Representing Great Britain

Its been a pretty hectic and amazing few weeks!

Thanks to Chris Frost (paratri cat 4), team mate at VO2 maximum for offering me a lift and a place to stay in Besancon, France for the ITU paratriathlon and to british triathlon for entering me. At the last minute we found out that the swim section was being canceled due to the current in the river being to strong so it got made into a duathlon, 5K run, 22.5 bike and 2.5 run to finish. It was a stella performance by Chris putting in a massive PB on the first run and a just as strong bike and second run. Well done Chris, Stella performance in a strong field mate! My performance in the run, bike, run was also strong coming 2nd fastest in both the run sections but let myself down with a massive bulls up in the first transition costing me 2 minutes. It wont happen again and will just learn from it, that's why they call transition the 4th discipline!!! Also learnt how important it is to actually ride the course beforehand. I had some good tips before the race from Chris as I had never ridden or drove in Europe so his advice was just keep saying right, right, right to myself coming up to roundabouts and junctions but still found it very confusing especially as we were racing and being shouted at in French. At one point myself and two other riders one Dutch the other Spanish I think were being shouted at by a marshal by a line that was marked out on the floor and we all thought it was the dismount line, so stopped then realised that the finish was further on so we all got back on again. It was a hilly and very technical bike course going through some small side streets with sharp corners and also some cobbles to test the nerves but loved the course. The 2 minutes I lost trying to get back into transition when I mucked up went on my bike time so very happy with the bike time at this point a strong time for me as it would have been about 40 minutes. There was allot of crashes probably because of the tight technical course in places and the torrential rain we had that morning!

Finish line and proud to be British!!

I am also very proud to say I have been selected to represent Great Britain at the European paratriathlon championships on the 16 June in Alanya, Turkey. I would like to say a big thank you to all my family who are always there to support me, friends both old and new who had belief in me, ATC my triathlon club who have helped me all the way, Paula my coach from VO2 maximum who has performed wonders already with her coaching and to British Triathlon for having confidence in me it means allot!

Bioscience exams now finish for this year, Mondays exam went brilliant, Tuesdays went okay and Wednesdays was not to brilliant, I new the subject just had problems elaborating and getting my point across in the answer. I'm sure it went okay though, exams aren't  my strong point with dyslexia and even worse memory problems. Still looking for part time work preferably just very short hours so I can fit in uni too, the bills don't stop for nothing! A sponsor would be good to, one that wants to part with a time trial bike.... pretty please as my bike is a road tour bike and pretty heavy.... thanks:)

The training leading up to the British Paraduathlon Championships went well, the speed on the run and bike continued to improve. Although the plan to work on my swim was unchanged I still continued to mainly work on this area ready for the triathlon season. The actual race went well, as Paula had advised don't go out to fast and I stuck to it. First run was very slow but still came into transition 2nd, dropped down to 3rd when caught half way round the bike but managed to retake 2nd and finished in this position. Both run times were very slow but the position is the most important part and I am happy with 2nd... for now at least! Well done to Matt who won and George who came 3rd, look forward to competing against them at the British Paratriathlon Championships in July!

The plan was to spend the week after fitness testing them take a week off before building up again but on the way back home on the train felt very unwell and spent the next 5 days in bed with flu, I was so ill. The next week was a big week at uni doing a microbiology practical week so Paula my coach had said we could do the testing another time when she got back from doing IM South Africa, which she did a PB. Well done Paula!! I did train that week but it was a very gentle slow build up after a week in bed and with doing long days in the labs at uni.Finally managed to start testing this week and although the times are a little down it is to be expected after illness and we have got a good base to build my training around for the upcoming year. Bring it on:)!

 

Got selected to be on the Ashford Active Talented Athlete programe so thank you to them for the confidence it means allot.

 

Thanks for all the support from my family, friends, Ashford Tri Club and Paula my coach from VO2 maximum!!! 

 

 



Motivation



Taking a break from the assignments for an hour, it seems a little full on over the last month and am feeling a little stressed to say the least! It seems like it is one after the other at the moment, if I'm not training most of the time I am doing assignments.

 

I have managed to get some good training in of late though, swim is still improving by the week and have put some very Strong bike, run brick sessions in to begin the competition training/speed work.

 

Kate who owns Podplus trackside sports shop in Ashford, Kindly got me a couple different running trainers, they are brilliant! I can feel that sub 20 minute 5K being obliterated:)!!

 

 

 

 

 

  
 Modelling the Ascics Tri Noosa 8 trainers given to me by Podplus, thanks Kate and Liz!


Brilliant day up at the triathlon show with some ATC team mates, listened to some brilliant talks and meet some very inspiring people to below!

Helen Jenkins

Allways like a bit of a chat especially with two world champions that are so approachable, I always feel I'm imposing. They were both so nice and willing to answer questions and give me a little advice though, it was very much appreciated:)!

