Last weekend Reuben Trotter one of our long standing Natural Ability Junior Ambassadors competed against 25 of the best Junior Elites in Europe at the Jersey Super League Triathlon, crossing the line in 6th place!! we wanted the low down on how Reuben's weekend planned out.

Reuben Trotter - Race Report
I flew out on Friday with my race being on Saturday morning. This gave me time to look around the course and build my bike in time for my race. The course was very technical with a 1.2km loop used for both the bike and run. I was racing on the same course as the Elites who raced in the afternoon. Receiving super league race suits gave me a real buzz for the race. The race format was 300m swim 3.6km bike and 2.4km run with a 5 minuet rest before doing it all over again. This tested both our speed and endurance. 

My race didn’t start quite according to plan being beaten up at the first buoy and coming out the swim I knew I had work to do. I set about this on the bike making up a few places using my bike technique to my strength, round all the corners but lost a few with an average run. I finished the first race in 12 which I was slightly disappointed but I had to keep my head high as I was only half way.  

The way we set off for the second race was complicated but basically we set off in fives so the first five go then two seconds later the next five go and so on. I was the third lot to go so started four seconds behind the leaders. My second swim felt like I wasn’t moving anywhere as my arms and legs were shattered but I came out the swim in a strong place and after a strong transition I was in the mix again. An even stronger bike put me up into 3rd and I was off on ​the final 2.4km run in podium spot. I knew that very fast runners were breathing on my neck so I set off knowing I needed to run very very fast. My body was in lots of pain but mind took over. Two athletes came up behind me half way round the first lap and then attacked and I was unable to react. I was then in no mans land with 1 lap on the run to go. The two quickest runners on the course were right behind me and I had to find another gear. I held on for that lap and was able to cross the line in a strong 6th which was way higher than I had imagined.

​Super league sounds fairly simple but boy is it hard! I had a great weekend in Jersey racing and watching the elites and even got to explore the island on the Sunday with a little spin on the bike. 

Widely regarded as one of the most punishing Ironman courses in the world, I’d chosen Tenby’s Ironman Wales as the location for my ‘A’ race of 2018. Tenby is a beautiful, old, seaside town in Pembrokeshire. It has narrow, twisting, streets, ancient walls and buildings, and the main part of the town sits high on the cliffs above the harbour and beaches. Whilst this is all very ‘picture-postcard’ the difference in height between the sea and town, and the cobbled, winding roads through town made for a challenging stage.
I made the journey from my work in Oxford to Wales on the Friday afternoon before Sunday’s race. We were staying a few miles out of town, all the hotels in Tenby itself having been booked up a year in advance of race week. We were a party of 4 – me racing and Annie and my parents on support. We drove straight to Tenby on the Friday afternoon as I wanted to get registered, both for convenience – to collect the various bags, race numbers, swim hats and so on and to pick up the £12.50 meal voucher (only valid on the Friday) which had replaced the traditional pasta party. I squeaked into the registration tent, Annie flinging me out of the car whist she found a parking space in the race-crowded town, with four minutes to spare before they closed, and got signed in,  collected my nice new race bag (a new holdall/backpack design which I rather like) and spent some time loitering around the ‘Ironman Village’ before taking a leisurely stroll down to the beach to take a look at the swim start, and the climb from the swim to transition, and to generally soak up the atmosphere.
There were three of us from Team Cherwell taking on the course; myself, John Taylor and Debi Coles. John’s wife Angela and their two boys (who were entered in the Ironkids run) were coming down to support, and Debi’s support was of course Rich Hughes (who as well as Debi’s husband is Annie’s coach) who was taking a rare break from racing to be a spectator. So with the addition of my parents there was going to be a lot of much needed support for us out on the course. 
On the beach we ran into John, who was taking a quick pre-race swim, and had a look at the conditions, before climbing the steep switchbacks to the top of the cliffs. We walked into the main part of town with John, as we were all meeting up with Debi and Rich and a few of their friends for dinner (in a restraint the took our discount vouchers!) and we had a very convivial time before it was time to head to the cottage, get everything out of the car and prepare for racking, bag drop and athlete briefing the next day.
I was one of the first people to rack on Saturday morning, and my bike looked very lonely all by itself in the middle of a practically deserted carpark. I was caused some alarm by the fact that the disc on the back was causing the bike to swing about alarmingly in the ever increasing wind, and I was concerned that it would get damaged, or damage someone else’s bike. Once more bikes got racked hover it was a bit more sheltered, and by the time that everyone was in transition they were so tightly wedged in that they could not move anywhere – indeed I was slightly worried about being able to get the bike out at all in T1. I hung up my Bike and Run Bags in the transition tent (the last time I would be able to access them until the race), double checking that I had everything I needed in them, and then headed over to the Athlete Briefing. Here there were many warnings over the ‘pink bags’. The pink bags are an addition to Ironman Wales: as well as the usual Bike and Run Transition bags, and the streetwear bag, there was a pink bag for an ‘extra’ transition. It is a kilometre run from the swim exit to T1, so the pink bags were for shoes, and some fresh water after the sea swim. They were racked up on the switchback climb up to the main street from the beach, and leaving the pink bag there after the swim would an instant disqualification for littering. The forecast for race day was overcast, but there was a persistent drizzle on Saturday, so after watching John’s boys at Ironkids, Debi, Rich, Annie and I found some food in a handy pub whilst it cleared. Annie and I took a short walk around Tenby and the other beaches nearby, had a look at the dramatic St Catherine’s Fort, and looped by to the swim start at North Beach, with the imposing Goscar Rock dominating it, for a pre-race swim. So as not to have a wet or damp wetsuit on race morning Annie kindly loaned me hers. Although a little tight ‘in places’ it worked well enough and I was pleased I had gone in the water as, although conditions were not perfect (in fact they were much worse than the race would be), I had no problems and found my rhythm quite easily. Annie came with me on this little recce out to the second sighting buoy as she is one of these lunatics who enjoys swimming without a wetsuit in cold water.
I went back to re-check that my bike had not smashed itself to bits (it was fine) and headed home for food and an early night – the alarm set for 4:30 race morning. I usually sleep badly the night before a race, and this was no exception. I was fretting over the disc wheel in some potentially adverse conditions (not so much the wind, but the carbon breaking surface is not the best in the wet, and there were some technical descents ahead of me) and general worry about the fearsome reputation of the course. Luckily I didn’t miss my alarm (as I did for the Cotswold 226 in 2017) mainly because I had been wide awake and staring at it for three quarters of an hour. Porridge for breakfast and then Annie drove me into Tenby, and I faffed with putting nutrition and shoes on my bike whilst she found a parking space.
The pre-race waiting is always one of the parts of the day that I struggle with the most – I over-think, dwell on and over-worry about factors that I can’t control and I always feel much better once I have got into the water and underway. This was no exception and getting 2400 athletes down the ramp, via pink bag racking, in a relatively short space of time was no mean feat. We had ‘self-seeded’ standing near markers according to approximately how long you thought you would take to complete the swim, so I hovered just in front of the 1:20 mark, and just before 6:50 traipsed down the ramp in a procession of wetsuited-individuals and stood in a queue on the sand. The Welsh national anthem was sung by a professional singer (not speaking Welsh I didn’t understand a word and could not therefore join in) who was also a competitor, doing his first Ironman, and shortly after that the pro men, and then pro women, were off. At 7:00 the gun for the age groupers went off and the queue shuffled forward. The timing chip activates as you go into the water, so I was not losing any time being about a quarter of the way back, and was happy avoiding the flailing and thrashing of a mass start.

