Did not sleep well the night before, legs felt tired. I got myself ready the night before, and packed it all up at 5:30 this morning. I set off at 6 on my bike with the morning still dark. 14 mile ride to get to Littledown leisure centre from our house and it was certainly very cold this morning. By the time I got to the centre my legs felt good and I racked my bike I headed off to register and get marked up. All good so far, ran very smoothly.
So to begin the swim. 400m pool swim, and I was in a lane with just me and another triathlete, which made life a lot easier. I was off second and I set off swimming smoothly and soon started pushing hard. Unfortunately even though I did catch the swimmer infront of me after 8 lengths I didn't pull away and I know my stroke wasn't as smooth as it should be and ,my legs were all over the place and I wasn't moving through eh water well. But I exited the swim in 7:13, the fastest pool-based 400m swim in a race I have done so far. over 2 minutes quicker than I was this time last year. I have now been swimming freestyle for 12 months, so I 'm reasonably pleased with my progress so far. I've rapidly improved over the last 6 weeks so not too bad really.
Onto the bike. T1 was good, no problems there and shoes were on the bike. I jumped on a rode off, got to a smooth stretch of road to get my feet in the shoes. This I had practised yesterday and it paid off. I was quickly into my high cadence and powering along. I was riding incredibly strongly, I've not felt that good on a bike ever! And it showed in my time, the quickest on the day, 44' 23" for 18 miles. I flew into T2 and was quickly into my running stride, feeling very confident and strong. And again it showed in my time. 26' 28" for 4 miles. Ok, this wasn't the fastest of run times and most othe top 20 finishers were quicker, but for me, that is a huge improvement and I really pushed hard. That said I feel I have much more speed in my legs, and I know I'm nowhere near what I am capable of, and that's the same for the swimming.
But on the whole today's race was fantastic. The result? I was 3rd overall and 1st in my age group. FIRST!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! What a performance, particularly the bike. My biking was on song today. I had no nutrition, only half a gel after 1 mile of the run and I think that was really a mental thing, I didn't really need it.
1 hour 18 minutes and 4 seconds for the lot!!
A big thank you to James Gilfillan who gave me some invaluable racing tips last week and really stuck in my head today when my legs hurt on the bike. I just kept pushing harder on the bike, I was flying, even when the conditions were blustery. Today's race all came together and it was nice to finish the sprint season on a high note, a real positive one to take into the off season.
Littledown Triathlon results.
http://www.conceptsport.co.uk/resources/uploaded/littri07.res%20web.htm
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