Sevenoaks Tri... what a fab race!

Trigirl votes today's Sevenoaks Sprint Triathlon as her all time favourite race... so far at least. She completed the course (400m swim / 25K bike / 8k run) in 1:58:16.

And why was it so good? Firstly the course was very interesting - the bike ride was varied with challenging hills, technical bits and a few fast downhills, and the run was in a park full of deer; secondly the organisation was surperb with lovely finishing touches, such as race numbers with names on them; and thirdly the goody bag was really cool.

dizzy

Trigirl feels dizzy today and has done on and off for some time. It improves when she takes multivitamin and mineral tablets. What is happening? Is it an electrolyte imbalance?

Near vertical climb

Trigirl plucked up the courage to cycle up a near vertical hill near her house today.

She had been scared to attempt it on her road bike because she thought that she wouldn't be able to get her feet out of her cleats quickly enough if she needed to stop. Since M accompanied Trigirl on her ride today, Trigirl felt more courageous because Trigrl knew that M would have rescued her had it been necessary.

M was very impresed at Trigirl's abilities.

Trigirl is wondering whether she should boast to Cycle Chick G (who does not go up this hill because she thinks it's too hard).

chilled

Trigirl has been too chilled to write her blog.

Swiss mountain after mountain

Trigirl and family have been up and down the Swiss mountains - Rigi today, Titlis (with snow) a few days ago. Weather beautiful.

Switzerland!

Here are the two Junior Trigirls near the summit of Mount Brunni, Switzerland.

a triathlon at age 8

While practising her cycling with Trigirl, JuniorTrigirl 1 told Trigirl for the second time that she wants to do a triathlon when she is eight.

Trigirl and family watched one of the ITU World Championship Series triathlons on tv today. Junior Trigirl 1 was rather excited that the winner, Alistair Brownlee, is British.

vroom!

Brands Hatch, one of the UK's premier motor sports racing circuits opened its doors this evening to cyclists, inclduing Trigirl and Cycle Chick G (pictured left, just prior to the 'apres ride') . What fun!

Trigirl did 15 laps of 1.2 miles each.

Lurveelly pictures

The Junior Trigirls did these lurveellly pictures for Trigirl yesterday while she was on a one-hour phone call to her 'work friends'. Trigirl did not hear a peep out of the kids for the whole time, so they were rewarded with stickers and sweeties.

The fun of school hols

The Junior Trigirls are very lucky because Trigirl is keeping them very busy in the school holidays. It has been yet another day of fun, fun and yet more fun.

Here is Junior Trigirl 2 showing off her prowess in today's trampolining class.

Trigirl tries running club

Having had mild post-race depression (ie no desire to exercise, can't be bothered to cook or eat healthily, but otherwise OK) for the last week or so, Trigirl felt better today and decided it was time to start exercising again. She realised Tuesday night is running club night, and she has always wanted to give the club a try, so she ran down the road to join in for the first time ever. She ran in a group of about twenty. It was great to be with so many like-minded people.

London again

The Junior Trigirls and friends Z and Z in the V&A today. Trigirl loved Princess Diana's pearl-encrusted dress. The kids loved these statues with full anatomical details, including, ahem, bottoms.

And afterwards in McD's.

yawn

Trigirl is tired. She worked until 2am this morning.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Birthday, Dad! Your cards from the Junior Trigirls are scanned below. Unfortunately, Trigirl forgot to post them. You will get the originals...

(CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE ENLARGED)

More London Tri pics

From last Sunday's race:

Wetsuit about to come off... feeling relaxed on the bike... 50m from the finish line in the Excel Arena.

(CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER VIEW)

strum, strum, strum

This is the sound of Trigirl strumming her fingers on the desk waiting for the so called 'instant' download of her London Tri photos, which she paid for two hours ago. She has fired off a snotty email to the photographer.

Give a big hand to the puppet theatre!

The Junior Trigirls had a lovely time today creating a homemade puppet theatre. Here they are with their puppets - a mermaid princess and a mother and baby dolphin.

