ETU Standard Distance Champs Lisbon

Nearly two months on I thought it was about time to post my blog about the European Standard Distance Champs in Lisbon at the end of May…

Picking up from where my last blog post left off, my alarm sounded at 1.30am on Monday 23rd May. I woke Emily up and grabbed a quick bite to eat before packing our bike boxes and suitcases into my car and setting off down to Luton Airport on some nice empty roads given the time of day! After a hectic day of racing and packing the day before and only 2 hours sleep I was pretty tired but was hoping to be able to sleep on the plane later on. My legs were achy but I’d managed to do a bit of rolling/stretching on sunday evening and I had my Compressport long socks on to try to aid recovery as much as possible – and they’re great for flying too 🙂

Having arrived at the car park, left them my keys, got on the bus to the airport with our bags and bikes in tow and arrived at the terminal at Luton we had a few minutes to relax whilst we waited for Henry to arrive! Soon enough Henry appeared and we all went through bag drop without problem before saying goodbye to our bikes at the oversized baggage scanner. An uneventful trip through security later and we were into the departures lounge and ready for some breakfast – beans and eggs on toast 😀 Before long we were on the plane and in the air headed to Lisbon – just over a 2hr flight. We all managed to get some much needed sleep and were feeling a tiny bit more awake by the time we touched down on Portuguese tarmac.

A trip through customs later we got our bags and bikes from the luggage hall, gave our bikes a quick check over to make sure they hadn’t been damaged, and headed for the metro station to get to the Oriente stop which was nearest to our apartment, about a 20min journey. This was followed by a rather warm and hilly 1km walk/shuffle dragging our suitcases and bikes to the apartment that we’d booked for the week – by this time my legs were really not wanting to move much at all!! We got to the apartment and the host met us and let us in, showed us around and gave us a bit of info about the area before leaving us be. Time to sit down and get some water.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with building up the bikes, heading to a traditional local supermarket (Aldi…) to stock up for the week and cooking some tuna and veg pasta for dinner. By the time it got to 8.30pm we were all shattered and ready for some sleep so we did just that 🙂

Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with plenty of relaxing and not a lot of training for Emily and I as we were letting our bodies recover from racing the previous weekend and travelling. We did head down to the local pool on Wednesday for a good but achy broken swim set and then went to register in the afternoon to pick up our race packs with race numbers, event t-shirt, drawstring bag and a few other things in. As we had cooking facilities in our apartment we cooked our own meals each evening and had a salad/bread/ham/fruit mix for lunch each day. I much prefer being able to cook our own meals each evening as it’s a lot cheaper than eating out but we can also make sure we’re eating the right foods and foods that we’re used to so nothing new before racing.

Thursday was a busy day with a closed road, police escorted bike course recce at 10am (which was a lot of fun riding with 100s of others on a closed motorway!) before Emily had her race briefing/photo at 12pm and bike racking at 2.30pm.

Whilst Emily was in the race briefing I went off for a 7km run with a couple of short sharp efforts to see how the legs were recovering from the previous weekend’s efforts – result = still pretty tired!! We then went to the sprint distance swim recce at 4.30pm before the parade of nations and the pasta party at 6pm! A long day with lots and lots of walking left us pretty shattered so another early night was had.

Friday was race day for Emily in the sprint distance, and an 11.04am start time (a lot later than usual!) meant we could wake up at a normal time and have some porridge before heading down to transition for Emily to do her final set up before going to the swim start and relaxing as much as possible for a bit. At 11.04 as planned Emily and 76 other females aged between 16 and 34 set off. I took a few photos and then ran over to the start of the bike course to see everyone heading out on the bike.

It was then a bit of a wait before people started coming back in off the bike and onto the 2 lap run course through the MEO Arena. Overall Emily had a great race finishing 6th FU20, a really good improvement on 12th in Geneva last year and I’m very proud! Check out Emily’s blog about her race here: http://emilypatchtri.blogspot.co.uk/

After Emily and Henry had got their kit out of transition and back to the apartment we headed out for a celebratory meal of a delicious burger and some yummy Haagen Dazs ice cream – many thanks to Henry’s dad for this treat 😀 We then went down to the arena to watch the Para-Triathlon races and shortly after these it was time for the standard course swim recce. The course was good but very snakey and positioning for the buoys in the race would be key – see the course map below!

It was then time to head back to the apartment and get some dinner before having an early night after a busy day all round. Saturday was a busy day with my race briefing, bike racking and watching the junior and senior elite races that were going on. I tried to rest and keep off my feet as much as possible but still ended up doing a fair bit of walking! When we got back to the apartment I did a bit of stretching and rolling before getting an early night ready for a 3am start on Sunday morning.

The alarm went off at 3am and I was soon tucking into a nice big bowl of porridge (I always try to eat breakfast about 4 hours before racing to make sure it’s well digested come race time), doing a final check of my race kit and a quick bit of stretching. I then jumped back into bed for a bit to take the weight off my legs before waking Emily up and us both heading down to transition around 5.30am. It was still pretty dark setting up transition so I was using my phone as a torch and trying to balance that on various bits of my bike to set my kit out just where I wanted it. We were also given baskets to put our used race kit in so had to make sure our wetsuit, hat and goggles were fully in this in T1 or we’d be given a penalty.

Having set everything up Emily and I headed to the swim start to sit down for a bit before getting my Zone3 Vanquish wetsuit on and ready to race! My wave was at 7.15am and had the MU20, 20-24 and 25-29 age groups in it, around 80 athletes. We were herded into the starting pens with about 15 mins to go and it was time for a High5 IsoGel X’treme to give me a caffeine boost ready for the start. With about 5 mins to go we were let into the water and I swam up to the start line, which was in chest deep water. Soon we were told there was 30s to go and soon after the horn sounded and we were racing!

