Hit and Miss

Well May finished with a fluster and a 10hr week, June on the other hand has started with a bit of a splutter. The month started well enough last Sunday with the Burnham on Sea Sprint Triathlon.
Barring a total disaster for my old sparring partner Kit Stokes I was only going to be racing for 2nd place. The days of challenging him have long gone, he may swim like a brick, but once he's out of the water he's awesome. Look out for him going sub 9hrs at Chellenge Roth this year.
The Swim - 4 of us started in a lane together (including Kit), we seeded ourselves and being the quickest I headed off first with the others following at 10 second intervals. Kit was last to leave 30secs behind. I caught him after 3 lengths and then caught him again near the end so followed his feet to the wall. 500m and out of the pool in 6:49, a pb for the race.
The Bike - A small shower just before we started made the early corners a bit tricky but that feeling soon disappeared as the road dried. I got stopped for a few seconds at a set of traffic lights but they're accounted for in the results. Other than that the ride was pretty uneventful, except for Kit (grrr!!). I'd got 90seconds on him, could I hold on ahead of him uptil T2? Could I heck!!!! Just 7miles had passed when I heard what sounded like a low flying fighter plane by my side, it was Kit on his new Cervelo P3C with his disc wheel humming away. A few seconds later he was away ahead of me - git!!! That was the last I saw of him until I rolled into towards T2 and he was running out.
The Run - It was solid enough without actually being anything special. I was quicker than last year and this was really the big difference between the 2 years times, I was still a minute slower than Kit who went on to set a new course record of 57:52. I worked solidly but just failed to push it hard enough to crack the hour mark for the first time.
The Result - I managed to hold 2nd place with a time of 1:00:12 which shows that although training has been lacking there's obviously something hiding away in there. Now I just need to work out how to make the pace last for 4 or 5 times the distance.

After the race the week fell apart somewhat. For my work I had to spend a week in (not so) sunny Bedford. This involved lots of hours, working through from Monday to Saturday and also lots of company paid food & drink. To say that I expect to have put on a couple of pounds is an underestimation. I only managed one run on Tuesday night where I found a nice Country Park to run in, at least it would have been nice if Bedford hadn't just recieved a months rain in 48hrs. There were times where Wellington boots would have been more use than my trainers. It was right up my street though, I loved it. After my run I made my way to the Hotel room where I preceeded to stand fully clothed under the shower and turn 'everything' a lovely shade of dirt brown.
The weekend has seen things pick up slightly although I can't pretend to have enjoyed either yesterdays 1hr run, or todays 3h45m bike ride. At least the fact that they're done has helped my training volume look lightly more respectable.
Hopefully, now that I'm back at work and (for the moment) working more sensible hourse then there's the chance of a slight improvement in training - we'll see I guess.