The New Bike! Shiny!!

The Planet X Stealth arrived a few weeks ago now... haven't had much chance to go out on it yet but it feels very fast and light... love it!

The time trial handle bars are taking a bit to get used to but I have all winter to get used to it, hopefully coming into next season flying on it!

Season End/Review and a Trophy

Quite a lot to catch up on a few different topics.

Trophy

Well the season is finished for me! Finished with a Pool based Sprint Distance Race last weekend that went great. Finished second in my age group! took 3 minutes off my time i did the race in, in May so I'm still getting fitter and faster which is great.

Even got a Trophy for the Age Group win (mainly because the age group winner came 2nd overall!) but I'll take it! :-) The first of many I hope!

Finally got a timed 5km below 20 minutes too! 19:17... next is the 10km below 40 minutes.

End of Season

I have decided to give myself a full two week break, no exercise at all... I thought it would have been easy but its really boring! ha ha! Although waking up on Saturday morning naturally without the alarm is great!

The reason behind the 2 week break is partly for my legs, but mainly for my mind... It got really hard to motivate myself to train during the last few weeks, maybe because the season was coming to an end but its a long journey to the Outlaw and I don't want to lose my motivation again, so I'm making the most of these two weeks!

As an end of season review... It's been a great year, I have got faster and stronger which is obviously the main goals. Highs and Lows....

The low is an obviously one... Llandudno my first and only ever DNF (Did Not Finish) the weather was atrocious and the bike didn't feel safe, so i stick by my decision to stop that race... it wasn't an "A" race so i will treat it as a lesson learnt... but i do know i want to go back and do that race again... on a good day the course looks great.... I will be back!

The Highs, well... there are quite a few... Hyde park was a great race... really enjoyed every minute of it and happy with my 2:29 finish time, the first race i think i have done where i felt good all the way through... maybe i wasn't pushing hard enough! ha ha! Also, Birmingham, mainly for the 2:20 time i finished in... felt like a huge progression from my first Olympic distance race at Trentham Gardens (11/07/10) where i finished in 2:49. A 29 minute improvement over 14 months is great... which is a 17% improvement! Onward and upwards.

But looking forwards, the speed will be doing out the window for a while... it will be all about endurance for the Ironman season... who knows what i will do after this season, I enjoy the shorter races and i want to get close to the 2:10s.. so will be back again.

So after my 2 weeks off, it will be base training until Xmas... long slow miles... bring it on...!

The Reason we Tri

The last few weeks I have been having those thoughts that can sneak into a long season of training.... "Why am I bothering", "Is there any point to this?", "Is this actually making a difference?"

I have missed a few nights out with friends because of race preparation, the early morning sessions have become harder and harder since the nights started drawing in, and i thought to myself, "Am i really improving, is this making a difference?"

Today answered these questions and also made me realise the progress I had made over the last 2 years.

I competed in Birmingham (BRAT) Olympic Triathlon this morning. Out of bed at 4am, after missing another night out last night, I trudged over and the slow but steady rain was already dampening my day... but I was soon racing.

The swim went as normal, I try to enjoy it and get into a rhythm, but secretly, I am just planning for when it's over and the real part of the race begins. (Something I know i need to work on)

Then the revelations started, out onto the bike course in the driving rain, I was pushing hard and enjoying myself. Regularly passing people and keeping up with the faster bikers who were over taking me. I then over took a few people who were struggling up a small incline, I thought to myself "This is where i would have been struggling last year", and now I am flying up this hill. I smiled inside and forgot the rain for a moment.

Then on the run, which called for three journeys up a 500 metre long steady hill... again people were struggling and I thought to myself on the first climb, that the third time I was going to do this, would hurt a lot... along came the third time and I powered up the hill as well as i did the first time, again passing other runners.

This triggered memories of my 5:30am Hill Reps every Friday morning... so they were making a difference! the training i was doing was making me stronger.

Obviously, logically I knew all of this already, from my steadily improving race times etc... but sometimes i think we need these little revelations to spark our fight again, and remind us that the 5am starts, the rain filled training sessions and the pain is all worth it in the end.

BTW... I finished the Birmingham Triathlon in 2:20:02... a personal best by 4 minutes.