Coming in to the min part of the season, race results are flying in now and I thought I would update you quickly on what have I been up to.

So after the disaster of BUCS sprint, the first event of this block – BUCS Olympic I was hoping for a better outing…

Arriving at the marina we were greeted with the customary wind and rain that May brings, however nowhere near the conditions of BUCS sprint.
Going into the race I was feeling confident of a good performance, provided I could eliminate the mistakes that cost me before. And it seemed I was right as I got a great start on the swim, making the first buoy in second to avoid the melee behind, and there I stayed until we emerged from the water and into t2.

So far so good. T1 went smoothly and out on the bike I worked hard to the first turnaround to try to build on my work in the swim and when I saw the chasers it appeared to be working as I had opened up a reasonable gap, so I kept pushing hard as I knew it was only a matter of time until I was caught as there were some strong cyclists behind. The inevitable happened with 5k to go, but with my weakest discipline put of the way I was happy to come into t2 in 5th. Out onto the run and I attacked from the start, trying to close down the leaders and after the first lap I was running in 2nd, but then I paid the price for my fast start coming into the last lap as Alex passed me, but fortunately I managed to hold on for third. Overall I was pleased after what was a testing race to take 3rd and an added bonus to win the team gold with Alex schilling and Dan Woodcock by just 8 seconds…

A good  win for the Loughborough mens team at BUCS Olympic

 

After that was then onto my biggest race of the season so far – Blenheim super series. I was nervous, as this was my first Draft Legal race, but after an iffy start – messing up one of my race number transers – it was onto the swim and a rough swim was the order of the day. I was stuck in the middle of the group and found myself a few body lengths down after the buoy. So I emerged from the swim in 5^th, and entered transition. This went without a hitch and it was soon onto the bike, and luckily I managed to be near training partner James Teagle, so we formed a group and quickly caught the leaders. Coming into T2 I found myself too far back, and hence got caught up in traffic coming in, but onto the run and I immediately started working past people, and managed to finish in 10^th. I was happy for my first race at this level, but lots to work on once again.

After Blenheim, as all my exams were finally out the way, I had a nice week at home, to pick up my new TT bike and a good  week of catching up with people I hadn’t seen for a while (massive thanks to my new sponsors Anchura Partners for the bike), and I finished it off with the Dartford Bridge triathlon – where I was happy to take the win over what was a very tough course. A good indicator for Geneva in a few weeks’ time at the European Champs

The new beast... No excuses now

 

 

Back into training now, and building for the next races – Geneva, and Liverpool and London super series races, and to enjoy being a full time athlete for a few months.

So it has been a month or so since we got back from Portugal so I though I would update after what have been an eventful 3 weeks.

 After an eventful trip home where flight cancellations caused chaos for us all coming home, and resulting in the 11 of us heading on 10 flights to 9 different airports in 2 countries,  a couple of easier days were on the cards and then it was straight back to it, with a 5k race to see how camp had gone.  Unfortunately an injury picked up just before camp prevented me from finishing in a semi respectable time, but no time to dwell as it was straight onto the first triathlon of the season.

 I wasn't expecting too much, with it being so early in the season, but apart from the silly mistakes (such as racking my bike in the wrong place and my chain coming off going up a massive hill) which are making all too common appearance at the moment, I felt strong, with the second fastest swim of the day behind training partner Carl Shaw ( who went on to take the win) and a good run.
Lots to work on still but luckily I had a chance to try to iron out some rustiness just the next weekend as I headed down to Malory park race track to join in with a few training super sprint races with the East Midlands academy. Thanks to Steve and the guys for letting me come along and join in.

 Then came the first big race of the season, BUCS sprint, and predictably the worst weather we had seen for a few weeks.
After registering at 1,  it was a long wait until our start at 4:50, but finally it was here, and after a solid swim I was feeling good as I got out of transition onto the bike.  So far so good, but then the problems started. Once again my back wheel fell out, so I stopped to fix that, and then coming into the last 2k, I managed to have a crash  going round a roundabout. But I picked my self up, and carried onto the run where after a slight detour resulting in a couple of minutes of panic, as I tried to work my way back to the course, I finished, and ( on reflection) was quite happy with how it had gone. Yes the result wasn't what I wanted but my swim was 6th fastest and my bike and run had felt the strongest they had ever been.

A good performance by the rest of the squad however meant that Loughborough took home individual Silver and Bronze in the males and also 2nd female as well as winning both mens and women's team overall events.

 After a couple of days repairing my injuries it was back to the normal day to day routine in the lead up to my first Olympic distance race of the season, The big east. This was my first ever race last year, and hence a year on I was eager to see how I would go. A solid swim saw me emerge out of the water first, transition went without a hitch and the bike went amazingly with my time only being 6seconds slower than the quickest time,  hence I came into t2 still first, which I managed to hold for the duration of the run. For once a near flawless race, yes there were issues to work on ( like not forgetting my nutrition before the race meaning the run was a lot harder than it should have been...) but after my recent run of bad luck I was quite happy.
The prize for first wasn't too shabby either with a free training camp in Spain, a pair of trainers and a £35 pound voucher.  Time to rest up now and prepare for a good solid hit out at BUCS Olympic in a couple of weeks time,  where hopefully my race will be a bit less eventful than last time...