I didn’t have the best of starts and got caught up with a few people pulling my legs and arms which wasn’t terribly helpful! It took until the first buoy (about 250m) to get my arms going properly and from then on I knew I had to push hard. I was overtaking people steadily for the rest of the swim and exited up the steep + narrow ramp in a time of 20.28 for the 1500m swim. I had no idea where I was in the AG as there were people from all AG’s in the wave (Think I was 6th 20-24 out of the swim looking at the results) but ran through transition quickly and was soon out onto the bike.

My plan for the bike was simple, get my head down and push hard! It was a 2 lap out and back course with a bit of a hill at the mid-lap turn point. As planned, after taking a while to get my feet in my shoes and settling down I pushed on and was overtaking people steadily. I had my Garmin and power meter on the bike but wasn’t looking at this an awful lot as I just wanted to race by feel – and it was hurting 😀 On the bike I had High5 Zero in my aero bottle between my bars and 2 High5 Gels taped to my top tube to keep the energy going in.

Onto the second bike lap and there were a few more athletes onto the course from the next waves now so it was a bit busier and there were plenty of draft busters out – all the more reason to push hard and overtake people quickly to avoid any chance of getting a drafting penalty. Up the hill for the final time I had a quick chat with a Portuguese athlete in the AG below before saying bye and leaving him behind on the downhill (he’d later fly past me on the run and beat me 😛 ). Soon I was off the bike and back into transition and by the looks of it there weren’t many others there! Looking at the results I came into T2 in 3rd in AG with the 2nd fastest bike split.

Bike racked, helmet off, Compressport visor on, High5 gel picked up, Garmin on and shoes on and I was onto the run. There was about a 1km cobbled section before heading down into the MEO Arena and onto the 4 lap run. The run was pretty uneventful, coming through the arena at the end/start of each lap and with 3 out and back sections. By the last lap it was getting pretty crowded as it wasn’t too wide an area to run in so I was glad to be finishing soon. Over the course of the run 2 GB athletes in my AG (Jack Bristow and Jordan Skelly) came past me and Jordan went on to take the M20-24 Bronze – well done! That meant I finished in 5th place in the AG, and also 30th out of all of the AG’s to race the standard distance.

I went through the finish area, had a nice 15min massage in the athlete’s recovery area before eating a few slices of orange and heading outside to find Emily to give her a nice sweaty hug! A little while later it was time to get my kit out of transition before heading back up to the apartment to jump in the shower and pack our bikes and kit away ready for the flight home the next morning. We then walked to the supermarket to pick up a nice big bag of biscuits and a nice bag of Haribo from this amazing pick and mix!

From the supermarket we went back to the MEO Arena as the junior elite mixed relays were currently happening with 2 GB teams racing. These relays are really fast and very fun to watch, with each athlete completing a super super sprint triathlon before tagging the next person. Going onto the final leg both of the GB teams were up there at the front of the race and one of them ended up taking the gold which was great to watch 🙂

After that it was back to the apartment to finish packing and then we went to the closing ceremony – which was a bit of an anti-climax and a bit of a rubbish end to the week as it just fizzled out after the standard distance medal presentations. Oh well, we went back to the apartment and got an early night ready to get up early for the flight back in the morning.

Immediately after the race and for the next couple of days I was a bit disappointed and kept thinking what could have happened if I hadn’t raced Grafham Middle the weekend before or had managed to get some consistent training in over the month or so before Lisbon. However hindsight is a wonderful thing and having now had a while to reflect on it there are plenty of positives to take away, most of all that I was top 5 in Europe and it was my highest Euro’s placing so far – onwards and upwards 🙂 Annoyingly I won’t be able to compete at the 2017 European Champs in Kitzbuhel as it’s smack bang in the middle of uni summer exams, so I’ll have to skip a year and hopefully be able to compete in 2018!

I’d finally like to thank my sponsors for helping me get to Lisbon and race to a top 5 finish there along with helping me to all of my other races this year – you really have helped a lot and make everything a lot easier! Pedal Potential, Stamford Endowed School OS Club, Zone3, High5, Bounce Balls, Nature’s Kiss and Compressport – thank you very much! I’d also like to thank Emily so much for all the support and encouragement she gives me, coming to all of my races and cheering me on all the way, I really appreciate all you do for me 🙂

So, what was next? Two weeks after Lisbon I raced at Deva Standard Distance Tri and last Sunday (26th June) I raced at Woodhall Spa Sprint Tri, so expect to see some race reports from those two events up very soon.

Thank you for reading as ever and happy training 😀 

A muddy day at Windsor British Duathlon Champs

2 weeks ago (3rd April) was the British Duathlon Championships at Windsor Duathlon, being run by British Triathlon for the first time at this new venue. I was racing in the Standard Distance in the morning which was a 10km run, 4 lap 40km cycle and a 2 lap 5km run to finish, and Emily was racing in the Junior Elite race in the afternoon, a 5km run, 20km cycle and 2.5km run. I’d signed up for this race quite a few months ago as it was British Champs and I thought I’d give it a go! I’ve only ever done super sprint duathlons so this was a bit different to those being about 4x the distance, and as an early season race I was interested to see how the legs were doing.

Emily and I travelled down to Windsor on Saturday afternoon and arrived at our hotel around 3.30pm. The weather had been very sunny the whole way down so we decided to head out for an hour or so on the bikes to stretch the legs. We set off and ~ 20mins later it decided to start raining, so we went back to the hotel to dry off and warm up before getting something to eat. We had a quick look on google and found there was a Pizza Express not too far away, so drove the mile or so there and had a nice dinner of a delicious pizza and pasta (we had half and half each!). Of course we had to have dessert so had a yummy passionfruit tart 😀 It was then back to the hotel to make sure our kit was ready before setting 2 alarms and getting some sleep.

All too soon my alarm was going off and it was time for some breakfast! As we we’re away from home and didn’t have any cooking facilities other than a kettle, this consisted of 2 porridge pots – not ideal but about the best we could do. I then set about taping up my right IT band with some Kinesio tape to hopefully support it and keep my pain free through the race.

