End of Year Review
I have skipped writing a post for Weeks 51/52 as I basically limped to the end of the year on my calf injury and haven't done any biking and minimal swimming.
Here are my end of year numbers are mapped against the targets I set this time last year.
I still have some sort of low-level illness that I am still struggling to get a diagnosis on, (the General Medicine department at the hospital have discharged me and basically given up trying to find what it is, and the only test they still are considering is sending me for a sleep study) and my available time to train is being impacted by coaching, work, and general life.
On the targets though, a frustrating number of the volume targets were going to be green up until I tore my calf and had to take three weeks off in December.
Anyway,...
Green - Did make it.
Red - Didn't make it.
Orange - Needs explaining.
Targets by numbers
Represent GBR age-group at multiple international events. – Did 6.
Qualify for the GBR Age-group team for a 2026 European or a 2026 World Championships. – 3x European Champs (Would also be good for 3x Worlds but they are in the Middle East so I chose not to apply).
Finish top-20 at European Aquathlon Champs. – 15th
Finish top-15 at a European Cross Champs. – 5th
Medal at Scottish Aquathlon Champs. - 2nd
Swim 130 miles. – 118 miles
Swim under 6:15 minutes for 400m. – 6:30.7 CSS Test
Swim under 11:45 minutes for 750m. – 11:31 Loch Lomond (probably 50m short). 12:33 Loch Ore.
Swim under 25:30 minutes for 1,500m. – 28:50 Prachatice
Ride 2,000 miles. – Was on course until injury. Ended 1882.9.
MTB 600 miles – 659 miles
Run 1,100 miles. – 1051.2
Run a 5k in under 19:30 mins or 10k in under 40 mins. – Turriff 10k 46:10. Parkrun Perth 19:48.
>52 Yoga sessions
>40 Stretching and rollering sessions. - 12
>40 Core sessions. - 16
>40 Weights sessions. - 30
>50 Run reps, hills or ‘fast’ sessions.
Stretch Targets
Qualify for the GBR Age-group team for a second 2026 European Championships.
Qualify for the GBR Age-group team for a 2026 World Championships. - Didn’t apply, but did meet the qualifying standard.
Win the Scottish Aquathlon Champs. – 2nd
Finish top-15 at Euro Aquathlon Champs. – 15th
Finish top-10 at either Euro Cross race. – 5th
Swim 140 miles.
Swim under 6:00 minutes for 400m. – 6:30.7 CSS Test
Swim under 11:30 minutes for 750m. – 11:31 Loch Lomond (probably 50m short). 12:33 Loch Ore.
Swim under 24:59 for 1,500m. – 28:50 Prachatice.
Ride 2,100 miles. - 1882.9.
MTB 630 miles.
Run 1,155 miles.
Run a 5k in under 19 mins or 10k in under 39 mins.
Run another 5k in under 19:30 or 10k in under 40.
>69 Yoga sessions - 43
>52 Stretching and rollering sessions. - 12
>52 Core sessions. - 16
>52 Weights sessions. - 30
Breakdown
This year has been better than last year, but still not particularly great. I still have some sort of low level illness that is leaving me exhausted at random, but which the medical fraternity are unable to locate. I do seem to be improving, but very slowly, and not consistently. It is also now at a point where I can’t tell if I am healthy but am fighting a year’s worth of lost fitness to the illness coupled to just normal ageing.
Having missed all Internationals in 2024 I then binged in 2025 and went to Pamplona (ETU Aquathlon), Pontevedra (ITU Cross Tri, Cross Duathlon, Aquathlon) and Prachatice (ETU Cross Tri, Cross Duathlon).
I also did the Scottish Aquathlon Champs at Loch Lomond.
I didn’t race particularly well at any of them, but accidentally got some decent results due to weak fields.
I didn’t do any real run racing after the Masters XC Champs in Feb. Some fun midweek hill races and Parkruns don’t really count, Moray 10k I pulled out with an injury and Turriff I doubled the hilly 10k/5k in the same day. Nor any bike or swim specific racing.
Swim
I was almost 20% off this one. I continued with the inefficient of doing 4 (sometimes 5) sessions a week of ~1,200m each rather than putting in a couple of decent big sessions. My average swim session distance this year came in at 1,330m, 25m shorter than last year.
Given the ‘wasted’ time of travelling to the pool, changing, showering, changing, travelling home, this is a ridiculous way to log my swimming. Even when I am writing off the travelling against run and bike commutes it is still not an efficient way to operate.
