300m by the end of January

That's the goal. I checked out the triathlon programme, and I'm aiming for early next year. The More FM triathlon sounds about right - a 300m swim, 10km cycle and 3.5km run. The 10km cycle and 3.5km run will be sprints for me by that point. They're the same distance as the Special K duathlon back in April. So all my energy needs to go into getting the swim down.

I'm not quite sure where I'll be doing the event yet. Hamish's father is planning to have his 60th birthday in Bannock Burn at the end of January, and the Porirua triathlon is on 28 January. If we do end up in Central Otago for the Porirua event I'll do the Wanaka event instead, which is on 3 February. The only thing I need to get my head around is swimming in the lake. It's not the lake itself that scares me. I'm sure a calm lake will be easier than a rough Porirua Harbour. It's the idea of being in the freezing water that gets me. I'm thinking a wetsuit may definitely be needed, but I don't want to have to waste that time in transition.

In the meantime, I headed back to to the pool today for another practice, dragging Hamish along with me. We got there around 5, and to my delight the aqua jogging lane was completely empty. Not wanting to waste my opportunity I skipped the aqua jogging warmup and did six lengths with a kickboard before practicing my new drill - swimming on my side with one arm on the board.

I swam backwards and forwards between the half-way ladder and the shallow end of the pool, first one side, then the other. It still felt weird having only one ear in the water, and I had to keep reminding myself to look forward. Every time it started to feel awkward I told myself to drop my head to lift my mouth out of the water. Invariably, if I also dropped my shoulder and relaxed my arm on the kickboard then my hips would lift and suddenly I would start to fly down the lane.

I'm not going to say this stuff feels natural yet. Although my kicking style's quite good I can tell that I'm going to have to work really hard to get my breathing right. Lesleigh and I have another lesson some time this week (yet to be organised). Once she's taught me how to actually stroke I'll be at the pool every chance I can get.

I had to get out earlier than I would have liked today, as Hamish was sitting there waiting for me. I joined him in the spa for a while and we had fish and chips for dinner. Grease - an essential part of every budding triathlete's diet!