I am back home now after a tough past month of training and racing, but my season is now finished now and I’m really excited to relax and recover after my best ever year.

Since my last blog it all started to slip through my fingers a bit!  I picked up a bit of a niggles in my legs in Lanzarote that I just couldn’t shake off however with lots of physiotherapy and massage plus a heap of exercises in front of the TV I could keep it under control and I could run probably half of what I normally do which for me is no where near the amount I need to do to be at the front.  I could however work hard on my swimming and cycling so I thought it’s possible I can capitalise on this!  I think at one point I was swimming and cycling the best I ever have.

So I hit a German Bundesliga in Grimma, Germany.  I got there in a bit of a state though because I had a day of rest before my travel and my 12hr travel day full of delays. When I got there my leg has seized up and I couldn’t even train again before the race.  In the race I worked to my strengths though and got a 35 second lead to start the run with.  I managed to hold on for 5th which was a decent performance all things considered and my team manager was happy.

Post Bundesliga, I had a mammoth journey to get to Korea for my last phase of preparation ahead of the World Championships Final.  I had to fly from Leipzig-Frankfurt-London-Shanghai-Cheju (Korea) all in one day! pfff! Long day that was but I landed and surprisingly felt decent getting off the plane.  Cheju was beautiful and I had a great time training and hanging out with the Brownlee boys, David Macnamee and our support crew Ben Bright and Emma Deakin.  It was very hot out there and we trained pretty hard so I was able to go into Beijing with some gas!

After our hot weather training camp in Korea, who would have thought that in Beijing we could have 15′C and pouring rain!? It’s the 4th time this year in a World Series that we’ve had horrible weather! By Mid day we heard the worlds TAKE YOUR MARKS and the race got under way.  I felt fantastic in the water exiting right up there in the mix. Onto the bike I could tell that I’d have a good hard ride today, my legs felt great and I spent the whole 40k covering all attempts to break away and controlling the race.  On lap no.3 we got to the top of the climb and I looked over to find we had a break away with 6 of the strongest riders in the sport.  Perfect!  We rode mega hard for the next 5 kilometres but unfortunately someone bought the rest of the field back up to us again and it wasn’t to be! I’m not sure that my run was ever going to be good all things considered.  I was pretty tired running around but I was happy to limit my losses and I finished the World Championships Series in 9th place which I’m really happy with.

So now it’s holiday time!  I’ve been in a routine now without a break for 10 months pumping out somewhere between 32hrs – 26hrs every week so the body is suitably tired!  I’m going to take about 6 weeks off training but knowing me I’ll probably do the occasional session for fun.

I’d just like to thank EVERYONE who has supported me this year, whether you are Michelle Dillon who has turned my career around, my very patient wife Clare who has to deal with my roller coaster mood swings and Sundays where she barely sees me because I’m doing 6 hours of training. My support team, my family and friends, and anyone who follows my journey, especially you poor buggers that have cheered for us for 2hrs this year in a cyclone!

P.S. As I left it so long this is very brief!  If you want to read more please check out my latest Realbuzz blogs here which I write weekly!

]]> http://will-clarke.com/seasons-done-pretty-much/feed/ 0 http://will-clarke.com/london-world-series/ http://will-clarke.com/london-world-series/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:56:49 +0000 Will http://will-clarke.com/?p=989

Just got home from London.  What a fantastic weekend.

14th wasn’t the result I was hoping for but I’m happy with my effort.  I was 3rd best Brit which I’m happier with as it hopefully looks favourably towards me with the Olympic selectors.  To be honest the race didn’t suit me yesterday, It’s not how I’ve been training.  The run was too fast for me and the bike was WAY too easy! I’ve learnt a lot though and should I qualify I’ve got a really good understanding of how to be successful on this course.