They had two stage sets, tickets and seating. They devised various plays for the audience consisting of Trigirl and a collection of soft toys, including two unicorns and a sheep. A very creative day... and all totally their own idea.

Trigirl: London Tri 2009 finisher!

Trigirl put her months of training to the test today by completing the London Triathlon 2009 in 2:59:13. For the first time, she raced at Olympic distance, comprising:

swim 1500m in 41:14
bike 40K in 1:20:27
run 10K in 48:28

She is really pleased that she managed to sneak in under the three-hour mark, and is delighted with her 10K run time - a pb!

Above, the first pictures: Trigirl in her wetsuit on her way to splashsdown in the murky waters of the London Docks, swimming to the start line, and the photoshoot just after the finish line with her biggest fans. (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR ENLARGED VIEW)

DOINNNG!

Trigirl took the Junior Trigirls to one of their favourite summer holiday activities today: a trampolining lesson.

Teaching Swimmingman a healthy eating lesson

The Junior Trigirl's returned home today. In a bid to make Swimmingman eat more healthily, they hid all his unhealthy stuff - about 5 packets of butter, loads of chocolate, and Junior Trigirl 2's Quavers (which he likes to steal). The Trigirls have been hiding sweets from Swimmingman for a long time.

Swimmingman is always starving when he gets home from work. He found Junior Trigirl 2's Quavers and was about to take some, but instead the kids got him an apple and then some yogurt with muesli.

Up with the lark, swimming like a fish

M and Trigirl went down to the leisure centre at 6:30am (!) this morning. Spinning then swimming!

Trigirl took her wetsuit and M gave her some extra tips on putting it on and taking it off (not easy).

Indian delicacies

Trigirl is just about to go and meet Swimmingman. They are taking advantage of the fact that the Junior Trigirl's are at Grandma and Grandad's by going to their favourite Indian restaurant. It is a real trek - it will take Trigirl nearly two hours to get there - but it is really worth it.

embarrassingly filthy

Trigirl cleaned her bike today. It was filthy. She was quite embarrassed by it when she went riding with Cycle Chick G this morning.

"Girls are gooder"

Having seen some nasty little boys, and having thought about it for half an hour, seven-year-old Junior Trigirl 1 uttered the immortal words: "Girls are gooder."

She is so right.

Although she did think there were one or two exceptions.

Here she today, being 'gooder', guarding Trigirl's shopping.

wetsuited up

Trigirl has put on a few pounds since she last wore her wetsuit in August 2008, so she decided to try it on today. It fits! Yayyy!

She needs it for the London Triathlon in about ten days.

Fastest 20K bike

Trigirl did her fastest ever 20K bike ride yesterday: 47 minutes.

First ever visit to the circus

The circus was at the Junior Trigirls' school today. The whole family went. This was Trigirl's first ever visit to the circus. She liked the bed of nails man best.

longest swim... in her whole life...ever

Trigirl did a 10x200m swim, plus a 200m warmup, which makes a grand total of 2200m. She has never, ever swam this far ever before. She is very proud of herself for swimming such a long distance and it didn't even seem hard, but she was not that fast - the 10x200m took exactly one hour.

Trigirl is celebrating...

... seven years of being a Mum. It is her special day too. Here is Swimmingman (looking very slim) on 13th July 2002 holding Junior Trigirl 1.

Happy 7th Birthday, Junior Trigirl 1!

Junior Trigirl 1 decided to celebrate her birthday by going swimming and having a pizza (followed by Trigirl's homemade birthday cake) at a local restaurant. She also had to go to school, where she had a good day because she did "no boring maths."

On the back seat of the bus to the pool - (l to r): Junior Trigirl 1, her friend S, and Junior Trigirl 2.

The cake was iced just before school!

PARTY!

Trigirl has worked like a dog to get everything ready for the Junior Trigirls' birthday party (who both have their birthday in July). The sun shone and a great time was had by all.

