I’ve been on a bit of a journey the past few months and I feel like so much has happened. I’ll do my best to update you!

Things were not really going that well for me since my crash on my winter training camp in South Africa. It took my ages to recover properly. For a start I didn’t want to get my wounds infected in dirty swimming pools and burnt in the scorching sun and I also had some repercussions like a bruised rib so I tried to look after myself sensibly rather then dive back in and come into problems later on. I’ve been there and done that and it’s not much fun so in the end during this month I lost a fair bit of fitness.

Luckily I did manage to get in some decent training though but it was certainly far from the winter I’d have liked. Once home from South Africa within a week we were on another flight to Boulder for more preparation and some racing. After heaps of deliberation I decided to go ahead with my plans to race Galveston 70.3 anyway. If anything for experience and a bit of a form finder. I had a howler, I wasn’t that fit, I was in-experienced and I had done way too much travelling to get there in the first place but still I was pleased to go and race another one and I feel I learnt a lot about what it takes to be successful in this distance.

We then went back to Boulder for 2 weeks more training. It was the first time I could work properly with my coach, Mat Steinmetz so that was really useful. I learnt more about Time Trialling and how I need to be training for this distance. Boulder is an awesome base, many awesome roads to ride and it’s a really good atmosphere to be around for a Pro. I could see why it’s so popular here. The training wasn’t ideal though because we had 3 big snow dumps lasting pretty much the whole trip so it made it very tough to put the hard work in the bank. However I think we did a decent job in the end and I went into the next few races with a bit more restored faith.

We raced two more races on the way home, the Sprint classic St Anthony’s in Florida and also the main one I was looking froward to St Croix in the Caribbean. The moment we touched down in Florida I never really felt that great.  I was tired from the hard training at altitude and I really wasn’t getting along with the position I was riding on my bike, I felt pretty fit but it wasn’t showing, I struggled to put down the power in the Time Trial position and I knew something needed to change. Therefore I was off the pace all day, my swim was pretty poor, my ride was really terrible as I kind of expected however my run was actually fairly good all things considered. I got totally smashed by the guys at the front though and it was kind of depressing! Other then the race we had a great time in Florida.The people were super friendly and helpful and our home stay hosts made the trip really amazing for us.

We left the day after the race for the Caribbean and the race I’d been really excited about as you can imagine. It’s a shame that I had such a bad run of things in months before because I struggled with confidence all week but once there I realised how lucky I was that my job brings me to places like the Caribbean and I was determined to make the most of it.  We really enjoyed the hospitality from our home stay hosts Fred and Lisa and their 16 animals that live in the house. 3 dogs, 8 cats and 5 birds. I didn’t train much in the build up to the race because I knew that the fresher athletes would prevail because the conditions are so brutal here. Race day was like any other day out here, very tough hilly course and very hot and humid. My swim was decent exiting the clear blue ocean in the front pack of athletes. Onto the bike I quickly realised that my Time Trialling was still not up to scratch to ride at the front so I just concentrated on riding my own pace, pacing myself well but making sure that I’d have enough energy to make it round the run in one piece. My ride wasn’t without it’s problems. I went slightly off course at one point and I was over cautious on the descents opting to not to risk crashing. The roads were a state from all the rain the night before so that added to the challenge as well occasionally having to bunny hop over mounds of rubble spread across the road.  Unfortunately I hit one of these head on only 5 kilometres into the race bouncing my best friend today, my Isotonic Bottle out of it’s cage!

All in all I got round surprisingly well and got onto the run in 5th place and within striking distance from the podium. However after 2hr45 of racing I soon realised that the race had barely started yet.  It was now 10am and the sun was beating down on us and the humidity was super high as the rain evaporated off the roads. 13 miles is a long way to run in these conditions and I knew that anything can happen even if you feel great (I didn’t).  I set off running at a good speed but had to keep reminding myself to calm it right back down. I caught 4th place very quickly and was closing in on Clark Ellice slowly but surely. After 10k all of a sudden I hit a bad patch, I was over heating, grabbing any nutrition I could get, labouring up the hills and I started to wonder if I was even going to make it round. Then the little voices start to creep into your head. Just how nice and easy it’d be to just step off the race course and walk home, or how fun it’d be to stop running now and join the spectators drinking beer cheering on the other athletes!  Just up ahead though Clark was struggling just as much as me.  You always think it’s just you that feels like this but the truth is every athlete on the course feels like crap, this is Ironman racing!