​Under the arch and over the timing mat and I was into the water. Goscar Rock was looming on my right shoulder, from the clifftops, where Annie and my parents were, looking stunning in the dawn light, although at water level I could not really appreciate this, and it was a dark silhouette to me. The first major buoy was passed with it on the left shoulder, with all subsequent buoys passed to the right. I decided to take the left hand edge of the course, risking some fisticuffs on the inside line of the first buoy, in order to have as clean a run as possible around the rest of the course. I had a spare set of goggles on my thigh, as if I lost my main set it would be impossible to finish the swim in the seawater. The sea was much calmer than on my pre-race swim, and I was keeping well out of the way of the pack on the left hand edge, after only a little bit of jostling at the first buoy. I felt that I was swimming well, and I was not tiring, which was heartening as I have not done a huge amount of open sea swimming. I made the Australian turn round the rock, and saw that I was up on my self imposed schedule, and so plunged quite happily back into the water. As the field had spread out it was not difficult to avoid most other people, although I did take one massive clout across the face at the second buoy, but my goggles remained firm, and I just plugged away, and came out of the swim in 1:14.18, much faster than my 1:17 target, and set about the 1km journey to T1. In the water you are somewhat isolated from the rest of the race, and even at the turn the swimcap and goggles form a fairly effective set of blinkers, so the wall of noise that his you as you tear these off is both staggering and uplifting. I collected my pink bag, squirted some water over my feet to get rid of the sand, and took a few slurps and sprayed some on my face to clear the salt residue, and began the run up the slope and along the high street, past the packed crowds, to T1. I ate a cereal bar as I went, so that I would be well set up or the bike. 

