Short Report:

Swim: 29.08
T1: 1.33
Bike: 2.33
T2: 0.54
Run: 1.43

Overall: 4:48.24
7^th in AG, 47^th Overall (274 finishers)

 Longer Version:

So I entered this race for a bit of fun.  Since Polar Challenge, my training had been pretty relaxed, just trying to get back into the swing of things.  As I laid in the tent the night before the race, I couldn’t help but think it might be a long day, I didn’t feel that focussed.

Race morning whipped around and it was heavily overcast, almost misty, and humid, the forecast for 26 degree bright sunshine hadn’t materialized and this didn’t look like the sort of thing that would burn through. It was about 4am though.

Breakfast: 2 pots of rice pudding, a bowl of muesli with apple sauce and yoghurt and a splash of milk.  Caffeine tablet (100mg) and a cup of tea.

Went over and tried to remember how to rack a bike for an open transition, and picked up a free shot of redbull that had been laid out by all the bikes, got the wetsuit on, and went down to the briefing.

Classic briefing over a PA system 300 people definitely couldn’t hear, but just about got the jist of it. 2 lap swim with a slightly different second lap.

Swim:

Started at the front of the swim,  and more or less straight away gapped the people who I started near, there was a big pack to my right hand side, and I slowly merged with them at the first turn.

It was a struggle. I certainly don’t have the swim fitness I did last year, and had to force myself to relax and not push too hard. I tried to get onto some feet, but they pulled away (disconcerting since we had all seemed to settle into a pace by now).  Round the second turn and there were already 2 guys WAY ahead, and then a string of swimmers leading to the little group I was with. At the second turn everyone in my group veered wildy to the left and started heading for totally the wrong buoy, I stayed with one guy and headed to the correct one, by the time the group had been corrected by a canoe they were behind us.  The one guy I was with the next turn headed for totally the wrong buoy and began to cut a huge corner off the second lap. I was annoyed, not only since I would have to do yet MORE work on my own, but he was taking a shortcut. I worked hard and he finally came up to the next turnaround just ahead of me.

As I swam into the finish of the swim, I knew I had been working hard, and feared I’d already overcooked it.  I was about 14^th out of the water and I was pleased to see about 28.30 on my watch as I got out however, still have some semblance of the pace I did before, just it hurts a lot more to sustain I guess.

I’d wanted some fast transitions, but knew I had to get some socks on for the bike and run, decided to do this in t1, and with soggy feet it was a bit of a struggle. Snugg came off nicely and soon enough I was away.

Bike:

Onto the bike and I’d decided to cap my HR at 160. I was riding without a speedo or distance. Not many on the road at that point, and I prepared myself for the steady flow of average swimmer/hardcore cyclists to come through.  It was pleasantly cool, yet still misty with a lot of moisture in the air, and the flow of cyclists past me was a lot less than I had expected. The bike course is a 2x out and back and looking at my splits, my average HR, for each was 161. So more or less on the planned effort.

It was pretty frustrating to see so many pack of blatant drafting going on.  Most of the packs of riders closing on me at the turn around and see them gaining each split I took. Some of these packs were 10-20 riders at least and making no effort not to draft.  The lanes were dead flat and mostly very smooth, but quite narrow, so its understandable why it would be difficult to pass. And having to pass 20 people is a bit of an effort, but still, people could have the decency to drop back the required amount.   At least I know I could go and ride that course again with no-one around and I’d get the same/similar time. Not sure they could all say that.

There was also, as far as I could tell only water/high 5 available on the bike when the website had suggested there would also be fig rolls.  I was looking forward to those, but glad I had enough with me in terms of gels/energy drink (just) to get by on my own, otherwise it might have been a different story!

Anyway, I was able to check where kev, lotte, romain and roz where at each turn, and I only had about 2 mins on kev at the first half lap, lotte was only about 30s behind him. By the end of the first lap, I had 4 mins, but by half way through the second, this was down to a minute and a half! I have no gauge of my speed but was happy with my pacing, I don’t think I faded badly, so no idea what pacing plan kev was riding! Fast, slow, fast, fast?!  I’ve been getting into my supporting though, and made sure to give a shout out to all the Tri Londoners as best I could when I passed, even if it was to the bemusement of the riders near me.

