Good effort Joex the only trouble with improvement is expectation.
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As above pretty disappointing year for me really.
No running at all until April to try and let the injury improve with quite a bit of physio. Wattbike was broken and struggled with the Kickr, also eased back for the injury. Pool & gym closed so nothing there either. But I did get out and do quite a bit of walking and a bit of outdoor riding to get the cycling up.
TT’s pretty much seemed to be a disaster after disaster, 50 was appalling, a 25 was ruined by my first vaccine 3 days before, a 10 by a rubbing brake. Only half decent race was the 100 that I did on the Propel with clip-on tribars where I did something like 4:23? But an AP of 310W on a club 10 suggested I was in better form than my results suggested.
Tried a fell race (Blencathra) and managed to get lost with a few people, injured again so a couple of weeks of no running 
Only 1 triathlon where the swim was a disaster, bike was ok (draft legal) and run was as good as I could expect at the time. Then either the North Sea water or something I ate the next day meant I spent a very unpleasant 14 hours on the bog, not a weight loss program I’d recommend 
Managed a couple of duathlons, first one was alright despite limited running at that time. Enjoyed the second one, only a small field but didn’t do badly. Also met Leahn who is very quick (and really decent guy). And caught up with Poet after his disaster at Bolton, he was actually a lot less angry than I’d have been after that day!
Finally started to improve a bit and targeted Manchester marathon for a Boston Q time, a lot of the training was either mixed training like the duathlon or run\walk days. It went pretty well with the limited amount of training. Also managed to sneak a very small 10M PB on a slow breezy day. Parkrun got down to 19:31, all of which were done on very little structured training.
Injury is a lot better but not perfect but hopefully can build into next year, and probably not helped by my erratic blood sugar problem.
DIY - D, erm I did sort out the dripping kitchen taps a couple of weeks ago by changing the cartridges, and also bodged a stop valve into the piping below, I did manage to get it in the wrong place initially. Also painted the fence 
Drinking - E, not really participated in it this year, couple of nights out is about it.
So, oddly despite the injuries I’d almost say I was mostly pleased with my running this year. Zwift isn’t going well ATM either.
I’d probably scrape a D overall.
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Thames Path 100 - def at 74 miles - just cba
South Downs Way 100 - heat got to me (although great to spend some quality hours with @FatPom and finished at mile 66 with a fair bit of vomiting and shivering
Race to the Stones 100km - loved it - inducting my son into the ways of ultra (until he left me for dust at 42km and finished an hour ahead of me)
UTMB - simply just not fit enough - finished at Courmayeur and went to the pub
Desert ultra in Namibia binned due to Covid
Another year of failure in the Western States lottery - still looking on the bright side double the tickets next year
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I’ve drafted this a couple of times of the last few days, and finally think I’ve straightened it out.
I think I’d summarise it as fighting on all fronts, and succeeding at very few.
I purposely prioritised (and wanted to support) the local running scene. It is quite cool, really. Local runners sign up to a 20 race calendar, and points are scored in your best 12 races against c. 20 athletes of similar ability. I was neck and neck all year with another lad, and ended up losing out by a single point (he ran 18/20 races, I scrapped in 12). Ran most of the season around a stone overweight, and I should have wiped the floor with him. His HM PB, for example, is 4 minutes slower than mine.
No Triathlon, one Aquathlon at the GB AG cup. Limited swimming meant that I had to run through for a semi-respectable result. A couple of years ago, I would have been top 3.
Also, think time is catching up. I have to train smart, now. Not just train hard most days of the week. Couple of niggly injuries most of the year didn’t help.
Still, could have been a lot worse but lot to work on next year.
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Triathlon D
It’s been a pretty poor year for Symes this year, sadly he started coming up with ridiculous excuses for not taking part in events, the worst of which was that the country had closed its borders to anyone flying from English airports.
He did redeem himself slightly by doing a DIY half IM but again let himself down by only doing a 10k run citing the fact he was pissed off with being in the rain for 5 straight hours in August.
We’re hoping he focuses more on taking part than coming up with ever more weird excuses in 2022.
Swimming C
Not a brilliant year in terms of consistent pool visits but for the majority of Spring and early Summer he made use of the single lane bookings and made good attempts at improving his technique. All being well he will be a regular visitor to the pool next year and continue the improvements, hopefully some strength work will be included.
