Race Review - Scottish Aquathlon Championships / Knockburn Aquathlon

So a couple of housekeeping things to get out of the way first. 

Firstly, I have given up on fighting for the correct spelling of Aquathon. The mysterious 'l' that has crept into the usage is completely un-necessary, and to my mind it is also very ugly to read and pronounce.

Secondly, I am going to blatantly steal some blog formatting from one of the race organisers with this: 

Medal: Yes (actually 2 but we will get to that!)

And thirdly, here is a link to the results so you can skip the story bit if you want.

I arrived in plenty of time and got registered early. I spent a while chatting to people and then went for a short warm up run and did a decent bit of stretching. I was struggling to get switched on to race mode and wondered if I was going to have the same struggle as Tuesday to get moving. I got my wetsuit on and headed down to the pre-race briefing and started to feel more like an actual race. After the briefing as everyone was heading in to the water to acclimatise I was hanging around at the back. I got in to the water almost last and did an easy paddle up to the line but the cold water was working to get me in gear. 

The starter was quite far back and difficult to hear so she shouted 10 seconds to go, and I started my watch. Then she counted down from 5 with the crowd joining in for 4, 3, and by the time they got to 2 everyone on my left was already moving and half the people on my right were either moving or thinking about it. I didn't actually hear the hooter as by the time the countdown said 1 there was so much water thrashing around me that I admit I went as well. Straight into a pair of kicking feet, so I have already given up 2 meters just by not false-starting as much as everyone else.

This was by far the roughest open water swim I have been in. I am going to suggest that the smaller field actually made it worse as no-one took a sensible view and backed off the start line. Everyone charged on full-gas to the first buoy and a lot of the people around me were struggling with sighting and swimming in straight lines. Lots of punching, kicking and swerving also meant I was spending a lot of time in an almost water-polo position as I tried to keep straight for the buoy and ignore the massed bodies. Even with that I still got dunked and got a mouthful of water before the first marker. 

Around the first buoy and things started to string out a little bit. That let me get a slightly cleaner swim out to the next buoy and the island, but even during this section I had a couple of incidents with people squeezing onto my line. Around the island and everyone around me followed a line out towards the bank. There was an extra buoy added since Wednesday which changed the line slightly but I still knew there was distance to be gained by taking a more aggressive straight line. This line also gave me a good view of the swimmers I had been with and I was definitely moving up on them, even though they were all getting a draft effect from each other. 

At the next buoy I started to move to the right to take a tight line around the only right hand section on the course but found a lot of people were already on that line and I settled in at the side of a pack to get some draft effect while still trying to hold a straight line. I did take a couple of glances to the water exit and no-one was out yet. That was pretty pleasing as I did wonder how far ahead they might be.

By this point things were spaced out sensibly and I managed to get a nicely paced person in front to follow round the tight buoy at the bottom and back to the loch exit. This section always seems really short from outside the loch but then takes forever to swim. It seems like a dozen strokes should bring you out but it must be 3 or 4 times that far. I got to the mats and was out quite cleanly and up the matting. I took off my hats and goggles and lapped my watch (12:09 including the 10secs pre-start so I make that 11:59 for 750m!). Struggled with grip tab on my wet suit but got it at the second attempt and got my suit down to my waist as I went in to transition. 

Because I had decided on socks I decided to go for a seated transition. I shoved the suit to my knees and then sat down to kick it off. I apologised to the transition marshall as I splashed her but she said it was fine. I was clean and tidy with my socks and shoes and rolled up into my run, round the cones that had been added to neutralise transition and out on to the run. I spotted 2 of the other Veterans still changing their shoes and figured that I was probably in fourth place. (I am going to stick with this assumption in the description from here but as you will see it turns out I was a place out).

