I'm a little concerned, something very strange happened to me that has never happened before...I think I may have enjoyed a swim session.

I've always been (and probably always will be) a average to poor swimmer, I blame my legs unbelievable desire to refuse to kick "from the hips" and instead prefer to flail about in a corkscrew fashion making them less than effective, in fact they probably are a significant disadvantage. Anyway back to the enjoying swimming, it was my second open water swim session with the club today (first one last sunday) having spent 2 seasons embarrassed at my inability to set the world alight with my swimming, anyway last week I think I enjoyed it but couldn't be sure so just had to make sure. Once I had convinced myself that it was highly unlikely that Henleaze lake contained either a) a shark, b) a crocodile and finally c) a mermaid (a half fish-woman...if that isn't petrifying I don't know what is) I hopped in with my shiny new-ish wetsuit that makes me look unusually like a seal and set about swimming. Roughly 2.5km later out I popped and the first thing I thought was "That wasn't a chore and I wish the session wasn't stopping now" I then had to quickly check that I wasn't delirious or dehydrated and then realised that this swimming malarky isn't all bad.

Onto more serious things I wish I didn't have to sleep...then I could actually get done everything that I need to do to a) get through medical school, b) fit in enough training to finish my first iron-distance race in august and c) not crawl under a rock and become a hermit. The problem is that my most recent passion (triathlon) and goal (The Outlaw in august) is beginning to impinge on my long term passion (medicine) and goal (becoming a doctor). I made a promise to my biggest fan (mother) that I wouldn't let triathlon get in the way of my studies, and I kept to that, I've always enjoyed training and going further than I thought I could, I've always found it an escape, it relaxes my brain and I can sort stuff out. However as I know that I need to up the volume it's becoming almost impossible to find enough hours in the day to get balance between work and training/play. I suppose it's a common problem for endurance athletes, but recently I've found getting up at 5:30 to get an hour run in before spending the hours of 8am til 6pm in hospital then trying to find time for another run and writing up notes, I find myself getting into bed past midnight then getting not really enough sleep to recover physically and mentally.

But I've set myself this challenge and things could be a lot worse and I have not right to whinge, it's just unfortunate that the summer sporting schedule (world cup + wimbledon + tour de france) is conspiring to push my time management skills to the limit.

Started off funny (or at least I think I was) and then got serious and whingey...rant over.

Happy training.

Been a while so thought I'd update a bit... Just started anaesthetics placement in Swindon, so upping sticks and relocating has allowed me a whole new area to explore while racking up the miles...would like there to be more miles racked up at this...

I woke up yesterday morning at around 6:30 to the dulcet sounds of rain against the window, that was not how i'd imagined the weather to be for this sportive a few days ago in the sunshine of bristol. i have to admit there was one point at about 7am ...

well it wasn't fun but i'm relatively pleased with the result. set out trying to be very disciplined and hold my pace at 7:40 (i hadn't decided on this beforehand, got 6 miles in at comfy pace and it happened to be 7:40...so stuck there.) first loop ...

so...it's not been a cracking week really. played in a rugby 7's tournament on sunday and broke my hand, 1st meta-carpal, non-displaced and straight and only a little crack so not too bad. then my sodding little brother gave me his cold which wouldn...