We were staying in a nice hotel just on the fringe of Hyde Park.  It wasn’t an ideal build up for me though…the Air Con didn’t work so the room was very hot and 2 nights before the race (the most important nights sleep) I couldn’t sleep and finally dropped off at 5:30 am.  This worried me massively because I know how crucial sleep is to an athlete and 3hrs sleep makes me feel very lethargic.  The doctor gave me a sleeping pill so the next night I was fine but the damage is already done.

As no.2 World ranked I had the chance to start next to Javier Gomez so I had an awesome line to the first buoy.  I got a lot of beats at the turn but I ended up exiting right up there in the mix and once on the bike we had a gap to the chasing pack which was nice!

My plan was to conserve as much energy on the bike as possible.  Unfortunately a group of 4 slipped away from us containing Alistair Brownlee and some other big names but a good result was still on the cards.  The bike was mega easy which is bad for me because I rely on the bike damaging some peoples legs but not this weekend!

The run was incredible. It was so fast, 25 athletes ran under 31 minutes.  I wasn’t hanging around either but my 30:30 was only good enough for 14th. This was Olympic Selection for most of the athletes so everyone was in great form and gunning! I’m neutral about this result because to be honest I was always targeting Beijing in 1 months time more so then London. My preparation wasn’t ideal with quite a bit of races and a bout of insomnia but I really enjoyed the weekend and it was a pleasure racing against such an enthusiastic crowd! Thanks to everyone for coming out.

1st Alistair Brownlee GB 2nd Alexander Brukankov 3rd Johnny Brownlee

Hello everyone.  I’m currently sitting on the EZ 145 flight from Munich to London Stansted, I was on the exact same flight two weeks ago returning from Kitzbuhel excitedly writing my blog after one of my best ever races.  Here I am again sitting in same inhumane position they like to put us in writing another one about my race here in Schliersee.  This flight is providing me with some happy memories (I still hate budget airlines though

When Rainer (team manager) told me that Schliersee was on the Bundesliga circuit this year I jumped at the chance to race this and have been really excited to race it ever since! It’s a famously hard course with a chilly lake swim, a very hard mountainous bike ride and a off road very sapping run course.  I know this is perfect for me, I really wanted to win it and if I can break the course record.  4 guys have been under 2hrs and the fastest is Michael Raelert with 1hr 59.30.

I spoke to a lot of my friends about Schliersee but most of them warned me away from the idea because it’s so hard that it can make you too smashed to achieve your bigger goals.  I’ve been racing quite a lot recently and the timing is not perfect but thankfully I managed to get to the start line feeling strong enough to put in a good performance even with a decent 32hr week under my belt after Kitzbuhel.  We’ll have to see how I pull up from the race in the next few days but I don’t feel too smashed so I hope I can get back to my hard training routine very soon.

Thankfully the weather cleared up nicely after a lot of rain in the days before so we could enjoy nice dry conditions and even sunshine after the race!  The swim went ok, I knew that for once it wouldn’t be too much of a factor so I was semi stress free.  Most people more of less got on the bike together and we rolled round for the first 7k, I wasn’t feeling great actually, I think mainly because I still had some fatigue from Kitzbuhel.  We got to the first hill and I put a bit of pressure down but I had it in my head that the hill at 15k would be a good time to make a move.  I managed to split it up quite a lot, we dropped maybe half of the group but I wanted to make it smaller so we could all work hard together (it’s better for the course record) after this effort the pace eased off a bit as everyone started to think about the last 5k which is an average of 10%!  I attacked as soon as the climb started and only Laurent Vidal and Patrick Lange could keep with me.  I felt quite tired at this point and after 2k of the climb I realised that Lange had the best legs and he put 25 seconds into Laurent and I.  This part of the race was really hard, my legs were full of lactic acid and I was really looking forward to getting off to start running!

I got onto the run feeling strong, Michelle sets Stu Hayes and I a lot of hard running off maximum effort bikes so I’m well used to the feeling!  After the first of 3 hilly loops I managed to dodge the random cows on the course and caught Lange and by this point I was running on my own.  I pushed the pace quite hard and after every lap glanced at the clock trying to work out if I am close to the course record but I had no idea as the hills were so muddy it really slowed down my rhythm!  I crossed the line in 1hr 59.45 just missing the course record but delighted to get my first win of the season and also a win for Team Buschutten!

