Good news that the return to racing was a success last weekend.

Along with my team mates, Rachael Smith and Tom Bruins we had a great trip to the Douai Duathlon in Nord-de-Calais region.

Jean Nido and the team at Triathlon Douai where well assisted by Eric Cattiaux to create a beautiful event and impressive organisation. The team raced over the sprint distance of 4.7k run/25k bike/2.8k run. Rachel and myself managed to secure good wins and Tom also raced strongly for 3rd place just narrowly behind.

This weekend, we have headed north to Holland for the final race of the campaign at the European Championships www.powerman.nl

Thanks for checking in,

Raf

I am happy to confirm that Broad Construction have signed on to be my major sponsor for a further two year term.

The relationship has already run three years and it is fantastic to be able to finish my career with one major partner. With the passing of founder and former managing director, Kari Rummukainen last year, there is extra motivation to honour his memory and produce some great results in the future.

I am happy to report that after a light week following the Busselton 10km, training has progressed in intensity and things are tracking nicely. The plan from here is to incorporate some race specific workouts and then a few key races before flying to Europe for an attempt to improve on last years 3rd place at the ITU European Duathlon Championships.

Last weekend, I organised a training camp with Aussie icon and former World Record Holder in the Half Marathon, Steve Moneghetti in the forests of Dwellingup south of Perth. The weekend included great guests lectures from leading experts such as Darryn Sargant (Podiatrist); Damian Oldmeadow (Physio and Bike Fit Specialist); Peter Mellow (Dip Ed), Ben Green (B.Sc) and Marc See (B.Sc Physio) and of course some very solid training in the beautiful forrest around town. It attracted a great group of runners of all ages and abilities and was a really enjoyable and inspiring weekend. I highly recommend it next year for any passionate runners looking for motivation and information.

This Tuesday, I participated in an inter-squad Team  Time Trial over 22km with the Front Runner team and some other leading training groups around Perth. Our elite team of Nathan Jones, Sean Ralph and Thomas Bruins, managed to take the chocolates with a really strong showing, averaging just on 44.8k/hr. I am really excited to see the continued success of the Front Runner training group and it is really encouraging for me personally to think that a few of my protégés, Thomas Bruins and Brandon Hargreaves, will be at the upper level of Professional Duathlon after I retire and get to see the world chasing their goals.

Due to a late announcement of the dates for the WA Athletics Championships, my race schedule has changed and I have dropped the  Darlington Half Marathon in favour of the WA 5km Championships on March 16^th. This looks set to be a cracker of a race and as such I am looking forward to being part of it as a lead in to the Bridges on April 1st and then European campaign from April 9-30th.

Thanks for checking in and all the very best

Hi Folks

Firstly, I am going to start this update with a big thank you to the athletes who I travelled down with for the Busselton 5k/10k/Half Marathon and Jetty Swim this past weekend. It is such a great group of athletes and our group training system is starting to produce some fantastic results. The athletes whom I am coaching and training with, have given me a new enthusiasm in the past few months and I am really proud of the culture that is developing.

In terms of my race, I had set the goal of getting into sub 31.30 shape for this one and over the past couple of weeks I was confident that I was just ahead of schedule. I probably got a little too excited early on in the race and decided a sub 31 was possibility and pushed pretty hard from 3km. This proved a little ambitious for the legs and resulted in a tough last 3km. At the finish,  31.16 showed things are continuing to progress and we later learned the course was a little long and the run may have been worth a little quicker. Regardless, in the next two months I estimate I would need to crank things up and get into 30.30 shape for the Bridges 10km on April 1st to mount a realistic challenge for the European Duathlon title at the end of April.

Alot of hard work to be done but really excited to be working with such a great group of athletes towards our individual and collective goals

The picture, below, is from the inaugural post event “Busselton Flannelette Party”. Undoubtedly, this will develop a cult following in years to come and become a “must do” event for Perth’s A-listers

Thanks for checking in

Radar

Last Sunday had a good hit out and positive outcome at the Swan Twilight 5km at Burswood. With some sponsorship and prize money, the event attracted a high standard field of WA’s best distance runners so I decided to ease back into racing a little earlier than originally planned and see where things where at.

The most impressive effort of the night was our EEP athlete, Brandon Hargreaves who ran a course record 15.07 on the slow and technical course along the Swan River. Brandon is a genuine talent and if he can keep his head down I believe he can be WA’s first ever distance running track Olympian. At only 18 years of age, there is a lot of water to pass under the bridge but watch this space.

Personally, the event certainly tested where things where at and with the quality field I managed to run around 10 sec quicker than I expected with a 15.16 for 3rd place.

I am a bit like an old boxer who needs to be clipped around the ear to fire up, so the little touch up is the perfect motivation for me at this point of my preparation for the European Championships in April.

Over the next 2 weeks a repeat 16km bike TT at Kings Park and then the Busso 10km are on the cards so starting to get into the thick of things and will keep you updated as the form starts to build towards some important races in March and April

Thanks for checking in,
Radar