Tears of a clown...

I don’t do things by half. Oh no.

13 or so minutes into today’s second World qualifier at Milton Keynes and I exited the swim in super-quick time (well, quick for me, anyway).

15 minutes later and this dream start had turned into a DNF, resulting from a string of comedic errors of which Coco the Clown would have been proud.

First off, the self-proclaimed king of transitions couldn’t get his wetsuit off. Next, I poked myself in the eye with an arm of my sunglasses. Then I crashed off the bike, landing bum over boob braking too hard coming out of transition. Finally, about one-third into the cycle, I punctured. Game over.

Here’s me, pre-disaster…



After the race, however, and having analysed the results over and over again, I am actually quite pleased with how things were concluded today.

Of those who didn’t make the 15% last time at Grendon, only two did this time, and they both got a better percentage than me, which means that I have only dropped two places. Of the eight automatic qualifying places offered over the two qualifying races so far, two have also qualified for the Olympic distance and so will not (as is likely) take up their Sprint slots.

All this means that I am effectively still in twelfth place going into the final race at Blithfield on 26th July, which is not a bad place to start the race given that I actually DNF’d today (there are 20 places up for grabs). If any more of the top eight places have gone to athletes who qualify at the Bedford Olympic on 19th July then that will take me further up the pecking order.

So, it's still looking good for Oz.

About time I updated my blog with details of my recent weeks' training, so here we go...

Week commencing 18th May:

Monday (Italy) – bike - 5 hour hard and hilly, run - intervals, swim - various drills
Tuesday – complete rest
Wednesday – bike - gym spin, swim - various drills
Thursday – complete rest
Friday – bike - easy (around MK sprint course), run - intervals, swim - various drills
Saturday – complete rest
Sunday – race – MK Sprint (race 1)

Week commencing 25th May:

Monday – complete rest
Tuesday – bike/run brick (garage session), alternating between fast and hilly
Wednesday – bike - gym spin, swim - various drills
Thursday – bike - hard intervals, swim (open water - Liquid Leisure)
Friday – bike - 10 mile TT (24:13 - PB), run - intervals (6 minute test), swim - drills
Saturday – run - Bushey Park 5K TT (20:42 - PB), swim (open water - Liquid Leisure)
Sunday – complete rest

Week commencing 1st June:

Monday – swim - club swim
Tuesday – bike - easy hill session
Wednesday – run - easy intervals
Thursday – bike - easy intervals, run - easy 15 minutes, swim (open water - Liquid Leisure)
Friday – complete rest
Saturday – run - very easy 15 minutes
Sunday – race - MK sprint (World qualifier)

Looking forward to checking out the results of Blenheim where quite a few of the guys I met in Italy were racing this weekend. Previous experience of this race tells me that this course isn't suited to wet conditions, so fingers crossed that they had a more successful time of it than I did at MK.

In the meantime, I will be cranking it up for the next six weeks in advance of the final qualifier at Blithfield. After today’s race, I am tempted to register under the name of Ronald McDonald and ride my unicycle. What do you reckon?

C