Friday 14 November 2014

End of season ramblings and musings

I finished off the tri season with two events, the Sandman Triathlon on Angelsey in September and the 1485 No Frills Sprint Duathlon in October.

Both were good events for their own different reasons.  Sandman, is a cracking location and we were blessed with good weather, flat calm sea and lumpy but scenic bike course and a lovely off road run to finish (well, lovely apart from that sand dune).

The duathlon by contrast was a typical autumn morning, with fog covering the course.  I had a very good and amazing bike ride (6th fastest) and only lost a couple of places on the second run, probably one of my better performances all year.

So how to sum up 2014.

It was my first year under full coaching and overall I believe a great success thanks to the work of Lady Laura Grady and her ever watchful eye keeping me in check and stopping me from doing to much.  I felt I could have performed better at the Rubicon Middle, more work to do on making me run quicker off the bike.

I started in the world of coaching myself and on the 8th November passed my Level 1 coaching badge with Triathlon England.

Circuit classes have started with Warrington Tri, with Carl Loftus giving us a weekly beasting with various strength exercises designed to make us stronger but make us cry at the same time.

There is plenty left to do this year, with a few cross country races to do and and race around Chester's walls on Boxing Day.

Planning for 2015 is under way (well it has been for a while to be honest and much to Laura's amusement I have events for 2016 in mind already as well).  But for now, 2015 will include the Four Villages Half Marathon in Jan, Slateman in May, Outlaw Half in June, a/another middle distance tri in August, Sandman in September and finally Challenge Paguera Mallorca in October.

Yes, that is three middle distance tris next year, this could be a disaster, but whatever happens it will be an adventure and one worth being part of.  Bring it on.