I started the run at a pretty sharp pace and within the first 100m I had passed one of my regular rivals. Just ahead of him there was a guy who looked to be in my age-group and I focussed on trying to catch up to him, with a view to getting on the podium. As I slowly closed the gap on him we were passing lots of specialist swimmers who were struggling with the off-road running course. I knew I was working close to my limit to catch him but I was closing the gap. 

As we headed into the wooded section a Veteran named MacDowall (helpfully printed on his GB vest) was coming out of the woods in the other direction, about a quarter mile ahead. I knew he was in my age-group and was well away and I thought there was one other Vet in the gap behind him but in front of the pair of us. (I chatted to him a bit afterwards and it turns out he is a pure Aquathlon specialist and doesn't even have a bike). 

I finally passed my target and tried to stretch away during the roughest part through the trees. I could hear him tight on my heels as we came through to the end of the first lap and as I took a step off the road back onto a grass section I went over my ankle. The ouch noise he made was almost as loud as my own. I took a couple of slightly ginger steps but there was no damage done and I was able to get back up to pace as he pulled level. We ran side-by-side for about quarter of a mile and had a quick chat. He thought we were fighting over fourth place but I still thought it was over third. 

My ankle wasn't really bothering me but the little voice in the back of my head was. I had been lucky not to hurt it and I was meant to be taking this race safely and keeping myself uninjured for next week. Also I had planned not to fight for a place if I was off the podium and while I thought I was fighting for third, he thought 4th and that was enough for me to decide that safety was key. I backed off a tiny bit. I was still running hard with my Heart rate in the 165-170 range but not quite at the 175-180 I had been for the first lap. That was enough for him to get about a 10 second lead. After half a mile at the slightly lower pace I realised he wasn't actually getting any further away and I was feeling a lot more comfortable. I tried to pick the pace up for the section through the woods again but he had kept a decent finish and was picking up himself so the gap grew to 20 seconds. 

I was happy enough with my race and pleased to have come fourth in my first Age Group Championship race. My first sub-12 750m swim. A 20-minute 5k on a tough course. A really good transition. I was happy with my day out. I grabbed my goody bag and finisher's medal, chatted to some of the other competitors and went to get changed before coming back to chat with some of the officials and get a quick massage. During that chat the timekeeper told me that I should hang around for the presentation. I thought maybe someone had been disqualified or penalised and I had been upgraded, but it turns out that the missing athlete we both assumed was somewhere between MacDowall and the pair of us simply didn't exist. I had come out of the water in fourth, passed someone in transition and had been fighting for second on the run. So finishing third Veteran.  

So my career in the Age-group ranks continues with a podium every time I have started a race so far. That is likely to change next weekend but it was good while it lasted. And the giant medals that TriathlonScotland give out are pretty impressive. On the left is the decent sized finisher medal and on the right is my bronze medal. 

Post race note:

Could I have made up the 21 seconds and had second place? Honestly, I am going to go with no. While the gap seems small and I was definitely keeping a bit in the tank on the second lap of the run, I don't think it was enough to close the gap. Even if it had been enough, he also thought we were racing for the podium spot and he had a lot of fans near the finish to cheer him home if I had managed to get a bit closer and turn it into a sprint finish. 

I could sit here and convince myself that taking a wider start position on the swim might have cleaned a few seconds off my swim, skipping the socks might have saved a few seconds, not going over my ankle I might have kept fighting him longer and so on, but I could equally have missed out on getting the adrenaline surge from being dunked in the swim, lost much more time from a blister in the shoes or even injured myself properly with another twist or trip. My place is a fair reflection of how much I was willing to race for it.

Training Plan - Week 23 - May 30 to June 5

My main planned race for the year has arrived. Saturday's Strathclyde Park triathlon and Euro Champs Age-group qualifier is my target race for this season. Just taking part is my target for the year. Getting somewhere near the qualifying standards is my stretch target. 

That means a really lazy looking taper week. A potential exception for Tuesday night where there is another 10-mile TT. I am going to make a decision at the half way point (or sooner if the weather is not great) as to whether I keep pushing against the clock to try and chase my 26-minute target or just cruise it in as a training session in TT position. 

