Well, first things first, I am now a married man...so I suppose that is the end of my best racing days :)
Leading up to the wedding, I had a couple of races which I was going to do more for fun than anything else. As the wedding approached, so the training decreased and weight came on a bit. At the National Relay champs I was fully aware that our best chance of doing anything was just to concentrate on the bike section and see where we can get our team at the end of that...with none of us being 15-16 minute 5k runners, we were never going to be in contention after the bike. Still, we did have fun and I was pleased to see that I started the run (I was first out of the team of 4) at the same time as the pro outfit of Planet X that including an ex world champ. They quickly ran away from us, but it was good while it lasted.
A couple of weekends after that. we had the last in the Thames Turbo sprint series for the season. I was not in contention for an overall prize this season so I was not overly bothered with how well I was going to do. I was keen to have a good ride, but other than that, I knew I had not put the time in so shouldn't expect too much. My swim was a bit slower than normal but out on the bike, I actually felt quite good. I was riding well but then got caught by the lights for the maximum amount of time and on the way back into Hampton I had a bit of a nightmare with cars, buses and other competitors causing a bit of a tailback that I ended up getting stuck behind for a bit....all rather annoying, but I suppose it is to be expected on that course. One day I will get a perfect run on that course!
Out on the run, things didn't feel too bad, but I knew that I was just not really going as fast as I should be if I wanted a good time. Still, my time was not bad considering the recent training etc. I was pleased to see that I eventually finished 3rd in a pretty decent field, so not a bad day out really.
Whilst I was away on the honeymoon, I also decided that it would be for the best if I pulled out of the 70.3 World Champs as well. The cost of getting to Florida and the fact that I had not even booked anything yet, meant I would be spending a lot of money to put in a sub-par performance. The honeymoon was great, but I put on some weight and my gradual reduction in fitness over the past couple of months and the 6 weeks between then and the Worlds would have not been enough to get to a place of fitness which I felt would justify all the expense. Next year...
Ever since I finished my uneventful trip into the TT wilderness this season, what with the two punctures in my two main races, I have focusing all my attention on my last main race of the season. The Antwerp 70.3 is a half-ironman race with a 1.9k swim, 90k bike and then a nice little half marathon to finish things off.
The problem for me coming in to this race was two fold, I did not really have the endurance in the legs to ride that hard for that long as all of my efforts this season had been focused on delivering a very high level of power for about an hour. To now go for more than twice as long, was going to be hard. I had also only really been averaging about 10-15k a week, and that was probably split between 2 or 3 runs. So, no long runs since I did the MK half marathon way earlier in the year. So, I decided to just try and keep on top of the swimming, pretty much junk the cycling for a month and drastically increase my run mileage. I enlisted the help of Bill Black to help with some form of running plan and he basically just set me four runs to do every week, with one of those being an increasingly longer run. So, a week before the race, all the running was going great, I was back to being able to easily knock out sub 40 10k's, even as part of the long run, albeit, I was slowing towards the ends of these with the lack of endurance. Still, a lot of the speed was back. So, everything looked about as good as it could really.
For some reason, I always foolishly assume that racing on the continent is going to take place under blue skies and sunshine. Antwerp last weekend was doing all it could to oppose that viewpoint. Due to the fact I only arrived late on the Saturday, I had to register and make my way to the swim start on the Sunday. Me, being the ever organised did this super early.....problem with this was that it meant that I had to stand around in the pouring rain for about 2 hours. Not really the best start to a race.
Finally though, we were off. I was in a wave for my AG and I quickly realised that there wasn't going to be the normal bunch of people quickly escaping off the front. In fact, on this occasion, I was very near the front and it all seemed to be going well, perhaps me deciding to kick in this race had made a big difference. Anyway, I followed round some other chap from my AG and we got out the water in 25:45....I had to take two glances at the watch, I was expecting to be out in about 28. The course must be short I thought. Wetsuit off, helmet on though and on the way out I passed one of my mates who is a really good swimmer. It then dawned on me that perhaps I had just done a pretty good swim.
