20th and a Crash

Well that's another race season over with and as always there were some highs (9^th at Euro Champs) and there were lows. Sadly there was no spectacular end of my season as I finished 20^th at World Champs which was disappointed and followed it up with crashing out of National Champs as my front tyre blew half way round a corner. On the plus side it meant my season end rest began 40minutes sooner than anticipated. The negative side was spending the next several days limping around.

So after a week of lazing around the house doing as little as possible reflecting on what I have learnt and coming up with master plans on how I am going to get better it's now time to get back on with the job. There's one thing I know for sure: Its dam difficult to get to the top.

European Championships

Porto was the venue for the 23 and under European Championships this year which I travelled out to last weekend as part of the Great Britain squad. It was my 2^nd major championships and after the disappointment out in Australia last year I was looking to finally post a good result at championship level.

It was a tough race from start to finish with a rough sea swim followed by 8 laps of 5k on the bike which had 3 significant climbs on each lap along with two u-turns to split things up. By the end of the bike leg an elite group of 15 of us had escaped from the main bunch and held a 2minute lead going into the run so it was up to us to battle it out for the top 10. Sadly my legs weren't a match to some of the front runners but I was able to hold on to 9^th.

Not the medal I ultimately wanted but a top 10 result is still a big step forward for me. I still have one year left though to make it happen.

So next up is the World 23 and under champs on the 11^th in Budapest where another top10 will be the first priority. If I achieve that then who knows where I will end up.....

The London Triathlon

It was my third attempt at the London Triathlon which is known as the World's biggest triathlon with 13,000 participants including an elite field of 70. Last year I finished 8^th and was hoping to do similar if not better this year. I was pretty tired going into the race with no real taper for the two big races of the year European and World Champs coming up soon. However when you're on the start line you give it everything.

The swim was pretty carnage with too big a field being squeezed in too small a starting line. My first 300 was pretty terrible and got worse when I got a punch to the face which has left me with a bruised nose. I made my way through the field on the rest of the swim to leave 6^th.

The bike leg started pretty aggressively but 10ks into the bike section some of the top guys started staring at each other and refused to work which meant we swelled up to a pack of 30. After some gentle spinning around I managed to get off the front with 5ks to go and get a 20second gap on the peloton going onto the run.

I never really had the run legs. It started badly and there was only a slight improvement throughout the run. I managed to get round in 9^th which kept me just inside the money places. A good workout.

Next up is Europeans in 3 weeks and Worlds 2 weeks after that.

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....

2 Races, 2 Weeks, 2 Continents

The big races of the season have begun with a leg of the World Super Series first in Madrid and then a World Cup Event in Iowa the following week. It was my first attempt at backing up two big races and sadly I was found out in the 2^nd race.

Madrid went well though with a really good swim and bike leg followed by a bit of a struggle on the run in the 35degree heat- my Scottish Nationality showed. It was by far the toughest race I have ever been involved in with constant attacks on the 1500 metre hill climb which we went up 8 times. I ended up 29^th which wasn` t as good as I had hoped but a decent day in the office none the less.

So after Madrid it was straight out to Iowa. Jet lagged and tired I arrived on the Wednesday but despite not racing on the Sunday I never really felt recovered from Madrid and started the race tired. I struggled round though in 45^th place- not a proud moment.

The main excitement in the USA happened on the way home where a delayed flight meant I didn't make my connection from New York so ended up having to stay a day there with no luggage and only being on standbye for the 10pm flight the next day. I spent a day exploring the `big apple` though before going back to the airport to pray that someone wouldn't show up for the flight. Thankfully I made it on and have never felt so relieved to be going home.

ETU Cup Strathclyde

Things I learned from the weekend: Stepping on to the podium in elite racing is fun, Strathclyde park can reach 27 degrees in May, Strathclyde park is also deceptively hilly, There is no such thing as an easy bike leg with French boys in the pack, The first turn buoy in the swim is always going to be violent especially when it comes after only 90 seconds.

Strathclyde Park hosted its first ever ITU race last weekend and I managed to get on the podium in 2^nd spot. As the venue for the Commonwealth Games it was an ideal chance to get use to racing on the course despite the weather being very un-Scottish. There was a good foreign contingent there with two former World Junior Champions in the line up and some of the best swimmers in the sport also present. This combined with an ex pro cyclist and a Commonwealth Games runner made the race very interesting and hard from the start as the good swimmers tried to get away.

My swim form seems to be coming back to me and I managed to make the lead bunch but we never really made much of an impact on the main peloton behind us. We still had 20 seconds coming into T2 and I was able to make my way up to 2^nd by the end despite a bit of struggle early on in the run where I was back in 5^th.

The race highlights should be broadcast on Channel 4 next weekend with a much better race description than mine. This Thursday I am away to Madrid for the latest leg in the World Championship Series before heading straight out to America for the HyVee World Cup. A lot of cramped plane journeys lie ahead.