Il qui ne fait rien fait la défectuosité

I have recently taken up learning (or re-learning) that most romantic of languages - French.

I was pretty good at the 'ooh, la, la' stuff at school following an exchange with Pierre who attended a school somewhere near Paris but, alas, the opposite sex took hold and I lost all my faculties. The art of speaking French was one of those casualties.

Anyway, my current studies are DVD-based and concentrate heavily on pronunciation and I learn whilst driving. The two words to concentrate on in the title of this week’s blog are ‘qui’ and ‘ne’. Apparently, these two words, when spoken one after the other, should be rolled together and pronounced as one word, not as two separate words – so in this example they should be pronounced as ‘keen’, not as ‘kee ne’. Fascinating stuff!

Throughout my school days I was never taught (or perhaps I was, but wasn't listening) that that was how it was pronounced, and now, over 20 years later, I have learnt something new - something so basic and elementary in the art of the French spoken language.

Same with triathlon. After all these years I am still learning the elementary stuff. Like how to run more efficiently or how to take the correct line in an open water swim. That’s why this sport is so consuming. You think you know what you’re doing but then, suddenly, you find out something new. It’s forever changing. Such fun!

Currently, I have been concentrating on my 'achilles heel' which is running (excuse the pun). I suppose I should know how to run. Well, yes, but how to run fast? Nope. Nowhere near the speed I need to be in order to achieve my aims. That’s why I am going back to basics and learning the elementary stuff, with the help of my coach Mark Kleanthous. If a 2:20 London Marathoner cannot get me to full speed then what hope do I have? I suppose I could ease off of the pies and beers – that would certainly help.

This week's training and racing went like this:-

Monday – club swim - intervals
Tuesday – rest day
Wednesday – bike - 10 mile time-trial at Milton Keynes with Jev and Graham (from Team MK), time 26:03 - again, well off my best but it was a different (and harder) course than normal
Thursday – run - drills (hops and skips) and warm up and warm down at 168bpm
Friday – run – 5K time-trial, time 21:25, Personal Best
Saturday – informal race – Brogborough, with my mates Alex and Paul - see pic below (Paul, me and Alex - he's the short guy on tip-toes!)



Sunday - rest day, supporting at the London Triathlon . It was great going back to where it all started for me, and it all got a bit phototastic.

Well done to Anne-Marie (aka 'the Chuffer') for a brilliant peformance, looking wonderful on the super-sexy Cervello Soloist! Here she is storming out on the run straight from the bike.



After the race, I popped along to catch up with a few of my old mates. First-up there's Peter, Maik and Stu (who came in second, first and third respectively).



Then there's Matt (who's done quite well playing rugby since he left school, apparently). He was there doing something on TV about the triathlon.



Finally, just for good measure, here's Joe, me and Adam lying on the grass whilst everyone is huffing and puffing running around Docklands.



My comments on the race could not go by without a Big-Up to my mate Dave Knight from Hillingdon Triathletes who finished in a magnificent 2:13:44, storming in at 48th place in the sub-2:30 wave. Well done, mate!

Next week it's more running with a couple of cycles and swims thrown in for good measure. I don't have a weekend race planned, but I might see if there is a local one which accepts late entries.

So, until the next installment, ‘au revoir’ (meaning goodbye, until we meet again). That’s another French phrase where the two words blend into each other to make a smooth, romantic sound. And, just in case you were wondering, the phrase in this week’s title is from a French proverb – ‘he who does nothing does ill’. A bit like training, really.

Cheers.

Colin