Season Opener - Melilla ETU Cup

After trying, and failing, to start my multisport season at the British Elite Duathlon Champs at the end of March, my first race of the 2015 season came this weekend at a standard distance European Cup event in Melilla, a small Spanish territory in Morocco, North Africa. The organizers of the Duathlon champs were forced to alter the event on the day (to a straight 10km run race) after gale force winds and heavy rain were deemed to make it unsafe on the motor racing circuit at Rockingham.

Malaga beach.

Also competing in Melilla were two of my Leeds-based training partners, Gordon Benson and Elliot Smales, so we traveled together, and it wasn't the most straight forward place to get to! It required a flight from Leeds to Malaga on Friday afternoon, a night spent in Malaga, before catching an eight hour ferry across the Med on Saturday lunchtime, unfortunately arriving just after the race briefing on Saturday evening. The TD of the race was thankfully very helpful and had a quick chat with us, highlighting the main things we needed to know, so after a late meal in a nearby restaurant it was time for bed.
Race day morning was surprisingly relaxed as the Men's elite race wasn't until 6pm, so we headed out for a little leg stretcher jog and caught some of the Junior women's, and were able to check out the majority of the course. After a big breakfast (to make sure I got round) it was a long day of waiting in the hotel room and keeping hydrated. We did briefly venture out just to check our bikes were running ok, and went up into some kind of old, stone fortress up on the cliffs which was cool, and had great views out over the Mediterranean Sea.

On the run to T1 in about 10th position.

Finally it was time to head down to the athlete lounge area and register, and then set up in the transition area; after a long wait to be allowed into the transition area we had to rush to warm up, wetsuit up and get to the beach, which was about 500m away from transition area. Having missed the race briefing, the three of us were given the penalty of being last in the line up, regardless of ranking, meaning we had no choice of where to stand on the start line; we ended up all together, on the right of the start. The swim course was interesting in that the water was relatively shallow, and so the first 80m or so was a combination of running and dolphin diving in a splashing mass of around 60 men! As the 'L' shaped, two lap swim course had both left and right hand turns it meant position within the group was constantly changing and at some points I felt like I was in the top 5 or 6, and at others I thought I was miles off the front! But after another round of all the dolphin dives and running in knee-deep water, I emerged out in a solid 10th, 11 seconds behind the leader, and only 5 behind second place. I felt surprisingly good on the long run to transition and was quickly out on the flat, but quite technical, eight-lap bike course, where I felt quite good and made my way up towards the front.

Despite a group of around 20 forming, there were only 5 or 6 who wanted to contribute to the pace,

The breakaway heroes!

so after a couple of laps we were joined by around 20 further athletes! On the third lap I saw two athletes attack out of the group, so after waiting a little while and seeing them begin to ride further away I chased the pair down with an Italian just behind, and the four of us began to work together. Not long after one more Spanish athlete bridged across the gap and the five of us fully committed to the breakaway, eventually reaching T2 with a 69 second advantage. I had a quick transition, and was first out onto the run course, but with very heavy legs, with over 25km of hard riding in the break taking its toll!

Leading the breakaway up to the dismount line.

Heavy legs a few hundred metres into the run!

The two Spaniards and the Italian went off very quickly, and I tried to relax into my running as much as possible, but after only one 2.5km lap Gordon lead the chase pack past me at a blistering pace to which I had no response. Over the course of the run I began to feel better and better with each lap, (my 4th lap being my quickest!) and pulled a few places back from people who had gone off too fast, and I overtook the Italian from the break who was really suffering. I sprinted past two people in the last couple of hundred metres and was happy to finish 21st, 12 positions better than my ranking before the race. Although I felt like I must've been further back than I was, I was later frustrated to find out I was just 5 seconds away from a top 20 which would have scored me ITU ranking points!
I met up with Gordon in the finish area to find out he had manage to lead the chase up to the leading Spaniard from our breakaway, and had out sprinted him to win the race; Elliot also had a good race to finish 38th, originally ranked 58th, and out splitting me on the run by two seconds! Full results are available here.