Cycling B-
Initially Symes was a little bit scared when seeing people with an FTP of 230+ but with some sterling Zwift work he made quick improvements and has increased his to a similar level and above earlier in the year, we just need to see similar output on the road in 2022. Maybe we can convince him to do a TT in real life.
Running C
Generally a disappointing year for running not helped by Achilles issues. A bright note at the end of 2021 was a surprise 21.23 park run seeing him finish 4th though we recognise this is entirely down to other people not being arsed to attend on a wet Christmas Day. Target for 2022 is to continue the injury rehab and work towards running a greater proportion of an IM marathon and then getting beyond his own front door in the Escape race.
DIY A-
A fantastic effort in 2021, couldn’t be happier or in fact, more surprised by this year’s DIY results. Patio creation after taking a tree to its roots was good but possibly surpassed by the fireplace renovation, we look forward to similar work in 2022 but remain convinced that this was a major blip and next year’s attempts may struggle to get above a D.
Overall - still seems to be led astray by his internet ‘friends’ and needs to concentrate on doing triathlon and not just typing about it.
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Is there another triathlon forum you’ve got on the side then? 
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or maybe another non-triathlon forum that involves dressing up in strange gear 
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FTFY
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Magna Carter has let himself down badly this year, and not reached anywhere near his potential.
If he doesn’t start showing some effort, then his results will be as he deserves.
Swimming:
a total of 5 swims this year, with 3 of them being 1000m or less, and all of them at a pace normally associated with arm bands. He is likely to drown when he participates in Cotswold Classic, and we hold little hope for his future as a professional swimmer.
Running:
Perhaps a more spirited attempt than his pathetic swimming efforts, but ultimately failing to meet any goals of significance.
He managed to run a maximum distance of 11miles at one point, but this highlight was rather tainted by him being overtaken by an overweight hedgehog on the sprint due to his glacial pacing strategy.
A total of 319 miles really should be both a cause for shame, and a wake up call.
Cycling:
MC’s strongest discipline. Which isn’t a compliment.
2,526 miles is underwhelming, and was barely enough for him to avoid needing stabilisers putting back on his TT bike.
He did manage to get back to within 8W of his best ever FTP, and celebrated by sitting on his arse for a fortnight. This summarises his approach to life perfectly, which is to become almost good enough, and then not give enough of a shit to benefit from it.
in 2022, MC must remember that his wheels are round.
DIY:
We can’t find any evidence of him attending these classes.
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Triathlon - B
Entered 4 completed 3
Dorney Sprint - 1st placed M35
Outlaw Half Notts - 8th M35
Staffs 70.3 - 14th M35
IM Wales -
Looking at those results I’ve got to be pretty pleased. Dorney sprint was in the pissing rain I just went as hard as I could. Probably the hardest I’ve ever tried on the run. Both Outlaw and Staffs I had a great build and was pretty fit and such a shame Wales was cancelled. Looking back I do regret not winging Outlaw full; I was cooking on gas and even without the longer sessions I reckon I could have blagged a decent time. 14 weeks until Brighton mara so need an action plan in place
Shame Outlaw was early in the season after pools being closed. I swam a 34 followed with a 2:21 bike and 1:31 run if I had swam 30 like Staffs I would have had a great day.
I had wanted to do something everyday but failed at the start of August so managed 219 active days straight and finished with 341. Will aim for 365 again.
After Staffs and a minor glute issue writing running off for August I’ve really just been ticking over with no plan.
Swim - B
Was pretty consistent after pools reopened and really enjoyed my Wednesday evening lake swim, getting into a really good habit of going every week. Tailed off at the end of the year
Bike - B
Also pretty decent set pb watts at ftp, felt pretty strong throughout the year and bike well in all TTs and tris - tailed off again and down on normal annual mileage and meters climbed. Going to have to set that straight with Bolton and Wales this year.
Absolutely loved the 2up TT I did with a club mate on road bikes
Run - B
Didn’t set the world alight but again a very consistent year. Pb at Outlaw half; not going to get near that this year with the only 70.3 being the St George WC
DIY - C
Not much to speak of on the interior but I did manage to prep and successfully lay turf on two decent patches of our garden that are still looking decent
A good year really but shame an iron distance race was missing (yet again)
Roll on 2022
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I can’t really recall much of this year, seems to blend into 2020 
I came 2nd overall at Southport OW Sprint Tri.
Really pleased with that, 1st place swam under 9 minutes for 750m, I beat him in every other discipline.
Still not mad keen on the TT starts.
