This weekend saw one of our Swim Squad swimmers take on his first ever triathlon – at the West Lancs Sprint Triathlon.
An amazing moment for him.
Background
His triathlon journey started earlier this year when he was inspired by a friend of his, who raced his first triathlon. Let’s call this friend Elliot. And ‘Elliot’ did his first triathlon because he came to some of our open water swim sessions last year and was inspired by many of our other athletes. And so it goes. Athletes inspiring athletes.
Anyway, this athlete raced his first triathlon this weekend.
“I’m on cloud nine Bryan. Couldn’t have done it without your help and all of the positivity around the squad. That’s definitely helped me massively. Honestly I’m absolutely over the moon. Never been part of a club or competed in anything so the feelings very new. What’s next?”
He couldn’t swim very well at all at the beginning of the year but was determined to improve. He started coming to our Monday evening technique sessions. He also came to our open water development group and then progressed to our regular open water swim groups. If you watched him now, you would notice that his swim is smooth and strong.
Along the way, he asked me to produce a training plan for him, something he could follow that would give him structure and make sure he was ready for his race – which I gladly did. He was really disciplined and followed the plan religiously over the past 10 or 12 weeks.
During this process, he could see improvements during training, which motivated him to keep going. He began to believe in himself and his ability.
How was he feeling prior to the race?
“Thanks so much Bryan. Feeling very confident going into it all because of your training plan, motivation and belief.”
The Race
He originally entered this race and submitted a 14 minute swim time for a 400m swim (that’s how little confidence he had in his swim!). His original plan was to get through the swim as best he could.
However, by the time of the race, his swimming had improved so much – he had loftier goals.
Today, he swam an amazing 8 minutes for his 400m, which was the 163rd fastest swim of the day (out of 484) and in the top 30%. Not bad for somebody who struggled to swim 50m back in March!
Awesome!
His bike was strong and solid and felt good.
And then the run. A 26 minute 5k run (big personal best) to finish the race.
No wonder he’s on Cloud Nine!
This athlete joins a line of other athletes who have followed one of our customised training plans, plans designed for each athlete, to take account of their life, their training time, their starting points and their goals. The plans are lower cost than full-on coaching, giving an athlete structure and guidance without the feedback, communication and accountability of coaching.
I think this is just the beginning for this athlete. He’s been bitten by the triathlon bug.
I predict a busy and successful race calendar in 2024!
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