So, off on the bike and straight away, I could feel some pain up the inside of my thigh, like a bit of a cramp. I have had this before though and can normally just ride through it and it goes away. Eventually, it did subside and by now I was heading out of Antwerp on the wet, but super flat roads. This was exactly what I had been hoping for. There were quite a few railway tracks to navigate (by going across the mates they lay down) but generally, things were going well. The only problem was the annoying headwind for about the first 30k. I basically ended up getting a bit excited about all the people I was catching and I think that (as you'll see later on) I pushed too hard in this section. It was only when I got to about 50k that I realised that things were not great with the legs, especially as I still had a half marathon to run. Coming back into town, I dropped off the pace a bit to try and conserve the legs and I tried to make sure that I finished off all the nutrition I had on the bike. I eventually got back to T2 with the fastest bike time for all the non-pros...result. The only problem now was that my legs were not in the mood to run.
I started off well though and saw that after about 3k, I was averaging over 15kph (my target was 15kph) so all good. At the first aid station, I tried to take some water on and this is when it all started to go wrong. The inside of my thighs cramped again and I had to stop to stretch it out for a bit. I carried on again, but the pain was still there a bit. This is basically how the next 80 minutes of running panned out for me. I would run for about 5k, stop with the horrible cramp and then get going again. Every time I started again though, it was slower than I had been running....my pace was really dropping off and I could see that at least a few of the people in my AG had come back past me. I knew I had to finish in about the top 6 or 7 to get a spot for the World Champs in Florida so I just tried to grin and bear it. The last couple of k's were very horrible. My legs were shattered and I just couldn't wait to finish. Finally, I crossed the line in 4:10. I didn't know for ages where I had finished but when I went to the slot allocation ceremony in the evening I saw that I had in fact managed 5th. I was pretty sure that this should be okay and low and behold, they had 5 slots for my AG. So, I paid my money and that's it...Paula and I will be off to Florida in November for a short holiday and the 70.3 World Champs.
I was going to see if I could make it all the way through this season without doing one Olympic triathlon but when Paula found out that Bedford was not full, and knowing that it is a fast course, I found myself drawn to getting my application in. The rationale was that it would probably be good to get back into the triathlon mindset after a couple of months of just trying to ride my bike...albeit, those episodes were not that successful due to a mysterious puncture phenomenon.
Anyway, Bedford, for the first time this year, was going to also be a World Championship qualifier so the field was pretty strong and full of names that I have seen on my travels before. It was nice to not have that added pressure of trying to secure a spot as well, I was just there to have a good race and have some fun.
The swim all took place on a very narrow stretch of water and whenever you set some 100 odd blokes off in one direction, there is gonna be a few bangs and bashes. For the first 100m, I was convinced that the person next to me was just trying to swim into me...who knows, he may have thought the same. I eventually found some clear water and settled into a rhythm that I thought would get me out in a decent time. I slowly made my way through some of the tiring swimmers but was annoyed that I was not able to get back in touch with a group of about 10 swimmers in front of me. Still, all in all, not bad....I was out and now it was time for 40k of pretty much flat roads.
The bike course turned out to be my dream course. I was flying past loads of F people (guys in my age group) and I was constantly looking at the Garmin to see that the average speed was creeping up nicely. It was not long before I had it over 40 and then it finally seemed to settle down a bit around the 42.5kph mark....I felt comfortable at that speed and that things were all going well.
However, at just over 30k, I heard that horrible noise which I have come to associate with me racing. The sound of a tire blowing. It was me.... I thought that I might be able to get out of this one though as I had brought some sealant that I was hopeful of just being able to spray in the tub and then ride off again. Alas, the hole was too big and the sealant just ended up all over the place and the tub remained in it's deflated state....another race down the pan I thought. However, not long after I had started walking, a mate of mine came past....he had been having a bit of a nightmare on the race with no energy in his legs. He proceeded to do the most magnanimous thing I have ever seen in a triathlon....he gave me his bike - it was almost like being a pro cyclist. Low and behold, it fitted well and he even had the right pedals on for my shoes. I was back in the race. I eventually got back to transition having lost about 6 minutes with the puncture, in 1:04. The next part was where I was most interested to see how I would perform as my 'proper' run training had only really been going on for two weeks.
Over the course of those two weeks, I had gone from about 8-10k a week of running to about 40k and a lot of that a good pace. Within the training, I had started to feel a lot lighter on the feet and I was vaguely confident that some of my running ability was coming back. It was not all there, but we were on the way. Out on the run in Bedford, I felt pretty good. A quick look at the average speed for the first lap and it was all looking good, what with the Garmin saying 15.5kph. Over the course of the next two laps, I only dropped another 0.1kph, so pretty steady running all the way round. I actually recorded my fastest ever triathlon run I think of 37:15. The problem with the Garmin though is that it lets you know why that is the case...the run was short by about 300m. Still, even if you add on that time, this is still one of my best ever runs.
