The road to World Champs London

So, my first year of triathlon is approaching the end with only a couple more events to go, one of them being the World Age Group Championships in London after a roll down spot came available at LLanduno Sea Sprint. I knew it was going to be a tough journey and my inexperience has really showed in the events I have done to this point. This was mainly due to the fact I was really push into the deep end to take on events that had an experienced field and superior competition. In high insight I could of really done with a full year of competing in Triathlon under my belt before trying to qualify for one of the most sort after events for a GB age grouper. Anyhow I'm there, I paid the extortionate entry fee (which really did leave me in a dilemma) and now hope to arrive at the start line in some sort of decent shape. Like all my qualifying events, work has had a uncanny way of getting in the way to a decent build up. Again London will be no different as travelling the US 2 weeks leading up to London which is again is not ideal, but I can only try my best!

So as an overview of the year so far. These are the events I took part in:

Grendon Sprint - European Qualifier
Llandudno Sea Sprint - World Qualifier/Welsh Championships

Dambuster Standard - British Championships/World Qualifier
Liverpool Standard - English Championships/World Qualifier

Bedford Middle
Outlaw Middle

The idea this year was to try 2 of each distance to see which distance I enjoyed doing the most. The outcome was quite surprising, especially the middle distance events as I didn't intend to compete in this distance at all and only took part in them to support Daz in his preparation for Zurich Ironman. Which I would like to add he nailed with all the other Nice Tri club members that took part in this Ironman. Please check out the race reports, truly emotional journey for everyone involved and a great read.

I enjoyed the 2 middle distance events as I found the distance much more manageable effort wise and the success probably had some part to play too. Strangely enough standard distance was the most enjoyable but it was the distance I was worst at. I reckon I will continue to give Standard Tri's a go just to see if can improve. Sprint was my least favourite as the effort is just too intense and the race is over just to quick. You have such little time to process the race as it feels horrible from the start; I just can not convince my body to push to that limit.

I also realised that my running really took a nose dive this year as I stay well away from the duathlons and running races I would normally take part in. Out of everything swimming has taken priority and now something I really enjoy doing and dare I say it, it has taken second spot from running. I'm still not that good but really happy with the progress I have achieved with the support of Adam at GreenlightPT. The swim sessions I had with Adam have really help develop my stroke and opened my eyes to open water swimming. I was very naïve to think you get in and swim and believe the wet suit is the only advantage. Look forward to working more on this and getting in the water next year fully focused.

Looking ahead I am really looking forward to winter training and starting the season over again with a more experienced head on my shoulders. I've really missed the racing this year but enjoyed the training. I must return to duathlons and running during the winter in preparation for the spring to return to some previous run fitness. Will also try to make a return to a couple of the events completed this year to see if any improvement can be made.

Not ready to throw in the towel yet in triathlons so looking forward to next year

What a team!! - National Club Relay Championships

Better late than never with my blog posts, hey. Travelling immediately after an event really takes up any free time to get the blogs up. I will get there in the end I'm sure and acknowledge that's its old news by the time I get round to it, but its all for the record.

So, National Club Relay Championships in Nottingham. Basically the format is a team of 4 that all swim then bike and finally run. The distances are more manageable than a sprint with a 500m swim, 15k bike and 5k run.

I was fortunate to place in a team that consisted of Chris Ritchie, Tom Stead and Richard Hancock. These boys are the sprint kings of the club and we thought we had a got chance to compete with the faster teams racing Saturday afternoon in the open race.

Up nice and early, Kye and I made our way to meet with the other 36 Nice Tri members competing in the relays. We travelled up in convoy and made our way to the Nice Tri camp set up on the far side on the lake. What a set up; 2 tents and a BBQ cooking up bacon and egg rolls for breakie. This was followed up by burgers and hot dogs for lunch, just in time for our race to start at 13:45.

 
Simon Boothby did a fantastic job cooking for the day with the great assistance of his wife Lucy and side kick Dan Ridley, ensuring we were all well feed. In addition to this, there were superb cakes on offer that were baked by Katie and Michaela Ridley to keep our sugar levels up. To top all this off, Emma Ritchie baked a Sponge cake in the colours and shape of a tri suit which looked amazing. The efforts of all the members during events like this really make me appreciate what a great club I am able to be part off.

Fuelled to the max we made our way to the swim start. Chris the fish went first and put us in a great position (top 5) from the start. Handing the band to Tom, another great swimmer, Tom was able to make his way to the front and sit on the 2 lead swimmers to put us into 3rd on the next hand over. Next was Richard; a swimmer like me, we just needed to put in a solid performance to stay at the sharp end of the race. Fortunately we both did and sent Chris out on the bike in 7th.

