day off

No training today. I felt a bit unwell, actually, which I suspect was just because I hadn't properly refueled after my cycle yesterday. I am feeling better now, though, which should be a good sign.

So no training to report, but I'll use the opportunity to say something about why I am doing this for Project Zambia, since quite a few people have asked. First and foremost, it's a great cause. We live a funny kind of existence as academics, often in a bit of a bubble. When we get a chance to actually serve others, to bring some of our abilities and learning to them, it's an opportunity that should be grasped. So when Gary Brankin told me about a group of students doing just that, by traveling to Africa and developing community education projects, I couldn't help but be interested. I have never visited Africa myself, and may never do so, but I have had many friends who have worked there and seen the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS. My brother cycled the length of the continent a few years ago and brought back stories to further ram home those observations. Project Zambia will change (and perhaps save) lives. The students who go out (who have, incidentally, given up a summer's employment and income, or a summer with family), will have an enormous impact on the young people with whom they work, in sports camps and in schools. So it's a great cause, and if I can help to raise a little bit of the necessary £25, 000 then I will be delighted.

So why the triathlon? Why cycle one of the toughest routes in the country, run the biggest mountain and then swim three miles? Why not some other fundraiser? The truth is, I am doing lots of training at the moment because I can. For several years I had joint problems that were steadily deteriorating, to the point where I honestly thought I was going to have to start walking with a stick. I saw GPs, surgeons and rheumatologists. We still don't know what the problem was: it may have been mechanical joint alignment, solved by the gel inserts that went into my shoes, or a metabolic or nutritional problem connected to the GI disorder I suffered from. Whatever the cause, the problem settled down and now I cycle, run and swim for the sheer joy of it, for the good pain that it involves. Maybe the bad pain will come back someday, but until it does, I'm going to enjoy feeling my heart beat at 197 beats a minute and my muscles screaming at me to stop climbing, to turn the bike around and go downhill. The triathlon is my way of being grateful for my mobility and health; it's a way of saying "thank you" by doing something meaningful with that health. I'm just glad that it has dovetailed so well with Project Zambia.

Click on the links at the top of the page to donate to the Project.