There’s a lot of things that I’ve put on hold for the past seven months while I trained for the Ironman. I’ve already put one of these straight by travelling to Sheffield last weekend to go out with two of my oldest friends. It’s a date that had been in the diary for many months and one of the reasons that I decided to do my own iron-distance triathlon. There was a race I could have done but it fell on the weekend in my diary marked ‘Sheffield’ and I couldn’t cancel. I’d put things like that weekend on the back-burner for too long.

So as well as being more spontaneous, seeing friends and going on holiday, my life post-Bolton has, for a long time, had one big intention and that is to pay it forward.

I’ve been fortunate to have been helped and encouraged along by some marvellous people over the past two years, and now it’s time to help and encourage others. So here’s a few things that I intend to do over the coming weeks and months. You’re welcome to join in wherever you like.

• Allez London! I’m inviting women to get on their bikes and come for a 30-mile cycle round North London, starting at Finsbury Park. It’s a route I used many times during my Ironman training and it has a good mix of busy streets and long roads past empty fields. Join in.
• A dip in the pond. At a still to be decided date, I’ll be going swimming at the ladies pond on Hampstead Heath. It’s a good place to swim outside in some water that you can’t see or touch the bottom of for the first time. There’s plenty of floaty things to swim up to and hang on to if you’re nervous, or just fancy a natter. It won’t be a coached session or about swim technique, it’s just getting in the water enjoying it. Monday 1 Sept, 6.30pm ish.
• We’ll Run For Beer. If you don’t follow the blog ‘Will Run For Beer’ you should. The writer behind it organises occasional beer runs that she’s titled ‘We’ll Run For Beer’ and a while back I had a email conversation with her in which she imparted her knowledge to me for arranging a North London beer run. It will be a social 5k run via some of north London’s best beer spots. So watch this space, you’re all invited.

There’ll also be a headtorch run in the dark on the heath (let’s face those night-running fears together), and some coaching once I use all the extra time in my week to do the final assessment of my coaching qualification. i’vites will pop up here, or on my Facebook page.