19

Happy New Year

My training volume picked up this week and the lovely easy training days of December are already a distant memory. Due to the icy conditions I am sure I am not alone in having spent more hours than normal on the turbo and the treadmill this week. Unfortunately I’m not as tough as the mountain biking boys of Team Wiggle who have been out training in the snow as you can see from Lee’s recent blog.

January is always the month in the training programme where my volume increases and I get back into the habit of doing 2 training sessions a day, I’m really motivated at the moment and much to my surprise, really loving swimming which has to be a first! It is by far my weakest leg when it comes to triathlon and if I can find a reason to run or bike rather than swim I take it. I was a little bit scared I wouldn’t remember how to swim after 6 weeks out of the water. I had laser eye surgery last November which meant I couldn’t swim for a month. I then had a 2 week holiday in France over Christmas where I got to bike, run and ski but no swimming. It doesn’t seem to have hurt me, in fact I feel better in the water which will hopefully translate to some new PB’s later this season!

I leave a bike in France and despite the huge amount of rain we had in Nice, I managed to get out and do some wonderful rides and only got soaked once! In the December issue of Pro Cycling, Col Eze was featured as a ride which is also one of my personal favourites and one I do quite frequently as it is a great way to cut across to Menton to the start of Col de la Madone, a ride that was also featured in a Pro Cycling magazine Nov 2009 I think. Trek fans will recognise where the name of the bike came from J.

Riding in the Alps is always a humbling experience for me. My strength in racing is flat, windy courses so faced with a 10km climb with a 8-10% average, I am not really in my element. It is of course good for me and makes me stronger but it doesn’t make me happy until I crest the top of those mountains. I tend to drift off if left to my own devices and enjoy the views rather than pushing myself to the max, which is where The Dutchman comes in. Every climb we did over the break was used for interval training and he was right there next to me making sure I was putting in 110%. If it was a short climb of 5-7km it was 1km hard, 1 km easy. Anything longer than that was 2km hard and 1km easy. Trust me, there was no enjoying the views this time!

So back to work, back to training and fine tuning the race schedule for the year. I am mixing it up a bit more this year and sticking to my Olympic and Sprint distance triathlons, some early season duathlons and also a few more sportives including the Fausto Coppi in Italy which will no doubt hurt a lot given my current climbing fitness! I’m busy recruiting my merry band of domestiques to help me out there. www.faustocoppi.net

Be careful out there on the ice! Happy Training.
Cx

End of Season Lowdown with Team Wiggle

Our Team Wiggle athletes have had a cracking year, standing atop rostrums the world over in road racing, mountain biking and triathlon. Before they put their feet up for the festive break, we caught up with them all as they reflect on 2009 and look ahead to 2010. Age-group triathlete Carolyn Hewett had a cracking year, focusing on short course triathlon for the first time after several successful seasons competing at Ironman events…

18

Team Wiggle 2009 Highlights.

Q. Looking back on your 2009 season, are you pleased with how it went?

A. Yes, it was my first year racing sprint and Olympic distance and I loved it. The best part is you can go do a race in the morning, be home, showered and ready to go out to lunch. It’s very different to the whole day slog that goes with doing an Ironman and lunch is always better than eating gels!

Q. What was the highlight of your year?

A. Finding out I had made it onto Team Wiggle. Racing wise, it was winning five out of the seven triathlons I competed in during the year. I’m most proud of my age group win (30 – 34) at The London Triathlon by a six-minute margin.

Q. What was the funniest moment?

A. Getting stuck in my wetsuit in transition with it glued to my arms and not being able to move it further than my elbows. It doesn’t get any easier if you get the giggles whilst trying to escape! I will never again underestimate the value of Bodyglide.

Q. What was the most important lesson you learnt?

A. Don’t forget the Bodyglide! Also, not to eat too much when racing sprint and Olympic distance. Having raced Ironman distance for a few years it was ingrained in me to eat, eat, eat and I struggled early season with stomach cramps from overloading my stomach. It took me a while to get the balance right and to lose the fear that I was going to blow up.

