It has been an interesting few days, with a couple of firsts for me.

Ahead of the Cotswold Super Sprint this coming Sunday (9th May), I wanted to get a first open water swim in a wetsuit under my belt. So equipped with my new Orca Sonar wetsuit (thanks to the ever-helpful chaps at TBAS in Swindon) I headed to Lake 32 at the Cotswold Water Park.

Aside from the obvious small shock of the cooler temperature, the swim itself was great and I completed about 2000m before I had to call it a day due to the boats taking over the lake. The practice gave me a good opportunity to practise sighting and getting used to the buoyancy of the wetsuit. Still slightly wary of what it will be like to be in the thick of the melee at the start, but at least I know the swim part holds no fear for me.

Then on bank holiday Monday came my second 'first' of the week. After coming close a few times, I finally beat the 100km in-a-day cycle barrier, with an enjoyable ride from Bristol to Monmouth and back. Would have perhaps taken less than 4.5 hours had I not already done 85km on the TT bike on Saturday and a set of Bricks on Sunday, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Some very pretty views and villages and thankfully we missed the worst of the weather.

Just a shame the ride was interrupted by my first-ever puncture just ten minutes or so from the finish line! At least it was a properly dramatic one, with a big bang and then a steady hiss of escaping air.

So a good week of training and now I have Sunday to look forward to. See you on the start line!