Africa Mason Blog: New Year’s Revelation…
Happy New Year everyone – I hope you have been keeping to your New Year’s Resolutions ! Its been pretty difficult through January with all this snow and ice to get out on the road, but I have made a few bike excursions (without incident) as I resolved: however my mileage on my trainer has more than quadrupled as a result, along with my trips to the gym! Several competitions were cancelled – notably our regional Cross Country Champs, and some of my National training camps have been cancelled or moved due to the snow, and the flooding that has followed on.
I started my new year with the customary Boxing Day run in Poole park – this will be my last year in the junior competition, and it was a little frustrating not to be running the adult race with my friends! I was the first girl home, but I think everyone appreciated getting out and having the Christmas cobwebs blown off!
Swimming training has been a bit patchy so far this year as we have had early start problems with the weather and the state of access to our training pool: the car park was like glass the other morning and cars were sliding everywhere! One of my friends has been out in Lanzarote training – I’m not jealous: just thinking about it warms you up doesn’t it!
This weekend saw the first step back into the normal routine with a South West Tri Academy training day in Newport, followed by the Cardiff X-Challenge cross country for Poole AC. The Newport sessions were run by coaches Will Newton and Andy Bullock (also to be seen starring in this months 20:20 Triathlon magazine) from British Triathlon with run, core stability and velodrome track sessions. The weather was relatively kind and we just got slightly damp outside, but it was nice to be back in the warm again. We were a large group this time but fortunately we had a couple of hours on the track: Which I used to my advantage – working hard all the way.
After the track session we had a presentation and I was awarded the South West series trophy. The parents also had a discussion about which races the academy will be targeting in the coming year: with a few more sessions like this one we should be going well in 2010. On reflection, I probably should have thought ahead a little, because when I arrived at the X-Challenge Event in Cardiff the following day my legs were like lead towards the end of the race!
I tried to stretch off and did a full warm, but I knew from the outset it was going to be hard work. The course was pretty flat, but I had heard reports of it being very boggy in parts last year. This year the organisers had laid plenty of bark chippings, and the course was so well taped-off so that you couldn’t possibly get lost, so it was looking good. As my race was the last-but-one I was expecting it to be pretty churned-up and went for long spikes, but it wasn’t abnormally muddy. Beforehand I was wearing my bright fluorescent pink Ron Hill Vizion windlite jacket around the race venue – I had loads of people ask me where I had got it from: hope the Wiggle stocks are OK !
I got off to a good start, but at the end of the first lap I was having to work hard. I pushed on – taking another two places on the last lap, coming home 16th out of 72 entrants. Two of my friends came in first and second with excellent runs, although I wasn’t disappointed with my result I think easing off on the training session the day before probably could have lifted me into the top ten. My coach agreed – but I am only bottom of the age group at the moment so I’m pleased.
It was a very full weekend; I enjoyed a well earned doze in the nice warm car on the way home.
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