All wired up!

Well the x-country season has been and gone and I haven't been able to do a single race. First it was shin splints and then palpitations during high intensity exercise which culminated in me having to endure a 5hr ablation last Wednesday. Put it this way, being a bit squeamish I had to draw on all my reserves of mental toughness to handle the procedure which is done under local anesthetic. It involved running wires into my heart and triggering the palpitations and then damaging the extra electrical pathway in my heart to prevent it happening again. It so happened that it was adrenaline that triggered my palpitations which meant I was put on a drip of the stuff throughout the procedure - leaving me a little drained! I'm off training for a week and then will be easing back in to it. Not your ideal pre-season prep, but long term considering the ablation was as successful as it could have been I should be able to crack on with some more high intensity work that I haven't been able to do for some time now. Big thanks to the fantastic team at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital. Hill reps here I come!

Wild winds

Blustery winds made yesterday's ride with VC Norwich a tough workout! Because of the flat and open countryside there was no escape from the buffeting. Now that its nearly December Im starting to really get stuck in to the winter training phase. However due to shin splints the run training has been a bit minimal and I havent been able to compete on the x-country circuit apart from the regional college x-c champs which Im pleased to say I won, apparently by a 400m margin!

Swim training is going well (at last), there is now a small group of us triathletes in the squad which means we sometimes get our own lane and much needed longer sets - sprinting is not for me! I am proud to say I passed the swim test to allow me to train as lifeguard, which required me to swim 50m in under 60secs!

Alex

Luxembourg ETU junior cup

Raced my first international competition at the European junior cup in Echternach, Luxembourg, which was certainly a great experience. It was a non-wetsuit lake swim, technical 5 lap bike course around the lake and a two lap out and back run. I finished 10th which was disappointing, let down by a poor swim. I paid the price of not making the main pack out of the swim. However it is encouraging to see that if my swim was just 30secs quicker my race would be completely different.

I was a bit apprehensive about the waist deep dive start but surprisingly it went very well for me and I managed to stay at the front for about 100m or so. I hung on to the back of the pack until we reached the last buoy when I just lost touch with the group, I then lost 20secs in the last 200m of the swim. As a result I was on my own for the first lap of the bike with a lot of work to do until I caught 1 other rider and then another 2 at the end of the second lap. I tried to get them to work with me to make up some time on the lead pack who were working well together ahead but I ended up doing most of the work on the front. Hope they didn't mind me shouting shouting at them in English to work harder! Having towed them round I was NOT going to be pipped on the run, so pulled away from those 3 almost instantly on the run and managed to overtake one more but was eluded by the main pack.

All in all the experience was fantastic and I know what I need to work on. Its great to see British juniors performing so well in the European scene. Next up is British Junior Aquathlon champs at Hyde Park - no room for a slow swim there!

Roll on summer, time to clock up some serious mileage!

Majorca training camp

Just back from a fab week of training with Steve Lumley and a great bunch of athletes in Majorca. Clocked up about 225miles on the bike including a great chaingang session and hill reps on the Lluc climb. The highlight of the week was climbing Sa Colabra, a gruelling 10km of climbing with some spectacular hairpin bends. The descent was terrifying and unfortunatley 3 of the welsh guys crashed. They had been pushing speeds of 40mph into the hairpin bends and Iestyn crashed over the barrier damaging his hand. There was some very nasty road rash but I'm sure they'll be back in action soon. Loved the 7am sea swims followed by a mega munch up from the breakfast buffet - I could get used to this! I'm yet to meet a triathlete who doesn't love their food!

British Elite Duathlon champs

At last the British triathlon series kicked off with the British elite duathlon champs at Prestwold hall, Laughbrough today. This was my first experience of racing in the junior age group and we raced together with the senior women. It was great to be able to measure my performance with the likes of Non Stanford and Abbie Thorrington. It was a 5km run, 20km bike and a 2.5km run. I was pleased to finish 4th junior just 12secs behind 3rd place, 10th overall.
My first run was too slow but I was prepared for some serious work on the bike and eventually caught the main chase group in time to battle it out on the run. I need to work on my running but was excited to see that I had the 2nd fastes bike split out of all the females.
It was great to get a good result after a lousy xc season and some embarrassing galas but plenty of work to do.

Bring on the tri season!

Mud and guts

Now the weather's better its been great to clock up a good few miles on the road. The VC Norwich 50mile reliability ride provided a good workout and great to see so many people back on the road. People expect cycling in Norfolk to be easy but the winds you get in this flat landscape make it quite a work out. When battling the winds I sneakily made use of 2 big team mates, Murray and Simon for an effective wind break! Thanks guys.
Enjoyed another gruelling x-country race at Parliament hill last weekend for the Southern counties x-c champs. The course starts at the foot of the hill and doesnt get any easier (or flatter) throughout the 5k. Its a really muddy course so there's a lot of slips and falls. After the first 50m your spikes are so clogged up with mud, they make no difference. I started off fairly steady and was pretty near the back at the top of the first hill but just focused on technique and relentlessly picking people off. The last 200m were a tough fight with a very close bunch, I slipped on the mud and 6 girls flashed by and I didnt have the energy left to react. I came in 33rd which was my best performance after a disappointing start to the x-c season. My team, CONAC won the U17girls over all.
Unfortunately I got ill soon afterwards which meant not only could I not enjoy Hampstead Heath's tasty cafe's but I also had to miss out on going to the Anglian schools x-c champs.
Cant wait to get my new Orbea Opal bike out on the road, it such a beauty! Im off to a bike maintenance course to learn how to look after it properly.

The season so far

Well its taken me a while to get warmed up this season but at last I delivered a hint of the kind of performance I've been looking for at the Lakeside triathlon. This was my first attempt at a sprint distance triathlon and I placed 1st female and 9th overall. Although I won both Fritton and Waveney triathlons earlier this season, and placed 4th at the National Duathlon champs, Lakeside was the first time I really attacked it properly on the bike.
Blenheim had been a bit of a disappointment for me. Despite coming out of the swim in a reasonable position, I failed to make up sufficient gain on the bike to get into the leading pack. After a lap on my own I was caught by the chase group and battled it out on the run only to come in in 6th. However I took a lot of learning away from that race and got out with my bike team - Extreme Sports Therapy- to remind myself of what it feels like to properly work hard and go fast on the bike.
Lakeside was a great result for me because I had some tough competition in fellow HPU race team members Becky Hewitt and Harriet Brettle so the message was clear: I need to attack.
Eton, the European Youth Relay Qualifiers is my next race so there will be a tough line up. There's only one thing to do: attack!