| 2016 Results |
23 Jan - 2 Alpes Night Trail
2:11:05 - 28/101, 4/16 AG
21 Feb - Anglian Duathlon
2:15:36 - 36/175, 3/22 AG
28 Feb - Brighton Half Marathon
1:26:15 - 233/8095, 66/1439 AG
03 Apr - Windsor Duathlon
2:16:57 - 100/519, 6/90 AG
04 Jun - Trail Challenge Marathon
5:10 (Brighton-Eastbourne)
12 Jun - Midsussex Sprint Tri
1:12:27 - 20/238, 4/40 AG
26 Jun - 1st Swim Crawley Tri
0:59:28 - 5/68, 2/20 AG
06 Aug - Phoenix Running Marathon
3:24 - 5/102
26 Aug - CCC Ultra Marathon
21:29 - 465/2200, 27/152 AG
19 Nov - F3 Duathlon
2:09:24 - 3/50, 1 AG
04 Dec - Downland Devil 9
1:05:52 - 11/250, 2/28 AG |
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| 2015 Events |
22 Feb - Brighton Half Marathon
DNF
03 May - Steyning Standard
1:49:52 - 6/97, 1/19 AG
27 May - Arundel Standard
1:59:57 - 6/105, 1/19 AG
14 Jun - Midsussex Sprint Tri
1:09:55 - 9/272, 4/51 AG
12 Jul - ETU Euro Champs, Geneva
2:22:39 - 47/79 AG
26 Jul - Worthing Standard
2:25:09 - 109/398, 16/54 AG
08 Aug - Triathlon Castro, Spain
DNS
16 Aug - Noja Aquathlon, Spain
22:15 - 18/41, 1/7 AG
13 Sep - Virgin Active Brighton Tri
1:21:39 - 7/133, 2/21 AG
20 Sep - Brighton Marina Tri
1:44:24 - 11/115, 5/44 AG
11 Oct - Jog Shop 20
2:45 - 13/110, 4/22 AG
07 Nov - Hermes Thames Half Mara
1:28:07 - 5/362, 1/55 AG
28 Dec - Phoenix Marathon
3:14:05 - 4/96 |
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| 2014 Events |
01 Feb: Pilgrims Challenge Day 1
5:35 24/199
30 Mar: Springtime Sportive 54m
3:07 1/157
05 Apr: SDW 50 Ultra
9:06 107/314
21 Apr: Thames Turbo Tri
1:04 22/347, 1/31 AG
04 May: Steyning Oly
1:46 15/111, 3/22 AG
11 May: Beacon Rouleur Sportive
5:49 11/48
31 May: City to Summit Tri
15:27 25/123
22 Jun: Sussex Triathlon Oly
2:37 21/93, 2/13 AG
19 Jul: Race To The Stones 100k
13:09 103/703
24 Aug: Triathlon du Mont Blanc
1:17:03 34/310, 8/82 AG
07 Sep: Bala Oly
2:11 118/560, 20/118 AG
14 Sep: Brighton Virgin Active Tri
1:21 5/155
21 Sep: Brighton Marina Tri
1:48 7/109, 4/28 AG
16 Nov: Brooks 10k
39:09 205/3196, 53/548 AG
07 Dec: Downland Devil 9
1:07 28/283 |
| The long haul up Alpe d'Huez |
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Racing, Illness and a Long Walk
Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:09 pm iainm
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A few races since my last update. First up was the Eton Sprint Triathlon in May. I knew I stood very little chance of qualifying in this - for a start it's a drafting race and that doesn't suit a poor swimmer like me, but it was far too soon after my injury to be in any sort of shape for this quality of field. I did my best, but sluggish is the best way of describing my performance and putting in context my (flat) 5k run was 22:22, compared with a typical time of 19:45 or so for races like this. It also wasn't helped by picking up a cold a few days before the race. Coughing up globs of green phlegm isn't really what you're looking for on the start line!