As the race went on I started to feel decent again and could still run quite fast, especially on the descents. I soon caught Clarky and we ran together for the next 5k. An official came along side us informing us that Ben Collins who had an incredible 9minute lead off the bike (riding 3 mins faster then Lance Armstrong the year before) was now in an Ambulance and we were now racing for 2nd and 3rd. My good friend Clark gave me a real fight all the way to the finish but fortunately I could produce a decent sprint at the end to take 2nd place.

All that pain I just experienced was gone within a minute and it was the best feeling in the World to have a good race under the belt again after so long, especially on one of the toughest courses on the circuit. The best thing about a good hard 1/2 Ironman is that afterwards you can’t really do much apart from R&R and what better place to do that then at the Caribbean? We went on boat trips, Scuba diving and hung out at some amazing beaches and had a great last few days of our trip.

Now back at home I’m getting into the groove again with my Loughborough buddies and we’re working nice and hard. I’m not quite sure about my next races as I might change it around a bit so i have more preparation time. Quality over quantity. We’re also making some other changes to certain aspects of the sport so hope to see some big improvements very soon.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyones seasons are getting off to a great start!

Congrats to Richie Cunningham for the impressive win after many years of trying here (9) and to my good friend Clark Ellice for rounding out the podium and pulling me to the finish.

Thanks to my sponsors: Champion System, Shimano, Focus Bikes, Vorgee and HUUB.

My journey in LD racing continues onwards and upwards hopefully…

So it is STILL snowing in Boulder Colorado, the state which apparently has 300 days of sunshine a year! We have had 5 days of snow since we have been here and it’s starting to really frustrate me now… I cannot stand indoor training, especially riding on the turbo – but it’s looking like one of those days again today

There is hope though as in 9 days we will be heading south to warmer climbs in preparation for a couple of fun races the first being St Anthony’s 5150 in Florida and then St Croix in the US Virgin Islands. We have sensibly bolted a few extra days onto our stay in St Croix 70.3 to have a mini holiday before heading back to Blighty for a few European races. So lots of fun to look forward to…

I hope everyone’s training is going well in preparation for this years race season which is fast approaching… Train hard, win easy

So I am already in my final week here in Stellenbosch after being calling it home for 11 weeks this winter! Time has flown by, and after mixed feelings about how it has gone I will be on the plane back to Blighty on Saturday ready to brave the cold yet again. Luckily I will only have to muscle through the arctic Spring for 9 days before heading Stateside to Boulder in preparation for several races including: Galveston 70.3, St Anthony’s and St Croix 70.3 which I’m really looking forward to!

Hope you guys will follow my progress this season – I’m hoping to impress

What a week I’ve had here in South Africa.

Really, It’s been perfect here, non-stop sunshine, amazing cafe lifestyle, good company with my friends and training was going well. Nothing special but clipping away getting fitter each week and enjoying life more importantly.  I really appreciate being able to train here and live this lifestyle.

I was buzzing for the 70.3 at the weekend in East London, South Africa It was important for me to deliver a good result, it was the start of my long distance career and although it’s January and who cares about a big performance in the middle of winter? I like to race well if I am making the effort to attend at all and I was desperate to start off the year with a bang!

I swam well enough, coming out in the front end of the race. Certain ITU skills I’ve developed will always bode well for me in some aspects of long course racing (others i’ll need patience with). I felt good on the bike and was able to push the first 45k’s to the turnaround and people weren’t catching me fast which gave me more motivation! I think I was definitely riding a bit un-conservatively at this point though and I did begin to get a tad tired on the way home. I got passed by a very fast Bart Aernouts as well as Marco Albert and Ronnie Schildkneckt. Although was keeping the latter two within striking distance for the 1/2 marathon run. So didn’t panic too much and I still had plenty of gas left in the tank.

