The weekend before however I visited a friend and took a whole weekend off exercise. So on Monday I felt so sluggish I had to hit the gym, and ended up doing 5k on the treadmill with some weights and a bit of core work. Great. Although this started to show on Wednesday after my other sessions that I was paying for Monday and hurting. I pushed through the sessions until Friday, and decided to skip the scheduled run as I was just beat.
Saturday was a pretty interesting day as I went to get my bike fit done on the Boardman TT bike. I had an hour spent in their studio on the turbo playing around with my position. In the end we didn't move too much, but its made a massive change to my comfort and power on the bike which is great!
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| Race Ready, looking good! |
So along came Sunday and race day for the Sprint Tri, my first in this format (400m swim, 20km bike, 5km run)!
I got to the race nice and early to scope everything out and get my bike racked. I set my transition area up nice and tidily although it was a bit of a squeeze next to a lot of other competitors. Luckily the weather was great, sunny and around 15 degrees. Although there was a bit of wind, it would be a tailwind on the outward leg of the bike, and a headwind on the way in. Not too bad as it was mostly climbing on the way out and downhill on the way back! After I racked I got into my trisuit and went down to the swim. It all got going pretty quick and I was soon in the pool and away on my 16 lengths.
I'd submitted an estimate 400m time on the online registration of 07:30, although having then tried this in my gym pool I found I was actually capable of a 06:30. I let my other competitors in my lane know, and they agreed to let me past if I was at their feet. Within 4 lengths I was passed the other two people in my lane and on my way. I felt decent all the way through and paced well. I was soon jumping out the pool looking at my watch I had swam a 06:14! I jogged out towards transition and got my stuff on. Transition went smoothly if a little slowly. Probably could have got away without socks! But it only took 1:32 in all. I was then out on the bike, and feeling good. It was fantastic to really not have to worry about pacing as I knew I could pretty much go all out for each of the disciplines.
I loved the freedom of that, rather than being constrained for fear of blowing up later on. The bike went really well and I before long I was overtaking the wave that had set off before me! At the turnaround I suddenly had a lot more wind in my face but it wasn't too bad and I kept pushing on. The course overall was a nice out and back on a well surfaced and wide road, so traffic wasn't a problem really.
Back into transition and a nice quick 45 second stop to get my running shoes on and grab a gel. Off onto the 5k run round a field and housing estate out and back. I felt pretty decent on the way out so paced back a little to get a rhythm going after having been on the bike but the legs felt really solid which I was happy about. Started pushing a bit and was soon on the way back in. Sprinted the last 400m and felt strong. Really happy with the performance and didn't really feel tired after which I guess is a good sign for the extended distances to come!
Overall the results look like below:
Swim (inc 150m run to T1): 06:33
T1: 1:32
Bike: 35:47
T2: 46:85
Run: 23:05
Total: 01:07:45
Really happy overall, and nice to get some race practice in!
As the weather was so nice for the rest of the day (18 degrees and sunny!) I decided to go for a quick recovery spin on the road bike. Ended up getting a bit of a blowout/pinch flat at about 48mph descending a steep hill which was pretty interesting! Luckily its a straight descent, so I managed to slow the bike, and the tyre was completely flat by the time I was going about 20mph. I continued to slow and managed to stop with the tyre still on the rim! Quick repair and a co2 canister later I was back on the go, and managed 15 miles in the sun :)
Looking forward to the next couple of weeks now, and in particular the Outlaw Half!
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