My weekend started on the Saturday morning when I loaded all my worldly triathlon possessions into the car and set off for Nottingham. The weather was looking great which was a massive bonus, and the wind was looking calm too, all the better to use 100mm carbon wheels in. After a long 2 and half hour drive up to Nottingham I arrived to the centre and registered. Wandered round the expo and made some necessary last minute purchases too, as I'd stupidly left my goggles and neoprene swim hat at the lake during the week. (So much for not trying anything new on race day). Then really stupidly went off to my hotel room without going to the race briefing. So, drove back to the watersports centre to catch up. Luckily nothing too critical, mostly just safety stuff, and nothing that wasn't really in the race notes.
So retired back to the hotel room after some quick shopping for race morning breakfast and my evening meal. I'd been consciously eating more than usual during the day to try and carb up, and had a craving for salty chips, so went for a fish and chip supper. Definitely not the most nutritious but I figured it would be ok. Tasted good anyhow!
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| I've had worse views |
In the past I've struggled for sleep before a big event, mostly in worry that i'll miss my alarm, which is stupid considering I set about 5 of them. The night before this race was no exception and it was pretty restless sleep, mostly out of excitement more than anything else really. As I finally get to test myself for real after all the training, and get the race buzz again. I woke at 4:30 and decided as I was pretty awake just to get up.
Breakfast was a pot of instant porridge, a yoghurt and banana. I tried not to eat too much as I didn't want a full stomach sloshing around all day. All my stuff was ready so I checked out and jumped into the car to head over to the race. Luckily I knew the route by now and it was only a 5 minute drive.
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| Morning race fans! |
I kitted up and queued for the loo, and before I knew it it was time to wetsuit up, and get in the water.
Jumping into the lake after watching the first wave set off at 6:30, the water was a lot warmer than expected, and definitely warmer than my local open water lake. I seeded myself pretty much in the middle of the faster group towards the left so I had an easy out if I couldn't keep up. Nervous chatter with some other competitors and then the five second count came. I was off. This part of the swim is always nervous as you never know if you are going to find a gap or get completely mugged by everyone. Luckily I found the gap, and had to get past a couple of people, but found a guy to work with and we pretty much swam together the whole way out to the halfway turn. That was pretty cool as I've never had that before. I felt decent at the turn and checked my watch as 17 minutes. Not too bad, and I felt like I wasn't pushing too hard. I lost my swimming partner on the turns, but soon found somebody to stick with on the way back in. So much nicer to swim with people, less sighting is needed, and i'm sure you work at a more consistent pace.
Before I knew it I was hauling myself out the water with a swim time of 34 minutes. Jogged through transition and just took it pretty easy to get my stuff on. Jumped on the bike and set off round the lake. Began to check my heart rate at this point and it was up around 175bpm, I knew that wasn't right for the effort level, so assumed this was just an after effect of the swim and transition. Thankfully it began to settle out around the 155-160 level I'm more accustomed to. Now I knew I needed to nutrition up now to get in shape for the bike ride and run to come. So I swallowed a gel and took on some fluid.
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Now as you can see in the pictures of my bike I decided on using a profile design aqua rack for my IM races this year. My thoughts being that I could have tools and essentials in one bottle, and fluid in another to supplement the speedfil. Well safe to say I won't be doing this again as I'll explain later on. Luckily I decided against this and added a small top tube bag before the race for a couple of gels and my puncture kit. My spare tub would still be attached to the rack, and I left it empty of bottles so I could pick some up in the feed stations along the way
**
I felt decent coming out of the water sports centre and on to the road so started to increase the effort level a little, and was soon overtaking people on a regular basis. I worked with a few people too and we were alternating overtaking each other. The course was nice with some decent roads and no major inclines bar one. This was interesting though, as I now had the compact installed I span up it at a good pace, and had to resort to the other side of the road to overtake people, as people had really slowed here. Guess my hill climbing isn't so bad! I concentrated the rest of the ride on riding to heart rate and feel, and taking on nutrition regularly.
Early on in the ride I was overtaken by Luke Dragstra, I could not believe the speed he came past at. ( I believe he was first out of the water but was held up in transition and then had a puncture soon after, eventually finished 12th). He came hurtling past and was literally gone within seconds, it was incredible to behold. Made everyone look like they were out doddling around.