A final check that we had all our kit and that everything was ready before setting off on the 15 min drive to Windsor Great Park. On arrival we found a fair sized queue waiting to get into the car park, which turned out to be in a rather muddy part of the park, and the large amount of rain overnight hadn’t helped matters. As we parked up a 4×4 next to us got stuck and had to be towed to a parking space. I’ve never seen anyone being towed into a car park before but hey ho, we were parked up now and getting out of the mud would be a problem to be solved later on, no point worrying about it now!

It was then about a 1000m walk through a similarly muddy field to get to the event area and transition. By the time we got there our shoes, clothes and bikes were already covered in mud and my back wheel had jammed up due to mud getting stuck in the integrated brakes. Excellent. There was a big queue to get the timing chips so I went and set up my transition spot before going back later to pick it up.

On getting to the transition area it became apparent that this was situated on a very muddy part of the park and the volume of foot traffic in and out had already turned it into a bit of a mud bath, and this was before racing had begun! I wasn’t looking forward to running through this in just socks after T1 and back into T2. Oh well,, everyone was in the same position and nothing we could do except just get on with it!

Having racked my bike, cleaned as much mud out of the brakes as I could and made sure I had everything in transition that I needed, I headed back out and went to collect my timing chip. Whilst we were queuing up to get the chip it was announced that due to people having trouble parking and getting into the car park the start was to be delayed by 30 mins, meaning we’d now be set off at 9.33am. This wasn’t too much of an issue but I’m sure it messed with a few people’s pre race nutrition etc, as I know some are very particular!

 

It was then time for the delayed race briefing to take place. I usually half listen to these whilst doing final prep and getting ready to race (having a gel, putting race clothes/shoes on etc), and it wasn’t until right at the end of the briefing that they told us something that definitely made us listen. We were told that at some point between 10.30 and 11am then part of the bike course would be closed to allow none other than the Queen to go to church. They’d put us into a pen and time us in and out again and the difference would be taken off our overall time. Fantastic, just what you need in the middle of a hard race is to be stopped still for ~1min. Your legs fill with lactic acid and your mind begins to wander, and it’s very difficult to get back into race mode after it. I could only hope that I wouldn’t be one of those unlucky enough to be stopped.

A goodbye to Emily later (and leaving her with the rest of my kit, sorry!) I jogged to the start line, about 1km from the transition area and finish line where the briefing was. About right for a nice warm up! We got to the start area and the sprint distance wave was being set off 3 minutes before us, so they assembled on the line and were off. We then all moved forward to the line, ready to go. I positioned myself a couple of rows back as I didn’t want to get caught up with everyone going off too fast. We waited for what seemed like forever (actually about 5 mins) to be told we had 1 min before the race start. So we’d actually be starting about 9.45, even later than the delayed time.

 

‘Bang’. And we were off. It was a nasty uphill start to the race towards the Copper Horse before turning left and the course flattening out slightly before another incline. The first 6km of the run was pretty uneventful, running about 3.50min/km which was about what I was hoping for having not run much at all the last month or so. The tarmac then ended and the course went onto a sand/mud based horse trail through the forests which really sapped the legs. About 2.5km later we emerged from the forest for the terrain to change once again onto mud similar to that in transition in parts. This really did test the legs and as I turned the corner to head towards transition I ran past Emily and muttered something along the lines of ‘I don’t like duathlon!’. For a video see my Instagram post below:

View this post on Instagram

Clip taken by @em_patch15 at the end of the first run at Windsor @brittri duathlon championships a couple of Sunday's ago! I still don't like them, especially when they're that muddy!! @pedalpotential @high5sportsnutrition #duathlon #mud #racing #britishchamps

A post shared by Angus Smith (@smithtri95) on Apr 17, 2016 at 11:53am PDT

Another corner turned and we entered the bog that was transition. I got to my transition spot and reached down to take my shoe off only to grab a big chunk of mud and my hand slip off the back of my shoe. Try again. I eventually got my shoes off, helmet on and ran out of transition carrying my bike to try and avoid too much mud getting stuck in the brake (again!). I was glad to see tarmac and the mount line, so quickly jumped on my bike and got up to speed along the long straight again up to the Copper Horse. I reached down to put my my right foot into my shoe and managed to pull the fabric tab off the back of it… Oops! After fumbling around for a bit getting my feet in I was finally ready to get going 🙂

 

The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful, and luckily I didn’t get stopped by the Queen going to church! The course was incredibly busy with over 1000 sprint + standard distance athletes on a 10km lap, you can do the maths. There were large groups of people cycling all over the road, some of which were very difficult to pass as people would swerve/move out without looking behind. Some were cycling on the left, some on the right, some right in the middle. I think this was because British Triathlon had given some very unclear / mixed up instructions about this, some had been told to cycle on the left when not overtaking and some told to cycle on the right. I’m not sure about those that were cycling in the middle! I was passing plenty of people when I could and it was a rolling course with a few kick ups. It wasn’t the fastest course due to the number of people but again, everyone was in the same boat. Thankfully after I’d done 2 laps numbers started to thin out a bit as the sprint distance athletes headed back to transition. This made it a little bit easier and I picked up my average power over these last 2 laps. It was still much lower than what I’d hoped for but I think a lot of this can be put down to not being able to be going full on for the whole of the bike.

 

A fast last dash down the hill away from the Copper Horse and I was soon at the dismount line, ready to enter the mud bath for the last time during the race. I once again carried my bike through transition as it was bouncing all over the place as the ground was pretty uneven, and at points I was having to walk due the the mud. As I slipped on my shoes I found that I had a lot of mud stuck to the bottom of my socks which made my toes curl over at the front of my shoes. This was going to be a pretty uncomfortable 5km run. Having nearly lost my left shoe running around the outside of transition, I was very glad to see the tarmac of the ‘long mile’, even if my legs weren’t very pleased that I was still trying to make them run.