Back to the assignments for now, 2 dew in by Friday. On the bright side start working with Paula Dewer a triathlon coach on Wednesday, onward and upward!!!

Tim Don

 

 

Positive

I did the Paratriathlon ID weekend the other week but at this stage have not qualified for the GB team, I did get good feedback from the weekend though which is appreciated and I will take it on board. They also said that they would like to see me compete on an international stage before they could consider offering me a place on the team which is still the main aim anyway, to win internationals.

Training is going well and the issues with the socket taking off skin on my stump have settled down and I am back in a more settled training routine. I am just starting my pre season training and looking forward to working with a triathlon coach, Paula Dewer that I spoke with the other week. It will help to have some one with some experience of how to take me forwards as at the moment I am just using a little common sense to train but don't really know whether what I am doing is right. The main target races for this year are British Paraduathlon in April and British Paratriathlon in Liverpool in July and hopefully my performance there will qualify me for the worlds, lots of work to do though. Feeling good though and very positive about my triathlon over the coming years. It is a very exciting time to be involved in Paratriathlon!!!

Still carrying them 2 extra bloody Kg's though, it's not like I am over weight but, well they need to go:)

The Good the Bad

I spent Christmas with my mum, dad and brother, it was okay although my mum was il all over Christmas so felt a little guilty shovelling food and drink down my throat. I trained as normall even on Christmas day but just drank and ate what I wanted. I normally take two weeks of but what with trials coming up on the 2/3 February new I would lose to much fitness if I did that!

Even though I trained over Christmas I still put on 3 Kg which I still haven't shifted but all my times are still coming down. I do need to lose it though and probably by the British Champs an extra Kg less than the 3 wouldn't do any harm.

Iv been concentrating on my swimming all over the winter and after some more swim analysis with Liz at Thetrilife I can see it has really paid off. I am looking a lot more efficient, there are still things to improve on like the body balance in the water so lots of drills. Saying that I have made massive improvements in the catch and pull.

The work on the turbo has been going well as I cant get out on the bike and the running is improving naturally. Allan from the technology department for Blatchfords did some analysis on the new running blade to see if we could improve alignment to get more out of it. We took video of me running across a pressure pad to take measurements of velocity pressure and alignment. We didn't need to change anything because all the readings that came back looked very good. I also had a new socket put on the running leg the same day so Christina did a great job, such a shame she is leaving and I will miss her! There  will be things as always that will need to be altered to improve alignment that you only notice over time as I use it. It still feels like it wants to go out to one side or the other rather than straight forwards at times so need to work that out.

I have had a bit of bad timing with skin break down on the front of my stump where the scare is this week but don't think it is because of the new socket. I think it is probably because I did my longest bike then run session this week since the amputation, probably double the length of anything I did last year. Just a little to far at a hard pace that although felt quit easy took its toll on my skin, just stripped it right off. I have just covered it with the elastoplast clear plasters I normally use then put Tegaderm (clear dressing used after operations that is water proof)  over it just for good measure. Its looking better today but just need to lay off doing any running or cycling till atleast Tuesday/Wednesday and then look at it again. The main thing for next week is that it gets better, I know I am fit enough for the trials up at loughborough so a light week now will not do any harm to that!

I have been lucky enough to be given a new Endolite running specific blade that is in the development stage. It is of the C blade stile but has a foot plate for added stability, the leg is brilliant. You get so much energy back from the leg and it's very smooth, I did think the foot plate might not work very well but it is very well thought out. The lower part of the blade is also split down the middle which helps so much not just on conering but also when on uneaven ground! It is only in the development stage but they have made a pretty awesome leg.

I haven't been particularly well since I got it so have had to take it a bit easy but have done a 5K run which took 20:44 and a 10K that took 43:45. Both post amputation PB runs so it is very promising for my triathlon and paratriathlon season next year!

It's been a pretty stressful couple of weeks with not feeling well and having assignments to get in at university but heard some good news today! There is a paratriathlon talent ID weekend taking place at the beginning of February at loughborough, for anyone interested: http://www.britishtriathlon.org/news/british_triathlon_search_for_future_paralympic_talent_2642 .

Sockets/skin problems

I have had the usual problems with socket fittings of late but we have gone back to an older socket cast and just shrunk it down and will try the test socket on Friday as the shape seems to be fine.

I have had though allot of very heavy eczema and have had massive problems trying to sort it out and tried so many different products but with no luck. The eczema is fine while in the socket and only comes up after about 10 minutes of the socket being off, when the skin just goes bone dry and looks a mess.

I found this cream though that I got from the chemist called CETRABEN and it is brilliant, it only took two days of using it before the skin had completely cleared up! That was about a week ago and I only use it once a day now and it seems to do the trick!