A big hello to all that competed in today's Chilly Duathlon at Castle Combe in the UK. As always, it lived up to its name, with 4 degrees C temperatures and the usual Castle Combe wind. Always fun!

While I'm still not troubling the front runners, for me it was a really positive race, shaving over five minutes off the time I acheived at the same race last November - not bad progress in just three months!

My first run was a much more respectable 12m 39s (prev 14:04) and the bike was over three minutes quicker (26:43 compared with 29:46), although my shiny new Canondale Slice might have had something to do with that improvement! As usual for me, however, it was the second run that let me down - losing four places and coming in at 13:56 (which is actually still just faster than Run #1 in November).

So it's clear to me where my training needs to focus now. The bike to run transition is crucial - and while I try to do at least one Brick session a week, maybe I need to incoporate some new training strategies to ensure I have the energy and the strength for the final run (all suggestions very welcome!). Am also actually wondering if now is the time to get myself a 'proper' Tri coach who can create me a training program to capitalise on my strengths and address my weaknesses.

And of course, having only just flown back from California less than 24 hours before the race, I can always claim jetlag as a factor limiting further improvements! ;-)

Next race is the Newbury Duathlon at the end of March. I think my personal goal for that race is to cut down the gap between my Run #1 and Run #2 times. However, as it's my first bike leg on open roads (i.e. not closed to traffic), I'm trying to be realistic about my bike times.

See you there!

(Oh, and if anyone found a half-full drinks bottle on the race track today, it's mine. Had a co-ordination failure trying to get it back in the cage! Oops)

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