Q. What are your plans for winter training? How’s it going so far?

A. I’m eating a huge wedge of carrot cake whilst writing this, so the diet could definitely be better! I have been running more and spending some time in the gym but doing shorter sessions than normal. I’m heading to France for a couple weeks over Christmas and New Year so will be riding and running when I’m not skiing. Training really picks up for me in January.

Q. What does 2010 have in store for you? What are your major races going
to be?

A. I am going to be unemployed by choice early next year so I am planning on spending some time training in Australia to get ready for Blenheim and Windsor triathlons. Other major races include the Kiron Sportive, Dextro Energy in Hyde Park, the London Triathlon and the London Duathlon.

Carolyn on her way to victory at the Timex Women’s Triathlon. She says:

“I love this shot – I love that my feet aren’t touching the ground. I was being chased down by two fast runners and the fear of losing my first place made me push harder than ever before.”

17

Winter Training

It’s funny how when you are in tip top shape how you adapt to knowing how fast you can run, or hard you can bike or how far you can swim and you quickly get used to that and accept it as the status quo. Each year the same thing happens to me after I take a little bit of time off, ease up on the training, and unavoidably lose some of that conditioning. I end up in a situation where my mind *thinks* it can still do what I was doing 2 months earlier.

Unfortunately that is not the case. I started into my winter base training 3 weeks ago and hit it with intensity and enthusiasm. As a result I am having to get the elevator to my 2nd floor apartment because I can’t face the stairs, my bike commute is usually a joyful 20 minutes and at the moment I would probably chew glass rather than face what is now 30 mins of thigh burning hell. I say that but the thought of having to go up and down stairs in the tube is one I can’t even contemplate without tears welling up in my eyes. I have done a couple of weights sessions and despite having to use lighter weights, I have spent the past 10 days in varying degrees of pain. I know it will be worth it and now is the key time to start building my strength ready for my first triathlon of 2010 which will be Blenheim Castle in early June.

I have spent considerable time planning out next years race schedule which is starting to take shape as more and more race organisers release the 2010 dates for their events. My goal for next year is to do the races I LOVED this year (London Olympic, Dextro Hyde Park Olympic and some Dorney Lake events) as well as try out some new ones. Paul @ Wiggle has been very generous and is upgrading my road bike so the plan is to also do a few more sportives including the inaugural Kiron Sportive on Sunday 20th June. It promises to be a great event and is based at Eastnor Castle. I did a race there a few years ago and it is a beautiful area. Entry to the sportive is a very reasonable £22 which includes a T-shirt and goody bag. You can sign up here I am sure it is going to be a fantastic event.

Next up for me is a 10km run in Regents Park next weekend, maybe my quads will have recovered enough to get to the start line ;)

Keep up the winter training!

Cx

This month, our Wiggle Triathlete Carolyn Hewett has been featured in the December edition of Running Fitness Magazine.

The feature tells Carolyn’s inspirational story on how she beat Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome to become a Ironman champion. Read the full story on page 18 of the Dec edition of Running Fitness!

Keep up to date with Carolyn’s Blogs here

16

Back to it!

Training took a back seat to my recent 2 week holiday in California. As regular Bloggle readers will have heard, most of Team Wiggle eased up slightly to reflect on 2009, refresh and get ready to start the preparation for 2010 and I am no exception. I always try and take a month out at the end of the year where I reduce my training volume and train for fun. I try not to watch the clock too closely or worry about speeds or splits and if I’m being honest I really just exercise so I can keep eating dessert guilt free!

The Dutchman and I started our road trip in LA and stayed with some friends in the Hollywood Hills. I had to resist stalking their next door neighbour who is none other than Patrick Dempsey, perhaps better known as McDreamy from Greys Anatomy. Unfortunately (fortunately for him) I didn’t get to see him, but it didn’t stop me peering out the window at regular intervals. Following a few days in LA we headed to Death Valley where we planned to do a long hike to the top of Telescope Peak, unique in that you can see both the lowest (Death Valley) and highest (Mt Whitney) points in the USA. Things didn’t go to plan and halfway through the hike we had to turn back because it was so cold!