This run seemed to take forever, and the dead straight out and back nature of the course didn’t help, other than allowing you to see roughly where you were compared to others and who was catching you. After the first lap my quads were screaming at me to stop and I very nearly called it a day, but I thought I may as well carry on and get over the line. I turned the corner at the far end of the lap and could see the finish line 1.25km in the distance and knew that was all that was left. I hobbled along, the finish line very slowly getting closer and soon I was onto the green carpet and over the line.

 

As I came across the line the commentator announced that I was provisionally 3rd M20-24 and that I’d got a bronze medal! I was very pleased with that after a tough race and hoped that they were right. After all, they seemed to be having big problems with the timing system and someone who was stopped by the Queen could also eventually be placed higher than me, but I hoped this wasn’t the case.

A couple of hours later and after cleaning as much mud off bikes and kit as possible,  it was time for the presentations and by then we were fairly sure I had come 3rd in AG. I was called up onto the podium with well deserved AG winner (and 4th overall) James Phillips and Phill Maddocks in the silver medal position. I’d finished 30th overall in a strong field so was very pleased with the end result, picking up my 3rd British Triathlon medal.

It was then Emily’s turn to race, with her start also delayed by about 25 mins due to ‘technical problems’. Luckily all of her race would be on tarmac and the grass that the elite transition was on was much drier and resembled less of a bog than the AG one! The junior girls set off at a sprint and the front group stayed at that pace for much of the first 5km run. Emily, who having only been back in proper training for under 2 months, did very well to hold onto most of the group for the first mile (6.25 min/mile pace) before dropping back slightly. Unfortunately as the first run came to an end Emily didn’t quite make the cut off time, so was stopped as she came into T1. Although this was a shame having come all this way to only be allowed to race 5km, there are plenty of positives to take away from the race, including her fastest 5km of the year on limited training 🙂 Being from a swimming background then it’ll be a much different situation once triathlon season starts and I’m sure Emily will be out of the water with the front pack and much more competitive!

After the highs and lows of the day we packed all our kit away, jumped in the car and just managed to get out of the car park without needing towing. 2.5hrs later and we were back home and definitely ready to wash all the mud off ourselves and the bikes before getting some well earned sleep.

The next day it was my birthday so I’d taken the day off work and didn’t get out of bed until nearly midday, having a deserved lie in 😀

 

Looking back on the race it was a bit of a shambles with regards to organisation on British Triathlon’s half. I know they couldn’t control the weather but it is April and we’re in England, it’s bound to rain. The whole parking problem, dangerously muddy transition (many people fell over in the mud and lost shoes, I’d be surprised if there weren’t any twisted ankles etc), delays to the race start, timing problems, crazy busy bike course and even some marshalls sending the sprint distance athletes the wrong way! It all just made the day that little bit less enjoyable when it could have been so good in such a great location. Cutting down the number of entries or not having a sprint race at all would definitely have helped. After all, it is the standard distance that was the British Champs event so why the need for a sprint race. Oh I forgot, £££.

Oh well, hopefully British Triathlon will take on board the feedback from many of the competitors and next year’s event will be a lot better and run a bit smoother.

 

Next up for me is a week of training before heading out to Aix En Provence on the 25th April for my first 70.3 and first big race of the season which I’m very much looking forward to. Fingers crossed I can sort my ITB out asap and get some good running in over the next couple of weeks.

A final thank you to everyone who supports me in racing and training. To my very kind sponsors who help me in many ways, Pedal Potential, Zone3, High5, Profile Protein, Bounce Energy Balls, Nature’s Kiss, Compressport, thank you all. But also a big thank you to all of you on Twitter & Facebook who wish me luck before events and for the congratulations after races, I’m very grateful for all of the support. Hopefully I can continue to get good results over the next few months and keep writing interesting blogs to keep you occupied!

 

On that note this blog has gone on for a very long time and I’d imagine you’ve run out of tea/coffee long ago, so I’ll wrap this one up 😛

Thank you for reading this essay and happy training/racing! I’d love to hear what you’re all up to over the next few months, please get in touch on Twitter 😀

 

March Update

March is nearly over so it’s about time I wrote a quick update on everything I’ve been doing this month since my last blog and about the start of my 2016 race season!

On the last weekend in February I had my first ‘race’ of the year, the Louth Tri Club Aquathlon on Sunday 28th. It was a 400m pool swim and a 5km run, so would be a good training day. I’d done a 15km intervals run and 60km on the turbo the day before, so my legs were pretty fatigued as it was, but I thought it’d be a good idea to race and see how the legs would cope with a hard 5km, especially leading up to Silverstone Half Marathon a couple of weeks later.

I completed the 400m swim in 5.20 getting the fastest swim split of the day and after a rapid 6s transition later (also fastest of the day!) I was out onto the run, but being chased down very quickly! After about 500m I was caught and passed by another competitor who I’d beaten out of the swim but had much better legs than me on the day. I pulled myself round the rest of the run with a rather disappointing time of 19.50 for the 5km to finish in 2nd place overall. Although I was a bit annoyed with my running, especially given that I ran a faster 5km in the middle of my training run the day before, it was just a training race so nothing that mattered too much. To make up for the disappointment I jumped in the pool for an hour or so after the race for a  gentle swim with Emily and then headed out for an hour run in the afternoon to end a good weekend of training with 1.5hrs swimming, 60km on the turbo and over 34km run.

Unfortunately over the next few days I picked up a slight niggle with my IT bands, a niggle that turned into a very annoying pain in both knees that made them feel like they were going to explode, even when walking! Cue a lot of S&C, stretching and rolling over the next week or so, as I needed to be fit again for Silverstone Half. I completely stopped running for a week and in the 2 weeks between the aquathlon and Silverstone I only ran 4km, but spent over 10hrs doing S&C, stretching etc.

