I have never done more than 2 races on back-to-back weekends, so my April/May race schedule was going to be an interesting experiment.  Well, here I am sitting on the balcony of my home stay in St Kitts, the night before my final race of six over the last 6wks and yep, I am still alive!  As always, I opted for some pretty tough races not wanting to take the soft option and really give the experiment a good run for it's money.  I started with the Asian Champs in the Philippines, which is our biggest race of the year for ITU points and funding for the following year.  I then headed to Ishigaki in Japan for the first World Cup of the season.  This is always an incredibly hot and strong race and this year was no exception.  We had temperatures of 35C plus and many nations were using this as their Olympic trials race.  Thankfully, I had a slight reprieve for a week and headed back to HK for some training and did a local Aquathon race which, yes you guessed it was also stinking hot and the 5km run was up and down a steep hill with lots of steps! 

Before I had a chance to completely unpack my bags, I was off again but this time with Cookie for the Tagaman triathlon in Saipan (near Guam).  This was my first longer distance race in 2yrs but I couldn't wait to get out of the drafting mode and see how I would go.  We had an awesome week and caught up with lots of old triathlon friends which was made even sweeter when I came second in the race.  Cookie unfortunately had to head home to keep the business afloat, while I took off on a monster travel schedule to St Croix via Guam, Tokyo, Houston and San Juan!  St Croix is in the US Virgin Islands, next to St John and St Thomas and hosts the first 1/2 Ironman Hawaii qualifier of the year.  It also boasts one of the largest prize purses in the sport outside of Lifetime Fitness and the Hawaii World Champs, so the competition was going to be as hot as the weather. 

St Croix has a famous title, "Beauty & the Beast" - how apt!  The beast refers to the first major climb on the course which covers 0.8miles and climbs over 600ft over very rough road surface.  The scary thing is, the race doesn't really begin until after the beast and let me tell you it's a long hot, windy day for a 1/2 IM race.  That said, I am definitely signed up for next year especially after coming 9th without any specific longer training.  I completely fell in love with the island with it's amazing scenery, awesome diving and very friendly people.  My home stay were laughing when I started getting more emails at their address than they did and it would take me over an hour to bike home from town, because I kept bumping into people I knew for a chat. "Well, you have been on island for a week now," was their response. That just about sums up the way people seem to welcome you so quickly.  I was taken ocean swimming/snorkeling on Mon morning, wall diving off the beach that night, out for dinner on Tues night, wall diving again on Wed morning, out for dinner Wed night and then ocean swimming round a marine park followed by coffee & breakfast on Thurs morning before flying out that afternoon! You certainly couldn't say I wasn't well looked after and my days were filled as I had all my training to fit in too.

I was sad to leave but St Kitts beckoned for my final race before heading home for a rest. I had raced here last year and seem to remember saying never again!  It is very hot (well, what's new) and has some of the worst hills I have ever seen on a bike course and the first one barely gives you enough time to get your shoes on.  I am staying with a lovely West Indies couple who were born here and moved back 4yrs ago for retirement.  They have this amazing house built on the top of a mountain overlooking the Caribbean ocean on one side and the Atlantic on the other.  It would make the most amazing ski chalet, as it's wooden with huge glass windows and not an aircon or a fan in sight!  I have spent the last couple of days just melting and opening all the doors and windows at any opportunity......thank God I didn't fly in from the UK.  At least it cools down at night and I am sat outside on the balcony now with a cool breeze blowing and enjoying a perfect temperature.

Well, after all that, I am sure you want to know how I feel after all that travel and racing.  I can only say that Siri has done an awesome job in getting us race fit and ready to tackle anything.  All those long, hard weeks of training have definitely made me a much stronger and tougher athlete. I remember last year when I tried to do 4 Olympic distance races in 5wks and ended up having one shocker and a DNF in another.  That said, I still have one to go tomorrow and the course here won't give anyone an easy pass, but I am confident I will pull through ready to enjoy my week off next week.  I have also been surprised how much training I have been able to do in-between races and still feel fresh on race day. Obviously, it's not as much as in a normal week but we have certainly been able to put in some good days on Mon through Thurs and then tapered down for the last couple of days.  I can now see how some pro's are able to have periods of racing every weekend to make some money and this then allows them blocks of training to get stronger. I thought I would never say it, but I think this may be the way forward and it has made a big difference for me to have the luxury of napping and time for some massage & stretching to help my body along the way.
I apologize now for the lack of race reports from St Croix and St Kitts (even though it's tomorrow) as my camera was stolen on route to St Croix.  I am waiting until I get home to scan in some still photo's, so I can make the race reports a bit more graphic.

Happy training.....

Cheers Claire