​As my shoes were already clipped and rubber banded to my bike it was only the work of a moment to get out of the bottom half of the wetsuit, and to put on helmet and number belt, give my feet a quick rub with the towel I had in there to make sure there were no bits of sand that could cause irritation on the bike, and stuff my the wetsuit, pink bag and transition shoes into the bike transition bag and re rack it. I was out through to the bike racking reasonably quickly. I had not realised quite how rough the carpark was on bare feet, and just how narrow the transition exit was – the width of the blow up arch was continued down the road by the metal spectator barriers, and I could see a bottleneck of athletes, so I took the split second decision to rip my shoes off the bike and put them on there, rather than risk wobbling all over the narrow, crowded, road whilst trying to get my feet in, and also save a painful run over the rough tarmac with my bike. This proved to be a good decision as I was able to dodge the scrum at the mount line and get in clear space quickly. There was a first mad dash through town, pushed forward by the cheering crowds, but a few twists in the road later the course was heading out onto the first ‘short’ loop of the bike course. 

​A lot is talked about the Wales bike course, with its narrow, fast, sections; steep climbs, long dragging climbs; technical and steep descents and the ever present possibility/probability of rain or drizzle. What I had been worrying about most was the reduced braking I would suffer if the carbon braking surfaces on my wheels got wet. As I had not had a chance to check out a most of the course an unknown, technical descent with little stopping power would not be an ideal situation to find myself in. The bike course has one 'short' – about 35 miles – first lap, followed by two longer laps.  The first lap was characterised by some narrow, two way, sections, which made it very difficult not to draft, as no overtaking was allowed in these and the field had not had a proper chance to spread out by this point. 

​As I passed 20 miles we got to, for me, the most dramatic part of the course – a steep descent beside the coast, with the highest winds I encountered in the race, plunged into 'sand canyons', the road twisting between dunes covered with scrubby grass, with sand from the almost vertical sides, which rose well above head height, blowing across the road was a breathtaking experience. Unfortunately there are no photographs of me available from this piece of the course, but the following image from Wales Online gives a very good impression of the dramatic nature of this piece of coastline.

​After navigating the other side of the two way section the course joins the second lap and the next feature of note is Carew Castle. My parents and Annie had taken the spectator's shuttle bus out here, and the course takes a descent, with a 90 degree bend in it, before shooting across the castle bridge, with the ruined fortifications in the background. A short while later a steep climb came, followed by the even steeper run down into Narbeth, the northernmost point of the course. I was still holding an aero position, and was not tiring, and my power was remaining constant. Before the road turned back through Tenby was the famous Saundersfoot climb. A wooded, twisting descent, one of the sections where aerobars were prohibited, brought us to sea level, the road running along the beachfront, and  then turned upwards, the roads lined with hundreds of people, all cheering, and a tunnel opened through the crowds.
For lap 2 I was more confident, as now I knew what to expect. I had encountered one short shower of rain, which had thankfully not affected my brakes, but had smeared my visor, so I was forced to ride with this up for the remainder of the bike leg. I got to the 80 mile marker seemingly in no time at all, and was still going well, admittedly breaking aero a little more than I ought to in order to stretch out my slightly tight shoulder. My legs were still feeling strong though, so I pressed on, past my parents for the second time at the castle and on out along the short, but sharp and steep, climbs out to Narbeth. It was on one of the few gentle downhill sections here that I saw an athlete have a catastrophic crash, reminding those of us who witnessed it that a moments inattention can be very costly. He drifted to the verge at 40kph, and his front wheel stopped dead, bike and rider somersaulting onto the side of the road. As the unfortunate man landed on his back I was already past, and all I could do was shout to the next marshal I saw that there had been a bad crash. Although no more rain came down it was a little damp under the tyres, and out of the saddle on a wooded climb with wet leaves strewn on the road about 90 miles in I lost back wheel traction and had a nervous few moments before I got my weight back on the saddle and crested the climb. Saundersfoot came round again, this time with Annie to cheer me on. I actually still didn’t feel too bad, although the video she got of me would suggest otherwise, the support giving that all important mental push for the last few miles, and I came into transition feeling reasonably good – I had hydrated well and eaten some cereal bars and energy blocks on the bike. The front bottle on the bike is invaluable for long distance racing. I had topped it up with bottles snatched at the feed stations, and the top tube box, which all integrates into the bike, had given me easy access to my nutrition. I was very pleased with 6:05.37 on a famously tough course.
In T2 I re-racked my bike without difficulty and in the transition tent paused long enough to put 'twinskin' socks, which prevent blisters, on, and tie my shoelaces securely. I was using lace up shoes, as I was not too fussed about transition speed, and in the past I have struggled with elastic laces at long events becoming too tight as the run goes on. I decided not to wear my cap, but I did put on sunglasses, to keep dust, dirt and wind off my face, and incase I needed to hide having a little weep at any point. Having got round the bike course without having my usual self-pitying cry I was taking no chances.
The road rises slightly straight from the transition arch, but my slightly sluggish legs were motivated as this point was where the crowds of spectators were thickest. I was keenly aware that I must not go out too hard, as the final downhill section of the bike course was the primary out and back section of the run course – so I knew just how much climbing was going to take place on this final section. As soon as I got underway I began to feel pretty awful. I was suddenly very thirsty and I got a stitch with seconds. Luckily I realised that whilst I had hydrated and taken on food during the bike I was sweating out, and not replacing, a lot of the salt. Luckily it was not too far to the first feed station, where salty crackers and crisps, washed down with flat coke, sorted me out very quickly, and I was able to establish some sort of rhythm, as the road climbed steadily, and fairly steeply, out of town. 