Elliot and myself after watching medal ceremony

The morning after the race we went for an easy recovery run, and headed inland a bit, away from the seafront where much of the race had taken place. We saw quite a change in a very short distance and got lost in some sort of industrial estate or street market. There were lots of Moroccons buying large packs of goods and carrying them on their backs as they returned across the border out of the Spanish territory. Some had toilet rolls, various foods, clothes, drinks and even bleach, and although we must have looked very out of place, and at times felt a little uneasy, it was very interesting and eye opening, and then suddenly we popped back out onto the seafront which again looked very much more Spanish. The journey back being similar to the outward trip meant we were very chilled out and enjoyed a couple of beers after the race on Sunday evening and Monday evening in Malaga, before finally arriving back in Leeds on Tuesday evening, to resume the training up until my next race in two weeks time at the British University Sprint Distance champs, an event I won in 2013, but was forced to miss in 2014 due to injury! I'd like to thank all my sponsors for their continued support, Funkytrunks, Blueseventy, Leisure Lakes Bikes and OTEsports in particular for this trip! Credit for race photos: H-Trainer.

2014 Round Up

Having completely neglected my blog for over a year, throughout 2014, I wanted to resume a semi-regular use of it! With this in mind I thought it best to give a quick overview of how things went for me in 2014 and what I got up to!

Admiring the view at the top of one of the hills in Spain

The year started with a warm weather training camp in Aguilas, Spain over the New Year period and into early January with my training group from Leeds Triathlon Centre. I had never been on a training camp abroad so this was a new experience for me and the warmer weather allowed a good volume of cycling and running, and we took to opportunity to practise open water swimming with easy access to the sea. Whilst the first two weeks of January were great from a training point of view, the rest of the month I struggled to get the consistency I would have liked first with exams at uni, and then the great British winter seeing me fall foul of coughs/colds and lack of motivation, and it was towards the end of February before I training as consistently as I wanted.

March was a month of big highs and lows. I was informed that I’d been selected to represent Great Britain at the World University Triathlon Championships to be held in Brazil in April, my second GB selection. I then won the BUCS Biathlon Championships, with the fastest swim (a new PB over the 200m) and the second fastest 1500m run resulting in a new Championship Points record, and I appeared to be in good shape.

Prominent collarbone (pre-surgery)

Then came the big low; only two or three days later a bike crash on the commute to morning swim training resulted in a broken collar bone ultimately requiring surgery to ensure it healed correctly. This unfortunately meant I had to withdraw from the University Championships. Surgery took place early April, and there followed a couple of months of rehabilitation and building back into training. This meant a later than usual start to my season, and I also missed most of the qualifying races for Championship events being held later in the season.

Winning a sprint for 6th at Blenheim

June saw a return to racing, starting with a solid race at the BUCS Standard Distance Championships where I got 3rd, followed by the first event in the British Triathlon Super Series, Blenheim Palace Triathlon. Later in the month I travelled to Larache, Morocco for an African Cup event with the intention of gaining some ITU points, which I successfully managed, so get my name onto the ITU rankings; I also raced a 5000m event on the track in Leeds where I got another pb.

In July I enjoyed returning to Holten, Netherlands (location of European u23 champs 2013) for a European Cup race in Holten, and finished the month with a 5i50 race in Marseille, France, which was a good taste of professional non draft racing. The London Triathlon took place in early August and was the third event in the British Super Series, and I had a strong race to achieve my highest position to date in a senior British series race. The National elite sprint distance champs at the Liverpool Triathlon, which would have been the final event of the Series, was unfortunately cancelled due to adverse weather.  Disappointed not to race at Liverpool I decided to enter the UK Xterra Championships (off-road triathlon) largely because it sounded a fun event! This was another new experience for me, and after coming out of the 1500m swim 2^nd behind Richard Stannard I saw the class of the off road specialists on the mountain bike leg, and also encountered a brief stop for a mechanical, eventually finishing 11th. ^rd  Also during August I raced a few cycle road races and crits to gain more experience on the bike and riding in groups, accumulating enough license points to move up to 3rd cat.