I was looking good for a sub 2:45 ride before I slowed to collect a bottle at the second feed station. I grabbed the bottle and went to reach to put it in the rear bottle rack, which wasn't there?! Now remember by tub was attached at this point, as was my 2 spare co2 canisters. (luckily my tools etc not). I slowed and jumped off to see what was going on, and the rack was hanging right down all loose. I whipped my multi tool out of the top tube bag and attempted to tighten it up, but the spare tub, which I had ziptied to the rack was in the way. So at the time I thought I had no choice but to rip the thing off and dump it at the feed station. It did occur to me that I could have just left it hanging, but I didn't think it was fair to have it potentially fall off at some point on the course.
Luckily the build quality didn't seem to great so it eventually came off after some twisting and pulling, not before slicing a couple of my fingers, and getting blood all over my nice new white bartape :( . After all this I filled my speedfil with the bottles I had and set off again, with no spare tub or co2. So if I had a puncture at this point it was going to be over. Looking at the garmin data I estimate to have lost 3 or 4 minutes faffing with this before I set off again. I attempted to make back up some ground and put a burst of speed on as I was still feeling good. The last 6 miles or so of the bike course the wind seemed to really pick up and my pace slowed a bit, but I was fine with that in order to prepare the legs for the run. Before I knew it I was a mile away from transition. Annoyingly, putting aside the feed station debacle, the last mile or so was a real average killer. It was almost a gravel track at points, with a load of speedbumps. I'm amazed most people stayed upright, as it was sketchy at best. But I made it back into transition with a bike split according to the results of 2:46. Still pretty happy with that all things considered.
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| Bike GPS data |
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| Remains of the aqua rack |
I was still feeling solid throughout the run, and not finishing was never a danger but it was just tough going. I didn't wear a HR monitor on my wrist although I recorded it using the garmin in my back pocket, so was just running on feel really. Looking back at the data I can see I was a couple of points below my optimum of 160bpm for most of the run, so in all honesty could have and should have stepped up the pace really. Chalk up another lesson learned for the big race!
Finally I was homeward bound and on the last mile of the run, managed a sprint down into the shoot and was greeted by many cheers. I was doing the race solo with no support as my family have been busy preparing for my sisters wedding next weekend. So to have people being able to see the name printed on your number and shout personal encouragement was brilliant. So good to hear people shouting and knowing they are encouraging you on. Crossing the line in 5:39:16 was fantastic. I'd roughly wanted to go sub 6 hours, so this was great. I was handed a finishers medal and t shirt, and then walked through to an area that was serving free food and cake to all the other finishers, bonus! There was also free massage (with a long queue). I tucked into a nice chilli, and then hobbled my way over to transition to get my stuff and get home.
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| Nice to get an actual decent finishers top, can actually wear this training as its decent training type material |
So, overall a fantastic event which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not as hard as I was expecting it to be, but it was all about economy of effort throughout in order to finish. Some good lessons learnt for my A race, and the experience is always useful. Definitely a race I would do again, and a distance as well. Long enough to be seriously tough, but short enough to be not completely destructive on the body.
Overall my splits were something like the below:
Swim: 34:13
T1: 2:52
Bike: 2:47:41
T2: 2:30
Run: 2:12
Total: 05:39:16
So blood was spilt, sweat was most definitely sweated, just the tears to come! Definitely been boosted by this, even though its brought home how difficult the full Iron distance will be, I'm positive I can attack the coming sessions and make it work. Really looking forward to getting stuck into the next training block now.
Thankfully I've got this week off work so I should be able to get some quality recovery and training time in, the sensational weather we have at the moment is a massive plus. Need to try and rid my sexy tri suit tan lines too!
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| Not too shabby |
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| Boom! |
September 23rd 2012 - Virgin Active London Olympic Triathlon
Having used the majority of 2012 to take myself from being able to swim no more than 10 lengths at a time, bike no further than about 10 miles, and only having run a half marathon at average pace to being able to swim over 1500m, bike up to 170 miles in a day, and run slightly slower than in 2011; I was now as ready as I would be for my first Triathlon. The Virgin Active London Olympic Triathlon.
