Update by Nick Beer:

Since my last blog, i have put my head down and have churned out some promising sessions in the pool, on the bike and on the running. Things have been feeling great for a while now and each race I am expecting more and more from myself... probably not a good thing as when it doesn’t go my way it hurts a lot!

 Last time I reported I was planning on doing the Manchester 10km. It would have been the perfect course for a fast time... fast, flat and on the day, the weather was ideal. However, I was relying on my friend to get there and this fell on its face and I had to look else for a 10km. The one that took my fancy was the Newmarket 10km. This is quite near my house in Cambridge and it felt ideal, however, although Cambridgeshire is renowned for being flat... this course was hilly and off road, so a fast time was out of the question and the focus was on running tough. Race went well and came 1st in 34.00min... Time was irrelevant, but was happy with how it went. This gave me a lot of confidence going into the European Cup in Athlone, Ireland. 

 The European cup race was a great experience... incredibly well organised and a great atmosphere on the streets of Athlone made the race even special. Athlone is a tiny town, but I have never been to a place with so many bookmakers and pubs... definitely lives up to the stereotype! The build up was intense... waiting on the pontoon with the gladiator theme tune being played in the background, nerves were going through the roof! Had a great start and the swim went really well. It was a 2 lap swim with a dive off the pontoon after the first lap. Two very good French swimmers led out the swim and I came out in 10^th, about 10seconds down. Transition was a nightmare, the elastic band that attached my shoe to my bike jumped off the skewer and I was sprinting off with my shoe banging the floor. What seemed a lifetime, was only a minute or so, but by the time I sorted the issue out I had missed the leading pack.

Before the race began I decided to “try something new” with my drink on my bike. Sadly, these words did come back to haunt me. I decided to put some caffeine in my drink and to try some low GI waxy barley starch, which is a slow releasing carbohydrate and I believed I would benefit more from this than my usual high 5 “super carb” drink. Even though I didn’t feel any discomfort on the bike and the caffeine helped to keep me alert, once on the run I paid the price for poor nutrition. I started off well and felt fast on the first lap of the hilly 4 lap course. However, as the run progressed my stomach began to get tighter and tighter and the bounding on the hills did not help the discomfort. With 1 lap to go I had to pull the pin, it was a horrible feeling and really hard to stop but there was no choice… every step was hard work and I was as white as a ghost… I was gutted!

As the race emotions sunk in the over analysing was done I was actually really happy with how the race went. I felt great racing (excluding the last part of the run) and was really happy with how I am progressing in the sport. I was disappointed with what happened, but I put it down to a school boy mistake. Never play about with nutrition before a race, it is easily said then done, but it affected the outcome of my race massively.

Next stop is London this weekend… will hopefully put some pictures up on my next blog.

Happy racing!!