I haven’t blogged for quite a while unfortunately mainly because it’s been quite a hectic period for me and I’ve been blogging a lot for Realbuzz which takes up a fair bit of my blog concentration!  So please check out the archives on that if you are interested.  My blogs can be read here.

So, what have I been so busy doing.

Well, obviously my training comes first, and it’s been going pretty well.  I’ve been hitting out some solid sessions in all 3 sports. Doing a fair bit of running with an amazing group we have down the track with Ryan Mcleod, John Beattie and James Wilkinson among the other lads.  We must have about 10 Sub 30min guys there right now! Swimming is going quite well swimming on my own as well as 3 times a week with the squad in the morning for the big swims and cycling is ticking along with various different groups.  It’s all been a bit too inconsistent for my liking though and consistency is the name of the game so. With all the media commitments, sponsor days and Christmas festivities, I decided by the start of the year i wanted to be out in Aus so I booked my flight to Australia and here I am…pumping the miles on the Gold Coast, getting in a consistently hard rhythm that’s going to set me up nicely for the season. gone! So far i’m not hurting too bad from the Jet Lag and it’s been awesome. Amazing weather and fantastic group to mix it up with.  I just came back from a criterium bike race with Courtney Atkinson and Stuey and some other Gold Coast roadies.

In other news Clare and I just moved house into Barrow Upon Soar which is 3 miles out of Loughborough.  It’s a nice village, with great community feel and the running is awesome straight from my door so we’re really happy with it!  This year we hosted Christmas and New Year for our families in our new home.

I’m really excited for 2012, it’s probably going to be the biggest year of my career in terms of ‘this is our chance to shine’ and ‘making it happen’. I along with everyone else is desperate to make the British Team in the 3rd spot so it’s going to be a scrap for it.  I feel like I’m in a great position after last year and I believe in myself to do it with a podium finish from 2011.  So I know when I am fit I can be racing at the very front but I’m going to need to prove it again in 2012 .  Come the first few races of the season I’ve got to be close to my best ever shape to give myself the chance.  British Triathlon wont take an also ran to London, they want a genuine medal contender, and we need to prove we can do this in the first 3 races of the year in Sydney, San Diego and Madrid.  If no one is capable of this then they’ll take a Domestique to pull together all the energy into the Brownlees chance.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!

Will

I hope you all had a great season this year! I certainly did and I enjoyed some nice relaxing time off to recover the body and the mind!  I holidayed in Ibiza for 3 days and then 2 weeks cruising around Florida with Clare in a convertible for our more chilled holiday!  I definitely wouldn’t call 3 days in Ibiza a holiday, I was more nackered then I’ve been all year!

I started back training this week with Stu Hayes just ticking through 2 or 3 sports per day and I’m sure next week it’ll ramp up again to almost full training so we’re currently enjoying not training particularly hard right now.  It’s nice to do some good training with good feel in the legs without the feeling of being totally smashed all the time!  So far I feel really good, I know that as you get older it’s a lot easier to get fit especially if you have a big base from all the years of  training that you’ve backed up.

I got some good news this week, It’s not confirmed yet, but I should be back on World Class funding this year so it definitely makes things easier for me when I am preparing in Australia this year.

I’m really excited for the year ahead and it’s a massive year for us Brits!  I know that everything I do on ‘the road to London’ will determine the outcome at the Olympics.  I’m very motivated to make sure that I lie down at the end of the year and can put my head on the pillow and say that I did everything that I could and I’ve got no regrets!  I know for certain that this will be my only chance ever to win an Olympic medal in my home country and on that note…I had better get my bike ride done!

Morning everyone I hope you are enjoying this extended summer we are having here in the UK!  I’m pretty chuffed, apart from our holiday we usually miss out on weather like this as by the time it’s time to take a break Autumn is well and truly under way.

I’m having a great break so far.  I really look forward to this part of the year as it’s just for me a complete change in lifestyle and something I’ve mostly missed out on in my life.  As much as I love competing and training 6hr a day I also like to wake up knowing that I can do whatever I want today.  I can eat that pizza hut for lunch if I fancy it, or I can go out for a drink in the evening with my friends!

I just last week got back from a 3 day trip to Ibiza.  I was out there with my friends from school that I hadn’t really spent much time with since leaving 10 years ago.  My time with them was just like it used to be though, I really enjoyed catching up.  I didn’t want to go longer then 3 days as I knew that 3 late nights is my limit before I start to crack, and to be honest my predictions were perfect because I was very tired when I got home.  Actually when I was on the plane back to Stanstead most of the flight were people in their 20’s – 30’s all fast asleep.  That’s what nights out starting at 2am does to you!

Clare and I just put an offer in on a new house that got accepted and we’ve managed to sell ours as well so all going smoothly we will be in a new house just down the road in Barrow Upon Soar by December.  It’s so damn complicated though to sort out, I can’t wait till it’s sorted!

We are also off for our holiday on Monday to Florida for two weeks. We are cruising around everywhere south of Orlando in a rental convertible.  I’m looking forward to relaxing after my exertions from the season and also from Ibiza!  After this it’s back to it and i’m getting very excited about preparing with a new focus already.  The break is doing it’s job!

Cheers.

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

I’m starting to feel a bit rock and roll recently after my new found skills in Hamburg!  I’ve picked up my new BMW 5 Series GT from ELMS Cambridge.  The locals call us the mainies now because we’ve been spending our evenings driving up and down the main street in town beeping the horn!  It’s an awesome car and I feel very lucky to have it…thanks to my sponsor Elms for freshening me up.

