I went for a nice foot and calf massage and did a really good warmup. It was very surreal to see all the good age group women finishing before I even started, at least I knew what I was up against!

I led out the swim of 60 people, a total mixed bag, only about 6 women in the start so it was nice to beat all of the men. Mind you it wasn’t a stand out swim performance I only had the 4 th quickest time as there were plenty of swim specialists out there. I was really happy with my race, had the bike and run well under control. I even bumped into Ali Hollington (former elite UK number 1) on my last lap she was doing a run getting ready for the long course worlds and proceeded to have a conversation with me…Ali I can’t talk in the last km!!! Anyway she won her age group at the Worlds Long course and was the girl who inspired me and she still does…so thanks to Ali!…I ran in strongly so hopefully my running demons will soon be laid to rest but the icing and rehab continues.

And then what a treat to watch the mens race. The showdown of the year between Gomez and the Brownlees. I now know it is possible to run yourself into the ground on Olympic distance it was an amazing race to watch first hand. So I felt by the end of the day that I had been and done the worlds in a day which I had never expected. A very different experience to The London Triathlon… this felt like you were really “doing it in London” for me a very special event to be on the 2012 course…next stop Bedford can’t wait bring it on!!!!!

The bike was sooooo tough. Disc wheels were banned due to horrendous winds which send the transition park into disarray with 1 hr to go to the start as everyone put plan B into action and beggged and borrowed replacement wheels from the sprinters the previous day. I managed to get blown over with my bike before even mounting it out of T1, so another example of me grovelling on the floor to pick up my powertap headset and putting it back on again ( same happened at Grendon) note to self need to work ut why this keeps happening. So it was head down into a raging headwind for 40 mins and then a super fast return leg. The run was the hardest one I have done for a while, perhaps due to the solo effort on the bike and also lack of run training. The foot took a pounding from the twisty, turny, uppy and downy little Athlone streets. Still made it in with a load to spare so it was job done. Quite a business trip, straight back to hotel, packed bikes, ate and ran for the plane not waiting for the prize giving. Hopefully I will get my medal someday hoping someone picked it up, but yet to get my mits on it…so pleased, no photos so here is one at London hyde park to fill the gap!

Just playing some catchup after last weekend’s 1.30 am alarm and 4.30 am start for the Henley Regatta 2.1km swim.   

To my delight I won the swim for the 2nd year in a row and it is such a BUZZ to do this in this location which is such an iconic sporty place.

This year the women went off in a seperate start after the open men which meant a totally different ball game. Last year it was pretty tough in the first 400m I seem to remember and I had some feet for quite alot of the way, so I probably went out quite hard. This year after I  lost the feet of the top 3 men in non wetsuits who were the real class of the overall race e.g. Greg Whyte etc it was nose to grind stone and all myown work. I really enjoyed it, felt really on it and didn’t die at the end like I felt I did last year. This does set me up nicely for this weekends race and fills me with some great confidence for a good outing. Thrilled to be on the podium with Richard Stannard and win some Henley cups with significant history that have been dedicated to the race. V proud!

With Richard "The Fish" Stannard and me minus my gills today!

I love doing Windsor. Finished 12th/15 in the elite wave . It’s the only race I dare go out as elite as it is where I learnt the trade so to speak and it is a real buzz to compete at the end when the town is brimming with the age groupers relaxing after their race. I was a bit tired I think going into this one and probably a bit stuck in my 1/2IM pacing so was a bit off on the swim, not too much, but enough not to creep into the next bunch up which would have been nice. But anyway the poor girlies that ended up riding with me who I have never met before had to put up with my shouts of probably v annoying encouragement for 1hr 10 mins to try and catch up the 4 some in front.

 To no avail, looks like Jill Parker broke away from her group after drift road and put a good deal of time into our little chasing group,  but we just about managed to minimise the damage on the other 3. It was fun but I felt like an old girl telling the others to to keep on working. So it was good fun! Didn’t run that fast at all but held it pretty solid and just relieved to string at 10km onto my recent half marathon. The foot takes time to recover from each outing but it is making me happy to be competing again so I’ll just have to manage the season through and hope next year can be a fully fledged season. These elite girls, I mean the real ones, are quite unbelievable, how they go off the start like they do so so so fast is quite surreal to me, it is a privilege quite frankly to line up against them. Whilst I thank my mum and dad for my genes somewhere along the line they aren’t anywhere close to matching the capabilities of these girls, truely amazing. Having done alot of lab work I understand I just don’t have the engine required even if I trained day and night 24/7  to make any major major changes, but  am doing my best to work on my weaknesses. Jaqui slack who I was close to 2 years ago is transformed this season, a stunning 14 mins ahead and also massive performances from Jill Parker who has made such major inroads into her performances of late. Looking forward to watching Dambuster this weekend as Mike is competing. The AG Female race has got some superb girls on the line up…Lou Collins the latest hottest Agrouper, Lucy Bowen, Ruth Hutton back to take the world on at 45-49 yrs, Becky Glover, Karen Axeldottir I will be watching and will really enjoy seeing it all pan out….Good luck all x

here are some piccies of the day out in windsor

Emma Dews and I in our element with Macca!