So, although I punctured and came a lot further down than I had hoped, it was nice to see that I would have been right up there had I not had to stop etc. I now on my last week of hard running before I start to taper off a bit in preparation for my main triathlon for this year - Antwerp 70.3. I am hopeful of a slot for the 70.3 World Champs....but I reckon I need to knock out a 1:23 half to be in line for that.
I think I also found the cause for all the punctures thanks to Bedford. Some damage on the carbon disc wheel (I think) had been causing some small flints of the fibre to be piercing the side wall of the tire. I have done a little repair job on the wheel now, so here's hoping.
Last Sunday, I competed in my third Bananaman triathlon for the Turbos and yet again I arrived with a sense of fear that this year's team would be the first to lose the Turbo winning streak in this event, I think we have won the event ever since it started about 6 or so years ago. You can't just do well, you have to win.
This year's run up to the event was frought with problems, what with one of the team dropping out with an injury with a couple of weeks to go and another getting very ill with only a few days to go. However, a lot of emails and organising later and we had a good team, especially for the bike section where we normally manage to kill the race off.
My main worry this year was that Andy was not the fastest of swimmers and hence we would have to try and minimise our losses in the water as much as possible. We made countless plans all aimed at pulling Andy round etc but as soon as the horn went off, it was clear that these were the best laid plan of mice and men. I could not see where Andy was, let alone Tim. Still, we were off and I was quite relaxed as I knew that there was no point in hammering out the swim. However, I soon managed to work myself into the lead of the main pack, about 3 or 4 had snuck away, but then it was me with about 100 people behind me. I thought I would just see how slow I could swim without anyone coming past me. It was quite surprising just how easy I could make it people would still just prefer to sit on the leader's feet in the draft. Anyway, I did the 800 in about 11:45, so not bad, but certainly not as quick as I can go.
It was on to the bikes now and I knew that I would be okay here. I had hardly kicked in the swim so my legs felt nice and fresh. Tim's chain slipped as we exited T2 but we were soon all back together and then it was time to get the speed up. The ride was pretty good, averaging about 40kph into the wind and 50kph on the way back. As always, it's a bit hectic on the narrow roads with lots of shouting at the other competitors as we try and avoid having a massive pile up.
The run was the section that I feared the most...basically, I was only 1 week into my proper run training in preperation for Antwerp at the start of August (I have all but packed in cycling as I concentrate on getting my run fitness up to where it needs to be). I left T2 ahead of the others as I assumed that they would catch me up quickly and then we could try and settle into a nice easy pace. We went past some Turbo supporters who told me that we were 2 minutes up on the competition. That was quite a gap, but we still needed to work hard on the run if we were going to maintain that gap. For some reason, my running just felt quite easy and relaxed. I was able to maintain the pace of our team and evn push a bit harder when Andy, the strongest runner, tried to up the speed. I had a little look at the Garmin at one point and it said we were averaging about 16kph...I thought that there must be some mistake, but when I looked at Tim's at the end, it was true, we had been knocking out 3:45-3:50km's for the 7.5km - not bad going at all, especially considering how relaxed I felt.
Anyway, we eventually stormed home with another Turbo victory (thankfully) and the final results show that we managed to beat the second team by a good 5 minutes. All in all, it was a good day in the office and most importantly, i was pleased to have not punctured for once.....although, this season would dictate that they only occur during my A races.
According to the race calendar for this year, last weekend was supposed see me try my first ever 50 mile TT. However, thanks to the puncture at the Nationals and the fact that I felt I didn't have a good time for this season for 25 miles, I decided to ditch the 50 and do another 25.
The start sheet released before the race looked good to me as Prebble and Golla were on there and they had both pushed me into second place at a couple of earlier TT's when I had felt that I was not riding great. I was therefore looking forward to seeing how I would go against them now that I was a bit fitter. With the problems that have plagued me in recent races, what the puncture at Crystal Palace and then the Nationals and then then I went the wrong way in a mid-week two-up this week, I was however going to be most pleased just to make it round without any mishap.
Well, things did not go totally to plan. As I stood on the start line in perfect conditions, I turned on the Garmin and the battery was flat. Now that was annoying...I use that to see how I am going against a predetermined time. I had set it up to ride just shy of 52 minutes, which I felt was achievable on the day. Now, without the Garmin and no other means of knowing how fast I was going, I would need to just ride on feel....something I had not done for a while.
