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Friday 14 August 2009

Still sore

Body has mended well, but the cuts and grazes are still sore as they are healing. I must remember not to fall off bike any more!
I TT'd on Wednesday evening, Poole Wheelers 10 and had not a bad outing. Riding very controlled, seem to be ok strengthwise even if a little tired, a 22' 21", 20 seconds quicker than on the same course back in May. Similar conditions, but this time round, not quite the lung-bursting effort of before. So good progress made on the bike and hopefully will just keep the top end speed ticking over for the next few weeks. Results on the Poole Wheelers website. http://www.poolewheelers.com

Tuesday 11 August 2009

back to training

Have been easing myself back into some regular training after an easy recovery week and weekend. Got out for a run today and even in the warm sun I was feeling good and able to push on a bit. Swim tonight after a commute home via Studland, about 25 miles, just easy riding. 10 mile time trial tomorrow night, regular swim sessions for the rest of the week and a weekend of longer miles on the bike will get me back up to strength to push on now for building up to the New Forest middle distance triathlon on 20th September.

Thursday 6 August 2009

Antwerp pics


Found some pics taken By Freddy Devos of Zoom Tri Club. Cheers Freddy!
On the far left is me, Lawrence Down of Zoom Tri Club and Dries Reheul, Belgian triathlete.





Wednesday 5 August 2009

Inspirational

If anyone needs motivation and inspiration to get off their backside and put some effort into life then this picture says it all. Taken at Saturday's Ironkids triathlon event in Antwerp, day before 70.3 race.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Harry Wiltshire

The man done good!
My coach was 6th at London triathlon. After helping to set a blistering pace on the bike and setting the race up Harry hung on for a tremendous finish in the world's biggest triathlon, excellent stuff boss!!

Antwerp 70.3 2009 race report

Gosh, where to start. Great weekend, great time, great race, not-so great weather, great city and great result(under the circumstances - more of that later!)
Arrived there Saturday afternoon after a very easy journey over, and relaxed in the afternoon, bit of a snooze and pootled off to register. No hassle, very well organised and back to hotel to chill and out in the evening for a small bite to eat and then an early night.
And lo and behold the rain came race morning, and kept on coming until towards the end of the bike leg! Never thought it would stop, and massive amount of surface water for the first half of the bike.
But anyway, I was feeling in great shape for this one. Wave swim start, not my favourite of things as meant I had to pick my way through a large number of bike riders once onto the bike. Butthe swim was good, very solid, took it out reasonably hard and maintained that effort and got out quickly to bike and was into my riding pretty quick and was motoring along, went through 10 miles in 23 minutes and was pushing on with real prupose until 12 miles and bang, I hit the wet tram lines and down I went. My god, it hurt. A lot! 13 minutes worth of sitting/stanidng/wobbling, bleeding and generally tryingt o make sense of what had happened and not making a good job of it. Eventually when I felt better enough to climb back on the bike I gingerly rode off and thought I'd just play it by ear and see what transpired. As it happened, everything was moving ok and I was back up and speeding along inbetween bends and tram lines where I was slowing down more than I normally would. I was still in and out of a lot of bikes and repassed people I had passed earlier on. Groundhog day!!
So the rest of the bike went without incident and at 50 miles gone I was almost back into central Antwerp and was flying along. Into T2 and a quick transition saw me gather my 2 gels and set off. I didn't think about the aches/pains or blood and just pushed on, deciding to realy attack the run and try and hold it. Under 20 minutes for the first 5k and I was feeling good, but then after reaching for my caffeine gel only to discover it wasn't there, I suddenly hit my first real low point, and for those of us who know what that's like, it can really start playing with your mind and then the body seems to follow!! The pain kicked in from there on in. To the end of the race I kept fighting with myself to push on through the hurt of the crash and the general fatigue that set in. The final lap of a 3 lap run course was tough and I was pretty much battered by then, taking on anything at the drinks stations. 500m to go and a bit of cramp in the calves followed me home!!
4 hours 33 for 70.3. 13 minutes of that spent on the floor in pain. I was very happy with my result. Sure, I would have gone a lot quicker had I not fallen, but that's how it goes sometimes. It went wrong, I dealt with it, and I gave as much as I could. Massive learning experience for the future. Bodes well for the coming seasons. 4 minute PB in the swim, my ride time on the bike was 2 hours 12 if you take off the 13 minutes lost to the crash and it was a 70.3 half marathon PB. All in all a good day. 21st in my age group in the end. It was a big field, a lot of Pros and some very quick Belgian age groupers in what is without a doubt one of Belgium's biggest triathlon events of the year. 130th overall. Again, time and position for me were secondary this time around, I was more concerned on goin gout hard and seeing what the body could cope with. And a massive positive that it can actullay cope with a lot more than I thought. Training has made me strong and this race has just made me much stronger.
Onto the New Forest middle distance tri in September with even more confidence!!

But, oh how my body hurts!!!

Results: http://www.chronorace.be/web2/Files/4289.pdf

Pictures to follow.
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