What happened to the rest of 2023?

After my 2023 A-race ended in disaster, I still had a large deposit in the Bank of Fitness and I wanted to spend it. I considered a late-season middle-distance race, but didn’t really fancy anything.

So I decided to focus on local short-distance races and over the next seven weeks I absolutely caned it around South Manchester and Cheshire. 

I raced at my absolute max 14 times in total, including five hill climbs, three 10 mile time trials, four 5k races, one Olympic triathlon and an aquathlon.

It was great fun and intense, at one point I think I raced four times in five days.

The highlight was the Deva Olympic where I came 11^th overall, 1^st in the M50-54 age group in a time of 2:14:04, some 2.5 minutes ahead of the next guy. 

An 18:19 5k Sale Sizzler wasn’t too shabby either, and a 23:39 10m TT was only 8 seconds off my all-time best. Flying around Sale Waterpark at 3:53 mins/k pace in the aquathlon was a personal highlight.

While I continued with easy training in between events, I was cashing cheques like crazy and not making new deposits, so my balance in the Bank of Fitness was eroding fast. And then just like that, I’d had enough and not interested in another race. It’s amazing how your body tells you what to do.

A week later my off season started with a couple of trips and holiday. After a relaxing summer I tried to kick off winter training at the start of September but in anticipation of going under the knife I never really got into any kind of rhythm. 

In the end, my op wasn’t scheduled until 16^th December and while my aim was to retain as much fitness as possible before an enforced rest/recovery period, my mojo went AWOL and so my fitness continued to decay, reaching its lowest point in many years. 

But by January 1^st, my two-week recovery was over, my mojo was back and so I began rebuilding for  2024. 

14 all-out short-course races in 7 weeks

Deva swim exit

Deva Olympic bike

Deva Olympic run

I built up a great fitness reserve training for Outlaw Half Nottingham which I then put to good use with 14 all-out races in 7 weeks. However, cashing cheques while not making deposits into the fitness bank can only go on for so long.