I’ve said it all along – and just as this blog states…”It’s about the journey…” so today’s race was exactly that. The fact I’m training for Ironman distance so a lot of my sessions are based around long distance effort fills me with absolutely no confidence when I enter a Super-Sprint Triathlon just for the fun of it. I did the Victory Triathlon back in 2015 and picked up an Age-Group win, I think I was about 12th or 13th overall on the day – I recall over 30 riders going off-course and cutting the course short. This was unknown to the organisation and they owned up to possibly going off course and the prize giving was a bit late as a result of trying to work out who got what.
I wanted to revisit this just as a marker in my 2018 campaign just to see how much slower I was in comparison to me in 2015 when all I was doing was sprint tri’s.
I travelled alone to the event, usually I would go with Suzy but she has her own training to do, there was a Beccles Club ride out to a new café so she went with the club. This did mean upon my return from this event I still had to do another two hours endurance. If Suzy would’ve come I would’ve selfishly got her to take my stuff home and I would’ve ridden home to tick that box. Nevertheless a two-hour stint in front of the telly watching the Tour De France in the afternoon turned out to be ok.
The 300m pool swim will always be my achilles heel I think, I’ve trained quite a bit recently in a wetsuit so buoyancy isn’t an issue – in a pool it is! I set off, a little faster than the 6-minutes I had stated in my entry and about halfway it caught up on me. At one point my breathing was all over the place, I was taking in pool water and the guy 30 seconds behind me was catching me…fast. He actually caught me just as I exited the pool, exactly the time I caught my 30-second guy. I nailed transition and got out on the bike only to faff around getting my feet in my shoes, again the 30-second guy passed me and I took the next mile to get him back.
This was the adrenaline spike I needed, I wasn’t happy about this and I then nailed the bike, sitting on 340w+ on the drags and catching over 20 riders on the 17km course. I was fastest bike split of the day – over a minute ahead of the next guy, also a cyclist who I compete with regularly.
Into T2, trainers on and off I went for the short 3km course – 3 laps around the health club field and a gravel path. Breathing was out of sync yet again and I held on to go under 15 minutes which was the plan. I was always looking over my shoulder for my 30-second guy as he was quite a good runner but it never happened – he was over two minutes behind on the bike section and never made that time up.
After some bit of time, waiting for the other competitors to come in & finish the prize giving took place – I won my Age Group again missing out on 4th place overall by a measly two seconds and the podium by just 30 seconds – that’s sprints for you!
So another Age Group win regardless of specific training – just makes me wonder if I started to swim faster and run a bit better too….
Looking back at the week…..
Monday was Beccles Tri Club’s river swim at the back of the Lido, as one member said last weekend “It’s a bit of a thing now” so I’m happy to jump in each week – as I said in last week’s blog I’m happier in the river doing 2k than I am in a pool these days.
Tuesday was a 90-minute Wattbike session and then a 30-minute treadmill run at Bannatynes. The good news was they have bought some fans so I no longer have to drown in my own sweat. The 12-minute efforts within the bike session, on their own, are pretty scary but I mentally broke them down into four 3-minute segments to get my head through the session – and it worked. Most of it was at threshold or above so I was hapy to complete it and hit the numbers. The run was pretty standard to be fair, a little concerned with my hip still, this was the first run since Saturday so I didn’t want to be limping again – not 100% but better than last week.
Wednesday was the 3rd and last of the Bungay Black Dog 10km Series, my first was to coast Suzy’s mum around to her PB, the 2nd was my 44-minute PB…..now it was Suzy’s turn. She refused this offer and told me to run my own race, I did so but looking after my hip in the process to record a 48:05 – my 2nd fastest 10k run. Only a few minutes later Suzy came through to record her lifetime PB just into 50 minutes – so she was pretty happy with that albeit broken legs in the process!
The racing continued on Thursday as I returned to the local 10-Mile Club Time Trial based at Lound. I set off ok and the southerly wind put paid to any season-best as I eventually came home with a “late 24” some 30 seconds off the winning time. Still hitting the numbers though so I can’t grumble.
Friday was a repeat of the Fish & Chip supper from a fortnight ago – another 2k in the river followed by Haddock & Chips and some Cider – what’s not to like?
After an immense amount of stretching my hip on Thursday & Friday it was time to run to Gorleston Park Run from Lowestoft and then finish with the 5k event to complete the 10-miles prescribed. This I did with a decent 5:23 pace throughout and no hip aches & pains so I think I’m managing it well.
After a slap-up breakfast I was back on the turbo in the afternoon to do just an hour at endurance pace to try and loosen the legs up for tomorrow’s Victory Tri – I think it worked!
Training Peaks Geeks time:
Fitness – 113. Fatigue – 122. Form – 0.
11hrs training. 793 TSS.
Swim – 4325. Bike – 220km. Run – 31.6km.
This week sees a stab at the RAF Honington circuit races on Tuesday. A 1-2-1 swim session on Wednesday and then the Dunwich Dynamo on Saturday night through to Sunday. More of the same really….just continuing my journey!
More Diss Photography pics from today…..shall I buy them?
