Daz Does Tri

Where to begin with this one!! Pre-race form has been great. Absolutely no worries with fitness, no niggles or illness, travelled well, slept well and felt relaxed. Paguera itself turned out to be a lovely place. Bike reccy of 2nd half of the course the day before the race gave the impression of a fast and fair course. Obviously I didn't see the long drag up to Es Capdella but I'd heard it was surprisingly comfortable. Probably only pre-race mistake I made was not running any of the run course, however it was advertised as pancake flat #hmmmm To be fair I never run the course but it would have been handy here on reflection as would a set of last years results! Race day

Last week had potential to go massively wobbly on the training front. A beer up on Wednesday evening, swimming club trials for oldest son on Thursday, all day at Lego Land Saturday and son's 7th birthday party on Sunday along with the usual noise and I must admit I was worried the last big week was going to be interrupted. Monday Rest Day. Well needed after 22 days solid training and only the 2nd zero carded for September (a record I think)! Actually felt good after this, starting to feel a big leggy with things picking up and sleep / nutrition has not been great and something to start addressing!

Good solid weeks training last week. Only missed 1 easy bike but did do an extra run. Pretty happy with the week but very tired. Sessions were not exactly as planned, Tuesday's run was better although still an easy session. Thursday tempo was only 5.59 avge for 10k but I held back with Dan for 3 (6.01, 6.03, 6.13) and did the other 3 (5.53, 5.51, 5.53) and felt good but still not like I could go loads quicker. Very tired bike Wednesday (19.4 avge and struggled into the wind) and a slow and heavy legged long run Saturday.

Last couple of weeks I finally feel like I've managed to hit a bit of form and it's no coincidence that I've had a nice routine going. The whole year I've always had something going on that's shifted things around. I've never settled into a routine and pretty much trained on the fly. I'm not looking for Iron hours but just getting the right sessions in at the right time seems to be working well. I'm pretty sure I'll be sticking to this over the winter as it seems top be working.

Triathlon, like being sick takes planning. Just like needing to make a doctors appointment 2 weeks before you actually get ill, the world of triathlon moves fast and you have to book races 12 months in advance. So, this year for me has been a strange one. I still don't know what my best/favorite distance is. Mid-season I was still considering anything from sprint to Iron Man as focus for 2015! Sprint - Did 1, got DQ'd in it. Lessons learned the hard way however this is probably going to be my best distance in terms of being competitive. Didn't enjoy it as much as I'd have liked - felt very panicky and rushed and never really got into a rythm until the run spread out. Best swim % all year to be fair.

Having time to reflect I can only blame myself Spoiler alert - it doesn't end well!! I'll preamble this blog with a note that I know it's going to sound like some kind of elaborate justification for getting DQ'd for drafting. How saintly I am am how I would never dream of drafting! I'm honestly not, as much as I can say I didn't intend to draft, I WAS drafting and I did deserve to get DQ'd. So it was the Big Cow sprint triathlon ETU qualifier at Milton Keynes yesterday. If anything at the very least it's a mouthful! This was to be my first attempt at sprint distance. After a slightly disappointing standard last week I was hoping this would make up for it. To be fair I fancied sprint could actually suit me more than standard as I tend to push harder on shorter distances in running. I also wanted to weigh up my options for next season over what distance to focus on so good chance to see if I can Q for a champs with no roll down spots.

I train about 12 hours a week for tri. My typical week is made up of roughly 6 hours cycling, 4 hours running and 2 hours swimming. I'm guessing that's fairly typical for a triathlete of my standard. I don't do any core/circuits and stuff and spend probably 6 hours on top of that travelling and farting about. That's quite an investment in time for someone with 3 kids who runs their own business. I certainly don't take myself seriously, however I'm deadly serious about my results. I want to be a competor not a completor . Don't take me the wrong way, I believe we have our goals and getting to the finish is as important for some as winning is for others. Trust me, I've run for Great Britain (proper track and field, not age grouping) and I've been 2 stone over weight trying to get round a marathon after 10 years of doing nothing but eat and drink. I just want to be the best me I can which in my mind is finishing high up the field (overall). So ...