World champs here I come...

Its been a couple of month since my last blog and my god has a lot happened in that period.

Firstly, I had a fantastic week of training in Mallorca with F4L coaching.  During the week I completed nearly 30hours of training, which is double to what I am used to.  Swimming everyday in an open air 50m pool at the Best Centre, getting rid of some habits that I have developed over the years.  Cycling nearly everyday covering some of the most stunning routes that the island of Mallorca has to offer as well as running on some private trail runs added to the training.

Upon my return home I had no time to rest as the very next day I had the very first running of Sun City Duathlon, which consisted of a 5km Run 17km Cycle 5km Run.  Although I felt confident of my fitness it became evident that the weeks training was taking its toll as within 1mile of the run my legs were hurting and lacked energy.  However, as this was my first race in over 3 years I was hoping to get a top 20 which I got so all thats well ends well.

After this race I had a couple of weeks before my next race being the Durham Duathlon (5km xc run 20km hilly ride 5km xc Run).  These couple of weeks did not go as I planned.  During this time I lost a bit of motivation and didn't train as well as I could.  Race day came around pretty quick and I woke up to  very cold and windy day.  I must of still had my training camp in my legs as I had a good first run and a good cycle (only 2 people took over me which is unheard of).  Although I suffered a little bit of cramp on the 2nd run I was happy with my race.

After this race I sat down with Elliot, the boss of Coalfields RT, who also coaches a few athletes.  We came up with a plan to get me back on course and I have never looked back.  My fitness has come on leaps and bounds and my cycling is in a place that I have never been before.  Although this has been the hardest 4 weeks of my life (Elliot did say it would be tough) I have loved every minute of it.

Red Venom Aquathlon (ITU World Aquathlon Championship qualifier) was my next race.  Training had been going well until the week before where I pulled my hamstring.  Substituting my running for cycling I arrived at the race in almost peak condition.  The swim started excellent, with me leading to the first buoy and turning around the half way point in 3rd place.  The lack of open water swimming soon showed as my arms tired and I came out the water in 6th place.  Out onto the run and I got into a comfortable pace that didn't cause my leg too much stress, although a couple of athletes over took me on the run, I was still running strong enough to come 4th in my age group resulting in automatic qualification to the Worlds.  As this was the aim of that race I was over joyed to have achieved my goal.

Next up for me will be the ETU Sprint Triathlon Qualifier at Rother Valley, again I am hoping to qualify and join my coach Elliot and fellow CFRT athlete Garry in Austria next year.

I know a lot of you probably hear this all the time, but I would like to thank my Wife Kelly, children Michael, Chloe and Jack for their continued support as well as the guidance and support from my coach Elliot.  All of whom I would not be able to call myself a Team GB athlete again during my career if not for them.

Train Hard, Race Hard.

Pre Season Training

Its been a while since my last blog so I thought I would do a quick update with all my happenings.

Firstly training has been going really well, Swimming is slowly getting back to where it was before my 3 year break.  My cycling seems to be ahead of where I was and I have been doing a lot of training on my turbo.  Keeping it consistent, which seems to be working as I have not been effected by all the snow.  (although I had a little set back yesterday - more about this later).  I feel as though I am running better then I ever have, all those punishing miles around Penshaw Monument must have been working.

I also managed to convince my better half to let me have a new bike, although I wasn't given the budget I would have liked, but its a start.  I ended up with a Felt B series bike.  That coupled with my zipp wheels have made it into a decent bike.  Although I am already looking at further improvements, the life of a triathlete though.

At the time of writing this post, I am sat wriggling in discomfort from a little set back I had on my bike yesterday.  My training started so well, having entered the Sun City Duathlon the club have been training on the route of this race.  So we started with 2 laps of the 5km route everyone in there new Coalfields Race Team kit, First one steady as per usual followed by a sudden inject in pace on the second lap.  Feeling quite confident with where my training is at the moment I was looking forward to jumping on my race bike afterwards to see how I compared with some of my team mates, however, as I got my bike out of the car and peddled it for a few hundred meters just to make sure everything was running smoothly, as I was going around a roundabout, next thing I know I am on the deck covered in oil and blood.  Having checked myself over noticing no broken bones I jumped back on to join the rest of the group.  Only managing to complete one lap of the bike due to the increasing pain whilst on the bike.  So what started out so well turned into a nightmare. GUTTED!!

I am hoping the swelling on my leg goes down as I don't want to miss anymore training days (today being 1day already)

Anyway stay safe and train hard.

So in 2012 I decided to return to the wonderful sport of triathlon.  To help me focus I decided to join a new Triathlon Club - Coalfields Race Team.  In the few months I have met these guys, I have found a new love for the training and I am currently training more now then ever before, with still plenty left to go.

I will keep you updated of my progress...