​The climb was seemingly unrelenting, and went on and on up to the first turnaround point at 4km. This was visible from quite a distance away, providing a goal to aim for but, if anything, the descent was even harder. The climb took so much out of the muscles on the upwards section that the legs had very little shock absorption on the way back down. Before descending all the way back to town, however, the course cruelly turned upwards again, on a ‘spur’ to collect a lap band. Whoever designed the run course was not finished with us yet, however. Back on the outskirts of town we were sent on yet another upwards out and back spur before winding through the uneven and never flat streets of Tenby for about a kilometre, before merging with the athletes still coming out of transition for the next time around. In the image the grey colour shows the elevation – the four brutal climbs - the red line is my heartrate, the green my speed and the yellow my cadence. 

​With the second lap came the inevitable low point of the race for me. I was determined that I was going to run the marathon – only walking in feed stations. On the steep first climb out of town I almost broke, but as my stride (shuffle) faltered I willed myself not to stop and continued running. I can’t claim to have been running very fast, at one point I’m pretty sure I was overtaken by a guy powerwalking, but principals are principals and I kept on. Annie had walked back from Saundersfoot, and by lap two had made it as far as the ‘lap band spur’ turn. The section through town seemed longer every time but getting past halfway was a positive step, and although the graph shows that my speed actually dropped, so did my heartrate, and although my joints and calves were hurting, I was actually feeling slightly better than on the previous lap. As I turned into the lap band spur I found a rowing/sailing friend who lived locally had turned out to watch the race, so my spirits were raised by the unexpected cheering. I knew by then that John was about three quarters of a lap behind me. He was slowly gaining on me but barring accidents I was fairly certain he wouldn’t catch me. By the time I got back into Tenby Annie had met up with my parents, and the course twisted through the centre so much that they were able to pop out of side streets at unexpected moments to take photos of me looking surprised and tired. My final lap was the slowest, but I as the end was in sight I was feeling cheerful. I had seen John and Debi out on the course and knew that they were both going well and was feeling pleased that I would be the first Banburyite home.  I even manged what I wanted to call a sprint finish, but in reality was probably more of a slightly faster plod, and crossed the line in a total time of 12:16.25, having done a 4:45:15 marathon, on what is certainly the toughest marathon course I have been on. 

​Although just under 2 hours slower than my Iron PB I was very pleased with my performance in Wales. The bike remains (and I suspect always will be) my strongest discipline, and I was pleased with a solid, if not rapid, swim. I've struggled on the run this year, both in training and racing, and I’m looking forward to getting it together for next season's 'A' race – Ironman Cork. Three days after Wales I paid a visit to those clever types at Drag2Zero, and have made some radical adjustments to the front end setup of my bike – so I'm hoping that some solid training with Coach Brian's guidance in the new, more comfortable, more aerodynamic, position will pay off in Ireland, both in pure speed, and setting me up for a much faster run.
Another Ironman down, then, and a real sense of achievement, having 'conquered the dragon'. Many thanks, as ever, to Coach BB, who got me to the start line in good form, despite circumstances of life and work ripping up my training schedule every couple of weeks. Great support from Annie, parents and friends helped a lot out on the course as well.
Some of the stats for those of you into the data:

Isoman Race Report
 
As we all know Redditch is well known for being consistently hotter than the Sahara Desert. Whilst I might have made that up, the temperature on Saturday 30 June 2018 topped out at a whopping 27 degrees C. Hot weather for sitting in the garden with a cold drink; almost unbearable weather for undertaking the Isoman long distance triathlon: 11.2km of swimming followed by 100km of biking and a 42.2km marathon just for that finishing touch.
 
Isoman as a concept was developed in order to ‘equalise’ an Ironman, the theory being that Ironman is incredibly heavily biased against the swim, in favour of the bike, and then the run. The distances were calculated by taking the world record marathon time (approx. 2 hours) and comparing this to how far a professional long distance swimmer could go in that time, and how far a professional time triallist would travel, giving the peak performance for each discipline in an equal time.
 
I’ve got a fair few Ironmans under my belt, so I was not unduly worried by the prospect of 100 km on the bike, and I have experience with marathons at the end of triathlons, so even though not fast, I know how to stagger round. An 11km swim however… I was quite frankly terrified. In training the longest swim I had done was 5.5km. I’m not a rapid swimmer, but I am at least steady, and don’t seem to be get overly tired, so long as I keep plugging away and don’t try and vary my pace. It must be said that for open water swimming I am heavily reliant on my wetsuit – being somewhat of a ‘traditional’ triathlete I have very sinky legs (no doubt caused by spending more time with my bike than I do with my wife) and there were plenty of rumours flying round in the days leading up to the race that wetsuits were going to be banned. Thankfully at the race briefing it was confirmed that they would be optional, but it still didn’t stop me from having some sleepless nights in the run up to the race.
 
