My first bike. When do the stabilisers come off?

During last year’s Ironman 70.3 in Galway I beat a colleague in the swim leg by two minutes. I also beat him by another two minutes on the run. But on the cycle leg, I had my ass handed to me on a plate when he was faster than me by more than 23 minutes. 23 minutes!

That hurt. It was the difference of more than 250 places! And it hurt. On the bike leg alone, he was more than 700 places faster than me, out of a total of 1500 competitors. I thought I could hold my own on the bike. Clearly not. My bike leg was crap! I was crap.

So was it the bike, the course or the weather? I could blame any of these elements, and to an extent I did, but one of the things that seemed to separate us most was that he had a time-trial carbon bike, I didn’t. Will at least, that’s what I put it down to.

So my carbon bike research began less than a week after the race. Quite what I was looking into I didn’t know. Search after search was carried out. New bike. Second-hand bike. Road bike. Time-trial bike. Clinchers. Tubular. But there was only thing that any search brought very quickly to the fore. Carbon bikes are not cheap. Now of course, the word cheap is relative. When talking carbon bikes, nothing exists under four figures.

So the debate, dilemma, issue, or more pertinently internal rationalisation has moved to whether to the next level: to spend or not to spend. The bike has been identified. I have even seen in the flesh. I just need to rationalise spending a lot more than €1,000 on it.

23 minutes isn’t a very long time. And how much is the much is the bike going to be help? I guess there is only one way to find out. Isn’t there?

Michael Phelps isn't losing any sleep.

Swim Tuesday. Run Tuesday. Swim Friday. Swim Saturday. Run Saturday. Cycle Sunday. That is the training schedule for Piranha triathlon beginners. That, for the moment, is the aim. That, for the moment, is nowhere near where I am.

Getting back into training after a few months is always tough, but two 7am swims a week is a completely different wake up, in every sense of the word. Add in a 50 metre pool and the challenge just intensifies.

The running and cycling training will take a back seat for now.

Swimming has always been my weakest discipline in triathlon. So any form of training was going to help. But this training is different to anything done before. Last year I just wanted to survive any swims. Get comfortable swimming 1500 metres, and during any race – survive.

Now though, training isn’t just about swimming lengths. Endurance is only one part. Speed another. But technique is currently the main focus. That means drill after drill after drill. Kick-only. Arms only. Breathing drills. The swimming stroke feels almost as complicated as a golf swing! But that’s not going to stop me. Yet.

I have taken to training with no little amount of enthusiasm, if at the moment still lacking that much sought after technique. The only consistency so far has been the speed I move backwards during each training session. At least after three weeks training I have now been moving back with less speed. But still moving backwards.

So the early morning swims have proven testing and hard, but also fruitful so far. Just have to latch on the cycling and running sessions. Now that should be fun!