Andrew and I both entered this year’s Celtman, He has detailed his training on this blog. I prefer to not write about training. That way when I drop out of an event, I don’t have to tell anyone!

I abandoned my place a few months ago but unlike Andrew it was not due to Swimming. I live in a different council area than Andrew. I have been able to swim throughout the pandemic as there is a loch near me.

I abandoned as I’ve struggled for time to train properly. I was training well until March but since then I’ve lost 7 week due to injury and another 4 weekends due to a family bereavement. I only had limited free time so I abandoned bike training and stuck to running as it was easy to fit into my week

I knew I could do the swim and run but I would have hated every second of the bike leg. Every awful second of It would have been mentally draining so I dropped out to save my sanity.

We prebooked accommodation for the Celtman weekender. I didn’t want that to go to waste so Mrs Twinbikerun and I drove up north and enjoyed a race free weekend in Torridon. I had my swim, bike and run gear with me just in case I had a last minute change of heart BUT thankfully the injury fairy visited me the night before we left and gifted me an injured elbow!

I couldn’t bend my arm properly or put weight on it for the whole weekend. Which is very annoying when trying to fall asleep as I struggled to find any position that did not make my elbow sore.

I’ve no idea how the injury happened, My wife suspects it was a new extendable dog lead she purchased. That week I’d walked my dogs with it for the first time. Thankfully I’d made the decision to drop out before getting the injury. Imagine having to drop out because of a dog walk! I’d be gutted.

I’ll enter next year and see what happens. If I do get in, hopefully i have more luck and don’t get injured so often! I’ve had more injuries this year than the last 20 years.