One season ends and the next starts Sunday

Well the X Country season finished today with the Cranwell race. I managed to do 7 out of the 8 races in the Lincolnshire league, on Sunday my triathlon season starts with the Humber Sprint. I wanted to run nice and steady today so I tried a negative split for the first time in a race. The course was 2 laps so I ran the first lap behind Pete Norris and then on the second lap picked up the pace and opened up a gap quickly on Pete and passed another lad to move up to 5th. The league is your best 6 races to count and I managed to finish 3rd overall getting a nice trophy, and also picked up a prize as a member of the winning "A" team from Waddington. I'm a bit nervous about Sunday as its my first tri since the Vitruvian way back at the start of September. I don't know how my biking is and swimming isn't going great but looks like i'm running ok. Guess i'll find out Sunday!

Fantastic new sponsor on board!

I've been exceptionally lucky to have found the backing from a new sponsor who will be supporting me through the 2011 season. My new sponsor will be Xterra Wetsuits http://www.xterrawetsuits.com/ and I must first of all thank the US rep Glynn and UK rep Victoria for all their help so far. I am looking forward to getting my new wetsuit and getting it in the water. You will notice the company logo on the side bar of my blog which will take you directly to their site. I have also been given the opportunity to offer a very healthy discount code and should you be considering a new suit for the season please feel free to contact me, my email is available through this blog. I will update soon about the new suit.

Why the Inter-Service race will be harder than usual

Well I've just realised that the Inter-Service Championship race this year will be harder than ever for me. Its all about recovery and the fact that I am doing Antwerp 70.3 on the 24th July and the Inter-Service race is on the 27th July. Never thought that through very well when I put my season race plan together. Still i'll have a go anyway, i'm sure I will get through it somehow.

Sponsorship

It's great having a sponsor, Paul and Lisa at Hilderthorpe Cycles/Cyclelife have now been sponsoring me since 2008. They have been great and are firm friends as well as sponsors. The race bike needed some work done before my first race on the 3rd April in Hull. I went up to see Paul and Lisa on Saturday and Paul spent a solid couple of hours putting new cables on the bike (a real pain in the you know what due to them all being internally routed) set up the gears and also had to tighten up the bottom bracket. As a result the bike is running like clockwork now and has been cleaned and degreased, re-oiled and is now ready for the first race of the year. Hopefully I can do the bike justice in 2 weeks. I'm looking forward to racing, it's been a very long winter. I see that both Sag's and Pete Norris had superb results in their first race of the year at the Dambuster Duathlon, congratulations to both of them. I've just been away for a week on a course for work, I managed to get some training in and of course I had the bike with me. I will try and get back into a routine this week, and I have cross country on Wednesday afternoon to look forward to. I think that's all for now.

Edit,
Pete was DQ'd, not sure why but I believe he would of been top 5 overall.

My kind of day at work

Yesterday was a good day at work, 12 mile cycle to work, lunch time 10 mile cycle to Digby for the XC race, 5.5 mile XC race, 18 mile cycle home to Scampton. Great day's training. I think the winter training has gone well so far as I feel really strong at the moment. First race will be a sprint on the 3rd of April, then I will know just how well the winter training has gone but I feel in better shape in comparison to other years. I'm ready to race :-)

Its a Family thing

Check out my super cool little sis on her Giant XTC Carbon hardtail! Must be in the genes.

Feeling good after a 14.5 mile steady run this morning. A couple of hours playing on the mountain bike in the morning I think is on the cards.

Main races now in place

I've gone through a few weeks now thinking out what would be my game plan for this season. I qualified to represent GB at the European Long Distance Championships early Feb although I knew I would given the results I had last year. I've now entered 5 races so far for 2011 although it's 6 including the European Champs. So my races so far are The Beaver middle distance in May, The Dambuster in June, Antwerp 70.3 in July, European Champs in August, The Vitruvian in September and the Isle of Man End to End Mountain Bike Race. I will fill in some of the gaps with a couple of sprint and Olympic distance events very soon. Antwerp 70.3 is a month before the European Long Course, the timing couldn't be better for me as I will recover well and hopefully be in great shape at the Euros. I've been very lucky with great support from the RAF Sports Lottery/Sports Board who have given me a healthy grant to assist in funding this years racing. Things look like they are finally starting to fall in to place, fingers crossed things will work out as I've planned.