‘Why?’ I hear you ask, is an aquatic plodder lining up on the start line of a triathlon that favours his weakest discipline and neuters his strongest discipline? Ego. When Annie (I do actually like her more than I like my bike… just… depends which bike… I’ll shut up now) announced her intention of stepping up a distance from middle distances to long course racing it made a lot of sense for her to come via a long swim; as having powered through a 14km river swim she was heard to observe ‘that was quite easy’, and regularly ticks off various 10km swims without apparent effort. Thus in the best traditions of #marriageisacompetition you find Mr Heaney further dirtying the already murky (end of nose visibility) water of Arrow Valley Country Park Lake.
 
Registration and race briefing was Friday evening, and a good number of Team Cherwell were going, so Annie, Manu, Geoff, John-Paul and I all piled into the car and drove off to Redditch. Transition, a few gazebos and some boards with route maps on had already been laid out, and some hay bale  seating dotted around the place. It was a lovely little atmosphere – only 54 people had entered the full distance event, so talking to the few people hanging about, we had chatted to most of the field before we had started – a much more relaxed atmosphere than the disco-beat, eardrum pummelling world of branded Ironmans, which I must say I enjoyed. Isoman is very much a ‘one-man-band’ affair and race organiser Gary Jarvis had done a pretty good job, and would later be found riding around the run course on his bike individually checking that all the runners were OK. At the race briefing came the welcome news that wetsuits would be allowed despite the water being a tropical 24°C, and we would be allowed to remove them during the swim and continue if we so wished. We all took a brief stroll down to look at the lake and take a few pre-game photos and then back to Banbury for a few hours of broken sleep before the 4:00 am race day alarm.

​Banbury to Birmingham is a bit of an awkward distance - a toss up between the comfort of your own bed and an early start race morning, or having a potentially uncomfortable overnight camp to aid a more leisurely start. We opted for home, so 4:00am found me eating instant porridge in the kitchen, doing a last check for anything forgotten, and off up the M40. The transition was fairly small - all the long course entrants hanging around at 5:30 fitted on one set of bike racking. Transitions were going to be neutralised - 8 free minutes swim-bike (transition was a little distance from the lake) and 5 for the bike-to run. Because of this I seemed to have twice as much stuff in transition as I normally do, including extra drinks, energy blocks and socks – my usual transition practice being to shove on the nearest piece of footwear and leg it. My trainers even had laces rather than elastic, and I pre-cut pieces of tape to prevent toe blisters. In fact, all I was missing was a picnic table, smoked salmon sandwiches and some bottles of champagne in a large ice bucket.
 
So having rambled on for near on a thousand words I’m finally at the water’s edge, observing the brown murk that we will shortly be plunging into. A final few words came from race director Gary, telling us the water had been measured in the middle of the lake and was a warm, but manageable 22 degrees. Down the ramp and into the water and the nerves seemed to calm a bit. I didn’t bother with too much of a warm up as I wasn’t planning on setting off like a rocket and would have plenty of time over the eight 1400m laps to ease into the stroke. I made sure I was comfortable with my face in the water, floated on my back for a moment so that the Garmin could pick up the heartrate strap and get a good GPS fix, exchanged some friendly chat with the other starters and waited for the countdown. The hooter went and off we went. I had gone fairly near the back, just to be out of the way, but as there was rather a long way to go there was not the usual swim start punch up and everyone generally kept out of everyone else’s way. As I was never going to be near the front, navigation was not difficult, and most of my concentration was focussed on not getting carried away and going too hard in the early stages. As it was reasonably warm I had decided to stop at the feed jetty every lap to hydrate, and also take on coke, which hopefully would keep some of the things lurking in the lakewater at bay. I arrived at the jetty at the same time as Annie, having been vaguely near her all lap, and after a swig of coke we set off again. Second time around we came in together again, so we suggested just swimming together, as it is nice to have some company, even if there was not a lot of scope for chat. Rather surprisingly laps three, four, five and six passed rather pleasantly. Friends from Team Cherwell, Helen and Mike, appeared as support, easy to spot even from the water in the red and yellow club colours, and it was nice to exchange a few words before heading off under the timing arch again. The pacing was fine, a couple of times Annie drew a few meters ahead of me, so I would put in a few strokes harder effort to catch up, but rather than tiring me it actually provided some much-needed variation. At the beginning of the seventh lap my shoulder began to twinge, right in the place where I had had an impinged nerve the year before. Annie began to pull ahead, but not by much, so I told her to get on and leave me behind for the final lap, as my shoulder meant that my pace was dropping considerably. I exited the water only a few minutes behind the wife, having covered 11km in 3:59.23 (under the magic 4 hours ithankyew) and headed off to transition.

