<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>James Cracknell - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by James Cracknell on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Why triathlon?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3419.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[The first triathlon I did I was at the back of the group as we all jumped in the lake at 7.30am on a cold Sunday morning in April. As rubber clad body after body topped with a bright yellow swimming hat jumped into the water I wondered what some visiting alien would think of this strange cult. That thought was interrupted by freezing cold water rushing through my wetsuit and replaced by &quot;What the bloody hell are you doing you&#039;ve retired as a sportsman, you don&#039;t need to do this anymore?&quot; That thought stayed with me for every stroke of that swim and every awkward step clambering out of my wetsuit up to transition one.

A fair chunk over two hours later I was already working out how I could shave minutes off here and there. A couple of years and a few triathlons later that feeling of entering the water is still there but the desire to get faster is stronger.

This summer I&#039;d like to see if I can dip under two hours for the Olympic distance and hopefully qualify for next year&#039;s age group World Championships. I&#039;m not sure whether I can do it but it will be fun trying. Training for a multi-sport event gives me variety I didn&#039;t have when I was rowing but it also throws up a number of extra problems.

Planning a training programme for rowing isn&#039;t a problem for me, I even managed to pull together something that worked ok in the lead up to the London Marathon but I&#039;m in the dark for a triathlon (Ed; by &#039;something&#039; he means a sub-three hour marathon).

Annie Emmerson informed me that cycling round Richmond Park with the aim of not getting overtaken wasn&#039;t the most scientific platform to base my cycling training around. Ignoring swimming completely or doing a hundred lengths/until I get cramp was doing me even less favours. So I&#039;m going to embark on a structured training campaign over the summer to try and build both my specific fitness and triathlon skills up.

I&#039;ve realised that feeling of &quot;Why am I doing this?&quot; is always going to be there when I jump in the water. But I love climbing out of the water and getting straight onto a bike and attacking those 40km, I&#039;m glad there&#039;s no drafting in the age groups it means there is always something going on. Plus it gives me a real opportunity to try and catch someone up, whose left me for dead in the water. Problem is I always forget about the 10km at the end and my legs are shot. Over the coming months hopefully I&#039;ll iron out those small details and give it a real go.

See you on the circuit and happy racing.]]></description></item></channel></rss>