Budapest World Championships - Aquathlon

Having had a slight hitch in travel plans, it was nice to arrive safely in Budapest complete with bikes on Tuesday 7 September, ready for the aquathlon on the Wednesday.  We quickly settled into the team hotel and decided to walk to the race venue for the pre-race briefing.

First impressions of Budapest weren't great - it was raining cats & dogs, and the walk to the venue took a lot longer than expected.

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Edinburgh - duathlon world champs

Having opted for Budapest rather than Edinburgh early in the season, we decided to travel up to the duathlon champs to volunteer and help out.  We'd been given shifts on Saturday afternoon (age-groupers) and Sunday morning (elites), so travelled up on Saturday morning on the train from Alnmouth and had a leisurely morning on Princess Street.

The weather for the weekend was fantastic, and Saturday afternoon was spent cheering on the athletes at a nasty little climb.  I was supposed to be warning them about a slightly dodgy corner, but after the first lap, there wasn't much else to do.

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Bedford National Championship- the inquest

I had high expectations coming into this week's race at Bedford.  Confidence was high after some solid races this season.  I figured the standard wouldn't be much higher than the qualifying races at Little Beaver and Shropshire, so went into the race expecting a top 5 finish in Age Group, and hoping for a podium.

Leading up to the race everything seemed to be going OK - I'd dropped a couple of pounds and felt pretty good.  I'd hoped to race Tuesday's time-trial to get some speed into the legs, but mechanical problems had prevented that - not too much of a worry, though.

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Tagged Bedford National Championship

Lead up to the National Champs at Bedford

Sunday's the national champs, so this week's a nice taper week.

I had another solid weekend of decent mileage, 10 mile run along the beach to Druridge on Saturday, 4 hours of hills on the bike on Sunday.  This week reins things right back - two rest days, single sessions on the other days.

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Tagged Bedford National Championship

Pushing the limits ... and failing

Tough swim session this morning - slightly beyond my current ability.  Similar to last week's session, I had a long warm-up, then 8 x 100 off 1:35, followed by an easier set of 4 x 50 of 60s.  Then, the sting in the tail - 4 x 100 off 1:30.

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Being ill sucks

When I’m ill, I stop being ill and be awesome instead. True story.

Or at least I normally do.

This week, I’ve been struggling to recover from over-reaching at the Couple Challenge. The throat’s been itchy all week, but I thought by Wednesday I’d shaken it off. I dropped Tuesday night’s time-trial, but decided to give Wednesday’s track session a go. That was surprisingly successful, and I followed that with my Thursday morning session, an hour tempo on the bike. Then it all went wrong – my nose started to stream and I spent the day coughing, sneezing and spluttering.

The decision for Thursday night was whether to compete in the club aquabike, the first in a 3-week series of super-sprint races at Druridge Bay. Common-sense suggested giving it a miss, but the competitive spirit wanted to take part. I tried to get an hour’s nap before-hand, but still felt crappy – discretion was the better part of valour and I decided to time the event instead.

I’m pleased I did, because I got a bit of a fever in bed on Thursday night, swamping the bed and having some wierd nightmares. Woke up at 3am and decided to can Friday morning’s swim session as well – an extra hour in bed seemed far more sensible.

The key is to ensure I’m back into the swing as soon as possible, so hopefully an early night tonight will see me fit for Saturday’s long run and Sunday’s long ride.

In the bigger picture, getting back to decent training asap will have far greater impact on my ability to perform (next race is the National Champs in Bedford, 15 August) than struggling through half-hearted efforts.

Couples Challenge, Newbiggin

A pretty successful outing to Newbiggin on Saturday.  3rd overall, 1st vet in 4:01:51.  Pleasant day with a bit of a southerly breeze.  Race distances were a bit short of a 70.3 - 1.7k swim  / 86k bike / 19.6k run.

I was really pleased with a well-executed race.  Got a decent start in the swim, although dropped back a bit to come out of the water in 5 or 6.  Still dropped too much to the guys I knew would be the contenders for the top spots, Alan Copland and Dave Barker.

I had a poor T1, getting wrapped up in the leg of my wetsuit, but pushed on the climb out of Newbiggin to get into a rhythm.  I then settled into tempo pace at ~150bpm and didn’t allow other riders to deflect from that.  Was in about 6 or 7 by the end of the first lap, but up to 3rd by the end of the bike as others faded.  Consumed 3 gels and about 750ml of fluids on the bike (less fluid than planned – should have finished both bottles)

First couple of laps of the run were a bit of a struggle – suffered a bit of cramp, but popped a couple of endurolytes and a carb shot and that seemed to resolve things.  Third lap was much better and made a noticeable dent in the lead.  Final lap, felt OK so decided to give it everything.  Running fast seemed easier than plodding, so was able to hold the higher pace for the final lap.  I knew I couldn't catch Alan, but with about 1k to go I could see Dave was struggling.  His lead was still substantial, but I put my head down and went for it.  In the end, I was 9 seconds behind but made sure the others knew they were in a race.  I think finished stronger than the other guys, so maybe the result would have been different with accurate distances.  

Fastest run split of the day by 2 minutes, plus fastest bike & run combo.  Still need to do something with the swimming though - major focus for the off-season.  Very pleased with being able to pull the run out of the bag - I need to able to run a decent 10k in Bedford & Budapest if I want to be in contention.

Tagged Couples Challenge middle distance race report

More steady training leading up to Couple Challenge

Another solid week in the lead up to Saturday’s ‘Couples Challange’, a middle distance race in Newbiggin, Northumberland. I’m looking forward to this race for a few reasons

  • the tri-northumberland team always put on great races
  • its on the doorstep, with a late start time
  • the bike route loops through Amble

So hopefully I can put on a good show. Its the first time for this course, so no comparison times from previous years – my gut feeling is that it’ll be fairly quick.

For the first time this season, I think I’m about where I want to be with weight – I think there’s a few more pounds to go before the Nationals & Worlds, but definitely getting there.

I had a ridiculously busy weekend – shoe-horning the Round Table Wake party, marshalling at the coastal run, a barbeque, a solid 4-hour (hilly) ride and a 90 minute run in. A couple of weeks of solid training are definitely paying off and I felt a lot stronger on the bike, heading out over the fords road, Simonside and Callaly, finishing with 3 trips up Lemington Bank – google maps

I could do with getting into a similar groove with the running – still isn’t feeling natural, and track times are less than stellar.

Finally, a new landmark in the pool – 10 x 100m off 1:35. I was aiming to stay under 1:25 for each rep, but that proved a bit too tough. Roll on swimming off 1:30!

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