Did the final triathlon of my season today. Training this week was reduced as a result with no long ride or long run on the weekend, although I did swim more this week in a desperate hope to bring down my race time a little!
The weather forecast leading up to the race was horrible, with heavy rain forecast so wasn't especially happy with that, however this morning turned out to be a fantastic day, clear and warm and a fairly light wind.
The race was Olympic distance and held at Dorney Lake in Eton which will be the venue for the 2012 Olympic rowing events. The whole race course is pancake flat so I was hoping for a fast time. I had a good support crew in tow this weekend which was nice, Erika was able to explain this triathlon thing to my mum and step dad and I think that they enjoyed the day. Race is a good one for spectators as the bike course is 8 laps of the lake (that meant I had to concentrate hard to keep count! Thanks to Erika for also telling me that I was on my last lap!!).
I haven't been doing any speed specific training in the lead up to this race as my focus has been solely on building my endurance for next years Ironman so I wasn't too sure what to expect. After having some stomach problems in my last two races I was hoping that wouldn't be an issue again ad was planning to try and start a bit easier on the bike leg as I have a tendency to hammer it at the start and then struggle to keep the pace up toward the end of the bike leg. I was hopeful that the run would be better as I have been felling pretty good on my long runs recently.
One of my solutions to the stomach issues has been to take the decision to switch back to the energy gels that I used to use when in Australia. I have been trying to use the ones that they supply at Ironman Austria but couldn't get beyond the fact that I think they are disgusting and have not been agreeing with my insides. I've tried a couple of other brands hat are available in England but also determined that they were foul! A quick trawl of the Internet and a fedex package from Canada later and the new energy gels arrived on Friday, just in time for this race.
Pre-Race
I set off from home early, determined not to be rushing to get ready and everything went according to plan. The race organisation was ok but transition area was seriously cramped and all men were starting in the same wave (must have been a few hundred people) which was started just in time to get in the way of the leading women starting their second lap, I'm sure they were thrilled! After a race briefing that I could barely hear we moved downinto the lake which was really quite cold!!
Swim
After the chaotic first couple of minutes I moved out to the side of the swim pack and found some nice clear water. The swim was pretty uneventful, got attacked by some weeds a couple of times but the water was nice and flat and owing to it being a rowing lake there are lines of buoys down the lake so it is fairly easy to make sure that you are heading in a straight line which makes a nice change! I swam the long was round a couple of the turns to make sure I stayed away from the fighting and was pleased to get out of the swim in about 29 minutes.
Bike
A quick change out of the wetsuit and then onto the bike for 8 laps. Just out of transition there was a potentially nasty couple of corners that required some serious concentration, just ask the bloke with the nice road rash after he took it on a bit too quickly (he still beat me by miles though!!), but other than that is was a couple of km down wind before turning and coming down the other side of the lake into a head wind. I managed to keep my lap times consistent throughout the ride which I was pleased with, I think the bike course was a little longer than 40km (did a previous race there when 6 laps was classified as 30.6km so I reckon approx 41km for this race). I have my bike split at 68 minutes something which was ok, nothing spectacular but I certainly didn't get passed by too many people ad didn't feel too bad coming back into transition.
Run
It's been on the run when my stomach has come to play tricks on me in the last two races so I started fairly steadily hoping that I would not have the same problem. Had a couple of people come past me early in the run as is the norm with me but was moving fairly well and pleased that not too many others were coming past (although wasn't making much progress up to those in front of me!). The run was a two lap course, I took the first lap fairly easy and got back to the turn in 23.20, started pushing much harder on the second lap and was pleased that I was able to pick up the pace, with my second lap being 21.53 to bring me in with a total time of 2.24.20 or thereabouts (official times have not yet been published).
Was happy overall with the race, I could feel the benefits of the 4 week solid training that I have put in and it was one of those where I finished thinking that maybe I could have gone a bit harder a bit earlier but in reality I think I went pretty much as quickly as I could have done.
I finished reasonably well up the field, will post the official results when they come out.
This coming week is a recovery week for me which means a similar amount of sessions but less volume in each session.
Strange to think that my next triathlon will be a half Ironman race in Barcelona 8 weeks before the main race on 5 July, although I have a few other things planned during the autumn and winter months. Next up is the 'Ballbuster' duathlon, an 8 mile run (13km) followed by a 24 mile ride (38.5km) and another 8 mile run. Would be fairly hard anyway but the course is a very hilly one so the event has a reputation of being fairly tough. That is at the start of November so the weather could also play a major factor, but that should be a good indicator as to how my run endurance is coming on.
Thanks to all those who came out and supported today, despite the poor weather outlook, I actually ended up with some classic English sun-burn, and it was good to have plenty of support whilst trying to keep count of my laps!
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