Trigirl's very wonderful Mum made the fabulous castle cake shown above

75 chocolate rice krispie cakes

Trigirl has made 75 mini chocolate Rice Krispie cakes for the Junior Trigirls' birthday party, which is tomorrow. They are deee-licious!

She is working like a dog, tidying, cleaning, cooking, filling party bags etc

Recipe: Chocolate Rice Krispie (or Cornflake) Cakes

Ingredients
50g Butter
100g dark (preferably 85%) chocolate, broken into small pieces
5 tbsp golden syrup
80g Rice Krispies or cornflakes

Method
1. Place the butter and the chocolate pieces in a saucepan with the golden syrup. Slowly melt over low heat, stirring. When the mixture is well blended, stir in the cornflakes.

2. Place some small paper cake cases on a tray. Fill each one with a heaped tablespoon of the mixture. Put in the fridge to set.

Junior Trigirl 2 is officially 'sweet'

It must be true because Mrs G, the headmistress, says this in her school report.

Letter from Monaco

Trigirl was very suprised (and excited) to receive a letter from Monaco today. It turned out to be from M and Ironman and it contained this postcard of the Tour de France, which started in Monaco.

They were there and hobnobbed with various cycling greats and local royalty.

9x200m swim

Trigirl did a timed 9x200m swim in the pool today. This is the longest swim she can ever remember doing.

For the record, it took her 52 minutes and 2 seconds (including 30 second breaks after every interval).

Sam, we will always remember you

Every year on this day Trigirl tries and fails to avoid the news. This is a sad day for her because it is the anniversary of the death of her friend, Sam Badham, who died in the London bombings on 7th July 2005. On this day each year, the tv and radio are filled with stories about the bombings and it just makes Trigirl feel upset.

Sam was probably the most bubbly and full-of-life person that Trigirl has ever met. She was also extremely kind and generous. The world is most definitely a poorer place without Sam.

c'est delicieux!

M has just given Trigirl a heart-shaped tin of chocolate covered nougat pieces from Maxim's. Deeelicious! And the tin is really cute too.

M thought that she should give Trigirl a special thank you for helping her out while she was in France, but Trigirl hardly had to go out of her way to help M, so she didn't mind in the least.

What lucky children!

(Click on the collage above to see it large.)

The Junior Trigirls have had a day filled with fun, fun and yet more FUN. In the morning, they were at dancing lessons, at lunchtime at the funfair and in the afternoon they were playing in the garden.

Trigirl managed to squeeze in her bit of fun - she went cycling at 6am (!) with Cycle Chick G.

Trigirl waited and waited

Trigirl spent nearly an hour at the leisure centre today booking next term's swimming lessons for the Junior Trigirls. Much of the time was just spent queuing, waiting for the receptionist to process the two people in front of Trigirl.

Trigirl pities the people who were waiting behind her. By the time she had finished, the queue was going right out of the door.

Trigirl is treated to another school sports day

And here is Junior Trigirl 1 (yellow top, in foreground) on her way to helping the yellow house win the year 2 and 3 sports day.

Happy 5th Birthday, Junior Trigirl 2!

Junior Trigirl 2 invited her identical twin friends, C and E, for a birthday tea (see middle picture).

The last picture shows Junior Trigirl 2 playing with one of her birthday presents - a dalmation dog dressing up suit. Just right for one of the hottest days of 2009!

Sports Day just aint want it used to be

Here is Junior Trigirl 2 in action on Sports Day at school. It is not how Tirgirl remembers it from her childhood. Where are the three-legged races, sack races, egg and spoon races or even just running races? These days schools worry about health and safety and everyone being a winner. The best race was 'dress a clown'.

Sisterly love

Ahhh, how sweet! Here are the two Junior Trigirls having a cuddle after their bath today.

Girls just love shoes!

The Junior Trigirls wanted new party shoes as birthday presents, and they got them in the sales yesterday. They love them.