​As I had 8 minutes of neutralised transition I didn’t hurry, and even paused long enough to collect my flip flops, as it was a few hundred meters to transition, and have a few swigs of Lucozade that I had left on the jetty. I arrived in transition just as Annie was leaving, and tidied away my wetsuit, got my helmet on and applied liberal amounts of suncream, as even coming out of the water it was hot, going on scorching. I’d put my bike shoes clipped and rubber banded to my bike in my usual manner, not for some acrobatic flying mount, but there was a short stretch of gravel before the mount line, and I have been caught out before with small stones getting wedged in the cleats, making it difficult to clip in. Over the mount line and off onto the four lap bike.
 
Coach Brian and I had gone through a race strategy beforehand, which I was actually managing to follow – for now. The basics were take the swim steady – focus on not smashing out of the gates too fast on the bike, as we thought some might try and ‘overcompensate’ for the long, slow swim, but keep a nice, even power output, a bit above my Ironman pace, as it is a much shorter distance, but not so high that the run was unmanageable.
 
The course was fairly lumpy, but nothing extreme. The image shows the elevation (grey) my heart rate (red) and my power (purple). Ideally the purple and red lines want to be as flat as possible, although uneven terrain makes this difficult.

​I was well under my target power at the beginning due to a conscious effort not to go off too hard and collapse half way through, but as the ride went on I felt I wasn’t riding my best. This was due to four things. 1) My stomach began to cramp. I think this was from lake water, as I had eaten sensibly before the race, topped up with flapjack at the feed jetty during the swim, and was using gel bloks (which I know work well for me) on the bike, and had been careful to remain hydrated. 2) It was getting uncomfortably hot. Usually the danger is not realising on the bike how dehydrated one is getting, as the breeze generated by your passage through the air is cooling. Here the air was so warm it just worked like a car heater blowing hot air about. 3) My shoulder, that I had tweaked in the swim, was hurting, and making it difficult to hold aero for long periods of time. I usually feel very comfortable on my tribars, and was finding it very irksome having to stretch out my shoulder every few minutes. 4) In places the road surface was terrible. I thought that living in Banbury I was somewhat of an expert on poor quality road surfaces but in places it was almost dangerous. The bits of course on dual carriageway were better, but one was constantly on edge due to the proximity of fast moving cars. It must be said that most drivers I encountered were pretty courteous, although there were (as is expected) a few obnoxious individuals who think that 6 centimetres is an amusing amount of space to give a bike.
 
Despite feeling like I was not riding particularly well, I soon caught up with Annie, and then Manu and Geoff, who had beaten me out of the swim. J-P had stopped in the swim to take his wetsuit off, due to the heat, and later told me that he had been losing 7 minutes a lap because of this, and a further 10 trying to get it back on. Just as I began my second lap my bike threw its chain, caused by me mashing the wrong buttons on the Di2 too quickly, and I had to get off to un-jam it. I only lost 30 seconds however, so it did not put me off too much. Despite this, I was consistently passing people, and no one, not even anyone from any of the distances, came past me (until my last lap where one bloke on his third lap of a bike only event toiled by) so I knew I was not doing too badly.
 
I got back into T2 having posted the fastest bike split of the day with 3:12.36(this is bragging), a full 11 minutes faster than the next competitor, without having drained the tank too much and my legs still feeling surprisingly fresh. I dawdled my way through transition, putting on tape, socks, shoes, tying laces!, and absolutely lathering on suncream. Hat and sunglasses on, as I had been wearing an aero helmet with a visor on the bike, tipped a cup of cold water over myself in a desperate attempt to keep cool, and set off on the first of the four lap marathon.

