Have a Cigar

Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar,
You're gonna go far, you're gonna fly high,
You're never gonna die, you're gonna make it if you try; they're gonna love you.

Ok, as we all know, the lyrics to Pink Floyd's 1975 song Have a Cigar are having a pop at the greed within the music industry, but after my rip-roaring performance at the first of my World Sprint Qualifiers - today's Grendon Sprint - I feel like sitting back and lighting up.

Then reality strikes. I didn't qualify, not today anyway, so No Cigar this time.

Not that I ever expected to qualify outright. I am not so dillusional that I know that qualification for me will fall on the roll-down process, as it would have done 2 years ago had I registered my interest to qualify when I raced at Northampton in 2007, so my aim today was to pass the 115% test which is the first stage of the qualification process.

And I am pleased to say that that's exactly what I achieved, and so I am now in line to qualify in the roll-down.

In perfect conditions I raced as hard as I could, falling over the finish line, completely exhausted and with my lungs and heart stretched to their limits, in a time of 1:15:29. The winner in my age group finished in 1:06:19 which means that I was JUST within 115% of him. Hoorah!





There are 25 athletes who have registered their interest with the British Triathlon Association to qualify for the World's. Of them, 21 were racing today. I came 10th out of the 21, just 3 minutes off an automatic qualification, and that has now given me the confidence to go forward to the MK and Blithfield Sprints on 7th June and 26th July respectively and secure a place.

Congratulations to a tritalk forumite, Iain, who I have been cyber-talking to on the forum. Iain secured a place at the Worlds today with a 3rd place (same age group as me). Well done, Iain, and hopefully I'll see you at The Gold Coast!

Also, a big well done to my mate Dan from the tri club who is joining me on a few races this year. Prior to the race, never have I seen anyone with such a 'wish I wasn't doing this' look on his face, but I think all this was a smoke screen because he went a beat me by 2 minutes! Well done, Dan.

Another feature of racing around the country is that you get to visit the local hostelries after each race. At Duston, A-M and I found a lovely pub nearby called the Fox and Hounds in Harlestone, then today we came across the Cowper's Oak in Weston Underwood (see picture up top). Finding ourselves a garden table in the sunshine, we tucked into a nice lunch and, for me, a couple of well-earned beers. The life of a triathlete is not exactly 'play hard, work hard', more 'work hard, work harder', so it's nice to reward myself after a great day at the races.

This week was a taper week. Here's exactly what I did:-

Monday – bike - easy around Grendon bike course
Tuesday – run - fartlek
Wednesday – run - 30 second sprints
Thursday – bike - easy 45 minutes, swim - open water at Liquid Leisure
Friday – complete rest
Saturday – bike - easy sprints, run - easy sprints
Sunday – race – Grendon Sprint

Next week (Tuesday to be exact) I am off to Italy for the Steve Trew triathlon training camp. Past experience at the Robin Brew training camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote shows that speed and endurance increase 10-fold with a week of intense, stress-free training, which again I am hoping will set me up for the next qualifier at MK.

Until then, the champagne has been left on ice for the time being. After analysing today's results and my overall performance as against the others in my Age Group, I am sure - even positive - that I will be popping it open before you can peel the wrapper off a Panama!

More next week.

Cheers.

C