Taking part in the Tough Mudda challenge last year made our director, Richard Oldroyd reflect on his physical fitness. Although he completed the 10 mile obstacle course through mud and water it made him realise he needed to look after himself better and set a goal to complete a triathlon, but first he had to learn to swim.
Both Richard and Angela have embarked on a healthy lifestyle which involves sensible eating and exercise. As a result the couple lost an amazing 9 stones in weight between them.
Working with personal trainer, Lorraine Carey at David Lloyd in Hull, Richard is in training to do a triathlon sprint swim of 750m in open water, a 20 km cycle ride and a 5 km run at Allerthorpe.
Richard says:
“The biggest part of the challenge is the open water challenge as I had never learned to swim. I had to start from scratch and now I am managing 35 lengths of the pool. I started out with front crawl but with asthma I found it difficult to regulate my breathing and so I now do breast stroke which is much better for me. I am doing this purely for personal gain but it is the best decision I ever made, I feel amazing and having lost just over 4 stones my waist line is reaping the benefits too.”
Angela says:
“I am so proud of Richard. Learning to swim later in life is a huge challenge but he has stepped up to the plate having trained really hard for his event on 19 June. Our trainer Lorraine is fantastic, neither of us could do this without her support and encouragement and now we both really enjoy working out in the gym and exercise in general.”
Maybe Richard will get the bug, watch this space for his next challenge.