After the race in France I found extra enthusiasm for training and put in some decent sessions for the last World Cup in Mexico. My preparation wasn’t perfect though as I still couldn’t run as much as I would like, hadn’t done my usual SRM sessions and I couldn’t heat acclimatise. I wasn’t too worried about the weather as I always perform in hot conditions and do not suffer badly with jetlag.

I assumed the bike course would be flat as I haven’t come across a hilly one in Mexico. However I had a bit of a shock when I almost rode the course the day before the race and found it had a steep hill in it and it was to be 8 laps. I say almost rode the course as on the Saturday afternoon it was still being built and !! The run was a tough one too and add to that the temperature of 37 degrees and humidity, it wasn’t going to be easy.

I was chuffed to finish third in the race with the fastest run split but ended up wondering if I could have won if I hadn’t fumbled with my helmet in transition and lost the lead pack. To finish the World Cup season ranked 6th in the world with 2 podium finishes was satisfying.

After the race in Huatulco the plan was to fly directly back to London, stay with my parents for a couple of days and then fly out to Bermuda for a low key race and a holiday. Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan as my British Airways flight was cancelled and I ended up spending a day and half in Mexico City airport. I am scared of flying and after finding out there was a mechanical fault with the plane I didn’t want to board it anyway! I returned home the night before my next flight minus my bike which didn’t arrive. It eventually turned up the day before my race which was a huge relief as I didn’t rate my chances without it!

I finished 5th in Bermuda which was a non-drafting race from one end of the islands to the other. I found the race tough as I was tired and probably hadn’t done enough cycling. I also don’t think I benefited from the race being started with the men as the lead women got sucked along and I ended up isolated. It was a fantastic event and racing in Bermuda was a great place to end my season. Now catching up on all the tv programmes I taped…..!…

Admittedly the last few weeks have been pretty hard. Not because I’d been training loads, in fact quite the opposite as I had been lacking motivation and training had taken a nosedive.

The Strathclyde Supersprint triathlon was a disappointment and I could only finish 6th. I made the decision to swim without a wetsuit over the 300m course and considering the water temperature was 14 degrees this probably wasn’t a wise one! Not making the front pack in the swim cost me a placing. Not surprisingly I came back from the race with a hacking cough. At least I had done enough to win the Overall Series.

I had already booked and paid for my next race, the L’Orient World Cup in France and I was also taking my mum so I couldn’t pull out of this one! I was dreading it as it was a quality field and I knew I was only semi-fit. Although I felt terrible, my legs felt like bricks, I managed a creditable 10th. With this result, I am now ranked 8th in the World Cup standings with one more World Cup to go, which tempts me to keep going until the last race in Mexico on 26th October. I think this has given me a boost as so far this week I have managed to put in a good few days training.

I have a busy few months ahead as I am booked onto the BTF level 1 training course, the UKCC level 1 swim teaching course and also the Lifetime Professional Fitness Instructor Award. Should be a challenge!

A little while ago we featured Andrea Whitcombe’s exclusive online diary after she put her Olympic blues behind her and stormed to victory at the Triathlon World Cup race in Hungary. Andrea has just sent us in an awesome pic of her racing round the course on her Focus Izalco Extreme:

I realise it’s a bit late to write a long explanation about the London Tri so I’ll just give a quick summary. I was disappointed to only finish 4th having won this race twice before. Unfortunately I just didn’t swim well enough to make the lead pack. It’s been a difficult time for swim training as the swim squad I train with have been at the National Champs and so for the 2 weeks leading into the race I swam by myself. Admittedly I find it pretty tough to swim without a group. I cycled hard and myself and Jodie Stimpson did the majority of the work to come into T2 two minutes down on the leader Julie Dibens. I ran well but just couldn’t quite do enough for third spot. Finishing 4th just about made up for the horrendous journey I had from Wales to London, which took over 6 hours in the car – no thanks to the overturned caravan on the M4!

Last week I spent 5 days of pure laziness, slobbing in front on the tv watching every bit of Olympic action possible. I love watching the Olympics – just a pity I couldn’t actually be in Beijing taking part.

Emma Snowsill, winner of the women’s triathlon was superb. I think it’s fair to say the British results were disappointing. I feel gutted to read that an athlete’s main aim is London 2012. What about Beijing 2008?! I was desperate to race in Beijing for a medal not for experience.

Here are a few great quotes said during the Olympics:

Brendan Foster angry at the lack of middle/long distance running success: “I’m sick of hearing about promising youngsters that never quite make it……we need to look at the people in charge.”
(Mmmmm…..)

The BBC’s Matt Chiltern commentating during the men’s triathlon race: “Tim Don’s fans will be glad to hear that his first transition only took 26 seconds, one of the fastest.”
(unfortunately there aren’t any medals for transition times!)

Matt Chiltern commentating nearing the end of the women’s triathlon race: “If she (Emma Snowsill) doesn’t stop celebrating she might not break the two hour mark.”
(as if that would have tarnished her gold medal!)

Not ideal I know, but I decided to do the National Championships about 2 hours before the race last Saturday. I couldn’t decide if I should race for the third weekend in a row. I was tired, my Achilles was a bit sore and I really couldn’t face getting myself ‘up’ for another hard race. The only real attractions to race were convenience (it was down the road) and financial.

