Hello, as I am sure you all know, The Bath Half marathon was cancelled due to the bad weather conditions. I was quite simply gutted by the decision but there was nothing I could do about it and I can understand why the organisers had no choice but to make that decision. The following blog is slightly overdue and includes a few race reports over the last month (or two). Castle Combe team relays race 20/1/18 Today was the Castle Combe team relay road race. It involved running two laps of a 3km course and then passing the baton to your teammate etc. until all 4 of you have completed the two laps. Isaac and Jacob McAdam and Ollie (Campbell) and I had been planning to do this for ages as a bit of a family event and to also represent Cirencester Athletics Club. Our racing order and tactics had been planned weeks in advance and we were very excited to race. But then Ollie got a letter informing him that he had qualified to compete for Wiltshire in the school cross country which was also on the 20th January. So now we had to find a new teammate. The only criteria being that they had to run for Cirencester Athletics and be fast. Coincidentally there’s another runner called Ollie (Pritchard) at Cirencester and he’s fast. So we asked him to join our team. We arrived at the venue and it was a bleak day, zero sun and a constant drizzle. I was running first followed by Ollie, Jacob and then Isaac. I ran well and felt strong, my first time racing in my new balance strobe racing shoes (would definitely recommend as a racing shoe, very minimal and light) which took me around the two laps in 20:08 with a 5km split of 17:10 which isn’t bad. I was the 5th person to pass over the baton. Ollie took over and ran strongly to complete his laps in 20:15 putting us into 4th place. Jacob ran well finishing in 20:53 which put us back into 5th place. Isaac finished with two very strong laps in 20:05 crossing the line in 5th place. A fairly solid result. For us to have won, we would’ve needed to have ran 1 minute faster each!! The competition at this race was very high but it made us work hard and we all enjoyed ourselves and the team spirit which made it good run and a great event to participate in. Hopefully next year it will be sunny. Visit from coach 29/1/18 Katie Synge has been coaching me since November 2016 and the improvements I have made have been huge. The consistency of training and knowing what session to prioritise and at what tempo has really helped me with my progress. Katie’s experience has played a huge part in this as she trained with the Loughborough Triathlon performance squad for many years and competed at elite level. We spent 90 minutes in the gym going through sport specific exercises and ones particularly relevant to me which was quite simply knackering. I am not really one for S&C (strength and conditioning) and that session really took it out of me. We then spent some time planning out my triathlon season which I have to say looks very busy (more to come on that on a later date)! Before heading out to the roads of Malmesbury to complete a 10 mile training session. 15 minutes of pre fatigue tempo before 3x1km, 2x500m. The pre fatigue tempo worked because I was in pieces after the session. A very worthwhile day which I learnt a lot from that I can apply to my training which will hopefully make me fast. I would definitely recommend Katie as a coach, she is based in Exeter so does all of my training online through Training Peaks which works very well. She also coaches the Exeter University Triathlon Club and I have heard some very good feedback from that. Level 2 swim teacher Throughout the first few weeks of February I completed my Level 2 Swim Teacher Course based at Warminster Sport Centre. Having completed my Level 1 last August it felt a natural progression to do this one, especially as it would make me a fully qualified swimming teacher. On one of the mornings we started a little later so I headed out into the Warminster hills to get a feel for the area and see what it was like and I can honestly say it was amazing. There were just endless trails going all around some huge hills which made the run really fun and enjoyable. Whilst out on the run I went past the military base and found out about a huge concrete track leading away from the military base which was very flat and very fast. So on the Thursday I headed out there to complete some fast intervals which were tough! I was running backwards and forward along the same path and the wind was so strong in one direction making half of the efforts very tough! Running is such a great way to experience and explore a new place and it was definitely worth it. Castle Combe 10km 18/2/18 Isaac and I had been planning this race for a while and we were targeting it as a pre season burn out to test where we were at with our fitness levels. I was very excited and really wanted to target the sub35 minute barrier that I had never come close to before. Good friend Daniel Giles had been running extraordinarily well in the weeks before the race so I encouraged him to come and give it a go. He gladly agreed and it was great to have him on the start line with us. His plan was to hold 5:30 minute miles for as long as he could until he burnt