Beginning of the 2016 season

2 weeks after Quateira was the Performance Assessment weekend held near Loughborough. This was a weekend filled with workshops, talks and also a heart screening, as well as a swim and then a bike-run time trial. I had a slightly slower swim than last year, but still placed 3rd overall in that. The bike-run start was staggered based on swim times, so I went off third at my respective time. I got onto the bike with Lissie Hood, but after a couple of laps I was fading pretty fast and got dropped. I then found myself in the chase group with 3 other girls, and we worked well together but couldn't close the gap. I felt strong on the run, it's a tough course as it's always very windy with a long steady up hill (into the wind), but I was pleased to come away with 4th.
I had a few weeks until Llanelli triathlon, so back to training and revision for a while. During this time I also went to a theme park for the first time in years with Eddie (my boyfriend who desperately wanted a mention in my blog). This was a good time to relax and take my mind off of training, racing and exams and just be able to chill out, as well as have a bit of an adrenaline rush.
I then competed on a Wednesday evening in a local cycling race held at the Lotus race track, this is a brilliant venue for the local off road cycling races.There was many more women than last year so this made for a better race. I felt strong even in the earlier stages of the race and kept pushing the pace on, in the end it was just me and one other women, Lucy Nell- a fellow triathlete, she just had the sprint over me, but I was still very pleased with 2nd, racing some experienced riders.

This gave me some good confidence going into Llanelli. I was happy with my swim, using my new zone3 vanquish wetsuit, coming out in the top 5, and had a really slick transition, which meant a group of 3 of us managed to get away on the bike. Again it was Lissie and I and this time Livvy Mathias was also there. The pace was extremely high and it was hard work, and this meant Livvy got dropped and ended up working with Meg McDonald who was a few seconds down on us. I was really pleased with my bike as I worked well with Lissie and we got a good time gap going onto the run, it was just here that I struggled greatly, being able to put no real pace in on the run. In the end I finished 7th, winning a sprint finish between the 8th place finisher. The field of girls was extremely strong so I can't be unhappy with the result, but I  was hoping for better, especially after such a good two thirds of the race.
Now I have a while without racing up and down the country and just focusing on exams and school, which will be over in just 6 short weeks time. This week I did my first 5km road race of the year at Wroxham, organised by Norwich Road runners, which is a course that I really enjoy and is fast. I tried to go off at a steady pace so I didn't blow up in the latter stages of the race, but this soon went out of the window when you're with such a large group of runners and being carried along. I could see after 2 miles I was on for a good time and was still feeling reasonably strong, I was just praying I didn't blowup between then and the finish. I finished in a time of 18.21 as 2nd female home, this is the second fastest 5km I've ever ran and it shows I'm moving in the correct direction as it was over 20 seconds faster than last years time over the same course.
Luckily the day after I managed to get in to see Carl Goose for a sports massage to loosen up my legs after a hard 5km run.
Thanks again to all of my support this year from Zone3, H2pro and swimzi, I'm excited for what the season has to offer.