Surprisingly the race turned out to be quite enjoyable. The weather was lovely and I actually felt pretty good in the race. I wore my new sleeveless wetsuit as the water temp was supposedly below 20 deg and I had a good swim coming out just behind the leaders. I cycled up the first hill hard and reached the front of the group with ease. In fact so many people got dropped up the hill on the second lap that the lead group was whittled down to 5. I must admit I did chuckle to myself when I realised that both of the Olympic reserves (domestiques) lost contention on the hill. I attacked several times on the bike up the hill but planned to put in my biggest effort with a lap to go. However, my plans went out the window when I got a puncture on lap 8 of 9 (I wasn’t chuckling now!). When I did make it into T2 I’d lost 30-40 secs to the leaders. I ran well for the first 3 laps of the 5 lap run and closed on the leader (Hollie Avil) but tired on the final 2 laps. I was happy to settle for 2nd and eased off on the last lap but nobody had warned me about Liz B who sprinted past me in the last 400 metres. Serves me right!

The best thing though is that my injuries seem miles better and I’m really looking forward to racing in the London Triathlon on August 10th. Two weeks preparation for a race should be a lot better than 2 hours.

I’ve mentioned before about the problems racing in different conditions on different courses and my last two races are a perfect example of this.

My first race this month was in the weird town of Tiszaujvaros in Hungary. I say weird because the town is in the middle of nowhere and was built purely to house the workers for a huge chemical factory nearby. Surprisingly the sports facilities are fantastic and the whole place goes mad when the triathlon World Cup rolls into town. All week before the race there are sports events and a huge noisy open-air party, which the whole town turns out for.

The race in Tiszaujvaros is always stinking hot with a flat but twisty bike and the most amazing crowd support. I went to the race with no expectations but I found myself in a small breakaway group of 5 after the swim. I would have been quite happy to jog around for 5th place but before I knew it my jogging had carried me into the lead and I won the race! It turned out I was fitter than I thought and the boiling weather (37 celsius) seemed to make everyone suffer a lot more than me. The annoying thing was that people kept congratulating me and then telling me that I should do very well in Beijing (doh!). I am the first British woman to have won 3 World Cups.

The next World Cup in Austria was only a week later. The race was in Kitzbuhel and set in the most beautiful scenery I have ever raced in….

(more…)

In one of the oldest running World Cups on the circuit it was triathlon veteran Andrea Whitcombe of Great Britain to top the podium for the first time since 2005. Whitcombe’s time of 2:02:48 beat her closest rival Felicity Abram of Australia by 46 seconds in the hot and dry conditions. Abram’s silver medal today comes off a second place finish at the Hamburg BG Triathlon World Cup one week ago. Beijing-bound Mariana Ohata of Brazil rounded out the podium in third a further 33 seconds back.

“I can’t believe it,” explained the 37-year old Whitcombe at the finish. “I’ve been so injured. I haven’t run at all in three months. I can’t believe I won.”

“It was a really hot day,” commented Abram. “Coming off last week from Hamburg, I was pretty happy with my second place there. To back it up again with second place here. I’m very satisfied. Consistency is my goal this year. To keep my ranking up as high as I can.”

From the starter’s horn it was Sarah Groff of the U.S. taking an early lead in the swim, exiting the water with local Margit Vanek of Hungary 23 seconds ahead of a group of four including Abram, Ohata, Whitcombe and Helle Frederiksen of Denmark.

(more…)

After the disappointment of Madrid I found it hard to motivate myself. I was desperate to race again to give me a reason to keep training but my Achilles was still giving me problems. I got loads of physio treatment and when I managed a 30mins jog on the Friday I decided to risk racing in Windsor on the Sunday.

Windsor is a great race for spectator support and a favourite of mine because of my first pro race victory there in 2001. This time I wasn’t confident I would even finish the race let alone win. The elite entries and tough swim course suggested to me that the better swimmers would get away and never be caught. Indeed I was over a minute down on the leaders after the swim so I just decided to put my head down, get the other girls along side me organised and bike like a demon. Unbelievably we caught them after about 15km of the bike. I felt very comfortable as our lead pack of 5 came into T2. My race plan now was just to survive the 10km run. I felt a bit bad tracking Jodie for almost 10km and then sprinting past her in the last 400m to win but a victory with the minimum effort was just what the doctor ordered. I tuned into watch the race on Channel 4 afterwards but after seeing the attention Jenson Button got I did wonder how much coverage I’d get driving my car round Silverstone?!

Since Windsor I’ve had a cortisone injection in my Achilles which seems to have helped. It was a last resort as I’ve had this injury for over 3 months now and have only managed to run about a dozen times. I hope to race this weekend in the Hungary World Cup if all goes well this week.

Everyone at wiggle would like to say a massive WELL DONE to Andrea who stormed back to winning ways at the weekend with 1st place at the Nokia Windsor Triathlon! Andrea’s decision to enter was only confirmed on the Friday evening as she felt the Achilles injury would hold up for the race… and she right! You can read a full report on the race over on www.tri247.com.

Andrea also spoke in depth with the tri247 team about her Olympic disappointment and what the future holds. What does she think of the women that are going to the Olympics? will she continue to race internationally? any thoughts of retirement…?

Read the full interview here

“I’ve had a few queries about what happened to me in Madrid because I realise now that I wasn’t very clear. Unfortunately I didn’t finish. It was too cold for me and after a very physical swim (I’m sure I got rugby tackled!) I was pretty far back in the field. Any hope I had of catching the main pack disappeared when an American girl crashed in front of me on the corner of a fast down hill putting me back further. When I got off the bike I was so far back that it wasn’t worth running and aggravating my achilles for a poor result. Hope this answers a few questions.”

Regards

Andrea