It’s that time of year again, the last triathlon has been completed and plans and dreams are made for the forthcoming season. Martin’s last race was the Huntly triathlon, this is what he has to say about it and what his future objectives are.

Huntly Standard Triathlon

‘Two weeks on from The Big Ben Nevis Triathlon and it’s time to see how running slowly up hills has affected my speed!

Two days out from the race and there was a threat of it being called off due to the torrential rain. The retirement home on the run route had been evacuated due to flooding. Glad to say that come race day it had dried out and the sun was shining!

The swim was pool based and I was off in the last heat in the fast lane. Importantly not first so that meant I could draft the whole swim. Or so I thought 10 lengths in and I was already at the front of the lane, this shouldn’t be happening I thought and now everybody was drafting me! At the half way point I decided I wasn’t up for doing all the work anymore and therefore when second place accidentally touched my feet it was time to let him have his turn! Only problem was that he wasn’t that fast and therefore the swim slowed dramatically. ¾ of the way through and off to the front I went and this time put the effort in to break the draft and get clear. Out of the water first again this is getting to be a good habit!

Onto the bike with the fastest T1 split of the day thanks to the Lake CX211 tri shoes. I held the lead for about 15minutes and then was passed by two people, which is not surprising as I normally take a while to get warmed up on the bike (and wait for the Torq energy drink and Gels to take effect). I stuck with these two for most of the race only loosing site of first place at about the 30K mark, and then regained 2nd with 5K to go.

Another speedy transition and onto the run, I knew things would be close as a hard charging Andy Williams was only about 2 minutes  back and I knew he would out run me if he got close. I managed to hold him off for about 2K and then he left me standing (well it felt like it). The rest of the run went to plan holding my pace that I had targeted and was comfortably in 3rd place. I could have pushed harder but I wasn’t going to catch 1st or 2nd and there was a huge gap to 4th.

I crossed the finish line in 3rd (or so I thought) which I was very pleased with given the focus of my training had been mountain biking and running up hills. However there had been another competitor in a previous heat that had gone 1 minute faster than me pushing me back to 4th overall and 3rd in my age group. I can’t really explain how annoyed I felt with myself and there is definitely a lesson to be learnt there. Push as hard as you can go right to the end!

This was the last Tri planned for the season, onto some running races and duathlons for the winter and start making plans for next year. Having just watched the battle for first between Chris McCormack and Andreas Raelert at Kona I don’t think I can resist the temptation of giving it another shot!

Roll on the next Ironman! With the support of Torq and the team sponsors Lake, Quintana Roo, FFwd Wheels (and some new sponsors to TBA) this will be made that slight bit easier!’

Please take a look:

Bikes: Quintana Roo http://www.quintanarootri.com/
Wheels: Fast Forward http://www.ffwdwheels.com/
Power: Saris http://www.saris.com/
Cycle shoes: Lake http://www.lakecycling.co.uk/
Delicious, natural and healthy nutrition: https://www.torqfitness.co.uk/