From Sprints to Middle distance racing!

Well as most of you know by now, quite a few of our athletes were out in force racing at the weekend. First up were Terri in her second ever triathlon and Adam racing in his first Olympic distance triathlon, at Wimborne. This was Terri’s first experience in open water swimming and from what I hear the conditions were horrible, shallow murky water all round, but a good opportunity to practice heads up swimming!  Adam destroyed his swimming daemons, and had a cracking swim, and was off to destroy the bike field, until he got a puncture. Not that this was going to stop him, so he fixed it and carried on, only to get another….3 in total I believe, and on the verge of hypothermia, he called it a day! It would seem that there were a lot of punctures out on that course! I also don’t think he missed much except a mud bath on the run, as by the time all of the other races had finished, there wasn’t much left of the off road grassy path they held the run on! Terri on the sprint however, managed to escape the punctures with the sturdy new tyres she fitted this week, and came home 2nd in age group, 5th woman overall! Brilliant result!

Also racing in the sprint was Tripurbeck Ray, who finished 3rd in his age group, 12th overall in what I think was his first triathlon! A mention also has to go to our Junior Iris racing as well who finished 4th overall, only beaten by teenage boys, and was a full 3 minutes ahead of the next girl! All that turbo work is paying off

Finally but by no means least, we had Mark, Evan, Clodie and myself pitching up at the Grafham, all for our first middle distance triathlon of the year! Mark still only weeks from breaking his hip, had a cracking swim and was flying around the bike course, until 3 miles from home he punctured! Fortunately some nice spectator lent him his own front wheel so he could get home. Very sensibly he only ran 4k off the bike and although looking as fresh as the Duracell bunny, called it a day to protect his hip. I am very excited to see how Mark is going to compete once he is fully fixed (….again!)

Evan swam his socks off, and sneaked past me in transition, (though I was in there for 4 minutes……mmmmm) and also disappeared on the bike, finishing with a very respectable run, despite ongoing cramp, placing him  6th or there about in his age group. A great start to the season.  Clodie, after a very tough week at work, and  stating before entering the freezing waters of Grafham that she was going to stick with racing abroad (and in total agreement here!) finally found that she did have arms attached to her body on the second lap of the swim and also put in a very solid bike and run, for her first race since last September and equaling her fastest Half time (and I think thats now only the 4th!) so great racing once again!

As for me, well I had tried two Duathlons since finishing off my ligaments in my left ankle in the European Championships last year, and they didnt go well. I had tried to convince myself that it was due to having to run first, however, each race, just seemed to be making it that much weaker, and racing at the weekend just wasn’t going to happen. After spending 4 mins in transition sorting out an ankle brace, I set out on the bike to have no power through my left ankle, cramping, and weakness, which was disappointing at best. I saw it out, made it back to transition, if Im honest, pretty fed up, then after a long chat with very supportive Ade, ran an easy, but awkward 10k just to get the training in before pulling up. Just have to wait now for the operation date to come through, but no more racing for me this season. I will be back though,  hopefully fit, injury free for 2017!

So, whats next? Well, Derek is racing at Lisbon next week before the Duathlon Champs in Spain the week afterwards, where our Junior Serena will be racing for the elite juniors, and Sharon will be racing in age group as well. Whilst these chaps will be tapering, our Goalspecific Training Camp will be commencing as from next weekend, so we will be enjoying the fresh mountain air whilst climbing the many mountains and swimming in the fresh lakes (…ok, maybe swimming pools). Weather is looking great out there!  Then Its Staffordshire followed by Exmoor, so racing is well and truly underway!