October 2015. My winter training properly kicks off tomorrow; I thought I had better get something written down before I run out of time whilst enjoying my last few hours! I’ve had three easier weeks of training and a week completely off and definitely feel ready to get back into everything. I’m not sure when I last wrote a blog related to training and racing but I think it was before the season had even started. I have actually started two blogs since but managed to delete them whilst in the process of writing them, slightly frustrating!
2015 consisted of:
2 olympic distance triathlons
4 sprint distance triathlons
3 aquathlons
9 open water swim races
A handful of crit races on the bike
Less than a handful of Parkruns
My real reason for the lack of blogging this is that I like to be honest with my blogs and when things aren’t going particularly well and you don’t want the rest of the world to know it’s easier to stay quiet and keep race blogs to the 140 characters of twitter. Though without dwelling on the negatives too much let’s look at the positives first.
European Aquathlon Champion – I headed back to Cologne at the end of June to put on my GB kit and see how I coped with the pressure of being ranked number 1. Thankfully I seemed to cope ok! I had a great swim and held onto my lead to take the win by 24 seconds, a great weekend and job done
Hertfordshire Sprint Triathlon Champion – My first race of the season was in May at the inaugural Herts Champs race put on by Active Training World. It was nice and local for me and I was pleased to come away with a number of trophies!
British Triathlon Super Series – 6th overall – better than last year’s 7th, so we’ll call that an improvement!
Blenheim Triathlon – first out of the water in my first elite race of the year got things off to a good start and I held on for 6th place. My first triathlon on my Dassi!
Liverpool Triathlon – and improvement on last year’s DNF is probably the only positive I can take from this race, once again just out of the prize money (this seems to happen a lot!) I finished in 9th
London Triathlon – out of the water in the front pack in a world class field, I held on with the chase pack on the bike which was probably my biggest achievement. I got round the run course to come home in 8th place, again an improvement on the 9th from 2014 (every little helps!)
European Cup Chateauroux – I had my first ever ETU Cup race in July, whilst the final result on paper doesn’t look anything special I learnt a lot about racing at an international level – it’s hard, very hard. I was first out of the water and had a good first half of the bike! We’ll leave it at that!
World Aquathlon Championships – After changing my mind all year I decided to book and head to Chicago two weeks before I flew out there. A brilliant trip with an average race result. It’s the World Champs, it’s never going to be easy. Another good swim coming out with two world class WTS swimmers I headed out of T1 in 1st, I felt strong on the run but quite frankly 4 weeks of run training isn’t enough to take on the world’s best and I just wasn’t fast enough on the day. Prize money paid down to 5th, obviously I finished 6th!
Hever Castle Triathlon – My final race of the season and first time racing one of the Castle Series races. My main aim for this race was to try and win a bit of money, I did so by finishing third and coming first out of the water, not far off the lead men, and so winning the swim bonus
Things I’ve learnt this year!
If you can’t walk you can’t run – I’m still struggling with my plantar fascia injury. I’ve managed a bit of running this year, well 4 weeks in the build up to Chicago, but other than that it’s been pretty non-existent.
Racing on minimal run training is hard – funny that?!
My swimming is close to where I want it to be and is no doubt my strongest discipline now, I’ve still got lots to do if I want to be a front pack WTS swimmer but it’s on its way. It won’t happen overnight but I know what I need to do and where I want to be
Drafting racing is not easy. It’s hard work being in a front/chase pack, of course it is, its racing. I got dropped in a couple of races this year so I still need to work on my bike handling and group riding skills
Non-drafting Olympic distance racing is also hard, especially when you have barely ridden your TT bike all year
Make sure you know the course; I don’t know what happened in Chicago I was in my own little world and seemed to want to run into the finish after my first run lap rather than head on to the second lap. I think this cost me a fair bit of time and probably one place. Numpty
I’m working hard with my physio Gordon at The Bosworth Clinic and I’m determined to get to the bottom of my PF problems. Gordon was a huge help in the build up to Chicago along with physio Cath Tomkies and massage therapists Simon Bowler & Kenny Smith. I just want to race at my best which I know I am nowhere near; I would just love my body to be able to give me that chance. Hopefully I can get there this winter (frustratingly this is what I was saying last October!) and be ready to hit 2016 fit and healthy and injury free.
My 'flying banana' from Dassi has been a dream to ride this year, a huge thank you to Stuart, Charlotte and all the team. It’s a great help to have them looking after me!
I left my job in Oxford in June this year after a new opportunity came up and since then I’ve been working with Runnymede Osteopaths at their clinics in Egham and Virginia Water. I now save a huge amount of time on travel which means more time for training and recovery! It’s brilliant to work with a fantastic team of osteopaths in great clinics.
A big thank you to all my other sponsors and supporters who help make things a little easier – Snugg, Bonk Athletic, Pedal Cover, Swimzi, Better You, Sense of Nutrition, Bounce Balls, Elete & Stroke Crank and Scarper.
For race videos etc please check out my blog and for 2015 race photos please check out the gallery. Hopefully I'll have some better news to bring over the winter and some more regular updates. Until then happy training
Hannah