28/04/08 - EARLY SEASON RESULTS
Wow, it's still April and I have already got 3 races under my belt.
My season started with a trip over to Australia to prepare for the first World Cup of the year in a place called Mooloolaba, on the Sunshine Coast. I travelled over to Aus a couple of weeks before the race, to leave myself sufficient time to adjust to the time difference and climate. After a week or so on the Gold Coast with Al (Brownlee) and Will (Clarke), we travelled up to the Sunshine coast to prepare for the race. I had a pretty decent swim, and was out in the front group. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay away, and got caught by the chase group, including most of the strong runners. After a fairly comfortable bike, I got a fairly decent position into T2... or so I thought. I soon realised that most of the strong runners were out of T2 ahead of me, requiring me to run a very fast first 3km to get back in touch. I soon found myself in a small grouo with Tim Don and Bevan Docherty, feeling comfortable. the group split in the latter stages, and despite being in 4th place at the top of the last hill, my legs fianlly gave out and I had to settle for a very pleasing 6th.
The next week I raced in New Plymouth. My race preparation was...interesting! Myself and Alistair found ourselves rather secluded, staying in a cottage at the wrong end of town. After such a good race the week before, I wanted to test myself on the swim, so went out like a hare, leading out the rest of the field as we approched the first buoy. I had been a bit over-enthusiastic in this first 300m, and really suffered in the rest of the swim. Onto the bike, I didn't feel that great, so just concentrated on holding my place in the lead group, and hence missed a breakaway that I should have been able to get into. I had a terrible T2, so exited T2 way down. I had a very strong first 6km on the run, and managed to run through a lot of the field, and held on in the last 4km to a solid 14th...though I really should have been pushing for a podium finish!
The final of my 3 races was supposed to be a nice sunny trip to Spain with Todd. As it turned out, there was torrential rain. Having survived (and swam well) in the swim in 12 degree water (!), I got onto the bike and felt really strong, despite losing feeling in both fingers and toes in the rain and cold, and losing my bottle on lap one after my entire bottle cage snapped off! The end was in sight, with 10km of the bike to go, when I heard the dreaded "psssst" of a puncture. I had to ride 2km up a hill to the wheel stop, and by the time my frozen fingers had put the wheel in, the 2nd group had caught up. I jumped on the back, and immidiately tried to attack, but soon realised it wasn't going to happen, as my brake was rubbing on the tyre (!) of the replacement wheel...which made the remainder of the bike very hard and dangerous! After a numb transition, I got onto the run, and apart from very tired legs after riding with a rubbing brake, I felt OK, and ran myself up to 7th...which was a nice was to salvage a pretty horrendous race!
It's now about 4 weeks 'til the Madrid World Cup, the final Olympic Qualifier, so I'm going to try to keep my head down between now and then, and then see what happen's en Espana in one month.
28/02/08 - DRESSED FOR SUCCESS with MAZDA
A couple of months back Tim Don and I did a photoshoot for the Mazda magazine 'Zoom Zoom' at a rather chilly Dorney Lake. For those of you who don't drive Mazda cars (shame on you!!), you can see some of the photos and the article at the Mazda website www.mazda.co.uk.
There's a nice interview I did with Annie Emmerson the other day on Tri 247, at www.tri247.com.
Don't forget to check out this month's Men's Health, as it is the final issue of the 3-part article about me and (more importantly!) my Mazda CX-7! You can find out more at www.mensfitness.co.uk/triathlon.
21/06/07 - TRI STORE hook me up AGAIN! GIRO IONUS!
Thanks to the guys at the Tri Store for sorting me out with an awesome Giro Ionus bike helmet for 2008! www.thetristore.com.
Just an update to say that training is going well, with lots of cycling miles, nowhere to hide on the swim (thanks to training partner James (Bitty) Adams lighting it up in EVERY session!) and the long running rehab finally bearing fruit. At the weekend it was the Sussex County Cross-Country Champs, which I managed to steal ahead of Gavin Thompson (ran 10km for England at 2006 Commonwealth Games).
03/12/07 - 7th in EILAT WORLD CUP!
Well, it's been a while. After nearly 6 months, I have finally raced again. The "hurt my foot" after the Europeans turned out to be a broken bone, which forced me off training for 6 weeks. I then tried to whip myself into shape for Worlds and the Beijing World Cup (an Olympic Games qualifier), but managed to rehurt my foot in the process!
After such a long break from training (especially running), my fitness was dire, but my coach and I set a target to get me competing at the final World Cup of the season in Eilat, Israel.
