A couple of weeks ago I raced as an age grouper in the Euro champs in Alanya, Turkey. Since coming back I’ve been busy catching up after taking only a handful of days away from work. I’ve also been mulling over what happened, how I’m performing and what to change.
The venue was pretty good. Warm, hot during the day, with clear Mediterranean to swim in and a fairly flat course. The bike course was pan flat on a poor surface, and the run had a short hill on each of its 4 laps (a good thing). The travelling wasn’t great, but I managed to chill out a bit before racing. It’s a busy time when you’re away racing internationally. There’s a lot to be done with kit, registering, briefings, supporting team mates, watching juniors & elites. It’s great, and it’s a bit like a working triathlon conference. It’s almost all anyone talks about.
Up and away
I’m off to Turkey tomorrow for the European Triathlon AG Championships in Alanya. I’ll be racing in the standard distance event on Friday morning, and I’m looking forward to having a good crack at it. I think my form is coming around, and Friday will be a test of my training over the last x months since breaking my clavicle last year. I think my training has gone well, so with some luck I might be able to squeeze out a good effort and a respectable performance to go with it.
Cosmeston Sprint Triathlon 2013
Nope, not racing this weekend! I took photos this morning at the club’s Cosmeston Sprint Triathlon. A beautiful location, an altered bike course, and a fair bit chillier this year. Have a look at the Flickr set.
Well done all for completing this, especially the fella that almost gave up near shore. Big effort!
Deva Triathlon 2013
Oh dear. They say you learn more from your bad races than from your good ones, so I’ll try to do that here.
The Deva Triathlon up in Chester was a World Age Group Triathlon Championships qualifier, and as we have a home World Champs this year, and a home World Champs on the Olympic triathlon course I expected qualifying to be tough. I don’t think I expected it to be this tough. A lot of very talented, experienced and fast athletes are coming out for this, and I imagine that many are pulling into the sprint and standard distances from other distances too, as these will be the only races in London 2013. So in Deva there was a lot of carbon and a lot of abs. And a lot of it was in my age group. We’re the guys with money and a mid-life crisis; either that or we’re hitting our peak performance years for triathlon. Something like that. There are a number of reasons but the 35-39 age group is a hard nut to crack.