In the lead up to this event I’ve done a few things differently than last year. My racing brain has told me I haven’t had enough time in that competitive state but my logical brain also tells me I need to have more rest rather than go out and smash it all the time.
I guess it stems back to when I started racing many (and I do mean many!) years ago where I rode my bike every day for fear of losing fitness. Having 3 days off due to a cold almost felt like it was starting winter season again but training has become alot more scientific in it’s approach – for me anyway.
It’s been about 8 years since I bought a secondhand Powertap Hub and did my first FTP test – a mahoosive 220w! For a 90kg guy that looks quite bad but I still managed to stay in the bunch and retain (somehow) my 2nd cat licence each year. A couple of good results and I was home-free as a 2nd cat usually by Mid-June.
At the risk of sounding very old I’ve noticed through the years that everyone now has a powermeter, a coach and go off to Majorca or the Calpe from January to March to be competitive in bike racing. Entry level racing is now (IMO) at the level upper 2nd cat racing was some 5/6 years ago. There’s some very aggressive racing out there in 3rd cat races, something you wouldn’t have seen back then, but maybe I am just getting older….and slower.
The old “just ride alot” and the new “look at the numbers” are always in conflict personally. The body sometimes tells you when you need to have a rest as the legs feel wooden but you go out anyway because it’s on the schedule. And vice versa – you feel great but there’s scheduled downtime, just like this week where I am going stir-crazy to do some kind of training session but I know if i do I’ll probably contract some kind of cold which will put me out for weeks.
Majorca 70.3
My taper week into this event was quite easy, just as you expect it would be, a couple of easy rides, a swim and a run. Nothing special, just enough to keep the body ticking over.
One thing that did stand out against the schedule was Lotus Racing League on Tuesday night. I’ve attended this racing league without fail for the whole of its exhistence, some 11 years now I think. When it started I was a regular top-10 finisher, always there in the sprint finish or getting away in a breakaway and not quite having enough in the tank to win it. So many 3rd places, a couple of 2nds but no wins. The last couple of years have seen me look at it in a different way – it’s a 1-hour interval session. Fartlek almost dictated by the strongest riders in the bunch who just want to make your life a little hard on a Tuesday evening. There’s an old expression in cycling – “You’re either the Hammer or the Nail”. Although I feel alot like a Nail most of the times I do enjoy being pushed a little harder than I would on my own on the turbo, wattbike etc.
This race was no different, from the outset it was attack after attack until eventually the elastic snapped and a dozen riders got away on the flat felt-like surface of the Lotus Test Track. The speeds were always in the region of 27mph so it took a heroic effort to get something launched off the front. Once the break moved away, holding a lead of about 30-40 seconds for the rest of the race I was quite content to sit in the depleted peleton and animate some moves of my own just for fun. It’s amazing how much more fun it can be when point-chasing becomes almost not a priority at all. I finished safely in the bunch, happy to not have crashed – a common thing on opening night at Lotus. I guess it’s the winter full of turbo/zwift training on your own and then being compressed into a fast-moving bunch that creates the problem – no group riding skills. Maybe one day British Cycling will look into this prior to riders enetering racing to undergo a competency test or similar?
Anyway….after a morning jog and then a short swim Suzy and I headed out to Majorca late Wednesday evening in readiness for the Majorca 70.3 Triathlon…..
The point of the Wednesday flight was to get two days in before the event (Saturday) so we can aclimatise a little to the Majorcan weather and get a few open water swims in and have a ride around and generally chillout before the big day. We arrived into Majorca at 11pm and we were taken by a private transfer (I recommend this as opposed to fighting for a rental car for 2hrs) and we arrived at 12:30am at the hotel. We’d stayed here before so knew how it all worked – all inclusive, poolside bar, snacks all day. Just what you need if you didn’t want to do much before an event. Plus it was less than 2 minutes walk from the Ironman Tent on Alcudia Beach and about the same to Transition.
We woke up late on Thursday, just in time to get some breakfast in before the closed the restaurant. And we headed off to registration for our numbers, free rucksacks and generally just to take in the pre-event atmosphere. Once done we were interviewed by Ironman Spain so we may appear (one-day) on their website talking about our experiences prior to the day. We headed back to the hotel to build our bikes back up and make sure they were not damaged by the ever-enthusiastic baggage handlers at the airport! I noticed my front mech was rubbing on the chainrings and after spending a small amount of time trying to resolve it I took it down to the Expo where there were mechanics there to deal with such problems. “20 minutes” they said so we decided to both have massages while we waited. Once collected (10 euros) our bikes we headed straight to the big tent where we had the Race Breifing where it was explained in detail the Do’s and Dont’s on Saturdays’ race. Once this was done we headed back to the hotel to collect our wetsuits to try them out for the first time in Alcudia Bay.
This was always going to be a bit daunting as the last time I swam/raced in the sea was Barcelona and that wasn’t a pleasant experience. Instead the seas were calm and I swam about 500m with no real stress at all so all things looked good for the race.
One issue popped up that we never expected – I might be allergic to baby oil 🙁 Have covered my ankles and wrists to get the wetsuit on I had inadvertantly had a reaction and all of a sudden I had no ankles or wrists and a red raw rash everywhere I had applied oil.
Luckily some friends from the Beccles Triathlon Club were over on holiday and had a multitude of creams & tablets to calm the itchy red skin down. The reaction was quite bad in fairness and further creams were bought from the local pharmacy to help. Suzy felt really bad as she insisted on the baby oil to help get the wetsuit on but how was she aware I was allergic to the stuff – I didn’t even know!