I have to say this though…there was a war within a war in this race as top Ironmen Timo Bracht and Faris Al Sultan were racing and I am happy to say on a course which is designed for a strong athlete the ITU boys smashed them! Wahoo! Turns out we can ride our bikes…

Finally I have to say a huge thanks to Team EJOT Buschutten. Rainer and Sabine Jung and the WHOLE team.  You all put so much effort into the organisation and made it a really enjoyable experience, it’s an honour to be part of the team!

W

Hello everyone.  I just got back to Loughborough after a longer then necessary days travel!  Phew I’m tired and my legs are way sore! Let’s not waste any time though, every day counts and it’s back to the grind but this time with heaps of motivation after a wicked weekend in Kitzbuhel!

What a difference to last year where it became my last race after a rather burnt out performance polishing it off a week later with that bike crash!

ITU racing can be incredibly draining!  Sometimes when you are struggling for form it can be like banging your head against a brick wall.  The level is so high now and everyone trains mega hard and puts their heart and sole into every session so if you are not racing to your expectations then it’s quite upsetting and you find yourself doing a lot of analysing as well as requiring numerous counselling sessions from the coach!  I tell you what though, when you get a result that you have been looking for  it makes it all worth it and the smile lasts for weeks!

Kitzbuhel is probably one of my favourite races as the place is incredibly beautiful and it’s a pleasure to visit!  Just ask my 10 family members who make the trip down for the 3rd year running!

I had an average swim, I exited the Schwarzsee right in the middle which was a bit frustrating as I’ve really worked hard on my swimming in the past few weeks.  Fortunately 60 guys all got out of the water pretty close together though and it was no problem and after a lap of chasing the leaders we all came together.  I had a few cracks on the bike as my legs felt pretty good I maybe attacked 4/5 times but nothing was really getting away and I wasn’t really willing to smash my legs up so much that I can’t run fast this time so I sat in the middle and saved my legs for the run.

I got onto the run feeling relatively fresh, if you have been doing your riding over the winter and you manage to conserve your energy on the bike then you are able to get a pretty easy ride.  This is what I did for the 2nd half of the bike and I got onto the run with a good feeling in the legs as I’ve not really been into the red yet!  I ran strong the whole way, Alexander Brukankov and Sven Riederer slipped away from us and an on fire (again) Alistair Brownlee was already 35 sec’s up the road racing for the win after his breakaway. I was chuffed to finish 4th after a sprint finish with Brad Kahlefeldt and Laurent Vidal and Stu Hayes piled in not long after with 13th place after his part in the breakaway. Love the way he races!

Lastly I just want to say a huge thanks to everyone for your messages, it’s amazing to receive that much support from people following my journey.

I also want to say big thanks to Michelle Dillon who’s done an incredible job, my Team Dillon training partners and my friends and family for always being there no matter what.

I had a lot of fun this weekend in Madrid. It was good to be back on tour with the GB gang and I spent some good time with the team and also some good friends from other countries!

It’s the 6th time I’ve been to Madrid.  Same course, (It’s still bloody difficult) the same Italian restaurants and same grotty hotel.

I was a bit unsure on my form going into this one as I raced in Dunkerque French Grand Prix two weeks prior and Paderborn German League the week before that. I’m fit for sure but maybe a bit over raced and underprepared.  I love racing though so that is the price I pay!

I actually swam pretty well. I got out the water 15 seconds behind the last man to make the front group and found myself and a few others stuck in-between the 1st group and the 2nd group. One of my strongest parts of my game is the first 5k of the bike but I just could not get onto the back of the front group so unfortunately I got swallowed up by the ‘chase’ pack and after many attempts to get away to form a sub group my efforts were a waste and also a massive waste of energy for the 10k run at the end of it all!  We were racing for 10th place this year as the group was almost 1:40 ahead of us. I spent too much gas on the bike and ran solid but by no means my fastest!

