I competed in the European Flowboarding Champs Last weekend. I went into it knowing I was quite good but wasn’t expecting much so didn’t take it massively seriously. The venue was great, it was held in Castleford Xcape.
Friday night was the warm up stages, you were allowed to ride to get used to the wave (most waves are different from one another so takes time to adapt to). I was told it was going to be a long day, so to keep myself busy I entered Men’s Flowboard, Junior Flowboard and Junior Bodyboard, so a very busy day ahead!
After the seeding rounds at around 3pm the Heats started and the events got under way. The best 2 out of 8 from every heat went through to the Semi-finals, I got through along with last year’s Silver Medallist and last year’s raining Junior Champion and a few others to the next round. After few hours and a few more rounds I found myself in the finals for all 3 of my events! There are 4 riders in each of the finals.
Body boarding was up first. I would of liked to of come in the top 3 but I knew that the 'cough' routine I was doing, had hardly any tricks that would actually get me any points. So I suppose I should be happy with 4th, Sam Atkins was the winner of Body board, which is good because he is a good mate of mine and he was easily the best out there.
After some of the other finals like the masters and the women’s competition was the Junior Flowboard, now this is the event I was hoping to place highly in, but I was up against Sam again, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy... We both did very well in the first rounds and it all came down to how good our final rounds were. I thought about it too much and rushed too much and had a devastating (rubbish) final run, so all I did then was sit back and watch myself come second. But the victory was well deserved and taken by Sam...
Last event of the day was the open Mens Flowboard... The Finalist were Me, Sam, Tommy and Quincy. Everyone kind of knew that Quincy was going to win, so the battle was on for 2nd 3rd and 4th... It could have gone either way. Sam, once again had very convincing runs and smashed it and he knew and I knew he was coming second.
Annoyingly it seemed to go wrong for me again, (note to self, must put a routine together next time) not landing enough tricks and falling on easy tricks too...!! I was fighting for 3rd and I managed to bag that place.
Overall it was a great day and very well organised. I plan to do this next year, Sam.(and Quincy).. watch out..!!
I made a little video, Check it out...!!
On Last Thursday evening, it was the final of the Box End off-road Triathlon Series. It was nearly perfect conditions, and bit cold but at least the ground was dry, for once. I had only won one of these events and was out there to win it once again.
I was happy with my swim time which was going to put me in a good position for the bike. Sadly I had a nightmare transition, putting my running shoes on... Duurrr...!! I finally got in my cycling shoes and was setting off for the bike in something like 8th place.!! Luckily I had my biking head on that day and stormed through the field and by half way through the bike I was leading... Onto the run in first and I am happy to say, It stayed that way all the way to the finish line, crossing the line in a course record time of 58.02, nearly a whole minute in front of 2nd place Rob Hammond. Coming through strongly in 3rd place was Adam Gibson (first out of the water).
After the event; a few days later, Adam was in contact with me and offered me some swimming coaching and training. I jumped at this offer and met up with him last Tuesday evening for my first session.
Follow my progressions on my new ‘ProHelp’ tab. On this tab I plan to show you that natural ability and talent is simply not enough, you do need that extra help, a team behind you. It's not just swimming, biking or running pros, it’s also the guys that know what we should eat and when or those that know how our bodies should work and when broken, help fix them and help recover! I intend to do a continuous update on this page, as and when things happen just to show you what help is out there for everyone.
Follow my progressions on my new ‘ProHelp’ tab. On this tab I plan to show you that natural ability and talent is simply not enough, you do need that extra help, a team behind you. It's not just swimming, biking or running pros, it’s also the guys that know what we should eat and when or those that know how our bodies should work and when broken, help fix them and help recover! I intend to do a continuous update on this page, as and when things happen just to show you what help is out there for everyone.
I have been in contact with a Alex and Mike, together they are insight nutrition. They offered me a very comprehensive package. I am really looking forward to working with them and will be updating the ‘ProHelp’ page so that you can see if what they do could help you too!!
Thursday Nights are TT nights with the cycle club, I have not done one for a while, I wasn’t expecting to go out there and smash it but I was very pleased that I was only 3 seconds off my PB, I had decided to run 'off the bike' it's really good practice for race days, so I went for a short 800m run. It was quick.
Around 20 mins later I was straight into some speed running interval training. 4 x 800m at a very quick pace; 95% effort on all of them. After every single one I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do another but with a few quick blasts of booost I was ready for the next one. Shows I’m in good shape and ready for the National Relays tomorrow.
I have been using booost a lot whilst I have been training and can already see improvements in my training and performances.
Busy few weeks coming up...
National Relays Tomorrow.
I have a new FB Page; ‘Tom stead multi me’ stop by and like it please, Thanks
.