It was a long out and back course along the highway.  Next thing I know the constant stream of 3000 Age group athletes is no longer coming in the other direction, nobody in sight apart from roadworks and no course markings…I’d missed the turning!

I flipped my Focus bike round and rolled back down the course and sure enough I saw my friend Mark Threlfall turn off the course. I couldn’t believe I’d missed it and to my relief it wasn’t my fault. No course markings, no indication that we should take this turn, no marshalls, nothing.

I was fuming that I’d given away the chance to have a good result and when you know you’re out of the race it’s really hard to continue racing at the same level, but I tried to keep the motivation strong. I had lost 5 minutes already from going in the wrong direction and another minute while I tried to compose myself again to keep racing.  I casually put on my shoes, expecting to do a half hearted 1/2 marathon ‘for the training’, and when I got on the run course now 10minutes behind the winner. I set off running and soon found out I was in 8th with 5th just just a few minutes up the road so I put my head down and chased the top 5. 1st-4th were out of reach and strong enough to hold on but I knew it’d be worth chasing 5th position if nothing else for the points and $2000 prize money.

Apart from some nasty blisters and a toilet stop the run was comfortable enough and I was able to cruise round for a 5th place finish. All in all I felt good in my debut and I know I had a good race in me, but this time it wasn’t to be and I just have to forget about it and move on, these things happen sometimes.

Once back home and recovered I was really excited to push on with some hard training ahead of the season. I knew what I had to do to prepare myself properly after the race experience and we have such a great selection of people here to train with in Stellenbosch, I was super motivated.

On Saturday morning we were heading out for a 5hr ride, the sun was shining, legs felt good and everyone all excited for the day ahead.  Then it flipped 180.  After 20minutes riding there was a touch of wheels, I couldn’t hold on and I hit the tarmac. We were going quite fast as we we’re just coming over the crown of the hill.

I was so frustrated and angry, at first it seemed that I hadn’t broken anything major. I could move everything properly thank goodness, then came the realisation that I’ve got s&%t loads of skin missing this time which guarantees to be a very miserable, depressing week ahead.  I’ve been there so many times before, sticking to the bed sheets, dressing and even worse re-dressing wounds, trying to get mobile again, the first swim, the inevitable week of soreness.  Crashing is so traumatic but unfortunately it’s a part of our job.

Kelly Don and Gavin Noble took me to Hospital where they saw me straight away, gave me local anesthetic to clean me up, stitched back up my knees, dressed my wounds, charged me (£1000 total) and sent me on my way.

I’m out for at least the next week, a self subscribed holiday if you will.  I’ve been spending my time sitting in cafe’s,hanging out with friends and even some wine tasting! If you can’t drink wine here you can’t drink it anywhere!

Thanks for reading guys and stay safe out there!

I finished 5th overall which isn’t too bad considering all of the problems I had…

Will post full race update soon!

I’ve been hinting about it for a while but finally now I can start talking more openly about my plans for next year. I had to wait to firm up a few things before I made any announcement with my team, sponsors, British Triathlon and so on.

I’ve decided to take my career away from the ITU circuit and start heading down the Ironman route. Starting off with Non-Drafting Olympic Distance racing but mainly focusing on 70.3′s (which is Half Ironman). I want to get started racing Ironman in the next 2/3 years and I hope one day I can become the first British Male Ironman World Champion. I don’t want to jump across too soon, there is plenty of good racing to compete in on my way up.

The ITU circuit has been really great to me. I’ve made a lot of great friends, competed in some really impressive world class events in some great locations and in my eyes I’ve been quite successful at it and I’m happy with what I could do in this series.  I haven’t closed the door on it totally and I’m sure I’ll race very occasionally. I’d like to perhaps contest Commonwealth Games qualifying and Rio Olympics if I think I can compete but it’s not my main goal anymore.

The main reason I’m making the move is I’m really after a new challenge to freshen up my career a bit and I really think I’m suited really well to this sort of racing.  I was getting a bit stale with the ITU racing.  What I’ve done in my career so far has groomed me perfectly for what lies ahead.  Real honest, fast, tough racing against some fantastic athletes getting pushed to a new level in every race of the year. I’ve learnt so much about so many aspects of the sport and I know I’m a very robust trainer probably most natural to the bike which is obviously key for Ironman racing!

