Raced the Eton Supersprints on Sunday and stormed home to take a win in my age-group as well as post the fastest women’s time of the weekend. I clocked 57mins 58 seconds for the 400m swim-20km bike-5km run course with splits of 5.13, 32.29 and 18.27 respectively. I was surprised to feel so strong after racing pretty hard at the Europeans last weekend and getting back on it with the high-intensity training from Wednesday onwards. I had a great support crew out in force, including Amy from Wiggle HQ and my seven-year-old cousin Josh - who wanted to ride the Chrono!

Raced at the European Age Group Championships in Lisbon on Sunday and had a brilliant race, winning my age group (25-29) by almost 10 minutes and also posting the fastest female age group time overall. A very good day at the office! I thought I was on for a good one in the swim when I knew I was swimming strongly yet everything felt quite easy and as I looked at my watch at the swim exit my thoughts were confirmed: a 19.51 1500m swim split was just the way to kick off the race. Out on the bike (over cobbles in the rain - not pleasant!) I soon found my riding legs and just destroyed it, opening up a five-minute lead by the halfway 20k mark. The Focus Izalco Chrono was nothing short of superb. I just love riding this bike and racing it is even better. As I ran out of T2 the Team GB support crew were out in force and it really pushed me to turn it up to top speed and see what was in the legs. I knew I was running well but was v chuffed to clock a 37.53 and a total finish time of 2:14.55. All in all it was a great weekend, the legs are starting to recover and I’m really looking forward to racing at the Worlds in Vancouver in less than four weeks’ time - bring it on!
Catch up with you soon
EK

Christened the Chrono yesterday with a win at the Duston Tri, a sprint race near Northampton. The swim was entertaining - a 400m pool swim - with people swimming all over each other, but the bike and run were good fun and I felt like I was on good form, completing the swim, 20k bike and 5k run in 58.01 to win the overall women’s race and my age group. With only six weeks to go until the Worlds in Vancouver I’m keen to get in as much race practice as possible and it was great to actually race the Chrono after taking it out for a few training rides in the past couple of weeks. It rides really well, I love the SRAM levers and it even climbs well for a tri bike.
Training has been going well, it’s all getting quite intense now with turbo sessions that are killing me and treadmill sets that are more than making me sweat. Feeling stronger day by day, though, so hopefully it’ll all pay off in the end.
Happy training
EK

Emma-Kate Lidbury came down this week to pick up her new race bike - the Focus Izalco Chrono. This is the bike most our elite triathletes will be riding and so far we can’t get enough great feedback about it.

It uses the SRAM Red rear derailleur, and brakes together with a FSA Trimax Carbon handlebar and FSA Vision stem. An FSA SLK Pro crankset tranmits power to the Easton EC90 Aero carbon wheels making this an incredibly fast bike.

(click for bigger)

1. SRAM Time Trial Carbon Levers
2. SRAM Red Brakes and Easton EC90 Aero Carbon Wheels
3. Carbon Aero Seatpost & Fi’zi:k Arione TRI 2 Saddle
4. SRAM Force Red 20 Speed
5. FSZ TRI MX Carbon Cockpit
6. Full Carbon Frame and Fork

Kicked off the 2008 season yesterday at the rather snowy Swindon Duathlon. To say conditions were arctic would be generous. When I first looked out of the window and saw the amount of snow on the ground in Oxford I didn’t think there was a chance the race would go ahead, but it did and the organisers did a grand job in staging a safe race.
For me, trying to figure out how many layers to wear so as not to be too hot on the run and then too cold on the bike was one of the most challenging parts of the morning and having never done a duathlon before it was all an unknown - but I got there in the end!
I was keen to ensure I didn’t kill myself on the first run (10k) so that I had plenty left to give the bike some welly (40k) and then run home strongly for the final 5k. It kind of went to plan, although trying to keep my heart rate below the agreed 160 beats per minute on the first run while running uphill into winds which can only be described as arctic blasts was a little tricky.
I made a mental note to self while running through T1: “must work on transitions” then got out onto the bike to enjoy what I thought would be a fast, flat course. I was riding the Focus Izalco Tria, which, considering it costs less than half the price of the bike I was riding last season, is unbelievable! Put a pair of Zipps on it and it will fly!
Unfortunately there were a lot of dead turns on the course and I was riding cautiously due to weather conditions so I couldn’t crank it up as much as I would have liked, but I still posted the fastest women’s bike split - thank you Tria! I’m due to collect my Focus Izalco Chrono later this week so that’s when the really fast fun and games will begin!
The second run wasn’t quite as painful as I’d anticipated and with my support crew of Ozzer, Suz & Gav doing a great job as I came through T2, I found myself actually almost enjoying the race (although couldn’t feel my face, fingers or toes) and ran home strongly to win my age group (25-29) and finish second woman overall. Not too bad for an ex-swimmer! Needless to say, it took several hours to thaw out and, call me a fair weather triathlete, but I’m in no rush to race in such freezing conditions again any time soon!