Leading the chase group over the cobbles in the Lancaster Classic Criterium race!

In September I agreed to take part in the Helvellyn Triathlon as part of a relay team, where I would do the swim and the bike legs: I got a great start and came out of Ullswater with almost 3 minutes lead, only to have a mechanical leaving transition on the bike and was forced to drop out. My last triathlon of the season was a French Grand Prix event in Nice at the end of the month, representing my team Parthenay. October was a month of rest and recovery, and the odd party, with little to report in the triathlon/multisport world!

In November I made a return to compete for my old Athletics club at the Mansfield National Cross Country (running) Relays, an event I’ve raced at every year since the age of 10! I also set a new 1500m swim PB at the British Universities Short Course Swimming Championships. I then got to grips with Cyclo-Cross to build bike strength and improve my handling skills, and I raced a couple of events.

Riding the (borrowed) Racepace machine to 8th at BUCS Duathlon!

Towards the end of the month was the British Universities Duathlon Championships where I was happy to improved both my time and finishing position for the third year running, and lead the Leeds University team to a team gold medal! There was no racing for me in December other than the Leeds University Cross Country relays and a fun run while home for Christmas!

Results

• BUCS Biathlon – 1st (200m swim pb of 1:58)
• BUCS Standard Triathlon – 3^rd
• Blenheim Palace Triathlon – 6^th
• Larache ITU African Cup – 16^th
• Leeds 5k (track) race – 1^st (new pb of 15:42)
• Holten ITU European Cup – 40^th
• Marseille 5i50 Standard Triathlon – 5^th
• London Triathlon – 4^th
• Lancaster City Centre Criterium – 6^th
• Salt Ayre Criterium – 1^st
• Xterra UK Triathlon Championships – 11^th
• Bashall Eaves Cycle Road Race – 6^th
• French Grand Prix Triathlon, Nice – 75th
• VC Lincoln Cycle Road Race – 6th
• Lancaster University Criterium – 4^th
• Lancaster University Criterium – 2^nd
• BUCS SC Swimming Championships – new 1500m pb of 16:50
• Durham Cyclo-Cross – 13^th
• BUCS Duathlon – 8^th
• Piggy Lane Christmas Eve Fun Run – 1^st

Trail Running

Me out on the trails

For a while now an old friend and former triathlon rival (whilst I was growing up) has been encouraging me to go for a long steady trail run with him, as he was keen to show me his neck of the woods down the Ribble valley in Lancashire, where he carries out some of his sessions with his business, Racepace Triathlon coaching. So this week we finally got round to it! Having not seen Rodger for quite a while it was a nice catch up as we drove less than 20minutes from Blackburn to the small village of Sabden, before heading out on the trails and fells for a 90minute steady run. Rodge has built up a great local knowledge of the paths and trails, and lead me through some pretty remote areas including a loop round Pendle Hill with some excellent views, before dropping back down to Sabden to finish the 10mile loop. It was great to run in a new environment, and as Rodge stressed, it is an area so many runners live close to but are unaware of, where the variety and amount of trails on offer is great! After the run we went for a quick lunch at a local bakery/café to top off a good afternoon’s work!

My trusty trail shoes

For me, trail running usually includes a bit of multi terrain stuff, so a little bit of road/tarmac to get out to some woods or trials, and maybe some loops rounds fields or pitches, but if it’s off road it should be less impact for those knees which people tell me might stop working properly one day! Trail running probably comprises at least 50% of the steady run miles I do whilst training in Leeds, but this wasn’t always the case. At home, before moving to Leeds for University, I would rarely venture away from roads and lanes, partly because during the winter months it would be dark when I arrived home from school, and I didn’t fancy head-torch running, and partly because I always seemed to turn my ankle whenever I went off road. I would decide to hit the trails on a weekend every few months, and would usually seem to go over on my ankle on a rock, tree root or other small obstacle. This would lead to a few days or a week resting it while it was swollen up like a tennis ball, and put me off trail running for another few months. I also seemed to use the excuse that there were no good trails for running nearby… 

