What a season it has been so far with extremely mixed emotions that come from dedicating your time outside of family and working life to a sport that you love. Consisting of no fewer than “Seven” Duathlons, varying in distance to get me started again after the winter break, I was confident in my ability following a real successful winter. Hitting all of my targets and testing myself in the opening race of the season for me which you read about in my previous post.
I was faced with a month break following Anglian Water Standard, to fine tune a few things, remaining confident in my own ability and being happy with where I was at.
It was back down to Bedford for an ETU European Duathlon Championships Sprint qualifier. An event I initially thought was draft legal, hence my last post, but was thankful I’d checked leading up to race day. I was still mixing up using the road bike and the time trial bike on the turbo anyway as there would be a couple of opportunities to race on the road bike draft legal, including the World Champs in Pontevedra.
The plan was to keep as close as I could to some of the regular faces as I could on the first 5km run. I’d been running well and knew that if I had a good effort it would springboard me to work hard on the bike. Bret Wilks had also been training hard and was the first person I’d recognised on race day. As we all lined up start time approached and before we knew it we were bearing down on the first corner which on this course is around 200m away. Settling into our stride after this corner, selection was becoming apparent. Bret was just ahead and I planned to stay as close to his heels as I could. The first 5km was quick out of the blocks and I came in 17mins after the gun.
Scared this was the start of something bad, rest and ice was the treatment for the next 24-48 hours. And Stockton was looking in doubt.
With it being local, I still travelled to Stockton with the road bike, and racked the bike. Getting ready to warm up I left my bags in transition and headed out for a gentle jog. I knew immediately that this was not going to happen. I had two weeks until the worlds in Pontevedra and I found my self making the decision to wheel my bike out of transition as others were still making final adjustments to their own. Apart from the set back, this was also my opportunity to qualify for the 2020 world sprint duathlon in Almere. I wasn’t going to race Darley Moor in September but I entered immediately for a final chance as I’d prefer to race the sprint over the standard which I’d already qualified for.
The decision had been made that I wouldn’t run at all until race day and substitute my run sessions for the next 2 weeks with bike and swim sessions to keep my fitness high.
This was a major set back but it was all paid for and I had to make the start line.
The next week, another local,sprint duathlon was going to be my final thrash before flying out midweek. Thankfully, the way I was feeling, the organisers cancelled the event due to lack of entries. It really couldn’t have happened at a better time for me because I wasn’t faced with any decisions I didn’t want to make.
The pain had gone by now and I was walking around freely. No discomfort at all on flat or walking up stairs during loaded plantar flexion of my foot. My confidence was returning. And I could see light at the end of the tunnel to be on the start line. I still didn’t risk it, I didn’t deviate from the plan to leave my running until race day.
Thankfully, the team mechanic was brilliant. Although a job I could do myself, it was made even more stress free by a few little tweaks and a complete shifting overhaul taking less than 5 minutes.
Back to the hotel and a quick change before collecting Charlotte to walk the short distance to team briefing taking in the route to transition and race start so she knew for tomorrow morning. The briefing was a great opportunity to catch up with friends new and old. The same procedure ensued, updating us of any course changes and specific rules and requirements before race day. Through explanations of race route especially the run route was a welcome sight, as this seemed complicated through the winding streets of the old town.
We were off at 08:03 but as we had already racked I aimed to,arrive at transition for 06:45. I set my alarm for six and on waking I was as nervous as hell. I was about to embark on my first run since that trial at Stockton duathlon warm up a few weeks ago when I was resigned to the fact that I would not be racing that day. A gentle walk developed into a cautious jog and run. I was growing in confidence as there seemed to be no lasting effects. I’d done the right thing to rest it. Could this be my day? I knew that we had a strong team in our age group, and I know that on my day I can compete with these fellas. I’ve beaten them before and they have beaten me. Only little over a month a go I scalped Bret, but in Ibiza both he and Mark scalped me. Owain was racing great and his run was strong. I was confident now though. These relationships are great, we are friends off the course (even stronger now) but rivals on it and that is what is great about this sport.
All plans have their flaws though. Today that plan wasn’t to be, shortly after setting off I did t feel as though I was going to be flying. The gazelles at the front were off. I was going backwards and I was struggling. I thought that I’d settle in and was giving it time until everything went seriously wrong and the pain started to return to my calf as I was driving off the right foot. I was beaten but I wasn’t out as I was determined that this event wasn’t going to end in a DNF like the mechanical that put me out of the triathlon worlds in London a few years ago. I limped back to transition and was able to get to the bike. I knew any slight pain on the pedal stroke on the bike would probably be masked by the adrenaline and this would buy me time to free it up before the final run.
Thank you to everyone for their support especially to Charlotte the kids and my family for all their wishes. To all my club mates and friends out there and especially to Lisa for patching me up once again.
Thanks to Erdinger, to RaceSkin, to Fast Forward wheels, to Elivar sports nutrition and to AquaSphere for all the support you provide me for without whom this would be far more difficult than it already is.
But most of all thank you once again to Elliot. Mate your advice and support has once again got me to the start line in what would have been my fittest state to date. We hit all the numbers and I owe you more success. We will get fit again and we will be there. We have more chances and we are more focused than ever. The most important part of my team. Time to get a beer?