It wouldn’t be a Glentress Duathlon without...

Having some kind of mechanical, crashing into a tree, face planting on the run, hearing Andy Barlow from Dirt School whooping as tears past you on the descents! And most importantly having a freaking awesome time regardless of how the race goes!

Yesterday I won my first race of the season, the long Glentress Duathlon, an off-road duathlon, 13km bike and 10km run. To say the least it was not as smooth a race as I had planned or hoped for! Standing on the start line I felt fine and ready to go. Not long into the ride it just became more of a battle between me, my legs and the trail. Gears that the weight of my legs would usually just turn over just felt like hell. I was feeling somewhat like Jens Voigt wanting to shout “Shut up legs!” I just couldn’t find the flow I would usually have, found myself getting thrown about instead of soaking up the bumps. Needless to say I have it my all but just found myself feeling flat and not really going anywhere but it’s a strange feeling cause I was still loving every minute, a really good place to find yourself! About 2km from the end this happened... 

Not a Bike problem... Rider Fail! 

A moment of panic... soon settled and just though it’s not over till the finish line... Not like I snapped my chain or had a catastrophic mechanical, my bike was still ride able!  Just had a wee laugh to myself and thought to myself “you’re really making this difficult for yourself”.

Me leaving Transition Making Up Time on the Run

Smooth through transition, probably a couple minutes down on the leader though. I know I’m in great running form and really very quickly I made up the gap. Had a cheeky wee tumble overtaking the race leader Martin Graham at the time, little embarrassing but taking risks is part of who I am sometimes they pay off and sometime not... Haha! Apart from that fairly similar feeling on the run to the bike, going fast but just not having quite my usual spring.  

Finally here is a picture of my new bike! A massive THANKS goes to Ronde Bicycle Outfitters in Edinburgh for sorting me out with my Niner Air 9! Awesome guys in the shop and their coffee is worth a trip alone for sure. Bike rides amazing, now the dude sitting on it needs to learn how to use it properly... and not crash into trees! (Doesn’t usually happen... honest!). Probably wasn’t the best preparation going from riding a 160mm travel bike to a hardtail after one ride! 

The New Ride in Ronde!

Going Pro

It’s Official! On Tuesday I found out this year I am a Pro Athlete. I will be racing Xterra as a pro this year, something I have dreamed of for a while now! Being able to stand on the start line as a pro or when someone asks me what I do... I can say “I’m a pro triathlete”. To Celebrate this milestone in my athletic career my house mates and myself thought a small celebration was in order. 

Chris, my mountain bike training partner cooking our celebratory pancakes... 

To finish off the big news here is one of my favourite pictures from my last race Carnethy 5, thanks to Bob and Lesley Marshall! If anyone missed out on some cracking action shots from the race the gallery can be found at https://picasaweb.google.com/100951388816249026435

On another note, I have a new steed which will be my off-road racing machine, just waiting on a few components coming in the post before it is unveiled! 

A Perfect Day? Mud... Sweat... Hills... and Suffering.

Alarm set for 8, bit of a lie in compared to normal but today is important! In truth I work up at 7.30... a good sign of nerves. iPod on, headphones in, Pendulum my morning choice of fuel. The race starts the moment I get out of bed, coffee, strength 5, follows not long after the bass kicks in, along with a half bowl of cereal. Short pause, sit down on the sofa, focus, start working through mobility and activation work to make sure when I need it, they will fire. By now I've moved on to something a little more calm to relax, Ben Howard setting the mood to chill for a few hours. Car journey to the School hall, driven by Dad to allow me to stay in my zone. Heading into registration, some classic dance tunes keep me focused; remind me of good times while working round checking out the competition and chatting to friends. 30 minutes before the start headphones stay in with very few words spoken, work through my warm up, now 5 min till the start jacket off, trousers off, headphones out, wander over to the start line, good lucks and encouragement of the competition said. No looking back now, no worries only one thing to do, run as hard as I can for as long as I can!

Chasing Jethro up the 1st climb. Image courteous of Mark Johnston.

Start of the last Climb through the Gully. Image courteous of Mark Johnston.

Racing, Competition and Hurting was tough! But I love it. All was going to plan, kept myself in contention for my goal of top 5, maybe ambitious for only my 3^rd hill race and the biggest hill race in Scotland, but I’m not one to give in easily and always aiming high! I ran most of the race in 7^th place Just behind Jethro Lennox, a name I’ve started hearing more and more in my hill running experiences, not a bad place to be sitting. Last and hardest climb fast approaching, actually starting to get into somewhat of a place where I’m feeling really good and clawing back the gap every step, much to my surprise as these guys have done some of the races across the sky, which I have massive respect for. Confidence surging through me as I closed the gap and have run into 5^th place, however shortly celebrated as half way down the last descent I totally blew up and hard, came to a stop felt dizzy, safe to say I reached my limit, probably due to nerves killing my appetite beforehand meaning all I had eaten was the half bowl of cereal... Recomposed myself focused on the finish and survived to hold onto 7^th. Looking back now something I’m really very happy with, beating some really top quality athletes and gave it my all! 

At the clinging onto life...

My Squadra Procini Team mate Prasad had an awesome race finishing in 2^nd, easily the strongest Scot on the day! 

Prasad leading the chasers of Orlando. Image courteous of Mark Johnston.