Martin has been concentrating on the longer stuff this year but decided to have a blast out at a sprint triathlon a week before his main event Ironman UK. With great fitness he was hoping for a podium and duly got it with 2nd overall…

The final fast training session before Ironman UK. Plan was to; firstly not to get injured and; secondly win. Second one being a tall order for somebody concentrating on endurance training.

The day dawned windy but dry and reasonably warm, the race was a pool swim followed by a hilly bike and then fairly flat run.

I went off 3rd in my lane and unfortunately there was a gap before me, so there was nobody to draft off. The swim went excellently for me, coming out of the water in 3rd place with a 750m swim PB of 10:55 (including run to the swimming pool exit). A fast transition onto the Merida Timewarp aided by the Lake tri shoes and I was already into 2nd place.

I pushed the bike hard from the off (probably too hard) and could soon see first place. By the 20min mark I had taken first, but was then soon overtaken by a hard-charging Andy Williams (Short course man!). We then traded places back and forth until he finally dropped me. At this point I definitely realised I had gone out too hard on the bike (good mental note not to do this next week at IMUK).

I was then onto the run and I was pleased to find that my legs were ready for running. The first lap was spent at target HR, which I then pushed for the second lap to ensure I wouldn’t get caught. Andy pulled about a further 30seconds ahead during the run, with me finishing about 2mins clear of 3rd place, to take 2nd overall.

This was the first outing for the Limar F-80 photochromatic sun glasses, which performed excellently in the changing daylight conditions and was a very pleasing result. It was a good fast hard training session in prep for next week at IMUK!

Thanks go to TORQ for putting together such a fast combination of team sponsors and to these sponsors:

Delicious, natural and healthy nutrition: www.torqfitness.co.uk
Frames – Merida: www.merida-bikes.com
Cycle Shoes – Lake: www.lakecycling.co.uk
Helmets – Limar: www.limarhelmets.com
Glasses – Limar: www.limarhelmets.com
Cables – Jagwire: www.jagwireusa.com
Aerobars – USE: www.use1.com
Wetsuits – 2XU: www.2xu.com
Wheels – Fast Forward: www.ffwdwheels.com
Powermeters – Powertap: www.cycleops.com