Back into transition and wanted to make this a faster one.  Seemed ok, but Im sure I can improve. One guy managed 34s I think, so just goes to show how quick you can be.  On the spur I grabbed a red bull shot lying in transition near my bike (they were everywhere) and off I went.

Run:

3 lap run, and the pacing strategy was HR Cap of 160, 165, then 170/whatever for the last lap.  I had hoped my speed might move with it, but alas it wasn’t to be. I felt pretty good on the first lap, but knew it was only a matter of time before kev came past.  I managed to hold 160, 167 and 170, so my pacing was again dead on the plan.  Went for a quick pee at the end of the first lap, and felt much better.  As I then ran past the start, was sad to see Roz at the end of my first lap sitting with a St.Johns ambulance lady and Naomi, and wondered what had happened, but not much time to really discuss the matter there and then. And onto the second lap.

Kev  soon came past full of chat, (I gave him some back) and he tried to tickle me (Im sure that’s a DQ?) about 1/3^rd of the way around the 2^nd lap, and gapped me by about 150 yards.  Surprisingly though he seemed to stay in sight for most of the lap. My HR was a little high at times but RPE was ok. I was moving well(ish)

However, at this point, the sun suddenly decided to appear, it was only about 10.15 in the morning but it was already starting to get very hot. Suddenly my speed had dropped a little and the RPE crept up, worked hard to keep the HR on target and as I finished the second lap, knew that the 3^rd might have been a bit of a struggle.   I saw 4.13 on the clock and knew that 5 hours was in the bag barring disaster, yet I was also worried that lotte would soon be coming past (oh the shame!) I took my red bull shot at the start of the third lap (yeah, this’ll make me run fast) and got stuck in.  I kept looking back, and only saw romain in passing on the run at the point where there is some contra-flow running, and got a high-five. Its great to see other people enjoying themselves!  Whilst hard work, it felt controlled and I don’t feel I lost any technique on the run. I put this down to strength and conditioning work, single leg squats are the way to go people!

Anyway, came back in and couldn’t see lotte behind (phew) and pushed for the final 200m. Roz and Naomi helpfully shouting ‘Lotte is right behind you’ as I’m running down the finishing chute.

Went and got my medal and came back round to see Lotte finish moments behind 3^rd lady overall, and then went and cooled my legs in the lake before a gentle massage. Its always nice to finish a race in blistering sunshine and enjoy the moment.

Im happy, considering how much training ive done, and felt I executed my race plan well.  Although a little disappointed my run and bike wasn’t quite there, but I guess that comes with training eh!?

Good fast course, pretty well organised for its first year, could do with some draft busters, but great if you want a pb!  Compared with Wimbleball from last year, that’s a 56 minute pb for me ;-)

Thanks to Naomi for her support and taking some pics! :-)

Andy

The MyTriClub “Old Man” Middle Distance Triathlon took place on 5th June, named after the Old Man of Coniston mountain, rather than the nature of the field.  This was a truly stunning course: a 2000m chilly swim in Coniston Water being followed by ascents of Wrynose and Hardknott passes (maxing at 33% gradient) and continuing on a 74km loop back to transition, with the fell run following a 20km loop taking in Wetherlam, Swirl How and finally the towering Old Man, before descending through old slate quarries back to the Lakeside.

A total of 60 took to the start line in the 12C water, completing two laps in fairly calm conditions.  The relatively sparse field suited me well, settling into a good rhythm with some intermittent drafting helping me on my way.  I exited the water in 15th position (not that I knew that at the time), as ever pleased to mount my trusty steed and get cracking on my strongest discipline.  I was slightly unsettled to be overtaken in the early stages by one man going seemingly infeasibly fast, but I later discovered that this was a team cyclist en route to an event-record cycle time.  The single track road up to Wrynose came around all too soon, but thanks to my new 11-28 cassette I plugged away quite happily, passing a number of athletes and was told at the pass (by a couple of tourists who I was hesitant to believe that I was in 3rd position).  The remaining 60km were fairly solitary, P2 only coming into sight towards the end, but the ride felt strong in pretty decent conditions.  T2 was fantastic, taking P2 and being informed that P1 was the lead team.  I headed out on the run, through Coniston village and up the track to Coppermines Valley, causing a little confusion as I passed a number of entrants for a pure fell-run race!  I knew these fells well and continued happily up the slightly scantily marked route, conserving energy by reverting to a powerwalk.  A couple of hikers taking a break informed me that everyone behind me had taken a different turn up the hill, although I could clearly see the markers around me, so I shrugged and got on with it!  Towards the top of Wetherlam I was joined by the lead team runner, who had clearly lost about 5 minutes from his wrong turn, but the company was welcome and I, as a novice fell-runner, was able to follow his line on the initial descent.  The remaining path was clear – a rocky scramble to Swirl How, followed by an undulating ridge run to the Old Man and a steep decent through the slate quarries back to the path down to Coniston.  By this stage the seasoned fell-runner representing the first place team had disappeared ahead and I was nervously looking over my shoulder for the next man behind me.  But happily I only saw him in the closing stages about 500m behind!  So I crossed the finishing line, slightly bemused, as first solo athlete – how did that happen!?

