Yesterday I took part in the Waveney Wildman 2018 event based at Fritton Lake & Beccles Area. The low-key event, now in it’s third year, does exactly what it says on the tin – the bike and run course are definitely off the beaten track and my memory was definitely put to test when trying to remember the bike route.
Competitors had a choice of 3 distances for all three disciplines – 750/1500 or 3000m swim, a 12k, 25k or 60k big leg and a 5k, 12k or 17k run leg. Only those completing the full course would be eligible for the “Wildman Trophy”.
The swim was at Fritton Lake, another return to this venue, this time to swim the furthest I have ever swam in my life – 3000metres. My previous was 2200 so this was a bit of a worry for me, I think this was the reason I had quite a bit of broken sleep the night before. Nevertheless, off we went – 4 laps of the Fritton 750 route. As soon as we reached the first buoy at 100m I knew it was going to be just a case of getting round but as Suzy kept saying – it’s just a training event for Barcelona. I counted the laps off one-by-one, trying to keep a few people in sight as I made my way. I did “ok”, completing the 3200m (I did wander a bit) in just over 70 minutes.
Once out of the swim it was a short run up to T1 where I got ready for the bike, the organisers were kind enough to arrange getting our wetsuits and all T1 kit over to Beccles for us for T2 and the finish so I put everything in the wetsuit bag for them to collect. Off I went and almost immediately the swim leg was realised as my kryptonite! My power was considerably down so I resolved myself to getting round in the power zone I actually did have on my training plan (endurance) rather than beast-mode which was what I was intending. The 40-mile route took me through (for those that know the local routes) Haddiscoe, Thurlton, Loddon, Ditchingham, Bungay, Flixton, South Elmham, Rumburgh, Halesworth, Stone Street, Ringsfield before getting back into Beccles at Leman High School car park where Suzy & I had parked her car earlier in the day to change to the running leg.
Once changed and gulped a full bottle of energy drink (learning from Geraarsdbergen) I went “off-road” following a public footpath, of sorts, through to Ellingham Mill, then back to Geldeston where I then dropped right back onto a public footpath to follow the river back to Beccles and then back to Leman School. In fairness I did get lost a couple of times and had to retrace to find the right footpath, each time looking over my shoulder as I thought the chasers were going to catch me up because of my lack of direction but no-one was in sight. The route was 17 kilometres but I finished with 18k with the detours – finding myself first home in the full-course event!
Pretty much spent I sat there for about 15 minutes just taking in the 4hrs 52minutes that had just occurred. I then got changed into some less sweaty kit – it was mid-20’s after all. And then was wondering where Suzy was – was she still out there on the course or was she back and already in the pub??? I then noticed the two bottles of water that the organisers had left for us under the car so then soon realised she was still out there and had chosen to do the long route – she was up for the “Wild Woman” trophy. I rang her as I remembered she had taken her phone and she replied saying she had a complete nightmare with her seatpin dropping on her new bike and riding several miles looking like she was riding a childs’ bike! Another competitors’ dad came to the rescue and tightened the clamp up and she continued some 20 minutes behind. She caught up another competitor and decided to accompany them on the long run so they were about 30 minutes away from the finish. She told me to go to the pub and wait although I was quite sincere in saying i’d wait at the finish line for her to finish.
I walked the 10 minutes to the pub and sat there talking to the other competitors who completed the shorter distances, already enjoying a few drinks and the sunny weather. It wasn’t long before Suzy and co ran past us on the other side of the river and soon enough they appeared at the pub – she had won the Wild Woman trophy.
Training earlier in the week was all about getting it done, during the runs I was purposefully trying to be slower than I had been. The endurance runs were exactly that – just endurance with very little speed work in there to ensure I was fully recovered for the next session.
Mondays’ run was was my usual route through Bradwell & Gorleston in my dinner hour, with just a fast bit scheduled in towards the end of the run – all done before teatime as it was England Vs Tunisia that evening and I didn’t want training to get in the way!
Tuesday was the last Lotus event of the summer – Titch was in the lead overall and Morris was 2nd with Harley 4th place. If we played our cards right DAP could come away with a 1-2-3 in the league. Most of the journey out to Hethel with Titch was talking about the many situations that could be played out that evening but not one of us came out with what actually happened – Titch crashed, a split-second loss of concentration and at the 30+mph speeds we were going at the time the result was a broken bike, a trip to A&E after the event and a DNF. It was down to Harley & Morris to finish things off for DAP and so they did with Harley winning from a break and Morris being up there in the bunch gallop. I was happy with my series, no intentions to be there at the sprint finish, just to help the others in getting a result and enjoy the racing. Overall Harley won the series by one point to Morris, Titch was relegated to 4th place with his DNF but on the plus-side no bones were broken – just superficial injuries which is always good to hear.
Wednesday saw another lunch run with two 6min fast bits in the middle and a 1.6k pyramid swim in the pool just after work. All seems to be ok, ears seem to be good at the moment but that might have something to do with the earplugs, vaseline and travel sickness tablets!
Thursday was a 90-minute under/over bike session which really fatigued me, I followed this with a 4k brick run at a slow pace but I knew my legs were shot from the bike session and the weekend’s events would be interesting.
Friday was a scheduled day off – a rare thing in recent weeks but I could tell even by going up the stairs at work I needed it.
Saturday was an organised Beccles Triathlon Club trip to Lee Valley Park to ride the Velodrome. An 8 o’clock start meant us getting up at 5am to be there. After a few laps and trying to pedal a bit hard it was soon realised my legs were still shot to pieces from the weeks’ training and anything of any kind of effort was going to be hard. Nonetheless the session was as fun as always.
A pretty fun mixed week all-in-all and an unexpected trophy too!
This weeks sees more of the same, Bungay 10k run on Wednesday, maybe the Yarco Club 10TT on Thursday and then out to the Holkham Half where Suzy has volunteered me for the swim leg of a relay team – more lake swimming! lol
This weeks’ TP geek figures….
21hrs training time. 881 Training Stress Score.
4800m swimming, 216km biking, 41.4k running.
111 Fitness, 139 Fatigue, 0 Form.