27th April 2012

What a week ! Guernsey's Lee Merrien to run the Olympic Marathon

After the dejection we all felt on top of Lee's own personal heartbreak at having failed to achieve the strict UKA Olympic qualifying criteria at last weekend's Virgin London Marathon, it is a wonderful end to the week with news of the successful appeal.  The fruits of all our campaigning in supporting the appeal process and the work done in promoting Lee's case in the social media just goes to show that you can change the world once in a while.

UKAthletics announcement.  Athletics Weekly news.

5th April 2012

Further to my update below I have also entered Wimbleball IronMan UK 70.3 and what's more I have raced duathlon! After a mad March of accompanying the children to various races in Jersey, Birmingham and Ilton (Somerset) I have managed to get a race in of my own. Training has been going solidly with some great weather helping out so it was going to be interesting to see how it went. What's more I was going to up against 2 or 3 athletes I coach.

So the scene was April Fool's Day - Sunday 1st April at Pembroke Bay and the final Duathlon of the Guernsey Tri Club's Duathlon series. 3mile - 20mile - 3mile was a good distance for a proper test. First run - 2 laps saw a group of four of us break away - Matt Dorrian - rapidly becomnig a classy duathlon specialist, GB Age Grouper Triathlete Ben Creasey - who is off to Israel for the Euro Tri Champs next month and Nathan Gosling who is also a GB duathlon Age Grouper.

I was saving some energy for the second half of the bike as a keen NE wind was going to hinder us all the way up the coast.  So it was cat and mouse all the way down the coast to the turn point and then the real race began.  Matt was in the lead setting a tough tempo and initial thoughts about attacking soon changed into survival - the further we went up the coast the more I was going into the red to try and keep pace.  I was then hoping that I'd be stronger on the run but that was not to be.  Matt opened up a gap of 10mtrs around the first turn point but with the tail wind back to transition I managed to get back on terms. Second lap I was feeling a bit more comfortable but all I could muster was a brief surge on the return leg which Matt covered and held to the end.  he took a well deserved win by a couple of seconds.

Nathan had dropped back a little on the end of the bike course but a solid run kept him in third, but Ben Creasey suffered in the wind on the bike but still managed a solid 4th.  Overall I'm pleased with the result.  No specific duathlon training, and only a couple bricks under the belt and I turned in a satisfactory performance.  It tells me what I need to do next.

Pictures courtesy of Marc Dyke - see his Flickr set.

Lance and Ironman

13th February 2012

Well hats off to Lance Armstrong a truely awesome debut at Ironman Panama 70.3. Only Olympic medalist Bevan Docherty could beat him - and then only just. The guys he beat reads like a who's who of triathlon. You'd be foolish to bet against Lance come Kona time!

Hampshire Cross Country Champs

7th January 2012

First proper race of the year and first Hampshire Cross Country for a few years. Knee is still a work in progress but at least I turned in a respectable performance finishing in 23rd place. Truth be known that was my longest post comeback continuous run - so just as well I started steady. Certainly felt the lack of structured run training on Harbour hill

Louise Perrio went into the race as defending champion but with Olympic Marathon hopeful Louise Damon and Southampton's Ceri Mitchell to deal with, a place on the podium in 3rd was a fine reward - especially as she only conceded 40 seconds to race winner Damon.

The team did well with marathon man Lee Merrien taking the win over England international John Beattie. With Steve Dawes 7th, Mike Wilesmith 18th, Tricky Robilliard 27th and Dan Smith in 40th we finished 3rd team. Not quite as good as hoped but still a good result.

Alex had a great run in the u13 Boys finishing just off the podium in 4th and Katie had a convincing win in the u15 girls.

I have been off line for a little while with not much to talk about due to the knee problems that blighted 2011. Well hopefully that is under control if not behind me and I'll be back in 2012 for a more memorable year.  I've entered Etape du Tour Part 2 - 200k of Pyrennean climbs including the legendary Tourmalet so lots of bike work to do in preparation. 

I have been thinking about what to do with triathlons in 2012 - my swim has progressed this winter thanks in no small measure to the work with Sam Gosling (was Herridge).  Some video analysis of where I was going wrong and her continued encouragement has lead to a bit of a break through.  Now I just need to capitalise on it.  With the endurance work needed for Etape Part 2, I think another 70.3 would suit me best but had been worried about the amount of running required.