At least I was racing again and I then had a great 6 weeks of training that saw a 40min at the Turks Head 10k (still below my par of 39ish), but then a gradual build where I improved week-by-week in the BTRS Midweek Tri series in Brighton. This is a very informal ‘training’ race, but the fact that you are actually racing pushes you harder and gave me the chance to practice transitions and bring my 5k pace down each week from 4:12 min/km to 3:57 min/km. By the end of June I was in great shape, swimming and running well, if a little off on the bike. I won the MV50 prize at the
Worthing Triathlon, where I’d entered the sprint as a sharpener for Arundel – my ‘A’ race and Worlds Qualifier.
So all in great shape and I was feeling pretty positive for Arundel – I knew I had to be on top form to stand a chance of qualifying, but I definitely stood a chance, particularly as the river swim was going to be fast as we followed the tide downstream. Then…effing typical…on the Thursday before the race I started sneezing and felt a tickle in my throat. By Friday the whole of my sinuses were blocked up and my nose was streaming and by Saturday morning I was coughing up globs of green phlegm again! My body felt absolutely shattered, but I pushed my way through to the morning of the race, filled myself full of caffeine and made my way to the start.
The race itself went well – the swim was indeed fast. The start times were set to coincide with the tide turning, which meant that we had just 200m against the current and 1300m with it. My official swim time was 23:46 – pretty impressive considering my previous best was 28:35! Hopefully it means I was in pretty good shape as well. The bike and run times were okay – but 13th in my Age Group was never going to be enough to qualify.
Probably another 90 seconds faster would have been enough – could I have done this if hadn’t had been ill? Maybe, but the time is the time, there’ll be another year – and I will be back in that GB team again one day!
I probably should have taken some down time after Arundel, but I’d scheduled in a long walk for the following week. That turned out to be 65 miles in three days, carrying a 12kg backpack with all my camping equipment. Despite coughing and spluttering away, I had a great time. Day 1 I walked from Cuckmere Haven, through Eastbourne along Bexhill to Hastings and wild-camped in the Hastings Country Park. That was about 25 miles on a hot and sunny day. There was a thunderstorm that night, but I’d had a Night Nurse and didn’t notice any of it! Day 2 was hot and humid again and a great walk from the park along the coast via Winchelsea to Rye Harbour. I didn’t really enjoy the diversion via Rye to get round the Rother River, and Camber Sands sounds much nicer than it is. At the end of another 8 hours and 25 miles of walking I found a great campsite on Romney Marsh where I had a shower and collapsed until the following morning. The next day, I left the tent and walked down to Dungeness and back – bleak, windswept, nuclear – all the things you’re looking for in a day out.
I guess 65 miles in three days should have given me some good endurance, but I’ve been shagged out for the last few days – sleeping 9 hours a night. I don’t think I gave my body any chance to recover. The good news is that my next event is probably not for a couple of months – that will be another ultra marathon – the Aiguilles Rouge Trail race in Chamonix. I have just enough time to get in shape for that, and finishing will give me the extra points I need to be able to enter the CCC or TDS ultra marathons in 2018. Wish me luck!
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Tri blog | Follow my snowsports blog at Skipedia | Supported by Profeet Custom
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Sun May 14, 2017 8:18 pm iainm
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There are few things as annoying and depressing as being injured – especially if it wasn’t your fault. I’m just coming out of four weeks with no running after a calf injury and it really burns me up when I hear comments such as ‘Did you over-do it?’ or ‘What do you expect at our age?’ And that’s because it genuinely wasn’t my fault.
I was in great form in my build to the London Marathon. I’d been running consistently for months, putting in some good volume – around 50 miles pw in January, 55 miles pw in February, before hitting 60 in my biggest week before the taper. This year I recorded a new PB at the Brighton Half Marathon (even allowing for the shortfall in the course) and ran a comfortable 3:16 marathon in early-March. All was looking good for a tilt at a new marathon PB at London.
My taper coincided with a holiday to Australia. My final long run was in Perth – on a hot day, but the plus side was I got to run alongside the Indian Ocean. A week later – two weeks before VLM – I’d found a local half marathon to enter – the Three Rivers Bunbury Half Marathon. That was another lovely run by the ocean and around the port and marina. The plan was to hold back – there was nothing to prove over this distance – so I paced it just faster than marathon pace for a comfortable 1:31 to finish 11th overall.
