A One Handed Blog

Kerry and I had our first triathalon training session on Sunday with TNT, OH MY GOD! I'm not quite sure what we've gone and signed ourselves up for…this is going to be hard work (I didn't realise just how out of shape I've got).

The first session started with swimming, now even when I had two hands front crawl wasn't exactly my favourite stroke, well try doing front crawl with only one hand! I'd practiced in our pool at home, but, that's quite different from swimming 30+ lengths in a full size pool. In time I'll improve my technique, but that was hard work.

After the swim and a lecture on nutrition we got on our bikes for a 50 min cycle ride…oh boy. I was cycling into the wind, using a mountain bike with off road tires and was having a hard time of it. I had people of all shapes, sizes and ages passing me. After heading out for 20 minutes I was probably the first to turn back (after resting for 5 minutes), not particularly impressive at all. I guess it can't get much worse.

Another challenge riding the bike is the pressure it puts on my stump, I used the attachment I have that I can lock closed and slide over the end of the handlebar (I've moved the brakes & gear changers all to one side). In a normal riding posture I put quite a bit of force leaning onto the handlebars and this is somewhat painful over time as it causes the bone at the end of my stump to press on the socket. I got talking to the head coach (Paul) afterwards and he recommended I look at getting a different setup where I can actually lean my forearm on the handlebars…so looks like I'll be shopping for a new bike now.

Given where I am today I would say this is the biggest challenge I've taken on (and I've done a few things over the years). But, it's all for a good cause so please do support me in raising $3,300 to help advance LLS's mission (check out my fundraising page).