Slateman savage

First of all welcome to my new and updated site.

It been a long time since I last wrote a blog, and it's been a long winter of training.

My first main goal of the season is preparing for the ironman distance the bastion at the beginning of July.

This looks a brutal event with over 2000m of climbing on the bike and a very tough off road run. I'm really looking forward to it so that has been my main focus for the first half of the year.

My winters training has probably been the most consistent I've ever had and I've seen my fitness and strength develop each month and still feel there is still some further progress to be made.

My first target of the season was the slateman. I have raced this on a Few occasions and i just love it.

The swim is Baltic, the bike is a real honest course with plenty of climbing and the run is simply a brutal off road run up the slate quarry and steep and technical descending with a few extra cheeky digs for good measure.

Im not exactly designed for long climbs and steep run ascents at 6ft 1 and race weight just over 76kg- I'm probably giving away 10kg to some of the smaller, lighter guys but the always aim high adventure series is something special and I simply love it.

Ive been racing triathlon competitively for over 12years and riding on flat A roads hugging the aero bars can begin to become repetitive and boring- slateman is far away from that right in the heart of snowdonia #godscountry

Prior to slateman I had raced a couple of sprint events and had been struggling with my breathing on the run. Both days had been hot and the pollen was high so after a few trips to the doctors and hopefully now I think we've finally getting that sorted and my breathing has improved alot better, and makes sense why I always perform better in col and wet conditions in the past.

My original goal for the slateman was to win Sunday's full distance event which consists of a 1000m swim, 50km challenging bike heading up over the pen y pass and a brutal 12km trail run.

However I was riding home on the Friday night from work and had the idea of giving the sprint distance a go also on the Saturday to make a Weekend of it.

I thought it would be a new and interesting challenge of how well my body can recover and how strong my fitness levels are.

I got in touch with always aim high guys and they said we can sort it so game on.

The sprint-

This was a 400m swim, 20km bike of basically up the pen y pass climb then back down and a cheeky 6k trail run to finish.

I've never tried to race a triathlon back to back and didn't want to empty to much of the tank on day 1.

The swim went well and I lead the swim all the way round comfortably with one young guy on my feet.

I lost a little ground on the long run upto transition but wasn't to fussed as the bike was a tough climb up.

Out on the bike and I set about reeling the guy In and took the lead after a few km as we hit the climb.

He came back at me half way up and slowly pulled a small gap on me, in hindsight road bike was the bette option for the sprint bit over the two days tt bike would come into it's own.

The descent back down I would normally expect to gain time back but in the wet conditions I seemed to struggle a little, and wasn't able to commit- maybe I was thinking about the full distance on the sunday but

Ended up finishing the bike 30sec down.

On the run I set off in hot pursuit, I hadnt done a recce of the course so didn't know what to expect.

Once we left the road and onto the trail my pace dropped massively.

The climb was brutally steep on rough trail and with him out of sight I decided to defend and settle for second and save the rest of my matches for the Sunday.

I took the rest of the run really steady and jogged in for second.

Full credit to the young guy that won.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating and recovering and preparing for the Sunday.

I think I had a great sleep as my alarm went off and I had completely forgotten I was racing again.

The full distance had a more competitive field with some fast guys and a few mountain goats so I was going to have to give it everything to get a good result.

Despite I had raced the sprint I still felt good and confident I could win despite everyone else being on fresh legs.

The swim

It took me a bit to get going and had to sit on feet for the first 400m but as we turned and into the choppy waters I was able to come round people and was leading the front group round with just Stu Moore the fish upfront.

I exited the water 2nd and was out on the bike chasing down stu.

I caught him a few km into the climb and settled into my tempo.

About 100m off the top on the pass I got caught by one guy but the following descent I re rook the lead and was feeling good.

I really enjoyed the ride and flying down the descents much better than the previous day, and rode solo up until Lewis caught up with me around 35km in.

It was good to have some company but with about 10km to go my legs began to feel the efforts of the weekend and Lewis built a gap of about 40m.

The last few km I closed it back down and lead into transition with lewis.

Heading out on the run I could see a large group entering t2 so new I had to keep working hard with them only 30sec back.

The first few km of the run is mainly a gradual descent to the base of the quarry, and myself and Lewis exchanged the lead a fee times, then we hit the quarry.

The quarry is a really tough constant climb on slate and it's just a complete suffer fest for 2km.

Towards the top my quads were destroyed and Lewis edged out a small gap but we still had a good 5k of running left. I pushed as hard as I could and every climb my quads were exploding but inside I was loving it.

With about 2km the mountain goat Pete brooks came past and dropped me down to 3rd.

The last mile is down hill and I backed off slightly and tried to enjoy it.

Once I crossed the line I collapsed in a heap, I had emptied the tank completely and was destroyed- so job done.

Well done to Lewis for taking the win and pete for second.

I loved the weekend of racing and came away with:

1st In the savage event (sprint and full combined)

2nd in the sprint

3rd in the full.

Hats off to everyone competing over the weekend, and especially the savage competitors. Full respect.

Also was great to see so many of my athletes racing and done superb.

I really cant rate the always aim high events enough, the venues are spectacular showcasing the amazing landscape Wales has to offer, the terrain is brutal so a great challenge and achievement for everyone and the organisation and passion from Tim and his team is second to none.

I was already signed up for the complete adventure series which includes the snowman and sandman.

However I've now changed to race the savage in them all.