PE Lessons to Triathlon
As you know, I was like you both, I never enjoyed PE lessons at school and tried to avoid most of them. I suspect in my 5 years at secondary school I probably did 30 PE lessons max and I hated them all. So it surprises even me that I now try and run, cycle or swim every day.
When I was growing up the house wasn't a sporty one. Grampy was never into football so it was never on TV and barely discussed when I was a kid, perhaps only in the context of when granny knew some football players rather than because of the actual game itself. So I never played it and never developed any passion or interest in the game and I have passed that onto you both. This will be good and bad at times, depending upon what aspect you are looking at, but, hopefully its not a significant disadvantage for either of you.
I can remember being on bikes a lot when I was under 18. At one point I had two Choppers for doing my paper rounds. One had no brakes and I used to go down Avon Way on it. I think they're collectors items now and I wish I still had them.
I bought a bike again when I was 20 and living off Constitution Hill in Clifton and remember being scared looking at how steep it was and how fast I could get going down it. The first time I rode it I pushed it down the hill!
I never did any exercise really, drove a lot, drank and ate too much. Then I went for a health check for work aged around 35ish (2006/7ish) and the Doctor told me I was overweight. He said it was easier to take up running at 35 than it was at 45. So I tried to run. I remember running around Gloucester Road, where we were living at the time, and not being able to run for 20 minutes in one go.
I can't recall running becoming a regular thing, but eventually I decided to try and run a half marathon and started following a training plan with regular weekly running. That was in 2007 when I ran the Bristol Half Marathon. I still can't recall it being a significant hobby and in fact I think I found running a bit lacking in variety and boring at times.
It changed from boredom to enjoyment during the London 2012 Olympics and specifically watching the Brownlee brothers in the Triathlon (pictured here asking for my autograph in 2014).
As a a really young kid granny and grampy used to take me and my brother to swimming lessons. I remember getting the badges saying how far we'd swam and getting the life saving award badges for picking up bricks off the bottom of a pool. So I had a memory that 30 to 35 years before I was a good swimmer. On top of that, when you were both under 5 I tried to get you to the pool every week, so I didn’t feel like a stranger to swimming pools.
But as with running, when I went back to the pool and tried to swim 2 lengths, 50 meters, I was exhausted and out of breath. However, as you know from my blogs about swimming, I have improved my swimming efficiency so now I can do more, and I have regained that love of swimming and at the time of writing I regularly swim 1,000m a few times a week
But this is the thing that I find most appealing about Triathlon. Most people can do all 3 elements before they are 5 years old. It doesn’t have the same monotony as running, and its slightly kinder to your body and joints, the variety takes away from some of the unforgiving and relentless pounding of running.
I later found out that amateurs also race at the same event as professionals which is pretty cool. Plus its a really inclusive sport with all ages taking part, and without the exclusivity of some sports dominated by wealthy white people such as show jumping or skiing.
Plus it has less of a male advantage, as bigger muscle mass makes you a heavier runner and cyclist, which is a disadvantage all other things being equal. Swimming and cycling uphill is more advantageous to a leaner muscle mass woman in comparison to higher muscle mass men (but especially to overweight men!)
I did Portishead Triathlon on a mountain bike in 2013 and remember it feeling very hard. I changed my bike and did it again in 2014 taking nearly 30 minutes off my overall time, 2 minutes off my swim, 6 minutes off my run and even 3 minutes off transition because I was no longer sitting there dying and contemplating stopping.
I started Park Run in 2014 and continue to return when it suits me, including volunteering whenever I can.
I have added a new page to the site with some of the more formal race and events I have done plus my times and a link to my Park Run times.
And so the person who hated PE and wasn't into any sports has actually ended up spending the last 10 years regularly swimming, cycling and running. Improving my skill in all of them. Overcoming the challenges of injury. Fitting it into life and weight changes as well as balancing all the other calls on my time. Not something everyone can manage.
And this point comes back to one of my Quick Tips. It’s about change. We all tell stories about ourself. Like yours, mine was that I don’t like PE, hate football, therefore don’t like sport. But in fact that story is not quite correct.
Don’t be afraid to challenge or change those stories. Just because your current story is saying “I don’t like running” or “I will never go to the gym”. Don’t ever be afraid to totally reverse that and take up a form of exercise that suits you.
I would encourage you both to try and find some activity that you can do regularly each week. There are so many benefits that will flow to you if you do, and you don't need to have a love of PE to make this happen.
*** UPDATE 14/8/21 DAY AFTER BLOG ORIGINALLY POSTED ***
After posting this blog I did Portishead Triathlon for the 5th time. The last 2 years with work and lockdown have seriously disrupted by training, so the results were not great.
I started the swim and got overtaken by 2 people. That doesn’t really help your psychology.
The cycle involves 3 climbs equivalent to going from sea level to the top of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. They’re not pleasant. And cycling is my real weak spot. I bought a decent bike after the first time I did Portishead Triathlon and it made a difference, but some of the other gents there are changing gear sets and wheels. I do none of this and as a result take an hour to do the course that they can do in 45 minutes. Ultimately, if I am to improve my time there is no point in investing in swimming to gain an extra minute, I need to invest in the cycle. Other than that, I am a fast downhill cyclist (probably as a result of riding the Vespa and not being bothered about the sensation of speed on two wheels) but slower uphill!!
As I moved from to the run the fact that I have done no cardio exercise lasting more than an hour in the last 2 years caught up on me and I felt awful, but still managed to do the 5k, which also includes some unpleasant uphills. I could take 10 minutes off this time if I kept doing Park Run over the next year. Unlike cycling, I run faster uphill than other people, but its outweighed by being slower downhill! An annoying combo but you have to play the hand you're given.
But given that the Covid vaccines (Moderna) gave me some pretty significant heart pains and palpitations, and given that this and other illnesses over the last 2 years have taken some of my CV capacity, its pretty good that I even bothered doing it. So this is a benchmark. The test now is to do it next year when I am 50, and see what happens.
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