My journey to Windsor started six months ago, and although this is my third year of doing triathlons, this year I wanted to do things differently. Last summer, I signed up to a middle-distance triathlon (double the Olympic distances above), and felt I lost the whole summer in a haze of training sessions and early nights. Leaving parties early and not drinking left friends complaining I was boring, and my family said I was always moaning about being tired. I have a busy day job, so that means I only have a few possible training hours a week. How could I get more of a balance between work, life and triathlon this year? How could I train smarter and make my time count?

I don’t have a background in sport, coming to it relatively late in life, and despite my best intentions I tend to fall into the pattern of making my easy sessions too hard and my hard sessions too easy, achieving little other than tiring myself out. Time, then, to consult some experts. I approached Sports Science Consultants who seemed to know everything there is to know about exercise and biomechanics.

I did a body impedance test to work out my body composition for muscle and fat, as well as a VO2 max test. The outcome of the VO2 max was positive and gave me heart-rate thresholds I could train at, so I didn’t go too hard on those easy days and tire myself. The body impedance tests threw up an interesting result: muscle-wise, there is a serious imbalance between my upper and lower body. It is amazing I can even walk around! He suggested a cycling-based strength program to correct this.

Injury is the biggest fear for any athlete, so next I talked to a physio who confirmed that I am quite flexible, but I need to be doing more strength-based stretching as well as using a foam roller. So, two experts down – but I felt even more panicked about time. Not only did I have to fit in the three triathlon disciplines, but also strength training and conditioning exercises.

My next call was a life coach and cyclist. The first thing suggested was more time off! I began to feel that this was all going wrong. He suggested monthly time trials in each discipline, with time off before and after. It is a way to see progress and not just keep relentlessly training.