Stockton Rat Race!!

Raced at the Stockton Sprint last week but it's taken me a while to write it up because of 2 main reasons. Firstly, I became mighty ill the day after the race, sickness and diarrhea, which hung around for 36 hours...not nice. Then, once I was feeling better I went away for a long weekend with the family, not too far away, just the east coast, but it gave me a chance to cycle there and back, with a long hilly run on the day between. Just under 8 hours of 'quality miles'.

Anyhoo, the race itself went reasonably well. The 750m 'city centre' river swim took me 12:56, slightly slower than I would have liked, but out of the murky water in 14th.

The 23km bike route was flat, 'compact' and REALLY technical and to be brutally honest, it was probably the worst route I've raced on! I'm not a lover of the 'stop/start' type of racing you get with city centre, multiple lap routes. There were a few roundabouts and several 180 degree dead turns on each lap, and after 3 laps I was getting dizzy! I know these type of courses are great for the spectators, but because of all the mega tight turns and sharp bends, no sooner had I got down on my aero bars than I was having to ease up and start braking ready for yet another 180 turn! Very frustrating! I was 4th fastest biker in a time of 37:19 and was lying 5th out of T2.

The 5km run was just as 'twisty' but at least it was only one lap and actually had a few lumps in it, courtesy of a few footbridges. I made up a place on the run with a split time of 17:45.

I finished 4th overall and 2nd AG in a time of 1:09:21. Happy with the overall result, especially as it was in front of some top quality support from some very vocal family members! (bunch of posers!)

A couple of days later, an email from the race organiser was asking if anyone had became ill since the race. It turns out that quite a number of us had became ill, and as a precaution we were advised to get a medical check up. They (the organisers) are worried about an illness called Weils Disease which attacks the liver and can be contracted from open water where rats use it as a toilet! Nice! After my visit to the Med Centre, I am now on anti biotics and have sacrificed an armful of blood for testing. I don't feel as though I have picked up anything nasty, but apparently this condition can lay dormant for a while, so a blast of prescription drugs is the way ahead!

So if you ever get ill after swimming in open water, I would suggest a 'better safe than sorry' trip to the doc's!

Train safe and remember kids...don't drink from rivers!!!

Good Day At The Beverley Sprint!

Raced at the Beverley Sprint Tri last weekend and had a pretty good day really!

I came 3rd overall and won my age group! Happy days!

I recorded my fastest ever 400m swim of 5:43! This was due in no small part to a bloke in my wave who was a bit of a fish...he started 5 secs behind me and was overtaking me within 2 lengths. I tried to stick to his feet for as long as I could and so subsequently ended up pushing harder than I really would have liked. But it got me a swim pb so can't complain!

The 20km bike course was flat and fast but there were loads of roundabouts and junctions which slowed you down a bit. After that hard swim, it took a while to find my bike legs. I felt tired for a few 'klicks' and so I took my gels earlier than usual which helped a lot! I was overtaken with about 5k to go by a bloke in my age group and thought he was going to get away from me. However, dropping down a gear, increasing my cadence, I found that I could stay with him (at least 7 metres behind, obviously!) and shadowed him all the way in to T2, clocking 33:38.

Once on the 5km run, I managed to pull away from my 'age group rival' but it was a painful 5k! I prefer to chase people down rather than try and hold them off and I was constantly looking over my shoulder to see if he was catching me! The pain in my lungs and legs only subsided once I knew I had held him off, which was in the last 100m! Run time 17:22.

So, a good day at the office, and a few cheeky prizes to boot...trophies, wine, cash, race voucher and a couple of bottles of 'Udo's Choice Oil'! Result!

Since racing at Beverley, I have been enjoying a bit of camping with the family in the Lake District. Camping is great, but sleeping can be a bit difficult with noisy sheep, ducks, owls, wind and rain! But I did get the opportunity to get some early morning open water paddling in the chilly waters of Ullswater, usually followed up with some hearty 'camping style' breakfast nosh! Lovely!

This weekend is the Stockton Sprint Tri...hope all that 'camping food' and lack of sleep doesn't slow me down too much!

Train well.

High Intensity, MORE Recovery...It's The Future!

I know it's been a while since I last blogged...sometimes there's just not enough hours in the day!
Thankfully, my season continues to tick along nicely, which in my world means no injuries! My last race was the Inter Services at Ellesmere. I like the Ellesmere course, with its fast bike route and challenging run, although the swim course in the Mere did take us into some shallow waters where my hands were dredging the silt off the bottom for a while! I finished that race in 17th overall, and bagged a bit of glassware for coming 3rd Vet and another piece of glass for being part of the winning Vets team...which was nice.

Since then, I've been trying to train quite hard, when work commitments allow (as always). Bike wise, although I've done two 3 hour rides, I've been mainly concentrating on power and anaerobic endurance stuff. The same goes for my running and swimming. This has meant that I've been doing 2 high intensity bike, 2 high intensity run and 1 high intensity swim a week, and all other workouts in the week have basically been recovery. Its kept me feeling 'sharp' and injury free and I'm really enjoying this kind of approach, which is quite a departure from my usual 'eyeballs out' every session regime!

Looking forward to the Beverley Sprint this Sunday, followed next week by the Stockton Sprint. Racing back to back weekends is something new for me this year and it seems to have worked quite well so far...touch wood!

Well done to all you recent long distance dudes at the IM UK and Outlaw. I think I may be tempted to go long in this country again next year, the question is...Outlaw or IM UK??

Train smart.