Catriona Morrison

Well, a bit of a turn-up for the books. I never thought that I would report that I had a stronger swim and run than bike! The women’s field was a who’s who of the 70.3 world and it was good to be mixing it with the big girls.

Swim: A+

Consistent swimming with West Lothian’s top junior swimmers seems to have been of a major benefit to Catriona’s swimming performance. She needs to concentrate on keeping feet and should endevour to practice this over the coming weeks.

Transition: C-

Catriona appeared to have forgotten the art of the fourth discipline losing time on the long run into T1 and faffing with her wetsuit. More attention needed.

Bike: B-

Although a solid performance in effort levels Catriona’s bike appeared to be somewhat below her usual high standards. Some post-race de-briefing with coaches will be required to ensure that she regains her strong bike leg for upcoming races.

Transition: B

Having obviously learnt lessons from T1 Catriona appeared to raise her game in T2 although there is still room for improvemement.

Run: A++

Having struggled with the art of running off the bike, Catriona has worked hard all winter to improve this area of her triathlon performance and is now seeing the fruits of her labour – keep up the good work!

Hip hip hip hip hooray!

Arrived on Sunday evening minus my kit bag, but at least I had a bike.

The bag arrived after I had succumbed to the land of nod and was waiting by my door in the morning. My homestay family -the Brooks, are wonderful. Tim drove home at lunch yesterday to take me to the bike shop where I could purchase a crack pipe to fill up the tub on the disk. Crack pipe?@! Is this a Californian term? Got a wee spin up to race start at Oceanside and managed to catch some fetching leg sunburn in the process.

This morning I went to club that the Brooks family are members of. Let’s just say that I have never been to a gym that has valet parking. Wish that I had taken the camera, it was more like a country club. I could have stayed all day but I had to run home through the canyon system where I was informed by another runner to watch out for the coyotes – yikes.

Managed to find my way home but had to climb over a rather high fence into a typical burbs street with all the neighborhood dogs raising the alarm – I was writing the headlines in my mind: “Scottish athlete arrested for trespassing maintains she was escaping from canyon coyotes…. “.

Still, all’s well. Two sessions done and it is time for sleeps again (v tired this morning as numptee me forgot to turn phone off so was awoken by incoming call at 4am – thanks Andrew, you know who you are..)

Passport, tickets, money.

Bike, wetsuit, race suit.

Wheels, helmet, shoes.

I always forget something. So this is it. First race of the season is looming and it’s a big one. All the way to California 70.3. Maybe my list should read: fake tan, blonde wig, size zero corset??

Training has been going well. Solid and consistent with some good physiological test results. I’ve got my new TT bike and it will be interesting to see how we perform as a team. So far we have spent lots of time in the garage as the weather has been so shocking. If I had an endless pool and a treadmill I’d never have to leave the garage in the winter.

Best get cracking with the packing!

Season 2008 is about to kick off. Last year was epic – I was so happy to perform well whilst still working part time (European and World Champion, 5^th place at World 70.3 champs). Triathlon is a fundamentally selfish, individual sport but behind every athlete there are numerous individuals and companies that keep that athlete training, racing and performing and I am EXCEPTIONALLY lucky to have a wide range of sponsors and supporters.

This year with the Scottish Institute of Sport Foundation sponsoring me financially, I hope to reap the benefits of being a full time athlete once more. More races are on the calendar and more air miles will be accumulated. The travel bills are already piling at the door and this year Planet X will be helping me get to the start line wherever it is in the world – not to mention supplying me with my bikes and NEW top spec training and racing kit from their S2 range.

My equipment needs are large and varied and I am proud to have a great number of supporters who will keep me supplied with top notch throughout the year.

This season I will continue my partnership with Saucony who will provide me with training and racing footwear. I’ve already been seeing the benefits of this partnership with my second place at the Scottish National XC Champs wearing spangly new spikes. Fingers crossed for a good outing this weekend at the Balloch to Clydebank half marathon. In the swim, Blueseventy and Aquasphere are continuing in 2008 to keep me afloat with their awesome wetsuits and equipment (we need to get together to develop an invisible jet powered motor that I can use….).

In 2008 I have some exciting new supporters who have joined the team. On my TT bike and road bikes I will have the use of an Ergomo power meter, I think that I’ll be turning into a techy geek when I combine the data from the meter with new software supplied by Physfarm!! I am sure that the attention to training and racing data will help me to improve my run off the bike at the half marathon distance. I will be sporting new eyewear courtesy of Adidas Eyewear (very important when you are a contact lens wearer like me!). I’ll be super – fuelled and getting maximum nutritional benefits from my new association with Powerbar - so it’s all go in 2008. Now I have to put in the hard work – made all the easier with my local supporters West Lothian Leisure whose gyms and pools enable me to do high quality training close to home. And to help me recover from all this training and racing, 2XU have given me some of their compression gear to try out.

A big thanks to everyone, bring on 2008….. :-)