The race went okay in the end, I made it round and managed to do a new PB of 53:09....unfortunately, only shaving 7 seconds off the previous PB. I think that I did miss having the feedback from the watch as my legs were not too sore when I finished and I think that, in hindsight, I perhaps could have pushed a bit harder. I eventually came 2nd (Prebble punctured) and I was 46 seconds down on Golla. The good thing to take away is that he did me for over a minute in our previous encounter, albeit, he had raced a hard 10 the day before the 25.
So, that is it for my season of 25 mile TT's. I think I have done okay this season, generally finishing on the podium in every one that I entered. The annoying thing is conditions and a puncture have conspired against me to get a time that I feel I am capable of. I have been getting coached for the past couple of months by Rich Simmonds and I know full well that my ability to generate power has increased over time, hence my times should improve. When I got to the start of the National 25, I knew at that point that I was as fit as I had been for a long time. Alas, that was not to be.
We have the National TTT on Sunday so that should be an interesting ride. We are certainly not considered to be medal contenders so it would be great to see if we can surprise some people there. Last year, when the field was not as strong, we were 4th by a few seconds. We're all stronger this season though, so here's hoping.
Yesterday saw the 4th in the London League races taking place at Crystal Palace and I was hoping to put in a good show for Thames Turbo to hopefully give us a chance of getting some London League (a league of London based triathlon clubs, competing in about 8 local races) points.
I was almost the last off in the swim so I was hopeful that the field was at least not going to be littered with top class swimmers, either that, or I had put down a wrong time on my entry form. The swim was 750m (15 lengths) of the newly refurbished Crystal Palace pool and I was hoping to do about 10:30. I was sent on my way at 2:40 and I quickly managed to settle into a good pace and I found that I was catching the girl who had gone off 20s in front of me. It was not long before I caught her and throughout the rest of the swim, I managed to pass another 4 or 5 swimmers as well. I knew I was going well and was pleased to see that I had swam 10:41 (that includes getting out and running round the corner to the timing mat). Things were going well...
Out on the bike and I was quickly able to settle into a good rhythm on the technical course, which was in effect, a course of two halves. Out of transition was a short sharp hill followed by a drag and then it was pretty much all downhill for the rest of the lap.
On my 4th lap, just as I was ascending the steep hill, I heard a loud bang....initially I thought I was in the clear, but the noise of carbon on the road quickly alerted me that was in fact I who had just punctured. Thankfully, we had the foresight on this occasion to bring some spare wheels for the event. The problem with these were that they were all the way back in transition and I was about 1 mile away from transition. I quickly got off, took the cycling shoes off and embarked on my first bare foot run since being a small kid. Heaven's knows how much time I lost, it must have been a fair bit. Still, I made it back, changed the wheel and headed out for the remainder of the laps. I managed to make quite a bit of ground, but I was only really struggling to get back to where I was when I had started the bike....alas, I was determined to finish so I just battled on.
The run pretty much started directly on the steep hill....I felt like I was walking as I went up the first time, in fact, walking may have actually been quicker. Still, I made it round the first lap of the two lap run and realised that I was managing a fairly decent pace. I also realised that the run was short - my kind of race. The second lap was not as bad and I finally crossed the line in 1:05.
If you ask me, 6th and a 1:05 for half an Olympic is not too bad really, considering it was a technical course, a steep hill and the obvious amount of time it took me to change the wheel. I only actually lost the race by about 2 minutes, so who knows what would have happened.
Bank Holiday Saturday witnessed the first running of the Eton Half Olympic and this year it was to be the event that would decide who would hold the Sprint Race crown for 2009. I was last year's winner so I had to try my best to keep hold of the trophy, even though my run training has been pretty close to non-existent this season.
There was some tough competition for me, Tim and Andy, have both beaten me in some races of recent and I had also perhaps not prepared in the best fashion. On Friday night I was in Regent's park doing very hard 1min intervals for about an hour - hence, my legs weren't feeling too great come the morning of the race. Still, my main concern at the moment is the National 25 in a couple of weeks and I can't miss any bike sessions for anything as I lead up to it, this unfortunately means just training through this race and Crystal Palace Triathlon next week.