Views of the Lancashire countryside

Having run on trails much more I think I have been converted! One of the benefits has become clear as I believe trail running develops ankle strength and stability, as I no longer seem to roll my ankle, and even when you have that brief moment when you start to go over on it and are thinking “oh f**k”, I somehow seem to bring it back at the last instant and avoid a proper stumble, most likely through improved proprioception. Another bonus is the ups and downs and the interesting scenery compared to pounding the pavements all the time, as you get a chance to see a variety of wildlife and some pretty incredible views in certain locations.

Since deciding I actually quite enjoyed getting out on the trails or in the woods, I’ve found a remarkable number of trails near my house which I never knew were there, until I went looking for them, and now each time I’m back home from Uni, I try to find a new trail or loop to mix into my running. So if you’ve never ventured off the roads, I recommend trying a few off road runs through some woods and trails. If you feel you’re susceptible to twisting ankles, go for smoother, less rocky trails in the first instance, but you’ll soon be able to progress to the rougher paths, and the feeling of discovery gives you another reason to head out running in the cold winter months!

Early Winter Training

So, I've not blogged since May... In the early part of the 2013 season I was enjoying blogging and sharing my experiences of training and racing, but when performances slipped, I was less to keen to share my results and simply stopped blogging. Since then I have completed a season with both of ups and downs, and am into winter training to prepare for the 2014 season.

Heading out on fourth leg at Leeds Uni Relays

Whilst training steadily away, and trying a few different things, I haven't been quite as consistent with training as I would have hoped. The difficulty of this is that I often find myself comparing my training to that of the same time last year, and as I've had a few bouts of illness, and missed training through an inconvenient uni timetable, and essays and deadlines, end up thinking I'll be making less progress than I should. Interestingly, when checking my Garmin training files and comparing total training hours, my October and November were both within two hours of the same two months in 2012. Recently I have done a few "training races", with varying degrees of success; I raced 3 times last weekend the first of which was at the BUCS short course swimming champs in Sheffield, where I used the 1500m as a practise for the 1500m swim I regularly race in Olympic distance triathlons. The race went well and I swam 16.55, a PB by over a minute, and a pleasing result showing my swimming is still gradually progressing in the right direction. The second race was a 2mile leg at the Leeds University Relays with two of my house mates and training partners. Unfortunately I ran the fourth leg, after a great start by Gordon, Liam and Gordon again, put me into first place with a decent lead, I wasn't able to hold onto the lead, struggling on the tough course, blowing dramatically two thirds of the way round, and being chased down by two strong runners; I brought home the team in third position. The third race of the weekend was my debut cyclocross race in York, which was a fun but tough experience, where I enjoyed the different style of racing and finished a distinctly average 38th position! It was also nice to catch up with my old coach Mark who was doing the timing for the race, who I've not seen in a long while.

The other race I have done recently was in November at the BUCS duathlon champs, where I finished a solid 9th position, first home for Uni of Leeds, helping the team to Bronze. I was happy with my splits which showed an improvement from the previous year, despite probably not being as fit as the same time last year, and I rode a strong 22.30 for the 10mile bike leg. Full results can be seen here: BUCS Duathlon 2013

Now in my final week of University before finishing for Christmas I'm looking forward to getting in a couple of weeks of proper consistent training, like I feel I was doing most weeks this time last year, then a nice Christmas at home with the family before heading away to Spain with some of the Leeds Tri Centre group for my first training camp abroad through new year into early January.

