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!

Heaven in Girona

What a week! The HPU training camp in Girona, Spain was my idea of heaven. I clocked up 425km of cycling in the Pyrenees with some fantastic climbs and terrifying descents. A bit different to Norfolk. We took on the Rocacorba climb, Oli stormed it up in an awsome 38.02mins and we all beat Lawrence Dallaglio's time (sorry Lawrence). The hotel was great with a 25m pool that provided a scenic post training ice bath.
All in all the perfect pre - season warm up.
Alex

VC Norwich 50mile reliability ride

Set off on my first reliability ride and it turned out to be quite an experience thanks to some dramatic and rather unexpected snow. Having been slightly nervous about the ride I went with the middle group (which Im quite glad of because it sounds like the fast group really hammered it). The pace was fairly steady and I felt comfortable. It seemed like a reasonably dry morning until we got to about half way when it really started to snow. We ended up cycling through inches of fresh snow with very little visibility. We had to stop and agreed a rapid change of plan to call it a day at garden centre about 10miles up the main road. By this stage the roads were covered with thick snow and with no tracks to cycle in it was dangerous cycling conditions. When I was offered a lift a few miles from the garden centre I couldnt have said yes quicker! We reached the garden centre sodden and literally frozen with teeth chattering and had to summon rescue lifts back home. I think even the toughest of us would have needed a lavender bath after that! It was a shame we had to cut it short but I certainly gained a few bike handling skills from the ride.

We have blast off!

First race of the winter! Norfolk decided to use one of the Ryston x-country races as the qualifier for the inter counties x-country. The original race was cancelled due to the snow and ice. Ryston is a beautiful place to run with hilly woods and miles of x-c tracks. This was my first ever 5km race and having done a tough day with the HPU the day before, I wasnt confident I'd be at my best. The race started with the only 400m of flat ground quickly turning into an undulating course. To my suprise I felt great and after about 3km I had unknowingly past the leading U17 girl. I finished strong and later found out that I had won my age group beating 4 people that I had never beaten before and was also 2nd female overall! Its great to see the technique work starting to pay off.


Good luck for the winter
Alex

Stepping it up for the new year

Now its 2010 it really feels like the race season is looming fast. Only 10 weeks til the races start! It's time now to up the volume and put techniques into practise. I'm glad all the snow has finally melted. As much as I love the snow (especialy if it involves school closures) it has made training tricky. I only managed one good road ride when I went out with VC Norwich to see Norfolk turning into a winter wonderland. Only 3 of us turned up and it didnt suprise me that 2 out of 3 were triathletes. The other triathlete is a fighter pilot, fresh back from a close shave in Afghanistan! We managed a nice 50mile ride without any difficulty.

Ive been invited to join a bike team. The Extreme sports therapy team (who turned in an awsome performance at the Norwich 100) are starting up a female team. I wont be able to put in the cycling hours that they do but it will be good to get some fast group rides. I just hope I'll be able to keep up with them - those guys are fast!

Back to the University of Essex for another HPU training day with coach Dave Parry. Icy road conditions meant we were restricted to the turbos for a challenging churn up. We made good use of the university's extensive grounds in our running session. I went home on a high with that feeling you get from hard work . Its great to spend time with the team and to train and talk tri with fellow passionate triathletes.

Have a great 2010 - go for it!
Alex