EK

Had a great Easter - managing to balance training with catching up with family and friends, which can sometimes be tricky. I did one of my toughest mornings of training yet on Saturday doing a hard 5k swim first thing followed by a 90-minute turbo session which was a real killer. Am starting to put in some speed sessions now to sharpen up for the season ahead and they’re never easy…
After I’d crawled off the turbo, I headed back home to see all the family and on Easter Sunday underwent a different form of endurance training: an Easter egg hunt with my seven-year-old cousin Joshua. It took a little longer than planned, partly because he couldn’t remember where he’d hidden most of the eggs and no-one else had a clue either, so I’m sure there are still a few out there for Easter 2009. All good fun!
Back to work and chocolate-free living tomorrow - oh well :-(
EK

Returned from Lanzarote on Saturday after 10 days of really focused, consistent training. It was great to be out in the sunshine again, especially after spending January and February here yearning for the Aussie sun still. My coach had set me a tough training schedule which I questioned whether I’d cope with but I can now quite happily say I did. I clocked up just shy of 600km on the bike, including my first 100-mile ride (which included more than 2500m of climbing!) and some top quality running sessions. Although I dislocated my right shoulder only a few days before heading out to the Canaries so swimming was out of the question, I have now recovered a lot of strength in it and hopefully won’t have lost too much fitness in the water. All in all, I’m really feeling strong and this week will be enjoying a well-deserved back-off week where rest and good sleep will be the name of the game - oh, and it’s back to work (not so good!).

The triathlon season is now just around the corner - my first race, the Swindon Duathlon, is four weeks away - and I’m genuinely excited about racing.

Catch up with you again soon, happy training, EK.

Just been packing my bags ready for 10 days warm weather training in Lanzarote, so the wind and rain lashing down in Oxford right now aren’t bothering me one bit! I can’t wait to get out on the bike in Lanza, the infamous hills and wind are great for training at this time of year. I’m really looking forward to getting in some quality training in the sunshine, although I’m not sure just how much time I’ll be spending in the water as a few days ago I dislocated my right shoulder. OUCH! Fortunately it’s all back in place but is quite weak and John Gibbons, my physio, has advised against any swimming for the next few days. Instead I have some strengthening exercises to get me back on track. I’m not too worried, though, because I can feel it getting stronger each day and of the three tri disciplines, swimming is the one in which I have the biggest base. On the plus side, my running times keep on coming down. Did a 10k race at the weekend and almost dipped under the 38-minute barrier. Think I would have nailed it if I hadn’t run the opening kilometres like a loon - think I need to work on my pacing!
Happy training
EK

Training has been going well recently and I’ve been focusing on my weakness: running. I’ve always been a strong swimmer and my cycling has improved massively in the past year, but it was my running which lost me the gold medal at the World Champs last season, so it’s running which is my main focus in ’08. Yesterday I raced at the Wokingham Half Marathon. With so much sunshine it was a bloomin’ great day for a race and it was one of those days when everything just felt easy. I smashed my PB by three minutes to post a 1:27.08 so was pretty chuffed. All in all it was a mighty fine weekend as Saturday was spent at the TCR Show catching up with a few tri peeps and saying hello to the lovely people @ Wiggle.

I’m off out for a ride on the Cayo now to make the most of this February sunshine and spin the half mara out of my legs.

Catch ya later

EK

Here is the latest entry from Emma-Kate Lidbury, enjoy!

Settling back into life in the UK after the best part of three months Down Under has been tough and there’s hardly been a day this month when I haven’t asked myself why I ever came back to cold, dark January in the UK. Biking has been really hard – I’ve gone from two to three hours in vest and bike shorts in 30C heat to shivering through rain and wind in every piece of winter bike kit imaginable. I think I might finally be re-acclimatising, though, and the suntan has well and truly faded so it must be time to find another sunny destination to jet off to soon. We’re thinking about a week or two in Lanzarote next month, just to make sure there’s always the thought of sunshine around the corner…

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