​The time of day was just coming up to 14:30, and so the sun was well established in the sky. The heat was soaring towards 26-27 degrees and, especially on the first part of the run lap, it seemed that shade was sparse. I have run in many hot and exotic locations through the years – Walchsee in Austria, Copenhagen in Denmark, Alcudia in Mallorca, Bournemouth in ...err... Dorset and rarely have the wheels come off so comprehensively, or so quickly. My stomach cramps had got worse, and every step sent a stabbing, stitch-like, pain through my side. There were two (effectively three) water stations on the route, one about a kilometre after the run start, then one about two kilometers later, which was passed again three and a half kilometres after that, upon the completion of the 'southern loop' before the long four and a half kilometre drag back to transition – for me the hardest part of the course. I didn't have a bottle with me on the first lap, so this section turned into a soul-destroying, parched, survival test, which sent you cruelly within sight of transition, before doubling back for an extra km or so, before I could collar a bottle from a marshal. I managed to complete the first lap at an easy run. Actually I'll re-phase that: I completed the first lap at a pace that could be described as easy, and was only just discernible from a walk if someone took time to observe me closely. The pain in my stomach forced me to walk sections of the second lap, and I took on water and coke at every opportunity, and also refilled my bottle to both swig and tip over myself in the shadeless parts of the course. The third lap was quite simply horrendous. I had been avoiding the unknown isotonic drinks up to this point, as one never knows quite how one will react to them, but it was kill or cure. I took some on at the first station, and immediately felt a little bit better. I was very run down my this point but the cramps began to subside, and although I walked a great deal of the northern loop on lap three, with only just enough left of my bruised ego to run past where friends Helen and Sandra were doing sterling cheering duties (thanks!) by the end of lap three I was ready to pick the pace up again. As I was taking on fluid a km into the last lap, within sight of transition, I saw J-P just starting his last lap. This gave me the kick that I needed, and I forced myself into a run. My little surge from seeing J-P, and determined to be first Team Cherwell member home, just sort of kept going, and whilst I didn't exactly 'stride out' I was constantly running, not walking, and only stopping at the water stations. Just as I came into the last kilometre I found Annie, just finishing her third lap, and she ran the last few hundred meters with me, peeling off to continue, as I staggered across the line, with a new personal worst marathon by an hour and a half of 5:24.52 for seventh place, and a total finishing time of 12:38.38.
 
Team Cherwell had an excellent showing – J-P had almost run me down, coming in just three minutes after me, for eighth place, having had a stellar (in those conditions) run. Manu, stepping up to a longer distance, and in preparation for Ironman next year, came next of our little band, in eleventh place, with Geoff, who had been plagued by injury, finishing well for nineteenth position. Annie too had a stonking race, not only did she have a solid swim, but she put down the fastest ladies bike split as well (apparently the Heaneys should stick to biking) and had secured second place overall among the ladies, at her first long distance event. It is a mark of how brutal the condition were that out of the 55 people who started the Isoman, only 33 finished – a colossal rate of attrition. The 2018 Full Isoman Finisher's Tshirt and medal is a rare thing indeed.
 
Brian's coaching strategy had me doing a large amount of base fitness building in the weeks running up to the race, and taking an 'all meters are good meters' for the swimming. This was the best preparation I could have had, as although conditions had scuppered the race strategy for the run part I had that base level of ability to 'just keep going' garnered from what, at the time, seemed like interminable 'MAF' runs. I've never had much of a problem finding motivation to get out on the bike, and the weekly time trials and regular commuting had taken care of that aspect of the training. So thanks, as ever, go to Natural Ability Performance Coaching's very own Coach BB, the other Team Cherwell members competing, and the various Team Cherwell members, friends, fellow competitors, associated hangers on and the incredibly enthusiastic marshals who offered such fantastic support throughout the race. 

Bedford Duathlon Race Report

This was the first race of the new season so I was keen to see how well my winter training had gone. The first race, especially a B category race is about identifying some personal goals which are challenging but achievable, and to come away feeling positive and confident (all done and all achieved).

The race started with a ferocious start with the first 2.5km lapping round in 7:32, I was working hard but felt strong. One pack started to ease away, as always some athletes just over estimate their ability at the start of a race, I pushed on and over took a number of athletes who had gone out too fast.

I came into T1 knowing that my run time would be quick in fact it was 16:19 a 41 second PB. On reflection this was an extremely rewarding run for me as my winter training had been focusing on achieving a faster run split.. T1 didn’t go fully to plan and I lost a few seconds putting on my helmet, maybe I was really tired from the run? Something to work on going onto the duathlon championships in 2 weeks.

I gained all my time back up mounting onto my bike and I knew the bike section Is what would determine my race. My bike was strong working in a pack of 4, I controlled the group and ensured that we rotated and worked well together . We were catching the lead group and came into T2 only a few seconds behind.

My T2 was the fastest of the day so really happy, this meant that I had some breathing space going into the second run.

I felt really strong but I just wasn’t able to catch the lead group who were in sight but not catch-able, again the second run was positive and the goal I had set myself of running strong off the bike was achieved.

This was a 5min PB on this course compared to last year, I finished 7th overall and 2nd in my age group. I was happy that all my processes came together, and that my times are improving, especially the running.

The next challenges are the Super Series Duathlon this weekend (25th March), and the Performance Assessment weekend, we have been working hard towards both of these so watch this space for the next race report.

Having relocated to the Costa Blanca region in 2017, Brian and Annie are now offering their swimming and triathlon coaching services in the Calpe/Moraira area - visit the website for more information on Swimming Coaching on the Cost Blanca and information on Natural Ability Performance Coaching

The British Triathlon Federation has recently released it's competition map for 2018, this is aimed at young athletes and designed to offer a series of development opportunities youth and junior triathletes. 

Included within the domestic competition structure, the British Youth and Junior Super Series, is deliberately set up to support the selection policies and philosophies that surround international racing experiences.So these documents are well worth a read for youth and junior athletes, who are, or have potential to perform at this highly competitive level.