IMUK - eggs in baskets. Bought new Tyres, had them on the week before, bloody rapid they were. Punctured theee times 
6th in my AG out of the water, clubmate rolled home in 13 hours and took his Kona slot.
Story of what could’ve been
Outlaw - Had some form of a meltdown on the run. Decent enough swim, bike was a piece of pie, run was grim for the first step after going back for my inhaler. I knew it was tough then. 10:49 finish time was about an hour over where I thought I’d be (4:18 “run”)
Swim
I was loving open water during that heatwave.
Smashed out 5 laps (3.8km) in just over an hour nearly every week. Broke an hour a couple of times, too 
Felt proper ace.
Packed it in after outlaw.
Had an op in October, never got back into it.
Bike
Did some amazing (ly flat) rides after Outlaw.
Rode 9 centuries including two 200km rides.
It snowed/rained/hailed for at least three of those rides.
Still, at least I wasn’t crying in a bus shelter contemplating pissing on my hands to warm them up, like I was in 2020.
Small wins.
Run
Going great guns for LD. did zero speed work.
Running 18:xx parkruns and feeling each run was easy.
Never got the chance to unleash my run at IMUK or Outlaw.
After the op found it hard to get going again.
Fell over and hurt my ankle.
Carried on running and now it’s mashed.
Lessons
Not sure?
I barely tried in 2021, every was LSD.
Probably need to work up a sweat this year.
Looking forwards to a few special days this year;
40th and a special ride to commemorate it
Mallorca trip
325km ride
Not arsed with Staffs70.3. Might see if I can defer 
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Good…
Did one event, won the Masters Category; can’t complain.
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Dismal year…business survived (just)…new office build finished (6 months late)…managed to attend 4 races - Roth (manager), Zofingen (manager), Valencia (manager) & Aviles (manager and raced - 13th in cat world sprint duathlon). Notched up my 415th senior race but by far the least amount of training ever (apart from the year when i broke my leg).
Swimming. 18, 617 m. Ave 358 m per week…
Cycling. 1,572 km. Ave 30.2 km per week…
Running. 1,511 km. Ave 29 km per week…
D-
Running shoe report to follow…
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Summary: Good triathlon year - meets expectations and targets that were set. Would be content and pleased to see him continue at current rate, but if he does dream of better results then needs to increase his effort to get there.
Overall B+
Non-triathlon: A***, and puts the triathlon year into context:
January-March working extra shifts, saving money, busy selling 90% of possessions, trying to see family/friends where possible, get engaged. Realise my ultimate driving goal isn’t being better at sport or even at medicine, but being the best support Mrs Swim could ever get.
April-May: Move to Australia, two weeks quarantine. Not killed or been killed by Mrs Swim, engagement still on. Might just be because visa is all in my name. A month or so of trying to find feet/somewhere to live/settle down, and adapt to new work stresses.
June onwards: Settle into routine, rotas with nights every 4 weeks and trying to manage one holiday/tour every month to slowly work our way round this gargantuan country. Mix of highs/lows/new opportunities/loneliness. Thankfully balanced the right way.
Triathlon
Total: 405 hours for swim-bike-run = 7:47/week. 2020: 396 hours, 2019: 432 hours.
Still low volume compared to many others, but pretty similar to my other two years in the sport, especially considering 2019 involved an Ironman and serious training afterwards on the back of it.
From July to December only 5 weeks less than that 7:47 average, and no week under 5 hours, suggests decent consistency to second half of the year.
Races: Half-marathon in August, two sprint triathlons and a half Ironman Oct-Dec, each going as well as could be hoped for with training.
Swim: 80 activities, 71 hours, 264km, with 150km of that being Oct-Dec. Each of those 3 months would be biggest since 2016 (pre-triathlon). Good quality squad training with training partner much much better than him, feels like making improvements.
= On the right course, no action required.
Bike: 218 activities, 221 hours, 6530km. More activities reflects the move to bike commuting 25 minutes each way, with a 3hour ride in Adelaide hills once a fortnight. Matches total volume for previous two years. Some hard intervals in final few months of the year to keep some quality. Highlight of the year undoubtedly a one hour wattbike test at 334W in March before losing all structured training. Held 260W for 90km triathlon in November.
= Main scope for improvement if truly serious about performing well at an ironman in 6 months time, both in building endurance and improving speed.
