I Finished 42nd overall; I was happy because the field was the best I had ever competed in , with 77 elite guys on the start line. Courtney Atkinson the Australian won the race taking 15,000 home, 2nd was Tim Don from Great Britain and 3rd was Jarrod Shoemaker from the United states. Theses guys were flying but it was great to be just in the same race them .

Total fitness Bathsquad turned up and dominated with 4 members in the overall top 9 and all of us making poduim in our age groups. A great day for TFB and ME!!!

I recently signed for a division 3 triathlon team in the French grand prix who were the promoted to division 2.  This was great new however the difference in standard is massive, giving me an aim and target for the year.

My next up and coming races are the national aquathon champs (750m swim, 5k run) in Salford, Manchester  this weekend the 17^th of July.  I am then flying out the following weekend to the French grand prix in les seaton and then the next major race planned is London Elite triathlon on the 8^th of august.

Here are some recent articles on my progress this year :

Jack Grundy’s season is slowly improving after a terrible winters training. During the winter, Jack suffered a bad cycling accident which resulted in him dislocating his wrist; this put jack out of full training for nearly two months.  After the injury Jack acknowledged that his form will be constantly improving as the race season went on.

The last two races have helped demonstrate his form is still improving and will hopefully continue.

Windsor 13th of June

The  race was held at Windsor, which was an elite series race attracting an international field. The Windsor triathlon was Olympic distance consisting of a 1500m swim, 40k bike and 10k run.  The race started well with Jack swimming 20. 52 against the river Thames current. Unfortunately, Jack missed a break in the field half way through the swim, and was unable to bridge the gap, leaving  him being in the second cycling group. The bike went well with jack doing a large amount of the work within the group and slowly picked up trailing small groups ahead. Jack came into transition with a pack of twelve riders, and went on to the 10k run. He started the run off steady but struggled to make any impact upon the field.  Overall , Jack finished 9^th in the under 23’s and 28^th overall.  

St Jean De Monts 24th of June

Jack recently this year signed for a semi professional triathlon team in the France Grande prix league. The French Grand Prix is the most competitive league in the triathlon world, drawing athletes from all over the world to race. The Grand prix was based in St Jean De Monts on the west coast of France on the 26^th of June. The triathlon was a sprint distance consisting of a 750m sea swim, 20k bike and 5k run. The swim was a non wetsuit swim, and started on the beach with 93 competitors on the start line. The Swim was made hard with a cross wind pushing swimmers off course and size of the field making it a fight to get round each buoy. Jack swam well coming out the water 1^st in his team by over a minute and top 20 for u23’s. He then went onto the bike with a pack of 20 riders with the bike course consisting of an out and back route along the sea front with 6 roundabouts each lap. This made the bike section very technical and aggressive with lots of attacking opportunities. Jack came into transition with the main pack, and went onto the run which was made tough by the soaring temperatures, reaching 33 degrees.  He  held his position on the run and finished 28^th overall in the u23’s and second for the team.  This was a big improvement in performance in one of the toughest fields Jack has competed in yet. He would not be able to compete at this level without the help and support of his coach Geoff Watkins and sponsors total fitness Bath & Gamson Gray.

Blenheim 6th of June

Blenheim elite sprint triathlon, was jacks first major race of the season.  While in transition there was announcement that the swim would be a non wetsuit swim, which was a great surprise to the field. The swim was held within the grounds of the palace in a lake. The swim went well for jack with him coming out on the bike in the second main pack. Although after one lap of the bike another athlete in the pack braked hard and cause jack to touch there wheel, he was forced to steer off the course to stop himself coming down in the group. Once jack had made his way back onto the course the group was long gone. This then resulted in jack riding on his own for one lap, this disheartened jack and as he had run on his too. He carried on working trying to catch the group he lost and knew that this race will give him points in the elite British series.  Jack finished 28^th overall and 9^th in the under23’s. jack was not happy with the result but was pleased with his determination to finish after his crash.

I fell off my bike during the last week of uni before Christmas and ended up dislocating my wrist.