Junior Trigirl 1 is modelling her shoes above, but Junior Trigirl 2 was too busy to have her photo taken, so Junior Trigirl 1 had the brilliant idea of simply placing her pink shoes in the picture.

Trigirl does not think she would have been pleased with shoes as a birthday present when she was a little girl.

First specs for Junior Trigirl 2

Poor Junior Trigirl 2 got her first pair of glasses today. They are pink. She doesn't like them. Not many people know that the Tooth Fairy has a cousin called the Glasses Fairy. She is paying Junior Trigirl 2 a visit tonight.

Gym babe

Junior Trigirl 2 is extremely happy because she has had her long-anticipated first gymnastics lesson today. She has been begging Trigirl for months to take her to the classes. Trigirl finally gave in when she realised that she and Junior Trigirl 1 could go swimming at the same time. Other than this one big success, pretty much everything had gone slightly awry for Trigirl today. Trigirl will treat herself to a soak with her new bath bomb tonight.

Gifts galore!

Trigirl was showered with presents yesterday:

1. A crossword book from her Dad (he said it was a little known fact that it was Daughter's Day)


2. A bath bomb from her Mum


3. Home grown veg from her Mum and Dad (YUM, YUM!)


4. Flowers from M (pictured above)

Trigirl says a big THANK YOU to Mum, Dad and M. Apart from the veg, all were a complete surrpise.

Trigirl started working on her first crossword before going to bed last night - she likes doing that at the end of the day. Now that she has a whole book of crosswords, she can allow her Dad to do the one in her newspaper when he is visiting!

She is looking forward to having a fragrent bath with the bomb (great idea, Mum! And very thoughtful. It will go down a bomb).

She is also very pleased with the flowers. If she didn't seem very excited at the time, it was because she was very surprised to receive them. They, and all the other presents, really made her day.

Trigirl writes while she bikes

Trigirl performed an amazing trick yesterday evening. She managed to rewrite something while cycling!

She had started this particular piece of work for her client on the train and hadn't finished it. While out on her bike, she wasn't consciously even thinking about it, but a better way of writing it entered her mind as if by magic. As soon as she got hime, she scribbled down all her ideas as quickly as she could, then she jumped into the shower and rushed off to her pilates class.

Later in the evening, she sat down and typed out her piece properly. And it was good.

Workingirl

Trigirl went on a business trip to London today. She was visiting T, her 'work friend' (as the Junior Trigirls would say). Here is T finishing his picnic lunch.

T and Trigirl get on well and even share their packets of sandwiches - he chose tofu and she picked egg, so they had half each.

She doesn't think T is going to be very pleased with this picture. In the flesh, he is a good-looking guy!

Junior racing pride

Junior Trigirl 1 is EXTREMELY proud of her medal from yesterday's race and took it to school today to 'show and tell'. She insisted on wearing it on the bus on the way home, and showed it to several of the other passengers.

Trigirl is slightly taken aback at the depth of her feeling. She has done races and got medals before, but has never seemed quite so pleased as this.

Racingirls (and boy)

Junior Trigirl 2 took this lovely photo of Trigirl, Swimmingman and Junior Trigirl 1 with their medals from the Orpington 10K race and the 2K Family Fun Run.

Trigirl and Swimmingman are extremely proud of Junior Trigirl 1 who really enjoyed her 2K. She took about 13 minutes.

Trigirl completed the 10K race in 52:13, which is about 30 seconds slower than last year. She is pleased with this time because she must weigh at least 7lbs more than she did then.

Swimmingman also seemed to enjoy himself and did well too, but as Junior Trigirl 1 is keen to point out, he was not as quite as fast as her!

See pictures of Swimmingman and Junior Trigirl 1 in action below.

colour me beautiful

The Junior Trigirls just before washing off their face paintings from the school fete.

Tirgirl is one handshake away from....

... Maggie Thatcher! She realised this while out on her early morning bike ride. She passes on all her sports mags to a friend and he currently sees her almost every day. Perhaps the Iron Lady herself is reading Trigirl's hand-me-down copies of Cycling Weekly?

