Africa Mason Blog : Nationals, Nationals Everywhere I Look!

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Nationals Everywhere I Look!

It’s been a busy summer so far for me! Luckily finishing school now having done my GCSEs means that I can go back to bed after 5am swim training and get some decent sleep |-)

I’ve recently been away most weekends with lots of Athletics events up and down the country Including County schools, at which I came 1st and then South West Champs at which I came 3rd. I have been competing mainly in the 3k event and have improved my time by 20 seconds in the last 3 weeks which I’m really chuffed with! I’m starting to enjoy the longer track distances, even though winter cross country’s are still so much more fun! Last Wednesday I had my first 16k cycling time trial and qualified for the GHS time trial National Finals! It was a great experience, something completely new.

The day was glorious and the course was very demanding and technical, I have now been on a couple of rides with the guys who ran it at Poole Wheelers, they are all very friendly and helpful and its useful to get some work riding in larger groups. It has taken me a long time to sort this out and make a regular commitment – hopefully I’ll start to see the benefits in the coming months now.

Most recently last weekend I competed in the National Biathlon Champs in Liverpool. (Thanks mum for driving me all the way there!) The Biathlon is made up of my strongest events (separate running and swimming.) Last year I came 3rd, and as always the competition was looking tough again this year, with a few new faces. My run was early morning so it was not too hot or humid as it was the previous weekends, however the wind was gusting down the home straight! Throughout the 2k run the wind was a real challenge, it was a tactical race but I ended up taking most of the wind with people sheltering behind me… this was a very sticky situation and one I need to take some advice on! I didn’t want to slow up so I just got on with the race and took the wind as the leader was about 10m ahead and I couldn’t afford to drop back.

When I crossed the finish line after the 2k I felt I had given everything and was exhausted, I didn’t think the race had gone to plan, yet surprisingly I did a 2 second PB – must have been all those 3k’s the weeks before!
After my run I put on my 2XU Compression socks and warmed down, then it was time for lunch. The next part of the Biathlon is a 200m pool swim. The swim was in a 50m pool and although I was the fastest in my heat I wasn’t in the fastest heat! – So I knew I would have to win my heat, to have a chance of coming in the top 3 over all. From the start I took it out fast and just had to kick like mad with what energy was left in my legs towards the end. After a long day I finished first in my heat with a season PB :-))

The top 5 places were going to be close and when the results came out I expected to have come 3rd/4th as I wasn’t sure if I had done enough on the points, however I came 2nd which is a one place improvement from last year. After that it was a long 5 hour journey home…Lovely: but at least I didn’t have to drive!
I’ve just had a cheeky ‘extra’ mid week training session with the National Coaches down at Bath Uni yesterday –then spent the evening out with Poole Wheelers again:

I am very much looking forward to racing at Eton in the SUSO Triathlon this weekend, which is also our South West team selection for the IRCs – bring it on!