And then a bonus race on Sunday. Not one I really care about but I want to see if racing in a draft-legal event is different to non-drafting. And to see how I compare against the athletes at that level. 


Monday - Yoga session.
Very easy run?
TPT Swim session.

Tuesday - Yoga session.
Deeside TT 10-mile.
Light weights session.

Wednesday - Haircut and leg shaving.
East jog.
Open water swim.
Core session.
Yoga session.

Thursday - Rest day
Yoga session.
Massage.

Friday - Travel to Glasgow.
Yoga session.
Stretching and rollering.
Very easy course recce.

Saturday - Strathclyde Park Sprint - Euro Champs Qualifiers (non-drafting).

Sunday - Strathclyde Park Sprint - World Champs Qualifiers (draft legal).


Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 39.0 miles. Run 13.9 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Training Review - Week 22 - May 23 to 29

Starting a lazy week as I crammed a yoga session, an easy run, a stretching session,  bought a new mtb, had a wedding planning meeting, trimmed all the hedges, set-up my new mtb, test rode new mtb, and then went to club swimming. A complete fail on the laziness plan but lots of useful things done and a couple of jobs crossed off the, still extensive, DIY list.

Tuesday I had another wedding planning meeting, or three, during the day. Then I took a nap instead of a quick yoga session before going to the Time Trial Evening League for a 15-mile TT. That was the first of many bad choices. Wrong clothing, wrong glasses, wrong gear at the start. Then once the race started things didn't improve. I didn't get away well and couldn't find any sort of mental drive to put any effort in. I had a few little niggles and tight spots that came and went and my heart rate never got above 155 for the entire race and I ended 42 seconds slower than last year despite the better conditions. 

This performance could have given me a confidence wobble but the fact that I was not working anywhere near my limit and the main reason was mental rather than physical means I can write it off as a bad day without even having to justify the slower time. I had in my plan that if it wasn't going well I would bail out and treat it as a TT training ride. While I didn't consciously make that choice till 40 minutes in I think my subconscious had decided within the first mile. 

Biggest lesson learned was that I am too deep into my training phase. So my taper starts much more seriously now. Wednesday's run and swim has become an easy jog and a bit of a paddle. Thursday and Friday become as light as possible with Saturday becoming a complete rest day. And next week gets cut right down as well. 

Wednesday I had arranged to meet people at Knockburn to run and swim but I scaled down my plan to just a short easy run and then a couple of steady swim laps.  

Thursday I did a very easy ride in the morning just to get my 30-min GymPact in. Then spent the rest of the day painting the spare room and working on my new mtb. I stripped and serviced the rear axle but somehow ended up with a leftover spacer when I had reassembled it. Unsurprisingly this resulted in the rebuilt wheel not running quite as smoothly as I had hoped.

Friday I had an early start to go to a business breakfast meeting and then a trip to the hospital to finally see a Urologist about my kidney stone. I then completely failed to take a rest day again. I planned an easy 30-minute cycle and instead ended up doing 45 minutes at about the same heart rate as Tuesday's TT, then I went for a short brick run as well. I then stripped and rebuilt my mtb rear axle again, and put all the parts in it this time. And just to ensure my day was a total failure on the rest front I did my short weights session as well. 

Saturday I finally got into proper tapering mode and had a rest day. I did some yoga and stretching before breakfast and then put my feet up for the rest of the day. The biggest interruption to that was a trip to John Lewis to do some wedding shopping. 

Sunday's Knockburn Aquathlon will get a post to itself. After I got home from that I still felt quite fresh and it was a beautiful sunny day so I took my bike out for an easy loop around Dyce. Mostly to tick off my bike miles for the week but also to clear my legs out a little.

This has been the first time this year that I have missed my run target for the week. I am not really bothered about that though. It is a tight miss at about 1 mile short and I am so far ahead of my running for the year that this target has become a bit if a red herring.  



Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 45.5 miles. Run 13.9 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Monday - Yoga session 15 mins.
Easy run 3.4 miles in 32 mins.
Stretching and rollering session. 
New mob test ride 1.1 miles in 8 mins. 
Swim with TPT 1,900m in 49 mins.

Tuesday - DTCC TT 15-mile 45:12.
Warm up / down 4.2 miles in 16 mins.

Wednesday - Easy run 3.6 miles in 35 mins.
OW Swim 1,500m in 30 mins.

Thursday - Very easy ride 6.5 miles in 34 mins. 

Friday - Steady ride 11.9 miles in 44 mins.
Brick run 1.4 miles in 13 mins. 
Light weights session. 

Saturday - Rest Day
Yoga session.
Stretching and rollering session.

Sunday - Warm up jog 1.4 miles in 14 mins.
Stretching session.
Scottish Aquathlon Championships - Knockburn.
 - Swim 750 m in 12:08.
 - Run 3.0 miles in 20:25.
Easy ride 10 miles in 38 mins.

Actuals - Swim 2.6 miles (4,150 m). Bike 48.7 miles. Run 12.7 miles. 0 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 stretching/rollering session. 15 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 45.8  (40.3)  [46.3],
B 922.3  (956.5)  [1195.6],
R 372.8  (322.0)  [363.8].

Race Preview - Knockburn Aquathlon

A new race on the calendar for this year, and it comes straight in as a Scottish Championship event. 

I hadn't planned to do this race. I object to the £45 entry fee for a 35 minute race. It also doesn't fit well in my taper. I should be on a couple of light days this weekend with a view to a full taper next week. However, it is the same weekend that most of the countries top triathletes are in Lisbon for the European Champs, and it local to me, but awkward for central belt athletes, which has significantly cut down the quality of the field. With all this in mind my race strategy is based on only racing as long as I am in podium contention. If (or more likely when) I am clearly out of podium contention I will ease off. That might be difficult to judge depending on how the waves are split. I know a couple of the competitors in my race but there are several from the central belt that I won't recognise.

I am also going to take a precaution against blisters from going straight into a run with wet feet. One of the few benefits of cycling during triathlons is that my feet don't move in my cycling shoes and cycling time lets my feet dry off and massively reduces the risk of blisters from running without socks. Removing that drying time and normally I would risk the pain, but I am too close to my big race to take that risk so I will stop to put socks on in transition. 

So no time targets for this race, as it has never been held before, so nothing to compare to. No real position targets at all, because I don't know the opposition well enough. It would be nice to get on the podium, but I don't care if I miss it. The only target that really jumps out is not to get hurt or injured before next week. 

Training Plan - Week 22 - May 23 to 29

My last real training week before my big race. And with that in mind it was meant to be tailored to be slightly lighter than the last couple of months. And instead I have stuffed two races into it. Mostly single-session days though, the exceptions being for swimming days.  

Tuesday's TT I am again going to start a little bit more seriously than the first couple. This week I have a reasonable time to chase from the same course in 2015 of 44:22. It would be a good sign going in to next week if I can take a chunk of time off that. However, if I am off the time at halfway I will back off and turn it into a TT position session. Although I was 27:30 out and 16:30 back last year due to the wind and the hill so what I consider my bail-out time at halfway is a bit of a guess. 

The Scottish Aquathlon Champs are at Knockburn on Sunday. I objected to entering them because of the excessive entry fee. £45 for a race that could be done in 30 minutes is a bit ridiculous. However, there were only 4 other Male Veterans entered an hour before the deadline and there was a potential Scottish Champion podium place up for grabs so I decided to pay the price and enter. Again that comes with a bail-out clause as well. If I am not fighting for a place I will ease off, and if I have any problems with my feet blistering (wet running shoes are a big risk) then that is a total stop.

