Monday 29 June 2015

IronMan 70.3 UK Race Report

Wimbleball was to be my first 70.3 race of the season and one I'd been looking forward too for a very long time, a local-ish race for me, hills and a tough run. I came down to Devon a few days before to catch up with everyone at home and to have a look at the bike course.

Race weekend came around quite quickly, I'd been feeling really quite tired in the lead up to the race and slept quite a lot in the days before. It was quite surreal really, I was just ticking off the last few race prep training sessions, getting kit ready and then suddenly it was Saturday and I was there getting registered and racking up the bike ready to go. I tried to be quite canny and get all my pre race meals ready in a cool box but the sweltering day on Saturday meant all this went off and I decided it would be a good idea to source something edible. After a couple of laps of Tiverton passing weird looking takeaway places I came across a quirky little cafe. I ended up having a rather posh solo meal of parma ham and watermelon salad with roast chicken.

On race morning I did my usual pre race warm up, a 10-15min run with mobility work, getting some weird looks from the other competitors as I ran around. We then assembled in transition and headed down to the swim start. This was to be the biggest mass start race I'd ever done. Having 800 swimmers around was quite claustrophobic but I got my head in the right place and pressed on. The field soon spread out and I came out of the water with a swim time that needs some work, but one I was pleased with on the day.

Swim Start. Photo curtsey of "Stephen Pond/ Getty Images" 

The rain started to come down really heavily and the wind was picking up, not ideal for what faced us all on the bike, but I got stuck in and worked my way up through the field making use of the steep climbs. The course was reasonably challenging requiring constant concentration. I came over the brow of one climb into a fast decent, to find someone had misjudged the bend at the bottom coming off quite badly, one of those moments your heart jumps into your mouth. I really enjoyed the bike leg, it was great to have something I could get into with no let up for the duration I was out there.

On the Run: Photo curtsey of "Stephen Pond/ Getty Images" 

Coming off the bike into T2 someone shouted "You're in 8th place!" which was encouraging but I was optimistic of my chances of bridging to the lead. T2 went very smoothly, opting for the no sock option, figuring every second would count now. I went off quickly, picking off a couple of guys in the first km…6 to catch. I set in my mind to run as fast as I could and to see what happened. Each turn bought the front runners closer, I passed a couple more at half way. A slight wrong turn set me back 30-40 seconds which I wasn't too happy with but back on track I managed to settle back into my rhythm again. The support from everyone throughout the race was phenomenal, every athlete I lapped shouted encouraging words, and coming though the crowds the noise was amazing, giving me goose bumps and a rush of adrenaline. On the last lap I finally caught a glimpse of the leader, marked by a mountain bike rider. Only now did I believe I could catch him, as a spectator shouted " The gap is 2 minutes". I put everything into bridging the gap and made it 2 thirds of the way through lap 3. I then pushed on again to put as much time between us as I could, racing against the lead mountain bike marker to the finish. Coming down that finishing tunnel was one of the most thrilling things I've every experienced. It was such a buzz of atmosphere and realisation of what had just happened.

Finish.  Photo curtsey of "Stephen Pond/ Getty Images"

I was incredibly happy with the result but couldn't have got there with out the fantastic amount of help from my coach Luke Watson and the set up at Loughborough, also the help and support from Aske Bikes, Pedal Potential, Le Col, HUUB, Jeremy Willson CT.

What's next?
In two weeks I'll be racing the AG Europeans in Geneva, and then the Gauntlet at Castle Howard at the end of July. As I qualified for the IM 70.3 Worlds I'll be heading off to Austria to race there at the end of August too.
I'm incredibly motivated to make the step up to Pro 70.3 racing in the near future and really hope that what happened at Wimbleball will prove to be a stepping stone to the next level.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Race Season in Full Swing

Since the start of March the race season has started to get into full swing. I've raced Leicester Sprint, Belvoir Olympic Triathlon and my first Elite Olympic race at Lough Cutra. Training has been consistently progressing and I'm really pleased with how everything is going so far this season.

Leicester Sprint was a very well organised race put on by Race Time Events and close to home. Three of the Loughborough performance squad guys raced meaning competition for the win was going to be tough. The race format was a 400m pool swim, 20km bike and 5km run. I finished in 4th place with a good bike and run time. Results: http://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/ZJ/178.html



Two weeks after Leicester was my first olympic race of the season at Belvoir Castle. The swim was in a lake in the estate's grounds followed by an undulating 45km on the bike and an out and back two lap 10km run to finish. The swim was cold and very murky. As the lake was so shallow, all of the silt whipped up and as a result the water tuned black. Every time I came up to sight or breath it would be bright sunlight and then back underwater it was completely dark, a very strange experience. Following a long run to transition I was then out on the bike, I got into a good rhythm and managed to make up many places after my swim deficit. I came off the bike in 21st place and then ran my way up to 7th. I posted the fastest run split of the day by a couple of minutes.
Results: http://www.stuweb.co.uk/event/1937#1011

The following weekend was Lough Cutra. The first in the elite castle series races held every month from May to September. Me and Max travelled over to Ireland on the Thursday, it was a bit of an epic road trip but we managed to get it done and had Friday and Saturday to chill in Ireland before Sundays race. We stayed in a very odd B+B, but it did the job for a couple of nights. The race was an olympic distance so 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run. The swim was in a spectacular lake in the castle grounds, but it was incredibly cold, 11 degrees. I really struggled with the temperature and didn't properly warm up until the run later in the race. On the bike I managed to ride my way up though the field into 6th place, although the power I was trying to hit was reduced by how cold I had become in the swim. I had another good run with the second fastest run time overall and fastest finishing lap. I was 4th overall in the olympic distance race. Results of the race: http://www.stuweb.co.uk/event/1873#250.



 This was my first taste of the Castle series, organisation was fantastic and the event was run incredibly smoothly, in a very iconic and stunning location. If you are thinking of racing triathlon for the first time this year or are still planning out your race calendar I would highly recommend giving the caste series a go, visit  http://www.castletriathlonseries.co.uk for more info and to enter online.

I've got a busy couple of months ahead now with Deva Olympic 14th June, Ironman 70.3 Exmoor 28th June, European AG olympic champs 12th July, and Castle Howard 70.3 26th July.