My Triathlon Journey

Me and my number 1 fan at the finish line - Next year she will be able to confirm or deny that statement. I haven't been someone in my short blogging/racing career to knock out a race report hours after the event but I really have taken my time to mull over my IRONMAN Wales 2018 race. Two reasons, my Mac gave up and died and secondly I have been busy trying to avoid triathlon related activity for a few weeks. Most of you reading this will know already my overall time was 10hrs 56mins, finished 103rd overall and when comparing it to last year I was 1hr 40mins faster!! So initially I was flying pretty high after crossing the line. However, it has taken me the best part of 2 weeks to get out of the post IRONMAN blues. Pre race I have no idea how I was so relaxed on the lead up to the race. Training had gone really well, Tim and I agreed on the the race plan and it was memorised. Therefore, the lead up mainly consisted of banana bread baking until I would be stood on th...

Finish line of Thames turbo with Anya and Tim #teamAWESOME Intro... So as I hit post on this blog it's exactly 7 days until IM Wales. I'm going to try an summarise how my training has gone since the HIM Barcelona back in May and my thoughts on how the big race may play out. Since May my adventure into the world of triathlon has been a team activity. By that I mean it hasn't just been me and a training plan that I have made up, after HIM Barcelona  Tim George  accepted my request for help. Although, I had achieved my goals in Barcelona I knew to take the next step forward I needed someone on my side who could have oversight of my training plan and help me achieve some larger goals. I have to say from the start one of things I have enjoyed most is not having to plan my own sessions, I just print them off, complete it, tick it off my schedule and move on to the next one. Tim and I had 16 weeks to build on my fitness, knowledge of triathlon and develop a r...

Hever Castle - Middle Distance - 1.9km Swim, 90km Bike, 21.1km Run (1/2 IRONMAN) Wow it's been a while since I have written up some notes. To think in 7 weeks time I will have a short story to tell you all about from IRONMAN Wales!! For now, it's just an update and a focus on how Hever Castle middle distance went back on the 8th of July. Race day It all started with a very very early alarm @ 3am. I was very lucky to have Mike join me last minute for the event for some much needed support.  In the week building up to the race I received my first detailed race plan from my coach. This race plan was 2 full A4 pages mainly reminding to either extent, stay relaxed and be AWESOME. If the above was how I measured success I think I nailed it.... The weather was predicted to be a hot one, something oddly I was looking forward to as I wanted to test out a new hydration/fuel strategy (nothing original, just eat/drink a lot more then I ever had). I even now h...

IRONMAN Barcelona 70.3 - 1.9km Swim, 90km Bike, 21.1km Run (1/2 IRONMAN) Here goes, 20 weeks of focused training, lifestyle changes and some sacrifices bring me to the start line of IRONMAN Barcelona 70.3 my first middle distance race. I'm not sure it means anything in the triathlon world but I will have now completed the "full house" one of every distance. On arriving in Calella with my bike, all my race kit and the support fan club I could finally start to relax. After the complications before IRONMAN Wales (Bike accident & injuries) & the pre flight stress of getting my TT bike up and running I could now say for the first time the only thing stopping me from achieving my goal would be my physical and mental fitness on the day of the race. Tapering had gone well and using the TSS (Stress) score from training peaks as a guide I could see that I had significantly reduced my training stress over the past 10 days which according to the numbers demonstrate...

Dom and I showing Ditching Beacon to Smithy and Mike The final 4 weeks of this 20 week block. I'm going to mix it up a bit from now on..... rather then break it down into swim/bike/run i'm going to just tell it how it was/is. I'm also not going to talk about my training in 4 week blocks.... i'm convinced that race reports and more detailed posts about particular sessions/weeks makes for better reading. Open to suggestions.... So over the last 4 weeks I gave myself the goal of two more weeks of hard work before starting to taper off to the event. The 1st week involved a stag party for a close friend of mine in Liverpool/Chester. Now I haven't been on a weekend long stag do before, but I assumed it's ok to take your bike and running shoes...? Morning after night 1, 12km easy run along the Liverpool Docks I managed to stay out late each night and drink very little, this enabled me to be up early while everyone was sleeping off hangovers (n...

Newquay Big Goat Sprint – 400m Swim – 22km Cycle – 5.2km Run Pre-race After the disappointment of Woking’s sprint triathlon being cancelled earlier this month I was very much looking for a triathlon event that I could give the lungs a blow out ahead of my first A race of the year. Out of the blue 2 good friends of mine sent me a link to a sprint triathlon in Cornwall, both were keen to enter. This came as a bit of shock as neither had experience of competing at each discipline, one didn’t have a bike and I was pretty sure the other couldn’t swim. I replied, I will enter if you both do. The rest is history. Race Day After a bit of a the panic the night before of having open roads I decided I needed to get up extra early do a quick drive of the bike course in the car. Probably the best decision I made!! I will be honest this revealed a very dodgy bike course. Within the first and last 5km were a series of mini roundabouts and roads peppered with side r...