Sunday 13th March came around very quickly and we were off down to Silverstone ready for the race start at 12pm. I was lucky enough to have Emily coming along to support me racing and also my sister (Catriona) and brother in law (Ben) coming down as Ben was racing too. My right IT Band and knee were still a bit sore but I thought I’d still race and see how it feels. After a quick warm up doing some dynamic stretching, strides and a short run I lined up a few rows back from the start and the gun soon fired. We were off running down a slight hill and I soon settled into a rhythm at around 3.50 min/km. Earlier in the year I was going to try to target a 77.XX time here (~3.40 min/km) but after the lack of running the last few months and also with my ITB playing up I decided that I’d be happy with anything under 84.24 (4min/km).

I found after about 3km the pain in my right knee went away slightly and I was able to focus on the rest of the race. I plodded round holding a constant pace and it wasn’t until about 17km that the pain in my knee returned, probably due to a slight drop in my running form as I was fatiguing. After all, this was only my second run over 20km this year! I put in a strong effort up the final hill to the finish line, ‘sprinting’ at 3.15min/km pace for the last 200m and finished in an official time of 83.36, averaging 3.57min/km and placing 76th overall out of 6000+ runners. I was pleased with this and went away from the race happy having proved I can still run fairly fast without much training. Hopefully over the next month I can get some good running in leading up to 70.3 Aix En Provence at the start of May.

The weekend after Silverstone I went to Clumber Park Duathlon, this time to spectate as Emily was competing in her first race of the year and first ever duathlon. It was a chilly day and I was glad I was wrapped up warm as I watched many very frozen people run/bike past me! Emily did very well for her first race of the season after also not having a very good winter of training, coming 10th U20 and placing well overall. We stayed around after the race for a bit to see some others competing before heading back to Loughborough, stopping for a well deserved McDonald’s on the way back 😛 Have a look at Emily’s blog about Clumber Duathlon here, it’s a great read 😀 http://emilypatchtri.blogspot.co.uk/

It was then on to Easter weekend where we were both racing our first triathlon of the year at East Leake Sprint. It’s a race I have done 4 times in the last 2 years, coming 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, so I was hoping to go one better, but looking at the start list a few days before a strong field was racing and that would be tough, especially as I still hadn’t been able to run with ITB problems, although it is on the mend now! Oh well, I’d just have to do the best I could and see what happens.

I had a good swim, around 5.20 for the 400m, quick T1 and was out onto the bike in the windy weather. Luckily the heavy rain that was forecast stayed away and towards the end of the bike the sun even came out and it was getting a bit warm! I was surprised with my bike split, having not been able to get out much on the roads this year I’ve been on the turbo 2/3 times a week, but I wasn’t sure how this would transfer over onto the road. I was 30s slower on the bike than I was last March but the conditions weren’t great with strong head/cross winds on sections of the course which made it tricky, and my power was higher than expected. All too soon I was back into T2 and out onto the run, the bit I was a bit apprehensive about as I wasn’t sure how my right ITB was going to feel. It hurt, but not too much so I carried on and finished the race in 57.28, 37s slower than last March but still a strong time. That put me 3rd overall and 2nd 20-29, so not the top step of the podium I was hoping for but a great result to start off the season.

Emily also had a great race, finishing 13th female and 1st U20, a nice result to start the season off and definitely something to build on leading into bigger races over the next few months 🙂 After the race and presentation went back to Loughborough to make the most of Easter Sunday and eat plenty of chocolate – I think we deserved it!!

Next up for both of us is the British Duathlon Champs at Windsor Duathlon this coming Sunday, a race that I’m not really expecting anything from as I don’t particularly like duathlons, but thought I may as well have a go and see what happens! Hopefully I’ll see some of you down in Windsor racing/spectating too 🙂

Finally I’d like to thank all those who are supporting me this year, I have received some very exciting parcels over the last month or so from Compressport, High5, Zone3 and Bounce Foods, as well as continued support from Pedal Potential, Nature’s Kiss and Profile Protein. I really am grateful for all the support I receive and it all allows me to race and train harder than ever, hopefully enabling me to achieve and exceed my goals for this season, so thank you very much 🙂

Until next time, thank you for reading and happy training 😀

February update + early 2016 plans

Well we’re well into 2016 and I thought it was time for a quick update as to what I’ve been doing for the last couple of months and what my plans are for the first part of the season 🙂

 

The last 2 months or so have been a bit hit and miss with training, I’d sorted when I could train around work and other commitments and got my training all planned but when it came to it there always seemed to be something or some reason why I didn’t get out there and train. Admittedly, most of this is probably just in my head, I definitely am still trying to get my motivation back! As race season gets closer I seem to be getting a bit more motivated but find I’m still too easily stopped from training sometimes. Something that I really need to sort out with some big races just around the corner. All of my cycling this year so far has been on the turbo due to it already being dark by the time I get home from work and also some pretty dismal weather at weekends! I’ve also been able to train a fair bit with my better half Emily, which makes training a lot more fun and enjoyable and definitely helps with the motivation 🙂 

Last weekend I was down at the London Triathlon Show at the Excel Arena with Emily. We were representing one of our sponsors Zone3 on their stand, showing off their amazing range of wetsuits and trisuits and got to have a look at their 2016 range, including the super fast looking Vanquish which I will be racing in this year. Their new range is looking better than ever and I can’t wait to get training and racing in their kit again this year! It was great to meet the team at Zone3 and represent them, I’m very grateful for all the support they have given me over the last 2 years and that they continue to provide. We then spent the afternoon walking around the show picking up plenty of freebies +samples and talking to useful people and great companies.

I have also made a few trips back to the farm to help out on the many projects the parents have planned there, and also to see these cheeky dogs 😀

And Emily and I have been eating some very healthy food to compliment our training 😉

 

So, looking forward to the next few months. My first race that I’m targeting this year is the Silverstone Half Marathon on 13th March, just over 3 weeks away… oh dear. I PB’d at this last year with 79.49 for the 21.1 km and I was targeting another PB this year, hopefully breaking into the 78.XX. Better get out running sharpish and get some good sessions in if there’s any hope of that still being on the cards.

