Monday, September 17, 2007
Thursday, September 06, 2007
The Big One - The World Age Group Champs
Well, for 2007 my season is now pretty much over having just come back from the World Age Group Champs in Hamburg. The World Champs was my "A" race for the whole season so getting there fit, uninjured and ready to perform at the best of my ability has been my goal for the past few months and for pretty much all of this season. At the end of the day though, we can't have it all I suppose...let me explain.
Over the past couple of months there is no doubt that I have been getting fitter and stronger, gaining confidence and speed in each of the three disciplines. On top of this, at the last few races that I have been at, the Relays, London and TT4, I had been pretty pleased with my racing performance so I knew that when I set off on the now famed "Magic Bus" for Hamburg I should be very confident of a very good result - possibly my best ever in a triathlon.
The magic bus was full to the brim with people, bikes and an extremely large number of wheels....well, we all need training and racing wheels don't we?
Anyway, thanks to the wonderful thing that is TomTom, the journey to Hamburg was a total breeze, taking about 11 hours door to door. Was also really nice to not have to drag the bike etc around airports etc as well.
So, in Hamburg and it was time to start getting ready for the race in a few days time...I normally know exactly what I need to do to get myself ready for a race like this, but one of the big problems we had was that it pretty much rained from Thursday afternoon to Saturday night...pretty depressing really. We did manage to get out and do the bike course though so I was pleased with that, especially considering that it looked like it was going to be a pretty fast course. There was only a couple of hills and they did not seem to be too much to worry about. The swim also looked like it was going to be pretty easy as it was almost a simple out and back in the lake.
Come race day, I was feeling pretty upbeat about things, my legs felt strong and I felt like I was going to have a good race. Last year I was quite intimidated by the whole big event thing, but this year things felt a lot more relaxed, especially considering the swim, which I was actually looking forward to.
The 30-34 AG finally got into the water at 8:00am for our 8:10 start...
What followed can only be described as comical. The starting sound that they use in these events is something akin to a horn so when you have a boat nearby who decides that sometime close to 8:10 he will set off his horn, the inevitable will happen and 130 athletes will go sprinting off in the lake. The funny thing was, this happened twice and one the second occasion we did actually get quite far out before being turned around for the "real" start.
Out in the water I felt pretty good and was sure that I was having a pretty decent swim I thought. I went very slightly off course at the top, but was able to sprint back in and not lose to many place. In the end, I was out the water in 23:19, which considering the course was a bit long, was just about where I thought I would be.
Not sure what was going on with the swim hat/tea cosy..
The first transition, as seems to be the norm in World Champs was stupidly long and with my now numb feet from the swim, it hurt quite a lot as I ran the 500m to the bike. Still, I was looking forward to getting out there and really seeing what I could do now. I had already decided that I was not going to totally kill myself on the bike as I was planning on having a much better run.
Out on the bike though and this is where things started to not quite go to plan. I knew that I was going kind of fast, but just felt that I was missing that top end of speed that I normally seem to have. The gears I selected were lower than normal as well, perhaps a good sign that things were not going totally to plan. Still, I tried my hardest to concentrate and just worked on catching people up and overtaking them. I knew one of my mates was about a minute up the road, so he was my main target for the rest of the bike. In any other race, I probably would have been able to catch him in not much time at all, alas today that was just not to be.
Coming back in the from the bike, I knew that I was going to have to do a brilliant run to keep up with my mate who had managed to come in off the bike at the same time as me...albeit, he has beaten me in pretty much every run that we have even done together.
Out on the run though and I was able to keep my mate within sight so figured that if I just kept him there, I would be able to have a pretty decent run. In the end though, I got to about 3k and I just wasn't feeling the love. I think I lost concentration for a bit and then let my friend move away a bit. My legs were not feeling that good either. By the time I was coming up to the finish, I was pretty sure that I had not had the best race in the world.
So, at the end of the day, two out of three ain't that bad I suppose. I had managed to get to the World Champs fit and uninjured...for some reason, I was just not able to put that into practice and race as well as I should have. I suppose it is just one of those things.
