8 Days to go to the Long Course World Champs!

Well, its been a while (sorry about that), but seeing as we're 8 days out from the Triathlon Long Course Champs in Perth on the 25th October, i thought a quick blog was in order.

Quick update since last blog. After the Big Cowman Half Ironman attention turned to qualifying for the Olympic Distance Worlds on the Gold Coast in September. The new bike turned up just in time and after a few trial runs i was feeling pretty comfortable and ready to go! Training had been going well and my runs gradually getting quicker! Swimming in the UK is always a pain! There's only two 50m pools in the whole of Wales and the one in Cardiff was only opened in January 2008. This was built to replace the 50m Empire Pool (used in the 1958 Commonwealth Games) which was demolished in 1998 to make way for the Millennium Stadium. Anyway, enough about all that, but what we're left with is a great facility that tends to be reduced to 25m at very inconvenient periods of the day!

And so, to the Bedford Classic WCQ. Got a nasty chest cold about a week or so before the race, which didn't really deter me. However, the race was a disaster. An awful swim (where breathing was really difficult) to an even worst ride (flat tire) resulted in my first ever DNF. Very gutted at the time, cursed my luck most of the way home and vowed to come back stronger the following week. I was now stuck with a trip to Scotland on the following weekend to compete in the Strathclyde Classic and hopefully snatch a place. British Triathlon allocates 4 places per AG from each of the 3 qualifiers, with the remainder being made up of pre qualifiers or fastest losers. With all the main contenders having qualified and the race being in Scotland i was quietly confident! Well, the chest went down hill and repeated visits to the doc resulted in a referral to the chest specialist. I soldiered on and actually started to drive the 6.5hrs to Scotland only to feel pretty rough, come to my senses and turn back. I was pretty disappointed... the dream was over. Or was it?

While browsing the British Tri website i came across the Long Course Champs in Perth. Seeing as i had a return flight and was hoping to qualify for the Gold Coast, this may be worth a shot. No qualifying races, just a submission of previous race experience and results. Well, my Long Course experience isn't particularly flattering. It started in December 07 with the Canberra Half IM, where i competed in Speedos and used the change tent to but on my bike shorts and bike top. Oh dear, how far we have come, the good old days before i owned a tri suit and wet suit. I must have looked a right Welsh tool! There was then the Long Course Champs at Huskisson in Jan 08 and Forster in Oct 08, but neither were flattering so i chose not to include them. That left the Big Cowman result and the Half Aquathon result for what that was worth. I planned to do a few more Long Course races throughout the summer so included them as potential qualifiers. Well, i was pretty stoked when i was informed that the Big Cowman result was to be good enough after discussions with the decision makers. As proud as i am to be representing my country, GBR isn't taking the maximum number of athletes available in my age group and i was accepted on one average race! I don't tell people this though!! Lets just say "loads" applied but they just weren't good enough!! :)

And so, after a solid showing at the Little Woody (Half IM Distance), which was a very tough course (97km ride for starters), and another reasonable effort at the Half IM Aquathon, where i finally set a new Half Marathon PB, i returned to Oz and the familiar setting of the fire trails and hills of the Blue Mtns (although not hills or mountains compared to the efforts exerted by Sleep on the 'slopes' at the LDMR World Champs) on 17th September to resume training with the familiar faces at BMMC. Its been a lonely 9 months of training by myself but then (and i quote Sleep) 'its lonely being a champion' so i just lived with it! Was a great reintroduction to the trails of the BM with a Sun Valley run the afternoon of my return with Dr Phil and Donger, who kindly collected me from the airport after 27hrs in the air!!! Was pleased to have backed up with a run straight away! Since then, been getting some good runs with Dr Phil, Donger and The Animal (good to see him back into, and betting he'll do some pretty good stuff this season, along with Dr Phil who's clearly been training hard and getting the results to prove it, especially on the run - good work boys). Good to see Donger finally arrive with an awesome performance at the Fitzroy Falls Marathon on 10th October finishing 4th. Shame i wasn't there to see it!!

And so, we'll leave it there for now and talk about training and racing up to the LD Worlds in the next blog, which won't take quite as long to arrive than the last one!