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.