After going over my last calf niggle and cold I was delighted, I have to say, just to be on the start line at the Asics Tuffman in Sussex last Saturday. It was the scene of my worst performance in the series last year and I'd be the first to admit that the technical, ever changing cambered nature of the bike course is not to my liking and so my goal was just to get through it and see what happens (note to all the athletes I coach: never do this for a race..!)
The race was completely different to last year's muddy conditions in that everything was frozen solid and so, actually, the bike leg became much faster. Not that that helped me! I had a reasonable run and then just didn't get going on the bike. I clawed back a few places on the final run and 9th was, well.... I finished. I'm happy in that respect. Paul Davies had a great run and it was looking like his day until he had contact lens problems and the race in general was a real demonstration of the strength in depth of British cross du/tri racing at the moment.
Richard Stannard continued his domination of the series this winter by winning and Kate Robson, who was in my Worlds team in Spain last September also continued hers by winning again.
Over the next few weeks I'm going to try to build to the final round, the Trailman and see if I can end the series on a high. We'll see.
In and around that I've been making plans for the next few weeks and these include doing the Kingswood Cross Du in Kent, then the QX Cross Du in Reading, followed by the Trailman and then the road bound (Argh!!) Bison Challenge in my beloved Chilterns before heading to Club La Santa for two different training camps back to back. Bring on the sun, sand and green team sandwiches. And Fries. And a large Coke. And an ice cream. Spot of crazy golf? Is that the time? Doppio Espresso please... Man I'm hungry.