Urban Tri – London

Over the last few week’s, I’ve had the pleasure of attending various events, all of which were free or low cost. There was the Spartan Training Day, The Obstacle Gym and most recently ‘Urban Tri’.

So, what is/was Urban Tri you may ask?

The Urban Tri was a training event organised by Balance Festival which included 20 minutes HIIT followed by a 4km Run and finishing with 30 minutes spinning at BOOM Cycle. All for the tiny cost of £10.00 which was donated to charity.

For me personally, this was worth jumping on a train and heading to the city, especially as the HIIT was with Zanna Van Dijk, I really enjoy running in London (with Track Mafia) and I wanted to try BOOM Cycle (which I understand is normally £18.00).

After an early train, we headed to the Truman Brewery and waited to join the class, I hadn’t expected it to be on the top floor but it was great to have a good view of the city. Lorraine is super confident and headed to the front of the class, I felt rather self-conscious but joined her regardless. The HIIT training was enjoyable because it included moves that I’d never tried before, alongside the traditional burpees and high knees.

We were given a few minutes to wash our hands as the floor was filthy, then we assembled outside for a steadily paced run to Holborn. As we were not returning home until later, Lorraine and I had all our clothing on our backs, unfortunately, whilst my Sweaty Betty rucksack is stylish, it’s not comfortable for running. I liked the fact no one was left behind, but I was a little surprised how quiet everyone was, maybe socialising during running is not the London way?

Then we got to BOOM Cycle, in a little bit of a hurry we dumped our bags, changed into cleats and headed into class. Sadly, this didn’t go entirely to plan for me. Let me explain, it was very dark in the class and it turned out that every bike, apart from one was taken, so I told Lorraine to stay I left the class. I explained to reception who were extremely apologetic and promised to get me in the next class, whilst I was waiting I demolished a sweet potato brownie from Vega Protein.

After a few minutes, they’d fixed a bike for me! Hurrah! I had absolutely no idea how to work the spin bike but was clipped in and off I went. The playlist was incredible and the energy from the instructor was second to none, I absolutely loved her commentary and upbeat personality. Frustratingly I wasn’t getting on too well with my bike, I couldn’t adjust the resistance and nearly went buck-a-roo forwards over the handlebars, not my slickest moment!

Before I knew it, we were done and it was time to shower and head out for food (my favourite part) the team provided more water/snacks/goodie bags/t-shirts which I felt was extremely generous for the cost. We decided to return to The Mae Deli for lunch because we both absolutely loved the food and I dived into the biggest bowl of hummus, falafel, lentil and cauliflower salad and vegan quinoa salad – It was just so good! Admittedly, this was pretty much the same price at the Tri but it’s all for the love of food.

Balance Festival have more events coming up and the next one is on the 1st April – I may return for another, let me know if you’re going?

Have you ever taken part in an Urban Tri before? Would you?

Katie

x

*Note: I’m not being asked to write about these events or being gifted entry, I just share them in the hope they’ll be of interest to you!