I had decided that the only way I was going to stand a chance in this race would be to swim quite hard so that I could at least try and make it out on to the bike in the lead. From there, I planned to race a bit harder than normal, not flat out, but a decent effort to see if I could build any form of a gap. Thankfully, my plan all came together. I led for most of the swim and managed to exit in 10:46 which is not too bad, not great though based on my training.
Still, I was in the lead though and I was out on the bike, this time riding my new Ceepo Venom which I am using as part of the Team's sponsorship. This was the first time that I had ridden the bike though so I didn't know what to expect. Although I am not as low as I would like, the frame is really sturdy. I quickly realised on the bike that I was managing to put some time in to my nearest opponent Tim - I could not see him on the few occasions I turned my head anyway.
Eventually, I heard a mate shout out that I had about 35 seconds as I headed out on to the run. I thought to myself that, going on my current fitness, that was never going to be enough. Tim is a good runner, and worse still, Andy is an amazing runner. They would all be hunting me down now. At the turn on the first lap it looked like Tim was really close. I thought I had done enough to hold of Andy, but it looked like Tim was catching fast. At the turn with 2.5k to go, I was told I had 25s. I thought to myself, I've only lost 10s in 2.5k and I am starting to feel better, I may actually do this. So, I put my head down and worked a bit harder, all the time feeling the lack of running in the legs.
Still, the last 400m were quite nice, a quick turn around and I knew I had done enough. Tim was too far back and Andy had not bridged the gap. So, that was it, I get to hold on to the Sprint trophy for another year. Paula also managed to win the ladies event, so we'll have a nice set of his and hers trophies.
At the start of this season, and in conjunction with my aim to do some more cycling this season, I got myself signed up for a 3 stage road race in Wales along with 3 other Dynamos who were going to make up our little team. The main reason for this was undoubtedly the fact, nestled in amongst the road racing, there was going to be a team time trial - how could I resist.
When we arrived, we already knew that we were going to be in for a weekend of rather unpleasant weather, there certainly wasn't much n the way of sunshine in any of the weather reports anyway. The first stage was a 45 mile, 2 lap, race around some of the local Welsh countryside. Things started off at an okay pace, but it was clear from the outset that things were not going to be as easy as we counted on. Our afternoon of scanning the riders names and typing these into the Time Trials results pages had elicited only a handful of contenders, albeit, we thought that we could beat most of them. If there was one thing that I learnt this weekend, it is this, one's ability to TT is in no way a reflection on their ability to road race. By the time we were starting the second lap, I had been run ragged, I had seen a couple of chaps fall off right next to me and I had heard about 3 people puncture...the wet, windy conditions were taking there toll on the pack.
Still, I managed to hang on to the pack all the way until the finishing straight which rose sharply and, as a result, I was spat out the back of the back with about 500m to go. I lost about 15 seconds on the pack and hence I was going into the TTT quite far down the field. Still, my time to shine was only a couple of hours away. Also, as an added bonus, we had a team member in the breakaway for the day and he was now in second place. A good TTT and we could have the yellow jersey overnight.
We had reccied the TTT course the night before so I knew that it was going to be a tough 9.5 miles of racing.. The course was eitherup or down - not great for me, but still, was looking forward to it. As soon as we started, I knew that I was going to have a good ride. My legs actually did not feel that bad from the morning's efforts so it was just gonna be a case of hammering it out as hard as you can for 20 odd minutes. I think that I may have been feeling a bit better than the rest of the team during this one as well, on a couple of occasions, I had to slow down to let them get back in the slipstream and I also tried my best to make use of my bigger gearing to get us down the hills quicker. I was feeling good though so just tired to maintain as high a pace as possible without causing the group to split. The last hill up to the finish was quite brutal, but it seemed a lot better compared to the morning's efforts. We crossed the line in 21:54 and managed to beat the next best team by over 40 seconds. We had managed to secure the yellow jersey and we also now had a 1,2 and 3 in the general classification going into the last stage.....we quite literally had it all to lose.
Over the course of the last stage, we did in fact do just that...we all lost positions on our 1,2,3, we lost the yellow jersey and we lost a place on the team GC. The second road stage was hilly, for me anyway. I had decided to be near the front at the bottom of the first climb but even this was not enough to get me to the top and still be in the main bunch. I had dropped off the back and then the second little rise after that ensured that I was not going to get back on without some really hard work. Thankfully, a few others who had been dropped joined up and we set about trying to get back on. I did most of the work and we did get close, but another push by the pack on one of the hills and they were out of sight, never to be seen again. The next 20 miles were hard work, generally riding on my own and feeling pretty miserable about having lost the pack. All of my efforts to get back on really came to the fore in the last 3 or so miles as I quite literally had nothing left to give, quite appropriately, it had started to chuck it down as well....the stage was set for a miserable finish. I had dropped 8 minutes on the pack and I had gone from 3rd to 39th in one day.
