Silver at the National Middle Distance Championships

Training seems to be going spot on in accordance with the programme as on Sunday it was the National Middle Distance Championships and for the second time in triathlon I won a National Silver Medal!!! I now have a National standard distance medal and a National Middle distance medal, any guesses what one of next years objectives might be?

The day started at 03:55 with the alarm going off for breakfast due to the race starting at 06:30. I'd racked my bike the day before and registered so all I had to do was turn up and get ready. The place was a bit of a mess due to the amount of rain the whole country seems to have had, transition was a swamp. I started the swim and it was a bit on the violent side to start with until about 250 meters in where I found some space to settle into my own pace, I swam well and exited the water in the top 30 of the first of two waves. I was surprised to be just behind Mike Masters who was only about 5 meters ahead getting out of the water. The run to transition was very muddy and slippy and I nearly fell over but got there in one piece and with a smooth transition I was on the bike for the 92km course. I felt I was going OK but just didn't feel at the top of my game on the bike, hard to explain but just didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. I still had a good bike split and arrived back in transition in 14th place (not forgetting there was a second wave).

Transition 2 went OK given the amount of mud and I'm not sure who would be better off, those who'd opted for socks or those (me included that weren't bothering with them) due to the mud and water in transition but luckily the run course was changed to reflect the conditions and would be completely on tarmac. It was an out and back section before a lap of the park perimeter road and was 3 laps. On the out and back bit there was a 1 mile climb which I was clocking 6:24 going up and of course you had to come back down which was being knocked out at 5:50. I had a great run and moved up the positions from my wave to 10th but after the second wave were in I finished 12th overall and second in my age group. Once the results were up I found that I'd done the 3rd fastest run overall which at a National Championship race I'm very happy about.

3 days later on Wednesday it was a test of recovery ability to see how quick I could come from a middle distance race into an Olympic distance for the inter services. I felt a little tired but on Tuesday I'd swam and biked to loosen off a bit. The race started and I swam OK, once on the bike that's where things started to happen, I quickly made up lots of places and hit transition in about 13th or 14th. Onto the run and I made up more places passing Pete Norris at around the 6k point and moving through to finish 7th overall. Another satisfying performance, I just need things to go well over the next 2 weeks before the World Long Course Championships in Spain. The last of the big stuff is this weekend with a 2 hour ride Saturday then 3 hour ride Sunday with a 1 hour 30 run off the bike brick.

That's all for now.