Despite wearing my 2XU tights, dhb Merston long sleeve jersey and several other layers, I was absolutely freezing and really was not having a good time. The weather had changed and we were in the clouds so I couldn’t even say I was cold but enjoying the view. My patience was wearing thin and the Dutchman who is well versed in recognising the signs of a pending meltdown turned us around and we headed back to the warmth of the valley floor. We snapped this picture on the valley floor. Very useful in case you were wondering what those big piles of sand might be.

Next up was Yosemite National Park to see the giant Sequoia trees which blew my mind. They are enormous. You can see the size difference between the tree and this house next to one of them, and that wasn’t even a particularly noteworthy tree as there were others much bigger! Next day we set off on a huge hike which combined 3 trails starting in Yosemite Valley up to Glacier Point which provided fantastic views of Half Dome, along the Panorama trail taking in the spectacular waterfalls and onto the John Muir trail. It was a serious 6.5 hr workout but with regular breaks to take in the scenery.

Next stop was Lake Tahoe where we hiked up from Fallen Leaf Lake past 8 different lakes to loop back around to the start. What had become apparent was that California is an incredibly diverse state and I was beginning to doubt 2 weeks would be any where near close enough to experience it! Leaving Lake Tahoe we hit a snowstorm but luck was with us when a snow plow pulled out in front of me and I got to follow him over the pass and past others who had slid off the road in the icy conditions. Not sure it is standard practise to carry snow chains in a Mustang convertible!

Onto Sonoma in the wine region and due to the lack of hiking we picked up the running to get some exercise in, in addition to walking between wineries of course! After a few relaxing days we then headed across to the coast to drive down Hwy 1. The views really are as good as everyone says! We took 2 days to drive down the Hwy back to LA doing lots of stops to take in as much as possible.

So, back to work, the end of daylight savings and the start of my base training. My focus for the winter is to get stronger and put in a solid base for my running and cycling, but the big goal is to break my swim stroke down and build up better technique, and hopefully as a result increase my speed for 2010!

On a final note, if you are looking for some great lights to make you flash like a Christmas Tree on your bike on these dark evenings, check out the Smart LED front and rear light set that are currently £14 reduced from £35!

Happy training!
Cx

15

Cycling In France

I pushed the envelope a little 10 days after coming off my bike by heading into the Alps for a week of tough cycling. I skipped the first day and managed to get through the week by dosing up on long lasting ibuprofen every morning which did the trick! I’m so pleased I didn’t have to miss the riding as we saw some incredible sights. The group was made up of 10 riders including myself and was led by The Dutchman who runs a little side business doing cycling trips in Europe and has done for about 5 years now. Most of the riders had come from the US, 1 from Holland and the rest of us from the UK including our van driver who is also a keen cyclist.

I skipped the first day of riding which was a short out and back to Nice to test the bike set ups and stretch the legs for the Americans who had arrived that morning. That night we had a pasta party at home for everyone. Most people have been coming on the trips for quite a few years so it was a good opportunity for everyone to catch up. You need a lot of lasagna to feed 10 hungry athletes ;) Next day was also an out and back from Nice which included one of my favorite climbs, Col de Braus. It is so cool to look back on all the switchbacks as you climb above them. We covered just over 100km so it was a good intro to the trip.

Monday we left Nice and cycled out to Entrevoux which is an ancient walled village surrounded by a moat. The streets are so tiny there aren’t any cars allowed into the town; although I’m not sure they would actually fit anyway! We covered 3 big climbs, although I only did 2 of them after snapping my chain and having to be rescued by Anton our mechanic and van driver. It was much easier waving to people as I passed them in the van rather than actually doing the climb in the heat. Anton very kindly fixed my chain at the top and I zoomed off down the decent. Monday’s stage was 101km and 2000m vertical.

