With this race falling so close to Copenhagen, I was worried that there would simply be no speed in the legs. The thought of sprinting for an hour filled me with fear really as I had spent the last 6 months simply going slower and slower it had seemed....no turbos since February and no hard runs at all. The swimming should have been okay though as my masters class meant that I had no IM specific swim training, just normal sessions.
I knew before the race that this was probably the best shot I have ever had of winning the overall series for the Thames Turbo triathlons, something I had not managed from the last four seasons, albeit, I have come close on a couple of occasions. Tim, my main competitor had told me that I could not let him beat me by more than two places...any less and I would be the series winner.
The swim was a bit of a shock, I had not swam since Copenhagen, so suddenly being expected to knock out a 5:30 paced 400 was a bit of a shock. 100m and my arms reminded me why you needed to keep swimming. The good thing though was that I knew it would be over so quickly, anything after the IM was going to seem short. I think I exited the water in the same time that I always do, around the 6 minute mark for the 430m swim.
To ensure that I managed to keep the gap down to under two places, I knew that I had to have a good run on the bike and I also needed to hope that I would be able to get through the set of lights. A stop there could have added on another minute or so to my time and I knew full well that would probably be too much to give away. As it happened, I got though and then had one of the best runs for a long time thanks to an earlier start time. No traffic and no lights, all good. Now all I had to do was to remember how to ride the bike quick. It felt quite lethargic on the bike, I could certainly feel how much power had gone from the legs since I had started the IM work. Still, I got round in a decent enough time, hoping I had not given too much time away.
For the first time, I was actually quite looking forward to the run. If there is one thing I had done since the IM, it was running - and quite a bit of it. On the week of the race, I had run 4 times (probably a new record for me). Out on the run and with no watch to let me know the splits, I had to just get on with it. I felt I was doing okay and probably running sub 4min/km but it did not feel as hard as it normally does. Anyway, eventually round in ~19:25 so pretty for me, especially considering the lack of speed work.
At the end of the day, I had done just enough to win the series overall as well. Tim had beat me, but thankfully this was only by one place. Both Tim and I appear to have raced almost identical races too...in all three disciplines there was less than 10s between us. Chuffed to have finally won the series too....and thanks to Paula as well for doing my marshaling duty, even though it was in the worst place possible on the course.