My day began at 5.30am with a large porridge and coffee, having had a pretty poor nights sleep at a friends house in London (Thanks Simon!). After wolfing down my porridge I packed all my stuff into the car and prepped my drinks for the race. I was a bit concerned about needing the toilet during the race, number two in particular as I seem to have a habit of needing this when I run :o. Although I felt pretty stable at that point.
A surprisingly busy for this time in the morning drive later, with a few wrong turns and diversions we were at the Excel centre. I was now really feeling the nerves. This became all the more apparent walking into the main hall after having collected my race chip. Wow! It was huge, people, bikes, and so much stuff everywhere. Everyone seemed to be doing something or going somewhere too. Quite overwhelming, but inspiring and nerve wracking at the same time. I wandered over to the racking area with all my gear, and tried to set up my first transition area. To be honest I didn’t really know what I was doing, and just guessed at where to lay everything out in some sort of order. Bike with number helmet and glasses led on top was a useful idea. Stupidly I'd not practiced transition at all, even though I'd trained everything else for hours, go figure! Whipped my wetsuit on waist high with tri suit underneath and took my goggles. A quick toilet stop and first catch up with my parents later I attempted to hydrate, and have a toilet stop. Although the latter did little to settle me as nothing would come out! :o
Wetsuit on and over to the gathering area for the swim as my wave was due to start, this was when I was feeling the nerves a little more, but the excitement was also building now. I was in my age group so I was surrounded by lean athletes all of my age.
So many unknowns, the swim which takes place in the London Docklands concerned me a little, given only brief exposure to open water swimming. Would I be slow? Would I blow-up mid race? Would I get punched etc etc, so many questions. Our wave was segregated into two and we separately made our way to the water after the initial group. Down the stairs out of the Excel and onto the waterside, “jump in guys”, :eek: Felt great jumping into the water, really pretty liberating! Then I made my way into the middle of everybody else there. The first group were off, and our buzzer sounded shortly after. I was going! Swim stroke felt odd at first due to the volume and proximity of people, but I quickly settled into a rhythm and found some space. Sighting was easy as there were quite a few things to see, and a few dock cranes to aim for in the distance. I seemed to be swimming nice and straight too which always helps! Good strokes occasionally punctuated with forced breaks having belted into someone, or vice versa. Nothing painful though as there seemed to be plenty of space either side of people. I felt good and felt like I was passing quite a few of the other swimmers which gave me confidence, although I was conscious of trying not to go too hard too soon. Mild muscle pain developed but I knew I could easily push through this, having had it a couple of times in the pool sessions. This was followed by a mild stitch which wouldn’t shift, so I tried to work on slowing my breathing and breathing fully, although this never really subsided.
The first bouy came up and everything turned from being pretty calm into a massive scrum, but I just pushed on. Checked the watch as I assumed this may represent the halfway point. 10 minutes. Hmm perhaps not! The second turn went a little smoother than the last and I turned onto the longest leg of the swim back up towards the excel. With no visual stimulation beside the occasional sighting, and seemingly little in the way of sensory stimulation the swim gave me a lot of time to think about the race. I was finally doing what I’d trained so long for, and I was loving it! I felt good, and I was so glad for the sacrifices I had made for the sake of training. My mind started to move ahead and I began to consider what the bike would feel like (Just like the lack of prep for transition, stupidly I'd not practiced swim to bike, so this was pretty unknown). The weather was holding up well, despite being a little cold and grey but was dry and the water was relatively calm. I pushed on and tried to inject a little more pace as I felt confident. Round the last bouy through the scrum again, and towards the pontoon and the outstretched arms of the helpers. I kept sighting as I just couldn’t wait to get there! After a few breastroke kicks to try and wake the legs up I was hauled out of the water. Cap and goggles off, through the arch and the shower, I was jogging towards transition. 26 mins the watchface told me which I was pretty happy with! Wetsuit ripped off nice and quick and into the bag provided. Jogging towards transition I began to feel awful, dizzy, a bit lightheaded, and really out of breath, up the flight of stairs into the excel felt even worse! At this point I was walking towards the bike rather than running, which was a mistake.