Tuesday we set off again to. By this time the competition between the boys had really kicked off so I started taking bets who was going to be the ‘winner’ at the end of each day. Ian is a superb climber, but is still developing his descending skills where as Pete has been racing for years and can really handle the technical descents. €5 would be staked on the winner and I am pleased to say my man Ian came home with the goods most days. Tuesday’s stage was mostly up including Col de la Cayolle which seemed to go on for ever. We did 86km and 1900m to get to Barcelonnette which is a gorgeous little town and full of cyclists!
Wednesday was our rest day, well rest if you call doing a 3 hour hike with over 1000m of climbing a rest.

We found out about a route to a lake nestled up amongst the peaks. What the brochure failed to mention was that you had to walk up a ski run to get there! It was a good walk but my glutes and quads hurt for the rest of the trip! Most of the group decided to just hang our in Barcelonette which was a lot less strenuous!
Thursday back on the bike for the BIG day. This was going to be the toughest day where we were doing Col de la Bonnette (22km, 8% average) and then Col de la Couillolle (16km 9% average). I had an axe to grind on Couillolle after severely blowing to pieces when I rode up it last Easter. I have never bonked as spectacularly as I did on that climb and it is a miracle that my relationship with the Dutchman survived as it was very clearly his fault that I was even there in the first place ;) So this time I decided to do Bonnette at a reasonable easy pace and eat eat eat to ensure I was in good shape for Couillolle.

I set out ahead of the group with one other rider who had the same strategy and took it easy and stopped to enjoy the view back out across the valley. Bonnette featured in the 2008 Tour de France so the road was in good shape. It is also the highest paved road in Europe at a nose bleeding 2700m. I was wearing everything I had by the time we got to the top and dug out even more from the van to descend in. We stopped for lunch before heading off on a long valley descent to the bottom of Couillolle and Pete from our group took this video of us flying along doing between 55 and 65km hour being pulled along by Big O. Totally exhilarating and absolutely terrifying on some of those narrow bike paths!

Friday was a long day but didn’t feel as tough as some of the other days as the vertical was spread out across several smaller climbs. My least favorite was Mt Vial which was 7km of hell. It was so tough and made tougher by the fact the road is only used by the guy manning the TV antenna at the top so it is in dreadful shape with gravel and lots of pot holes. It was worth it when you got to the top and had an incredible uninterrupted 360 degree view out across the Alps and back towards Nice where you could see the sea. Spectacular. It was a 133km and 2200m day and I think we were all happy to make it back to Nice.

Saturday the group headed out to Col de la Madone which the Americans loved after realising where the Trek Madone gets it’s name from! I was very busy being horizontal on the beach so couldn’t do the ride ;) October is my month of rest and I will be taking full advantage of that by taking a trip to California. More on that later!

Happy training.
Cx

More Photos

This month, our Wiggle Triathlete Carolyn Hewett has been featured in the Nov/Dec edition of Triathlete’s World.

The feature tells Carolyn’s remarkable story on how she recovered from a life threatening bout of Viral Meningitis to becoming a sponsored triathlete. Read the full story on page 22 of the Nov/Dec Edition of Triathlete’s World on sale now!

Next up is Matthew Page Sponsored Pro MTB’er who is shown in October’s edition of Singletrack Mountain bike magazine.

Matthew takes Staff Writer, Reviews Editor and Web Reporter Benji Haworth on a guided tour of the sunny Brecon Beacons.

You can read the full route guide on Page 116 of Octobers edition of Singletrack Magazine on sale now.

Catch up on their blog updates below.

Carolyn Hewett

Matthew Page

Photos

14

The Season is Over!

Well, the season is over for me in a dramatic end! Instead of doing the 4th and final 220 Evening Race at Dorney Lake last Wednesday I spent the evening in ER being poked and prodded after I came off the Focus Izalco Chrono. Lucky for the Focus I cushioned it’s fall so it only has a few minor scratches. My body on the other hand is missing some skin, has some impressive bruises and I still can’t straighten my left arm.

