World Championships Part 1

It has been a World Championship kind of day today. 

I have to admit I don't tend to watch the ITU worlds with quite as much attention as I do Kona and the 70.3 worlds. Not because I don't like the shorter distance stuff or don't have an interest, if anything the ITU worlds are where the true elite triathletes are racing and that is always impressive. No it is simply that I find the ITU event a bit harder to follow, given the large number of events going over several days. I am always keen to hear the results though, I just don't tend to sit by a computer all day tracking them all day that's all. Although I did spend a bit of time today doing a bit of tracking. 

The one race I did spend time tracking very closely today was one of my athletes who was over there racing in the AG Olympic distance World Champs. Jane is one of those dream athletes that all coaches love having. She trains very, very well, races well, is never a problem, is friendly and sociable without being needy. Just perfect. 

She had a good lead up coming into the event, a good few months of really top quality training, getting in some great miles for the Olympic. We knew the course was going to be tough, so we trained pretty hard for it, making sure Jane was able to head into the event feeling fit and really strong. 

And it sounds like Jane had a pretty okay day. It sounds like she had a few dark moments on the course, which isn't surprising when you are doing a tough race. The swim was a bit choppy, the run had some serious hills etc. However, despite the tests she has come through with smile, saying that she enjoyed the experience more this year and feels like it was a better race than last year. 

Jane came through in 54th spot, which I think is pretty darn cool. 54th in the world has a nice ring to it if you ask me. However, more than that she has come out of the race satisfied with her effort, which is really the only metric that matters. The race really challenged her and she came through on top. I am going to call that one a success.

Next weekend it is all going to be about the 70.3 World Champs and so it is going to be all kinds of crazy from that perspective. However, before we get to that, it was very nice to spend a day with the ITU Worlds and enjoy watching a very good athletes do her thing.