The Lee Valley Duathlon

"I'll be coming to the gig, but I'll need to take it easy though as I'm racing a few days later"

I am not sure how it all happened, but I found myself saying the above phrase out loud on Saturday over a few beers. A few years ago the quickest that I moved was to catch a train if I was running late, or last orders if the pub was closing.

Late last year after some cycle touring and a couple of really quite long rides, I started running again with the express intention of entering the London Triathlon in 2014.Whilst my fitness has been growing, I have started to find myself a little daunted by the whole finish-get-changed-try-another-sport-straight-after part.This is usually referred to as transition.

I'm one of those people with little, or no,sense of direction. When under pressure I often take the wrong turn. Worse than that however is the inability to locate items such as keys and a bicycle helmet when they are in the flat. After seeing the transition area at the Hyde Park Triathlon last year I am genuinely concerned that I'll:

a) never find my bike
b) never find my way out

With that in mind I started looking for small/short multisport events that are close enough for me to get to without having use the term 'logistics' to describe getting there

To this end I now find myself entered in the Lee valley Duathlon. It is a relatively straightforward 2km run/5km bike/2km run mostly contained in a park 6km from my house. At present there are only 15 entrants, so I should be able to spot my bike with ease. Even if that is because afterthe 2km run it'll be the only bike left in the transition area.

I've started looking at some quicker pacing and maybe doing a trial run using the bike rack outside the flats as a transition area. I don't normally put on cycling gear for a journey this short - I'd take the brompton.

As the conversation in the pub turned to the perceived lunacy of any absolutely non essential exercise, David piped up.

"You're not  doing it naked are you? Or is that something else?"

You could have heard a pin drop