 Had a fantastic trip to IM 70.3 Austria. Won my age group (40-44yrs) by 10 mins and was 4th overall in 4.46.45. Emma dews was a stunning winner as ever and biked her legs off in the big ring up all the climbs. I missed the finish chute by accident so should have gone 1 minute quicker and got 3rd, really annoyed with myself but it didn’t affect getting a Clearwater 70.3 world championships slot which is in the bank now to think about. Beyond my wildest dreams to have run like I did, still managing the injury and having basically not done any running for months, so happy less pain going on, patience ! 

Had a really nice day to day, a slight departure to the norm and went and did a 10 mile TT run by my long time friend and former Age group Gold Medallist Gill Pears, and husband Rob Pears. Gill is first on the text at the Worlds every year to find out whether I got the elusive Gold, she nailed it the first time lucky her!… and has gone on to have 2 gorgeous kids who I am sure will follow in her and Robs footsteps and be totally awesome athletes

The biggest test for me today was to take over from Gill on Tea duties and keep an eye on the kids. However she didn’t have to worry about the children, not a peep out of them, but in a frenzy of tea making I managed the flood the kitchen with boling water as I lost total control of the tea urn!
My ride was certainly better, posting a PB of 23.24 and coming 3rd, beaten by Chrissy radon absolutley flying with her new cycling ambitions for 2012. Mike and I took a dip in the Somerton Keynes lake, around 13 degrees I reckon, trying to get ready for the shock of race 1 in a few weeks.
Tuesday I am in for an other scan and potential cortisone injection, suspected mortons neuroma, I can’t run for more than 20 mins without my forefoot breaking down. Its tight for this season and 14 months of injury issues. Hopefully this is finally the answer.

Escape from the UK winter at last. Filipe, Me, Harvey and Mike, Rob as ever taking the piccies

Day one Friday 26th

I made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t write in my blog until my plantar faciitis had sorted itself out! Well I might be waiting along time so thought I would start again. I am making good progress with my rehab but it is slow and sometimes still painful. It is now just over a year since I picked up the problem and I have had great support in getting it fixed, just more patience required!

Very excited as we are back in Lanzarote again for a 2 week training camp. We have decided to change things this year and invited with Filipe and Rob to out apartment [Athleteservice.com/\Oxford Brookes HPC] so it is great to have a personalised coach and programme, and not to be running around on a huge training group so we can control exactly what we do.

So far landed 2 swims, an easy acclimatisation last night and this morning a set of 500m’s with lactate measurements to really assess the steady state for doing an IM type distance. Learnt loads already from what is a huge amount of video analysis [Filipe kept very busy with taking our lactates and lots of analysis of our swim strokes.]Today the wind was up for our bike ride and unusually we had to ride into a stiff head wind to get out of the camp so the usual run out to Yaiza took 1hr 40 rather than 1 hr 05 but we had thrown in some L3 intervals and were out and back re grouping quite a bit.

Not feeling too trashed despite a longish day of training as worked a very specific zones and not reacting to attacks on the hills like you end up doing on the larger camp rides on Day 1… got that buzz and feeling invigorated. Looking forward to a bit of a run tomorrow [hopefully] as I did over do it a bit on my foot before leaving the UK. If I make it round the 3km lagoon that will be the first time in 3 trips because of various injuries, I’ll be smiling when I manage this!!!

Day 2 Saturday 27th

Today did an easy swim with loads of video both under and over the water which is picking up all of the faults and things to improve, at the time of writing we are still to analyse the days findings as we were on a time schedule to get out on the bikes. Mainly for me its getting the catch right and finishing off the stroke properly.

Then we all set out with the intention of riding 4.5hrs at varying intensities.
So Rob took off the north into a raging head wind which apparently didn’t let up all day and we set off south, also into a severe wind and decided to head through the middle of the Island rather than going up the infamous Femes climb. We all stayed together until a coke stop after 2.5hrs and then all took varying routes home. I stayed out for my 4.5hrs plan and felt really good today and amazed I was prepared to ride on my own after severe wheel wobbling down Fire Mountain today.

Finished the day with 4km of running and video to see if my run foot/ posture is going in the right direction. Great to have all the kit out here to check out what is going on in the field rather in the lab or at the podiatrists. All good and now ready to hit the pasta night at the all you can eat buffet v hungry so now off….!

Day 3 Sunday 28th
Another great days training with much less wind. The key session of the day was a IM / 70.3 pace ride with lactates being taken every 35 minutes or so. Rob ripped up the tarmac and did more loops than the rest of us. The session has helped us define our powers for riding the long distance events we have planned this year – steady state lactate tolerance, super useful for getting the right pacing. Things were spiced up a bit as one of the other camps was using the same loop as us so we had some people to pull on which was all good for the motivation. I got a bit carried away on the last one and my lactate went shooting up but not too bad, lots of great info to use for the rest of the camp.

