First tri of the year, and what good fun it was. 120 plus competitors,, on a very cold and blustery morning. Nobody was looking forward to a revised bike course, which was basically an out and back of 19 miles.
Early start again, set off at 5:30. Hour and a half drive and then got to leisure centre to register. Got myself together, bike into transition easily enough. Went with the shoes in pedals this time, elastic bands on tabs on heel of shoes, attached to bike, to keep shoes in right position for when setting off. Lot quicker, makes a big difference, saved me about a minute in transition. Water and gel beforehand, and then lined up for the swim at 8:35. It was a pool swim, 400m, 4 lanes, two in a lane, 8 in each wave. I was wave 7 of 15. I felt a bit tired really, and not tip top, but I set off first and soon got into a nice steady rhythmn, not at all too fast. After 8 I was caught by a girl behind, who was obviously quicker, but cannily enough I drafted in behind her and the next 8 lengths were easy swimming. I only wanted to get in my goal time of around 8 minutes, so was not all that keen to push too hard, seeing as the bike leg was going to be tough, hilly, windy and cold.
Into transition, I had to put a top on, a nice Scott top, that is close fitting and does cut through the air rather well. Grabbed helmet, glasses and bike and off we went. Well pleased with Adidas clima cool glasses, anti-fog. Was expecting them to mist, coming out of the heat of the swimming pool, but they stayed crystal clear.
Again, very strong on the bike, and was conscious of not going off too hard to start with, as I knew I would be back into a strong headwind. That said, my time back was not too bad. I averaged 22.5 mph on the way out and by the end average speed was around 20.4 mph. Similar speed to last week, but more effort required, so all in all, a good bike. Approx 55 minutes for 19 miles.
Very quick transition 2, picked up a bottle of electrolyte drink off the bike onto the run and left it at a convenient place for when on lap 2! I was conscious of avoiding the cramp episode of last week, because of the cold weather, but all ok today. Run was very good, got stronger as it went on. 4.5 miles in around 31 minutes 30 seconds. For me, that is very good.
All in all a very pleasing performance, raced harder today than last week, which is what I wanted to do. I can rest up now for a couple of days and now focus on some endurance training.
Next sprint tri is on 22nd April in Tidworth and one after that on 29th April in Lymington. Then 6th May and 20th May. These will purely server as racing experience and high intensity training sessions. Focus is Half Ironman UK, I'm looking forward to going the distance, particularly on the bike, as I feel strongest on that. Running is improving loads. Just the swim needs to get better, but that will come in time, and more focus needed on swim stroke.
So far so good, I'm off for a bit of an afternoon nap to recharge my batteries!
2 comments:
What a pleasure reading your race report- you certainly did the business and got a great result - I note you put your own drink out for lap 2 of the run - dont they provide drinks stations on the runs? Still all worked well for you - keep up the good work you seem to have a good balance in your training which is obviously working for you. Will watch your progress with interest.
Was only a relatively short run, so no drinks out on the course. Usually I would not have bothered, as I take most of my drinks on the bike, but I was just trying to take on a bit extra of the electrolyte drink to try and avoid any cramping. Seemed to work ok.
Cycled to and from work today, legs have recovered well. All set for 2 weeks of endurance training.
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