As always I catch the train to Slough from Paddington to get to the race and then cycle out to the lake. I was on my way out there and it was cold and wet and I was debating with myself if I should just turn around and go home rather than risking it as I have a real aversion to riding in the rain. I decided to ride to the race start and check it out, I also had some friends racing so wanted to say hi to them.

I was 500m from the start of the race and was crossing onto the path that goes along the side of the lake and slipped. The shock of hitting the ground was quickly replaced with a sickening feeling of what I may have done to the Focus. I ignored the gaping hole in my rain jacket and the blood running down my arm to pick up the Focus and give it a check over. After a few minor adjustments to the brakes I got back on and rode to the start. By the time I got there the adrenaline had started wearing off and I was starting to feel pretty rough.

I went and saw the St John’s Ambulance guys who cleaned me up and sent me off to hospital with a suspected fractured elbow. What followed was an interesting evening watching people from all walks of life come in and out of the ER, some with their entire extended families in tow. A sore arm as you can imagine is pretty low on the priority list in ER and knowing this I wasn’t getting cranky about having to wait, unlike some other patients who would pounce on the Dr’s as they came out to get the next patient. After X-rays, examinations and 3 hours of my life I won’t get back, The Dutchman and I were sent home with my arm in a sling and a warning to be more careful in future.

This is the first time since I was ill with viral meningitis and post viral chronic fatigue (PVCF) that I haven’t been able to do any sort of exercise for more than a week. For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you would know that I was told 4 years ago I would never lead a normal life again and that I would have to learn to live with PVCF and accept things like not being physically able to walk up a flight of stairs, walk more than 100m without sitting down to rest or structuring my day in such a way to accommodate the 12 to 14 hours of sleep I needed. If nothing else, this injury serves as a good reminder what a gift it is to not only have the will, but also the physical ability to be active and to do the simple things like go for a run when you feel like it.

My arm is getting better with each passing day and I am hoping to go for a short run by the end of the week and be back on my bike by the beginning of next week. I am leaving on Friday to spend a week in the Alps with 10 others cycling so I will either be able to do it, or I will be getting to know the van driver a lot better!

Happy training and be careful!

Cx

14

Dextro Energy Race.

Oh boy. What a race. I was out doing the Dextro race in Hyde Park last weekend. The race started out so well! I rode to the start in 10 mins, something I am rarely able to do from my W1 address. It was a very civilised 11:45am start, which meant I was going to have some friends scattered around the course to cheer me on. Transition was tight, but well marshaled and organised so whilst you didn’t have much space for racking, there was plenty of room between each row. I headed to the swim start in good time to meet The Dutchman (my beloved) and Terry (my coach). I was NOT thinking about how gross the water was going to be and was very pleased to have my Aqua Sphere Icon wetsuit to protect me even though the wetsuit was optional.

It was a mixed male and female start which always makes for more jostling and I was a bit surprised when the race started and not positioned correctly. So off we went to hit the first turn point about 50m in which was chaotic. As everyone is still sprinting at that point it was all rough and tumble going around the corner and I got a huge kick in the stomach which meant I sucked in loads of Serpentine water. Gross. Gross. Gross. I was coughing and spluttering so much that this lovely guy, number 2081 if I remember correctly and who I now know is Dr Robert Adam, stopped and asked me if I was OK. Very nice of him, Thank you Robert.

After doing some breastroke and suppressing the panic of not being able to breathe, I untangled myself and got going again. By this stage I had managed to miss the front pack (again! A constant in recent races!) but worked hard to get into a smaller pack to recover and then surge forward to the next group. This seemed to work and I came out of the water with a new PB of 25:52.

