Looking back at 2010 and onto 2011...

As always I have been useless at writing on this blog....lets see if I can do any better this year!

2010 was an unforgettable season for me....for all the right and wrong reasons! The main aim of the year was to qualify for the World Age Group Champs in Budapest, which myself and several others managed to do. What happened in Budapest came as a complete shock to me as I exceeded any expectations I ever had of myself. Training definately paid off and I returned home with some souvenirs...a world age group bronze medal, a cracked rib and some nice scars to remind me of my race in Budapest (forget branding yourself with an ironman tatoo, war wounds are the way forward :P )

So the season definately ended on a high for me! Some people ask me if I'm disappointed about the crash as it cost me the silver medal...the answer is no.... had I gone out there expecting to win a medal then perhaps yes, I would have been disappointed...but I went out there with the aim of doing the best that I could, and did better than I thought possible,so I am not in the slightest bit disappointed.

The plan for winter was to get some solid training in to prepare me for the 2011 season. Unfortunately this did not go as smoothly as planned.... I took much longer to recover from my tonsillectomy than expected and a broken elbow from another bike crash (perhaps stabilisers might be an idea!) meant that training has not been as planned. Never mind, my broken arm has kept me out the pool and forced me to spend more time cycling and running, which isn't really a bad thing for me!

Now I'm back at uni and looking forward to the next 6months training in Loughborough. I'm looking to return back to Thurso a much stronger cyclist and runner than when I left, and hopefully learn to ride a bike without breaking bones :p

Race pics

Pictures from Grendon in May - World Age Group Qualifiers

Good news!

Again, its been a while since I've written on here, its been a really busy couple of months! Thankfully managed to pass my exams so will definately be heading down to Loughborough in October to study sport and exercise science (or train my ass off ;) ) - should be a great year!

Exciting news for the past few months is that myself, Pete and David Sutherland all managed to qualify for the world age group champs which are going to be held in September this year! Really delighted that I managed to qualify - finally feels that training is starting to pay off :) Will be heading over to Budapest with a group of friends who have also managed to qualify -Gee, Jen, Natasha and Elaine - excited!!! 11 weeks hard work starts now!

Gem x

Scottish Uni Champs

Ouch, my legs hate me right now...pain! Had a pretty good day today once we (eventually!) made it through to Tranent. Bit of a shaky start to the morning, realising that we had no bus keys at 5.30am and no way of getting them until after the race had started! Thankfully we managed to get a bike rack from poor Mairi who was woken by a rather desparate phonecall from Gee at 6am! Somehow, we still managed to make it there on time :)

I ended up being put in the last heat which was rather cruel....pretty sure I was in the wrong place as most other people in the heat were wearing GB kit! It sucks coming from a swimming background...need to reinvent myself as a runner instead. Needless to say I was pretty much at the back of the heat and ended up doing most of the course on my own * sobs * Luckily I was prepared for this so it didn't put me off too much and I just concentrated on trying to make sure that I beat my times from lastyear. Overall I think the race went well...swim and bike went okay and my run felt pretty strong for a change :) The bike course was really tough with quite a strong head wind for going up a lot of the hills...made for a speedy ride home though!

Times : swim + T1 = 10.55
bike = 38.51
T2 = 00.37
run = 21.45
Overall = 1.12.10 (minus 15s??? - 4th to start in lane)

Really delighted with my running time which is just over two minutes faster than it was lastyear. I'm still sure that I can take it down a lot further but it looks like my cycling is going to need a fair bit of work over summer.

I ended up as 4th female overall (3rd student) and as this was the final race in the Scottish Uniz league I managed to get enough points to take me up into first place so got a nice wee trophy :) Really glad we set up the league, its been great fun getting to know the rest of the teams!

Overall a pretty successful start to the season, lets just hope it stays that way. Got a pretty hard few weeks coming up with exams but after that I'll hopefully be able to fit in more training than I've been managing recently.

Right...in serious need of some sleep now!

Gem x

2010 Season Begins :-)

Okay, I finally remembered about this the other day and thought I would try and keep this up to date over the next season. The weather finally seems to be warming up a bit so I'm looking forward to getting outside on the bike more often...there is only so long I can cope with staring at the garage wall on the bike without going mad! Winter training went okay.... too many sore throats/colds to deal with but kept training when I could.

Had the first race of the season up in Aberdeen at the weekend with the uni team. It was an 800m swim and 10km run as part of the Scottish Uniz triathlon league. I wasn't really sure what to expect as it has been a few months since I have done any racing. I aimed to complete it all under an hour (sub 10min swim, sub 50min 10km) and managed to do that so I'm pretty happy. I had a pretty good swim and managed to get myself out the water in first place. I struggled quite a lot on the first lap of the run with trying to get my breathing steady but after that I managed to get myself into a more comfortable pace. I was able to pick up the pace for the last lap and finished my run in 48.12 (including transition...so probably a low 47). Pretty happy with my running time, seems to be going in the right direction. Still a lot of work to be done yet but I'm sure it will get there :-)

Next race is in two weeks time through in Tranent for the Scottish Uniz. Hoping to see some improvements from when I raced there last year!

Scottish Sprint Champs

Just back from the Scottish Sprint champs at Lochore today! Enjoyed the race a lot more than the last time I did it, despite the whole thing being a bit of a shambles! Came out of the water in third place which I was pretty happy with. T1 was pretty poor, trying to wriggle out of my wetsuit and taking my timing chip off with it, which I was only to realise later on in the race. Was overtaken by a good few men on the bike and a handful of women. Despite never getting into a good rhythm on the bike I came into T2 a lot further up the field than I thought I would! Finally started to get into a good pace on the run and was passed (I think) by one woman on the run. Lots of confusion with the run route today but lets not go into that too much (poorly marshalled!!!) but managed to finish somewhere in the top 10 women :-) Looking 4ward to seeing the proper results to see my time and actual placing! Delighted to be much further up the field than I expected, just need to get my head down and get some miles in on the bike and running and I am sure I can make huge improvements on that next year!