I’ve already equipped myself with a new coach, Mat Steinmetz who lives in Boulder, Colorado.  I approached him after recommendation from a good friend but I also knew who he was because he coaches Craig Alexander and Merinda Carfrae,  Ironman World Champions as well as good friend Liz Blatchford.  Obviously I know I’ve got one of the best coaches in the sport as  part of my team and I’m really looking forward to working with him.  He did a recent interview with Slowtwitch if you’re interested.  His area of expertise is the bike, and he’s a go to guy for bike set up and equipment choices which is something I’m going to be needing a lot of help with.

So. I’m getting started in January with 70.3 South Africa.  Then once back from a long block of winter training in South Africa I will go almost straight to USA for some more racing and training. With Galveston and St Croix 70.3′s.  My aim of the year is to race fast in Hy-vee Des Moines and Vegas 70.3 World Champs. Both require you to qualify first.

Hope you’re all well and getting stuck into your winter training!

It’s one of those blink and you’ll miss it places. We spent the first 10 days sailing on a Catamaran Yacht although there was next to no wind there was a lot to see wether that was an amazing Sailfish as big as myself breaching the water 5 times in succession a hammerhead shark swimming under our boat or my father splitting his hand open and requiring stitches in a shockingly bad hospital!  We spent our days travelling between islands, relaxing on the beaches and I manages to get 4 dives in.  I was pretty stoked to come face to face with some very big (2m) Grey Reef sharks, get close and personal with a turtle and spot a large school of rays.

At the start of the holiday my sisters boyfriend and I got the idea into our heads that we wanted to catch a fish from the back of a boat. With the terrible lack of good food on the island we liked the idea of acting as hunter gatherers for the family. I’ve not got the best fishing history. When I was 12 I bought a cheap rod for £16 with my friend and didn’t catch anything all summer. The rod we bought in the Seychelles wasn’t much better and after a 2 min lesson from the store owner we were on our way. I wasn’t backing myself for this, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing plus I’m an animal lover so deep down didn’t even want to catch something anyway incase I accidentally killed it. In the first 4 days we didn’t have any luck. We got the lure wrapped around the propeller twice, kept getting tangled and even put some chicken on the lure to entice some interest (not needed apparently). We were getting laughed out of the boat. That night Stu and I met some South African guys who had 3 huge fish on the back of their boat and were butchering them for their dinner. Of course we went over for some advice and after a few pointers our motivation was re-kindled. They did however say if we caught anything over a kilo it’d probably snap my rod!

The next day we casted away again before sitting down to sunbathe, we won’t catch anything anyway! Within 3 mins the rod started freaking out! Could it be!? We fought to bring it in and after 5 mins reeling in the line we had managed to hook ourselves a 3kg yellow fin tuna worth £30 in Tesco. Even better news. The poor bugger took the hook through the brain so we didn’t even have to kill it and the rod lasted another day! Freshest Tuna i’ve ever had but still prefer Snapper! So… Don’t ever let the trouters bring you down, persistence and belief is the key and nothing is impossible!

So it’s back into it now for me, for another long year! I’ve on day 5 now and so far all good! Not feeling too un-fit, I’m really motivated, the body is replenished and the head is in the right place ready to take on board a whole load foundation training!  I’ve got some exciting plans for next year which I’ll announce soon but right now I’m still working on firming those ideas up.

Thanks for reading.

Don’t be afraid to have a decent break

It’s really important that once the season comes to a close, you take a decent break. Two weeks is the bare minimum, preferably a month as 2 weeks off 2 weeks of whatever you fancy so long as it’s very light. If you’ve been in the sport for a long time. I’d say 6/7 weeks isn’t out of the question.  I know plenty of pros who take this and by Christmas they’re fully fit! It’s vital to replenish your energy stores, get fully healthy, rest the muscles and also allow any niggles to settle down. Probably more importantly though the mental rest. You have to really be craving getting back into it.  Long term you’ll be thankful.

Free Speed in the first month.

Free Speed is anything you can do to that will make you faster without costing any more energy. Why not?! Some of it may seem boring however you’ll improve way faster by doing this then you will by flying out the door all guns blazing.