I did a speedy transition and onto the bike for my 2nd PB of the day with a 1:08:14 bike split. Very happy and I felt so great! The bike was really windy in places but that’s where I excel on the Focus Izalco Chrono by keeping my head still wearing my Briko aero helmet and just powering away. I had some friends around the course and it is always so motivating to hear your name called out. It was a 6 lap bike course and counting laps is not my forte, especially after hearing that even the pro men had managed to mess it up the day before. I had little sticky tags on my bike to help count and had the Dutchman there to help! I know it sounds silly but when you are pushing so hard physically, you really can forget where you are!

Back into T2 and I was feeling a whole new Olympic distance PB coming on. All I needed to do was run 39 min for 10km and as it was a flat course I was more than a little bit confident. The run was 5 laps and I powered through the first 2 laps in my Pearl Izumi Streak’s, I was running well but had this awful pain, almost like a bad stitch in my side that was stopping me from really putting some speed in. (I still don’t know what caused it, maybe the kick I got in the swim, but it is still sore 3 days later when I write this). I was in 2nd place by this stage and had 3-4 mins on the 3rd place girl. Lap number 3 the pain really started to intensify and I had to run and walk. Halfway round lap 3 I was doing more walk than run and now crying like a big baby. I was hurting and had just been over taken! That just made me cry more! I spent the rest of the run hunched over clutching my side and sobbing with tears streaming down my face. It was so frustrating that I couldn’t run and also now couldn’t stop crying! After 2 PB’s I had a PW (personal worst) run time of 51.30.

I managed to finish the race and ended up in 9th place. I crossed the line to hear my friend Sam who was commentating say how I was the recent London Tri age group winner and what a great result in Hyde Park today. He was a little surprised when he saw I was crying and helped me get it in perspective that it is just a race and not really worth getting upset about. I can see that now, and I can laugh about the princess performance, but at the time it was like the world was ending. Once the pain had started subsiding I started watching others cross the line who were so happy to have finished in under 2:30 and it made me realise how ungracious I was being, but it also made me aware of how much pressure I put myself under to perform. The race didn’t go perfectly, but it wasn’t my A race of the season and I certainly would have had reason to be upset if this had happened at the London Tri.

Terry sent me a nice note the day after the race asking me to take 5 positives from the race and put a line under it. So my 5 positives are as follows:

• New swim PB by over 1:30, even after being kicked!
• New bike PB in windy conditions
• Great transition times, I am getting faster and faster with each race
• Nutrition strategy is working and I have stopped over eating during the race
• I can say I have taken part in a race on the 2012 Olympic course!

So, I have 2 races left for the season. The Nottingham relays on Saturday which is just for fun and then the 4th and final 220 evening race at Dorney Lake where I will be looking to win and make it 4 out of 4 wins for the series. I have a couple of busy weeks coming up as I am off to France for 4 days over the long weekend and then back again the following week for 10 days cycling through the Alps. What a wonderful way to end the season.

Happy training.
Cx

13

My London Triathlon Victory!

I am so pleased to report that after 6 months of hard work, I achieved my season goal of winning my age group at the London Triathlon. To say that I am over the moon is a complete understatement! Everything I have done this year has all been in preparation for The London Triathlon and it paid off…big time. I won the 30 – 34 age group with a 6 minute margin, posted a new Olympic distance PB (2:17:15) and a new run PB (37:22). I am still grinning from ear to ear :)

A month ago Paul from Wiggle gave me the shock of my life when he forwarded me an email conversation he had been having with the organisers of the London tri where he had ‘guaranteed me to win’ my age group. I went very pale at that point and my work colleagues had to pick me up off the floor. Training took on a whole new intensity after reading that email. I became so focused on the goal that everything else was put aside until post 3 August. Thankfully I have very patient friends and The Dutchman (my beloved) was behind me 100%.

If you have been reading previous posts you will know how rubbish I am at transition. This year alone I have managed to get stuck in my Aqua Sphere Ironman Icon wetsuit (no bodyglide), couldn’t clip my shoes in (was wearing cleat covers) and just when I thought I was getting a little bit better the best I could do was enter T2 with one cycling shoe still on and the other on the bike. I did however win all of those races despite the problems but I knew I couldn’t take that chance at London.