I felt fine at the end of the race, but when I saw there was free massage available, it seemed like a great idea. There was no queue and it would presumably speed my recovery time. Nice idea, but that’s not how it worked.
Previously I’ve always experienced a very gentle massage post-race – the idea being to help smooth out some of those torn muscle fibres and help promote blood flow and process the lactic acid and reduce DOMS. This massage was not like that. Instead the masseur started giving me a deep tissue massage. I mentioned that I was typically tighter in my left leg through my glutes, hamstrings and calves and that seemed to be a red flag to a bull. She tracked down pressure points and pushed hard digging right into the muscles – I was in significant pain.
Now that’s not so unusual in one of my regular massages. I don’t know what you’re like on a massage table, but I accept that to move forward you need to be able to cope with some pain. I normally work with the same masseur and she knows when I’m competing, when I’m tapering and when I’m in a heavy training load, adjusting the massage accordingly. You have to put your trust in the massage – but at the time it didn’t sound right and the biggest mistake that I made was that I didn’t say anything. I did ask her how long she’s been doing massage (10 years, apparently) and decided I would run with it and put my trust in her, despite my intuition telling me it was all wrong.
So you can guess what happened next. Despite feeling fine during the race and at the finish, by the time we’d arrived back at our apartment I was limping. I tried to be optimistic, if I’d been at home I would have lined up a physio immediately, but by now I was in Dunsborough – a smaller town in WA – and two days later was in Augusta – an even smaller town in WA (to put it into context, neither of these two places have any traffic lights – the mark of a ‘big town’ in that part of the world).
I made an attempt to run slowly, but it clearly wasn’t working. I kept hoping I’d be able to get over it before VLM, but eventually I accepted it just wasn’t going to happen. So I missed that race – one of my year’s A races. I also missed the Euro Duathlon Champs, although I was probably going to withdraw from that anyway. I now have a qualifier for the World ITU Champs at Eton in a week’s time. I should be able to get round, but despite being as positive as possible, realistically I have Buckley’s Chance of qualifying there – currently I’m running a 27min 5k and this is an event where I need to be running a 20 minute 5k to get in the mix.
So it’s been a very disappointing and depressing period. But hopefully I’m on my way back now. I ran this week for the first time and while there’s still pain, it’s improving. I just have to just put it behind me and try and get in shape for my final A race of the season on 09 July. That’s another qualifier (standard distance this time) for the Worlds. I only have two months to get in shape for it, but I have been able to swim and bike during this period. Both are probably at a 7/10 in terms of my max potential, compared with 1/10 for running.
_________________
Tri blog | Follow my snowsports blog at Skipedia | Supported by Profeet Custom
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Half Marathon PB + Marathon GFA !!!
Fri Mar 17, 2017 9:11 pm iainm
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I keep touching wood as the last month has really gone remarkably well - way above my expectations with some great results. It's hard to be sure why, but it's certainly welcome.
Brighton Half Marathon - 1:24:11 - 158/8049 Overall, 14/581 AG
This really couldn't have gone any better, as it was a huge PB by 1m16s from my time at the same race in 2012. I didn't taper, other than taking the day before off and I'd run 87km in total in the week leading up to the race. On top of that, on the day there was a reasonable wind blowing. With that in mind, I decided to try and start slightly faster than my goal pace (in my mind, I was thinking of something around 1:26-1:27), so that when I reached the turn near Roedean and came back into the wind I'd be slightly ahead. But it turned out that I never really slowed down: I tucked in and drafted to the Hove Lagoon and then enjoyed the tailwind on the final 3 miles home. Yes I could have probably gone under 1:24, but hey, a PB is a PB, so delighted with that.
