First up was the age group British Sprint Triathlon Champs at Eton Dorney back in May. I was feeling pretty good going into, but didn't have the best week of prep before hand as I had all of my end of year Uni exams. I had a pretty terrible swim, but I felt like I performed well on the bike and run and ended up 5th in the 20-24 age group which came as a massive, but very welcome shock! I came out of it feeling pretty motivated and excited to see how I could perform going forward in the season.
The weekend after I had a fairly hectic schedule with a local cat 3/4 road race on the Sunday, and a 25mile TT on the Monday. I felt good in the road race but probably spent too much time on the front. I tried to break from the bunch with about 1 mile to go, and had a decent gap, but blew up on the final sprint to the hill, and ended up having the whole bunch come past me. I'll put that one down to experience and poor tactics! I was very tired going into the 25 the next day and ended up having a pretty poor ride, ending up way down the results sheet. Again, maybe I'll put that down to experience and will not try and race 2 hard races back to back.
The following week, I once again had a pretty hectic schedule, racing Triathlon on the Sunday, a Crit on the Wednesday, the Club 10 TT on the Thursday and BUCS XC on the Saturday! The Triathlon was a pool based sprint Tri in Taunton. I had a solid-ish swim for me, and came out onto the extended, 18 mile bike course feeling good. I put in a decent ride and went into the run feeling strong. It was pretty warm in the sun, but I managed to run a sub 17 minute 5km off the bike, giving me the fastest run of the day and second position overall.
I came out of the Tri with renewed confidence and motivation and headed down to the Crit race in Exeter on the Wednesday. It was pretty bleak weather wise, but I had a good warm up and was feeling ok. I rode around with the bunch for the first half of the race and decided that I was feeling good and went for a break. I got away on my own and stayed away for the whole race, putting a margin of about 35 seconds between myself and the bunch to take the win!
A couple of weeks after was the Bideford Triathlon. I entered this one fairly last minute because I had a couple of weeks without much to race, and its really local to me. I won it last year so in my head there was a bit of pressure to try and retain the win. I came out of the water feeling pretty good and went to work on the bike, overtaking everyone fairly early on and moving into first position. I pushed on pretty hard on the bike and was still feeling really good, probably due to how much time I had spent on my TT bike in recent weeks. It ended up being one of those days where everything goes to plan and I went into the run knowing I had a decent margin. I relaxed into it and ended up running a PB of 16.12 for 5km, even though it didnt feel like I was pushing myself too hard. I ended up winning the sprint distance event by 4 minutes and knew I was in a good position going into the National Sprint champs a couple of weeks later.
The National Sprint champs were one of my A races for the season so I tapered properly and headed into them with confidence and a good feeling. My swim has always been my biggest weakness and this was evident again as I emerged from the water in a pretty bad position. I worked hard on the bike, and gained a lot of positions. I ran hard off the bike and left nothing in the tank, ending up in 5th position in the 20-24 category, another unexpected but very welcome result!
The British AG champs in Liverpool was my last A race of the season and, actually my first ever Olympic distance race! The water was pretty grim and full of jellyfish but I had a comfortable swim. I came out of the water and the usual game plan ensued; utilise my bike strength and claw back positions! At the end of the 40km I had moved well up my wave and was in about 5th position in my age group. I felt fairly awful at the start of the run and lost a couple of positions, but settled into a rhythm not long afterwards and ended up finishing my first standard distance race in 7th in my category.
In my head that was basically my season done, and I headed off to SW France to surf and relax. I took my running trainers and did a couple of jogs now and again but basically gave up training for a month. I had an awesome time and came back with a renewed motivation to train and race.
I entered the last race in the Cornwall Tri series in Marazion, for a bit of late season racing. Its an awesome venue and the swim takes you out near St Michaels Mount. I had a pretty bad swim, and due to the wind blowing the buoys about, it was definitely longer than 1500m too! I came out of the water 5 minutes down on the leaders and left myself a lot of work to do on the other disciplines. I did what I know and went as hard as I could on the out and back bike course, clawing myself up to 2nd overall. I ran hard on the undulating 11km course and held onto 2nd position. I was very pleased to prove to myself that I still had some form of fitness after a prolonged period of not much training.
In the last few weeks I have really been enjoying my training and racing again, since being back at University in Plymouth. I've raced a couple of Hillclimbs recently, finishing 3rd overall at the Jennycliff HC, and joint 3rd at the Plymouth Corinthians King of the Hill.
I've got a few events coming up in the not too distant future; BUCS Hillclimb next weekend, and the Plymouth 10k the weekend after. No doubt I'll find some more XC and CX as well to supplement my training and to keep the motivation going throughout the winter.
I'm super excited for next season already, and keep your ears open for a pretty cool bit of news coming from me in the next couple of months.
Cheers
Oli