Hot pedals

Trigirl whizzed through her 20K bike time trial today in just over 49 minutes. This was a good time for her, especially given that she had NUMEROUS holdups, such as a temporary traffic light near her house (that switched to a very lengthy red just as she approached it), a closed cycle path that forced Trigirl to cross a main road, and slow moving traffic on a fast downhill stretch. If the conditions had been better, this definitely would have been Trigirl's fastest time.

Schoolgirl

Trigirl volunteered to go on Junior Trigirl 1's school trip to Hastings, which was today.

Here are Trigirl's four charges in a rare moment of calm sitting on the beach, eating their lunch. Junior Trigirl 1 is on the right.

There were 64 kids on this trip. Although Trigirl only had four lovely kids to look after, she couldn't relax for a moment because it was very hard to constantly locate her four, among a constantly moving crowd of 64.

Trigirl did enjoy getting to know some of the kids better, but she is not in a rush to go through such a anxiety-enducing experience again.

not so crawling crawl

Trigirl completely amazed herself today. She did a 7x200m interval swim in 38:45, which is more than two minutes faster than it took her last week.

This is not exactly Olympic medal winning, or even triathlon medal winning speed, but nonetheless, she is extremely impressed with herself.

And how has she achieved this amazing step forward? Apart from churning out about 3000m a week, she has got herself a 'Becoming a Faster Swimmer' DVD by former Olympic swimmer, Tom Jager. She has only watched part of it, but it seeems to have helped.

For more info on this DVD, see amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Faster-Swimmer-Vol-Freestyle/dp/B00063E77I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1245237102&sr=8-1

Trigirl is happy to lend this DVD to her friends.

After school sun, tv gets a break!

Trigirl gets sick and tired of seeing the Junior Trigirls sitting on their bottoms watching tv, especially after school. Today, the sun is out and the kids are playing in the garden instead.

The picture here shows them in action. And they had their tea in the tent. Three cheers for summer!

Not as gruelling as it seems

Every morning, Trigirl opens up her training programme to discover what type of workout she is scheduled to do that day. She was a little shocked yesterday when she discovered that she was due to do a 30 minute interval run followed by 1200m of swimming drills. This looked very punishing on paper, but actually Trigirl did not have any trouble doing all this.

"I want to hose the bikes, Mummy!"

Here is Junior Trigirl 1 'helping' Trigirl to clean FIVE bikes (Trigirl's two, one for each of the Junior Trigirls and one of Swimmingman's many bikes). Trigirl thinks Cycle Chick G will be proud of her.

The Junior Trigirls subsequently had lots of fun with the hose. Let's just say that Swimmingman got caught in the crossfire and ended up looking like he had wet his pants (see below).



Trigirl has now recovered from her post operative sleepiness.

woozy

Trigirl is in a post-operative woozy state today. She had a very very minor op this morming and was put to sleep for about twenty minutes.

Swimmingman picked her up from the hospital at lunchtime. She then lay on the sofa and watched her new ' how to swim fast' DVD by Olympic gold medallist, Tom Jaeger. She was surprised to learn that it is better to have your fingers open, not closed or even cupped while swimming front crawl.

Trigirl is pleased with her swimming this week. Yesterday, she did a 7x200m interval swim and it took only one minute longer than last week's 6x200m swim.

Trigirl is bored this afternoon. She feels too mushy to concentrate on anything but too awake to go to bed.

Pilates gives Trigirl a second wind

Trigirl arrived at M's pilates class feeling exhausted yesterday evening. By the end of it, she felt completely invigorated and ready for action. To prove it, she did 1.5 hours work after getting home. Trigirl has rarely experienced such a complete turnaround as a result of pilates

All bricked up

Trigirl had a very good brick sesssion (a bike ride immediately followed by a run) yesterday. Normally it takes her five or six or even more minutes to settle into the run, but this time she just zoomed off.

