I think most athletes that have been competing at their sport for a number of years feel like they’re struggling to continue to progress. You can measure progression in some areas, you feel like you’re improving, but results often don’t match up. Competition is like that – if we’re all improving and comparing ourselves with each other, how can we really see improvement?
This year, probably for a number of reasons, most notably avoiding injury for a long period of time, my fitness and ability seem to have kicked on to another level at long last. I’m able to get skinny & still train strongly, and my running has become better than ever. My cycling seems to have followed, at least on courses that test your power to weight ratio, and even though I’m swimming less, I’m swimming better. (I still don’t understand swimming). I lost the TTG Gloucester Triathlon in May by only 4 seconds to Richard Wilder (again), but I ran and swam really well. I won the Welsh Triathlon Standard Distance Championships in June with a performance that surprised me.