The swim had left me a little dizzy and disoriented breathing heavily with a nasty stitch. I put the wetsuit down, feet on the towel, socks on, compression layer? Compression layer? Jacket? Compression layer is inside out! Turn it the right way round, I’m sweating, I’ll be OK without it! Number belt on, helmet and glasses on. And I begin to wheel the bike out. My bike shoes feel surprisingly OK to jog out in so I set a reasonable pace (SPD-SL shoes). Garmin is turned on by now but fails to get a signal inside. I jump on the bike past the mount line and am on my way, and navigate the concrete ramps of the excel, and then finally out onto the open road. By this point I had overcome the nasty feeling of transition and my legs felt great so I was quickly powering towards Westminster. Due to the conditions I felt cold to begin with but quickly warmed up from the exertion. I was flying! Overtaking everybody I felt fantastic, amazing to be constantly sat on my clip on aerobars and setting a good pace. The bike course was fantastic fun, especially through the downhill tunnel sections which are nice and warm! It was the first time I had cycled on closed roads too, which was really enjoyable. After the first turn I realised I was now going into a headwind, but it’s not too strong and didn't damage my pace too badly.
One big lap and one little lap later I wheeled back into transition with a 1.02 bike split which I was absolutely over the moon with. Bike onto the rack, helmet off, trainers slipped on number belt spun round, gel from the bike and I was off on the run course. Initially I didn't know which direction to take but eventually found another chap to follow, whoops! He asks for the time which I give. 9.39. this means I’m on target for a sub 2.30 race? Go, go, I think to myself :D. Out onto the course for the first time I felt in good shape. The laps were fairly small though and very twisty, not particularly enjoyable, or conducive to really setting a rythym and pace. Thinking about it, I'd have much preferred an out and back style loop. The crowd were fantastic however, and seeing my friend Simon, and my parents every lap was such a big boost, and a definite plus of a lap course. 3 laps down I was really beginning to feel it however, and my stitch which disappeared for the bike leg was back, and I seem to have a lot of gas in the stomach. The intestines start to move as well and I’m really worried about needing to relieve them! :o
(Not too amused at this point!)
Eventually the fourth lap comes, and I keep telling myself that I’ll only get one chance at this and to make it count, it helps, as does the knowledge that this is my last time round this ruinous little course. My feet are burning at this point and I think of the finish line. On the way back to the excel I began to inject some more pace, and went for it. Up the ramp into the excel and round towards the finish in a sprint, round the last turn and up onto the finishing ramp. I’d done it!!! That was hard, was my first thought, as I grimace and stumble towards the guys handing out medals. My parents are there with open arms and the emotion overcomes me for a while. I finally finished, and all the training has finally come to an end, with a tangible and good result!! I compose myself and feel OK after. All I can seem to tell people is that the race was hard! My dad directs me over to an icebath which I sign up to and jump in. so cold, eventually the pain numbs and I can feel the benefit. The guy running the stand is great and wants to chat all about my race and nutrition etc. he notes that I planned a very good race nutritionally, and it certainly worked well for me bar the stitch. (More of the same for Ironman!)
I eventually jump out of the ice bath, but I just cant warm up, I go off to collect my bike and stuff, but cant find my wetsuit. After a few laps of transition I give up and queue to make my way out, with all my layers applied in an attempt to warm up. After being told numerous times Ive got blue lips, I get a chilli jacket potato and cup of tea inside me. This fails, so I decide to get changed from my wet trisuit into dry clothes. This works wonders and I’m finally warmed up.
A fantastic race which I would do again if just for the bike course, although hectic with slower riders, it was amazing fun! The run definitely could do with improving though. Unlikely I’ll be able to attempt in 2013 though due to the Ironman. The sense of accomplishment slowly sinks in and I’m really happy with my time. Happier with a 2.31, safe in the knowledge I have plenty to work on to be able to go well sub 2.30 maybe even 20.
Swim: 00:26:46
T1: 0:06:47
Bike: 1:02:32
T2: 00:02:45
Run: 00:53:09
Overall: 02:31:57
Positives:
Completing the course!
Strong swim and bike
Good nutrition on the bike, and run
Not so Positives:
Transition
The run
Not quite breaking the 02:30:00 barrier.
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