 

Following on from that I have East Leake Sprint triathlon on the 27th March – fingers crossed I can go one spot better than the 2nd overall I’ve come the last 3 times. 4th time lucky!? The weekend after this I’m down at Windsor for the British AG Duathlon Championships. I’m not putting a lot of pressure on this race and I’m not expecting to do terribly well, but we’ll see what sort of form I take into race day and I’ll do the best I can!

 

Then on the 1st May comes one of my main target races for this year, my first 70.3 at Ironman 70.3 Aix En Provence in the south of France. Fingers crossed I can get a good result at this in the 18-24 AG and overall. It looks like a fun and fast but technical course so should suit my abilities well 😀

That’s all for now, I’ll continue to keep this updated at least every month with my progress and race results/reports etc as we get into the season. I also have some very exciting sponsor news to announce soon so keep an eye out for that 🙂

It would be great to hear from you all about your race plans for this year, and if you need any advice on racing or training just get in touch and I’ll be happy to help out 🙂

Thanks for reading and happy training!

ITU World Championships 2015 – Chicago

It’s been nearly 3 months since the big race day in Chicago but I’ve finally found some spare time to write about it all! So, grab a cuppa and have a read if you so please 🙂

Since booking the flights and apartment we were going to be staying in back in May, racing in Chicago had been in the back of my mind in every training session. Although the season hadn’t quite gone to plan up until then with a couple of small injuries and other factors meaning I wasn’t training quite as much as usual, I was excited to go out to America for the first time and race at the World Championships 😀

Dan and I flew out nice and early on 14th September from Manchester to Chicago via Heathrow and touched down at O’Hare International Airport at 3pm local time. On the flight we had some great views of Greenland (photos below) and it seems the pilot was making good use of the complimentary alcohol!

 

On arrival we found that our bikes hadn’t arrived yet as they hadn’t made it through the Heathrow processing from one flight to the other in time to make it on our plane. We were assured that the airline would find the bikes and deliver them to our apartment when they arrived on the next flight. This was a blessing in disguise as although we didn’t have our bikes for a day and there was a slight worry as to whether they would actually arrive, it meant we didn’t have to drag the big bags through the airport, on a couple of trains and then from the station to the apartment which made the transfer a little less stressful!

About 3hrs after landing we finally arrived at the apartment we’d booked through AirBnB and found we were up on the 28th floor – lucky there were lifts! A slightly queasy first look out of the window down to the street below followed and we then popped out to the shops to get some food for dinner and breakfast!

Tuesday went by pretty fast with registration for the aquathlon on Wednesday, getting our bikes all built up after they were delivered by the airline, heading out shopping for some food to last us until about Friday and also doing a swim recce of the aquathlon course. By the time the evening came we were both shattered and still feeling a bit of jet lag so we were fast asleep by about 9pm!

Wednesday morning arrived and it was race day number 1 of the week – time for the World Aquathlon Champs! This was actually to be my first aquathlon ever, I’m not sure why I haven’t done one until now but hey, may as well throw myself in at the deep end and see what happens!

The swim was a straight line down the harbour wall and as soon as the horn sounded there were people swimming over, under and into the back of me and a lot of fists and legs flying around – nothing too unusual and it was expected, this is the world champs after all and everyone wants to be in the best spot possible. I came out of the swim a bit further down than I’d hoped with a time of 10.45 for the ‘750m’ swim (It actually turned out to be about 50-75m too long!). A long run up to transition helped to get the legs warmed up and I stripped off my Zone3 Vanquish quickly and slipped on my shoes and was off on the 5km run. I knew my running wasn’t going to be up to scratch and I lost a couple of places on the run, coming home with a time of 18.17, not my best but I wasn’t too bothered, this race was always going to be a warm up for the main event on Saturday! I finished 11th in the M20-24 AG and was 2nd GB athlete, not bad for my first aquathlon!

After letting the legs recover a little I went out for an hour or so on the bike to check it was all fine after the flight and found some lovely views:

Having cooked dinner we again had an early night after another busy day! The next couple of days went by in a bit of a blur with watching the other races that were on, getting our race packs for the standard distance, some light training to keep the legs and arms going and GB team meetings, I’m pretty sure we were in bed by about 9pm on both nights as we were just so tired! I snapped this shot of a Bounce Ball in the deserted streets of Chicago whilst we were waiting for the Elite Women’s race.

Saturday morning came around and it was race day number 2, the World Standard Distance Championships. I was unusually not too nervous on waking up and having had some porridge we headed down to transition to set everything up. Much to my relief they had decided not to ban disc wheels – there had been storms for the last 2 days and we had been told they may be banned come race morning, but luckily the wind had died down a bit. Having racked up in the slightly wet and muddy transition area we still had a few hours until the race was due to start so headed back to the apartment to relax for a bit and get our trisuits on etc.

The time came to head down to the start and we did a final few stretches before getting our wetsuits on and going into the start pen. We were the 3rd wave off after the U20’s male and female waves had gone so had a few people to chase down. The swim course was about 350m in one direction parallel to the harbour wall before making a u-turn and coming back down past the start area and continuing next to the harbour wall all the way to the swim exit. It was supposed to be 1500m but again it was a bit long at around 1550-1600m. Because of the need to come back down past the start, the start buoys were only about 10m apart so fitting around 100 athletes who all want to be on the front line between the buoys was a bit of a squeeze.

The horn sounded and we were off, I didn’t get a very good start and found myself off the back of the lead group which I wasn’t used to. It had settled down a bit by the time we made the u-turn and I started to push on, overtaking a fair few people on the long straight stretch down to the swim exit. I finished the swim in 20.40 which is a bit off my PB for 1500m and I felt I was swimming fairly strong, so was relieved to find out the course was a bit long!

