Thursday 29 August 2013

Mid-Season Report.


Where to start???
Its more or less the end of the season for most and I have still not posted a single blog post, there are a number of reasons for this … it’s not just due to the fact that I have been lazy and constantly put it off, honest.

Well the start of this year was less than optimal, I was lacking a lot of fitness due to trying to train and complete a teaching placement in a Primary School, which I didn’t quite manage to find the balance, mainly because I managed to pick up every bug/cold possible, I guess that’s to be expected in a Primary School.

Once I managed to get over that, I really tried to knuckle down and get some good training under my belt before races started to kick off, but unfortunately I picked up a tear in my right calf which lingered and was harder to shake off than I expected, resulting in me pulling out of a lot of early races that I had been panning on kicking my season off with.

Who ever wants to write about the negative things? Not me, and hence the lack of blogging then.

You could have at least put up race reports you might say? Well to be honest there has not been many.

I raced Camlough ‘Crooked lake’ Triathlon, at the start of June, at superb race and one I will always do if I have the chance, and it was good to get my name back on the trophy after my absence last year.

Other than that I have only raced four time … four elite triathlons in four consecutive weekends. 
            Liverpool ‘British Elite Champs’  (sprint)
            Geneva ‘European Cup’      (Olympic)
            London ‘British Super Series’    (Olympic)
            Istanbul ‘European Cup    (Olympic)

Liverpool – wow, can you really be that rusty from lack of racing – Yes, definitely yes! Simple mistakes cost me the front group of four, whilst exiting the water 5th, and bad nutritional choices pre race, meant I went backwards on the run with bad stomach problems.

One week later …

Geneva – possibly the worst triathlon I have ever raced, (can I use the word raced???) … Participated in might be a better phrase.
A horrendous swim, an even worse bike leg and then the run; I think I have been negative enough already but I would have to resort to profanities to give its description justice. 

Then the season turn around point.

One week till London, and I sat on the shore of Lake Geneva chatting with my coach.
I had to ask myself; if I want to continue to visit places like this across the world, I really need to get my finger out.
I needed a change in thinking and I found it.

7th in London - 3rd out of the water, good cycle in the lead pack followed by a solid-ish run to result in a performance I was finally happy with and a good confidence boost.

Now for the fourth triathlon in the same amount of weekends – there was quite a few people who doubted I could back up this many races, but I had finally had a good race the weekend before and I was just going to ride the wave of new found confidence to get me through.


Istanbul European Cup- A great swim to excite at the front, a strong bike, got a break away with two others for lap 3 but unfortunately we got reeled back in,  it was then down to a foot race and I managed to come away with a credible 16th, something I am happy with considering tired legs with minimal miles in them this season.

A performance that has qualified me to compete in the Elite U23 World Championships in London on September 12th.

Now I am currently in a training phase doing all I can to prepare for Worlds, and to be ready to put a race together that I know I am capable of.

Hope you enjoyed my mid season report, even if it was lengthy, thank you for reading it all … your attention span is definitely bigger than mine.


Russell.

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