European Championships - Athlone
Came out of this race disappointed. I can't say it felt like a bad race, and in reality it wasn't, but again I had such a poor bike leg that it put me completely out of contention.
Swim - 20.46, 9th
Bike - 58.26, 8th
Run - 38.39, 4th
Overall - 2.02.14, 6th in age
Whilst my split was one place higher in the bike than it was on the swim, I simply can't live with losing 3 minutes on rivals on the bike.
July training
Unfortunately after coming out of Athlone knowing I had work to do, July was always the month in the race calendar where my training was going to die a death. 7 days on holiday, 6 days away on business and another 4 without bike or water meant that I would be swimming against the tide just a little.
London Triathlon 8/8/10
I put this race into the year as I knew I couldn't race the Nationals the following week, and wanted to see where I was at after the rough July mentioned above. Last year I'd finished 7th overall in 1.58 after having a pretty good race.
Swim - 21.26
I was determined to find some fast feet. Unfortunately I picked the wrong feet and thought I'd missed the boat - saw a couple of guys further ahead but despite a big surge for 150 metres or so I couldn't make up the gap. Disappointed. Ended up swimming pretty comfortably in a large pack with what I thought was 4 guys up ahead somewhere. It felt a bit tougher than it should have because of the surges at the start, but the splits afterwards showed I was in the lead pack.
Bike - 1.00.14
After a mammoth transition I was out onto the bike. Once more it didn't feel slow, but in reality it was slow. I cycled the whole thing with Mark Yeoman behind (in a non drafting manner though). We passed maybe 5 guys and got told there were only 2 more in front - pleasing.
Unfortunately coming into T2 the cones were out in a silly manner and I ended up taking the wrong way - had to skid to a halt, climb off the bike, down a wall and remount while going uphill. Many many seconds lost. See pic.
Run - 40.43
I didn't enjoy the run at all. It felt tough because I'd put a lot into the bike, but with it being reduced from a 2 lap to a 4 lap the congestion was a nightmare - the course was very tight and there were times when there was simply no way past groups of runners and you'd need to wait until they were through certain sections. There'd been 4 bikes in transition when I came in so I knew I was actually 5th. Ended up being overtaken by 1 guy but coming past 2 more, so ended up in 4th.
Overall - 2.07.22
Was supremely disappointed with the time, but subsequently found that everyone was around 7-8 mins down on previous due to the run being much longer, and much more congested. The only leg I really lost out on compared to last year was the bike.
I've got a couple of little races coming through August/start of September, but it's all about Budapest. At the start of the year I had big hopes for this race - I still don't feel I'm too far off but need to have a quality month in the bank...
