Kevin's Training (And Adventures) Diary of 2023

So, having snapped my bike in the previous race, I had to go to the local bike hire shop on the morning of the race to try and get a replacement, knowing that they would be closed before I finished, and that we were then leaving at 4am the next morning to get our flight. I had discussed with a couple of other people for handing it off and getting them to drop it as the shop opened the next day, but still got hit for an extra half-day hire charge.  The bike itself was good. Carbon fibre Cannondale Scalpel hardtail. But I had less than an hour to set it up before I had to take it in to transition. I managed to sort the pedals so they felt 'about right', set the saddle to a height I felt I could ride, forgot to touch the tyre pressures, and rode it for a total of about 3 minutes.  Having then taken it down and racked it, we then had a 6-hour wait until the race started.  The swim was non-wetsuit, unless you were over 60 and then wetsuits were allowed. This was a strange deci...

First up, I probably need to get in with our trip to Italy was ace. We had a great holiday, visited some beautiful places and really enjoyed ourselves. And I feel the need to get that out because the rest of this, and the immediate follow up of the triathlon, is pretty much a disaster in race terms.  It was really hot. I have peace in hot conditions before and they don't normally bother me. It did bother the 60+ athletes as their bike distance got cut in half from 4 laps to 2. They were not happy about this. When the briefing said they were putting 2 water stops on a 1,500m lap, so effectively giving us 8 water stops in a 6km first run, everyone was joking about drowning and whether they were actually trying to turn it into a triathlon. That humour evaporated by 400m in when we reached the first one and at least half the field (including me) took a bottle. More than a few of us took bottles at all 8 opportunities. I also took my foot right off the pace. I tend to start cross d...

Yes I know I missed the last fortnight. And since I am racing late Sunday evening (as this gets posted I should just be finishing) and then getting up at 4am to travel home on Monday I will miss this fortnight too.  Hopefully I will get a catch up in time for the next one, but given that I have more travelling and a Scottish Cross Triathlon Championships to catch up on, I am not guaranteeing the next one either.  In terms of numbers, I have fallen a bit behind on everything as I have been recceing courses and resting rather than training. Hopefully I will get a sense check after Aviemore (or Craggy Island, or St Andrews Duathlon Champs) and won't be too far off where I need to be for year end. 

Sunday  will be my sixth, and final, international race this year. The ETU European Cross Triathlon Age Group Championships in Riva Del Garda, Italy. In terms of my personal performance, I expect on current training form to have a decent swim and a solid run but nothing spectacular from either, and have no idea at all what might happen on the bike.   There are only 13 registered starters in my age-group, of which 3 are Brits. I have beaten one of those so my chances of securing an auto-qualifying place for next year (top-10 overall and top-3 Brits) is pretty good.  Here are my targets: 0. Don't get injured.      I still have a string of smaller events (and a Scottish Championship) coming that I don't want to miss. 1. Race well.      Not very specific, but basically I just want to come away without having a sulk about how I swam, rode or ran. 2. Finish with my average percentage at this level.      I finished at 71.4% in my prev...

Friday will be my fifth international race this year. The ETU European Cross Duathlon Age Group Championships in Riva Del Garda, Italy. I have no idea how this one is going to go. My tummy is still not 100% from Belgium and I haven't ridden my mountain bike at any sort of technical or intense level since Ibiza.  There are only 5 registered starters in my age-group, of which 2 are Brits. I fully expect to be 5th.  Three of them are previous podium winners, and the 4th is a road duathlon podium level athlete at this level.  I have to finish to auto-qualify for next year. I also want to race well. And there is always a chance that something goes wrong with one or more of the other racers and it wouldn't take a significant mechanical for me to be in with a podium chance. Here are my targets: 0. Don't get injured.      I still have another International races coming on Sunday, which is arguably more important. I am more interested in finishing both than doing we...