I turned up with a maximum running week of about 3 hours, but decent swim and bike fitness. I swam well and hence easily made the front pack. The bike had a cheeky hill on every lap that I was able to take advantage of and make the sure the pace was kept high throughout. Onto the run, I felt comfortable running in 3rd fo the first couple of kilometres, despite knowing that my lack of training would catch up on me further into the race.
I spend the bulk of the running with two other guys in 4th and 5th, though they finally shelled me with 2km to go. In the last 2km I fell apart a bit and dropped another place with about 100m to go, but still managed to hold onto a most unexpected 7th.
This result really gives me confidence for the upcoming winter, and shows that once I get back to full training I should be back pushing for World Cup podium finishes!
1. Hirokatsu Tayama JPN 1:49:46
2. Volodymyr Polikarpenko UKR 1:50:32
...
7. OLIVER FREEMAN GBR 1:51:03
...
21/06/07 - FULCRUM SPEEDS from THE TRI STORE
Talk about bling-bling! The very generous guys at the Tri Store have just given me my super-fly new wheels for the race season: a pair of Fulcrum Racing Speeds!
I'm really excited about getting a chance to race on them, and I did do a cheeky ride on them the other day, and they certainly lived up to my VERY high expectations! I've put a couple of photos of them in my Gallery.
Hello All. Sorry for the delay since my last update. It has been an eventful month! 2 weeks after Richards Bay I raced in Scotland in the Corus Series race #1, where I came 4th. I was pretty pleased, considering that I was in heavy training at the time. The next weekend I went up to Oxford for the Blenheim Triathlon. I didn't compete, but enjoyed watching the races and catching up with some of my sponsors.
Meanwhile, I managed to hurt my foot, which put me out of training for a while. It seems to be behaving itself again now, and I have been able to get some good miles in this week. I was gutted to miss the Nationals and the World Cup in Des Moines, but there are more important races coming up that I knew I would be far more upset if I missed.
I will keep you updated of how things progress over the next few weeks.
13/05/07 - CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR - 4th at RICHARDS BAY
What a week. 7 days ago I lined up in Lisbon as the 75th ranked athlete, having barely scraped onto the start list. Earlier today, a few thousand miles further south (in South Africa) I lined up as the number 1 ranked athlete! Now THAT (in the words of Ricky Gervais) is mental!
I had a great swim start, swimming along side Rich Stannard. However, we both got absolutely hammered at the first buoy. I managed to hold it together and exit comfortably in the front pack.
The bike was going OK until a commited group got away and ground themselves a 1:20 lead by T2. I feel I did too much work to try to chase them down, which I paid for later!
Onto the run, I tucked into a swift chase pack as we hunted down the leaders. By 8km our pack was whittled down to 5 of us (de Villiers, Polykarpenko, Hug, Fleureton and me), and we had caught all bar one of the leaders. I felt strong, so put in an effort for the best part of 1km, which shelled off Hug and Fleureton, but also pushed me over the edge, so I couldn't stay with the other two as the passed the leader with 400m to go, leaving me in a close 4th.
I was gutted to miss the podium by such a small margin, but am really stoked with my results this past 7 days. It has elevated my world ranking to 22 (and number 1 in Great Britain).
1. Hendrik de Villiers RSA 1:52:53
2. Volodymyr Polikarpenko UKR 1:52:58
...
4. OLIVER FREEMAN GBR 1:53:10
...
08/05/07 - 5th at LISBON WORLD CUP
Hey All. Just arrived back from a very successful weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. It was my first race of the year, against a very high quality field, including Olympic, Commonwealth and World Champions.
I had a decent swim, exiting in the top 20. The ride was pretty technical, with parts on roads, cobbles and even a horseshoe through an underground indoor stadium! Madness! I felt strong, and managed to get away with two others (one of them being Stu Hayes) on the last lap, giving us a 15 secs lead into T2 ahead of the main pack which included all the main players.
Onto the run, I held them off for about 3.5km, but finally got caught by the leading 3: Gomez, Kahlefeldt and Ospaly. I hung with them for 1km before Javier put in a kick that split us apart. I ran for a while in 4th, just trying to keep Brad Kahlefeldt in my sights, before I got passed by Rasmus who was surging through strongly at the end.
I'm pleased with the result, and it's given me a great platform to build on for the long season ahead...which continues next weekend in South Africa with another World Cup.
ps. I've spotted my ugly mug in a couple of photos from the race...see the Gallery.
1. Javier Gomez ESP 1:52:41
...
4. Rasmus Henning DEN 1:53:09
5. OLIVER FREEMAN GBR 1:53:20
6. Jan Frodeno GER 1:53:40
...