I had got the best results of my career and performed on a higher level than ever before. Understandably 2018 started much slower than I would have liked as I struggled to get back to anywhere near the level I had reached.
The frustration was then compounded when Southam Triathlon came around in April and I failed to even make the top 10! Not the greatest title defence ever. This was far from great when it came only 6 days before the Clumber Park duathlon which had qualification spots for the 2019 European championships on offer.
My running still caused some discomfort and seemed to be minutes off the kind of pace that I wanted to be at. However the mass start and adrenaline seemed to overcome this and I produced a first run that had me in 14th place overall. Even better was that I got on the bike feeling strong and determined to try and get a qualification place. It wasn’t until I came back into transition that I appreciated quite how well the race was going, there were only a few bikes already racked despite the fact that I had been in the 2nd wave to start. It got even better as I overtook someone else in transition, it turned out I was actually in 3rd place overall as I left T2. The second run was tough and my lack of any kind of endurance started to show as I dropped down to joint 6th overall by the finish. At this point I was just hoping I had held on for a top 10 finish and maybe top 3 in my age group so I was ecstatic to find out I had finished 6th and won my age group by over 2 minutes.
Since Clumber park I have been able to get back to a normal level of training and as far as speed goes I am now back to where I was pre injury. In the RLSCC time trial championships I am having a very close fight with Matt Dowler for the overall win which is helping me maintain focus on my cycling. I have also started to train with Leamington Cycling and Athletics at the running track which will hopefully allow me to find the little bit of extra speed that I want.
Last week I did my first triathlon since April and was aware going into it that I had been more focused on my running and cycling than I would have liked. It felt like it could be a return to normal and my swim would provide too big a deficit to make up, especially since it was a 500m swim. The swim actually went ok and I was able to get across the timing mat in under 10 minutes, which while still being a couple of minutes behind the fastest swimmers was a time I was pretty happy with. The bike leg was not as smooth as I would have liked with a few issues, the biggest of which was looking my outer chain ring. The chain slipped onto the inner ring and refused to move back, this was only really an issue on the flat out downhill at the end of the course although I still managed to hit 50mph before being held up in traffic coming back into the town. Once on the run I managed to get into my stride almost instantly and felt comfortable despite setting a strong pace that I was happy with. Coming into the finish area I was actually worried that I hadn’t pushed hard enough as I knew my cycle hadn’t been as fast as I wanted and the run was feeling good, but it turned out I had done enough as I claimed my second ever triathlon win. What was better is that it appears the track sessions I have been doing as my winning margin was made up on the run.
My focus is now firmly on Ibiza. From a training point of view I am hoping that the extra couple of months will mean that I am even faster by the time Ibiza comes round. There will also be a few triathlons in the lead up to Ibiza to keep my transitions sharp as well as overall race fitness.
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