Bike
In the same manner as swimming, Commuting has made this number look a lot better than it really should. I have done a LOT of ~7 mile days, some 14 mile days (that are really just two easy commutes) and that 30 minute roll to / from work is doing almost nothing for me in fitness terms. My longest ride of the year was a single 31.4 mile mountain bike ride to Strichen. No other ride broke through the 20 mile mark.
Despite that my average ride day is slightly up (8.8 to 10.3 miles) and despite doing 14 less ride days I did 150 miles more. I also did 130 miles more on the mountain bike than 2024. Still not my best mtb year, but certainly better. 10 extra rides and with the average mtb ride up from 8.5 to 11.0 miles
I did hit some record power numbers on the spin bike during coaching sessions with the students, but I am never completely convinced of the accuracy of those bikes. I have still resisted putting power meters on my own bikes, just because of the cost.
I did spend more time on the mountain bike than previous years but again some of that was commuting and none of it was really comparable in duration, or technical content, to what I then had to pull out for racing the Euros in Prachatice.
Run
At the start of the year my running wasn’t great, but it was trending in the right direction through to mid-March and even managed a sub-20 5k for the first time in over a year (19:48 at Perth Parkrun). I then had a minor niggle during Moray 10 and pulled out at ~3k. From there everything seemed to stagnate. I have put on a bit of weight, and not done enough fast running, but for a big chunk of the year I have been closer to 23 minutes than 20.
I like to blame some of that on the age of my supershoes and their lack of magic, but the new set I got (same make, same model) haven’t undone that, so it is maybe not the effect that I am projecting on to it.
In October I had started on a volume block that seemed to be moving me in the right direction and then was immediately undone by successive calf strains.
Over the year I have run nearly 30 days less than 2024, primarily due to minor injuries, while covering almost exactly the same mileage, so my average run distance has moved from 4.0 miles to 4.4. I have also done more reps sessions and a similar number of races (41 in 2024, 44 in 2025) but those races are 8 seconds a mile slower (7:35 average to 7:43). Some of the pace is down to doing more hill and off-road races, and more parkruns.
Races
I did 14 Parkruns this year. That number is up 5 from last year, but the average speed is slower. The first one of the year was in a blinding snowstorm at Livingston where I was pleased to finish in 22:41 and still have all my fingers. I only broke 20 minutes once this year with a 19:48 at Perth in April.
The only 10k I did was at Turriff (46:10), which is not a course to run fast anyway, but especially so if you are running again in the 5k half an hour later.
My best swim of the year looks great at 11:41 for 750m, but the course at Loch Lomond is so variable and garmin says this year it was only about 700m. I didn’t break 12:30 or 17:30 (1,000m) anywhere else.
Bike racing is almost impossible to compare due to courses, weather, bikes, … . The only races I did the same courses as last year were East Fortune, where I did almost exactly the same time, but with even less of a draft pack, and Loch Ore where I did go a couple of minutes slower on a slightly longer bike, then slower still on the run.
I am pleased about coming 5th at the Euro Cross Duathlon in Czechia, and 11th at the Triathlon two days later, but that is tempered by there only being 5 and 11 starters respectively. The course was tough and I am happy with how I raced.
Worlds was less good. A puncture on the Triathlon in Pontevedra and my stubbornness to finish regardless then ruined my legs for the Duathlon two days later and the Aquathlon the following day was just trying to survive. Next year they have at least added a recovery day between the Duathlon and Aquathlon at Euros and I am not going to go and race the Worlds in the Middle East.
Probably my best result of the year, where I didn’t get my position based on the lack of competitiors, was getting first local at Mormond Hill Race.
Other
I think I have played more basketball (41 times) this year than any previous. I don’t count the miles I am logging on the court. However, Garmin does give me credit for the heart rate and tells me it is the time I am doing my highest intensity work in any given week. It also does definitely help with the stabilising muscles so that when I do run off-road I can cope with varying surfaces. If I was to assume that I cover just over a mile per 90-minute session (very conservative) then that would take me easily over my run miles target for the year.
And by now, you should know the story on the rest of these. Even having added proper trips in to the gym at work to try and make them more of a routine, I skipped these more and more as the year went by, like I do every year. I did yoga only when my hip gets too painful not to, or when I want to do something fast or long the following day and need to mitigate the pain. I did bits of stretching and rollering, but nowhere near enough. And I can always find an excuse to miss out on the core and weights sets.
My weight has still been rising slowly through this year and I am now on the wrong side of 81kg. That is absolutely fundamental to why I am running slowly, and since I passed 75kg it has not been helping my swim either. I can’t get a handle on why this is happening and have tried calorie management and several different approaches through the year. I still suspect it is related to whatever undiagnosed illness is causing my exhaustion as I have tried a number of diet / calorie plans over the year to get control of it and have had no success.
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