I was a bit disappointed about the outcome…but that’s World Class racing and its my journey!  I did everything I could in this race…what more do you want? Shall I hold my heart rate at 190 instead of 185?!  ITU racing is incredibly hard now and the level just keeps going up and up.  In hind sight I saw that if i had manned up and ran 20 seconds faster I would have been 10 places higher!

So my efforts on the bike were really a waste of energy.

So it was a good training race however and I tell you there is nothing quite like racing to bring on a bit of form!  I feel good training this week as I panic train for Kitzbuhel in 2 weeks time. I’m excited to get stuck into this one. It’s a beautiful place and I hope to get another solid result there.

This race was the first time that Alistair and Johnny Brownlee came 1st and 2nd in a World Champs Series.  I knew it would happen soon so I’m not at all surprised!  They were nothing short of incredible and it left the triathlon world completely scratching their nuts. I know that this course is accurate because my 31:29 felt right on the money but Ali ran what would have been 29:50 had he not mucked around down the finish straight and this is NOT an easy swim and bike before! Helen Jenkins also finished 2nd in her race and looked really strong all the way through so congratulations to those guys. It’s looking great for GB in the build up to London!

My aim now is to get back to work and GET ON THAT TRAIN!!!

Will

This weekend was the first round of the Bundesliga in Paderborn Germany.  I decided last year that I’d like to compete in the Bundesliga after 6 years of competing in mostly the same races.  I’m really pleased I did because I really enjoyed this weekend and it was awesome to experience new races.

Rainer & Sabine picked me up from Cologne airport and after a short but delicious lunch as their house we drove down to meet the team (Maik Petzold, Steffen Justus, Johnny Zipf and Marek Jaskolka) We had a awesome dinner that evening at the buffet where i got my first taste of German food! My conclusion was that it was all gorgeous food but it comes at a price because it wasn’t that healthy! You can’t have it all

Fortunately for us we had a big weekend of racing ahead of us to burn off the calories!  Saturday was a super short, sprint style of racing…basically heats!  I was in the 4th wave and hammered the swim (as much as i could)got onto the bike and put down as much power as possible for 8mins and ran out my skin…totalling 20 minutes of pain!  I tell you my lungs never burnt so much!  I had a good race and ranked 3rd over all.

The significance of the Saturday race is that for Sundays race your start position is determined by your qualifying time from Saturday so I was off in 3rd place behind Sebastian Rank and Johnny Zipf with lots of other good athletes behind me!

All the main contenders were within 30 seconds of each other so we started the swim and basically all caught each other and went onto the bike in a group of 7 athletes.  I felt good on the bike and bided my time till the beginning of the last lap where I attacked into a technical section taking just Steffen Justus with me.  We rode hard for the last lap and I was happy to take a lead of 15 seconds into the last lap with me!

Steffen and I ran together for the first lap but unfortunately I had to let him go as the big effort effort on the bike plus a bit of fatigue carried over made me tie up.  I was really happy to just lose one position though to Johnny Zipf who was running really well and crossed the line in 3rd place with a cartwheel to keep the kids happy

My team EJOT Buschutten won so we were really happy as a team to take out a win in the first race.

it’s all about Madrid now and I hope the race didn’t take too much energy from me because it’s going to be really hard there!  I’ve done everything I could to recover including warm down, Multipower Protein Bar, Bratwurst, compression socks, Compex and massage so hopefully it’s enough to regenerate:)

Lots of racing this weekend.  Well done to my training buddies who raced in Strathclyde, Joel Jameson in his really great Ironman debut (4th in Lanzarote) and everyone else who raced!  What a weekend!

Dunkerque wen’t well I guess…actually very mixed feelings about it really.

