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

I didn't do this race last year because it clashed with Salford, but there's no Salford this year, so back I went to Trentham.  It's a lovely backdrop for a race and a good family destination for a weekend away.  That's what we did, got ourselves organised nice and early, booked ourselves into the Premier Travel Inn that's actually on the site and made a family break out of it.  This is another fun2tri race and as such I expected, and got, a well organised race.  I did have mixed feelings going into the race though as I've had a rather chequered history when it comes to

Waiting

Swim Transition

Sprint Finish

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

The Swim

Swimming in the Lake

Cheerleaders

I wasn't looking forward to this race very much in the few days beforehand, for quite a few different reasons.  I was nervous because it was a race that I hadn't done before and so I didn't know what to expect, I was also nervous because I haven't managed to fit in much open water training this year, I've been for a proper swim at Pugneys only twice - I've been in with April and down there on spotting duty, but neither of those will have helped my swimming.  The other problem was that I'd rather lost the plot in the week, I wasn't too happy at work and I'd been struggling to get o

1st Transition

A Nice Ride

Good Support

Today marked an important event in the lives of both of our children, they completed their very first multisport events!  April has been saying that she wanted to do a triathlon since she was five years old, something about being like her mad mummy and Ryan was adamant that he wanted to take part too when he heard about the scootathon.  The children's races were the start of the weekend of racing organised by pacesetter events at the Rother Valley Country Park - The Rother Valley Triathlon Festival.  We all travelled down there nice and early to make sure we had time to get o

Running to the finish

Scooting

The Bike

I was not an enthusiastic person this morning.  I got up to a grey, dull and uninspiring morning.  More than that though, faced with my first open water outing of the year I could have quite cheerfully backed out and decided to stay snuggled up in the house with my book.  Admittedly the look of the weather didn't help to persuade me to go, but I think it was mainly about being nervous about doing something that I haven't done since last August.  I felt rather sick and not at all keen to get out there.  However, in the end I am very glad that I didn't give in to thos

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.

They're Off

Setting off on the run

The Finish

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.

Salford Triathlon - Run

Salford Triathlon - Bike

Salford Triathlon - Swim

I'd been looking forward to this race with some trepidation for a number of reasons, something that wasn't at all helped by the weather conditions in the run up to the race weekend. I was nervous because it's a race that I hadn't done before, things always seem more daunting when you don't quite know what to expect. Especially when the event website calls it a 'testing' course! I was also wondering how I'd get on with a river swim, I'd never done one before. Would I be able to deal with the currents?

Ironbridge Triathlon - Run

Ironbridge Triathlon - Run

Ironbridge Triathlon - Bike

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