BUCS Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships

The team from Leeds Triathlon Centre

Where to start!?
Last weekend was the BUCS Sprint Triathlon Championships held in Calne, Wiltshire, and I travelled down on Saturday with a team from the Leeds Triathlon Centre (including both University of Leeds and Leeds Met athletes). After a nice evening meal with the team I got a fairly early night at the Swindon Campanile, while room mate Jago (Leckie) sent endless snapchats to Gordon, among others, providing valuable entertainment as we couldn't get the TV working! We rose relatively early and Jago and I went for an easy 10 minute jog to loosen off the legs as we weren't racing until mid afternoon. Last weekend I raced at a similar time in the afternoon and did a ten minute jog first thing in the morning which seemed to work well for me, so I tried to replicate the run, again including a couple of pick ups to move the legs up towards race pace.

We arrived at the event HQ and registered with plenty of time to spare, and I met my Mum who'd driven down that morning to support me. She'd kindly brought my race wheels which I lent to Jago, as well as some food for me and an all important piece of equipment: a small brass adapter used to pump up a disc wheel as a regular pump won't fit onto the valve. As the 750m swim leg of the race was held in a pool at St Mary's School Sports Centre, the race had to be started in waves with your estimated swim time used to seed the quicker swimmers into the final waves. My wave was the final one, so I started at four o'clock, and shared a lane with one other athlete who set off one minute behind me; these intervals aimed to ease congestion on the bike course which has previously had drafting problems. I went off at a good pace on the swim and was feeling strong, whilst keeping an eye on the other lanes I spotted a pink-hatted athlete who'd gone off slightly quicker than me so I tried to stick somewhere level with him. After a couple of hundred metres, on checking again, I had left the other swimmer behind and soon the swim was over, and I emerged from the pool into the transition area in 8.47, 13 seconds quicker than my predicted time**, whipping my hat and goggles off as I ran! I  was leading my wave comfortably, and later found out this was the second fastest swim split of the day. I quickly stepped through my race belt and put on my helmet and  sunnies before making the lengthy run out to the road where the mount line was. I quickly got into riding hard; knowing that drafting had been a problem in previous years I wanted to put as much distance between myself and any potential chase group. I rode hard and for the first ten km of the 25km ride I didn't feel great; my hamstrings seemed a bit sore, in hindsight that might be due to the slightly different position on the tt bike, but I just focused on pushing harder with my calves and quads to maintain the gap I had. The second half of the bike was into a headwind as we looped back towards the transition, and I began to feel stronger despite the wind, and soon was running back into T2. I have to make thanks at this point to my childhood sporting hero Kieran (green shoes) Rowlands! He lent me his time trial bike for the event, including a disc wheel, which should be faster than my regular road frame. Aside from the more aerodynamic frame and wheels, the bike has bar end shifters, which means I can remain in a comfortable aero position whilst changing gear, rather than having to switch back to the drop handlebars if I'd used my road bike with clip on tri bars. So thanks Kieran, you're still a hero!

Quickly into my running out of T2.

I had a solid T2 and was soon out onto the run, feeling that regular jelly legs feeling! I ran past my mum who indicated that my team mate Liam, who I considered one of the biggest threats in the previous wave, was 90 seconds slower than me to that point in the race. This was good news as I knew he was running really well and may take quite a bit of time out of me. I pushed on and focused on the strong relaxed posture I've been working on in training, and was making good progress. The route was an out and back course with a twisty section near transition/finish area, before coming onto a long straight-ish section to the turn around point.
I began to tire a little before the turn point, and was glad to loop around the cone signalling half way, grabbing a cup of water from the marshals as I went. I had resisted the temptation to look behind, but could now see the runners coming the opposite way along the path, but it was difficult to guess how far behind they were in time, and I didn't actually know who'd set off when I did, and who was a minute behind! My legs really started to hurt on the way back, and I was glad of a slight downhill section as the route wound its way through a housing estate. As I approached the school again, Mum gave me another time check, I was now only 30 seconds ahead of Liam, who went on to get the quickest run split of the day by some 36 seconds! I just gave it my all to the line, my legs screaming at me, and hadn't long crossed the line and removed my timing chip when my teammates looked on the live results screen and informed me that I'd won! I was quick to point out that I was only leading, and some athletes set off a minute behind me. What felt like just over a minute after I finished, Cameron Milne finished who had started a minute behind me; in fact he'd finished 1:09 behind me, meaning I'd beaten him and won the event! After many congratulations from friends, teammates and various other people, we looked more closely at the results to see I'd won by a mere 8 seconds from Sam Wade, a Cardiff Met Uni athlete, with Cameron a further one second behind! It turned out that on swim, bike and run alone, my times would only have positioned me third, which once again showed the importance of transitions! All those random "tranny training" sessions in car parks with Uncle Matt seem to have paid off (not my real uncle, Matt Backhouse who helped me progress in triathlon). Unfortunately, teammate and housemate Liam had been pushed down into 4th position only 15 seconds away from a medal! But with the help of another strong performance from Richard Anderson in 7th, we had sealed the Team Gold medal for University of Leeds, beating the previously dominant Loughborough team! Our squad had some other strong performances, and I was particularly impressed by Phil Sesemann, who finished 15th in a tough field for his first triathlon, complete with a quick run split, even after a hard bike.