I had to train right up to this one because I have a German league race this weekend and the big one in Madrid for the World Championships Series the week after. You can’t be fresh for them all otherwise when are you going to train?! So this one was off the back of a massive month of work and a lot of fatigue!

The swim was awful, it was so rough and I just wasn’t used to my wetsuit. It seemed so tight around the shoulders and restricting so it made me feel very tired during the swim…I was surprised when I did eventually get out I was actually quite ‘up there’.

Onto the bike I saw that the usual lads were 20 seconds ahead so I chased as hard as I could on my new Boardman AiR 9.8 with my team mate Laurent Vidal but we couldn’t get back to them…our group wasn’t motivated to help me close the gap so it was a lost cause. I kept pushing though and we managed to whittle a big group down to about 8 guys…(not sure where they all went!)

Setting off on the run Brad Kahlefeldt and I made some inroads but we were quite smashed after holding off the boys behind and also trying to catch the lads in front but I ended up crossing the line in 8th.  Not bad considering Michelle smashed me the past month.  The big goal is coming up in Madrid and I can’t wait.

Racing for Lagardere in the French Grand Prix is probably my favourite racing for the year.  It’s always a pleasure to meet the gang who by now are really good friends.  We always have a laugh and the other great thing is it’s usually just a 1hr flight away! In on Saturday back home on Sunday.

Nice was the opener of this years series.  Heading into the race I knew that I would really struggle in Nice and it’ll probably be the worst race of the year for me.  Mainly because I’ve been effectively mucking around the past 5 weeks either tapering or racing, travelling or attending sponsorship commitments, getting ill from long flights and catching up with friends and family after a long time of no see.  Hey. It’s a long season and I know it’s only good for me to have this down time.

One of the things I love about FGP is it’s mostly all about the team.  It’s real pressure off fun racing.  The most important thing is we get the best possible ranking for Lagardere Paris Racing.  It doesn’t matter that I’m not 100% fitness at the moment as long as i don’t let the team down.

The sea swim was really choppy, 3rd choppy swim in  a row!  When the gun went it took me a bit by surprise (no, I didn’t duck) I wasn’t entirely ready, my goggles were on top of my head! It costed me a second or two so I ended up in the 2nd row.  I managed to muscle my way to the front group though and got out of the water in around 10th place which I was really happy with because I’m continuing my good swim form!

The bike was an out and back course and was quite windy.  I had a few digs on the bike but it’s too short and it’s obvious that doing this was just a bit of a waste of time! It’s good though to flex your muscles and show a few shapes out there on the bike course! The pace was quite easy but we managed to keep our gap to the 2nd pack so we got onto the run with a little lead, all the main players were in the front though!

I got onto the run in 3rd place and ran pretty hard for the first 2.5k.  Keeping with the boys.  I felt really uncomfortable running at this pace though and in the 2nd half as expected I struggled and just survived the rest of the race but Lagardere were easily 2nd best team and we were never going to beat Sartrouville (Brownlee, Brownlee, Gomez!) so I could relax into the finish at my own pace.

I’m looking forward to the next 5 weeks of hard work I’ve got ahead of me. I want to try to make it the best quality block I’ve ever done and that should put me in great knick for the next big block of racing.  I’m ranked 9th in the World at the moment and I’d like to at least hold onto that ranking!

www.organicus.com.au

This weekend I competed in the opening round of the ITU Triathlon World Series in Sydney before I headed back home after 4.5months.

I had a really good winter this year and was waiting for a good result, I was a little bit frustrated with my first 2 races out here in Oz but came good this weekend and I’m really excited to see what the rest of the season has in store for me now.

We based ourselves 30mins away from the city life hustle in beautiful Manly which is now home to good friends and emigrants Dunstan and Warren and Sarah Evans. Coincidently these two were friends from Cambridge Triathlon Club and they actually took me out on my first ever ride together!  I love taking a home stay option over staying in hotels.  I find i can really relax, enjoy the city I’m visiting through the eyes of the locals and also I have to actually force myself to start thinking that I am actually here to race! Which is good for me as i don’t waste too much nervous energy!

