Grantham Tri - Wet wet and oh yeah wet

Well that was an interesting day, the wettest and coldest tri I've ever done. Very windy, torrential rain and just 5 degrees. Seen a few people with support staff being treated for cold, tough day at the office and definitely one for the brave few willing to race no matter what, only 81 finishers. Had the Ironman legend Mat Stephenson in the same wave and the lane next to me in the pool, he swam 20 seconds quicker but I biked faster and ran faster to beat Mat by 51 seconds, I finished in 3rd overall and 1st in my age group so a good day really. Only question is when will the weather improve? 3rd tri of the year and been bloody cold at all of them!

Lincoln last week, Grantham tomorrrow

Last weeks race at Lincoln wasn't too bad, I didn't expect too much after health problems but went ok considering. 11th overall from 445 finishers and 3rd in my age group. I felt tired later in the day from my efforts but I guess that's down to the lack of health this month. Tomorrow is the Grantham sprint and my 4th race this year already! The forecast isn't great, I think the word moist sums it up, but if it was easy everyone would be doing it! As usual I'll be updating the blog with a brief race report after the race is done.

David Lloyd Lincoln Sprint Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the David Lloyd Lincoln sprint tri, weather looks pants, not feeling 100% still. Did some training this week after nothing last week due to illness. I don't know if it was a cold/flu or virus but it certainly wiped me out. Been training this week but its been hard work, i feel like I've gone backwards in fitness so I'm not expecting much tomorrow. Got the Grantham sprint next weekend too, I hope to see some improvement in how I'm feeling by then. Post tomorrow or Monday results and race report on the Lincoln race.

Going to try out twitter to see what I think so if your interested i'll be @SharpeDaz

Full of a cold :-(

Full of a cold, no training since Thursday.............Booo

No immune system = no speedy recovery,

Rubbish :-(

Apollo Triathlon and Mountain Biking

Last Sunday the 1st April saw me doing my first triathlon of the year, The Apollo Triathlon in Hull which is a pool based sprint event. I think I will get my excuses in early and confess that I had a bit of a cold and also my colitis was/is playing up a bit making my insides uncomfortable. It is usually my first triathlon of the year and it's always good to find out where you are with regards to fitness and how the training has gone over winter. I swam ok climbing out of the water on 6:07 but its a decent run to transition for the first timing mat so my actual time was 6:40 about 10 seconds quicker than the previous year. The bike was tough (it always is on this course) with a long drag up hill from the start but that went ok too though the time was about 20 seconds slower than the year before and then onto the run. The run course is a new course this year so no comparison, its a better course but definitely longer looking at the results. I struggled on the first lap, just couldn't open up as I felt sick and my chest was tight but on the second lap I felt better and picked up the pace, definitely did a negative split and I reckon by a good 40 seconds! Anyway at the end of the race I had managed to come 3rd overall, not too bad as I said at the start of this update that I wasn't 100%. So that's it, the season has started, I have 2 more sprint races this month, Lincoln on the 22nd and Grantham on the 29th so I'm hoping to carry some form on to those races and build my speed up as the season progresses.

The day after I commuted by bike to work so a round trip of approx 45 miles with a swim at lunch then on Tuesday I was on an AT day with the station cycling club at Cannock Chase. This is the 2nd time this year down at Cannock and I love it, mountain biking is great fun, we are going up the peak district next month which will be great.

6 weeks since my last post

Wow, 6 weeks without posting, that's not good. To be honest not a lot happening, i've been to Lanzarote and had a good week training in the sun, I got some good training under my belt including a long ride, long run and a 4k sea swim as well as a duathlon training session plus other stuff. The main thing I noticed was my bum cheeks were a little tighter on the bike but it was the first time i'd ridden the TT bike since it broke in August last year. It was nice to be back on it though, feels so much faster than the road bike.

When I got back I had a cold which I picked up on the last evening out there and that took a while to shift, it was just about clear with the exception of a chesty cough by the time I did the Dambuster duathlon on the 10th March.

The Dambuster duathlon was my first race of the year, duathlon really hurts! I went ok though the bike seemed slow but somehow I managed to qualify for GB to do the world champs in France in September this year, i've not decided yet if I will do it though, can't decide this early in the year. I have also qualified for team GB to do the world long distance championships in Spain in July which I will be doing. As part of my training I will be doing 3 middle distance events leading up to this race including the national middle distance championships.

Next week is the start of my tri season, i'm racing a sprint event in Hull on the 1st April, it will be a busy month as I also have 2 more sprints that month, Lincoln and Grantham plus the interservice duathlon too so April is all go.

This weekend I did my first long run since Lanzarote in Feb, I ran a 10.5 mile loop with a long (nearly a mile) climb. It went ok at an average of 6:20, then today I did a couple of hours on the mountain bike which was fun. Last Sunday I did a 50 mile hilly bike brick into a 5 mile run which I managed to run at 5:54 average which is encouraging.

I think that's everything up to date for me for now.

Sunday long run

Just done a long Sunday run, had a red wine hangover and there was lots of snow and ice on route. The course was on and off road and lots of concentration was needed with the ice, always being careful where to place your feet. The slow mile (7:15) was in a technical section of the woods with some very tight turns and logs to jump over but you can see the bits where the ground was good by the variation in the pace. Happy with the run and it felt comfortable, will enjoy trying this route in the summer to see how fast I can do it. Anyway details of the run are in the link below, I think you can change the map view to satellite to see the terrain changes?


Sunday long run by triathlondaz at Garmin Connect - Details