out. So I figured I might as well run on his heels for a long as I could. The starter gun went and plenty of runners sprinted off the start line ahead of us. At one point I think I was in 9th place. Which either meant I was running too slowly or everyone else was just very fast! We held the pace well and clocked a 16:50 5km split. This was a pb for Isaac and only 4 seconds off mine. We were really going for it. As the distance progressed I found it harder and harder. Every step became harder and I was finding it very tough. After about 7km Daniel started to break away and I just couldn’t stick with him which left Isaac and I to fight it out between ourselves. The 8.5km mark came and that’s when Isaac went for it. I was still holding the space but he managed to go even faster and I just couldn’t hang on. It’s a horrible feeling knowing you want to be going so much faster but physically not being able to and it just broke me. I watched Isaac increase his lead to around 15 seconds and I was unable to go any faster! The finish line came into sight and I put on one final burst of speed to finish in 34.22 which is an average speed of 5:31 per mile. Daniel finished in 3rd place with 33:44 and Isaac in 4th in 34:08. Both Isaac and my garmins say that our 10km split was under 34 minutes so I am going to believe the Garmin. It was a tough race, I felt completely physically drained. Chatting to Isaac after the race we both said that during the race we felt in pain but there was no individual thing hurting, everything was! I guess that’s just the difference between pushing yourself completely to the max on a flat and continuous course compared to the varying terrain and gradient of most normal races. It was an amazing race and I am very happy with my time. We both smashed the 35 minute marker and now have our eyes firmly set on going sub 33:30 by the end of the year. National Cross Country Championships 24/2/18 “for English cross country, nothing quite matches the magnitude of the National.” “It’s got everything: the climbs, the descents, some good running and of course the mud. One year conditions may be okay, the next it could be a complete mud bath. Either way, you know at the end you’ve had a tough race.” Rumour has it there’s no better place for Cross Country than Parliament Hill, London. And Isaac and I just had to check this rumour out for ourselves. On Saturday 24th February we got up early and caught the coach at Swindon and headed for London. We came to Victoria and then caught the Underground and Over ground trains to arrive at probably the most iconic racing scenes I’ve ever been to. There were thousands of people everywhere. We had entered ourselves into the men’s u20 race with a planned distance of 10km. Neither of us had any real intention of achieving anything , we just wanted to run quickly and enjoy the experience. There were roughly 250 boys in our race, all fighting for the title of national champion. Isaac and I completed our standard warmup and headed over to the start pens. There were some of the uk’s greatest age group runners including Mahamed Mahamed and local Stroud based athlete Tom Mortimer. The race started and everybody went off hard, very hard. Except Isaac and I who found ourselves 20th from last. We spent the rest of the two laps just taking back positions and overtaking the other runners which is always loads of fun. Whilst the photos don’t capture it, I honestly thought that I had smiled the whole way around as I loved navigating myself around this great course. With one lap completed I decided to turn up the pace a little which resulted in me dropping Isaac (payback for last week). Then at around 6k one of the marshals told me I was in dead on 100th position so I really started to put the hammer down. I ended up overtaking another 13 people (3 in the last 100m) to finish in 87th. Isaac came in not long after to finish 105th. A simply wonderful race, I absolutely loved it and to think I overtook over 130 people throughout the duration of the race make it all a little more worthwhile. Huge well done to Tom Mortimer finishing 3rd overall, a seriously impressive result! We then hung around to watch the start of the men’s race before making our journey back home. Well done to the other Cirencester runners that competed, James, Ollie, Dorian, Liz and Luke. A good turnout despite such a long way to travel. To see some footage of the event, check out Ollie Pritchard’s youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnrSV1HIJC32rg1VOzScTnQ Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, I hope you enjoyed it! If you have any comments please contact me through social media. Big thanks to my sponsors and clubs for supporting me so far this season- LPSEVENTS ZOOT ATHLOS racing team Pedal Potential South West Swim Performance Cycles Cirencester Athletics Club The Flying Monk Triathlon Club To keep up to date with everything I else I am getting up to throughout the season, check out my social media pages- Facebook page- Luke Campbell Triathlon Strava- Luke Campbell Triathlon Twitter- @lukecampbell246 Instagram- @lukecampbell246
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April 2019
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