My plan for Sydney was to put 100% of my energy into getting away on the bike…In training I felt like my swim/biking form at the moment was better then my running form so I decided that I’d make that potential sacrifice to my run by putting all my eggs in the basket.

The day started in disaster.  Out in Oz i’ve got 2 pairs of yellow Mavic bike shoes.  One for training with the bindings and one for racing.  I must have not been concentrating when i packed my bag for the race as I bought with me a right training shoe and a right racing shoe!  My heart sank and after a few panic flaps I caned it up to the hill to the crowd and begged a lad to borrow his shoes and pedals!

The swim took place in the Sydney Harbour which was a choppy as! Apparently the whole field pretty much exited the swim within 40 seconds of each other which I think is a first in this ever developing sport. That made it the roughest swim of my life so far!  The exit ramp was so crowded you almost had to queue to get out the swim!

I think I got onto the bike in about 15th place or so, I felt like I had decent legs but there is not much point in riding too hard on the first few laps because everyone is still fresh and full of beans.  I didn’t particularly like the course, it was really wide with long straights and I knew everyone would catch up eventually and we’d all roll round a s a big group.  After about 10mins of riding the rain came down and made the roads extremely slick, there were a lot of crashes and quite a few nervous riders!  After about 4 laps I started to look at getting into a few moves but the course didn’t really suit it and everything I tried got shut down.

I didn’t expect to have much left on the run and thought I’d just have to muscle through it as i gave the bike a lot of gas.  I surprised myself though and ended up running quite strong.  Rather then sprint off at a stupid pace at the start I ran at my own speed and wound up in 9th place at the finish after a sprint with Joao Silva.

It’s great to be back racing well at the highest level and have my confidence back.  Thanks to EVERYONE who follows and supports my journey and glad i could give you something to cheer about this weekend.

I’m back in the UK now. It’s nice to be back with friends and family but as soon as I landed I got a bit ill! I guess a 2hr race, sausage rolls for dinner, some drinks with friends, 30hr flight and change of climate took it’s toll!

W

I ended up 11th and a bit frustrated but optimistic about the big one in Sydney.  To be honest I thought I’d go a bit better then that but unfortunately didn’t have great legs on the day for whatever reason.

The swim was based in the sea, it was nice and warm but very choppy which suited me to the ground as i’m a very fit swimmer just not a very smooth swimmer so I just got in there after a great start and threw my arms over for 18mins.  I was stoked to exit the swim in joint 3rd place which for me is a massive improvement considering in the pool I’d be one of the worst in the race! haha!

Onto the bike I knew straight away that my legs were not 100% used to this feeling but I rolled with it and just sat in and hid waiting for the run.  I didn’t find the bike difficult at all this weekend but at the same time, I didn’t want to sacrifice anything from my run by making jumps up the road every 2mins!  I wanted to see where my running was at today as i’ve been doing some good sessions.  After quite a few attempts at establishing a gap 3 guys eventually got away including Stu Hayes!  They got 1:20 which is very dangerous for anyone looking to win the race!

At the start of the run I felt pretty awesome to be honest.  I felt very smooth and like I was running within myself but unfortunately after 5k I had to let the leaders go as I started to run out of gas.  I was on track for a top 8 finish till the last lap but I couldn’t raise my game anymore and rocked in 11th.

I’m analysing the race in my head at the moment but all in all it was a good start to the season which could have been better had I eaten more the day before and also not got very ill last year.  Sydney will be better!  Speaking to one of my friends last night as well, he said that when you put together heaps of hard weeks back to back it could take me up to a month to really come good and adapt.

Congrats to my neighbour over here, Brad Kahlefeldt who took his 3rd win and also everyone else in the race.  I think it was top 30 over the line within 2 mins…that’s really impressive as it’s a bloody hard course!

W