The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

This was my second and final olympic distance race for this year and I approached it feeling pretty hopeful.  My preparation had been okay, better than the run up to the last one, that's for sure.  I never do quite as much in the summer holidays but it had been working out so that I was still getting a fair amount of training fitted in.  That really, was why I started making sure I had an August race, to stop from me from downing tools for six weeks, losing loads of condition and fitness while putting on weight - not a good combination, especially as I then always wanted to r

Allerthorpe Country Park

What a great race!  Things went surprisingly well, and with my entry being such a last minute thing (for me) it all worked out very well.  I entered this race on the back of my disappointment last weekend when I missed out on competing at Wakefield because I was ill.  I looked around on the net to see if there was anything with which I could replace it and make myself feel a little better.  I was really lucky to find this race, it was the following weekend (where we did actually have some free time), it was in Ripon which is less than an hour away and it had still h

Cheerleaders

Nearly Finished

Going In

This was a new race for this year, run by Punishing Events. I entered it because I wanted to keep myself going over the summer. The last couple of years I've done Salford and then totally run out of motivation to train, before suddenly realising in September that I'd left it too late to get ready properly for the next race. The theory was that I couldn't do that with another race on the horizon, especially an olympic distance that I'd never tackled before. It worked, I had a reason to get out there and so was quite happy to do so.

First Wave

Support for the swimmers

One lap to go

Well, this is the big one, the race that I start thinking about at the end of January. I keep planning this perfect run up to the race where I train effectively for months and then go to Salford and do really well. It doesn't seem to quite work out like that. As anybody who's read my other race reports for this year will know, illness and general disruption seems to have been the order of the day this year instead. So, I decided in the end that hoping to enjoy my race and do my best would be the better plan. No beating myself up if there weren't enormous gains made.

Lowry Bridge

Salford Triathlon - Run

Salford Triathlon - Swim

Watching the Elites

This race is a bit different to the others that I've taken part in this year. For a start, it's twice the length of the others, but it's also an ITU race, so there was the opportunity to see the experts at work. So that's what I did, I completed my efforts and then enjoyed standing on the sidelines giving my support to the elite women, unfortunately we weren't able to stay long enough to cheer on the men. It was fantastic to see three of GBs girls racing right up at the front until the final run, Liz Blatchford, Annaliese Heard and Julie Dibens all did a brilliant job, but were all outrun by a strong looking Samantha Warriner. I wish I looked like that at the end of a race!

The Race

I took part in this race for the first time last year, 2005. It was my first ever attempt at an Olympic distance race and I was happy simply to finish. Which I did. Last year's time was 3:16:39, not impressive by most people's standards, but I was ecstatic to have met the challenge of completing the race. This year my focus was a little different, having proved to myself that I was capable of going the distance, I wanted to improve on my time. Daniel had set me the challenge of working towards getting under 3 hours in the next few years and that seemed like a goal worth going for. I still wasn't concerned about what anybody else was doing, but I did want to beat myself. To that end I have stepped up my training this year, by starting serious training earlier on in the year and by focussing specifically on certain areas which I'll go into as I come to them. Last year I managed 8 weeks of proper training, following a schedule for beginners that I found in 'Runner's World' magazine, it was designed for runners who wanted to branch out and cross train, but it got me through last year's race quite well. So this year the plan was to follow the whole training programme, which was 12 weeks, but to begin in February and see it through twice in the year with a 2 week break in between. This was mostly accomplished, there were a few blips due to illness in the first 12 weeks but things went pretty well after that. I've managed to keep my motivation quite high this year, which has sustained me through all the getting up at 5am to train!

Salford Triathlon

Salford Triathlon

Salford Triathlon