It was the night of the Xfactor final and I had just finished one of my pieces of coursework and was feeling good about going home for christmas, so I decided to pop out and get a quick ride in before the light went. On the way back riding through Bath, I went round a tight right hand corner and the whole bike slid out from underneath me. As I was going quite slow, I stupidly placed my arm out to cushion my fall. As soon as I had done this, I knew I had hurt my wrist but did not know to what extent; I managed to ride the rest of the way home one handed. At home, I realised it was more serious that I thought and I would have to take a trip up to the hospital; which my girlfriend, Kim, did not approve of as she is a huge Xfactor fan.

After three hours in hospital, they had diagnosed my injury as a dislocated wrist with the ulna and radius coming apart resulting in the crucial ligaments that hold my wrist joint together being torn. I was put in plaster from the wrist to shoulder. I will be in the cast for 6 weeks, hoping that the ligaments will reattach without having to have an operation.

Training has been pretty much non existent, and the worst factor is that I will not be able to attend the Lanzarote training camp at the end of January.

The only thing I can do now is to try and maintain some aerobic fitness by working hard on the turbo and cross trainer, and to focus on rehabilitation of the wrist. Still hoping to be fit to race in June, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

The race distances are weird. They are a 600m swim,  a 35km bike ride and a 7.5km run. The race went well with  a fast swim time of 7.14, only a second slower than last year, which i was vey pleased with as I had laid off the swimming in the summer so as to concentrate on my running and biking.

Off I went on the bike with the amazing noise made by the disc wheel constantly pushing me on. I pushed the bike hard, and really worked the hills as I knew it was my strong point on this course. During the last bit of the bike Oliver Milk took me like I was standing still which cut me deep mentally. I thought to myself just keep him in sight and I’ll do my best to run him down. Coming off the bike I felt awesome and took the first 1k steady to get into it, soon I was on Oliver’s shoulder and then pushed on and just never looked back and hope for the best. It turned out to be a great race and I was glad to finally win my local race.

The race was held within the confines of the spectacular palace which included a 750metre swim in the lake followed by 3 laps of cycling covering 19.8km and then a two lap 5.4km run. The transition area was situated in Blenheim’s main courtyard making the perfect setting for this event.

The open water swim in the lake was fast and demanding as competitors battled for the best positions with Grundy taking a slightly wider line to keep out of trouble. A time of 10min 18sec saw Jack running the uphill 800m into transition in the middle of the pack.

During the first of the cycle loops the Total Fitness sponsored Grundy had got himself to the front of the third cycle pack containing 10 athletes as they tried to make inroads on the leaders. Into transition for the second time with a 32min 48sec clocking Grundy was placed 32 as they set off on the hilly run circuit.

Heading up the long drive towards the main entrance to Blenheim Jack had passed 7 top athletes in the first half of the run and was still running strongly as they started the second loop. Holding his form right to the finish he recorded 19min 55sec for the run section with a finishing time 1hour 6 min 51sec.

This was a breakthrough performance for Jack as he was competing against the top triathletes in the UK, many who are full time professional athletes and still being only 19 years old has plenty of time to make the progress that is required to make full international status.

Jack now moves up in distance next week where he faces another Elite field in the Windsor Olympic Triathlon.

 

Jack traveled to Salisbury for the popular Fast Twitch event which is regarded as a sprint in triathlon terms as competitors swam 400m, cycled 19 miles and then completed a 4 mile run, with Freshwater’s Jack Grundy finishing an outstanding second place in the large field of 250 competitors.

Grundy, representing Total Fitness Bath, was the fastest athlete of the day in the pool clocking 4min 34sec for the 16 length swim. Through transition very quickly he was soon chasing down athletes who were already out on the road being in a slower swim group and recorded 51 min 30sec having lost a little time to the experienced and eventual winner Mark Stennings.An excellent time of 21min 58sec was good enough to hold of 3^rd placer Adam Wells by just 2seconds and also to give Grundy the 3^rd fastest run of the competion.His final time was 1hr 18 min 08sec.After a successful season as a junior this was an excellent result in the transition to the senior ranks where later in the season Jack will compete against the best in the UK at Windsor and Blenheim and the European Age Group Championships in Holland.

Geoff Watkin