jo, without whom I couldn’t have even started this challenge.

 She has shown unwavering confidence in me “and my stupidity”!!!!!!! What? Not only throughout the week but leading up to it as well. Has supported me every day of the challenge, whilst still doing her own job (on the OLT run whilst riding next to me as I ran, she was on her mobile phone fending off her boss’s enquiries as to her whereabouts, and also conducting meetings)

Fed me all the right food, massaged my legs every evening.

Shouted at all four of us whilst "goose stepping" around the lake car park as we were preparing to start the swims, telling us she had a job to get to so we had to get a move on and stop faffing about.

Sacrificed her own training in the process (she’s a top triathlete in her own right, regularly qualifies for the GB squad as an age grouper and nearly always wins her age group in any race she enters, so those of you who compete at that level will appreciate how difficult that was for her)

And looked after our three kids.

And finally thanks to every one who has sponsored and /or supported us through this epic week

So the first two Tri’s were pretty slow and steady with some extreeeeeeeemly long transitions, and I had made the decision to walk up any hills instead of running up since it was going to be a long week. (Amazingly for me I felt so good on those first two runs I had to ‘make’ myself walk up and hills, resisting the urge to keep running)!!!!!!!!!!