I’ve recently been asked to write a blog for a blogging site called realbuzz.  I’ll be contributing weekly so make sure that you ‘favourite’ realbuzz.com and tune in for more stories of the crazy life of a professional Triathlete! First blog is here…

Lanzarote was a good trip in the end.  I came straight from Hamburg and got stuck straight into hard training.  As I said earlier, I was still buzzing from Hamburg so that carried me through the first week….then I cracked and had a day off. All in all though I couldn’t have asked for more and Conor Murphy was a brilliant training partner.  He’s an Irish athlete who trained with me while we were at Loughborough University.  He then left and became an accountant for 3 years, failed his exams! Then decided to have a crack at making the Irish Olympic team.  He’s doing bloody well and I think he can do it! Exciting athlete and just shows what you can do if you really want it.

So this week for me it’s all about resting up, doing the last minute training preparations, relaxing the body and getting ready for a big race in London.  I can’t wait, it’s going to be such and exciting event.  Get ready to see all of the Worlds best Triathletes, all in their best form fighting it out over the Olympic Course for Olympic Selection.  If you are gutted that you didn’t get any Olympic tickets come and see this show.  Women Saturday @ 08:36, Men Sunday @ 13:06. And if you can’t get to London then watch LIVE on the BBC

I also had the best bit of fish I’ve ever had in Lanzarote.  Check it out in El Gulfo…Out of this world.

I’m currently out in Lanzarote doing a big block of training ahead of London World Championships Series. I pulled up pretty well from Hamburg all things considered and went straight into hard training out here.

Club La Santa is an awesome place to train, Conor Murphy an Irish athlete joined me for my biking and swimming so I’ve got some company.

Waking up most days feeling totally smashed, we’re really jamming it out here, but there are probably only 4 more hard training weeks left of the year as Beijing (my last race isn’t far away now!)

6 days left out here till we go home and rest up for the big one! I also get to pick up my new BMW from Elms Cambridge, a 5 series GT. Boom, can’t wait.

I’m currently on the plane to Lanzarote ready to get back to some hard preparation ahead of London World Championships Series, but I’ve got a massive smile on my face because this weekend I finally got myself onto the podium in Hamburg which is my first time ever in a World Championship Series. I finished 2nd a few meters behind Brad Kahlefeldt and just ahead of David Hauss.

It’s been a long, long road to get to this point in my career and so much perseverance and dreaming but finally this weekend I could do it and I’m so happy! I hope this is me now and I can take confidence from this and keep pushing and pushing!

Hamburg has always been very special for me. When I was a 21 year old I finished 7th in the World Cup with the 2nd fastest run. In 2007 I finished 5th at the World Championships in my first real Senior Worlds and now this!

Hamburg is one of my favourite events on the calendar. The atmosphere is incredible with 250,000 people lining the streets it’s hard to even get a vantage position. There is also another 10,000 athletes competing. The flight is very easy, we always stay in nice hotels and eat tasty food. We’ve also got the shops to save ourselves from boredom! I have really started to notice that my performance is often dependant on enjoyment of the trip and I think that’s why I usually do well here. Lots of happy memories help that’s for sure.

I had a decent swim, it was bloody rough on the first lap with so many athletes packed in. I’m sure everyone received quite a few kicks to the head but on the 2nd lap I saw an opportunity for some clear water and put in an effort to exit in the top 15.

We had about 20 guys away in the pack but for this one my plan was to hide on the bike. I’ve been quite active all year, trying to get in breaks and attacking out of corners but it’s not really got me anywhere so for this one I wanted to see how fast I could run off easier ride. I found the pace quite solid, more solid then I thought it’d be actually. We had some strong cross winds, to contend with, sprinting out of corners as well as 8 prime lines which kept the pace solid but I got round safely and got off my bike feeling alright.

I didn’t have a great transition from the bike to the run so unfortunately I had to run 5 seconds quicker then everyone else for the first kilometre. On the first lap the boys were really pushing the pace and I was definitely a bit unsure how long I could hold on for. There were 10 guys and I was kind of the guy hanging at the back struggling. I made a decision to move up the group from the back more towards the front so mentally I could start to feel stronger! It worked a treat and I started to feel better and better and before I knew it I was the one pushing the race. In the next few laps Brad Kahlefeldt, Javier Gomez and I tried to split up the group but into the last lap there were still 6 of us left. With 2k to go David Hauss attacked and really split it up, I looked behind and saw that only Brad Kahlefeldt and I had the legs to go with it. I couldn’t believe it, if I kept this up I would be on the podium!

I now had to make a decision…I could tell that Brad and David didn’t want to waste any more energy keeping the pace going because it’d take away from the inevitable sprint finish we were about to have, but I panicked because if we slowed down it’d give the other guys an opportunity to get back into the race and potentially take away my podium! So, I just ran as hard as I could for the last 1k to rule out the chance them catching back up. As we ran into the tunnel of roaring spectators with the finish line in sight, I was leading but Brad was on my shoulder. We managed to drop David from my effort before but Brad came round me with a sprint that I had no more gas to contend with to take the win. I could feel David coming back at me so I just got on my toes and sprinted as hard as I could into the finish. Topping it off with some well deserved vomiting at the finish line! Always the sign that you did a good job!

All I could think about in those last meters was standing on the podium with the giant Erdinger glass and that medal I’ve dreamt about around my neck. I was delighted to turn left at the finish into the recovery area to see the beer and medals waiting for us. Adding further Clare delivered me the totally unexpected news that I’ve moved from 8th in the World rankings to 2nd!!!

Finally I’d like to thank Michelle Dillon who’s been totally inspirational for me and has done such an incredible job this year! My family who sometimes see all mood states in 1 day, Stu Hayes, my manager Richard all my wonderful sponsors and everyone who was cheering for me this weekend.

Will

Will Clarke Hamburg

Mr. Clarke was second overall in Hamburg.

We kindly ask he runs faster than 29min 47sec next time

BRAVO!

Full results here.

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