I think it’s almost customary for me to apologise for not keeping this blog up to date and writing at regular intervals but as the title suggests…it’s been a bit busy!
I think the last blog summarises my headspace at the time and although there are plenty of people around me to say how well I am doing my inner critic sees things much differently. Looking back at August/September time last year I was apprehensive about my corrective surgery at the end of September and there were very real fears that I might not be ever to ride a bike again, let alone in competition. Of course, we don’t own a crystal ball as my counsellor always tells me and we sometimes just need to take a deep breath and take on whatever life wants to throw at us. If you’re a regular reader of my blogs…and you haven’t fallen asleep halfway through reading them! You will know that this indeed wasn’t the case and I have been able to ride pretty well and without major pain at the start of this year.
Yes, the chest infection has put a major bump in the road and I have been trying to get back to some kind of competitive fitness since having those weeks off in May. My first race back saw me scrape under the hour at a local 25 time trial. Being caught by someone who started 8 minutes behind me wasn’t what I had hoped for on the day (he was the standout winner BTW) and it served to put a little more focus in my daily habits to keep pushing on.
Roll on a few weeks and I entered a local Olympic distance aqua bike at a local lake. I had originally wanted to race this event back in 2024 but it always clashed with other international events so I never got a chance. The last time I was there was 2015 when I was toying with the idea of Triathlon (that didn’t last long) and suffice to say I swam over 12 minutes faster than my previous here and I biked over 5 minutes faster to take the overall win. Unfortunately the organisers weren’t offering a prize or even an acknowledgement for the event to take place on the day (due to low entries) but I do believe that just because we don’t run or are physically unable to run we shouldn’t be ignored but still gladly part with our hard-earned cash to be part of the triathlon or multisport community. Anyway….
Fast forward another 2 weeks and I had the second Outlaw Aquabike event booked at Holkham Hall in North Norfolk. Of course I had a DNS at the first so this was my chance to at least put a line in the sand at the middle distance event. Suzy was supporting one of our athletes at Challenge Roth this weekend so I was flying solo. I thought it would be a great idea to camp the weekend (in hindsight a very bad idea) and this soon turned into a disaster as there was no electrical hookup in the tent and things decidedly started to slide after that! The event was well organised – this was my first attempt at the bike course having taken part in relay teams twice before in the swim leg so I thought this might give me an advantage. The swim went pretty well considering and I came out of the water surprisingly a couple of minutes faster than anticipated – those 3k swim sets clearly paying off a bit. Then onto the bike on the north Norfolk coastal road – don’t let anyone tell you that Norfolk is not hilly – these aren’t long or even steep but there’s just so many undulations I was physically spent by about half way and limped home way slower than I really wanted. Still…I won the overall event and of course my Age Group. It’d be nice to Outlaw to recognise the Top-3 and give them that “Podium Moment” but maybe that’s for future feedback but a win is a win so I need to be humble and recognise how far Ive come from my Op in September.
Again, another few weeks moving on and I recorded my fastest 25 of the year at a local club event on a Tuesday evening. The course used was a reincarnated course from many years back. I recall riding it back in my teens (that long ago!) and I recorded a slow 1:18:00. This time it was a 57:08 – I’ll take that as a 21 minutes personal best! lol
Later that week Suzy & I were off to Gerona in Northern Spain for the European Middle Distance Aquabike Championships where we were representing Great Britain in our flashy new GB trisuits. My TT bike is very temperamental when it comes to dismantling it and putting it on airplanes so we decided to road trip it going through France from Calais to Perpignan on the east coast and then across the border to Gerona. This area has been going through a massive heatwave the past few weeks and the car registered the temperature, starting from 21 degrees in Northern France to just under 39 degrees as we headed into Spain. We clearly weren’t feeling this climate change in our air-conditioned car but when we stepped outside the heat was definitely pretty full on where you felt someone was holding a hairdryer in your face!
I had been sitting in my local health clubs’ sauna for 20 minutes at a time, 3-4 days a week for the past few weeks so I was hopeful I would be able to with stand the temperatures on the day of the race.
