The decks are now reasonably clear for my attempt at everesting in July.
Today was my first olympic distance triathlon. I enjoy really good health but haven’t felt great for a couple of days and woke at 5am this morning with a very sore throat, a blocked nose and an aching back. I did the only thing a man could do – I went to the triathlon anyway.
I put the wetsuit on, got into a pretty cold lake and began the swim. Almost immediately it became clear that it wasn’t going to work and I wasn’t going to shake it off – so I retired, ungraciously. The first time I have ever quit on something like that – I didn’t like doing it and I don’t want to do it again.
I’m really disappointed but there will be other triathlons, I’m sure. The only good news is that I can now start to think about training for my everesting, in ernest. Other posts have set out the plans but the training is a bit of an issue. It will be a long ride (something like 175 miles over about 20 hours or more), quite apart from the climbing (8848 metres).
How the heck do I train for something like that? That’s not an entirely rhetorical question – if anyone knows the answer I’d be grateful for guidance. Failing that, I assume it’s just a lot of cycling, both distance and hill reps. White Horse Hill here I come (again).
(an Old Man in Lycra) 