11 Years of Blogging

It is nearly 11 years since I started this Blog. Time has flown by! So much has changed in my life that has impacted my racing ambitions. I do feel like my personal Tri community has shrunk somewhat since leaving the RAF in 2017. I have found the transition from RAF to civilian life incredibly difficult - mostly due to the fact that my departure from the RAF was somewhat of a 'cliff-edge' drop, rater than a calculated leap into a planned phase. But as I have said so many times in this Blog, the focus is training and racing; not an emotional dumping ground! So let's look at the end of 2019 and look ahead to 2020. Crikey! that date sounds almost science fiction! The fact that I am still racing is a success in itself, I suppose! But enough of reminiscing. The end of 2019 is today. As far as racing goes, it has been another low-key year. I started my 'second career' in March 19. A last minute opportunity to work with the Leidos, supporting the MOD arose. This job was a better prospect than joining DE&S as a civil servant. This meant my working in Bristol during the week and returning to Newcastle Under Lyme each weekend. This dynamic has taken some getting used to. In fact, I don't think that I will ever get used to it. I had tried to target a middle distance triathlon but illness, work, 'life' etc etc put pay to that. I managed a few 10 mile TTs, a disastrous 25 mile TT, a few sprint Triathlons and a few Duathlons. At best, I maintained some sense of fitness. Then, in August, I caught a bad chest infection. Any aspirations of a late season middle distance triathlon were binned as the illness dragged on for weeks. As October came, I started to focus on running more, and started track sessions with Bristol West AC. I also joined Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club (NTC), recently voted THE BEST TRI CLUB IN ENGLAND!!! Awesome. So now the focus is to hit the age group duathlon races and see what can be achieved. I have not been in the pool for months and do not really miss it. The track sessions have been consistent and I am hoping to see some progress on the run speed. Add to this, regular conditioning sessions and I hope to start 2020 It's Parkrun day tomorrow. Let's see where the run fitness is. The track sessions tell me I am not ready to break 18 mins for 5k. . . . .

Run Focus

Well, nearly the end of 2019 and another underwhelming year of competing. I completed a few events and was pleased to qualify for the 2020 World Sprint Du Champs. The decision to focus on duathlon next year has been quite refreshing and motivating. I am enjoying track run sessions and the last few sessions have seen a few positive sensations where I actually felt as though I could be making progress. The last couple of sessions in Bristol have been completed in frosty conditions. The track was very slippy, yet my times were not too bad. I have entered a couple of road run races to test the run form. Firs, the Kidsgrove 10k on 12 Jan 20. Secondly, the Alsager 5 mile race on 2 Feb 20. Let's see how these event turn out! I could do with testing the form over 5k at the local Parkrun before these races. Maybe over the Christmas period when I will be a bit fresher for not being at work.

Winter Go-Tri Duathlon

Last minute decision to race the winter iteration of the Manchester Airport Duathlon last weekend. I raced this venue back in March and quite enjoyed it. The weather forecast told me there would be no ice; so off I went early Sunday in the Tri-van with road bike loaded up. I didn’t fancy the TT bike for this race. Plus if I was going to race some draft legal Duathlon in 2020 I had best dial in to the road bike position to run off my evo2max. Both runs are short for this race, at 2.5k. The start was split into 5 waves only 15 sec apart. Being in the last wave I could see about 120 runners up ahead. The run course takes you through tunnels under the runway, which is kind of cool. But the path is narrow and overtaking slower runners is difficult. As normal there were some folk starting off way too fast and I met them go and burn out. Sure enough they drifted back and I managed to pull away to lead my wave into T1. I wasn’t sure how many runners I had past from earlier waves. So I hopped on to the bike and tried to pace the speed round the country lanes. I half expected a hoard of TT bikes to come past me but nobody caught me. Into T2 and as I approached the turn round pint of the second run I saw the first runner ahead of me. So I must have been in 2nd place overall. There looked to be some fast younger runners closing in, as I saw them after I turned for the return part of the run leg. But I was flowing well and confident I could hold them off. And so it was 2nd overall for me. I’ll take that! It was a low key race but still got to be pleased with an overall podium. The run legs felt good. Maybe the track sessions are starting to pay off. Let’s hope so!