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...