A long run up to transition and I was soon out onto the bike and whizzing around the streets of Chicago – what an amazing place to race. The course was 2 laps and fairly flat with a few inclines when changing between levels of roads. It was underground for about 40% of the time and had some tight u-turns underground where it was quite difficult to see where to go! Lucky I’d got a clear visor for my helmet before coming out, it would have been a nightmare with a tinted one. I quickly started to overtake some who had come out of the swim before me and found myself with a NZ athlete. We overtook each other a few times before he put in a bit of a surge and distanced me near the end of the first lap. I didn’t see him again for the rest of the race but later found he’d gone on to win the age group – if only I’d stayed with him!

I continued to overtake people for the rest of the bike and came off the bike in 10th M20-24 and 1st GB athlete. As with the aquathlon I knew my running wasn’t going to be anything special and just hoped I could hold on and place as highly as possible. A long 3.5 laps later (and about 10.4km) I crossed the line having overtaken a couple of athletes in the AG but also having been overtaken myself by a few more! I was 19th M20-24 across the line and 3rd GB and European athlete – not a bad day at the office 🙂

I was very pleased with this result. Although in the few weeks leading into the race I had wished there was another month before it so I could get my running back to where I wanted it to be, having crossed the line I was glad to have made it that far and I knew I’d done just about all I could on the day.

The rest of the day consisted of not very much apart from collecting our kit from transition and heading back to the apartment. I packed up my bike so it was out of the way and then had a relaxing evening. We weren’t flying back till Monday afternoon so had Sunday to spend eating nice food, shopping and looking around Chicago. It was a lovely clear day and we got some more great views of the city as well as some great food in our bellies!

Monday came around a bit too quickly and it was soon time to head to the airport and catch the flight back to Manchester after a great week in Chicago. Overall I had a great time out in America and it’s definitely somewhere I want to return to in the not too distant future, hopefully for some more racing too 🙂

Finally I’d like to thank all those who made it possible for me to get to and race in Chicago. Pedal Potential have been amazing and their financial assistance has made all my racing this year possible. Alongside this I have also been lucky enough to receive some financial assistance from the Old Stamfordians Club at my old school and from the Civil Engineering Dept at Loughborough University, I am very grateful for this which helped to pay for my flights to Chicago. Zone3 have provided me with an amazing wetsuit which has taken me to plenty of PB’s this season and I am very much looking forward to continuing our partnership in 2016 and beyond. I have been kept well recovered through the whole season with the help of Profile Protein and Nature’s Kiss and Bounce Foods have been amazing providing me with their great tasting Bounce Balls.

A final thank you for all of your support through Twitter and my Blog throughout the 2015 season, it’s much appreciated and I really enjoy engaging with you all. If you would like any advice on anything to do with triathlon please just contact me through Twitter or through the ‘contact me’ page on here, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year 🙂

Beaver Middle Distance – What a day!

As promised in my last update just over a week ago, here is my race report from the Beaver Middle triathlon – my first attempt at this distance – which took place on Saturday 16th May.

A bright and early 4am alarm sounded marking the start of another race day, and just 4hrs to go till the starting horn would sound. I woke up and straight away the nerves hit, just as they usually do on race morning. These nerves were slightly different though, and were mixed with anticipation to find out what the day had in store, given that it was my first middle distance triathlon and ~4hrs of racing is something that I had never done before! A big bowl full of porridge later, I finished packing my kit and stuffed it all in the car ready to leave.

We arrived at Belvoir Castle at about 6.45 (only about 40mins from Loughborough!) and having registered I set up my transition spot – I’d been given race number 1 as I was the youngest competitor in the race 🙂

It was then time to don my Zone3 Vanquish wetsuit – my first race in this suit – and head down to the lake ready to start the race. With a few mins to go we all got in the water and I did some sprints to warm my arms up and practiced a few deepwater starts to get my mind focused. ~220 of us were then squished onto a start line about 25m wide and the horn went. Cue madness. Fists, legs, arms, heads, bodies everywhere with nowhere to go but over people!

After the first 200m or so I managed to get into some clear water so could settle down into more of a rhythm following the manic start. I could see 3 athletes up ahead with about a 25m gap at the front of the field, and I thought they’d stretch out that lead over the remaining 1700m. However on completing the first lap of the swim they had about the same gap on me, so had been swimming at a similar pace. On coming onto the second lap we began to catch the slower athletes of the second wave which set off 10 minutes after us, which made it interesting trying to dodge around them all, and I lost a bit of time having to swim around large groups. On exiting the water I found myself still in 4th place with about a 23.30 1900m split.

A 400m run up a deceivingly leg-tiring hill took me to T1, where I entered in 2nd place as I’d overtaken a couple of those who came out of the swim ahead of me on the run. Wetsuit down, socks on, helmet on and I was out onto the bike, about 40s behind Tom ‘the fish’ McGlashan.

I closed this gap down in the first couple of km’s and went into the race lead. The bike course was 3 laps, going up the infamous ‘Harby Hill’ 3 times, definitely a good test for the legs and with a fair wind blowing it was a tough bike. Before the race I was aiming to average about 37km/h on the bike, which would give me a split of around 2 hours – about the fastest bike split from last year. After the first lap I was averaging 37.3, after the second I was at 37.1 and when I came around on the 3rd and final lap I had averaged bang on 37! Job done, and I had extended my lead at the head of the race to around 4 minutes over the two Tom’s of Tom Vickery and Tom McGlashan.

I returned to transition to find it a bit deserted:

A quick change of footwear into my Saucony Fastwitch running shoes and onto the 4 lap, out and back 21km run I went. The course was up and down a fairly nasty hill, which sapped the energy from the legs with every stride. The nature of the course meant I could see who was chasing me down, and they were coming quickly! A couple of weeks prior to the race I had started to develop some IT Band issues in my right leg, and as a result I hadn’t run at all for 15 days, so I was going onto the run not knowing how my legs would fare and just hoping I was able to finish. This meant I wasn’t able to run quite as quick as I would have liked to, and those who were behind me were catching me up fast. I managed to hold onto the lead until about 14km through the run when Tom Vickery overtook me to take the lead which he would take to the finish tape. Onto the final lap of the run I was still in 2nd place and was dreaming of a podium finish in my first longer distance race!

