Surprises, surprises!

One of my favourite local runs is over at Ashridge where, over the years, I have ran with friends and, more recently, members of the Tring Running Club.

For those of you who don’t know it, Ashridge is a local beauty spot of approximately 5000 acres of woodland, used occasionally for film sets such as Harry Potter and, apparently, The Dirty Dozen.

This weekend, whilst the kids were at friends and the weather had turned for the better, I decided to take a drive over to Ashridge, on my own and with a picnic and copy of Runner’s World, to take some time out and relax in the sun. Whilst I was there, I took in the real beauty of the woodland. I had the time to actually look at the magnificence of it all and thought how lucky I was to have it right on my doorstop. After many, many miles treading the paths on lonely runs, I was surprised that I had never actually appreciated it all before now.

Another surprise came in the shape of my first ever sub 2:30 Olympic distance triathlon, with a PB to boot, at Milton Keynes the previous Sunday. Along with 20 other members of my triathlon club (stand up Shires Triers and take a bow) I managed to complete the race in 2:23:58. I was particularly pleased with my swim and bike times although it was a bit demoralising being passed by every man and his dog on the run. Big up for Jo Mitchell for the fastest Shire of the day in 2:10:49 – Jo, how do you go so fast??

Not the most jam-packed of training weeks, but here it is:-

Monday – no training, recovery day following MK Olympic the previous day
Tuesday – no training, again, still recovering from MK!
Wednesday – easy swim, incorporating 400 metre time-trial, at David Lloyd gym in Bushey
Thursday – bike – 10 mile time-trial with my mate Jev O’Neill, time 26:58 – nothing to write home about, but 6 miles was against a very tough head-wind
Friday – run – tough 30 minute interval session with my mate Paul McGee
Saturday – race – Bedford Aquathlon (750 metre open water swim, 5K run) – 38 minutes’ish – 8th position overall, winner in my age group (in fact, only competitor in my age group, but hey you gotta be in it to win it!)
Sunday – race – Bedford Open Water Sprint Triathlon (750 metre open water sprint, 22K bike, 5K run) with Jev – 24th position overall (116 raced) - that's me below in transition before the race



Here's a link to my online training diary.

Next week it’s a lot of run-specific stuff, and the National Relays on Sunday. Am really looking forward to that. Plus also another run or two over at Ashridge. This time I am going to appreciate, for once, how lucky I am to have it all so close at hand.

Until then, happy training and have a great week.

Why, oh, why?

It all began many moons ago in the late 1990's when, after a long lay-off from all sports, I decided to ditch the pipe and smoking jacket in favour of a bike and pair of swimming trunks. After a couple of months cycling to the local pool in Dunstable each morning it was suggested to me by my work colleague Jason Bennett (experienced Marathoner) that I might want to tag a run onto the end and do a triathlon.

I thought that sounded pretty cool and so entered, and finished, the London Sprint Triathlon. The race wasn’t the big commercial affair it is now and I enjoyed it very much. I caught the bug instantly.

The ensuing years saw me competing at very mediocre speeds at all distances – Super-Sprint, Sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman and Ironman. This culminated at Ironman Switzerland where, behind the finish line, I sat quietly on my own and wondered where to go next. I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve and felt deflated. I needed a new challenge.

I was becoming less and less interested in the 100 mile Sunday bike rides, preferring the all-out eye-balling Sprint races which were done and finished in just over an hour. It was at the start line of the 2007 Northampton Sprint (which was a BTA Age Group qualifying event for the 2008 World Sprint Championships), where I smelt the anticipation in the atmosphere. There I was, ready for the off, against the best Age Groupers in the country and I thought ‘this feels good’. It was precisely then that I knew I had found my next challenge - qualification for the GB Age Group Team for the 2009 World Sprint Championships in Australia - and re-kindled my waining interest in the sport in the process.

Ok, I might not be the fastest, but I looked at the results from that day and saw that, had I ‘registered my interest’ to qualify (apparently, this is something you need to do prior to competing for a GB place), I would have actually qualified by the back-door 'roll-out' method (that is where others who were faster than me had not taken up their spot, leaving me next in line).

The qualifying events for the 2009 World Championships are the Big Cow Sprint Triathlon - 6th/7th June 2009, the Grendon Triathlon - 10th May 2009 and the Blithfield Triathlon - 25th/26th July 2009. From now until then I have a lot of training to do.

Join me in my quest to train for those races, ultimately (and hopefully) leading to a place on the start line against the best Age Groupers in the World in Australia in September 2009. The high-energy, glamorous spectacle of the World Champs might seem a million miles away from that first low-key race in London all those years ago but I want, I need, to experience that unique smell of anticipation once more.