He returns

Swimmingman came back from Canada yesterday, laden with maple syrup flavoured goodies, a lovely new running top for Trigirl and numerous other pressies.

exhausting day

Both Junior Trigirls fell asleep instantly after a tiring day spent stroking goats and playing in the park, and walking up hill and down dale to the local children's petting farm.

a touch of glamour

Trigirl went out for dinner yesterday evening with M and Cycle Chick G to celebrate M's birthday. Trigirl loves going out with the girls and wants to do it again soon. Since it was M's birthday, Cycle G arranged for a car and driver, drinks with strawberries floating in them, and a quartet of waiters to sing Happy Birthday.

After a night of far more glamour than Trigirl is used to, she has come back to earth with a bump, starting with changing a wet bed at 7am this morning.

Happy belated birthday, M!

Happy Birthday, Mum!

It's Trigirl's Mum's birthday today! Here is Trigirl's favourite picture of her Mum, snapped in all her youthful gorgeousness in 1965.

Unintentional tri

Trigirl has, without meaning to, virtually done a triathlon today. She cycled to the leisure centre, did her 600x200m interval swim, rushed out of the pool, pedalled fast to a shop on the other side of town, zoomed back home, threw her bike in the garage and then she ran to school to collect the kids. Phew!

Junior Greengirl

Trigirl found Junior Trigirl 1 doing the gardening after school today.

She has always felt that Junior Trigirl 1 was interested in gardening, but nonetheless she was surprised to discover she had helped herself to a pair of scissors, found some gardening gloves and was just getting on with it.

run jog run jog run jog etc

Trigirl spent 15 minutes running intervals today. Enjoyable at first... but then it is hot and tiring.

Swimmingman flew to Canada on business yesterday.

fleeting trip down memory lane

Trigirl briefly visits Grandma today, who lives near the Teddy Bear Hotel. She was reminiscing about how she used to stay with Grandma in the school holidays and play in her tent in the garden. Trigirl particularly remembers tea at Grandma's: white bread sandwiches, crisps, fruit and a Kit Kat, which she nearly always ate in the garden. Happy Days!

Grandma still has a sense of humour - she was telling Trigirl on the phone today that she was an old hag. Trigirl would have liked to have stayed longer with Grandma. She is going to be 93 in August.

Enduring a pre-breakfast run

Trigirl went for an early morning endurance run of about 50 minutes. Since she is staying at the Teddy Bear Hotel, where they do not serve breakfast til 8am, she decided to go running before tucking into her bowl of cereal.

She found out today why she never ever goes running before breakfast, even the morning after a three-course meal. After about half an hour, at the furthest point from the hotel, Trigirl started feeling really tired and hungry. Since she is used to two-hour runs, this feeling is most unusual.

off to the Teddy Bear Hotel... yayyy!

Trigirl and family are off on fab weekend away with Trigirl's parents, brother, sister-in-law and nephew. Trigirl's mum and dad are very generously paying for everyone to stay at the very quirky 'Teddy Bear Hotel' (as it is fondly known). Trigirl has been visiting this cosy little establishment since she was a little girl.

milk run

Trigirl cycled 1.5 miles to the petrol station at 7am this morning to get milk for breakfast.

Not running like the wind, yet

This is a picture of a red-faced Trigirl immediately after today's 5K time trial. She did it in 25:11. This time is way off her best, but it is not surpising since she has put on weight and has done very little speedwork since February.

Given these circumstances, she is actually quite impressed with herself and predicts a much faster time next time she does it. Can she do it in 24:11 in six weeks?

Self-sacrifice

While Junior Trigirl 1 was at a party, Trigirl took Junior Trigirl 2 to the pool. Junior Trigirl 2 had a fantastic time swimming about three metres from the edge of the pool to Trigirl and back again. She did this for about 45 minutes. Trigirl was cold and bored. This is true self-sacrifice.

yesterday's news: 20K bike time trial

Trigirl meant to say that she did a 20K bike time trial yesterday.