Run: x164, 113 hours, 1436km. Highest ever yearly volume by 120km. Structured training June-August with a half marathon focus resulting in 7 min pb for 1:17. Maintenance since with re-adding swim and bike training, plus 4 weeks out injured makes for little consistency in the last quarter of the year. Hopefully now back on course, relying on consistent easy volume and more bike training to try get 3-3:10 ironman run, rather than any hero run training until I can convince myself I’m not an injury risk.
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Not really sure how to sum up 2021. It was an odd year, that’s for sure. Doesn’t feel like I’ve achieved anything from a sport perspective, but maybe that’s my appalling December tainting things slightly. It really ruined a reasonably consistent, if not focussed year.
Swimming - E
I swam 4 times in the sea. I wasn’t a huge amount slower than normal. I did enjoy it though. Don’t really have an excuse as I live by the sea! Need to work on this.
Cycling – B+
I rode my bike more than I ever have - up 18.8% vs 2020 (based on time as Zwift has been a significant portion of my training and the speeds/distances are rather arbitrary).
5,000km distance (2,464km outside riding, which just nipped ahead as my highest ever), 175 hours with 123 days of riding.
My riding itself was stronger than it has ever been, with little in the way of structured training. Rode better than I could’ve hoped at Cotswold, which was my only proper test. Have started to get a bit better on Zwift. Pre-Dec FTP was heading the right way as well. Hoping to build on this in 2022. Probably had all my quick gains now, so the rest will be much harder fought.
Running – C
3rd lowest year since 2013 with a paltry 1,450km covered, 23,500m of elevation and only 99 days of running.
Very little in the way of structure or consistency this year, either speed or endurance related. I ran a 1.21 solo half in April on a windy day to test for fitness, didn’t seem to really extend much more beyond that point! Managed to post a reasonable 17.18 Parkrun, again solo with limited speedwork and poor weather.
Ran a 1.27 at Cots 113 again. Inside the top 5% run times, but I was really disappointed with this, and was expecting 1.24 or lower.
Finally I did surprise myself with a 2.53 marathon in November - surprise, surprise it was once again done off no structured training and very low run volume. Ran a (just) negative split and other than cramps in the final km, felt strong throughout.
No big endurance or elevation feats, no run longer than a marathon (ran an off road mara in Jan for my bday as well) and nothing really anywhere near the upper end of my abilities.
Tri – D
Entered and completed my first triathlon (duathlon) in 6 years, a 70.3 in the Cotswolds. Very much enjoyed the build-up. Whilst I didn’t really structure a plan or anything, I did mix in a range of bike sessions, a little bit of run intensity and got a few really decent brick sessions nailed. Enjoyed dipping my toe into the whole aero/equipment thing for the first time – new aero lid, worked on position on the road bike (but was limited by said bike), new tyres, latex tubes and all that.
Race day - rode the first 80km way above expectations averaging 37.1 kph at that point; then I stupidly took a wrong turn and got lost. That story has been told. Lost my head and struggled to even complete the run. Was VERY close to binning it off on multiple occasions.
So whilst I enjoyed the build, and the race to be fair, it has to be a poor score for a poorly executed single race with no swim!
I have however entered the Classic again this year and bought a TT bike.
DIY – E
Haven’t got round to starting the bathroom yet. Massive mould patches on the wall from leaky roof that started last year. Still can’t get someone round to sort it, though haven’t really tried that hard.
Garden – B
Continued to work on front and back. Allotment coming on well with plenty of trial and error and lots of learning.
Food & Drink – A
Think I upped my wine consumption even further than last year. Am turning into a wine and a beer snob, genuinely not enjoying poorer versions of both. It’s slowly happening with coffee as well. Starting to hate myself, whilst secretly enjoying it!
Still enjoying my cooking.
TriTalk – A
Waste … err I mean spend waaay too much time on here! But it’s a comfort blanket of sorts. I like it here. Do I feel awkward explaining it to non TTers sometimes, especially my wife? Yes. Don’t know why, it’s 2022. But I still feel the stigma about talking about online friends/acquaintances, whatever you want to call us, and I don’t really know why. Silly really. As soon as an individual is met IRL, then that stigma feels like it washes away. Odd.
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17 minute 5K
1.21 training half
2.53 marathon
All with no structured training, you aren’t making any friends
(Well done really 
)
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Yeah, he’s not got as many online friends as he thinks
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It’s all relative! Also shows how much better I could perform if I a) magically 🧙♂ found a ton of time and b) not magically 
found some motivation and drive!
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The reason you can’t get anyone to sort your bathroom is because Lee was on the bus when you slammed in the 17min Parkrun 
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