Early Season Racing

The blog has slipped somewhat but I'm still here and still have the goals in place.

I've had the usual assortment of early season races; a couple of cold duathlons, a half marathon and a pool sprint triathlon. My early season form has been pretty good without really setting any houses on fire. My running has been strong but my cycling has been a bit ordinary, largely due to me not getting my bike out on the roads.

The first race of the season was the Dorney Sprint Duathlon in early February. It was a bright and very breezy day at Dorney Lake and pretty cold. I managed the first 5km runs in 20:23 and 21:16 and the 20km bike in 33:36, but my transitions were slow. I finished 5th Vet which I was quite pleased with over sprint distance.

My next race was the Althorp Standard Duathlon at the start of March. I had a pretty good race here and won my Age Group and finished 18th overall. My run splits were 39:40 and 19:18 but my bike was a little disappointing at 1:15 (the bike was a bit long and the run was a bit short). Still, a win's a win and I received a nice trophy so pretty chuffed. My wife, Rachael, qualified for the GB team for the ETU sprint duathlon at the same event so it was a great day all round for the Slacko household.

Later in March was the MK Half Marathon. This was the first real test of the year as I was chasing a long coveted sub 1:30. Despite the usual horrendous weather this event seems to be cursed with, I had a great run and recorded a 1:27:13. Almost as pleasing was the recovery from this race, no soreness whatsoever.

Then came a 3 week holiday to visit family in Australia where training suffered somewhat but a very good time was had!

Last weekend I did a pool sprint at Bedford. It toom me a minute longer than it did last October with the bike taking 2 minutes longer. I was 6th in my AG and initially a bit disappointed but there were positives to take out of the race and I know what I need to work on.

Tomorrow I race in the Milton Keynes Marathon. My marathon PB is 3:14:00 set in the same event last year - I'm fairly confident I'll go under that.

TTFN!!!