Thames Meander Marathon - 3:16:31 - 15/238 Overall, 5/35 AG
I'd entered this race because I'm only getting back from Australia 48 hours before the London Marathon and thought that was too much of a risk to my hitting the GFA time. I thought I might be a little undercooked - my longest run before this was 28km/2h30 and typically I'd run 3-5 x 3hr runs in my marathon prep. On the other hand I'd managed 3:22 last year in the middle of ultra training, so I set out with 3:18 in mind prepared to miss 3:20 if I faded after 22 miles. But I needn't have worried. Even though the trail was variable underfoot, with some muddy puddles and some 'meandering' along the trail to avoid pedestrians/dog walkers etc, I felt completely comfortable all the way. Again I really surprised myself, but delighted to log my 3rd fastest (of 20) marathon and now stoked up to try and set a PB at London.
Why?
Why have I managed to set a half PB without tapering for it and with a high volume going into the race? Any why did I manage a fast marathon without putting as many miles as normal? Any or all of these could be possible reasons:
1. Experience - I might be older, but I'm more experienced. That informs my training, my resting, my nutrition and preparation.
2. Weight - I'm around 2kg lighter than most of my racing career. That's apparently worth about 2mins over a half and 4mins over a marathon
3. Altitude - There were two weeks after my last trip to the Alps and the half, but I did run 100k at 1600m or higher in the 7 weeks before. That might have helped?
4. Gait - Since the physio advice I had after my knee injury at the CCC last year, and followed up by 3D analysis at Profeet, I have really focussed on hip mobility in my core work and translating that into my running style. I'm engaging my glutes more and lifting my knees more (I think) - it could be that I'm more efficient overall.
Whatever the reason, I'm super-happy about it and I'm now (jet lag not withstanding) going to go for a fast PB - maybe try for sub 3:10 at London. Who knows how that will go, but I don't have anything to lose! Nice position to be in.
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Tri blog | Follow my snowsports blog at Skipedia | Supported by Profeet Custom
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Thu Feb 23, 2017 9:47 pm iainm
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Yet again ages since my last blog. The good news is that I finished off 2016 with a couple of AG prizes - I took 1st MV (4th overall) at the F3 Windsor Duathlon in November and followed that up a couple of weeks later with 2nd MV (11th overall) at the Downland Devil (a 9 mile cross country race in Steyning).
I knew my plan was to step up to marathon training come the new year, so I had a couple of cracks at my local park runs in late December and managed 18:47 followed up by an 18:46 on Christmas Day. This turned out to be a marginally better age graded time than my 18:10 overall PB back in 2009, so theoretically it was my best 5k performance. It was also my 100th Parkrun (note to self – must get that celebratory tshirt!).
That 5k time was also impressive as it came over a couple of weeks when I built up from over three weeks to 40 and then 50 mile weeks. Since then the marathon training has been going to plan, with a four-week block averaging 50 miles, followed by a two-week block of 54 miles (with a recovery week in between). That volume was also boosted by the fact that ~60 miles was run at altitude – all between 1400-2000m - during three trips to the Alps.
Marathon Training
I’m feeling pretty tired just now, but I’m going to try a short 10 day taper before an attempt at a sub-3:20 (my GFA time) at the Thames Meander Marathon on March 11th. Based on my training I should stand a reasonably chance. The two factors that might hold me back are the relatively short taper, plus if it’s wet at all, then running along the towpath is not likely to be fast going.
But I’m going to give it a go, because that will take the pressure off my real ‘A’ race – the London Marathon on April 22nd. Notionally that should be very achievable with another training block under my belt. The only problem with this is the timing – I get back from Australia 48 hours before the race! God knows how I will be feeling, so it would be nice just to be able to run it without feeling I need to get a time.
Duathlon
Once that’s out the way, I have a week to recover for the European Duathlon Championships in Soria, Spain. There’s no way I’ll be in top form having knocked out a marathon a week before, but that’s just the way it’s worked out. It’ll still be my 4th time representing GB and good experience, as I can see me racing duathlon more often in the future.
And finally...triathlon
No rest for the wicked, because 3 weeks after that it’s my first draft-legal triathlon at Eton Dorney. This is a sprint qualifier for the Worlds. I have no idea how I’ll get on. Swimming is my weakest discipline and I haven’t done much of it this winter, so it’s entirely possible that I’ll come out of the water well behind and never be able to catch the normally-slower-but-drafting-faster cyclists ahead of me. Should be an interesting hour or so, however it works out.