The final results show that I was the 10th Brit in my age group and that I was 32nd overall for all countries in my age group. At the end of the day, that is a massive improvement from last year's 60th overall and one of the last Brit finishers in my AG. I
Over the past couple of months there is no doubt that I have been getting fitter and stronger, gaining confidence and speed in each of the three disciplines. On top of this, at the last few races that I have been at, the Relays, London and TT4, I had been pretty pleased with my racing performance so I knew that when I set off on the now famed "Magic Bus" for Hamburg I should be very confident of a very good result - possibly my best ever in a triathlon.
The magic bus was full to the brim with people, bikes and an extremely large number of wheels....well, we all need training and racing wheels don't we?Anyway, thanks to the wonderful thing that is TomTom, the journey to Hamburg was a total breeze, taking about 11 hours door to door. Was also really nice to not have to drag the bike etc around airports etc as well.
So, in Hamburg and it was time to start getting ready for the race in a few days time...I normally know exactly what I need to do to get myself ready for a race like this, but one of the big problems we had was that it pretty much rained from Thursday afternoon to Saturday night...pretty depressing really. We did manage to get out and do the bike course though so I was pleased with that, especially considering that it looked like it was going to be a pretty fast course. There was only a couple of hills and they did not seem to be too much to worry about. The swim also looked like it was going to be pretty easy as it was almost a simple out and back in the lake.
Come race day, I was feeling pretty upbeat about things, my legs felt strong and I felt like I was going to have a good race. Last year I was quite intimidated by the whole big event thing, but this year things felt a lot more relaxed, especially considering the swim, which I was actually looking forward to.
The 30-34 AG finally got into the water at 8:00am for our 8:10 start...
What followed can only be described as comical. The starting sound that they use in these events is something akin to a horn so when you have a boat nearby who decides that sometime close to 8:10 he will set off his horn, the inevitable will happen and 130 athletes will go sprinting off in the lake. The funny thing was, this happened twice and one the second occasion we did actually get quite far out before being turned around for the "real" start.
Out in the water I felt pretty good and was sure that I was having a pretty decent swim I thought. I went very slightly off course at the top, but was able to sprint back in and not lose to many place. In the end, I was out the water in 23:19, which considering the course was a bit long, was just about where I thought I would be.
Not sure what was going on with the swim hat/tea cosy..The first transition, as seems to be the norm in World Champs was stupidly long and with my now numb feet from the swim, it hurt quite a lot as I ran the 500m to the bike. Still, I was looking forward to getting out there and really seeing what I could do now. I had already decided that I was not going to totally kill myself on the bike as I was planning on having a much better run.
Out on the bike though and this is where things started to not quite go to plan. I knew that I was going kind of fast, but just felt that I was missing that top end of speed that I normally seem to have. The gears I selected were lower than normal as well, perhaps a good sign that things were not going totally to plan. Still, I tried my hardest to concentrate and just worked on catching people up and overtaking them. I knew one of my mates was about a minute up the road, so he was my main target for the rest of the bike. In any other race, I probably would have been able to catch him in not much time at all, alas today that was just not to be.
Coming back in the from the bike, I knew that I was going to have to do a brilliant run to keep up with my mate who had managed to come in off the bike at the same time as me...albeit, he has beaten me in pretty much every run that we have even done together.
Out on the run though and I was able to keep my mate within sight so figured that if I just kept him there, I would be able to have a pretty decent run. In the end though, I got to about 3k and I just wasn't feeling the love. I think I lost concentration for a bit and then let my friend move away a bit. My legs were not feeling that good either. By the time I was coming up to the finish, I was pretty sure that I had not had the best race in the world.
So, at the end of the day, two out of three ain't that bad I suppose. I had managed to get to the World Champs fit and uninjured...for some reason, I was just not able to put that into practice and race as well as I should have. I suppose it is just one of those things.The final results show that I was the 10th Brit in my age group and that I was 32nd overall for all countries in my age group. At the end of the day, that is a massive improvement from last year's 60th overall and one of the last Brit finishers in my AG. I
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