Transition training took on a life of its own. As I was getting up so early to practise for race day as my race started at 6:30am, and I was tapering I had all this extra time in the mornings before work. I used the time to plan, practise and practise again. I mastered getting my wetsuit off whilst running, I minimalised what I would need in my transition area and I practised putting it all on and off in the correct order. I taught myself after watching some useful YouTube videos how to run with my bike, throw my leg over and get my shoes on my feet on the move. After I had the hang of that, I moved onto dismounting the bike without reducing too much speed and hit the ground running. After almost crashing countless times in Regents Park whilst trying to master these new skills and no doubt providing amusement for the morning joggers, I got better and better.

On race day I was up at 3:45 and I was in serious race mode having spent the Saturday preparing all my gear as well as visualising each aspect of the race. I was feeling relaxed but really up for it. I couldn’t wait to start! If you worked out over the past 6 months the average I train is around 14 hours a week, I had spent 336 hours preparing for a race that I was hoping was going to take me around 2:20 to complete. Driving to the event through Shoreditch was entertaining as people were being turfed out of clubs. I was pretty sure we would be having completely different Sunday’s!

My wave was the first on Sunday morning which was great as that allowed me to see who was ahead of me coming out of the swim when I would start trying to claw my way back to the front. I am never going to be the best swimmer so the plan is always to go out hard, catch a good draft and hang on. I did exactly that and had a good swim without any issues, except for the brownish green sludgy coating on my face when I came out of the water (gross!). I flew into transition and was off running quick as a flash having overtaken at least 10 people in T1 and a few more with my new slick run and jump move to get onto the Focus Izalco Chrono.

I pulled in the girls who were just ahead of me in the swim and was in 10th place at the first turnaround. By the 2nd turnaround I was in 6th and was loving every minute of the race. I have only recently learnt that I can hammer the bike leg and I am still able to run well. A few years of Ironman it was ingrained into me that if it hurt you were going too hard and to slow down immediately. I now trust my legs that I can ride and then run well so I was putting it to the test. The bike course went all the way up to Westminster and it was really cool being on the closed road in such a great part of town. Unfortunately I wasn’t paying too much attention to the scenery! Turning into T2 I had moved into 3rd place and was looking forward to running.

Another speedy transition and I was running hard. I caught the 2nd place girl at the 3km mark and blew past her as she has really slowed down. I timed how far ahead the lead girl was and was very disappointed to learn she had 3 mins on me. By the 2nd loop I had managed to pull her in a meagre 5 seconds after upping my pace! I took a good look at her as we went past each other and she had very youthful looks. I was hoping that meant she was in a younger age group and not just a very lucky 30-something woman with great skin!

I never did manage to catch her and I ran just over 37 minutes trying to pull her in. My previous best on that course (9.4km) was 41 minutes. It certainly showed as I pretty much collapsed over the line and stumbled towards a vacant chair huffing and puffing. A nice lady from St Johns Ambulance were hovering over me thinking there was something seriously wrong with me as I couldn’t even speak to tell her I was OK. There is something very satisfying knowing that you really did give it everything.

Each wave has a mix of age groups so you never know where you are in the rankings until the results are published. I was jumping around my flat Sunday night I was so excited when I opened the results to see my name in that glorious number 1 spot. If that wasn’t great enough, I went into AOL HQ Monday morning to be greeted with a round of applause. My wonderful work mates knew how important this race was to me and had been checking the results. I could definitely get used to the applause greeting every morning ;)

So this week I am taking it easy and having a recovery week. I’m heading out to Nice Friday to catch some rays and do some training in preparation for the upcoming Nottingham Relays. Terry (my coach) also trains another athlete who has done a couple of the same races as me this year and he has always managed to beat me home by anywhere between 1 to 3 minutes. After some very technical calculations we have agreed that he gets a 40 second handicap for the Nottingham Relays. The loser gets to consume many tequila shots. Given I am tipsy after ½ pint these days; it has given me great incentive to kick butt out there!

Happy training!
Cx