After that I can take a breath and think about Olympic distance triathlon racing again. It’ll have been two years since my last Oly – that was a qualifier as well at Worthing and I’ll need to do better if I want to qualify this time round – in that one (in my AG) I did the 10th fastest run and 11th fastest bike split, but was only 22nd out of the water. It’s not like I don’t know where my weaknesses are, but I’ll give it a go and see what happens!
Two other notable experiences since my last blog:
Murren Inferno
This was a blast – my first downhill race. This is the largest amateur downhill race in the world and has been going on since 1928. For a first-timer, I did pretty well finishing 565th out of 1850 – that was good enough for a Silver medal (based on your % of the winner’s time in your AG). According to my Garmin I hit 97.8 kmh at top speed – that is one serious buzz!
3D Gait Analysis
I did this at Profeet and have posted elsewhere on Tritalk about it. Needless to say, I found it fascinating and useful. I’ve made a real effort to adjust my running gait to try and address a couple of the obvious weakness the analysis threw up. It’s pretty hard when you’re fatigued, but I guess that’s the point of drills and muscle memory. I’ll probably go for another check in 6 months’ time so will post again after that.
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Tri blog | Follow my snowsports blog at Skipedia | Supported by Profeet Custom
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Fri Nov 25, 2016 9:40 pm iainm
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It’s always good to update with good news – and I was delighted to pick up 1st Male Vet and 3rd Overall at the F3 Windsor Duathlon (standard distance) last weekend. Technically I was 4th overall, but as 3rd was Alice Hector (pro-female and previous 70.3 winner) I’m not too concerned about being ‘chicked’.
So the field was pretty (at around 50) and my times weren’t anything special, but I’d been feeling pretty flat in the weeks leading up to this, so it was a real confidence booster. My 10k time was a shade under 42min and the final 5k just under 21min. Those are decent times given that I’ve not done any ‘speed’ training recently - it was the first time I’ve run at that pace since early August.
I think I’d lost my confidence following the knee injury in the CCC. My physio made me realise that I just don’t have good gait or posture and I saw myself as broken, rather than imperfect.
2017 ideas
I’ve been thinking about my 2017 events and have made a few changes in my priorities. My early ‘A’ race is now going to be the London Marathon. I realised last week that turning 50 does have some advantages: my Good For Age time has now dropped to 3:20, which should be achievable given that I ran 3:14 11 months ago.
Seven days later I’m at the European Duathlon Championships. I’m unlikely to be at my peak, but I’ll do my best and it will be interesting to see how I get on in a good quality field. I’m certain I’ll be back for more international duathlon racing after my successful outings this year.
Another three weeks after that is a qualifier for the World Tri Champs at Sprint distance. I think it’s pretty unlikely I can transition from a fast marathon time to be competitive at triathlon at that level, particularly as it’s a drafting race, but I’ll give it a go. It’ll be interesting to try the drafting format and I’ll hopefully learn some useful points if I want to try it again.
Instead my triathlon ‘A’ race will be the Arundel standard distance in July. I’ve never thought of Olympic distance racing as my forte, but it fits my calendar and have qualified before (at Bala for the 2015 Euros). I’ll have to commit to swimming – if I’m to have any chance I need to be coming out of the water with less of a deficit on the leaders.
Closing out 2016
I don’t want to start running too much too early, and I’ve no multisports events lined up, so I’m going to see if I can get the final three Park Runs I need to complete to hit my century. Ideally no.100 would be run in a decent time (anything starting with 18 would be great!).
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Tri blog | Follow my snowsports blog at Skipedia | Supported by Profeet Custom
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CCC Race Report & Recovery
Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:06 pm iainm
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It’s now 6 weeks since the CCC - you can read my race report on the Men’s Running website, so I won’t go into any more details about that. There is also a video of the race that I put together that can be viewed here.
'Could have done better'
Although I finished with an injury, I was extremely happy to cross the line in 465th overall of over 2200 starters. That’s a huge step forward from 2011 when I finished 931st overall from 1900. The dropout rate was much higher this year – it being the hottest in the fourteen-year history of the UTMB - with 70% finishing, compared to 83% in 2011.