Not that they’ll mean that much, but splits:

2000m swim - 33:06 (15); 74km bike – 02:44:28 (2); 20km fell-run – 02:05:43 (4)

Overall 5:25:56 (2, first solo)

Sorry my report has taken a while, but here we go!

Short version – Disappointed!

6th in Age Group (Wanted a podium place)
52nd Overall Female including pro’s (Boo hoo!)

Swim -  33.30
T1  -     5.06
Bike -   2.29
T2   -    2.14
Run -    1.29
Overall time – 4.39

Preparation

We arrived one week before the race which meant I had plenty of time to check out the course, acclimatise, get plenty of rest and ensure my nutrition was right.

Each morning we travelled to the wonderfully scenic Clearwater beach to swim in the beautiful sea and either ride a few miles or do a short run along the coast. Every day more of the event was being set up and this certainly added to the excitement before race day. As the race start time meant we would have to get up at 4am I took advantage of the time difference and went to bed every night between 8 and 9pm and got up when I woke naturally about 4.30-5am. The idea being that come race day my body would not have too much of a shock. I felt really relaxed the night before and just could not wait to race.

Race Day

Race morning arrives and we set off to Clearwater approximately at 4am. I encountered plenty of the usual hustle and bustle with race marking, setting up the bike, warming up etc. At this point the nerves well and truly are kicking in so I really focused on what the plan was for the swim and then the rest of the race. I had a discussion with Rob the day before and agreed that if anyone tries to chat to me I would try and ignore them to focus on my concentration. This was quite peculiar thing for me to do, I don’t usually ignore people but it worked as come the start I felt in the zone!

Anyway wetsuit is on, warm up done and short sea swim performed! All is great. I briefly chat to Brett wish him luck and set off to the holding pen!

Once in the pen and I felt quite emotional. I remember saying to myself, this is it, its your race! Your going to smash it! I quickly ran over to Rob and gave him a huge hug and then went to the start.

The swim

It was a beach swim start. We had a fairly good run in and off we went. I was completely focused on how I wanted to start the swim and all went to plan, I absolutely loved the swim. It actually got choppy the further out we went. This was fine because I had had plenty of practise in the week. I was quite surprised when it was over, not sure if it was short but looking at my time I am hoping it was perfectly measured out.

Out of swim I felt really good. The volunteers told me to sit down as they pulled my wetsuit off! Awesome!

T1

Off I ran to collect my T1 bag and then into the tent to put on my socks and leave me wetsuit. I sat down very quickly and as fast I could  I put my socks on. As I stood up and ran out the tent my thigh instantly ceased up! I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!!!

My initial thoughts were ‘my race is over’. I could not bend my leg and immediately thought it was a cramp. So I shouted to the attendants that I had a cramp and they tried to relieve it for me but not much happened. I only imagined a few bikes from my wave going past me so I remained positive and thought it’s ok I can still have a chance so I told the attendants I will try and ride it out.

The Bike

I set off so slow having spent an extra 2 minutes in transition than everyone else, pedalling with a very high cadence but it was not in the plan to go this much below 24 miles per hour! I hadn’t even bothered putting my feet in my clipped on shoes as I could feel my quad not easing so I stopped again not much more than 400m after leaving T1.

I got off and a man held my bike and asked what was wrong. I replied I had a cramp and he tried to massage but all I could think was that I am getting further and further behind. I thanked him and took off again for the second time having wasted another 2 minutes again high cadence, low speed. After a while it seemed to ease off but I had to keep standing up to stretch it out. Not the aero position I had set out to do!

