Hamburg and European Champs

Last weekend was the latest round in the World Championship Super Series in Hamburg, Germany. The next round is actually tomorrow in London but I won't be on the start line. The event in Hamburg is always a big one in the calendar due in part to the 200,000 plus spectators that line the course each year. The whole event takes place in the middle of the city centre which would be equivalent in of Glasgow swimming in the Clyde and biking and running along the main roads of Buchannan Street and Sauchiehall Street – something that could never take place here in Scotland. So all in all it's a very unique event.

The race itself was pretty successful. I swam well after a bit of carnage round the first boy and left the water in the top 20. The bike leg rather resembles a crit and a big pack quickly formed. This left much of the 40k leg about jockeying for position and reacting to people attacking. So I was where I needed to be going on to the run leg and had a good first 6 or 7k. I began struggling towards the end and lost a few places finally finishing in 29^th.

Performance wise it's the best this season but I still think there's more to come. Thankfully it was good enough to qualify me for European Champs in 4 weeks time. World championships selections take place on Monday.....

Back to Basics

There has been no racing action for the last two weeks and I still have another two weeks until the next one so right now it's been all about getting back to normality training day in, day out trying to move myself on just that little extra bit before the business end of the season begins. Next up is the next leg of the World Championships Series in Hamburg, Germany.

So life has been pretty monotonous as of late with my time only being filled up by training, sleeping and eating. It's a pretty simple lifestyle but an enjoyable one when the training is going well. I did wheel over to the annual Falkirk 10mile time trial championships last Thursday night. It`s a pretty hilly course so a 23.30 was a decent effort by all accounts for my attempt. I have never done a proper time trial before and it hurt.... a lot. I was hurting after two miles, was in more pain at five miles, started losing the rhythm at mile 7 and the last mile was just hell. Roll on the next attempt....