Fat Girl to Ironman

18 July 2016

Monday Morning Motivation – Strive

I love Strava’s latest campaign: Strive Being an athlete is simple. It doesn’t matter how fast you are, how many races you win, or if you even race at all. All that really matters, all you have to do, is just be… be on the road be on the trail be relentless be daring be a teammate be happy be...

Categories Cycling/Motivation/Running/Swimming Comment: 1

15 July 2016

HOWL aquathlon

I didn’t enter the HOWL aquathlon until the day before the event as I wanted to be sure that my chest infection had cleared up. I was feeling more confident that my swim would be OK as I survived 1.9k in the sea in Tenby. Triathlons are off-limits as I’m a bit nervous about cycling with others that I don’t...

Categories Running/Swimming Comment: 1

13 July 2016

Long Course Weekend: Run

Following the sportive, Stu, Roelie and I went out for something to eat. I didn’t really have the energy to eat anything, but managed to force down a falafel as I knew I’d need the energy. We then headed back to the hotel for an early night. Our room was much less cluttered as our bikes had been locked away...

Categories Running/Triathlon Comments: 0

13 July 2016

Long Course Weekend: Bike

I didn’t sleep well last night – possibly because of the adrenaline coursing around my body after the swim and also because I was really nervous about the bike ride. I can’t fault the hotel – for the first time ever, we managed to stay in a hotel that didn’t seem to have a big event on the night before...

Categories Cycling Comments: 0

13 July 2016

Some turbo trainer basics

My most popular ever blog post is My first ever turbo trainer session. I wasn’t sure why it has become so popular, so I decided to analyse the search terms that people have entered that have led them to this post. The top results could be categorised as follows: Turbo training/cycling/Duathlon for weightloss turbo trainer workouts weight loss cycle turbo...

Categories Cycling Comments: 4

11 July 2016

Monday Morning Motivation – Ernestine Shepherd

Too often, people think that you should lower your expectations as you age. Sure, you may not beat PBs that you set at a younger age, but that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve great things (and in terms of running, age grading is a wonderful thing!) I first read about Ernestine Shepherd in 2015. She is a truly remarkable lady...

Categories Motivation Comment: 1

9 July 2016

This Girl Can – 18 months on

If you haven’t heard about the Sport England This Girl Can advertising campaign, where have you been? It has been 18 months since the campaign was launched. In that time, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about issues facing sporty women. The main criticism of the This Girl Can campaign that I’ve heard is that although the women in...

Categories Cycling/Motivation/Running/Swimming/Triathlon Comments: 3

9 July 2016

Long Course Weekend: Swim

This weekend, Stuart and I headed off to Tenby for the Long Course Weekend with a couple of friends, Roelie and Sergio. Originally, I intended to train for the full weekend as a precursor to doing my first Ironman next year. I’ve swum the distance before and have completed 5 marathons, but I’ve only cycled 100 miles (rather than 112...

Categories Swimming/Triathlon Comments: 0

8 July 2016

10 of the best sportswear brands for female triathletes

In the last few years, lots of women-specific sportswear brands have appeared, and it’s great that women now have a wide choice of clothing, so that whatever your size or style, there will be something to suit you. Here are some of the coolest kits I’ve seen online. Soas Racing Zoot Sports Coeur sports Oiselle Smash Betty Designs Primal  ...

Categories Kit Comments: 0

7 July 2016

2014 vs. 2015 vs. 2016

It was so exciting to receive my 2016 SOAS Ambassador kit. I’ve shared some pictures on social media, but haven’t had a chance to blog about it until now. Here’s the full kit: Last year, one of the ambassadors made a fantastic video to showcase the new kit: My Facebook/Instagram/Twitter feeds have been full of the other ambassadors using their...

Categories Cycling/Kit/Running/Triathlon Comments: 4