To add insult to injury my Garmin condensed up and as such I could now not see a thing. I dropped it the day before but because it only had a very very slight crack I thought it would be ok but unfortuately not and I raced thereon in on how I felt and I had no idea of my heart rate, cadence or speed.

It was around then that Brett flew passed me on the bike and shortly after a pack of about 20 riders, men and women! I only actually saw a few packs, not as many as I had anticipated due to all that I heard about drafting prior to the race. This was probably down to everyone having already passed me whilst I was busy stretching my leg.

When I approached the penalty box I was pleased to see the pack of 20 had been penalised and had 4 minutes to wait.
On the way back there were a few more packs but mainly a smaller bunches and few angry comments were made too.  ie those 2 think its the tour de France!!!! When we had the race brief they said that Drafting will not be tolerated. On the course I only remember seeing 2 draft busters and there was much of the course where draft busters couldn’t even go because of the traffic and people clearly knew that – I passed the same couple of girls legally only for them to go past shortly after on the wheel of some men.

T2

As I was approaching the finish of the bike and I remember wondering whether my leg would be ok for the run. So I thought it was best to not come out of my race shoes and jump off but instead come to a complete stop and get off slowly just in case my leg jarred again. When I came off the bike I gently jogged and my leg felt tight but okay. All the time I thought, last race just do your best.

The Run… ‘stick to the plan!’.

I set off again totally blind to my speed because of my steamed up watch – I had planned to run 6.25min miles but the combination of the watch and my leg meant that was unlikely to happen. I saw Rob early on and he just shouted ‘stick to the plan!’ which was unusual as he’d normally be telling my exactly where I was. I asked him but he just said it was difficult to work out and to push on at 6.25′s – I responded back with ‘I don’t know how fast I’m going my watched i ****ed!

I found out after that Rob knew exactly where I was but didn’t think it was a good idea to tell me I was so far behind being in 27th place! I pushed on with my leg aching on almost every step but i still managed to pass so many Age groupers and I thought, I must be in the lead by now! I saw Rob again and he just said keep pushing I don’t where you are!, your running people down, the heat is affecting them!

I am so glad I did 4 weeks for heat training in my makeshift training room. The heat did not affect me at all throughout any of the race which only adds insult to the injury of my quad problem. Coming past Rob for the final time he told me to drive it in, you can’t win it but we want the fastest run split which I ultimately did get for my AG.

The finish

When I crossed the finishing I was disappointed but had to take the positives that despite being injured I pushed on and kept positive and came back from 27th on the run, I dread to think where I was when I actually got going on the bike but it must have been in the 40′s somewhere!

I reckon I lost at least 10 minutes on the T1/bike trying to stretch the muscle out and not being able to push for a good half of the 56mile, then another 2 minutes on the run as I just did not feel I ran as well as I can with my leg muscle was constantly twinging throughout. If that had not of happened I think I would have easily of come 2nd, which is around where I had have hoped to finish, I may even have been able to run down 1st. I know people will s ay that 6th is good and it is but I just feel like it just isn’t a fair reflection of what I can do and it would have been amazing to finish off my first full season with podium at the worlds despite all the cheating that was going on. As Rob and I had been saying all week previous, we’re not here to finish it – we’re here to win it!

The following day I saw a sports masseur as my leg was still very sore, he didn’t think it was cramp and likely that I had pulled it or it had spasmed. Rob and I have discussed it alot since the race and we are unable to put it down to anything particular making it ‘just one of those things’, so have decided to not change anything about the pre-race routine and nutrition unless it happens again. Which hopefully it does not!

The aftermath. My pointers!

One final point regarding the drafting – take a minute to look at the top 15 women finishers and look at the bike splits of the AG’s compared to the Pro’s. I have raced against a couple of those girls and they beat me by a minute at most but somehow got to within 30 seconds of Jodie Swallow’s bike split! Makes for interesting reading.

Anyway, onwards and upwards – time for a few weeks rest and start planning my training and racing for 2011! Next year the world 70.3 is in Las Vegas and I can’t wait. It’s hilly which is right up my street and should stop some of the drafting problems. Needless to say I will be going to win it!

See you soon

Amy