Come race day and the lake was 30 degrees so definitely a non-wetsuit swim and the air temp was 38 so the bike was going to be difficult regardless of my heat training. Into the water and I was hopeful my recent swimming was going to help my overall race – the heat of the water and really bad positioning saw me come out in 26th place so I had some work to do. I caught my opponents one by one sticking to my race plan but the heat got to me in the 2nd of the two lap bike leg. Nonetheless I still tried to keep pushing and came in with 11th place. Not the result I really wanted but in that heat I was happy just to have finished to be honest and there were quite a few who DNF’d both by decision and by heat exhaustion. I was also lucky to avoid certain incidents of “manipulation” where opponents had tampered with others’ bikes in transition the night before rendering them at odds when they got on their bikes. I really can’t believe at this level athletes are actually letting tyres down or breaking gear mechs on other athletes bikes just to gain an advantage. I’m really not sure how World Triathlon will deal with this but something has go to be done.
On our way home the following day we watched the opposite thing happen with our cars’ temperature gauge and watched it drop from 38 to 22 degrees by the time we go to the Channel Tunnel!
Only a few days fast forward and straight into the third and final Outlaw Aquabike event – the Original Outlaw back at Nottingham. This time it was double the distance – a 3.8km swim and a 180km bike leg. On the Thursday evening the announcement was made by the organisers that Blue Green Algae had taken hold on the swim course and despite every effort the water quality results were not good enough so the swim was cancelled. You can’t argue with Health & Safety of the swimmers but I really do feel for the athletes who trained all winter and spring to take on this full distance triathlon event. I do hope that Outlaw do the right thing and either partially refund or defer their entries for next year. In my event this turned into a pretty expensive bike ride! Considering my swim disaster in Gerona the previous weekend I thought this might be some kind of divine intervention to stop me from embarrassing myself some more!
So, onto the day of the race where we (aquabikers) were set off at 30 second intervals so not to block up transition where the triathletes were doing a 6km run in place of the swim and then going on to complete their 180km bike and then a marathon to finish. I set off with a strict power number to keep to so I didn’t blow up at the end of the ride. The lack of long distance riding recently made sure I did exactly that at around 80 miles and I limped home against a very stiff headwind in places to record a 4:53hrs time – this was good enough for 2nd overall and to win my Age Group just as I had in Holkham. The lad who beat me was half my age and he came past me at around 60 miles – an impressive ride on the day considering the conditions. Me?… my next AG opponent was over an hour slower than me on the day so again I have to take that as a good performance – not a great one but a good one.
So…here we are…
This weekend at Nottingham was pivotal to determine which event I was going to enter in Challenge Almere in September. If I rode well then it was the Full distance Aquabike, if I didn’t then I would ride the Middle distance event. Weirdly, after speaking to my coach I’m going all-in for the Full distance event as he feels that’s where my strengths are.
So…I’m back on the strength & conditioning thing – and I have really serious DOMS this week as I sit here typing in this blog! I’m 100% focused on my swims now as that’s going to decide whether I come out of the water already knackered and subsequently have a poor bike leg…or not. And I’m keen to get some seriously long bike rides in to get that 100+ mile endurance in the legs again.
I’ve also got a 50 Mile TT in the schedule but I don’t think I’ll feature as well as I did last year or the year before but it’ll be great training nonetheless.
Finally!!!
I must say I do recognise I sometimes come across as a bit of a winger when it comes to comparatively good performances. I released a video on my Hashtag Coaching Instagram page this week explaining my predicament. It details that although I am humble in my successes I have a particular focus on my weaknesses which gives me motivation to improve & correct. I really do recognise my achievements but perhaps not as much as I do my coached athletes. I accept that.
Regarding the Hashtag Community – I am totally blown away by the achievements of our collective. Suzy & I celebrate every single achievement by every single athlete under our tutelage. Their journeys are just as important as everyone else’s. We have individuals who are on a weight loss program and that pound loss is just as special as that athlete crossing the finish line of their Ironman event and perhaps qualifying for Kona next year.
This genuine interest in helping people becoming better versions of themselves both physically and also mentally through confidence to achieve things etc. is our main aim and I do think we’re really helping and inspiring others. Our coaching methods, our feedback, our 1-2-1 phone calls and that constant contact through their journeys has put us head & shoulders above many coaching platforms. This was never a business decision – it was a personal one as I really wished I had a coaching relationship like this when I started my sport instead of winging it and hoping for the best.
Anyway – it sounds like I’m selling something – and I’m not!
(but have a look on instagram anyway) lol
Onwards!!!!