I have a Personal Trainer. His name is Dave.

This week's training: 2 x swim (750m & 900m), 2 x run (4.8 miles & 1 mile), 2 x 30 minute bike, PT session

I feel on a bit of a plateau at the moment. Even though I'm probably doing almost as many sessions as I was pre-marathon and Tough Mudder it all feels a lot more manageable, so much so I almost feel as though I'm not trying! But I'm not complaining, this is far preferable to how I was feeling two weeks back; fed up with it all.

I had a lovely jog with my mum on Bank Holiday Monday in the morning sunshine, encouraging her and my battered legs through 4.8 miles. I was really looking forward to a swim on Tuesday night but misread the pool timetable so got there too late so went early on Wednesday and Thursday instead. I've said it before and I'll say it again: love my morning swims.

I finally got my bike out on the road at the tail end of the week. It's been sat, in bits, in the shed for, oooo, about 6 weeks! I've learnt how to remove and refit the wheels, fretted over not being able to adjust the seat height, then made friends with WD40, and finally got out on the road. There's a few cycle paths around here but the only real cycle routes are interim, hilly and wiggly. Put it this way, I'm not much of an explorer when it comes to running and even less so when cycling. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and it's quelled a few fears about the triathlon.

The highlight of my week though, was my first session at my my new gym, one of the Harper's Fitness group, which I joined as part of the Gym for the Win campaign. I went in last Friday to pick up my membership pack and was immediately taken with how friendly the staff were. My membership includes unlimited access to the gym and classes at my "home" centre, unlimited access to the pools and facilities at other centres in the area as well as a number of "personal training" sessions. I had a great chat with the guy who'd signed me up about what we were up to at the weekend and after determining I was doing my first triathlon in a couple of weeks he booked me in with a trainer who is a triathlete, in order to give me more tailored advice.

I really enjoyed the session. My PT, Dave, is smiley, friendly, capable and older than me (my fear was it would be some 20-something muscle boy. Nothing against them but I took a real shine to Dave). We spent over half an hour talking, taking basic stats, discussion my aims and working out what my likes and dislikes are when it comes to workouts. I was a bit disappointed with my Body Fat %, although Dave said it wasn't anything to be concerned about. A few less cakes and a little more focused training should bring it down to "fitness" level as opposed to "acceptable" level. Initially, over the next 6 weeks I'll be working towards:

• Strengthening my glutes
• Firming up my thighs and bum
• Improving my running speed to get new PBs of sub 25 minute 5k or sub 2 hour half marathon.

Dave was infinitely encouraging and said there was no reason I couldn't achieve this fairly quickly; in fact he commented that given how lean I looked, he was surprised I wasn't there already... a sentiment I've heard many times before. He recommended a couple of websites for triathlon training plans and will draw up my plan over the weekend. My next session is on Monday which will be a proper "hands on" PT session. After that I can choose to pay for further sessions, making use of some vouchers I was given in my membership pack (one £12 session or 10 £17.50 sessions), or opt for 6-weekly review sessions at £30 each. After our chat he showed me how to make use of the interval setting on the treadmill, something I've never used before, and I added on a half hour bike session. I really enjoyed the session. It felt professional yet friendly so I didn't feel like just another client and I left looking forward to chatting to him next time and seeing what he's thought up for me.

So all in all I'm feeling very positive about my training and the events I've got coming up and just to prove the point my latest addition to my list of upcoming events is The Colour Run which I entered on today. A more fun event you will not find - I can't wait!