Team Gold for University of Leeds. Liam Lloyd and myself collecting the medals, unfortunately Rich Anderson had to rush off to a wedding, so missed the presentation! 

I'd just like to finish with a few "thank yous": to the event organisers for putting on a great event (complete with weather), my coach Rob Harvey who prepared me for the event and came down with the team for the weekend, to everyone who supported me along the route and afterwards, and finally, to my Mum who drove all the way down to support me, and then drove me home again! Cheers Mum! (My former coach Mark Walsh will be proud of me for this acknowledgement). I'm now having a couple of days off to recover from a very pleasing two races in two weekends, and then will begin to build again towards the next race!

** I have a (minor) complaint on this topic! My estimated swim time of 9:00 was the slowest in the final wave, and as several athletes in the wave before had the same estimate I counted myself lucky to be in the final wave, which should contain most of the race contenders. However, other Universities/athletes don't seem to understand the point of swim estimates for seeding, and just enter stupidly fast swim times in order to be in the final (and theoretically most competitive) wave. At least two athletes in my wave were more than a minute off their entry time and at least five others that I spotted swam at least 30 seconds slower. It is annoying that I nearly missed out on the last wave and in the end, 6 of the quickest 12 swimmers were in slower waves, simply because people lied about their swim ability! Surely a suitable penalty could/should be imposed here in order to deter people from ridiculous over-estimation, maybe adding the difference from previous years onto people's estimated swim times, so that they end up in slower waves. For example, if a swimmer estimated 8:30 and swims 9:15, if the next year they "estimate" a time of 8:30 they should have the 45 seconds added on and be seeded with 9:15? Rant over!

All photos courtesy of Rob Harvey

2013 Antalya ITU Triathlon European Cup, Turkey

This was my first experience of a Senior Level European Cup, having previously competed in one Junior European Cup in Quarteira, Portugal, in 2012. Another side of this was for the first time completely organising my own trip; being away from home has forced independence out of me, and for the first time I booked flights, transfers, accommodation and race entry on my own, with minimal help from my secretary/agent/chauffeur/mum (thanks Mum!)

My trip started on Wednesday afternoon after my last hard training session, as I travelled home and packed my new Evoc Bike Bag, which Mum had collected from Leisure Lakes Bikes, with all my race kit for the weekend away. It was then time to get my head down for a few hours before a 4am start in order to make the hour (ish) drive to Manchester Airport to check in for my 7.30am flight. The check-in and four-hour flight all went smoothly and I arrived at my Hotel mid-afternoon on Thursday. I had a wander round, got some cash from an ATM, found the local shops and had a look on the beach, and an easy 15 minute swim in the sea which was cool but not cold. The next two days were both easy as my taper meant I was resting up for the race, so I focused on hydration and getting plenty of sleep! I planned to get my runs in first thing in the morning before the heat of the day, but it was 25/26°C by 8am, so I was a bit worried as to how my race would be at 3pm in the afternoon!

