After the missed swim sessions last week, I made a major breakthough in the swimming this week. The weather has been beautiful and the sea has been calm and clear blue. I managed to swim about a mile in around 30-35 minutes and then went on to make it about 1.5 miles in around 45-50 minutes. The first time I've gone over a mile. I'm now thinking I should be revising my Ironman swim target from 1:30 to something a bit quicker, maybe even as quick as 1:15.

I also feel like I'm making some progress on the bike now, with a good high intensity ride on Tuesday, followed by my longest ever ride on Saturday. I rode to St Tropez and back along the coast, a distance of 80 miles, in just over 4 hours - an average speed of 19.6 mph. Instead of the usual energy gels and bars I tried salted baked potatoes, bannanas and dried figs. My energy levels were much more consistent without the usual highs and lows and I only started to feel low on energy in the last 5 miles. I maintained an average speed of over 20 mph up until the 70 mile point.