SUPER SERIES
Although not released on the BTF website as yet, the Competition Map does provide the Super Series races for 2018 so if  interested in these competitions here is an early steal.
https://www.britishtriathlon.org/events/performance-events/youth-and-junior-super-series

COMPETITION MAP
I must say you do have to be extremely patient when trying to read through the competition map, it's not the easiest to read!!

​I have attached all of the relevant documents below for ease, but for context all of the documents can be found on the BTF website https://www.britishtriathlon.org/gb-teams/talent/competition 

They include

• Racing Explained
• Youth and Junior Competition Map
• Competition Map Explained
• UK School Games Explained
  

This was the big race of the season. My summer training was all aimed at Rotterdam so concentrated all summer on improving my running. The day came round very fast and soon I found myself on a flight to Holland! My flight was not till Saturday so I knew I wouldn’t have long to familiarise myself with the course so I watched lots of videos really detailing the course along with my race plan. I was very happy to see the tight technical course as I knew this would play into my hands.

I arrived Saturday afternoon and immediately made my bike and went on a ride to try get a sense of the bike surface. This wasn’t as bad as I thought which gave me confidence. I then enjoyed watching the elite men race, maybe I shouldn’t have been standing up?!?! I then went back to the hotel and set up my bike and got a good night’s sleep.

My race start wasn’t till 4:05 so had plenty of time but I had seen that it was a long way from t2 to t1 to set up so I left plenty of time. All set up I was ready to go. I got a good start on the swim but I felt myself drop off in pace due to the lack of swimming I have done recently. I came out the swim further back than I had hoped but I didn’t let this worry me because I had a long transition to rectify this. I put in loads of effort running to transition and made up lots of places. I mounted onto my bike but knew I would have to work to get into the front pack. So, I dug deep and chased after the pack. The tight corners as a group means that you will have to slow down much more but being a solo rider, I was able to get around the course quickly and soon caught onto the back of the group.

​I sat in for a few kilometers just to recover as I had taken a lot out of myself to catch up. I then made my way up the pack and soon someone made an attack, I chased after him to turnaround and see that we had made a break. I was shouting ‘go go go’ and we worked together but this failed and the pack were able to get back onto our wheels. As we raced through a tunnel through the city I had planned to race away into transition and I did just this. Unfortunately, when I did my bike recce I couldn’t ride over a temporary bridge which had some ramps. So when I came to these ramps I think I took off! I landed safely and raced towards transition. I came off the bike in first and ran down transition.

​Trainers on I was away, I felt great! I was in a group of three with an Australian and New Zealand athlete. The run course was great running on a path winding through a park. 3km in my legs were still there I knew this was going to be a sprint finish and I was ready! With 750 meters to go the Australian moved up a gear so I followed but we dropped 3rd. The pace was very fast and unfortunately, he was able to go up to one pace faster than I could. Even though I was in second the crowds were amazing for the last 500m and running down the blue carpet was an incredible experience. I finished 2nd in my age group but also 2nd out of all sprint athletes!
​All this could not be possible without support and guidance from my coach Brian Butler from Natural Ability.

This weekend saw a Junior Males relay team from Natural Ability compete at the Cotswold Water Park Relay Challenge. The four boys secured 1st Place by posting a new course record by over 9mins.

Each of the four team members Gregor Kelling, Reuben Trotter, Skip Snelston, and Luke Sherlock completed the 4 x 250m Swim -  8km Cycle - 1.5km Run to finish in an over all time of 1hr 43mins. A great performance by four very talented youngsters, congratulations.

14 year old Katie Pamphlett who went along to cheer on the 4 boys and found herself making up the fourth member of a male rugby club team, the rugby team had lost their fourth relay member and without Katie would have had to withdraw from the competition. After seeing her race they have asked her to act as a stand in winger during their next rugby match. 

,Katie-Ann following a period of mixed fortunes put a very frustrating summer of training to one side to claim 2nd place at the National Middle Distance Championships at Vitruvian this weekend. 
Katie-Ann has worked incredibly hard this year to claim 2nd AG position at Staffordshire 70.3, and then this weekend 2nd at the Middle Distance Championships. The training for Vitruvian focused on the adaption from bike legs to run legs, and with a solid run strategy Katie-Ann surpassed her goals and expectations for this last race of the year. Congratulations Katie-Ann.

​A fantastic morning of racing by the Natural Ability Junior Ambassadors 
Rosie Weston 1st Under 20s at the Bala Standard Distance Race. Rosie is in mid-preparation for the World AG Championships in Rotterdam.
Rose Lord 1st AG at Southam Sprint Triathlon. Rose is in the final preparations for the European Qualifiers.
Reuben Trotter 1st AG at the Bosworth Sprint Triathlon. Reuben like Rosie is in mid-preparation phase for the World AG Championships in Rotterdam.
Congratulations to you all.