It all went wrong from here on in and the final time up the hill I was getting horrible cramps in my legs and had to stop and walk a couple of times to ease the pain. In the final 2.5km I lost 2nd and 3rd place to Alain Friedrich and last years winner Chris Nicholls, and stumbled over the finish line in 4th place and 1st M20-24. Safe to say I was shattered:

Reflecting back on the race I had a really good day out all in all. To lead my first longer distance race for over 85kms and finish just over 3mins off the winner was great, I was just a bit gutted to lose out on an overall podium position having lead the race for so long. I had however beaten my overall race target time of 4 hours, and was pleased to be able to run a 86 minute half marathon off the bike having not run for a few weeks. I was also amazed with my swim split, my new Zone3 Vanquish suit really did the business and I hope to be coming out of the water as high up in the field at the rest of my races this year with its help!

My final splits for the race were as follows:

Swim + 400m run to T1 – 25mins 52secs (2nd fastest)

T1 – 1min 1sec (fastest!)

Bike – 2hrs 1min 35secs (2nd fastest)

T2 – 1min 7secs

Run – 1hr 25mins 58secs

Overall time – 3hrs 55mins 33secs – 4th overall, 1st M20-24

A final thanks to all those who are supporting me in my triathlon career. Pedal potential for helping fund my racing, Zone3 for providing the amazing Vanquish wetsuit to give me such a great swim split, Beat The Bonk + BounceFoods for providing the nutrition that keeps me racing and training hard, Profile Protein for the incredible tasting recovery products keeping me ready for the next day of torture in training, Natures Kiss for helping with the recovery process providing me with amazing recovery cream and nice relaxing massage cream and Saucony for providing me with great running shoes to keep me running fast! Without all of these companies help I wouldn’t be able to race and train as I do, so thanks a lot.

So, I’m still not sure what’s next for me, I need to try and get rid of this IT Band pain asap before deciding my next race. I’m now building into the main part of my season, and if it clears up fairly soon I’ll likely be racing at the British Middle Distance Champs at Bala on the 7th June. If not then the Deva Standard in Chester will be my next race on the 14th June – English Standard Champs!

Until my next post, happy racing and training! 😀

Ps. I’d love to get some feedback on my blog posts + overall layout of the website, please tweet/DM me if you have anything to say 🙂 Thanks.

A busy few months later…

It’s been a busy few months since I last posted on here so this is probably going to be a fairly long update!

In my last post I was in the lead up to my first race of the season at the Silverstone Half Marathon on the 15th March. I went here hoping to be around the 80minute mark having been putting in some hard run miles the month or so previously. At the race I posted an official time of 79.49, just beating my target – although my garmin and a few others even had the course about 300m too long! I was really pleased with this result which stands me well given that I am doing a few middle distance races this year.

The weekend after the half marathon I was back at the Mallory Park Duathlon, a 3km/10km/2km mad dash which I also competed at in November. Although I still had major DOMS from the Half I came into T1 in 2nd place, went onto the bike in 1st place and stayed out in front till the end of the race – a great start to multi-sport season 🙂

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The weekend after that race was my first triathlon of the season at East Leake Sprint, a local race and one that I was hoping to do fairly well at. The day arrived and it wasn’t looking good for racing with nasty winds and heavy rain. Never the less, the race went ahead and I finished 2nd overall (13s off 1st place) and 1st M20-24. I also set the fastest bike split and 3rd fastest run, so was overall very pleased with how I had raced! Now I wonder where I could have found those 13s…

It was then off home for a couple of weeks for Easter before I was racing again at the Desford sprint, another local pool based triathlon. I’d had a couple of fairly hard weeks training between East Leake and this race, and was treating this as more of a training session to hone some race skills. Another windy day greeted us, although the rain held off this time thankfully, and I was happy enough to take 5th place behind some fast competition from the Loughborough Performance Squad, not bad on tired legs!

In the two weeks following Desford I recorded 36+ hrs of training, more than I did in the whole of April 2014, and I was feeling stronger across all disciplines, with a lot of hill running included to strengthen the legs. It was then back to lectures and a recovery week was definitely needed, with tired legs and some pain in my right IT band starting to show.

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I’m now under a week away from being on the start line at my first middle distance race, the Beaver Triathlon at Belvoir Castle near Grantham. I’m really looking forward to this race, and I know the bike course really well living nearby and having ridden it a fair bit in the last few weeks, including the 3 times the infamous Harby Hill! I’m still nursing my right IT band back to health so fingers crossed I’ll actually be able to run come next Saturday, but if all goes to plan I should have a good (but painful!) introduction to longer distance racing 🙂

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I’m also going to be racing the British and English national middle distance championships in Bala, Wales and Grafham, Cambridgeshire respectively, later this year so Belvoir will provide a good start leading up to those races.

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In late April I also went to Stoney Cove near Leicester for my first open water swim of the year and first test of my new Zone3 Vanquish wetsuit in the 5 degree waters! It was a very chilly swim but the wetsuit performed perfectly and kept me toasty. I’m really looking forward to racing in this suit at Belvoir and all my other OW races this year and hopefully setting some fast swim splits!

Finally I must say a big thank you to the companies that are supporting me this year, without their help I really wouldn’t be able to train and race as much as I do. Thanks to Beat the Bonk, Profile Protein and BounceFoods for providing me with top quality nutrition, to Zone3 for ensuring I’m racing in one of the fastest wetsuits around and in some great looking tri-suits, to Saucony for providing me with some incredibly comfy and fast footwear, to Natures Kiss for helping my legs recover after hard sessions and last but by no means least to PedalPotential who are helping me to attend the European and World standard distance championships this year and providing vital financial support for my racing.

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I’ll most likely be posting another update after the Beaver Middle on the 16th May so keep your eyes peeled! I’ll also be doing some product reviews over the next month or so of some of the amazing kit that I am racing and training in this year 🙂

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Until then, happy training and racing 😀