Still, looking back now, it was a great weekend. I think I have realised that I am better off sticking to the dual carriageways for now though. Maybe I'll spend some time in the winter trying to learn how to ride up hills. As a team we did win quite a lot of money anyway, Martin finished second overall, we had 4th with James. We won the TTT so had winnings for that and our second place in the team prize just increased the prize purse even more.
When I woke up on Sunday, I could not believe my luck...it actually looked like I was going to get to do a time trial in good conditions after all. The sun was out and the there was no wind, about as good as it gets really. Today was going to be a team time trial though and the other two members of the team had shown that they were on form - we all guessed it was going to be a fast ride, we just didn't quite guess how fast it would be.
Before we got there, we had all made a mental note of the course record. This stood at 49:33 and although this was recorded as a solo effort, it was always a worthy challenge. Basically, in the world of time trialling, there are very few opportunities to break 50 minutes so this only served to increase our anticipation, especially after we drove round the course and we realised that this was my dream course, pretty flat with loads of dual carriageway.
Before we started it was decided to not go out too hard, we wanted to save ourselves a bit for the last 10 miles where we thought that a lot of teams would lose some time. The plan worked well and I started out feeling comfortable. We were on the dual carriageway in no time and then started to get more organised and working hard to keep the train moving as fast as possible. Both Paul and I had set our Garmins up with a virtual partner doing a 50 minute ride and we knew from early on that we were up on that. At about half way, we were on level terms with the course record but we still had a drag up to the turn but then a good 6 miles of 35-40mph to take us to the finish. When we started the downhill section, we were up and then the time just kept on growing and growing....we knew by this point that we were going under 49 and that the course record was gonna be smashed.
We eventually crossed the line with a 48:43. I think that works out as just shy of 31mph!!.
When we rolled back into the HQ, the time had already been posted on the board and it was cool to have people coming to you to congratulate you on the ride. We had beaten some very stiff competition, and beaten them by a fair margin as well. The second place team came in over a minute down on us...that doesn't sound like much, but that's more than half a mile at these speeds.
The Thames Turbo sprint race was going to make up my double header weekend with the TT on the Sunday and then this race on the Bank Holiday Monday. I wanted to do well here, but I knew that there was going to be some damage to the legs from yesterday's efforts. Still, this is only ever an hour of hard work, so I was hopeful of being able to sneak through it and get a good time.
My swimming is certainly improving with the number of sessions that I am doing with Camden Swiss Cottage Masters as I feel a lot more comfortable in the water now and a lot more powerful when I want to be. Still, in saying that, I was still dropped by about 10s from the person that went off in front of me and was being caught from behind. Still, I was not that bothered though, as long as I don't get caught really....that's the main aim.
I did actually record one of my fastest ever swim splits even though, I suppose I was helped with where my bike was racked on this occasion. Still, it was all going to plan when I got out on the bike. The conditions were perfect for riding and I quickly settled down in to what I thought was a good pace....I chose not to wear a watch at this race though, so had no idea of my speed etc.....perhaps a bit of a mistake actually as I probably should have been going a bit quicker. Still, the bike went okay and I managed to catch the guys who had all started the swim before me and one of my main competitors had not caught me from behind - things seemed to be going okay. The run was not great, in fact, I think that it is one of my slowest ever times. Without the watch and with the lack of recent run training, I suppose I had lost the feel for how fast I should be running. In the end, I did a 20:16 run when my best is a sub 19 last season.
In the end, my time of 59:05 was enough to secure me second place (again for the weekend), so pretty good really. The race is always good fun anyway. They even shot a short video on the day which will be used at a later stage for the club.
The West London CA 25 had been built up in my mind as 'the race' where I was going to smash my PB for 25 miles. I had mapped the course out on the web and discovered that the first 2 miles were downhill and that the rest was pretty flat - what more could a time trial rider wish for - it was a, in effect a 'ski-slope' course.
