Another cold, a district team title, another win, a course record and a calf injury (busy...!)

After the disappointment of missing out on both the first two Asics races my ill tempered and disobedient body decided to throw in a cold for good measure which was washed down with yet another sinus infection and a liberal sprinkling of antibiotics. 

Happy New year by the way! 

So,  seemingly clear of that I managed to drag my body around the county XC champs in Stevenage to help St Albans Striders to the team title as the 5th counter of six. I was on the last two days of antibiotics at the time and so as I have always found when on them, my powers of recovery were zero and I was subsequently  treated to a good 3 days of being only just able to walk.

Recovered in time by last weekend I took to the start line of a race I have never done before, the Waddenhoe Quadmire Duathlon in Buckinghamshire. It was a great race and on a really tidy short sharp circuit. Its a classic example of where I believe Duathlon should be headed in this country and in a way it is much more in keeping with the continental style of sprint race based on a short, sharp, feature packed course.  I actually felt great and went on to win and set a new course record but could really feel my left calf tightening over the final run in my spikes on the rough, frozen ground and now, a week on, I have not been able to run at all. It is healing but two days before the defence of my Wildman title in the Asics series it's all up in the air again..... 

Hey ho. We take the rough with the smooth in sport and as I always say, without the troughs there are no such things as peaks. It's all relative! I hope to see some of you on Saturday in the sands of Hankley Common. 

Looking forward to a bit more road in 2012

        I did two crits in 2011. One at Hillingdon and one at Paulhaguet in Central France. I loved the French one so much (despite the kicking..) as it took me back to racing there in my early 20s and so in 2012 I'm going to be riding in a few select races for VC Riom back in the Auvergne. 10 years on since I was last out there, I'll only be doing a few races but now that I am accustomed to life in the mud there's a part of me that just cant wait to feel the roll of tarmac again. 
        The smell of melting tar in the July sun, the ding of the last lap bell, the old boy who steps out into the bunch on his way to get his pastis, the fading light of a nocturne in the middle of nowhere, the prime that never was and the roll call of people you befriend in hope of being fed.
Class of 2001, I salute you!

Asics Mudman - Fail.....Doh!

        So, having yacked up my chances at the first round I put in a whole 10 days of really good sessions and was feeling great again right up until I came down with a cold 3 days before the Mudman. It's Saturday afternoon now and the race will have been and gone and I have to admit I feel pretty miffed that it's got away from me again having had to retire with a mechanical in the same race a year ago. 
        In these situations I have to ask myself what I would be saying to one of my own athletes and as always it would be about taking the rough with the smooth, enjoying the troughs because without them there are no peaks etc etc...  I suppose I've been doing it long enough to know better but that's what keeps us coming back isn't it?  There's always a "what if?" and an "If only" and that's what makes sport so addictive I suppose.  Still. I've filled my morning with periodically emptying my head of the cheese farm's fresh produce and in between incessant snout wipeage I have managed to plot of the rest of my winter Cross Du programme. And here it is:
 December:

18^th Merida Brass Monkeys 4hr  enduro -Ash Ranges C

NYEve: Hillingdon winter series D

January:

8^th Herts Cross Country champs  C

15^th Waddenhoe Quadrathlon (xc run, river kayak, MTB, xc run) C

21^st  Asics WILDMAN (10/18/5 Cross) A

February:

4^th Asics TOUGHMAN.  A

11^th  Chiltern League XC, Wing C

19^th Sunday Lge XC Royston.  C

26^th Friston Forest Cross Du. B

March:

10^th Asics TRAILMAN series finale A

18^th Mud and Mayhem Cross Du, Thetford  B                                             

                                                                             It's a nice mix of run, bike and cross Duathlon races and the Quad should be great fun but really it's all about the 3 Asics races. I don't know what my chances are with the series now after this bad start so if anything it means I'll have the freedom to go all out to try for an individual win and what better place to start than on the sands of Hankley Common where I won last year.  I hope to see some of you there. It's going to be an exciting year in the sport of cross Duathlon. Although I cant say anything yet I am involved in a number of new initiatives that are aiming to bring cross Duathlon on to yet another level. Humanrace have got it spot on with their Asics series and thankfully other organisers are sitting up and taking note.           

Asics Iceman - Fail

Race report : Returned with race number 1 as last years Rd 1 winner.  Felt awesome, started strong, got gap, went wrong way, rejoined, surged, puked, rejoined, puked, dizzy, stopped.  DNF 


On the plus side, I came 4th in the evening's World Pudding championships with a zingy Chocolate orange cheesecake.  

Cross prep building pace

          With a week to go to the start of my beloved Asics offroad series everything seems to be heading in the right direction. After a 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 2nd  in the Cross Duathlons in September and October my final phase of preparation has seen me mixing it up with some intense training and unusual races. Last weekend I competed in the Herts league 7k Orienteering and despite knowing the venue like the back of my hand and running like a loony between checkpoints I still only managed 4th place. These top orienteers are something else to behold. They're running as fast if not faster than me but reading a map and navigating at the same time where as I was virtually standing still reading the map and then legging it.  Still, when you consider that there were about 25 controls there is no way I would have run 25 intervals that hard on a Saturday morning so it's more wood on the fire which is good. The next day I decided to take to my mountain bike for the fast Sunday ride from St Albans and boy did I pay for it. Thanks boys! ;-)
            This weekend followed a similar structure with an 8k cross country race yesterday and then the same group ride today. The cross country was incredibly hard (which was nice) and for the group ride today I opted for the road bike and some payback for all the pain they put me through last week. How very dare they! It's Sunday afternoon now and as always it's following a familiar Espresso fuelled structure : once I've finished writing this I'll be tapping away finishing off this week's training programmes as I look after the Cox stable of ever improving athletes. As always I enjoy reading the texts and emails of how people have done in any scheduled races this morning and this week it was great to read that Carl Ferri is back with a bang winning the Hillingdon duathlon having been unable to race Du all season with calf issues. He's had fun becoming a road racer under my tutelage and now it's great to see him back in the king of sports and a win is always a great boost. Well done Carl. 

ASICS Off Road Race Series Promo