I am always looking for new challenges, and after a serious injury in powerlifting competition, I experimented with a few different sports before landing on cycling.

In 2017 I set myself the challenge of the Beleach Mor, a massively hilly sportive in the Scottish Highlands. After achieving this (September 2017) I decided to start looking beyond cycling, and a friend suggested I give triathlon a go. At this point I hadn't run in about six years and couldn't swim with my head underwater!

I decided to focus on middle distance and signed up for Edinburgh 70.3 in July 2018. This gave me about 10 months to learn to swim more than 25m without stopping!

Having a very busy job and life, I didn't feel I had the time to invest the necessary research and time to plan and conduct an effective programme. I am a big fan of structured training and I like the simplicity of a coach telling me what to do and when.

Matt from TCUK made it simple for me and gave flexibility within the programme so I could adapt my life around the training. Matt definitely understands that for most people life is more than just triathlon, and he gets that missed workouts and bad weeks happen. After a couple of months of the programme I realised I was struggling to find time to complete the workouts, which was stressing me out a bit. This was no problem for Matt, who quickly changed the programme to something I could fit in.

The psychological benefit of having a coach was really important for me - being able to ask questions at any time, get reassurance and also feel a sense of having to report back was motivating for me. The training journey over 10 months has been difficult at times - I suffered injury, illness and at times lack of motivation. But Matt understood all of this, never made a big deal out of it and reworked training so we could still achieve the outcomes.

On the way to Edinburgh I competed in several local triathlons, of increasing length, which helped build my confidence and understand how to manage race day. I even managed to win my first novice triathlon overall!

So, I crossed the line of Edinburgh 70.3 on Sunday and loved the whole experience. I have also really enjoyed the training to get there, which is so important. I am super happy with my time of 6 hours 22 minutes for my first 70.3 given that I started from zero running and swimming, and am looking forward to determining my next triathlon goal.