Time for a bit of sunbathing, too!

On race morning I had a bit of a lie in, and after breakfast chilled out in my room, reading Can't Sleep, Can't Train, Can't Stop, fellow COLT Andy Holgate's entertaining second  book about his misadventures in Ironman. Just before lunchtime I went for a 10 minute jog and felt fairly loose, and relaxed enough on a couple of 50m bursts I put in. I collected my race kit together, and headed down to the race venue, around 1-1.5km down the beach, and stopped at a cafe on the way for some pasta for lunch. 

Eventually we assembled on the burning hot shingle beach, thankful for the non-wetsuit decision, as despite the 31°C air temperature, the water temperature was borderline for wetsuit. The race started and 70 pumped up guys surged forward into a mass of white water and flailing arms and legs, and made for the first turn buoy about 300m out from shore. I got out fairly well and was slightly ahead of the few people either side, but as the buoy approached everything squeezed in from both sides and I encountered many arms, hands, legs and bodies swimming over me, and was no longer sure where I was in the group! It took me around 700m of being battered from all sides to get any space to swim as we started the second 750m lap. I moved through a few people on the second lap, feeling relatively strong, but looking up round the last buoy I could see past the few swimmers directly ahead of me and a decent gap to the front group of swimmers. I moved through in the last part to emerge from the water 21st, and right at the front of the second pack. I had a clear run through transition and got out onto the bike course and quickly slipped my feet into my new Specialized Trivent shoes, before starting to work with a few of the athletes around me on chasing the lead pack. A few guys contributed to the work on the front of the group during the first of eight 5km laps, before realising there was around 30 other guys sat on the back having an easy ride. After quite a bit of shouting at people, almost everybody stopped working, myself included, not wanting to tire my own legs out while others sat in the group resting up for the run! A very easy 40km passed without incident, and we saw the gap grow from around 30/40 seconds to almost 5 minutes by the end of the 40km! I focused on positioning myself sensibly in the group, and taking my two energy gels and plenty of water and carbohydrate/electrolyte drink in order to hit T2 in the best possible shape.

I managed to hold a position fairly close to the front of the group for the dismount and run into T2, and quickly racked my bike and got my trainers on, before whipping my helmet off and mindlessly putting it on the floor next to my bike. I then headed out onto the run in the first 5 or 6 from the group, the legs not feeling too bad and getting going almost straight away. I ran a decent 10km, in 34.09 to finish a very pleasing 31st position, with a strong finish to pull back a place in the last couple of hundred metres - full results here. I also had to stop for 15 seconds on my third lap (of four) in order to serve a penalty for not putting my helmet in my transition box; hopefully I'll learn from that one! As a debut at a Senior European Cup I was very happy with how the race went, and while I would've hoped to swim a bit faster and make the front pack, it gives me a good platform to build from throughout the season. Now I'm already looking forward to next weekend where I'll race in the BUCS Sprint Distance Triathlon Champs, hoping for a podium position! 

Crossing the finish line; photo c/o Chris Carter.

Support Update

Since moving to Leeds I have been supported by Rob Harvey who has taken the role as my coach, and his vast knowledge of the sport is helping me each week, particularly leading into the race season. Along with Rob's coaching I receive help from other coaches such as Jack Maitland. Leisure Lakes Bikes have also continued their support, which I have benefited from for the past couple of seasons, and this year have provided me with a Specialized Venge to race on for the summer. They have also provided me with a pair of Specialized S-Works Trivent shoes for racing in, which have a drawbridge open heel system and BOA fastening to make for lightening quick transitions! The staff in the Lancaster store are also a great help, offering advice, products and mechanical help! I would like to say a big "thanks!" for their support, and hope I can do the bike justice in the coming season! I'm looking forward to racing my first senior international level race in Turkey, in a European Cup event at the end of April.

Receiving the Specialized Venge from Pete at Leisure Lakes Bikes in Lancaster.

Warming down at the British Duathlon Champs on my new bike (also see - new shoes!)