The hardest part of the race was now over and being 4 strong cyclist this is where we knew we had to put in the hard work to create an advantage if we could. Chris worked hard and brought us up to first place, from that point on we kept gaining time until we were leading by 6 minutes going into the run.

Chris, Tom and Richard absolutely buried themselves around the 5k loop to send me out on the run with some 8 mins ahead of 2nd place. Having such a great lead it was hard not having somebody to chase but I did my best off my current run fitness to cross the line to take the win for the team; nearly 8 minutes ahead of 2nd. The effort we put in for each other was incredible and felt very honoured to be part of this team.

 
The rest of the podium for the open race was taken by another Nice Tri Team and the other 8 Nice Tri teams were not too far behind.
 
Having 10 teams entered we were the most represented club of the day, which just shows again the magnitude of how great our club is.

British Standard Distance Championships - Liverpool

This was the last opportunity for qualification to London. Again it wasn’t ideal timing as I’d been travelling in the US for 2 weeks and in the days leading to it. Training was a bit hard to come by whilst away and struggled to do anything with any meaning, however i had a bit of luck that the customer required the work to take place during the July 4th holiday week which meant i had a chance to pop to Durham, North Carolina to see my old training buddy Nic, who moved out their last year. This meant 4 days of good bike time and the couple of runs.

Back on English soil on Thursday and feeling pretty jet lagged. Friday was a case of finishing work, loading the car and getting to Liverpool before registration closes at 8pm. The time allowed seemed possible until the M6 closed at Stoke and we were diverted. Slight panic but we arrived with 8 mins to spare #turnertime. Checked into the hotel located 400m from the start on Albert Dock and then went out for some food. Found a place to eat which seemed the shortest wait time, but after a nightmare wait and a few stern words with the manager dinner finally arrived at 10:15pm. We dread to think what they may have done to our food for complaining! We inhaled the food and back to the room to get ready for the 5am wake up call. Still jet lagged and struggling to get to sleep my daughter woke feeling unwell at 1:30am. Jessica was able to return to bed around 2:30am, only to be woken by my son hoping he hadn’t missed anything and was first up for the day ahead. I delivered the bad news and finally we all got to sleep, albeit for a couple of hours until our alarm went off.

Down for breakfast and chatted away with fellow triathlete’s competing in my wave. This is the point I first heard that the dock was occupied by numerous amounts of small jelly fish. After my experience in Llandudno that is not something I wanted to hear or looked forward too.

Got my stuff together and cycled down to transition. Bumped into a few familiar faces and made my way to the water. Jumped in, checked out the jelly fish under water which there seemed to be thousands of them. Splashed around a bit and waited for the race to start. The swim started well and I got myself into a nice group. Made it around the first 2 right hand turn buoys and things were going to plan. Went under the bridge and made it out of the next left and right turn buoys without taking on too much water or panicking too much. I was thinking to myself things were going well until I peeled off the group and made a sharp turn around the next buoy on route, only to find that no one was following me! Big mistake on my part as i had actually turned at the sighting buoy, the turn buoy was still quite away ahead. Went back on route, made the further 2 turns on my own and headed home. I was able to catch a swimmer and sat on his shoulder until the final buoy. Made another mistake here and swam to the left of the buoy towards the exit instead of around it. Made a rapid u turn and headed into transition. Overall I enjoyed the swim although not a great time. Need a lot of work on sighting and remembering the course. Also need to find race pace effort as never seem to push myself hard enough. Maybe it’s the fear of not being able to finish if i go too hard or just confidence? Anyhow, these are things i will definitely work on in the swim sessions.

Transition was pretty straight forward. Took a bit of time to get the pedals turning over but settled in and was making up some good time.

Off the bike and out for the run. By now the weather was heating up a bit, I was feeling ok for the first kilometre and then my pace dropped dramatically and I couldn’t do anything about it. It definitely wasn’t nutrition or the heat it was just sear lack of conditioning. Every time someone went passed I tried to respond by couldn’t, I felt helpless and was happy to see the finish.

So, top 100 (97th) finish, just! An enjoyable swim, a good bike split and a very disappointing run. Overall 21st in age group and no chance of London qualification in Standard distance. The event was good and really enjoyed the weekend around Liverpool with my family. Kids enjoyed watching and Ben’s even thinking about giving a triathlon a go!! #happydays

Results

Next race: National Relay Championships – I have an awesome team!!!