I Tri'd

This is going to be a bit longer than my usual but I did a triathlon so it’s sort of like three events for the price of one.

tl;dr – I don’t know why I was worried. Will do it again. Not bad medal.

Eton Dorney Sprint Tri was this weekend’s destination. I think I have alluded to the worry I have been feeling about the event in previous posts, but my friends and family have had to put up with me freaking out every time I thought about the event since I booked onto it 3 months ago. I think the main reason for this anxiety was a large portion of fear of the unknown, with a side order of not wanting to look like an idiot. It turns out that the additional grey hairs I have given myself were entirely unnecessary.

I have read a lot of blogs and things about triathlons in the recent weeks and while they were all about preparation, nutrition, training and things, they didn’t actually say what went on and what you need to do on the day (besides the obvious swimming, cycling, and running about). If I knew then what I know now I think I would have been a much more chilled puppy on Sunday.

Transition. Despite being the biggest unknown for me, it is not that big a deal. It is just a place to put your kit. It’s a big fenced off area with exits to the swim, bike, and run routes with a healthy dose of marshals milling about. You get a little area to rack your bike and set your kit out. How you lay it out is up to you but most people (including me) placed a towel on the floor onto which we put cycling shoes, trainers and other bits for the race. I’m sure there is an optimal way to set your kit out to minimise transition time but I just set up my little area so it looked nice. Top tip, find a landmark that correlates to your position because when there are a couple of hundred near identical bikes racked up it is quite difficult to find quickly.

Swim. I spent a while watching the other waves go, and cheer my friends as they whizzed round on their bike section, but eventually it was time to head into transition to get ready to race. I was already wearing my tri suit and with Bodyglide on my wrists and ankles I pulled on my wetsuit and went to join my peers in a holding pen. Final race instructions were given before being led down to the water’s edge. We plopped into the chilly but clean and calm water and paddled over to the start line like migrating wildebeest wearing bright pink swim caps. Exactly on the hour the hooter sounded and we were off. I tried to front crawl but I didn’t like it, I’m not sure why but rather than have a terrible time attempting to crawl I decided to fall back to my solid breast stroke. It wouldn’t be as fast but at least I would be happy. I was nowhere near the front as I hauled myself out of the water but I also wasn’t last.

T1. My first transition was pretty good considering it was my first attempt. I was half out of my wetsuit by the time I got to my bike (thanks Bodyglide), I ditched that unceremoniously onto my towel and I slipped on my helmet and my pre-talc’d cycling shoes. Someone suggested not cycling in socks as trying to get them on wet feet wastes time, so talc the inside of your shoes, it works a treat.



Cycle. The opening half a lap was a bit chilly as all I had on was a wet tri-suit, talc’d shoes (which trailed excess talc like a pair of Johnsons Baby Powder comets for about 100 metres) and cycle helmet, but the sun was blazing and I was working hard. The ride is the bit where you really see the variety of triathletes in your wave properly for the first time (the swim you’re all just wetsuits and identical swim caps). There are the elites riding bikes that cost more than my car tucked up on their tri-bars, to the first time charity riders on mountain bikes. I think I was somewhere in the middle of these extremes, first time rider on a road bike but not wearing aerodynamic carbon fibre.

T2. Transition two should be slightly easier than T1, after all it’s just parking a bike and swapping shoes but I forgot to look for my landmark, got lost and flustered, which contributed to me forgetting to take off my helmet. When I finally tried to leave for my run I was promptly sent all the way back to my spot because my skid lid had to be with my bike (Triathlon rules…) Apart from that T2 was textbook.

Run. The run was hard. I had developed a stitch and my legs were made of some kind of jelly. I managed to push out 5 minute kilometres which I was pleased with though. The best bit of the run was cruising past someone who had overtaken me with ease during the ride section.

So I’m now a triathlete. It is one of those things that I never thought I would do, and now here I am contemplating which triathlon I will sign up to next. The medal? It’s alright and I will hang it proudly with the others but like the Wings for Life race a few weeks ago, the experience was excellent and that is the thing that will stay with me.  

Eton Sprints Medal

 

No where near - Hastings 1066

Another weekend and I suppose inevitably, I had another race. This was one of the Hasler Series kayak races and unlike my first foray into competitive K1 racing, this time I raced as a club member. Yep. That’s right, I am now a fully paid up member of Wey Kayak club. I have my own vest in club colours and I feel strangely proud.

We were racing the Hastings 1066 kayak marathon, which was obviously going to be 60 miles away from Hastings, in Tonbridge.

Considering that I didn’t even want to take part in these races a month ago I do look at myself, (in those third person retrospectives Owain sometimes has) and shake my head in disbelief at how serious I am being about these races. I get promoted up one division and all of a sudden I have designs on winning every race. Fortunately this week I didn’t win or get promoted which has kept my ego in check.

