Beau Smith: Triathlete: 2014 Round Up

Having completely neglected my blog for over a year, throughout 2014, I wanted to resume a semi-regular use of it! With this in mind I thought it best to give a quick overview of how things went for me in 2014 and what I got up to!

Admiring the view at the top of one of the hills in Spain

The year started with a warm weather training camp in Aguilas, Spain over the New Year period and into early January with my training group from Leeds Triathlon Centre. I had never been on a training camp abroad so this was a new experience for me and the warmer weather allowed a good volume of cycling and running, and we took to opportunity to practise open water swimming with easy access to the sea. Whilst the first two weeks of January were great from a training point of view, the rest of the month I struggled to get the consistency I would have liked first with exams at uni, and then the great British winter seeing me fall foul of coughs/colds and lack of motivation, and it was towards the end of February before I training as consistently as I wanted.

March was a month of big highs and lows. I was informed that I’d been selected to represent Great Britain at the World University Triathlon Championships to be held in Brazil in April, my second GB selection. I then won the BUCS Biathlon Championships, with the fastest swim (a new PB over the 200m) and the second fastest 1500m run resulting in a new Championship Points record, and I appeared to be in good shape.

Prominent collarbone (pre-surgery)

Then came the big low; only two or three days later a bike crash on the commute to morning swim training resulted in a broken collar bone ultimately requiring surgery to ensure it healed correctly. This unfortunately meant I had to withdraw from the University Championships. Surgery took place early April, and there followed a couple of months of rehabilitation and building back into training. This meant a later than usual start to my season, and I also missed most of the qualifying races for Championship events being held later in the season.

Winning a sprint for 6th at Blenheim

June saw a return to racing, starting with a solid race at the BUCS Standard Distance Championships where I got 3rd, followed by the first event in the British Triathlon Super Series, Blenheim Palace Triathlon. Later in the month I travelled to Larache, Morocco for an African Cup event with the intention of gaining some ITU points, which I successfully managed, so get my name onto the ITU rankings; I also raced a 5000m event on the track in Leeds where I got another pb.

In July I enjoyed returning to Holten, Netherlands (location of European u23 champs 2013) for a European Cup race in Holten, and finished the month with a 5i50 race in Marseille, France, which was a good taste of professional non draft racing. The London Triathlon took place in early August and was the third event in the British Super Series, and I had a strong race to achieve my highest position to date in a senior British series race. The National elite sprint distance champs at the Liverpool Triathlon, which would have been the final event of the Series, was unfortunately cancelled due to adverse weather. Disappointed not to race at Liverpool I decided to enter the UK Xterra Championships (off-road triathlon) largely because it sounded a fun event! This was another new experience for me, and after coming out of the 1500m swim 2^nd behind Richard Stannard I saw the class of the off road specialists on the mountain bike leg, and also encountered a brief stop for a mechanical, eventually finishing 11th. ^rdAlso during August I raced a few cycle road races and crits to gain more experience on the bike and riding in groups, accumulating enough license points to move up to 3rd cat.

Leading the chase group over the cobbles in the Lancaster Classic Criterium race!

In September I agreed to take part in the Helvellyn Triathlon as part of a relay team, where I would do the swim and the bike legs: I got a great start and came out of Ullswater with almost 3 minutes lead, only to have a mechanical leaving transition on the bike and was forced to drop out. My last triathlon of the season was a French Grand Prix event in Nice at the end of the month, representing my team Parthenay. October was a month of rest and recovery, and the odd party, with little to report in the triathlon/multisport world!

In November I made a return to compete for my old Athletics club at the Mansfield National Cross Country (running) Relays, an event I’ve raced at every year since the age of 10! I also set a new 1500m swim PB at the British Universities Short Course Swimming Championships. I then got to grips with Cyclo-Cross to build bike strength and improve my handling skills, and I raced a couple of events.

Riding the (borrowed) Racepace machine to 8th at BUCS Duathlon!

Towards the end of the month was the British Universities Duathlon Championships where I was happy to improved both my time and finishing position for the third year running, and lead the Leeds University team to a team gold medal! There was no racing for me in December other than the Leeds University Cross Country relays and a fun run while home for Christmas!

Results