The Beginning

I started to experiment shortly after my "retirement" which really was a semi-quasi-half-baked retirement. No one told me when you retire, you stop training. My coach Dean Pugh and I decided to go for a few runs. My training was more about fun now so I would often come in and take a short 10km run rather than swim. Dean spoke to me at length many times about moving to triathlon always ending with "you need to seriously consider it," but I never committed to anything. Soon more people joined the pro triathlon chorus and I started to believe maybe I was ready to move on from swimming, maybe I could allow myself and this wouldn’t be a failure.

This was another thing that always stopped me. To not make it in swimming was a failure, to retire was quitting, and I don’t quit. It took me a long time to realise that I had been successful and I should be proud of my career. And moving to another sport, or another direction in life isn’t quitting if you are ambitious with your new direction and want to succeed just as much it is merely a transition, another arena for you to compete in.

So with this new found mindset, and the pressure from dean to make a decision, I had a one week deadline to make a final decision, I committed to triathlon, recreationally not an elite triathlete. It was more, I will try this, see if I like it for 6months then make a decision.

With this in mind I started running. About 30km a week, nothing too serious. I didn’t own a bike, couldn’t afford one yet, so we just continued to swim with some running chucked in there. One week into my program I decided to run 23km. The longest run I had ever done by 10km. I never did things by half measures, which would be a learning experience for me. I completed my run in 2hours, slow by professional running standards but I was happy, but at what cost? My 10year old shoes with no soles offered no support, my hips and ankles were shot. The extreme strain I put on these in turn destroyed my calves, I took the next 2 weeks off running and could barely walk for a couple of days.

Triathlon action plan #1: I went an bought some new shoes. Asics Keyano's; black silver and red for speed. And what a difference did that make! No ankle trouble, knees or claves! In my efforts to jumpstart my career I forgot two things. 1) I didn’t even have the basic tools to do it and 2) I hadn’t really run in 8 years, maybe I should ease into it.