“Some people dream of success... while others wake up and work hard at it. “
~Author Unknown

So there I was incredibly proud of doing the Mold route. I even emailed Sue to tell her how I’d got on and where I’d had to push. This Ironlady had done the Oswestry route at the same time and assured me I’d made the right decision by not entering as yes, there were down hills but they were narrow with bends at the end so you couldn’t get the speed going down to get up the other side anyway that’s all a bit immaterial. What was significant was that she said she would never attempt two of the hills I’d failed on as they were too steep. So I checked my course and I’d taken a complete wrong turn. Despite still ending up in the right place I’d made things so much harder. Which in a way is good?

So all fired up I’ve had yet again another mixed week.

I’ve blasted my 3k route 19.47 and brought down my 5k to 41.09 yet again I haven’t done any swimming. My eating and drinking have been totally out of control and then there’s the cycling…..

I intended to do the Mold Sprint route yesterday but it was raining and windy. OK so it might be raining and windy for the event. I don’t actually mind rain and wind. Chirk was lashing down but I just thought from a safety point of view I might be better postponing it after all with 8 weeks to go there’s plenty of time to get it done weekly. I thought about going for a run. I thought about going to the gym and in the end did nothing.

I got up this morning all fired up raring to go and it was raining and windy again. Never mind bite the bullet. Thing is though what do you wear? I normally wear a short sleeved base layer. Last week I wore my long sleeved running top over the top. This morning I put my top layer of my 3 in 1 walking coat over the top. (Can’t you just feel an excuse coming on here?)

Off I popped feeling super confident and failed miserably.

I don’t know if it was because I had no expectations last week and everything was a bonus. Or because I’d talked myself into because I’d succeeded down the line on far harder hills than I’d failed on at the beginning, there were no excuses for not blasting the early ones. Or the rain. Or I was too hot. Or I’d eaten fried chicken and chips the night before. Whatever, I failed and I knew that going on was not an option.

So I turned around, went down the bypass and blasted 16miles in a different direction. Ok the hills weren’t as steep but they were pretty long. Similar to the Chirk course in fact. There were also two right turns at quite big roundabouts which has improved my confidence no end. I had a scary moment when approaching a junction. I had right of way but a skip lorry came hurtling towards me and had to screech to a halt. A cyclist got killed at that very same junction a couple of years ago. I don’t have any answers just the motorists be aware of cyclists. Talking of which since I have become a cyclist I really do think I have become a better driver by being more aware.

So the rules for this week – stick to the script and even though I’m not doing the Deva Diva’s I am going to attempt another open water session next Sunday.