Hello everyone!
I trust you are all well. It's been a quiet month of racing if I'm honest. I've had a World Championship qualification race, which went brilliantly and I qualified in first place as well as finishing 3rd in the race overall. I won't go into too much detail with this race as it actually welt very smoothly. The perfect swim got me out early. I didn't do much work at all on the bike and then had a really good run with very little pain in my knee thankfully. I took home a nice sized trophy and a bottle of wine. Good day at the office. Onto the next race.
The race I will talk more about in this blog was the British U20's Festival which also held the British Elite Junior Championships. It was a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. The bike was so technical. There were around 6 dead turns/chicanes per lap meaning the bike would not be a fast one!
I was feeling pretty good before the race. I felt fresh and like I had good speed in my legs and arms. On the race morning we were told it was a non-wetsuit swim. I tried to keep my confidence up telling myself that I can swim and I am fast. I think it helped as I did have a good swim. I felt strong and got stuck in the middle of it all. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. I exited the water in 10:50, but more importantly only 1:13 behind the leader which was a really good swim for me. However, pretty much all 60 juniors in the field finished the swim within 1min 20sec.
I worked hard to get out of T1 in a good time and latch onto a group of people just ahead of me. However an average T1 meant I was working hard on the bike straight away too. Thankfully, I hooked on to the back of a group but it was not organised. It was splitting up and people were being dropped in the first two laps so we were losing time. Eventually the group stabilised with 14 of us and the then group starting working together. I did sit at the back and let other people do the work. I wanted to save my run legs as I was still unsure about how they would react. The 6 lap technical and twisty course made it very hard. You were always on the pedals pushing out of the corners and working hard to stay in the group. I was happy with my bike time and the performance and started the run with some ground to make up.
The run was interesting. I didn't feel too good but was picking people off constantly. I worked hard. The sun was shining and the heat bearing down on the course but I handled it well. Halfway through the run I'd gained 17 places. In the final two laps I hung on for the 13th fastest run of the day and finished in 28th place. I was really happy with my splits, my time and my placing but just a bit disappointed about how far away from the leader I was. But when I told myself he is the best Junior athlete in the World right now, I sort of realised I actually performed pretty well compared to him! I came away knowing I'd had a good result but more motivated to do something special at the Worlds and over the winter prepare for the 2018 season.
Next up for me is the big one. The World Triathlon Championships in Rotterdam. I'm really excited about this race and really interested to see how I will perform and hopefully I'll be able to perform a lot better than last year. Namely, not to pass out!
Now. I know I said I had something exciting to share with you in this blog, but you'll have to wait a little longer. Sorry! After these words I assure you all, everything will be revealed! But don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram (@sammileham) where you might be able to see some hints or some sneak peaks!
I'm really thankful to all my sponsors for all their support they have given me throughout the year and I am really excited to represent them at the World Championships and hope I can bring home a good result and do them proud. Thank you to:
Pedal Potential
Sam Farmer
Excel Physiotherapy
Zone 3
Swim Canary Wharf
Vorgee UK &
Max Curle
See you in Rotterdam!
Sam
Redcar ITU World Qualifier Race Times British U20's Festival Race Times
Swim: 9.29mins Swim: 10:49mins
T1: 00.39mins T1: 00.59mins
Bike: 30.19mins Bike: 34.29mins
T2: 00.24mins T2: 00.31mins
Run: 17.24mins Run: 16.46mins
Total: 58.17mins Total: 1.03.35hours
I trust you are all well. It's been a quiet month of racing if I'm honest. I've had a World Championship qualification race, which went brilliantly and I qualified in first place as well as finishing 3rd in the race overall. I won't go into too much detail with this race as it actually welt very smoothly. The perfect swim got me out early. I didn't do much work at all on the bike and then had a really good run with very little pain in my knee thankfully. I took home a nice sized trophy and a bottle of wine. Good day at the office. Onto the next race.
The race I will talk more about in this blog was the British U20's Festival which also held the British Elite Junior Championships. It was a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. The bike was so technical. There were around 6 dead turns/chicanes per lap meaning the bike would not be a fast one!
I was feeling pretty good before the race. I felt fresh and like I had good speed in my legs and arms. On the race morning we were told it was a non-wetsuit swim. I tried to keep my confidence up telling myself that I can swim and I am fast. I think it helped as I did have a good swim. I felt strong and got stuck in the middle of it all. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. I exited the water in 10:50, but more importantly only 1:13 behind the leader which was a really good swim for me. However, pretty much all 60 juniors in the field finished the swim within 1min 20sec.
I worked hard to get out of T1 in a good time and latch onto a group of people just ahead of me. However an average T1 meant I was working hard on the bike straight away too. Thankfully, I hooked on to the back of a group but it was not organised. It was splitting up and people were being dropped in the first two laps so we were losing time. Eventually the group stabilised with 14 of us and the then group starting working together. I did sit at the back and let other people do the work. I wanted to save my run legs as I was still unsure about how they would react. The 6 lap technical and twisty course made it very hard. You were always on the pedals pushing out of the corners and working hard to stay in the group. I was happy with my bike time and the performance and started the run with some ground to make up.
The run was interesting. I didn't feel too good but was picking people off constantly. I worked hard. The sun was shining and the heat bearing down on the course but I handled it well. Halfway through the run I'd gained 17 places. In the final two laps I hung on for the 13th fastest run of the day and finished in 28th place. I was really happy with my splits, my time and my placing but just a bit disappointed about how far away from the leader I was. But when I told myself he is the best Junior athlete in the World right now, I sort of realised I actually performed pretty well compared to him! I came away knowing I'd had a good result but more motivated to do something special at the Worlds and over the winter prepare for the 2018 season.
Next up for me is the big one. The World Triathlon Championships in Rotterdam. I'm really excited about this race and really interested to see how I will perform and hopefully I'll be able to perform a lot better than last year. Namely, not to pass out!
Now. I know I said I had something exciting to share with you in this blog, but you'll have to wait a little longer. Sorry! After these words I assure you all, everything will be revealed! But don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram (@sammileham) where you might be able to see some hints or some sneak peaks!
I'm really thankful to all my sponsors for all their support they have given me throughout the year and I am really excited to represent them at the World Championships and hope I can bring home a good result and do them proud. Thank you to:
Pedal Potential
Sam Farmer
Excel Physiotherapy
Zone 3
Swim Canary Wharf
Vorgee UK &
Max Curle
See you in Rotterdam!
Sam
Redcar ITU World Qualifier Race Times British U20's Festival Race Times
Swim: 9.29mins Swim: 10:49mins
T1: 00.39mins T1: 00.59mins
Bike: 30.19mins Bike: 34.29mins
T2: 00.24mins T2: 00.31mins
Run: 17.24mins Run: 16.46mins
Total: 58.17mins Total: 1.03.35hours
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