Also a huge amount of wedding planning seems to have appeared in this week. As has a trip to the Urologist to finally talk to a Doctor about my kidney stone after nearly 6 months of scanning and probing. And I have another interview midweek. 

I have updated the run target this week to match the original plan. A month late for the weekly numbers but the cumulatives were correct anyway. At the start of June the cycling and swimming number change slightly as well. 


Monday - Yoga session.
Easy run.
TPT Swim session.

Tuesday - Yoga session.
Deeside TT 15-mile.
Light weights session.

Wednesday - Run reps.
Open water swim.
Yoga session.

Thursday - Core session.
Easy run.
Yoga session.

Friday - Bike reps.
Yoga session.

Saturday - Yoga session.
Stretching session.
Easy ride.

Sunday - Yoga session.
Scottish Champs Knockburn Aquathlon.



Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 45.5 miles. Run 14.0 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Training Review - Week 21 - May 16 to 22

Monday I tried to stick with my plan for an easy lead in to Tuesday's TT. I started with yoga and a core session before taking Dexter out for a very slow recovery jog. Then took my granny out for lunch for her 96th birthday. In the evening I went to TPT swimming which involved and awful lot of kicking, messed up my back and shoulder and generally undid my good plans for racing Tuesday. 

Tuesday I started with my yoga session, then a stretching and rollering session, then a last walk round the park with Dexter before he goes home again. Then I tried to take the rest of the day as lazily as possible. I dropped Dexter back at home on my way to the Time Trial.

The TT itself felt terrible. I started well but by mile 4 I felt like I was struggling and when the rain started at this point I was already cold and feeling a bit fed up. In hindsight the performance actually was pretty good. I was within 2 seconds of my time from last year, despite the colder conditions and the rain. 26:53 this year versus 26:51 last year. I had hoped to go under 26 minutes this year, which is looking like a big step now. I still have two more attempts to come though.

Wednesday I did a light weights session and a bit of stretching in the morning. Then in the evening I went out to Knockburn for running reps and swim sessions. I did my first proper reps run for a while and it showed. I was recovering well between reps but struggling to get up to any real pace during the efforts.

Thursday I just took an easy run loop around Dyce to get some miles in and then completed day 29 of 30 Days of Yoga. Then I filled out my day with another interview and a trip to an Institute of Structural Engineers presentation. 

Friday I took another trip out to Knockburn. Having the whole loch to ourselves meant we could go the traditional way round rather than the new direction. It was significantly colder even than Wednesday night and while I managed two laps I was suffering from the cold and my hands and feet were pretty painful afterwards as they warmed up. In the afternoon I took the TT bike out for half an hour, just to do some reps and spend some training time in my TT position. 

Saturday I went to check out the fantastic new Total Endurance facility (I don't think shop is the right word) at Bucksburn. Fantastic place, well worth a visit. I took an easy jog there and back, tried not to sweat too much on their shiny new toys during the tour, and an easy jog home again. 

Sunday I planned to ride out to meet the Kintore Sunday group, do about 10-15 miles with them and then turn back on my own. The weather was pretty terrible so at the last minute I switched to my winter bike. I met them about 2 miles in to my ride, then burned the next 7 minutes at my 10-mile TT power levels before they dropped me. I then carried on for a solo 20 miles at over 16mph. Setting strava PRs for every section that I haven't done TT reps on was pleasing. I am managing to turn my general fitness into some decent bike speed. Maybe a little late and not quite as much as I would have liked but definitely going in the right direction. 

A good week all round.

Three swims in the week makes it my longest week of the year. Including two good outdoor swims to get used to my new suit. 

Three bike rides to make up my miles this week, all at sensible distances and relatively high speed, all of them with decent  length sections in excess of 220 Watts.

I am now a half marathon ahead of even my stretch running target and over 50 miles ahead of my basic target. That seemed like a lot so I went and had a check and have just realised that my training plan should have cut down to 14 miles per week running from the start of May.





Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 45.5 miles. Run 15.3 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Monday - Yoga session 17 mins. 30 Days of Yoga - Day 27.
Core session.
Recovery jog 2.9 miles in 30 mins. 
Swim with TPT 1,900m in 54 mins. 

Tuesday -  Yoga session 20 mins. 30 Days of Yoga - Day 28.
Stretching and rollering session.
DTCC TT 10-miles in 27:04
Warm up / down 6.4 miles in 27 mins.

Wednesday - Light weights session.
Run reps at Knockburn 4.6 miles in 36 mins.
Swim at Knockburn 0.9 miles in 35 mins.

Thursday - Easy run 4.4 miles in 38 mins.
Yoga session 20 mins. 30 Days of Yoga - Day 29.

Friday - Yoga session 20 mins. 30 Days of Yoga - Day 30.
Swim at Knockburn 1.1 miles in 38 mins.
Bike reps 10.2 miles in 36 mins. 

Saturday - Steady run 5.0 miles in 53 mins (actually 43 mins and a tour of the shop). 

Sunday - Ride 20.1 miles in 1 hour 15 mins. 

Actuals - Swim 3.2 miles (5,200 m). Bike 46.7 miles. Run 16.9 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 stretching/rollering session. 77 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 43.2  (38.4)  [44.1],
B 873.6  (911.0)  [1138.7],
R 360.1  (308.1)  [348.1].

Race Review - North Champs

Another year, another North District Championship. I think it is my 24th, but I can't even remember any more. I can be sure that I won the 400m Hurdles in my first year as an Under-20 and I have either been defending champion for 400m Hurdles or 110m Hurdles (and sometimes both) ever since. 21 years on and still no-one wants to learn to hurdle well enough to take it off me, so I go back to defend it again.

More realistically I also wanted to test my current running form by putting in a fast 5k time. I have been running well this year and my 39:49 10k time from Elgin shows that I am in PB running form.

I decided to take the train through to Inverness rather than drive. This was mainly to try and give me the extra couple of hours of rest rather than driving. At the current phase of my training I am slightly overloaded and even little opportunities like that can make a difference. The train times made for an early start so that I could do my yoga session, and then a couple of miles walk from the station to the track at the other end. By the time I arrived the champs were in full swing and the sun was just starting to warm-up into what would be a scorcher of a day.

First up was the 5,000m. A very small field this year, despite merging the U20's and Women's races with the Senior Men and none of the other racers near the pace I was planning to run at. The next slowest was still planning to run at a pace that should lap me.

The gun went and I settled in behind the group. I knew they were going to go much too fast for me but I planned to try and gauge my pace by letting them ease away. My target pace was to go 3:45-3:50 per km, that would take me through somewhere between 18:45 and 19:10. Staying inside that window would give me room to try and push at the end or drift a little and get somewhere near the 19 minute mark.

Through the 1km mark and the big clock inside the track says 3:32. Hold on, that is 17:40 pace, that can’t be right. I did the maths a few times in my head before I convinced myself. And then I tried not to panic. So I am 15 seconds too fast already, but it doesn’t feel completely ridiculous pace so if I just ease off to my target pace from here then I will have those 15 seconds to play with near the end. So I eased a little bit and went through the next km in about 3:43, still a bit quick but almost sensible and still feeling ok. Garmin was being a bit generous with the distance and was giving me 1,000m for each 980 that I was actually running so I was having to check the watch and calculate for myself as I passed each 1,000m. And just after the 2km mark the race leader passed me. He was an international U20 wearing an LSU track suit and I had already been told he was planning to run low 15 minutes, so I was actually surprised it had taken him so long to catch me, I had expected him over a lap earlier. 

Through the halfway point and my Club President passed me. Again, I expected this as he was on course for mid-16-minutes and if he did a 16:30 he should just about catch me twice for my 19 minutes. And at this point I still don’t really feel that bad. My pace is definitely starting to slide a bit outside the target but I still have plenty of slack, and I am starting to realise that I didn’t taper enough in to this race and the last few weeks are starting to pile on.