-Swim technique…It’s the key to swimming fast and even at the top level I believe that I’m way better off starting my training with a mixture of lots of drills and swimming.  Instead of getting in and ploughing up and down with a session.  When you first get in the water you’re likely to feel pretty rubbish, spend the first month concentrating on drills and swimming with good technique after and you’ll also be building up your fitness again.  Next thing you know you’re swimming faster then you were in August! Ask an expert to help you!?

-Bike Fits…You’re position on your bike is another crucial factor for you to consider and is indeed Free Speed.  The more comfortable and aerodynamic you are on your bike the faster you’ll ride.  It’s pretty complex but you’ll benefit massively with a visit to Velomotion for a Retul bike fit.  You’re way better off working on a new position early on so that you can get used to it while riding easy.  It’s likely to take some getting used to.

-Biomechanics…Before the big miles start, it’s a good idea in this month (and ideally throughout the winter) to work on your Biomechanics alongside some easy running.  Get your body strong in the gym so it’s ready for a decent work load and complete some running drills once a week perhaps with a local athletics club to improve you’re ground contact time and leg turnover and running tall. This will help you get through the winter to remain injury free and will improve your running economy to boot.

Build up slowly 

Don’t get too excited too soon, the season is VERY long and the British winter can be very tough!  Here at the High Performance Centre in Loughborough it annoys me every year to see athletes taking a two week break then going straight back into serious work, decent milage and hard sessions.  If you start in Mid-October, normally you have  around 7 months before you’re even doing your first race.  The season goes on usually till September/October.

Use the first 5 weeks of training to gradually build up your volume each week. It should all be at a comfortable pace (you can talk to her person next to you pace) Last year we started at around 16hrs and gradually build it up to around 3ohrs.  By January on our camp in Australia we we’re averaging around 32hrs per week.  Consistency is the name of the game in Triathlon.  Rather an average of 20hrs a week over a block of 12hr, 28hr, 22hr, 9hr!

Running

Once you’ve built up your fitness over the 5 weeks you can start thinking about some blocks of Lactate Threshold running and just above.  (Just about talking pace but you’d rather not!). i.e. 5-8miles tempo.  Running in the hills will build up your strength and work your technique hard!

Keep in touch with your speed leading into Christmas.  You’re not training it as such but maintaining that feel of running fast.  Try running a set of 12x200m’s building each one so the last one is close to your top speed.

Cycling

I don’t think it’s important to do anything really specific at this time of year on your bike.  Think of it as ticking the box, you want the major miles of your winter to come in in the New Year otherwise you are in danger of getting too fit too quickly.  So anything before Christmas is solid but by no means operating near your maximum capacity.  Once you’ve been through the build up phase start to build up your strength on the bike with some long and easy riding.  If you live near hills try to get out for hilly riding as much as possible especially if you’re short on time and practice a bit of over-gearing (hard gear) riding to force some strength in your legs.

Swimming

Hopefully after some good work on your technique you’ll begin to feel a lot stronger and more effortless in the water.  Then come mid November start putting in some decent work in the pool, building up your volume week by week.  Plenty of people use large volume in the pool to supplement their fitness for cycling and running and you’re much less likely to pick up an injury.  Of all the sports I think swimming is the one that you can start pushing a lot earlier.  You’re not hammering the legs so much and it’s great for moving on your fitness in other areas.

Most important sets at this time of year are your easy swims and your Sub Threshold Sets. Such as the classic 10x300m’s with 20-30 sec rest or my favourite of all time…below:

800m easy, 8x100m Paddles short rest (5 secs) 8x50m Band Only

600m easy, 6x100m Paddles short rest, 6×50 Band only

400m easy, 4x100m Paddles short rest, 4×50 Band only

500 easy Warm Down  (5k)

*Band Only – It’s a band tying your legs together, it normally makes them sink, however it forces you to increase your arm turnover and it’s just bloody tough, so get involved! Cut up an old inner tube!

Gym

It is the part that most Triathletes hate however if done properly it can potentially shorten the amount of volume you have to complete to build up a similar amount of strength.  Especially useful if you’re short on time.  I think there is a window where it’s advisable to go heavy in the gym however once you really in the thick of your training you should transfer this to body weight exercises so you have more energy for your normal training.

