1 October 2015

2015 Round Up!

You might want to get yourself comfortable... This is a fairly long post!

Before I get into my season - I'd just like to say a special thank you to those who have supported and sponsored me throughout this season! Corley Cycles, Pedal Potential, GreenlightPT, NiceTri Events, Zone3, iPrintStuff and the of course the obvious shout out to friends and family!


The 2015 season has had ups and downs. I've had some good races, some bad races and some races that went really, really badly!

My work picked up this year and I couldn't find the balance between racing, training, uni work and working at iPrintStuff!

I've made the decision to knock Uni on the head so I can focus on racing and working! So yeah - technically I'm a drop out! So what!!

Enough of that rubbish! My 2015 season consisted of a good start, rubbish middle and an average end!

Went to the Elite Duathlon Champs and found myself finishing 9th Junior. The weather was absolutely awful - which played to my strengths when I cycled my way from 50th to 4th on the bike! Happy Tom.



Then in Madrid I managed to get myself the title of 'European Sprint Duathlon Champion' which was great! The race suited me down to the ground... Slightly short run and a ridiculously technical 2 lap cycle! To keep it short, I worked my way up to 1st overall after the bike with the fastest bike split by over 50 seconds then held on for 4th overall, 2nd Brit and 1st in Age-Group!

Then went to NiceTri, St Neots and got myself another title... This time it was the 'British Sprint Triathlon Champion' which was nice. Great event ran by the awesome NiceTri Events paired with Chris at NiceTri Event Solutions!


Oh yeah - Then a lorry driver pulled out on me (whilst driving), wrote off my car and put me out of training for a while!


Then comes the middle of the season. Now then. The Europeans were held at Geneva! Great location - fairly well run event, but I had a poor lead up to it and that resulted in a very bad result! My swim was off the pace, my legs had no power on the bike (still had a top 10 fastest bike split) and I was heavy on the run resulting in 14th in Age-group whereas last year I was the European Champ! That goes to show how much of a bad race I had! But not all is bad - got a sweet photo out of it:



Moving on...

Then I come to the end of the season. Chicago World champs was my main focus at the end of everything! I feel I had trained really well in the 8 weeks leading up and I was feeling ready!
I was in great form, running a 17 flat 5km, swimming really well in training and local races and although I hadn't had a stand out performance on the bike in a while, I felt strong the weekend before Chicago!


The buzzer sounded for the Sprint race and I was off... I was a bit worried about the heat as me and heat have always had a bad relationship, but  non the less I was swimming, feeling really good! I was then punched in the eye by another brit (I'm sure it was just an accident) which out me off a little, bit its all good! Came out the swim a little down on the leaders. I then put in a great bike split - worked my way up form 70th to 6th place having the 2nd fastest split in my AG and 7th on the day! I would like to make it clear how pissed off I am with the Brits and Mexicans when it comes to drafting! Nearly all the Brits I passed where sitting on a wheel!! What are you doing!!
In one case - I'd caught this Brit for 40 seconds in 3k and somehow he made his was into T2 a few second behind me... I even heard the draft buster motorbike shouting his name, telling him to back off the wheel in front of him (which was me!). In my eyes - that's a penalty straight away. Oh well. I'm not going to mention his name, but he went on to do very well!!
I got onto the run, and felt amazing... for a few hundred metres. Then me and the 30 degree heat had a fight and I ended up slipping backwards and found myself way down the field and finished in a disappointing 24th place! 


The Standard race went differently. The swim went bad. The Bike went alright (a lot less drafting this time) and then it came to the run and I was running amazing for 5k, then again, slipped down the ranks. Ended up coming 10th in my AG and 1st European so I was pleased with the result!

Final race of the Season was Brigg Sprint. I'd done a Park Run the day before and went easy and finished with a 17.38! Felt really good!
Brigg sprint was a 400m pool swim, 20km bike and a 5km run! I had the 2nd fastest swim on the day, fastest bike split and one of the fastest runs to finish 2nd overall, 8 seconds behind the leader. Very pleased with this result so I can finish the season feeling good about my last few races!



Now its winter training time... This winter I will be focusing on Swimming and Running, but will still be smashing the bike to get those fastest bike splits!
Looking forward to some draft legal/elite races next year!

Would just like to say another thank you to all my sponsors and supporters: Corley Cycles, Pedal Potential, GreenlightPT, Zone3, Fusion Sport UK and the rest of you guys!