Through 3km and I am suddenly well outside 11 minutes. Not only have I given up all the time I had in hand but I am now suffering at 4:00 pace and two more 4 minute kilometers won’t be enough. I need to turn the pace back up to my original target of 3:45’s if I want to get under 19 minutes. But now I have a serious stitch and my legs are paying for the early pace so there is nothing I can do. I tried to push on as the leader came round to lap me again but didn't have anything left.

My Club President passed me for his second time as he went in to his last 100m, and I still have 2 laps to go. Feeling pretty rotten at this point with a growing stitch and empty legs I tried to pick up the pace but just didn't have anything.  

As the bell goes the clock read 18:09, and a cheeky little voice in the back of my head says ‘A 50 second 400m will get you under 19 minutes, you used to be able to do that, do you think you could do it now? Even a 68 second 400m will be a 5k PB, how about that?'. Neither of those was an option and I didn't even notice that an 88 would beat last year's time. I finished in 19:41, 4 seconds outside last year and almost a minute outside what I had hoped for.  

The second place Senior and the accompanying medal I will take. The time and the performance I am not particularly happy with. 

So an hour to recover until the 110m Hurdles, for another attempt at possibly the most ridiculous combination of track events.

I actually felt quite comfortable warming up. I did a few stretches and some very basic drills over a 3ft hurdle with no issues, moved it up to 3’3” and still no problems, then up to 3’6” and I was still over it, on either lead leg. Nothing I will pretend was clean hurdling but clear of them with no obvious damage to anything, no shuffling or stretching to get my distances, and not clipping them with my trail leg. A year since I last touched a hurdle and that is as much as I could hope for. 

The gun went and I burst out of the blocks! Except I didn’t. I took a huge stumble and nearly tripped over my own feet. Apparently, while my muscle memory can cope with hurdles (sort-of) after a year away but the comparatively simple act of getting out of starting blocks has been forgotten. I managed to make it over the first hurdle but from a virtual standing start I had no momentum and I had to take 5 strides just to get to the second hurdle. And I struggled even to get 5 strides to reach for the rest of the race. By hurdle 6 the superstar U20 was two hurdles clear, and that wasn’t just because he had the smaller hurdles to clear, and the other kid sounded like he had clattered one behind me and was struggling.

I managed to clamber over the remaining 4 with increasingly ugly jumps instead of hurdles. Finishing in a pretty shocking 22.89. But as the only Senior to even attempt the Hurdles, I once again retain my title and extend my run to 21 years as North District Champion.

If I do decide to come back next year to defend my title again I may actually have to do some starting and hurdling practice beforehand rather than just turn up on the day and see what happens. And lets face it there is no way I am just going to let go of it after all this time.

Training Plan - Week 21 - May 16 to 22

Three weeks from my big race and there is now very little to gain from additional fitness work. So I am going to try and focus on speed and skills for the next two weeks before taking a sensible taper week.

I am going to take Monday as a recovery day from the weekend and then Tuesday I am going to have a more serious shot at a decent 10-mile time trial. 

Wednesday I am going to see the new X-men movie so my open water swim will have to be slightly earlier. I am going to try and fit in a running reps session before that swim to try and work on my run speed a little.

The second half of the week is more sedate but hopefully with a bike reps session in and some steady sessions.



Monday - Yoga session.
Easy jog with Dexter.
TPT Swim session.

Tuesday - Yoga session.
Deeside TT 10-mile.
Light weights session.

Wednesday - Run reps.
Open water swim.
Yoga session.

Thursday - Core session.
Easy run.
Yoga session.

Friday - Bike reps.
Yoga session.

Saturday - Yoga session.
Stretching session.
Long run.

Sunday - Yoga session.
Long ride.


Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 45.5 miles. Run 15.3 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.