Thames Turbo Number 2

Returned to Hampton on May Day for another go at the second in the series of the Thames Turbo events - determined this time to improve my time, especially the swim and the run sections. Upon arrival, things were not looking too good, it had been raining when I left the house and it had not let up an hour after registration and racking - was quite glad for the bags I had brought for my shoes though.

Finally got underway after a long wait and managed a swim time which was about 13s quicker than the last one so was pretty pleased with that. No one managed to catch me either - although this could have been more to do with who was actually behind me. T1 went quite well, managing to record a swim and T1 time of 7:57.

The bike started off well reaching speeds just below 50kph on the way out to the 1st roundabout. However, after turning round it became clear that the next 13k or so was going to be a struggle. I remembered that it was a slight incline pretty much all the way to the second turn point and the wind was now straight in my face. I really had to push on this section, just to keep the speed in the 35kph range as the headwind really started to sap the strength from the legs. The turning point provided welcome relief though and I was soon back up to the speeds that I wanted. Managed to keep the speed above 40kph pretty much all the way back but I knew that the average was going to have been hampered by the effort in the wind.

Took as much time as I could in the non-compete zone and managed to get down a fair bit of drink and a gel to give me some energy for the run. T2 went as expected and I was quickly back out on the run. I had decided to push from the start and try and simply get over the "legs of jelly" pain because I thought it was possible. This time I found that I was very quickly able to set into a sub 4 minute pace. Still think I could push a bit harder on this section but still finally got home with a time of 19:10 on my watch and 20:30 on the offical, plus T2 clock.

Final time for the day's efforts was 1:02:54 which placed me in 5th - way above what I had expected and hoped for. My ambition was to hit the top 10 after the last 13th place. Since this I have entered the 3rd in the series now which takes place the week after Blenheim.