She forgot to set up her heart rate monitor to stop recording at 20K, so in the end she did 21.45km in just under 51 minutes. This is very very slightly faster than when she last did her 20Km time trial in February, which is quite surprising because after her holiday and recent sugar cravings, Trigirl has definitely put on a few pounds.

Tooth Fairy tonight

The Tooth Fairy will be visiting Junior Trigirl 2 tonight. Trigirl had to cut out a tooth shape out of paper since nobody could find the real tooth and Junior Trigirl 2 was worried the Tooth Fairy wouldn't come unless something was left for her.

Junior Trigirl 1 is at last getting one of her front teeth. She lost them over a year ago when she bashed them on somebody's head at a party.

BBQ

Trigirl and family have been to a barbecue at neighbours, ML and JL. Trigirl enjoyed her PIMS and burger, and the Junior Trigirls had a great time playing with the other little girls.

It's great to see you!

An unexpected visit from T and E (who live about 250 miles away)! So, in their honour, the two Junior Trigirls have an impromtu afternoon off school!

Junior Trigirl 2 took this picture of Trigirl, T, E and Junior Trigirl 1.

not quite Rebecca Adlington

Trigirl did a 730m time trial in her local pool today. It took her just under 19 minutes, which is two minutes less than in February! This is great news since swimming is Trigirl's weak point.

CRAAASSSSHHH, CRUNCH, SNAP!

... was the sound of Trigirl falling over backwards into a bush and breaking lots of branches this morning. Trigirl would have been mortified if anyone had seen her, since this ridiculous accident only happened because she was running backwards.

And the reason for this aberrant behaviour? Some while ago, M set Trigirl a series of exercises, including running backwards, to improve Trigirl's running style. Trigirl always knew this particular drill would go awry one day.

CRAAAASHHHHH!

...was the sound Trigirl's jaw made as it hit the keyboard just now. The reason for this shock? Old Flame, N, has just contacted Trigirl via Facebook. She last heard from him in 1992!

Tri-ing in pictures

Out of the swim... on the bike... and just about to run over the finish line. Trigirl in action in the East Grinstead Triathlon on Sunday.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE.

Tri action shot

Here is Trigirl in action on her Bianchi at yesterday's triathlon. She was 13th out of 24 women in her age group. The leading woman was 26 minutes faster than Trigirl.

Even though she says it herself, Trigirl thinks she looks pretty good in this picture.

First tri, 2009

East Grinstead, West Sussex, was the setting for Trigirl's first tri of 2009.

It consisted of the following:

Swim 500m / Bike 26km / Run 5km

Trigirl crossed the finishing line in one hour, 40 minutes. She was pretty happy with her efforts. The transtions went very smoothly; the swim was OK; the bike ride went well; and the run was probably a bit slower than usual, but that is only to be expected since she has not done much speedwork in her training in recent weeks.

She began the race at 7:15am and starting so early was very much a mixed blessing. On the plus side, Trigirl only saw about half a dozen cars in the whole 26km bike ride, even though she was cycling on main roads that were open as usual to traffic. On the downside, Swimmingman had to take Trigirl to the race, and was practically heading for the nearest divorce lawyer once he realised he had to get up well before 6am on a Sunday.

Miss Sweet Tooth

Trigirl has been suffering from a very sweet tooth lately. Maybe it is because she is tired? The night before last she couldn't sleep and was shopping on the Web at 1am (and she now has a lurvelly new pair of winter running trousers as a result!).

She has just eaten half a bag of out-of-date jelly babies. Normally, she is not even tempted to eat them unless she is running ten miles or more.

So smart: pink nails, dress, jewellery and perfume

After school, Junior Trigirl 1 is very impressed with Trigirl's manicured pink nails and her new £2 earrings. She insists that everyone should put on their best dresses, brush their hair and have a squirt of perfume.

Junior Trigirl 1 is far more stylish than Trigirl.