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Hi,

this is to thank all followers - my blog has just reached over 1000 views since its creation in April 2012 :)

Thanks for your support

Anatoly

Season Start

Hi,

after finishing the National Triathlon Championships on the 6th of October, I took 4 weeks of total rest. The last few months of training were very tough especially mentally and I could not keep motivated as much as I wished. Training resumed on the 4th of November - I had the goals set out and the annual training plan ready; all that was left was to start training in preparation for the new challenges ahead.

The most important races I will be taking part in are the Half Marathon on the 23rd of February, the National Aquathlon Championships on the 2nd August and the last race of the season: the National Triathlon Championships on the 12th of October. In between, there will be loads of other races of varying importance to test myself.

Calendar of Multisport Events 2014 

The first race I just took part in is the traditional Christmas race from Mdina to Spinola with a distance of 17km. I am completely new to running races especially for such distances and had never raced longer than 10km. Since this is part of the preparation for the Half Marathon (21km), my base training and early build phases were focused on building up the necessary mileage with speed sessions in between. Unfortunately, training has been inconsistent almost from the beginning as I have been sick twice already - the last time was last week just few days before the race.

On race day I felt completely relaxed - something I always need to race well. I set a target of 1hr 30 for this race but wanted to run by feel rather than basing my pace on the watch. The first few kilometres were very easy as with regards breathing but tough on the legs due to the heavy impacts of downhill running especially getting down from Saqqajja, Rabat to Mriehel. As for the rest it was more or less level and I was keeping a constant pace. Things got hard at Sliema - going up Triq it-Torri and along the coast I started feeling tired but kept telling myself I wanted to finish strong. The race finish was at Spinola Bay and on the 16th kilometre I made the mistake of increasing the pace as I thought I was very close. In truth the bay I was seeing was Balluta Bay but I somehow managed to keep strong without slowing much until the proper finish.

Photo thanks to Wally Galea

 Race Details

I am very satisfied with my result - 1hr 29mins - without any doubt a Personal Best. I finished in 292nd place out of 607 athletes and 84th place out of 136 athletes in my category (age 23-34). Now off to 2014 for a year with a variety of new and exciting races.

Anatoly