We then had a quick 15mins kip on the sunbeds, food and a proper sleep for 20 mins before hitting the pool for a 2.5 km pyramid set, all again primed around our IM pace. The pool was hectic today with loads of squads in so we vowed to revert back to morning swims to get the best out of the pool. At 10pm, Mike was shocked to learn we have another 2.5km timed swim in the morning… I’m not, I’m used to Filipes schedules now so bring it on I say! Tonight all the boys are flat out asleep after a hard day at the office, so I’m off now to bed and will be asleep in seconds…

Day 4 Monday 1st March

Today was an easier day but we still managed to cram in all three sports and infact the swim was pretty tough as the reps were long (1km’s) and on the pace clock – never is an outdoor Lanzarote swim easy. Anyway Filipe broke up the reps with lots of technique guidance picking up on new things and the post breakfast video review showed us all making progress on finishing our strokes off better. I certainly feel I am moving better in the water and hitting times I would not have expected possible before. Nothing super fast but going for longer at higher paces would be how I would put it.

Had a nice steady bike ride with entertainment from Filipe & Rob ripping off the riding styles of the pros and lots of bike swapping, motor pacing and generally looking a the view, a relaxation after being held to the wattage of the last few rides. Tomorrow brings another test so I was making the most of it. Ran 6km on the track trying to keep to 5m/km pace so as not to aggravate the foot further, but ran faster so looking after it tonight with ice, massage, stretching the works…one day I will be paid back I hope!
Rob whose running is going well did a lactate test like the bike one we did yesterday and has perfected his steady state lactate threshold for the IM south Africa, the world of sports science is an amazing one so amazing to learn that an error of 10 secs/km can make all the difference!

Pizza place crammed tonight in the village with lots of Triathlete and CLS punters including Jodie Swallow. Lots of good people out here it seems this year including Helen Tucker obviously escaping the awful UK winter. Tomorrow is going to be hard, but after a slightly more restful day really looking forward to it.

Day 5 2nd March

A rude awakening this morning as the rain hit us around 06.45 so I dived out of bed to rescue our kit drying outside and got soaked. Of course I looked to be thanked all day long for this and everyone soon got pretty bored of it. Did a really challenging swim set this morning 10 x 200m with 100m easy in between again on set paces, with everyone at 15 secs intervals so everyone working really hard. Very noticeable that with coach on the side with the stopwatch at the ready that you really go for those extra vital seconds which is so motivating. Todays breakfast session of post session analysis showed loads of improvement all round, lots of improved stoke rates per minute so smiles all round. Observed Jodie Swallow doing her treadmill session and swim set back to back, good to see the PROs hard at it and see some of the technique in action that we have been learning.

So after a hearty breakfast and an indoor kip and email check we were off into a howling wind to do out Z4 interval session which we had been building up to. On the stretch of road we had chosen the wind was such a cross wind that it really was going to be impossible to do a good and worthwhile session so we abandoned and decided to do a 5km run instead. Finally I did my run around the lagoon and felt pretty OK afterwards.
A quiet evening in with some home cooked Pasta and general chit chat and off to bed early before another big swim and hopefully the chance to do our interval set we had planned tomorrow if the wind dies down we’ll see.

Day 6 3rd March
Today we started with an ironman distance swim 3.8km. Rob turned up at poolside with his new 2XU suit in a suit carrier no less, so we knew we were in for it! I had much to my surprise led all the swims so far this week, but one look at Rob in his bullet suit and I easily stood aside! So he set off and we all let 15 secs gaps. I thought he’d gone out really hard and would blow so I just waited until I thought he would come back to me! But that never happened, I was gradually taking some time out of mike and I could see that Rob had already caught him so I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was snapped up!

I managed to sit in when the eventual catch came and for a few lengths sat in the airpmuch pocket and then moved to sitting on his feet. Mike waited at the end of a length to sit on the train and we swam pretty much together for 30 or so lengths until Rob smelt the finish and upped his game again. All very pleased with our swims especially bullet man.

In the afternoon we all did different things, Mike was paced through a track session by Filipe to introduce some interval sessions to his run programme and Harvey and I headed out for a gentle spin with a few efforts. Drama struck in Robs 2.5hr pm run as Filipe who was pacing him, carrying cameras and garmins took an unfortunate tumble and had to had for home for another very liberal coating in germolene the second of our camp after I had hit sand earlier in the week. So Harvey headed off to feed Rob but couldn’t find him but luckily he appeared after 3 hrs on the road a little bit lost on the off road trails.

So our last super in the village was a bit like the walking wounded but with an amazing 25-30 training hours, all highly specific and measured all in the bag and feeling fresh to hit the schedule in week 2 as left by Filipe. As we waved him off this morning, a bit of a “low” after such close coaching and amazing tips this week, but we were soon off riding into the sun to hit another bike interval session ready to report back every last detail as usual! – A fantastic week totally invigorated and not half dead wondering how I will get through next week thanks to Filipe all round.