There’s always that part of me, much to the annoyance of my other half that you want to do well and win if possible every time you race. In reality I know I’m not up to the standard or those triantelopes in our area – especially at Olympic distance but I know I can lay it all out on the road on the bike leg and hope for the best in the pool & run to give me a chance of getting higher up the standings….
Today could’ve been that day…..
I took part in the Bury St Edmunds “Greene & Greene” Triathlon this morning in very grim conditions. The Olympic distance had to be cut short as it was a pool swim. 4 lengths each lane and move on etc. Then a 46km bike leg and a simple 4-lap 10km run…..or so it would appear on paper.
The swim was “ok”, I got in the pool earlier than my 9:18am time as many people had not started due to the bad weather (6 degrees and drizzle). Off I went hitting my 2:00min per hundred as planned. One swimmer who followed me realised that no-one was counting the lane lengths and just did one “up & down” each length which made his time look like he was an Olympian! I carried on slightly disgruntled in the hope that he’d be found out. I also got my leg pulled and climbed over! Something I’ve never had done to me before, these things happen in open water (I’m told) but never in a swimming pool.
I climbed out & with a 2-minute “deadzone” in transition because of a large flight of steps I walked to the transition area and prepared for the bike. Once in T1 the clock was running again so with arm warmers on (my small adjustment considering the conditions) I was off. The course looked fairly flat but nothing could be further from the truth – either up or down, I was doing 10mph or 35! No-one came past me and I must’ve overtook at least 50 riders on my 2-lap journey. After I finished my Strava tells me that I claimed the KOM for the Tri Route beating several riders, some of which only did one lap as part of their “Sprint” Tri!
Then……it all went a bit wrong. At the end of the first lap my front wheel got a puncture, so instead of turning 180 degrees at a roundabout to carry onto my 2nd lap I came into transition (1-mile away) to beg for a front wheel. After about 5-mins of asking anyone (literally anyone) one guy just finished his bike leg and gave me his. Off I went like a devil possessed, swearing like a trooper with the possible 10-minutes I lost. Again I was passing riders like they were standing still, some I was overtaking the 2nd time due to my detour! With 5-miles to go I came down a descent and hit a pothole at 30mph+ which forced my saddle to tilt 45 degrees forward. I had to stop and wrench the thing back to level costing me more time. Then coming into the town at a very slow right-hand turn I stopped and fell of my bike, more humiliating than damaging anything. What a chopper!
Into T2 I came to be faced with 4 laps of a 2.5km course that was just the same as the bike course – either up or down! Hills are not my friend either on or off a bike and this confirmed it. My time of just over 51-minutes might be considered as respectable by some but when the racing snakes are logging 42/43 minutes that’s a lot to lose by.
To add insult to injury (how ironic) I found I had taken a chunk out of my knee when I fell (possibly by hitting the underside of my handlebars) and I had bled all over one leg and blood splatter on the other. AND….I didn’t press the buttons properly on my Garmin so it made it look like I was in T1 for 90-minutes! lol
And as for nutrition…..two slurps of two full water bottles and one gel!!! FML!
With all that I still managed 12th overall. Just makes me realise how close to the podium I was if things didn’t go wrong (and if I had taken the proper nutrition).
But as always it’s the training effect and the mistakes made today I did not want to make in a few months time in the big events. Learning race-by-race…
Race results here: http://racetimingsolutions.racetecresults.com/Results.aspx?CId=16269&RId=870&EId=3
As far as training is concerned things are going ok! lol
3000m of swimming this week which seems to be going well as my 2:00min splits are solid.
Biking is also going good (if today is anything to go by) with nearly 200km in just over 5hrs. I imagine that volume will be going up some time soon.
The running is also going well, trying not to go hard is also key, over 3hrs running with 20+ miles covered but mostly at IM pace as instructed to help not to fatigue myself for the other disciplines.
Training Peaks Geeks Time: 668 TSS. 95 Fitness. 100 Fatigue and +8 Form.
More of the same next week but no race as such, although there might be a few digs by my team-mates next Sunday in a local 100-mile sportive. Time to play the long game……