Coached Athlete Review… With injuries towards the end of 2023, Barry didn’t have in his own words ‘high expectations’ for the 2024 season. Hear how we managed to turn this around and keep him getting faster rather than slowing as he progresses through his 40’s!…
I didn’t have my usual high expectations for 2024. After ending 2023 still struggling with a lower back injury and Achilles tendinitis that wouldn’t go away, my main focus was getting injury and pain free. A lot of rehab and slowly building my training volume eventually got me to a point where I could train consistently and aim for some races. But first, I did the Challenge Tri Camp in Mallorca in March, a great way to build fitness and have fun.
After this, I turned my focus onto the first race of the year, the Outlaw half in Nottingham. My first time doing the race and enjoyed it, particularly as it’s only 90mins from my house. Made a change from European races and the travel arrangements. Raced well at Outlaw Half, was within 10mins of my best time for the distance and was very happy considering the injuries at the end of 2023.
A few weeks later I did the Grafman half distance relay, where I did swim-bike and my friend did the run. This event was great fun as it was literally 1mile from my house and a cracking day in early June. Solid effort on the bike and enjoyed competing with my mate – though he struggled on the half marathon run having only done one training session! Still we came 3rd, a good day in the sun.
For the remainder of the summer I focused on running and aimed for a PB 5km as had less time to train with my wedding at the end of the summer. Enjoyed the shorter distance and managed to equal my PB from 2021. Not bad considering I’m getting older and apparently supposed to be getting slower!
Now to 2025. Enjoying the running (when I can stay injury free – calf niggles are my constant annoyance!) so have decided to do a spring marathon. Beyond that, not sure yet, but looking forward to working with my coach Nick as we build to a PB marathon to kick off 2025.
