8th in Des Moines - Nicky Samuels
15 June 2010
Well the initial snow we got upon our arrival into Boulder cleared and the weather has been perfect ever since. The riding here is fantastic up in the mountains and the running trails have definitely kept me well occupied and motivated in training. All in all I have had a great 4week training block in Boulder, Colorado and was really looking forward to the race in Des Moines this weekend just passed.
Leaving Boulder for the weekend was something to look forward to as I knew I had just completed a really good block of training and racing always breaks these blocks up and the result let me know how it went. This weekend I had a good race.
My focus in the race was on nailing the swim and the bike. I completed two swim time trials during training-both after a solid mornings training session or two. The times assured me I can swim with these lead girls, but in the open water I have been struggling. So I went in with a bit of confidence this week knowing I swam a 62 second 100m and a 4min38second 400m at altitude. However, my swim wasn’t so good in the first lap as per usual and but again I crawled myself back up during lap two and exited with the main lead group about 40 seconds back from the two American swimmers Piersel and McClarty. Out of transition the long string of girls turned into a large main bunch which gathered a few more from smaller groups behind as we progressed in an uneventful ride.
Entering transition 2 I was reasonably well positioned. I exited controlled as per usual and built into my run. I knew by the 1km mark that today was my day. My legs didn’t have that usual feeling of heaviness off the bike. I thought this is great, and kept things controlled and picked of runner by runner as the laps went by. During my last lap the lead group of 7 girls had broken up but they were still too far ahead for me to catch them. So it was a matter of holding my position to the finish line. I finished in 8th position, a position I am very happy with. This was a break though race for me as it was first race since prior to my pelvic stress fracture that I have actually felt good in the run. So I am hoping that this is the start of some good racing to come for me this year and am looking forward to testing myself on my next race.
I am now at the Denver Airport awaiting my shuttle to take me back to Boulder where I will have a three days easy training and then get back into some solid training including a race in Philadelphia in two weeks time. I plan to do this non-drafting race as part of my next four week training block in hope to get the most out of my last month at altitude here. At the end of these four weeks I will be flying into Paris and staying with my French club for a week to get over the travel and jet lag in hope to have my 5km running legs on for my first French Grand Prix race in central Paris on July 18 at 6am! This will be a great race swimming in the Seine and running under the Eiffel tower, something every professional athlete sound get the chance to do...
Thanks again for your continued support and I look forward to getting back to you in a couple of weeks with another good result.
Nicky
Back