One the Friday we planned a mini triathlon throughout the day – a leisurely bike ride in the morning down to Pollenca for a coffee, mainly to loosen the legs and then to make sure the bikes were working perfectly. Then I ran round the block for just over 10 minutes to make sure my legs knew what was going on the next day and then late afternoon we went in the sea again to put a little more time in the water to get used to sighting and the conditions which were pretty much ideal.
The ankles were full-blown itchy and pulsing by this time and it looked like the creams & tablets weren’t working at all so I was concerned about even racing the next day as my ankles had swollen up so much it started restricting my movement. Nonetheless I bit the bullet and just carried on – Suzy was still upset about this but again – how was she to know?!!!!
A little later it was time to rack the bikes and hook up the transition RED/Blue bags and we were ready to go.
Race Day
As the hotel was a stone’s throw away from the start beach we didn’t need to get up at “stupid o’clock” to get to the start. We got up around 7am, had breakfast and walked over to transition to put our spares, bike computers and nutrition in our bags and on our bikes before heading over to the beach in our wetsuits ready for the off.
The race is a “rolling start” where every 6 seconds 6 competitors are allowed to go over the startline. We both had white swimming hats which denoted an estimated swim time of 35-40 minutes. I was anticipating a 2:00min per hundred pace just as I had done in the pool for several weeks and Suzy just a touch slower so I was going to go at the front of the White Hat group and she was going to go at the back.
I started, no pre race tears just like Barcelona so that was good! Instead I had that dreaded feeling in my stomach about what was to come and the sounds of the starting gates, reminiscent from Barcelona didn’t help. But away I went….
After about 2 minutes of swimming I sat up, breast stroked for a couple of seconds to see where I was and take it all in and I went again, up the clockwise course, past each yellow sighting buoy, looking for that red one which was the turning buoy, I got there with no issues, no real swell in the sea so that was a bonus, then I returned, every now & then I looked around to see where I was but no issues. As I hit the shallow waters I stood up, did the usual wobble as you’re a bit disorientated and ran to the shore. I looked down at my watch and there it was – 33 minutes…..WTF?!!!!
The run to transition was long, results show about 6 minutes in total, I wasn’t hanging around either. I caught sight of Steve & Janine (Beccles Tri Club), smiled and I was on my way.
Once on the bike, feet into the pedals I was off to Pollenca on the coastal road, already overtaking several riders as I headed to Ferminia – a fairly substantial climb on the route, 7.7% for 7kms and a few k’s of rolling roads thereafter. The road steaduly inclined and it was only at the bottom of the climb did I realise that my cassette only had a max of 25 teeth on it – what a rookie error! It was with that gear, at times rollling at 50-60rpm did I have to take the climb. I was caught by several riders, all alot lighter than me and lower geared than me but I think I overtook more than overtook me. Once over the climb and up to Lluc & Batalla I hit the descent at a fairly pace. Local knowledge is everything here and I memorised over the years each turn and avoided all the usual panic moments and overtook quite a few on this descent which looked to have taken quite a few people out of the race. Once on the flats it was full gas ticking off riders up the road ahead of me. My TT bike and aero bars/helmet coming into it’s own as the last 30k was a 20mph headwind back into Alcudia and I was breezing past others who were on standard racing bikes with far less aerodynamics. Off the bike with an average speed of 20mph – I’ll take that considering I was at 13.5mph average at the top of the climb at 40k!
T2 was just the same, 6 minutes, a long run back to rack the bike and onto the promenade for 3 circuits of the run to complete this event.
My first k was at 5 minutes and I was thinking ” you need to slow down or else you’ll blow” so I intentionally pulling the pace, although I must admit I was surprised by the first kilometer split as I didn’t think I was going that well. Nonetheless my 2nd was down to 5:30 and this is where I wanted to be – around the 1hr 50minute mark for the run. First lap was completed, smile on my face as I passed Steve & Janine and into the 2nd I went. Nutrition stations were all about water over the head, energy drink, a gel and water to hold and either drink or throw over head again each and every 2km station. This worked for the 2nd lap as well and splits were ok although I did feel I was slowing down towards the end. The 3rd lap and the wheels fell off, Suzy puts it down to having no solids (bannanas) at the feeds and the stomach started to play up just as it did in Barcelona. Two toilet stops later I was empty and walking despite my brain telling me to run I simply couldn’t – the once 1:50 target was gone and I was struggling to complete the run with 6-min k splits – which I did…..just!
Once past the finish and into the finish tent where food & drink were plentiful I just sat there, the 1000 yeard death stare for about 20 minutes wondering what the hell had just happened. Then my attention turned to Suzy, where was she, is she ok, when will she finish. She did the Majorca 70.3 in 2017 just for fun and finished it in just over 7hrs so a PB was definitely on the cards. She came home in 6:37 and I lit up when I saw her. We met and all of a sudden I had a stomach for food and ate quite alot!!!
All in all a great day and a great event. Alot of positives, a great swim – I couldn’t have expected anything better than that. A disappointing first half of the bike but I more than made up for it at the end and then a two-thirds good run!
As always more to improve on and onto the next one 🙂
This week sees me going to the other end of the spectrum and doing a really short super-sprint triathlon locally. If anything it’s just to get this race’s crap out of my body – detox kind of!