Apart from the obvious keeping injury free part that is important to everyone.  Gym is also very useful when using specific exercises that can actually help improve your performance and in much shorter amount of time.  You can go a long way to improving your running economy, and also supplementing your swim and bike training with a little extra strength work.

Swimming – Chin ups, Latt Pull downs, dumbbell pull over.  You’ll find that your arms tie up a lot less and you’ll have extra power in the water if you’ve been working on these exercises.

Cycling – Leg Press, Deep Squats – You’re putting strength in the legs that you may struggle to get on the bike alone.

Running – Hurdle drills, Bar Bell Step ups, and Glute activation and any core work – All these will improve your strength, stability and your ability to hold form.

I hope you find my thoughts useful, very simple but effective! Good luck heading into the winter.

Will

I was in Stockholm for another World Series race but also on Sunday competing again in the Triathlon World Relay Championships.  It’s a an event in the next Commonwealth Games and hopefully, fingers crossed in Rio if they get it.   Training had been going pretty well before this one so I was thinking I was in the shape to pull a decent one out of the bag.  The course was really cool, taking us up and down a steep, cobbled hill that also led to the finish but in total 60% of the course was cobbled, there were many while lines and sharp turns so if wet this bike course would be very challenging!  I had a really bad race, my swim was well below par and I spent most of the time getting beaten up, although I was actually in a competitive position.  I jumped on my bike and something didn’t seem quite right, I was cornering really badly, couldn’t sprint well and was almost a hazard to the other athletes on the course because I couldn’t hold my line.  After the first lap I began to realise that my back wheel was working it’s way loose and sure enough after hitting a cobble my wheel actually popped out for a second!  I can’t tell you how nervous I was riding on that course with a wheel that’s not fixed to my bike.  In the end I rode as hard as I possible could and managed to hold the guys in front at 12 seconds on my own but I got off the bike and I was totally stuffed from the effort and I crossed the line with my worst ever result of 40th!

Luckily for me I had another chance to redeem myself. I worked hard on my recovery that night taking in my Multipower protein recovery shake and bar, went for a long cool down and the next day we were back at it!  In our team we had Vicky Holland leading us off, myself in second, Non Stanford in third and fresh from his bronze in London Olympics, Johnny Brownlee.  It’s obviously a strong team but we were certainly not the only ones so it was always going to be a big fight.  The weather had been terrible the whole day so we were all aware that we had to be very careful about crashing out and causing harm to ourselves and also in the process letting the team down.  We came off the first leg in 14th, still in touch but definitely some work to be done.  I felt pretty good out there and put in the 2nd best split to claw us back 8 places.  Non also put in a brilliant performance to take another 4 athletes handing over to Johnny Brownlee in 2nd place.  Germany started the wave with a 25 second head start on us and for a while it was definitely a tall order to win this now.  Johnny is a total class act though and put in an incredible performance to cross the line in first just ahead of a very talented French Team.  I was really proud of the team, everyone put in their very best performance and we came out on top, we certainly put on a show and won it the exciting way that’s for sure and I hope we get to compete in this at Olympic level one day!

I was disappointed to read about the Lance Armstrong case, I did put something up on my twitter account the other day and I discovered that many people have very different opinions about the subject and it certainly made for interesting reading.  I do believe that we still live in a world where you’re innocent till proven guilty and I don’t know if Lance Armstrong took drugs or not but at the end of the day they have nothing on him apart from a bunch of athletes who can’t be trusted, testifying against him.  This could never end, he’ll probably never be able to prove his innocence, a crazy amount of money will be spent on this case and I’m pretty he’s not happy to be living his life like this moving from injunction to injunction.  I think he’s probably got a very close circle of friends and family, an incredible cancer foundation and probably quite a nice house and I think he’s happy to just let it all go now and let people believe what they want to believe.  I don’t know all the facts, I’m sure there is more to it that there seems and at the moment I don’t think anyone knows the right or wrong answer because there is no evidence.  I’m sure there are plenty of other dirty athletes to pick on instead, maybe investigate NFL for example?