Overall, the 2023 season hasn't gone to plan for a number of reasons. Illness and injury got in the way of a lot of training and has affected racing, but I have managed to make the most of this season, with some great racing and training experiences.
Just before travelling to Spain for a training camp at the start of the year I caught covid which threw a spanner in the works for camp. This meant that the training on camp was greatly altered and I could not do any training for the first couple of days. However, I still managed to get some good training done towards the back end of camp, and return home healthy.
I did not manage to perform well at PAs this year, with my worst performance to date due to problems with cramp on the run. I kept on working in the lead up to World Duathlon Championships in Ibiza, which was a great experience. I feel like I performed well - finishing 7th - even though I buried myself in the first 5km run, which made the rest of the race very difficult. Since this race, I feel that I have learnt a lot about the importance of regulating core temperature, and this has definitely affected my warm ups and racing in the heat.
Unfortunately, after Ibiza I fell ill again, but managed to balance training with A-level studies and come back to race at Mallory Super Series. Unfortunately, I wasn't fit enough on the day, and left feeling quite disappointed. Shortly after, I raced at Sunderland Super Series, which was 3/4 of an Olympic distance. This was a new experience for me, as I had never raced this long in the past, and I went into the race with a focus on enjoying the race and just doing what I could on the day. I managed that, coming 12th, and looking forward to the training camp in France with the English and French teams.
The training camp in France was a great experience, learning how the French team operate and how they do things differently to us. It was a good week of consistent training, and probably my favourite training camp to date. Off the back of this training camp, I travelled to Morzine with a few of my mates for a week there. This was an awesome experience, with some great training and lots of cols to conquer.
The season finished with the Super Series Grand Final, which was a sprint distance race. We had the heat to contend with, as it was about 27 degrees C, which affected the race massively. My swim wasn't that good, but our bike pack worked well together and I managed to hold onto 12th place on the run. This was a good test for me, and it showed that the training was working and I was in better shape than for Sunderland and Mallory.
This winter I'll be at the University of Nottingham, training with the triathlon squad. I'm looking forward to a fresh start and looking forward to training with new people, hopefully getting in good shape for the 2024 season.