When I eventually got to the race, it was quickly very evident that the weather wasn't getting better, in fact, it seemed to be getting colder and windier as I hung around the start area setting the bike up etc. I was not overly bothered by the cold, but the wind was certainly something I did not want today. The weather report had said that it would be picking up and it certainly was doing that.
My start time eventually rolled round and I was off...quickly up to about 45mph as I flew down the 'ski-slope' start. It was only when I got to the bottom that I realised that today was not in fact going to be a great day. My legs had this weird fatigue which I didn't really understand. I can only now put it down to the fact that perhaps I did not recover properly after Lisbon. I had also done two hard rides during the week and then a long run and I think that the combined effect was that my legs were not going to be as helpful as I had hoped in terms of breaking through the 53 minute barrier.
In the end, I never really felt great for most of the course. I was going okay, don't get me wrong, it was just not one of those days where I was going to be able to really hammer out a good time. The wind was just never really anywhere, just felt like a crosswind the whole way.
Still, all excuses really....at the end of the day, it was not that bad a ride. I finished second behind a very respectable rider and even beat a local legend...albeit, I am not sure how much training he is doing etc.
After last year's failed attempt at middle distance with my double blowout on the backroads of Rutland, Lisbon was to be my first attempt at making it round the distance and seeing if this suited me better than Olympic distance racing. On paper, it should as the cycling component takes up a greater percentage of the total time and it also has the added benefit of not needing to be able to run at lightning speed to get anywhere near the front - albeit, that does help of couse. I had actually raced a lot of the course last year whilst competing in the Europeans, so I knew that the course was pretty fast, plus, the closed freeway on the bike is a rare treat in the triathlon arena.
Before I started, I had all these big ideas about how I should be in with a shout for the bike prime of €250 but in reality, I had no idea how I would feel in the race - a lot of me just wanted to get round in a respectable fashion. When the claxon sounded and we all headed off, it was definitely a much more relaxed environment, either that, or my swim start position was too far out. I basically cruised to the first buoy with hardly any contact and then just decided to keep pushing at about the same pace for the rest of the race. I felt strong all the way round in the swim, I should probably kick some more in the wetsuit, but I suppose there is always the trade-off with tiring the legs. In the end, I exited the water feeling really fresh and I was pleased to see that I had swam about 26:30, so that was roughly where I wanted to be, I certainly did not feel tired anyway and I was ready for the bike.
The bike course had been extended by about 5km this year so that we were now going to ride pretty much the correct distance. Out on the bike though, I very quickly decided that I was not going to go hell for leather and try and catch as many of the pros as possible. By just cruising along, I had caught a fair few of them and made up a good few places but it was not long before I was pretty much maintaining my position within the field. I could see at the turn points that the pros were not exactly putting much time into me, so I just decided to stay steady for the rest of the ride.
Thankfully, I found that averaging just under 40kph (it was a pretty windy day) was not hard really and my Garmin shows that I maintained about 15bpm lower than I would if that had just been a bike ride. I did however take a tumble on one of the roundabouts going out of Oriente. For some reason, it was the only wet place on the course and I am not sure how it happened, but before I knew it, I was on the deck, sliding across the floor. A scar on the shin, ankle and bum - but, at least the bike seemed okay and I was able to get back on and continue with the race.
The main reason behind the energy conservation strategy was that I did not want to make a fool of myself on the run. My running has been no where near as structured and regular as I would have liked recently, largely because I have been focusing on the bike. My last run of more than 12k was when I did Milton Keynes Half - so a long time ago and hence running a half off the bike was not going to be too much fun. I had decided to try and get to 15kph as quickly as possible and then try and maintain that for as long as possible.
In the end, I managed to hold it for about 10k and then I definitely started to slow down quite a bit as my lack of running took hold of the legs. Still, the 4 lap layout of the run helped a lot as it was easy to break the race up into manageable chunks. In the end, I managed to go under 1:25 for the run, albeit, it was about 800m short - so, about a 1:30 half I think.
Finally, some 4:13:47 after starting off, the race was over. I had managed to complete my first middle distance race and, all in all, I was pretty pleased with how it had gone. I finished 16th overall and of those that were in front of me, 12 of them did triathlon as their full time jobs - well, they were entered as pros anyway. So, I was 4th of the Age Groupers so not a bad out at all. The next middle distance race is Antwerp in August. I am planning to concentrate pretty much entirely on my running for about a month before then though as I really need to make some big improvements if I plan to race well there. Thankfully, the National 25 and Team Time Trial will be out of the way by then.