Serious face

After the carnage of the first race this week was a much more civilised affair. The Div8 juniors went off a minute or two ahead of the Div8 seniors, which meant my wave had only five paddlers giving us plenty of room to position the boat, and we were released in a rolling start. I got away well and was at the front with another member of Wey for the first few kilometres; he kept me honest all the way until the turn, after which I was able to get away from him. As with the first race I tried to hunt down the boats in front of me but the div 8 juniors were not much slower than me (if not a bit quicker) and I couldn’t make up the head start they had over the distance.

It’s difficult to quite work out what position I was in while racing because some fast movers from the wave behind went past, and I overtook some of the slower paddlers from the waves who went before, but I think I was 2^nd in my wave (which out of 5 doesn’t seem that good actually...). 00:47:47 earned me 8^th place overall for Division 8 and scored 13 points, and they all count this time because I am no longer unaffiliated.

I have decided that the boat I usedis too slow and heavy and it’s time to upgrade to a slippier but more unstable craft for the next race. I can’t decide if I want to take my lime green racing machine, or go for a halfway house and borrow one of the clubs Tor’s next time.

Oh. Yeah. In other news, I got a new 5k PB at parkrun. 00:23:08.

Wings For Life World Run

This weekends’ event easily joins the ranks of my all-time favourite races and I feel quite privileged to have been a part of it. Though The Wings for Life World Run is one of those race concepts that I have probably spent more collective time explaining to people than I did running it.

Starting at exactly the same time in 34 different locations across the globe, runners have a thirty minute head start over a chase car, which then sets off at (I think) 15kph, it then incrementally increases in speed. When the chase car passes you, you’re eliminated… Simples.

There were several reasons I signed up to the race, the format of running away from the finish line was something new, the fact that ALL of the money goes to a great charity, but also I get to say that I raced against DC! I don't really get star struck but like many people I'm sure, I have been a long time fan of David Coulthard. I was a bit lot excited when I found out he would be driving the chase car for the race in the UK.



Selfie with the chase a car

The race start was at 12 noon and as always I got to the event pretty much when registration opened (because I hate being late and having to rush) so I sat for nearly 3 hours in the blazing sun, working on my tan, taking selfies, and watching hundreds of runners pour in and join the ever increasing queues to register…

Eventually we were summoned to the start and put into pens based on a colour code on the race bib… My orange bib placed me near the front and I was surrounded by people who looked fast. I don’t remember putting down an overly ambitious predicted pace, but I suppose I must have.

The race was coordinated to start at exactly the same time as all the others so there were no last minute delays or a protracted preamble that overran, just a 10 second countdown, the start fanfare, a shower of ticker tape and we were off. As usual I got swept along with the cheers of the crowd and by the runners around me so for the first three kilometres I ran much faster than I had planned. The reckless initial pace, and the 26 degree heat soon made me realise that it was going to be a tough afternoon.

By ten kilometres I was sweltering, my skin was glazed in a delightful combo-sheen of sweat, sun-tan lotion, and Vaseline, and I was absolutely knackered. By then I didn’t care if the car came around the corner and eliminated me, it would have ended the purgatory I was putting myself through. At about this point I noticed someone had fallen in alongside me, she had a South African flag and at some point I had somehow ended up carrying my own Union Jack. Even though she doesn’t know it she became my flag buddy, we didn’t share a word I just hung on trying to keep up with her pace.


Did I mention David Couthard?

My flag buddy unknowingly dragging me along for another 6km before the chase car outriders finally appeared behind us. It was time to leave everything on the road and for 600 metres I gave it all I had before being finally (and somewhat happily) eliminated. DC gave a cheery thumbs up and it was all over.

16.6kms in 1h 35m. Considering that heat I’m pretty pleased with my effort.

The race was brilliantly organised, the support from the people of Cambridge was amazing, the goody bag was stacked, the medal is pretty good (if somewhat bijou), and I get to say that I raced against David Couthard! A great event. 



Wings For Life Medal (and bib)

Strava goals

Something has been bothering me for a while. Every time I log into Strava I see this little graphic showing my lack of progress against some goal distances I set myself at the beginning of the year.

They were quite arbitrary targets (I obviously favoured the base ten numerical system to pick my numbers) that were larger than my actual distances I achieved in 2015. For the last four months I have watched that little black line, the one that shows where I should be, moving away from the blue progress bar. Last week was the first time I started closing the gap.

In fact, last week I did some kind of activity every day, and I don’t remember ever doing that before, I have usually enjoyed the rest days that I feel entitled to after exercising. The most notable of these days was on Bank holiday Sunday where I cycled 55k, ran 4k then swam 1k in a miss-ordered triathlon training session.

In total I rode 92.4kms, ran 28.2kms, swam 2500m and kayaked (although that isn’t on the list) 14kms. I need to keep that sort of mileage up every week with the exception of the cycle, if I am going to catch my targets by the end of the year.

I am however going to taper for the rest of this week. I have the wings for life world run at the weekend and I really want to do well. Using the goal calculator I think I’m going to get about 20kms before I get caught by the catch car, I’d really like to stay in the race for longer though so let’s see when I write up about it next week.