Obviously my first thought on analysing the results was how I could have finished quicker. I certainly lost at least 20 places due to my knee problems, but realistically it’s unlikely I could have trimmed more than half an hour off my time. But that’s the nature of racing. Once you’re over the line, I find I’m always thinking about how I could have gone faster.
Is the UTMB possible?
My 2017 plans are all about duathlon and triathlon, but simply completing the CCC gives me the points to enter again for 2018. It’s certainly in my mind that a 100 and a 50 before the end of 2018 would give me enough points to enter the UTMB ballot. Could I ever finish that race? The only way to find out is to enter it!
Back from injury
Just now I’m coming to the end of a relatively difficult period for me. No one likes being injured, but it’s taken me 5-6 weeks to feel comfortable running again. I made a couple of attempts to come back before the knee was strong enough, but in the end I realised I needed to give it a good long rest. After 12 days of no running at all, it now seems to be okay.
The shock is how much run fitness I’ve lost. The period of injury has been good for my swimming – I’m currently putting in more than I have all year at around 6k per week – and I’ve still been working on the bike, albeit without too many testing sessions. What I had forgotten however was how hard the process of recovering, or gaining, run fitness is. This week I ran at a fast ‘race pace’ of 4:00 min/km for the first time in two months. It was only 5 intervals of 2 minutes a time, but I felt it in my legs the next day. Today I ran my longest since the CCC – 15km at around 5:30 min/km – and feel as tired as I did after a 4 hour run back in August.
Subjectively I know I’m a long way from good race form. My weight is hovering around 78kg instead of 76kg, with bodyfat of 21% compared with 18% (saving you the maths, this means my lean muscle mass has gone down and body fat has gone up). I can also see that my heart rate is running higher than I would expect for certain standard sessions.
But that’s all fine. The CCC is a tough race and it’s probably good for me to have some down time. What’s annoying is that I’ve had to DNS a couple of races (a local 20 miler and a local tri), although David at Hermes Running (who is an accomplished ultrarunner) kindly let me transfer from November’s Thames Meander Marathon to next year.
Plans for the rest of 2016...
My focus is now on getting back into some racing form for the end of the year. I have the F3 duathlon at Eton Dorney in a month’s time, so a good training block should see my enter that in reasonable shape. I’m down for the Olympic distance – that might be a bit far for me to be competitive, but it will be a good tester.
...and for 2017
As far as the 2017 season goes, I’m still not sure what my ‘A’ race will be. I’ve booked my flights for the European Duathlon Champs (Olympic distance) in April and based on last year’s racing I stand a chance of a good finish in this (maybe top ten or 15 overall). However, I also have a charity place for the London Marathon the week before. I could target this and try and keep my Good For Age time ticking over, but at this stage I’m not sure how much focusing on ‘just’ running will impact on my duathlon performance. On top of that I’d like to try and qualify for the Triathlon World Champs in Rotterdam in September. That would be in the sprint distance, where I probably have the best chance and the qualifying races I can do are Eton in May and then Llandudno in June. Eton is probably a little soon to transition into short, sharp speed from marathon/oly duathlon, so Llandudno seems my best chance. The other random element of this is that Worlds Sprint racing is draft-legal on the bike – something I’ve never done. As a weaker swimmer, on the face of it this format doesn’t really suit me.
N+1
However, it’s hard to know how it will work out in practice. Some races I go to I see people blatantly drafting anyway, so it may actually help me. Plus at a venue like Eton, with so many laps, there could be opportunities to join faster groups from other waves. With time trial bikes not allowed, it also gives me an excuse to buy another bike… 
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Tri blog | Follow my snowsports blog at Skipedia | Supported by Profeet Custom
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About Iain |
I'm a 50 year old triathlete and runner, competing since 1992. I have competed in 119 triathlons and 20 marathons (including 6 ultras). I am supported by Profeet - sports footwear and orthotics specialists.
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20167Goals |
- GFA time at VLM
- Qualify for World Triathlon Champs
- AG podium local tris
- Stay under 76kg |
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