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There can often be tough parts to life as a triathlete – but racing in stunning places like Rapperswil-Jona, home of Ironman 70.3 Switzerland, is certainly not one of them.

I travelled out to this race a week ago and the race organisers had kindly arranged a homestay for me, which usually means plenty of home comforts and a real insight into local life rather than the four walls of a hotel room. Vreni, my homestay, was incredibly warm and welcoming and her place instantly felt like home from home. Before long, I was running along wooded trails with just Swiss cows for company and plenty of clean, fresh mountain air to gulp down into my lungs. This area of Switzerland, which is about a 45 minute drive from Zurich, is nothing short of beautiful. The scenery was so jaw-droppingly amazing that there were times during the race when I had to pick up my jaw, fix my eyes on the road and concentrate hard for fear of losing focus on the race in hand.

Still riding high from my victory in Mallorca, I was keen to continue tapping into the fine form I’ve been enjoying so far this season. The build-up to the race was great fun. I’d been invited to the pre-race press conference, along with defending champion Caroline Steffen, some of which you can watch here. My sister Helen also flew out to support me and we had a great time, both before the race chilling out, and after the race doing lots of Toblerone-munching and sightseeing. The organisers went out of their way to ensure everything went smoothly, both before and during the race, so huge thanks to Patrick Schmid and his team (especially Monika, Andrea and Nadja) for all their help.

I’m in the best shape I’ve probably ever been in, so I was a little baffled come race day when I seemed to lack the “zip” in my legs which I’ve been able to turn on in all my previous races. The magic which had propelled me to victory in Mallorca seemed to be elsewhere on Sunday. Although I still finished eighth in the women’s pro race (and picked up some valuable qualifying points for the 70.3 Worlds in Las Vegas), I can’t deny I was a little disappointed. That disappointment has since been channelled into a serious focus on the next task in hand: 70.3 UK in Wimbleball, Exmoor, on June 19th. It’s a course which is renowned for its ability to beast even the fittest of athletes with its 54 hills in 56 miles on the bike. The run course is equally as tough and I have some “fond” memories of it from last year, when I finished third in the women’s pro race.

From now until then, it’s all about recovering from Switzerland and sharpening up again for UK. I’m very fortunate to have had my new

Sleep and nutrition are two key factors which can drastically affect your recovery from races. The former is all down to me, of course, and when it comes to the latter, I’m continuing to work really well with sports nutritionist Sally Pinnegar from Fit Naturally. The start of this week has been all about antioxidants and immune boosters (Sally’s even got me drinking green tea over coffee, I never thought I’d see that day!) as well as all the usual quality carbs and lean protein. I’ve also been using Neovite colostrum on a daily basis, which helps with growth and repair as well as immune system strength. I’ll be a fighting fit, lean, mean, green tea-drinking machine by the time Wimbleball comes around…

For updates on my training between now and then, I’m sure I’ll be feeding my Twitter addiction via @eklidbury, so come on over, and happy racing all…

Cheers
EK