Meet Dan, Team Bike Science – Planet X’s resident uber swimmer. He’s getting faster on the bike and run every year too. Despite an addiction to cookies and cold beer he’s gunning for a scorching fast time at Ironman Austria in two weekends time.
Here’s Dan’s own take on his tri career to date…
“My route into triathlon was through a swimming background having spent 15 years as a child swimming, both in Bristol and in Cardiff whilst in University. I spent 3 years training under Dave Haller who is one of the best swim coaches in the UK having coached; David Davies, Mark Foster, Duncan Goodhew, Adrian Moorhouse and David Wilkie – not a bad resume! I still use many of the training principles today from my 3 years with him as I always have been and always will be self coached. My best event used to be the 200m Breastroke where my pb used to be 2.25 and my 100m pb 1.07 (These days I struggle to do that frontcrawl which is worrying!)
Having quit swimming in 2003 I had a couple of years in the wilderness, with drinking, partying and playing football my main priorities. As a dare on new years eve in 2005 I entered the London Triathlon and have never looked back. My running was pretty shocking at the start being a typical “fish out of water”, but after teaming up with local run coach Steve Hollier my run splits these days aren’t quite so shocking and my half marathon pb is now down to 1.18 which means I can at least stay with most on the run.
In 2008 I raced for the GB age group team but became disillusioned by it all after racing a Duathlon in Vancouver because the swim was cancelled, pretty frustrating when you are in the shape of your life. After this setback and a pretty low key season in 2009 (didn’t quite break 2 hours for an Olympic but got very close on a number of occasions) I thought I would move up to long distance in 2010.
The main focus this season is IM Austria where I hope to break the pb I set last season in my first Iron Distance race, The Outlaw – I crossing the line in 9.43. This winter has gone well, with a bike science team training camp in France, some injury setbacks (medial plica) but I am in pretty good shape and should be on for a good time if I nail my race plan and don’t get sidetracked! A top 3 for my age would be nice but looking at previous results most of the guys in the 25-29 age are pretty much full time and I would need to cross the line in about 8.45 so that’s out of the question. I won’t be taking a Hawaii slot either if I did get one, I will leave that for another day as I want to tick some other boxes first before I go and race that.
Longer term plans are not set having recently found out I am going to be dad for the first time in spring 2012. Next season will more than likely be some smaller races in the UK, potentially Wimbleball or another 70.3 race along with some local races around Bristol.”
